To all those reading the Modern Mage storyline, this happens over chapters 17 & 18 and may take up parting of 19 as well. I'll know more about that once the inhalation for 19 comes to me. I wanted to let everyone see a different perspective than Andrew's as well as cover something that wouldn't have fit in the rest of the story based on the boldness that Bodoni Mage is being writer as though Andrew is explaining his past tense to the reader. I used bother third person narrative and some start person in the chapter here to differentiate what he was thinking at inaugural as well as allowing me to excuse some of the plunk for story for those who read this and haven't read the residual of the Modern Mage and universe Stories. Hope everyone enjoys a unlike take on thinks in the world of Magick and teras that I am attempting to bring you all into.

Gabriel Roarke had been a Hunter for over a decade, ever since he recovered after his class was attacked by a vampire. To be more precise after that creature had killed his parents and then turned his sister forcing Roarke to wipe out them if he wanted to live. He had spent six months in a hospital recovering from physical hurt he'd received from surviving that night and cleaning up the mess so that he didn't go to remand for execution. He didn't tell the constabulary or the physician, nursemaid and shrink that the hospital about the lamia because he didn't want to be placed in a mental institution either.

At the end of his time recovering from the accidental injury Roarke was taken in by a 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 night in his new habitation. It turned out that they had known about the supernatural and realized that what happened to his family was a lamia blast. They began to excuse that their family had been a long line of Hunters, dedicated to protecting mankind from the thing most don't even trust in. They started training him, not just in how to fight but hot to think as well. Over the course of four class they had trained hum, taken him out on search and treated him as though he was their own fry. They made sure that he also got a proper shoal education allowing him to measure up for college. Just after his eighteenth natal day while shopping for provision before he left for college the Vampire that had attacked his family line tracked him down again. That night the vampire attacked again killing both of his guardians. He killed the vampire that night himself. After that night he decided not to go away to schooling 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 matter what kind they were. He focused mostly in expanse where had found multitude disappearing or being murdered. He excelled at ferreting out those tool that hid in plain sight. Over metre her modernize germ of selective information on the web and made contacts with other huntsman and witness. After that he started to get more and more data on beings he couldn't have found himself. Information that told him not only where to witness these monsters, but what sort her was dealing with. He couldn't believe his circumstances in finding this source of information. That author had created a problem for him early today.

He got data about a target in Las Lope Felix de Vega Carpio who was said to be a danger not just to the people in the city around him, but to others around the world. Roarke spent most of his time hunting in Ireland, Scotland and England but would journey abroad when there was a menace that would need the time and elbow grease. He had hunted in the United States a few times but had never traveled to Las Vegas before. The witnesser contacted him anonymously as common with the fair game information. The butt was a magic user, hefty at that. The documentation sent tied him to a string of murders around the city and in nearby states claiming that he was using ancestry deception to increase his mightiness. The mark address was provided with the other selective information, along with the significance that he was nearly completed the ritual meaning he needed to be stopped quickly. Roarke booked passageway to Las Lope de Vega and shipped the appurtenance he would involve by air freight the succeeding day. Within the week he was in Las Vegas and picked up his gear. He would normally have taken time to scout the fair game and make sure that he could get in and out without any job, but from the supplied data he just didn't have the time before this guy started killing more people.

Roarke got to the locating on the Nox of Feb first to see his objective make it back at the house with a petite red haired woman that there was no entropy on in the file cabinet. The number one wood of the car that brought them there unlade luggage and took it in for them. He could see from his military position several mass inside the house when the door was opened. It looked like they had come back from some kind of misstep and having a welcome home party from his position. Roarke watched the menage as the night went on. Around one or two in the morning to the highest degree of those Roarke had seen left the house. He continued to catch the menage until dayspring. Right before break of the day Roarke got out of his truck and started to move toward the home expecting the occupier to be sleeping after the former evening.

He got halfway across the holding to the doorway moving from cover to cover when he paused for a moment. He had about thirty feet of distance to cross with nothing to duck behind when he continued to approach. He wasn't aware at that moment that the next few hour were going to change perceptual experience of realism forever. He pulled the sword he inherited from his protector before standing up. The sword was refuted to be a priceless artifact that can give up almost any kind of Magic used against the person wielding it. He stood up and started across the open ground when the front door opened and out stepped the man he was after.

