Vash stepped into the first room of the Gauntlet. As he crossed the threshold, the heavy oak door swung shut behind him, locks engaging with a series of soft clicks. Turning, he saw that there were no keyholes or access mechanisms on this side of the door.

Only way out is forward. Vash thought.

Closing his eyes, Vash let his will sink into his Core, a blossom of warmth spread through his chest from a place just below his heart. It pulsed in time with his heartbeat. With a gentle nudge, Vash expanded his senses. Like a bladder filling with air, his aura expanded as he released mana from his Core. Opening his eyes, Vash took in the room again, looking for anything out of the ordinary, anything dangerous.

Initially, nothing tripped his senses. The room was a standard square room, roughly two paces across, with stone walls and a tiled floor. Mage-lamps on either side of the room emitted a soft golden glow that was slightly brighter than candlelight. Apart from a slight stuffiness, nothing in the room seemed out of the ordinary. The walls were solid, no holes for arrows or spikes, no pipes for gases or liquids. None of the tiles felt truly different from the others, as they would have if they had traps.

Vash slowly crossed the room to the opposite door. It was the same construction as the one he had entered through. Oak banded with iron, though it had a standard key lock from what Vash could tell. He touched the handle and tried opening it.

Locked, Vash thought when the handle barely moved and the door remained firmly in place. I suppose my first challenge is to get out of this room.

Kneeling next to the lock, Vash passed the dagger across the keyhole, blocking the light. He waited a moment. One of the Eth Mitaan tricks against intruders was to wait by keyholes or peepholes. When the intruder blocked the light from the other side, they would stab a stiletto through the hole. Often you’d stab them in the eye or through the hand. Either way, it was an effective strategy. Nothing happened this time, so Vash moved the dagger away and looked into the hole.

The Enhance Senses formula floated in his mind. Vash willed a small portion of his mana into a copy of the formula, feeling the Talent snap into place. Simpler and cruder than spells, Talents locked a portion of the user’s mana into themselves while they were in use. Wizards could control the flow of mana in their spell frameworks to produce different effects. They could also withdraw their mana, regaining a portion back into their Core.

Talents used mana immediately. Once the framework released, then the mana dissipated. Using Talents drained mana from the user’s Core and it took time for it to regenerate. Vash’s Core could perform three or four Major Talents, or twice the number of Minor Talents, before he needed to rest. Enhance Senses was a Minor Talent, so the mana Vash used was negligible, but small Talents added up and he didn’t know what he’d be facing during this test.

Best not to lean too hard on Talents until I have a better idea what I’m going to need them for. Vash thought as he studied the lock in front of him. His enhanced eyes focused on the keyhole and what he could see of the mechanism inside. Elvish eyes were better at seeing things in low light than humans and the Enhance Senses Talent made them even more sensitive. He felt the odd sensation of mana enhanced lenses sliding and adjusting within his eyes. The lock grew larger in his sight, like he was looking at it under a magnifying glass, and the extra light sensitivity revealed the inner mechanisms that normally would be too dark to see.

A pretty simple lock. Vash thought as he studied the mechanism. I’d be able to pick it…if I had lockpicks.

He sat back on his heels, frowning, letting his eyesight adjust back to only slightly enhanced. “Wayfarer rogues probably always carry their tools with them. I know I did until the Ducal guard took mine.” Vash muttered to himself. He tugged at the collar of his shirt. The room was getting warm. “All right, but Royce wouldn’t just put me into the Gauntlet with no way of succeeding, would he? There’s got to be another way to do this.”

Reaching out with his aura again, Vash thoroughly went over the room, this time in concert with Enhance Senses to pick out minute details that a simple aura check would miss. It was a slow process and used most of the mana he’d allocated to the Enhance Senses Talent, but he finally found something after several minutes of careful examination. One stone in the wall was loose.

Vash touched the stone gently. It rocked beneath the pressure of his fingers. Carefully, Vash pressed and prodded until the stone pivoted in its place on the wall, revealing a small hidey-hole. Inside the hole were a few lengths of wire, a strip of coarsely woven cloth, and a few stones.

“I suppose we’re doing this the hard way, then.” Vash muttered. “Of course, why would they hide actual thieves’ tools when they can hide some random crap and see if I can make it into something usable? I bet they think they’re building character.”

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Sweat trickled down Vash’s forehead and stung his eyes as he bent the wires into the semblance of a set of lockpicks. “Why is it so warm in here?”

Vash stopped and thought for a moment. It was warm, yes, but more than that the air felt thick, close. He concentrated on his breathing for a few moments. Each breath was harder than the last. Not immediately noticeable, but significant. He examined the two doors, focusing his sense of touch on feeling any drafts or breezes. Running his hand along the door frames and over the keyholes, he felt nothing. The room’s air was completely still. That means the air isn’t moving, which means there isn’t any new air coming in. The room sealed itself.

