PROLOGUE 

The adventurers guild was still reasonably quiet, with only a handful of early rising beastmen scattered across the cafeteria, chatting with muffled voices, going over their plans and waiting for the days worth of quests to go up on the billboards. Close to the kitchen, the only human - and the only child - in the room sat with her feet dangling from a chair much too big for her, dragging a piece of sharpened charcoal from the fireplace across rough paper. She was a pale-skinned one, with chestnut hair, wearing slightly too big hand-me-downs and with most of her face and arms covered in smear from the charcoal. 

"Here's yar breakfast, luv.. oh? What are ya drawing there?" said a warm voice from over her shoulder. A red-furred hand, its long fingers ending in pale claws, put a bowl of yogurt down in front of her. "Is that a snail?"

"No. It's a car." 

"Never heard of cars before, Kiri. Educate me." 

"You go in it, and it drives you places." Kiri said. 

"Oh, you mean a cart?" Irvin chuckled and sat down with his own bowl of food on the chair next to her. Although his face mostly resembled a human, with a square jaw scarred from cuts and burns but with soft black eyes that mildened his rough appearance, Irvin was on the beastman side of things - his ears ended in long tufts of fur, and a long, puffy, nimble squirrels tail twitched as he limped, curling around his body as he sat down, somewhat silvered over the years. "But if it's a cart, why no horses or oxen? Horses are cool. And ya like them." 

"Not a cart! A caaaaaaaarrrr!" Kiri said, slowly and overly clear. "Anyway, you don't know what a car is. They don't have them here. And they don't have horses." Kiri said with the puffed-up self-importance of a child who knew something an adult didn't. "They're LIKE magic, but there's no magic where cars are from!"

".... ah. No magic, eh." Irvin said and did his best to hide the sudden stiffness on his face. "... so, where are they from?" 

"On the other side of the Roots of the Labyrinth. I lived there, before I lived here. They've got a lot of weird buildings, and sweet foods, and they have ministers for silly walking."

"Hah. Ministers for silly walking. I bet if we replaced some of the ministers we have here with those, it'd be an improvement." Irvin said with a flat voice. "... actually, do you know what a minister is?" 

"Yeah! They were nobles in the Holy Roman Empire!" 

"... the what now?"

"But it's gone now. The Empire got too big, and it didn't have cars to drive people across it in time so it ended."

"Ya have some flaws in ya logic there, luv. If the Empire is gone, why are there still ministers that can decide about silly walks?" 

"...." Kiri finally looked up from her drawing. "Uhm... I don't remember that..." 

"On the other side of the Roots of the Labyrinth, eh." Irvin changed the subject. "So like the place they summon heroes from? Now that far, I ain't ever been, so.. who knows. Maybe yar right." That was a lie to humor the child. They found Kiri as an infant. Not yet old enough to have memories about anything, and certainly not about such abstract things as nations and ministers. 

"Can I come with you to the Labyrinth? Just the first floor?" 

"No." Irvin replied sternly. "It's dangerous in there. Even if you had magic, you'd die. The magic of the Labyrinth would gobble ya up even if a monster didn't. Even if ya were an adult, if ya ain't got any magic, ya are not going in the Labyrinth." 

"But if the magic would kill me THAT fast, how'd I survive before YOU came?" 

"Well I dunno! But ya wouldn't have survived for much longer! Ya already lost ya magic in there, there's no need to lose ya life. Worse things happens to people in the dungeons. Ya're lucky ya weren't eaten by whatever beast took ya and dragged ya in there, or worse, became a demon so we'd have to kill ya!" 

Kiri stared sullenly at her yogurt. "... maybe. But I'm still gonna go!"

"Yar not going. That's that."

Dad was right. I shouldn't go, and I didn't go. I turned twenty and I had never been to the Labyrinth. 

See, real life may be kind enough to let little children have their imaginary friends and imaginary places, but not so much when they grow up. I wasn't some summoned hero from the Realms beyond the Root, I was just Kiri the kitchen aid. Forget the Labyrinth - if this wasn't a place well adapted to retired adventurers with mana burnout, someone who couldn't use magic like me would have trouble even doing basic chores like drawing water or lock and unlock my own bedroom door. Entering a Labyrinth? I'd die. 

I glanced at the people gathered outside the Adventurers Guild as I passed them by on my way to the cafeteria. Most of the people of Skystead leaned to having beast attributes, so the thirty-something humans gathered in one place stood out. Especially these ones. Their clothes and armor were scratched and busted in places, and there were little burn marks in the slots where the mana stones had been embedded in their weapons and armor. Completely used up to the point of combustion. Yikes. 

"There ya are, luv!" the old squirrel beastman hollered from the kitchen as soon as I came within sight, limping quickly between the work stations, handling both the bubbling pots and the customers on his own. "We're running out of pre-cut vegetables so get yaself changed and get started with that as soon as yar done!". 

"I'm on it, dad!" I replied, rushed in and out of the changing room and replaced my overcoat with a clean apron. The cafeteria was full of people as well, well before the lunch hour, and the string where dad hung up orders with clothes pins was full of little yellow notes. "What's up with all the people today?" 

"A big ole dungeon crawl party exited the Labyrinth this morning. Entered in Frostford, can ya believe that?" 

"What? Frostford as the town on the other side of the Troutfalls?" I said with a raised eyebrow and reached for the kitchen knife. "Is there even a mapped path from Frostfall to Skystead?"

"They might be, with this! That's why everyone're here. They got lost and wound up here. The dungeon guide survived. The healers are still working on them, but apparently, they took notes on the path they took. So people are fired up hoping there's enough material in there to scout out a proper route. Even though they were lost, they were only in there four months."

"That's shorter than the above-ground route by quite a bit, but... four months..."

"Yeah."

"How many died?"

"Apparently, three people. They were lucky. And had a good guide. The survivors aren't unscratched though. One guy lost a leg, a couple people with mana burnout..." Irvin said and shook his head. After I was silent for a while, he continued. "Don't mind it right now, luv. Never cook with dark thoughts..."

".. you'll taint the food with your negativity and bad luck is the last thing an adventurer needs." I finished the sentence with a small smile, ran a finger over the amulet of the God of the Hearth that hung around my neck to clear my thoughts and focus on what was in front of me. Which was carrots, not dungeons. I wasn't someone who should worry about how dungeon divers do their job, all I had to worry about was making their lunch. And if that was all someone weak like me could do.. then, at least that, I would do my bit properly.