It was between lunch and dinner. Alastair felt as if he had drunk five heavy beers. {He had. Not a smart idea, boyo.} His head still swam. I do not like this hay mat…

  “Well,” said Galoots, “he’s up. Maybe he’ll stick to his promises. Ready to do the impossible?”

  The many beers continued to swim. “No. I need a moment.”

  Galoots pulled him along. She pulled him to the temple, then around the back. The large statue of the goddess looked out, while two additional smaller statues of a man and a woman knelt in supplication, although facing away from the goddess statue.

  “So,” said Alastair, “we have to turn the supplicants to face the goddess and then the interface opens up?”

  “Spot on. It’s honestly a bit simple, but not necessarily obvious to come around back of the goddess,” Galoots rocked on her heels next to him. “Now, be strong, do your thing, and then show me the city.” Galoots placed him on a corner of the statue of the goddess and went to the opposite corner. “Three…two…one…lift! Now, small steps and rotate.”

  Boom. The statue was released. The first supplicant locked into place facing the goddess.

  “One more. Finish and receive your pay, but I’ll tell your boss when you run away.”

  “Is that something you have to say when you turn the statues?” said Alastair.

  Galoots scoffed. “Sorry. It’s something I tell people when I supervise their training.” She moved over to the other supplicant, and Alastair did also.

  “Are these movable with only one person?”

  “Give it a try.”

  Alastair shoved hard at the statue, which seemed to slide around easily. “Why would you tell me to pick it up?”

  “I’m not able to pick them up by myself, but figured I might be able to with help. I just tried to add it to my inventory, but it doesn’t add. So it was really just curiosity.”

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  A table rose from the ground in the vestibule before them. Galoots looked at Alastair and said, “If it’s anything like the city, you should have an idea of how to activate and complete it.”

  A bit annoyed at her silly manipulation, Alastair said, “This one seems like just knowing where it is. The city interface requires planning and connections to access.”

  “Don’t get spicy on me or anything, Nova. I don’t know if I can handle the white man’s heat.”

  “We’re helping each other if you forgot. Don’t be a jerk about it.”

  Alastair walked to the Monastery interface, which seemed similar to the City interface but smaller.

  “Fine,” said Galoots. “Just so you know, there is a five-minute timer. It’s a slider. Good luck.”

  The interface flashed before him, and an unfamiliar view of a monastery map was overlaid by a nine-by-nine grid. He still saw his normal sub-interfaces of money, energy, health, rage, and the current time around the edges. There was a single dark spot at the middle right edge in a section called “scriptorium and library,” and he noticed a familiar grid-lock ring in the top left. He popped the ring to engage the puzzle, then slid the leftmost piece up, then the centerpiece left, then continued in a clockwise motion until the dark spot was where the gridlock had been. He clicked it.

  Remove Scriptorium and Library? Yes/No?

  Alastair selected yes and the piece disappeared leaving a blank spot. He then reversed the order of his piece movements until the pieces were in their normal configuration. The table flashed, and the map seemed to shrink and then expand.

  Puzzle complete. +1 to Sliders.

  Attempt puzzle again? Yes/No?

  Easy answer. Nope.

  The interface faded and Alastair noticed that Galoots was gone. “Gal, where are you?”

  A moment later she hurried back from around the side of the temple. “Are you done already? I was going for another beer, thinking you’d be at this for the full five minutes at least.”

  “Uh, no. These things are second nature to me, and this one seems unusually easy.” He held his hands up defensively, “I’m terrible at codewords, though, which is an awful trait for a scribe, I know. Sliders just make sense to me.”

  “You could have warned me.”

  “I thought I did. Count it as me being a jerk to you.”

  “Oh. Fine. So, you’re done, then?”

  “Yeah. I’ll take you back to the city, but the city interface is in the mayor’s manor and I’m not sure I have access to it.”

  “One way to find out. I’ll be happy to escape this ditch.”

  “I’ll wait while you gather your things, though in experience you should just expect to be back here in the morning.”

  “Let’s go then. I’ve got nothing to take.”