Blade of souls

PROLOGUE

The darkness seemed to thicken as the young man ventured closer to his destination and probable death. The night colored dirt coated his thick leather boots and pants as he trudged relentlessly through the swamp. The place reeked of rotten flesh and blood, but by now the young man had become accustomed the putrid stench. The water around him was the color of mucus, probably close to the same viscosity as well. A bubble of rancid gas rose to the surface and broke, splashing the foul liquid all over the front of the already filthy young man. Yet he didn’t seem to notice, and if he did he showed no sign of caring. He walked on through the muck as an inhuman screech sounded as cold and clear as a whistle, echoing through the swamp. This did not bug the young man however, for sounds like this were heard often in this swamp. He did however unsheathe his silver dagger just in case. He wiped it on his shirt to clean the blade, but with the mud coated on his shirt it only worsened the dirtiness of the dagger. He stood dagger in hand when he saw a flash of movement in the corner of his eye, a bit of silver and blue. He quickly jabbed his dagger down in one quick strike and felt the blade hit something. He raised the dagger to his face and saw a good sized bungalee skewered on the silver blade. The lizard was about a foot long and three inches wide in its widest spot, it’s head, and only a millimeter in its thinnest, the tip of its tail, it had a diamond shaped head and a squat little body.  It had four short clawed legs and a long tail. The eyes, sickly yellow, were on the sides of its head looking out sideways. It had no nostrils on its snout just scales webbed over where the nostrils should have been, and its mouth was open to reveal its forked yellow tongue and sharp black teeth and fangs.  The young man plucked the bungalee off the dagger, its sticky white blood covering the blade of the dagger. The young man used the dagger to chop off the small lizard’s head and tail, which held deadly venom in the tip, and tossed them in the nearest mud pit. Thousands of tiny fish rose to the surface and devoured the head and tail in seconds, reminding the young man how dangerous the swamp could be. He placed the remaining bit of the bungalee in his bag to save for dinner. He smiled; the bungalee would be the best meal he’d eaten in days. That was if he made it to the night to eat dinner that quickly reminded him of the dangers and hopelessness he faced in the coming days and the loss he had already faced in the previous week. He’d been in the swamp and the smile on his face was soon gone replaced by the same grimace he had been wearing for a week. He sheathed his dagger and walked forward into the despair and horror of the evil, demon infested swamp.

 

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The darkness of the night had fallen upon the swamp and black mist had risen out of the ground, the only light came from the full moon and the small fire the young man had created with the few pieces of dry wood he could find. He sat on the small dirt bank he had chosen, next to a bubbling pool of green mud huddling by the tiny red flames that leaped up trying to reach the sky. A series of howls, screeches, blood curdling screams, and other inhuman sounds reached his ears from all sides of the swamp. A large splash sounded in the bubbling pool in front of him making him jump, his hand automatically went to the hilt of the sword in his belt and he stood up ready to fight. A sense of relief flooded his mind and body when he saw the sound was only made by a glittering eel on the other side of the pool. The eels could only see a couple of feet in front of them plus they were deaf and had no sense of smell so it was harmless to him, so far away. The young man sat down again trying to get warm, he pulled the bungalee he’d killed earlier, skewered it on his knife and leaned it on a rock on the edge of the makeshift fire pit letting it cook.  He looked at the ebony springs a hundred yards in front of him, once he entered them, tomorrow morning, there was no going back. He would either succeed in his ultimate goal or he would fail and die painfully. Obviously, He hoped it would be the first.

The young man settled for the night after eating tough sinuous meat of the bungalee he was the best fed he’d been for a while. He sat up around the fire, laying down might have caused him to drift off and sleeping in this swamp, without someone on watch, was the last thing you wanted to do at night. He thought back to the first night when the two partners he had brought with him were still alive and he had been allowed four hours of sleep what he wouldn’t give for that now.  He sat thinking back when a small flash illuminated the space in front of him. He saw a Dusk bee had flown into the fire and it was now on the ground alive with flames. The young man grabbed it quickly and snuffed out the flames. The hair had been burned off as had the antennas, the young man grabbed the sharp poisonous stinger on the bee and yanked it off, he couldn’t believe his luck that such a large bee had flown into the fire, thought it didn’t really surprise him bugs were attracted to light and the fire was the only light in the dark swamp. He then stuck the bug in his mouth and bit down with a loud crunching sound, the juices of the bee going down his throat, the bee’s fluids were said to strengthen your body so the young man ate it all without stopping once, because of the repugnant flavor. That’s when the unimaginable happened. Darkness crept over the sky like a blanket of ink being draped over the earth, blocking out the stars and moon. The mist around him thickened until the young man could not see only see inches in front of him the rest was black, the fire on the ground still blazed but the young man could no longer feel the heat from the flames it seemed only cold, and the light that shone did not seem bright and welcoming but cold and dead. That’s when the whispers started they started slow and soft so that the young man could hardly hear them at all then they intensified getting louder and stronger and faster they spoke words in a language that the young man had never heard before, yet he still could understand them, but it was chaos in his head he only was able to make sense of a few words, he heard “death”, “dark”, “cold”, “no return” and he somehow knew they were the whispers of those who had died in the swamp, then shadows appeared, dark silhouettes of men, women, children, and beasts rose from the ground they surrounded  the young man  taunting him beckoning him forward when he refused they got louder and crept closer. the young man ripped his sword from his belt and pointed the golden blade towards the shadows as a warning but they remained coming closer and closer chanting the same words “surrender your soul to us and you shall live” they hissed at him. He’d heard of these monstrosities before they were called sinisters because of what they were, well… sinister. He almost gave in to the horrible shadows, in a sort of trance but then his thoughts went back to his mission and his partners, Olvin and Golgar and he broke from the trance swinging his sword in an arc at the nearest shadow, then it all stopped. The shadows the whispers were all gone, but the darkness remained. The young man noticed a figure coming towards him in the dark, it too was a shadow but unlike the others it seemed to be tangible like he could reach and touch it. The figure was vaguely human in shape with arms, legs, and a head but besides that it had nothing in common with a human. For one it was at least eight feet tall and way too skinny its arms and legs shimmered like flames with no real shape and its head looked like a ball of black fire placed on the dark torso, the head held no mouth, nose, nor ears the only feature on its face were two jagged white eyes, containing no pupils, placed diagonally on the face. The young man feared for he knew of this demonic creature he had heard of it many times it was said to be the worst thing he could possibly run into in the swamp, said to be the only one of its kind and that only one person had ever survived its attack. The young man trembled as the Vane came near. He raised his sword to fight it off but the Vane only laughed in a cold inhuman laugh and then spoke inside the young man’s head in a raspy voice 

“you did not give in to the sinisters when they asked for your soul in return for life so you’re obviously very brave, but you are feeble against my power, you cannot brave me no matter how you wish, I can show you your worst memories make you relive them with no ability to stop what you know will happen I can instill fear into your very being if you oppose me so if you know what is right for you, join with me and I will use your body as my host to this world.” The young man was now shaking and he knew the creature wasn’t lying, he knew there was no way to beat it, but he would never join it. 

“I would rather die” he said as confidently as he could. The creature again laughed then spoke again 

“You only wish it was that easy, if you won’t join me I will not kill you but make you wish I had, it seems as though you need a persuasion, so be it, have a small taste of the power I contain and then see how brave you are then.” 

The scene changed, the young man was still in the swamp but in a different part of it, a part he’d been to three days earlier, then he noticed three people walking by three people he recognized. It was him, Olvin, and Golgar, his two partners. In a sudden shock he realized where he was it was three days ago the spot that Olvin and Golgar had died. The young man ran down and told them to stop to turn back, but they didn’t hear or see him they just walked on like he wasn’t there, that’s when the vanes words came back to him “I can show you your worst memories, with no ability to stop what you know will happen.” And tears sprang to his eyes he did not want to watch, but the Vane had every intention of making him. He saw it all again he saw the three of them walk to the dark pool of water. Heard himself say “here, is a good spot for a rest” saw them all take off there packs and lay them on the ground. He also saw the Water Kreiven, the horrible, clawed, web footed, little monkey-like monster swim towards them and jump out of the dark pool with amazing speed it grabbed Golgar and dragged him into the water before either of the others knew what was going on, the young man watched as the two quickly stood and drew their swords to fight. He saw the beast rise again this time with blood on its lips and attack the two, killing Olvin with a strike to the chest with its razor sharp claws and biting the young man’s leg with its small sharp teeth he saw again, him beheading the beast and in anger stabbing it multiple times then tossing it in the water. The scene changed back and he was back with the Vane at the edge of the springs.

“so what’ll it be, will you join me and host me or will I have to show you worse things such as your father’s murder in the bitter war he fought, or how about the death of your younger brother caused by his slow working deadly malady and many more events I’m sure you wish to not see.” The Vane spoke to him again. The young man spoke 

“But…. I can’t…. I shouldn’t… please….” He said in a shaky voice 

“Very well if you wont I am forced to show you more” hissed the Vane. The scene changed again this time to a small dusty wooden house, the young man’s home as a child. His family sat huddled around a fire trying to get warm as the outside was cold and gray because of winter. The young man’s father was still dressed in his captain’s uniform after getting home from years of service in the army with many won battles, he was a fearsome foe to the other side and that was why the enemy soldiers, burst through the family’s wooden door and took the father outside in the wet snow, shooting him in the head three times. The young man watched as this happened his sick mother grabbed her four children and hugged them tight trying to keep them out of harms way. The young man watched as the grieved family cried with despair for their fallen father.  He was again back with the Vane, 

“Need you see more or is that enough” it said crudely. The young man shook his head he couldn’t give in to this monster 

“I wont join you no matter what you show me” he said halfheartedly. 

“No, I will just have to change tactics then, that mother of yours is still alive if I’m not mistaken  maybe I should pay her a visit show her some memories too, maybe the one of her only living son dying horribly, then finishing her off once and for all how does that sound”

The young man trembled “I will…. will not join you” 

“Very well we’ll see if she can persuade you, so I’ll just be off”  

“No wait…. don’t please”  

“Join me or you will face these consequences, host me or I will fulfill my promise”  

“Alright please” the young man said resigned “do what you have to do but promise you won’t harm any of my family” 

“It will be done” the Vane then stuck its shimmering black hand towards the young man. The young man took it and shook, light and energy surged from the connected hands like a miniature sun. The light then got so bright that it lit the dark swamp so that every nocturnal monster wandering around scurried to their holes and bogs. The light was the creation of a bond a bond that would be the near downfall of the entire universe as we know it the light show ended bringing back the impenetrable darkness to the swamp and as the Vane laughed in rejoice of its new host, the young man fell into an eternal and horrible darkness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 1—THE BREAKOUT

 

 

THE alarm sounded, its high shrill screaming echoing throughout the prison reverberating off the impenetrable walls.  The vibrant red lights illuminated the cement hallways. This sudden commotion is what woke me from my sleep. One of the other guards, one who worked the graveyard shift, burst through the door all flustered. His sandy hair was messy and wet as he had obviously been out in the thunderstorm that had pounded the prison for the last week; his deep purple Royal Operations uniform looked almost black when drenched, his electric blue eyes were alive with fear. I recognized the excited guard as Blaine Ahlstrom, one of the younger recruits who hadn’t had much experience working in the Aralonn’s Regal Confinement Center or the Arc as the prisoners and guards called it. He was a strange looking person for sure, for starters he was well in his late twenties, but due to his sharp and pointed face and his small 5 and a half foot 120 pound frame he looked as if he was not much older than me at the grand old age of 17, he also had a weird marking on his face a black and blue splotch in the shape of a crescent moon. I had never asked him what it was and now was definitely not the correct time to do so. He walked into the Guards quarters and shook his mane of Blonde hair splashing cold rain water in the room. He looked at me and said

