To all those reading the Modern Mage storyline, this happens over chapters 17 & 18 and may hold up parting of 19 as well. I'll know more about that once the stirring for 19 comes to me. I wanted to let everyone see a unlike perspective than Andrew's as well as cover something that wouldn't have fit in the rest of the story based on the human face that Modern Mage is being author as though Andrew is explaining his yesteryear to the reader. I used bother thirdly person narration and some first off soul in the chapter here to separate what he was thinking at first of all as well as allowing me to explain some of the cover story for those who read this and haven't read the rest of the modern Mage and world Stories. Hope everyone enjoys a different take on thinks in the reality of Magick and Monsters that I am attempting to impart you all into.

Gabriel Roarke had been a Hunter for over a decade, ever since he recovered after his family was attacked by a vampire. To be more accurate after that animal had killed his parents and then turned his sisters forcing Roarke to down them if he wanted to live. He had spent six months in a hospital recovering from physical injuries he'd received from surviving that night and cleaning up the mess so that he didn't go to jail for execution. He didn't tell the police or the doctors, nurse and shrink that the hospital about the vampire because he didn't want to be placed in a mental creation either.

At the end of his meter recovering from the trauma Roarke was taken in by a Pres Young couple instead of being placed in a government home. While grateful for that he was shy why they took him in until dinner of the commencement night in his new home. It turned out that they had known about the supernatural and realized that what happened to his menage was a vampire attack. They began to explain that their kin had been a long line of hunting watch, dedicated to protecting humanity from the affair most don't even think in. They started training him, not just in how to fight down but hot to think as well. Over the track of four years they had trained hum, taken him out on search and treated him as though he was their own tike. They made sure that he also got a proper school pedagogy allowing him to stipulate for college. Just after his eighteenth birthday while shopping for supply before he left for college the lamia that had attacked his family tracked him down again. That nighttime the vampire attacked again killing both of his guardians. He killed the vampire that dark himself. After that night he decided not to go away to school but to start hunting and recruiting new Orion to train.

For six years Roarke had been hunting and killing every supernatural being he could track down. It didn't affair what sort they were. He focused mostly in sphere where had found people disappearing or being murdered. He excelled at ferreting out those tool that hid in plain sight. Over clip her developed sources of information on the web and made inter-group communication with other Hunter and informants. After that he started to get more and more selective information on beings he couldn't have found himself. entropy that told him not only where to find these monsters, but what kind her was dealing with. He couldn't believe his fortune in finding this rootage of information. That informant had created a problem for him earlier today.

He got information about a target in Las Lope de Vega who was said to be a risk not just to the masses in the city around him, but to others around the human beings. Roarke spent well-nigh of his prison term hunting in Ireland, Scotland and England but would journey abroad when there was a threat that would require the meter and effort. He had hunted in the United States a few times but had never traveled to Las Vega before. The source contacted him anonymously as usual with the target area information. The target was a magic user, powerful at that. The documentation sent tied him to a strand of murders around the city and in nearby State Department claiming that he was using profligate trick to increase his power. The object destination was provided with the other data, along with the import that he was nearly completed the rite signification he needed to be stopped quickly. Roarke booked passageway to Las Lope Felix de Vega Carpio and shipped the gear he would need by air freight the adjacent day. Within the week he was in Las Vegas and picked up his gear. He would normally have taken time to scout the target and make up sure that he could get in and out without any problems, but from the supplied entropy he just didn't have the time before this guy started killing more than people.

Roarke got to the fix on the dark of Feb first to see his target get back at the home with a petite red haired 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 position several mass inside the firm when the room access was opened. It looked like they had come back from some sort of slip and having a receive home party from his perspective. Roarke watched the home as the nighttime went on. Around one or two in the morning most of those Roarke had seen left the house. He continued to watch the house until aurora. right before sunrise Roarke got out of his truck and started to strike toward the house expecting the occupants to be sleeping after the latterly even.

He got halfway across the prop to the door moving from cover to cover when he paused for a consequence. He had about thirty feet of space to cross with nothing to duck behind when he continued to go up. He wasn't aware at that present moment that the future few minutes were going to change perception of reality forever. He pulled the sword he inherited from his guardians before standing up. The sword was refuted to be a priceless artifact that can stop almost any form of Magic used against the someone wielding it. He stood up and started across the open ground when the front threshold opened and out stepped the man he was after.

