Jonas found himself sleepless again at camp. Sunset had caught them just as they left the hills, headed to the Zolferras Gate, and they’d made their customary camp, sleeping on their old clothing bundles. Thankfully, the weather kept warm and nice enough, under the eternally blue sky.

The fire was long gone, and the sky was clear. That was another point that he’d finally taken notice of. The weather was unchanging, without the slightest hint of clouds, rain or everything else. If there was that kind of weather in London, you’d get criers for the Times calling out “unreasonable weather”. After two weeks, it almost felt natural. Ovildian was stuck in a natural end-of-spring day – and night.

And the Moon was now rising. For Jonas, this was a subject of curiosity. He never watched the skies over London often. Back when he was young, he’d climb to the top of the Covent Garden tallest buildings, but that was mostly to watch the silhouettes of the London architecture, the sparkling of the handful of lights. Later, he was often tired after a day of hard work and slept early.

Still, he could recognize that the Moon over London and this gibbous Moon over Ovildian were the same ones. And it kept rising later and later, It was strange seeing such a familiar view in the weird surroundings of the Labyrinth. It made him wonder if the Labyrinth was some strange country, tucked maybe in the middle of secret Africa or the New Holland mysterious land, far on the other side of the world.

But then, again, if it was so simple, he’d have heard of it. So, the Labyrinth was like Earth, but not on Earth. A strange paradox, which left him wondering.

 

The Moon was washed out by the dawn. As the horizon was slowly lighting, Jonas spotted a moving silhouette from the camp nearby. It made its way toward him and then Alton Raby sat next to him.

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

“Didn’t sleep?”

“Nope,” Jonas confessed.

“You’re worried,” Alton deduced.

“Yes. About that new zone. About London. About us. About everything,” he said.

“Trust me, take it a day at a time.”

He paused, then added, “Me, I haven’t been worried in… days. Weeks. That’s such a nice feeling, you know.”

“Uh?”

“Compared to scavenging in London, and never knowing if you’d get enough to feed yourself, or if your sleeping spot would be taken over by some mudlark that decided your nest was better than his old… this is a paradise.”

Jonas reflected on what Alton’s origins could lead him to that opinion. He had been poor, sure, but there was poor and then there was really poor, like Alton. For one like him, this emptiness could be paradise indeed.

“You like it here?”

“You can feed yourself easily. A bit too much meat even. The only thing that would worry me is getting ambushed by a group of veteran cats or boars at night. Then I’d be a goner. But otherwise? The Labyrinth is my real home. London was just a hole in which I wallowed until I got kicked here.”

“You’d rather be there?” Jonas asked.

“Anytime. Not alone, of course. I’m not daft, I’d have died half a dozen times already in that case. Without anyone to bring me back. But yea. It’s so much better. No sickness, no worries.”

“Not everyone would agree, I think,” Jonas said.

Again, the hint of a shrug.

“No. There’s Jonathan.”

“There’s Jonathan,” Jonas prompted.

“I talked a bit with him. It’s hard to get him to open, you know.”

“He’s the most… affected by the events.”

“For sure. I mean… you and your friend Ira, it’s good for you. You go together. Guss… I’m sure he’s dreaming of joining with his cousin in the Labyrinth now. I have no idea about Laura. She seems okay, but she never talks much about herself. She’s very guarded. But Jonathan…”

Jonas could complete the sentence.

“Is fraying.”

“Not knowing is gnawing at him. His fiancée. What if it takes us years to come back? Will she have forgotten about him, thinking he’s dead? Will she be married already, to another? I’m sure that’s the thoughts he keeps having.”

“That’s why I’m getting us to the next zone as fast as possible. We need to make our way home,” Jonas said.

Alton patted him.

“Good job, boss.”

“I’m not…”

“You are. I had a good boss in the last gang before the coppers got him on extra charges and sent him to Van Diemen’s. He worried all the time, worked all the angles, made strategy and stuff. Pointed out what was needed. That’s what you’re doing.”

Jonas didn’t know whether to be outraged or flattered by being compared to a gang boss.

A bit of both, maybe.

 

 

The Gate stood in front of the team. Before they crossed, however, Jonas had a new idea.

“We should make a sign. We’ve seen nobody, but maybe there are some Professionals coming here from time to time to get those Power Crystal from that worm cave.”

“Do you think they come through this Gate?”

“No idea, but we should put a sign next to all Gates. Let people know we’re there. They should find us easily if they’re higher level.”

Jonathan caught on to the idea. They quickly improvised a sign, with Alton carving in the softwood with one of his Labyrinth knives, which seemed more or less ever sharp.

