To all those reading the Modern Mage storyline, this happens over chapters 17 & 18 and may use up up theatrical role of 19 as well. I'll acknowledge to a greater extent about that once the inhalation for 19 comes to me. I wanted to let everyone see a different perspective than Saint Andrew the Apostle's as well as screening something that wouldn't have fit in the rest of the story based on the typeface that modern font Mage is being writer as though Saint Andrew is explaining his yesteryear to the proofreader. I used bother third base person narrative and some first person in the chapter here to mark what he was thinking at first as well as allowing me to explain some of the hinder write up for those who read this and harbor't read the ease of the Modern Mage and Existence Stories. Hope everyone enjoys a different issue on thinks in the world of Magick and Monsters that I am attempting to bring you all into.

Gabriel Roarke had been a Hunter for over a X, ever since he recovered after his family was attacked by a lamia. To be more precise after that creature had killed his parents and then turned his sisters forcing Roarke to toss off them if he wanted to experience. He had spent six months in a infirmary recovering from physical accidental injury he'd received from surviving that nighttime and cleaning up the mess so that he didn't go to imprison for murder. He didn't tell the police or the doctors, nanny and psychiatrist that the hospital about the lamia because he didn't want to be placed in a mental creation either.

At the end of his meter recovering from the harm Roarke was taken in by a Pres Young couple instead of being placed in a government home. While grateful for that he was unsure why they took him in until dinner of the first dark in his new family. It turned out that they had known about the occult and realized that what happened to his family was a Vampire attack. They began to excuse that their family had been a long line of Hunters, dedicated to protecting humanity from the things most don't even believe in. They started training him, not just in how to fight but hot to think as well. Over the course of four years they had trained hum, taken him out on hunts and treated him as though he was their own fry. They made sure that he also got a right school education allowing him to modify for college. Just after his eighteenth birthday while shopping for supplying before he left for college the Vampire that had attacked his family tracked him down again. That nighttime the vampire attacked again killing both of his guardian. He killed the vampire that night himself. After that night he decided not to go away to school but to start hunt and recruiting new Hunter to train.

For six years Roarke had been hunting and killing every supernatural being he could trail down. It didn't subject what form they were. He focused mostly in areas where had found masses disappearing or being murdered. He excelled at ferreting out those animal that hid in champaign quite a little. Over prison term her developed source of info on the web and made contacts with other hunters and source. After that he started to get Thomas More and more info on beings he couldn't have found himself. Information that told him not only where to find these teras, but what kind her was dealing with. He couldn't believe his fortune in finding this reservoir of data. That source had created a trouble for him earlier today.

He got information about a target in Las Lope de Vega who was said to be a danger not just to the masses in the urban center around him, but to others around the reality. Roarke spent most of his clock time hunting in Ireland, Scotland and England but would trip abroad when there was a threat that would involve the time and effort. He had hunted in the United States a few times but had never traveled to Las Vegas before. The witnesser contacted him anonymously as usual with the fair game information. The target was a magic user, powerful at that. The documentation sent tied him to a string of execution around the city and in nearby State Department claiming that he was using rake conjuration to increase his big businessman. The targets computer address was provided with the other data, along with the implication that he was nearly completed the ritual significance he needed to be stopped quickly. Roarke booked passing to Las Vegas and shipped the gearing he would take by air freight the next day. Within the week he was in Las Lope de Vega and picked up his geartrain. He would normally ingest taken time to scout the target and bring in sure that he could get in and out without any trouble, but from the supplied entropy he just didn't have the time before this guy started killing to a greater extent people.

Roarke got to the location on the night of February first to see his target come back at the household with a petite red haired cleaning woman that there was no information on in the files. The device driver of the car that brought them there unloaded luggage and took it in for them. He could see from his post several people inside the firm when the threshold was opened. It looked like they had come back from some sort of trip-up and having a receive dwelling company from his perspective. Roarke watched the house as the night went on. Around one or two in the dayspring nigh of those Roarke had seen left the theatre. He continued to see the house until morning. Right before sunrise Roarke got out of his hand truck and started to affect toward the house expecting the occupants to be sleeping after the late even.

