The Hand We're Dealt - Chapter 10

“What's a hunter?” The Professor asked a tad scornfully, then shook his head. “You'll need to use that Gear of yours to read up on current events more, boy.”

“I'll endeavor to do so, Master,” I replied with a nod.

“But there will be time for that later, when my guests aren't on their way,” he grumbled, then gave me another glance as he inspected my cleaning. “Hunters... they're a relatively new phenomenon, a result of the vast wilderness of the continent to our west. What do you know of the creatures that inhabit those lands?”

“Not a great deal, sir. I've been more concerned with studying lore and magical knowledge,” I admitted, grimacing.

“Another oversight we must see to,” he grunted, sliding a weathered hand over rough wood and coming up with no dirt or dust. “Skunk apes, the Leeds Devils, Sasquatch, the Moth Men, Wendigos... fearsome creatures one and all, many of which interbred with the savages that populated this land before we civilized it.”

I bit my tongue and kept my expression bland as I nodded.

“I know little of whether the Indians allowed this practice willingly or if it was forced upon their women as sometimes happened in the Old World, but... the end result was that they were greatly culled by the diseases the Spanish brought over. Hopefully a few even went extinct.” The Professor paused, surveying the dishes and utensils before continuing. “But unlike the natives, these creatures breed closer to base animals and, therefore, have repopulated faster.”

Given I knew what often happened when humans encroached upon areas they weren't welcome with normal animals... “They've attempted to return to their old habitats, haven't they?”

A warning glance was shot my way, but the old man nodded. “Every now and then you demonstrate a brain that isn't merely a function of your Gear. Hmm... yes, that is the short of it. It was before the revolution... colonists began being attacked, small settlements wiped out, travelers gutted and eaten in ways that made it obvious it wasn't the work of vampires or ghouls.”

I saw where the tale was going, but knew I'd already been warned once.

One warning was all I'd get before being disciplined.

“Like seemingly everything in this land, various groups joined together for self-defense. A few witches and wizards who knew a bit of herbalism, some half-blood native shaman, a few exiled knights and inquisitors from the Old World, and more besides.” Professor van Beek paused, gathering his thoughts as he rubbed at his hairy chin. “Men and women of ill-repute, mostly. People who had been cast out of society for good reasons, but now saw a chance to earn their way back in by providing a service no one else could.”

Toss a coin to your Hunter, huh?

“Many of them died a desperate fool's death,” the Professor snorted derisively. “But a few managed to prove themselves. There were even rumors that some of the old witch-hunters, vampire slayers, and devil-killers sent agents to train them. I know for a fact the Papists had Exorcists take advantage of the Revolution to insert agents in Maryland.”

There was enough of a pause that I felt safer 'interrupting' his lecture this time as he continued his inspection.

“They do not sound like the kinds of people you would approve of receiving as guests, Master,” I observed, my tone as neutral as possible.

Unexpectedly, the man barked a laugh, the sound hoarse and gravely from disuse. “Hah! No, they do not at that. Thankfully, they have reformed themselves these past three decades. They are now only mostly composed of brigands and disreputable thugs. There are a few good apples in that basket of deplorables.”

“As Master says,” I nodded, busying myself with the last of the cleaning.

“Boy!” The Professor called, turning and frowning at me suddenly.

“Yes Master?” I asked, doing the same to him in a show of attentiveness.

“Under no circumstances are you to allow the Hunters Guild to know about your Sacred Gear. As much of a layabout bookworm as you might be with no respect for tradition, I don't need the aggravation that their interest in you would bring...” He paused for a moment and scowled. “And you don't want the attention from the Abrahamic Factions when one of them inevitably lets something slip.”

At this, I felt myself reflexively swallow.

The Gremory might be one of the 'nice' devil houses, but as with these 'hunters,' there were a lot more rotten apples in the bushel than there were unblemished ones. Likewise, Azazel might have been depicted as a quirky mad scientist in the work I'd once read, but there was too much in the records I'd read of the Grigori's Governor General's human advisors to simply dismiss all of the gory details. And that wasn't even touching on the Fallen that simply loathed humanity in general.

...and I'm not sure if I could take serving the contradictions and hypocrisy of the Church.

Well no, that's a lie. The struggle would be putting up with the dogmatic bullshit until I was high enough in the chain of command to enjoy the hypocrisy and contradictions.

In theory, I'd be able to manage it, but I knew myself well enough to say that the years of subservience it would take to climb to a position of power would grind me to dust. I wasn't the kind of person that could exist under that kind of institutional weight without being changed and twisted. More than that, I would have to conform to a great lie and make it the truth of my existence.

