The Sight

Chapter 2 - I join a cult

The SUV takes us to a darkened private airstrip where a helicopter waits. Moira and the other guard who was apparently named Roy, stay behind. Neath physically pushes me in the helicopter, while Colm climbs in disdainfully.
I have never been in a helicopter, but I've also never been kidnapped to a cult before. It's too loud to talk but that doesn't stop me.
"Can I call my foster mum?" I ask. I don't want Abigail to worry even if I'm massively disassociating. I did say I'd call.
"She'll be informed you're being institutionalized then re-distributed," Colm says.
"It's for the best. Any of those things you saw coming after you, could hurt whoever you're with," Neath says, bit more sympathetically, fixing his hair which he has shoulder length and in a man bun.  He's dressed more casually than Colm, in ripped jeans, a t-shirt and a jean jacket. I can see a bluge under it so I assume he's armed.
"Oh," I say. I know I tried to fight the things I saw. Sometimes. But it usually worked.
"Stack Rock is your new home now. You'll be on look out till you get some actual skills," Colm says.
"Well that's up to the Elderblade," Neath says, flatly. And I catch a flash of irritation on Colm's face. A bit of tension there?
"Who?" I ask.
"The Elderblade is our highest warrior who can wield a blade capable of killing a dragon. My father's family line have been the Elderblade for centuries," Neath answers.
"But not you, you see bastard's can't inherit, it is first born son to first born son, lacking any who is worthy may take up the blade," Colm says, but it's intended as a jibe. It takes me a long minute to remember bastard means your parents weren't married, it's not just an insult.
"Dozens of families are ancient like that. Most guard keeps things like that. The Maddock family, my father's, holds the elder blade, each—bloodline—inherits whatever predisposition their ancestors had," Neath says, ignoring Colm.
"But I'm just random?" I ask.
"It can happen," Neath shrugs.
"Or you are related to an old family who for whatever reason, didn't want you," Colm says, cuttingly.
I lower my head. Of course I was abandoned. Wait, none of this is real anyway. I've got to stop letting my subconscious shame me.
"Awesome well guess we'll find out if I have a super power," I say, lightly.
"I haven't even had coffee yet, man," Neath says, to Colm, "He's just a kid."
"With extraordinary sight. And a history of violence," Colm says, coolly, "He'll do well out on the wall."
"I think that sounds fun yeah," I say.
"We'll see where the Elderblade wants him for now—so they didn't give you any pills or shit? We don't have them," Neath says.
"No I don't get to touch that stuff," I say.
"How much are you on?"
"So much," I nod.
"You're gonna come down hard—ah let me try to call to get something to wean you off," Neath says, looking down at an iPhone in a ballistic case that's been heavily tested. His Lock Screen flashes away but I get a glimpse of a photo of someone making a rude gesture, a couple of someone's flipping off the screen. His home Screen is the same, but he swipes away before I can get a better look.
"He'll be fine," Colm says, looking at his phone, "Can't be worse than what they found in his system last time he breached containment."
"Kid's gonna feel like crap, ah, we'll get you something. Might be booze," Neath mutters.
"I think you're my people," I say.
He laughs.
Colm stares at us.
"What like he's worse than half the shitheads I've got out there?" Neath says, texting, "I'm telling El our ETA so she can meet us outside and get him somewhere  to sleep this off. When do you next dose up?"
"Ah dawn? Whenever I get up like six," i say.
"Brilliant. Can't wait to see what you do off the drugs maybe we can just toss him directly at sirens," Colm mutters, scrolling his phone.
"Wait really? Can you do that?" I ask.
"No," Neath says, a bit tiredly.
After that it's a little too loud to talk and I'm pouting about the sirens thing. Neath continues texting I don't know who. Whoever meets us there I assume a nurse?
I try to look out the helicopter windows but can't make anythign out against the darkness. The ride becomes bumpy and I wind up just clinging on and letting myself bounce against Neath who is accustomed to and is a decent rock. I'd look at his text messages but reading is making me nauteous and my brain could really be putting this experience on 'expert' level but I swear to god none of the things he's typing are in English they're just gibberish.
