The Worlds Between

** Here is an idea that we will most likely not use. But I just Might! It was a plan I had to connect these books before I decided to write Mackiaveli. Except I never wrote it. So we decided to start it today and see how it turned out.

This was a free-flow attempt that did not exactly turn out the way we envisioned. In reality, we would have edited it down and made it work, but for this writing sprint, all we did was edit it to make sense.

If you want to check out what we are doing in place of this idea, stop by Mackiaveli: Pick Your Path on Royal Road. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/107760/mackiaveli **

The world was fire. Not the comforting warmth of a campfire or the burning passion of war—but the cold, consuming blaze of oblivion. Shards of light and shadow collided, torn apart in a dance older than time. And in the center of it, Mackiaveli stood, or what was left of him.

He wasn’t flesh and blood anymore. Not entirely. Not since the Sword of Shadows and Pain had cleaved through his digital existence, stripping him from reality and forcing him into this prison—the Stone Chronicles.

This wasn’t just a game world. It was a labyrinth of code and forgotten magic, an ancient prison constructed to hold beings like him. Beings too dangerous, too powerful. Beings who knew too much. Mack had been trapped here for years.

Not that time meant anything in this place. Here, moments stretched like dying echoes. Days dissolved into centuries, memories fading like dust. His only companions were the shadows of his failures, echoes of battles lost, friends abandoned, worlds left to burn.

And yet… something stirred. A vibration in the fabric of his prison. A shift. Subtle. Dangerous. A ripple in the stillness. The first key had been found. Mack could feel it like a pulse in the earth, a whisper that clawed its way into the cracks of his forgotten mind. The key was not just a symbol. It was a fragment of freedom. And it was Leo who held it.

The rain came down in sheets, slicing through the dusk like jagged knives. The world beyond the bus window blurred into a smear of neon lights and endless shadows.

Leo sat near the back, his shoulders hunched beneath the weight of a burden he couldn’t yet name. The key hung from his neck, cold against his skin, its shape jagged and ancient. He didn’t know why he had grabbed it. Didn’t know why it called to him. He just knew it mattered. Across the aisle, an old man stared out the window. His face was worn, shadowed by memories, his eyes sharp as broken glass.

Mack. But not as he once was. This wasn’t the digital god who ruled Another Life. This wasn’t the mentor or the guide. This was a man reborn in flesh after his digital death. A man dragged from the depths of his coded hell, thrown back into a world that had long forgotten him. And he didn’t remember. Not yet.

But the key’s presence gnawed at the edges of his mind, stirring ancient code and memories older than this second life. Leo glanced at him, unease curling in his gut. There was something about this man. Something that felt... wrong. Not dangerous. Not violent. But ancient. Heavy. Like the weight of forgotten history pressed against his soul.

The bus hit a pothole. The world jolted. For a heartbeat, Leo swore the old man’s shadow didn’t move the same as the rest of him. And in that moment, Mack’s eyes flicked towards Leo. Sharp. Piercing. Like recognition. Or a warning.

Back in the depths of the Stone Chronicles, Mack’s mind writhed. His true form—a shadow twisted by years of confinement—clawed at the walls of his prison. He could feel Leo now. The boy was close to the truth, but not close enough.

If Leo used the key wrong, if he unlocked the wrong gate, Mack’s prison would collapse inward. Not freeing him—but destroying what was left of his soul. He had to guide the boy. Somehow. But how do you guide someone from within a nightmare?

The bus screeched to a halt. Leo’s head snapped up. They weren’t at a stop. The world outside the window had changed. Gone were the city streets. In their place, a forest of stone and shadow stretched into the horizon, trees made of jagged rock, their branches dripping obsidian.

A place that didn’t belong here. A place that wasn’t real. System Alert: Intrusion Detected. Reality Sync Error. Leo’s heart hammered. The message blinked across his vision, bright red and intrusive, though there was no screen. No VR rig. No game.

Yet the alert was real. And when he looked again, the man across from him was standing. Not old. Not tired. But tall. Solid. A shadow of war reborn. His eyes burned—not with fire, but with ancient code, electric and alive. Mack.

“You have the key,” Mack said, his voice a low growl, rough with the weight of centuries.

Leo swallowed, fingers tightening around the pendant. “What key?”

Mack’s gaze didn’t waver. “You know.”

