Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (28 page)

“That… was not what I expected.” She heard Morgan say.

She opened her eyes slowly, and looked down at the orb. Where once the colors had swirled so hypnotically while in the hands of the mystic, in her hands the sphere was empty. There was no color, no light; it appeared to be a simple glass ball.

“What does it mean?”
She asked nervously.

“I do not know.” Morgan replied as he started to rub his chin
in that mystic fashion.

“Can I put this down now?” She asked, still holding the orb at
arm's length.

“What? Oh, yes of course.” He said taking
it from her. The moment his fingers touched it the colors began to form once again, creating swirls of reds and blue, to where the orb was almost purple. Even when he placed it in the box the orb turned back to its original milky white color, but at least it still had a color.

“What does i
t mean?” She asked again

“It means you don’t fit into any of the eight categories. You, in fact, fall into a ninth category.”

“A ninth category, but you said…”

“Yes I know what I said, that there were only eight categories, but I also said that they were just classification set out by the mystics who
needed a way to… pigeon hole their studies. Have you every sorted anything out Miss Veller, anything at all?”

“Yes sir.” Kile replied. She could remember a time back home when she was helping her mother in the kitchen and they sat there one night sorting through all her grandmother’s recipes, and how her mother told her that when she grew up and had a family of her own, her grandmother’s recipes would be handed down to her, so that she could pass them down to her daughter. Kile had to wonder if that was ever
going to happen now.

“When you sorted, did you ever have something that just didn’t fit. It just didn’t quite fit the requirements of any one category.”

“I’m a miscellaneous!” Kile exclaimed in a stunning realization.

“I’m afraid so. You child are an enigma, a puzzle. Y
ou don’t fit into any of the categories, you have no influences, you are, as you so aptly put it, a miscellaneous.”

“But then, if that’s true, then I have no edge.”

“I did not say that.”

“You said I had no influence.”

“That would appear to be correct.” Morgan said, placing the box with the orb back into the armoire beside the rusted anchor. He began to slowly pace the floor, still scratching his chin.

“First, do not confuse a
Hunter’s edge with his sphere of influence. Everyone born is born influenced by one of the spheres, but not everyone can use that influence, in fact, given the sheer number of people in this city alone only a handful would be able to utilize the mystic arts to any extent, and even fewer to the extent of that of a Hunter. The Hunter’s edge is by definition an advantage that the Hunter has over the common mercenary, and although it is, for the most part, derived from his sphere; it does not necessarily have to be so.”

“So, you’re saying… I can still be a
Hunter without an edge.”

“No, you have an edge, or at least you have something.” Morgan replied as he sat back in his seat, pushing the wired rimmed glasses further up his
nose as he explained. “I had assumed that the orb would have changed to a color that clearly indicated two conflicting spheres, but it did not, and had it returned back to its original color, I would have been forced to admit a grievous error in my previous judgment, but the fact that it possessed no color at all, that is at least something.”

“What… I mean, what can I do?”

“That’s just it, I don’t know.”

Kile tried to put together everything that this man was telling her. If anything was a contradiction, it was his logic. She didn’t have an edge, but she did, she was influenced, but she wasn’t. How could she have
an ability, but not know anything about it. Daniel knew his edge when he was young, so did Carter, so did Alex. Even Eric understood what he could do, and their edges made sense. To heal someone, the creating of illusions, to wield fire, these were real. How was it that she could have something like this, but not like this, and not even know about it?

“I understand it’s a bit confusing right now.” Morgan replied as if reading her mind, but then that’s probably what he was doing. “We have three years to find out what it is that you can do, to hone your
Hunter’s edge.”

“Has any other
Hunter… you know… been filed as a miscellaneous?”

“There must have been some, none that I know about, but there have been references in the logs. Although, even if I knew, I couldn’t’ tell you. The
Hunter’s edge is a knowledge that is only shared between the Hunter and the mystic who teaches her, that way the edge stay an edge. If your enemies knew of your abilities, they could use it against you, or find a way to nullify it. It is to your best advantage that you keep your edge a secret.”

That shouldn’t be so hard, since neither she, nor the mystic that is
supposed to teach her, knew what it was.

“The only thing we can do at this time is to run you through a series of test, to put you under stress so that your arts show themselves. Then, and only then, can we hope to hone your
Hunter’s edge.”

More stress was the last thing she needed in her life right about now.

Kile left the Mystic instructor feeling more confused
than ever. Every time she thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. Why couldn’t it be easier, why couldn’t she just have a nice common edge like Daniel. He had a great edge, the ability to heal was something she wouldn’t mind being able to do, or what about Eric’s edge. She might not like Eric, well… actually she didn’t like Eric, but at least his edge was useful. She could see herself manipulating fire. She wasn’t sure about Alex’s edge, the ability to create illusions take too much imagination, and she was never one to make up thing on the spot as quickly as he could, but still, it was better than being a miscellaneous, or what was it that Alex had said, a freak.

She stepped into the dinning hall and was surprised to see how crowded it was. Usually she was able to get in and out before too many people showed up, but the appointment with Morgan had taken a lot longer
than she had figured. Her first thought was to back out before anyone noticed her standing there. She wasn’t as hungry as she thought she was, and started to back out of the hall before she realized what kind of fool she was being. She had come here to learn to be a Hunter, and so far they have thrown every obstacle they could think of in her path and she was sure they had a few more they hadn’t even launched yet. It really came down to one simple decision, she was either going to do it her way, or take the walk of shame as Eric had suggested, and the last thing she wanted to do was anything that Eric suggests.

