A Conquers guide to the House and Immediate Environs
This story will focus on an original character called William, for those familiar with the book Arthur will also be a part of the story.
For those unfamiliar with the story need not fear for I shall endeavor to explain the story such that new readers can follow along.
The Will regarded the document in front of it carefully 'this boy would be perfect for the heir' the Will thought.
William, 16 years of age, only living family was an old great aunt, due to drown Monday 1st of September 23:48 world time for Earth, 2003. one of the descendants of the Architect.
All the will needed to do was convince Mister Monday to hand over his Key before it became Tuesday, once done William would have a week to learn his new purpose before he needed to take on Monday.
19:46 Local Time
William lent far over the railing, his aunt Arlette had taken him from his home in England to a cruise of the Carribean, they had just left Florida and he wanted some fresh air after his filling dinner and to stave off the seasickness from the constant rocking of the ship.
Suddenly the railing gave way and he found himself falling off the ship and into the sea far below, the impact with the water forced all the air out of his lungs and the cold shocked him for a few moments.
The pressure that began building in his lungs snapped him out of his shock and he frantically began swimming to the surface, when he surfaced he took several grateful gulps of oxygen before he was pushed back under water by wave, in his shock he inhaled the water and began thrashing in the water.
Just as he thought he was about to drown the water around him seemed to still and he saw two men approaching him, at first he thought they were standing on a boat but then he saw they were walking on top of the water.
He wondered if he had already died and this was some sort of afterlife but he could still feel the water in his lungs. As the men got closer he noticed he had been incorrect, only one of the men was walking on the water, the other was being pushed in what looked like a large pram.
"Tell me why we are here again, Sneezer?" the man in the pram asked
"Because, sir, you need to give him the key so that when he dies you can reclaim the keys and fulfill your duty, then you can have another ten thousand years without trouble." The second man, Sneezer said.
"Well if you're sure it will work, not sure what all the rush is about really… I assume this is the heir" the first man said, peering over his pram and down at William who was barely keeping above water
"Yes sir, the mortal known as William."
"Well boy, do you not bow before your superiors? I am Mister Monday you know." Monday said proudly, his statement lost some of its affect as he yawned half way through his introduction
"Please help me" William begged just as yet another wave pulled him under the water, just as quickly as he was sent down Sneezer had reached down and pulled him back to the surface.
"I suppose I'd better get on with it, don't like all this water. Reminds me too much of Wednesday's realm" Monday said sulkily
Monday reached into one of his sleeves and withdrew a small metal spike, he began chanting but between how quickly he was speaking and the constant waves that kept smashing into William he had no chance of hearing him, when Monday finished chanting with a loud "Let the will be done!" he thrust out with the spike, it flew towards William and he instinctively held his hand up to stop it hitting him.
He felt a slick prick on his palm and noticed the waves were pushing on less noticeably, he was breathing easier too.
"And the other" Sneezer said urgently "He has to have it all"
Rather than respond Monday peered intently at William
"Sir you must give him all of it!" Sneezer said worriedly
"With the entire Key he might survive… Perhaps I have not given this idea enough thought…"
Quicker than William could process Sneezer flew towards Monday and began grappling for something within his other sleeve, Monday quickly responded and gained the upper hand, it seemed despite his fragile appearance he was still stronger than his servant.
Suddenly a bright light surrounded the pair, Sneezer seemed to know what it was for he threw something at William just before they both vanished from sight. Unknown to William it had just turned 00:00 GMT.
Someone onboard the ship must have seen the light for a spot light had been fixed upon him and a lifeboat seemed to be deploying. William noticed something floating near him, he reached out for it hoping he could use it to float but was disappointed to see it was just a book, a drop of blood from his palm fell onto the book and William watched stunned as it seemed to be absorbed into the book.
The lifeboat quickly reached him and he was pulled onboard, a warm blanket was wrapped around him and his exhaustion quickly caught up with him.
The next morning the ship's officer had asked him some questions and after he said the railing gave out under him and he hadn't deliberately jumped off they had apologised and told him the railing shouldn't have given out.
