The young woman already had a presence that higher Professionals with higher Potential scores didn’t even match, even accounting for her build.

The ineffable benefit of natural authority, presumably, Zacharias thought as he joined the various company heads and interested Professionals at the front of Gatepost’s Town Hall.

One of the few buildings with stone, for him and most of the veterans gathered it was still the local management branch of the Royal Labyrinth Company, long dissolved and gone. The real headquarters had been but a walk away, on London’s side, but they needed a local headquarters for their Professional managers to handle logistics, inventories, schedules and all that made the difference between a company of Professionals and a professional Company. And pride required a “real” building for that.

Calculating Tactician Charlotte Augusta of Wales, second in line to the British crown, watched over the gathering crowd. She finally climbed on a hastily raised podium.

“Let’s start.”

With this simple phrase, the hubbub of the Professionals talking died nearly instantaneously. Even the various tier-five and the one mostly tier-six team fell silent.

“As you can see if you go check at the transit clearing, the Gate is still inoperative, and we’re still cut from London. At this time, there’s no way to predict when it will reopen. If it does.”

There was a fresh surge of muttering. She did not wait until it ended.

“Yes, if it does. I can’t remember a time when the Gate wasn’t there, but some of you do. Some of the veterans here were there in 1800 when it opened and changed the world forever. And if it wasn’t there at one point, it might not remain there forever.”

She cut short the Massive Aethershaper next to her who had looked like he was going to object to something.

“But despite everything, we are still British subjects. We still belong to the greatest Empire the world has ever seen. We stride the oceans and the seven seas, across the world entire, and there’s no reason it won’t be the same in the Labyrinth.”

“I know, we can’t found a new English Labyrinthine Empire. The Labyrinth doesn’t let us do so. So, we do need to figure what really happened. Has Earth been cut from the Labyrinth, or is it just here? And that pretty much means one thing: checking what happened elsewhere and possibly going through another Gate to get news from home.”

Zacharias could see the wince on most of his fellow Professionals around him.

“Obviously, the one from the French Tyrant is a non-starter. Notably, since there have been strong hints this might be the result of a nefarious French plot. Which leaves only one realistic option.”

“Not those!” someone went from behind Zacharias.

“Yes. There’s only one place where we can get proper news, and that’s the American Gate. So I need a tier-four or higher team ready to work their way into the United States of America’s sector. We’re officially at peace for now, after they got their way with that short war on the Canadian Provinces[7] ten years ago. I intend that we make use of that peace status to get information if they have any, or have people make a trip to England from their own Gate port to find out what happened and come back to report.”

“I’d go myself, but it’s a long way, and I acknowledge it is better if I stay in Gatepost, to keep abreast of any development here. It is still where most of us come back sooner or later. Hopefully, we will soon be reunited with the Earth-side Empire, but if nothing else, we’ll endure.”

She looked over the crowd of fantastically overpowered Professionals gathered at Gatepost.

“If nothing else, the Empire will endure wherever British men and women are, for as long as they are there.”

Cheers – slightly ragged – rose at the final address.

Zacharias wondered for a moment who would answer the call but wasn’t too surprised to see Louisa Grey come out to join the Princess on stage. The firstborn of Lord Charles Grey was of the Princess’ age, and he knew they had both teamed together for a while before the King selected a specific – and safe – team to accompany his granddaughter and heir in the deeper Labyrinth. Besides, there were barely enough Professionals of peerage around, and that was counting beyond hereditary peerage. Louisa was going for an unusual tier-five build, but she and her teammates had good synergies and they were strong candidates for going deep into the USA’s zones.

It was still funny to think a high enough Professional could simply walk from London to Manhattan.

Calculating Tactician

(tier 4)

Required: 85 PRE, 36 INT

Provides:

+10 health/+18 endurance/+5 mind/+7 aether per level

+1 Milestone per 12 levels

Calculating Tactician: +9 PRE, +5 DEX, +4 FOR, +3 CON, +1 FOC, 1% aether conservation

Skillset: Environment / Control