I was just home from walking my dog around the block, enjoying a beautiful day promising great treats for the excited Spaniel when a shadow approached me from behind. Out of curiosity I turn to it and found myself staring at a middle-aged man dressed in formal working suit carrying a suitcase which no doubt bustling with paperwork.

"Mr. Daniel Stetson?"

My smile and my heart dropped, knowing exactly who this man must be. "Let me guess, you're from that company again?"

"GameTech Inc., yes. I have come to try and persuade you to reconsider your decision. If you let me have a moment of your time, I'm sure it'll be worthwhile."

Sigh. They never give up, do they? "Look, Mr..."

"Brian, Brian Downe. At your service."

"Mr. Downe, I have made my final decision that I just can't make that kind of game, it's just not my expertise." I replied irritatedly, out of exasperation and the plain fact that Summer, my Spaniel are starting to get impatient to get to his long-promised treat of fresh bones and a bowl of meatballs in spaghetti sauce I have waiting in my stove.

He opened his mouth to start another of his persuasion. Not if I can help it.

"A! a! a! Not another word Mr. Downe, my decision is final."

He snapped his mouth shut and gave a long, heavy sigh. "Alright then, but I still have not show you our new offer. I'm not here to get you to sign on another contract paper, but... well, just open this envelope and you'll see. We still hope that you'll work for us on that project because the others believe that you are worth enough to be in our team. Have a nice day, Mr. Stetson."

He took out a brown envelope and handed it to me. His defeated look almost made me call him back to have a cup of tea and have a nice chat. It never felt good turning people down, Summer was insistently tugging at his leash that I was soon dragged to the front door of my house my a VERY eager Spaniel.

I flopped down the brown envelope on the bed, switch on the TV and went straight to the kitchen. I ate with Summer that evening, watching the last parts of the news that's usually filled with news from the entertainment world, the weather and money exchange rates. I'd always favoured them rather than the somewhat boring and violent news that preceded it.

Night came quickly and after a very active day, the bed has turned into an irresistible destination. I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth, and gave a playful lunge to my queen-sized DreamMakerTM bed. I throw my hands across the bed and met a hard object with a silent knock.

The envelope. I totally forgot about it. I raised myself to a seating position and grasped the envelope with both hands, confused whether to open it or not. These people have been bothering me for a month asking me to design a game for them, which I promptly refused. It's not that the money is good, hell I've designed enough successful games give me enough money to live like a king, but instead I opted for a low-profiled, ordinary kind of living. I've lived lavishly after 3 of the games I designed goes shooting over the roof, but when glittering gold comes to view, simple happiness just flies away. A year later, I sold all my properties and bought this house by the sea. Living simple with ample money stashed everywhere to last 3 generations.

I have refused this project due to one simple reason: they wanted me to design a story based on a man loving another man. It's not that I hated homosexuals or anything, I just don't have any idea about love of a man to another man, and that's the key to all my success. I always build a game around a topic I loved, and I have not a single idea about loving a man! So I promptly and firmly refused it. It doesn't mean that they gave up though. For the last 3 weeks, a person from that company has come every 2 days asking him to reconsider. He had also put it clearly that if they offered him other projects like a game around other topics, he MIGHT consider it. But no, they insist that he did this one. God, some people are hard to convince.

I figured I've fiddled with the ends of the envelope long enough and it might just be interesting to see what strategy they've came up with this time.

I tore up the envelope and a small drawstring bag fell out of it, along with a small piece of memo. I opened the velvet bag and took out a white polished wooden box. I gaped. Wh..white wood? I rubbed at the box, I peered into the polish, is this paint? But no... the paint doesn't look even and the circles on the wood have different shades, just like normal wood would and the whiteness gave off silvery shine under the pale light glowing in my room. The sight that met my eyes inside the box would have dropped my jaw to the floor if it has not dropped before. In the box, laid over a black silk, was a glass key. I turned on the lights to have a better look, and it was indeed made of glass! and if it is a key, it's a very strange key. The key looks like 2 keys that's combined into one. One of the keys is perfectly smooth and unjagged while the other are like a normal key. Put the two keys together and it'll look like this glass key. Intricate flowery engravement tinted with gold and silver adorn the insides of the key and a black silk is tied to the hole of the key.

"Oh, my God..." I silently whispered. Then I remembered about the memo and scan over it. "PLEASE CALL THE PALACE" was written on top of it and a toll-free number was written underneath it. I flipped the memo over and over but found no other writing. I looked at the key again in disbelief. If this is the way those people are persuading me, they are very close to succeeding. A bad habit that I've gained during my 'elite' times was collecting rare things, and I would pay a good amount of money for a rare box made of white wood and a nicely done glass key! I have to have that wood checked out though, I noted.

Curiously, I tried calling the toll-free number since I'm sure that the office (GameTech) would be closed by now. To my surprise, someone actually picked it up!

"The Palace." A woman's voice. "Are you arranging a pick-up?"

"Huh?" I said clumsily, not understanding what she meant.

"Do you have the key?" She said, surprisingly patient.

"Uh..uh..uh-huh?" How did she know that he has the key? Maybe the phone number only comes with the key. This must be the customer care department or something.

"We'll pick you up tomorrow morning then, please be ready."

"Huh? Pick me up? To where?"

"Why...the Palace of course. You don't have to pack any clothes or anything, although you can if you want to. We'll take you down the airport and fly you to the Palace. Be ready by 9 in the morning tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Wha? What the hell? Hey..hey!!"

