As Leo placed the final piece of the puzzle into place, the group was greeted with a pleasing glow that showed the rune resonating with the Towerâs mana flow. It wasnât a guarantee that they were correct, but Vincent was confident in his own work at the least. That aside, surely the faculty would interfere if they were about to do something either dangerous or against the rules of the competition. Somehow, he felt creating their own rune portal to leave the maze was against the spirit of things. A few congratulations went around, to which Vincent cordially and modestly waved off as being simple deduction, gesturing the group to continue rather than lollygag about. After all, this was an unintended diversion; theyâd wasted enough time as it was, and it would be particularly stinging to find out they were slower than another group thanks to this setback.
Calmly and confidently stepping through the portal, Vincentâs first instinct when entering the new room was the same as all those previous. That being, immediately look for anything notable to determine the dimensions of the puzzle or task they had been set. Immediately moving over to a nearby wall, he could faintly make out what seemed to be symbols burned into the wall, perhaps a code of some sort? Bringing his hand up to touch the stone wall, the most perplexing thing was the lack of temperature or anything to the material. Odd, perhaps that would contribute to the solution of the room? Thinking on it a moment, the shouts and other noises behind him finally were becoming obnoxious enough that he couldnât really ignore them, and Vincent turned to try and see what exactly was causing such a commotion. Hopefully not another broken pillar.
The chaos Vincent observed was⊠Well, discouraging. No matter what was happening, why were some of them stumbling around like idiots? And why hadnât anyone stopped them yet? Peculiar. It was true what they said about people. A person could be rational, but something was clearly driving some of them in the room to act strangely, and that was causing quite a bit of panic. Even Leo, one that Vincent felt was fairly steadfast in most situations had a gaunt look on his face. As he planned to try and make his way to ask just what was happening, Emilio made his overbearing presence known; though amusingly, it seemed he was after his help. Observing the way that he seemed to be fumbling about and waving his arms in front of him, it didnât take a genius to realise that he perhaps couldnât see. In fact, that might have been the case for a lot of the other people around the room, though maybe if they werenât panicking so much they would have thought to stand still a long time ago. Still, why only a few of them? It was far too simple that just a handful of them couldnât see, there had to be more to it.
Finally making his way back to Leo, Vincent posed a question, ignoring Emilioâs plight for the moment. âTell me Leo, what do you make of this?â
After an uncomfortable period of silence where Leo mouthed a few choice words, it became that much clearer the problem plaguing this room. Unfortunate that Leo couldnât speak, but that simply meant that once again, Vincent would have to try and take charge. As far as he could tell, he didnât seem handicapped at all, though there was likely some aspect he was missing. Turning towards the group at large, he raised his voice, assuming some of them wouldnât be able to hear him, but hoping that herd mentality would get everyone under control.
âAlright, everyone, calm down, and stand still. Anyone that canât see, take a seat on the floor. Youâre probably not going to be much help. Anyone who canât speak, make your way to the wall on my right side. Everyone remaining, who can hear me, make your way to the left wall. Those that arenât reacting should be those who cannot hear, and Iâll see if I can gesture them to go to the far wall.â Doing his best to take charge of the situation, for the most part, it seemed his plan was going to order as people got into position. Once everyone was settled, heâd see if he could just get them to wait patiently while he worked on a solution. Moving up to start pushing those that hadnât heard his announcement to another wall, Vincent became dimly aware that he lacked a sense of touch. Arguably, almost the least valuable sense in this sort of situation. Those without smell were probably the best off. Still, no doubt each sense would be pivotal to some part of this puzzle⊠Perhaps they needed to identify a scent, touch, sight, sound and then relay that to something in the room? A solid working theory, but heâd need to do a bit more exploring before settling into anything concreteâŠ
âWell, Iâve surveyed this side of the room completely, and Iâm confident that the only thing of use over here is myself.â Charlotte gave a coy laugh as if joking, but it was anything but. Sure enough, the walls and floor on the side she had chosen were bare and useless, other than the gate that would form a portal upon their completion of the roomâs challenge. âStill, we should be thorough in our search. Pendleton, make yourself useful and scour every inch of this side of the room. I will attend to Atticus and Liliane and ensure that they are completely comfortable and empowered to solve this room. Do not interrupt them with any of your inane babble; we cannot afford to sidetrack them and fall behind our goal of perfection. Simply remain here and stay out of the way.â
Dusting off her hands and content that Troy was at least for the moment, disposed of, Charlotte moved to check on the Majors at work. Immediately, she was impressed;the two staring at a block puzzle on the wall. A simple, sliding, childâs toy; and no doubt they were seconds away from a series of precise movements to reach the solution. In fact, Liliane had prepared some sort of tiny servant to perhaps do the job for her? Or maybe it was analysing all the possible combinations for the quickest solution. Oh my, the Majors really were miles above the rank-and-file. Clasping her hands together, Charlotte stepped up behind the two. âExcellent, wonderful, I see youâre both hard at work solving the puzzle. I imagine youâre moments away from having us move on, so I suppose I wonât make myself comfortable. Really, you two are quite incredible; I knew I was right to rely on you two.â Smiling pleasantly, this puzzle was likely going to be a wake-up call for Charlotte, but for now, she was still in ignorant bliss.