The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

Mida continued, “Let’s go get some food, first. We can swing by the sanatorium later if you still like, but it’s been an interesting couple of hours and I don’t think I can go on much longer if I don’t get something nutritious in me. We can swing through the cafeteria or I can get one of the lower levels to bring us something. Any preference?”

“Well, we’ve had croissants and sloppy stew for the past several days. Something different than that might be nice.”

“We’ll skip the cafeteria then. I’ll send for some fried noodles with vegetables. Since you eat the slop, I guess you’ll eat meat or fish? And since I want you to be sober answering my questions, we’ll limit the beer. Objections? I thought not. Walk with me in the meantime.”

Mida leaned over, opened a drawer, and withdrew a small pouch. Then she stood and led them out and down a few turns and up and down some stairs. It felt good to stretch her legs after a couple of hours sitting on a stool. Alastair gets the stool next - I’m not dealing with more sore glutes. Mida stopped a Scribe 1 and talked to her momentarily, then led on. Eventually, they entered a courtyard. Flor realized it was different than the one they had entered earlier that day.

“This place is a labyrinth. I haven’t been able to keep track of where we are, and it doesn’t show the details on my map.”

“It should reveal as you progress. Although…we haven’t had players visit yet. It might be something that prevents the map from updating. You did kinda sneak onto campus, so maybe there is an anti-theft enchantment to prevent mapping. I’ll bet if you had actual access, it would show up normal.”

Alastair asked, “Is that a gamer-ism or a known theory?”

Mida shrugged without commitment. “The enchantments exist. I can only speculate that it occurs here.”

“What would we need to be here officially?” said Flor.

Mida pulled the pouch out of her cloak, and then pulled an item out of that pouch. A small multicolored cube filled her hand. “Memory cube. This won’t get you onto the campus, but if I adjust it to a certain combination, it will allow me to remember certain things related to other things.”

Alastair exclaimed, “You’re using a Rubix cube as a memory palace!?”

A look of shock filled Mida’s face, followed by a question. “What is a Rubix cube? And a memory palace? But even not knowing those words, I think it does what you’re excited about. If what you say is true, this item, once I hand it to you, acts as a unique item, because it is mine.

“Be mindful, I will hunt you down and take this back if you do not return it to me. I will overcome the limits placed upon me to do so. You may think me a simple Scribe, but I spent more time and effort than you could fathom to gain this item. Do you understand?”

Alastair nodded while Flor said, “Yes, we understand. You’ll get your cube back.”

“I’m not giving it to you yet, because I expect we still have some discussions to take us into the evening. I’ll set it once we’re done, loan it to you, and when you return in the morning you will be able to skip probably seventy-five percent of what you’ve told me. Assuming that you reset to today, that is. If it’s tomorrow, we’ll continue as if it were today.”

“How does it work? Jog your memory, that is?”

“Do you understand maths?” Flor nodded. “I’ve assigned a value to each color, and their placement on the faces of the cube, related to each other results in an output; not unlike computation. I can place values into the cube and recover them later, as long as they are within the realm I encoded.”

Alastair broke in, “How does the cube not reset? And aren’t you supposed to be a persistent memory that recalls all that you’ve learned already?”

“Oh, you’re wondering why you haven’t received a ‘Mida favors you plus one’ message? Because despite your stories, and despite the trust I grant you by giving you my Memory Cube, I still don’t like you.”

“I thought we were becoming friends?!”

“We might. I’m open to it. But, so far, you’ve told me stories and not provided anything of substance. Remember my disclaimer on ideas and theories. If it is just a story, I can’t validate the proof. At that point, my value of you is likely to decrease. I’m friendly and open, but greedy.” Mida looked toward the courtyard entry. “Oh, look, our food is arriving!”

A Courier 1, place a bunch of containers on the table. Mida gave the guy a coin and he grumped then departed, probably realizing it wasn’t worthwhile to get into a tip battle with a Level 3. Mida spread them out with utensils and then started eating the noodles.

“There is a chance, but I think it’s small, that the cube will reset and not be in your inventory. If that happens, and I don’t remember any of this conversation, you’ll just have to try again until it works.”

“But why wouldn’t it work? Alastair said you should have a persistent memory.”

Mida stirred the noodles and remained silent. She whispered something.

Flor said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“WHY DO YOU THINK I HAVE A MEMORY CUBE!”

The silence that followed Mida’s outburst cut through the spice in the noodles. Flor could hear her heartbeat. The realization came slowly.

Flor said, softly, “Because you don’t remember…”

Mida remained quiet, not willing to look around. Flor respected her silence. Alastair started to say something, but Flor muffled him.

After a stretch, Mida said, “Can you imagine what it is to be a scribe who has to review every single note again daily? Everything I’ve learned, I’ve had to condense into a cipher, a cube, that I can break repeatedly. To get back to step one. That’s why I took an interest in you. Because my day never gets to be a plus one. Unless I work at it. Every day…that’s why you’ll never get a disposition message from me, because I’m not persistent.”

Alastair looked at Flor and Flor looked at Alastair. Flor said, quietly, “We’ll help how we can. How can we help?”

Mida closed her eyes and took a couple of deep, slow breaths. “I don’t know that you can. So, bring my cube back. Help me advance. And I’ll help you as I can.”

“I have an idea. Let’s finish eating, then Alastair and I will introduce you to our daemons.”