1.4

Drift 1.4

Amy II​

I couldn't help but open up to the inquisitive girl. Back home, I would never have revealed so much of my inner turmoil to my family, let alone a random stranger I met five minutes ago, but through a combination of socialization deprivation and an improved state of mind, I was much more susceptible to spilling my guts to the first person I came across. Besides, the weird girl -I should have asked her name- made for the perfect candid conversation partner. There was little chance of interacting with her again after I returned home.

She looked to be on the verge of highschool age, and she was the perfect example of a country bumpkin, displaying a lack of comprehension of basic 21st century amenities. Her most distinctive features were her pug nose and lazy eye, a duet of traits that many would uncharitably ascribe to a stereotypical hillbilly girl straight out of Appalachia. Despite her apparent lack of education, she clearly had a curious nature -even if she was far too blunt about it- and I was happy to share what I could.

There had been a moment of near panic when she hadn't recognized the existence of parahumans, my mind jumping to drastic conclusions, but it made sense if she had lived her entire life in an isolated community. From the sounds of it, they might not even have cell coverage wherever she's from.

I placed her accent as British at first, but after some consideration, I realized it held a lilt that reminded me of Irish Americans, or maybe Scottish. Her little sister's accent was stronger, or at least I assumed the other girl was her sister and the boy her brother. They were both much quieter than the older girl.

I had just finished gushing about the incredible properties of the Ironwoods when a new sound caught my attention. To our three o'clock, a group of people on horseback of all things came careening through the trees. Were those people wearing armor?

What the hell?

The lead rider called to us, "In the name of my father, Lord Gregor Forrester, I command you to halt!"

The four of us stopped dead in our tracks, stunned by the strange turn of events.

"Do you know these people?" I whispered aside to my companion, keeping the newcomers in my cone of vision. If those scabbards held real swords, then these men were armed and potentially dangerous.

"Guardsmen of House Forrester from the looks of it," she replied.

Their leader looked me over. It didn't feel lecherous, more like he was piecing together a puzzle. Still, I felt uncomfortable.

"The grove has been decreed off limits until the lights have been investigated," he spoke. "We can spare an escort back to Ironrath, my lady."

That last part sounded not quite like a question, more as if he was unsure how to address me.

This is weird, right?

The men were dressed like they had just arrived from a ren-faire convention, complete with swords, shields, and actual horses. The armor and weapons looked real as well. Nothing was cheaply made.

Was I in the middle of a role playing event? Did they think I was a character? No, that made no sense. If that were the case, they probably would have called things off after the trees started growing.

Wait just a minute, they should be alarmed by the trees in the first place!

Something was very wrong here.

Some time had passed while I silently contemplated the irregularities, and some of the men seemed to be getting impatient.

"My lady," the lead rider repeated, "do you feel faint?"

I really didn't feel like playing along with whatever was going on. I'd ask them to escort me to actual civilization, and then I'd arrange for transportation home, possibly send psychiatric help for these guys who were way too dedicated to their roleplaying.

"Can we drop the medieval act, please?" I sighed at him. "Not sure if you could tell, but I've kind of been lost in the woods for over a week." I gestured to my grime-encrusted costume.

A few of the men bristled, but their leader didn't seem sure what to make of my words. "I'm not sure I follow. I understand that you must have been through an ordeal, but House Forrester extends its hospitality to you. Allow my men to escort you to the keep, my lady…" he seemed to be searching for some phrase. "Apologies, I do not recognize your house's emblem."

"Emblem?" I was confused again.

"The red cross and trailing stars?" He seemed equally as confused as I did.

Oh my god, they were still staying in character.

"Look," I said a little more sharply than I intended, "this isn't a costume, or well, okay, it is a costume, but it's a hero costume. I'm a parahuman. Panacea."

I didn't know if I held enough international fame to be recognized by the everyday englishman. Hopefully, the parahuman reveal would finally snap these weirdos out of their role playing.

I had no such luck.

"You've clearly had a difficult journey getting here, but this is no time to lose your faculties. I insist that you rest and recover at our holdfast."

This was really starting to piss me off. All I want is to go home, is that so much to ask for?

I gave them a piece of my mind. "Listen. To. Me. I don't fucking care about your roleplaying, or LARPing, or whatever you call it. Just-" I took a calming breath, "just please take me somewhere with cell service so I can call my family. I really just want to get back to Brockton Bay, and then you can keep doing whatever it is you're doing. Okay?"

