Shenanigans

The man examined the invisible wall cautiously before lighting it up with hellfire, which only succeeded in filling the whole cylindrical tube he was in and burning his outfit.

“This,” The Company continued, “Is Dante Aleistar Solomon Familiares PHD, founder of Chaos Corp a company that hires gods, although that’s a bit of a simplification. He is also-”

Another click and the mans form changed into that of a grim reaper looking figure.

“-the human guise of Danae, God of Death.”

Danae looked down at himself, an aura of perturbed uneasiness about him.

“What’s going on here? Who are you? I have so many questions?”

The Company waved its paw at him and his teeth zipped up in a comical fashion. He once again lit up his tube with hellfire.

“We need to get on with this okay? I’m gravely sorry but i’ll make it up to you when you actually meet me. I’m sure I have an artifact around here somewhere. Although i’m not sure where, maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Another eldritch garble called from the back.

“Right right... sorry.” It clicked again and this time another three lights came on, illuminating a black and white ethereal being split vertically down the middle, a gigantic muscular suit of gold-lined silver armour, and a beautiful forest-green-skinned woman with a bob haircut of a thin root-like material clad in plated chain mail.

“Zade, Goddess of Duality and Truth!” it announced and the ethereal being reacted.

“What the bleep?” said Zade.

“Farjack, God of Warriors!” It announced and the suit of armour reacted.

“Did you just say bleep?” said Farjack.

“And Sera, Guardian of Hope!” it announced and the last woman reacted.

She glanced around in awe. “This is new.”

“That rounds up our main intrepid group, the Legathis, or Origin Gods. Is intrepid a complement? I think so? So much knowledge, not so much organisation.”

Danae unzipped his own lips. “Was that a pun?”

The Company zipped them again.

“Let’s continue then, sorry for so many digressions. Creating a meta representation of these characters in your mind is a little complicated.”

Another click and the fours lights dropped, another and they reappeared two feet back. A final click revealed few new lights, greyed out silhouettes frozen mid-action stood in them.

“You’ll have plenty of time to get to know those four in the first few episodes so get to reading!” It smiled. “These four a some interesting characters who you’ve only met briefly so far!”

“Jaegan, God of Organisation,” it chuckled. 

The first silhouette coloured in, there stood a short man with a lean frame and wide hips accentuated by his form-fitting red waistcoat, white shirt, and black slim-fit dress trousers. His sharp jawline and observing red eyes framed by short well-kept black hair.

A muffled scream emitted from Danae.

He bowed. “I keep Dr. Familiares on time, he won’t admit it but he knows and appreciates that without me his company would have never gotten this far. Krisha and Zade have also been a great help.”

"He is a latino transgender man raised on ‘Forever Valley’, the story-focused island continent inspired by Earth Europe, by his supportive parents after they immigrated from Joyamor, a country inspired by Earth Mexico."

The man turned to Danae. “Was there an appointment made for this that you forgot to tell me about?”

Danae shook his head.

“Krish, Deity of Management,” said The Company.

The second silhouette coloured in. Revealed was an individual wearing casual black clothes. They stood up from an invisible chair, dirty blonde short hair disturbed by the motion, their eyes were shut and relaxed.

“What now...” They sighed, pinching the bridge of their nose.

“It’s some sort of introductory sequence,” said Zade.

They raised their eyebrows. “Alright. I’m the vaultkeeper of Chaos Corp, I manage the companies financial side, events, and parties, as well as use its successes to make sure all necessities for living are provided to the world for free. They/them pronouns.”

“Necessities include food, water, medical services, housing, and rights if you were curious. They are from Surris, a country inspired by Earth India.” said The Company.

They stepped out of their spotlight and into its. “Where is Earth India?”

The Company looked at them perplexed and clicked them back to their space. “Um. Sorry but it’s probably more time efficient not to tell you since these events are not going to be integrated into your memories.”

Farjack was trying to find a way over to The Company. “Can I hug it?”

