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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.’

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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!”

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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.