[Bonus Novel] The Gateway to Eveon

Hey peeps!

This is the first novel I ever wrote. A 250k word epic that is basically a portal fantasy.

An entire high school gets transported from Earth to a magical world known as Eveon (almost the same one I used in the Nexus Games, not quite). 

The math teacher, the PE teacher, and a high school girl all get wrapped up in a gigantic war between nations. The math teacher becomes a mercenary, the PE teacher gets confused for long-lost royalty, and the girl may or may not get caught up with assassins...

I wrote two sequels of equal length.

If you all want more to read, I'll post the prologue here (I labeled it "chapter 0") and I'll post the rest as PDF (since the novel is so very long, and parts of it get rather dark - probably too dark for Patreon? They seem to have a problem with me posting certain words) >.>

Hopefully you enjoy (or at least enjoy the cool artwork!)

Shami

Chapter 0

Conspiracy to Commit Regicide

Meg reclined in his chair, watching the downpour wash over his windows. Lighting up a stick of hane, he took a drag and wondered about the long-term repercussions of tonight’s meeting. The room was dark save his now lit stick of hane and the one ever-glowing lamp, a setting that catered to his guest’s preferences.

As if thinking about him stirred the man into existence, a shadow crept from under the solid wooden door that led into his office. It slid across the floor and settled into the corner of the room where it was the darkest and only then, where Meg couldn’t see it clearly, did it form into the nightmare creature that had arrived to negotiate. Stepping from the shadows of the room came the infamous Councilor Zero.

Although Meg had met this Immortal on a few occasions in the past, tonight was the first time he had been alone with him. He was a scary specimen, with black scales that shown like fragments of an obsidian mirror running along his clawed hands and gargoyle-like feet. His tail, which was long and flat like a centipede’s body, ended in a point with solid black armor that Meg knew had been made from the shadows themselves.

Wings, similar to those of a raven, were held close to his body, but the stench of death and decay radiated strongly enough that Meg could feel it from where he sat. The rest of his body, save his head, was covered in the shadow plate armor that seemed to draw strength from the darkness in the room. Around his neck sat an iron chain necklace that the untrained eye might pass over as mere decoration, but which Meg knew to be a very powerful artifact, one of a pair otherwise unique to the world. Councilor Zero shifted his eyes from the door to Meg but remained still. His red eyes blatantly gave away his undead nature, but anyone with decent perception could tell the man never took a single breath and that his skin was pale and bloodless.

Resting on his armor, over where any mortal man’s beating heart could be found, was a large design of a sword standing erect on its point. In front of the sword was the letter ‘M’ with lines of gold, black and silver running through it.

“Megadonis,” Councilor Zero gave a slight tilt of the head in a gesture of formal acknowledgment.

“Just Meg,” and with an exhale of smoke he added, “Megadonis is for the paperwork.”

“Where’s the boy?” the Rezrah warlord asked with the authority only the master of assassins could bring.

Meg gave a slight chuckle as he took another deep drag on his stick of hane. He laughed at the thought of referring to a man nearly 600 years old as ‘the boy’, suspecting that with his incredible power and age, Councilor Zero also thought of Meg himself as ‘the boy’. Meg knew this to be a false sense of superiority on Zero’s part; he had already beaten this monster’s former master once, and he was hardly about to be defeated here, even in the unlikely event that he had misjudged Zero’s intentions. Every part of the room they were in was simply another strand in a powerful web of rituals, making this location one of the deadliest areas in the world. It was no matter that in another time and place the monster that was Councilor Zero could turn his own skinny, six-foot, bandaged frame into dog meat in mere seconds; that was ‘another place’, and this was here.

Meg leisurely took yet another puff from his hane. “He’s nearly here.”

Mere moments after this declaration there came a sound from the door. His second guest, the man responsible for this meeting, stepped into the dark office. Unlike Meg, who was dressed in comfortable lay about clothing fitting to that of any middle-class businessman, Orin’Sear was resplendent in robes of gold, silk and silver that covered his body from his neck to his toes, leaving only his left shoulder exposed. A tattoo of a two-headed serpent with bat-like wings adorned this area. In front of the serpent rested the letter ‘M’, colored in tones of gray, pink and tan. The robes were beautiful and detailed with the design of his tattoo, befitting any future leader of the Grand House of Psi but horribly out of place in the darkness of this hostile territory. Orin’Sear’s long golden hair was perfectly straight and fell down to his elbows. Uncharacteristically, he appeared flustered. Like any member of the Sandolphan race, Orin’Sear was thin, fragile and beautiful, but Meg knew better. He was considered by many of his peers to be the ‘Master of Illusions’ with magic powerful enough to fool even the most perceptive of Immortals and a force to be reckoned with no matter how dire his situation might seem.

