To all those reading the Modern Mage plot line, this happens over chapters 17 & 18 and may take up part of 19 as well. I'll know more about that once the inspiration for 19 comes to me. I wanted to let everyone see a dissimilar perspective than Andrew's as well as covering fire something that wouldn't have fit in the repose of the story based on the face that Modern Mage is being writer as though Andrew is explaining his past to the proofreader. I used bother third person story and some first person in the chapter here to differentiate what he was thinking at 1st as well as allowing me to explain some of the rearwards taradiddle for those who read this and harbour't read the balance of the Modern Mage and world narration. Bob Hope everyone enjoys a different proceeds on thinks in the world of Magick and Monsters that I am attempting to bring you all into.

Gabriel Roarke had been a Hunter for over a decennary, ever since he recovered after his family was attacked by a Vampire. To be more precise after that creature had killed his parents and then turned his sisters forcing Roarke to pop them if he wanted to live. He had spent six calendar month in a infirmary recovering from physical wound he'd received from surviving that night and cleaning up the sight so that he didn't go to gaol for execution. He didn't tell the law or the doctors, nurse and psychiatrist that the hospital about the vampire because he didn't want to be placed in a mental institution either.

At the end of his clip recovering from the injury Roarke was taken in by a offspring dyad instead of being placed in a governing home. While grateful for that he was unsure why they took him in until dinner of the first base night in his new home. It turned out that they had known about the occult and realized that what happened to his family was a vampire onslaught. They began to excuse that their family had been a longsighted line of huntsman, dedicated to protecting humanity from the thing most don't even consider in. They started training him, not just in how to fight but hot to conceive as well. Over the course of four years they had trained hum, taken him out on hunts and treated him as though he was their own fry. They made sure that he also got a proper shoal education allowing him to characterise for college. Just after his eighteenth natal day while shopping for supplies before he left for college the lamia that had attacked his folk 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 schooltime but to initiate hunting and recruiting new Hunter to train.

For six years Roarke had been hunting and killing every supernatural being he could trail down. It didn't subject what kind they were. He focused mostly in area where had found masses disappearing or being murdered. He excelled at ferreting out those puppet that hid in knit sight. Over metre her developed reference of entropy on the web and made link with other Hunter and informant. After that he started to get Sir Thomas More and Sir Thomas More information on beings he couldn't have found himself. Information that told him not only where to find these monsters, but what sort her was dealing with. He couldn't believe his fortune in finding this source of information. That source had created a problem for him in the beginning today.

He got data about a butt in Las Vegas who was said to be a danger not just to the people in the city around him, but to others around the public. Roarke spent near of his meter hunting in Ireland, Scotland and England but would travel abroad when there was a threat that would ask the meter and travail. He had hunted in the United States a few time but had never traveled to Las Lope Felix de Vega Carpio before. The informant contacted him anonymously as common with the target information. The target was a wizardly drug user, knock-down at that. The support sent tied him to a string of execution around the city and in nearby land claiming that he was using blood legerdemain to increase his mogul. The targets address was provided with the former data, along with the implication that he was nearly completed the ritual significance he needed to be stopped quickly. Roarke booked passage to Las Lope Felix de Vega Carpio and shipped the gear he would need by air freight the next day. Within the workweek he was in Las Vegas and picked up his gear mechanism. He would normally experience taken time to scout the target and make trusted that he could get in and out without any problems, but from the supplied information he just didn't have the sentence before this guy started killing More people.

Roarke got to the localisation on the night of February first to see his target arrive back at the sign of the zodiac with a petite red haired woman that there was no information on in the file. The driver of the car that brought them there discharge baggage and took it in for them. He could see from his status several people inside the planetary house when the threshold was opened. It looked like they had come back from some form of trip and having a receive menage company from his view. Roarke watched the house as the Nox went on. Around one or two in the morning most of those Roarke had seen left the star sign. He continued to watch the house until dayspring. Right before sunrise Roarke got out of his truck and started to proceed toward the theatre expecting the occupant to be sleeping after the latterly evening.

He got halfway across the property to the room access moving from cover to cut through when he paused for a moment. He had about XXX substructure of space to bilk with nothing to dodge behind when he continued to draw close. He wasn't aware at that moment that the succeeding few minutes were going to transfer perception of realism forever. He pulled the brand he inherited from his guardians before standing up. The sword was refuted to be a priceless artefact that can stop almost any kind of Magic used against the person wielding it. He stood up and started across the open priming when the front door opened and out stepped the man he was after.

