Project Twin Fires 004

 Chapter 3 The Oath

A few minutes later, Adrian sat in the living room, the letter in front of him. His face buried in his hands, tears working their way between the gaps in his fingers, dripping down, staining the old parchment below.

“So you are Sam.”, said the young woman, her voice soft. She was looking at him with a guarded expression tinged with worry.

“No.”, Adrian said. “Yes. Not really.”, he looked up, his eyes red, “I was. A very long time ago. I am someone else now. Been many different men since… this.”, he pointed at the letter. He hung his head looking at his feet, “I thought I left that behind.”, he shook his head slowly. “But right now… right now I feel what it was like. What it was like to be Samuel Everard,” a smile appeared on his starting small but quickly growing broad, reaching from ear to ear, he looked up again beaming at his guest. “Those where good times, ridiculous, often dangerous, but never boring. The smile froze, “Until I lost her…”, and shattered.
A long silence followed, he kept staring past his guest into a world that now only existed in his memories, while the woman waited for him to return.
He exhaled slowly, deflating falling back into his chair until he was just the crumpled remains of an old man. “After that I wasn’t Samuel ever again.”, his eyes still unfocused remained open and unblinking.

“…er…”, said the woman, “Sir?”

He blinked, quickly at first, then more slowly trying to force some moisture back into his eyes. “Yes?”

His guest seemed relieved to see him move again, her posture relaxing visibly. “So… who are you know?”, she asked.

“Now? Now, I’m Adrian McDougall. At least that’s who I’m supposed to be.”

“Supposed to be? Did something go wrong? Changed into the wrong body?”, she asked, a fain glimmer of curiosity starting to glimmer in her eyes, “That one you get there, is pretty old.”, she said looking at him with sympathetic sorrow.

“What? Got?” said Adrian.

“So what is your deal anyway.”, by now most signs of sympathy had faded from her face,having being replaced by something intensely analytical, she had started pacing around him examining him closely. “Do you transfer your mind to another host? Is it some kind of possession? Do you build yourself a new body?”, she hesitated for a second, “No that can’t be it. You’d not make such a body if you could.”, she shook her head. “So spiritual? Or are you some kind of ancient parasite or symbiont?”, noticing his horrified expression she said, “Hmmm, no parasite then. So some kind of regeneration? Like the doctor?”

“What doctor?”

She was about to answer that question but thought better of it. “It would just confuse you more.”, she looked up towards the ceiling, brows knit in thought, “Let me put it this way, when you die, through some kind of magic or force, your old body is remade into a new one and that transformation also changes your mind? The price you have to pay to cheat death?”

“What…no? Interesting concept though… But, no. I don’t die.” Adrian said.

She looked him straight in the eyes. “So how comes that you are now Adrian Mc…somethingsomething and no longer Sam Everard, or any of the other people you where between then and now?”, she raised her eyebrows as she said that.

“It’s Samuel, only Elinor ever called me Sam.”, he said. “And I don’t die. I’m immortal. What I do is change who I am, every once in a while.”

“So you just change your name. Man that’s lame.”

“It’s more than that.”, why did no one ever understand that. “Whenever I reach a point where my live is complete in a way, be it good or bad, or just because to much time has passed, I retire form the world, go into a deep hibernation, leave my old life behind,” he cast a quick glance at the letter, “and when I wake up again I start a new life.”

“That makes sense…” the woman in front of him said nodding slowly, “Oh shit!”

“What?”

“I have the worst timing in the world.”, she said her eyes growing wider. “I thougt you could help me, but I am to late… or to early… in an case I’m fucked.”

“I beg your pardon?”, Adrian said. “Also who in Gods name are you?”

“I am Britta May.” She said, pointing at the letter she added, “Elinore, was my ancestor and I came here to ask you to fulfil your oath.”

“The oath…”, Adrian was looking at the past, Elinor frail and old looking at him with a sad smile.

“You and your grand gestures,” she said. “You don’t have to do this. What’s important, is that you are here, with me. Now.”

“I want to.” Adrian said, trying to hold back his tears, his tears however would not be held back. “I couldn’t save you…” he looked at her, her body emaciated, her face gaunt, her eyes now cloudy, their old fire now just embers. To his surprise his heart found new ways to break even further.

“Sam.”, she said her voice calm. “I’m fine. I lived such a long life and I’ve been blessed to have you by my side this whole time. I’m tired. And as much as I would love to spend more time with you and all the others, I’m also looking forward to be able to rest.”

“This.”, he waved his hand at here, “is not right. It is not what was supposed to happen. You should not have to die. You were not even supposed to grow old… It’s wrong and it is my fault…”, he looked out of the window, outside the sun was setting, bathing the world in warm light, it would have been a beautiful evening under other circumstances.

“How is this your fault. This is the way life is.” Said Elinor. “At least for most of us. Everyone great and small, animal and human, grows old and dies.”

“I don’t.”

“You are an exception.”, she said, her voice inflected by the deep authority of a mother, “It is also not as if you didn’t try. How long have you been looking for a way dear?”

 “More than sixty years… Since the day I knew you.”

“Even before we were together?”