"I beg your pardon?" The man sounded affronted.

"Watch your tongue girlie, or you'll find we have no use for it." One of the soldiers spoke, a dark eyed man with a puckered scar marring his lip.

What the fuck? Did he just threaten to cut out my tongue?

Had I somehow misread the situation? Did these men actually believe they were medieval knights? And how dare this asshole?

"Listen dickwad," I spat at scarface, "where I come from, those kinds of threats are not okay."

He urged his horse forward into my personal space, looming over me. In my pocket, white knuckles gripped the sleeping agent in a vice.

"Is that anyway for a lady to talk?" He sneered, baring crooked yellow teeth.

I was a second away from downing the counteragent when the leader shoved his way forward and pushed an arm in front of scarface, blocking him off.

"Peace, peace! This is no way to act for either of you. A lady should act as befits her station." He turned a glare on the other man. "Len, there will be a discussion concerning proper conduct."

"Yes, my lord. I apologize."

I had expected more hostility out of the asshole -I refused to call him by his name- but he deferred to the other man in a respectful tone.

"Cool." I was done with this. There was no way in hell I'd let any of these guys escort me anywhere, not when I didn't feel safe around them. "I'm leaving now. Come on kids, we're getting out of here."

"Wait!" Leader man called out. "You're Jered's daughter. Lara, right? Your father was worried you'd wander off into the grove, and he asked us to keep an eye out. I insist that you all accompany us back to Ironrath. My lady, you'll be able to send a raven to your family."

This was the final straw. These men actually believed they were medieval knights, and they were trying to detain us.

With that revelation the rest of the disparate pieces slotted into place, and it wasn't painting a pretty picture. It seemed to me that these children were living under the rule of a madman playing at being a king straight out of the Dark Ages, hence the knights on horseback. It explained why the girl had no knowledge of modern technology - she was kept locked away from the outside world by a parahuman warlord who didn't want anyone breaking out from his insane little forest kingdom. Likely, I was dealing with some kind of Master who could influence others into being his "knights" who carried out his bidding.

And I had outright told them that I was a parahuman. Shit, it was no wonder they wanted to bring me back to their base so badly -their excuses were paper thin- where they could put me under his control. I was getting out of here right this moment whether or not they tried to stop me. My hand tightened around my only weapon.

I wouldn't bow down to villains. "Screw this, I'm not playing your game. You can tell your Master to let me leave and to go fuck off."

"Damnable wench!" Len drew his sword from his sheath.

There was no time to think, no time to plan. Just action.

"Hold!" shouted their leader.

He never got a chance to follow through. Quickly unpocketing the counteragent, I shattered the container over my lips, letting the sappy liquid flow down my throat, while in the same motion hefting my sphere full of sleeping powder. With a thought, the wooden sphere imploded in a cloud, specks faintly shimmering in the dawn rays.

Len made it less than five strides before his eyes rolled up into his head, his sword thudding on the ground as he slipped sideways off his mount. The rest fared no better, all falling unconscious moments after exposure. The horses took a little longer to succumb, their larger mass increasing the needed dosage, but they too collapsed to the ground, taking their sleeping riders with them.

Without time to give warning or prepare defenses for them, the children were caught in the crossfire. The girl had fallen in my direction, and her full weight braced against my side caused me to list in exertion in order to keep her head from smacking into the dirt. With effort, I set her down gently.

Shit, shit, shit. I checked on the other kids. Vitals all good. I breathed a sigh of relief. Getting children hurt through my carelessness was the last thing I wanted.

I didn't want to be responsible for any deaths, so I checked over all the sleeping soldiers. A few had taken nasty bruises, but none sustained any broken bones or head injuries. The horses were fine as well.

My heart was still pounding from the burst of action. I had never used my powers offensively before, and the adrenaline rush was a new sensation. I could have been hurt. They could have been hurt. I broke my rules. Again. I took a shaking breath to clear my head.

This wasn't the time for worrying - I took stock of my situation, planning my next move. This had turned into a shitstorm, everything falling apart in a matter of minutes. What were my goals? Still to get home as soon as I could. How was I going to accomplish that? I had to find the exit out of the forest, and if the girl's words were to be believed, then I probably wasn't too far away.