“Maybe if it lets you,” said Sera.

“Ash,” it announced.

The third silhouette coloured in and as it did singing filled the room. Stood dancing and singing in the spotlight was an androgynous individual with a black undercut wearing ripped navy jeans, and a red leather jacket over a black plaid shirt. They were singing an upbeat song about letters and friendship.

The Company cleared its throat.

He stopped instantly, eyes flicking open, pink irises glistening in the light.

“Oh finally. Been waiting to get in on this meta *bleep*-fest.”

“Welcome to Tumblr.”

“Thanks, I hate it.”

“Ash is genderfluid and shifts his eye colour to match his pronouns at any given moment.”

Ash makes eye contact with the reader.

“Sorry, must hurry this along as we don’t have much time left. Finally, special guest who you haven’t met yet, Jenniri.”

The fourth silhouette coloured in. A punk woman with slicked back black hair with light blue highlights finished applying her matte black lipstick. Her ensemble featuring a black tank top with her name printed on in a stylised font and denim shorts.

“Now she is a truly interesting individual, an immortal from a culture inspired by Earth ancient arabia-”

“Oh but darling isn’t it a bit early for my reveal?” she said, glancing over her shoulder at the darkness behind them.

Characters

Danae began to return to the elevator, he pulled out the binder again and skimmed through it. The criteria for application was pretty straightforward. The individuals had to show some form of supernatural ability as well as signs of what Danae dubbed the omnimeta. He wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, how it developed, or even what it did. It seemed to just be a form of sixth sense that all gods had in some form. One fraction of its power allowed them to sense the pronouns of individuals. If Danae had actually put effort into studying this phenomenon he was sure it would make a good follow-up book to Legath: Religion and where to find it.

Of course actually identifying these individuals was stupidly hard. A majority of their applicants were people who just needed a job. Unfortunately if they didn’t meet the criteria they had to be sent away. Not before receiving a large sum of money and a free one bedroom apartment in one of Chaos Corp’s ‘Housing for Everyone’ apartment buildings nearby of course. He really couldn’t understand how with so many rich people there still seemed to be a poverty issue in Eterna.

He flipped back to a page featuring the application of one Jaquel Mira, Asuuni woman, 24 years of age, single mother running a home business selling handmade sweaters. Displayed signs of extrasensory memory and the ability to see exactly what someone was picturing in their mind with minimal description. Interesting. He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Kirei informing her to send the woman over for an interview.

Perfect. That’s his duties done for the day. Now to mess with some interviewees.

We’ve already seen this scene. Where Zade arrives and meets Danae in his office. Part 3 of the last episode. Though if you’re reading this and you haven’t seen that scene then you aren’t reading this in chronological order and must be some literal force of chaos. Please stop.

The young woman entered Danae’s office and took a seat opposite him, seemingly unfazed by Zade’s presence or appearance.

She removed the small buds from her ears, unsettling her short black undercut hair. Her calm blue eyes locked directly with his.

“Greetings mortal, my name is Dante Aleistar Solomon Familiares PHD and welcome to The Chaos Corporation,” recited Danae with feigned excitement.

She grunted.

“Uh...” Danae continued, “Welcome to the interview, this is my secretary Zade.” He gestured to her.

She looked shocked, a normal reaction to a- wait, no, she’s just brushing some dandruff off her red leather jacket that was annoying her.

“So... what makes you think you have what it takes to work at our company?”

A truly difficult question, there is no way she will be able to answer this one-

“I don’t,” she said.

“Wh-what?”

She rolled her eyes.

Danae checked the piece of paper in front of him.

“It says here you want to be the deity of ‘I don’t care what you put just put something on there’...”

“Ah,” said Zade, “I think we just gave away our last vacancy to that position.”

The woman laughed.

Danae held back from elbowing Zade. He became aware of a fly buzzing above his head and batted it away.

“Okay look miss... Spaghetti- gods dammit.”

