I identified the seventh door – not through pattern analysis but through a momentary clarity of perception that transcended calculation. The final door didn't fit the logical pattern I had established. It stood apart, distinctive only in its perfect ordinariness, its complete lack of distinguishing features making it unique among the hundreds of options.
I approached the doors in the sequence I had determined – patience first, then discernment, and so on through all seven aspects of wisdom. Each door opened to a chamber similar to the first, each with its own test or puzzle that required a different aspect of wisdom to solve.
For patience, I had to sit in perfect stillness while the room gradually filled with water, fighting the instinct to panic or rush, trusting that the solution would reveal itself in time – which it did, when the water reached precisely the right level to float a key to the surface.