William had spent the rest of the Tuesday in his cabin, he had been surprised to see a book and what looked like the minute hand of a clock lying on his desk, when he looked at them closely he realised they were what had been given to him the night before by Monday and Sneezer.
He absently toyed with the minute hand and opened the book, he was shocked when it exploded open and grew to almost four times its original size, before William's eyes words began being written on the page
'Greetings great Heir to the Architect, I am 'The Compleat Atlas of the House and Immediate Environs', how may I assist you?'
William hesitantly picked up a pen and began writing in the book
"Hello, I'm William, what do you mean the heir of the architect? Who is the architect and how can I be his heir?"
For a moment nothing happened but then the page seemed to wipe itself clean and new words began appearing, as if they were being written by hand
'The Architect is the creator of everything, She made the House and then She made the Secondary realms, after the realms were complete she expanded the House so that it could study and record the Realms. You are her heir as somewhere in your lineage her power would have been introduced into your blood line, this allows you to safely wield the Keys she made to control the House.'
"Okay, what is the House and what are the Keys? I assume the Secondary Realm is Earth"
'The House is the epicentre of the universe and has no fixed bearing, it borders Nothing and has seven demesne: the Lower House, the Far Reaches, the Border Sea, the Great Maze, the Middle House, the Upper House and the Incomparable Gardens. Each demesne serves a purpose within the House, such as the Far Reaches which produces objects using Nothing.
'Each demesne is controlled by a trustee of the Architect, known as the Morrow Days: Mister Monday controls the Lower House, Grim Tuesday the Far Reaches, Duchess Wednesday the Border Sea, Sir Thursday the Great Maze, Lady Friday the Middle House, Lady Saturday the Upper House and Lord Sunday the Incomparable Gardens.
'Each Key controls one demesnes, except the seventh Key which is paramount, you are currently holding half of the First Key within your other hand, referred to as the Minute Key. Each Key can be split in twain, the lesser of the halves being the Minute Key, while the greater being the Hour Key, however only Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday keep their Keys in their split form. The Morrow Days were trusted to run their demesnes after the Architect's departure until such time as an heir appears to take over control of the House.
'The planet you call Earth exists within the Secondary Realms but the Realms contain everything that is not the House, including almost 100 Billion solar systems. The House was made directly by the Architect or her servants and is thus artificial, the seed for the Secondary Realms was shaped by the Architect but the universe that exploded from said seed happened without the Architect's involvement, making it natural.'
William looked down at the minute hand he hadn't realised he was still holding, he would never have thought it was important.
"What can my Key do?"
'The Keys are capable of doing anything their user is capable of imagining, however the more demanding the command the higher the price on the user, for example producing light has no obvious demand and so the price on the user is negligible, commanding the Key to destroy the House would go against the Architect's intention and thus the price would destroy the user long before any damage begins to show.
'Where the key is used also matters, if a Key is used outside of its demesnes within the House then the price increases and the native Key will always be of greater power, within the Secondary Realms the Keys are equal. As you only possess the Minute Key both the First Hour Key and the other six Keys will be capable of overpowering any command you give should you be discovered.'
Looking at his Key he thought 'Light' and the Key instantly began glowing, so bright William had to look away and quickly thought 'less light, much less light', the glow faded and when he looked back the Key was not only barely giving off any light but had also dimmed all the lights in the room.
"How do I avoid being discovered?"
'Your Key can be used to belay mortals and lower denizens seeing or detecting you however any denizen trained in House sorcery or a Morrow Days using their own Keys will be able to detect such sorcery, to avoid magical detection steps can be taken to avoid passive attention but the easiest option to avoid detection is have nothing to detect. As the master of the Key you can send it into the void where it can then be retrieved later by yourself, while it is stored with the Void you will appear to just be another mortal which would thus make you no great object of interest.'
Updates for this story will be under no fixed schedule but I will try to get out a chapter a month. The majority of my attention will be on my story 'Dying Light' with a tiny bit focused on other story ideas.
I am hoping this story will be unique, Arthur Penhaligon will also be an important part of the story despite not being the main character.