“You gentlemen are and aren’t hard to find,” the Zulu said.

Both Alton and Jonathan were slightly disturbed by the notion that they might be easy to find. Of course, Alton’s contacts had spread wide and far the call for all the Professionals stranded after surviving the Battle of London. But the foreign conspirator wasn’t British.

“What surprises me is that you actually sought us,” Jonathan said.

“I was hardly not going to. When you are tasked with three reasons to do something, it’s worth doing,” Cashile said, smiling widely.

“Three reasons?” Jonathan asked.

“The Chinese… Greatest Hero, Zhuangjing, wants you found, for her reasons of course. Mhambi Meshindi does, for he doesn’t want you to interfere – somehow – with his plans. And thus, the third and foremost. We, the True Chosen, want you then.”

“To stymie both of them?”

“Not just for that. Initially, when Zenzele discovered you were like the God-King, but of low level, you were merely a curiosity. Confirmation of his less than divine nature, if you want.”

“But that changed,” Alton interjected.

“When the Gates closed all across the Labyrinth, all were confused at first. Then, Mhambi Meshindi learned of your existence, which we’d kept unreported thus far, and all was made clear for him.”

“How?” Alton asked before Jonathan added, “He knew Adjustment was capable of disrupting the Gate closure.”

“Yes. He knew that. And so, once he knew of your existence, he sought you out almost immediately.”

“But why?” Jonathan asked. “The Gates repair themselves. Slowly, of course, but…”

“And Mhambi Meshindi can repair them as you do.”

“Probably even safer, if he’s that high of a tier,” Alton mused.

Cashile Impi shook his head.

“Mhambi Meshindi wants you, and that’s because you break the rules. The Gate Closer had been tested by us, carefully, once we figured it out. And it performs well. The Gate closes and takes about four to five months to repair to 100%, and three more to re-open.”

“Yet, when I used it, it closed a lot of Gates, not just one,” Jonathan said.

“You… interact oddly with everything Labyrinth,” Cashile said.

“That’s something you’d want to study for scholars. What about you,” Alton insisted.

“That’s the point. You are the unknown. You… amplify things. We’ve spent the last six years slowly preparing after Dingane, the unchosen, tweaked the original designs from Meshindi, the Aether Extender.”

“Extenders?”

“Devices intended to extend the range of Aetheric skills.”

“That’s what the Chinese used!” Alton realized, remembering the blasts across the skies, knocking the skyships out.

“Mhambi had to give it to them, or they wouldn’t have been able to sail here with impunity. But the basic design can be twisted in different ways… and you end up with Gate Closers, which Dingane says shape the aether flow into something akin to a Skill that Chosen ones don’t have, don’t use. All you need to use a Gate Closer is enough aether to fuel it.”

Alton closed his eyes and shook his head in wonder.

“So, you’re expecting us to amplify your Aether Extenders?”

“Something like that, yes. You are, how do you say it… wildcards. Worst case, nothing changes. Best case, you can tip the balance. Once we realized you could change Gate Closers…”

Alton smiled, predatorily.

“You want Jonas.”

“The Aetherist among you? Yes, him. But we’re… just say, we’re not just putting everything on the bet one spell wielder with your Adjustment can end Mhambi Meshindi.”

“But you want Jonas,” Alton insisted.

“All of you, him included. It will be safer if you can indeed turn the tide. And that’s where I have a problem.”

“Because the Chinese princess won’t let him go.”

“That. But things are moving. Not all of us are in the secret. Some are loyal to the God-King. And she’s playing a dangerous game – a useful one, from our point of view, but it’s her game to play, not ours. The loyalists are starting to pressure her on following up on her agreement with the Zulu Confederacy.”

“Which agreement?”

“To pursue and end you six,” the Zulu said bluntly.

Both Adjusted Professionals stared.

“That’s why she attacked the United Kingdom?”

“Not entirely. Phesheya was with her for the whole trip, and he probed a bit. Her Emperor wouldn’t have sent all of his most advanced Chosen and whatever low-tier troops he had around just to hunt you six on my God-King’s say-so. She wants to understand you, how you got where you are, and what lies ahead.”

“She wants to force people into Professionals.”

“She obviously doesn’t share her plans, but we think she wants to make her father, the Emperor, into one. Given that she knows the immortality aspects Mhambi Meshindi revealed to us… she wants her Empire to become eternal.”

“Excuse me if I’m not that a fan of that kind of filial piety,” Jonathan said.

“Filial piety is a great thing, among all decent people,” Cashile said.

“If it’s at our cost, then I am going to object,” Jonathan countered.

“That makes the three reasons you sought us out,” Alton noted.

“True. We could bide our time, but that’s increasingly not an option. If Mhambi Meshindi decides enough is enough, he will come. And she will have no choice, but to abide by his decision.”

