[Troubleshoot, Dispatch]

  I stood before the wide open gates of an adobe city. It had buildings eight to ten stories tall. All the same reddish orange hue. This wasn’t Tregaron, not by a long shot, I turned back to look at the portal, where were my friends? As I stared at the portal it winked out. There was a vast desert out beyond where the portal had been.

  That was not good. The cat meowed, I put her down. I decided her name was Nyxi. “Nyxi don’t you go running off, I don’t want to be alone any more.”

  She trotted through the gates and with no gate guard to stop me I followed her. The city was completely silent, with no cars, buses, bicycles in sight. Nyxi continued to trot down a wide straight road that appeared to lead to the city center. I followed walking past the eerily silent buildings, deserted outdoor cafes, dried up fountains were centered at each cross street.

  Did the water supply dry up forcing the city's inhabitants to flee or had a war or plague caused this. How long was I going to be here? I’d been careless not taking my knapsack with the supplies. I’d just barely survived my first foray into the tower, with no food or water. Why was I here and where were my friends? I continued to chase after Nyxi who seemed to have a destination in mind.

  We eventually arrived at what appeared to be the center of the city featuring a huge dusty dried up fountain. Nyxi had ignored the fountain, the cafes, she was sitting next to an upright arcade cabinet that looked completely incongruous in the middle of this deserted and I can only assume ancient city.

  Then I heard Mi, Mi, Mi, Do, Mi, Sol, Do, Mi, Sol, La, I knew that theme. Granddad had hooked up my fathers NES for me when I was a little girl and we would play all day long. I’d always play as Mario, he was always Luigi. I loved exploring every one of those worlds, learning every secret. When people would ask how I’d gotten the travel bug, I credited that game.

  I never cared about the score, or how fast I could go. I just wanted to see it all. I couldn’t understand why people would choose to use the warp zones, you missed half the fun that way. I knew where they were and how they worked but once I’d learned their secrets I never went that way again.

  I walked over to look at the arcade version, it was harder than the NES version, trying to get more quarters out of the kids who’d mastered the game at home. There was a clear plastic bag loaded with quarters sitting above the screen. I may have ADHD but I’m not an idiot. I’m lost, have no food or water and I have no idea how to trigger a portal. I wasn’t going to stop and start playing a video game favorite from my childhood.

  I walked back to the fountain, looking for some sort of control mechanism to turn the water on. Nyxi trotted over to me, clawing at my pant’s leg.

  “I know sweetheart, you are probably hungry and thirsty, I’m looking for a way to turn on the fountain. We can live without food for a while but water is the more critical resource. I’ll start searching for food and drink in these buildings bordering the central plaza, then spiral out towards the walls. We won’t die here Nyxi I promise.”

  She trotted back to the game meowed loudly, stared at me, yowled, stared at me. I checked all four sides of the fountain for controls both inside and outside of the fountain.

  Maybe the controls were back a little from the fountain, under a manhole cover. I stood on a nearby table, looking for any odd looking or missing bricks in the roadway. Nyxi ran over, hopped up onto the table I stood on and clawed my pants then backed away as if she’d drag me to where she wanted me to go.

  I unhooked her claws, picked her up, gave her head a scratch then she started struggling so I put her down on the roadway. She trotted back to the game and yowled.

  “Okay, sweetie”

  I walked over to the machine, it shouldn’t be here, there doesn’t appear to be any electricity in the city, so how is this even functioning? I put a quarter in and hit start. The familiar game began, I heard a murmur of voices, the fountain was spraying. The square was full of people and I could smell food cooking.

  The people were speaking a language I’d never heard before. I went to the nearest person, a young man who was wearing a toga. He was speaking to another young man at the same table. They both ignored me.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Excuse me, could you help me please.”

  No reply, nothing they didn’t even bother to look in my direction. I reached out to touch the young man, I heard the game over theme from the arcade machine. The young man disappeared. What the hell is going on here. I looked back at the fountain, I ran over to it to see if there was any water left in it. But it appeared as dry and dusty as it had before. But Nyxi was perched on the side of the fountain, and she had two water droplets hanging off her whiskers.

  So there had been real water in that fountain, how it had disappeared and dried up so quickly I have no clue. So what I need is some kind of container to hold the water. That bag had a lot of quarters in it, but I can’t waste them. It might be my only source of water in this world. Possible food too, I’d smelled food cooking.