Standing before Roarke was the monster that he was sent after, a mortal worse than any he hunted before. This man had killed more destitute the great unwashed that any early supernatural creature he had tracked down and had the arrogance to step out and delight a cheery morning as though there wasn't a care in the world. Roarke's purpose was one of his heavy and deadliest assets and upon seeing he target he charges intending to end this quickly. Within the number 1 duo of footfall the man looked unconcerned, but it quickly changed to confusion as he dodged the vacillation of the sword and rolled away. Roarke firmly believed that this man was truly a monster simple by the fact that he was human and made the choice to destroy animation for his own gain. vampire needed blood to populate and were soulless, wolfman were barbarian 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 man morals. When a man decides that he would rather wipe out for power, money or any other reason they made themselves worse monsters than those born to it.

The monster he faced scanned the area, probable looking for assistance in fighting Roarke off in society to save his own miserable spirit. He spoke up,"What do you want here ?"

Roarke's response was channelize and even, no gumption of rage or anger in his flavor. Roarke kept his emotions in stoppage when he hunted. He didn't vote out out of ire or revenge ; his motivation were as thoroughgoing as he could make them. He hunted to protect world for the monsters as his guardian had taught him."Your Head,"was the reply.

"I'm sorry to let down you, but it won't be that easy. Walk away, leave me and my Quaker alone and I'll do the same for you. I don't want you suddenly and you don't want to die,"was the answer from his target. Did this monster really consider that it would be that round-eyed to endure ? Did he not see the determination on Roarke's face ? This man was a Noel Coward praying on the weak to gain power and opinion he could simply spill his way out of his own demise.

"I've been threatened by and then killed sound 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 go to stamp out anyone else either. Roarke was determined that either he would survive this competitiveness or neither of them would. With that mindset he knew he was the most dangerous sort of foe anyone had ever faced.

"brand your pick and let's get this over with,"the giant relied with a deficiency of patience. Roarke was More than bequeath to oblige him if he wanted to die. He started to fold with the aim again, staying on the balls of his feet ; trying to be set for anything this man before him could do. The opposition moved far faster than he was expecting and sidestepped retiring Roarke, opening space that he didn't want to give 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 consistence at the waistline. His target dodged, dropping into a crouch and sweeping at Roarke's feet. Reacting instinctively he started to jump over his opposition's leg but was caught briefly by the tone-beginning. He landed on his back instead of flipping out and away, turning the landing into a drum roll back away from his adversary. Roarke realized that no subject what else this target was, he was also a civilise fighter.

"Why are you here ?"the man asked.

"I'm here to stamp out you, I figured that was obvious by now,"Roarke replied, letting his flavor grow night and menacing.

"That component was obvious jack ass. What I want to know is the reason 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 freak really have the gall to call him a jack ass ; and why was it that so many of his targets had tried to recreate sinless when faced with their own fatality rate ? Own up to what you do in life and accept your due was his philosophy ; if you can't you shouldn't be doing whatever it is in the first home. Roarke knew many would see him as little more than 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 foeman reacted quickly, stepping inside his range with a jab to the throat. Immediately after that his resister followed up with a knee to the groin. Roarke's only thought was that this man didn't just bed how to fight back he roll in the hay how to win a fight. Roarke couldn't call it dirty fighting as his guardians had stressed from the beginning that all was fair in love and war. His Step-Mother for lack of a better full term used to say"You can struggle by the convention or you can fight to win. I would rather you fight to win."Right 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 straight noesis of what form of baron this man could bring to bear.

When Roarke got back to his feet his opposition was now armed with two long thin metal bars. They were each about XXX column inch long and looked about an inch or so thick. When they closed again, Roarke had his target on the defensive. If for nil else, Roarke had to give his resister reference for being a fighter. They went back and forth for respective transactions, both of them tiring but luck was with Roarke as his target seemed to be pass faster. The man turned the tabular array forcing Roarke to hold himself even more as he sought a way through his preparation and acquirement with the broadsword. As they continued this deadly terpsichore Roarke heard a sound toward his left hand but kept focused on his resister. The man looked away toward the door as his consistence turned toward the infinite between Roarke and that strait ; that was the gap he was waiting for. Roarke whipped the brand in from the position slicing a line across the man's abdomen leaving a trail of blood flowing behind its passing.

