Honored (Book 2 of the In Search of Honor series)

“Why haven’t you mapped the tunnels? It seems like something you would love to do.” With all their archives I couldn’t imagine them not wanting a map of the Undesirable tunnels.

He shrugged. “We aren’t really welcome. And while we do like to keep documentation, if you haven’t noticed we aren’t really into the adventuring out and getting into dangerous situations life. Unlike a certain lady who just seems to love bringing us all sorts of fresh information for our archives. I’m certain she would love to map the Undesirable tunnels.”

Was he wanting me to map the tunnels for them? “Well, who knows. That certain ‘lady’ might bring you back a map. One day. When there isn’t a war going on. For now, since we don’t have a map, do we have a guide?”

Henry pointed at Daniel.

“Daniel is our guide? Did they happen to give you a map of the tunnels?” Daniel couldn’t have learned this labyrinth in just his time with Henry’s unit.

Daniel shook his head, “No, Henry meant that I found us a guide. One of the men volunteered when we mentioned our plan to have the headquarters inside the Undesirable area of the city.”

“Why is this guide not here then? Aren’t we leaving for headquarters now?” I asked.

“Yes,” Henry nodded. “I didn’t bring him in here with us because I didn’t want to expose too many eyes to your current location. And I wanted your approval.”

Henry was actually asking for my approval?

Mr. Repair Man stepped forward. “We will lead her to the tunnels in the Undesirable area. If you are willing, can you have the guide meet us there? You can have the men gear up using our gear after she has left.”

And there went my chance to give input into my own situation, but it didn’t sound like a terrible plan. And I couldn’t think of something better. I nodded, “This sounds like a good plan from all the things I have been told. Henry, can you show the men the supply room after we have left? Daniel, can you have our guide meet us in the tunnels at the entrance to the tunnels?”

Henry and Daniel straightened up and snapped their right hands to just above the right brow in unison. “Yes Ma’am!” They were just a tad quieter than shouting. Guard precision. I guess this officially made me the commanding officer.

They were looking at me like they expected me to do something in return, so I nodded. Their hands went back down to their sides hesitantly and not in unison. Had I responded incorrectly?

“Mr. Repair Man, I want you to come all the way to the headquarters with me so that you know where it is and you can bring the supplies I requested.”

He nodded. “Sure, but you aren’t getting a salute out of me.”

I hadn’t expected one. “I’m not guard trained, so I’m not quite sure how to even handle a salute.”

“You typically give a salute in return, Ma’am,” Henry spoke up to fill in my lack of information. “And we call all officers Ma’am or Sir. You are now our commanding officer.”

Oh great. Now I would also have to learn guard mannerisms. “I will try on the returning salute thing. No promises on the Sir and Ma’am thing. That feels strange.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Henry responded.

I had to dismiss everyone so that we could actually put out plans in action or all we would do was stand around discussing them and guard ceremonial habits. “Now that we’ve determined all of this, go and do each task.”

Henry and Daniel saluted again, and this time I raised my hand and attempted to do the same above the eyebrow salute. It seemed good enough because they both dropped their hand back to their side, turned, and walked out.

Mr. Repair Man’s voice spoke in their wake, “I guess that means it’s also time for us to leave.”

I turned toward him and the door that he was opening.

Something touched my arm and I looked to see Dan. “That was a strange interaction.”

“The city is all about protocols and mannerisms. I guess it feels strange to them to not properly interact with the person they are considering their commander,” I replied while watching the door slide open and the darkness light up with the bright artificial lights of the Wall.

Mr. Repair Man stepped inside. “Are you coming?” He asked.

“Yes,” I grabbed Dan’s open hand next to me and walked forward into the tunnels with him at my side.

The tunnel felt just like the long artificially lit hallways of the wall. “Do these tunnels go all the way into the Wall or do you have to leave them to re-enter the Wall.”

“They have a couple points that lead straight into the Wall. It’s how we access the city to fix technical issues that no one in the city knows how to fix.” Mr. Repair Man’s voice drifted down the hallway.

