CLVII. | 'A glimpse of Madness...'

Francisco Elroy had to admit, the view from his room was stunning. The Omarest Mountain Range of Dante was known for its skiing even as far away as Sair, and now he could see why. The snow outside his window was unlike anything he'd seen in Aguarey.

Under different circumstances, he might have been able to enjoy visiting this luxurious, mansion-sized cabin in the middle of nowhere.

The question of why the hell he was here in the first place had still not been answered to his satisfaction. He understood that the crazy old guy named Damian Rofal was responsible, but beyond that, not much was clear.

The last thing he remembered before waking up here was fighting a group of Vanguardian jackasses in his school. And now he'd come to find that one of those very jackasses was here with him, not much more aware of what was going on than he was, apparently.

His reaper, Dennex, had advised him not to ask too many questions, however, and Cisco could see the wisdom in that, especially after what Dunstan Rofal, the Vanguardian jackass in question, had told him.

"My family is a bunch of criminals," he'd said. "I suggest you not trust any of them. And my grandfather in particular is... well, he's a lot more dangerous than I ever realized, it would seem."

They'd been here for a couple weeks now, so naturally, Cisco had been trying to find a means of escape--with Dunstan's help, surprisingly. But this place was much more of a prison than it looked. The building's three floors may have had an open-air layout to them, and the furniture may have been as ritzy as Cisco had ever seen, and the food may have even been pretty damn good, but there was some sort of high-level soul net preventing not just the reapers from leaving, but people, too.

From what Cisco had thus far gathered, it had something to do with the tall, rocky spires that stood all around the structure. They looked normal enough at a glance and as of now, were half-buried in snow, but when he'd touched them a few days ago, he could feel them humming in a way that was most certainly unnatural.

He'd never even heard of a soul net that could do something like this, but Damian Rofal had been full of such surprises. The old man's pet worms were probably the most notable in that regard. Even the other members of the Rofal family seemed to be uncomfortable around those things.

"Don't worry," Damian had told everyone gathered in the main room, "they don't bite. They will give you a nasty shock, but it probably won't be enough to kill you. And as long as you stay within the barrier, they'll leave you alone. So just relax, everyone! Everything will be just fine! You'll see!"

The listeners hadn't looked pleased, but none of them had voiced any objections, either--apart from Damian's apparent wife, whose loud and frequent questions the old man never bothered to answer. Instead, Damian would just sidle up to her, give her a quick kiss on the nose or the cheek, and then run away again.

And even knowing what Dunstan had told him, Cisco found it difficult to not feel pity for these people. None of them were servants, as far as Cisco could tell. Criminals or not, they were still normal human beings, trapped here along with him and Dunstan by their insane patriarch.

And no one seemed to know what Damian's plan was, either. Dennex and Rezamaar were going around, eavesdropping on everyone's conversations, but that critical question had remained unanswered.

Damian himself had also been curiously absent, much of the time. Cisco thought the old man might have been going out in order to find and retrieve more family members, but by all accounts, there were none. Dunstan had been the last family member to arrive.

Ultimately, Cisco found himself with an abundance of downtime on his hands. He tried to make use of it as best he could by meditating and practicing with his ability, but he found it difficult to concentrate on such things with so much uncertainty hanging around him. There wasn't any internet or even electricity for that matter, so catching up on the news was also impossible.

And that was perhaps the most worrisome thing.

Whenever he thought about his family, his imagination was left to run wild. From what little Dunstan had been able to tell him, the Vanguard had failed to capture his father or any of his other family members, but the Rainlords as a whole had still been dealt a massive blow.

Cisco wondered when he would see home again. Or if he ever would.

"Up for another game?" came Dunstan's voice.

Cisco turned from the window and saw him standing there, chessboard in hand. Honestly, he wasn't up for it, but there wasn't much else to do, so Cisco just nodded and followed him down the stairs and onto the main floor by one of the cabin's three fireplaces.

At least the extra warmth was nice.

A few of the other Rofals were enjoying it as well. As Cisco recalled, their names were Lucia, Jonah, and Elwood.

Dunstan didn't seem to appreciate their company very much, nor they his.

No words were exchanged, but everyone kept throwing glances and glares in Dunstan's direction, and he wasn't shy in returning them, either. Perhaps they were trying to tell him to leave without actually having to tell him, and perhaps he was doing the same.

