I studied the map for a while. “So who runs things here? Is there like a mayor or a king or something?”

“There is a council that manages the city’s administrative affairs.” Chow Li pointed on the map to the building along the edge of the courtyard that I’d thought looked like the Parthenon. “All six of the martial arts clans have a seat on the council to act as the voice of the citizens in our wedge of the city, alongside representatives of the various merchant and trades guilds. There is technically supposed to be a Praetor in charge, but it has been a long time since anyone has qualified to fill the role.”

“Who represents the Dragon Clan and Dagger Street on the council? Is it Sifu?”

Shashu snorted.

“Did I say something wrong?” I said.

Figures, I’d probably just offended someone accidentally.

Chow Li smiled. “Shashu here merely finds the idea of that old fart suffering through a council meeting amusing. No, I have the pleasure of being the Dagger Street councilor. Sifu is happy to simply sit in his dojo and play with his toy soldiers.”

I leaned toward Shashu and whispered, “Toy soldiers?”

“She means us,” he whispered back.

“Ah,” I said.

“So, Sifu and you have the same surname, Chow. Does that mean he’s your...?”

“Grandfather,” she said. “Technically he and I are equals, co-leaders of the Dragon Clan. But he has been doing it a lot longer than I have, plus he is the kung fu master, so everybody considers him the one in charge.”

“Only those outside the clan would think that,” said Shashu. “Anybody under this roof knows the truth.”

I caught a glimpse of a surprising flush of pink under the thick white powder that covered Chow Li’s cheeks like fresh snow on a frozen lake.

I spent the next couple of minutes studying the map and asking where I should go for certain things like armor, weapons, provisions, and so on. I intended to venture outside the city later on to test out my skills and explore this new Player body. They were full of suggestions. Most were along Dagger Street, of course, but they also recommended a few on other streets as well, which made me trust their judgment more. Almost all the shops they suggested were not at the top of the streets close to the city center, but down among the residential areas. I suppose like anywhere, the locals keep the good stuff to themselves and put the crap in the shiny places where tourists will find them. The city’s best blacksmith, for example, was far down Axe Street, deep into the territory of Eagle Clan’s blue armbands. The Dragons got along well with the Eagles, they said, so it wouldn’t be a problem for me to go there, even while wearing the green armband of the Dragon Clan.

I focused on trying to imprint the map into my memory and triggered another set of notifications.

System: New map saved

System: You are the first to use the mapping tool - Reward Tokens: +1 (4)

System: You know Cartography

After the three System notices popped up in rapid succession, a new status window also appeared, this one showing a detailed version of the paper map of the city on the desk in front of me. The recommended shops were even marked on it.

I ran my hand around the edge of the map. “What about here, outside the city wall? What’s out there?”

“Just a moment,” Chow Li said. She released the edges of the city map and it rolled itself back up. She replaced it in the credenza and came back with a new map and set it before us. It showed a smaller scale view of the city and its surroundings.

“To the north you pass through the Great Highlands before reaching the Northern Mountains.”

“Aptly named,” I said.

She smiled. I hadn’t closed the System map screen, and noticed that as she pointed out places on the new paper map they appeared on mine.

Chow Li pointed to the right side of the city. “Here to the east there’s the Eastern Forest, and past that there’s the Great Swamp. The Great Plains lie to the south and beyond them, yes, the Southern Desert.”

“I’ve always wanted to see the desert,” Shashu said.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“No you don’t,” Chow Li said. “It’s a terrible place cursed by ancient evil.”

“I thought that was the Great Swamp,” Shashu said.

“That too. Much evil. Stay away.”

“What about to the West?” I said.

“On the Western side you can follow the Serpent River that winds down from the mountains,” her finger traced the meandering line of the river from the mountains to the north down through the highlands before curving west just past the city, “until you reach the sea.”

“The Western Sea?”

“The Great Western Sea,” she smirked.

“But of course,” I said.

Whoever designed all this may have lacked imagination, but at least they had a sense of humor. Honestly, I found the location names refreshing. One of the reasons I don’t like fantasy books very much is because of the crazy unpronounceable names the authors always give to places and people. Give me the Great Plains and Eastern Forest over the Fields of Tatagooti or the Gragramli Woods any day.

“Are there any other cities or settlements around?”

“Mmmm,” she grunted and started pointing to places on her map, starting to the immediate right. “There was an elf village in the forest, but nobody knows if it’s still there. Past that, there are rumors of an ancient fortress in the Great Swamp.”

Those sounded like adventures for sure.

“Our clan possesses a few old swords made by the elves, back before,” Shashu said.

“Before what?”

“Before there was a swamp,” Shashu said. “Before the demons came. Before the war.”