She suddenly burst into a fit of cackling.

Danae cleared his throat in impatience.

“So. Why is it that you’re here then Miss?”

He swatted at the fly again. Blasted creatures.

“To prevent you from doing something stupid.”

“Stupid? I never do anything stupid. I’m the CEO of a successful international-”

“Let me just stop you right there,” she interrupted.

Danae sat speechlessly, mouth hanging open.

The woman stood, watching the fly as it continued to buzz around him. She walked over to the window, opened it, and carefully shooed the creature out of it.

“Much better,” she smiled.

Zade poked Danae cautiously.

“I know you’re confused,” the woman said, “But trust me, if I hadn’t intervened you would have killed that creature. Now events have been set in motion as they should be, and I can leave.”

“Who the fuck are you?” said Danae.

She put the buds back into her ears and ruffled her hair.

“Name’s Ash, and I can read your mind.” She held her index fingers to her temples and intensely stared at Danae.

He was unnerved.

“You’re thinking, god she’s handsome.”

He was both shaken and relieved. 

“I like you,” Zade chuckled. “Would you like to properly apply for a position anyway?”

“Nah, I’m good thanks.” She stepped towards the exit. “I don’t like the idea of being contractually bound to a corporate entity with questionable intentions.”

Zade nodded.

Ash’s eyes shifted colour to a soft green.

“Have fun reading about this meeting in your book, Danae,” they said.

“Wait what-” he started.

Behind the desk sat a young man wearing a pastel pink polo shirt that clashed with his obnoxiously orange-tinted skin. She realized she was staring, and he was staring back.

“I have never seen a human with quite your skin tone before,” she said, trying to divert her gaze, not that he could tell. “Do many of you come like that now?”

The man was chewing something. He pursed his lips and from between them a blue bubble inflated until it grew to the size of his head and then popped, flopping down as he just chewed it back into his mouth. The air now smelled strongly of fruit and mint. An unsettling combination.

“Tanning accident,” he replied.

“My apologies,” said Zade, without exactly understanding what he meant.

“Can I help you sir?”

“I’m not a sir.”

Pop.

“Ma’am.”

She didn’t exactly know what to make of this situation.

“I was sent up here to see Danae?”

Pop.

“Who?”

Oh right.

“Dante?”

“Qualifications please,” he said, tapping away at the machine in front of him.

“Pardon?”

Pop.

He stared at her with exhausted eyes.

“Qualifications please.”

“What do you need qualifications for? What type of qualifications? Does one need qualifications now to-”

The doors to her right suddenly opened and Danae stepped through.

“Rio, I’ll deal with this one, good work though,” he said, ushering her into the room.

Pop.

She quickly entered.

Danae closed the doors behind her. “Sorry about that, Rio is one of our interns, training the youth of tomorrow and all that.”

Inside was just as grandiose as the hallway, though with less statues and more self-portraits. The one behind his pulpit-shaped desk stood out most. A picture of a large metal door, stood in front of which Danae himself. To each side of the picture were tall windows overlooking the courtyard.

He sat down and gestured for Zade to do the same.

She didn’t.

Behind the desks raised edge she could see some neatly-stacked papers.

“Well?” Danae asked.

“Well what?”

“Well what do you think of the place?”

Zade thought about it for a whole half-second.

“Compensatory,” she said under her breath.

“Pardon?” Danae raised an eyebrow. She’d have to get used to him having flesh and all that. Normally all his facial expressions were implied via magical energy.

“I said you have made quite a name for yourself have you not?”

“Oh, yes I suppose so,” he replied. Effortlessly writing something down on the pieces of paper as he talked. “So what would you say is your biggest fault?”

“What?”

“Not listening, got it,” he kept writing. “Do you have a criminal record in Eterna City or any other continent?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Okay possibly, I’ll have to look into it.”

“I would be surprised right now if it was anyone but you,” she rolled her eyes.

