Playing By the Rules
By: Embers of Inspiration
What was it with these initiation ceremonies? Once a year all of the gatekeepers would gather together to welcome the newest gatekeepers into their strange, little community.
It was almost as though the Man In Charge didn't know that they were busy with other things. Like, oh say, actually gatekeeping for instance. Monban Piero was especially annoyed, because he was many a millennia his colleagues' senior and he had a very important portal to keep watch over.
He was the revered Dimensional Gatekeeper. He held the keys to all of the different worlds that existed in the universe.
Automatically he tuned out the speech. One didn't need to listen to something they'd already memorized word-for-word. He wondered why he even bothered to show at the ceremony anymore. It was such a waste of time. It wasn't as though any of the gatekeepers spent their days socializing. No one wanted to be introduced to someone whose name they had already forgotten a whole five minutes before having heard it. It was bothersome, and pointless.
He looked to his left, casually glancing over those that he knew. There was the Time Gatekeeper, she looked just as bored as he felt. After all, a person made of time wasn't one who enjoyed wasting it, even if she could go back and relieve moments over and over if she so chose.
There was the Universe Gatekeeper. He was the oldest of all of them and the most respected. He guarded the portal to parallel universes and he was excellent at his job. He, at least, looked like he was paying attention, but one could never be too sure. He could be dreaming about clouds for all anyone knew. He too, had memorized the welcome speech long ago.
Monban Piero stifled a yawn when the speech turned to rules. There were a set of rules each guardian had to follow. The rules varied depending on which guardian you were dealing with but they all revolved around the same general idea: cheating wasn't allowed.
The Dimensional Gatekeeper, for instance, was supposed to use a die to determine how many people got to go through the portal every time someone managed to summon him. The boss wanted to leave to leave it all up to Fate. There was less of a chance of the mortals complaining about the unfairness of it all, which apparently really got on his nerves.
The Dimensional Gatekeeper knew Fate personally however, and thought that it wasn't very fair for him to not be in complete control of his portal. Fate was pretty indifferent herself, she could care less how many mortals went through the portal and off-set the balance. The balance was a tricky thing, and he wasn't sure the boss quite understood how important it was. If too many people from one world came over to another world, the balance would be upset and catastrophe would ensue.
For the first three-thousand years of his job, he followed the rules. He used his die faithfully to determine how many people could pass through the portal, regardless of the negative effects he could feel taking hold on the different worlds. When one world almost accidentally combusted, the Dimensional Gatekeeper decided that he had just about had enough. He went behind the back of the Man In Charge and informed Fate that she wouldn't have a say in his gatekeeping anymore.
Naturally, Fate simply shrugged and returned to her endless weaving. She wouldn't tell anyone, that much he was sure of.
Then he went and fashioned himself a set of six of weighted dice. From now on, he controlled his gate. He kept track of the number of mortals that passed through from one world and back again. There weren't going to be any combusting worlds on his watch thank-you.
Monban Piero felt a tug at the side of his conscious that informed him that he was being summoned again. He allowed a slight grin slip onto his face. Finally, a reason to leave the ceremony!
He let himself go, fading away into nothing amongst the crowd. He was certain that he wouldn't be missed. It wasn't as though they were handing out awards or anything.
The Dimensional Gatekeeper materialized before several familiar faces. There was that blonde kid he had transported to this world some time ago. Then there was the other kid who had called upon him to summon the blond one from his world.
There was the kid's father who had also crossed over to be here, along with his summoner too. What a coincidence. It was almost like a reunion. In fact, the Gatekeeper might have called it that if he were sentimental in that way.
This time the blond kid had called him up with his ÄRM. Clever. He must have a lot of magic power in order to be able to do that. He was hopping that both he and his father could go home.
Why not? Monban Piero thought. It would help him keep the balance, making his job easier. He wished all mortals would be as considerate as these two. Most of them refused to return to where they belonged in the first place.
He conjured up his die that was weighted for the 'two' and tossed it. He watched with amusement as anxiety built in the blond kid and his father before the die settled down, remembering that there was once a time he would have felt the exact same way.
The Dimensional Gatekeeper had always gambled with the end result, with a die in his hand and a manic smile on his face. Then he had discovered a way to tweak the rules and bend Chance to his own will. He had always been the sort of man who preferred to make his own fortune anyway.