The helicopter descends after what feels like hours but it's still dark so I'm going with it's like thirty minutes. Neath and Colm seem accustomed to this and don't really react.
"Home sweet home" Neath says, half smiling as he opens the helicopter door. Our pilot was Roy huh guess he did come with us. We all duck out onto a helicopter pad which is—
Dark. It's all dark. Like there's a few small path lights but the rest is completely dark. I can't tell where we are.
A small party is coming out to meet us. A few men, in cargos and long coats, wearing what look like daggers. All led by a girl, probably a little older than me but not past eighteen. Long dark brown hair is pulled back into a neat braid. She's wearing a fuzzy pink and white sweater, dark cargos, hiking boots, and an impressive belt complete with a large sword. My eyes fall on the ornate hilt immediately. Wrapped in blue leather with a wide guard it's a hand and a half sword but without eve seeing the blade I can tell it's impressive. It hangs heavy on the girl's hips and the scabbard alone is intricately designed.
Welcome home.
The voice hisses in my ear so much I take a step back. Neath ignores this guiding me forward. I want to know where the voice came from but no one else clearly heard it. Great. I'm crazy in my crazy person dream.
"Welcome to Stack Rock. I'm Elin Maddock, the Elderblade," the girl says. Her accent is deep and inscrutable. She stands with the confidence of someone with a badass sword on their hip.
"Hi, I'm Damian Winters and I don't actually know what's going on," I say, waving. The men bow to her oh okay it's that kind of cult.
"At ease," Elin says, glancing at the men coolly.
"He's coming off a half a dozen drugs and this is all he's coming with," Neath says, tugging on my backpack.
"Extensive record he's a likely candidate for the wall," Colm says.
"I've reviewed his files myself, thank you Grandmaster. I'll consider his appointment once I see his abilities for myself," Elin says, "Winters, as your commander I'll escort you to your quarters."
"Okay then," I say, because I clearly have no say in this kidnapping.
Colm says nothing, merely staring after me.
"You wanna put him in the dorms? I think he's fine," Neath says.
"Nothing his housemates can't handle. Full tour tomorrow Winters, for now let's get you bunked down. I'm as I said your commanding officer and weilder of the Elderblade, Colm is my Grandmaster I haven't decided if I'm going to put you in his ranks yet, for now," she leads me down a path to—a door. We were on a roof.
"Stack rock is a c-shape, with three levels of inner chambers. Most everyone bunks on the lower levels. I'm going to be honest most of our recruits are convicted felons we don't usually have voluntary joiners," she says.
I decide not to say I'm not a voluntary joiner.
"Yeah he's like thirteen," Neath says.
"Right so I'm going to put him in the dorms, for now, till we sort something out —dorms are where any voluntary recruits go it's a bit more comfortable," Elin says, leading me down a stone hallway. String lights overhead guide our way and rubber anti-skid mats do little to stop the sound from echoing.
"Good, all right you need anything call me yeah?" Neath says, tapping his ear, "I'm here I've just got some things to finish up for him."
"Yes definitely, thanks," Elin says, smiling tightly, she then looks at me, "Neath's my uncle, I don't know if he said."
"You can just—assume I don't understand anything," I say.
"He's my uncle. My father was the previous Elderblade I'm an only child and he said the only heir he needed," she says.
"Heir to—running this rock?" I ask, nicely I think.
"The blade that can kill a dragon. Only a rightful heir can wield it, which is to say lift it—Lucidity, the only blade of its kind remaining," she says, ahnd the hilt.
"Oh, cool," I shrug.
"So if you see a dragon call me," she says, smiling.
"That I can do," I say, pointing finger guns.
She smiles, "Come on. Neath texted your meds list and webMD assures me you're going to be very ill in a few hours."
"Yeah not the first time," I say.
"Even so. Let's get you to bed—we have enough dorms you can probably have your own room but with you coming down I think you need a roommate," she says, twisting us down the hall before stopping at a wooden door. It's got a big brass bird knocker and a very elegant sign written in sharpie 'keep out'.
Elin knocks anyway, without touching the knocker, "Flynn? It's me. Answer your phone."
She's clearly prepared to kick the door next, but it opens, just a crack.