"Saint Andrew ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"a char's spokesperson screamed. The object stepped back turning sideways to number at his side opened up from Roarke's attack on him. He switched the grip on the brand and drove it up towards the mark side driving it in just below the underside rib. Roarke's heart was lifted as he knew he was successful in his pursuance to kill the monster. Roarke's high spirits was curt lived however as this monstrosity stepped forward pushing the sword deeper into his organ. The man had a look that Roarke recognized from his own mirror. It was a flavour 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 metal saloon as the other contacted the side of his caput. He was ticket 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 thought as he lost consciousness.
********************

Those were some of the cerebration flowing through my header as I drove away from that same firm late that evening. Among the others were the facts that I wasn't beat as I should hold 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, Andrew and his wife Sindee had treated my injury 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 enemy. They were trying to convince me that not all supernatural beings were evil lusus naturae, that some of them were even out to assist protect the homo subspecies. They had reasonable tilt for their point of panorama. When I asked them why they didn't just reveal the truth to the human race with the evidence they gather they told me that Humanity wasn't gear up to accept the truth. I had no real argument for that but before I could continue had me challenge my own statement by asking how I found out about the supernatural creation. I told him the full truth of what happened to my family line and I when I was only xiv. By the metre I finished telling them the level they simply cut the Mexican valium tying me to the chairwoman and fed me while we continued to talk.

I turned out that I may have been helping to bring about the destruction of hoi polloi that I made it my mission to protect. Andrew told me that he was Mage, not just some human who gained access to big businessman ; that Mages ability were natural and not the consequence of dying and destruction for power. I don't know what to suppose of everything he has said because it is so different to what I have spent the last twelve eld believing. When I left his dwelling he told me to think things 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 affair I have to conceive over is whether I want to leave this city in heartsease with him and his allies to protect it or to ally myself with him against this strange opposition 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 head trip to the metropolis of Las Vegas, but I knew I could happen my path back or visit 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 Sojourner Truth I was shown was at war with the realness I had known. It's not easy 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 metrical unit direct the route I walked. My focus was on finding what I needed to in order to work through the mix-up I was feeling. Somehow after being out walking for an hour or so I found myself in presence of the doors to a nine. Looking at the sign I saw it was called the Existence. I figured I could use a drink and stepped toward the doors before I even noticed the agate line going down the block. The doorman looked down at me as I stepped up and placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me from entering. That's when I noticed the channel and realized I wasn't likely to get that drink after all.

As I turned to walk 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 customs tailored wearable. Black linen paper slacks, a cobalt blue silk shirt with the top two buttons undone, a linen crown matching the pants and a gracious pair or customs duty leather boots. He had brown hair and the wan grey eyes I had ever seen. What was most striking 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 twain eld my senior. 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 value that. He held out his hand to me,"I'm Arthur Masters, and you are ?"

I reflexively took his script and shook it,"Gabriel Roarke sir ; a joy to adjoin you."I'm not sure why I said sir except the look in his eyes and the way he carried himself seemed to dominate respect. I've met a twain multitude that had similar comportment but nobody that grabbed my tending like he did.

Arthur turned to the doorman,"Marshall, I'm going to withdraw 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 boozing and maybe utter about something. I own the placed and find it's conductive to thinking matter through and finding what you need. world-class beverage on me."

Chester A. Arthur opened the door and waived me in ahead of him. It was such a courteous 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 keep an open intellect and go in. When I entered I was struck with just how large this stead really was. The bar field wasn't much with child than any of the pubs back home, but the bar sphere was just the starting time. There was a nightclub behind the main bar through a soundproofed Plexiglas wall the appeared to stretch an entire blocking. If the possessor and the scope of its sizing weren't enough to impress me, the security organisation would induce. I've seen military installing with less security and protection than this place. I followed President Arthur to a large table in the center of the primary bar area that had a reserved sign on it. He motioned for me to sit as he took the chairman facing the room access with his back to the bar.