It would suck, in other words.

And that was all with the added complexity that the Catholic Church was going to cease being a temporal military power in the next few decades, unless things went radically different than what I knew. Granted, having the Spanish-American War almost a century before it was scheduled and, if rumors were true, kicking off an early Mexican Revolution was going to throw a wrench into the gears of history, but Napoleon had already set into motion the unification movements of Germany and Italy when he'd invaded and reorganized the regions.

Nothing like the occupation of your lands by foreign troops to turn a pack of squabbling city-states and principalities into a single national identity, eh?

On the flipside, though, were the butterflies I'd set into motion and the turbulence their wing-beats would kick up. The Italian Unification, in particular, wasn't the period of history I was most fluent in, but I knew the basics of the Risorgimento. Of particular import was the fact that it had only really kicked off after the Revolutions of 1848, which meant that the people who would one day be taking part in that tumultuous time period...

...would be born, mostly, in the next decade.

And I'd just accidentally started a major intercontinental war. Or, really, enlarged one by drawing America in on the side of the United Kingdom against Napoleonic France and Spain.

Many areas of what we would, centuries later, think of as integral parts of 'Italy,' were even now under occupation by French troops or had been turned into vassal states by Napoleon. Spain, too, held more than a few 'Italian' under its sway. Given that those two countries were now in a completely different war, entire armies could be displaced. Soldiers would be in different positions, they'd meet different women, settle in different places after the war, die different deaths...

The ripple I had created when trying to prove a man's innocence had turned into a tidal wave threatening to sweep aside everything I knew.

On the one hand, it was terrifying to be walking a completely unknown path.

On the other, it was exhilarating to see a new history unfold before my very eyes.

None of that even touched on the magical world, though, and there were even stranger things at foot to tamper with human history there. Even if the Olympians, the Norse, and the Egyptian pantheons were no longer the power and force that they once were, they still had significant influence to wield when they desired to.

Of particular interest to me was the legends of the Fates and their counterparts in the other deific realms. Was it just a passive monitoring of destiny? Did they enforce it? Was there a design to the weave of fate or was it a random sprawl of meaningless threads only sometimes directed by a higher power?

Obviously the God of Abraham had been proclaimed to be omniscient and omnipotent, too, but he might very well be dead and gone.

But even if God is no longer in His heaven, are the surviving archangels still keeping to His design? Do they know what He intended? Or are they just, pardon the pun, winging it?

“Boy! Pay attention! Pfeh, what goes on between those ears of yours?!” The Professor shouted, sending me a scathing look.

I flinched back from the reprimand and out of my thoughts. “My apologies, Professor. I didn't mean to get lost in my woolgathering, I was simply pondering the role of predestination on our earthly existence.”

Marteen van Beek looked as though he'd bitten into a lemon as he eyed me. “Were it any other, I would call you out for the liar you were and beat you with my cane until you learned better. Sadly, you are strange enough that I am given to believe your truthfulness.”

I ducked my head, keeping the smile off my face. “My apologies again, Master.”

The Professor snorted. “But today you are an apprentice sorcerer, not a theologian in training. Do away with these thoughts and come with me.”

I murmured an affirmative and followed the old man – how old was he if he casually name-dropped the Revolution? - out the door.

While I pondered the question of my master's age, a subject he'd been studiously opaque on, we made our way across the great field in front of the university and towards the town. Any other day, we might have taken a carriage, but the sun had finally deigned to show itself and dry the roads out, so we were taking the short walk to town ourselves after being cooped up for some time by the weather and laboratory work.

Finally, as we made our way into town, my Master suddenly perked up at seeing a man in a traveling cloak accompanied by a younger figure...

Both had blond hair which shone a few shades lighter than even my own in the bright daylight. Most of their clothing was covered by their thick cloaks, but I could easily see a pair of thick boots on each of them. More than that, though, were the large packs they both wore on their backs that reminded me of some of the more absurd moments in anime where a wanderer walked in carrying a coffin or a giant cross or similarly bizarre giant weight on their back.

Thankfully, neither of them looked quite that ridiculous, but...

I blinked as the younger figure – just a few years older than myself, perhaps twelve – came into focus. Their hair had been allowed to grow long and was bound in a braid down their upper back, while the elder – likely their father from the resemblance – had cut his short.

But it was their faces that truly leapt out at me.

“Marteen! I thought for sure you'd finally died on us!” The blond man called cheerfully, the slight cant to his voice denoting a foreign accent I couldn't place, but the cant of his eyes told of eastern heritage. Normally, I'd say that blond hair meant he'd be a half-blood like myself, but...