“Yes.”

“What if I had rejected you?”

“You did.”

As she relived her memories she began smiling again. “A couple of times.”

“You thought, I was an idiot.”, he said, pouting very slightly.

“No. I never thought that you were an idiot. I found it extremely exhausting having to listen to you waffle the whole time.”, she laughed. “However in time I came to see your charming side, your curiosity and your openness. That I really liked. Also you made a real effort to win me over.”, as she was remembering her eyes became clear and she sat up more, life slowly returning into her frame. “The impressive part, the part that saved you,” she shot him a pointed glance, “was that you made an effort to understand me and you moving closer to me. Most other men usually tried to convince me to move closer to them.”, she took his hand pulling it closer to her. Her hand was dry and cold. “I chose well and I even manged to make so much less annoying.”, the energy slowly seeped out of her again, she relaxed back into her pillows here eyes turning slightly opaque again. “You worked so long on making me immortal. You never gave up and you stood always by my side until the very end. What more could you have done?”

“Succeeded.”, he said clenching his jaw.

Elinor shook her head gently. “You are such a child.”, she sighed.

“It is one of my great qualities.”, he tried to put on one of his most winning smiles, it came out faint and crooked.

“It is a quality you have.”, she said, “Sometimes it’s even one of your good ones.”

His smile did not give up working its way slowly towards victory, when he remembered that it was only a matter of days before he would never be able to talk to Elinor ever again. His chest constricted, breathing became and effort, the smile was washed away by a new stronger wave of tears. “I don’t want you to die. There is so much left for us to see, to experience, there is so much that I still want to share with you. I…”, he sank with his face towards her hand sobbing, holding on to it.

Her voice was calm but cracking, “I know. I wish I could stay with you longer too. But I’m so very tired, my love, I need to rest.”, she slowly stroked his head, as tears began to well from her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I just can’t go on anymore. You know I look forward to find some peace. It will just be hard not to be with you, I will miss you so much.”, the hand caressing him stopped moving grabbing hold of him instead. After a while the hand relaxed, “But then I will be in Paradise, waiting for and you’ll still be here.”, she chuckled.

He looked up, his eyes bloodshot, his voice a rasp. “What if there isn’t an afterlife?”

“Really? This question? From you of all people?”, she said, shaking her head. “What did Epicurus say again?”

“There is either a heaven, in which case everything is fine, or there is nothing in which case everything is still fine because when we are nothing we also won’t care about anything anymore.”, he croaked.

“When I showed you his teachings you really got carried away by them for quite a while.”

“The man had some very good points.”, he said slowly sitting up again, wiping his tears with the sleeve of his shirt.

“Yes but you did go a bit overboard with the whole thing. As usual.”

“No sense in doing things half hearted.”, he said. “One of my most charming qualities?”

“Not half hearted, but your need to always do things,” she thought about the right way to put it, “double hearted? It can be very exhausting. But no. This is really is one of your most charming qualities. Being swept along with your newest obsession or getting you to obsess over something with me. That really makes you smile, Lucifer.”

“So I am the devil now?” he said, mock offended.

“Well you did tempt me. Over and over again.”, her mouth and eyes coming alive with a deep smile that told a thousand stories. “And you of all men shine the brightest.”

For a while the just held hands lost in each-others eyes.

“So,” Elinor said after a while, she shivered slightly as the cold night air was now seeping through the window, “about that oath of yours.”

He blinked, “It is the least I can do.”, he handed her an envelope. “It’s all here written down so that you can pass it on to our children, grand children, one generation after another until the time comes for me to fulfil it.”, he sat up straight as he said it his voice now steady, deep and full of conviction. “I could not save you.”, it took him a bit to remain steady, “But in the time of their greatest need. When they are under the greatest danger and there is nowhere else for them left to turn to, they can call me and I will help them. I will save them. This I swear, on my life, my honour and all my knowledge.”

She laughed. “You spend far to much time in the theatre my love.”, she laughed, it was warm and deep, she extended her hand with a flourish, “Well then Lord Everard, I do accept your gracious offer, may our family flourish and grow strong and should a great dark force arise to threaten one of our great scions you shall hasten from what ever great fortress you are residing in to their side to escort them into the bright light of victory.”, she took the envelope holding it close to her heart.

“I love you Elinor.”

“I know, my love.”




                    *    *    *



Adrian was still looking at the tear stained envelope in front of him very slowly rising out of the memories of Samuel Everard. The young woman was no longer standing next to him, a quick look around revealed that she had flopped down on the couch, both feet on the table staring towards the ceiling, with an expression of anger mixed with a strong dose of growing despair. Every once in a while her lips moved, but she made no sound, he hand gripping the strange wrapped up narrow cross, holding it close to her chest.
When she noticed that Adrian was looking at her, she pulled her self up a bit, putting her feet back on the floor. She looked over to him trying to push a flimsy pokerface over the storm of her emotions.

“Are you OK again?”, she asked. “You had a major senior moment there. Is that how it happens? How much time do you have left anyway?”

“How what happens? Time left?” Adrian said, trying to remember if he had somehow missed a part of the conversation.

