Sara really did enjoy the meal. She asked Joe how he could make food. He told her everything was imaginary and moved down to help another freelancer who seemed to have caught himself on fire and needed to be put out.

She sat at the counter for a while. The jukebox played the theme from Mission: Impossible as she thought about her next move. She really needed a map.

Joe came down the counter with another cup of coffee and picked up the plates. He had one eye on another customer who seemed to be debating what he should be ordering without a menu to look at for choices.

“Tim’s here,” Joe said in a low whisper. “You might be able to get him to show you some stuff.”

He indicated a diner heading for a booth toward the back. The new arrival was shrouded in black rags with a hood from a cloak pulled up to help conceal his face. A gas mask looking contraption covered his face. He had skirted the indecisive freelancer at the counter with a small wave at Joe as he went.

Joe came out from behind the counter. He waved at Sara to follow him to the booth in the back. Tim looked up from the shadows of his hood. His eyes weren’t visible, but she imagined he was squinting at the both of them standing there at his booth without food in hand.

“Hey, Tim,” said Joe. “This is Sara. She wants to see the mashed potato thing.”

“No,” said Tim.

“I’m sorry,” said Joe. “I can’t hear you through that ridiculous get up. I’ll get the

mashed potatoes. Sit down, Sara. Oh. Sara, Tim. Tim, Sara. Sara’s a new freelancer. She has a lot of questions.”

“Of course she does,” said Tim, as Sara sat down opposite him in the booth.

Joe went away. He came back with a plate of mashed potatoes. A soup of gravy rested on top. He put the plate down on the table.

“I regret ever showing you this,” said Tim.

“Still can’t hear you,” said Joe. He waved at the plate. “Go ahead and show her what you can do. Tim’s excellent at mashed potatoes, Sara.”

“All right,” said Tim. “This is the last time. Got me? After this, don’t ask again. And I know you can hear me, so stop with the I can’t hear you nonsense.”

“Can’t hear you,” said Joe with a smile.

“What’s the mashed potato trick?,” asked Sara. “I don’t know what Joe’s talking about.”

Tim touched one finger to the edge of the crushed potatoes. A brief glow ran up the finger. The potatoes started moving.

“Okay,” said Sara. Moving potatoes was a good trick.

“Wait for it,” said Joe.

The food formed tiny little towers and cities with a large wall around the center part of the plate. A large tower formed out of the center mass.

“We’re here,” said Joe. He pointed at one section of the model. “The three Dark lords between you and the inner wall are Mosk, Belsin, and Voit.”

He pointed out three bubbles of gravy surrounded by lighter potatoes.

Mosk’s bubble was right outside Joe’s door. The other two indicated territories were on the other side of the lagoon the model indicated was in the middle of his area of control.

Belsin had some kind of factory processing going on in the middle of his territory. Smoke stacks and supports for the building stood out.

Voit had a castle full of guns and it looked like he had a flying machine at the top.

“He has an airplane?,” asked Sara. “Why hasn’t anyone taken that and flown over the wall?”

“Because no one wants to be lit up and explode into a million pieces from the wall defenses,” said Tim. The air machine took off and did exactly that while they watched.

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“So flying over is out,” said Sara.

“Voit is sitting on the nearest entrance into the inner region,” said Tim. “If he was removed and the Light took over, freelancers from this side of the disc could get through easier than having to go to the two light controlled gates we have now.”

“A lot of people have tried, Sara,” said Joe. “The rumor is he mummifies them and stores them somewhere in his tower.”

Sara nodded. The last thing she wanted to do was get trapped somewhere in her quest when she needed to keep moving.

She looked at the model. The outer ring looked like a checkerboard with alternating spots of gravy and potato. The inner ring around the central tower was all gravy. That was a lot of dark lords to face to get to where she wanted to go.

“You said there were other gates through the wall that are controlled by the Light,” said Sara.

“Here and here,” said Tim. He pointed the two features out. They were on the other side of the Wall from Joe’s diner. She figured it would take at least a month of walking to reach either of those two spots.

“If we took these three lords out, the Light would give us access to the Wall,” said Joe. “Only it would be a miracle to take all of them out at once.”

“Does the Dark control the entire central ring?,” asked Sara.