“Noted,” he stopped writing and locked eyes with her. “And what is your favourite colour?”

Zade said nothing.

“No seriously tell me, I need it for the records. Equal treatment and all that.”

“Danae you know that it is purple and yellow...”

“Light blue, gotcha.”

She sighed.

He held a piece of paper and a pen towards her.

“Sign this. Usual stuff, normal contract, regular founder words, just write down a fake name that you’ll have to use to humans from now on.”

Zade wrote her name down and handed it back.

Danae went to stand up but hesitated.

“I said a fake name, you just wrote down Zade.”

“Well that is my name.”

“Fine fine.”

“Do you really want me to be a co-founder of your company?”

Danae looked very confused.

“Co-founder? What? Oh, oh gods no, you’re my secretary.”

“Wait what.”

Without another word he stood up and pressed his finger against the painting, directly on his nose. A whirring sound came from behind it as the painting slowly moved up just barely reaching the ceiling before uncovering what was beneath. A metal door, with a wheel on the front, identical to the one on the painting. He turned the wheel counter-clockwise six times and then clockwise twice and the door swung outwards.

Inside was a white metal room, lit only by the offices lighting and a single piece of technology atop a small desk. Sat behind which was a person.

“Hi,” they said, not looking away from their screen. Their fingers danced around the bottom half of the L-shaped machine with astonishing speed.

“Hello?” Zade replied.

They stopped tapping and their head turned slightly towards her. They quickly swept the fringe of their blonde bob-cut hair behind their ear revealing their face, eyes shut. They resumed tapping away. The room was also filled with stacks of gold paper.

“Krish, this is Zade, my new secretary, Zade this is Krish, my vaultkeeper,” said Danae.

Zade bowed. “A pleasure.”

“I know.” Krish spoke with hard syllables in a flowing, almost melodic accent. “Stay out of my room, only come near if you’re doing it for work and Danae-”

He hummed an acknowledgment.

“I’m not your anything. I’m the vualtkeeper of Chaos Corp.”

Zade smirked.

“Wait,” she said. “Why are they in a small metal room behind your painting?”

Krish raised an eyebrow. “You got my pronouns right?” they whispered, completely ignoring the actual question.

Now Danae smirked.

“Well of course,” said Zade. “After my experience with the Peace Village I started analyzing the subconscious of everyone I met in order to determine their pronouns without mistake.”

Krish seemed impressed, taking the paper Zade had signed from Danae. “On second thought, feel free to drop round for a chat some time.” They smiled.

Danae’s eyes went wide.

The safe door closed again, all by itself, apparently their meeting was finished.

“You...” Danae stuttered. “You befriended Krish?”

“Yes? Is that a problem?”

“No far from it. You’re just the first to ever succeed.”

“You failed to answer my question,” she reminded.

He walked to the window without answering.

Zade followed and noticed there was no room behind this one, nowhere the vault could possibly be. And then she understood.

“Each of the paintings on this floor is actually a window to a pocket universe. Well except that one. That one leads to another room on this floor with no other entrance. Safe keeping and all.”

“I see. What exactly does a vaultkeeper do?”

“Keep the vault.”

Zade sighed.

“They handle all of Chaos Corps finances, investments, and money laundering.”

“Money what?”

“Nothing.” He said quickly. “We have one more order of business.”

“Being?”

Danae stepped over to his desk in one big stride and pushed down a button on a box. “Rio, send her in please.”

“Yes sir,” Rio said, his voice coming from within the box and also faintly from just outside the door.

Danae gestured for Zade to go on. The second she stepped forward there was a high-pitched screech. A child in a fancy checkered shirt, black pants, and rainbow suspenders bolted towards her and she almost drew her weapon on instinct.

“You must be Zade!” they almost screamed, circling her and stopping just behind her. “My name is Higgins!” He grabbed her hand and shook it before she could even turn to face him.

Danae chuckled.