A weedy teenage boy, with dishwater blonde hair and milky grey eyes, half leans in the door. He's wearing boxers and a wife beater, and mismatched socks.
"What?" He asks.
"You'd know if you answered your phone. Damian is a new recruit identified as having the sight today I'm putting him in with you becuase he's sick from those drugs they put them on," Elin sums up my very traumatic evening.
"Hi," the boy blinks, clearly half asleep, "yeah, yeah bring him in."
"Thanks, seriously," Elin says, as he opens the door the rest of the way.
We enter a small if efficient dorm room. Against one wall is a small kitchenette, several bean bags are clustered around a low iron table, all shoved up against the opposite wall. There's typical signs of life, a stack of textbooks and papers, a few boxes of tea, mismatched coffee cups stacked ontop of an abused mini fridge. An array of rugs cover the floor, mismatched, leading into a small cove at the end of the room. There's a curtain pulled up for privacy but I can see the glow of a lava lamp, presumably that's the bedroom. A small door next to the curtain is propped open with a rock, likely a bathroom. Nice, private bathroom. Here was I expecting communal.
"Damian, Flynn, Flynn, Damian," Elin says, gesturing between us.
"Ah—hi," Flynn says, he's clearly rolled straight out of bed but doens't care to put on more clothes for either of our benefit.
"Hi, sorry about waking you up," I say.
"It's no problem way better than griffins attacking, ah—shit let me go and make the other bed," he says, "i don't suppose you brought anything?"
"Just this," I say.
"Yeah he's got nothing they picked him up on the way to inpatient, tomorrow or the next day I'm going to work on getting him into town to get clothes, ah, we need to talk though, generally, but that's after we all have our chosen caffeine source," Elin says, holding out a hand, "Phone."
I hand her my burner phone.
"How do you even—I didn't know they made flip phones okay," she says.
"Does it matter? You're taking it," I point out.
She rolls her eyes before handing it back, "I put my number in, idiot, you're not actually being kidnapped. Text me your coffee order when you're sober and we'll all have a chat I need to sort your things out and get you in processed in the morning which I'm guessing you're gonna sleep through. Flynn do you want morning drills or do you want to babysit be aware I'm choosing for you it's babysit."
"Babysit is fine," Flynn says, holding up his hands.
"Am I the baby?" I ask.
"You're the baby, I owe you coffee for this text me when you wake up after drills I'm just going to be doing this," Elin says, gesturing generally to me, "Anything you need right now that I can accomplish on two hours sleep?"
"I'm good, seriously," I say, holding up my hands.
"Based on all this he's gonna need to dry out two three days minimum, text  Neath if he goes feral on you, Colm's already being a dick," Elin says, pulling out a slim blue iPhone in a glittery case.
"Yeah what's with him?" I ask.
"Blood purist. Old families old bloodlines he doesn't like random drifters with the sight," Flynn says.
"Or me. And someone as strong as you he thinks is from a family line that he didn't know about which pisses him off.," she says.
"He's going to assume you're the secret love child of someone famous, which when they have those they're supposed to keep 'em in care then send them to us—like me," Flynn says, "Boarding schools till I was old enough to come here, ain't half bad and it's all funded by the council because they need warm bodies. But your parents didn't do that so he's pissed off by proxy at you."
"It's whatever, like I said he gets pissed off with me daily, ignore him. We're seriously going to talk later when you're sobered up, right now, try to sleep it off? Flynn can answer most questions but if you need something text me?" Elin says.
"El, you're doing drills. Go the fuck to sleep. I've got this," Flynn says.
"All right, I'm gonna write you off for at least tomorrow," Elin says, texting, "I told Neath you're here, Damian, and I'm giving him your number."
"Bye," Flynn waves.
"Sorry to be the reason you're both not asleep, get some sleep," Elin says, her head still in her phone as she leaves.
"Okay, cool, so this is home. I don't have a roommate becuase it has to go by like age bracket—I'm sixteen so still a minor. Right, kitchen. Help yourself Monster energy and a few cans of coke in the fridge, usually some food. We're not supposed to have food in here jsut drink, shh, kettle, help yourself to tea and coffee we get all that from the commissary on a card, you'll get one too we get like a set number of items we trade it works out if we want more of something," Flynn gestures vaguely to the kitchen with one hand,.