“Before you have too…”, Britta appraised him brows raised, “…lie in your sarcophagus? Build a cocoon? No? Dig yourself in int the earth?”

Adrian did not know what to respond to that and tried out an indulgent smile.

She sighed, “You said, that once your life phase comes to an end you go into a coma to regenerate… How long do you have left?”

The confusion expanded filling the room.

“I don’t know how long it will take… er…”, he was still trying to find a way to explain what was happening in a way that would make sense to the young woman maybe then they coul start finding some proper answers.

“Come on.” Said Britta standing up her eyes fixed on him, “at least a ballpark guess.”, she gesticulated waving around the narrow cross which appeared to have a certain heft to it, “Months? Weeks?”, another pause her straight posture slowly melting into a slump, “Days? Please don’t tell me it will be days…”, he arms now hung limply at her sides.

“Days?” Adrian sitting up in his chair, “No. I will be decades before I will even consider going into the long sleep again.”, he suppressed a shudder at the thought of another long sleep, “Truth be told, I’d be happy if I don’t need to go into the long sleep for a century at least. I’D even consider getting a… job.”, this time the shudder would not be denied.

Britta was looking at him finding a bit of steel to put back into her backbone. “That’s good to hear I guess.”, she exhaled, “But you are soooo old. How does that even work?”

“I’m immortal. Of course I’m soooo old”, he had to take care to not let his imitation of her expression slip into mockery, “Which is probably the reason why you came to me in the first place, right?” this was a good point though Adrian, one which he hoped would yield answers for a change.

“That’s not what I meant. I know that you are a facultative immortal…”     

“Facultative?” he asked.

Britta just waved ignoring the question, “… I did not expect you to look old. I mean, for your age you do look pretty good I guess. I was just expecting something…”, she blushed very slightly, “…younger?”

Adrian tilted his head. “So, you don’t want my help because of the way I look?”, he inhaled preparing to start a ‘young lady’ diatribe, hesitating for a second as he realised how old that would make him sound, the getting furious at himself because he even thought that.

“It’s not the way you look.”, Britta said, despite there being a tinge of disappointment in her expression, “It’s more that instead of having now less problems I can’t shake the feeling that I just made everything worse. I thought you could help me…”

“With what?”, Adrian said, allowing his patience to slowly slip away.

“Instead, I’m putting you at risk too and will need to protect us both…”, she gripped her narrow cross tighter, now with both hands, reminding Adrian of a renaissance picture of a saint turning to God in her final hours, maybe with to much reproach in her expression than would be considered pious.

It took him a moment to get what Britta had just said. “I beg your pardon?”, he said, standing up to his full hight, his back stretching further then it had in decades adding two inches to his hight and taking away 5 years from his appearance. “You protecting me?”, his voice would have made angry Moses proud. “Young lady, I have faced things you can’t even imagine. I have fought enemies beyond your wildest imagination. Things you’d not want to see in your deepest nightmares.”, as he inhaled his muscles started filling out, colour slowly returning into his grey hair, his eyes now perfectly clear regaining their glow, “And beyond that I’m still standing in the tides of time growing more powerful with each passing day where every one else has succumbed to it. Great cultures, people, kingdoms, cultures and empires rose and fell while I stood witness to them. All of them ground to sand and ashes, while I still remain.”

A silence followed that quickly transitioned from heavy in meaning to awkward. The fury that had flared up int Adrian had faded as quick as it had risen. Britta was staring at him with large eyes, she had tried to take a step back but the sofa was in the way so she was leaning back to get a bit more space between the two of them, the base of her cross pointed towards him to keep him at the distance.

“OK Gandalf,” she said, “I’ll take the ring.”

 “What?”

“It means that you can chill man… I was worried about you. Sorry I meant no offence.”, Britta slowly relaxed again lowering the point of her cross again. “You can be quite impressive when you flip out.”, she gave him a quick nod of approval.

  Now it was Adrian’s turn to relax. He sat down again in his chair. His posture remaining in its straighter conformation. “It’s OK… I should apologise too, it was unseemly behaviour on my part. There seems to be quite some confusion about our respective situations. How about this. I will go to the kitchen make us a nice infusion of Hierba Luisa, while I do that you can gather your thoughts, then will sit down with a nice cup of tea and start again?”

“Sounds good to me.”, she said.

A little while later they sat huddled over their mugs of steaming tea. Adrian didn’t say anything, waiting for Britta to take the lead, concentrating on the surface of his tea working very hard to ignore the letter that still lay on the table opening a vast abyss of memories that right now were unwelcome.

“I’m a huntress”, Britta finally said. Adrian looked up at her, the first traces of a question worming their way to his mouth, he tried to keep them away, the glance Britta shot him helped to eradicate them. “Not the dressing in green, hiding in the bushes and shooting Bambi kind.”

Adrian wondered what a “Bambi” was but decided to remain silent.

“I eliminate supernatural threats.”, she paused, Adrian had the impression that it wasn’t to impress him but that she was looking for the right words. “It is the family business?”, she tried, she grimaced, “That sounds wrong. It is a vocation?”

“A tradition.”, Adrian ventured.

