“Like old times,” Nicolas Gide, said, once they finished the second Elder guardian.

It had looked like a fast-moving unruly massif of roses with bright green thorns, the kind that would have made the former head gardener of Versailles weep. The name – Noxious Rosebush – matched what he thought of the thing. They had spent nearly a year almost exclusively fighting plant-like creatures back when they were making their progression to tier-five.

“It feels odd to go that deep without one of our friends to come along,” Anne muttered.

“Johann said his team would also split as well once they’d finished the tier-five section of their connection, to cover the maximum area,” he noted.

“I still wonder why suddenly the powers of Panomekon decided to pull in so many resources,” she replied.

“Who knows. When it comes from those old Professionals, they are happy to plan a few decades ahead, then suddenly, they jump on an impulse.”

“Will we be like that one day?” Anne asked.

“Probably. Men aren’t made to live that long…”

“But we were remade to be,” she replied.

Without a further remark, they kept on walking carefully. No sense trying to fight the normal critters around. They might give a minimal experience, but they were not worth the time spent, since the two Lords were not there for that.

Once they neared the trunk zone’s border, they spotted the sight they came for.

Transit: Miltovar – Gomerlan

Integrity: 100%

Active

Stability: 100%

The Gate’s descriptor no longer indicated the two-lair requirement to exit.

“Based on those century-old notes, there are three down-links from adjacent zones that have a larger than average tier-one zone. Candidates for potential Great Gates, but not guaranteed. So we’ve got Gomerlan, Machelenso, and Vukodalar to check. They’re the closest the trunk gets us to good spots.”

“Then let’s start checking. The immediate completion of the initial lair will make it easy to go further. That old list says there are at least seven potential zones within six zones from this trunk bit.”

“We’ve got the Gate from up-tier to go back to. Let’s go.”

The landing area was one of the more common ones for trunks, unlike the one they’d used to get in – a so-called hidden area. In this case, Nicolas noted the cave, with the trunk Gate in the middle, lots of Power crystals giving light… and a caved-in tunnel at one side. The access from the proper lair, obviously.

Without a word, the two pulled back their weapons from their Puppets and readied for the run outside, before the rockpile fell down again to close their exit since they did not qualify to come back, at least not directly.

But the expected attack did not come as they entered the next cave, rocks sprouting out of the ground behind to fill the tunnel with relatively little dust disturbed.

“Uh?”

Nicolas looked all around, but there was no sign of a guardian. Yet…

Burrower Nesting Grounds

Elder Treasure

empty

“The guardian’s chest is here, and empty,” he said, after opening it to confirm the lack of anything inside.

Anne looked at the cave’s expanse before turning to her husband.

“You know what that means?”

“Recently looted lair. Very recent, given the chest still unlocked,” Nicolas acknowledged.

“There are Professionals around.”

“Let’s see what we have before we celebrate finding a Divergence. Maybe it’s just explorers from somewhere else that are also following the trunk,” he said.

“Pessimist,” she chided him.

A single mole-like critter with a scaly crest had provided the lair’s completion before the two reached the exit of the cave complex that made the Burrower Nesting Grounds.

“Now what?” Anne asked.

“If it’s a regularly used zone, then either a Gate or the Plaza. Gates are more likely, I’d say.”

“Now, to find the zone border…”

“That’s when I wish – for a little bit – for a slightly higher Adjustment to use fill a Puppet with those scouting skills. Some of those optional powers can come in handy.”

Anne pointed to the distance. Nicolas knew his wife had higher Focus, so it wasn’t surprising she’d noticed the far-away figures first.

“Either it’s a busy zone, or they just left the lair,” she noted.

“Bonjour. Qui êtes-vous? Vous avez l’air d’être un haut niveau?” one of the Professionals asked as he noted the two explorers.

Both Gides instantly stopped at the French words asking about them. Nicolas managed to refrain from a smile or even a whoop of victory. What were the odds of an old Divergence with Professionals speaking modern French coming right here at the same time?

“I’m Nicolas Gide. That’s my wife, Anne,” he replied in the same language.

The Professional looked at him curiously. The two didn’t have that many Artefacts, due to lack of chances and luck, but the one floating circle of metal visible over Nicolas’ head showed his higher level, even if his other two possessions were more discreet.

“I’m Boucher. Just the two of you? Why are you just showing up now? Did you lose the Recall or Fast Travel?”

Nicolas’s look of incomprehension must have shown, as one of the Professional’s teammates said, “Maybe they don’t keep a direct link to Argenmart and they had to hike all the way from up-tier? Were all your options disrupted?” he asked.