“Now now Higs, remember what we agreed on,” said another voice, belonging to a tall and muscular man who wore an awful lot of makeup and way too tight psychedelic print pants. He also had a sparkling silver vest on, open to show off his abs.

Higgins darted back in front of Zade and stopped abruptly taking a deep breath.

“Sorry,” he laughed, his hands fidgeting by his sides. “I can get hyperactive about my job.”

“Good boy,” the man ruffled his hair. “Hello darling, it’s such a pleasure to meet you.” He grabbed her hand gently in both of his and shook it. His voice was smooth and falsetto.

“Geeeeents,” Higgins whined. “You know it’s my job to do touring and introductions.”

The man let out a soft chuckle. “Oh hush now, I’m just introducing myself. My name is Extrava-Gent, God of Candy, Sugar, and Fun. Welcome to the company.”

His smile radiated. Or maybe that was just the sheer amount of highlighter.

Zade collected herself, and then was thrown off again.

“Wait. You are doing the tour? I thought Danae…”

She turned and Danae was having a hushed conversation with another man. He had an almost sharp hourglass body, accentuated by his form-fitting red waistcoat and white shirt.

“-yes well, what was your point John?” Danae finished saying.

“”Miss Kirei the Asuun ambassador has arrived and awaits your audience, sir.” He dragged out the last word in an almost spiteful way. “And my name is Jaegan, sir.”

“Yes, yes whatever. Inform her I will be there momentarily.”

“Very well, sir.” Jaegan bowed and abruptly left.

A hand grabbed Zade’s and she flinched again.

Higgins was looking up at her with puppy dog eyes.

“You don’t want a tour from me?” he said sadly. “But, I’m Higgins, God of Tourism and Navigation. It’s my job.”

Zade glanced back but Danae had already left.

Extrava-Gent patted her shoulder. “It can’t hurt to know your way around darling,” he chuckled, and then pirouetted flowing the movement into a skip as he exited the room.

There were only three other people left in the room now. A tanned muscular woman with ginger hair, asleep on the couch. And two other people engaged in some sort of recreative activity involving interlocked fingers and trying to keep ones thumb on top of the others.

Higgins was still staring at her hopefully.

“Okay then,” she conceded with exaggerated happiness.

Higgins let out another screech of delight, grabbed her by both hands and pulled her out of the room.

The Chaos Corporation building has 365.25 floors, averaging around one kilometer in height alone. The floors are split into sections, quaintly shown on a glass plaque outside each elevator in the building.

When questioned about what the ‘.25′ meant, Higgins had only to say that the 366th floor only existed a couple times a year.

“Floors 110 to 115 are offices reserved for gods, the best at what they do,” Higgins explained, slightly muffled by the lollipop he had popped into his mouth.

“I’ve read the leaflet, but what exactly does this company do?”

Higgins looked surprised, as if she should have been told already. Or figured it out.

“We hire gods of course.”

“Hire gods?” She realised the redundancy of repeating his words after they came out her mouth.

“Everyone in the company knows everything about it, everyone, even the janitors. When they join, they sign a paper and move into the building with some family or friends who also have to sign. And if anyone wants to leave, they are made to forget everything. They also get a lot of money.”

A curious thing this money, Zade thought, she’d have to do more research.

The living quarters were like a small town in enough their own, each having shops, and a park, and various types of housing.

Each training floor was dedicated to a different type of training. Combat, fitness, swimming, reading, writing, management, and even self-care. They had a floor for anything an employee or resident could ever need.

The facade floor was above the reception. A fake work area used whenever someone who couldn’t have their memory wiped visited. They used moving walls, hologram windows, various employees, and an elevator trick that made it feel as though you were going higher, even if you weren’t. Seemed way too much effort to put into it really, they could just use illusion magic.

Finally, they made their way up to floor 364, a floor dedicated to the CEO and founders office. Narcissism by any other name, is probably Danae.