Britta mulled it over for a moment. “Kinda. It’s hard to explain. We are a normal family, but then that’s what I would say having grown up with it. It is a tradition because we’ve been doing this since for ever…”, she glanced at Adrian, “…we’ve been doing it for many generations. I don’t think it would qualify as ‘forever’ for you. There were times in the past where it was our main job so to say. These days it is something done on the side. But we aren’t mercenaries… You have to pay for our services though… er…”

“Take your time.” Adrian said, leaning back sipping his tea.

“OK. If there is a threat we will become active, we have to. I mean it’s the right thing to do, right? You don’t just standby when someone is about to be murdered when you have the means to protect them.”, she said.

Adrian nodded.

“At the same time what we do is hard work, its a craft and it is built on many centuries of experience. It’s a craft. You don’t give that away for nothing. On one hand you need to earn a living, on the other hand we deserve respect and recognition, you know?”

“How much recognition and respect can be found in a coin?” Adrian asked, while the words are still slipping out of his mouth he was already cursing his lack of discipline. This was the part where he listened and learnt instead of offending the speaker. He could feel Ishraq’s disappointment wash over him from the distant past.

Britta was just looking at him blinking slowly, Adrian was trying not to wince, when he saw that she was was starting to smile at him.

“Right? I always wondered about that. Part of it is that hunting takes time and we need weapons, materials, training, you know that all costs money. Still, how is presenting an invoice making people respect you? Dad says that it is part of the tradition, mom tells me not to waste time with wishy washy philosophy and Eric is an idiot…”

“Eric?”

“My older brother.”

“Makes sense.” Adrian said.

“So I did my own research into the family history. Took me a while but I guess this happened during the time of the bright shadow.”

“Good name.” Adrian said, “Never heard of that. What era is that supposed to be?”

“The enlightenment. The light of reason began to shine in Europe psuhing away the shadows of superstition and the dark arts. It’s funny really because in the beginning the hunter clans, where highly respected, an integral part of the push towards a better age. We helped sort the wheat of true knowledge from the chaff of superstition. We hunted down the enemies of process, we helped eliminate those who would wield the arts without responsibility and seal the most dangerous knowledge until the time that the new light shone bright enough that it could again be unearthed by a humanity that had advanced sufficiently…”

Adrian laughed. “Oh those assholes!”, he quickly stifled the laugh and looked at Britta. She just returned the look with a crooked smile.

“Nah, it’s OK”, she said still smiling, “From what I read ‘we’”, she made finger quotes as she said that, “where horrible assholes. During the later years of the movement some of the hunter guilds where eradicated as they were deemed to far removed from the light. One of my favourite parts of that story. Somehow humans can’t seem to be able to turn everything into a religion and then have fanatics ruin it.”, she shook  her head, “In the end what happened next served us right, I guess. When it was decided that the world was in order, the hunters were not needed anymore. The light had cast all shadows away…”, she snorted, “As if… Well in the end many of the lines died when they went secular. The ones who survived had to get proper jobs and do the hunting on the side. Where they once were hailed as heroes, after that people made fun of them at best. The rest of time time it was calling them names, often suspecting them of being some kind of charlatans or con-men who were responsible for the problems they caused in the first place…
That’s the time when the bit with getting paid in coin, favour or what ever else, which in turn became a tradition. Kinda works too. Most of the time people don’t need us. Either the official protection forces can handle it or the people don’t even know that we exist much less how to call us. In the end we mostly work for people like you and people like you, and I mean no offence and this is with all due respect etc… call us it us usually because of reasons that they are to blame for in the first place.”, she paused watching Adrian waiting for his reaction.

Adrian laughed. “Don’t worry. Pretty much guilty as charged.”

“Also these kind of people are usually filthy rich in one way or another. And if you can pay and it is you own fault? It’s only fair to get paid in advance. We are putting our lives on the line after all.”

“I agree.” Adrian said, “But now back to the part where I can help you? You seem to be capable enough. I mean you found me in the first place, which is in equal parts annoying and impressive. You come from a bloodline of hunters. You did read the letter, so this has to be a very serious situation.”

“It is.”

Silence filled the room again, slowly expanding.

“So…?” Adrian said.

“Thing is, this is an educated guess of sorts.” She paused again, her gaze wandering. “A very well educated guess. Went to university educated. Right now making its PhD I’d say.”

Britta was squirming in the sofa, avoiding Adrian’s eyes. He just waited.

“Someone is hunting us, people like me and my family. They are being careful about it. Spread across the world. The mortality rate all in all still pretty much within the standard deviation. However, to many hunters are missing in action, no bodies, that is strange. Also the ones that leave a corpse are usually mutilated, in a way that is consistent with what they were hunting. And yet… It’s strange you know, they miss key organs or limbs often connected to their main powers and what makes it really suspicious, the monster always disappears with them.”

As Adrian listened to Britta he began leaning forward a bit, his body tensing up ready to go into action at a moments notice. “That does sound very serious. But also extremely suspicious. What do your parents say to all this?”

“Nothing.” Britta said eyes cast down.

“Nothing? You told them all this and they did not react? I… why?”

