The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

Alastair and Flor stayed with Mida throughout the day. Twice, Mida ordered lower-level scribes to get them food. Two additional cats were brought in.

{Cat 015 is named Onu, short for Onuphrius, which is appropriate because he is such a good cat. Maybe even the most cat that ever catted. Regardless, Onu is a sphynx and inherently knows he must be the best cat because sometimes ungrateful people judge his lack of fur. But, fur doesn’t make the cat, and he’s happy enough to forgive those who think he’s wrinkly.}

{Cat 016 is a toyger named Conner. Conner is self-confident enough to not be disturbed that his name is Conner.}

After a period, a Level Two Scribe brought in a city map with a bunch of circled locations. After looking it over, Mida handed it to Flor and said, “Hopefully this map is persistent since I’m giving it to you as a gift. The circles are the locations where cats have been known to appear. It looks like at least ten, but I can’t claim that any of them are ones you’ve already encountered.”

“Oh, Flor, check your item interface. Does it appear as an item? If so, it’s fully in the inventory and should carry over.”

Flor spaced out for a moment. “Yes, it’s there. Guess we’ll see in the morning.”

Beyond the cats, Flor and Alastair wrote their interfaces in individual books. Mida had produced a couple of blank notebooks and new pens, and said without ceremony, “Get to it.”

At one point, a loud knock came to Mida’s door. Another level three Scribe opened without waiting for a summons and said, “Sithembile is displeased. She wants you to know your disposition has dropped to a neutral plus.” The level three then left without waiting for a reply.

Mida groused. “Ah, whatever. This is more important than me attending her.”

Alastair took the moment to ask, “What are the levels of disposition? We’ve had several that have gone up and down, but is it a range that’s followed explicitly?”

Mida answered, “It goes from ‘despised,’ which is rare, to ‘loved,’ which is also rare. Usually, it starts at neutral and then builds or deteriorates from there.”

“I have a despised from the Mayor. I’m guessing that’s bad?”

There was a bit of a shock on Mida’s face. “What!?”

“Yeah. Flor might have it also. Flor? It’s under…”

“I’ll find it.” Flor seemed to check. “I don’t know. I have three negatives next to his name.”

Mida sucked her teeth. “That’s bad. Yeah, that’s probably despised. I…we might need to make preparations.”

“Why? We just avoid him and he goes about being a child kidnapper. Eventually, we expose or defeat him, and hopefully, those kids don’t suffer again.”

“It’s not that easy, Alastair.” It was strange for him to hear her say his name. He wasn’t certain Mida had addressed him before. “There is a theory, not supported by evidence, though, that at the extremes of the disposition grid, there is something like attraction.”

Flor said to Mida, “The Mayor is not a pretty man. I promise I’ve got no attraction toward him.”

“It’s not like that,” Mida said. “It’s that, if you either love or despise someone, you are, well, I don’t remember what the primary text says. But basically, you’re drawn together, you seek each other out, you have an increased opportunity to find each other by luck, or you actively engage in figuring out where that person is. So, there is a possibility that the Mayor remembers you, recognizes you, and might be actively seeking you out to do you harm for your scheme to release those kids.”

Both Alastair and Flor remained silent, considering the gravity of Mida’s words. Eventually, Alastair broke the silence, “So you mean to say that, if he’s enough of a prick, the mayor might send thugs out to find us and hurt us?”

“Simply, yeah.”

“Now I like him even less.” He considered another question. “Can he get us here?”

“He would not likely send people into the university, but it’s possible. The structure exists outside of his oversight, under a different revenue stream. But, if he has a contact that knew you were here, there would be no administrative policies to stop you from getting shived.”

“Is anywhere safe?”

“Not really. Not that I have experience with, anyway.”

“Can we decrease his disposition to something that won’t have him seek us out?”

Mida again adopted her teacher’s face. “You’ll have to ask him that, in person.”