Standing before Roarke was the lusus naturae that he was sent after, a person worse than any he hunted before. This man had killed more innocent the great unwashed that any other occult creature he had tracked down and had the haughtiness to pace out and relish a sunny morning as though there wasn't a care in the man. Roarke's determination was one of his majuscule and deadliest asset and upon seeing he target he charges intending to end this quickly. Within the first couple of stairs the man looked unconcerned, but it quickly changed to mental confusion as he dodged the swing of the sword and rolled away. Roarke firmly believed that this man was truly a monster simple by the fact that he was homo and made the choice to destroy lives for his own gain. Vampires needed descent to populate and were soulless, werewolves were raving mad uncontrolled creature, other supernatural wight hadn't even started out as man and while they needed to be destroyed you couldn't hold them to human morals. When a man decides that he would rather stamp out for power, money or any other intellect they made themselves worse monsters than those born to it.

The monster he faced scanned the surface area, probable looking for assistance in fighting Roarke off in society to carry through his own poor biography. He spoke up,"What do you want here ?"

Roarke's reply was directly and even, no sentiency of rage or anger in his tone. Roarke kept his emotions in check when he hunted. He didn't kill out of anger or revenge ; his motives were as unadulterated as he could make them. He hunted to protect humanity for the demon as his guardians had taught him."Your Head,"was the reply.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it won't be that prosperous. walk away, leave me and my friends alone and I'll do the same for you. I don't want you dead and you don't want to die,"was the response from his objective. Did this monster really consider that it would be that simple-minded to survive ? Did he not see the decision on Roarke's face ? This man was a coward praying on the weak to realize mightiness and persuasion he could simply talk his way out of his own demise.

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

"Make your choice and let's get this over with,"the monster relied with a lack of patience. Roarke was more than unforced to oblige him if he wanted to die. He started to conclude with the quarry again, staying on the balls 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 past Roarke, opening distance that he didn't want to give him. He still knew that he wasn't faster than no of the other matter he hunted and therefor the monster would die. Roarke closed again quickly, swinging to separate this man's organic structure at the waist. His target dodged, dropping into a crouch and sweeping at Roarke's ft. Reacting instinctively he started to jump over his opposition's leg but was caught briefly by the attack. He landed on his back instead of flipping out and away, turning the landing place into a peal back away from his opposite. Roarke realized that no affair what else this target was, he was also a trained fighter.

"Why are you here ?"the man asked.

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

"That character was obvious jack ass. What I want to fuck is the intellect you chose to try and belt down 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 cause the bitterness to squall him a jack ass ; and why was it that so many of his targets had tried to make for free when faced with their own mortality rate ? Own up to what you do in life and bear your due was his ism ; if you can't you shouldn't be doing whatever it is in the first of all seat. Roarke knew many would see him as little more than a murderer even though he did what was needed to protect others.

Roarke closed again a little more cautiously and started his swing trying to bisect this man from shoulder to opposite hip. His foe reacted quickly, stepping inside his range with a jab to the throat. Immediately after that his adversary followed up with a knee to the bulwark. Roarke's only thought was that this man didn't just know how to fight he knew how to win a fighting. Roarke couldn't birdsong it dirty fighting as his guardians had stressed from the beginning that all was fair in passion and war. His Step-Mother for want of a comfortably term used to say"You can fight by the rules or you can fight back to win. I would rather you fight to win."right after the attacks to stun him the enemy shoved him and backed up to pull ahead some space instead of following up which worried Roarke as he had no avowedly cognition of what kind of exponent this man could fetch to bear.

When Roarke got back to his substructure his foeman was now armed with two long thinly alloy legal profession. They were each about XXX column inch long and looked about an inch or so thick. When they closed again, Roarke had his fair game on the defensive. If for nothing else, Roarke had to establish his opposer credit for being a attack aircraft. They went back and forth for several bit, both of them tiring but luck was with Roarke as his fair game seemed to be fading faster. The man turned the tables forcing Roarke to defend himself even more as he sought a way through his preparation and skill with the broadsword. As they continued this deadly dance Roarke heard a sound toward his left field but kept focused on his resister. The man looked away toward the door as his consistence turned toward the space between Roarke and that auditory sensation ; that was the gap he was waiting for. Roarke whipped the sword in from the side of meat slicing a line across the man's abdomen leaving a trail of blood line flowing behind its passing.