“They said they were going to ‘look into it’ and that I could relax. I don’t think that they are taking it seriously enough. When they do I’m afraid it will be to late for me…”, she said.

“What aren’t you telling me right now?” Adrian said, he knew that he was either missing an important point or that Britta was withholding some vital detail. “What you just said sounds extremely alarming and painfully obvious. How can they they ignore this?”

“Because it only sounds obvious. Educated guess remember?” Britta said, looking up again, her brows knit together, “It would be obvious if it happened only in one country. It would still be hard to hide if it happened in Europe. However this is spread across the entire world. A hunter’s dead body is found, his liver missing, after hunting a werewolf? Weird. But there are many possibilities why that could happen. Stranger things have happened. A huntress going after a malevolent living flame disappears? Again strange, especially if the flame is never heard from again. But, you know you find some ashes, some paraphernalia of the hunt. It happens. Two brothers, veteran hunters, well known in the community drive into a town were a recently reopened mine has led to some very strange deaths and disappearances and they solve the problem but are tragically ‘killed’ when the mine collapses while they are still inside? Tragic, especially if you consider that that would be more of a rookie mistake. But how do they say happens to the best of us.
You see where this is going?”

“Maybe?” Adrian said, “If this had all happened in say… Spain, it would start looking suspicious, however if this happens all across the globe it would get lost in the noise…”

“Exactly.”

“I’m asking this from one professional to the other, what makes you think this isn’t just noise?” Adrian said, keeping his voice as measured as possible, he did not want this to sound like he was doubting Britta as an individual, this was starting to sound really interesting. It was essential at this point to make sure that Britta’s suspicion was based on more than her instincts running wild. That was Ishraq was fond to say was the ‘way of the animal’.

Britta squared her shoulders, her eyes now piercing his, after a short while she relaxed slightly but kept her gaze fixed on his face as she went on, “As I said I don’t have hard proof. It is hard to know what really is happening in the hunters world. We are not a cohesive group. There is now international association. We have contacts, we here rumours, we work with our networks and read the news looking for telltale signs and do a lot of detective work. We work in obscurity. Has its advantages, but in this case, it makes it easy for an aggressor to hide.
If you were an aggressor looking to… harvest(?) hunters. How would you do that?”

He nodded. “I see your point. This could simply be paranoia, which in your line of work comes with the territory, it is a plausible scenario at least.”

“Right. Now my information is not perfect, but I know enough to see that something is wrong. Also,” she said holding up her index finger, “there is something else. It started with the harvest of organs and body parts and then shifted to disappearances. There is almost no harvesting anymore. The ratio of hunter and monster both being eliminated has remained vaguely the same…”

“Vaguely?”

“As I said, this is all within the margin of error. If this is done by someone he or she or it has done its homework, at least when it comes to statistics. This may as well be normal and me just paranoid.”

“So what is there to convince me that you are right? If I help you keep you safe from an imaginary threat we will have a very long and very boring adventure.” Adrian asked, intrigued with where this was going. He felt a tingle in his skin, a feeling of potential energy building, this could still turn out to be a dud, but there was a strong potential in this story. He had to probe it carefully to see if it held together.

“First of all the switch from mutilation to disappearance, it happens at roughly the same rate.”, she said.

Adrian nodded, both to Britta as well as to him self, this fit, when he extended his will to gently pull at this thread it did not budge.

“Second, it starts with rookies, this makes sense the first few years of a hunter are the most dangerous, but then after about 5 years or so of active duty, veterans start to survive for a longer time. If you make it there you usually last decades. These days most survive long enough to pass on the baton to their children or apprentices and go into semi-retirement.
Here though? After the first 2 or three rookies it is only veterans who are targeted. This happened with the mutilations, then when they stopped this pattern repeated with the disappearances.”

Pull. Resistance. The faint taste of metal in the air.

“Also a paradoxical flaw.” Britta said.

“Oh?”

“Double eliminations”, she said, “Are most probable with Veterans. If you are expire inced enough to have survived over a decade it will be very hard to kill you without you taking your mark with you. This however is something that doesn’t happen all that often. The numbers in the statistics add up as long as you don’t look to closely at them. This looks, feels, tastes and smells suspicious. And when my instincts tell me that something is wrong, I do tend to listen and investigate.”

The living room was slwoly starting to glow in a weak violet light that only Adrian could see.

“How long have you been hunting?” he asked.

She grimaced, “Proper hunting? Two years.”

“Not long enough to have developed a solid professional instinct.”, Adrian said eyebrow raised, “It also makes you a rookie. Which should mean you are not a target.”

She pressed her lips together and almost looked away. Almost. “I know and I’ll come to the rookie part too. This is why I wanted to make sure. My instinct isn’t good enough and I believe that if your instinct tell you something, anything and you have the time to double check you should do it. Back to the point. Suspicious number of Veterans disappearing and they sometimes disappear under circumstances that are bullshit. I mean, a werewolf. Like in one? How high was that hunter to be killed by one of them? While losing his liver? And why the fuck did the werewolf suddenly disappear? Having just eaten a great hunters liver, it would become more powerful and either more feral or more cunning? Why leave its territory? You smell the bullshit too? And let’s say it left why was it never heard from it again? If it was mortally wounded in the battle, after consuming a fucking hunters liver mind you, it crawled away so far into the wilderness that its corps was never found? The disappearances are even worse. So this is the third point, can we agree that this smells fishy?”