“Ryven, help me wake all the guards, there’s been a breakout on Block D, a high priority prisoner escaped, no one knows how yet just that he was found missing from his cell and one of the tower watches spotted him sprinting through the forest.” He spoke quickly and in an anxious manner, yelling half of what he said. I asked no questions and immediately shot up out of my comfortable bed and ran to repeat the message throughout the quarters telling people to spread the word, and it did, the word of a breakout spread through Arc like a wildfire. In a manner of mere minutes the whole of the prison was awake and alive with action, search parties were suiting up bringing weapons and shields, S-I Guns, E-rays, pretty much all arms they could bear and still move fast. Other Men and Women radioed out for air support, and the remaining including me stood and waited for orders from General Garrant, all of us I’m sure were thinking the same thing I was. I couldn’t fathom the idea of a breakout in the Arc; it had never happened before and pretty much was never expected to. Sure we held exercises all the time of what to do on a day like this but none of us actually expected it to come, I mean it was supposed to be impossible. Titanium coated cement walls, solid iron and titanium doors containing no windows and virtually no cracks, air ventilation that was sent through tubes barely big enough for a deer mouse, no visitors aloud, and the only way a prison door could be opened was through an access code sent through the computers that only the Mainframe Workforce employees had access to and anyone knew these five guys were the most trusted people in all the whole prison. I sat there and listed theories in my head of how the prisoner escaped but each one was just as unlikely as the last. Another thing that bugged me about the breakout was that it was a D-Block Prisoner, the prison had five blocks all named after the first five letters in the alphabet. A and B were some of the most horrible criminals in the nation and that’s why they were sent to us. The C-Block was the criminals that were even more wicked than that and the D-Block was full of even more wretched humans, the E-block was the worst sentencing you could get only the worst people alive would get sent here and as of now it contained no prisoners for none had recently committed a violation so evil. So the fact that such a man as a D-Block Prisoner was out and loose made me queasy and extremely worried. The general spoke stirring me from my thoughts 

            “The senior Royal Ops members have been sent on scouting parties, the computer engineers have called in the town militia air support, you younger Members have been left here for a reason, you’re gonna ‘man the fort’ so to say I want you all to stay behind and make sure none of the other prisoners escape, make sure if the escapee comes back you’re here to meet him” Garrant Barked at us violently “I’m leaving Ryven Dimcore in charge” he gestured at me an almost proud look in his eye. I saw a lot of the other ops members give dirty looks to this statement, and I understood why. I was the youngest of the fifty of us standing there and I don’t think I was the most accomplished, but for some reason the generals and sergeants seemed to think I should be leader. The General saw these looks of disdain and anger and scowled.

“So some of you think you’re better than Ryven?” again he gestured to me “I’d have you know that Ryven shows all the right skills for a leader and has many skills in combat and tactics that many of you lack, many of you could learn from him no matter how young he may be. He’s been training since he was the age that most of you were learning how to walk so don’t give him that.” He said in a calm voice but he was certainly not happy. I felt myself go red in embarrassment I hated being singled out and praised by the leaders but they all did and I had just gotten used to it. Some of the people who had scoffed at me now looked less angry, but most just kept there looks of hatred for me. The general wiped his shoulders and saluted us with three fingers on his heart which he then thrust toward us and walked away. People turned to me 

“So what do you want us to do captain” one of the older members hissed at me I recognized him as Gerald Lee, he had greasy black hair that hung unclean in front of his grey eyes. Freckles sparkled across his face and black fuzz was on his chin from not shaving for a few days. He was 24 or 25 at most but acted like a ten year old play ground bully. He was tall and his arms were ripped, bulging muscles poking in his olive colored skin. 

“Set up a perimeter” I said “I want patrols at all possible entry points or exit points. I want no space that isn’t within view of at least two people. Everybody should be armed with at least a sword, a backup sword, a dagger, and a barb sphere. Move as fast as you can, Bedford, Riddell, check the prison in all four active blocks and make sure the scum are in their cages, I want this done clean and quick, please.” I tried to be as authoritative as I could without sounding bossy and they did what I said. The two men I told to check the prisoners, two big stocky blonde men, left immediately. The others left to go get geared up as did I. I went and dressed in my purple Royal Operations uniform. The Royal Operations or royal ops for short was the most prestigious law enforcing group in the nation, we were the first to fight when wars sprung up, the last to leave. We were the ones who were called when the situation went beyond control of the army and the TM (Town Militia, the local law enforcement) we were the best of the best. I was proud and lucky to call myself one of them, but luck wasn’t necessary the right word, I lived a normal life, I was Ryven Dimcore son of Lyell and Serra, my family lived in a rural town and my dad was a TM officer my mother worked at the local bakery as a manager. It wasn’t until my parents were killed by a mass murdering serial killer, who was on the run, that my life changed. I managed at the ripe age of nine to grab a broken water pipe and beat the man unconscious, the TMs tried to put me in an orphanage but the day I was headed for the Orphanage I was found by the head of the Royal Ops a man named Kristofer Walden he took me from the TM officers and sent me to a child training camp in the Royal Ops facility. Mr. Walden had recognized my “bravery and pure skill” as he called it, even though it was pure intuition, and that I had many traits needed by a Royal Ops member. I quickly became one of the top students due to the long time I had to train and my skills with a blade, where others excelled at bows and arrows, javelins, hand to hand, battle strategy, and many other traits, I did with a sword, I was decent with the other weapons and skills, but the sword was my favorite, I soon beat even the sword master with the weapon. The thing was like a third arm it seemed to do what ever I willed it to. When I turned thirteen Mr. Walden, who at the time was my mentor and tutor in all my studies and training, bought me my own sword, the thing was beautiful. It was hand crafted in the Mountains of Zerros and forged in the Mount Aris Fires. The hilt was pure gold with an amethyst imbedded in the bottom; the blade itself was made of Zerros steel, the strongest and lightest steel in the world, it was midnight black with a purple lining on the edge. I named the blade “soulsplinter” after my father’s sword. At the time I didn’t realize how much the thing must of cost and didn’t show my mentor the proper gratitude but he didn’t seem to care, when I turned fifteen I was finally inducted into the elite corps of the Royal Ops as an official member and not just a trainee, I started out as a simple grunt, but through the year the captains saw my skills with a sword and I moved up the ranks to a captain of my small young team. On the day of my seventeenth birthday I was moved to the ARC as a guard, I’d been here for three months before the day of the break out. 

“Ryven….. Hello?.... Wake up friend.” I looked up. The words had come out of a one Allen Kraus, I’d only knows Allen for a few months but he instantly had become one of my friends. He was a few years my elder but he treated me like an equal and that was one of the many qualities of his which made me like him, he was short and skinny and pale as the full moon, his hair was so blonde it was white and it stuck up in small spikes atop his head, his eyes were caramel brown and full of intelligence. By the looks of him you wouldn’t think he would qualify to be in such an elite prestigious group of soldiers, when I first saw him I wondered why he was here too, due to his lack of size or strength, but that was before I saw him with his guns, you give that kid and S-I gun or an E-ray and he could bring down a charging full grown Elephadon. He never missed. Ever. Also he was a genius, when it came to tactics during a battle he seemed to know where to go and what to do without faltering. 

“Ryven!” this time he yelled it “wake up we have work to do” he chuckled out loud when I jumped at his sudden yelling. 

“Sorry I was just thinking.” I said a little embarrassed that I was the team leader and I was off in La-La land while we were suiting up.

“What have I told you about that” he remarked “it’s a dangerous thing that you shouldn’t be doing. You swing your sword around and leave the thinking to me” 

            “You’re hilarious” I scoffed “a real comedian.”

            “Hey calm down buddy” he smiled “everything will be cool, all we gotta do is sit here and make sure no bad guys come back or get out, we got the easy job.”

            “Yah your right” I said “thanks.” I forced a smile, but this was still my first major job as an actual leader of a team. I was honestly scared to death. After a few more minutes my whole team was suited up with their weapon of choice. I ran my fingers across the golden hilt of Soulsplinter as it sat in its scabbard. Allen grabbed an S-I gun of the rack and put it in a holster on his belt then grabbed a larger E-ray off the rack and held it on his shoulder. The E-ray was about three feet long and shaped like a triangle. It was silver and the bottom was flat, the end was thin with a small triangular hole in it, the hole was the barrel, near the middle and bottom was a small trigger. At the top was a clear cylinder. In the cylinder electricity sparked and streaked across the glass. The gun emitted short burst of pure energy that short circuited the enemy’s nervous system, killing them instantly, or the shooter could chose to lower the power and knock the opponent unconscious.  The S-I gun was a small L-shaped pistol, dark gray, Nothing exciting about its looks. But the little gun packed a punch, when fired it shot a huge burst of sound waves that caused groups of people to go flying. It was only fired from far away; shooting it at point blank would be messy. 

            “Okay” I said mustering as much authority as my quivering voice could muster “I want every prison hall covered by two people. I will be on patrol covering everywhere, don’t let me catch you slacking. Every entry and exit point has been covered I have multiple people on patrol, if anything goes wrong, radio in for back up. I want everything to go off perfect.”  My men nodded, I noticed a few nodded reluctantly and irritated. Including and especially Gerald Lee, but they all did what I said and went off to their designated areas. I myself walked to the closest exit into the outside of the prison a small iron door; I lifted up on the handle and scanned my ID card. The door hissed open. 

Outside of the prison lay a huge forest, it surrounded the prison to all four sides, massive trees rose up into the sky, there trunks were dark and thick and covered in rough bark, the trees were densely packed together so there was not much space to go in. the leaves were huge and waxy, they sat only at the top of the trees, or they were pine trees with huge thick needles. As I sat here looking into the forest something caught my eye. There was a dark figure running through the dense forest. At first I thought it was a Gris Deer, it wasn’t uncommon to see the large animals making there way through the trees, but when I inspected closer I saw a flash of lavender and gray, the color of the prison uniforms. The running figure wasn’t a deer but was in fact the escaped prisoner, a million thoughts burst through my mind of what to do in my current situation, the protocol was to call in for backup and wait for a team to arrive so I could chase the man down, but by the time the nearest members would arrive for backup it would be too late. So I did the thing my instinct told me, I unsheathed Soulsplinter and burst into the dense forest. As I ran I feared that I would be in trouble for this break of protocol, but I knew that some things were more important than protocol. I reached the edge of the tree line and saw into the forest, I caught the slightest glimpse of purple in the distance and I took off into that direction. As I trudged through the dank forest, branches of monstrous trees smacked my face, mud splashed on my shoes and pant legs, but I did not slow down. On occasion I stumbled or tripped over small plants or protruding tree roots but I regained my balance as quickly as I lost it. Often I lost sight of the lavender fabric of the prisoner’s jumpsuit, but it would always reappear in the dense foliage, a quick flash or sighting of it. Fear ran through my head, what if I lost the prisoner and I had to return to camp and tell the head of the ARC I had burst into a dark forest by myself after a mass murderer, suddenly my decision seemed less and less intelligent, but it was too late to turn back. I pursued the murder into an even denser and darker part of the woods, by now the trees were so compact that I barely had space to maneuver, slowing my speed down to a slow walk, I feared that this would allow my prey to get away, but I knew that he too must have been forced to slow down. Suddenly I looked ahead in search of the runaway, but saw nothing, no flash of color. Nothing. I stepped under an arched tree root and into a small clearing. A tiny patch of sunlight shone through into the small area of grass and weeds that I sat in. that’s when I saw the strange and massive structure in front of me. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was made of dark black iron that twisted out of the ground and into the sky. The “building” though I doubted it was man made rose forty feet into the sky and twenty feet to either side of me. It was in the shape of an arch, the black metal twisting and corkscrewing from either side of me to meet at the top. Alien markings were etched into the metal, figures I had never seen before. I looked at the massive unnatural arch that sat in the middle of the forest clearing, and wondered how it had gotten here.