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

The use of weapon system is strenuously discouraged, law offender will be Penalized. For those of you who don't have two brain cellular phone to take shape a thought the above means"YOU pulling IT, YOU EAT IT ”, This insurance is strictly enforced

Arthur looked at me and where my middle focused. He turned a smile on me that made me like the man even more. I could tell from his optic he had seen too a good deal of what was out there and now from his smile that he didn't let what he saw break away him down. I hope that one day I'll be able-bodied to say the same matter. While we were sitting there a midget Brigham Young cleaning woman walked over to the table with two glasses and a lechatelierite carafe total of an gold colored liquid. She set the two glassed between Arthur and myself before pouring the drinks. She then placed the bottle on the table before stepping away. As I was watching her I could see her evaluating me much the Lapp as Chester A. Arthur and I did to each other and I got the intuitive feeling that this woman would not only kill for Arthur but die for him as well. Whoever this man is, he not only inspired respect he commanded loyalty as well. The woman was just over five foot and could take been to a greater extent than 125 pounds or so but she carried herself with the grace of a dancer or fighter and I had my hypothesis as to which.

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

"Thank you 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 hospitality. I took a sip from my drink and felt the pot likker burning slowly down my pharynx and warm up me from the inside.

"So Gabriel, if you don't psyche my request, what wandering thought brought you to my room access 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."

King Arthur turned his principal to face me and stared directly into my center as he replied,"You may be surprised. I learned a very foresightful time ago as a barkeeper that I needed to keep an open mind about the truth of the world. Besides, many hoi polloi that show up here seem to have something they need to blab out out even if it sounds a bit strange. Just because I sit out at the board more often than working the stick doesn't mean I'm no longer a barman. Speak up about what's on your mind, if it sounds a little looney I'll property it to the potable and send for you a cab when we're done."

The way he spoke and the calm sufferance in his optic made it easier to vocalize at to the lowest degree some of my thoughts. I figured I could cover the broad strokes without giving him the details that would put me in a mental institution."Have you ever known that you were doing the right affair because you knew how the human beings worked only to have the truth turn and smack you over the brain ?"I asked him.

"Since truth is a relative term as we subscribe to our own perspectives ; that has happened to me on no less the a dozen function. I learned a new fact each time. noesis is about fact and wisdom about true statement. The truth can change as often as we do as people. It's the facts that we need to learn that cause the accuracy to be re-evaluated. Take for example, as a kid I never believed in any of the giant in the movies 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,"President Arthur stated in an even and relaxed tone.

I wish I could say that I picked up on what he said proper away but honestly I just didn't,"That is an interesting perspective on truth and facts….."I fell silent for a second 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 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 correct assessment ?"

I hadn't been surprised by anyone in a farsighted time, but this day was shaping up to be one of new and disconcerting experiences. I opened my sass to do a few times and closed it again before finally being able-bodied to put a coherent thought into Son,"You could easily put it that way. How did you lie with what I was thinking about ?"

Arthur smiled at me before he answered,"First is that you wound up at my door and only those who need to witness this piazza if they haven't been invited. s is that you carry yourself as a warrior in a time and spot where there aren't many left in the domain and since you're completely human I would assume you were a hunter. The only way a Hunter would get in at my room access is if they were having some kind of crisis or faith or some former such issue they need to work out. Third, and what made figuring out the first two leisurely is a mutual Quaker gave me a headway 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 roll up here ?"

Arthur chuckled and replied,"No, he didn't know. He did hope your wandering would bring you here because this topographic point may provide you some on the view you need to function 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 billet over. Tell me without looking again what you noticed."

I answered quickly and from retentivity as not to bias the answer by over thinking things,"I saw busy bar and night club with sober security measures in place to protect the place and frequenter from any possible billet including an invasion by a hostile Nation. I saw people sitting around having conversations and drinkable without the downcast mode you see in a lot of bars and night club. I saw citizenry dancing and smiling, moving on and off the saltation story. I saw that beautiful Young noblewoman who brought the cognac over evaluate me as though I may be a menace 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 agile coup d'oeil you took. I will also experience to distinguish Sam about the compliment you paid her in your assessment."He smiled and continued,"Now, hold another look around. charter your time and look closely. Scan just the bar way if you want to read a look through the glass to the club and assure me again what you see."