“It stinks enough to make the angels in heaven puke.” Adrian said.

Britta snorted, shook her head and continued. “Fifth point and this is where things get really interesting,” she grinned, leaning closer towards Adrian lowering her voice, “the targets are all special in different ways.”

“Special how?” Adrian asked also moving closer matching her conspiratorial voice.

“First it was like taking samples all around the world. That could have still been random. A trick to not get spotted but by now all of the target have something special about them. Black hair and green eyes, for example. Or identical twins but one male one female. You see?” Britta asked.

“What about the two brothers? Where they targets in the early phase?”

“Huh?”   

“The two brothers who disappeared in the mine.”, said Adrian.

“Oh them. Nope they are special. They are known to pretty much every hunter everywhere. If you want to enliven a boring family party just ask what the people think of them. To some they are heroes, others are just waiting for the day where they push the envelope that tiny bit to far so that they themselves become targets and others still think they are idiots…”

“What’s you opinion about them?”

“Idiot heroes, sexy though.”, she grinned, “What makes them specials is that they have worked a bit to close to the enemy, they are tainted, in a sense they are themselves supernatural creatures. They also keep very interesting company. Them disappearing while pushing themselves too far? Plausible. Balances Karma. Supremely ironic. Far to funny to their enemies to not be believed. I call bullshit again though. Buried alive in a mine that was probably the main source of power of some backwater cultists? Please…
But again back on track. The fifth and the final point. The pattern kind of breaks but comes full circle.”

“You should try becoming a fortune teller, you certainly know how to talk like one.” Adrian said.

Britta just rolled her eyes. “Dude, don’t ruin my story.”

“Sorry?”

“So the last point. The people who disappear are now not only veterans anymore. It started with kind of random samples around the world, then went to veterans, moving towards veterans which all stood out in the field in some way or another and now it seems to be focused on individuals that are special in a one of a kind way.”, she leaned back her conspiratorial smile spreading on her face.

Adrian was not quite sure of how to react to that. “You haven’t told me all that to convince me that you are the chosen one.”, it wasn’t really a question. He was just trying to sort through what he just heard.

One corner of Britta’s mouth fell like the most disappointed shooting star, the other twitched slightly. “Is that what you have taken away from what I just told you?”

“No. No it’s not. But you are still not telling me the most important part. Why are you here? Why do you need my help? Or to be more precise what is it that makes you special?”, he raised his hands in what he hopped she would see as a conciliating gesture.

Britta’s face froze, retreating into a more serious expression, her eyes fell. Adrian thought, that that part was off.

“What did you do Britta?”, he asked keeping his voice as calm as possible. The young woman in front of him had been so happy to share her ideas and theories but this was a point she had been avoiding the whole time.

“I…”, she she inhaled slowly, “I… How to put this…”, she pressed her fist against her lips, “OK… This isn’T as dramatic as it sounds. But in short: I should not exist.”

“In which context would that ever not be dramatic?” Adrian asked.

“It’s not about me as a person. It is OK that I exists. This is not some emo emo ‘Oh woe! Hath I only not been born.’ shit. OK?”

“OK…”, he said.

“It’s actually fucking stupid on so many levels.”, Britta said, her colour returning to her with her rising indignation, “In our tradition, the first born child carries on the tradition as a hunter. The second child does not. The second child must remain removed from the tradition at all costs. The third born is then again taught the ways of the tradition. While the first goes out hunting, gaining experience, the third is continually trained and taught. In the end you have the main warrior with the most practical combat experience and the back-up who is also kind of the savant who knows the more occult secrets. And for the second child? Fuck all. Zero. Nothing.”, the last part she had hissed through her teeth.

“How old are you anyway, if you don’t mind me asking?” that was incredibly stupid.  She had gone from sitting with her fists closed, to standing like a rising flame, her gaze alone was enough to push Adrian back deep into his chair with their sheer fury. The she now held the narrow cross by the short end in her right hand it’s far end now pointing directly in Adrian’s face.

“I do actually mind.”, she said glaring at him. “I mind a lot.”

Adrian knew that now he had to chose his next words with utmost care. He pressed his lips together, forcing himself to resume breathing but in the most inoffensive way possible. “I’m very sorry.”, he said and he meant it, “I had assumed that you are not yet so old as to take offence at that question…”, he let that stand in the room, Britta’s rage was tinged by a hint of confusion which was replaced by suspicion. “I maybe should have asked how long you’ve been a hunter.”, the narrowed eyes and increased tension in her body told him that that was a poor choice.

“You already know that.If you had listened to me you’d…”

“You have been a huntress for 2 years now. I remember. I did listen. I was mostly concentrating on the pattern you were describing, I’m  just trying to get all the facts together…”, he waited for the reaction. The threat in front of him was still there but suspicion was ascending. In this case that was good.