  Okay plan time first find a vessel I can use to collect water. The larger the better, or a large number of smaller containers like mugs, cups. I made my way onto the nearest table and surveyed the plaza, no convenient buckets, vases, cups, pot, or pans, were anywhere in sight.

  I hopped down and started searching the nearest building, the first floor was bare, I walked up a dangerously steep set of stairs with no railing, the second floor was as bare as the first, I ascended another set of stairs as dangerous as the last. This floor yielded a cracked cup and plate on a low table by the lone window. I left them sitting there, while I searched the rest of the house.

  While I searched, I thought about the most efficient way to use those quarters. In the arcade version, there was a warp zone in world 1-2 once I was in that space, I had until the level timer ran out losing that life. It’d take time to get to the zone, but then I’d have around two minutes before the timer ran out. It was a shame the unlimited life trick wouldn’t work in the arcade version. Damn capitalists building financial empires by smashing little kids piggy banks.

  I didn’t find any more pottery that I could use to catch water in the rest of this building nor the next two, but in the third I lucked out with a large bowl that didn’t seem to have any cracks. I carefully carried the three containers, placed them next to the fountain. I was starting to get thirsty. I’d learned my lesson about dehydration from my first trip into the tower.

  I started the game and made my way as quickly as I could to the nearest warp zone. I now had two minutes to get water, drink and observe life in the plaza, and with any luck grab some food. Before refilling the three containers with water. Three sets of two minutes per quarter.

  After reaching the warp zone I ran to the fountain and filled the plate, cup and bowl. The cup leaked through the crack so I drank from the cup and then headed back to the machine, so I could use my second life to move back into the safe warp zone. After reaching the warp zone I looked around for the nearest food. I saw some not too far away, and dashed in that direction. I only had two minutes to get there and back to the machine so as not to waste my third and last life.

  I had four meat kabobs in hand as I headed back toward the machine. I tossed one of the kabobs to Nyxi. Made it back to the machine just in time to safely maneuver my third and last Mario to the warp zone. I took my time eating one of the kebabs while the two young men still sat at the nearest table. They might even have been having the same conversation, as I didn’t recognize the language I’d need to remember the exact sounds, it didn’t seem likely I could do that in just two minute chunks of time.

  What would be easier to do would be to watch the people moving through the square and see if they made the same movements each time. I wasn’t sure why I thought it was important to know I just thought that it was. I tried to mentally note people walking around. I had a pen, pencil and paper in my knapsack, but unfortunately I didn’t have the knapsack. That made me think of the friends that I’d left behind. I hope they made it home through the portal, or at least somewhere safe.

  I was still eating the kabob when the game over theme ended, and the people started to fade away. Nyxi was still eating her kabob, so I turned back to the game cabinet where I’d put the other two kabobs. They were gone, they'd disappeared when the game ended. I rushed to the big bowl of water to find that it was as dry as a bone. But the kabob I was still eating was still in my hand. Nyxi’s kabob was still sitting in front of her as she chewed.

  So, more containers wouldn’t help, unless I found a canteen that I kept on my person. Something I’m very unlikely to find. I count the quarters and am surprised to find I have one hundred and sixty nine quarters in the bag. That’s enough to live here for half a year, if I only ate and drank every other day. But I don’t want to live here for that long. I’m assuming this is either a test for me or a lesson for me. If what Aya had said about the tower being sentient was correct. I should have had more discussions with Draco about the nature of the tower beyond the fact that he and Merlin had built it together. I know Draco was planning on using an upper floor for his lair. But I have no idea what Merlin’s plans for the tower were or are to be.”

  So I know where to get food and water for the next four to five months. I’m going to look around the rest of the city, to see if there is any sign of life, or any other anomalies like the arcade cabinet. The more I learn, and the faster I learn it, the faster I’ll get out of here. The first time through, I needed to eat peas, the second time, find grand dads trail, fix heaven, third time, destroy hell, and find granddad's path. Perhaps there is a government office, with records but if it’s in the language spoken by the two young men by the game even if I find a record with his name on it, I won’t know what it’s a record of, it could be death, his arrival, his departure. So instead of records I’ll do a quick search of the entire city for outdoor anomalies, then indoor nearest the central plaza spiraling outwards.