THE KEEPER'S BAR

It seemed to resemble a parlour of some sort, large enough to be called a meeting hall but possessing certain accessories that made it look otherwise. First of all, there was a round bar in the middle of the hall, made up of a glistening black wood that seemed to be carved by the most skillful craftsman of all. There were no shelves for the drinks, only beautifully crafted stools arranged around the bar, standing before the counter where the bartender attends to a customer.

Then not so far on the eastside of the bar were diner booths where people ate foods that seemed to materialise out of thin air, I had to look closer to notice the small device in the middle of the table that produced the food they were ordering. On the southside of the bar was a round martial arts rink, taking up a space large enough to fit a small bungalow. It had a small white ring similar to those outside the building, hovering four metres over the middle of the rink.

Meanwhile, on the westside of the bar was a lounge of some sort. It had a mixture of black couches, designed oddly like wide thrones and these couches were placed amongst coffee tables, the kind you find at expensive coffee shops were only the rich go. While on the north was a giant statue similar to those I saw at the entrance, it had books resting in its legs like a shelf of some sort. There were no pillars and the keeper seemed to have a 360 view of everything going on in the bar.

"Well if it isn't the False Guardian," the man at the bar smiled as he watched us take a seat at the counter. His voice was coarsed, a mixture of a sore throat and age, he looked as tall as a five foot person and his hair and beard were short and grey. "I see you brought a friend."

"Yes," he replied knocking the counter, "this is my son, Ezra, the se—"

"Second Guardian," a voice interrupted from behind us.

Recognizing the voice, Ezekiel exhaled as we turned back to take a look at the man who dared interrupt him. It wasn't a man at all, but a woman, an alien woman with a black tattoo of a dagger plastered on her face from the right side of her forehead down through her right eye, to her cheek. Her skin was purely white and her hair appeared to be flickering green fire, she dressed like a jedi with a strange zig zag glowing sword by her side and her cloak was pitch black. Taking a seat next to me, she stretched out her hand to touch my hair.

"Oi, get your hands off my son Ratchina."

As I pushed my head backwards to avoid the touch, I noticed the dragon tattoo wrapped on her arm. It was green, she was a knight of the seventh guardian.

She chuckled, retracting her arm. "Three years of not seeing a guardian in the Keeper's bar, and the first one we get to see, is unfortunately the second Guardian."

She spat in the floor, then she took a seat and knocked on the counter.

"Everyone is welcome here, Ratchina," the man at the bar said. "After all, every Guild in this Arena was built by the old Guardians."

"I do not need a lecture from you Zeno," she replied looking at him. "What I need is a bottle of Saruno."

"Hmm, what are we celebrating tonight?" Zeno asked as he pulled out a three glasses and two bottles from under the counter.

The bottles resembled black wineskins bottles. One had a red skull on it and the other, which he was serving us, had a picture of a hand raising up a glass. The moment he poured out the drinks for us, the Arena screen appeared and the power stones enlarged right in the middle and then the number was reduced by a removal of two power stones. Apparently that was the payment for the drink we were about to take in and it came from Ezekiel's pockets. Ratchina, though, got fifty power stones shaved off hers.

"Leave the bottle," she said. "I'm going all out tonight."

Zeno laughed as we watched her gulp down the glass that had been poured for her. Then he turned his focus to us.

"So False Guardian," he said. "Are you going to complete your introduction or what?"

Ezekiel exhaled. "Right, right. Zeno, this is Ezra, my son, who turned out to be the second Guardian. Ezra, this is Zeno, Keeper of the Guild. His authority is absolute in here, as long as you're under the roof of Xaion."

"It's a honour to meet you Ezra, second Guardian of the Author." He bowed his head gracefully with a smile.

"More like worst Guardian of the Author," Ratchina said. She had already taken her fifth glass of the Saruno and it was obvious that the alcohol had gotten to her, she laid on the counter with one of her arms stretched out.

"That's enough Ratchina," Ezekiel replied.

"I remember it vividly," she said, almost resembling a sobered up person. "The day Eldenstar came to our planet through that portal. He spared no one, not even the plants. Abilities we had no counter for, lazers shooting from his head, children screaming, women being defiled and slaughtered and men being scorched alive. I still have nightmares about it. If it wasn't for the other Gaurdians coming to our rescue, we all would have been obliterated, and nothing but a mere memory."

The Keeper exhaled, taking the bottle from her, and Ezekiel sighed, taking another sip of his drink. But I, I was having a feeling I hadn't felt in a while, a feeling of fear mixed with rage. The moment my ears picked up the name Eldenstar, my skin crawled and my mind went blank for some short seconds, giving me a flashback of a blurry face grinning maliciously, and in his hand was the head of a woman, whose face was also blurry.

"Who," I said, catching their attention. "Who the hell is Eldenstar?"

I turned my face towards Ratchina, staring at her with wide demanding eyes.

"Those eyes," she said, sitting up. "I've seen those eyes before. A mixture of fear and rage, an ominous feeling that something bad is about to happen and you have very little say in it."

"Eldenstar," Ezekiel said. "Was the previous second Guardian of the Author. They called him the Terror of the Systems."

Ratchina stood up, arranging her cloak. She appeared to have completely sobered up.

"You have innocence in your eyes Guardian," she said. "Although the crimes of the father should not be put on the shoulders of the son, I cannot easily forgive your predecessor. I will only leave you with one piece of advice— 'NEVER GIVE INTO THE RAGE'. The moment you do, there will be no turning back."

On that note, she walked away, towards the elevator. Zeno and Ezekiel sighed as we watched her leave. Zeno took her glass and cleaned it and Ezekiel took another sip of his drink.

"Grief is not something you easily overcome," the Keeper said as he cleaned.

"Hmm," Ezekiel replied with a nod. Then he looked at me as I stared at my glass. "What did you see boy?"

"What?" I replied, looking at him.

"What visions did you see that gave you that look in your eyes?"

I cleared my throat, taking a gulp of my drink. "It's nothing I can explain, just another daylight nightmare."

My reply left a silence in the atmosphere as the chatter from around sipped in. Then Ezekiel exhaled, taking another sip.

"Nightmares," Zeno said. "Are sometimes just memories trying to burst out of your subconscious."

In just that moment, I felt a tap on my leg. I looked down to see young Granule with a large gun on his shoulder.

"Second Gaurdian?" He asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Oh no," Ezekiel said, leaning backwards to take a look at the alien.

In response to my reply, the Granule raised both arms with the gun up, and exclaimed;

"I challenge you, second Guardian, to Caldoran."

At the sound of that, the whole Bar went quiet, their attention immediately placed on the young Granule in front of me. Ezekiel facepalmed.

"Well this is going to be interesting," Zeno said, putting the glass down.