Partisan - Book II

Breathing Space

Somewhere to her left Allayria hears a muffled scream, and then light flickers on above her. Yes—she was right: if she leans against one side of the room and stretches out her hand it will easily touch the opposite side. She looks around and up at the low ceiling. It too can be easily reached and there's something about this Allayria doesn't like. 

"No need to panic, no need to panic!" Ruben shouts, and Allayria turns to see a small slot at eye-level open on the door. She watches as he strides past, looking unruffled by the cries of alarm and protest.

"This next task is very simple: look at the wall directly in front of you. On it, you should see four sliding metal disks with numbers written on them. Directly above these disks are a set of runes. Solve the code, set the disks to the answer, and get out of the room."

He pauses here, and Allayria thinks she can hear a long stream of cursing coming from the room to her left.

"Now, those with unconventional items: do not despair. As you might have seen, the walls of your room are not bare. You may be able to find some information on them to help you out. Alright, everyone ready? Go!"

Allayria turns back, looking at the strange symbols in front of her. She's trying to study them, trying to decipher what they mean, but all she can think about is how small the space is, how close the walls are, how if it fell over now it would be like laying in a tomb.

She lets out a shaky exhale, closing her eyes for a moment.

That's not helpful, she tells herself, opening her eyes and fixing her gaze on the disks and the symbols—nothing else. Panicking is not going to get me out of here.

But staring at the symbols won't get her out either. Ignoring the jolt of pain, she tries to think back to Lethinor, to the codebook Ben had, the symbols he deciphered, but none of them looked like these. She's never seen anything that looks like these and, suns and moons, she wishes she had that damned codebook...

She hears a rumble to her right—way down but, aside from a few shouts of alarm, nothing else happens. She places a hand on the wall, trying to feel through it—see if she can see anything—and something curious happens. She runs flat into another metal wall around the stone ones.

So none of the Nature-callers can get out, she thinks, impressed. Of course, they probably could bust through the door, unless...

She presses a hand on the door and feels the same layering. Ruben must have used a Smith-caller to meld the metal together after they entered the rooms. Despite being perfectly capable of Skilling away both elements, she feels a pang of alarm, an unwilling feeling of being boxed in.

Turning back to the code, she flips open the watch, staring down at it then up at the symbols.

A question queries itself in your head:

Is it perception you'll need or a language never said?

"Perception..." she whispers, holding the clock up next to the symbols. "Perception, perception, perception..."

She hears a door rattle somewhere, then a shout.

Perception...

"I can't be in here!" a voice shrieks. "Let me out!"

Time—will something happen when the hands move to a certain position? If I stand here...

"Let me out! I need to get out!"

Someone bangs on the wall near hers, shaking the box she's in. She nearly drops the watch, bracing herself against the walls as it almost teeters... Her knees bend as she sinks a little, sinking her center of mass lower, stabilizing it. Her breath comes out erratically as someone starts screaming now, screaming in high, panicky wails that seem to ring through her head.