The Hade Chronicles: Into the Shadows

Prologue

    The clatter of footsteps resounded in the bright, vast hallway. The servant hurried to where he had been summoned, deep in the heart of the underground building. In his trembling hands, he held a small, charred parchment. With it, he found his way to the room. He halted to a stop when he once again saw the intimidating entrance.

  The entrance leading into the room was big, and grand. Two doors stood firmly in place in front of him. They were painted white, and made of the finest oak wood. The doors were huge, at least eight feet tall. Each door was a whole yard wide, at the least. The doorknobs were made of the finest brass. The locks, only on the inside, were big and could not be broken by any source of strength. He tried the doorknob. As his hands ran over the smooth metal, he discovered it was unlocked. Turning the knob, he gently pushed open the door.

  The room was dark. Dark like the deepest black of the night, save for the single shaft of moonlight filtering through the roof, illuminating a table in the middle of the room. It was a huge room, for just one person, that is. The floor was flat and level, and was made of fine, polished white marble. It was rectangular in shape, but as the walls ascended, they curved inwards slightly. The windowless walls were made of soundproof concrete. The roof was a huge dome made of glass, and in the middle there hung a crystal chandelier. The room itself, from the floor to the center of the dome roof, was extremely tall. From one wall to the opposite wall, it was about half that distance long. The walls were painted dark red and black. 

  From the door, he could see that a bed sat in the far left corner. It was fancy, but littered all the same. The bed was big, just slightly bigger than an average bed. On the furniture, all of the blankets were a shade of dark red, and the top blanket had a scene of war sewn on top of it. The bed stood high up off the ground, and the legs were painted black. The matress was comfortable and soft. At the head of the bed, there was a big wooden headboard. It was painted black, and had a pattern that showed different weapons such as swords, guns, and other weapons of mass destruction. The top of the bed was littered with swords and axes, and underneath were different bottles of champagne. Some bottles were empty, some were still half full. Dust was settling on each of them.

  Opposite the bed, on the other side of the room, there was a desk with a coat rack next to it. The coat rack consisted of many large, heavy coats. The desk was littered with papers, one particular paper had written in big letters at the top of it, 'The Death Will of Lord Terrence.' The drawers were organized, and stacked very neatly. The chair had obviously not been sat on for many a month. The seat looked hard and stiff.

  In the middle of the room, there was a table. Not like a classic wooden desk, it was extremely guady in many differing ways. It was called a Karmandir Table. There were only two of them in the world. It stood upon one central cylinder shaped leg which was solid grey metal. On top of the central leg there was a circular platform, on top of which stood a grey dome. The table was made of metal, and contained wires upon wires.  In the middle of the dome, going from one side to the other, there was a slit. It was a long thin opening where a huge screen could be produced. Across the rest of the table, there was spread buttons and levers of all sorts.

  He shoved the parchment into his small pocket, and saw a figure standing beside the table. He rushed to the table, where his master was waiting. The master pointed to a chair, and the servant hurriedly sat in it. His master stood, ignoring the other chair available. The master towered over him, and he shrunk into his seat.

   “How could you fail me?!” his master asked.

  “S- Sorry m'lord." he stammered, "Our warriors were simply not good enough to m- match up with the victims.”

  “Don't give me excuses you little twit! We must stay on schedule you fool! Do you not remember why?”

  “No, m'lord. Sorry m'lord.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you why you ignorant brat! Because if we don’t strike soon enough, those little Hade brats will grow and become trained!" His lord jammed its finger into his trembling chest, "And if you fail me again, then I will personally strangle you!”

  “Y- Yes m'lord! Um, just asking, but how do you know so much about the p- plans of the Hade 'brats' an- anyway?”

  “Because, you idiot, I have a spy among them.”

  “V- Very good m'lord. Who i- is it? The spy, I m- mean."

  “Me, you unknowing fool." the master said, sitting down in the other chair, "I have seen and heard all of their plans. They can't even eat dinner without me knowing about it.”

 “You have, m'lord?”

  “Yes! I have! And, you are beginning to annoy me!”

  “Well, what am I s- supposed to do this time? I mean, for the b- battle.”

  "Well, first I must tell you what their plans are, dolt! They are secretly going on a spy mission, but they are telling their kids that they are going on vacation. For safety reasons of course. If you even knew that much! So, it is the perfect time to strike again! And hopefully, actually succeed in capturing them! Unlike last time.”

  "Thank you, m'lord. How shall I d- direct our warriors into b- battle?"

  His master pulled a lever, and the screen slid out of the opening in the table. It was glowing blue. Pointing at it, his master instructed, “Here is what you are to do…”