Looming ever closer like a magnificent god-palace come low to the earth, Zan saw the massive shape of the tower gradually come into focus until it seemed to dominant everything, like an elaborate mine at the base of a colossal mountain. Are we going inside? Zan wondered. He did not actually know. He knew the war group and he would be riding hard to ensure safe and uneventful passage, but this was about it. If asked, they were independent fighters. That is the sum of what Zan knew about the plan.

"What's the inside of one of those towers like?" Zan asked.

"Just wait and find out," Winters replied his gaze fixed on the gate ahead.

When Zan and Winters approached the guardhouse before said gate, the guard -- dressed in a uniform denoting the dual loyalties of the Kingship and Principality -- said to Winters, his gaze never leaving the many other riders, "What does your merry band of troublemakers have to say?"

"Greetings, good gentleman," Winters said. "As you are able to plainly see, we are wandering fighters with civilians, non-combatants. We need safe passage to the city beyond this trading branch. If it makes a difference, we have a citizen from Sunstar with us..."

The guard looked into Winters eyes. Then the men behind him. His eyes squinted as he searched for the civilians. Grunting, he found them at the center. To Zan, he seemed oddly let down when he saw the civilians. Could mean trouble for his numbers, perhaps.

"Hmmm, fine. Go on through. Wait in the atrium while we figure out what to do with you." The guard said, pressing a button which made an obnoxious noise. The gate descended and allowed the frock inside. Leading everyone to the well-designated atrium, Winters warned people against getting complacent. 'Stay on your guard,' Winters said.

"Do we have to stay on our guard?" Zan asked, genuinely interest on his tongue.

"Why wouldn't we?" Winters asked.

"I don't know... seems like we would have ample time to prepare for an Expanse assault. The workers here look formidable, too," Zan said, eyeing the workers who pushed and pulled heavy carts full of shining ores.

"Formidable or not, these workers will not defend us should we come under Expanse assault."

"They are our countrymen, though. Why wouldn't they help ward off the enemy?"

"Tower workers are a different sort, Zan. They work for the company. Not their country. Let's stop talking about this for now. Please order your friends into a rotation watch. We must keep our guard," Winters said.

Obeying, Zan brought his friends to help protect half of the civilian circle. They were pleased with their assignments. Zan held the impression, now, of Whiskey and Jiehong preferring civilian matters over military. Searching his feelings on the matter, Zan enjoyed the military issues more. They were easier to solve than the social alchemy of people and their needs. This is not to say Zan would've described himself as a warmonger. He liked defending his country. He liked the discipline in life which came from military affairs, but this was it.

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"Okay. They are patrolling. What are we doing?" Zan asked Winters. "Shouldn't we be searching for a way through to the other side so we can be heading to the next tower?"

Regarding Zan as one would regard a pet who had eaten the family's meal, Winters said, "What do you mean? Were you thinking we could traverse the trading passage by horse?"

"Of course... how else would we traverse?" Zan asked.

Winters groaned or sighed -- Zan couldn't tell which -- and told Zan about the strange ontology of trading passages. "They aren't normal, Zan. These towers were once commanded by powerful magic users. Magic users who knew the secrets of creation and were able to build monuments to their power."

"So, the towers are the monuments?"

"The learned class thinks so, yes. That is not important, however. What is important is the terrain the towers are built on. It isn't normal, Zan. We wandered into the tower, yes, but believe me, this is mostly by good fortune. We could have missed the rotation cycle..."

Zan couldn't keep up with what Winters was trying to say. "What are you talking about?"

Grunting, Winters cut to the chase and said to Zan, "The space surrounding the towers are not the actual space of the trading corridor. If we were to wander away from the grounds of the tower, beyond the walls by a certain distance, we would not find ourselves in the Kingship. Rather, we would be somewhere in the Deep Woods."

"Deep Woods?" Zan asked. Confused. And becoming agitated.

"The Deep Woods is the endless expanse of forest which covers immensity around the edges of our World Zone. And before you ask! A World Zone is our home. Our section of Creation, of the planet, where all the countries of our lives live, have lived, and will live. Beyond the limits of the Deep Woods are more World Zones. Zones with their own people and nations. I have never been to another World Zone, but I hear stories of those who do."

Recently having fed himself an energy and protein heavy snack, Zan was able to process Winters's history lesson effectively and to integrate it into his current situation regarding the towers. "So, if I am understanding this right, what you're saying is something like this: the towers were once ruled by powerful magic people, people who cast spells on the towers to bring them into connection with other towers. Because the towers connection, reality broke. Now we have a sort of 'bleeding' effect from Super Large Forest. In other words, we can enter towers, since they literally exist on the territory of the Kingship, but we can't leave one tower for another because we are likely to become lost in the mire which bled over from the Deep Woods. Which is why I also guess we can't just go straight for another tower, because the further we get into the corridor the more likely we are to become lost?"

"Bingo, kid. On the money," Winters said, impressed.

"Why were we able to enter this tower, then?" Zan asked, weary of the mechanics of towers.

"Oh. We don't know why, but it appears to be standard practice for whoever built the towers to build the first and last tower within a specific articulation of the limits before the Deep Woods. This allows people to safely traverse the network. Usually... always remember to follow the signs if a tower approach has found it necessary to put signs up in the first place. Assuming you can read."

Signs... reading... getting lost in an endless forest...

Not ideal. None of them were. The notion filled Zan with anxiety. Though he did make a note to be extra careful. If he wasn't, he was liable to get eaten by something horrible. He didn't want that...