MASTER KEY [vs Hades]

[‘Santa, Stop Here’ signs, iridescent with LEDs, litter the gardens on a dark, quiet suburban cul-de-sac. The chirp of crickets in the unmown winter grass are the only discernible noise, until there is a loud clatter. A man stumbles over a stray household waste container, sending its contents spilling onto the footpath. At this sudden noise, a startled cat scurries into a bush, vivid and suspicious eyes transfixed on the man as he staggers back to his almost upright position.]

“A key is an interesting thing isn’t it?” [the voice says from off screen.] “We mortals rely on this scrap of alloy metal to give us safety. In the evening, when the day is over, we draw the curtains, give this sliver of security a full turn in the door and assume that we are protected from any harm that could come our way. Those that wish to hurt us or steal what is not theirs are kept away because of this engineering marvel.

And as well as keeping these evils out, keys are just as important for containing things. Pandora’s box, when locked, kept malevolence out of the grasp of humans. Containing evil is the next best thing to vanquishing evil.”

[The drunkard has blundered across the damp tarmac between the SUVs and 4x4s and now stands in front of a door, number 8 etched into the stained glass window next to it. He fishes a bunch of keys from his coat pocket, clinks a few along and finds a key that looks right, inserting it into the lock and wiggling. Nope.]

“But a key, boiled down to it’s basics, is just metal and maths. Modern keys work by having the little jagged blade of the key line up with the cylinder inside the lock, allowing a rotation, which can either open or close the door. Each lock has its own slave key, that lines up for its purpose, tasked with the sole importance of maintaining access to that one lock.

The lock to the back door of a house, or a window. The lock to a safe, or a bureau. The lock to an entire realm.”

[The man has continued trying keys from his bunch. Now on his fourth try the man becomes frustrated, his inebriation not helping with his inability to accurately try the keys. He fumbles and drops the bunch, now he does not know which of the keys he has already tried.]

“But for all these individual slave keys keeping individual doors and entrances, there are also master keys that let people open anything. Imagine, having a key that didn’t just work on your front door, but your back door, your neighbour’s doors. The entire world, and everything above and below, is your playground.

Janus has furnished me with the master key, and this key locks any lock he wants. But it also allows me to open the locks he chooses too. This week, my master key opens the door to all possibility, with a win at Red Snow keeping you away from the Tooth, and away from your domain for even longer.”

[The man has tried several more keys to no avail, and has now resorted to the bush down the side of the house. He pulls his hood up around his head and curls up under the bush, sleeping. The keys lie on the doorstep, discarded.]

“The Master key is the key to redemption – to those souls I failed at Ring King who remained bound to your realm, who did not get to walk the earth again. Your absence is small compensation to freedom, but I cannot fail them again.

It’s the key to your undoing – this week I show you that immortality does not grant you infallibility. It does not hide your weaknesses. I’ve shown that artefact or not, in that ring anything can happen. Your helmet, though it hides you from my eyes, does not affect my instincts.”

[Ordell, who has been narrating off screen this whole time, now walks to the keys and lifts then up in his right hand. He throws them up in the air and catches them in his left hand, except now we only see the key inscribed with the two faces of Janus, last seen at Ring King.]

“And it’s the key to victory. We’ve stared at this door before, when I was too naïve to see how it opened. Janus was testing me, I see that now, and the door to victory is before me once more. This time, I hold the master key, and this time, I pass through this door. I always finish what I started, Hades, and at Red Snow, I finish you.”

[Ordell uses the master key to open the door, and heads over to the intoxicated man in the bush, lifting him over his shoulder. As we fade out, Ordell slides the man onto his sofa and drapes a blanket over him.]