Lord 2 Lazare stood and said “While I have always argued that we should not traffic in children, I still argue that we should remove the faulty sections of the city, even if it reduces the city’s size. I recognize that means that we would require the Lord Necromancer to interact with our city interface. It’s unpleasant, unexpected, and undesired. Yes, I know. But doing so will allow us to fix the inherent structure problems and repurpose growth to build defenses against the pirates which harbor in the northeast bay.”

A few voices of concurrence rang from the audience. But others declined. “The Lord Necromancer should deal with the pirates, not us.” “Deal with the drought instead.” “Think of the taxes we could pull on beer.”

I didn’t know there were pirates on this island. Drought. Taxes…? The realization of their challenges hit Alastair hard. This was a multi-staged problem, and they hadn’t even finished the first objective yet. Hopefully, that wouldn’t prevent them from getting out of the game.

“Lord Mayor, if I might?!”

The room quieted and everyone looked at him.

“Ah, the guest my lady whispered could defeat me in single combat.” He scoffed, then said, “You may approach.”

Although Alastair felt concerned, he said, “My lord, may I interact with the table?” When Oliver didn’t respond, Alastair continued, “I’m inclined to puzzles, even those that may seem of an engineering or planning nature. I could solve your concerns without needing to call on the Necromancer, although the sections of your city might still be destroyed. Although we’ve been here only several days, I’m not overly inclined to allow toward destruction.”

Lady Rosa stood, “My Lord, a man brave enough to face you in single combat but callous enough to return to your table might be just the sort we need to solve the city’s problems.”

Oliver harrumphed. “Fine. You have fifteen minutes. But wait.” He leaned over as did something Alastair would have sworn was set a ‘save state.’ Okay. Don’t mess up my city…”

Alastair moved to the table. As he approached, his interface flared before him, and then he saw a new interface of the city overlaid on a grid. The normal sub-interfaces of money, energy, health, rage, and time surrounded the borders. The same dark sectors that Alastair saw before remained in the interface version.

Alastair clicked one, and the grid shook, but nothing else happened. He looked around the grid at large before noticing a small circular ring in the top left quadrant. Alastair pulled the ring and the grid flashed, leaving a small hole where the ring had been. Alastair touched the grid piece next to it, titled Upper Floodplain, and it slid along a grid he couldn’t see to the open spot. Huh. So it’s a slider puzzle. There looked to be twenty-four pieces, with the ring taking up the twenty-fifth spot. But was his goal to move those four bad pieces out to sea? There weren’t numbers on the pieces, so Alastair didn’t know the ideal configuration.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He did another practice slide before restoring the city to the original configuration. The four darkened sectors were on the Battery, Lower Floodplain, Auxiliary Market, and Southeast Tower. Perhaps if he navigated them to the edge, he could remove them. Would he also have to restore the city to the current configuration, and how would that look without the affected pieces?

Alastair figured the first thing to do was excise the dark, then worry about the proper order. He glanced at the clock and realized the Mayor’s imposed fifteen minutes was counting down, so he started moving the dark sectors to the edge of the map. It took him two minutes, but both dark sectors were on the side. He considered picking up the dark spots or pushing them out of the frame. Finally, he pushed them to the corner where the locking ring had been.

Remove Lower Floodplain? Yes/No?

He selected yes and the Lower Floodplain disappeared, replaced by a square called ‘Null.’ He repeated the process with the Auxiliary Market, then the other two darkened sectors. Let’s get this map back in order. But what do I do with the null blocks?

Alastair decided to move them into the spot he had taken them from and the game would figure it out. Although the blocks weren’t numbered, it was easy to see how the major roads reconnected. The pieces slid easily. After a few minutes of moving pieces around, Alastair was certain he had it back to normal.

That table flared in technicolor. Then the four null pieces were absorbed into the larger map. The city seemed to shrink in size a bit, although the map expanded to fill the space of the table.

Puzzle complete. +4 to Sliders.

Attempt puzzle again? Yes/No?

Nope. Why is that always an option?

Congratulations. You have completed the city!

Congratulations! Achievement achieved: Maps! (Complete a slider)

Congratulations! Achievement achieved: Rainy! (Complete the city)

The interface shut itself down. Alastair looked up from the table and the Lord Mayor and Lord Lazare were conferring quietly. They noticed him coming out of the interface. Olivier said, “My brother has convinced me that this is the progress we need. We shall continue forward with the city as it currently is, and we owe a debt of gratitude to this lowly scribe Alastair.” He walked over and slapped Alastair on the back. “Well done, young man! Now, we should go out and see the city and then return and feast!”

Alastair looked at Flor, but she was already leaving the vault.