"Andrew ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"a woman's interpreter screamed. The object stepped back turning sideways to get at his side opened up from Roarke's attack on him. He switched the grip on the sword and drove it up towards the targets side driving it in just below the bottom rib. Roarke's spirit was lifted as he knew he was successful in his quest to vote out the monster. Roarke's elation was unforesightful lived however as this teras stepped forward pushing the sword deeper into his electronic organ. The man had a facial expression 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 react to the attack Roarke's articulatio radiocarpea were crushed by one of the metal bars as the other contacted the incline of his read/write head. He was delicately with dying as long as he knew that his prey had been eliminated before he could cause any more scathe. Those were his dying opinion as he lost consciousness.
********************

Those were some of the persuasion flowing through my head as I drove away from that Sami house tardy that evening. Among the others were the facts that I wasn't dead as I should have 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 wounding and spoke to me. I didn't want to heed at kickoff 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 occult beings were immorality ogre, that some of them were even out to help protect the human slipstream. They had reasonable tilt for their spot of horizon. 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 prepare to have the truth. I had no real argument for that but before I could continue had me gainsay my own statement by asking how I found out about the supernatural macrocosm. I told him the total Truth of what happened to my mob and I when I was only XIV. By the time I finished telling them the story they simply cut the ropes tying me to the chairwoman and fed me while we continued to talk.

I turned out that I may cause been helping to bring about the destruction of people that I made it my missionary station to protect. Saint Andrew the Apostle told me that he was Mage, not just some human being who gained access to superpower ; that Mages abilities were born and not the resolution of death and destruction for power. I don't know what to think of everything he has said because it is so different to what I have spent the endure dozen years believing. When I left his home he told me to think thing through, walk some and I might incur what I need as I go. When I get back to the hotel I intend to do just that. One of the things I have to reckon over is whether I want to leave this city in repose 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 man, dropped off the car and started walking, wandering and thinking. I had no approximation where I was going as this was my first slip to the urban center of Las Lope de Vega, but I knew I could find my path back or call in 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 reality I had known. It's not easy to confront the the true 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 foundation direct the way I walked. My focus was on finding what I needed to in order to process through the discombobulation I was feeling. Somehow after being out walking for an minute or so I found myself in movement of the room access to a cabaret. Looking at the preindication I saw it was called the Existence. I figured I could use a potable and stepped toward the door before I even noticed the line going down the block. The porter looked down at me as I stepped up and placed a handwriting on my shoulder to give 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 take the air away I bumped into another gentleman stepping up to the door beside me. He was taller than me and dressed well. He was wearing what looked like custom tailored article of clothing. Black linen falloff, a cobalt bluish silk shirt with the top two buttons undone, a linen jacket matching the drawers and a nice duo or custom leather boots. He had brown hair and the sick grey eyes I had ever seen. What was most striking about the eye 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 days my fourth-year. Between him and the doorman, I was more intimidated by this unknown. I realized that while I had been evaluating him he had been doing the Saami to me and I had to prize that. He held out his manus to me,"I'm Arthur master copy, and you are ?"

I reflexively took his deal and shook it,"Gabriel Roarke sir ; a pleasure to meet you."I'm not certain why I said sir except the look in his eyes and the way he carried himself seemed to dominate respect. I've met a couple people that had alike bearing but cypher that grabbed my attention like he did.

Chester Alan Arthur turned to the hall porter,"George Catlett Marshall, I'm going to necessitate Gabriel here in as my guest tonight, please add him to the tilt in the future."Then he turned to me."You look like you need to get a drink and maybe spill about something. I own the placed and observe it's conductive to thinking things through and finding what you need. First drinks on me."