            “Amazing isn’t it” the voice sounded from behind me. I turned quickly to see the source of it, and there standing behind me was the prisoner. He wore the lavender suit that the prison had provided, gray numbers on his chest marking him as prisoner #21093. His head was covered in curly black hair. His face, bore a small patch of the dark curls, as well, protruding from his chin. He was pale white from being trapped in a cell for the previous two years, and his eyes too were a light gray, but instead of the insanity that usually was in the eyes of the prisoners, his eyes bore intelligence and sanity. He smiled, and I was shocked to see it was a warm friendly smile. 

            “Your Ryven aren’t you?” he questioned, but I remained silent still in shock and fear even though I held a weapon and he didn’t “I’ve always liked you, you were kind to me and my colleagues, even though they were filthy murders”

            “And you aren’t?” I spat angrily, he too was in prison for murder. I remembered the report, he had killed.. someone though the details were escaping my memory at this moment. I remember there had been a lot of eyewitnesses and it had been an open and shut case.

            “I would argue with you that I am not, but in order to prove my innocence I would have show people things that they wouldn’t and couldn’t comprehend. You are no different”

            “Oh yeah? Try me, prove to me why I should not take my sword and strike you down right now, I could tell them you put up a fight, it would be easy”

            “But you won’t. You’re too kind hearted you don’t have it in you to kill a man in cold blood.” He had called my bluff perfectly.

            “I……I….. Just. You don’t know that!” My reply was weak and I too knew it was somewhat pathetic sounding. 

            “Look Ryven, I like you and I regret having to do this, I really am sorry.” He frowned and I believed him, though I knew not what he meant to do. He reached into his shirt and pulled out strange looking device, it was flat and bronze, small spikes stuck out the bottom. He pressed a silver button on the back and the spikes lit up bright white, I stared at the flash in bright light everything started to go white 

            “Again I am sorry my friend” he spoke, but his voiced sounded muffled. That’s when unconsciousness reached up from its dark abyss and grabbed hold of me dragging me down into its black depths. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 2—THE GATEWAY

 

 

 

I awoke bound in thick leafy green vines, tethered to the rough bark of a gargantuan tree. My hands were tied together as were my feet, the vines were wrapped around my waist and around the trunk of the tree. As my vision slowly returned I saw that the night was in its peak, the sky had turned black and millions of stars shone, more than I had ever viewed in my life at one time. My captor sat tending to the flames of a small fire built in front of the ominous twisted metal arch.  The flames provided a small amount of light that flickered off the weird symbols etched into the dark metal of the bizarre structure; I sat there for a few moments still half unconscious trying to awaken myself into reality, to pull my mind out of the pits of unconsciousness and into the harsh environment around me. After a few minutes the prisoner turned his head and saw me with my eyes open, and a smile lit across his face. I was surprised to see that it was a sincere kind smile and not one of malice that a murder who held one of his captor’s captive would have worn. 

            “Good evening, Ryven. How are you feeling?” the words were spoken as though we were old pals who hadn’t seen each other for a long time. I didn’t reply but just glared at him trying to not to show the fear that I felt staring into the face of a murder that had me tied down to a tree, I tried to think of how to escape and many thoughts crossed into my head, but I knew each one would be extremely unlikely to succeed. 

            “You still think I am the bad guy don’t you?” he said it as if it were a shocking secret. “Ryven, listen I really am not the bad guy here, I am here to help everybody and stop the…………..oh never mind you wouldn’t understand if I told you that. Just know I am not the enemy, the enemy lies beyond this arch and in your own world, and some pursue me into this very forest as we speak.”

            “Not the enemy huh? If you aren’t my enemy, how come you blinded me with some light that knocked me out and then bound me here, how come you were imprisoned for the last two years?” my goal was to keep quiet and not respond to anything he said, but fury had risen inside me and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Shut up! I told myself knowing he had the advantage over me should he get mad. 

            “Ryven there is so much you do not understand and never will, I rendered you unconscious because I knew you would take me back to the cell in which I was wrongly placed, and there is much that needs to be done, in my two year imprisonment I have fallen behind on my mission. I came here on a task of high importance only to be framed for a murder I didn’t commit and I must admit that it has slowed my cause down immensely” 

            “And what mission might that be, who are you, what is this….. This Arch of sorts, what do you mean the enemy lies beyond it???” a million more questions raced through my head but these are only ones I managed to spit out.

            “As for who I am, my name is Jason Rex. As to the question of my mission that I cannot answer to you because it would only leave you more confused and I have sworn an oath of secrecy. And this arch is known as a ‘Gateway’ I’m sorry but that’s all I can tell you” 

            I stared at the twisted black metal of the “Gateway” as Rex had called it and wondered what mysteries the giant contraption held. There was something about it something…… not human. And though I couldn’t be certain I knew that it was not man made, something about it told me that it was more than that. It scared me as did Jason Rex, and an itching curiosity built up inside me to know more about the two things that I feared, I would be at unrest until I uncovered the truth and I knew if I had the choice I wouldn’t walk away until I found out everything I desired to know. 

            Jason Rex sat silent as I stared at the majestic yet creepy arch and pondered. His silver eyes seemed honest and kind, and as much as it was hard for me I was actually starting to believe that he was innocent and not the vile killer I had made him out to be. 

            “so what are you going to do with me?” I asked a question that I feared the answer to the moment I had awoken tied down. Even though I was starting to accept that he might not be a murderer, I still had the slight worry that his answer would be to kill me. He didn’t look surprised that I had asked this and in fact seemed to be pondering the same thing

            “That is a question I have been asking myself the moment you caught me here, at first I thought id just leave you to lie there, but I feared that you might become dinner to some hideous nocturnal beast, then I thought about dragging you back to your prison, but the risk of getting caught was too high, another thought was letting you go, but I know that you still don’t trust me and would attack me the moment the last vine was cut. And I can’t take you with me either.” If I had asked the question expecting a straight non-confusing answer I was sadly mistaken, his face held a look of deep thought. As he sat and decided my fate, I felt helpless like a small child whose mother was deciding where to take him while she worked; I had no say in the matter and could end up in trouble or dead if he chose to do something with me I didn’t like. 

            “When the time arises for me to make a decision on that, I will do so, but as for now, let’s eat.” He smiled, and though I was far from satisfied I knew it was wise not to argue for an answer. After all the man held my fate in his pocket and if he wanted to wait until after a meal to decide what to do with it, he could do so. He reached to the ground by the fire and pulled up two small sticks, the ends of the sticks had been chiseled so that they were sharp and stuck on the end of the two sticks were small chunks of meat and pieces of what looked like celery and tomatoes. He held a stick out to me for a moment before he remembered that my hands were tied together. 

“If I cut your hands lose, will you swear to me that you will not try to attack me?” he asked. I nodded my head, and he reached back with my sword, which he had leaning against the tree, hacked the vines binding my arms apart. I lifted my arms up and stretched them, then grabbed onto the out held food covered stick.

            “What is this?” I asked referring to the food. 

            “Its meat from a Jack rabbit I caught earlier today, while you were sleeping. The vegetables are wild celery and some wild grape tomatoes I found growing just down a few feet from here, its nutrition so eat it.” I did as I was told and bit down onto the food, the meat was tough and sinuous and the celery was bitter, the tomatoes were over ripe and messy, but I was starving and the meal was delicious to me, I tore at my food like an animal eating it fast and messy, not slowing to savor it, but I didn’t care I was hungry. Rex too tore at the meat and vegetables on his stick and in a matter of minutes we sat back the sticks licked clean, and our stomachs more satisfied. 

            “Isn’t it just stunning?” I wasn’t expecting Rex to speak and was taken aback when the words came out of his mouth. I thought he was referring to the abnormal Arch and so I replied 

            “Yah it’s certainly………something” 

            “Its been so long since I’ve been able to enjoy the sight of the stars, being locked in a windowless cell sure does drive a man to the edge.” I was astonished to hear him talk so normally in such a strange predicament as the one we were in. but I sympathized with him, knowing it would make me crazy if I too had been locked up for so long without sunlight or sight of the moon and stars. So I nodded in agreement. We sat and admired the stars for a few moments before the first howl erupted through the trees. It was a cold, piercing sound and at first I thought it was a wolf, but when the second screech came to my ears, I knew it wasn’t the howl of a wolf. The third and fourth howl sounded much closer and Jason sat up in alert, for the first time that I had seen him I saw fear in his pale eyes. 

            “How can they have found me here………. It’s only been a few hours; I’ve only been…… I need to get out of here.”  The worlds mumbled through his lips in absolute terror, however afraid of these blood curdling howls I was before my fear instantly intensified as Jason Rex, a man, who in the short time I had known him seemed so composed, was now muttering like a lost child. He ran to the arch and started doing something that I wasn’t able to see, words being whispered from his mouth. I saw him place his hands at the base of the left side of the arch and say a few words that were certainly not any language I had ever heard before. He quickly ran over to the other side of the enormous arch and repeated the same process on that side of it. He stepped back and ran to the fire, stamping on his with his shoes, quenching it.

            “What’s going on, what’s making those noises, what did you do with the whole arch thing.” I yelled at him for answers.

            “shh, keep your voice down” he whispered at me “they might hear you.”  And at that he turned around and grabbed something from his jumpsuit pocket, what looked like a syringe. It was a silver metal cylinder with a sharp needle poking out at the top and a plunger at the bottom. He held out in front of him like a weapons pointed into the dark trees, in about the same direction where the howls were echoing from. It was then I noticed something strange about the arch. The small engraved symbols were beginning to change. They were glowing a soft silver color staring from the bottom to the top. Like someone had poured liquid mercury in them, the first few symbols were shining brightly, and the ones above them were slowly getting brighter one by one. 

            “Jason, what is the arch doing, what did you do to it?” I asked in a soft voice hoping this time to get an answer. I was rewarded with one, but it left me more confused.

            “I activated the Gateway; it’s been dead for awhile now, I came here to re-activate it. Now I can escape from this place.” He said this with relief in his tone. 

            “To where, and what about me what are you gonna do with me?”

            He looked over at me, and started toward me, hesitantly he grabbed my sword and cut the vines holding me down, he then handed me Soulsplinter and I stood up, happy to have the familiar feel of the blade in my hands, the fear that had previously consumed me now seemed to vanish when I held the black and purple blade. 

            “Can you fight?” asked Jason, who still seemed reluctant to have me free from my constraints.

            “Yes” was all I responded. Even though I would’ve liked to ask what it was that I am fighting and a thousand more questions that had crossed my mind, I knew that now wasn’t the time, and I would face whatever came.

