The Earth King Has Invited You to Labyrinthia

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this very strange crossover.

"It is imperative for us to gather information about Labyrinthia, and the Storyteller, if we are to escape this place."

The morning had begun with flurry of action. Phoenix awoke in a panic and had lifted himself into the air in his shock. Layton wrangled Phoenix by the leg, Luke had calmed Espella, Phoenix had struggled with weightlessness as he lifted the two of them in the air, Maya had soothed Espella as Luke pulled them both to the ground. It had taken everyone several minutes simply to calm down and take stock of where they were again after the strange events of last night. Espella had, with no small wonder towards herself, even acknowledged Layton as a Firebender with no fear or prejudice. It was all very confusing, as Phoenix made clear from the moment he recollected the trial before.

Priorities had to remain in times of stress, however. Layton pulled his little group into a huddle and lit their faces with a ball of flame in his palm and issued his edict. "Something has its grip over the minds of the people, and so long as we are outside its influence, it is our duty to uncover it."

"That's a good thought and all," Phoenix pointed out. "But where do we start? Those books at the library were fake, weren't they? That's one lead gone."

Layton adjusted his hat. "True. Not all of them were fake, however, and I feel as if finding the right book is instrumental in piecing together the events of this strange case."

"Is the 'right book' the one where that Carmine guy showed up?" Maya asked. "Espella, do you still not remember him?"

"Not at all..." Espella wrung her hands, eyes mindful of the fire. "But it seems... logical? That it would have happened recently. If that is the case, then the book would be in the hands of the Storyteller still."

"You obtained it from him once before," Layton pointed out. "Could you do it again?"

"Possibly?" She pulled her cloak more snugly against her shoulders. "But if I were to try, I would have to go alone. It wouldn't be safe to put any of you in... that kind of situation."

"That's still really vague," Maya added. "What if that book's nearly full already?"

"We'd need a starting point," Luke finished. "Something we could find easy and then search from there."

Layton nodded in agreement. Something easily tracked down, probably an event in the main "story" that could be looked up rather than notes in the margin. "Espella, when was the last trial before we arrived?"

"Well... there was a case, but it never made it to the courts." The young lady's gaze went to the middle distance as she tried to recollect every little scrap of knowledge. "About a month ago, when the Bell Tower re-appeared, a good friend of my father's was found murdered in his home."

The statement, and the casual ease of which she said it, sent a jolt through the huddle.

"Cor!" Luke gasped. "What did it say in The Story about it?"

"It... didn't." Espella clutched at her hands again, pulling until her knuckles were nearly white. "It is the only murder in 100 years that was not foretold."

"Kira said something about the Bell Tower during the trial, too!" added Maya.

"We have our first lead!" Phoenix cheered, and the Professor pulled his hat low.

"Luke, I must entrust Phoenix to you."

Maya and Espella tittered at the face Phoenix pulled. "Wait-" the lawyer interjected. "That's supposed to be the other way 'round, right?"

"I'm afraid not, Phoenix." Layton explained quietly, delicately. "I believe I should be able to make use of my relative anonymity in this village to investigate. But so long as Labyrinthia knows you are an airbender..."

"Oh..."

"And a novice one, at that."

Phoenix flinched, and Layton regretted his choice of words. Luke, as always, was there to pick up where he was faltering, and stepped forward with a tip of his little cap.

"Don't worry, Professor! I'll get him airship-shape within the afternoon!"

"Actually, according to my hourglass..." Espella pulled the tool out of a pouch on her belt to emphasis. "I believe it is past midnight... it will be darkest night, so to speak."

"Then let's do it!" Maya cheered so loud it echoed in the cave. The huddle broke just to give her exuberance room to breathe. "Sneaking around in the night, gathering clues, sneaking past the guards-"

Phoenix chuckled. "You used 'sneaking' twice."

"Let's make it happen!" Maya threw her hand into the center of the huddle. "Go Team Nonfiction!"