A strong pain shot through Zade’s body upon hearing Sera’s voice, even in a more withered, husky form. It seemed to drain all the hope it had once gave. The pain tightened to her stomach, almost piercing now. And what in her name was Danae doing opening a portal to a world?

The crack in reality had changed from it’s pure black form to a sea of blue and green shapes. Danae stood in front of it, apparently trying to stabilize it and causing this anomaly. The pain grew sharper and deeper.

Oh right, she thought. She had forgotten the monster that she had to deal with. She looked down and realised she had been stabbed through the stomach by three long spikes.

“Well that is just not fair,” she said. Staring at the creature whose featureless face stared back. She felt a drop of cold liquid hit her skin, then another, and another. She blinked and the creature changed into a familiar shadowy dark form that bore a white mask. The kind of smiling glare that only a madman could make. The three spikes in her stomach had melded into a singular black mass, like an impossibly still solid shadow unaffected by the light around it.

A flash of light and a crack of thunder and she was flying through the air, landing in a puddle of mud. Her head rang in pain. The large purple hammer landed next to her with a thud, it’s wielder, a muscly brute of a man, picked back up and brought it down to her head.

She flinched but no pain came, the rain stopped and the mud on her dried, cracking away against the heat. She saw the shadowy mass again, but this time it sported her own face. A face that filled her with rage.

“It is your fault!” she screamed, charging the creature when she suddenly landed with a thump.

Her head swam and her battle instincts kicked in, leaping to her feet and punching the closest thing she could see. A smash was followed by broken glass falling to the floor. The framed portrait that Danae had hung in her room once depicted his likeness, now the crumpled canvas fell over her arm.

Zade glanced around. Yep this was definitely her room, no odd things about it. Still a cool blue filled with various books, knick-knacks, and another black flat glass object on top of a desk.

What the hell was Danae thinking telling her to try this ‘sleep’ that was horrible. She made a mental note to never do that again.

Zade stood speechless.

“That’s Action,” said Danae. “You should probably do as they say.”

“It’s a gate?”

As soon as these words left Zade’s mouth the gate administered a strong shock to her thighs. She fell forward onto her face and the gate finally full shut above her. She thought she heard it sigh.

Danae pressed a silver button on the wall next to the metal doors. The ring around it lit up blue for a second, and this time Action’s voice came from inside.

“Doors opening.”

Sure enough, they opened, revealing a small room with reflective metal walls. Danae stepped inside. Was it some sort of empty closet? She slowly got up as the feeling returned to her legs.

She cautiously hurried through the doors lest the same thing happen again.

“Doors closing.”

“Don’t mind them,” said Danae as the doors closed behind her. “They’re just cranky cause they don’t have a physical form.”

Zade was honestly used to curious and unique entities by now,  after all meeting Mother Nature was a life-changing experience, but this still had her speechless.

Inside the room was three rows of more buttons. Danae pressed the one labeled 362. The ring around it glowed blue and the room started shaking.

“What in the...” she said, backing against the wall and preparing to fight her way out.

“Oh right,” Danae said, surprised. “This is an elevator. It goes up, and down. A quick way to different floors of a building.” He dragged out each word in a patronizing manner.

“Oh...” she sighed, somewhat in relief that the room wasn’t about to digest them. She still didn’t like it.

“I notice you are tense Miss Killjoy-McStuckUp, I will play some calming music now,” said Action from some holes in the wall above the buttons.

Soothing jazz with an overlay of bongos began to play. It wasn’t very calming. Wait...

“Why does it keep calling me that?” she asked, offended that Danae hadn’t told them her real name.

“’They’ Zade, why do ‘they’ keep calling you that. Please, Action is a person to. A cranky person with no physical form, but a person none-the-less.”

Zade waited for him to continue and answer her. He didn’t.

He said it was a quick way to go up or down, but it sure took them a while before the red letters above the door read 362. The room slowly stopped shaking with a ding noise. 

“Doors opening.”

