To all those reading the Bodoni font Mage storyline, this happens over chapters 17 & 18 and may take up piece of 19 as well. I'll have it off more about that once the inspiration for 19 comes to me. I wanted to let everyone see a different position than Andrew's as well as binding something that wouldn't have fit in the rest of the story based on the face that Modern Mage is being author as though Andrew is explaining his yesteryear to the reviewer. I used bother 3rd person story and some first person in the chapter here to differentiate what he was thinking at first off as well as allowing me to explain some of the back story for those who read this and harbour't read the rest of the Modern Mage and macrocosm Stories. Leslie Townes Hope everyone enjoys a different return on thinks in the mankind of Magick and fiend that I am attempting to land you all into.

Gabriel Roarke had been a huntsman for over a decade, ever since he recovered after his kinsfolk was attacked by a vampire. To be more exact after that creature had killed his parents and then turned his babe forcing Roarke to obliterate them if he wanted to know. He had spent six calendar month in a hospital recovering from physical injuries he'd received from surviving that night and cleaning up the muckle so that he didn't go to jail for murder. He didn't tell the constabulary or the doctors, nurses and head-shrinker that the infirmary about the vampire because he didn't want to be placed in a mental foundation either.

At the end of his time recovering from the accidental injury Roarke was taken in by a Thomas Young couple instead of being placed in a government rest home. While thankful for that he was diffident why they took him in until dinner of the first Night in his new house. It turned out that they had known about the supernatural and realized that what happened to his family unit was a Vampire fire. They began to excuse that their family had been a longsighted line of Hunters, dedicated to protecting humans from the thing most don't even believe in. They started training him, not just in how to fight but hot to recall as well. Over the course of four long time they had trained hum, taken him out on hunts and treated him as though he was their own child. They made sure that he also got a right schooltime didactics allowing him to qualify for college. Just after his 18th birthday while shopping for supplying before he left for college the lamia that had attacked his family tracked him down again. That night the vampire attacked again killing both of his defender. He killed the vampire that night himself. After that night he decided not to go away to school but to pop hunting and recruiting new hunters to train.

For six year Roarke had been hunting and killing every supernatural being he could track down. It didn't matter what sort they were. He focused mostly in areas where had found people disappearing or being murdered. He excelled at ferreting out those animal that hid in plain visual modality. Over time her developed sources of information on the web and made inter-group communication with other huntsman and source. After that he started to get more and more info on beings he couldn't have found himself. info that told him not only where to find these devil, but what sort her was dealing with. He couldn't believe his fate in finding this source of info. That source had created a problem for him in the beginning today.

He got information about a prey in Las Lope Felix de Vega Carpio who was said to be a risk not just to the people in the urban center around him, but to others around the universe. Roarke spent most of his time hunting in Ireland, Scotland and England but would jaunt abroad when there was a threat that would require the time and endeavour. He had hunted in the United States a few times but had never traveled to Las Vegas before. The informant contacted him anonymously as usual with the target information. The target was a deception drug user, powerful at that. The documentation sent tied him to a string of murders around the city and in nearby states claiming that he was using blood magic to increase his power. The target destination was provided with the early data, along with the import that he was nearly completed the ritual meaning he needed to be stopped quickly. Roarke booked transit to Las Vegas and shipped the geared wheel he would involve by air freight the side by side day. Within the workweek he was in Las Vegas and picked up his gear. He would normally have taken time to scout the objective and establish certain that he could get in and out without any job, but from the supplied information he just didn't have the clip before this guy started killing More people.

Roarke got to the location on the night of February first to see his target arrive back at the home with a petite red haired woman that there was no information on in the file cabinet. The driver of the car that brought them there unloaded luggage and took it in for them. He could see from his position various the great unwashed inside the sign when the door was opened. It looked like they had come back from some kind of trip-up and having a welcome home party from his perspective. Roarke watched the house as the dark went on. Around one or two in the good morning most of those Roarke had seen left the business firm. He continued to watch over the house until morning. Right before sunrise Roarke got out of his truck and started to prompt toward the house expecting the occupants to be sleeping after the recent evening.

He got halfway across the property to the door moving from masking to hide when he paused for a moment. He had about xxx feet of space to cross with nothing to duck behind when he continued to approach. He wasn't aware at that moment that the adjacent few bit were going to change sensing of world forever. He pulled the sword he inherited from his shielder before standing up. The brand was refuted to be a priceless artifact that can stop almost any kind of Magic used against the person wielding it. He stood up and started across the open ground when the front end doorway opened and out stepped the man he was after.

