Ira was the one to suggest it, which surprised Jonas. But then, he wasn’t really the first, since Laura had expressed the same worry as well weeks ago.

“We’ve been fighting non-stop for weeks. Months? It’s been so long, I don’t even know exactly how it’s been. Shouldn’t we take a break? There’s no parish here, no church, but surely, we should observe the Lord’s day.”

Guss immediately remarked, “I may have a monk’s robe, but I’m no cleric. Besides, how do we know when it’s Lord’s day? Did anyone keep a calendar?”

Jonas made face, trying to find a proper answer. Even though he and Jonathan were under Lingering Death and both Ira and Alton with a smidgeon of Sacrifice respectively, there was no reason to take a break. But if more of the team were starting to think so… maybe it was a good idea. Then, he got struck by an idea.

“We do have a calendar.”

Location

Zone: Othary (tier 2)

Locale: Othary Plaza Valley

Recall: Ovildian, The Plaza

Recall: available

Gates: 2/2

Tier 1: Zolferras

Tier 2: Othary

Fast travel: 2 charges, next in 5 days

“The first charge took seven days. The second 14. This one seems to be 21… and there’s a bit over five days remaining, so it’s been…”

“Five? It says six,” Jonathan interrupted.

A careful check showed everyone in the team having four days remaining, save Jonathan. Jonas pondered the discrepancy, then checked his Lingering Death status.

Lingering Death. -34% of potentials and vitals, regeneration halved.

“Drat. Regeneration halved means… your generation of Fast Travel got halved as well. So you lost 25 hours vs everyone the first time… And we both probably lost an additional 8 by now. It’s going to be enough for a full day difference as well when it’s over, but we’ll use the others’ times.”

“So, what does that adds up to?” Laura asked.

“If you add up all the charges, you get just over 37 days since we got kicked out of London. It was Friday, which means…”

“That it is Sunday today,” Ira said triumphally.

Jonas was floored. Not because it was in fact Sunday, but because it had been 37 days. Over five weeks. Five weeks of being stranded, alone in the strange wilderness of the Labyrinth. Five weeks of nearly uninterrupted fighting strange and wild beasts. Five weeks that yet seemed to be an eternity.

“I didn’t realize it had been so long,” Jonas said lamely.

The rest of the team was looking at him and each other, unsure of what to make of the situation. He’d grown into the team leader quickly, but he had no idea how they had ended up on that day without really thinking about it.

“We never had a choice, did we?” Laura asked.

No one contradicted her.

Jonas looked at the team. He thought that both Jonathan and himself would be for pressing on, regardless. Alton did not seem to care one way or another. No doubt his childhood and youth had made him not very careful about observing Lord’s day. Laura might be in favour of a break…

“You are right, Ira. We should offer prayers, even if we can’t have mass proper.”

He added, “But not in the Plaza. I do not think it’s a Temple of the Lord.”

They ended up doing prayers in a corner of the Plaza’s valley. A clump of three trees with strange square leaves, slightly bent to a central point, vaguely suggested a chapel area with a half uncovered stone in the middle. With no one to conduct a mass, they spent half an hour in silent prayer, each facing their own worries and hopes. Jonas felt vaguely guilty of missing so many Sundays, but the Labyrinth did not offer a difference between the Lord’s days and any other.

“You still look pale. Is the Lingering Death so bad?” Ira asked, coming up to him.

Rather than answering, Jonas looked at the Valley. Like the previous break, Laura and Guss were looking at the strange hole next to the Plaza, no doubt resuming their speculations. Jonathan and Alton were looking down the gorge with the running river, an unlikely pair on so many levels, between the one seeking London the most and the one caring the least.

He turned back toward his friend.

“It’s not that. It’s just that… I have no idea what to do.”

“That’s the point of Lord’s day. You rest as He did.”

“Can we afford to?”

“Can we afford not to? We want to go back to London, but we can’t know how long it will take. What are a few days?” Ira countered.

