image [https://i.imgur.com/jpOYNWV.png]

“What’s with the silver?” I asked Colson as we headed back upstairs so I could get my spear.

I’d noticed Tanner mentioned it with the bullets, and Annie said the runes on my spear were inscribed with silver as well.

“Disrupts the flow of aether a little,” Colson replied, “unlike in most stories, it’s not because it kills werewolves and vampires any easier than other regular weapons. It’ll impede manipulating aether a little, though.”

It made sense that you’d want to have any edge you could get in a fight, but I was shocked that conventional firearms were so ineffective. Maybe Colson was a little biased since he preferred not to use them. Everyone else was packing after all.

We went into my room, and I got the holster and tube out of my bag, equipping it.

“Vampires and werewolves are real? What about garlic and the cross?” I asked him.

“They are. Several subspecies of were and hematophages, actually. It’ll probably make you taste better if you serve yourself up with a side of garlic,” Colson grinned at me. “But it won’t do anything to deter them, that’s for sure. Some are weakened by sunlight, but they can run around in it just fine. It’s not like they sparkle or anything.”

“Oh come on, you have to try harder man,” I admonished, “Twilight, right? Never saw the movies, but I did catch the memes. We’re even at six.”

He grumbled inaudibly.

We went back down again and met up with the others on the lot, near Mateo’s van. It stood out like a sore thumb, with sparkling chrome, and aluminium rims, showcasing a large painted pinup on one side.

“Damn Mateo, you spruced it up! Looks amazing,” Colson exclaimed and whistled appreciatively. “Can you pop the hood real quick?”

“No time,” Mateo laughed, “maybe when we get back.”

A couple of them rolled their eyes at Colson’s antics. My suspicions about his general love for cars was confirmed, but it seemed like I wasn’t the only one who’d tolerated his shenanigans in the past.

The sun was on full blast, it was just past five and I have to admit I found it a bit odd that we were just going to drive right up to the farm and announce ourselves. I knew they all had way more experience with this sort of thing than me, but it struck me as odd, and I told them so.

Tanner considered me for a moment, then shrugged.

“Daylight’s preferable. If it’s a bunch of predators, we’re at a disadvantage when it’s nighttime. Loads of creatures have better night vision than we do unless you can enhance your normal vision with aether. If you’re in a battle with Sigil Holders I wouldn’t recommend funnelling aether sight, it’ll just blind you.”

Sensible, I’d also assumed that improved night vision was the case with the empousa.

He looked around at his crew. Everybody except Colson was carrying a gun of some kind. I had the 1911, Dink had an AR-15, Sally was carrying a S&W M&P15 rifle, Rob had a Browning A5 shotgun slung over his shoulder, Tanner carried an old Winchester lever rifle, and Mateo stood with a Stoeger side-by-side shotgun in break-action.

We were a sight for sore eyes, and I understood why Colson had used the word “posse”.

“Right, y’all ready?”, he asked and I almost laughed. “Then buckle up buttercups.”

Tanner slid open the side door and we filed in.

Colson got in the passenger’s seat which made complete sense when you considered his size, but the rest of us fit comfortably in the back. Fastening my seatbelt, I pulled the gun from my pants and put it in my lap instead. We rode in silence for a while, each embroiled in our own thoughts. At some point I noticed Sally was looking at me and cocked my head a little to one side, prompting her to speak.

“Ethan, you’re seventeen, right?” she asked cautiously.

“I am, yeah,” I confirmed, nodding, “didn’t know about any of this a couple of days ago. I lead a pretty, eh, sequestered life I guess you could say.”

I figured it wasn’t so bad to offer up a little information voluntarily.

While I generally preferred not to talk about my childhood or my dad, it had occurred to me—during my drives with Colson—that there was a difference between laying yourself bare and having a polite conversation. The car rumbled as it turned from the asphalt and started down a gravel road.

“When’d you manifest your Sigil? If you don’t mind me asking.” came her next question.

Thinking about it, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to tell them more, considering Imara’s warning about sharing info about your Sigil. My eyes flickered Colson’s way briefly and I saw him bob his head and took that as confirmation that it was okay for me to reveal a little.

“I manifested it yesterday around noon and I started tracing it out last night. Haven’t gotten very far yet,” I told them.

“Yeap,” Rob provided and smiled at me from a seat opposite mine. “It’s a bitch to trace it out, takes a while, but hot damn when you’re done the world’s at your feet. Gonna be exciting to see what you have an affinity for."

“Affinity?” I asked.

“Means we’re stronger and can manipulate aether more easily in some categories than others,” Sally took over the explanation. “Everyone can do different things, but we humies often have a category or more where we’re stronger which translates into different skills or abilities later on. Many creatures share similar traits with the rest of their species, but for us, it seems totally random.”

