Uphill Battle

[Dracos]

"That's also the center point of the church though.  I don't feel too comfortable about heading there before we either have an army or know a lot more about what's  going on with the gates," Dracos admitted. "Not that I particularly want to leave Rez in their hands either though.  Maybe do both?  Let's scout on Winderust and then make a long loop around the garrisoned areas to come near the church?  It has its own garrison but it'd be better than going through two I suspect.  And we might be able to use one gate to get to the other actually."

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"I don't much want to waste time," replies Tom, shortly. "I don't really see the value of going to Windhurst, and Rez wasn't captured- the papers said he escaped. His friends, apparently, didn't fare so well, and are now.. like us.

"Look, we've still got these to read, and we won't make much further tonight- I don't want to travel while it's dark. We may as well check these papers out and see if there's more info."

[Dracos]

"The value is we get to see a gate WITHOUT walking into the heart of the church power.  I'm pretty sure it is the gate of Regression that is there, which is what caused the problems for your friends and you here," Dracos argued, but noticing the darkness. "As long as we set some guard schedules, I'm fine with stopping here to study though."

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"Well, it's a no-brainer," reflects Tom. "We'll head up the hill a bit, that should be more defensible or whatever. I guess it has merit, but it seems obvious to me that each of us is going to know something *important*- and if we don't get all the information together soon, we might wind up hindering, rather than helping each other."

He starts directing everyone up the hill, packing the papers away for now.

[Dracos]

"Fair enough.  Let's be careful though," Dracos followed, switching back in speed reading when they came to a halt and beginning promptly trying to figure out what information was there.

"We also have the problem of that murder.  Specifically what information was taken with it," He murmured, leaning against a tree as he read.

[Carthrat]

With little to say to that, Tom takes his own share of papers and starts flipping through them.

[Brian]

The freed thralls quickly set up a camp, along with a guard rotation.  Even though they can't express themselves well (Seven is the most well-spoken among them, aside from Tom), they seem reasonably intelligent -- or at least competent.

The top of the hill is gained just as it gets dusky, so there's enough time to find a hollow across the crest -- which should shield the fire from the direction of most-likely pursuit.

Scanning through the papers yields a bit more, too.  Because the overseer worked with the thralls more closely (he makes Evan look like he was just the owner/broker, really), he knew them much better.  And he mentions two things of import:

At some point while he was with the Church, being changed at the Windhurst gate, Alexander was killed.  Either Evan was unaware, or didn't care of this fact.  Beyond that, Simmons was 'number seven'.

The rest is just outlines of training practices -- what the thralls were going to be used for.  There's nothing in the papers that remains to suggest what the eventual goal of training was, just that this batch of thralls should be sturdy, survivable, and especially compliant.

Reading through the books a bit more lets Phil put together a reasonable theory of the structure of the worlds here.  The reason any of the maps only have two gates is because that's where the worlds are connected.  But there's no real mention of Anabara beyond the letters and notes that Tom found earlier.

Checking supplies, it appears that the group can stay on the run for two weeks, as long as fresh water can be found regularly.  Three more days of water, otherwise.

[Carthrat]

After this is established, Tom reaffirms his decision; "We should head for the Anabar gate. While I'm pretty sure we don't want everyone to go *through* it, necessarily, I think it's our best bet for hooking up with Nathan. Never mind that the *entire infrastructure* of this place seems pitted against us- since they call Anabara a forbbiden sphere, that means the guys there will probably be friendly to us if we're unfriendly to the guys here.

"Which, uh, I guess we are."

[Dracos]

"Mmm...Reasonable," Dracos ceded.  "Though it could be other things, we'll know more when we get closer."  He glanced about for 'seven', getting up for a minute to head over to talk to him.

"Seven, got a moment?"

Dracos

[Carthrat]

While Phil does that, Tom starts trying to track down his *own* name, not to mention number; he figures out his own by the process elimination, if need be, and sees if it appears at all in the foreman's documents.

[Brian]

"Yes?" Seven asks, looking at Phil curiously.

Tom does find no mention of his own name.  After carefully searching, there's 19 backstories -- criminals, vagrants, etc.  There's also 19 men, plus Tom.

Hmm.

[Carthrat]

While Phil talks to Seven, Tom asks the nearest Thrall.. Eight, was it? Why did they all have to look the same-

"Eight, was I put through the gate at the same time as the rest of you all?"

[Brian]

Eight looks thoughtful for a while.  "Nope," he says with a shake of his head.  "Came later."  Dang, almost the same voice, too.

Though realizing that all of the men have numbers, Tom does realize that there is no number one -- or it's himself.

[Carthrat]

"When?" queries Tom, thinking. "Can you tell me just what happened at all? Or, better yet, what the men in suits said at the time?"

[Dracos]

"Seven, when I was checking through the books, it turned out you used to be called "Simmons" before they got to you," He shared.

Dracos