“You best not have disappointed us,” whispered the shadows from around Councilor Zero’s feet with voices unnatural and menacing.

Straightening himself, and losing any signs of hesitation, Orin’Sear nodded, “I brought the information. I know all three of his Immortalities.” Withdrawing a small stack of papers from his robe, he held them out for someone to take.

A shadow from Councilor Zero snaked its way across the room with lightning speed to retrieve the parchment. Councilor Zero, oblivious to the others in the room, could barely contain his enthusiasm as he began reading through the reports.

“This information didn’t come cheap,” Orin’Sear commented gravely. “Both a son and a daughter died bringing me the information on the last Immortality. I’m sure he will soon come to the realization they were not involved by mere coincidence.”

“You can make more!” Councilor Zero hissed from beneath his breath, “They served a much greater purpose…”

Meg inhaled and rested his feet on his desk top. “I’m impressed,” he said earnestly. “I figured there was a greater chance of you failing.”

Orin’Sear’s dark blue eyes were filled with hate as he watched Councilor Zero finish with the reports. “Well?” he asked with impatience. “Is that enough?”

With barely suppressed rage Councilor Zero unsheathed his claws and lashed out with masterful precision. His claws caught the upper part of Orin’Sear’s arm and were forced through his skin along his neck, into his left eye and finally across his nose before Councilor Zero withdrew to the darkness. It had been only a mere second of movement but the damage was extensive and Orin’Sear was knocked to the opposite wall by the blow.

“You’re not an Immortal yet, boy!” Councilor Zero growled from the darkness, “Watch your tongue or there might be two Sandolphans dying this fortnight.”

Meg was startled by the fact that Councilor Zero had violated the meeting truce, but given that it wasn’t an attack on himself, and was obviously designed to be non-fatal, he decided to be amused rather than alarmed. After all, he didn’t much care for the Sandolphan either.

Meg caught a glimpse of Orin’Sear healing what damage he could, given the powerfully entropic nature of the attack, but it was quickly concealed by illusion and Orin’Sear turned to them apparently undamaged. Amusingly, even his clothing appeared undamaged and unsoiled, causing Meg to again chuckle quietly to himself, diverted even in this tense situation by the vanities of the world.

“Well, gentlemen, it appears we have all the pieces to our puzzle in place. All we have left is for Orin’Sear to gain access to the Grand Amora.” Meg snuffed out the last of his hane and immediately reached for another. The shadows around Councilor Zero stirred in agitation and for a brief second Meg suspected another lashing out at Orin’Sear.

“Those arrangements have already been made.” Orin’Sear quickly added, “What about his artifact? I can’t follow through with our plan unless I have it after he falls.”

“Ungrateful wretch…” The shadows hissed in their unholy voices, “Who do you think we are?!”

“You will have your trinket, boy, but I will be the one to face him in the end.” Councilor Zero stretched his black-feathered wings, nearly touching walls on opposite sides of the room.

With a quick puff of his hane Meg reclined further in his chair. With the way this song and dance was playing out he would barely have to lift a finger for one of his greatest adversaries to fall. It seemed ironic that the Sandolphan tyrant would fall victim to the same tactics that made his own race so very infamous.

“My familiar has shown me... Ygg’Exos will not die quietly.” Orin’Sear gave Councilor Zero a haunted look, “He will come back to hunt us if we don’t execute this perfectly. Don’t let your fool Rezrah pride blind you to his power!”

“Gentlemen,” Meg held up his hand as the shadows began to violently stir throughout the room, “as much as I would love to watch you two have a little spat, I would remind you that we have a time table to maintain. All the pieces are set and I grow tired of this conversation. I say we put things in motion before this opportunity slips past us all, hm?”

Thunder and lightning cracked outside of the window as shadows played across the walls in unnatural ways. With hatred in his eyes Councilor Zero lashed his tail about in anger before commenting, “I want him dead. I will be the one that pulls his still beating heart from his chest to mount on my wall and I will personally silence anyone who ever mutters the name Ygg’Exos Vain…”