            “These things that are after me,” Jason began “are only after me, when I leave they should follow and not harm you, and you can return to life as normal”  I let out a small sarcastic laugh at that knowing my life would never be “normal” again. “In the event that I am struck down,” he continued “do not, and I repeat, DO NOT go through the Gateway. Run back to your prison, stay and kill the Beasts that pursue us now as we speak, but don’t go into the gateway.” this was the last words spoken between us before the fight. We stood side by side, he held his “syringe” though I had a slight suspicion that it wasn’t merely a syringe at all, and I held Soulsplinter out in front of me in a fighting position. We waited as the howls increased. I noticed as I looked over at the Arch that all the symbols on the warped metal were glowing the metallic silver color, shining like a beacon in the dark forest in the dead of night. A strange “curtain” had formed in the archway, and though it was not a curtain of literal fabric, curtain was the best word I could use to describe it. It was as if the air inside the arch had become visible and rippled, it shimmered and wove in the breeze. Though it was there and visible it was still transparent, like a ghost. The ethereal fabric gave of the faintest glimmer, though nothing in comparison to the shining silver lights of the arch; it shone a soft glowing white almost like glowing in the dark. Also something that caught my eye that I hadn’t noticed before was that one of the symbols, a twisty curvy jumble of lines and circles, shone a different color than the rest, instead of the standard molten silver color, it shone the color of Gold. A bright gold that outshone the others by miles. I wondered what It represented, and a strange thought popped into my mind that maybe it marked a destination. Where did that come from? I thought to myself where did I possibly come up with such an absurd idea. My thoughts were interrupted by the earth-shattering wail that penetrated my skull. The howling monsters had arrived in the clearing. By the high ear-splitting screeches that had emanated from the creatures mouths I had imagined something far different from the monstrosities that now stalked towards their prey. Us. They were huge and muscled creatures with thick bones and skin, built like rhinoceroses, four powerful legs protruded from the barrel like torso, each leg ended in a black clawed talon. Coarse bronze fur coated the creatures from their long whip like tails to their hideous head. The head was like someone had taken a lions head and smashed it flat then tried to reform it, it was feline for sure, but its eyes were crooked and mouth was too. The nose was black and scaly and scraggly whiskers sprouted from it, its maw was gray and huge yellow razor like teeth poked from its misshapen gums. A dark bronze mane covered this distorted head and shoulders. I counted a total of four of these brutes slowly striding towards us, low guttural growls sounding in their throats; occasionally one would let out the familiar and hair lifting screeches. The one nearest to me opened its hideous deformed mouth and from the gray gullet released the high squeal; I almost dropped my sword to cover my ears from the torturous sound, but regained my composure. The four animals all reared there ugly heads toward Jason their piercing green eyes focused completely on him. Simultaneously almost like they were in sync they sat back on their haunches ready to pounce. I realized that now was the time to act and if I didn’t there wouldn’t be another opportunity with their backs to me, so I charged. In my years of Royal Operations training I learned a lot about fighting and battle, as I rushed these beast I threw all the training away, I knew that attacking four monstrous beasts with skin as tough as iron with nothing but a sword was not the best idea, but I did it anyway. I thrust my sword down, trying to sink the point into the nearest creature’s neck, and as I suspected it harmlessly bounced of its skin, jarring my arm causing pain to shoot from the tips of my fingers to shoulders. Though it had not killed the Rhino-Lion it had turned the beast’s attention from Jason and to me. Two of the beasts turned to face me, snarling at me; thick viscous yellow drool fell from the black lips in puddles on the ground. Its eyes held no intelligence only pure beastly instincts as the merciless thing aimed to kill me. It gnashed its sharp feline teeth and growled the low rasping growl, it and one of its buddies turned and circled me while the other two stayed focused on Jason, and for now he was on his own with them, I had bigger worries. The two monstrosities paced around me slowly focusing on me their nostrils flaring and the growls in their throats never ceasing. I squatted down low in a fighting stance, my sword bristling from my side for protection keeping light on my feet and turning around in the opposite direction the beasts were pacing around me. The tension was building just the beasts and its prey circling waiting for one or the other to pounce. The monsters attacked first. In a move I had been expecting as the beast behind me jumped at my back while I wasn’t looking, I saw it pounce out of the corner of my eye and rolled on the ground as it soared over my head, the other one came barreling at me at the same time and mid roll I stood up and dove forward out of the path it was charging at me. Only to be tackled to the ground by the first one who had previously jumped over me, its black talons digging into my chest, as I fell on my back the huge beast landing on top of me painfully it opened its mouth to reveal two rows of razor sharp yellow teeth, like a  shark, and a horrid stench hit my nose as its putrid rotten meat smelling breath escaped its mouth, it craned its neck back and like a snake its head snapped forward, I rolled my neck to the side as quickly as I could and its teeth hit the ground sending up tufts of dirt, with my left hand that wasn’t pinned down I reached for the dagger that was tucked into my boot and stabbed it up at the  beasts exposed underbelly to find the skin there was soft and my knife sliced through its stomach, its legs went limp and it started to collapse on me I rolled its huge corpse off me and wiped the spilled guts off myself and stood up to face the other monster, now knowing where it was vulnerable, but the monster had left me and was now  aiding its partners in attacking Jason,  he stood surrounded by the three holding his syringe out in front of him and with a quick motion he pointed the needle at the nearest beast and pushed down the plunger, a low hum emanated from the syringe and a blue glow erupted from the needle it missed the beast narrowly and hit a tree, instantaneously the tree burst into searing blue flames. He cranked back the plunger again and blue liquid began to fill the tube, he raised it to shoot again only to be met by one of the beast attacking him. The sound that followed was horrible as the black talons of the monsters raked across Jason’s chest, the cut wasn’t deep enough to be instantly fatal but it left three bloody slashes and Jason collapsed on the ground with a scream, the three beasts pounced, mouths wide open ready to feed, but I charged. Sword drawn I ran at the nearest beast and brought it down at the wide open creature’s mouth it hit the maw of its lower jaw, making a bloody cut in its tongue and forcing its head into the dirt. It raised its head, with its deformed mouth dripping blood making it look as though it had been feeding. Slowly I walked backwards toward Jason’s unconscious body, with a strange sudden desire to save this man who had held me captive. I crouched when I reached his body and faced the three beast stalking forward the one in the leads bloody mouth dripping the dark red fluid onto the dirt leaving puddles, he snapped forward at me and I swung my sword hitting the beast in the side of the head with the broad side of it making a cracking sound. It backed away and growled at me, then it opened its jaw and released one of its ear splitting screeches, its partners echoed it with the high screams of their own. And at once they charged. I did whatever instinct told me and bent down and grabbed Jason in a fireman’s carry and heaved him towards the only thing I thought might be escape. The arch. The Gateway. It was going to take a miracle to reach the arch before the beast caught me. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have a miracle, the first pain came when the teeth bit into my ankle and I fell to the ground dropping Jason a few feet away from the transparent curtain and fell face forward getting a mouthful of dirt, using my other foot I reared back and kicked the biting beast in the eye its head was thrown away with a spray of blood, a mixture of mine and the bleeding beast who had bitten me, the others came for me too. Good news, Jason was safe, bad news, I wasn’t. the three beasts closed around me jaws snapping, I scuttled backwards on my hand and sliced my sword in a horizontal arc cutting air only but the beasts retreated, they seemed to fear my sword seeing what it could do to their friend, I stood up and backed up sword pointed in front of me making the beasts be wary, I realized the only way to get Jason safe was to kill the beasts or get him through the arch, I choose the arch. I backed to Jason’s body and crouched down putting my finger to his neck, his pulse still beat but faintly, then I noticed his eyes were cracked open just a little and his arm lifted slowly handing me the syringe fire weapon, his lips cracked open and he managed to hiss out

            “One shot, use well” then he closed his eyes again and his head flopped over. He was unconscious again. I raised the syringe and aimed but the beasts were too far apart to kill all of them, I had to get them together. The first bloody mouthed monster ran toward me, I grabbed my sword and raised it and rolled left slicing down at its neck, it bounced off again and I expected the beast to halt and turn toward me, but it kept running toward Jason, I couldn’t let it get him so grabbed the nearest thing, a stone and threw it as hard as I could it bounced of the beasts head and it turned toward me, to see what had thrown it but I was already running I jumped on its back and grabbed its mane so not to get thrown off, it arched its back then turned and charged towards it friends as we got nearer the two beasts jumped at me to get me off the bloodied ones back, and at the last second I dropped of its back and pushed the plunger on the fiery syringe. The blue flames licked across the beasts back and they squealed in pain the flames burning across their eyes and in their mouth. But they didn’t die, they came after me, flames shooting across their bodies violently and viscously, the beasts were in pain and were weakened, I could tell that, but I was not to enthralled by the thought of attacking flaming, mad, near invincible giant monsters, so I ran to Jason and grabbed his wrist yanking him rather violently toward the arch. With him in my grip to escape the now flaming monsters I jumped through the shimmering curtain of the arch Jason came through with me but I lost grip on his wrist, as soon as the ice cold curtain passed over me,  its icy sheet tingled across my skin. Things changed from this point on, nothing would ever go back to how life was. I had jumped out of the world I knew into a world that would change me and my life forever. If I knew what I was about to face at the time, I’d have given myself up to the brutal mauling of the beasts, however I leapt into a life long journey, and it all started with the passage through the “gateway.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 3—ANDIUS REUTER

 

 

Cold, bright, muddled. That’s the three adjectives used to best describe what happened as I jumped through the archway, as the ghostly curtained passed over my skin it felt as though buckets of the coldest ice water were stinging at my skin. I was no longer on my feet but floating in what seemed to be nothing. White shining brightness surrounded me every way I looked, up, down, left, and right, back and of course forward. The light was so bright I could barely keep my eyes open and had to squint, there was no sound, no breeze, practically no senses at all except the sense of sight, and that was limited, I was not breathing, but found I didn’t need to, I couldn’t smell the smells of pine and other forest scents I had before, I couldn’t taste the air. I had no sense of time, I could have been floating in the vast white for hours or days or months or milliseconds it was all a blur, my thinking wasn’t straight, I forgot about Jason Rex, and the monstrous beasts chasing me, I forgot about the prison, the Royal ops, I started to forget who I was, all I knew was white, brightness, and the only feeling I felt, a small queasiness in my stomach that I couldn’t place, it wasn’t hunger, or pain. It wasn’t like anything I felt, but then a wisp of air fluttered by me, then another, ‘til soon a whisper of a breeze fluttered against my skin. It was warm compared to the icy coldness of the nothingness, a smell greeted me. Fruit. Though I could not place it, and a slow soft hum hit my ears, and a horrible sensation hit me, the need to breathe, my chest felt like it was collapsing in on itself, I gasped at the slight breeze trying to take it in, when something tugged at me, like a little hand pulling on my shirt, nothing strong. But soon a million more tugs grabbed me, becoming stronger and more in multitude, a black speck appeared in front of me contrasting the bright whiteness. It began getting larger and larger. The breeze was now a wind and the smell of fruit became putrid, I could taste it. The need to breathe was wretchedly painful, and the hum had grown into a buzz that was ear drumming loud. The black circle now was huge and steadily getting larger and I had a sudden realization that it wasn’t in fact growing in size, but in distance. It was getting closer. The wind was now hurricane force and ripped at my clothes. The smell was gagging me, it was now unbearably hot burning my skin scalding it. the buzz an ear piercingly loud ringing, and the tug was so great it was like I was being pulled by a train, the black now had consumed most of the white, and I could just make out a woods behind a haze. Then I hit the blackness, and as when I entered the arch an ice cold shower hit me, relieving me from the heat. Air returned to my lungs and the temperature returned to a normal hot, the smell of pine and dirt again permeated my nostrils and the air had a slight breeze again. I opened my eyes and had to adjust to the darkness from the blinding white, I realized I was kneeling on dirt, pine needles, rocks, roots and all the other things that made up the earthen floor of the forest I was now in, it looked a lot similar to the woods I had just exited and wondered if I had been transported to another part of the forest surrounding the prison, I had to be, where else could I have been, but something about the trip in the blank whiteness told me that I wasn’t anywhere near the prison, a different country. Or world said a voice in the back of my head, where had that come from, a different world? The idea was absurd, outlandish, impossible, but again the journey through the arch made me think such a thing was maybe not as weird. I looked around to see three things, the first was millions of trees all over the place, the second was another arch, I thought maybe it was the same one, but at close observation I realized that it was much more massive than the one I had jumped through, reaching into the sky at least fifty feet and covered about forty feet horizontally. The last thing I saw was Jason, sprawled unconscious on the ground beside me, for a second I had almost forgot I had dragged him through the arch with me, but then I realized how dumb that was as the only reason I had jumped through the arch was to save his life. In an instant I jumped back and faced the arch which I could only guess was connected to the one I had jumped through by some unknown force, in a fear that the monsters would come through at anytime, but the curtain that had draped the other arch was now gone and I had a feeling that somehow it had been “turned off” by now and the beasts were now trapped in the forest where I had left them. I set off and went to Jason to tend to him, after about a half and hour and a couple strips ripped off my his shirt he sat up against a tree his wounds wrapped in cloth, his head still drooping in unconsciousness, after successfully scrounging around I had managed to find cold clean water and in an attempt to pour a cup down Jason’s throat, he slopped and cold water splashed all over his face. He sat up sputtering and awake, he had sat up to fast and groaned in pain. 