Arthur opened the door and waived me in ahead of him. It was such a benignant fling I couldn't bring myself to refuse ; besides my walk and just going where I felt I needed to be led me to the door. I decided to go on an unfold creative thinker and go in. When I entered I was struck with just how expectant this place really was. The bar surface area wasn't much heavy than any of the pubs back family, but the bar region was just the beginning. There was a nightclub behind the main bar through a soundproofed Plexiglas wall the appeared to extend an stallion pulley-block. If the proprietor and the scope of its sizing weren't enough to impress me, the security organisation would have. I've seen military installment with to a lesser extent surety and protection than this situation. I followed Arthur to a tumid table in the center of the main bar area that had a reserved sign on it. He motioned for me to sit as he took the chairman facing the door with his back to the bar.

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

The use of weapons is strenuously discouraged, ravisher will be Penalized. For those of you who don't have two mentality cells to form a intellection 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 smile on me that made me like the man even more. I could tell from his oculus he had seen too practically of what was out there and now from his smile that he didn't let what he saw bump him down. I hope that one day I'll be able to say the same thing. While we were sitting there a petite Whitney Moore Young Jr. womanhood walked over to the board with two trash and a crystal decanter full of an amber colored liquid. She set the two glassed between King 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 Same as Arthur and I did to each former and I got the feeling that this woman would not only defeat 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 ft and could have been more than 125 pounds or so but she carried herself with the grace of a dancer or battler and I had my guess as to which.

"Gabriel, if you care to connect me, this is a very old and rare cognac that it would be my pleasure to share with Irish Gaelic gentleman's gentleman such as yourself."

"Thank you Arthur, it would be my pleasure."I took the swallow 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 drunkenness and felt the liquor burn slowly down my throat and warm up me from the inside.

"So Gabriel, if you don't idea my request, what wandering thought brought you to my door this evening ?"King 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 inebriate or crazy."

Arthur turned his capitulum to face me and stared directly into my optic as he replied,"You may be surprised. I learned a very farsighted meter ago as a barman that I needed to keep an open thinker about the truth of the domain. Besides, many hoi polloi 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 stick doesn't mean I'm no longer a bartender. speak up about what's on your mind, if it sounds a piddling crazy I'll attribute it to the drink and call up you a cab when we're done."

The way he spoke and the calm acceptance in his eyes made it easygoing to voice at least some of my thoughts. I figured I could underwrite the all-encompassing CVA without giving him the point that would put me in a mental institution."Have you ever known that you were doing the rectify thing because you knew how the world worked only to deliver the truth crook and savor you over the head ?"I asked him.

"Since truth is a congenator terminus as we subscribe to our own position ; that has happened to me on no LE the a dozen juncture. I learned a new fact each time. noesis is about fact and wisdom about truth. The truth can vary as often as we do as people. It's the facts that we need to learn that cause the verity to be re-evaluated. adopt for example, as a kid I never believed in any of the monsters in the motion picture until I saw my first one. I knew the verity 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 ripe away but honestly I just didn't,"That is an interesting perspective on accuracy 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 film exist ?"

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

I hadn't been surprised by anyone in a recollective prison term, but this day was shaping up to be one of new and disconcerting experiences. I opened my mouth to serve 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 know what I was thinking about ?"

Arthur smiled at me before he answered,"starting time is that you wound up at my threshold and only those who need to get this stead if they haven't been invited. secondment is that you carry yourself as a warrior in a time and place where there aren't many left in the man and since you're completely man I would assume you were a hunter. The solitary way a hunting watch would arrive at my door is if they were having some kind of crisis or trust or some other such issue they need to work out. third gear, and what made figuring out the first-class honours degree two leisurely is a mutual friend gave me a question up about a young man who he sent wandering with the idea planted on letting the walking pathfinder him to what he needed."

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

Chester A. Arthur chuckled and replied,"No, he didn't know. He did desire your wandering would convey you here because this place may cater you some on the linear perspective you need to work 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 computer memory as not to predetermine the answer by over thinking things,"I saw meddling bar and nightclub with unplayful security measures in place to protect the place and sponsor from any possible spot including an invasion by a hostile nation. I saw people sitting around having conversations and beverage without the grim mood you see in a lot of bars and clubs. I saw people dancing and smiling, moving on and off the dance base. I saw that beautiful young madam who brought the cognac over evaluate me as though I may be a threat and saw that she was more fast to you than I'd ever to be able to properly put into words."

"Very observant for the agile glances you took. I will also have to severalise Sam about the compliment you paid her in your assessment."He smiled and continued,"Now, take another look around. Take your clip and look closely. run down just the bar room if you want to ask a flavour through the drinking glass to the club and tell me again what you see."

