How to use a Key

(a brief outline of these curious, yet indispensable, artifacts)

by Demon Keller

"What's a key? How do they work?" I get asked these questions fairly frequently. Not as frequently as "What the hell are you?", or even "Are those wings real?", but often enough to justify the creation of this article, unaccustomed as I am to writing.

Let us start by assuming you've no idea what I'm talking about, and the only keys you've heard of are the metal things you mortal-types use to lock your houses. This is not the kind of key I mean.

The keys I will be discussing herein are the objects demons use to travel between worlds. Maybe I should spell it with an upper-case K, to avoid confusion with the other sort of key, but I've always found that kind of gratuitous capitalisation rather trite.

I don't pretend to understand how the whole business works, but as far as I can tell, it's much like the portals I've seen the more magically-inclined humanoids using. Fix on the destination, open a doorway in the air and step through. Demons call it 'world hopping', or more commonly 'gating'. Depends on the age of whoever you ask.

The main difference between gating and portalling is keys. From what I've seen, portals don't usually need keys. Gates do. You can't open, create or remove a gate without a key. And not all demons have them - the general opinion is that there is only a small number of keys (probably less than fifty), and that nobody can make any more. Myself, I'm not sure whether to believe the latter part, but it's really academic as far as most are concerned. They exist, they work, and the demon (as they say) is in the details.

Keys themselves come in all shapes, but a limited range of sizes. Form is secondary to function, here - as long as it's small enough to be carried easily, but large enough to be difficult to lose, it doesn't matter what a key looks like. One belonging to a friend of mine is a wooden carving which, depending on its mood, looks either like a duck or a rabbit.

And keys definitely do have moods. Entire personalitites, some would say. Not that they talk, exactly - at least, none of the ones I've seen - but for inanimate objects, they certainly know how to sulk. And they're not above playing the odd practical joke.

Provided that you don't mind the occasional bouts of muleheadedness, there is only one real limitation you'll find with keys: the average user can only gate to places he, she or it has already visited. I say "the average user", for a few of the more senior demons have access to a wider range of functions. Really, though, the standard level is more than adequate for most purposes.

The basics of key manipulation are as follows. (Unless you own a key, this section will probably not be very relevant.)

Gate creation

• First find a suitable spot (safe, out of the way, &c.) and activate the key. Normally, this simply means getting its attention, which can be achieved by tapping it gently or speaking to it. Getting to know your individual key will make working with it a lot easier.
• Activate the gate creation function. The exact method depends on the key.
• Name the gate. Be succinct but descriptive. "Fred's house in Denmark, Earth" is useful; "My gate 2" less so.
• Use the key to trace the gate's outline exactly where you want it to appear. The outline will normally shimmer briefly, then disappear; the gate can then be opened instantly, at any time. After activation, the gate becomes linked to any other gates created by that particular key.

Opening and closing

• It helps if you remember where you place your gates. For the more absent-minded among us, most keys have built-in map or search functions.
• The command for opening a gate is called, conveniently (if a little unimaginatively), Open. Similarly, the Close function will seal the gate again. Closed gates are designed to be invisible unless you have a key.
• Select the destination gate (again, the exact method varies) and step through. Remember to close the gateway behind you.
• Users are frequently cautioned against leaving gates open. In the past, this has caused much inconvenience - not to mention several full-scale wars.

Gate deletion

• Deletion is more or less the same as the creation process. With the key activated, travel to the gate's location and call the delete function.
• Because this will, of course, leave you stranded (unless you're lucky enough to have access to the remote creation and deletion functions), most users don't bother to delete their old gates. Rather surprisingly, nobody seems to be concerned about the resulting network of disused and forgotten gateways. (My own view is that anyone with less than complete trust in the keys' centuries-old security system should take this fact rather more seriously; however, I am only a minor demon, and no doubt the higher-ups have a much better understanding of the matter.)

Because there are fewer keys than demons, and because they are undeniably extremely useful, there is normally a good deal of squabbling over key allocation. The more cynical among us might say that the surest way to obtain one is to be on good terms with the king or other higher-ranking individuals, but this is wholly unjust. To be trusted with the great responsibilities a key brings, a demon must prove itself reliable, and not merely adept at sucking up to the authorities.

This concludes my brief explanation of the ins and outs of keys. It's my hope that you found it informative, or at least comprehensible.

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