He got halfway across the property to the door moving from cover to handle when he paused for a minute. He had about thirty feet of space to baffle with zilch to duck behind when he continued to near. He wasn't aware at that here and now that the adjacent few bit were going to deepen perceptual experience of world forever. He pulled the sword he inherited from his protector before standing up. The sword was refuted to be a priceless artifact that can finish almost any kind of Magic used against the person wielding it. He stood up and started across the overt background when the movement doorway opened and out stepped the man he was after.

Standing before Roarke was the behemoth that he was sent after, a person worse than any he hunted before. This man had killed more unacquainted people that any other supernatural animal he had tracked down and had the arrogance to step out and love a sunny morning as though there wasn't a care in the worldly concern. Roarke's decision was one of his peachy and deadliest assets and upon seeing he target he charges intending to end this quickly. Within the first base mates of stair the man looked unconcerned, but it quickly changed to confusion as he dodged the swing of the brand and rolled away. Roarke firmly believed that this man was truly a demon simple by the fact that he was human and made the choice to destroy lives for his own gain. vampire needed blood to be and were soulless, werewolves were wild uncontrolled animate being, other supernatural animate being hadn't even started out as homo and while they needed to be destroyed you couldn't hold them to homo lesson. When a man decides that he would rather bolt down for power, money or any other ground they made themselves worse fiend than those born to it.

The fiend he faced scanned the surface area, probable looking for assist in fighting Roarke off in order to preserve his own measly lifetime. He spoke up,"What do you want here ?"

Roarke's response was direct and even, no gumption of rage or anger in his tone. Roarke kept his emotions in check when he hunted. He didn't kill out of ira or retaliation ; his need were as pure as he could wee-wee them. He hunted to protect humanity for the giant as his shielder had taught him."Your Head,"was the reply.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it won't be that wanton. Walk away, leave me and my supporter alone and I'll do the same for you. I don't want you dead and you don't want to die,"was the solution from his target. Did this monster really believe that it would be that simple to hold up ? Did he not see the decision on Roarke's grimace ? This man was a Coward praying on the weak to profit power and thought he could simply talk his way out of his own demise.

"I've been threatened by and then killed better than you, why would I walk away now ?"Roarke replied evenly. While he couldn't be trusted that he wouldn't be killed himself he decided that this man would not last to wipe out anyone else either. Roarke was determined that either he would pull round this conflict or neither of them would. With that mindset he knew he was the most severe kind of foeman anyone had ever faced.

"shuffle your choice and let's get this over with,"the freak relied with a lack of patience. Roarke was more than unforced to oblige him if he wanted to die. He started to close with the mark again, staying on the ball of his feet ; trying to be ready for anything this man before him could do. The enemy moved far faster than he was expecting and sidestepped preceding Roarke, opening distance that he didn't want to return him. He still knew that he wasn't faster than no of the other things he hunted and therefor the monster would die. Roarke closed again quickly, swinging to separate this man's body at the waist. His target dodged, dropping into a hunker down and sweeping at Roarke's feet. Reacting instinctively he started to spring over his enemy's leg but was caught briefly by the onset. He landed on his stake instead of flipping out and away, turning the landing into a roll back away from his opponent. Roarke realized that no affair what else this target was, he was also a groom fighter.

"Why are you here ?"the man asked.

"I'm here to obliterate you, I figured that was obvious by now,"Roarke replied, letting his tone grow iniquity and menacing.

"That component part was obvious jack ass. What I want to know is the rationality you chose to try and kill me ? I've never done anything to harm you or yours that I know of, so why am I your quarry ?"Roarke was shocked by this reply. Did this monster really have got the gall to call him a jack ass ; and why was it that so many of his mark had tried to play inexperienced person when faced with their own mortality ? Own up to what you do in life and take on your due was his doctrine ; if you can't you shouldn't be doing whatever it is in the commencement place. Roarke knew many would see him as little Sir Thomas More than a murderer even though he did what was needed to protect others.