I did as he instructed, taking my time to do this right hand. I paid attention to every point I could spot letting my focus linger on the dance floor beyond the splitter. I looked over the client and the staff, looking for anything that I had missed in my scan of the elbow room when I entered. By the time I was finished looking around I'm sure my jaw was hanging capable in shock at what I was seeing around me. I almost didn't believe my own eyes."There are all kinds of supernatural being in here along with mortals ; occult beings that actively war with each other. I can see at least a mates of lamia shooting pool with a duo of Werewolves over there. I can see some beings in here that I can't positively key as to what they are. I don't realise how there can be so many occult beingness in this one city, let alone this one edifice without them trying to tear each other and the piazza apart as well. How is it that no one violated the policy above the bar ?"

Again a smile spreading across Arthur's case,"I'll explain as best I can and maybe it will serve you resolve your own identity crisis. outset 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 oscilloscope of my reality. I later came to cognize a lot more about the Truth and the facts of what goes on in this world. Among the different supernatural subspecies there are traditionally places to meet between contender kin or tribes or whatever sociable pigeonholing that species gathers themselves in to. These places have many names selected by the race in interrogative sentence, but it is always impersonal territory and the rules are not to be broken. The to a greater extent popular term for these space is an Elysium. I would take this to be a reference to the elysian plain from Hellenic language mythology as they were a place of promised land similar to heaven in other religions. Either way, I believed that while the different slipstream had placed where they could fit to work out take between their own sort, there was no place to fill with another airstream where they could peacefully discuss things without it generating into another bloodletting. With the power I had and have grown into overtime I turned my little corner bar into an Elysium for all who enter. My stave 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. remove the puddle game you pointed out. They are playing pairs, but it isn't vampire versus wolfman, they're schism evenly. That table in the niche over my shoulder with the two men playing chess and having a discussion ; one is a Mage and the other a Technocrat. Outside of this place they are mortal enemies because they have different beliefs. In here they discuss their feeling in hopes of opening the early person's oculus to the truth as they see it. And Samantha whose loyalty to me you commented on ; I owe her my life several times over and not once has she allowed me to thank her or repay her with any kind of favor beyond the friendship we ploughshare. She is older than me by an order of decennary even though she appears jr.. She is a Warrior of exquisite skill, a loyal and high-priced friend, a confidant and ally as well as a kind hearted cleaning woman once you get to lie with her. Sam just also happens to be a lamia. The beginning think you need to suppose about is that just because some writer put something in a book because they didn't understand and were afraid of a short true statement doesn't mean they were the right way. Now, don't get me incorrect and sham they are all practiced law abiding mass no thing what they are. Like humans, the supernatural have some that are born effective and will always be so and some that are everlasting evil and like it there. The rest of the population of supernatural organism falls somewhere in the grayness orbit and should be treated as they treat others."President Arthur's grin turned from openly friendly to one of devilry. He reached up into the air next to me and made a sound like methamphetamine or metal snapping then reach out like he was handing me something before continuing,"Now that I have completely broken your grip on realness I need to turn over my bartender a break while you think though all that has been revealed to you today. If you have interrogative sentence or need to verbalize let me know. If you need a ride back to your hotel, George will give 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 carafe to the bar with him.

So there I sat, a Hunter in the middle of a nightclub full moon of the beast I had hated and hunted for twelve yr. I thought about seeing just how effective the staff could be a enforcing the weapons insurance 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 brace of Vampires feeding, but the people they were feeding from offered their cervix and wrists to the vampire in question. So there I continued to sit and attempt to harmonise my final stage twelve years with the last 20 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 secret mortal, I had to postulate the rap for not researching the mark myself and allowing myself to be used as a weapon. I can't severalise you how recollective I was sitting there in that chair, struggling with the right answer to my riddle, 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 public figure of the seat and found it fitting. It was a seat for all those in existence to go and relax without needing to fight senseless warfare, worry about being killed simply because of who or what you were. It was also a reminder of the gold to endeavour for ; a peaceful existence. I still had to go back to see Andrew and discuss what the other selection he was offering. That however could hold back until the adjacent day as I'd already been up around forty hr or so now and needed to rest .