Chapter 1

Thump! Thump! Thump!

I roll my eyes in annoyance. I wonder why they came right as I figured out what’s causing the problem with this SQL database.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

I groan and just decide that I may as well take a break.

I drag myself out of my chair and away from my desk. I weave out of the office, across the kitchen area, and towards the front door. I unlock the door, open it slightly, and look to see who is knocking on my door.

“G’day mate,” a portly bearded middle-aged man in blue overalls and a plaid shirt greets me. He has blue eyes and is wearing a cap on his black hair.

“I hope I’m not intruding on you, but I was wondering if you might be intere-”

“Sorry, if you're here to sell something, I’m not interested.” I try to close the door, but a black boot stops me. 

“No, I’m not here to sell you anything. Just need to give out all these pamphlets before 12, and I still have 50 of these to hand out.” 

I sigh and wonder why he's even handing these out in an apartment complex but I shelve that thought and swing my door open. 

“Alright, hand it over,” I say stretching out my right hand towards him. He smiles and then picks up a blue plastic bag on the floor before he fishes out a black pamphlet which he then places into my hand. 

“C’mon dude, just give me the whole thing.” He raises his eyebrow at me whilst cocking his head to the side slightly.

“Dude, you’ve still got 49 of those and you’ve only got,” I bring my left wrist up to look at my watch, “an hour and 41 minutes, so just give them to me and enjoy the rest of your weekend.” 

The man leans back slightly and proceeds to survey the rest of the empty hallway. That’s weird, would his employers be willing to go so far as to make sure that he hands out these flyers correctly?

The man then turns back to me with a frown and proceeds to give me the bag of pamphlets.

“Drongo.” The man says quietly.

“Sorry, what's a… drongo.” The man smiles and lifts his gaze to meet mine.

“You, you're a drongo mate.”

“Uh, thanks, I guess”, I say before closing the door.

I think that guy is Australian or something, which would be the first time that I’ve met one. I realise that I forgot to ask him what product or service this is for.

I open the door and… no one’s there. I try looking for the man but it's as if he just vanished. I guess he was in a rush, which might explain why he’s no longer here, but he didn't seem to be in that much of a rush.

I close the door and then move towards the kitchen to put the plastic bag on the counter and inspect the pamphlet in my left hand. It seems to have some shape on it although it's covered by a silver coin stuck onto the pamphlet. I remove the coin and look at the card again. I can now make out the symbol on the pamphlet. It appears to be a white upside-down triangle with a line splitting it down the middle. I check the rest of the pamphlet but it doesn’t have anything else on it. No text or any other images, just the symbol.

I then place the pamphlet on the counter and inspect the coin, hoping to find answers. The coin has the same symbol as the pamphlet; however, it seems to have words engraved along the edge.

“Hero Invite” I read out, unsure what that's supposed to mean. I wonder if maybe this is some kind of elaborate new marketing scheme for some mobile game but, ultimately, I decide I can figure this out later.

I place the coin on the counter and notice the framed photo of me and Gogo, my grandma. At least I consider her my grandma, even if we aren't directly related to one another. I pick up the framed photo of us sitting together, smiling as we make ridiculous faces. The memories of that day come flooding in, causing me to feel melancholic.

I then reach into my pocket and pull out a sleek black smartphone. I click the power button and, to my surprise, nothing happens. I could’ve sworn that I charged my phone just a little while ago.

I notice a white light out of the corner of my eye and put my phone away. The light appears to be coming from the coin and I can also see a bright light from within the plastic bag, illuminating part of the counter in a blue light. 

I pick up the plastic bag and see that there are more glowing coins attached to the black pamphlets. A spark flies off of one of the coins, narrowly missing my head, causing me to drop the bag.

The coin on the counter starts to hum and, almost as if responding, a humming sound comes from the bag as well. The hum from all the coins grows to become deafening and then the light becomes brighter than anything I’ve ever seen.

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Bwooom!

I’m blinded by an explosion of light and feel pain crawling across the entirety of my body. The humming of the coins is no longer there, so I open my eyes only to find myself in a massive hall.

My eyes sting as I struggle to try to lean on the kitchen counter, but instead, I fall over as the desk no longer seems to be there, and someone catches me before I can hit the ground.

“Wh-who’s there?” I say as I push back away from the person. “How did you get into my apartment?”

“Your what?” A deep voice rings out in response. “Magician, get over here and sort this out!” The man bellows out.

My eyes begin to adjust and I can now see that I am no longer home but in a massive hall. I look up at the massive roof of marble covered in what appears to be a religious mural. At the centre of the mural was a grey crown with a large yellow circle as its centrepiece. The crown is surrounded by what appears to be bowing lizard creatures of various colours, with those then being surrounded by blue circular shields with yellow circles in their centre. The shields seemed to be protecting them from the wide variety of monsters that filled the rest of the roof and went down the sides of the walls with the only parts of the walls not having some kind of monster on them being the two large wooden doors about 4 meters tall. 