Well that was a bit abrupt if not impolite. I tried dialling the number again, but this time met with an "Invalid number, please check your number" message. I gave up after my 4th trial and came back to my bedroom with a growing headache.

I take a look at the box and the key and back to the box, and sighed. 9 am, there's no time to call GameTech and get an explanation from them, since the Palace seems to know about the key, might as well go with them and see what information I can find about the key before I can buy it. They probably figured that I need the key serviced or anything and they don't have a service centre around here. Oh well, I've no plans for the next few weeks, I guess I can travel around and see what other 'nice' stuffs this 'Palace' has.

Hmm.. they said not to pack clothes, so I assume they'll put me in a hotel somewhere. So I packed the things that I figured they won't have, underwears, extremely personal toiletries, a couple of books and my gold American Express. Packed, I made a free fall to my bed and promptly went to a dreamful sleep of silvery boxes and glass keys.

So far my journey hasn't been at all disappointing. I was surprised to be picked up by a long, white glossy limo in the morning, though, maybe their service wasn't so bad afterall. After the limo, I was taken on board of a private plane (not so sure what the model was) and served with light breakfast.

The lady (a rather pretty one) that was waiting for me on the plane apparently was the lady who spoke to me the night before and she was quite apologetic about the incident. As a fine gentleman to a pretty lady, I answered that it was perfectly fine, even if it was absolutely not, but I was in a good mood that day because I manage to get my neighbour to take care of Summer for me while I was away (with a good offer of money). Besides, I really hold no grudge. It was late at night anyway, anyone would feel grouchy to be called so late. She also told me that her name was Madame Chrysle, married.

"Where are we going?" I just had to ask after a moment of silence.

"The Palace" She smiled knowingly.

"Is that where you made this beautiful key? Did you produce other things as well?" I showed her the key inside the white wooden box.

"Made? Produce?" She raised one eyebrow after another at my query as though she never heard of those words. "Well, we don't actually made or produce them, we... acquire them. They were private keys, but when the masters decided to make the key publicly available, we obtain possession of the key. Is that what you were asking?"

Ah, so the key was made by a master. A private collection. That's interesting, I never knew there's a master who made such a beautiful key. I weight my choice between asking further and risk of telling her that I'm not the real owner of the key or just stay quiet until I found out how to get it into my possession. I chose the former, since I don't intend to part from the key...yet.

Somewhere behind me I heard her made a private call to the Palace and approached me when she finished. "We'll arrive in 20 minutes, they are all ready for you."

They are all? They've prepared a welcoming committee? I look out the window and realised that we were no longer flying on a marine blue sea, but a light brown landscape that I later recognised as a desert. A desert? They built a company on a desert?! I look around for my host but she was nowhere in the cabin. I looked out of the window wondering what must I have been doing not realising how I ended up in a desert. A good 15 minutes later I felt the plane slowly descend, over... one of the most artistically built structure I have seen in my 29 year of life...

All right, if I can just hack him there and let Squall hack after him I think...

"Lee? Are you there?"

Someone called from outside the door, he knows her voice and he knows that it means.

"A new master." he sighed the words out of his mouth as if he were bored.

"A new master will be arriving in a few minutes, you better get ready for him!"

He turned off the TV, tidied up his controller and stood up. There's no need to answer her since she won't hear his voice anyway.

He heard quick fall of footsteps echoed through the hall that must lie outside the room the footsteps grow fainter with distance, leaving him back in the darkness stillness of his room.

Well, that's something you don't see everyday. I was referring to the trail of my welcoming committee that's bowing to me and gesturing me to walk on the red carpet. The place was amazingly clean of dust despite the fact that it is surrounded by sand. I felt a certain pity for the carpet as he saw his shoes left small prints of sand on it.

The place was majestic, marble walls engraved with images of Roman gods and Goddesses. Flowers overflowed out of their vases near the walls, and a small fountain greeted me upon entering the premises. Looking around I was suddenly reminded of a scene from Old French movies of prince and princesses.

I saw that Madame Chrysle waited for me near the fountain and greeted me with a small bow and a smile.

"I'm sure you're anxious to get to your room Mr. Stetson, all reservations have been met. If you just follow me?"

She took me through a whole series of hallways and doors, before she finally stopped at a black door which, curiously had a glass handle and glass keyhole on it. "This is your room, I hope you'll find it enjoyable. If you need anything, just call for me."

I tried the door, it's locked. Then I looked at her questioningly. She frowned and suddenly her face lit up as if she finally understood my confusion. "Ah! You use the glass key to open the door!"

What? That glass key is not just an ornament? I stopped myself before I said what I actually thought for it would reveal that I'm not the real owner of this intricate treasure. I took out the key and fit it into the hole. Madame Chrysle stopped me before I tried to turn the key. "Just let it slide in" she said. I heard a soft click and she smiled, "Enjoy your day!!"

The room was surprisingly dark for such an early daylight. I might even say that it's pitched black, so deep in contrast with the world outside. I took out the key out of the hole effortlessly and put it back in my bag. I walked into the dark room and out of reflex, closed the door. Damn! I muttered. I was left in the dark and I have no idea where the light switches are. I don't want to knock any precious decorations they have in this room, so I walked cautiously and very slowly. Till I felt a fleeting touch on my neck…