That just left the other obstacles in my way. This Lord Forrester guy.

What a stupid, egotistical name for your cape identity.

I needed to organize everything I knew about him if I wanted to survive this intact. However his powers worked, it likely allowed him to exert influence over at least a half dozen men to the point of zealotry, forcing them to his service and altering their state of mind to align with his mad pretensions at a feudal society. Presumably, there were many more people held under his sway in nearby towns and villages. Also, he had to have some sort of connection to the Ironwoods. Are they biotinkered after all? If that was the case, there could be multiple powered villains. Fuck me.

One thing was for sure. Whether these guys were mastered or not, they were bad news. Threatening mutilation over an outsider speaking against them was no laughing matter - they were undoubtedly evil.

I had to get going before they woke up. The sleeping agent was fast acting, but it wouldn't last longer than an hour at the most. While there might be ways to achieve both traits in one compound, I hadn't conceived of one yet.

So I needed to start moving, but my steps faltered. I hesitated. Leaving these children behind in the clutches of a mad villain didn't sit right with me, but could I really take them with me? They'd be a liability and hindrance. If I left them here though, the soldiers might react badly, enacting punishment on them for my perceived transgression.

No, I couldn't abandon them to such a cruel fate. I began the process of waking the children up. Instead of creating more counteragent, I manually flushed their systems, sending their consciousnesses abruptly back to the land of the waking. Their malnourishment and general lack of health fanned the flames of my anger. I would not allow this Lord Forrester asshole to hurt them a day longer.

The girl gasped, snapping up sharply. "What did you do?" Unbelievably, she sounded less upset than curious.

I snatched up her hand sharply, without care for being gentle. "No time, we're going now. I'm getting you out of here."

I yanked her along, stumbling with me to the other two, grabbing the little boy's hand too, albeit more gently.

"Amy, I think there may've been a misunderstanding."

"What's goin' on? Please don' hurt us!" the smaller girl cowered at my approach.

The older sister shook her head roughly, like she was clearing a mental fog. "Amy. Listen to me," she said in her blunt, emotionless speech pattern, "I can't claim to know what's going through your head right now. Maybe those men reminded you of something awful." She gestured to Len's splayed form, legs still attached to the saddle. "He had no right to make that kind of threat." Her one good eye met mine, unwavering and unblinking. "Nor should he have attacked you."

The elder sister strode over to her siblings. The young girl had started crying, silent tracks trailing down her cheeks, the boy copying his sister's distress, bawling and clinging to her in fear.

"It's alright Yanny. Dil," she patted his head with awkward up and down motions, "Amy didn't mean to be so scary."

Far from sounding comforting, the words were cast in that numb quality unique to her, yet they served to calm down the children all the same.

"Is everyone sleeping soundly?" she quickly glanced between me, the fallen men, and the children, still holding on to them tightly.

I caught on to her hidden meaning. "Yeah, I checked up on them. A few aches here and there, but everyone will be alright."

"I never caught your name." I spoke after a pause.

"Lara."

"Okay Lara, we need to get going. Now.

"Go where?" she shot back, cool as a cucumber, holding my eyes again. It was unsettling.

"I need to get home, and I'm getting you out of here because you're all in dan- you're under the influence of this Lord Forrester person," I rephrased, not wanting to upset the kids further.

She blinked once, slowly. "Yes, we are under his influence. We live in his territory. Is this unusual to you?"

"Yes!" Yanny flinched at my shout, so I toned down my volume, "You live in the middle of the forest under the rule of a man calling himself after a 'lord' who treats you like serfs and has bands of literal horse riding knights." It was a struggle not to raise my voice at the absurdity of it all.

She cocked her head to the side - it was reminiscent of the way a dog tilts their head when talking to them. "I feel there's been a mistake in our understanding of each other, and I suspect we've been talking past each other since we first met." That single eye, a brown flecked green nebula locked unerringly onto my own. "Amy, I need you to tell me why you find the idea of lords so troubling. I need to understand."

"We don't have time for this," I snarled, "every second we waste is a second closer to those men waking up."

"So we wait for them to wake up," she shrugged.

I strained to keep from yelling again, "Are you out of your mind? They're dangerous. They're mastered at best, and willingly complicit at worst."