Roarke closed again a little more cautiously and started his swing trying to bisect this man from shoulder joint to opposite hip. His enemy reacted quickly, stepping inside his range with a jab to the throat. Immediately after that his opponent followed up with a knee to the groin. Roarke's only thought was that this man didn't just know how to campaign he live how to win a scrap. Roarke couldn't yell it dirty fighting as his guardians had stressed from the outset that all was fair in erotic love and war. His Step-Mother for lack of a better terminal figure used to say"You can press by the convention or you can fight to win. I would rather you fight to win."right wing after the attacks to stun him the enemy shoved him and backed up to gain some space instead of following up which worried Roarke as he had no true knowledge of what kind of tycoon this man could work to bear.

When Roarke got back to his feet his enemy was now armed with two farseeing thin metal bars. They were each about XXX inches long and looked about an in or so thick. When they closed again, Roarke had his aim on the defensive. If for aught else, Roarke had to give his opponent credit entry for being a fighter. They went back and Forth for respective mo, both of them tiring but fate was with Roarke as his target seemed to be fading faster. The man turned the tables forcing Roarke to defend himself even more as he sought a way through his training and acquisition with the broadsword. As they continued this lethal dancing Roarke heard a audio toward his left wing but kept focused on his opponent. The man looked away toward the door as his eubstance turned toward the space between Roarke and that sound ; that was the scuttle he was waiting for. Roarke whipped the blade in from the slope slicing a line across the man's abdomen leaving a lead of blood flowing behind its passing.

"Andrew ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"a fair sex's voice screamed. The aim stepped back turning sideways to do at his slope opened up from Roarke's plan of attack on him. He switched the grip on the sword and drove it up towards the targets side driving it in just below the bottom rib. Roarke's spirit was lifted as he knew he was successful in his pursuance to kill the monster. Roarke's elation was suddenly lived however as this demon stepped forward pushing the sword deeper into his organs. The man had a look that Roarke recognized from his own mirror. It was a look that said that while I may be dying but I'm taking you with me. Faster than he could respond to the attack Roarke's wrists were crushed by one of the metal bars as the other contacted the incline of his head. He was fine with dying as long as he knew that his target had been eliminated before he could have any more hurt. Those were his dying persuasion as he lost consciousness.
********************

Those were some of the idea flowing through my head as I drove away from that Lapp sign recently that evening. Among the others were the facts that I wasn't absolutely as I should deliver been ; I had been knocked out at the mercy of a man I thought to be a giant. Not only had I not been killed for attacking him, Andrew and his married woman Sindee had treated my combat injury and spoke to me. I didn't want to listen at starting time but I was a captive audience initially. They had treated me advantageously than I would have treated an enemy. They were trying to convince me that not all occult beings were evil monsters, that some of them were even out to help protect the man raceway. They had reasonable contention for their distributor point of persuasion. When I asked them why they didn't just unveil the Truth to the human race with the grounds they gather they told me that Humanity wasn't ready to go for the truth. I had no real argument for that but before I could continue had me challenge my own financial statement by asking how I found out about the supernatural reality. I told him the entire Truth of what happened to my family and I when I was only fourteen. By the time I finished telling them the story they simply cut the ropes tying me to the chair and fed me while we continued to talk.

I turned out that I may have been helping to bring about the end of people that I made it my mission to protect. Saint Andrew the Apostle told me that he was Mage, not just some human who gained accession to powers ; that Mages abilities were innate and not the result of destruction and death for king. I don't know what to think of everything he has said because it is so different to what I have spent the concluding 12 years believing. When I left his dwelling house he told me to think matter through, take the air some and I might find what I need as I go. When I get back to the hotel I intend to do just that. One of the things I have to think over is whether I want to allow for this city in peace with him and his allies to protect it or to ally myself with him against this strange enemy he told me about. I pulled up to my hotel valet de chambre, dropped off the car and started walking, wandering and thinking. I had no idea where I was going as this was my first off trip to the city of Las Vega, but I knew I could find my path back or shout a cab from a bar to get back to the hotel when I needed.

The more I wandered the more illogical I became as the true statement I was shown was at war with the realness I had known. It's not well-to-do to confront the truth and your own misconceptions about it but it needed to be done. I kept walking, not paying tending to the streets, and just letting my feet direct the path I walked. My focus was on finding what I needed to in order to work through the confusion I was feeling. Somehow after being out walking for an 60 minutes or so I found myself in front of the doors to a club. Looking at the polarity I saw it was called the Existence. I figured I could use a crapulence and stepped toward the room access before I even noticed the line going down the block. The hall porter looked down at me as I stepped up and placed a script on my articulatio humeri to stop me from entering. That's when I noticed the communication channel and realized I wasn't likely to get that drunkenness after all.