“You mean like, what? Fire and stuff?”

I thought of Colson.

“Fire’s one,” Dink confirmed, “water, earth, air, blood, sand, you name it. It’s weird how there’s no rhyme or reason to it. Well, some human bloodlines pass abilities, skills or affinities on through genetics, but they can sometimes skip several generations.”

“There are several rare abilities on record,” Colson supplied from the passenger’s seat. “Some enable you to do certain things with aether with little to no effort. The really rare ones can even work passively, so you don’t have to channel aether to use ‘em. As long as your Sigil’s got juice, it works. Untraceable too,” he finished.

That seemed incredible, if I had a passive ability, I could use it without anyone being the wiser.

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“Seems pretty unfair,” I observed.

They all laughed.

“Nothin’ fair ‘bout life, Ethan,” Dink said, shaking his head, “there’s a big diff’rence in how much aether Holders can store or funnel. I’m prolly the weakest one here, besides yourself, no offence. My Sigil fills up pretty quickly, still got enough for a working or two though.”

“None taken,” I laughed.

I was well aware that I was the weakest Holder present. With any luck that would change in the future.

“There in five,” Mateo’s voice provided, “get ready.”

Everyone fiddled with their weapons, and I put the 1911 back in my pants and patted my spear holster. Still there.

“Here,” Tanner said and handed me a Bluetooth earpiece and I noticed they all equipped one of their own.

“I’ll set up a conference call so we can keep in touch if we’re out of earshot, what’s your number?”

Equipping the earpiece, I gave him my number and thirty seconds later there was a call set up.

“Testing testing, can everyone hear me?”

We all nodded affirmatively, keeping silent.

I spotted the farm in the distance and the car slowed a little in its approach. It was bigger than it had seemed on the blueprint, and I wondered if there were enough of us to pull off the plan they’d prepared. Several of my instructors had told me that no plan survives first contact with a potential enemy—not that any squatters on the premises were necessarily hostile. I took a deep breath and felt the beginnings of adrenaline start coursing through my system, making me increasingly jittery and nervous.

Get it together, Ethan. You can do this. No dying this time.

“Stay near me, kid,” Colson’s confident tone sounded through the silence, “Tanner’s got lead, maybe we won’t be needed at all.”

Slightly reassured at his words I calmed a little but decided I’d remain vigilant.

Coming to a stop twenty feet from the door, Mateo killed the engine and Tanner opened the door, everyone disembarking quickly. There were no people outside and Sally and Rob ran around either side of the farm around back. Colson, Mateo, Dink, Tanner, and I walked to the front door.

“We’re in position,” Sally’s lowered voice sounded in my earpiece, “no one here. The door’s unlocked.”

Tanner tried the door handle on the front door and found that it was unlocked as well. The door opened slightly.

“Get ready to head in,” he instructed for Sally and Rob’s benefit.

My adrenaline spiked and I entered the tranquil mind and drew the 1911 pointing it at the ground.

“3… 2… 1… Go.”

We walked inside one by one, Tanner going first and Colson taking up the rear, the rest of us sandwiched in between. The windows were boarded up outside, but it was shoddily done, and light shone through the cracks illuminating our path inside. We stood in a short hallway, the living room ten feet away and to the left.

“Nothing in the back,” Sally’s whispered voice crackled over the conference call, “heading towards the living room now.”

Walking forwards we tried to make as little noise as possible. Tanner walked to the door and peeked inside. Turning his head to look at us he put a finger to his mouth, miming quiet and walked inside, the rest of us on his heels.

The living room was mostly bare, with no furniture or other comforts present. A bunch of sleeping bags were opened but unused. Instead, there were a bunch of sleeping bodies assembled in a giant pile on the floor. I couldn’t get a proper count on how many it consisted of—their limbs and torsos intermingling—rising up and down steadily as though they were all breathing synchronously.

They weren’t corpses but looked like pale regular humans who had decided they’d rather imitate meerkats instead of sleeping individually.

Sally and Rob joined us in the living room from the other direction and frowned at the pile. Looking around at the others I noticed they all wore different expressions of bafflement – everyone except for Colson. He took out his phone and typed something for a second before showing us what it said.

A single question, “Drudges?”

Realisation dawned on their faces and their gazes turned flinty. Tanner signalled for us to fan out and we spread out in a semi-circle around the pile. They all raised their weapons, and I followed their lead, licking my lips nervously.

