Audrey stood before the three-way intersection, pendulum in hand, testing each path one by one. Yet every entrance gave the same answer: "No."
Based on her current occult knowledge, Audrey roughly inferred two possibilities—
First, there was insufficient information, but because she had tried all three paths before, the final answer was that none of them was correct.
Second, none of them truly was correct. This intersection required some condition to be met before the right path would appear.
"Damn it! Why aren't there any clues here at all?" Audrey stared at the three doors, then finally pulled a hand-cranked lamp from her small bag.
It was said to have been invented by Emperor Roselle when he was the holy son of the Steam Church. It could produce a brightness far exceeding that of a gas lamp through hand-cranking, but its internal components had to be manufactured by the Machinery Church, so it had never become widespread. Still, many explorers would pay a hefty price for one.
Amid a series of unpleasant yet rhythmic scraping sounds, bright white light illuminated the passageway. After briefly adjusting to the sudden brightness, Audrey noticed that there was a pattern above each of the three passages.
"A turtle, a horse, and a butterfly?" Audrey frowned slightly as she looked at the three images pieced together from differently colored bricks. Since they possessed no supernatural power, Spirit Vision had not detected them.
As the light swept to either side, Audrey spotted several candleholders embedded in the walls, each holding a thick candle that looked quite old.
"So I'm supposed to light these candles?" Audrey cautiously examined the candleholders. Only after carefully checking the surroundings and confirming there were no patterns above, below, left, or right of them did she take out a tinderbox and light