Jonas contemplated the room they’d just entered. It was huge. The beds themselves were relatively small, nearly the size of his old bed in London, but there were six of them, arrayed on the opposite wall with a small trunk attached to each. A table with six chairs was at the centre of the room, and there were two cupboards at the end, between two windows.

Ira remarked, “Wow. Looks like a miniature version of the Morvells’ bedrooms.”

Ada Fullmore waved them in.

“It’s a team room. We usually have five people per team, but since you may get up to six sometimes, it’s ready for it. They’re not permanent lodging since usually, a team stays around for a week or two at most before heading back to the field. You’re supposed to keep it clean, or you get docked on your pay. Our pay in this case.”

Jonas couldn’t resist moving his hand across the poster bed next to him. “Now that’s luxury,”

“Perks of a hard-working Professional. I’ll be getting you in an hour. Unpack, make yourselves at home, relax… and then we’ll have a feast.”

On these words, Ada turned out of the room and went down the stairs. Jonas looked through the windows, but they only gave a view of the Company’s compound courtyard, which wasn’t that exciting.

 

 

Jonas and the team found themselves at a slightly more elaborate building compared to the rest of the city block. A wood sign featured grapes, apples, a cup and… a rabbit with a horn nub. The words “The Londoner” were surrounding the sign and also on a larger but unadorned wood pane next to the door.

The woman from the Fullmores’ Company, Amelia O’Mangan, opened the door, entering without the slightest hesitation. Luther and Ada stepped in, as did Guss. Jonas and the rest followed.

The biggest shock was that the establishment was well lighted. Jonas had expected an upscale version of the taverns and other establishments that he and Ira – and a handful of younger friends – had favoured in their recent years. But this eating-house was lighted… by Power Crystals. An unimaginable display of wealth.

He could recognize extracted and slightly adjusted versions of the crystalline growth they’d seen in some of the lairs of Ovildian and Othary, ensconced in metal holders. The light might be slightly more yellowish than you’d expect from a candle, but it was brighter, and absolutely steady, without any flicker.

There were many small tables, large enough for two or four people, and half of them had Professionals seated, mostly with huge tankards. There were lots of women among the guests, which also surprised Jonas. Mixing sexes felt a bit strange – his tavern forays were all men or “working women”. But then, the Labyrinth’s descriptors and Professions didn’t make a difference between men and women, so that could be reflected in the situation.

Amelia was talking to a man wearing a large apron. A slight discolouration made Jonas realize this was probably a mundane cloth; Labyrinth equipment wouldn’t stay stained for long. So maybe there were no Labyrinth aprons.

The man pointed out to a side door, and the group moved there. They found themselves in a smaller side room, where a single table and wide, well-made benches were waiting.

Jonas and the team hesitated for a few seconds, and then, Amelia and her healer companion, Sirius Commins, sat at one end, while the two Fullmores sat at the other end. So the six adapted found a place in the middle, with Guss unsurprisingly sliding next to his cousin. Jonas found himself next to the Company woman.

No sooner had they taken place than the apron-wearer came in, placed a Roman-style amphora on a holder in the middle of the table, and glasses filled with a ruby-red wine in front of all of them.

Luther picked his glass and raised it in a toast.

“To the future best Professionals of the Labyrinth!”

Jonas raised his glass politely, then sipped a small taste of the drink. To his surprise again, he found it to be sweet, and not as alcoholised as he’d expected.

He noticed Alton drinking the entire glass in a single gulp before Jonathan asked the obvious question: “So, what’s this place?”

“Best food in Gatepost,” Luther replied.

Hearing a tut-tutting from Amelia’s side, he mollified, “Okay. Second best. I don’t all have your wages, Amelia.”

Sirius snorted but didn’t comment further.

“You’ll get there. Higher tiers give you better quality gear. Once we move into serious Ancient hunting and can invest in a Legend license…”

“That’s always next year,” Luther replied.

“These things take time,” she countered, but Jonas noted her side look on the rest.

“Anyway, the Londoner does the best standard British-style cooking, but all from Labyrinth food. It’s harder than it looks because good luck finding stuff that looks and tastes like a turnip. Normally, if you want genuine British cooking, you’d cross the Gate, and there’s eating houses around the Queen’s Gardens. But the proprietor here is a semi-retired Professional, who found out he’d rather make feasts of the Labyrinth food rather than slaughter creatures in lairs.”