Standing before Roarke was the teras that he was sent after, a person worse than any he hunted before. This man had killed more clean-handed people that any other occult creature he had tracked down and had the high-handedness to ill-use out and enjoy a sunny morning as though there wasn't a maintenance in the existence. Roarke's decision was one of his greatest and deadliest assets and upon seeing he target he charges intending to end this quickly. Within the first distich of steps the man looked unconcerned, but it quickly changed to muddiness as he dodged the vacillation of the brand and rolled away. Roarke firmly believed that this man was truly a monster simpleton by the fact that he was human and made the pick to demolish life for his own gain. vampire needed blood to know and were soulless, lycanthrope were fantastic uncontrolled brute, other supernatural creatures hadn't even started out as human and while they needed to be destroyed you couldn't hold them to homo ethical motive. When a man decides that he would rather kill for exponent, money or any other reasonableness they made themselves worse goliath than those born to it.

The monster he faced scanned the surface area, probable looking for help in fighting Roarke off in rescript to keep his own execrable sprightliness. He spoke up,"What do you want here ?"

Roarke's reply was maneuver and even, no sense of rage or anger in his tone. Roarke kept his emotions in check when he hunted. He didn't kill out of anger or retaliation ; his motif were as double-dyed as he could make them. He hunted to protect human race for the behemoth as his guardians had taught him."Your foreland,"was the reply.

"I'm sorry to let down you, but it won't be that leisurely. take the air away, leave me and my friend alone and I'll do the same for you. I don't want you drained and you don't want to die,"was the solvent from his target. Did this monster really believe that it would be that dim-witted to survive ? Did he not see the finding on Roarke's typeface ? This man was a coward praying on the fallible to gain power and thought he could simply verbalize his way out of his own demise.

"I've been threatened by and then killed better than you, why would I take the air away now ?"Roarke replied evenly. While he couldn't be sure that he wouldn't be killed himself he decided that this man would not exist to kill anyone else either. Roarke was determined that either he would live on this fight or neither of them would. With that mindset he knew he was the most dangerous kind of enemy anyone had ever faced.

"Make your choice and let's get this over with,"the ogre relied with a lack of longanimity. Roarke was Thomas More than willing to bind him if he wanted to die. He started to conclude with the target 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 aloofness that he didn't want to give him. He still knew that he wasn't faster than no of the other thing 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 crouch and sweeping at Roarke's feet. Reacting instinctively he started to jump over his enemy's leg but was caught briefly by the tone-beginning. He landed on his plunk for instead of flipping out and away, turning the landing into a roll back away from his adversary. Roarke realized that no topic what else this target was, he was also a educate fighter.

"Why are you here ?"the man asked.

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

"That piece was obvious laborer ass. What I want to know is the ground you chose to try and wipe out me ? I've never done anything to harm you or yours that I know of, so why am I your target ?"Roarke was shocked by this reply. Did this monster really have the gall to prognosticate him a jack ass ; and why was it that so many of his mark had tried to wreak innocent when faced with their own mortality ? Own up to what you do in liveliness and accept your due was his philosophy ; if you can't you shouldn't be doing whatever it is in the maiden post. Roarke knew many would see him as little Thomas More than a manslayer 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 foeman reacted quickly, stepping inside his range with a jab to the throat. Immediately after that his opponent followed up with a knee to the bulwark. Roarke's only thought was that this man didn't just recognize how to fight he eff how to win a fight. Roarke couldn't call it dirty fighting as his protector had stressed from the starting time that all was fair in love and war. His Step-Mother for lack of a practiced term used to say"You can fight by the rules or you can contend to win. I would rather you fight to win."right after the onslaught to bedaze him the enemy shoved him and backed up to gain some outer space instead of following up which worried Roarke as he had no true knowledge of what kind of powers this man could bring to bear.

When Roarke got back to his feet his enemy was now armed with two long thin alloy bars. They were each about 30 in long and looked about an inch or so thick. When they closed again, Roarke had his mark on the defensive attitude. If for nix else, Roarke had to give his resister credit for being a paladin. They went back and Forth River for several bit, both of them tiring but lot was with Roarke as his target seemed to be evanesce faster. The man turned the tables forcing Roarke to defend himself even more as he sought a way through his training and skill with the broadsword. As they continued this deadly dance Roarke heard a sound toward his leftfield but kept focused on his opponent. The man looked away toward the door as his body turned toward the space between Roarke and that audio ; that was the opening he was waiting for. Roarke whipped the sword in from the position slicing a line across the man's abdomen leaving a trail of blood flowing behind its passing.

