With two of their number down and who knew how many trials to go, let alone not knowing how long they had left, the four girls now clip clopped along in their high heels through the maze. By now they knew the unspoken rules, the system's assumptions. While the maze itself was part of the challenge it was clear that the larger 'boss fight' rooms were what they needed to worry about. Regardless, they kept an eye out for anything in the shadows, just in case.
A couple of minutes winding back and forth through the corridors and the vines began to fade away. The air became hotter, more so than in the humid jungle, and the walls around them began to be marred by soot.
Reaching the third challenge room, they were met with the same exit at the far end, this one blocked by a stone door. In the centre of the room a small pile of charcoal stood about waist high surrounded by a slight wall of stone. Though unlit, it was clear it was a firepit and placed within the firepit were three blackened rods. Between the pit and the entry there were a pair of chains hanging from the ceiling at shoulder width, and from them a padlock each.
Intrigued, Hannah stepped forward to checked the room. There were no other exits, no men lying in wait, no clues. There were only the items already mentioned, and no obvious traps. Feeling much more cautious now, she quickly inspected the chains hanging from the ceiling and found the padlocks at the end were open, with a keyhole, but no sign of a key.
Amanda and Camille were already inspecting the firepit itself, so she stepped around them and strode towards the door. Perhaps there was something there to explain this room. She was not disappointed.
She could see that the stone door had three irregularities, three indents or cutouts at different heights, and the indents looked like they could slide open. Seeing no other clues, she started to check the other walls.
"Whoa!" cried Amanda, she was shaking her hand. "The bonfire is hot, like, not boiling, but more than warm."
Camille was a lot more careful as she made to pull one of the rods out, and they watched in horror as she pulled what could be best described as a black dildo from the depths of the pit.
"Careful where you swing that Cam, you could put an eye out with that thing." And she wasn't wrong. With the width of her forearm and over a foot in length it was far larger than any of the devices that Hannah kept in the 'toybox' beneath her bed, and judging from the way Camille struggled to even hold it by the plastic handle, it had to be fairly hefty.
"Its iron, and its hot too," Camille said before plunging it back in. "Any idea how we get out of here though?"
"No clue here," Amanda said.
"There's some indents in the door, but I don't know what they do."
"There's something here on the padlocks. One says 'Poets love a...' and the other one says '...captive audience'?"
"I think one of us might have to chain ourselves up."
"Well, if nobody else has any suggestions?" Amanda once again stepped forward, but Janine held her back.
"No Amanda, you're the strongest out of us. If it turns out to be just a trap we'll have lost you. I'll go." Janine backed up her statement by unstrapping her shield and throwing it aside.
"Jan, I can ta-"
"No," she didn't wait and snapped the first lock to the cuff on her arm, "you need to save Natalie."
As soon as she shut the second lock, there was rumble at the stone door and they turned to see the three indents open. The first held clear glass, and behind it a trio of keys. The middle revealed a combination lock, Fifteen characters long and each wheel with the letters of the alphabet, along with blanks. On the right of it a button. The third finally answered their numerous questions about the challenge.
"'I fight for glory, for honour and fame, all should listen as they chant my name, but in my heart I desire most dear, a veil of white from ear to ear. Fire will reveal me, what am I?'"
A riddle.
"I fight for glory? Like a soldier?"
"No, that would be duty, not honour and fame."
"Is a veil of white what I think it is?"
"Fire will reveal me, that means the rods right?"
"Lets grab one and test around the room."
They spent about fifteen minutes searching the room without success.
"Olympic Prostitute."
"Too long. Fifteen characters."
"Gold Pornstar."
"Jesus fucking christ Amanda, could you get your mind out of the gutter."
"You suggest something then."
"Should we just try going through combinations?"
"No," Hannah said, "Its twenty seven to the power fifteen. It would take us days to go through the combinations if we tried one per second."
"Not days. Years. Millions of years," Amanda added, "Fuck it. We're losing time, I'm going to try Gold Pornstar."
"Anything just as long as it gets me down from here," Janine said.
Hannah wasn't hopeful, but lacking any other idea she helped Amanda set the words. Then stood back for her to press the button. There was a general crossing of fingers as the button clicked and the door chuddered on its hinges. Then there was a clack, they looked up to the topmost indent, the one with the keys.
And as they watched one of them fell through a hatch that opened beneath it, leaving only two keys left.
"Damn!"
"What happened guys? Did you get the keys?" Janine asked, still hanging in bondage.
"No, one of the keys just dropped down, I think we only get three guesses."
Hannah was wracking her brain, what was the answer to the riddle, how did fire reveal it? How did the hot metal rods factor in? Why did Janine have to be chained up rather tha-?
"Wait! Its Janine," she said.
"Well, we've only got two more guesses so you better be certain."
"No, not literally Janine. The password is written on her," Hannah explained.
"How did you come to that?" Camille asked, but before Hannah could respond, Janine herself answered.
"Fire will reveal the answer. Heat sensitive ink. Just get it over with so we can keep moving."
Hannah tentatively held one of the heated rods in her hand and approached Janine. She tested the temperature on the back of her hand and found it to be eye-watering, but not scalding. It would certainly hurt but she was fairly certain there would be no permanent burns, just some red welts.
Janine was putting up a brave front but they could all see her trembling as she said so. Whatever her fear however, they knew it would be the only way for any of them to escape. Hannah took Janine's shirt in hand and lifted it away from her toned waist.