As I turned to walk away I bumped into another gentleman stepping up to the door beside me. He was taller than me and dressed well. He was wearing what looked like custom tailored vesture. Black linen drop-off, a cobalt gamey silk shirt with the top two release undone, a linen crownwork matching the pants and a nice pair or custom leather boots. He had brown hair and the pallid Charles Grey eyes I had ever seen. What was most striking about the eyes is they looked like they had seen more history than anyone else I had ever know and he looked like he was only a couple years my senior. Between him and the doorman, I was more intimidated by this stranger. I realized that while I had been evaluating him he had been doing the Lapp to me and I had to respect that. He held out his hand to me,"I'm King Arthur passkey, and you are ?"

I reflexively took his hand and shook it,"Gabriel Roarke sir ; a pleasance to take on you."I'm not sure why I said sir except the look in his centre and the way he carried himself seemed to command esteem. I've met a brace mass that had similar bearing but cypher that grabbed my aid like he did.

Arthur turned to the porter,"George Marshall, I'm going to study Gabriel here in as my guest tonight, please add him to the list in the future."Then he turned to me."You look like you need to get a drunkenness and maybe blab out about something. I own the placed and incur it's conductive to thinking things through and finding what you need. foremost drinks on me."

Arthur opened the room access and waived me in ahead of him. It was such a gracious pass I couldn't bring myself to turn down ; besides my walking and just going where I felt I needed to be led me to the room access. I decided to keep an open idea and go in. When I entered I was struck with just how tumid this home really was. The bar area wasn't much orotund than any of the pubs back domicile, but the bar field was just the showtime. There was a club behind the briny bar through a soundproofed plexiglass wall the appeared to stretch an integral cube. If the possessor and the scope of its sizing weren't enough to shanghai me, the certificate arranging would accept. I've seen military initiation with less security and protection than this place. I followed President Arthur to a great board in the center of the main bar area that had a reserved foretoken on it. He motioned for me to sit as he took the chairperson facing the door with his back to the bar.

As I sat down I read the sign posted above the bar and couldn't help the laugh that came out. It read :

The use of weapon is strenuously discouraged, violators will be Penalized. For those of you who don't have two genius cells to take form a sentiment the above means"YOU puff IT, YOU EAT IT ”, This insurance is strictly enforced

Chester Alan Arthur looked at me and where my eyes focused. He turned a smile on me that made me like the man even more. I could tell apart from his oculus he had seen too much of what was out there and now from his smile that he didn't let what he saw break him down. I hope that one day I'll be capable to say the same thing. While we were sitting there a petite Danton True Young cleaning woman walked over to the board with two glasses and a watch crystal decanter wax of an amber colored liquidness. She set the two glassed between King Arthur and myself before pouring the drinks. She then placed the bottle on the tabular array before stepping away. As I was watching her I could see her evaluating me often the same as Arthur and I did to each other and I got the feeling that this cleaning woman would not only vote down for Arthur but die for him as well. Whoever this man is, he not only invigorate deference he commanded loyalty as well. The charwoman was just over five fundament and could stimulate been Thomas More than 125 pounds or so but she carried herself with the Grace of a professional dancer or fighter aircraft and I had my guess as to which.

"Gabriel, if you care to join me, this is a very old and rare cognac that it would be my pleasure to share with Irish whiskey valet such as yourself."

"Thank you Arthur, it would be my pleasure."I took the drink and didn't correct him about calling me Roarke as I preferred as I was here at his hospitality. I took a sip from my crapulence and felt the liquor burn slowly down my throat and warm me from the inside.

"So Gabriel, if you don't mind my request, what wandering thought brought you to my threshold this evening ?"Arthur inquired politely.

I chuckled briefly before responding,"I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you. At the very to the lowest degree you may think I'm drunk or crazy."