They exited into a long hallway that stretched to either side. In front of her were two wooden doors standing a few feet apart, a mirror image of each other.

“Welcome to your new home. The Chaos Penthouse,” said Danae, moving in front of the door on the right.

She raised her brow in confusion. “New home?”

He opened the door and waited for her to enter.

The sight was like heaven to her eyes. The ‘elevator’ was truly some kind of slow portal. The room was wide and spacious, full of natural light from the setting sun that flowed into the two walls to the front and right of her that were full windows. The walls to the left and behind her were sky blue and the furniture was themed black and white. It was as if someone had decorated this room to match her mind.

At the far end was an L-shaped couch next to the window with its back against some stairs that led up to another door. In front of the couch was a low white table and in front of that was a desk with a large black glass object on it.

The side closer to her was a more practical looking area, a large, smooth stomach height table with drawers placed all along the sides. There were also six cupboards along the wall next to her. It was surprisingly homely.

She walked forward towards the window and froze.

Zade turned to her, “How about you?”

“How about me what?” Sera asked back.

“How about you, do you want a realm of your own?” She clarified.

“I can do that?”

She arched her brow. “Of course you can! You have the power to!”

Sera’s face lit up in excitement.

“Danae...” Zade said sternly, fists suddenly clenched. She could tell the change threw him off. “Why are there only two rooms?” She turned her head. Danae had forgone his mortal guise, adopting the dark skeletal form she was used to. Much harder to read the expressions and thoughts of.

“I told you,” he replied coldly, turning away. “The tome brought everything within a small radius. Itself, me, and you.”

Zade’s form shimmered and she was suddenly standing in front of him, catching his eyeless gaze. She held a dagger of pure black energy against his chest. He made no attempt to retaliate.

“Where are they?!” she tried to remain calm, but her eyes quivered.

Danae remained silent.

“Where are Farjack and Sera?!” she was shouting now. It was so rare that she got angry but now she had twice in one day. Both at Danae.

He turned around and as he did his cloak evaporated like smoke that parted to reveal his human form. He walked towards the door.

“Don’t make a fool out of yourself. There’s nothing either of us can do now. Get some rest. Try this neat thing the humans call ‘sleep’.”

And then he was gone, the door shut behind him. She heard the faint voice of Action from the hall and knew he wasn’t going to his room. She didn’t know her way around this infernal building so there was no chance of confronting him again for today.

He was right though, and she knew that. There was nothing she could do to help them now. To her she was just with them, but Danae had spent a year without any of them. If he couldn’t find a way to fix it then no one could. She had to find out what happened to them though, with or without his help.

Curse this amnesia, she thought. Why were magical side effects always amnesia?

She glanced down at the Chaos Corp leaflet in her hand, and then back out of the window, looking down upon the massive city that surrounded a forest.

A forest that had once been Sera’s realm.

Zade found herself in a strange room. She struggled to her feet, leaning on a wooden table for support. The walls were made of a similar kind of wood, but uneven and rounded like the inside of a hollow tree. A layer of monochrome grey hid the colours from her view, even her own white side seemed a dirty grey. Almost like colour itself was being drained from the area.

Behind her was a thick black crack that must have been her way out. An ominous silhouette faded into view on the other side of the room as other objects started to lose their detail. Whatever this place was, it was being effected by the crack in reality and wouldn’t be here for long.

“Hello?” she whispered, but no sound came out. The room was filled with only deafening silence.

Zade put cautiously placed her hand on the persons shoulder and felt a mental connection form, a flair of relief sparked from both minds and the connection cut short. They were still alive, and Zade had to get them out of here.

Glancing back she noticed the crack shimmering, she didn’t have long until they were both doomed. She grabbed both their shoulders and tried to shake them but there was no response and barely any movement. They were stuck in place. If only she could pull them through the crack, but her magic couldn’t help her move bodies.