All in all, it made for an intensely uncomfortable atmosphere.

But not an unfamiliar one.

In fact, after two weeks in this place, Cisco had long since grown weary of this. Maybe Dennex was right and staying totally quiet was the wisest course of action here, but frankly, it was obnoxious. And besides, Cisco had always hated this sort of passive aggression. He much preferred proper confrontation.

"So I hear you're all a bunch of a criminals," said Cisco.

Dunstan just about drowned in the glass of water he was drinking from.

Cisco didn't avert his gaze from the other Rofals, though. He wanted to see their faces, their reactions.

Lucia laughed. Jonah glared. Elwood scowled.

"Is that what Dunce over there told you?" said Elwood. He was a tall man with a gravely voice and a strong, clean shaven jawline. He was wearing silky red-and-gold pajamas, but that didn't inform Cisco of much, because everyone else was doing the same. There wasn't a whole lot of motivation to get properly dressed when everyone knew they weren't going anywhere. Not to mention, there wasn't much variety of clothing available here, either.

"You shouldn't put too much credence in what that loser says," said Jonah. Compared to Elwood, this guy looked pretty small, though he was probably around average weight and height.

And they all had the same dark hair and thick, arched eyebrows.

"Okay," said Cisco flatly. "So tell me what the truth is, then."

And perhaps they hadn't expected him to say that, because both men paused.

"Elwood here is an illegal arms dealer," said Dunstan, having found his composure again. "And Jonah--well, he's just a loan shark, but he gets his jollies from smacking kids around, probably to vent his frustration over how pathetic he is."

Jonah shot up out of his seat and stomped toward them. "You fuckin' little--!" He backhanded Dunstan hard enough to knock him out of his chair. "Cecilia shoulda taught you some fuckin' manners!"

'Kick his ass, Dunstan!' said Rezamaar, grabbing his shoulder to invoke the servant's vigor.

"That wasn't necessary, Reza," said Dunstan.

"What're you talkin' about, huh, bitch?!" said Jonah. "Get up so I can put your ass down again!"

And Dunstan did get back up.

Having fought Dunstan himself, Cisco knew this wasn't going to be pretty. But at the same time, Dunstan didn't look out of control. He seemed entirely calm. Cisco might have decided to step in, otherwise.

Jonah swung, and Dunstan caught his fist with one hand as if it were a tennis ball. Jonah barely got the chance to look surprised before Dunstan swept one of his legs, shoved him to the floor, and sat on him. He kept Jonah's hand, though, and twisted the wrist a little.

"You little fucker--agh!"

Dunstan grabbed the man's throat. "Not so tough now, eh, Jonah?" He squeezed. "Remember when you did this exact same thing to one of my friends? Hmm? Made him cry out for his mother, remember? Should I make you do that, too? Your mother's actually in the building, so maybe she'll show up."

Cisco noticed more Rofals coming out of their rooms on the second and third floors in order to see what the commotion was. Lucia had not moved from her curled up position on the couch, and Elwood was on his feet but not moving to help, perhaps because Dunstan was staring right at him while talking to Jonah.

'Nice going,' said Dennex privately.

The reaper had a point, Cisco knew, but he didn't mind this so much. At least it was more interesting than playing another board game.

"Oh, but wait a minute," said Dunstan. "You didn't twist my friend's wrist like this, did you, Jonah? That's my mistake." He let go of Jonah's hand. Then he further tightened his grip on the man's throat. "No, you just put a gun to his head, instead."

Cisco could hear Jonah struggling to breathe.

'You're killing him,' said Dennex publicly.

'Maybe that'd be for the best,' said Rezamaar. She didn't sound like she was joking.

Cisco felt he might need to intervene now and stood. "Stop," he said firmly.

But when Dunstan turned to look over at him, Cisco barely recognized him. The expression on the other young man's face was unlike anything Cisco had yet seen from him during these past two weeks.

Dunstan was smiling. He was enjoying himself.

"Let him go," said Cisco. "Didn't you tell me you weren't like them?"

Dunstan stared back at Cisco for a moment longer before his smile vanished. Then he released Jonah and walked away.

Rezamaar followed after him.