Fighting a surge of claustrophobia and panic, Vash tried to stay calm. Panic wouldn’t help and would just waste time. Vash approached the lock and slid the twisted bits of wire inside, feeling along the tumblers for the right sequence to release the lock. Enhance Senses allowed him to feel the slightest movement of the mechanism. After a few moments of prodding, he withdrew the wire and adjusted the shape.

Take your time, focus on what you’re doing. Vash thought. Don’t think about how hard you’re breathing or how stuffy it’s getting.

Vash reinserted the wires and slid them into position with deft fingers. The lock moved slowly. He grinned in triumph, finishing the motion. The lock gave a satisfying click. Vash withdrew the wires and was about to stand up and open the door when he heard, faintly, a second click. If he hadn’t been using Enhance Senses, he would have missed it, but something else had engaged within the lock. Vash froze, unsure of what to do next. The mage-lamps flared slightly, then shifted to a cool blue color and gradually dimmed.

That shouldn’t be happening. Vash thought.

Mage-lamps ran off a slow trickle of ambient mana. In theory, they should last forever, or at least until the spell framework collapsed. He shook his head. There wasn’t time to worry about mage-lamps. He had to keep moving. Vash grasped the handle of the door and confidently pushed down, expecting it to open easily.

The handle did not move.

Again, the mage-lamps dimmed. Vash started feeling dizzy and nauseous, his breath coming in longer gasps. He sank to one knee, head swimming. There must be a secondary lock, and it triggered a trap.

Fumbling with his makeshift lock-picks, Vash approached the keyhole again. His fingers were noticeably less steady as he felt for the secondary mechanism. It was difficult to make his hands do what he wanted them to while his body was screaming in panic that it wasn’t getting enough air.

Stay calm and focus. Vash thought, If you panic, then you’ll never get out of here.

With agonizing slowness, he searched the interior of the lock, looking for anything he might have missed. The lock-picks yielded no new discoveries - no extra tumblers or gears that could reset the lock.

The mage-lamps dimmed slightly again. Vash glanced up at the lamps. They now emitted only a weak glow, like a dying candle burning the last of its wick. That was when he noticed the small holes on the brass mounting plates, one below each of the globes. He pushed his way, woozily, to his feet and then stumbled to the first lamp.

It took a few tries, but he finally got his wire probe into the hole. There was definitely a mechanism of some sort inside the lamp. Mage-lamps didn’t normally have any moving parts, just a small alchemical globe and a series of etched runes inside the brass and crystal. This one had a series of gears and tumblers. He gently probed the mechanism, feeling for any give with his enhanced sense of touch. The wire lightly grazed a groove in the brass while moving from one tumbler to the next, and Vash felt a sudden jolt of mana. His Enhance Senses winked out, leaving his fingers with a numb, tingling sensation and a distinct blurriness to his vision.

Vash cursed under his breath, not sure what happened, but knowing that there was no way he had the concentration now to use the Talent again. He was going to have to rely on his own skills. Grimacing, Vash continued to probe and test the lock, looking for weaknesses. He felt like his fingers were the size of sausages and that he’d suddenly put on a pair of thick gloves. Breath coming in quick gasps, Vash found the right combination of tumblers and felt another click.

Instantly, the lamp’s light flared back to its previous brightness. Vash felt a cool current of air radiating off the lamp. He sucked down a few breaths hungrily, some of the fuzziness evaporating from his mind.

Across the room, the second lamp was almost down to an ember. Vash moved to the second lamp. As soon as he crossed the halfway point in the room, he felt the air vanish. He staggered back, and the air returned.

“Well, this will be interesting.” Vash muttered. He took a few deep breaths and lunged across the room.

The breathable air around the second lamp was almost completely gone. Vash held his breath while he worked the wires into the small hole. The mechanism seemed similar to the one he just solved, but something was different. Nothing was moving as he expected or turning when he applied pressure. Before long, he had to dart back to the fresh air on the other side of the room. Panting slightly, he glared at the crude lock-picks hanging from the hole across the room.

“Damn adventurers, thinking they’re clever.” Vash grumbled, annoyed that he wasn’t getting it. The mechanism was almost identical. Why didn’t it work? He looked back and forth from one lamp to the other. What’s different? They’re exactly the same except that they’re…oh bloody hell!

Vash dashed across the room, moving the picks back into position as he repeated the motions that he’d used on the first lamp, but in the reverse direction. This time the mechanism moved smoothly, exactly as he’d expected. The lamp flared brightly and fresh air caressed Vash’s face. To his left, Vash heard a catch release on the exit door.

“Not so bad,” Vash said, breathless. He pocketed the wire next to the stones and the cloth strip and went to the door. It swung open on well-oiled hinges, revealing a hallway that ran about twenty paces to another door at the far end. Stone pillars stood every few paces with tasteful artwork carved on their faces. Mage-lamps lit the corridor, though these were missing the brass connecting plates, so it was unlikely that he’d be facing the same sort of challenge.

Vash stepped into the corridor.

Click

“Gods dammit!”