The Outlands

The rest of the interview went well, Marley thought. As he had expected, Tess didn't divulge any huge secrets, this wasn't something that would shatter the world, but he did learn some very interesting information. For one, magic was very loose in some ways, and very rigid in others; the conditions to learn it were stringent, and without meeting some very specific conditions, it would take a lifetime of study to be able to cast even the simplest of spells.

Yet, once you were able to cast those spells, things opened up significantly; Tess had mentioned her roar only working on "enemies", but that was an oversimplification. Really, it meant that by default it only targeted people or things she thought of as enemies, mostly monsters, but she could temporarily "select" people she wanted included. She didn't actually view him or the students she had frightened as enemies.

For two, there wasn't some conspiracy around magic, or, at least, not a malicious one. The reality was that Life and Death wanted it kept secret until the world was more ready for it, and so the magic users had done so. This was the same reason Hunters existed; monsters did appear, and someone had to deal with them, so having a dedicated organization who knew how to was the best way to keep both knowledge of creatures and the number of deaths from people hunting them down.

When asked, she stated that she knew for a fact that Life and Death existed, and she even claimed to have spoken with them herself. This was a claim Marley had heard before, of course, but it had a lot more weight behind it when someone who was capable of literal magic said it. And she did show magic; while the claws and roar were magic enough for most people, she claimed that, in the magical world, they didn't count as true magic.

True magic used a person's Mana something she said everyone had, but most people were incapable of using. The claws and the roar, though clearly magical in origin, belonged to a second category that used her physical stamina instead of magical ability. She had, again, stressed that no one was going to be sprouting claws or letting loose unnaturally terrifying roars any time soon, that it was a result of the freak accident that got her into the magical world.

She had said that she wasn't great at magic, but nonetheless she was able to completely mend the nick in the table she had made, and was able to demonstrate a few other spells, summoning a fire that wasn't hot, filling a cup with drinking water conjured from nowhere, small stuff like that. For Marley and the crew, it was just another piece to add to the incredibly large pile of evidence they had for the supernatural, but he hoped that it would at least be…something for the viewers.

Tess was, unfortunately, right; most people were quick to call the show fake, that all the evidence was either CGI, something normal mistaken for something supernatural due to the poor quality of the footage, or just people in suits staging it. And, as much as it frustrated Marley, he couldn't blame them; he himself had been a skeptic until a fateful encounter ten years prior, and the supernatural's way of tanking the quality of videos that capture it made things much harder to believe. It just…didn't make sense with people's current understanding of the world, there had been no reason for it to do that.

Or, there hadn't been a reason, not until he interviewed Tess. And, on the heels of that interview, he didn't just want to interview the Hunter, he needed to, her and the local branch of the church. Tess had said a lot of outlandish things, and a significant number of those could be corroborated by speaking with people familiar with monsters and with religious matters.

So, he found himself in front of the church, a single camerawoman, Lisa, in tow. The church was a lot larger than he thought it would be; nothing on the scale of the grand cathedrals, of course, but it was at least fifty percent bigger than most small-town churches. Curiosity growing, he stepped inside and made his way to where the on-duty priest worked and knocked on the door.

After a moment, it opened. "Can I help you, sir?" A man asked.

"I was hoping to get an interview with the Hunter who is currently here, as well as the pastor in charge." Marley explained. "For the Hunter, I believe her name is Marie, I received a recommendation from a woman named Tess Los, she said to tell the Hunter that she was the one who sent me."

The moment Marley mentioned Tess, the priest's expression changed. "Hold on for a moment, let me grab the pastor." The priest replied, hurriedly shutting the door. There was the sound of another door opening and shutting, and then silence.

"Do you think the recommendation will actually work?" Lisa asked. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's just policy to have the pastor come out for anything to do with Tess, given how openly supernatural she is."

"I think it could go either way." Marley replied. "The Hunters aren't in the habit of being merciful to supernatural elements, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that she's got some connections to them. It's also possible that she's far more powerful than we thought and she's enthralled everyone here, but if that was the case then she probably wouldn't be so public about things; the Hunters would just send more backup. Regardless, we'll get something out of talking with the church here, so it's worth the trip no matter what happens."

