Mornings are for work

Narrator

A desk by the window, a laptop, a coffee going cold. Ador writes software for people in another city, and the mornings are theirs.

By lunchtime the town has other plans. A gate has come off its hinge, the inn needs bread, and there's a notice on the board that nobody else has taken.

Nothing in Cora City costs money. People pay you back in trust, a thank-you in their own words, and now and then a packet of seeds.

Cora City

The old centre still feels like a village: wildflowers between the cobbles, gardens spilling over fences, pines and blossom on the hills either side. Pick a place to read about it, or zoom in and look around.

The Square The Warm Cup The Lantern Inn The Bakery The Hill Garden Chapel Garden The Market Hall The Apothecary Cora City Central The Jetty Pine Rise The Allotments The Press Shed The Wash House The Lock Hut

+ − Whole town

The Square

A little tiered fountain, newer than the square around it. The water keeps its own quiet counsel.

A walk around town

Click a picture to see it bigger. The arrow keys flip through them.

The neighbours

Around forty people live here. Each has a routine, a voice, and usually something small they need a hand with. Pick someone to meet them.

Bram, the caretaker

Stone's warm on your side. I checked.

The square. He sweeps it, mends it and minds the fountain.

Show on the map

The rest of the day is yours

• Clear a plot on the allotments and grow something of your own.
• Help Toma and Pip in the orchard and Wen with the hives. Pressing Day comes in autumn.
• Cook for people. Twelve neighbours each have a dish that means something to them.
• Move the furniture, hang a picture, put a rug down. It's your house.
• Leave something cooked on the step. Some evenings later, there may be a cat.
• Write a short poem or sketch the view. Both go in your journal, along with that day's weather.
• Take the train to Larkspur for the gardens, the Rose Theatre and the flower stall.
• Write back to Yori's letters. She says that's the part everyone skips.

Evenings at the Lantern Inn

Narrator

Ren keeps the fire going until the last person leaves. Five nights a week there's a game on the long table: Eleven Lamps with cards, or Pine Rise with dice. Nobody plays for money.

Monday is lamp night. Lena lights the square's eleven lamps from east to west, and once she trusts you, she'll let you walk the round with her.

At home there's a radio, five records and a kettle. Nobody carries a phone; the one you have rings in the hall.

Korien

Narrator

Up the hill, in the cottage whose gate won't stay shut, lives Korien. She's shy, observant and hard to read. She weeds the far end of the chapel garden and thinks nobody notices.

You can fix her gate before she wakes, or leave caramel bars on her step. She never has to know it was you.

The story moves at the pace of trust, not a calendar, so there are no deadlines. Turning up too often is its own way of not listening, and the game never rewards wearing someone down.

On the board

What's finished and what's still being built, as of 13 November 2026. Your preview build might not have all of it yet.