Sage doesn't look back at the clock. She already knows what she needs to know now, and knowing it doesn't make anything ahead lighter — just aimed differently. The next room proves it immediately. It isn't a new room at all. It's every room she's already crossed, stacked on top of each other and flickering like a signal that can't hold one channel. The balance scale from the very first equation tips against a wall that has no business holding it. The fraction bridge's blocks

The hallway behind the sphinx's archway doesn't stay a hallway for long. It opens all at once into a room so big the ceiling disappears into shadow, and the floor — every inch of it — is a coordinate grid, axis lines etched deep into the stone and glowing faint gold, crossing at a point dead center of the room. Something about this room feels close to the middle of everything. Close to wherever this world's edges actually are. Maybe close to a way out. No voice explains the r

The passage narrows into a single stone archway, and something is already sitting in it. Not a scale, not a chasm — a sphinx, carved out of the same pale rock as the hallway, with eyes that track Sage as he approaches. It doesn't ask for numbers. It only speaks in riddles. "Answer wrong," it says, "and you'll hear this riddle again. Answer right, and I'll step aside." A few of the kids drift up behind Sage, close enough now to listen in without being asked to. The sphinx spea

(by Mark O. with help from Sage the intrepid student dog) A gap in the path stretches too wide to cross. The only way over are two creatures standing at its edge. Each are built out of a stack of mismatched blocks. One is short and squat, the other tall and thin. Neither can lie down flat across the gap alone without leaving a dangerous, uneven step in the middle. The only way to make a solid bridge is to get the two creatures to exactly the same size first. Problem: Scaling

(by Mark O. with help from Sage the intrepid student dog) A shapeshifting creature blocks the doorway, half-melted and lopsided, above which two equations float. The shadowy figure had been here first, trying to use one equation to solve the other, but didn't quite do it right. This left the creature mismatched and strange. A small cluster of kids drifts closer to watch as Sage tries to help the creature. As a reminder, substitution is a method for solving a system of equatio

Sage and the kids finished that last room where they solved equations with variables on both sides, and now find themselves in a large room with a locked door at the end. Two metal balls sit in the back corners of the room to Sage's right and left, but not exactly in the corners. A sign next to the entrance has an inscription: "To open the next door, you must tell me where the beams of light meet ... without turning on the lasers." It continues: "The first laser is aimed to

Sage and the kids now have a better understanding on how to approach Multi-step equations in that last room. The next room feels very cold. Something is wrong. Chills run down everyone's spines. Another scale sits in front of the team. Sage cautiously steps forward in a crouch, not sure what to expect. As Sage approaches, two ghosts appear, pulling on the scale from either side as it teeters back and forth. The tile on the left side reads "4x - 22" and the tile on the r

That last room sure put new perspective. Two-step equations no longer feel quite so intimidating to the pack. Sage and the kids stroll into the next room with a little more confidence. The kids are even joking around and high-fiving one another. Their previous apprehension towards each other appears to be dissolving. This next room has another scale, but it covered in twisting vines. There are 3 specific vines on the scale and there are words inscribed on each one: Dist

Solving One-Step Equations turned out to be pretty fun. Sage wonders what's in store for the team next. The next room holds a scale like the one before, except the x-side now carries a coefficient: 3x + 5. On the other side is a 11. One of the kids clears the +5 from both pans without a hitch and calls it solved. However, suddenly everyone starts seeing triple! Sage thinks he might know why... Solving two step equations might seem difficult but it's basically just solving a

Sage did NOT like being separated from the kids in that last room, but they learned how the Distributive Property works. This new skill ought to be pretty handy moving forward. When they enter the next room, they realize they are standing on a literal balance scale with an x-weight on one side. One of the kids adds a 3-weight to only one pan — a miscalculated equation — which makes gravity violently tilt, tossing Sage briefly into the air. The nearby kids scatter for cover at