"Okay," I nod.
"Yeah you won't retain any of this it's fine. So I'll clean up my stuff, no TV but the wifi is okay and I have a big laptop so if you want to watch a move just borrow it that's all it's for," he says, tapping an aging Alienware laptop that's on the coffee table.
"Bathroom, the shower is like the whole room think a camper, it's not great but you know," he says, opening the bathroom a little, "We'll worry about schedule later I don't even know right now and we don't know what El's gonna put you on, probably with me to be honest you might as well follow me around if you're cool with that—ah bedroom," Flynn opens the curtain to  reveal a circular room. There's a small single bed on either side. One side is clearly occupied, the bed is made up with dark blue, thick comforters and an array of pillows. It's also clearly been rolled out of with a pair of slippers next to a small row of waiting shoes. There's a dresser at the end of each bed and the head, Flynn's clearly over stuffed and bursting. Hooks on the wall are meant for weapons, not wall art, he has a sword, a couple of daggers, and a shield and crossbow, all mounted.
"Should we not try guns?" I ask, nicely.
"What—oh they don't work, modern weapons don't work on them," he explains, "The monsters you mean? Yeah has to be ancient weapons."
"But have we tried a flame thrower?" I ask.
"I'm sure someone has. It has to be an ancient weapon passed down, all these are hundreds of years old. Elin's badass sword you saw? Yeah that's like thousands of years old," he explains, going to a dresser and starting to rummage around for sheets.
"Right so—why is she in charge?" I ask.
"Holder of the Elderblade always runs the Guard, it can be deligated by a previous user but otherwise, it's within the family. The tradition being sons, but Elin's dad was fine with her taking over, he died when she was little, the Grandmaster, Colm, and soem of the others actually help run the place but yeah she's in charge," Flynn says, tossing a few sheets out, "Those look okay? This is thin but warm."
"It's fine, i've got one blanket here," I say, holding up my backpack.
"Okay—is that serioulsy all your clothes?" He sighs.
"Yeah," I shrug.
"I might get Neath to run to the commissary and bring up something else," he says, as I dump my mental patient clothes on the bed. no jeans, nothing with elastic, nothing with ties.
"So you live here? Full time?" I ask.
"No, I mean mostly yeah but i've got school and I go back and see my mother's family sometimes. I'm just not presentable you know," he says, "Oh here, let me put my number in your phone. In case you need something and I ran out."
I hand him the phone which he takes a moment to understand how to use it. Once he's finished he tosses it back.
"Were you—trying to change my Lock Screen?" I ask, looking at the open tasks.
"Don't hand your phone to people like me, legimate life lesson. So yeah but I couldn't figure out how on that dinosaur," he says.
"Are you why Neath's Lock Screen is the Way it is?" I ask.
"El specifically but yeah, he hates us it's fine," Flynn says, lightly, as he finishes helping make up the bed.  Together we get it made and he loans me a few pillows.  I put my backpack among the pillows and he graciously doesn't question it, just going back to climb into his bed. The clock on my phone reads two am, but I suspect we changed time zones.
"Night night," Flynn mutters, rolling up in his copious blankets.
"Night,' I say, crawling into bed. As predicted there is wifi but no cell signal, so i can't send messages. Elin appears to have logged me onto wifi, but neither of them could change my lock screen. That's because I don't think it changes this is that terrible of a phone.
I sigh. This has been an interesting hallucination. I should write it sort of into a campaign somehow when they finally drug me back into coherence.
"Hey, Flynn, what's the like the final boss?" I ask.
"What?" He mumbles.
"Like the worst monster we're fighting. The BBEG," I say.
"Oh. Sorry I haven't been home in ages I need to get my nerd on um—did you see in the news that some huge dragon ate an entire double decker bus?" He asks.
"I literally saw that yeah," I say.
"That's our final boss right now. El wants to kill it—so bad and I am definitely gonna help her with that. Night," he says.
"Night," I say, lying back.  That huge dragon. Damn, I hope this fever dream lasts long enough for me to see the dragon.