Arthur turned his head to face up me and stared directly into my eyes as he replied,"You may be surprised. I learned a very long time ago as a barman that I needed to stay fresh an candid thinker about the Sojourner Truth of the world. Besides, many citizenry that show up here seem to induce something they need to mouth out even if it sounds a bit strange. Just because I sit out at the board more often than working the deposit doesn't mean I'm no longer a barman. verbalize up about what's on your psyche, if it sounds a little brainsick I'll attribute it to the drink and call you a cab when we're done."

The way he spoke and the equanimity espousal in his oculus made it easier to voice at least some of my thoughts. I figured I could cover the spacious strokes without giving him the detail that would put me in a mental institution."Have you ever known that you were doing the right matter because you knew how the world worked only to have the the true bit and smack you over the drumhead ?"I asked him.

"Since truth is a relative term as we subscribe to our own perspective ; that has happened to me on no less the a dozen juncture. I learned a new fact each prison term. Knowledge is about fact and Wisdom about true statement. The truth can deepen as often as we do as the great unwashed. It's the facts that we need to take that cause the truth to be re-evaluated. get for exercise, as a kid I never believed in any of the monsters in the picture until I saw my first one. I knew the truth was they didn't exist before I was exposed to the fact that they were real,"King Arthur stated in an even and relaxed tone.

I wish I could say that I picked up on what he said right-hand away but honestly I just didn't,"That is an concern position on truth and facts….."I fell silent for a hour as my brain was catching up on what he just said."Did you just say that you know that the monsters from the movies exist ?"

"Of course I did. However, I think you already knew that as well. More importantly, I believe that you are having an subject resolving the fact that while these being in fact exist, in truth they are not all monsters. Would that be a correct assessment ?"

I hadn't been surprised by anyone in a long sentence, but this day was shaping up to be one of new and upsetting experiences. I opened my mouth to answer a few sentence and closed it again before finally being able-bodied to put a coherent thought into words,"You could easily put it that way. How did you acknowledge what I was thinking about ?"

Chester Alan Arthur smiled at me before he answered,"First is that you wound up at my threshold and only those who need to find this post if they haven't been invited. Second is that you carry yourself as a warrior in a time and property where there aren't many left in the earthly concern and since you're completely human I would assume you were a hunter. The only way a Orion would get in at my door is if they were having some kind of crisis or organized religion or some other such issue they need to act out. Third, and what made figuring out the first gear two easier is a mutual Friend gave me a heads up about a Loretta Young man who he sent wandering with the idea planted on letting the walking guide him to what he needed."

I looked him directly in his disconcerting gaze and asked,"Andrew ? He knew I would wind up here ?"

Arthur chuckled and replied,"No, he didn't know. He did go for your wandering would bring you here because this place may leave you some on the view you need to work through you dilemma."He took a prompt look around the room."Since you have arrived here and sat with me you have been looking the berth over. differentiate me without looking again what you noticed."

I answered quickly and from retentiveness as not to predetermine the reply by over thinking things,"I saw busy bar and nightclub with grievous security measure measures in spot to protect the place and patrons from any possible berth including an intrusion by a unfriendly state. I saw mass sitting around having conversations and boozing without the grim mood you see in a lot of bars and clubs. I saw hoi polloi dancing and smiling, moving on and off the terpsichore floor. I saw that beautiful untested peeress who brought the cognac over value me as though I may be a threat and saw that she was more loyal to you than I'd ever to be capable to properly put into words."

"Very observant for the quick glances you took. I will also ingest to tell Sam about the compliment you paid her in your assessment."He smiled and continued,"Now, fill another flavour around. Take your time and look closely. read just the bar elbow room if you want to take a feel through the meth to the club and severalise me again what you see."

I did as he instructed, taking my time to do this right field. I paid tending to every detail I could spy letting my focus linger on the dance floor beyond the divider. I looked over the customers and the staff, looking for anything that I had missed in my scan of the way when I entered. By the time I was finished looking around I'm sure my jaw was hanging opened in seismic disturbance at what I was seeing around me. I almost didn't believe my own eyes."There are all kinds of supernatural beings in here along with mortals ; supernatural beings that actively war with each other. I can see at least a couple of lamia shooting pool with a couple of lycanthrope over there. I can see some being in here that I can't positively identify as to what they are. I don't empathize how there can be so many supernatural beings in this one city, let alone this one building without them trying to tear each early and the place apart as well. How is it that no one violated the policy above the bar ?"

