"So, the puzzle is optimistic but you aren't..." Miki said, finding that to be strange, but she supposed she could see that too. From her experiences over the last few days with Kou, she could honestly say that the lad had within himself a healthy amount of skepticism and maybe something else she couldn't quite put her finger on. Whatever else it was, this part of their conversation would be put on hold for a while until they figured out the nature of this puzzle.
While Miki stared at the different pieces of the puzzle before them, Kou explained what he saw of it, and what he thought about it, from a mechanical perspective. He made a supposition about the nature of the levers and given this Miki looked up at the water leading up and came to a rather interesting and sudden realization. What she saw around the roots of this tree, were different runes, and given what she knew about the connections between runes and nature she could use this information to figure out the right lever to pull. "Sou ka... I think... the water chutes look like runes. I think that is supposed to be the hint..." she said as she continued to look at them explaining in the same general way that her Master had explained them to her. "Runes allow one to accept the laws of nature into themselves and bend those laws to rise above," she said softly. "The runes these look like do different things, so if you know the rune and you understand the balance of nature, then you should choose the one which won't end in your untimely demise..." she concluded.
Looking at this puzzle even longer she came to a couple of conclusions but since Kou was her partner she'd share her knowledge and get his opinion on it. "Look... This one to the far left, looks like the rune Laguz..." she said pointing and tracing a collection of chutes which looked like an upside down L. "It means water... but I think it might be too much. 'Our future selves call us from infinite pasts, and each night are eroded with our dreams.'," Miki added in frowning slightly as her mind worked through her own ideas. 'Too much water is bad for plants and life in general, floods wash away everything, erosion in large amounts is a problem...' she didn't say aloud. She also looked to the pattern of the chutes on the far right, and made a different supposition while also tracing the shape for the lad to see. "Over here, the chutes look like, Sowilo... that one means sun. And sunlight is useful, but... 'The guide leads you to the doorway, then waits for your return,'" she finished that statement as well while still mentally reeling. 'That makes it seem ominous. Sunlight is good, but nature demands balance for proper growth too much sun, has similar problems to too much water and it can still lead to death.' Miki's mind was working overtime. But she still found herself bringing her gaze to the middle part of the puzzle she could see it clearly. "The middle part there. Looks like the rune, Fehu. Fehu is wealth... not like money, but production and renewal, but tempered so that your risks don't outrun your rewards. 'Every beginning has within it the seeds of its own end.' It looks a bit like a tree trunk with two branches growing off the right side," Miki said she knew which she would choose in this case. "I know which I would choose, but given what I just told you... what would you do?" she said taking very seriously the idea of this puzzle being life-threatening. She'd bet herself on her current knowledge and her idea, but she wouldn't ask someone else risk their lives based on her somewhat recently acquired knowledge.