"Amy, you keep saying things I don't understand. These men are most assuredly the lord's trained men, not raiders or bandits. If your issue is with Lord Forrester himself, then tell me why. Clear up this confusion."

I hadn't wanted to bring it up directly. Telling Master victims they were mastered was rarely productive, but I felt I was out of options. This had dragged on too long.

"You're being mastered," I spoke plainly, hoping to appeal to her clear desire for logic.

"I don't know what that means."

Shit, okay that makes sense if she's been lied to her whole life. No knowledge of parahumans, right. Or that information could have been brainwashed out of her. No telling what kind of powers I could be facing.

I tried explaining it in a way she would have to understand. "You're being controlled. Literally. This Lord Forrester could be changing your thought processes or emotions. It's his power. He must be a parahuman like me." My impassioned pleas had to reach her, please see reason. "Think about it. Why wouldn't he let you leave the forest? Why does he need all these armed men? It doesn't make sense. Unless he's using his powers to control his soldiers and to keep the rest of you from seeing the truth." I bodily shook her, willing her to break out of whatever influence she was under. I hadn't detected direct manipulation of neurochemical pathways or brain waves, but parahuman powers were both strange and varied, so something beyond my ability to detect was always an option.

She remained motionless, processing the world-shattering revelation. I thought that maybe, just maybe, I had finally gotten through to her. "Amy, I really do think that there's some horrible misunderstanding happening, so I say this with all the respect you are due."

She paused for a breath, "What you just said is utterly insane."

This was hopeless. Of course the girl being mastered didn't believe she was being mastered. It wouldn't be a very good Master power otherwise.

There was no chance in hell I'd be able to drag Lara, let alone all three children out of the forest with me. I had to leave them.

I'm sorry.

Closing my eyes, I turned to face away from my failure with fists clenched in anger. "I'm leaving whether or not you decide to come with me. Goodbye, Lara."

"Wait."

I didn't.

"I know you spoke true about your powers!"

A twig snapped as my foot came down, halting.

"I've seen you do things. Things I thought impossible yesterday. I don't know whether it's old magics or new magics or something else entirely that I can't begin to imagine, but I know it's real." She conveyed more in monotone than many could with a full range of emotion.

I faced back around. There waited her one-eyed stare, asking and insistent. Demanding.

"And I know you believe what you said about masters and control. You spoke with the confidence of true experience."

"What's your point?"

"Just as truly as you think Lord Forrester has this power you speak of, I think that you are wrong. I don't know how to convince you. I could bring you before every man, woman, and child for miles around, and they would say the same as me. But I know you would claim that they too were simply under control. So tell me, how far would we have to travel to find someone you considered trustworthy?" Her gaze drilled into me. "I wish to understand you, the way you speak, the things you speak of. Help me understand your position, and I'll do the same for you."

Not a single finger twitched out of place during her whole speech. If she wasn't talking, the girl could have been mistaken for a lifelike statue.

Lara continued, "I think we've lived lives separated by a vast ocean of differing experiences. Whatever brought you here, clearly it was not by any means I know of. If you had traveled across the breadth of land by foot or horse, you would have encountered other noble houses."

The implication hit me like a freight train, resurfacing my earlier forgotten fears. My hands balled up in white knuckled fists, my shoulders tensed, and my legs shook.

She's a mastering victim. She doesn't know what she's talking about, just some poor girl misled by an evil man.

That singular green iris bored into my soul.

"How did you come to these lands?" She asked.

I answered. "I was teleported."

"What does it mean to be teleported?"

"Instantaneous travel. I was in Brockton Bay one moment and somewhere else the next. Faster than you could blink."

"Where is Brockton Bay located?"

My lip trembled. "New Hampshire, in the United States of America"

"I have never heard of this New Hampshire or these United States of America before. I live in the Seven Kingdoms, on a landmass called Westeros. Have you heard of these places before?" She asked.

Ba-dump, my heartbeat reverberated in my eardrums. "I can't say I have. Lord Forrester must have made them up for the story he's feeding to you."

Of course the villain fed these people a make believe fairy tale to maintain his control. Just because it was well put together didn't mean anything. It would have to be in order to remain ruler for so long. She can't help but believe the lies. I don't have to listen to this.