Cisco sat back down and breathed a silent sigh of relief. Maybe he regretted starting that whole thing, after all. Gathering information and amusement was one thing, but almost getting a man killed was quite another.

Not long after that incident, the front door flew open, and Damian Rofal came waltzing into the main room with a number of large shopping bags--several of which, he was not actually carrying. Instead, they hovered in midair around him, not terribly unlike his reaper, Feromas.

"Don't worry, everyone!" the old man said loudly for the whole cabin to hear. "Pappy's back, and he's brought gifts for all his good little boys and girls!"

The table in front of Cisco flew up suddenly and shook the chessboard off of itself, sending its marble pieces clattering across the hardwood floor in dozens of different directions. Then it slammed back down with a wooden thud that made Cisco's chair jump a little.

Damian began setting his many bags down on top of it.

'Was that really necessary?' said Feromas. 'There's a counter right over there, you know.'

"Yeah, but how often do you get a chance to flip a table with a game board on it?!" said Damian. "It's a rare and precious opportunity that should be taken advantage of!" He threw Cisco a less-than-apologetic look. "You weren't still playing that were you, Mr. Ellis?"

"I guess not," said Cisco dryly. 'Ellis' had been Dennex's concoction, apparently considering it best not to chance anyone here recognizing the name 'Elroy.'

"I got you a present, too," said Damian. "I figured Dunstan's best friend could be an honorary member of our family, especially since you don't have one of your own."

'Agh, try to have a little more tact,' said Feromas. He turned his skeletal wolf's head toward Cisco. 'Sorry about him.'

"It's fine," said Cisco.

That, too, had been Dennex's doing, the logic being that they didn't want this Damian fellow to go check up on the non-existent Ellis family in an attempt to corroborate their story.

By the time Damian started pulling presents out, the Rofals had all gathered in the main room, even Dunstan and Rezamaar.

"Now, first, we of course have our snow globes," said Damian. He held out one in each hand, shaking them both to make the white flakes in the water begin floating. "When I saw these, I obviously had to buy all of them, so don't be shy now! I have enough for everyone! Go on, everybody take one!"

Despite saying that, Cisco somehow ended up with three globes in his hands. One was of a snowman and a candlestick-man punching each other. Another was of a dragon burning down a snowy village. And the third was of a lion roaring on a snow-capped mountain.

Cisco had no idea where he was supposed to put these.

Then Damian started pulling out firearms. He handed them out like they were candy.

"I was only able to get pistols, but that should be fine for now," said Damian. "They're not loaded, of course, but I'll show you all how to use them later."

"I think most of us here already know how, Father," said a middle-aged woman, who Cisco recalled as being Dunstan's mother, Cecilia.

"Oh, of course you do, sweetheart, but it never hurts to brush up on the basics. Wouldn't want any of you accidentally hurting yourselves. You, especially, Cecilia. I bet you haven't fired one of these since you were little."

"You might be surprised," said Cecilia darkly. "I wanted to be ready, in case you ever visited me again."

Damian gave her an unconcerned look. "And how well did that work out for you?" he said, wide-eyed and smiling.

She just scowled.

"If you're a good girl, maybe I'll tell you how you can actually kill me, one day!"

'Don't do that,' said Feromas. 'Oh god, please don't do that.'

Cecilia smacked her lips as she inspected her new pistol.

Cisco was surprised to receive a firearm, too. He checked to see if it really wasn't loaded, and indeed, the detachable magazine was empty.

"Oh, and I also got some coloring books," said Damian. "I remember how a lot of you guys liked those."

"When we were six, maybe," someone said.

Damian glanced over his audience again. "Okay, maybe I got those for me. I'm just saying--feel free to take advantage of them, if you want. I won't be upset."

Cisco heard Feromas sighing.

"Ooh! And here's the best part!" Damian rummaged through the last few bags and pulled out two armfuls of red leather with black stripes. "Matching jackets! Now we can be like a proper gang! Or a team! Yeah! Team Rofal!"

Cisco had to set his other gifts down in order to receive this one. The back had an elaborate and admittedly impressive design on it--silvery wings burning with red-and-black flames, all placed in front of two giant, menacing eyes, which also carried flames in their pupils.

