19 The Hunter-Kind’s Secret

Obrecht laughs at my threat, neither to confirm, nor deny it. He sits down on the bed and says, "My Ama says that Hunters are good with guessing the true natures of people. She says that most Lumeans—ah, that's what the people here are called—most of us have Hunters as ancestors. Though there were other human-kinds too, their blood got mixed about through the generations, she says. That's why every now and then, we get a Healer-born or a Mage-born. I know a few talented ones too."

(A/N: Obrecht's probably talking about the Sorcerer-kind when he says Mage-born, but the language in Lumea has been closed off for hundreds of years that the name has slightly differed throughout. It's just like instead of saying mother or father, Obrecht says Ama and Apa.)

I sit up abruptly at the second mention of "Hunters". Obrecht reaches out to take the fallen damp cloth on my lap.

"Hunters?" As in the Hunter-kind? Didn't Mother say that they went missing some millennia ago?

"I don't really get it but my Ama said that there many kinds of human-kind before."

I'm pretty sure they still exist though.

"She told me the story about how the whole Hunter-kind, and a few others from the Healers, Sorcerers, Djinns, and Kupwas had agreed to hide from the Great War that had happened an era before."

"Great War?"

"You don't know about the Great War?"

I shake my head. My mother never mentioned anything about it through our history lessons.

He wets the cloth in his hand from a nearby small wooden bowl and gestures me to lay down again. I comply. A slight shiver escapes me as he places the cold damp cloth on my forehead.

"The Great War was when all the races of the human-kind had wanted to wage war to see who was the most fitting to rule over the other races. Many disdained the others just because they were different from them, at least that was what Ama tells me. I don't really get it." He scrunches up his nose, placing his chin on his hand while his elbow rested at the nook his folded leg on the bed.

Oh. He's feeling more confused about this rather than me trying to run away.

I force down the small laugh suddenly threatening to come out of my throat, solidifying the blank expression on my face.

"What's wrong with being different? Why do they have to discriminate just because others aren't like them? Isn't that a good thing? I mean, if everyone as the same, then everything would just be boring."

"They were probably afraid of things and people they can't predict or control", I say after a bout of idle thinking. "Perhaps the stronger ones disliked people that were weaker than them, and vice versa. Or maybe they feared those that were simply unknown to them."

"I don't see how that's a bad thing. If it's unknown, then shouldn't they just find out about it and learn? Why do they take the most arduous route—why not just get to know the other races? They're impossible to understand!" He collapses backwards to the tiny space left on the bed.

"Who's Ama, by the way?"

"My Ama—you know, the person who gave birth to me."

So it's his mother then.

"You don't even know what an Ama is? You poor thing", he pats my head as if to comfort me.

I know he doesn't feel even the smallest ounce of pity when he says that, but I still get annoyed, nonetheless.

He asks about the place I am from. This time, I answer him truthfully.

Astonished at the present existence of other human races, he continues to ask about them, one race at a time. I tell him all about the things that my Mother had told me when I was young. In return, he had told me about Inferis, and the small city of Lumea that existed inside it. We talk a lot about all kinds of things throughout the night that I barely notice our connection fade away at midnight, though his emotions were far too neutrally controlled, and sparse for me to constantly pick up anyways.

Sometime in the early morning, he had also asked me about my power and my race. Weighing down the information he had said about Lumeans, I reckoned it was alright to tell him that I was half-Satori and half-Wraith, at least to him, I guess. Half of me does expect some sort of backlash later on, for confessing this to me. I tell him that I inherited a bit of my Father's powers to control shadows.

It was my first time not being ostracized for what I am and it made me happy. But though I feel at ease around him, I do not tell him about the powers I inherited from my Mother; that I can read emotions, duplicate the senses of others, and see pieces of memories connected to an intense emotion inside the person's mind at times. I tell him none of it. I plan never to tell anyone about ever again. I don't want the same thing to happen here or anywhere. I don't want to create another prison for myself; one that I know would be harder to escape from.

Obrecht and I exchange a few more stories until my eyelids felt heavy. I wasn't sure if I would be able to sleep in the presence of a stranger, but odd enough, I fell asleep before I knew it.

Odd enough, before I realized it, I had put down most, if not all, of my guard around Obrecht.