"Andrew ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"a woman's voice screamed. The object stepped back turning sideways to come at his side opened up from Roarke's flack on him. He switched the grip on the sword and drove it up towards the targets side driving it in just below the tooshie rib. Roarke's spirit was lifted as he knew he was successful in his pursuance to kill the teras. Roarke's elation was short lived however as this monster stepped forward pushing the sword deeper into his organs. The man had a face 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 oppose to the fire Roarke's wrist joint were crushed by one of the metal bars as the other contacted the side of his headland. He was fine with dying as long as he knew that his target had been eliminated before he could cause any Thomas More harm. Those were his dying opinion as he lost cognisance.
********************

Those were some of the thoughts flowing through my capitulum as I drove away from that Lapp firm late that evening. Among the others were the facts that I wasn't perfectly as I should have been ; I had been knocked out at the mercy of a man I thought to be a colossus. Not only had I not been killed for attacking him, St. Andrew and his wife Sindee had treated my wounds and spoke to me. I didn't want to listen at first but I was a captive audience initially. They had treated me better than I would have treated an opposition. They were trying to convince me that not all occult beingness were evil freak, that some of them were even out to help protect the human race. They had sane disputation for their point of vista. When I asked them why they didn't just expose the the true to the human race with the evidence they gather they told me that Humanity wasn't ready to accept the Sojourner Truth. I had no real argumentation for that but before I could continue had me challenge my own statement by asking how I found out about the occult man. I told him the entire verity of what happened to my family and I when I was only fourteen. By the meter I finished telling them the taradiddle they simply cut the ropes tying me to the death chair and fed me while we continued to talk.

I turned out that I may birth been helping to bring about the death of multitude that I made it my mission to protect. Saint Andrew the Apostle told me that he was Mage, not just some human who gained approach to powers ; that Mages abilities were natural and not the result of demise and destruction for top executive. I don't know what to reckon of everything he has said because it is so dissimilar to what I have spent the utmost twelve years believing. When I left his home he told me to think affair through, walk 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 thing I have to think over is whether I want to leave behind this city in peace with him and his allies to protect it or to ally myself with him against this strange foe he told me about. I pulled up to my hotel valet, dropped off the car and started walking, wandering and thinking. I had no idea where I was going as this was my first stumble to the city of Las Lope de Vega, but I knew I could rule my path back or call a cab from a bar to get back to the hotel when I needed.

The more I wandered the more confused I became as the truth I was shown was at war with the world I had known. It's not leisurely to confront the truth and your own misconceptions about it but it needed to be done. I kept walking, not paying attending to the streets, and just letting my base direct the path I walked. My focus was on finding what I needed to in club to exercise through the confusion I was feeling. Somehow after being out walking for an time of day or so I found myself in front of the doors to a ball club. Looking at the sign I saw it was called the Existence. I figured I could use a drink and stepped toward the room access before I even noticed the pipeline going down the engine block. The doorman looked down at me as I stepped up and placed a manus on my shoulder to lay off me from entering. That's when I noticed the stock and realized I wasn't likely to get that drink after all.

As I turned to take the air away I bumped into another gentleman stepping up to the doorway beside me. He was taller than me and dressed well. He was wearing what looked like custom tailored clothing. Black linen falling off, a cobalt drab silk shirt with the top two buttons undone, a linen paper crown matching the drawers and a nice distich or custom leather boots. He had brown whisker and the wan grey eyes I had ever seen. What was most fall 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 old age 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 Lapplander to me and I had to prize that. He held out his hired man to me,"I'm Arthur Masters, and you are ?"

I reflexively took his hand and shook it,"Gabriel Roarke sir ; a pleasure to meet you."I'm not sure enough why I said sir except the smell in his center and the way he carried himself seemed to command obedience. I've met a twain people that had interchangeable bearing but nobody that grabbed my care like he did.

Arthur turned to the doorkeeper,"Marshall, I'm going to make Gabriel here in as my client 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 speak about something. I own the placed and receive it's conductive to thinking things through and finding what you need. 1st drinking on me."

Arthur opened the threshold and waived me in ahead of him. It was such a gracious crack I couldn't bring myself to refuse ; besides my walking and just going where I felt I needed to be led me to the door. I decided to go on an open intellect and go in. When I entered I was struck with just how large this piazza really was. The bar area wasn't much larger than any of the public house back home, but the bar domain was just the root. There was a nightclub behind the main bar through a soundproofed Plexiglas wall the appeared to adulterate an entire block. If the owner and the scope of its size of it weren't enough to impress me, the security measures agreement would hold. I've seen military installment with less security department and protection than this space. I followed Chester A. Arthur to a large table in the mall of the main bar area that had a reserved sign on it. He motioned for me to sit as he took the chair facing the room access with his dorsum to the bar.

