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You bend down, so that you may level your eyes with the keyway. Probing it with your right little finger, you find that you can just squeeze the digit through the keyhole, winning as deep as the first minor knuckle. To be sure, that is welcome news for your prospects ... but beyond that, nothing is straight or solid. How many locks are you going to need to pick through? How many of them are quarantining? Should you pick those that aren't quarantining back to being locked? Is there more water in the house beyond the bit you found in the dormitory wash-basin? Beset by questions and assailed by doubts, the most apparent play would be to stretch the water as thin as possible, and trust that you would be able to make it work. But ... that water is very dear. If an entire cast's worth of a water is just ... a <span class="mu-i">wash</span>, then things could get really tight on you. But it isn't a question of wasting a third of your water or using half or more of it, rather, it is a question of being more likely to waste a third of it than to you are to waste half. So then, to wit; how confident are you in your ability, your craft?
You will use half.
The other questions - what to do about the communicably Strange puddle, whether or not to pick the lock closed, what to do if you bungle and fray this - those can wait. No, they are going to have to wait. You are going to bull your way through this, focusing only on what is immediately in front of you. No distractions, no focus-eaters. Now, the salt. You set the 'stick-decanter down nearby, and then straighten up, so you may withdraw the purse of sea-salt from your pocket. You pack in at least twice of what you need, allowing yourself to swallow some of the excess. Once you are ready, you place the 'stick-decanter between your knees, and your right little finger in the keyway. You take a moment, trying to figure out some way that you can keep the candle safely burning while having it out of the mouth of the decanter ... but when no cunning ploy comes to you, you begrudgingly accept that the cast will just have to be initialized in darkness. There are no two ways about it, this is going to be a hindrance - but it shouldn't be crippling or even particularly undermining, really. You can get everything lined up by touch - and once the reaction reaches completion and the cast is churning along, you will have the light coming off of your eyes to work with. Still, you hadn't thought of this when you 'made' the 'stick-decanter - though it should have been <span class="mu-i">obvious</span>. You'll just chalk that up to being tired. And impulsive. And a straw-head. Honestly, it is enough to make you wish for that bludgeon of a 'stick that you were dragging around Aldoin's house.
