The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

The two didn’t dally but didn’t hustle. Shortly, they were knocking simultaneously at the door of the pier shack. One of the pier hands opened the door hesitantly. A name didn’t show over the pier hand’s head; just the words “Pier Hand, Level 1.” The pier hand said, “What?!”

Flor took the lead, “We’ve had no luck finding employment. Where can we look?”

“This job is full,” the pier hand said.

“That’s not what I asked. Is there a job board or employment assistance office nearby?”

“This job is full,” the pier hand said.

Flor looked at Alastair with a raised eyebrow. “Single answer NPC?” He nodded concurrence. She turned back to the door.

“Where’s the warden?”

The pier hand backed up and pointed at a desk where the warden napped with his feet up.

“Let us speak with the warden?”

The pier hand shook his head no before pointing at a clock on the wall.

“Ah, siesta,” Flor said. She began to pull Alastair from the door, before turning back to the pier hand for a moment, “We’ll be back in a couple of hours.” Then, to Alastair, she said, “Do you think Horace has enough forgiveness to answer our questions?”

“What’s the harm in trying? Lose our lunch and dinner options and have no way to get food in addition to lodging? If that happens, we’ll see if hunger affects our energy or health. Maybe we could even starve to death!”

They walked the short distance to the prison tavern and into the dimly lit space. Horace came out from the back, wiping down a dish. “Oh, it’s you…no, I won’t reinstate your room.”

Flor started to walk toward the bar before saying, “We apologize about that. You probably realize we’re not from here and are still learning the customs. But, we’re trying to figure out how to earn a bit of money, preferably enough to pay for lodging for the night. Is there a place we can go to inquire?”

Horace scoffed. “You didn’t listen to the Warden when he cut you free, did you? You were too busy figuring out how to get in each other’s pants? Hahahaha!”

Horace realized they didn’t think his joke was funny. He then burst out laughing even more. It took a few minutes for him to calm down. After a moment, he caught enough of his breath.

“I’ve got a few jobs you could do here to get you back in my good graces. Do enough of them and you can lodge here for a few nights.”

Alastair said, “I guess that might be alright.”

“Or you could go to the Released Prisoner guild and inquire there, but I bet all of today’s good jobs were taken by those who went there directly after their meal rather than rolling around in a bed.”

Flor deflated a bit at that. “What sort of work do you have here?”

“Well, firstly, I’ve got a rat problem in the cellar.”

Flor and Alastair looked at each other incredulously, then back to Horace with wide eyes.

“Haha…no. No. You releasees always get spooked when I mention that, so it’s become a running joke.” Both Flor and Alastair sighed simultaneously. “Do you know how to cook? I’ve got a few maintenance things to do, besides fixing broken window gratings. It would free me up if you put lunch together while I’m doing other tasks. You two up for that?”

Although both Flor and Alastair could put together a meal, Alastair at least had some real-world experience, albeit years before, working in a restaurant. So he didn’t hesitate before asking, “So we prepare lunch, and maybe dinner, and clean up, and then we can stay again tonight?”

Horace laughed again, “Sure. You even get the customers to enjoy the food and I’ll throw in a couple of coins towards tomorrow night’s stay.”

“Show us the way!”

Horace pointed at the door he had come through. “Lunch is stew. The ingredients are there. If you make it right, you’ll recognize it as the same slop you had this morning. The prison system doesn’t give me a stipend to prepare fancy meals. I’ll check in on you periodically.” Horace tossed the dish he held to Flor, who fortunately saw the throw and caught it without issue. It wouldn’t do to add the cost of a broken dish to their tab.

Two things struck them as they walked into the kitchen. First was the apparent cleanliness of the space, with adequate workspace for food preparation and a large pot sitting near a simmering fire. Second was the plush, darkly colored ragamuffin lounging on its back with all its paws in the air, twitching as if running through dreams. {Cat number 6 is a well-cared-for, elderly ragamuffin named Dacian Sebastian, although Horace calls him Dax.}

“Cat whisperer, you get the cat. I’ll start chopping vegetables.”

She was already walking toward it when she called over her shoulder, “That’s not my name!”

Alastair found the workstation and figured out where the knives and meal ingredients were. He reached for a knife. His interface flashed and a five-by-five grid overlaid the workstation. Numbers from zero to five ran down both the top and left sides, and Alastair couldn’t recall what these puzzles were called. However, he did notice that his life, energy, and the clock were projected on the puzzle interface, but he didn’t recall them there from the Manacles puzzle.

He wondered if he could talk to Flor while in the puzzle, but did not appear to be able to do so. So, instead, he tried to exit the puzzle.

Quit Puzzle? Lose 30 minutes and 1 energy. Yes/No?

Certain he could complete the puzzle faster than five minutes, he mentally selected No then began to count the numbers and fill in the spaces that needed to be filled. {For those too impatient to wait it is a five-by-five nonogram (also sometimes called picross) with the numbers 1, 4, 4, 4, 1 on the top and 1|1, 3, 5, 3, 1 along the left side.}

What seemed like a minute later, he had filled in the puzzle. It changed from a grid to a poor representation of a slice of tomato.

1 of 4 complete. Continue? Yes/No?

If they’re all this easy, I’ll be done in less than ten minutes and have a net energy and time gain. Yes, continue.

The next three puzzles {I’m not going to give away all the secrets…} turned into poor representations of a leak, a piece of meat, and a carrot. Once the fourth puzzle was finished, the overlay became an overlay of a cauldron on a fire and the four puzzles twirled around until they entered and began to bubble away.

Puzzle complete. +1 to Nonograms.

Attempt puzzle again? Yes/No?

Nope. He came out of the interface. “Ah, nonograms. That’s what they’re called.”

Flor looked up from playing with the cat and said, “You all done? It’s been a while. I didn’t think you’d finish before the lunch rush.”

“It’s only been like ten minutes. And apparently, there are nonogram-style cooking puzzles in this game.”

“It’s been a bit over an hour. You’ve been cooking up a frenzy. Horace stopped a couple of times to check your progress. He seemed concerned at first, but satisfied overall. He said we could stay tonight if you clean up. But we can eat out in the tavern area before it gets busy and he’ll take over serving.”

Alastair felt strange as if his time was stripped away from him. Over an hour? He pulled up the interface and his clock showed close to 8 o’clock. Supposedly the second 8 o’clock of the day. And his energy had decreased by three. Three? Oh, maybe I earned one from the hour.

“What is your energy at?”

She went fuzzy checking her interface and then answered “32. Why, what’s yours?”

“29. I think that puzzle took four energy, even though the one puzzle was four smaller puzzles.”

“Well, that starts to answer some of our energy questions. Let’s go eat and I’ll tell you about Dax the cat.” She stood and Dax reached toward her hand with his paws, then quickly flipped over and ran at the door to the outside woodshed. Alastair was sure he saw the cat give Flor a disappointed look before disappearing.

“Yes, let’s learn ALL about this magnificent animal,” he said.