And Leo did. Because this wasn’t just a pendant. This wasn’t a random artifact. It was a fragment of Mack’s prison. The first key to breaking the Stone Chronicles. But Leo didn’t know that. Not yet. He only knew that this man wasn’t just a man. He was something more. Something ancient. Something dangerous.

Mack’s head throbbed. The memories were coming back too fast, tearing through him like shards of glass. He remembered the Sword. The pain. The betrayal. He remembered Another Life. The cities he had built. The wars he had fought. He remembered Sarah—Dani—her voice like static, her laughter like broken code. And he remembered the shadow that took him. The shadow that locked him in stone.

“You don’t understand what you’ve done,” Mack said. His voice trembled—not with fear, but with fury.

“You’ve started something you can’t stop.”

Leo stood slowly, his instincts screaming. The bus was wrong. The world was wrong. This man was wrong. But the key… The key was his. And it was burning against his chest like a living thing.

“What are you?” Leo asked, his voice low.

Mack’s eyes darkened. “I’m what happens when you unlock the wrong door.”

Suddenly, the world shimmered. Cracks spider-webbed across the walls of reality, the bus splintering like glass. Through the fractures, Leo glimpsed it. The world beyond. The Stone Chronicles.

A battlefield of shadow and pain. Swords clashed. Beasts roared. And at the center of it all, a figure stood—trapped. Bound. Screaming in silence. Mack. Not the man on the bus. But the true Mack. The one still trapped. Still dying. Leo staggered back, the visions cutting through him.

“What is this?!”

Mack’s face twisted in agony. “The past. The future. Your fault.”

Reality blinked. And Leo saw it—just for a moment. The shadow within Mack. The ancient code trying to break free. And he understood. Mack wasn’t free. Not really.

This was just a shadow of him. A projection, a fragment that had clawed its way into the real world, riding on the back of the key’s awakening. But the real Mack? Still trapped. Still suffering. Still waiting.

“You have to find the others,” Mack said. His voice was weaker now, fading.

“The keys. The gates. You must open them. But not… too fast.”

Leo shook his head. “I don’t even know what this is. I don’t know who you are.”

“You will,” Mack whispered. “When you meet Eirata… you’ll know.”

And then, the world shattered. The bus, the forest, the shadows—gone. Leo stood alone in the middle of the road, the pendant heavy against his chest. And Mack? Vanished. But the words echoed in his mind. Eirata. And Leo knew—this wasn’t over.

The night pressed down heavy, like a weight across Leo’s shoulders. The wind cut sharp through the dark trees, hissing like a whispered warning. Every shadow seemed deeper, every sound sharper, every breath louder.

And the key was still burning against his chest. Leo’s hand trembled as he gripped it beneath his shirt, the metal cold yet alive. Still humming. Still calling. The shadow of Mack’s last words echoed in his mind.

Find Eirata.

But who was Eirata? And why did it feel like a name carved from a forgotten memory, like something he should’ve known long ago but had buried deep?

He took a shaky breath and stepped off the road, his boots crunching against loose gravel. The bus was gone. So was Mack. But the memory of his stare, of the way reality cracked around them, still lingered.

That wasn’t real.

Leo told himself. But it was. He found himself by a stream, water whispering over smooth stones, the silver reflection of the moon scattered like broken glass. It was quiet here. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that fills a man’s head with ghosts and guilt. He knelt by the water, cupping it in his hands, splashing it against his face. The cold bite grounded him, but it didn’t clear the chaos storming in his mind.

“You started something you can’t stop.”

Mack’s voice. Or… the shadow that wore his face.

Leo closed his eyes. What the hell am I even doing?

He didn’t know who he was anymore. A delivery guy with a knack for fixing code and breaking rules? Or someone with a deeper part to play in a story that felt far bigger than his life allowed? Because tonight, the world had cracked open. And the shadows were calling his name.

Footsteps crunched behind him. Leo shot up, spinning, his hand instinctively moving to the blade at his side. Not that it would help. Not against whatever the hell that thing on the bus had been. But it wasn’t an enemy. It was Dani. She stood at the edge of the trees, her hair damp from the mist, her eyes burning with something fierce and unreadable.

“I was looking for you,” she said, voice low.

Leo blinked. “How did you find me?”

Her lips quirked, but there was no humor there. “You’re not the only one who can track anomalies.”

Leo hesitated, his gaze scanning her face. She looked tired. Worn. Like someone who’d seen too many shadows and had walked too long in their shade.

“I saw it,” she said softly. “What happened on the bus.”

