The Resonance Key
by Robert Chapman
Warren Trammel is a man of logic, physics, and hard work. At fifty, his life is defined by the stability of his IT career and the demands of fatherhood—until a forgotten family heirloom rips open the fabric of reality. When his eldest son, James, is pulled through a closet portal into a realm governed by the mystical Flow, Warren doesn't wait for a prophecy or a chosen one. He grabs his plate carrier, his modern rifle, and his Swiss Saber, and steps into the unknown. On the other side lies the realm of Ffaraon, a world teetering on the edge of destruction. A fanatical Theocracy and its mutated 'Twisted' monsters are sweeping across the land, and James is caught in the crossfire. Warren soon discovers that his modern technology has cataclysmic, explosive consequences when it touches this world's magic. To save his son, Warren must navigate a landscape of warring lords and ancient secrets, joining forces with a hidden princess and a grandfather he thought was long dead. In a world where resonance is power, one father is about to show a magical empire that modern grit and gunpowder have a resonance all their own. The Trammel legacy is waking up, and the Theocracy isn't ready for what’s coming.
- Fantasy
- Portal Fantasy
- Epic Fantasy
- Quest Adventure
Opening
The Beginning:
Magic isn’t real. There is no such thing as magic, spells, sorcery, incantations, Santeria, hexes, Voodoo, divine intervention. These are things of coincidence or maybe math and energy. No angel or demon pushed you out of the way of the falling piano, rather energy in the form of a stiff breeze twisted and turned with just the right combination to push you enough to stop your oblivious stroll. It would have pushed you if the piano was falling or not. It isn’t divine intervention or some protective spell.
Or, maybe all that random energy moving together is the magic... we just don’t know how to quantify it, so we explain it as physics.
Whatever the case, Warren didn’t believe in magic. He had a job, responsibilities, bills, child support, a family to support and tend. No number of magic circles were going to lessen his hour and a half commute to work. There were no incantations to complete the project plans, balance the budget reports, run the meetings, design the network architecture, or decrease his standard 50 plus hour work week. Away from the the office was just as filled making meals, cleaning house, tending the yard and pets, spending as much time as he could with his two sons on homework, cub scouts, soccer practice, and all the other responsibilities that come of being a father. There was no magic to the efforts, just time and energy. and at the end of the day there was no sorcery in existence that would return the time. William was 50 years old and no magic existed to change that.
Or so he believed.
Unexpected Gifts
Ola Trammell met him at the door before he even got his hand to the bell, which was about as surprising as the sun coming up. "There you are! I swear, traffic must have doubled since you were here last." She pulled him into a hug that smelled like her kitchen, coffee and something baking, then pushed him back to arm's length to look him over the wa…