Read every door
before the sweep
reads you.
Your shuttered flame is the only light in the records stair and it is burning down. The cut on the far side of each door only shows through the mail slot, and only from the one distance where the image lands true on the engraved row. Wardens walk cold sheets of light up and down the shaft; they cannot see you, only your light.
Breath held.
The wick, the beams and the shaft keep their exact positions.
Out with the wick still burning.
The stair door gave without a sound.
Four verbs, one wick.
WASD or arrows walk the shaft, SHIFT creeps. SPACE steps the vane through dark, slit, veil and open — each detent burns the wick faster, reads the slot more sharply, and shows the wardens' sweeps a brighter light. E held at a door shines through the mail slot: the image is only true from the distance where it lands on the engraved row, and only a sharp image commits. R pins the vane where it stands, which frees your hands and freezes your read — but you cannot go dark without unpinning first. C held snuffs the wick for good, and it refuses to catch until the vault is open.
The sweeps read your light, not your face. A pillar between you and the sheet hides you completely, the sheet tells you the time even in the dark, and only the widest vane is bright enough for a sweep to hold on you long enough to be reported. Three passes and the stair knows.