"Yaaay team," said Phoenix with much less enthusiasm but a smile nonetheless. "While me and Luke get to stay in a cave, playing in the dirt."

"I look forward to seeing how your skills have improved once I return, Phoenix." Layton put his hand into the center with Maya's, and he grinned as Luke's little palm landed on the back of his hand. "We have the opportunity to break this dreadful sequence, to write our own stories with our own hands!"

"And then use that hand to shoot air in people's faces!"

With a last laugh and Espella and Phoenix's hands topping the stack, the party broke off. Luke and Phoenix took up the discarded peels from the floor. Luke's corrections echoing in the halls behind them, Espella lead Layton and Maya out into the town.

By the time Layton had gathered both his nerve and the girls, it indeed was. Under the cover of night, still beating dust and the flour from the bakery's bread peels off of their clothes, they set off for the Bell Tower. Espella lead them masterfully around every turn, leading them in ways even the professor would have thought counter-intuitive.

Maya asked, loud even in the tense silence, "What even are those tunnels, anyway?"

"They were a mine, once." Espella stopped when she came to a covered alley. She motioned to its back wall and started to climb over it using a stack of boxes as a ladder. "They carved all of the precious earths they could from the stone and then left it empty."

Layton saw an odd look pass over Maya's eyes. He held his tongue. They followed Espella faithfully, but she did not meet their eyes again in the dark. They wound in and out of streets, avoiding any sign of human life via dark shadows and blind corners. Twice they lost sight of her in the tangle of crates and barrels that made up the unused roads before they found her again, stopped cold in her tracks, waiting for them. Or so the professor thought she was.

Layton put an arm out behind him on instinct, and Maya stumbled into it with all her weight.

The Bell Tower loomed, a great pillar of wood standing over the stone village. The courtyard spread out far below. It leeched life away from its base. Buildings stood far from it in fear. Paved paths crossed the courtyard, but nothing pulled people to stay. No benches, no statues, no fountains or fences. No steps, nor even a worn path in the dirt, lead up to the cursed thing. The Bell Tower made its intentions clear. Stay away, spoke the dark wood. Run from this place and never come back.

Maya audibly swallowed. "Welcome to the Witch Factory."

"I wish you both the utmost luck, for this is as close as I dare to come to this place..." Espella reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out a little hourglass on a leather cord. She flipped the hourglass to empty the last bit of sand that remained in the top and spoke in hushed tones. "When it has turned 5 times, that will make an hour's time. Make your way back to the mine, and I shall meet you at the entry."

She pulled Maya's hand to hers and whipped the cord around her wrist. She knotted it snugly and continued. "I will find food and water and whatever else I can, and if I am able, I shall bring The Story. Concern yourself only with finding the truth."

"But-"

The professor cut in before Maya could speak further. "You have our word. Hurry!"

With a firm nod of her head, Espella turned over the hourglass for Maya. Maya stayed silent and flustered as Espella ran off into the night.

"But- but!" Maya flailed. "But that wasn't a mine!"

"You noticed that as well." Layton stepped a little further back into the shadowed alley behind them, giving himself a little time to think. Maya followed after a delay. "No, those tunnels are a purposeful labyrinth... one that Espella navigates with ease."

"It's fishy, professor," Maya grunted. "It's Water Tribe food levels of fishy!"

Memories came unbidden to his mind of cold eyes flashing out from behind friendly glasses, and a cruel smirk with a cruel laugh... He buried those thoughts for now. "At the moment, Espella seems on our side. Let us investigate, Maya."

"Hey professor?" Maya did not move. "You ever seen those nature show where they show the one little otterdeer out on the savannah before its gets eaten by a pride of bear-sharks?"

They shared a long look out into the empty courtyard.

"It is a mental image best put out of our minds, perhaps."

"Let's be the bear-sharks, Professor."

He liked that mental image far more.

