The Room

Chapter Eight

Raven stabbed the dagger into a golden slot she found on the platform. A large portion of the platform sunk into the box, taking the dagger with it. A wooden celestial model rose and expanded displaying replicas of the Sun and all of the planets: Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Mercury, Saturn and Pluto-probably one of the most debated planets ever, she told herself, chuckling at the thought. 

"Hmm." Raven frowned. "It appears at though the planets can move." 

She poked the cog wheels in the center with her finger. Nothing happened. She tried to spin several gears near the mechanism. Still, nothing. 

"What's going on? Why won't they move?" She questioned.

A set of panels parted to reveal a three-by-four set of blocks. When she touched them, they switched to blue. She tried to punch in a pattern. When she pressed the button at the bottom, every one of the blocks switched to red and turned back to the normal dull, tan color.

"What the hell is the pattern to this thing, then?" Raven wondered. 

 She checked around the area to find -maybe- a second compartment with clues. She found none. That was when she noticed that the wooden boards were still up. That's odd, she thought. Shouldn't they be down? Raven went back to the set of boards and fit the eyepiece over her right eye. Sure enough, written in blue was a sketch of the same block puzzle only this time certain squares were marked with blue dots.

"How convenient." She muttered under her breath. 

She copied the pattern into the blocks, pressed the button, and watched as every one of the blocks swiveled to blue. The plants began to orbit around the glowing ball of light. She heard the sound of gears clicking nearby and hurried back to the gear controller. It was spinning clockwise and at medium speed. She pressed the button nearby and watched at the 'dagger' constellation switched to an 'eye' constellation.

"Okay what changed?" She said, pointing at the box, then at the wooden board.

Raven slipped on the eyepiece and glanced at the brown board. This time there was the distorted blue lines rotating in a circle around the platform. There was no way to stop it so she could put the puzzle back together. How would she stop it, then, she wondered? Raven removed the eyepiece and looked behind the wooden panels. The planets were still spinning!

"Of course." She said, snapping her fingers together. "The planets have the lines on them; that's why they are moving when I see them through the boards." 

 There was also a pattern scrawled in pink. It was the same three by four pattern, but the dots were in different places. Raven memorized the pattern and went to the actual puzzle to put in the new code. She pressed the button. To her, shock, the planets aligned and froze in place.

"That helps." Raven said, aligning the planets till the markings created the Null symbol. 

There was a quick flash and a brand new object appeared on the board. She removed her eyepiece and saw that a 'sun' amulet rested in an indent on the board. She removed it and placed it in her pocket for later.

"Now to find where that amulet goes." Raven yawned, searching the box for an indent-of some sort. 

She came across a depression in the platform that had the same structure and shape as the amulet. She pulled it out of her pocket and fit it inside. The planets retracted and sunk back into the box along with yet another portion of the platform. A second platform rose, this time without a dagger, and without any planets. Now, I have a new dial, she thought. But, what does it control? She twisted it several times, expecting something to happen. Nothing did. She frowned.