Shae slowly entered the cabin eyes roving for any sign of anything else odd. She was a bit wary now, her instincts, honed and trained by her Great Grand Uncle, were niggling at the back of her head. What there was to be on guard about she wasn’t yet sure, but her unconscious brain, or trained instincts as she thought of them, were not quite screaming, but there was something odd about this space.

“There is light but no windows.” She whispered to herself. She scanned again. The light from the cabin was far too bright for what could have been coming through the door, and she saw no windows in the walls visible to her. The best she could tell, the room itself was lit with an all-encompassing natural level of light. As she could see no shadows under the table chairs or even the low bed frame.

“Kaaay, now this is just beyond odd.” She said, softly talking herself through the puzzle.

“No light source, no shadows, I’m sure that envelope was not there when I first opened the door, and this version of the cabin has no windows. Huh.” She was pretty stumped. How had Uncle set all this up. Nothing conformed to natural laws of science.

She took slow small steps into the cabin, her eyes slowly scanning every detail, as she was want to do when contemplating her uncle’s mysteries.

There was a slight click behind her, she turned her head to see the door had closed all on its own.

“That one is easy, it’s obviously weighted and the door was very easy to swing. No reason the latch in the door was not as easy to engage itself.” She quietly mused.

With a small nod she now took in the wall see couldn’t see before entering the door. There was nothing out of place per say. Just the windows missing from this replica. Of course, the wood cooking stove was in the corner it should have been in. That was almost calming to her. Something that should be, was.

She turned back to the table. She placed her pack into the chair on her left. One more spinning scan of the room, which again turned up nothing different, she turned her attention to the letter on the table. It was normal and had her name on it in her uncle’s gothic cursive he so favored. Simple plain white letter envelope. She picked it up, spun it around, nothing new. She opened it slowly. There was a small puff of dust that hit her in the face just after opening it up.

After a sneeze she said to the air, “Just what was that for uncle!”

A bit miffed she pulled out the plain white folded paper. She unfurled it slowly with her face slightly turned, but eyes still on it, in case of another rude surprise. Nothing further happened. She began to read…

Shae

The puff of dust was to show you there is always a danger in every action in case you forgot that lesson. And No it was not rude of me.

Secondly lock the door.

‘oops’ she thought.

She walked back to the door opening it and took the key off the outside of the door. It came off easily now that the door was open. She then placed the key into the exact same square on this side of the door, after closing it, and turned the key to the left. There was a slight click, then the sound of something large settling itself into place inside of the door. The noise started at the floor and moved up through the whole door. She took the key off the door, which released into her hand now that the door was locked.

‘Guess there is a locking spike inside the door, and how does the key stick like that? I’d love to see how he managed it all.’ She thought with a shake of her head.

“Yeah, after all the weird crap I’ve seen today he owes me some answers!” Shae said aloud to calm herself a bit.

Back to the letter

Did you turn it to the left? Yes, I’m sure you did. After all you have always shown a high aptitude for memory.

That line made her smile and feel pretty good inside. After all, even though he pretended to be just an average man, but he had to be pretty sharp to create all this. So, the compliment was well accepted.

Don’t go getting a big head. While you are a sharp tack, there are always those willing to pit themselves against you. You cannot be arrogant about your talents. It will blind you to the impossible. There are always going to be impossibilities that you never thought of. Which happens to the best of us. So, if you fail, don’t give up. Keep your head high and make the best of a bad situation. Time is always moving forward; a solution may present itself in your favor. If not… well, lets hope your alive to learn the lesson.

Ok enough of the dread thoughts. Before reading further, go to the mantle above the fireplace. You will see a small chip just off to the right of center. Follow the clues.

Go!

While she was going to keep reading it was almost as if her uncle was reading her thoughts through the letter… Which was pretty scary really. Also, for some reason she now felt a strong urge to ignore the letter and do as the letter told her to.

Starting with small zombie like steps, until she went with the feeling and started to head toward the fireplace mantle, then her steps became more controllable. She didn’t feel like she was being forced anymore. She placed the letter upon the mantle and got to work.

The mantle’s face was carved with flowing, thorny, circular vines holding small flowers in the center every half meter roughly. The mantle itself was a large block of stone you would normally see on old wall fireplaces like this. Sure enough, there was a small chip off just off center. It looked very much like a small arrow pointing further right. If you didn’t know it was something, you would never think of it as an arrow. But after years of puzzles and knowing it was the start of a puzzle this much was simple.