A couple minutes later, the door opened, and an older woman with graying hair stepped out. "Hello, I'm Jillian Faust, the pastor here." She said. "May I ask who you are?"

"Marley Smith, host of the TV show Mael: the Unseen World." Marley said, extending his hand. "We're in town to investigate the supernatural happenings, and we just got through interviewing Tess and her wives. They suggested speaking with Marie, and while we were here, I was hoping to get an interview with you as well, would that be possible?"

Pastor Faust nodded. "I'm afraid Marie won't be back for another hour or so, but I would be happy to give you an interview while we wait. Follow me, we'll do this in one of the back rooms."

She waved them in, and after a minute or so of walking through the halls ushered them into a room at the side of the church. "So, how are we doing this?"

"I'll ask you some questions, and Lisa here will take care of the camera work. We prefer to get people's stream-of-consciousness thoughts on these matters, so we won't be having you review questions in advance or anything, just say what comes to mind and it'll be fine.

"Occasionally I may pause to allow time for the editors to make a cut, so if I do, don't feel weird or anything. This is normally only needed if we need to look at some sort of visual aid, and normally that only happens when we're 'on set' at wherever we've set up shop in town, but I always like to mention it beforehand just in case. Any questions?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Do we need to re-arrange this furniture?" Pastor Faust asked. "I can call someone in if we need."

Marley surveyed the room, then shook his head. "No, it should be fine." He said. "We can just use these couple of chairs, and that's all we really need. Lisa's a veritable wizard with the camera, so don't worry about the shots being bad or anything."

Pastor Faust took a seat in one of the chairs Marley indicated, folding her hands in her lap nervously. "Alright, I'm ready, then."

Marley sat across from her, waited for Lisa to get into position, then held up his fingers. "Three…two…one…start filming, please." Once Lisa gave him the thumbs-up that indicated that she had begun rolling, Marley began to speak. "Right now, I'm at Kaas's church, interviewing their Pastor. Pastor Faust, would you like to introduce yourself?"

"Ah, yes. I'm Jillian Faust, and I serve as the pastor here. I've never been on TV except for a couple segments in the local news, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm a little nervous."

"Perfectly understandable, Pastor." Marley replied, giving her a smile. "So, to begin with, do you know Tess at all?"

"I know her quite well, actually." Pastor Faust replied. "After her parents died, I was the one watching over her until Mr. Los was able to finish all the paperwork needed to legally adopt her. We've stayed in touch ever since, so I would imagine I know her better than most."

"And how long ago was that?"

"About a decade ago, give or take a year or two. I'm happy to say that she's turned out quite well, all things considered."

"Do you feel she's changed at all in the past months?" Marley probed. "In terms of personality, that is."

"Not significantly more than I would expect." Pastor Faust said. "Mostly, she's become more confident and driven, more sure what she wants to do with her life. How much did she tell you in her interview? And, don't think about lying, she has her ways of knowing if you do, and you do not want to be on her bad side."

A warning from Tess flashed in Marley's mind as Pastor Faust asked that. Tess, as a parting comment, had told him not to lie to anyone else he interviewed about what she told him; she said that she'd be confirming the contents of their interviews with the parties in question, and if he lied…well, she'd have to come and deal with all the footage herself.

The warning had seemed a little odd, but he supposed that there were things he wasn't allowed to know that people like Marie could potentially already know, and Tess didn't want those getting out. Still, he hadn't been planning on lying anyway, so it wasn't really a restriction. "She answered vague questions about magic, showed some off of her own, and mentioned she was relatively new to the scene. And, actually, now that you bring it up, there was one thing I wanted to confirm; she claimed to have spoken with the gods directly, and that hiding the supernatural was their will. Does the church have a stance on that?"

Pastor Faust thought on that for a moment. "She's mentioned these things to me as well, and after much prayer and meditation, I have come to the conclusion that she is being truthful. The gods work in mysterious ways, and she seems to be one of the tools they are using at the moment. I can confirm that she is a highly devout person, one who hold a type of respect for the gods that not many have."

Something about that sentence bothered Marley, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. "Would you mind explaining a little further?" He asked.