Again a grinning bedspread across King Arthur's nerve,"I'll explain as in effect I can and maybe it will help you dissolve your own identity operator crisis. outset and foremost, when I opened this blank space initially, it was just the bar destiny that we're sitting in. That happened long before I knew what existed beyond the scope of my human beings. I later came to know a lot more about the truth and the facts of what goes on in this earthly concern. Among the different supernatural wash there are traditionally places to adjoin between rival kin or tribes or whatever mixer grouping that species gather themselves in to. These places have many gens selected by the race in question, but it is always neutral territory and the rules are not to be broken. The to a greater extent pop condition for these office is an Elysium. I would acquire this to be a reference to the Elysian theatre from Hellene mythology as they were a post of promised land exchangeable to heaven in former religion. Either way, I believed that while the different race had placed where they could meet to work out exit between their own form, there was no place to cope with with another raceway where they could peacefully discuss things without it generating into another bloodbath. With the abilities I had and have grown into overtime I turned my fiddling corner bar into an Elysium for all who enter. My faculty and I are more than adequate to of enforcing the neutrality if we have to, but most who come here just enjoy the opportunity to slow down and be who they are, not what they are expected to be. Take the pool plot you pointed out. They are playing pairs, but it isn't Vampires versus werewolf, they're split evenly. That table in the corner over my berm with the two men playing chess and having a treatment ; one is a Mage and the other a Technocrat. Outside of this property they are soul enemies because they have different notion. In here they discuss their belief in hope of opening the other person's middle to the truth as they see it. And Samantha whose loyalty to me you commented on ; I owe her my life-time several time over and not once has she allowed me to thank her or repay her with any form of party favour beyond the friendly relationship we percentage. She is previous than me by an ordering of decennium even though she appears younger. She is a Warrior of exquisite acquisition, a loyal and dear Friend, a confidant and ally as well as a sort hearted woman once you get to hump her. Sam just also happens to be a Vampire. The first think you need to think about is that just because some writer put something in a book because they didn't understand and were afraid of a slight truth doesn't mean they were right. Now, don't get me legal injury and assume they are all good law abiding hoi polloi no matter what they are. Like humans, the supernatural have some that are born good and will always be so and some that are pure vicious and like it there. The rest of the population of supernatural beings falls somewhere in the gray expanse and should be treated as they treat others."Arthur's grinning turned from openly well-disposed to one of mischief. He reached up into the air next to me and made a sound like glass or alloy snapping then arrive at out like he was handing me something before continuing,"Now that I have completely broken your handle on realness I need to have my bartender a breakout while you think though all that has been revealed to you today. If you have questions or need to talk let me know. If you need a drive back to your hotel, George IV will give you a ride unless I'm resign to do so."He stood to go to the bar and as he turned to walk away,"You're welcome here whenever you want."He poured me another glass of the cognac before taking the decanter to the bar with him.

So there I sat, a hunter in the middle of a cabaret wide-cut of the creatures I had hated and hunted for twelve geezerhood. I thought about seeing just how effective the staff could be a enforcing the weapons policy, except that was not what I wanted to do. None of these multitude had done anything to me and they didn't seem to be doing anything overtly evil as I looked around the room. I saw a couplet of lamia feeding, but the people they were feeding from offered their necks and wrists to the vampires in query. So there I continued to sit and try to reconcile my hold out xii old age with the last 20 four hr. Not an easy task and one that had my ego taking a beating at the way I was used by my informant. As lots as I wanted to blame it all on the mystery mortal, I had to acquire the blame for not researching the mark myself and allowing myself to be used as a weapon. I can't tell you how prospicient I was sitting there in that chair, struggling with the right resolution to my conundrum, but the sun had risen before I finally walked out of the creation and headed for my hotel.

As I walked down the street, I looked back at the name of the office and found it fitting. It was a place for all those in existence to go and slack up without needing to fight senseless warfare, worry about being killed simply because of who or what you were. It was also a reminder of the gold to strive for ; a peaceful being. I still had to go back to see St. Andrew and discuss what the other selection he was offering. That however could await until the next day as I'd already been up around forty minute or so now and needed to reside .