A new high pitched voice laughed from one of the other cloaked figures, “Like when the Most Honored need their fancy houses repaired.”

One of the other figures ahead nodded and a voice that was neither high or low responded, “Yes, that is true. The Most Honored tend to expect us to fix things before they even make a request.”

“How do people make a request to fix something?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.

Mr. Repair Man’s much deeper voice responded, “For lighting in the tunnels, our systems keep track of if a light is working through sensors. At the fancy Most Honored houses and the castle, each house has its own call button, and we send a person out to talk to the head of the household maintenance. For city issues, there is a team that does repairs they can do. If they need help, they have a button in each area they can press to call us. Some areas don’t really use their button, like the Undesirable housing area. They don’t particularly like us intruding and tend to do most repairs themselves.”

Dan’s grip shifted a little as he interlaced his fingers with mine. He asked, “Could we use the buttons to call you for additional supplies?”

“If you can find them,” Mr. Repair Man responded without even pausing as he took a left fork in the tunnel.

“And how would we find them?” Dan continued his questioning.

“They are normally in a red box inside the office for that section of the city’s maintenance crew.”

“And where would we find that office?” This back and forth between the two of them felt repetitive, but it was good information for us to have to use to contact Mr. Repair Man.

“You would need a map. Or a person who knows where the office is. It’s why I said if you can find it. It’s tough to describe to an outside such as yourself, or even to one such as Liv here who hasn’t been free to explore the city in ages.” Mr. Repair Man sounded slightly annoyed.

Silence descended and we took another left fork. It seemed like all the paths we were taking were to the left. Just as I was noticing this, we walked straight past a hard left and right turn. “Why are we taking left forks, but walking straight through this cross intersection?”

The high pitched voice laughed and Mr. Repair’s man could be heard sighing before starting his answer, “The city is circular. We are on one of the main rings of tunnels right now. The cross intersection takes us to other rings, but the undesirables are on the same ring level as we are currently, so we don’t need to move to another ring. The right forks are to go into that section of the city. The next right fork would take you to the warehouse district, where there is currently fighting, and the fork after that takes us into the undesirable section where my guidance ends.”

“Oh, That’s a really cool layout. It makes sense in a strange way for footpaths. I always thought of the city as more of a grid, not of rings.” When I thought of the sections, I thought of their mostly rectangular shape that was slightly round to fit into the circular sections, but the more I thought about the rings, the more I could see how each section would fit into a ring.

“The main part is a circular grid with a grid layout. The tunnels were designed by an artist who thought having one access point to each area was smart, but they are fairly easy to follow and figure out without any landmarks.” Mr. Repair Man said as he led us left at another fork meaning we were almost at our destination.

The androgynous voiced person cleared their throat before answering, “I rather like the layout. It works well for connecting to each area and it is easy to always make it toward the center or toward the wall.”

It was indeed an interesting design, and so far I thought it seemed fine. I could see where it could be annoying if you were trying to get to a specific place quickly.

We continued on in silence until we came to the next fork. “This is our stop.” Mr Repair Man said as we went right. Just out of sight from the fork was a slab that looked like it was made from the same material as the wall. Carved into it were the words “Worker’s quarters.”

“This says Worker’s Quarters. Is that some special designation for this area?” I asked.

The three cloaked figures ahead stopped. The shortest one with the high pitched voice turned to look at the rock. “Oh that. I forget about that sometimes.”

“It’s original,” Mr. Repair Man added on. “It’s what the Undesirable area used to be called back when the City was first built.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t think of anything better to say. I’d never thought that the areas of the city used to ever be called anything different.

“Yeah. It’s quite eye opening when you realize just how much this City has changed since it was built.” Mr. Repair Man said as he started walking again.

We turned just a touch more, and I saw an arched entryway to the left with a slightly larger area where we were standing. At the other end of the space the tunnel narrowed and had what looked like 3 paths, only one of which was lit.

“This is the city entrance to the Undesirables area. Only the lit tunnels are maintained by us, but without a call or a warning from our system telling us a light needs replacing we don’t go further. We are not welcomed here by the people here, so your guide will have to take you further in.”