“Disrupted… how?” Nicolas asked.

A faint memory of The night at Versailles came back, unbidden. The name of the zone… was a confirmation. That very night was the first and last time he’d heard, or rather seen that name on a descriptor.

Home. Even with the house in Panomekon, we’re home, he thought.

“Ah. Well, a lot of Gates slammed shut. Apparently, the British did it, in retaliation for our attack last year, but no one knows really how they did it at such a scale. Bonaparte’s recalled back everyone high enough to Argenmart. They’ve managed to emplace a new Recall stone because the British threw the old one away. You’ll be able to set your point immediately once you get to the Great Gate’s location,” the man replied, vaguely gesturing toward a direction.

Nicolas and his wife looked at each other, half-wincing.

“Actually, I’d like better directions.”

“Uh… why?”

“We’ve never been here before,” he said sheepishly.

“How? I mean…”

“It’s complicated. Let’s say, we have been away for a very, very long time.”

The Great Gilded Gate was visible from afar, but the surrounding area was even more remarkable. There were large buildings looking like warehouses, but more importantly tents everywhere. People from all over True History would recognize this as a war camp, a temporary gathering of fighting power. Massed around an empty circle of metal. The two Lords of the Labyrinth gawped at the sight. They’d been warned about that but seeing it made it real.

Transit: Argentmart - Earth 113

Integrity: 61%

Disabled

Stability: 0%

Maurice Boucher made a beeline toward the Gate area, followed by the two Gides. As they reached the cleared area next to the Great Gate, they found a few larger tents, tables and chairs… and a man seated there, feet on the table, a book open in hands, as if nothing really mattered.

“Masterful Watchman? There’s two here… who say they are French… but they’re weird…”

“Two?” the man repeated, dropping his book aside and shifting away from his reclining position to face them.

He looked at both Gides, taking stock of them.

“I do not recognize you, I think.”

“I don’t think we ever met,” Nicolas replied.

He realized that he had actually never seen the man before. The most successful general of all of the French Republic, the hero of Egypt and Italy and more… the new First Consul for a few months before the Gate swallowed them. And he’d never seen him visiting the Gardens before the Day.

But he’d seen his likeness, of course. Portraits made long after Divergence, reproduced in various books on the True History. They didn’t substitute for meeting and seeing the real man, yet he couldn’t fail to recognize the First Consul from its painted likeness. Napoleon Bonaparte himself, a man who would leave his name to an entire era of European history. Nicolas rummaged through his memories, trying to find out if he’d ever seen a notice that Bonaparte was a qualified Professional in another Divergence. He had to be, since he was there, in the Labyrinth.

“That’s odd. Because I do know all my high-tiers… and you, I do not, even if you are obviously one.”

“My wife and I haven’t been around for a very long time. Before you even stepped into the Labyrinth, certainly.”

The man frowned, and Nicolas considered the authority that came from him. Few men, let alone High Lords exuded that kind of intensity, the kind that had nothing to do with Presence. But the First Consul of the Republic would be such a man. Of course.

“Gide.”

Nicolas blinked in surprise.

“You do know me.”

“You must be Nicolas Gide, former head gardener of Versailles. And this I presume, would be your wife Anne,” he said, bowing slightly to her.

“That is me indeed,” he said, awed, before proffering his wrist for his descriptor.

Napoleon grasped it, exchanging identities. Nicolas noted the usual Milestone pathways to the build. Slightly under optimal, but that was owed to having to find a proper Plaza. Luck could be a huge factor in the first Professionals of a Divergence because of the limited mapping done by the time you needed to pick higher tiers. Same thing even for Lords of the Labyrinth.

“People theorized that you might have run away from Argenmart’s Plaza, only to be erased by the Labyrinth after being killed by some level 20 veteran critter or some other unexpected threat. But both you and your wife, qualified and disappeared in the few hours before Jacques stepped in? At the same time? The savants’ theory never felt quite right at that stroke of misfortune. And, well, after last year, we finally had a competing theory. Which is now borne true.”

Both Gides looked at each other, uncomprehending.

“What theory?”

“That you’d been caught while the Gate was still unstable. And this… Adjustment you have is a confirmation, now.”

Anne took the initiative before her husband could marshal his wits.

“That’s correct… did you find any other such then? Was someone caught in a different Gate? There were only two of us at the site of the Gate in Versailles when it opened.”

“No. As I said, until last year, we didn’t have any idea such a thing could even be possible. But two years ago, we closed the British Gate, to deprive them of access.”

He spotted Anne’s look of horror.

“You object, madam?”