Jonas almost asked how much it did cost for a dinner here, but wisely decided against it. Instead, he raised a different question,

“Are there many like him? Retired, I mean.”

Luther shrugged a bit, but Amelia answered instead.

“Some. It’s more common these days. There are obvious benefits to being a Professional, even if you don’t push into the Labyrinth itself. You don’t get sick, and you tend to grow into the best you can be. Even if you get barely any levels, just the general immunities and regeneration is enough to make it enticing.”

Sirius added, “These days, there’s a lot of work, mainly in Gatepost, that doesn’t use Professional abilities, even if you need to be one to enter the Labyrinth. Trying to retire already?”

“No. I mean, we obviously never expected to become Professionals, so it’s a bit weird to be one. It’s a very different kind of life.”

Ada Fullmore replied, “Yea. I mean, three years ago, I was working as a serving wench, and Luther was doing day jobs at the London docks. And then we got picked by the company, and we discovered we were made for that kind of life. But it was hard adapting at first. Even if we had Amelia’s lessons to ease us.”

Amelia expanded “It’s like the great explorers, like Mungo Park. You explore the wilds of the Earth and see things few have seen. And unlike that man, you are prepared for what you encounter.”

“I remember hearing about him exploring some river in Africa. Wasn’t he killed?” Jonas asked.

“By local tribesmen. You don’t have that problem of people hunting you.”

“Just enraged wildlife out of nightmares,” Jonas said, but his smile belied the words.

“He wasn’t a Professional?” Ira asked.

“No, just an ordinary – sorry, extraordinary – adventurer. There are recurring rumours of Professionals in Africa, though, and you can hear sometimes about that in the Weekly, but not much is known. There has been a black man wearing obvious high-tier Professional gear sighted once in one of the Gold Coast factories. Shields with glowing red runic symbols don’t come from any mundane crafts. But no one knows anything about the Gate that has to be there.”

“Is there one? I know about the French, but the Americans have one and they still use a lot of black slaves. Maybe he was an escaped slave from there?”

Amelia frowned before answering.

“People hardly remember, but the Cape colonies were attacked and had to be evacuated as they were falling… something like 15 years ago? We had the Cape of Good Hope and the Dutch had small colonies around the coast, but armies of black people came out of the interior and attacked everyone over a year. There were conflicting reports, but some think they had Professionals helping them. So we generally assume there’s a Gate somewhere in southern Africa, but no one has heard anything about the kingdom that controls it.”

“Has the government tried to find out?”

“Probably. But no one has been talking about it.”

Two people entered, bringing a cart with a huge saucepan filled with a creamy soup. They started placing china bowls and silver spoons in front of everyone, then left as silently as they had come.

As they were sampling the slightly sour soup, whose composition Jonas couldn’t place, the company’s other head asked, “So, have you thought about what you’re going to do? I mean… with those Adjustment abilities you have, you are obviously a good asset. Every company is going to make you some offers.”

“Including yours?” Laura asked.

“Of course. People who are motivated, who gain levels fast, who have higher than usual Potentials, skills… unless you’re a bottom feeder company like Laufrey’s or Minkton’s, that’s the type of Professional you dream about,” Sirius said.

Jonas had to clarify, “Her Highness asked us not to seek a job.”

He countered, “For now. Once this is resolved, you’ll want one. All of you, I assume. We pay reasonably well, and we just ask that you go grab all that sweet experience in lairs whenever possible. Which is what ambitious Professionals want anyway.”

“And if we aren’t. Ambitious, I mean,” Guss asked, attracting a glare from his cousin.

“As I said. You’re a clerk, from what your cousin said? There are stores here, and opportunities for one who’s good at that once they can enter the Labyrinth,” Sirius said.

“What were all of you doing back in London?” Amelia asked.

“Serving boy,” Ira announced.

“Cloth making,” Laura added.

“Leatherworker and cobbler apprentice,” Jonas said.

“Nothing special,” Alton said.

“Training with father for solicitor,” Jonathan added last, attracting glances.

Jonas realized he’d never learned what exactly Jonathan did. Of all of them, he was the one most anxious to get back to London, and he’d never pursued the topic.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that most of your trades aren’t useful. But there’s little room for those in Gatepost itself. As an example, solicitors for Labyrinth companies usually work out from London’s side, so they won’t need Labyrinth access. The fact that you can enter the Labyrinth is what sets you apart,” Amelia said.