Kile pushed the fear from her mind and walked into the dinning hall.
She didn’t bother to look at anything or anyone, just the front counter where the meal of the day was being served. Two boys had made a comment as she passed, she wasn’t sure what was said or if it was said about her, but it was followed by laughter, and she realized at that moment, she just didn’t care anymore, which made her smile. It was actually kind of refreshing not to worry about what others were saying about her behind her back, it was quite liberating. She had never cared about what people said about her back home, why should she care what these people had to say? Why should she let them bother her?

She grabbed her tray from the stack and walked up to the front counter, the meal of the day turned out to be meat with gravy, although the cut of meat was yet to be identified, a half
-baked baked potato and broccoli rounded off the meal, it was pretty much the same thing as yesterday and the day before. There was no originality in the kitchen. She thanked the attendant who served her, took her tray and turned to face the sitting area. Her regular seat at the back of the room was still empty and that was where she headed. According to her master survival plan, she should keep to the outer wall, taking the widest path, the path of least resistance and avoiding the most people. Today, however, she was a miscellaneous, and miscellaneous people didn’t care about the master survival plan, she took the shortest route right up the middle of the dinning area.

Most of the boys didn’t say anything, they appeared to be lost in their own problems, and weren’t really concerned with hers. She did hear a few comments that were spoken for her benefit, but she simply ignored them, and one boy did stretch his foot into the
aisle in front of her. It was so juvenile that she didn’t give it a second thought, she just stepped on it. The boy screamed, the other laughed, and she continued walking. If that was the best they had, why had she been so frightened of them? When she reached her table she dropped the tray down, pulled her chair up and started to eat.

Being labeled a miscellaneous changed her entire outlook on things. She was so different
than they were that it no longer mattered. They would never be able to see things the way she did and now she just didn’t care, she came here to be a Hunter and she would be dammed if she was going to let any of them stop her, because that was what it really came down to, her letting them.

She looked down at the meat floating in the gravy and discovered she
really wasn’t all that hungry after all. She picked up the broccoli and chewed on the flower as she watched the gravy form shifting patterns. It was like the orb of meditation, the way the colors seemed to swirl around. It wasn’t until she looked up that she realized what was going on.

At first she thought she had created a disturbance by stepping on the boy’s foot, but quickly realized to her relief that it wasn’t about her, but it was
still about Eric. The dark greasy haired boy had found another target to satisfy his sadistic needs, this time it was Alex. She hadn’t even seen Alex when she came into the mess hall, but Eric found him. It was inevitable, she realized if it wasn’t going to be her, it was going to be him. Since Alex was the smallest cadet it was easy for Eric to pick on him without fear of retaliation. With his two friends in tow he had draped the unidentified meat over Alex’s head and was now pouring the gravy.

Alex was sitting there completely still, and if Kile knew Alex, he was too scared to move. The small cadet had come to the conclusion that if he did nothing to defend himself or try to get away, Eric would eventually
lose interest, leave him alone, and seek his amusement elsewhere, but that was not always the case. The gravy was now flowing freely down Alex’s face.

Kile looked around the room, and the only thing she saw were a bunch of boys doing
absolutely nothing. They were either watching in silent amusement, or looking the other way pretending it wasn’t happening. There were a handful that had the good graces to at least look annoyed, but they weren’t moving from their seats any time soon. Then of course there were those few that were actually cheering Eric on. She knew what they were all thinking, It was better that Eric pick on this small boy than to pick on them. If this was going to be the mentality of the next generation of Hunters, then maybe she had made a mistake, maybe she didn’t want to be a Hunter after all.

Kile got up, grabbed the half
-baked baked potato from her tray and without thinking of the consequences, threw it with all her might. It sailed clear across the room, over six tables and just missed two boys to find its mark on the back of Eric’s head with a loud splat. Eric dropped the bowl of gravy he was holding, which made an even louder sound as it hit the table and spattered on his tunic. He grabbed the back of his head and staggered forward. The entire room fell silent and all eyes shot toward Kile who could only smile.

Eric slowly got to his feet and looked around the dinning hall, it didn’t take him long to find his assailant, Kile just stood in the back of the room waiting for him to make the next move, but Eric never did.

“What is going on here?” The voice boomed behind her.

Kile turned slowly to see Master Boraro standing over her, his arms crossed as he stared down at her. It was inevitable she thought as she looked up at the man who
now had veins protruding from his forehead.

“What do you have to say for yourself
Cadet Veller?”

Kile thought about it, she thought about lying, she thought about apologizing, she even through about coming up with a half
decent excuse, but none of them were good enough for a miscellaneous.

“You have to admit, it was a damn good
throw.” She finally replied, something that Garrett Boraro hadn’t expected to hear as the tension in the dinning hall broke with thunderous laughter, but it quickly fell silent again with one stern look from Weapons Master.

“Oh, you think so do you?” He said as
his voice dropped to a more pleasant tone, but only for a minute. “Since you like potatoes so much, you’ll have kitchen duties on top of your assigned chores for the next two weeks.”

Kitchen duty on top of cleaning duty, what was she thinking. Now, not only did she have to spend her evenings cleaning the mess hall, she had to spend her nights peeling potatoes. Kile sat in a small room off the main kitchen, a large pile of potatoes beside her, and a bucket of water in front of her. Maybe that was her mystic art, the ability to tick people off, or maybe she was influenced by the sphere of bad luck.