            “w-w-where are we?” he sputtered gaping around. His wide eyes were darting around.

            “Well, I was actually kinda hoping you would tell me.” I said to him. And a look of puzzlement flashed across his wet face. Before he could ask I started to recount what had happened after he was attacked and knocked unconscious as my short story continued his eyes widened and his mouth opened in anger, as I described my trip through the arch, he looked simply furious

            “Ryven, I told you never to go through the arch no matter what” he hissed, “you can’t be here, you shouldn’t be here, they are going to be mad….” He kept muttering to himself about the mysterious “they” and I interjected angrily

            “look I don’t know where I am, I don’t know what t-the- that, thing is” I indicated to the arch, “I don’t know what it did to me, I don’t know what those beast were, or who you are, but I do know I saved both our lives, and you could show me the slightest bit of gratitude and tell me what the heck is going on” I spat this furiously at him

            “You don’t understand Ryven……”

            “No! I don’t! So explain” I interrupted.

            “you think you saved both of us, but Ryven in essence you only saved me, of which I appreciate, but you are at risk, if they find you and find that you know about the Gateway, they won’t be happy, who knows what they will do to you” I had no idea what he was talking about, I knew the gateway was what he called the magnificent arch but all the rest was just nonsense, who wouldn’t be happy why cant I know about the gateway, even though all I knew was when I stepped in it I was brought to a senseless white world and sucked through a hole to another forest and another arch, but I didn’t know where, or why, or how, how was a big one. Why didn’t I save myself if they found out, who was Jason, why was he in prison. These questions cluttered my mind to the point of irritation.

            “Where are we?” I asked this being the most prominent question on my mind at the moment

            “You won’t understand” he said to me, not even remotely answering my question

            “Try me” I said as calmly as I could manage, which was to say not at all calm, he sighed then spoke

            “Ryven, you are from a world know as Danan” I about laughed at this because that was such an obvious and well known fact that he sounded stupid saying it but the dead serious expression on his face stopped me “you are no longer in that world,” he continued “you are now in a place called Oregon, in a land called America, on a world called Earth, the…”

            “I am on a different planet!” I yelled loudly and a flock of black birds cawed and flew out in bunched above the trees

            “no.” he said, clearing everything up “but yes you are on a different world and planet, but you can never find your planet in this universe” he was right about one thing, I didn’t understand what he was talking about “you are in a different dimension as we call it, the 1^st, your world is from the 2^nd dimension. The Gateway is a link between them” he had somewhat answered the question of where I was, but it left me confused. “So what is this erfs like? And is Oregon the country or the city, or Americul??? Or do they even have those classifications?”

            “America, its full title, the United States of America, is a country on earth, and Oregon is a state in the northwest of the country, it has its own government, but its part of a nationalized government, sort of, it’s all very confusing to someone like you.” He looked at the blank expression on my face and said “but that’s not important, just know you’re in a forest in a place known as America on Earth.” I nodded feebly and spoke again 

            “Umm why are we in a forest in Amarigal….”

            “America” he corrected

            “Yes that, America, on the planet Urf….”

            “E-A-R-T-H, earth” he said laughing at my pronunciation of the planet name

            “Yes that one” I said remaining calm

            “I am here because this is where I was born he said, I was on a mission to Danan and was captured falsely, I needed to get back here after reactivating the Gateway”

            “and yes what is the Gateway exactly, how does it work, if it takes people from place to place how were you able to get onto Danan if it wasn’t activated, if that means what I think it means by being ‘on’ or does it mean something else”

            “The gateway as you have guessed holds powers that I myself don’t fully comprehend, I just know that with the right combination of symbols and the right tool, you can travel to different dimensions, there are 14 that are now charted by us….”

            “And who is ‘us’ exactly”

            “I am getting there, as to how I got onto Danan, I traveled through the Nil-void, but you wouldn’t understand what or where that is, but let’s says it’s a dangerous and odd place, you got a glimpse of the outskirts of the Nil-void during you trip through the gateway, the white nothingness, it’s a horrible place, but I needed to get to the arch and that was the only way I could. Now to as who the ‘us’ is, I can’t answer that I am afraid.” I glared at him angrily but before I was able to speak he had pressed his finger to his temple and closed his eyes, for a second I thought he was getting a headache and afraid he would pass out on me again, but he opened his mouth and spoke in a language I didn’t understand.  Words mumbled out of his mouth roughly and rapidly, he could have well have been not saying anything at all for about as much as I understood of it. Confusion shot through my brain, he had answered most my questions and I was just left being more confused than before.

            “What did you just say?” I asked.

            “I spoke in English” he said “the native language of this country; you wouldn’t understand a lick of it since you are from Danan and all.” 

            “But why did you touch your head when you said it” I questioned, and was about to erupt into a tirade of a million more questions, before I was rudely interrupted. If that’s what you call suddenly having electricity surging through your body from a central location in your back. I turned to see what had happened and only got a small glimpse of the scene behind me, before I had passed out. About a dozen black clad men stood behind me, most dismounting black four wheeled vehicles I had never seen. The one nearest to me was holding out a black firearm with a yellow and black diagonal striped box on the end. Two wires trailed out of the box and connected to me, he pulled on the trigger and again electricity arced up my back. What was this awful device and why had he attacked me with it. Who was he and his men, why were they here. Where exactly was here. I turned to see if Jason had been attacked to but saw he had joined the men in black. He conversed in the weird language again and I understood nothing, my knees crumpled and the man with the torturous electrical weapon took his black mask off and I was even more confused. I recognized the weapon wielding man, I had seen him days on end, and he had been the biggest role model in my life. He was also dead. My old mentor, trainer, and as close to a dad as I ever had growing up, Kristofer Whalden stood before me, his hands holding the device that was now making me pass out. His face was the last thing I saw before all went white.

 

I awoke, for the second time in 24 hours, bound. This time however I was bound by a pair of metal rings, one around each wrist, and connected with together a chain. I also had one of these contraptions around my ankles with a chain from one ankle tied to the chair I was sitting. In front of me was a basic four legged metal table. The room I was in was plain, four white walls making a perfect square with a gray metal door on my left. The room had a cement floor, the table and chair I was on and a similar chair, this one unchained, across from me. Only one plain decoration covered the wall opposite me; a giant rectangular mirror, plain silver in color. I sat in the room for at least half an hour before anything happened. My thoughts pondered on the peculiarity of my current predicament, here I was chained to a boring chair in a boring room in a world I knew nothing about or that it even existed with a person who I once thought a bad guy and another I thought dead. It made me hurt.. 

I remembered the day Kristofer Walden died. The Royal ops legion 192, lead by Walden himself, had one simple goal, to protect a foreign dignitary from a band of assassins. While the dignitary marched down the street in the Dark day parade, an event celebrating the peace treaty of two nations, two of these assassins had rushed the dignitary. From the recesses of the adoring and cheering crowd, these two murders sped out of, heads covered with black, bodies cloaked in black, they attacked. I remember it as clear as day, they weren’t big men, but they were quick, Walden stepped to intercept the first assailant. He whipped out his long shining white blade and struck the man to the ground. He failed to see the second man attack him. A slash with a knife and my trainer and mentor lay on the street in his own blood. I was in the crowds viewing this operation as a part of my training on security, and I tried to rush to his aid, I was grabbed by my instructor and held back. The man that Walden had struck down’s body mysteriously vanished from the scene. Walden’s murderer was caught trying to make an escape into the forest before he was brought down and put in the ARC. Though I pleaded the warden would never release his name to me in fear I would get revenge. At the time I was furious, now I realize that was probably a smart decision. Warden’s funeral was held the following week in the Royal cemetery.  I remember the session was long, miserable and sad. I wanted nothing to do with it and when his casket was lowered and his grave placed, I escaped as quickly as I could. The one man who cared for me as more than a soldier, but as a person, as a son, lay dead underground, along with my family. That was the darkest hour of my life, a period of uncertainty and pain. I had gotten over it now and was back to my full self, but seeing that same man holding a weapon to me ignited the pain even more. It brought along with it confusion, the man was dead, yet I had seen his face, it looked older and more scarred, but it was the same face. The door slammed open and I jumped in my chair bringing me out of my daze. I looked up expecting to see Jason Rex or in my hopes Kristofer Walden himself. I was disappointed. A new stranger entered the room; escorted by at least three indistinct soldiers, the soldiers all had tough features and buzz cut gray hair. They all were dressed in black military clothing, boots, pants, shirts, hats, the works. The stranger they were escorting, he was different entirely. He was old and rundown; he had to be at least a thousand judging from the wrinkles rolling across his face. His hair was silver gray and fell to about his shoulders. He had a scratchy gray beard and mustache that made a circle around his mouth. His nose was small and flat and looked as if it had been twisted in a variety of ways making it exceptionally bent out of shape. His eyes were a deep brown making it look as if he almost didn’t have pupils, and they had a way of disguising how he felt. I could not read into his eyes, it was like looking into a deep pit, you didn’t know what lay at the bottom. Foreboding, mysterious, yet daring you to adventure to see what lay at the bottom.  His outfit was odd as well, he wore a silver jacket that had two buttons near the center and bottom and had a pocket on the chest.  Same color silver  pants, his shirt was white and had a collar and he had a thick strip of colored cloth hanging from the center of his collar that  ended in a point at his belt, his shoes were silver too and shiny with silver strings tying them on. He pulled the chair across from me out from underneath the devoid of decoration, table, as it slid it made a horrible scraping squealing sound. He sat down calmly folded his hands on the table looked straight into my eyes and spoke.