Well, one of the boys at the university did have blue hair.

Not even dark blue hair that could be dismissed as black with a certain sheen to it. No, it was sky blue hair that testified more than any mystic artifact that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

“Tyler!” The Professor barked back, his eyes narrowed. “If you're still half the idiot you were ten years ago, you'll be in the ground long before me!”

I blinked, almost missing a step. The man had said it, but really...

He actually had friends?!

“Hah!” 'Tyler' barked back, a young dog to the Professor's old as I met eyes with the younger of the two, who perked up at seeing someone their own age and grinned, offering a wave. I smiled back and replied in kind, neither of us willing to speak up as our respective guardians were talking. “Good to see you again, Marteen. And don't tell me you actually found a woman willing to put up with you?”

The last was said with a tilted head in my direction.

I could feel the old man roll his eyes. “Hardly. The boy is my apprentice, an orphan I picked up with some meager talent. Henry Bell.”

“Sir,” I greeted with a nod, offering my hand. “A pleasure to meet a friend of the Professor's.”

One blond eyebrow arched high as he extended his own and carefully shook mine. “Well aren't you polite? Tell me, did that come pre-taught or has the pupil surpassed the master in that regard?”

Marteen spat and shook his head. “The boy knows better than to be careless with his relations before he's proven he can take care of himself. Henry, this is Tyler Drake and-”

“Yan! Yan, Drake. My son,” Tyler stated, clapping the child on their back and pushing them forward slightly.

The Professor grunted and nodded, accepting the name. “I suppose that would make traveling easier.”

It wasn't all that difficult to understand, even if the revelations meant strange things were afoot. In particular, I noticed that the child a few years older than me still had enough baby fat to conceal a definitively feminine shade to her face. It was only obvious if you knew what you were looking for, though, and knew to look in the first place, which most people wouldn't care to. She was still young enough to be labeled a child and children were only important when you needed something simple and labor-intensive done. Or had to feed them.

“Hey! I'm Yan,” she greeted me with a boyish grin, a worn brown tricorn hat cocked on her head as she pronounced the name with an odd lilt that spoke of a concealed accent.

“Henry,” I nodded, extending my hand out for another shake automatically.

'Yan' looked at my hand for a moment, cocked her head, then spit into her palm and clasped mine. “Nice ta meetcha Henry!”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” I replied, feeling my face twitch as our hands squelched.

“You kids make yourself scarce,” 'Tyler' ordered as he turned back to my master. “Don't go too far, Yan, and stay out of trouble. I have things to talk about with my friend.”

“Alright, Dad!” The blond grinned and set their huge pack of luggage down next to their father before grabbing at my arm and pulling me away. “C'mon! Show me around!”

“Fine, fine, stop tugging on my arm,” I grumbled, sighing as I was pulled away from a far more interesting discussion to play tour guide.

“So, your name is Henry?” She asked, turning with a smile. “You look about the same age as my sister, Ruby.”

“What name does she use when she's traveling with your father?” I asked curiously.

“Oh, she's not old enough to-” Yan began, then twitched and smacked herself in the face before turning towards me. “Ugh, dammit! You better not tell anyone! I'll be in big trouble if Dad finds out I slipped up!”

“I'm not telling anyone,” I shrugged it off. “Besides, the Professor has known your father for a long time. I'm pretty sure he'd know you're actually a girl anyway and tell me later. You're supposed to be lodging with us.”

Her nose wrinkled. “You talk weird. Is it 'cause you're a wizard or whatever? Like the old man?”

I cut a glance around, but there weren't too many people out and about with classes going on today. “Yes, but that's a secret too. Just like yours. Only a few people at the college know my master and I are sorcerers.”

“Ri-right,” she nodded, her blond ponytail bouncing, then she perked up and smacked one fist into the palm of her other hand. “Oh, that makes us friends! Sharin' secrets like that.”

I had the urge to be petty for a moment, then shrugged it off. “Sure. Uhh... welcome to Hanover, I guess?”

“Huh, it's that all there is to it?” Yan asked, looking around.

“Pretty much,” I shrugged. “Hanover's a small town. Most of the people work at the college or do stuff for people at the college or sell stuff from the farms outside the town. I can take you to see the Connecticut River, though? It's pretty close and looks neat.”

“Sounds good,” she nodded, adjusting her heavy brown jacket as she followed me. “So what do you and the Professor do with all that magic stuff?”

I hummed. “My master is focusing his research on geomancy-empowered greater magics.”

“What's that at home?” She pressed with a frown.