“And kill Jonas definitively.”

“Or face Mhambi Meshindi. But she will not. She is not stupid. The God-King is far beyond her means. Only we have the means to end him, with your help.”

“Then it is urgent we remove Jonas from the Palace.”

Bonaparte was giving some instructions on team composition when the commotion reached him. His gaze snapped toward the incoming Professionals, slightly annoyed.

Two of his staff were escorting an unknown figure. And, based on the darkness of the visible skin… that could mean only one thing.

“Greetings to Bonaparte of the Dominion of France,” the robed African said as he reached him.

Bonaparte studied him for a moment. The robe was ample, billowing, but otherwise normal looking. But to his expert eye, the telltale signs of Artefacts were there. There was a kind of glow, on one hand, indicating some powered ring, and the man’s fingers were far too long for a human, indicating one of the curious or outright weird anatomy-altering effects some Legends could yield, like, well, his usual mask.

“Greetings to you as well, who have travelled far to visit us. You are?”

“I am Kwazele Gabadeli, of the Zulu True Chosen,” the spellcasting Zulu answered, bowing slightly.

“And I confirm. I’m sorry I missed our last meeting, Kwazele, but I was… slightly preoccupied,” someone said from behind Bonaparte.

“Ah, Jacques. I thought to see you here,” the Zulu acknowledged as Deschanel joined the meeting.

“Well, we all meet directly at last,” Bonaparte chuckled.

“So we do.”

“What brings you to my auspicious camp? As you see, we are busy mustering for the counterattack.”

Kwazele made a pained face.

“Well, you are going to run into problems. I can’t be entirely sure, of course… I’ve been running the Labyrinth for the last few weeks, to get here from our usual haunt and so I haven’t had news through the home. But you’re not going to face the British once that Gate reopens.”

“I thought so,” Jacques Deschanel said. “They got into problems with China.”

“When the Gates all around closed all of a sudden, our God-King took notice,” Kwazele started to explain.

“I am expecting everyone across the Labyrinth did, based on what Jacques reported,” Bonaparte noted.

“But that is the problem. He took action. As I said to Jacques, he was willing to bide his time, building the Zulus into an unassailable force, one to stand against all. But this Gate event forced his hand.”

Jacques Deschanel swore.

“Is that why China attacked the British? To help your God-King?”

“That is true. The ones among the British think I’m with the others, and the ones in the main assault think I am overseeing the Chinese. But that main assault was directed at you Frenchmen.”

“What?” Bonaparte couldn’t refrain from exclaiming.

“Mhambi Meshindi knows he didn’t have enough force to seize both France and England. He knew France had the Gate Closers…and that England…”

“Has special Professionals,” Deschanel completed.

“He fears both the consequences of your conflict, as much as those of any alliance. So, he enlisted the help of China, who has a major contention point with Britain, to be able to neutralize both of you at the same time, since he knows Professionals with the non-Profession-linked Milestone are dangerous.”

“What’s this about non-Profession Milestone?” another voice came from Bonaparte’s left.

If he could unwrap time, like a small Divergence, Bonaparte would have done so at that moment. Of all the moments the Gides could have chosen to wander in…

“The special Milestone that yields power to the Labyrinth,” Kwazele said, turning to face the two Professionals arriving on the scene.

“Adjustment, you mean?”

“Yes, Ukulungisa, as it shows in our descriptor view. The one strange thing that’s shared between Mhambi Meshindi and the British Chosen Ones.”

Bonaparte could feel the careful edifice he’d been building crumbling. He’d been hiding the fact that there was probably a high-tier Divergent Lord of the Labyrinth running around, ever since the Gides had told him about how it was unseemly for their kind to interfere too much with each other. If he was going to use them, better use them for as long as possible.

“There is another Lord here?” Anne Gide asked.

“Lord?”

“One who was remade with Adjustment by the Labyrinth when the Gates opened,” she explained.

“Ah, yes and no. When the Gate opened in our land, he came out, in full possession of all the powers the Labyrinth bestows one, and more from that Ukulungisa. He was like a God walking among us. But calling him Lord is appropriate,” Kwazele noted.

Both Gides startled.

“It’s the traditional name among us,” Anne explained.

“Among… you?”

She extended her wrist and Kwazele grasped it before his eyes bulged.

“You are another… Lord?”

“My husband and I were remade when the Great Gate opened, twenty years ago. But if this man came out of the Labyrinth when it opened, then he must have been waiting for this occasion. He’s bound to be an older Lord, raised long before your Gates opened and come to strike fortune among a new world like ours. It’s… bad form.”

Kwazele blinked in surprise, but his mind seized immediately on the implications.

“That’s what he fears.”

“Fears?” Bonaparte asked first.