"It's…it's the sort of assuredness she has." Pastor Faust said. "It's the kind I would expect to see with high-ranking clergy, not with a woman who has barely come of age. It's something you get a knack for sensing, when you're in religion, so I'm afraid I can't really explain much better than that."

"And, about the supernatural?" Marley prompted. "She said they're planning to change how they treat it."

"Given everything, it seems highly likely. I would prepare for change, Mr. Smith; what we've been seeing lately is only the beginning."

Marley ended up asking a few more questions on the history of the town, Pastor Faust's views on supernatural happenings unrelated to Tess, and a few other subjects, but nothing else really stood out about the interview. Pastor Faust graciously let him stay in the church until Marie had returned, and a scant half an hour after he finished interviewing Pastor Faust, Marie walked into the room Marley had interviewed Pastor Faust in.

"Hello there, I'm –"

"Marley Smith, I know." Marie said gruffly, sitting down across from Marley. "You're the idiot who tried to chase down a bone horror once, right?"

"I suppose you could say that." Marley admitted. "I like to call it a calculated risk, though."

"Remind me to never let you do my calculations." Marie snorted. "Look, I'm going to level with you, I don't like interviews. In normal circumstances, I would never have agreed to this, but this isn't a normal circumstance, so let's just get this over with, okay?"

"Very well. Lisa, start filming, please." Marley waited for the thumbs-up, then continued. "Today we have another very special guest with us today, Marie, of the Hunters! Would you like to introduce yourself?"

"Marie Eves, senior Hunter." Marie replied.

"Tess says you're the best in the business, is that true?" Marley asked.

"At this point? Technically not, my numbers have fallen behind due to this job, and will continue to plummet, but in practice I'm one hundred percent confident that I'm the strongest of us."

Marley raised an eyebrow. "Can you share anything about this job?" He asked. "Why would it hurt your numbers? And what numbers are those?"

"Number of monsters dealt with. And right now, I'm staying here to make sure things don't get too out of hand."

"And too out of hand is…?" Marley prompted.

"Confidential. Right now, it's not too out of hand, and that's all I'm going to say." Marie said flatly.

"Very well, let's move on, then. What can you tell me about Tess?" Marley asked.

"Don't mess with her, that's what." Marie replied. "Don't try and spy on her, don't spread misinformation about her, nothing. Things will end extremely poorly for you if you make an enemy of her."

"Didn't you get into an altercation with her?" Marley countered. "You seem to be fine."

"It is only by the grace of the gods and Tess's own mercy that I am here now." Marie said. "She has the backing of some very powerful people, and is in the gods' good graces. Even if that were not the case, she herself is far more capable than any monster, and could dispatch me with ease. Tread carefully around her."

"Anything else you can tell me about her?"

"No. You interviewed her, and I'm not going to share anything about her that she wouldn't share herself. Next topic."

"What can you tell me about the Hunters?"

"We exist to keep people safe, and that is all. If anyone watching believes they have seen a monster, report it to your nearest church branch, and they will pass the tip on to us to investigate. Anything else is not for the public to know."

Marley sighed internally. Marie clearly wasn't going to be very cooperative, but he still had to try. "And what about the happenings around here? What do you make of them?"

"Harmless, mostly." Marie said. "Spooky, yes, but you're not going to be in any sort of imminent danger from any of them. This town has too powerful a protector for anything dangerous to make it their home. I will write out a list of known hotspots and send it to you later, if that'll get you out of my hair faster."

"That would be appreciated. Any chance you can tell us what's behind most of these strange occurrences?"

"Spirits, by and large. Minor poltergeists, mischievous but not hostile. Not really worth the effort to exorcise at the moment, they'll go away on their own eventually. Anything else, or can I get back to work?"

"Are you willing to share any stories of your hunts?" Marley asked hopefully.

"No. They're irrelevant to the subject at hand."

"Then…I suppose I don't have anything else to ask." Marley said, deflating a little. "Thank you for your time."

"I'll leave that list with Pastor Faust tomorrow." Marie said, standing up. "Goodbye." She strode out of the room, leaving Marley to look at the camera helplessly.

"Well, folks, she's one taciturn lady." He said. "But Hunters generally don't like to share any information with outsiders, so something is better than nothing. Let's go see what else this town has in store for us, shall we?"