I rubbed at my chin for a moment and sighed. “It's like... there's magic in the Earth and there's magic in people. Magicians use magic in themselves to cast spells. Sorcerers can do stuff that lets them pull magic from the Earth to make their spells bigger and nastier.”

Blue eyes sparkled with interest. “Neat! So... why don't magicians do that?”

“Cause it's hard and takes a lot of work to do right,” I replied, falling back into a more casual speech pattern as I began to relax. “And if you do it wrong you mess up the spell and probably die. Maybe even blow yourself up.”

Yan snorted and laughed at the image.

“So... what are you and your dad doing here? Just passing through?” I asked, given the Professor had been as opaque as usual for his own dealings.

“Dad's taking me on my first hunt!” Yan grinned proudly, crossing her arms. “Supposed to be some ghouls causing trouble up north in Quebec and the Guild sent us to take care of it.”

“Good luck on your hunt, then. Ghouls are dangerous. The Professor and I were attacked by vampires on the way back from where I used to live,” I replied.

Yan's eyes widened. “No way! You've got to tell me all about it!”

I chuckled and began doing so. In this time period, when there was no internet, no television, no radio... stories were the most available form of entertainment. Even the most annoying story from a grandparent you'd heard a dozen times before was better than simply staring at a wall in boredom. Having an entertaining story or a few good jokes could also get you out of a few nasty scrapes with other children your age if you were in the unenviable position of not being able to hypnotize them into compliance. Even then, I'd managed to get myself through a few run-ins with the local 'street-toughs' that hung out around Hanover by trading jokes in place of punches.

“That's amazing! I almost can't believe it... you're not having me on, are you?” Yan asked intently, narrowing her gaze as I got to my own contribution to the fight.

“I'm not, no.” I frowned and looked down at my hands. “For some reason it just... clicked? Like, suddenly everything made sense and I just... did it.”

Remembering the sensation of holding blades of fire in my hands and fighting the vampires last year was... strange. I didn't often recall it, or have any real reason to, but the whole fight had just been a bit odd in hindsight. While I wasn't all that athletic overall, in that moment I'd felt energized and ready for action in a way that didn't line up with my more thoughtful and planning-oriented personality. While it was nice to have fantasies of kicking ass and taking names, I'd long-since contented myself with the life of an academic.

...and this life wasn't any different, not really.

I had no desire to go out and tangle with the various supernatural nastiness of the world, even if I knew that choice might be taken from me someday. Regardless, I was in no rush to face anything like that again if I had any choice in the matter.

“Ya' might have what it takes to be a Hunter,” Yan commented Idly, clasping her hands behind her back thoughtfully as she looked me over before flashing a teasing grin. “C'mon, show me whatcha' got. I'll go easy on you!”

So said, she hopped a few quick steps back and...

A candle-flame's worth of supernatural energy flared into existence, the power curling and twisting like flame itself and feeling as though it were concentrated sunlight as Yan raised her fists.

Something inside me stirred.

Despite knowing with absolute certainty this was a bad idea, I felt myself slip into a combat stance that... felt right.

I shook my head, wondering at the sensation.

I'd been confronted with violence several times in my life at this point, but... this felt different. This felt like that night on the road with the vampires.

Yan grinned as she stepped up to throw a punch, obviously slow, but-

-I deflected it and, on autopilot, stepped into her guard.

Her eyes widened and she stepped back, ratcheting a forearm against my wrist and throwing my own punch off-target. “You've got good instincts, Henry!” She said the words as if they were rehearsed, likely having heard them from someone else and just repeating them.

“I don't know why I did that,” I confessed, surprised at myself.

“Only one way to find out!” Yan cried and threw another punch.

I stepped out of its way, feeling a shot of adrenaline course through me as I realized she was taking it much less 'easy' on me than before.

Step.

Block.

Kick.

Block.

It was an intricate and thrilling dance as we moved together, trading blows as my pulse thrummed and instincts I didn't know I had woken up. I'd dismissed the fight against the vampires as some residual knowledge trickling into me from awakening my Gear, but that was over a year ago now.

This was something different.

Another round of blows and I could feel myself flagging, but I didn't want to stop.

Fun. I'm having fun fighting. What the hell...

It was decidedly out of character for me. Even the runaround games children played in this time barely held much amusement for me. I had no desire to engage in stupid fights that could end in injuries that could get infected, but this...

I caught a blow across my shoulder and tumbled with it into the grass, my breath heaving.

“Oh shit!” Yan cried, bouncing over to look down at me in worry. “Henry! You okay?”

I couldn't help it.

I laughed.

