Day 0, iteration 13. (C+1)

  Alastair’s head cleared up as he ate his gruel in silence, alone, at the Prison Tavern. He wondered how he could have a headache if today were the same as yesterday. Thinking about it made his head swim and he considered against it.

  He measured his options, but each option ran against his memory of Flor telling him she needed time away from him. They were used to an amount of separation, at least in the real world, since she would regularly travel for work. But they had spent the last eleven days together and he had grown used to her presence.

  It had been strange that she wasn’t in the lineup of released prisoners, and once he realized that, he became angry—perhaps at her, or himself, or the game in general. But not knowing where she was confused him greatly. An idea formed in his head, but he fought against the muddling of thoughts already jumbled in there.

  Should I look for her? Some mental block warned him against that - he did not want to anger her unnecessarily. If I’m stuck in this game, even after beating the city…there was the thread he had sought before…maybe she successfully logged out. Alastair pulled up his interface to log out.

  Log out. Yes/No?

  He hesitated. It didn’t feel right. Surely there would have been some notification other than just a congratulatory notification about beating the city. He mentally selected ‘No’ and the prompt disappeared. I should ask someone. But who? Alastair glanced around at the tavern patrons. They were an odd sort that he had seen multiple times over multiple days, always of a template, but never with any character to them. Placeholders. Non-persistent memory characters that added nothing. Then he saw Horace, the Prison Tavern Manager - 4. Horace had known little about their circumstance but had sent them directly to Mida, at the University, where they had gotten a clue about how to build a legitimate objective. {Technically, Horace directed them to Sithembile, a pretentious and unhelpful Scribe 5. Mida sometimes acts as an underling for Sithembile, and was therefore present when Alastair and Flor were rudely turned away for making a general inquiry. The journey, even though just a few blocks away, had not been direct.}

  Alastair stood and started to take his dishes to the self-bus station, then decided to go to the University.

  Mida was curious when Alastair showed up.

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  “You’re the one from my notes. But you’re normally here with a woman. Flor? Right? What’s different?”

  “I’m not sure. That’s why I’m here. First, she’s mad at me and said she wanted to spend time apart. But, we completed the city yesterday but didn’t get any notification that we had completed enough objectives to finish the game. So, I’m curious if she just logged out, but I also don’t know what an alternative might be. Which is why I’m here, I guess. To figure out what to do next.”

  “I’m not a family therapist,” Mida said.

  “No, no,” Alastair answered defensively. “I just need your insight on where to proceed next, since completing the city didn’t solve our in-game problems.”

  “Maybe I can help with that. Let me look through these notes. Do you mind answering questions about how completing the city went down? If it just happened yesterday, chances are I don’t have anything about it yet.”

  “Within reason.”

  Mida took a moment to review her annotated and indexed notes. “The last few things I have in my notes are that you were going to attack the Mayor’s carriage and hope that that solved your objective. Did it?”

  “Not really. We assaulted the carriage, sure, and fought off the guards and freed the children, but then the next day we were back to a neutral disposition with the Mayor and his family. They invited us into the manor, I saw the city interface, and we removed corrupted tiles from the puzzle. After which, the Mayor and his cohort threw a bit of a party, and then it was today…again.”

  “Ooh, you’ll have to tell me about the city interface. That’s not something I have notes on.”

  “Are you familiar with sliding puzzles?”

  “Moving tiles?”

  “Yes, along those lines. There was a large overlay of one on a city map, and two tiles that didn’t belong, or had gotten corrupted somewhere along the way. I removed those two tiles and then the objective was complete. Oddly unsatisfying, when I explain it that way.”

  “Perhaps you must complete more puzzles around the island to meet your exit criteria.”

  Alastiar considered that for a moment. “You mean you think there might be similar puzzle interfaces elsewhere around the island that I have to get access to and solve?”

  Mida nodded. “Something like that. I’m speculating, though.”

  “So where else?”

  “I’d guess probably the Keep, and maybe the Monastery. Maybe there is a hint in your items list?”

  “Huh.” Alastair opened his interface and went to his items. “Nothing stands out.”

  “Well, you can stay and hypothesize or you could go find out.”

  Alastair nodded. Sometimes it was just easier to have someone else make decisions for you. “You’re right. I’ll go check out the monastery and maybe find another player. Oh, but before I do, I was wondering if there is still the option of becoming a Scribe official? My interface still shows me as an unassigned job class.”

  “Probably. Just go to the intake office, which is the door next to the University entrance.”

  Alastair stood and made toward the door. “Thanks for the help. I’ll stop by occasionally to let you know how things go.” He started to walk through, then turned quickly, “Oh, do you think there is a slider puzzle here, at the university?”

  “Probably not. But I’ll ask around and let you know tomorrow today.”