The Clockmaker's Flood

You are Dara Fennel, apprentice to old Marek, and you have climbed the steep stairs to his attic workshop to retrieve his prize pocket-watch — the one he is due to present at the Guildhall Competition in forty minutes. The attic smells of oil and brass dust. Then you see it: a cracked water-pipe behind the wall has been weeping all morning, and the slow flood has reached the workbench legs. The watch is sitting in a shallow glass float-tray on the lowest shelf — if the water rises two more centimetres, it will be submerged. You need to get that watch out before the water ruins it, but the tray is wedged under the shelf above by a stack of heavy gear-boxes. You cannot lift the tray directly. You will have to float it out.