The lord of the realm, Samael, sat indifferently on the throne peering over the top of the glasses perched on the end of his nose. Documents rustled in his hands as he looked for the appropriate resume and then shuffled them back into place. “Let’s see…you’ve been working in portal maintenance for the last fifteen years and you’ve included a letter of recommendation from your supervisor. Very good.” 

Kasper bobbed his head in appreciation of the praise while Samael read on about his tour in the legion and various other accomplishments. He could feel a nervous flush creeping up his neck as he knelt before the dias, advisors and other prospective candidates spread throughout the room behind him. 

Samael handed the resume to a secretary. “Congratulations, Mr. Summers. I will be appointing you to lead Reconnaissance Team Omega. You’ll report to General Lycus.” 

Kasper bowed deeply as he rose to his feet. There was a polite applause from the rest of the room as he left the great hall, smiling at his good fortune. Reconnaissance teams had not been sent through the portal for a little over a century, not since the Pitchmoore incident. It was an honor for him to be leading one of these new teams. 

Outside of the great hall, Kasper let himself smile. The hallways of the palace were mostly empty and the thud of his boots on the tiled floors became his marching beat as he strode to the front hall where he met with another secretary and received his official orders. Outside, he nodded to the guards that let him pass through the front gate and into the bustling streets of Elysia. 

Lord Samael kept the palace fashioned like a castle from a fantasy, but everything outside the palace gates was made up of steel, diesel, and carbon. Kasper headed down the street and boarded a shuttle to the Jericho district on the east side of Elysia. As the shuttle came to a stop Kasper followed the other commuters onto the platform where he boarded a new shuttle to the portal compound where he had spent the last fifteen years as a maintenance worker. 

It felt like he was entering the building for the first time all over again with the credentials of his promotion in hand. Security personnel checked his credentials and sent Kasper through the series of decontaminants and detectors that led into the compound. In the main lobby, he took an elevator to the eighth floor where a series of offices were labeled with the names of important supervisors and officers. 

He found the door labeled “General Lycus” and knocked. A gruff voice invited him inside and there was the aged general sitting at his desk with a hand outstretched for Kaspers credential paperwork. The wrinkled expression never changed as he finished reading, congratulated Kasper, and produced a folder out of his desk drawer to hand to him. Kasper read the first page. Reconnaissance Team Omega, Portal Destination: Onyxdrift. Prior Contact: None.