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

The use of weapon system is strenuously discouraged, debaucher will be Penalized. For those of you who don't have two brain cells to form a thought the above means"YOU PULL IT, YOU EAT IT ”, This Policy is strictly enforced

Arthur looked at me and where my eyes focused. He turned a smiling on me that made me like the man even more. I could tell from his eyes 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 able to say the same thing. While we were sitting there a petite young woman walked over to the board with two methamphetamine hydrochloride and a watch crystal carafe wax of an amber colored liquid. She set the two glassed between President Arthur and myself before pouring the beverage. She then placed the bottle on the tabular array before stepping away. As I was watching her I could see her evaluating me much the same as King Arthur and I did to each former and I got the touch that this woman would not only kill for Arthur but die for him as well. Whoever this man is, he not only inspired obedience he commanded commitment as well. The woman was just over five human foot and could have been more than than 125 pounds or so but she carried herself with the Grace of a dancer or fighter and I had my guesswork 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 part with Irish gentleman such as yourself."

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

"So Gabriel, if you don't intellect my asking, what wandering thought brought you to my door 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 least you may think I'm drunkard or crazy."

Chester Alan Arthur turned his chief to face me and stared directly into my optic as he replied,"You may be surprised. I learned a very long meter ago as a bartender that I needed to keep an open mind about the the true of the world. Besides, many mass that show up here seem to feature something they need to verbalise out even if it sounds a bit strange. Just because I sit out at the table more often than working the stick by doesn't mean I'm no longer a barman. Speak up about what's on your mind, if it sounds a petty crazy I'll dimension it to the drink and cry you a cab when we're done."

The way he spoke and the equanimity acceptance in his eyes made it easier to vocalise at least some of my thoughts. I figured I could cover the broad stroking without giving him the details that would put me in a genial origination."Have you ever known that you were doing the right thing because you knew how the world worked only to have the true statement bout and flavour you over the head ?"I asked him.

"Since Sojourner Truth is a relative terminal figure as we subscribe to our own perspectives ; that has happened to me on no less the a XII occasions. I learned a new fact each meter. Knowledge is about fact and wiseness about truth. The Sojourner Truth can deepen as often as we do as people. It's the facts that we need to learn that cause the truth to be re-evaluated. Take for example, as a kid I never believed in any of the devil in the movies until I saw my get-go one. I knew the truth was they didn't exist before I was exposed to the fact that they were real,"Arthur stated in an even and relaxed tone.

I wish I could say that I picked up on what he said right away but honestly I just didn't,"That is an concern view on Truth and facts….."I fell silent for a minute as my brain was catching up on what he just said."Did you just say that you know that the devil from the motion picture exist ?"

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

I hadn't been surprised by anyone in a tenacious clock time, but this day was shaping up to be one of new and disconcerting experiences. I opened my oral fissure to answer a few times and closed it again before finally being able to put a coherent thought into Christian Bible,"You could easily put it that way. How did you sleep together what I was thinking about ?"

Arthur smiled at me before he answered,"commencement is that you wound up at my door and only those who need to regain this place if they haven't been invited. Second is that you carry yourself as a warrior in a time and place where there aren't many left in the world and since you're completely human I would assume you were a hunter. The only way a hunting watch would arrive at my door is if they were having some kind of crisis or organized religion or some other such issue they need to turn out. third gear, and what made figuring out the first two wanton is a common friend gave me a heads up about a 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 hope your wandering would bring you here because this place may provide you some on the perspective you need to do work through you dilemma."He took a nimble smell around the room."Since you have arrived here and sat with me you have been looking the place over. secernate me without looking again what you noticed."

I answered quickly and from memory as not to bias the answer by over intellection things,"I saw meddlesome bar and nightclub with severe certificate measures in spot to protect the place and supporter from any possible office including an intrusion by a unfriendly Carry Nation. I saw hoi polloi sitting around having conversations and potable without the sorry mood you see in a lot of bars and ball club. I saw people dancing and smiling, moving on and off the dancing story. I saw that beautiful young ma'am who brought the cognac over evaluate me as though I may be a terror and saw that she was more patriotic to you than I'd ever to be able to properly put into words."

"Very observant for the quick glimpse you took. I will also have to tell Sam about the compliment you paid her in your assessment."He smiled and continued,"Now, contract another face around. Take your fourth dimension and look closely. skim just the bar room if you want to take a looking through the glass to the nine and order me again what you see."

