The guardsman at the War Office was firm and explicit.

“No, Sir Wellesley does not work at the office this Sunday.”

Then, seeing Jonas frown, he immediately added, “And no, you should not try to seek him out at home.”

Jonas guessed that this was likely to happen quite often. But if the Duke wasn’t there, he wasn’t going to bother his boss.

“Actually, I was going to ask if you could put a note that I am going to come back early tomorrow to report.”

“And you are?”

“Sir Jonas Sims. I have an important progress report for his ears only, and would like to see him at the earliest.”

“Then, if you want to hand me such a note, I’ll make sure it will be on Sir Wellesley’s desk for him.”

Jonas pulled out a piece of paper from his stores and his portable quill and started writing a quick note using one of the stones bordering the entrance to the War Office as a support. The rough shape didn’t favour clean writing, but he did what he could, keeping the note as short as possible.

Sir Arthur Wellesley,

Reporting paths to objective at earliest convenience.

Sir Jonas Sims

The guardsman grudgingly accepted the folded note once the ink had dried up and Jonas wasted no time turning back toward the Queen’s Gardens direction.

As Jonas hurried along the Mall back toward the Great Gilded Gate, he looked up at the sky. The clouds were heavy and laden with the promise of rain. This spring was still cool, even if the London weather had been warmer this winter than one could have expected. But the contrast with the eternal mild spring of Grailburg was sometimes disconcerting. There were zones where the seasons were marked, but almost all were permanently locked in the same weather.

He presented his pass to the guards and moved to the Gate. On a Sunday, there was almost no traffic, so he didn’t have to dodge any transport or something and quickly ended up in the Gate clearing.

He almost started back toward the Frozen Boar when he realized he had nothing really important to do, at least not there… but the Gatepost City Hall was close, and he had not checked on the Labyrinth High Office head office for a long time.

“Sir Sims, there’s a high tier in the Office, he had updates for the Duke’s company. Usually, it’s only people coming to pick or drop stuff, as you said, but he explained he had updates and wanted to make sure stuff was in order.”

“Oh? Then I’d better see him.”

Jonas ascended the stairs to the office on the first floor. There wasn’t anything really important there that wasn’t safely encoded, but it was unusual to have someone not just coming for guides on Ovildian lairs.

The man inside wore sky-blue leathers, save for a dark broad-brimmed hat whose feathers seemed to radiate changing colour ripples – the mark of an artefact – and was seated next to the desk, writing on papers. He turned his head at Jonas’ entrance and stood up.

“Jack Millard. I don’t think we’ve ever met, and you must be Jonas Sims,” he said.

“I’m fairly recognizable these days, it seems,” Jonas smiled.

They clasped, exchanging descriptors.

“I’ve seen your name, though. Wellington mentioned that you are, I think, the boss of the Scouts?”

“Hardly. That’s his brother. But otherwise, I’m the usual point man for the Scouts.”

“Your levels are relatively impressive.”

“I’d say the same for yours, relatively speaking, but you cheat, so there’s that. But yes. I’m the second-highest total in the British Empire, and very, very close to the seventh tier. Got lucky on that.”

“Lucky how?”

“The Archivists have a good understanding of the way Professions rotate by tiers. But knowing what requisites are for a Profession is only half the battle – you need to find some Plaza that has it on its list.”

“No doubt that’s a lot harder for you than us.”

“Yes. Tier seven Plazas only have four Profession each, and we’ve scouted only twelve tier-seven zones so far, and we already have a few overlaps.”

Jonas realized what the current Profession of the Abiding Mentor meant.

“You bet on your next Profession.”

“It was a slightly safe bet, though. I was shooting for the Presence-Stamina hybrid, but if we couldn’t find that Profession’s Plaza, I could still get another we had already found.”

“So what’s the objective?”

“I’m two Milestones away from having enough Focus. Spent most of last month unlocking the access to the Plaza with Applied Ringmaster. In a couple of months, I’ll be the first tier seven we have.”

“Congratulations in advance,” Jonas said.

“Half of my team will be there behind me by a few months. Except for Martha Newgrange. We’ve only found two Intellect Professions, and they’re all on the wrong Potentials for her build.”

Jonas perked up at the mention of the spellcasting builds.

“What happens if nobody finds a good Plaza?”

“She’ll have to either over-level her current one or bite the lemon and pick another side Profession. She’ll need only one, but that’s still unwanted Professional burden.”

Millard looked.

“That’s why you youngsters have it easy. We’ve all mapped the right Plazas before you come around.”

Jonas looked at the desk and remarked, “I haven’t any idea what you’re here for, though?”