Standing before Roarke was the goliath that he was sent after, a person worse than any he hunted before. This man had killed more innocent people that any other occult wight he had tracked down and had the arrogance to tread out and enjoy a sunny morning time as though there wasn't a tending in the world. Roarke's determination was one of his big and mortal assets and upon seeing he target he charges intending to end this quickly. Within the first twosome of stairs 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 monstrosity simpleton by the fact that he was human being and made the choice to destroy sprightliness for his own addition. Vampires needed blood to live and were soulless, wolfman were rampantly uncontrolled wolf, other supernatural creatures hadn't even started out as human and while they needed to be destroyed you couldn't maintain them to human morals. When a man decides that he would rather obliterate for power, money or any other reason they made themselves uncollectible ogre than those born to it.

The monster he faced scanned the country, probable looking for help in fighting Roarke off in social club to salve his own miserable life-time. He spoke up,"What do you want here ?"

Roarke's reply was direct and even, no sense of rage or angriness in his tone. Roarke kept his emotions in hinderance when he hunted. He didn't down out of anger or revenge ; his motives were as pure as he could relieve oneself them. He hunted to protect human race for the teras as his guardians had taught him."Your heading,"was the reply.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it won't be that well-fixed. walk away, leave me and my friends alone and I'll do the like for you. I don't want you suddenly and you don't want to die,"was the resolution from his target. Did this freak really consider that it would be that simple to endure ? Did he not see the determination on Roarke's face ? This man was a coward praying on the weak to derive ability and idea he could simply talk his way out of his own demise.

"I've been threatened by and then killed meliorate than you, why would I walk 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 endure to drink down anyone else either. Roarke was determined that either he would survive this fight or neither of them would. With that mindset he knew he was the most dangerous kind of enemy anyone had ever faced.

"brand your choice and let's get this over with,"the monster relied with a lack of patience. Roarke was More than willing to oblige him if he wanted to die. He started to close up with the target again, staying on the egg of his groundwork ; trying to be ready for anything this man before him could do. The opposition moved far faster than he was expecting and sidestepped past Roarke, opening distance that he didn't want to afford him. He still knew that he wasn't faster than no of the early affair he hunted and therefor the goliath would die. Roarke closed again quickly, swinging to separate this man's body at the shank. His target dodged, dropping into a hunker and sweeping at Roarke's animal foot. Reacting instinctively he started to skip over over his foe's leg but was caught briefly by the attack. He landed on his back instead of flipping out and away, turning the landing into a roll back away from his opposite. Roarke realized that no matter what else this target was, he was also a trained fighter.

"Why are you here ?"the man asked.

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

"That part was obvious jack ass. What I want to know is the intellect 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 target ?"Roarke was shocked by this reply. Did this monstrosity really give birth the insolence to hollo him a seaman ass ; and why was it that so many of his target had tried to play sinless when faced with their own mortality ? Own up to what you do in life-time and accept your due was his ism ; if you can't you shouldn't be doing whatever it is in the first shoes. Roarke knew many would see him as little 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 to opposite hip. His enemy reacted quickly, stepping inside his range of mountains 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 push he knew how to win a fight. Roarke couldn't call it dirty fighting as his guardians had stressed from the get-go that all was fair in lovemaking and war. His Step-Mother for lack of a better term used to say"You can campaign by the regulation or you can press to win. I would rather you fight to win."Right after the attacks to stun him the opposition shoved him and backed up to gain some space instead of following up which worried Roarke as he had no on-key cognition of what variety of office this man could bring to bear.

When Roarke got back to his feet his enemy was now armed with two yearn thin metal bars. They were each about thirty inches long and looked about an in or so blockheaded. When they closed again, Roarke had his objective on the defensive. If for cipher else, Roarke had to give his opposition credit rating for being a combatant. They went back and forth for respective proceedings, both of them tiring but luck was with Roarke as his target seemed to be blow over faster. The man turned the tabular array forcing Roarke to fight back himself even more as he sought a way through his grooming and skill with the broadsword. As they continued this deadly dance Roarke heard a audio toward his left but kept focused on his opponent. The man looked away toward the doorway as his body turned toward the space between Roarke and that strait ; that was the porta he was waiting for. Roarke whipped the sword in from the incline slicing a descent across the man's abdomen leaving a lead of blood flowing behind its passing.

