I had just finished brewing my coffee. That morning I was very thoughtful. The thoughts going through my head had made the time go fast. I had just realized I had been getting late for work before I rushed to grab my coat. I kissed my wife, took the mug with the fresh black coffee I had made. I did not even have time to drink it so I decided to take it outside with me. I quickly shut the door and sallied out to work.
The year was 1972. It was a gloomy morning. The streets were humid. The sun was hiding, or was concealed by the dark shroud of the clouds, the warmth had already faded. The autumn had just begun, defining the everyday routine of work and nothingness, drawing the harsh cold winter near as the time was passing by with the speed of sound. Was this weather a reflection to my mood, or was my mood a reflection to the dark autumn? No, it was something completely different. As the strong smell of the freshly brewed coffee was coming out of the mug and tickling my nose, I started sipping from it more and more occasionally. Thus my drowsiness faded away and suddenly the anxiety embraced me: it was the thought of the previous day at work that was disturbing me. Just as my shift had ended, my colleague told me that we needed to speak the following day. As my feet were drawing closer to the building I worked at, my mind could not make peace with the thought: "Why would he want to speak to me the following day and not just tell me right away what was going on? Did I do something wrong, or worse: was I getting fired? Oh, no! It could not be that. I'm a good employee...or what if I've really messed something up or if they thought I had told someone about where I worked at?"
The anxiety was intensifying every minute as I was walking towards my workplace but the time was running so fast that I had almost reached the place. I did not want to go inside, I did not want to know what was going to happen. It is a place, an agency, where we investigate criminals, potential threats, but I do work in a special department. Department called "Project SR" where we investigate another planet, or should I call it a realm. This realm possesses unique properties: there are many supernatural creatures, and human that live there can possess supernatural powers. Yes, all of this is real and I am not fantasizing - magic exists in that place called "The Sanctified Realm". All those wizads, giants, super noble knights exist, but it is a secret. All of the us, who work in that department, are threatened with our lives because nobody should ever learn about the existence of that realm. "Who knows, my life might be threatened too," I was thinking though I really loved my job. I was well-paid. My wife did not have to work, this job was making the living for my whole family and yet we were considered rich. Besides, I loved what I was doing. This realm was very interesting to investigate, but we had already had inside people, it was a job I had not even dreamed of when I was a child. There is a city in that realm. That city and it's surroundings are ruled by a king, usually. Principally, the king has a council to get advises from, and we have always had a lot of influence on that council. But behind everything there was a reason: what did we want from that realm? No, we did not want to invite people from there and show us magic or threaten our world. We only wanted what every greedy person wants: power, influence and control. We did have all three of them upon the king, the council and the city. That was enough to feed our greedy souls and I do confess it - the agency is and has always been intruding in that realm even though it has never been necessary for it's citizens.
I got inside the building, made my way to The Secret Corridors as we called them, and entered the huge office we all, from Project SR worked at. My heartbeat increased, like of a mouse. I was expecting to hear my name. The room was filled with chatter, and that was all I could hear, or maybe that was all I wanted to hear. While mindlessly looking around, all I could see was my busy colleagues making discussions and not paying attention to anything else...
"Jake," an emphatic voice impaled the noises I was hearing and reached my ears, I did a slight tremor and turned around.
"W-what? " I returned without confidence.
"Remember when we talked yesterday about something I needed to show you? It's this letter, stamped with blood," he smirked and gently handed a letter to me.
"So I didn't do anything wrong? " The words came out of my mouth.
"Sorry, what?" My colleague asked me with confusion.
"Oh-uh, Nevermind."
I felt relieved and excited at the same time. Who would send us a letter from the realm, stamped with blood with such importance? I looked at it and on the back it was written with small letters: " pass to Jake ".
"It is for you. I don't know by whom it is. The post guy who travels across the realms gave it to me but he was speechless," my colleague added.
We have a post guy. He travels to the "SR" to get news, or to give an order to the Council, and then goes back to us, to give us news. This time he was speechless, his eyes shook. All he had was that letter, no words, not a single note. I tore off the blood stamp and opened it carefully. Coincidentally, my eyes glanced at the last words of the paper: "Worst regards, Dahar," since I never usually see the sender before I read a letter...I could not believe that! It was Dahar sending the mail! He had never sent any letters to us before. I had been to the realm only once and met him there, that was how he had known me. But he had always known about our influence and greed, he always despised our agency and even wanted to destroy it, along with The Council of the king.
"Attention dear colleagues, this letter is from Dahar. It's his first letter to us so let's see what he wants, I am going to read it loudly," I said with a clear and confident tone.
The whole room filled silence then whispers started: "Why would Dahar send us a letter, he's untrustworthy and deceiving..."
"Hey, Jake. Things here are more complicated than you could ever imagine. Valayr, First Liueutenant of the king and warrior in chief, united with Maraya, the king's daughter. The inlove couple decided to take The King down - abdication, because their love was kind of forbidden. Also, Valayr had some issues with the king's democracy. So they didn't show mercy to the king and seized him. Well Maraya did not want to kill him - she just wanted to drag him inside some sewers and let him party with the rats though Valayr had an outbreak. He murdered Maraya's father and captured everyone who could not escape from the city, murdered a lot, enslaved the rest. The king's guard could not stop him. Well I confess, I might have helped him a bit. I did not like the king either but that aside, I did try to stop him when I saw the mass murder business with the innocents. I'm sorry to say he overpowered me. I managed to hide some of the citizens. Your last post guy did not make it, he teleported right into the massacre and was got, poor guy. I secured this one and sent him back with my letter. I'm running out of ink so I am going to send another letter later."
As always,
with worst regards,
Dahar"
After my lips pronounced his name everybody started to panic. Some were saying that he had most probably been lying, trying to manipulate us, but then the post guy confirmed it had all been true.