“It isn’t done, Masterful Watchman. Trying to mess with the Labyrinth infrastructure is a very, very bad idea. Or so we have been taught,” she admitted, looking at the empty circle meaningfully.

It was Bonaparte’s turn to frown.

“Taught? By whom?”

“That’s going to take some time explaining.”

Bonaparte gestured toward the empty metal of the Great Gate and said, “It seems we’re all guilty of that. I have plenty of time until this reopens and I once more wage war against the British. So why don’t you tell me about it?”

Nicolas and Anne thought the man was taking it very easily. They sure had been completely baffled when the weirdly powerful High Lords had stumbled on them at that Plaza, fresh out of their new Profession’s Adjustment three years ago.

“There are multiple Earths? All identical?”

“The 113 number you can see here… it’s basically a way to differentiate between various Divergences. History until the Great Gates open is fixed, immutable, identical. Then anything can happen. So there are Earths where Gates opened before Christ, and Earths where they open a century from now.”

“What do the history books have to say about me, I wonder?”

“They name the entire period of history about you, it seems. The Napoleonian era.”

The First Consul smiled widely.

“But it lasts only until 1815 if I remember the details right. The British armies defeat you in a large battle somewhere in… Belgium? Waterloo? And you are forced to surrender afterwards. They exile you on some small island in the middle of the Atlantic.”

“Well, I did better this time, it seems, since it's 1820. Who got the fatal blow?”

“An English general. The Duke of Wellington, I think.”

Napoleon spat and swore, surprising Nicolas by the vulgarity.

“Ah. Him. I outmanoeuvred him twice in the Spanish conquest, and he’s been plotting back against me at the Ministry of War ever since. I would not even be surprised if this,” he said, gesturing toward the empty circle of metal, “was his scheme. It looks like we were fated to be enemies, then.”

“What happened?” Nicolas asked.

“From what I heard from survivors, the British managed to sneak a force into my backyard. No doubt they expected to cut me from the Labyrinth and force a definitive battle. Failing that, they have cut me and most of us from Earth,” Napoleon explained.

Then he smiled widely, “But you… you can help.”

“How?”

“The Gate has been slowly fixing itself. Integrity number ticked up twice, yesterday and the day before. But your Adjustment can repair the Gate.”

“Wait, what?” the two exclaimed simultaneously.

“See for yourselves,” he pointed and started toward the empty Gate.

Nicolas frowned and followed the First Consul.

“The British… Lords?… could reactivate the Gate by touch,” Bonaparte explained.

“Really?”

“Just be careful. It also killed them, and I’d hate to lose a tier-nine Professional I just got.”

Nicolas jerked back the hand he’d been raising to touch the surface. He and his wife looked at each other before Anne joined him and placed her own gloved hand on the metal surface. Arcs of lightning sparked between her palm and the giant loop. Nicolas held his breath, before noting the team descriptor’s values.

Bonaparte watched carefully the interplay of the Gate and the Lord before she pulled out her hand, interrupted the lightning.

“That’s weird. Very, very strange,” she said.

Anne looked at the Gate, but none of the numbers on the descriptor had changed.

“So?” Bonaparte asked.

“It… drained 1000 of my vitals. All of them, every second. But… it didn’t fix the Gate.”

“The British were very low level. Maybe that’s why they died. And they also had their Gate already back at 100/100. If you keep at it, I’m sure it can be done,” the First Consul said, smiling.

“Interfering with the Gate…” Nicolas said, before hesitating.

“It’s fixing, not destroying,” Bonaparte pointed out. “Can I count on you?”

Both Gides hesitated.

“France needs you.”

“Usually, High Lords of a Divergence keep neutral. But if you didn’t have Lords…”

Bonaparte seemed to hesitate for a second, before saying, “You’re not going to fight those Englishmen. After two years, they’re, what, tier three?”

Before any could reply, he added, “It’s all for the future. Some of my men have already gone back in the depths, to get as many levels they can before the Gate was close to open. I can recall all my forces, but that takes time. Then, we can start fixing that Labyrinth, with your help.”

“First Consul, I’m going to make a run to Panomekon. Drop a message to our friends who are helping look for this Divergence. I’ll be back as soon as I can, we both picked the Gate into Argenmart,” Anne Gide explained.

“Well, Godspeed Mrs Gide. Be seeing you soon.”

Rainbow light twirled around her for ten seconds, leaving nothing behind.

“Well, Mr Gide, while we wait for everyone to arrive… I am absolutely curious about all those Divergences? The ones deep in the 21st century do go even beyond Earth? Without using the Labyrinth?”