After studying the mantle right of the arrow for a time see could not see much else. She then went left of the chip to see if there was a pattern. After studying the whole mantle for some fifteen minutes she noticed there was one thorn on a vine that was slightly different from the others, it pointed down where the others only mostly pointed down. It was a slight thing, but that had to be it. She then slid her index finger down from that thorn. It did not point to a flower which you’d assume held a button. ‘That would be too easy for uncle.’ She followed to under the mantle trying her best to keep in line with how the thorn was pointing. She was on her knees now looking up at the base following with her finger to the base of the wall. Nothing. Then she took a step back to look at everything afresh. Then she looked at the floor. It was a wooden boarded flooring. The line in the flooring lined up perfectly with the thorn. Kneeling she tried each board for looseness on either side. Next, she followed the line which led to the end of that board. The flooring was not staggered in rows, but it was along the columns. Each row’s board was centered on the line of the row before it. Which left her at the middle of the board of the next row. It also was not loose.

“Right or left.” She wondered aloud, lightly tracing along the lines of the boards. She checked along both ways. First toward the cupboards, then toward the bed side of the room. She had to move the bed to follow the line. There was nothing either way on the floor. So next she thought of the lines as arrows pointing to the cupboard or the wall. The wall was easy, there was nothing to notice out of place. She then knelt. The bottom of the cupboard was raised off the floor by a base, which the cupboard overlapped, creating about an 8-centimeter-tall recess running along it. She had to put her head against the floor to get a look. At the bottom of the cupboard’s base there was a slight indent. It felt like an arrow pointing toward the wood stove in the corner. She slid her hand along under the cupboard till she felt a very slight bump two centimeters around. Almost like a knot that wasn’t sanded flat. It depressed slightly as her finger slid over it. She pushed it, felt the wood give at the center, and was poked in the finger by a needle as the nub depressed into the base of the cupboard, there was a click and a small sliding drawer opened under the cupboard. She pulled her hand back swiftly looking at the small dot of blood that was forming. After sticking it in her mouth on reflex to make it feel better, she spat out as she remembered she had been sliding her finger all over the cabin.

“Ewe” she said with a sour face. This day was turning out to be one of those “Lesson” days.

With a sigh she pulled the loosened drawer out from under the cupboard. It was a small squat rectangle of a box, like a safety deposit box, only shorter and not as wide. There was a small button on top at the front of the box, about the same size as the one under the cupboard. This one was flush but obvious as she could see the ring around it where it sat in the box. She brought the box over to the table placing it down and went back to get the letter off the mantle. She then went back to the table and the box. She sat in the chair across from her pack, then resumed with the letter.

Now wasn’t that fun? To review: You likely have just died. The needle should have been poisoned, or worse left you unconscious at the mercy of others.

She shuddered looking at her finger like it was going to bite her. After a few seconds wondering what exactly he was prepping her for… was it to be a spy or something?

The needle however a bit painful was safe enough… unless of course you get tetanus… ha-ha, hope your shots are up to date!

‘Not funny uncle!’ she grumped looking up.

You also likely did not look for anything dangerous before pulling the drawer out from under the cupboard… Like with the needle you are likely dead… etc etc. You need to be very cautious with your actions when working with puzzles going forward. There could be traps of any kind, and not just mundane poison.

‘How was poison mundane!?’ her thoughts were getting concerned about going any further.

Yes of course to you poison is not mundane or even to have been something to be expected. From this moment forward you need to protect yourself from all possibilities. I am giving you an opportunity that very few alive have been given. To have a REAL adventure! Now, open the box. There is what will look like a square mouse pad to you. Lay it on the table and touch the small icon in the corner, you can’t miss it. Good luck!

She sat back. Her thoughts were a bit of a jumble. There was a lot to unpack here. There were a Lot more questions than answers. In fact there were no answers at all!

After working things through with what was given to her she decided that she should go find her uncle for some answers. As she was about to get up and head to the door… It wasn’t there anymore!

“Whaah!” Her eyes got big, her breath shallow and fast.

“What, the, fuck!” she slowly said aloud, she was more than a bit stunned, her thoughts were not coming. Like her brain had just hit a brick wall going eighty. She just sat there staring at the blank wall, “Where the fucking door should be” she in a frazzle of emotions and thoughts that would not form or even out whole. She needed to calm down! She needed to calm down! Breath. He had said it all came down to breathing.

“Just breath” She whispered trying to slow her thoughts, still looking at the blank wall.

Slowly she started to come to her senses. Well her more sane senses ‘Cause the friggin door was still missing.’

“Ok, ok,” she started calming her breathing, getting her brain running. “I’m now trapped in a copy of the cabin outside. Somehow, he rigged the door to disappear. I’m obviously not asleep. It has to be uncles doing, she had the letter to prove that, Unless… it’s not really from him”

She looked back to the letter to reread it carefully for clues in the text, only for her eyes to be pulled to the end of the letter to something that was not written there five minutes ago!

P.s. Yes great grandniece, yes it was I that put all this together for you. It all might seem to be too much at the moment. Just wait! It only gets weirder…

BECAUSE IT’S ALL MAGIC.

She passed out, the letter falling slowly to the floor. At the corner of her consciousness she thought she heard a soft kind chuckle.