“Look I personally don’t really care. I’m over a thousand years old, to me…” ‘you are all children’ was what he wanted to say, but every animal instinct inside of him that was tasked in keeping him alive kicked in the door to his speech centre to silence him before it was to late, under the threat of violence his mind reworded this very carefully, “…everyone under a hundred years is mostly the same.”, he fought hard not to let it sound like a question. It worked. The fury was reduced to smoldering embers directed at others, while the suspicion slowly retreated keeping a hairy eyeball on Adrian.

“So why do you ask?”, she said, her voice still carrying the afterimage of violence.

Adrian wanted to shrug, but as he saw the suspicion on the other side casting a pin point focus on him, he stopped mid-shrug his shoulders pulled up. His instincts that had surrounded his mind surrounded glared at him, some with arms crossed, others cracking the knuckles of their fists daring him to say something stupid again. “It is just information. The more details I know the better. It gives me, us a better insight of what your enemy in the shadows is planning.”, he had decided that it was a good time to treat the situation as fact. “Maybe it doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it does. Could be have a numerological meaning, the time of your training, compared with the digit sum of your age… er… I maybe should have asked for your birthday first, that digit sum is carries great weight in certain occult systems. You have told me enough to infer that you are the second child, you have an older brother, Eric, you mentioned,” as Adrian spoke Britta slowly relaxed,the point of her ‘cross’ dipping towards the floor. He started to relax himself a bit, not too much though as his instincts where still very close to killing him themselves to save at least a shred of their dignity.
“You also have a younger sibling.”, he said. He would have smiled at this point but did not dare to.

Britta’s now looked mostly tired, “Freya.”

“Your younger sister?”

She just nodded.

“Leaving you stranded in the middle while they get to learn all the cool stuff, right?” he saw how her expression hardened again,  this time however her anger was directed to a place far away.

“Eric is an idiot,” he quoted Britta, “and Freya is an ingrate, right?”, it took Adrian a lot of effort to make that question sound deeply rhetorical.

“Ooooh you have nooo idea. She’s the worst. I mean she doesn’t even really care about all of this. She loves the mundane part of life. I don’t get it? Why can’t she take over that part of the family. I mean we are in the fucking 21st century. You know mom said it was OK, even dad didn’t mind… much… But oh she had to do it anyway… That little… She knew I was preparing for it, that I wanted to take over.”, as she talked her anger grew again but now it was not focused on Adrian anymore. After he was done being happy of not being the centre of that particular firestorm he noticed, the immense power emanating from Britta. Her fury, no her passion was a source of incredible power.
“I was doing her a favour!”, she raged on. “But she loves to be the centre of attention. But you know what?”

“It didn’t stop you.” Adrian said.

“Damn right it didn’t. I know more then here, I train more and longer and harder. When I study the lore I really work on understanding it. Fuck, I love reading the lore. She doesn’t. She has top be pushed every inch along the way… You know what the worst part is?” she asked, the flames of her fury now fully under her control.

“No?”

“The worst part is that the idiot that has to tutor her so that she doesn’t fall behind is me.”, her eyes were windows to a furnace that just waited for anyone to come near enough to turn into ash.

“That is outrageous.” Adrian said. He meant it but he still did not dare to raise his voice. “So…?”, he implied the rest of the question.

“My age?”, she asked.

“All of your ages actually. Numerology etc…”

“Eric is 20, still an idiot though. Freya is 14.”

Adrian knew better than to do anything beyond existing in the most inoffensive way possible.

“I’m 16.”

‘Figures.’, he didn’t say.

“So?” she asked him, her gaze again piercing him, for a second Adrian feared that his thought’s had been too loud, so that she had been able to somehow hear them.

“Er…”, he said.

“Numerology?”

“Right. Eric is a 2. Nice balanced number especially in conjunction with the twenty. How long has he been training?”

“Six years.”

“Thrice two. Good. Stable. And Freya?”

“Not even a year.”

“Her number is 5 a breaking point, unstable…”

“You can say that again.”, she snorted.

“And you have been training for two years. You are a seven, twice broken number, balance in chaos, the threshold before you reach the number eight, representing higher balance. With your training that’s a nine, again an unstable number, but full of potential but also short of reaching the first tier of perfection in the number ten.”

“Yeah… maybe not…”

“I beg your pardon.” Adrian said.

“It’s officially two years.” Britta said.

“Officially? How? You weren’t even supposed to learn it at all, right.”

“Well two years ago was the point when I had pestered my parents enough to let me train. I could still walk a secular path. After all Freya didn’t want to become a huntress anyway. Also if she did… she would probably need all the help she could get, right? Lacking interest and motivation is a really big hurdle…right?”

Adrian did again not say a lot of things, he just nodded. “So, unofficially how long.”

“Four years.”, Britta said a mixture of defiance and pride in her voice.

“You have studied the occult arts and how to combat arcane adversaries since you where ten?” he asked. That was incredible. It was incredibly dangerous and foolish at that. “And your parents…”

“Didn’t know of course, are you crazy? They would have killed me if they had known.”

Of course… ”Thus unofficial.”, he said.”But how did you hide the combat training?”