“Updating the Scout’s progress for Agni.”

“Ah. I know you were the first team in, weeks ago.”

“If you exclude Cowen’s team, yes.”

Jonas frowned.

“By the way, she was supposed to scout the trunk. What has she found?”

“No idea. We haven’t got a report beyond a set of basic notes she left at their usual tier five hangout in Biskanta.”

“Uh?”

“One of the teams based there found a short note, with a list of four tier-three zones connections and four tier-four ones. And a note about Nindarul,” Millard elaborated.

“What’s Nindarul?”

“A zone we already know about. Not much used, as it’s accessed mainly from another tier-four zone, and its tier-five connection is the same. But apparently, it’s a trunk endpoint.”

“In the British sector?”

“Strictly speaking yes. Unused, but British.”

“Does this mean we can use it to enter the trunk?”

“I’m unsure. There are two scouting teams that had access, so I’ve dispatched them to investigate, but she apparently went out into something called Treetop House, and that’s a lair that nobody had found before. Unless we can ask her team directly, that’s all we have.”

Jonas thought quickly.

“I’m betting she dropped a note when she Recalled from there. You can’t re-access the trunk Gate unless you do all the zone’s lairs.”

“Hmmm, so the trunk system is one-way access. Not that it’s too much of a problem with Recall or Fast Travel, but still.”

Jonas shrugged.

“So, you’ve scouted more stuff? Tell me,” Millard asked.

Jonas proceeded to detail their incursion in the Zulu sector and the team’s adventures in the French zone.

“Will be a team disappearing a problem?”

Millard made a face.

“Not that much I think. It happened in the early days. People had no idea how much they could go, took risks. And at low levels, unattended gear disappears quickly like corpses, so there’s usually nothing left to find. The rule of thumb is about one hour per required level, but that’s not an exact measure.”

“So, the French team disappearing should be normal?”

“It’s going to be rare. They knew where they were going, they had a large team enough to tackle even wandering elites, so the odds of them all dying should be low, notably because someone would certainly run. But it’s not impossible.”

Seeing Jonas worried face, Millard immediately added, “Mind you, I’ve noticed most people assume that things happening is normal. It takes a special kind of mind to assume the worst, and the rest tend to discount them.”

“I’ll tell the Duke tomorrow, then.”

“You do that. Meanwhile, I’ve got the next team which should be enabled tomorrow.”

“You’re sure?”

“We’ve got the timing down now. It’s fifteen and a half days. I don’t know how long those crows stay up, but that doesn’t matter since we kill them as fast as we can,” Millard informed Jonas.

“I hope the tier four entrance can be faster,” he replied.

“That depends on whether or not we’ve found all the lairs. Since Cowen mentions one that wasn’t on the preliminary scouting list, we’ll have to hope. Meanwhile, I’ll keep channelling the lower tier teams down to Othary. Although in four months, we’ll be done, at least as the British Scouts can do. All that will remain will be enabling us for the final trip.”

“About that…”

Jonas explained how the killing of a single random lair veteran had sufficed. He expected Millard to be happy and was surprised when the Mentor whopped and hugged him.

“Uh? I know it makes things slightly easier…”

“No. You’ve also solved one of my problems.”

“I wasn’t aware you had a problem with tier one lairs?”

“Not Brocarres. Biskanta. We’ve been working that for years since it is a gateway to what appears an entire set of new zones in tier five, six and above. But as you need one of the two major lairs there to get validated, it’s a pain to get full teams ready. Unless you want to force a reorganization of the teams.”

Jonas blinked, and Millard noticed his reaction – nearly 250 increased Focus would do that.

“Yes. If I can get my teams through the trunk to the Grey Keep, then they don’t need to hope they get enabled by killing the Legend once every three months and some. A simple random armour elemental and they’re done.”

“It sounds useful.”

“If I don’t get Cowen’s report, I’m going to push to Zabarkal myself anyway. I mean, I’m not validated yet. I’d like to.”

Jonas hesitated.

“If she’s not reporting… did her team get killed?”

“Like those Frenchmen, you mean? Unlikely. She’s a veteran scout, she knows what can be done, and what can’t.”

Millard put his hand on Jonas’ shoulder.

“Don’t worry. Us old-timers know our stuff. She got sucked in the Labyrinth the day after me, and we all have spent nearly twenty years figuring it out. We have an instinct for those things.”

“Take a seat, Sir Sims,” Arthur Wellesley said.

Jonas found one of the randomly strewn chairs and sat before steeling himself and starting his report.