Zade moved to the other side and began to push, she couldn’t just do nothing. But they were almost immovable and she wasn’t an unstoppable force. They slowly moved across the fading floor inches at a time.

Almost there...

The silhouette touched the exit and the next second went by in a flash, the body suddenly weighed next to nothing, flung into the crack with Zade thrown off by the inertia. Her head slammed into their body and with an echo of metal her senses faded.

“Hello?” a comforting but worried voice called out, grasping the attention of Zade’s unconscious mind. “Are you okay?”

The pain in her head slowly dimmed and her vision returned.

“She will be fine,” shook the numbing voice of death, a snap back to reality.

A beautiful woman floated in the space in front of Zade, watching her closely. She wore a set of chain mail armor reinforced with silver plates and trimmed in a dark blue-gray. She withdrew instantly as she noticed she had come to, seemingly embarrassed.

The woman’s physique was agile and she moved with elegance, but her stature gave her an aura of strength and leadership. She was radiating positive energy that raised Zade’s spirit as though she could do anything.

“Are you okay?” she said with genuine concern. “You took quite a hit.” She tapped the armor on her shoulder and offered her other hand to help Zade get her balance that after a moment of hesitation she took. Their eyes caught and her energy that had been so eagerly sucked away earlier all but returned, their fluorescent dark blue invigorating her.

Judging by her intact body and vibrant green skin she was definitely a lot more living than the others. Perhaps she was related to the humans that Zade retained a distant memory of.

“I am fine,” she said after realizing she was staring. “My name is Zade. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Zade thought she heard Danae sigh.

“Sera,” she happily returned the greeting. “I’m Sera, and the pleasure is mine.”

Sera turned to Danae who was now stood away from them, pretending to assess the situation with the, now massive, crack in space.

“Is he your friend?” she asked with a smile. “He’s rather... unpleasant,” she giggled.

Zade noticed him blatantly glare their way. “Really? I did not notice,” she said with heavy sarcasm.

Danae laughed, confirming his eavesdropping.

“Do not mind him,” she continued, “I think he has never conversed with a stranger before, and besides he got blown up recently and that is enough to make anyone cranky.”

Sera raised an eyebrow quizzically and turned to Danae who had suddenly approached. The momentum of the movement carried through in her knee-length wavy hair that scattered onto Zade’s face via zero gravity. Though she didn’t seem to notice, Zade could tell Danae was holding back a chortle.

“We should probably introduce you to the other member of our eccentric group,” he said, “He’s far worse than the two of us combined.”

“Turns out, absorbing a metric butt-ton of magical energy - oh that you created by the way, thanks for that - into a temporal omnipotent artifact is not the best idea.”

Exactly what she was thinking at the time he did it.

“It made the book itself and everything in a very specific two meter radius go into the future by an average of 363 years. Well, I say average because I arrived 362 years into the future, and you’ve just arrived now. Your hand must have just been inside the radius or something and the book refused to just take your hand. I assumed you would arrive at some time, but part of me thought it might’ve been better if you’d just fallen out of time.”

“Hey!”

Danae coughed. “I mean because of the shit this world has become!”

They walked past a bush of green thorn-lacking roses, and coming up on their right was a leafless tree that bore some kind of purple fruit. What an odd garden. Zade realized there was a catch to what Danae had said.

“We are in the future? And you arrived two years ago?!”

Now Danae faltered slightly, tilting his head. “You’re very slow aren’t you.”

Zade would have rolled her eyes if she had any. Oh right, that’s another detail she skipped out on.

“Why are you a human?” she asked.

Danae turned his back to the building they were walking towards, facing her. “Finally!” he said as if it was obvious. “An important question, however you will now have to wait to find an answer.”

They arrived in front of two large glass doors that lead inside the Chaos Corporation building.  Wait... Chaos Corporation? The tome that Danae had received was called the Book of Chaos. This building could not belong to Danae...

The doors slid open for them and Danae stepped to the side extending his hand towards them. “Welcome to my company.”