“No one knows,” said Tim. “Once you cross in, you don’t come back. The Light have rules about that.”

“And they don’t break their rules,” said Joe. “Anyone who does is given to the Dark.”

“A fate worse than death,” said Tim.

“So there aren’t cars of any kind?,” asked Sara.

“Only if you have one as an imaginary weapon,” said Tim.

“What are those?,” asked Sara.

“They’re the weapons we took from the armory,” said Joe. “They’re called imaginary because they’re things from movies and books in the living world. Any weapon you grabbed was thought about by someone alive and the afterlife made real.”

“So if I could find an imaginary car, then I could drive around in safety?,” said Sara.

The men shrugged.

“There’s never been an imaginary car, has there?,” asked Sara.

“Not as far as I know,” said Joe. “This is a good model, Tim. Do you mind if I keep it?”

“I guess not,” said Tim. “It won’t update after Levvy attacks, or anything major, since it’s using my memory.”

“That’s fine,” said Joe. “Can you harden it so it will keep better.”

“No one comes back from the central ring?,” asked Sara.

“If they do, I haven’t met them,” said Tim. “Some Light officials and Dark lords

might be able to cross without problems, but not freelancers.”

He touched the model and it became crystal with the colors of his simulacrum.

“Thanks for your help,” said Sara. “Any tips on how to deal with the Dark lords that might get in my way?”

“Don’t try to take them on in a fair fight,” said Tim. “Pick the ground and do

whatever you have to do to take them. Fair play doesn’t apply here. They have degrees of overwhelming force on their side. There are few imaginary weapons that will stand up to a major deal.”

“Also if you have to run, do whatever you can to escape,” said Joe. He placed the model on a shelf on the other side of the bar where people could look at it but not touch. “It’s better to eat your own gun than let one of them capture you. That’s a slow death.”

“And it’s okay to skirt the central areas,” said Tim. “Going in without an army is a bad idea, but one person could get across to the Light bubbles on their path while avoiding any trouble.”

“All right,” said Sara. “I guess I’m ready. I wish I had a compass.”

“Compasses are useless here,” said Tim. “You have to develop an eye for straight lines.”

“Develop an eye for straight lines?,” said Sara. “Sounds like rubbish.”

“You’ll see,” said Tim. “Once you’ve been in the area long enough, you’ll be able to read the signs.”

“Have you thought about going home?,” asked Sara.

“I tried once, but a Levvy attacked and screwed everything up for me,” said Tim. “I have been helping out with the damage ever since.”

“A Levvy?,” asked Sara. This was the second time he had mentioned them.

“Every once in a while, a giant monster comes out of the darkness beyond the realm,” said Tim. “When it does, it disrupts the balance of power until it’s put down. The Dark try to grab more territory while the Light defend what they have and do what they can to put the Levvy down. Freelancers tend to fight, or try to get to a gate while the thing is munching on anything in its path. They’re almost perfect distractions against the powers that be.”

“And they wreck large sections of this place as it goes,” said Sara.

“Levvys aren’t common,” said Tim. “I’ve only seen two since I have been wandering the rim. The time between them wasn’t short from the way I have been keeping time.”

“Really?,” asked Sara.

“The only timepieces here are imaginary weapons,” said Tim.

“I guess that makes sense,” said Sara. “Thank you for your help.”

“Take care, Sara,” said the enchanter. “You might be able to use other freelancers as cover to get through.”

“We’ll see,” said Sara. She stood. “See you on the other side, Tim.”

“All right,” said Tim. He nodded. “Let’s do that.”

Sara walked out of diner, waving at Joe as she went. He waved back while he dealt with someone complaining their pizza didn’t have enough pepperoni on it. She looked at the bubble of darkness and thought she had a long walk ahead of her.

She needed a car.

She headed into the blackness, sighting along a natural feature sticking out of the river. All she had to do was keep that in front of her, and she should miss the center of the bubble and any of Mosk’s minions. Hopefully he wasn’t looking her way and knew she was coming.

Hopefully his people stuck around the cove where the river gathered into a pond before it moved along toward the edge of the checkerboard.

Sara paused in her walk for a moment. She rubbed her face with both hands. She could see a Levvy attack while she was trying to get through the central wall and messing everything up for her.

She took a deep breath and walked into the Dark.