            “Ryven Z. Dimcore, 2^nd dimension, Danan, born in Lei Gynar city I believe, but now you live in the Aralonn’s Regal Confinement Center in the middle of the Rydel forest. You serve there as Royal Operations prison guard and head officer of the 4^th division, is all this information correct?” as he spoke his eyes didn’t waver from mine once, but again they withheld his emotion, as did his voice, which was deeper and more rich than I expected from this frail old man. How he knew my information surprised me at first, but I figured between Jason and Walden they had managed to figure it out. I didn’t know what the 2^nd dimension meant and I was still confused at why he was mentioning Danan when it seemed so obvious that I was from there, but I remembered apparently I wasn’t there anymore, I guess.  His knowledge of my birth city didn’t surprise me as Lei Gynar was where Walden found me and so he obviously new that, as was the location of the arc.  And my position in the Royal ops must have been known by Jason.

            “Mr. Dimcore?” I had been lost in thought and had not answered the man’s question. “If you could please verify the validity of this information”

            “Umm yeah, yeah it is all correct” while usually not intimidated by people, this seemingly feeble gentleman had a way of making me feel nervous or lesser than he. It sounded ridiculous as I thought it so I tried to regain some composure “Call me Ryven please, I prefer it. Oh, and your name would be?” I said this as boldly as I could trying to show him I wasn’t scared. A small smile played across his lips at my change of demeanor.

            “My name is Andius Rueter, call me Andius please… I prefer it.” He spoke with a slight bit more emotion and though he repeated what I had said, I sensed he wasn’t mocking me. 

            “Okay, Mr. Rueter,” I put an emphasis on that I called him by his last name as a slight and small defiance to his will “I would like to be removed from these chains and sent home, I did nothing wrong and will not be held here against my will, and I will be leaving with Mr. Walden so he can explain why he is alive, and Mr. Rex who it is my responsibility to return to prison.” I spoke as thought I was in charge trying my best to show some command in my personality.

            “Brave words coming from someone in such and helpless position” barked one of the brawny guards.

            “Ah, Rufus, lets treat our guest with some respect please, he is right, he did nothing wrong.” this was Andius again, and I started to like the man despite his intimidating manner. “however, I am afraid that you will not be returning home with Kristopher Walden or Jason Rex, those two men belong here, and Ryven where I am more than willing to let you go home that is not solely my decision. That authority resides with the Council; the hearing is already set for tomorrow at noon.”

            “What hearing? Who is the Council?” I staggered a bit after regaining composure, it was hard to remain calm when I knew practically nothing and was in shackles for saving the life of murderer. It wasn’t right. 

            “The Council is a group of leaders from the different Root dimensions set at a seat of power.  I am the head of the group but don’t have all the say in the matter, there must after all be a system of checks and balances. Also democracy plays its key as each seat is filled by the choice of the people, am I making sense?”

            “Not at all.”

            “Short and easy version, it’s a bunch of grumpy old guys who argue a lot, and take forever to decide something,” He laughed at his own description of them and even the guards cracked a smile. “But anyway your hearing is set for tomorrow at noon as I previously informed you, you will be moved from the interrogation room into a cell, and don’t worry it is quite comfortable, and you will spend the night there, unchained of course, but you will not be allowed to leave until after the hearing. If all goes accordingly of course.”

            “And if it doesn’t?”

            “Ummm, well you needn’t worry it will all go fine, in the meantime I think you deserve some enlightenment on certain subjects. Someone wishes to explain some stuff to you. Rufus if you’d be so kind as to let him in, he has been so anxious.” The big burly lump of a man pulled open the door and I saw a sitting figure stand at once. Rufus hollered at him to come in and made way back into the room. And through the door walked Walden 

            “Hello Ryven. You look well and fit, your growing son.” Walden smiled as he spoke to me, he spoke in the same tone he always had used when talking to me, like nothing had happened. All I gave him in return was a blank look, trying to hide the hurt and anger I felt, but my face betrayed me. His happy expression melted as he saw the anger that must have registered on my face. 

            “Sir, do you think I could have a little time alone with Ryven?” Walden addressed Andius Rueter with this, Andius nodded at Rufus and the other guards and they led the way out, he followed them out the door and turned back giving me a small reassuring smile and shut the door.

            “Ryven, I know you’re angry, but I have a lot to tell you, if you could please listen quietly, and not interrupt I would greatly appreciate it.” Walden spoke like he always had, he said what he said politely and didn’t mean it rude, but you knew it was a command.          

            “Yeah I’ll listen.” I said shortly trying my best not to berate him with the thousands of questions on my mind. He smiled a half smile, and drug the silver chair that Andius had been sitting on out from underneath the table, placing him self on it with the grace I’d seen in battle so many times before. Then as if he had recited it a million times, Kristofer Walden’s tale came pouring from his mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 4—WALDEN’S TALE

 

 

            “I wasn’t much older than you when I joined the Royals Ops; they found me in an orphanage in Rodek, just about 50 miles…. Um I mean 130 ceredis from where you grew up in Lei Gynar. Sorry I forget you aren’t accustomed to Earth terminology. The orphanage was more of a prison than a place for young kids. The walls were iron and at least 10 feet tall topped with volt-wire, and we weren’t allowed out of our rooms except to eat and play in the courtyard. Well one day I was out in the yard off by myself, when a group of older and bigger boys cornered me and pulled out wooden branches they had gathered. The eldest and biggest of the bullies, and the leader of there little gang took the thinnest thorn covered branch and swung it at me like a whip. To this day I can’t quite recall what happened but when all was said and done I’d managed to break four of the seven kids’ arms, two legs, six noses, and knocked the leader flat out. I went to the nurse with a minor scratch on my knuckle, caused not by the kid’s sticks but his teeth when I punched him. Suffice it to say, word spread of a 12 year old boy taking on seven semi-armed 17 year old boys and walking away without but a scratch, and as word always does, it soon reached the ears of someone important you could say. Genghes Vodik, who, as you know, was the founder of the Royal Operations heard word of this tale and came to visit me. In the small dingy room that was my bedroom. Barely big enough to contain my small bed and a few personal belongings, we spent only minutes in that room talking. Vodik was offering me a chance to escape the prison like orphanage and make something of my life as a soldier, a servant to my country. Let’s say it didn’t take much thought on my part to agree. I entered the Academy only years older than you did Ryven. Like you I graduated top of my class, and took my role up in swordsmanship. When I graduated I was 17, and just days after receiving my certificate of graduation, I was called to serve in battle. At the time of my graduation the Third Global War, was raging across Danan and all eligible soldiers were being shipped to the Polartic Ocean to fend off enemy vessels from entering our waters. As a graduated Royal Ops member, I was immediately placed as a leader of a battalion, Battalion 527 to be exact. We were small, but we were the fiercest bunch of soldiers I have ever seen, we were placed in charge of sabotage. We would sneak onto the enemies’ boat in the middle of the night undetected, and take out primary systems, Engines, Weapons systems, Ballast tanks, and whatever else we could to render the ship useless. We were almost too good, we downed probably twenty enemy ships without even being detected, before the N.S.S United, that is.  I remember the day of the United sabotage was a groggy day, the clouds were gray and the winds were fierce. The waves around our small carrier rose to massive heights crashing into the hull, flooding  the interior of the ship. We were about 2 miles away from the N.S.S United, a battle cruiser that was infamous for the bloodshed it had caused. We were called upon to destroy it. Our plan was as it always was, swim up undetected, separate and destroy our assigned part of the ship. I was assigned to the engine as always. All started out well, I got to the engine room and took out two of the guards as I went without them making a sound. I waited to hear the explosion inidicating that officer Coulson had taken out the Auto-Defense mainframe and went to working lining the engine room with firebombs. It was then that it happened, then that the relevance in me telling you this story came into play. A man dressed in an all black uniform, differing fromt the charcoal gray of our enemies, appeared out of a white ripple. From nowhere. He was wide eyed and scared of something that was following him. Something that came through the very next moment. Another ripple of white and three horrendous creatures burst onto the deck, snarling and advancing towards the black clad visitor. He raised a silver sword in defense but I knew he was outmatched. His pursuers were each of humanoid build, two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. The similarities ended there. They were all around seven or eight feet tall and built like football play….. eh Recck players. You know, muscled and huge. They had gray skin that looked like it was made of spider webs; sticky, wet and stringy. Their heads were misshapen as were there faces. It looked as if a child had taken wet clay and tried to put together the face of a snake. They each held weapons, two with massive swords, the middle and biggest of the three had an axe. When they attacked the newcomer, my instincts kicked in and I threw a fire bomb at them, it killed the monsters but also caught the black clad man on fire. I rushed to his aid and managed to save him but by then the soldiers aboard the United had rushed to the engine room. The black clad man looked up at me though heavily burned, did something strange with a silver block and caused the white ripple to appear, he looked towards me and grabbed my arm and pulled me through. I remember walking through a vast expanse of a horrible place. A place that I have suppressed the details of. A ripple of color appeared, the burnt man led me to it, told me to walk through it, and I’d find myself back on my ship. In my quarters. He told me he’d be watching me and we might be in contact again, then before I could question him, he pushed me through the colored ripple and I found myself where he said I would. I passed out on my bed. When I woke up my superiors were furious, they asked what had happened and knowing they wouldn’t believe me, I told them that I had been caught and narrowly escaped. Angry they took me off the detail and put me where you came from at the ARC. I served the majority of my Royal Ops career there before they allowed me to become a recruiter. Coincidentally enough my first ever recruit was you Ryven.”

            “You never told me that sir.” I said slightly surprised at his story so far, there was so much about my mentor that I was unaware of. He smiled and continued his story

            “I never felt that you needed to know, it wasn’t that big of a deal. You were my first and to this day my greatest recruit and student. Your abilities far outmatched anything I was able to do at your age. Continuing my story though, when I met you, I knew you were special from the get go. I took you on as a student and taught you all I could about all I knew. When I saw that I couldn’t do anything to help you further I sent you to the ARC. I knew it’d be a good start for you. Sending you was hard though, you see I had come to you think of you as my own son. I hadn’t ever had the time to get married or have kids, but I felt a fatherly bond towards you. Almost the day after I sent you away I was visited. For years I had begun to convince myself that what happened in the engine room of the N.S.S United was just my imagination. That I really had been caught and just escaped. Reality has its ways of coming back to you. In this case it did so in the form of a man you’ve already met. Jason Rex found me. He told me that a secret organization had been watching me for years, and that his superior had met me on a boat where he’d been badly burned. He told me how he was on a solo mission to reactivate a Gateway as well as find me. Jason took me to places I couldn’t fathom and taught me things I had never in my craziest fantasies thought of. I regret that I cannot tell you in detail these things because the council wishes to send you home, and you’d be an asset if you knew too much. But let’s just say in a sense I too was recruited into an elite corps of soldiers. But I was still Royal Ops and I couldn’t just get up and leave. So we came up with a plan. Jason and two companions “leaked” of where and when an attack on dignitary I was to protect would take place. I made sure I was there. When the time came they rushed out to attack coming straight where I was, I pretended to disarm the first two, who ran away as planned, and then Jason did what he was supposed to do. He killed me. Not literally of course, but he injected me with a chemical that caused me to appear dead, then he stabbed me in a location in my stomach and a way to make sure it wouldn’t really kill me. It was risky, but I trusted him. To all those there it looked as if he killed me in cold blood and I was indeed dead. Jason was then supposed to escape too. He was caught. I was wrapped up and buried in the Royal Cemetery with high honors. And later that night was recovered by the two escapee friends of Jason. They dug me up, woke me up and I was unharmed. But Jason was still in prison. They took me back here, to headquarters, where I have been plotting a way to get Jason out for the past three years. You know, Ryven, how difficult it is to escape the ARC. It is near impossible. Jason managed to do it on his own. we were still discussing options just a day ago when we got the call that Jason had escaped, activated the Gateway, and had managed to get back to here even after being attacked by… well that is another detail I cannot tell you yet. He also said he had accidentally brought back a prison guard with him. We came to get him and I saw the guard was you Ryven. I am sorry I had to knock you out with my taser but it was necessary. I have been waiting in anticipation to talk to you since. To explain to you why I had left you, now you know my whole story.” 