Then Tanner drew on his Sigil. It felt completely different from anything I’d sensed so far. Instead of the small trickles I’d experienced, I could sense aether permeating his entire being, thrumming with power. Primed. Waiting. The effect was immediate, and all the bodies simultaneously opened their eyes and sprang to their feet, the logistics of it not an issue since they disentangled from each other seamlessly.

Twelve of them, seven men and five women.

“Don’t move,” Tanner’s barked, “stand still or we’ll open fire. Don’t draw on your Sigils or we’ll open fire.”

The drudges, if that's what they were, stood supernaturally still staring at us with an eerie kind of intensity. They were all dirty, and emaciated, with dull hair and even duller eyes. One of them took a single step forward hands rising in a show of supplication. All our guns focused on her, and I heard the safeties disengage.

“Do. Not. Move,” Tanner enunciated each word in a way that brokered no argument.

My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. Glancing at Colson briefly, I saw he stood in a relaxed pose, arms crossed, pensive.

“Quite the rude awakening, Holder,” she admonished. Her voice was neutral, belying any sense of displeasure, “We have done nothing to warrant such an aggressive response.”

“We’ll see,” Tanner responded coldly, “what’re you doing here?”

Their leader looked at him for a long moment, the intensity of her gaze unsettled me a little. She didn’t blink.

“Sleeping, conserving our strength… existing,” she told us in that same toneless cadence.

“Where’s your sire?” Colson asked. She shifted her gaze to him, considering.

“Dead,” she said simply, “for a little more than a month. We are free from her influence and settled here to avoid questions.”

“Was her death reported to the Board?” Sally inquired.

The drudge looked at her and showed the first hint of emotion. Disgust crossed her features briefly before she schooled her expression again.

“She operated outside of the treaties,” she explained, “we have not been turned voluntarily. It was done with coercion and torture. There was no love lost between us and… her.” She spat out the last word like a curse.

“You are drudges, then?”

“That is what we are, now,” the leader conceded with a slow nod, “we do not wish for an altercation. Please.”

I pointed my gun towards the floor but noticed that none of the others followed. At my gesture of passivity, I noticed several of the drudges’ hands twitched, eyes narrowing.

“Please,” said again and looked like she was struggling, “do not act like prey. We are… very hungry.”

I immediately raised my gun again and she nodded at me.

“What’ll we find if we search the premises?” Mateo was the one to ask.

“Nothing,” she replied, “feel free to do so, but please, move slowly.”

This was extremely surreal. I had no idea what a drudge was, but by the way, she was speaking, I could tell that they’d jump us at a moment’s notice if they sensed any weakness.

“Dink, Sally, search the other rooms,” Tanner commanded.

Dink and Sally both walked slowly backwards out of the room, guns still pointed at the drudge.

“How’d your sire die?” Colson’s question seemed odd to me, but I figured he was just fishing for more information in case someone needed to follow up on the story she was telling.

“We killed her,” came the emotionless response, “she turned too many of us and her compulsion slipped. Before we knew it, we were free of her control. I convinced the others to pretend ignorance and we killed her while she was in meditation.”

“Colson, what d’you think? I’ll defer to you on this,” Tanner said.

He was still holding onto all his aether, ready to go.

“Possible. I’ve heard it can happen. It’s lax and stupid, but we all make mistakes. What’s your name?” he asked the leader.

“My name was Marie,” her expression cracked a little and her expression fell. “I have not answered to that name in many years. I was referred to as number two."

“Sounds like you’re leading this little band of misfits,” Colson announced, “what happened to number one?”

She spat on the floor.

“Loyalty happened,” her voice was tinged with disdain, “he was the one who brought most of us to her, and he remained loyal to her after she died. I think he wanted to become a drudge from the outset, I am not even sure she had him under compulsion.”

“Makes sense, I suppose,” Colson conceded, “when’s the last time you fed?”

“A week ago,” something passed over her expression, but before I had a chance to identify it, she spoke again. “We shared a bull not far from here. We take turns going out to feed, then come here to sleep.”

“Nothing in any of the rooms, guys. All clear,” our earpieces transmitted Sally’s voice.

One of the drudges in the back relaxed slightly, shoulders slumping like he was reassured at Sally’s words. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

How good is their hearing?

I looked at Colson and saw he was staring daggers at the one that had relaxed. He’d noticed it too.

“Sally,” his voice was loud as he spoke to her over the headset, “when you and Rob went ‘round the farm, did you notice if there was a storm cellar?”

The effect of his words was instantaneous, the drudges hissed—a hideous sound not unlike the one a rattlesnake makes—and their neutral expressions transformed into one of hatred.

“You really should not have come here,” Marie smiled, and her face shimmered and changed, displaying four wicked-looking fangs.