Sonder didn't hesitate for long.
It wasn't because she was unafraid or courageous in the face of the unknown, but because the pull inside her had grown too strong.
Greed. She had already waited for too long.
She stepped onto the stairs and walked down.
All the possibility of turning back vanishing with each step.
The smell thickened.
No longer faint. No longer something she had to search for.
It clung to the air, sour and stale, with an edge that would make the average person wretch.
The smell settled into the stone. Her hand brushed against the wall as she descended, grounding herself in something solid as the darkness pressed in tighter around her.
The blue thread almost pulled at her, like a fish on a hook, and it wouldn't let go.
She got closer, and the stairs ended.
Sonder stepped onto the lower level directly in front of the door.
It was set in the stone. Its surface was dull and dark. Thick and made of metal.
She approached it slowly.
Not cautiously, but drawn.
Sonder reached out and placed her hand against the metal.
She pushed.
Nothing. Not even the faintest shift.
She adjusted her stance and tried again, this time with more force, testing it, feeling for any give, any weakness, any indication that it might open.
It didn't.
It was locked.
She groaned.
Her hand remained on the surface for a moment longer before she pulled it back, her fingers curling slightly as she stepped away from the door.
She looked at it and considered blasting it off its hinges, or simply melting it.
That would have been easy.
Just focusing magic onto a single point until the metal gave way.
It wouldn't take long.
She could have been more destructive.
But that wouldn't be quiet or unnoticed.
She could destroy the door, but not rebuild it.
She was too deep to risk announcing herself like that.
There was always another way, especially for a sorceress.
Touching the door, she got closer to it, looking at the lock and handle.
And she sent her senses into the door, not through it.
Sonder already had experience moving things with her magic, so if she could find a latch or something like that and open it, it wouldn't be noticed.
But if the door had a complicated lock, requiring a complicated key, then maybe she couldn't.
She searched and shifted.
And of course, she found the lock.
Her senses narrowed and tightened, drawing in around that small mechanism, like fingers closing around something delicate.
It wasn't that simple, but not overly complex.
There were multiple parts, interlocked and layered, not just a single latch to lift or slide.
She tried it anyway.
She applied a small amount of pressure and felt something resist.
She adjusted, changed the angle, and applied less force.
That time there was a faint movement and a sound so faint that Sonder couldn't hear it, only feel it.
She stilled immediately, holding that pressure exactly where it was, afraid that even the smallest change would undo it.
But it was something, so she went further, so she went further and brushed against another piece.
She tested it, but it didn't move.
She began to map everything in exact detail in her mind.
Through resistance, pressure, and what responded to it.
Through the way each piece refused to move until something else did first.
By the sixth piece, which she found by accident and, again, which had taken a while, there was a soft, internal shift when she pushed it.
She paused, just for a moment, and then pushed the door.
And it moved.