            

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 5—THE HEARING

 

 

            I was still in shock that the man I thought dead was sitting across from me, but after hearing his story it made a lot more sense. At first, I wanted to yell at him, to tell him how horrible he was for making me think he was dead, and for leaving me without so much as an explanation. Then, I remembered how he told me he thought of me as a son, and I had always thought of him as a father. I looked and saw the look of a man ready to take an onslaught of yelling, but I calmed myself and just talked to him.

            “I am not mad at you.” I told him, and saw him relax a little “I do want to know, however, if the council lets me go home, how am I supposed to just forget what happened here. Forget that you are still alive.” He opened his mouth to speak but the door opened and in walked Rufus the guard.

“Times up Walden, I need to escort the prisoner to his chambers and Reuter needs to talk to you. It’s about the….. well you know ” he added the last part in an undertone as an attempt to keep it hidden from me, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew there was something a lot bigger than me going on. I could feel it, there was tension building, if there was one thing I pride myself in besides swordplay, it’s my ability to read people. The human face tells more than any words can, the emotions that play across peoples features, if you can read them, will always tell you the truth.  From looking at the faces of all the people I had dealt with so far I could tell that I was just an interruption to a much bigger picture. Something was afoot, something bad. I just hoped I lived long enough to find out what.  

Kristofer stood from his chair and nodded at the guard and then looked back at me, “Ryven, I will see you again soon okay? Don’t worry I will get you home safely if I have to die trying.” And with that he headed out the door leaving just me and the apelike Rufus. Something about the guard rubbed me the wrong way, I didn’t know if it was the constant smirk on his face, or the arrogant strut he walked with, but from the get go I didn’t like him.  As he stood there by the door as though lost in what to do I spoke almost trying to egg him on. 

“Well, Tubby, times a wasting, are you gonna stand there like a big doof or were you planning on escorting me to my prison cell/chambers?” I spoke to him the same way I would speak to a small child. Making him mad probably wasn’t my smartest idea, but I was confused, and angry, and basically he was an easy target. Not to mention him lashing out on me didn’t sit well with me. 

“You know you are really lucky we have to have a hearing first or I would just kill you right now.” He spat at me tracing as much venom in his words as he could. I’d made a friend.

“Oh tough guy are we? Well anytime you think you are man enough to take me without my arms chained together name the time and place” for a split second I was hoping I could outsmart the nitwit into taking off the cuffs long enough to escape. I had the skill, I had spent years learning how to fight and take control of dire situations, all I needed was the window of opportunity. Then as I thought about it I remembered Whalden was here and I could trust him. So I said to Rufus “just forget about this and take me would you, I am dying for some sleep and maybe a bite to eat” the burly guard looked as if he was about to argue and beat me up, but he opened the door and told me to follow him. As I got to the entrance suddenly everything went black again and I thought I had passed out again, but I realized a sack had been placed over my head. I didn’t have to ask to know that they didn’t want me to see what was outside the doors. I felt a firm jerk as I was pulled forward out of the room. I could tell we were in an entirely indoor facility with the lack of breeze, sun beating down, or sounds of nature at all. And I could also tell I was walking on what seemed to be a very thick carpet floor. We made a series of turns through the halls, at first I attempted to memorize the route encase I needed to escape or at least find my way back to the room with the chained chairs, but I soon realized they were turning me around and taking a complex route to throw me off. And I eventually just gave up and let them guide me to wherever it was I was being taken. Eventually Rufus’s firm hand roughly stopped me . I heard the sound of something being take from his pocket, a small barley noticable beep, and the sound of a lock being disengaged. Then I was pushed/shoved through an open door. The door was shut and my blind was removed. Immediatley I noticed it was extremely bright where I was. It was a small room. It to was carpeted with the thick carpet that I noticed was a deep purple color. The bed was big enough for at least two people to sleep on, but only had one pillow laying dead center of the top of the bed. The adjacent room was a small bathrom it had a small walk in shower, and a toilet and sink. 

“you will be spending the night here” Rufus barked at me “you will not be under surveillance so if you feel the desire to do something stupid, all power to you, however we will be notified if you somehow manage to escape via alarm system. If you try to escape you will be terminated. Sleep well.” And with that he shut the door and I was left alone with nought but myself and my thoughts. It was then that the reality sunk in. I was captive in a place I had never even heard of, with a dead former mentor, and the probability of death hanging rather ominously over my head. I had been chased here through a giant abnormal nothingness by fantastical creatures. Only after an escaped prisoner knocked me out and then befriended me in a matter of hours only to have me save his life and have him get me knocked unconcious again and brought in for interrogation. The strangeness was enough to drive me mad. The addition of not knowing even what it all meant pushed me over the edge and I screamed audibly. I grabbed for the handle on the door even though I knew it was locked and shook it furiously. After half an hour or so of banging and yelling, and demanding to be let go, I gave up to the no response. I decided to make the best of my homely prison cell and jumped in the shower. The hot water felt good and helped drain away some of my fury and distress. I got out and dried myself off to find some soft linen clothes laid out for me. They were plain white linen pants and shirt, and they were comfortable. I laid my head down and was amazed to find how easily I slept. The nights dreams caused me to immediatley regret that. 

 

            The place I was in was dark and rank, and though I couldn’t see them I could sense that there were walls on all sides of me. The air was stale and moist and the ground beneath my feet was jagged and rocky. I could feel my sword at my side which was a comfort for my dismal surroundings and I could feel my dream self unsheath the black and purple blade. The purple edges of my blade, as always, gave off a slight luminescent glow that as my dream self moved the blade around gave me a slight vision of my surroundings. I was in a cave, a cave of black jagged rock like obsidian, the gave acsended in front of me and my dream self, obviously overcome by the same curiosity as, well, me, walked forward into the depths of the black cave. After about twenty yards I came to the back well of the cave where three openings lay before me, the dream me unhesitantly proceeded down the left opening, the way which I would have chosen last due to the fact that it was narrower, shorter, and much less inviting than the other two openings. The path way didn’t get any wider, but I found myself, or rather dream self, turning myself sideways and scooting through the rock, often ducking or having to maneuver myself awkwardly to fit. After almost an hour of painful difficult hiking I found myself in a open cavern. This one less dark than the one I was in before revealed disturbing and gruesome features. In the center of the cavern a boulder the size of a man stood, proudly displayed was a magnificent sword. Surrounding this boulder were the dozens of human bones. Not the bones that you picture, starch white all in perfect placing of a human skeleton, rather they were yellowed some with decaying skin on them and broken. They all lay with their empty eye sockets turned towards the sword in the middle. Most were bare, but a few held armor and weapons. I looked towards the sword and a sudden longing blossomed within in me. I threw Soulsplinter to the cavern floor and in a dazed state took after the beautiful blade proudly displayed. I came upon the boulder and slowly reached my hand to touch the magnificent sword. It had to be mine. With it I could rule all, I could strike fear into the hearts of all men, I could be powerful beyond belief. I longed to make it mine, I would kill all who tried to stop me from having it. Right as my hand was to make contact with it I was woken up roughly. 

“What’s your problem?” asked a gruff voice. The voice was Rufus’s but I didn’t recognize it immediately, thoughts of the sword and the cave swam around my head. My eyes opened and his face swam into focus. Rather than a smirk of disdain that he usually wore, his expression was one of confusion and about as close to genuine concern as I think he could muster. 

“What’s your problem?” he repeated as he looked down on me… “Why were you murmuring and sweating so much?” I realized that I was in fact drenched in a cold sweat, regaining his derogatory attitude he mocked “did you have a scary dream??? Are you going to be okay or do you need a blanky” his insults were extremely childish for a supposed adult and I realized they reflected the obviously low intelligence he possessed…

“Man you are stupid,” I stated, “no wonder you are a grunt body guard, not smart enough to go out and about in the real world? Activating gateways too hard for your little brain?” I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant to activate a Gateway or if it was done often or ever besides what Jason did, but I laid down the mockery heavy. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen today and figured if I could somehow piss Rufus off I might be able to use his anger to his fault later on. 

“You don’t even know what you are talking about cupcake, I ain’t gonna let your smart tongue bother me today. Bein’ mad’ll take all the fun out of seein’ you get torn apart by the council and hopefully…… executed” He flashed a mocking smile and threw a pile of clothes at me ending our banter. 

“Put them clothes on kid, Reuter wants you pretty yourself up for your hearing.” I will be back in five minutes to collect you and take you there, got it?” He then slammed the door. I looked down at the clothes and realized it was along the lines of the get-up that Andius Reuter had donned. Removing the linen sleepwear, I pulled a pair of undergarments, a white short sleeved shirt, and black pants that were pressed neatly. Next was a collared white long sleeve shirt with buttons up the front, I noticed the shirt had a triangular pocket on the left breast, and buttons near the wrists that made the sleeves tight around my hand. I slipped a black shiny belt through loops on the waist of my pants and tightened it in the front. I also put on black shiny shoes, those these had no strings to tie them on like reuter’s had, they just slipped right on. The last part, and the part I found most odd, was a light gray and purple striped strip of cloth, though I felt Andius knew some way of tying it to make the triangular knot in the at his neck, this one looked as if it had been pre-tied and the knot glued together. A silver clip on the back of the knot held the piece of cloth to my shirt, and it hung to about my belt where it tapered off into a triangle. Rufus came in and looked me over.

“Well, well, ain’t you gorgeous. Now come over here for your cuffs and blind” he spoke with mockery like usual, but I could tell he wanted me to hurry up and be on with it.  I walked up to him and held my hands out in front of me. Rufus tightened a metal circle around each wrist, and grabbed the chain linking them. He pulled out the bag from the night before and put it again over my head. 

“now I am supposed to give you instructions for this,” Rufus spoke robotically and I heard him pull something from his pocket “ ‘do not speak unless asked a direct question, do not interrupt, do not ask any questions of your own, be respectful to the members of council, you will address them as sir, ma’am, or your honor, do not argue with them, you have the right to call upon anyone present to clarify or confirm your answers or story, you may request a recess due to illness or an emotional inability to continue, you may request to use a bathroom, you may request food or water if you require it for preexisting medical conditions or should you begin to feel lightheaded and dizzy. You do not have the right to be silent or to keep information from the council. Be honest, be precise, and be respectful.’ Now personally” he began as he looked up from the card “I am all for you being rude and disrespectful, it will end this quicker and get you out of our hair” He spat this at me as if I had committed some horrendous crime and he couldn’t wait to see me come to justice. 