It also had "C. Ellis" emblazoned on the front. It was even the right size.

And as much as he didn't want to admit it, Cisco actually kind of liked it.

The other Rofals gave various--though not necessarily unreceptive--grumbles as they examined their own jackets.

After that, Damian sat everyone down to explain a few things. Namely, he told them about the existence of reapers and servants. He informed them of the existence of the Vanguard and Abolish, as well as Sai-hee.

Cisco knew all of this already, of course, as did Dunstan, but most of the audience looked like they didn't believe him at all. Until he ripped off his own hand and grew it back right in front of them. Dunstan even spoke up at one point to say that Damian was, in fact, not just being his usual crazy self.

Once the pieces finally started to fall into place for everyone, perhaps realizing previous mysteries in their own lives were suddenly being solved, they began asking questions, chief among them coming from the eldest woman of the group, Damian's wife, a woman that Cisco had yet to get an actual name for, as everyone had just been calling "Mother" or "Grandma."

"Why in the world have you waited so long to tell us all of this?!" she said, sounding equal parts furious and confused.

"Yeah, sorry about that," said Damian. "I didn't want you guys spreading all this information around and causing a stir. The whole reason I wanted to start this family was to lay low for a while, not draw attention. And let me tell you, it would've been very bad if either the King of the Fairies or the King of the Demons found out about us!"

'Aaand he's gone again,' said Rezamaar, though the Rofals didn't seem to know what to make of it.

Damian looked at the reaper. "I didn't go anywhere. And the Demon King is totally real. He's the Great Deceiver! The Stealer of Hopes and Dreams!"

'Oh, well, excuse me for doubting you,' said Reza. 'And the Fairy King? He's real, too, I take it?'

"Of course! He's the Goody Guardian! The Wings of Judgment!"

'I see,' said Rezamaar. 'And are you a king, too?'

Damian paused at that. "No, but perhaps I should be. I've never had a kingdom before, but that was the whole point to all this, wasn't it? Because now I do!"

Feromas sighed. 'Please don't encourage him.'

'But it's so much fun,' said Reza, laughing. 'I would've thought that by now, you'd just roll with it like I am.'

'Believe me, sometimes I wish I could,' said Feromas.

"The King of the Humans!" said Damian. "That's who I'll be!"

'That name doesn't suit you in the slightest,' said Feromas.

"The Trouble Master! The Builder of Bridges! Aha! That's me!"

This old guy might have been even crazier than he had realized, Cisco felt.

Dunstan decided to speak up now. "Are you talking about Dozer and Morgunov, Grandpa?"

Cisco blinked, not having made that connection but suddenly seeing how it could make a certain degree of sense out of Damian's ravings.

"Those two clods? Nah. They're always a step or two behind. Though, yeah, it definitely would've been annoying if they found out I was still alive, too."

Cisco observed Dunstan's disappointed face. That had almost been clever. Cisco would've believed it.

"Well, anyway," said Dunstan, "isn't it about time you explained why the hell you've gone so far out of your way to gather us all together like this?"

"It's a team building exercise!" said Damian. "I thought that would be obvious by now, given the jackets!"

Dunstan eyed his own again. "Yeah, but to what end? Why do you want us to be a team so badly? Hell, I still don't know how you were even able to find me the way you did."

"Heh, I have my ways," said Damian.

'And by "ways," he means "associates who can handle all the hard stuff for him,"' said Feromas.

"Hey, don't give away my ways!"

Feromas ignored him. 'Dunstan, the goal here is simple. We're building a fourth servant empire.'

"No, a kingdom! Not an empire! Weren't you listening?! I'm a king, not an emperor!"

'Whatever.'

"You want to build an organization that can take on the Vanguard?" said Dunstan, almost laughing. "That's great and all, but I think we might need a few thousand more servants on our side."

"Silly Dunstan. It's about quality, not quantity. Like my wife here. Sure, I could have like ten more, but even all put together, they wouldn't be as good as her!"

Cisco and everyone else looked to Grandma, who oddly enough, did swoon a little bit as Damian kissed her on the cheek.

Well. Alright, then.

Cisco supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. While it was true that she'd been acting normally enough up until now, she had been married to this lunatic for a very long time, presumably. She probably wasn't a normal person at all, servant or not.