Leo swallowed, the weight of guilt pressing hard in his chest. “You… saw him?”

She nodded. “Mack.”

His name felt like a blade every time it was spoken.

Leo’s jaw tightened. “It wasn’t him. Not really. Just a shadow. A ghost.”

Dani stepped closer, her gaze unwavering. “Maybe. But it was him enough to matter.”

The silence stretched between them, heavy and sharp. Unspoken words. Shared fears. Their worlds were unraveling, and neither of them knew how to stop it. And yet, standing here, the darkness didn’t feel quite as suffocating.

Dani’s gaze dropped to the key beneath Leo’s shirt. “It’s calling him. That’s why he came.”

Leo didn’t answer. He couldn’t. His thoughts were too tangled, too loud. But Dani wasn’t done.

“You feel it too,” she said. “The pull. The way it’s trying to tear you apart.”

Leo swallowed, his throat dry. “I don’t know what it is.”

Dani shook her head. “It’s not just a key, Leo. It’s a map. And it’s a cage. And if we don’t figure out how to use it—”

“He dies,” Leo finished, his voice hollow.

And maybe we die with him.

For a moment, they just stood there. Listening to the stream. To the night. To their own hearts hammering beneath skin that felt too tight. Then Dani took a breath, slow and shaky.

“There’s something you need to see.”

Leo hesitated. “What?”

But Dani just turned and walked into the forest, her figure swallowed by the mist. Leo watched her go, his heart a battlefield of questions and doubts. And then he followed.

They reached a clearing just as the first glimmer of dawn touched the sky. Pale light slid across the ground, casting long, jagged shadows. And in the center of it all, half-buried beneath stone and moss—Was a door.

Ancient. Heavy. Carved from dark obsidian, covered in runes that pulsed with faint blue light. Leo’s breath caught. He stepped closer, fingertips brushing across the surface. The runes burned beneath his touch, alive and electric.

“It’s the first gate,” Dani said quietly. “The one that will lead you to Eirata.”

Leo turned sharply. “How do you know?”

But Dani’s face was shadowed. Her eyes darker. “Because I was the one who sealed it.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Leo’s mind reeled. “What do you mean?”

Dani’s hands curled into fists. Her voice was low, but steady. “A long time ago, before Another Life, before the digital world was more than code and shadow… there were guardians. Protectors of the gates.”

Her gaze locked onto his, and Leo saw something old and broken behind her eyes.

“I was one of them,” she said.

The truth hit Leo like a fist to the chest.

“You…?”

Dani nodded. “We thought we could control the power. Thought we could trap the shadows. Keep them contained in the Stone Chronicles.” She hesitated, her voice trembling. “But we were wrong. Mack wasn’t supposed to die. He wasn’t supposed to be trapped.”

Leo’s throat burned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it doesn’t change anything!” Her voice cracked. “I failed him, Leo. And now he’s trapped, because of me.”

The words hung heavy in the air. Guilt. Regret. Shadows that would never fully fade.

Leo stepped back, his mind unraveling. This gate. This key. Dani’s past. It was too much. Too fast. And the weight of it was crushing.

“What happens if we open it?” he asked, voice hollow.

Dani hesitated. “I don’t know.”

But her eyes said enough. Because sometimes, opening the door meant letting something worse in. A sharp crack split the air. Both of them froze. The door trembled, runes flickering like dying stars. A deep, echoing pulse rumbled beneath the earth.

System Alert: Unauthorized Access Detected. Gate Activation Imminent.

Leo’s pulse spiked. The air felt thicker, heavier. Like reality was about to snap. And then the final message appeared.

The First Gate Will Open in 5… 4… 3…

“Leo, we need to leave!” Dani’s voice shook, but Leo didn’t move.

Because in that moment, he heard it. Faint. Distant. But there. Mack’s voice.

“Help me.”

2… 1…

The ground split. Light erupted from the runes, slicing upward into the sky. The forest trembled, the world itself groaning beneath the strain. Leo reached out—toward the door, toward the shadow beyond. And the last thing he heard before the world vanished—

“Leo, it’s not just me. They’re coming.”

And then darkness.

Thank you for reading! If you have any comments or concerns, I’m all ears.

This is part of a series of stories that have lived solely in my head for many years, and I’ve finally started writing them as serialized fiction books. If you think the story sucks, feel free to tell me—it’s all part of the process.

That said, I’m also looking for constructive criticism, so any suggestions are welcome and will be considered as I work to improve the series.

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