“Why do you hate me so much?” I asked him sincerely, my voice muffled slightly by the back over my head “I haven’t done anything to you or to anyone here”

He was silent as I assumed he was contemplating how to answer “I don’t like you because you are insolent and arrogant, I don’t know you or trust you, you act as if you can do whatever you like around here and have no respect for anything or anyone else, that’s why” I was surprised at his answer, I guess my defiant and defense attitude the night before though for me was an act I put on in an unknown situation had appeared to Rufus as an arrogance and lack of respect for what to him was obviously a very important group of people. Before I could reply I heard a door open, was pushed forward into it and felt the bag being removed from my head. I looked around at my new surroundings, I was in a u-shaped room. Behind me was a flat straight wall, the door I just entered being its only feature. In front of me was a solitary wooden chair, with arms and a high back. In front of the chair was a very long high podium style table.

 A mixture of men and women sat behind the table facing the lonely chair, in the center chair, which was raised only slightly above the rest, sat Andius Reuter, six people sat on either side of him making a total of 13 seated people. The council. Each council member was adorned in very different and individually unique clothing. Andius wore clothing the same style to what I was wearing and what he had worn the night before, this time the coat being a very dark blue and the strip of cloth (which I later learned was called a tie) black with white dots. Some of them wore very bright and attention grabbing clothing; A lady on the far right wore an odd shiny dark green fuzzy shawl from her collar bone down, with tight collar like necklaces all the way up her neck, the beads on the necklaces looked oddly like bones. Her head was wrapped with a fabric made of turquoise and white feathers. The man just left of Andius wore dark leather armor with fur around the neck and the wrists, and protective plates on the chest, stomach and shoulders that looked like they were made of thick blue crystals. He had on a dark leather helmet which dropped over his eyes, the same fur on lining the bottom of the helmet and the same blue crystal protruding from the sides like horns. I notices three people to Reuter’s left sat a man adorned in the traditional pre-battles ceremonial clothes of my home. He was tall and had the olive skin of the people like me from the Inner Country, his hair was deep black and cut short his eyes a light grey. His uniform was that of the highest ranking official of my country, a purple, so dark it was almost black, long sleeve shirt made of light soft material. It had shiny designed gold buttons down from the neck and to the waist, the shirt was wide at the bottom, a belt was across his chest which held the sheath to his curved ceremonial sword. He wore black pants and boots trimmed in gold, and a perfectly round flat topped black hat with a gold and purple tassel hanging on his right side. The others wore clothing that stood out less, most wore shades of black and grey in different types of fabric and shaped differently on their bodies. 

All around the edges of the room were rows of raised seats, the seats were filled with people dressed as Rufus and Walden, in all black long pants and black skin tight shirts. I noted Walden sitting in the seats nearest the chair and council podium on my left. He was seated next to Jason Rex who had shed his purple jumpsuit for the black uniform. Jason looked very different, he had shaven the scruff from the prison and had a fuller brighter face. All eyes followed me silently as Rufus led me to the wooden chair. As I got close to the chair Rufus removed a key from his pocket, removed my cuffs and looking up at Andius Reuter said 

“Presenting to the council, Ryven Zenarus Dimcore of the 2^nd dimension, resident of Danan. Presented to the council on the charges of Tamanawa Base infiltration, unauthorized use of Gateway travel, and attempted assault on Night Ranger Jason Rex 4^th class.” 

Andius looked down at me an in a serious demeanor said “How does the defendant plea?” I looked up confused, not sure what he wanted me to say… “Guilty or not guilty?” he clarified 

“ummm. Not guilty I guess” I said, still taken aback by the whole situation.

“Very well. The plea of ‘not guilty’ shall be noted, the defendant may be seated.”  I sat back down into the wooden chair, feeling small and insignificant as I looked up at the 13 council members. “members of the council, we gather today, each of us a representative of our respective dimensions, to determine the fate of Ryven Dimcore from the 2^nd. I have personally interviewed Ryven as well as Ranger Walden, and Ranger Rex to determine his past, his character, and the circumstances surrounding his arrival into our midst. On May the 26^th of this year 1^st dimension, Earth time, Mr. Dimcore pursued Ranger Jason Rex who was a current prisoner of The Aralon’s Regal Confinement Center, of which Mr. Dimcore was a guard. Mr. Dimcore’s pursuit resulted in being knocked out and bound my Mr. Rex on the outskirts of the Dananian Gateway. Immediately after, Mr. Dimcore and Mr. Rex were attacked by >>>>>>> an event which caused Mr. Rex to free Mr. Dimcore to allow him to defend himself. As a result of the attack, Mr. Rex was injured and unconscious. Mr. Dimcore during the heat of the action felt that victory was impossible and fled through what he claims not to know, was a Gateway here. He too, was knocked out by the journey and only minutes after being awoken he was apprehended and interrogated by us.  These are the basics, are there Any other clarifications needed by the counsel?” Reuter looked around at the faces around him. A series of quiet no’s and heads shaken allowed for him to continue. “As we face many important issues, I feel that this hearing not be lengthened more than necessary and propose that we bypass the testimony of the witnesses and proceed directly to sentencing proposals and discussion, all in favor?” The 12 hands around him raised above their heads in silence. 
“Very well, any who wish to make a sentencing proposition or a discussion point please raise your right hand, step forward and present so that we can speak” 

After a solid two seconds of deathly silence, the man from Danan stepped forward. Raising his hand. I noticed that on his right shoulder where normally a patch designating his position would be, was an odd symbol I didn’t recognize.  A silver curved four pointed star with two small black symbols in the center. I didn’t have much time to think about it as his smooth voice brought me back to reality. 

“My beloved council, as the representative of this young man’s dimension, I feel I should present a point of character due to his position. He is a member of what on my World is known as the Royal Operations, a group of the highest trained, highest skilled military operatives there are. I would say they come even close to ourselves in abilities. In their training they are taught honor, compassion, and integrity. in my world I would place the highest trust in such a person.” He spoke calmly and smoothly as he held his hands at his chest and looked around with an odd smile on his face. A smile that came across as both smug and boastful. The beginning inklings of hope spread through me as he advocated for me. Only to be quickly dashed by his next words “We are, however, not on my world, and we all know too well that our enemy knows no bounds. While in my world I would trust any Royal Ops operative, here I must question in where we must place our faith. While his skills and talents may be effective in protection of Dananian government. These skills would also provide ample ability to infiltrate even the most secure bases. To topple, from within, the greatest of security. How are we to know, my wise and cautious councilors, that he is not merely a cleverly placed spy amongst our midst? We have, for years, recruited the best men and women found across the Dimensions. Could not the enemy recruit? His youth would make him immensely easy to deceive. Please, my friends, consider the risk we are taking in any actions less than imprisonment. Thank you” With a last smug flash of teeth, he sat down, waving his hands outward to indicate a continuance of discussion.

Reuter spokes “Thank you Councilor Vallis, your point of discussion and proposition of um… imprisonment have been placed, will allow more discussion before a vote” Though he tried to mask it, Reuter appeared a bit surprised. An immense and slightly illogical feeling of betrayal filled me as he sat. While I had never seen or met him that I recalled, I felt that as the Councilor from my world, he should have supported me, instead he called for me to thrown in jail, just in case I was a spy. Looks of consideration spread across the room, although it felt like countless minutes of long silence, only a few seconds passed before the Furry Armored man stood, his size only showing more as he towered in front of his chair.

“We can’t just begin to chuck everyone in jail, or kill them because they might be a spy. I understand your point of caution Vallis, but you forget our enemy isn’t human. Why would they start using human tactics now? If you are correct, the boy is a warrior, why not wise him up a bit, and send him back ready for if and when the war comes to your own world? 

“Wise him up?” Vallis Stood again and spoke “I plead for the council to have caution in the face of terrible war. Yet it seems Councilor Krade feels our best option is to reveal all of our secrets to a boy we do not know, and send him on, unsupervised, to do whatsoever he desire with the information. Respectfully so Krade, your intellect of battle is unmatched her on the council, yet you act to often without first, fully analyzing situational complexities. If we imprison him and he is not a spy, we will have made the life of one soul hard, if we let him free and he is in fact our deceiver, the lives of countless will be devastated. To whom must we put our concern? The life of one boy, or of all those we are striving to save? I do not make such a proposition with a light heart, but present it with the deepest grievance” The smug smile was replaced with an attempted look of pity. “We must do what is right, even when it seems unjust.” 

“Justice by definition, should be doing what is right, Councilor.” This time the turquoise woman stood “To say that what is right isn’t just, is contradictory. How can we claim to stand for Justice, yet dish out injustice? There is no honor in ruining the life of a boy due to our own self-serving paranoia.”

“Self-serving, Jairra? Have you forgotten what we do? We seek not to serve ourselves, yet those innocent who are in danger. Our cause is for all people of all worlds to keep them free”

“Ahh and there, Councilor is wherein lies the fault in your argument.” Jairra said calmly “If we fight to keep all free, then we cannot take the liberty from this boy, when he has done no wrong, or we are going against our own purpose.”

            “No wrong that we know of yet,” Vallis didn’t stand this time, and his smooth demeanor begin to fade into one of anger “you do not know the capabilities of this ‘boy’ like I do. Somehow he accidentally stumbled into a grove where one of our own was, got into a situation where he was free, our ranger unconscious, and the gate to our very headquarters was activated already. The fact that the >>>>>>> were already there on Rex’s trail doesn’t seem suspicious? Or the fact that Jason Rex’s cell door was suddenly opened up for him to escape, yet not he, nor any of us know who did it” This hit me with surprise. I hadn’t even thought of how it was the Jason had ended up escaping. In the midst of everything I had forgotten. Yet, here were his people saying that he didn’t do it and that they didn’t do it. Who had? I thought, would could it have been a mistake, as someone in the ARC a traitor?

 “While there is no physical evidence the equation makes sense. He was brainwashed, maybe literally, by the enemy. They helped him free Jason who we knew was one of ours, then let him wander into the woods. There this ‘boy’, their agent, followed him to the gate, waited for him to activate it, and then as soon as he had, called for the >>>> to attack. He killed one of them to convince us of his being on our side, let the rest knock Jason out, and escaped through the Gate with Jason’s unconscious body in order to look like a hero. Also, I am sure hoping that we would bring him here. Now he hopes to be let free, due to his understanding of your ‘Justice’ so that he can bring back the cavalry. It all adds up, yet we still feel like we should let him go? Council where is our wisdom? We haven’t survived this long in secrecy by throwing caution and logic out the door. We can’t begin now or it will mean our end. We must do what is right, follow the logic of the evidence and remove the threat. Prison would be more humane, but who is to say even then we could keep him there. If what I said is true, they got Jason out, they could get him out. Even just him being here we could already be compromised. I painfully and sorrowfully suggest we do what we must and execute the boy now. We are in times of war, Council, we must make the hard choices.” 

The room went even quieter, and Vallis sat down again. I looked in dismay as Krade and Jairra both stayed silent, neither had a retort. They seemed to be contemplating the possibility of my subterfuge. A few whispers went through the stadium-esque seats around me. I sat in horror, while untrue, I knew that in their situation, I would have suspected myself. Vallis sat back, the smug smile hiding under his serious face, watching his seeds of distrust grow in those to whom he had spoken. His scanning eyes met mine as he watched, and instantly they flashed with dislike. I could see how he had a seat of power, he used his words to manipulate his way into his seat. He winked at me, which made me hate him more, and turned again to his pawns. Before he could speak, however, he was interrupted by a man on the far left. This man was tall and broad shouldered, the lines of his face were ridden with age. His uniform