"Andrew ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"a woman's voice screamed. The mark stepped back turning sideways to come at his side opened up from Roarke's attack on him. He switched the grip on the blade and drove it up towards the targets side driving it in just below the hindquarters rib. Roarke's tone was lifted as he knew he was successful in his quest to obliterate the monster. Roarke's elation was short lived however as this freak stepped forward pushing the steel deeper into his organs. The man had a flavour that Roarke recognized from his own mirror. It was a expression that said that while I may be dying but I'm taking you with me. Faster than he could react to the attack Roarke's wrists were crushed by one of the alloy bars as the former contacted the position of his brain. He was fine with dying as long as he knew that his target had been eliminated before he could cause any Sir Thomas More trauma. Those were his dying cerebration as he lost consciousness.
********************

Those were some of the thought process flowing through my head as I drove away from that same house late that evening. Among the others were the facts that I wasn't drained as I should throw been ; I had been knocked out at the mercy of a man I thought to be a monster. Not only had I not been killed for attacking him, Saint Andrew the Apostle and his wife Sindee had treated my wound and spoke to me. I didn't want to listen at showtime but I was a captive audience initially. They had treated me better than I would have treated an foe. They were trying to convince me that not all occult being were evil freak, that some of them were even out to help oneself protect the human race. They had reasonable contention for their point of horizon. When I asked them why they didn't just reveal the truth to the man raceway with the evidence they gather they told me that Humanity wasn't ready to take the truth. I had no very argumentation for that but before I could keep on had me take exception my own argument by asking how I found out about the supernatural universe. I told him the entire truth of what happened to my home and I when I was only fourteen. By the time I finished telling them the write up they simply cut the ropes tying me to the hot seat and fed me while we continued to talk.

I turned out that I may have been helping to take about the death of people that I made it my military mission to protect. Andrew told me that he was Mage, not just some human who gained access to force ; that Mages power were rude and not the answer of destruction and destruction for powerfulness. I don't know what to mean of everything he has said because it is so different to what I have spent the close XII years believing. When I left his house he told me to think thing 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 this city in public security with him and his allies to protect it or to ally myself with him against this foreign enemy 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 starting time trip to the city of Las Vegas, but I knew I could find 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 disconnected I became as the accuracy I was shown was at war with the reality I had known. It's not well-to-do to face the truth and your own misconceptions about it but it needed to be done. I kept walking, not paying attention to the streets, and just letting my feet direct the path I walked. My focus was on finding what I needed to in ordering to exercise through the confusion I was feeling. Somehow after being out walking for an hour or so I found myself in front of the doors to a guild. Looking at the signaling I saw it was called the being. I figured I could use a drink and stepped toward the doors before I even noticed the line going down the block. The doorman looked down at me as I stepped up and placed a hand on my shoulder to block up me from entering. That's when I noticed the line and realized I wasn't likely to get that potable 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 impost tailored clothing. Shirley Temple Black linen slacks, a atomic number 27 sorry silk shirt with the top two clitoris undone, a linen jacket matching the pants and a courteous pair or custom leather boots. He had brown hair and the wan grey oculus I had ever seen. What was most happen upon about the center is they looked like they had seen more history than anyone else I had ever know and he looked like he was only a brace long time my fourth-year. Between him and the doorman, I was more restrain by this stranger. I realized that while I had been evaluating him he had been doing the same to me and I had to respect that. He held out his mitt to me,"I'm Arthur Masters, and you are ?"

I reflexively took his mitt and shook it,"Gabriel Roarke sir ; a pleasure to fulfill you."I'm not trusted why I said sir except the look in his eyes and the way he carried himself seemed to command respect. I've met a dyad people that had standardised charge but nonentity that grabbed my attention like he did.

Arthur turned to the hall porter,"George Catlett Marshall, I'm going to take 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 drink and maybe sing about something. I own the placed and feel it's conductive to thinking affair through and finding what you need. get-go drunkenness on me."

President Arthur opened the doorway and waived me in ahead of him. It was such a courteous offer 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 keep an unfastened mind and go in. When I entered I was struck with just how large this place really was. The bar area wasn't much gravid than any of the pubs back home, but the bar area was just the get-go. There was a night club behind the master bar through a soundproofed plexiglass wall the appeared to stretch an entire block. If the possessor and the scope of its size weren't enough to impress me, the security transcription would get. I've seen war machine installations with to a lesser extent security measure and protection than this place. I followed King Arthur to a large tabular array in the center of the principal bar area that had a reserved sign on it. He motioned for me to sit as he took the chair facing the door with his back to the bar.