“Are you doing this because I got killed… it still feels strange to say that.”

“Do you think that all Professionals are able to do it? Or is it just us with that… adjustment thing.”

“You haven’t answered my question,” Jonas pressed.

“Yes.”

Jonas waited, then pushed again.

“Yes, you haven’t answered, or yes you did that for me?”

Ira gave a slight snort.

“I started to worry. We’re making mistakes. Just because we can come back from the dead… well, you can… I can’t. Yet.”

“Jonathan should be able to sacrifice for you in a few more levels. Even if we have to strip you naked of your gear first.”

Ira’s face crumpled in horror before he finally added.

“My point is, just because we feel so good doesn’t mean we’re not tired. Maybe I could afford to be tired and work, but if you were tired, wouldn’t your master yell at you?”

Jonas hesitated, then conceded: “yes. He would. Because I would be making mistakes with the leather and waste it.”

“It’s the same thing. We thought we could, but we couldn’t.”

“A few more levels…” Jonas said.

“And we’d have done it without problems. But we rushed. Well, I rushed it. But you didn’t stop me.”

“We did that before.”

“We didn’t know better. When Jonathan died in Ovildian, that was our first Elder, ever,” replied Ira, shaking his head.

Jonas thought for a few moments.

“I’ll do better. We should do the Frog at… say, around level 50. And we’ll wait till the next Milestone before doing that wolf cave.”

Ira smiled.

“That’s better. You should be making long-term plans, not just going from day to day.”

He added: “and plan your rest for Lord’s day.”

Jonas had noticed that Alton seemed to have disappeared. When he reached Jonathan, he found that the Piercer was jumping down from rock to rock along the small gorge.

“What gives?”

Jonathan turned and replied, “Alton thought he’d seen some opening. He’s gone to check. In case we missed a lair.”

Jonas frowned. Jonathan elaborated further.

“We compared our Agility. If that’s what dictates our ability to do that kind of thing, he’s got 26 and me 25. I wouldn’t have attempted it, but he says this is barely worse than swinging under a London bridge. And he ‘knows’ he’s got better balance now.”

Jonas turned back to watch the former mudlark swinging from rock to rock. He still looked a bit like a London poor, with his half-mismatched leathers, but most English poor wouldn’t swing across slick rocks without care. The Agility potential levels so far above normal people did make a difference.

Alton reached the riverbank and disappeared under a rock outcrop. No doubt it was the opening he’d seen. But he popped right out in view, shrugging in an exaggerated manner. He then started climbing back, making his way back to the gorge’s top.

“Feels nice down below,” he said upon reaching the top.

“Nothing?” Jonas asked.

“Nope. Just a small minuscule cave. Barely one, even. Enough to shelter yourself from the rain, maybe, but nothing more. Not even a minion.”

“Does it ever rain? We never had rain in Ovildian, and we haven’t here either,” Jonathan noted.

“Don’t tempt Old Nick,” Jonas said.

“I don’t think he holds dominion over the Labyrinth,” Jonathan replied. “It’s not hell. The only one with the power of resurrection is our Lord.”

“The Pope says that the Labyrinth is a product of the devil, a temptation for the unworthy. And every Professional must be excommunicated,” Jonas shrugged.

“Who cares about papist stuff. He says that because he’s been locked into the Vatican by Napoleon with the help of the Labyrinth. Of course, it’s an offence to him. He’s lost the Papal States to the French with their Labyrinth-fueled war machines,” Jonathan replied.

Upon seeing Alton frown, he added, “The bishops have pronounced the Labyrinth normal land. The archbishop of Canterbury says it is no afterlife, so it’s not purgatory or anything.”

“I don’t know anything about religion stuff and all that but aren’t we… beyond normal men. How does that feature in the Book? Never read it, since Mum never made me attend church school,” Alton asked.

Neither Jonathan nor Jonas had a ready answer.