"I've met hundreds of people over the course of my life, many of whom have never met Lord Forrester, and they all accept Westeros and its Seven Kingdoms as common knowledge. If they haven't had contact with this controlling power you speak of, why would they believe the lies?"

"Parahuman powers are strange," I defended, "so he might not need direct contact with his victims."

"I've read the history of Westeros in texts. Is that a lie as well?"

"Books are easily fabricated," I snapped back.

I let go of her shoulder. My mouth was dry as I spoke. "It's obvious you've been fed a convincing lie, but there are holes in your story. If everything is as you say, why wouldn't you be allowed to leave?" I followed with the logical conclusion. "It's because if you did, you would see through the deception."

"But I am allowed to leave. Smallfolk are not tied by law to the lands they live upon and have freedom to migrate to another lord's land so long as they obey the rule of law."

"Then why haven't you?" This was beyond frustrating.

"Why would I? There is no livelihood for me elsewhere. I have no trade to ply, and I have family and a farm to tend." She spoke with such sincerity, such conviction that I almost believed her story for a moment.

I forced myself out of that line of thinking. She's the crazy one here.

Let's see how she likes this one, "If your story was true, why haven't you had contact with any outsiders before me then?" Gotcha.

"But I never said I haven't met any other outsiders. Traveling merchants, hedge knights, the septons, minstrels, they all pass through the villages from time to time, coming from lands near and far. Are they too under control?"

I tried to swallow, but there was no spit left. "Have you ever considered that maybe he intentionally lets a few people under his direct control out into the world to draw more people in?"

If my argument swayed her, she showed no sign of it.

She followed up with an unrelated question, "What is your trade?"

I was getting sick and tired of this.

"What does it fucking matter?" I was done with politeness. "What's the point of all these damn questions?"

She didn't answer me. She just stared. Like the eye of fucking Sauron.

"Fine!" I shouted, and I didn't care how the children stepped back. "I'm a healer. I use my powers to save people's lives!"

"Are powers common where you live?"

"They damn well are! There's no possibility you wouldn't know about them unless there was outside interference. There are parahumans in literally every country on Earth! You can't not know about them."

It was simply impossible. Everyone on the planet knew about parahumans, from the news, the villains, the heroes, the warlords and vigilantes, and the endbringer fights. They were ubiquitous.

"Earth?"

My heart skipped a beat.

"Amy, where do you think we are?"

Where do I think I am? I know where I fucking am. You're the deluded one here.

Ba-dump Ba-dump

"We're probably in the British isles," I ground out, "Ireland by your accent.

"I've not heard of these British Isles or the Ireland you speak of, nor have I seen them in what records are available to me. Can you tell me where this Earth is in relation to here? What lands do you know of?" She wouldn't stop asking fucking questions.

Why couldn't this girl just realize how wrong this all was?

The world lurched. I felt light headed.

I can't let myself take this seriously. She's not in her right mind. She's been lied to, mastered. Nothing she says means anything.

Ba-dump Ba-dump Ba-dump

Darkness encroached upon the corners of my vision. Was I hyperventilating? I needed oxygen. I needed to think. I needed Lara to stop.

"How far away do you think you are from home?" She asked, and asked, and asked!

"Enough!"

I stood there panting, vision blurry. In the distance, a flock of birds took flight above the trees, cawing and crowing.

An eternity passed as I glared at her, fighting to regain self control. Deep breaths helped, in and out, but the shaking wouldn't go away.

"Congratulations," I sneered, "you've successfully wasted my time. If you were trying to hold me back so your 'Lord' can catch up, then good job." My words dripped with acid. I was far past the point of caring if Lara's feelings got hurt. If she even had any.

"That wasn't my intention."

Right, mastering victim spouting nonsense.

"Whatever, we're done here." I gave my final words to her.

I wiped down my robes, and marched off.

"Where will you go?"

I ignored her.

"Talk to others. They'll tell you the same as I have. Are they all controlled too?"

More meaningless words meant only to delay me. I didn't have to listen any further, and I increased my pace.

In the end, she neither insisted nor pleaded, pedaling her two-bit fantasy tale like she was describing the weather. Yet as her last words to me faded out of earshot, they remained lodged in my head, a parasite burrowing its way into my psyche that I was unable to rid myself of. I would not entertain the implications of her stories. I could not, or I'd go insane. Just like she had.

I continued on, alone once more.