“Once we were strong enough, he brought us to the secret zones, the trunk ones, and had us guard Gates leading to higher tiers. He always said enemies would come, and if they did, we had to run away and warn him. He was speaking of you. Of Lords, coming for him.”

“That might make sense, you know,” Anne said. “Even though it’s usually Lords of a specific Divergence who won’t interfere because they tend to neutralize each other and at that level, you court Final Death and there are too few of the High Lords around. A foreign Lord is a different thing, although…”

Kwazele asked a question before Bonaparte could speak.

“If that’s the case, are you not bound by that covenant?”

“It’s not a real covenant. More of a… polite and rational policy. But if he’s tier-fourteen at 8000 levels, there is little Nicolas and me can do to help our Divergence from such an adventurer. We’re at tier-nine, true, but five tiers of difference are almost a quality difference rather than just a bigger number.”

“I would probably survive quite a few hits, depending on his build and gear. But that’s certainly not enough. With gear typical for the tier, he might already regenerate something like 700 health per second and will absorb a lot of the attacks I’d make. And Anne will certainly be too busy to try to keep me from dying too fast, let alone survive, to help,” Nicolas confirmed.

“We’ve always known that,” Kwazele admitted. “And while we didn’t expect you, we knew we’d eventually need to act anyway.”

“Not to disparage your courage, but at tier-seven, there’s no way your best defender would last more than a couple of seconds unless that Lord of yours is a pure defender,” Nicolas replied.

“His skills are multiple, from defence to even healing.”

“Then you are truly lost. I may try to get some help, but as I said before, Lords typically won’t interfere, unless it’s a matter involving directly Lords rather than the Divergence itself. From what I heard, the last one was half a century ago, and it involved massive conflict. I know, it’s not a hard rule, but unless the council of Panomekon sanctions an action, it’s doubtful,” Anne said.

“We would not depend on foreign powers. We do have a plan, a strategy, with good chances. And a secret weapon he will not expect. But if he gets too many high-tier killed, our chances dwindle. And this war risks that, even if you are able and willing to help.”

“Wait, Meshindi is going to target my Professionals?” Bonaparte exclaimed.

“He knows Professionals are the major threat Zulu forces face. I hope that your high-tiers have fled.”

Bonaparte turned in the Gate’s direction, then hesitated and turned back to the Zulu.

“How does your strategy work? Can we open the Gate and…”

“No. There is an ambush to set up, and preparation in any case. And we need every high level we can muster to be ready.”

Bonaparte immediately beckoned Deschanel.

The Trade Faire was overflowing. Even though its manager was missing, there might be over a hundred Professionals packed on the grounds, with more coming and going. Almost all significant Companies, the High Labyrinth Office included, had emptied their stores, small and large, and brought their internal stock there. There was little haggling, little anything. You traded a promissory note, for a 4-choice of equivalent level or return of the original piece, and improved your gearset to the fullest. Following Her Highness’ call to arm, gone were the special trading among high-tier companies and hoarding of good stuff.

Those three are going to complain the moment they learn they missed this, Laura thought as the three members of the Adapted team made their way slowly along the packed alleys.

A striking green leather headband attracted her attention, and she quickly checked it and the two dozen various pieces of the stock on display.

Wilderness Bandanna

Head

Heroic equipment

Requires: Level 156

Provides: +141 defence rating, +21 STA, +19 WIS, +19 DEX, +215 aether, +2% regeneration

“Guss?” she called out.

“I’m starting to look like a fool,” the healer complained.

The Professional staffing the booth laughed. Guss’s new look entailed rust-red robes, azure gloves, and a too-large belt. Not that the black-and-white striped jacket on Laura’s back was any better looking. Ira was the only one who still looked like a real warrior, by luck.

“If it fits, it fits. Although people have already brought it back twice, after finding something better.”

“I doubt I’ll get anything better,” Guss replied.

“The good stuff goes fast,” the trader acknowledged.

Laura fished out a pre-made note, writing the name and level, and handed it to the man.

“The Arran Islanders wish you good luck,” the Professional replied.

“We’re going to need years to pay all of it back,” Ira shook his head as they moved further.

“We can always hand it back after,” she shrugged.

“No way,” he replied, reflexively touching the large engraved blade strapped on his back.

For nearly a year, after they got to kill Kuminos in the trunk zone and found out the existence of the Core, Ira had used the Artefact from the Plaza’s treasure chest.

Claymore of the Doneri Bull

Two-Handed

Artefact

Requires: Level 65

Provides: 79 base fire damage (+8% AGI +8% DEX), +163 defence rating, +1 Flat Blade rank, +1 Protect rank, +23 CON, +20 AGI, +19 FOR, +156 health, +138 endurance, +98 aether, +2% armour, +1% defence economy

And after all this, he finally had an upgrade worth using.