“I’m sure the bishops have thought about it. Maybe we’ll be able to ask once we get to London,” Jonas said, looking sideways at Jonathan. The Layman didn’t answer, looking pensive.

After discussing the ground hole, Laura and Guss had moved to a Plaza’s column, sitting next to it. Jonas hesitated, not wanting to disturb them. But Laura noticed him and waved him in so he came and sat as well.

“So? Fresh ideas on that dig?” Jonas asked.

“Nope. Whatever was there was square, it looks like. But that’s all we can figure out,” Guss replied.

“So what’s the next big question?”

She half-laughed, half-snorted.

“No big question. I was grilling Guss over his cousin. In case he’d missed some wisdom Cousin Luther might have had.”

Jonas turned to Guss.

“So what?”

“I don’t know. About the Labyrinth… we know a lot more than he ever told me. Some of what he talked about now makes sense, like that ‘picking new Professions’ thing. I used to think those tier things were about how good you were at Professions, and the names they use were simply… well, labels.”

“What’s his?”

“Last time I saw him, six months ago, he said he was going to be a Solid Spellwrangler next. That’s… a tier-four? I think he said.”

“That’s a… two-part name,” Jonas noted.

“Yea. I think it means Professions are going to be more complex next tier since he’s a Solid Aethershaper right now.”

“You said he was working for some company?” Jonas asked.

“Yes. They recruited him on the London docks, saying he had high INT potential. Just like you.”

“Well, like me after the Labyrinth changed us, you mean,” Jonas corrected.

Guss laughed.

“He’s going to have a massive shock when he finds out about me.”

Jonas asked further, “And what do they do? Besides going to explore…”

“He’s – he was until he renewed – under contract for getting stuff. And now, I know what he’s referring to. That’s the equipment we find in the lairs.”

Jonas frowned, then guessed, “it’s useless as it is for a non-Professional. We can’t even use it well until we have enough levels. But you might recycle it?”

“Yea. He said his company supplied some of his Majesty’s dock works with materials. Metals, leathers, cloth… Some of what he got might even have gotten into recent Skyships he said.”

Laura added, “The leather of my clothes is insanely resilient. Even the cloth of Guss’s gear we found is very resistant to tear. If there was a way to make it at the mills, it would be the next big thing.”

Jonas replied, “There’s probably not enough to compete with normal leatherworks, but yes, my Master used to complain about the ‘unnatural stuff’ some stores use. So I guess you can reuse cloth to make better clothes than anything.”

“And it’s got the prestige of the Labyrinth as well. Prestige sells cloth, I know that,” Laura added.

As they settled for the night in the middle of the Plaza, Jonas watched the skies. No stars were visible, as clouds seemed to have finally covered the skies. He hoped the discussion about rain really hadn’t turned their luck. There were some small trees nearby, in case of an emergency. But they all felt safer in the Plaza proper as if the Labyrinth would provide protection.

The Froglord was lying on its side, starting to decompose in the usual accelerated manner of the Labyrinth dead.

“Flawless,” Ira said. He added: “And I didn’t even need the Milestone from my next level.”

“Those five levels did a lot,” Jonas said.

“Sure, but it’s mostly the gear and the Potentials on it,” Laura said. “We were faster.”

That was the second time they’d done the lake since the two’s death. He had insisted on skipping the elder on their next round, but this time, they’d felt confident enough to try. They’d gotten some more gear, although three times they’d gotten worse items than they wore.

Blue Iron Legwraps

Legs

Quality equipment

Requires: Level 30

Provides: 26 defence rating, +3 CON, +2 AGI

“What?” Ira exclaimed.

“Sometimes, those Elders don’t guard their best equipment,” Jonas remarked. “But it’s still an upgrade, right?”

“It happened,” Alton reminded them. “Remember the second time at Hyena lake.”

“You’re right,” Jonathan confirmed. He then added, “But we both got the real prize, right?”

You have completed Othary Iceblood Lake Lair.

“Yep. Got the lair. One done, two to go,” Jonas said.