“Alro?”

“Ah! Yes! In the back!”

Raj entered the back room and saw Alro in a long white apron, pulling on a pair of freshly cleaned leather gloves. He stopped and stared.

“Nothing about what I’m seeing is encouraging, I’m going to be honest with you.”

Alro gave him a sheepish, nervous smile.

“Ah, of course.” he gestured at himself. “I am, ah, a man of medicine, and you, ah, have just undergone a very strenuous experience, hm?”

Raj made a face.

“I mean, I still don’t have an arm.” he said, holding up his vestigial stump.

Alro hesitated for a moment.

“Errr...Yes. I see.” He powered through. “Still, I would like to give a, ah, general examination. Onto the table please.”

“Alright, but you try any leeches or whatever I’m going to smack you.”

Alro looked at him, confused.

“Why would I do that?”

“In my-back in-” Raj stuttered. “Nevermind.”

Alro nodded, and withdrew a crude-looking stethoscope, hooking it around his ears. He placed it on Raj’s chest.

“How are you feeling?”

“Physically, or, uh…?”

“Physically.” Alro shifted the stethoscope. “But you are, ah, handling things rather well.”

Raj sighed.

“I…it’s a lot to take in.”

“Mm.”

“I’m taking it as it comes. As I can.”

“Mm.” Alro said again, withdrawing the stethoscope, letting it hang limp around his neck. From a drawer, he withdrew a small set of lenses set together in a magnifier. “Hold still, please.”

“Yeah.”

There was a pause.

“There’s…rituals. Prayers. Where I come from.”

Alro gave another non-committal noise.

“You’re supposed to do them daily.”

Alro stopped his work, withdrawing the magnifier from Raj’s ear.

“Am I interrupting?”

Raj waved his hand.

“I was never really…I never did them. I was never particularly spiritual. And I…disagreed with it. Or it with me.”

“The arm?”

Raj didn’t answer. Alro continued his examination, laying the magnifier down, prodding Raj gently in certain places.

“There was no place for…those like me.” He said. “Always felt like I didn’t belong.”

“An outsider.” Alro said, without judgement.

“Yeah.”

There was a moment’s pause. Raj let out a sigh.

“I know I should miss it. Logically, I mean.” He looked at Alro. “Can’t say I do.”

“Mm, yes.” Also said, looking up at him. “I am not a philosopher, hm? But home is where one feels most welcome, yes? Where one is happy.”

He stood.

“And, ah, the arm? A sore subject, I’m sure, but-“

“Born without it.”

“Ah.”

Alro removed his gloves.

“Well, anything else won’t kill you tomorrow. You’ll live to see the Scholaris.”

“Ash said he’d bring me there. They study people like me, he said.”

Alro nodded.

“Indeed. Although they can be…difficult at times, if not for their work a great deal of my current patients would have…would be with us no longer.”

Raj dwelled on this, leaning back, propping himself up on his arm.

“And Ash? People called him ‘Hunter’. Is it a title, or…”

“Ah.” Alro realized. “Of course. Such things are new to you.”

He pulled off his glasses, cleaning them with the hem of his shirt.

“Sometimes, the rifts bring people. Like you, eh?” he said, gesturing at Raj with the glasses. “Sometimes creatures. Sometimes, things. Sometimes…monsters.”

He replaced the glasses onto his face.

“Hunters are charged with, ah, dealing with such things. Normally, killing monsters. But sometimes, dealing with people like you.”

Raj nodded, processing this new information.

“Where do they come from?”

Alro drew in a long breath like a cigarette. It was a moment before he spoke again.

“For those with nowhere else to go…or nothing left to lose…the Hunters will welcome with open arms. Children, mostly. Orphans. Adults are smarter, hm? And the, ah, changes are less risky with a young body.”

“Child soldiers?” Raj asked, a nervous edge to his voice.

“No…” Alro shook his head. “Those with the…potential, they are given a choice. Become a Hunter or continue to, ah, earn your keep through other means. The decision is not final until the, mm, formal induction. But the choice is not, ah, presented equally, shall we say. They are…groomed. And Ash’s school, young as it is, is known to be especially…” He made a turning motion with his hand, searching for the word. “Far more of the wards become Hunters than not. Even compared to the other schools.”

Raj scowled.

“God. That’s…messed up.”

“Indeed.” Alro sighed. Suddenly, he advanced on Raj, pointing.

“You did not hear this, and if you did, you did not hear this from me? Understood?”

Raj nodded, swallowing.

“Right. Yeah. Of course.”

Alro withdrew, letting out a long breath.

“I am sorry. That was, ah, extreme. But Ash…prefers not to discuss such things. He is insistent, yes?”

“Doesn’t seem to talk about anything, it seems.”

“Yes. It is a hard life. A long life. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better short.”

A sigh.

“Regardless. He does not have…friends. Not as such. I believe he thinks it risky, mm? Too risky by-“

There was a faint ding, and Alro shushed himself, hurriedly lifting a finger to his lips. Raj hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Ash entered the back room, a drawstring burlap sack over one shoulder. There was a crumpled note on fancy parchment in his hand.

“Ah. Back, I see.”

Ash nodded. It was impossible to tell if he knew anything of the conversation that had just taken place.

“Hello again.” Raj said, casually, before swallowing a yawn.

“Get to bed.” Ash said, setting the sack and missive down on the table next to him.

“I’m not even tired.” Raj waved his hand.

“Still. It has, ah, been a long day for you, yes?” Also said, laying a hand on Raj’s shoulder. Raj grumbled, but acquiesced.

He lay under a itchy wool blanket on an unfamiliar, firm mattress. From the other room came the faint clink of cookware, and soon after the air was filled with a rich, savory smell. Raj turned in the bed, but fell asleep soon enough.

Ash lay down on the floor in the examination room and permitted himself to sleep. He did so rarely, normally keeping his mind just conscious enough to sense any approaching danger. When he slept, he dreamed. They were jumbled, turbulent dreams, and although he never remembered them upon waking he knew they were not pleasant.