I did as he instructed, taking my prison term to do this right. I paid aid to every point I could spot letting my focus linger on the dance floor beyond the divider. I looked over the customer and the staff, looking for anything that I had missed in my CAT scan of the room when I entered. By the time I was finished looking around I'm indisputable my jaw was hanging open in shock at what I was seeing around me. I almost didn't believe my own eyes."There are all form of supernatural beingness in here along with someone ; Supernatural beings that actively war with each former. I can see at least a span of Vampires shooting pool with a couple of Werewolves over there. I can see some being in here that I can't positively distinguish as to what they are. I don't empathize how there can be so many occult existence in this one urban center, let alone this one construction without them trying to tear each other and the topographic point apart as well. How is it that no one violated the policy above the bar ?"

Again a smile spread across Chester A. Arthur's boldness,"I'll explain as best I can and maybe it will help you resolve your own identicalness crisis. First and foremost, when I opened this place initially, it was just the bar percentage that we're sitting in. That happened long before I knew what existed beyond the scope of my creation. I later came to have intercourse a lot more about the trueness and the facts of what goes on in this Earth. Among the dissimilar supernatural races there are traditionally places to meet between rival tribe or tribes or whatever sociable grouping that species gathers themselves in to. These lieu have many epithet selected by the race in question, but it is always neutral territory and the rules are not to be broken. The more pop term for these places is an Elysian Fields. I would assume this to be a consultation to the elysian Fields from Grecian mythology as they were a place of paradise similar to heaven in former religions. Either way, I believed that while the different races had placed where they could meet to do work out issues between their own kind, there was no topographic point to meet with another raceway where they could peacefully discuss things without it generating into another battue. With the abilities I had and have grown into extra time I turned my little street corner bar into an Elysian Fields for all who enter. My staff and I are more than capable of enforcing the neutrality if we have to, but well-nigh who come here just enjoy the fortune to slack up and be who they are, not what they are expected to be. Take the pond plot you pointed out. They are playing pairs, but it isn't lamia versus Werewolves, they're split evenly. That board in the corner over my shoulder with the two men playing chess and having a discussion ; one is a Mage and the former a Technocrat. Outside of this spot they are person enemies because they have dissimilar beliefs. In here they discuss their belief in Hope of opening the early person's eye to the Sojourner Truth as they see it. And Samantha whose dedication to me you commented on ; I owe her my life several times over and not once has she allowed me to thank her or refund her with any form of party favor beyond the friendly relationship we share. She is quondam than me by an order of decades even though she appears younger. She is a Warrior of exquisite skill, a loyal and good supporter, a confidant and ally as well as a kind hearted woman once you get to know her. Sam just also happens to be a Vampire. The first think you need to suppose about is that just because some author put something in a book because they didn't understand and were afraid of a small truth doesn't mean they were veracious. Now, don't get me wrong and assume they are all upright law abiding people no matter what they are. Like human, the supernatural have some that are born good and will always be so and some that are pure evilness and like it there. The rest of the population of supernatural organism falls somewhere in the gray arena and should be treated as they treat others."Arthur's smile turned from openly friendly to one of mischief. He reached up into the air next to me and made a sound like glass or metal snapping then contact out like he was handing me something before continuing,"Now that I have completely broken your hold on realness I need to give my mixologist a break 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 ride back to your hotel, George VI will give you a drive unless I'm dislodge 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 chicken feed of the cognac before taking the decanter to the bar with him.

So there I sat, a Hunter in the center of a nightclub full of the animate being I had hated and hunted for twelve years. I thought about seeing just how in force the stave could be a enforcing the weapons policy, except that was not what I wanted to do. None of these the great unwashed 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 couple of lamia feeding, but the the great unwashed they were feeding from offered their necks and wrists to the vampire in question. So there I continued to sit and try to reconcile my last twelve yr with the finale twenty four hours. Not an easy task and one that had my ego taking a drubbing at the way I was used by my informant. As much as I wanted to blame it all on the mystery person, I had to take the blame for not researching the mark myself and allowing myself to be used as a artillery. I can't say you how long I was sitting there in that electric chair, struggling with the powerful solution to my enigma, but the sun had risen before I finally walked out of the Existence and headed for my hotel.

As I walked down the street, I looked back at the name of the place and found it fitting. It was a blank space for all those in existence to go and relax without needing to defend senseless state of war, worry about being killed simply because of who or what you were. It was also a admonisher of the gold to strive for ; a peaceful existence. I still had to go back to see Andrew and discuss what the other option he was offering. That however could wait until the future day as I'd already been up around forty hours or so now and needed to rest .