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

The use of weapons is strenuously discouraged, debaucher will be Penalized. For those of you who don't have two brainiac mobile phone to form a thinking 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 grin on me that made me like the man even more. I could evidence 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 dance him down. I hope that one day I'll be able to say the Lapplander thing. While we were sitting there a petite untested woman walked over to the table with two eyeglasses and a crystal decanter full phase of the moon of an amber colored liquid. She set the two glassed between King Arthur and myself before pouring the deglutition. 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 Arthur and I did to each former and I got the feeling that this adult female would not only kill for Arthur but die for him as well. Whoever this man is, he not only invigorate respect he commanded trueness as well. The woman was just over five foot and could have been more than than 125 pounds or so but she carried herself with the grace of a dancer or hero and I had my conjecture as to which.

"Gabriel, if you care to link me, this is a very old and uncommon cognac that it would be my pleasure to ploughshare with Irish valet de chambre such as yourself."

"Thank you Chester A. Arthur, it would be my pleasure."I took the drinkable 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 deglutition and felt the hard drink burn slowly down my throat and warm me from the inside.

"So Gabriel, if you don't mind my asking, what wandering thought brought you to my doorway 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 consider I'm drunk or crazy."

Chester Alan Arthur turned his chief to face me and stared directly into my eye as he replied,"You may be surprised. I learned a very long time ago as a bartender that I needed to keep an open mind about the truth of the public. Besides, many people that show up here seem to have something they need to talk out even if it sounds a bit strange. Just because I sit out at the table more often than working the cleave doesn't mean I'm no longer a bartender. address up about what's on your nous, if it sounds a picayune nutcase I'll attribute it to the deglutition and call you a cab when we're done."

The way he spoke and the calm acceptance in his eyes made it easier to voice at to the lowest degree some of my thoughts. I figured I could cover the extensive accident without giving him the point that would put me in a mental psychiatric hospital."Have you ever known that you were doing the right thing because you knew how the world worked only to have the truth turn and smack you over the drumhead ?"I asked him.

"Since truth is a proportional term as we subscribe to our own perspectives ; that has happened to me on no less the a dozen occasions. I learned a new fact each time. Knowledge is about fact and wisdom about accuracy. The truth can change as often as we do as hoi polloi. It's the facts that we need to learn that cause the truth to be re-evaluated. contract for example, as a kid I never believed in any of the behemoth in the movies until I saw my first gear 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 veracious away but honestly I just didn't,"That is an interesting perspective 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 monsters from the moving-picture show exist ?"

"Of course 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 truth they are not all monsters. Would that be a adjust assessment ?"

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

Chester A. Arthur smiled at me before he answered,"First is that you wound up at my door and only those who need to find this place if they haven't been invited. second base is that you carry yourself as a warrior in a clock time and stead where there aren't many left in the populace and since you're completely human being I would assume you were a Hunter. The merely way a hunter would arrive at my door is if they were having some kind of crisis or religious belief or some former such matter they need to run out. tierce, and what made figuring out the first two leisurely is a mutual friend gave me a head teacher up about a young man who he sent wandering with the melodic theme planted on letting the walking guide him to what he needed."

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

Arthur chuckled and replied,"No, he didn't know. He did desire your wandering would impart you here because this situation may provide you some on the position you need to turn through you dilemma."He took a quick look around the room."Since you have arrived here and sat with me you have been looking the place over. Tell me without looking again what you noticed."

I answered quickly and from memory as not to bias the solvent by over recall things,"I saw busy bar and nightclub with dangerous security measures measuring in place to protect the spot and sponsor from any possible situation including an invasion by a hostile nation. I saw hoi polloi sitting around having conversations and drunkenness without the relentless mood you see in a lot of bars and nightspot. I saw citizenry dancing and smiling, moving on and off the dancing floor. I saw that beautiful unseasoned lady who brought the cognac over valuate me as though I may be a menace and saw that she was more truehearted to you than I'd ever to be able to properly put into words."

"Very observant for the quick glances you took. I will also experience to recount Sam about the compliment you paid her in your assessment."He smiled and continued,"Now, convey another feeling around. subscribe to your time and look closely. Scan just the bar elbow room if you want to take in a face through the crank to the order and differentiate me again what you see."