Setting out into that uninviting place set his nerves on edge. Maya stayed close, alternated between keeping watch and keeping over his shoulder as he searched the base of the Bell Tower. A central staircase went up a long shaft to the top of the tower, but a heavy locked gate at the base prevented his entrance. The four support beams held no hidden doors or levers. The angle was too steep for him to climb, and the next set of supports was too high for him to boost Maya up, or be lifted in turn.

"Espella said this place re-appeared," Maya wondered with a turn of the hourglass.

"That caught my notice, yes." He ran his fingers over the gate's thick lock. No gives, no seams: the only way in would be by key. The gatehouse was even covered by a plank roof, or else he would have had Luke leap over the gate itself, were Luke here. "Although I cannot imagine how something this large could disappear without mechanical influence."

"Maybe it goes into a tunnel too, like we did..." Maya grasped his shoulder suddenly and bodily turned him. "Look, a witness!"

"Well..." It took a moment for his eyes to settle on the figure in the dark: a lone man, strumming on a shamisen on the steps of a tavern. "A bystander, at least."

A lead to be followed nonetheless, Layton and Maya crossed the courtyard to meet the man. He was a picture of noble frivolity, dressed in smooth silks and the brightest saffron yellows the royal court could afford. To see him outside a tavern made Layton feel the strangest sense of childhood. He was a man playing a history, not living within it. He had honestly seen his students put more effort into their 100 Year War Fair costumes.

The bard showed more awareness for his surroundings than his costume, at least. He greeted the two with the strum of a chord. "To enter the Bell Tower is to knock upon death's door, strangers."

"If that is the case," Layton quietly inquired, "May we ask about it instead?"

"Certainly. For a fare."

"I've got two of these?" Maya reached into her sleeves and pulled out two golden coins. "Found them while we were out searching!"

"Excellent." The bard took the coins and tucked them into the lining of his hat. Layton faintly wondered if he and Phoenix were the only two people in Labyrinthia with pockets. With one last little pluck of a single note, from the second string from the bottom, the bard played.

"Far away and long ago

The War began, and in that War

A Fire Lord of might and power

Raised his hand and said, 'Oh Earth,

'How you shall kneel before my feet

'And die before my hand.'

And as the Fire Lord, he spoke,

A mighty dragon, he awoke."

Maya let out a little sound of recognition. "Oh right, this is that fire-burned-the-town story!"

Layton asked, "Do you often make Phoenix so privy to your though process, Maya?"

The young lady nearly bragged. "There's nothing 'privy' about my thought process. It's all right there in the open!"

The bard's grin widened at the statement. Layton adjusted his hat. "So I have noticed."

"The dragon fire whirled aroun'

And burned the mighty city down.

The Storyteller built alone

With rock and word, with song and stone,

Until the city rose again

And all its people did rejoice.

But lo, the Lord of Flame with grow

Uneasy in her victory.

She called upon her hate and ire,

Summoned forth the dragon fire."

There was a pronoun change there. A blatant one, and it struck him in between the eyes with that dreaded headache from his arrival. Layton staggered, and in his periphery, he could see Maya buckling under the pain. He reached out to steady her, vision swimming so violently that he missed and hit a solid mass of air.

A voice commanded "Hold them," and his head was forced up.

She was a terrifying sight in the dark, the Fire Lord. A cruel sneering mouth under the eyes of a dragon mask, sharp claws at the tips of a metal gauntlet, a billowing robe of barely restrained heat and power. Between the pain and the fire and the grip on his head, Layton broke into an immediate sweat. He tried to check for Maya, but past a faint purple shape out of the corner of his eye, he couldn't turn his head to see.

"And yet, there it stands." Dread claws reached out and clutched over the Bell Tower. "The last remaining piece of the old Labyrinthia... and the killer of Newton Belduke, one month to the day after it appeared before us in a blaze from below.

