Cassius peered around the corner to survey the foyer of the Uraeus Capitol building, cradling the package in his arm. It worked to get him into the building and now he had a key card that he swiped from the guard at the back entrance. The foyer was filled with people coming and going but his attention was immediately pulled to a very stern looking woman with an imposing presence followed by an old man with an ornery grin on his face, and a boy about his age pushing his glasses back into place, all lead buy a burly man in a suit. The old man suddenly glanced in his direction causing Cassius to duck back behind the wall and wait for a moment before slowly peeking back around. The old man's grin persisted as they all waited for an elevator and all piled in. Cassius waited for the elevator to pick a floor before using the key card to get into the stairwell and make his way to the eleventh floor. The stairwell door slowly crept open revealing a hallway with three other doors. The elevator, a restroom, and a conference room. Cassius carefully crept closer to the conference room door and listened quietly as who he thought was the stern looking woman spoke. "Your involvement with Bahn alone should be enough for us to act against you, yet here you are trying to gain entry into our organization. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't cut you down right here?" "What is going on in there?" Cassius whispered to himself right before he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see the large man wearing a suit. "Who are you?" The man asked in a coarse voice. "Oh I'm here delivering a package, the guys downstairs let me up?" Cassius responded quickly. The man's face was cold as he picked Cassius up by his shirt and opened the conference room door. Everyone in the room turned their eyes to him and President Iwazaru stood from his chair. "What's going on Jaru?" Jaru dropped Cassius in front of him and remained silent. Cassius took that as a queue to speak up. "Hi I'm just here to deliver this package to a mister..." he pulled a notepad he swiped off a desk in the lobby, and pretended to read a name from it. "Iwazaru. I just need you to sign right here please." "Enough of this, who are you and what do you want?" Cassius realized his charade was over and for the first time since he left his apartment he let go of the package letting it fall to the ground. But when he let go a strange sensation washed over him and his attention was drawn to the package. The boy wearing glasses noticed this and gestured toward the parcel. The stern looking woman in one motion closed the distance between herself and Cassius and drew her blade from its sheath. A Black flame erupted from the package on the floor in front of Cassius and the obsidian fire consumed him.

Cassius opened his eyes. Confused, he tried to stand up but found himself thrown off balance by shifting golden sands beneath him. He looked around but could only see a sea of golden sand stretched infinitely in every direction. Then, almost out of nowhere he spotted two columns standing in the distance. There appeared to be a person standing in front of each one. He doubted that what he was seeing was real so he pinched his arm. The pain quelled his doubt. After taking a few moments to gather himself he made his way toward the columns. To his left stood a man whose height dwarfed even Jaru. He wasn't wearing a shirt, just a loincloth and his body was covered in tribal markings. And in his hands he held a very strange looking book. "Are you from Terrabe?" Cassius asked. The man didn't answer, he just continued to stare out across the golden desert. Now that he was closer Cassius could tell that the two columns together looked to be the entrance to a gate but there were no walls. He began to walk in between the columns when the tribal man appeared in front of him and shoved him back into the sand. "What was that for?" Cassius asked, climbing to his feet. The man silently glared at him. "Pssst. Pssst. Hey kid." Cassius's attention was grabbed by the man in front of the right column. "Yeah you, come here." The man beckoned. Cassius cautiously walked towards the other man while keeping an eye on the tribal man. "Hey look, don't mind him, he's grumpy." The man said, putting his arm around Cassius and walking with him. "The Names Jachin. And Mr. Personality over there is Boaz." The two of them looked back to find Boaz glaring at the both of them. "Look at em, he hates that I told you that." Jachin chuckled. "Um, why did you? What is this place?" Jachin took his arm from around Cassius. "Oh, ya see this here's the in between. Well it's got a lot of names but it basically functions as the space between the mundane reality you're used to and true divinity." Cassius's confusion began to turn into frustration. "What are you talking about?" Jachin paid him no mind, instead he was focused on Boaz. "Look at him. We've been here since there was a here to be and all he does is just stand there. He won't even talk to me." Cassius looked back over at Boaz. "What's he doing anyway?" Jachin took a seat in the sand. "He's standing guard, we're guards. We guard this gate. That's why he pushed you, your name must not have been in the book... Look at him taking his job all seriously. Lighten up! Pull the Caduceus out your ass!" Jachin tossed a fistful of sand at Boaz but it failed to reach him. Boaz paid him no mind. "Look guy, I don't know how I got here, I don't even fully understand where here is. So is this gate the way out?" Cassius attempted to walk through the gate but was stopped by Jachin who held a scepter out to block him. "Sorry kid there's only two ways through this gate. Either your names in Boaz's book or you come here in spirit. You're here in mind so it's only temporary. Something from wherever you came must have granted you access to this plane. So give it a second and you'll be back where you came from." Cassius thought for a second. "I don't know if that is such a good idea." "Why's that?" Jachin asked. "Pretty sure I was about to be cut in half." "What? Well that's no good. No friend of mine is gonna go out like that. Look I'm not supposed to do this but I want you to get back here and come through the gate legitimately, so here." Jachin touched the scepter to Cassius's chest and Cassius vanished. Boaz glared furiously at Jachin from in front of his column. Jachin threw up his hands in protest. "What? You wanted me to just let the kid get cut in half? He came here for a reason and if we're supposed to guard this gate then that seemed like as good a way as any if you ask me!"

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.