“Most Professionals do mundane stuff on the side. Too few of us,” Sirius added.

“That’s changing, though,” Luther managed to inject.

“True. You do get more and more people every year, and there are now companies not devoted to harvesting the depths of the Labyrinth. I still say you need a minimum of levels, in case you get jumped by a wandering critter. But that’s not where the good stuff is,” Amelia countered.

 

As the waiters removed the soup, bringing in plates with small cuts and glazed vegetables plates, the team made small talk. Laura was curious about the two company heads.

“Are you in the same team? Or married? Or something?”

“Oh, just team members. And split at the moment, since the other three were helping in London. We were both at the founding of the company, and we’re helping to manage things while Zacharias is out east. But neither of us is married.”

“Why? You’re slightly older, and I thought…”

“It’s complicated for Professionals. Even if you ignore the differences in tiers, which would make for weird couples in the field. Besides, you can’t have children.”

All the heads turned to Amelia at this assertion. Luther replied, “Not true. You can.”

“Well, it is difficult. You can’t have children in the Labyrinth if you want to be accurate.”

“And even then,” Ada added, shaking her head with a grimace.

“Okay, you cannot conceive in the Labyrinth. Every Professional woman who had children conceived back in England,” Amelia elaborated.

Laura asked, “And what about birth?”

“Outside of the Labyrinth as well. Women have been coming back with children in the way, and every time – almost every time – they had a miscarriage in the Labyrinth. Happening at the moment they step out of the Gate, although sometimes you find only a few days later.”

Jonas shivered from the idea. From the looks of some of the team, no one wanted to dwell too much on that.

“So you can’t have children here?”

“There’s been three recorded cases, in 20 years, of someone coming back from London pregnant and not having a miscarriage. All by error, people who did not realize they were in a family way. The three babies were born normally, and they have a Professional-type descriptor, albeit one without a Profession or level. And very low vitals, more appropriate for a toddler rather than an adult. It’s assumed they’ll get a Profession since they all have an 18 in one Potential, but once they’re old enough and their vitals catch up to their Potentials. The oldest is 8, so that’s not for some time.”

“How do you know if your baby can…”

“You don’t. This is why nobody wants to try it when the alternative is your baby ends unborn. And if you have your children born outside of the Labyrinth, you have to wait until they’re 13 or 14 before they might be able to enter. If they have the Potential.”

“So, if you want children… you need to retire,” Laura deduced.

“Pretty much,” Luther said. “You could leave them with family and go back to the Labyrinth, but that would be hard. If you want to have a family, it’s no good to leave it and go away. There are people who do that, but I wouldn’t.”

His wife squeezed his hand in assent.

“Sounds like the Morvells,” Ira noted.

 

 

They were eating the last of the deserts, which had prompted Jonas to ask about how they got milk for the cooking if London was closed.

“Can’t bring in a cow. Besides, it’s the principle here, all Labyrinth bases. So, they capture one of those Sharphorns in tier 3, and drain her before she breaks free and gores the team,” Luther said.

“Really?”

“No. That’d be silly. I don’t even really know. He’s supposed to make something like milk, but it’s out of some Labyrinth plant stuff rather than cows. It’s the cook’s secret. And he’s not telling exactly how.”

“Anyway, I want to thank you for inviting us. That kind of meal… it’s beyond anything I’ve ever eaten.”

Ira added, “Even the Morvells don’t eat like that. I mean, Curtis – our cook – is good, but the way it’s done is… different.”

“The Labyrinth foods are different,” Ada confirmed.

Jonas added, “And I thank you for granting us hospitality.”

“We’ve got room,” Amelia said. “If we get all the teams back, we may need the room, but unless that happens, you can stay. It won’t be hard to find lodging if that happens. There’s always room in the borough, it’s made for that kind of swell.”

“How big is it?”

“There’s something like twelve hundred… fifteen hundred people at any time in Gatepost. But the city has room for three times that. Most companies have a headquarters with lodging, and there’s plenty of team inns around. When the Royal Company got broken up, those sprouted like mushrooms, since not everyone can afford to purchase an old building or pay Professionals to build a new one.”

“That’s pretty big.”

“It’s not London, but the numbers from the Labyrinth Office last year were over 5600 Professionals in the Kingdom. It should be accurate, as each chartered company has to submit its roster yearly.”