“For the rest of that summer I made my way slowly southward, following the bends of the river and perfecting my craft, until finally arriving at my destination, the Guildhall, where on the first day of Autumn our journeyman efforts would be judged and we hoped we would be raised to the ranks of the Master Carpenters. Each prospective master was to present a single piece that showed their journey from competence to mastery and explain their techniques and the things that had led to their respective breakthroughs.”

  “I had chosen for my piece a complicated puzzle box that opened to reveal more and more details the deeper inside the box you got. I had constructed it from the many different types of woods I had encountered in my travels. There was Oak and Ash, Walnut and Maple, Rowan, Hawthorn and Cherry.”

  “Each layer was constructed from two or three different woods and presented as a puzzle that must be unlocked to reveal the new woods inside. The outermost layer was Walnut and Ash - a mix of dark and light, carved to represent the deep woods in which they were found. The treated Ash was a pale grey against the stained Walnuts deep black and gave the whole thing a foreboding look. Those two colours in particular had taken weeks of experimentation to get them right. When unfolded, they framed a mix of Oak and Maple, carved to represent fields of grain. The final layer was Hawthorn, Rowan and Cherry and had been carved to represent houses in a small rural village. I was rather proud of this carving and it had taken many frustrating attempts to get it to its current form.”

  “Do you still have the box?”, I asked. I am a huge puzzle fan and was hoping to see such a prize.

  Silas rose and walked over to a chest, hidden under some netting. I had not noticed it before as it was quite buried and almost the same colour as the decking.

  “Not the original”, he said as he rummaged about, “that was donated to the guild upon my graduation, something for the apprentices to aspire to I was told, but I have made a few more since”.

  He straightened his back with an ‘oof’ and turned to place a dark wooden box about eight inches cubed on the table in front of me. “This one is a lot simpler, but it should give you some idea what the original was like - why not give it a try?”

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  My greedy little hands needed no further encouragement and they shot out to grasp the cube, turning it about to admire the many carvings on its outside. There were scenes of fish slipping in amongst the river weeds and lighter patches that looked like sandy mounds that moved slightly when I put pressure on them. Poking and prodding it gently I noticed how some pieces moved easily while others appeared stuck. It felt like one of those sliding puzzles but in 3d, like a complicated Sokoban - or a traffic jam app for the phone junkies out there. A single piece of the puzzle popped out and I feared I had pushed something too hard but Silas just waved me on, “Congratulations, you have your first piece”.

  Looking closely at the piece I had removed I saw that it had a knobbly protrusion at its end which had been hidden inside the puzzle, this seemed to fit in a hole I found and with a careful twist another piece unlocked.

  “Wow”, I said to Silas, my eyes still locked on solving the puzzle, “how did you ever come up with this idea?”

  Silas bellowed out a laugh and started wheezing, “Rather painfully!”, he said. “I was just walking along a ridgeline at the edge of the forest studying the treeline for timber I could work with, not really paying attention to the ground right by my feet when I tripped over some root and sent myself down a steep bank neck deep in brambles.” He pulled back his sleeves to show where fine white scars still crisscrossed his arms. “It took me almost an hour of carefully detaching and threading a lot of nasty vines to get myself out and escape to freedom, but it did give me the inspired idea to do a puzzle. The only reason it scarred was I somehow managed to get it infected and couldn’t resist the urge to scratch while I waited for it to heal.”

  “Ouch!”, I said, “I prefer my inspirations to be a lot less painful than that!” Silas chuckled, “I too hope to never have the misfortune to be so inspired again!”

  The box gave a ‘click’ in my hands as the piece I had just inserted freed a hinge and it folded open to reveal a 16x8x4 inch board, carved in the likeness of the Galaxia.

  “Well done!”, said Silas, “That is the first of two layers for that puzzle”.

  “I looked down at the carving of the boat, tracing the edges of the carving, “This is the Galaxia, isn’t it?”.

  “Indeed”, he said, “I made it shortly after we finished weaving her sides and before Syrene decided that it needed more ‘sparkle’.”

  I peered over the side of the boat at the myriad small pieces of sea glass embedded in the weaves, sunlight reflecting off them to throw colours in the waters below.

  “So you became a shipwright after all I mused”, then I paused, “Wait, Syrene helped you make the Galaxia? So you did meet her again?”