Chow Li rolled her eyes. “There are no such things as demons. They are a metaphor used to distance ourselves from the evils of our own kind.” She turned to me. “Shashu listens too much to the bards and takes their tales too literally.”

Shashu clenched his teeth as well as his hands, looking at the same time subservient and defiant. “Perhaps, but you cannot tell me that the elven swords aren't the finest in our collection.”

Chow Li sighed. “That much is true. Elven weapons and armor are the best.”

“Are the elves gone?” I said.

“Yes, but I have never seen one,” Chow Li said. She put her finger on the Eastern Forest on the map. "There may still be some in the forest, but none of them anywhere will have anything to do with the likes of us.”

Backstory. Cool.

I looked at the map. “What’s that thing that’s marked there to the Northwest of the city?”

Chow Li dragged her finger up and around counter-clockwise, stopping at the marking I’d referred to. “The highlands above the city are unsettled, with many monsters roaming the area, but that there is called the Black Altar. Nobody knows what it’s about.”

Seemed like there was a lot of things nobody knew much about. Classic exploration adventure setup.

I pointed to a spot along the river above the Black Altar. “What’s this? Looks like a town.”

“It was, once. It’s abandoned now.”

“What happened to it?”

She shrugged. “It was before my time, but one day everyone in it just up and disappeared.”

“Let me guess: nobody knows why.”

I must’ve let a bit more sardonic amusement seep into my tone than I’d meant to, because the smile she gave me was a bit cold. “Indeed. I assure you, that is not due to any morbid lack of curiosity, rather it’s because of the high morbidity rate of those who've gone looking for answers.”

Adventure.

She moved down to the direct left of the city. “If you’re looking for a lively place, there’s a port town here on the edge of the sea. But getting there is dangerous. There are bandits.”

More adventure.

“Any trade from the sea comes in through our gate from that town,” Shashu said. “It’s called Seaside.”

Of course it was. Even more adventure.

Shashu sighed. “My gran told me that her gran said there used to be caravans of goods flowing between here and Seaside every day, and it was no big deal to see exotic things from across the sea in the shops. Now, we’re lucky to get a few barges a week.

I put my finger on the map at the Western Gate and traced a line along a road that went down, south of the city, through the Great Plains, and continued on. ”This looks like another main road,” I said.

“This area to the Southwest is mostly farmland, with the town of Acreage in the middle.”

“Not Great Acreage, or Southwest Acreage?”

“Mmm,” Chow Li hummed, her eyes closed and a serene look on ther face, ignoring me.

“Which means all the shipments of food to feed everyone in the city come through here as well.”

“Mmm,” she hummed again, this time nodding her head.

“That’s a lot of extra responsibility for one clan,” I said.

“Mmm,” Shashu said, whether consciously or subconsciously imitating Chow Li it was impossible to tell. “And a lot of work. I’ve done my time at the gate and I’ll tell you, inspecting everything takes for-ever.”

“It’s important to keep the city safe,” Chow Li said. She said it so automatically, I wondered if she hadn’t had to deal with that complaint more and a few times before. “It honors the clan that the city entrusts that to us.”

“But at least you get to know exactly what comes into the city,” I said. “Information is power.”

One of her eyes opened slightly and looked at me. “There is that, too.”

I studied the map. There was something about it, I knew that I was missing something important.

Wait a minute, look at this layout.

“System? Can you please overlay a hexagonal grid onto the area map?”

Faint lines spread over the map, but they were too big, and not oriented properly. The hexagonal city is the key.

"Use the size, shape, and orentation of the city as the basis of the grid."

Almost there. I feel like Rick Deckard finding snake scales in a photograph.

"Expand slightly. A bit more. Stop."

I knew it. The hexagonal grid tracked perfectly, placing every notable location smack in the middle of one of the hexes. In the six hexes surrounding the city, starting in the East and going counter-clockwise, there was the elf forest, the lone mountain, the Black Altar, the road to the sea, the farming town of Acreage, and...a lake. Chow Li hadn’t mentioned anything about the lake, but if I was right, there should be something significant there.

I pointed to the lake Southeast of the city. “What’s this?”

“That,” Chow Li said with the hint of a smile, "is the Forbidden Lake. So named for reasons you can probably guess.”

Adventure.

I knew for sure what I was looking at.

It was a game board.

All those adventures were in the few hexes adjacent to the city. There was potentially a whole world of thrilling, fun-filled locations out there beyond that.

Everything is a game.

“Chow Li,” I said, “this world, what do you call it?”

“This world is called Crucible, why?”

Crucible. A test. Interesting.

“And what about the city? What’s its name?”

“This city?” Chow Li said. “Did you not know? This is Toronto.”