Although something feels off, like I'm carrying some imaginary load of some sort, and I hope that whatever brought me here hasn't had some adverse effect on me.

I turn to face the man and see that he is wearing a full set of plate mail armour. A man in a brown robe rushes from behind me to join us, however, I’m shocked to see that the man has red skin and quickly realise that I am most definitely not anywhere near my home in Johannesburg.

“What's wrong?” the robed man asks the man in the armour.

“It seems your magic has failed to bring us the heroes you promised us.” The man then points to me. “All we have is this scrawny runt, who doesn't know anything about his duties as a hero” The man spits out.

The magician’s face contorts with bewilderment and proceeds to turn towards me.

“Greetings” The man raises his closed fist, which only seems to have four fingers, he proceeds to tap his head before placing his hand back down.  “I am Futter, a mage of the Transcendent. I would like to ask you a few questions. Would that be fine with you?” The man in the armour goes off somewhere behind me as Futter begins to talk with me.

I nod and offer my hand for a handshake, however, Futter just glances at my hand in confusion.

“Um… well, my name is Thato and… I'm a software developer,” I awkwardly say as I put my hands into my pocket. “I would be happy to answer any of your questions… so long as you answer some of mine.”

He nods and smiles. “Alright, then. First question: Did you happen to meet anyone who may have given you an invitation with this symbol on it?” He proceeds to pull out a pendant with the same triangle symbol on the pamphlets and coins from earlier.

I internally groan as I realise that I probably should’ve just closed the door earlier. “Sigh, yes I did. I received about 50 of them”

“What!” Futter yells out causing me to jump back a bit. “You were given all 50! The Transcendent must not like the people of your world Thato.” His face grows more grim.

“What? The Transcendent-” I begin but Futter interrupts me by grabbing my arm.

“Quick, follow me. We must check your condition.” Futter turns and starts walking in the same direction as the knight from earlier. As I follow him across the hall, I start to feel encumbered, as if I’ve just begun hiking up a mountain with a heavy load.

Futter waves towards the man in armour, “Sir Fromm, hurry, set up a grading circle.”

Fromm moves to the wall of the temple and removes what looks like a piece of chalk attached to the side of his gauntlet. “Tell me what’s going on here Mage,” Fromm says as slides the chalk against the wall, quickly forming an empty square enclosed within a circle. 

As we approach Fromm’s position, I am breathing heavily, even though I have only walked about 300 meters.

“Quick, Thato, place your hand on that rune.” Futter hurriedly says.

I place my hand on the rune and then feel a zap, like a static shock. The square glows a white light and dims, a filled white square now in the place of the once empty square.

“Zero?” Fromm responds with confusion in his voice. “By the void, is that even possible?”

“Yes,” Futter says as his face lights up in relief. “Though the only people who get a zero are those who are… on the younger side,” he says nervously, whilst backing away. “It’s good news since it means our friend here won’t be crushed under his own weight.” 

“And where are the rest of our heroes, mage” Fromm’s voice is now serious although he is still analysing the rune.

“Well, about that… It seems that the Transcendent decided to send us just this one hero. I’m sure we could negotiate further in regards to the rest” Futter says nervously as he continues to move further away from us. For a moment, there is only silence, as Fromm seems to have frozen in place.

Futter then raises his arm towaFromm moves in a silver blur to where Futter is standing and lifts him with one arm. “You promised us 50 strong and capable heroes, Mage!” his voice booms out in anger. 

“I’m sorry, I… I’m not sure what’s going on?” Futter chokes out. “Please Sir, give me time to consult with the Trans-”

Boom!

Futter is slammed against the wall before being flopping down to the floor.

“Get out! Go tell those demons you worship that the deal between us is over. The land of the Sun will be sure to remember this betrayal.” Fromm then turns to me and walks up to me, and I panic and stumble, falling on my back.

“You, follow me.” Fromm commands.

I get up and follow him to the large wooden doors, which Fromm opens with ease. We make our way out the door, but I stop as I see that the door leads straight off of a cliff.  Looking down I can see a castle and a city at the bottom of the cliff and we look to be about 10 to 15 stories up. Fromm sighs, picks me up and places me above his shoulder before jumping down causing me to scream out. 

I feel the wind whip across my face as we descend faster and faster, however, right as the zooms into focus; red scaly wings materialise onto Fromm’s armour and our descent slows to a stop above one of the towers of the castle.

I grunt as he drops me to the ground. As I pick myself up off the ground, I start to see everything spinning around me. 

“I apologise, but we must make haste,” Fromm says. “Follow me, we must meet with Queen Sonne” 

“Yeah, just give me a second,” I say as I feel my head throb. I start to walk towards where Fromm is but everything fades to black as I lose my footing.