“It’s interesting. And yes, that’s good if it means that we can easily enable the Agni Professionals for the Argenmart target.”

“The big problem was those Frenchmen we had to kill,” Jonas added.

“Can’t be helped. Once they saw you, they had to be eliminated. It’s impossible to have prisoners in the Labyrinth. You can’t force them across zones, and if they are left unfettered too long, they can Recall to safety.”

The Duke noticed the apparent discomfort from Jonas.

“You’ve never killed people before, obviously.”

“No,” Jonas acknowledged.

“Death surrounds us and is never far away. But it is different when you take a life yourself. I’ve fought in wars, most of them before your birth even. I’ve fought in the Flanders Campaign and India, and against Napoleon when he started to spread across Europe. Mostly unsuccessfully in the latter case, but no one won against Napoleon, once he started harnessing the use of the Labyrinth.”

“So you killed plenty of men, you mean.”

“Actually, no. I commanded plenty of them to die, I had my troops kill many, but I did not personally shoot people that often. A few brigands during the campaign against Waugh in India, but rarely otherwise.”

Jonas was a little surprised, but that made sense.

“It will get easier, I suppose.”

“It does. But you’re a fighter. All those who go in the depths of the Labyrinth are natural fighters, the cloth you make the best soldiers of. There are some Professionals who can’t, and we have plenty of things for them to do. But not you and your team.”

“Thanks, I guess. But fighting in the Labyrinth is different,” Jonas said.

“It’s much better than the army boot camp. Soldiers face their first real enemies on the field of battle. You face them daily.”

“I’ve heard about people who believe the Labyrinth is there to train for the End of Days. Do you believe that too?” Jonas asked.

“I leave that speculation to the theologians.”

The Duke started reading the reporting from the British Scouts that Jonas had brought along.

“Interesting possibilities. If we can funnel more teams through the tier-four, that’s good. That remains to be seen, though.”

“The Scouts have calculated that you can funnel six people every fifteen and a half days by the Othary entrance.”

“Should be good enough.”

“We may find more,” Jonas said.

“About that… you’ve scouted twice, and you stumbled upon other Professionals twice, so I’m going to put a halt on your explorations from the trunk. At least until after Agni.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. I know it could be pure chance, but I’m not risking you stumbling upon more foreign teams. I don’t think the French will suspect us for the loss of their team. But if they start spotting people mucking around, they’re going to wonder how we go around.”

“So, no more exploration.”

“Yes. And I’ll ask the Scouts to avoid doing the same. That tier-four zone is an exception since we know where it is. But unlisted zones will be an opportunity later. For now, the operation’s secrecy takes priority.”

Jonas hesitated to ask for their participation. After all, their team had been in Brocarres itself. Map and directions did not fully replace experience. But that wasn’t the time, at least not yet. They needed to prove themselves ready. Instead, he brought a different topic.

The Duke read the letter from Sylvia at length.

“This woman seems to presume much from you.”

“She was a big help making sure I could check the Great Gilded Gate in Manhattan.”

“We had lots of initial successes on purchasing Cores, but we’ve exhausted the easy supplies. People have started to notice that the War Office is purchasing those trophy orbs, and are wondering. And now, I know our competitor on the Colonial market.”

“So, what do I reply? What can I reply?”

Wellesley stayed silent, thinking. After a few moments, he reached a decision.

“It’s only a matter of time until someone who starts suspecting they’re useful for something figure how they work. You can probably get some advantage by telling her before she finds for herself.”

“Should we tell the American Gate Office officially?”

“I suspect the information will make its way to the American authorities very fast anyway.”

Dear Miss Underwood,

I am quite flattered you thought I’d be able to see things. But in this case, it is actually a feat from one of my friends in the team.

The War Office is the culprit behind your purchases. I hope their concurrence will not make you lose money in the end. But once people find what they are, you might be able to find very interested Professionals for your orbs.

You have at least one Puppet, I presume. So, have you ever tried to place an orb in the Puppet’s storage? I will not spoil the surprise, but you can easily deduce the true nature of the orbs given the functioning of Puppets.

Even if I know already about those, I’m still looking forward to bring you to the best place in London for a grand dinner whenever you can.

Your humble servant,

Jonas Sims

Applied Ringmaster

(tier 7)

Required: 292 PRE, 292 STA, 188 CON, 188 FOC

Provides:

+24 health/+42 endurance/+77 mind/+18 aether per level

+1 Milestone/10 levels

Applied Ringmaster Milestone: +19 PRE, +14 CON, +8 FOC, +4 INT, 5% team defence

Skillset: Team / Support