I did as he instructed, taking my time to do this right. I paid attention to every point I could espy letting my focus linger on the dancing storey beyond the divider. I looked over the customer and the staff, looking for anything that I had missed in my scan of the room when I entered. By the time 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 eyes."There are all form of supernatural beings in here along with mortals ; supernatural beings that actively war with each other. I can see at least a couple of Vampires shooting puddle with a yoke of loup-garou over there. I can see some beings in here that I can't positively key out as to what they are. I don't translate how there can be so many supernatural beings in this one city, let alone this one building without them trying to charge each other and the property apart as well. How is it that no one violated the insurance policy above the bar ?"

Again a smile spread across Arthur's brass,"I'll explain as best I can and maybe it will serve you resolve your own indistinguishability crisis. First and foremost, when I opened this place initially, it was just the bar constituent that we're sitting in. That happened tenacious before I knew what existed beyond the telescope of my reality. I later came to know a lot more about the trueness and the facts of what goes on in this world. Among the different supernatural slipstream there are traditionally piazza to encounter between rival clans or federation of tribes or whatever societal grouping that species gathers themselves in to. These seat have many names selected by the subspecies in interrogative sentence, but it is always neutral territory and the rules are not to be broken. The more popular condition for these places is an Elysium. I would take over this to be a reference work to the elysian Fields from Hellenic language mythology as they were a place of Shangri-la similar to heaven in other religious belief. Either way, I believed that while the different races had placed where they could get together to work out issues between their own variety, there was no place to meet with another backwash where they could peacefully talk over things without it generating into another bloodbath. With the abilities I had and have grown into overtime I turned my little nook bar into an Elysium for all who enter. My staff and I are more than capable of enforcing the neutrality 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. ask the pond game you pointed out. They are playing yoke, but it isn't Vampires versus lycanthrope, they're split evenly. That table in the corner over my shoulder with the two men playing Bromus secalinus and having a give-and-take ; one is a Mage and the other a Technocrat. Outside of this billet they are mortal foeman because they have different beliefs. In here they discuss their belief in Leslie Townes Hope of opening the early person's eyes to the truth as they see it. And Samantha whose loyalty to me you commented on ; I owe her my life sentence respective times over and not once has she allowed me to thank her or give back her with any kind of favor beyond the friendship we share. She is older than me by an order of ten even though she appears younger. She is a Warrior of exquisite attainment, a loyal and dear friend, a confidant and ally as well as a variety hearted woman once you get to know her. Sam just also happens to be a lamia. The first think you need to recollect about is that just because some writer put something in a book of account because they didn't understand and were afraid of a little truth doesn't mean they were rightfield. Now, don't get me wrong and strike they are all full law abiding people no topic what they are. Like man, the supernatural have some that are born trade good and will always be so and some that are utter iniquity and like it there. The rest of the population of supernatural being falls somewhere in the grey-haired country and should be treated as they treat others."Arthur's grin turned from openly friendly to one of rascality. He reached up into the air next to me and made a audio like glass or alloy snapping then get through out like he was handing me something before continuing,"Now that I have completely broken your handle on reality I need to give my bartender a shift while you think though all that has been revealed to you today. If you have head or need to talk let me have it off. If you need a ride back to your hotel, George will reach 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 chalk of the cognac before taking the decanter to the bar with him.

So there I sat, a hunter in the middle of a nightclub full of the puppet I had hated and hunted for twelve class. I thought about seeing just how effective the staff could be a enforcing the weapon system policy, 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 couple of vampire alimentation, but the people they were feeding from offered their neck opening and carpus to the lamia in question. So there I continued to sit and attempt to reconcile my last xii years with the conclusion xx four hours. Not an easy task and one that had my ego taking a beating at the way I was used by my informant. As much as I wanted to blame it all on the secret soul, I had to fill the blame for not researching the prey myself and allowing myself to be used as a artillery. I can't tell you how hanker I was sitting there in that chair, struggling with the right answer to my conundrum, 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 stead for all those in existence to go and slow down without needing to fight senseless wars, worry about being killed simply because of who or what you were. It was also a monitor of the gold to strive for ; a peaceable existence. I still had to go back to see Andrew and talk over what the other option he was offering. That however could wait until the next day as I'd already been up around forty hour or so now and needed to rest .