“Hahaha!” I giggled, my voice high-pitched and childish like I always tried to hide, my amusement wearing away at my cool temperament.

Yan blinked, then grinned widely. “Hah! I knew you had it in you! Are you sure you're a wizard and not a Hunter?”

“I dunno...” I sighed, the laughter dying down but the good chemicals still surging in my brain. “It just... it felt like my body knew what to do and I just let it.”

The common thread between that night with the vampires and today?

A supernatural opponent.

Even if there hadn't been real 'bullies' at the orphanage, in the classic sense, the older kids let you know when not to get in their way with a few thumps. And they liked to fight amongst themselves. On the rare occasion I'd been caught off-guard enough to get dragged into one of their scuffles... nothing like this had happened. Even when I'd been cornered by the older students a few weeks ago, I'd felt nothing but cold annoyance and cool logic.

“Might be in your blood,” Yan guessed, reaching out a hand to pull me up. “One of your parents might'a been a Hunter or something. Dad says kids that have parents in the Guild are better at fighting and stuff.”

“That I do,” a voice chimed in, and Yan and I both turned to see her father and the Professor standing some distance away from where we had our impromptu spar on the grassy field near the river.

“Oops,” Yan muttered, wilting.

Tyler Drake, a man who probably used that name in place of Taiyang Xiao-Long, gave his daughter an unamused look. “Oops is right. I felt your aura surge, Yang-er-” He flicked a gaze my way and sighed. “Yan. I told you we were supposed to be keeping our heads down.”

“My boy is to blame for some of it,” Marteen stated with a growl as he looked at me. “He's the host and he should know better than to behave like that in public.”

I ducked my head in some measure of real shame.

I really should.

“No, it was my fault!” Yan cried, spreading her arms to deflect blame. “I called Henry out on what happened when the vampires attacked your carriage! I didn't believe him and wanted proof.”

She ducked her head and repeated herself. “It's my fault.”

The two older men exchanged glances, my master scoffing and rolling his eyes.

“Vampires, eh?” Tyler asked, raising an eyebrow at the Professor.

“A few stupid fledglings that had struck out on their own. Nothing like what we saw during the war,” Marteen snorted.

“Maybe I'll get that story later tonight over a tall glass,” Tyler smirked, then turned back to his daughter. “No dinner tonight, Yan. If you'd done this closer to the target, you might have endangered both our lives. Maybe a night with an empty stomach will teach you a lesson.”

Yan winced, but nodded. “Sorry, Dad.”

“I'll let you off this time, Boy,” the Professor growled, turning from me. “But any more stupidity and you won't enjoy the consequences.”

“I understand, Master,” I stated, bowing slightly.

“Well, come on,” Marteen stated. “Let's get the two whelps out of here before anything decides that was an invitation to cause trouble.”

“My thoughts exactly, though... whenever your boy gets done studying, Marteen, if he can still move like that he's got a place in the Guild.” Tyler offered.

Yan perked up and nudged me with elbow, showing off an untarnished and unapologetic grin.

I gave her a small smile before my expression faded into a thoughtful frown.

'Maybe it's in the blood?'

That was... an interesting question, and one that complicated my already muddled feelings on whatever heritage I might have.

As we walked back to the house, my thoughts spiraled back towards the prohibition against taking Catholic Mass. It made me wonder... had my father or mother been a lapsed member of the cloth? Someone who'd left the church or been excommunicated for some reason? Perhaps I had the blood of an Exorcist running through my veins?

An Exorcist that had come over during the Revolution, then joined the Guild?

Perhaps they'd had an affair with someone while still nominally a priest or nun and been sacked from the clergy for the offense?

I shouldn't get married to a single theory just yet. There are any number of potential families or groups that have a long legacy of fighting supernatural threats.

And that was just the human side of things. In theory, I could have non-human heritage that had simply run thin enough to pass for a pure human. Perhaps that could be the reason?

Later that night, Yan quietly munching on a day-old piece of bread I'd snuck her after dinner, I stared at the golden ring hanging from the leather strap around my neck. Once again, it was clean and featureless, refusing to yield any clues about who I was or who my parents might have been.

I shook my head and rolled over, dropping the ring and feeling the cold metal press against my chest.

The only thing I knew was that I likely wouldn't have any answers in the near future.

~~~

Alrighty, here's chapter... and I'll be putting up another new thread for this one in a few hours, so look forward to that.

I hope everyone enjoys the new chapter and I'll be trying to get two more chapters out before the month ends. At least one of them will be Mind Games, so don't worry about that.

The last one? Not sure right now.

Thank you for your patience and your support once again.