"And why?" The Fire Lord began to pace. She circled around the two, and locked in place as he was, Layton could only look into the blank staring face of the bard before him. It had been a trick! "Why would he die? Why would the great and all-powerful Storyteller sentence one of his own citizens to a cruel, anonymous death? But then again, perhaps it is not my place to ask such things as a pawn of the king."

Layton clenched his teeth when the tips of those claws hooked under his chin and tipped his head upwards. "But answering questions is what you do. Isn't it, Professor Hershel Layton?"

He ground out through the vice-like grip on his throat- wait no how her hands were nowhere near- "Why are you doing this?"

"There is a reason for everything," she answered swiftly. "And if you do not find it, then I will simply find another to find it instead. After all, we both know how cruel this world can be... one Firebender to another."

The blood left his face.

"And how easily truths can be made from fiction."

"Hey, what- what's going on?"

Maya lurched forward. The Fire Lord released his chin, and Maya shuddered and jerked, protesting words spilling out in a panicked babble, faster and frightened and cracking from fear. All the while, her arms unfurled at the shoulder despite her every effort to keep them close to her, her joints as stiff as a rigored corpse. Layton threw himself against whatever held him. He might as well have been encased in stone.

The Fire Lord laughed. Maya's fingers gnarled into open palms and she laughed. Fire sprung up in Maya's palms, and Maya screamed, and the fire grew bigger and brighter and the Fire Lord laughed.

Layton wasn't free until the fireball burst in Maya's hands and hot air seared his ears and eyes. Darkness crept into the edges of his vision and his head started to swim-

"No!" He would not be knocked out again! He threw the fire out of his eyes and bent the flames away from Maya. Without a wall of flames to smokescreen her, the Fire Lord cut an obvious path through the courtyard and into the town. He shoved into a shuffling Maya, trying to find his footing and sprint all at once. "There! Maya, follow her!"

"Get back here, you witch!" An acrobatic twist of her ankles had Maya's shoes in either of her hands, and they ran. The Fire Lord never looked back, but once she went from a brisk stride to an all-out run, Layton gave up all pretense of a silent pursuit. He put his full effort into running and keeping up with the long-legged Lord, Maya keeping pace at his ankles and shouting every obscenity she could without breaking stride. Every heavy hammer of his legs against the stone woke him up, and he could whip his way around boxes and barrels no matter how hard the Fire Lord banked a curve to lose him. What should have been a minute's chase turned into two, and the breath began to leave him in big choking gasps until, in the darkness, the Fire Lord passed through a wall, and Layton and Maya slammed into it.

Somewhat luckily, although he would use the term loosely, it was only a half wall. The two of them buckled over the top, both swallowing and gasping for air but otherwise unharmed. Maya coughed a bit and spoke, always spoke, "I think I'm gonna throw up... wher- the hourglass!" She scrambled for the little tool at her wrist. "What number was I on?"

The professor's hand fell upon something as he righted himself. His fingers fell into a little groove that felt almost like... writing. Pulling Maya closer to him to block the light, Layton illuminated the stone with a flame from his fingertips. It was small, barely enough to read by, but it serviced.

"Newton Belduke," Maya read aloud. "Alchemist." She made a little angry noise and puffed out her cheeks. "We're getting lead around a lot for people outside of the Storyteller's control."

"It does not sit well with me..." Layton doused the flame and adjusted his hat, letting air touch his sweat-soaked hair. "Not in the slightest."

"But why are we getting set up?" Maya asked. "Fire Lady's problem is obviously with the Storyteller, not us. Did you hear how angry she was?"

He... hadn't. Not in his throws of panic. "I had not. My mind was in other places... we must return to Phoenix and Luke at once."

"What are we gonna tell them?"

"That we've found another lead. A more promising one. Or at least, one that the Fire Lord approves of."

"As long as we're on the rails, the story may continue," Maya disparagingly joked.

Layton grunted his assent.