And the same could likely be said of all of these Rofals, Cisco figured.

'That's a lovely sentiment,' said Rezamaar, 'but we don't really have quality, either. Aside from yourself, our strongest fighter is my sweet baby Dunstan here. And he still needs time to grow.'

'Don't worry,' said Feromas. 'We've got recruitment plans in the works. And we're also going to do a bit of aberration harvesting. Which reminds me. Damian, why don't you give everyone their final gift?'

"Right!" said Damian, rummaging through his pockets. He retrieved a fistful of pearly white rings--identical to one he was already wearing, Cisco noticed. "Now, these are only rings, so they're not as strong as they might otherwise be, but they'll help keep you safe. And choose your finger wisely, because once you put it on, it's not coming off unless the finger comes with it. Everybody take one. Come on. Don't be shy now. I made sure there were enough for all of you."

When Cisco received his, he examined it more closely. It had a polished sheen to it on the outside rim, but the inside was much plainer. 'Is that... bone?' thought Cisco.

'I believe so,' said Dennex privately. 'This ring is the remains of an aberration. I can sense its sinister power.'

Cisco watched as everyone else was putting theirs on. 'Should I really wear this?'

'I don't think you have much choice, right now.'

'Ugh...' Cisco frowned as he stared at it. He'd wanted to become an aberration hunter, but was this the end result of that? Or was it just some twisted approximation? Would the Vanguard have made him wear this thing, too?

Maybe so. The Vanguard had certainly demonstrated that it wasn't nearly so noble as he'd hoped it was.

'You can cut your finger off later, if you really hate it that much,' said Dennex.

Cisco took a slow breath and put it on, choosing his middle finger on his right hand. It felt like any other ring would, at first. Then a sharp pain bit into his finger, and he could feel it go all the way to his bone, like it was attaching itself to him.

But there was no blood. And it didn't look like his skin had actually been broken. It just felt like he'd been cut into. But that, too, was fleeting. After a few more moments of agony, the pain was entirely gone.

The others were already manifesting shadows around themselves. A deep and dark red, each one was, which suggested to Cisco that all of these bone rings had come from the same aberration. Though, perhaps not. Surely, there were repeated colors among aberrations. Perhaps they'd all just come from the same type of aberration, assuming there were such classifications.

Regardless, as he began to see the red shadow melt out of his flesh and take form, began to feel its presence in his mind, began to control and mold it as he wished, Cisco couldn't help feeling entirely disgusted.

Elwood looked pleased with his new shadowy toy. "So does this mean we'll finally get to leave this place?" he said.

"Hmm," was all Damian said.

"Some of us do have lives of our own, you know," said Lucia.

"Oh, yeah, about that." Damian gave her a toothy smile. "You actually don't, anymore."

Everyone just looked at him.

Lucia was the one to ask, "What does that mean?"

"I've had you all declared dead!"

Cisco heard a few groans.

"Plane crash is the official story," said Damian. "So don't worry. Your friends and associates won't miss you. Well, okay, poor choice of words. They won't be wondering where you are, is what I meant."

"What about the family business?!"

"It's alright," said Damian. "I liquidated all of your assets. Almost all, anyway. A good forty percent or so."

"That is NOT almost all!"

"Eh, it's just money, and we've got more than enough of that already. What's important is that we have each other!"

More groans.

"You've just gotta look on the bright side!" said Damian. "Now you're all free to do as you please! Nothing tying you down!"

"Aside from you, you mean," said Elwood.

"Yes, aside from me. But I know what's best, so that's no big deal, right? Come on, everybody! Don't look so down! This is the start of a new chapter in all of your lives! The funnest chapter! I'm gonna show you guys all sorts of neat stuff!"

"So does that mean you're going to let us leave after all?" said Elwood.

"Of course I will! Eventually. Maybe a few months from now."

That sparked the loudest chorus of groans yet.

"Just think of it as your important 'bonding time' with one another." Damian let a beat pass, then set his gaze on Dunstan specifically. "And if, for whatever reason, you guys don't start bonding soon, then that's fine, too. Rest assured! I won't give up on you! I'll keep you here for however long it takes! Years! Decades, even! I'm very patient!"

Cisco watched Dunstan's expression transform into one of exhaustion.