Hunters Fortune part 1

The orb slaps into the palm of my hand, and John presses it there, waiting.

He and the woman stare at the orb for a moment before she laughs.

"It changes colors for one of two reasons boy, either black for demis or immortals, or blue for those who are gifted in magic." She sneers at me as John take the orb back, inspecting it closely, "You, luckily for you, are human. And unluckily, for you at least, you're a waste of trash that will only ever be a common mortal."

Laughing to herself she walks out through the curtain, leaving John and I to stare at the orb in awkward silence. "Well.. That's not really the truth. Normal mortals make up the vast number of our country and the world. There's nothing wrong with being the best at the role God has given you instead of being worried about what could have been." John smiles and tucks the orb back into the pouch at his waist. "A word of advise though. Don't let Sir Issac or Mellon scam you. The two demis you brought back are worth at least ten gold coins." He pats my shoulder. "uh, Who is Mellon?" He look startled for a moment. "Ah! The church pairs each mage with one knight and one archon. My name is John, and if you didn't guess, I'm the knight of this triad. The girl was Mellon, and the archon of our squad is someone you will likely never meet." Grinning he fiddles with something on the bed rail for a moment.

"There," He pulls on the metal loop on my right arm, and I stare in wonder as it melts. "how?" I stutter lifting my arm and staring at John. "Magic!" He laughs and smiles. Holding up his hand there's a small metal disk with a dark rune engraved on it. He chuckles and moves around the foot of the bed and I hear a pop as the metal loop on the left side melts as well. He smiles and hands me one of the token. "This, is a holding rune." He taps the rune in the center. "Do you know your history Rodrick?" "Yes sir, This is a runic pattern.... But I'm not sure how they work."

Nodding John holds up the other metal plate. "Humanity used to struggle to even survive, prior to the great war and the decent of Gods prophet on the king of our country. We won the great war, and ushered in a new age where under the protection of God we gained more control over magic, where before we were weaker than even the smallest of demi clans." He pauses for a moment.

"Now I'll be honest. My calling, my role within the church. is to protect humanity. Even from other humans. We are a costal country, so one border is relatively safe guarded by the Royal Navy and several fleets of private employ. But we share borers with the Great Divide to the north, and and south of that border is Gora." Pausing for a moment, that doesn't matter, those are places so far away you'll likely never see them. Now Humanity found that by using the form of writing given to us by God we can better control the flow of magic, which allows us to create things like the Hunters Orb you used earlier and these! "Touching his finger to the rune in the center of the disk resting on my palm, it glows briefly before it covers my hand in metal, the rune still on my palm. "See? Flex your hand."

Glancing up at him I try to close my fingers and realize my hand is stuck!

"Ah! It's alright boy, here." He taps the rune again, the metal receding back into a palm sized silver-grey disk. "These are cheap tricks compared to what church gives us when we are active in the field, but for normal humans and some immortals they work just fine as restraints. Even someone with no magical talent like you and I can activate them. But they're limited. They can restrain, but a strong man or creature can break them, and the form they take is only as detailed or useful as the mind activating the rune can imagen."

He ruffles my hair and tosses the other disk into my lap. "Here, keep em. I've got actual church issued gear if I need anything like these. But consider it payment for Mello being the bitch that she is, and as my thanks for bringing Master Eon back safely." John nods at me and walks out of the room, leaving me sitting in the bed almost as confused as when the cripple tried to down me.