She shrugged, “Martial arts and fencing with the long sword isn’t really arcane. In the first years I mostly studied the lore, the channelling arts, meditation, the flow of power through the body, the flow in the river of souls. The kind of stuff you can do alone.”

His eyes grew wide. “That’s incredibly dangerous.”

“I know that now.”, she said, “But back then it was just really interesting and I was very careful. I’m not an idiot.”

“You were ten and without a teacher.”, he said.

“Still not an idiot. The books were very clear about the dangers, the limits and portents of warning. I mean some of that stuff was really scary to me. Still is… really.”

“I am still afraid of the river of souls.” Adrian said shivering.

“Well there you have it. 16 and four years of training.”

“So that would not be a nine but an eleven.In this combination you are in a twice unbalanced position, chaos all around you. A position of extreme fragility. But also extreme potential.”, Adrian said, leaving out the ‘if you mange to survive long enough.’, part.
“It also explains why your hunter of hunters would like to catch you. You broke a scared sequence, you are right now in a state of incredible magical potential, even a second class hovel mage could turn you into a terrible weapon. And you are an unchosen.”

“Unchosen?”

“By fate, tradition and destiny you were supposed to be mundane. More so than even someone who was just born into a secular life and stayed there. You were supposed to be ward off the occult and yet here you are. You are a fate breaker by your own will.”

“See?” she said smiling again for the first time in a long while, “I am special. Makes me fit the pattern. A rookie but not like the others.”

“You are special in the worst way?”

“Are you trying to commit suicide by being an ass again?” she asked her eyes narrowing.

“No. I mean, and I am talking from a destiny/fate perspective here, you aren’t chose to anything. No greatness. There will be no prophesy about you. No portents or om,es during your birth and life. Well until you persuaded your parents to let you walk the path of the huntress, probably sealed when you sister chose not to turn her back on her birthright. When that happened and you refused to back down, you broke fate and you chose yourself.”

“Nice!” she beamed.

“In a way. You are a phenomenon that most sages don’t think about. People like you either die spectacular deaths early on before they can leave their mark on the world or they become such forces of change and chaos that they appear as chosen as the greatest of the chosen of destiny.”

“That sounds very cool to me.”, she said still grinning, “I’m not dead yet. So greatness awaits, right?”

“That’s a way to put it… Wait… something here isn’t right.” Adrian felt something, something was amiss.

“How did you notice the pattern? If it is so well hidden… What made you look? Also if you don’t know about unchosen fate breakers what made you think that you are a target?”

“Oh… Right, that’s also kind of the catalyst that made me go look for you… I was attacked by creatures of of boiling shadow and oil darker than black.”, she said her grin ebbing out a bit.

Adrian closed his eyes, for a second, he inhaled slowly, without opening his eyes he asked, “That thing you are carrying with you isn,t a cross, is it?”

“No that’s Katsa.” Britta said

“What’s a Katsa?” Adrian asked.

“It’s a name. Katsa is my sword.”

He exhaled opening his eyes. “Of course… How good are you with the sword?”

“I’ve been training with it almost every day since I was ten.”

“Good”, Adrian said, he knew know what that strange feeling was, everything about the situation had been so very weird that he had not noticed. A dissonance that had appeared a while ago which only now that he understood what Britta actually wanted. “Because your friends of shadow of oil have found you and while we were chatting were breaking through the defences of my house.”

Britta showed only a short flash of panic, which she immediately got under control, when she started to unwrap her sword.

“Britta, can you see in the dark?” Adrian asked.

“No.Why?”

“Because that would have made things much easier.”

“How?” Britta asked, finally pulling her sword free from its cloth sheath.

Adrian pointed at a window, where they could see their own reflections, which where covered by condensing clouds of a slick fluid darkness that as it came together started swallowing all light. When the shadows appeared to be holes where the windows had been cut away leaving holes opening to the deepest void. They heard the snap of cracking glass followed by the noise of it being being ground to powder.

“Because then I’d have turned off the light in the house before they could have entered through the windows and we would have run.”

Out of the fissures in the windows the dark shapes slowly pured into the room.

“And now?” Britta said, moving away from the couch and the table to a spot where she could freely swing her sword.

“Now you fight.” Adrian said climbing on his chair, while he closed his eyes and opened his mind.

“Wait, I fight?” Britta said, casting a quick look back at Adrian before focusing at the growing oil shadows again.

“You fight, while I try to find out a way to push them back.”

“So you are not fighting?” she asked, a hint of panic in her voice. She caught herself again, calmed her breath and concentrated on her blade mouthing an invocation. The blade started to fog up, tiny golden droplets of golden light condensing on its blade. “Don’t you have a weapon?”

“Apart from my sharp wit? No.”, he said.

“What kind of immortal are you?” Britta said as she raised her sword now dripping light into an offencive stance, cross guard close to her head the tip pointing towards the nearest shadow.

“A very successful one. And I’d love it to stay that way. So please more fighting and less talking so I can concentrate on opening us a way to freedom.”

“Lovely.” Britta said, stepping forward thrusting her sword forward into the advancing shadow.