 

 

The Gate did not offer any challenge this time. The entire team found itself in Zolferras, without a hitch.

 

 

The area around the Gate was a marsh, much wetter than the one they had crossed in Ovildian. This time, Jonas took time to survey more carefully the area around the Gate. Small trees, barely taller than two men dotted the landscape.

“So, what do we do now?”

Jonas found himself caught unprepared now that they’d reached the new zone. Ira, however, had an idea.

“In Ovildian, the two Gates we found were all close to the ‘border’, next to that invisible wall. So, it should be the same here. If we keep to the wall, we should find quickly the next Gate. Or Gates.”

Jonas found immediately the flaw in the reasoning.

“Yes, but will we need to find lairs to cross?”

Jonathan quickly added his own idea.

“It should be the same as in Ovildian. We will need to complete a single lair to move to the next. Once we know where the Gate is, we can sweep the zone to find one.”

“Then how is it that we can get back to Ovildian?” Laura countered.

“Maybe it’s because we came from there.”

Thankfully it works, or we’d have been separated, went unsaid.

“We’ll see when we get there. Let’s head that way, looks like fewer trees. If we don’t find the zone wall quickly, we’ll come back to the Gate and try another direction.”

 

 

The marsh zone had… giant frogs.

 

 

The sight of a four-foot-tall frog was almost as mind-boggling as the weird borer-things in their holes. It looked like an ordinary frog from the Thames’ banks, with mottled browns over its skin. But the size belied the mundanity. That, and of course, the ubiquitous descriptor that sprung in their minds when they came closer enough to distinguish details on the critter.

With those at relatively low levels and only a single veteran spotted, they mowed quickly between the frog groups, whose overall XP yield was minor. Finding frog meat in a few of those enemies generated its set of complaints, met with a stony stare from Alton.

They found the zone wall on the first try. Even before reaching the invisible wall, the marsh was obviously emptying, drying and leaving the same kind of desolate bare ground that existed outside Ovildian. The distant grey mossy cover announced the zone limit. Once they’d confirmed the existence of the border, they started moving clockwise, trying to keep the border in sight. They got lucky the next day when Jonathan noticed a metallic reflection shining in the distance and they quickly discovered that it was another Gate indeed.

Jonas wasted no time in trying to cross the lighted surface.

 

 

Seeing Jonas come back out of the Gate told the rest of the team what they needed to know. He confirmed the bad news.

“This leads to the same tier-two zone we encountered back in Ovildian. And we need two lairs again from this new zone to cross it, like before.”

“Let’s see if we find a better Gate?”

The whole team seemed to find this a good idea. However, Jonas immediately suggested another sign. They quickly improvised a new one, then headed back toward the wall’s direction, and kept on trudging across the landscape.

 

 

They were thoroughly bored five days later. They barely got a level and a half during that time, since they didn’t seek out any fights and simply kept close to the wall. And they were used to frogs by now. The marsh had alternated between brown – who spat an acid spit that stung badly even through clothing, draining health at a steady rate – and green – poison farting whose noxious clouds affected primarily mind – species but otherwise seemed endless.

Jonas figured out that they had done most of the circle when they spotted a Gate in the distance. They made their way and were getting close when Jonas spotted a clump of trees that looked familiar.

“Balls. It’s not a new Gate.”

“What?”

“I remember those four trees that bend together to make a kind of bower. This is where we came in.”

Upon arriving, Jonathan immediately crossed, without waiting for Jonas to test. They waited for a few instants, but he did not come out.

“Told you. Let’s go.”

 

“Back to Ovildian. Good old Ovildian,” Jonathan said tiredly when the team came out of the Gate to join him.

“So, okay. It’s two tier-one zones connected to the same tier-two. We don’t have a choice for the next zone, then,” Jonas said.

“Hold on. We haven’t explored all of the border in this one,” Jonathan countered angrily.

“That’s true,” Alton added helpfully.

“We can do the badger lair now anyway, and then start looking further,” Ira offered.

“We’re next to the border right now. If we Recall, we waste time,” Jonathan countered.

“Better what we know than…” Ira started.

Jonas put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, stopping him before he antagonized further the Watcher.

“As he says. We can Recall, do the lair, and go to the Othary Gate at any time. It’s that easy.”

“Your call,” he replied.

“Then… clockwise again?” Jonas suggested.

 

 

The evening camp was a strained affair. Jonathan seemed to have calmed down from his outburst, but he kept silent and immediately tucked for the night without spending time unwinding from the day.

Jonas had no idea what to do to help. He just hoped for the best.