Podon Is Alive in a Cell

Jonah and Vala found a cell that should not have held a ghost from an older problem.

Inside was Podon Xopip Kelbar Lokas, frail, shaking, and badly diminished. Jonah was surprised because he believed Podon had died after the sewer encounter. Instead, Podon had survived and been carried forward by the kind of old debt that never really stops moving in Jericha. Fangapore war connections, old service, and consequences from before the maze had finally caught up with him.

He was alive.

That did not mean he was well.

Podon said Jonah had saved him before. He spoke of being sent to live in the maze, and the way he described it made survival sound like a punishment worse than death. Vithyrex's Maze suddenly felt less self-contained. It was not only a dungeon of hearts, portals, and distorted love. It was also a place where older sewer, Fangapore, and manticore threads had been deposited like unwanted evidence.

Jonah had found another survivor.

He had also found proof that the maze was connected to more of their past than anyone wanted.