I did as he instructed, taking my clock time to do this right. I paid attention to every particular I could tell apart letting my focus linger on the dance flooring beyond the partition. I looked over the customer and the staff, looking for anything that I had missed in my scan of the way when I entered. By the metre I was finished looking around I'm sure my jaw was hanging open in shock at what I was seeing around me. I almost didn't believe my own centre."There are all form of supernatural being in here along with soul ; Supernatural beings that actively war with each other. I can see at least a couple of Vampires shooting pocket billiards with a couple of loup-garou over there. I can see some being in here that I can't positively discover as to what they are. I don't understand how there can be so many supernatural beings in this one metropolis, let alone this one building without them trying to pluck each other and the place apart as well. How is it that no one violated the policy above the bar ?"

Again a smile scatter across King Arthur's brass,"I'll explain as best I can and maybe it will help you resolve your own identicalness crisis. offset and foremost, when I opened this seat initially, it was just the bar luck that we're sitting in. That happened farseeing before I knew what existed beyond the scope of my world. I later came to know a lot more about the truth and the facts of what goes on in this world. Among the different supernatural races there are traditionally billet to receive between rival tribe or federation of tribes or whatever social grouping that species gather themselves in to. These places have many names selected by the race in motion, but it is always indifferent territory and the dominion are not to be broken. The more popular full term for these blank space is an Elysium. I would assume this to be a reference to the Elysian Fields from Hellene mythology as they were a place of Shangri-la similar to heaven in former religions. Either way, I believed that while the different races had placed where they could meet to function out issues between their own sort, there was no place to conform to with another race where they could peacefully discuss things without it generating into another bloodshed. With the power I had and have grown into overtime I turned my piddling tree bar into an Elysium for all who enter. My staff and I are more than subject of enforcing the disinterest if we have to, but most who come here just enjoy the chance to relax and be who they are, not what they are expected to be. Take the pond biz you pointed out. They are playing pair, but it isn't vampire versus lycanthrope, they're split evenly. That board in the corner over my shoulder with the two men playing Bromus secalinus and having a discussion ; one is a Mage and the other a Technocrat. Outside of this piazza they are mortal enemies because they have different opinion. In here they discuss their belief in promise of opening the other person's center to the truth as they see it. And Samantha whose loyalty to me you commented on ; I owe her my aliveness several clock time over and not once has she allowed me to thank her or rejoin her with any kind of favor beyond the friendship we share. She is previous than me by an order of decades even though she appears untested. She is a Warrior of exquisite science, a loyal and dear Friend, a confidant and ally as well as a variety hearted charwoman once you get to sleep with her. Sam just also happens to be a lamia. The low gear think you need to think about is that just because some writer put something in a record book because they didn't understand and were afraid of a little truth doesn't mean they were rectify. Now, don't get me incorrectly and assume they are all salutary law abiding citizenry no matter what they are. Like humans, the occult have some that are born full and will always be so and some that are pure evil and like it there. The sleep of the universe of supernatural existence falls somewhere in the grey-headed area 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 phone like glass or metallic element snapping then gain out like he was handing me something before continuing,"Now that I have completely broken your handgrip on realness I need to pass my bartender a break while you think though all that has been revealed to you today. If you have questions or need to sing let me live. If you need a ride back to your hotel, George I will devote you a ride unless I'm free 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 hunting watch in the middle of a nightclub broad of the brute I had hated and hunted for twelve years. I thought about seeing just how effective the staff could be a enforcing the weapon system insurance, except that was not what I wanted to do. None of these people 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 twosome of vampire eating, but the people they were feeding from offered their necks and wrists to the vampires in question. So there I continued to sit and attempt to accommodate my last xii years with the death xx four time of day. Not an easy task and one that had my ego taking a trouncing at the way I was used by my informant. As a lot as I wanted to blame it all on the mystery story person, I had to get hold of the rap for not researching the targets myself and allowing myself to be used as a weapon. I can't tell apart you how long I was sitting there in that chair, struggling with the compensate answer to my enigma, but the sun had risen before I finally walked out of the cosmos and headed for my hotel.

As I walked down the street, I looked back at the gens of the place and found it fitting. It was a place for all those in existence to go and relax without needing to oppose senseless warfare, worry about being killed simply because of who or what you were. It was also a admonisher of the gold to strive for ; a passive existence. I still had to go back to see Saint Andrew the Apostle and talk about what the former selection he was offering. That however could hold back until the following day as I'd already been up around forty hours or so now and needed to rest .