Runic Encrusted Flatblade

Two-Handed

Heroic Equipment

Requires: Level 144

Provides: 91 base physical damage (+17% STR), +208 defence rating, +36 AGI, +31 CON, +403 health, +1 Flat Blade rank, +3% armour

That was the difference between a legendary 100 guardian and a 200 one. The trader actually had three different Runic blades, which were always the treasure of that particular ancient, completely identical save for the skill rank offered. Ira had actually cheated, as one sported a Tradeoff skill and he’d “borrowed” it for a bit to “check it”.

Skill unlocked: Tradeoff

Tradeoff

Equipment/Defence

Rank 1: Lose your weapon Potential bonus and add 110% of it as defence rating (28) for 11 seconds. Costs: 0.99 endurance per bonus (25)

“Guys, I think we should really try to get some gear for them,” he said. “There won’t be an opportunity like that.”

“You’re going to turn us into slaves like the old Royal Company?” Guss joked.

“Well, right now, we do have access to a lair with a potentially large number of ancients…”

“I guess we’re not going to keep walking toward the USA sector now, are we,” Guss acknowledged.

Ira reflexively looked toward the direction of the City Hall, but, of course, there was no way to know if Sylvia was around at the moment. She’d taken to avoid the team once the USA Secretary of Labyrinth Affairs had endorsed her in writing about how she was an old-time Professional agent working for the FBL and “could be fully entrusted to speak for the government when necessary”.

“They’re going to be a bit under the levels we’re getting right now,” Laura countered.

“So… maybe we can offer a 2 for 6 note? Your pick of 2 slightly lower level heroics among 6 for one? Think that can work?”

Laura frowned. It was as if you could hear gear grinding in her head like the Profession Engine Babbage was trying to design.

“That… might actually work. It’s not a standard arrangement, but… At least for some companies that have lots of upcoming tier-four… Hmm… Although it’s to help people that are not there, once we cross the Gate…”

Ira reflexively looked at the team descriptor, but it had not changed. At least not for the missing three of their team. The only solace they had was that they were still alive after all this time.

Team

Professions

Health

Mind

Jonas Sims

Resilient Spellwrangler (173)

0/2029

0/1886

Jonathan Gilbert

Calculating Guardian (183)

3701/3701

1882/1882

Ira Heard

Solid Guardian (168)

7111/7111

2541/2541

Guss Fullmore

Imposing Fixer (165)

3773/3773

2990/2990

Laura Harvey

Light Destroyer (162)

4310/4310

2657/2657

Alton Raby

Abiding Stabber (165)

1208/1208

971/971

Their own vitals, though, had gotten through the roof. The truly high-tiers might not have gotten as much, but for the mid-tiers like them? This was the time where nothing was spared to make them ready for whatever would await them behind the Gate.

The only thing missing was additional rings. There were just not enough underleveled heroic rings, as those were the only things available for this specific equipment location at their levels. And of course, Cores, since those were in horribly short supply, no matter what. No one traded Cores.

Part of Ira felt dirty. That you needed such a crisis to get so much of a boon. But it would come out all right. He knew that.

“What do you mean, he’s gone?” Zhuangjing asked.

Jonas looked at the scene, not understanding any of the dialogue. His improved Intellect was supposed to be good at learning languages, but most of the conversations with the Chinese Princess were in English anyway, and most of the time, he was severely reduced in Potentials, which did translate into a mild, but irritating sensation of cobwebs in his brain, like a persistent cold. Despite the fact that he was usually far above mundane norms.

But he could still pick a lot from context and expressions, and her usually carefully cultivated demeanour was slightly off. Whatever happened, she was definitively not happy with it.

“We were told not to interfere with them, Lady Zhuangjing,” the Chinese Professional replied.

Although he couldn’t understand pretty much anything, Jonas could still spot the use of her name and what he recognized as some form of honorific. Given that most of her staff usually used one of the only terms he also recognized, the “Greatest Hero” title, whatever happened was serious.

“And what happened?” she asked.

“He asked for assistance to get to the mainland, and the captains all told him they were staying put unless manoeuvres were ordered. He then departed on his own, and we haven’t seen him since. And the rest of the black Heroes are nowhere to be found.”

Zhuangjing remained silent, and Jonas waited to see what was coming. The man had been ushered in unexpectedly as he was coming for the regular walk-interrogation, and he had started to fall into a kind of habit, so the intrusion was new. He just hoped that, whatever happened, it wasn’t linked to his team finding him. If the Chinese suspected their presence, they would spare no effort to catch them.

Finally, she dismissed the man without another word.

“Problems?” Jonas asked tentatively.

“Maybe,” she replied uncharacteristically curtly.

She turned toward him, sizing him up.

“Let’s walk a bit, shall we. I have lots of questions today.”