They were talking again, huddled together in a circle that closed out Luce and said clearly, in no particular words, that he wasn't welcome. Luce ignored them, sitting to one side with his back to a tree and his new sword in his lap. There were more interesting things than malicious gossip on his mind, after all.

	He was nervous. This was his first time in the world above; the first time he'd been allowed to carry a real sword instead of a practice blade.


----

	It wasn't the place he hated so much as it was the feeling of being enclosed, of being stifled, Luce thought. That, and the humidity. The air hung thick and still about his head, almost solid enough to touch. No fire would burn naturally here, and they had told him that using magic would only alert his enemies to his presence, so he had no light either, other than that provided by the sickly fungus growing in clumps along the walls.

	For a moment, Luce considered whining, then decided against it. There was no one to hear him anyway and it would be worse if there were- his companions had all left and everything else was likely hostile. Furthermore, his situation wasn't as bad as it could have been. He hadn't run into any hostile creatures yet, for one, and there weren't any pests about him to plague him and fray his nerves.

	Although there could be a simple reason for his good luck: the presence of a very large, very aggressive predator that considered the labyrinth its territory.

	Luce looked around him. He'd been quiet so far and there had been no traces of occupancy as far as he could see, but there was no harm in being more careful.