text: [Themes: Fantasy, platonic solids, female protagonist, physical simulation]
  
  > Look around
  You put the magnifying glass into the contraption; improbably, it squinches down, passes through the narrow neck, and emerges from the other end smaller than it was when it went in.
  
  On close inspection, it seems that the mechanisms for opening the cages are stuck fast; no key will ever work in them again.
  
  A long, vaulted room, lined with cages of filigree and jewels. All of the animals are motionless and still, perhaps through the art of a taxidermist. In one cage is an elephant, so short that he reaches only to your knee; you easily could lift him under one arm and carry him away. In another cage, a giant mouse lies, curled as though slumbering, his paws folded in the semblance of prayer.
  
  Mounted on a swivel on the wall is what looks like an irregular hourglass, one bulb larger than the other. There is no sand within -- nor could there be, since the contraption is open at each end. At the moment the larger end is uppermost.
  
  > get the glass
  You already have that.
  
  > go east
  A straight white light comes through the hole in the ceiling, but it is soon after twisted and bent: mirrors cast it from angle to angle; crystal divides it; glass stains it.
  
  East and west, low corridors lead into shadow.
  
  In the north wall is a closed door, covered with a silver substance.
  
  > go to the east
  An orchard of glass trees: trunks slender and orderly as the columns of the Alhambra, foliage iridescent and frail. No wind stirs, and yet, from time to time, a leaf casts free of its branch and drifts to the ground. The whole floor of the cavern is deep with them.
  
  At the center of this is a clearing where a monstrous furnace stands -- shaped like a coiled dragon.
  
  > examine furnace
  A huge furnace in the shape of a dragon. The dragon's belly contains the fire, and in this portion of the contraption is a space in which you might put something to heat. The dragon's ear is a sort of dial; the dragon's eye is a push-button.
  
  > get the leaf
  You take one of the glass leaves, but it is so fragile that even the slightest handling destroys it.
  
  > examine the trees
  Elegant, bloodless, utterly inorganic. On inspection, the bark proves to be covered with tiny, stylized incisions; the branches fork in matched, symmetrical pairs.
  
  Hanging from one of the trees is an almost perfectly round apple, made of a reddish metal.
  
  > look at the floor
  Layers on layers of fragile detritus.
  
  > look at the apple
  An apple almost perfectly round, made of a ruddy metal.
  
  > get the apple
  You pluck the metal fruit from its glassy stem. It rattles a little, as though there were something inside.
  
  > shake the apple
  It rattles musically.
  
  > eat the apple
  That would probably be a most unrewarding experience.
  
  > break it
  That's unlikely to have much effect.
  
  > drop the apple
  Dropped.
  
  > get the apple
  It rattles a little, as though there were something inside.
  
  > put the apple in the furnace
  You put the round apple into the furnace.
  
  > examine the dial
  The dial can be set to anything from 1 to 5. It currently stands at 3. The label under this dial reads "Change to".
  
  > look at the button
  The button is made of jade and is round and bright.
  
  > turn the dial to 1
  You turn the dial to 1.
  
  > look at the dial
  The dial can be set to anything from 1 to 5. It currently stands at 1. The label under this dial reads "Change to".
  
  > press button
  The graininess of wood covers the surface of the round apple.
  
  > turn the dial to 2
  You turn the dial to 2.
  
  > press the button
  The surface of the round apple becomes quickly rough and speckled.
  
  > turn the dial to 3
  You turn the dial to 3.
  
  > press the button
  The round apple grows gradually clear from the outside in, until it can be seen through entirely.
  
  > examine the apple
  A pale, iridescent red bauble, with only the faintest hint of an indent where the stem once went.
  
  > look in the apple
  In the round apple is a delicate key.
  
  > turn the dial to 4
  You turn the dial to 4.
  
  > turn the dial to 5
  You turn the dial to 5.
  
  > examine the apple
  A round pink sack.
  
  > break the apple
  With your bare hands? That could be uncomfortable.
  
  > break the apple with the rock
  You shatter the round apple into a million useless shards. In the process, you spill out a delicate key.
  
  > get the key
  Taken.
  
  > examine the key
  A delicate key, tinted indigo, made of glass. The teeth are quite precisely filed.
  
  > put the key in furnace
  You put the delicate key into the furnace.
  
  > press the button
  The surface of the delicate key grows lustrous with a metallic sheen.
  
  > examine the dial
  The dial can be set to anything from 1 to 5. It currently stands at 4. The label under this dial reads "Change to".
  
  > examine the key
  A delicate key of silvery metal, with precisely-cut teeth.
  
  > unlock door
  (with the delicate key)
  The key seems as though it would go in the lock, but it is slightly too small.
  
  > go west
  A long, vaulted room, lined with cages of filigree and jewels. All of the animals are motionless and still, perhaps through the art of a taxidermist. In one cage is an elephant, so short that he reaches only to your knee; you easily could lift him under one arm and carry him away. In another cage, a giant mouse lies, curled as though slumbering, his paws folded in the semblance of prayer.
  
  Mounted on a swivel on the wall is what looks like an irregular hourglass, one bulb larger than the other. There is no sand within -- nor could there be, since the contraption is open at each end. At the moment the larger end is uppermost.
  
  > Turn hourglass
  You rotate the contraption on the wall so that the smaller end is uppermost.
  
  > put the key in the hourglass
  You put the delicate key into the contraption; predictably, it squinches down, passes through the narrow neck, and emerges from the other end larger than it was when it went in.
  
  > unlock door
  (with the delicate key)
  You unlock the silvered door and push it open.
  
  > go north
  Tower, Bottom
  You stand at the bottom of a stone tower. Doorways open in each of the cardinal directions, except for the north; there, a spacious niche contains the statue of a woman, skillfully executed in white marble.
  
  The center of the room is occupied by a spiral staircase, but one made of such slender and delicate supports that it obscures neither light nor view.
  
  The silvery door to the south stands open.
  
  A wooden tube lies forgotten on the floor.
  
  > ask the galatea about herself
  You can only do that to something animate.
  
  > examine the statue
  Delicately proportioned and carved of white marble, with a small, aristocratic head and supple limbs. She is in the act of pulling up a mantle around herself with one hand; with the other hand, she is half-leaning on a large concave mirror.
  
  > look at tube
  A short wooden tube, open at each end. There seems to be a vellum scroll tightly rolled within.
  
  > get the scroll
  You can't manage to dislodge the vellum with your fingers: the tube is too narrow for easy negotiation.
  
  > Go south
  A straight white light comes through the hole in the ceiling, but it is soon after twisted and bent: mirrors cast it from angle to angle; crystal divides it; glass stains it.
  
  East and west, low corridors lead into shadow.
  
  The silvery door to the north stands open.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a tube
  a vellum scroll
  a delicate key (enlarged and made of metal) (which opens the
  silvered door)
  a magnifying glass (shrunken)
  a rock
  a workbox
  a ball of yarn
  a needle
  a brown dress (being worn)
  a ring (being worn)
  some slippers (being worn)
  
  > go to the west
  A long, vaulted room, lined with cages of filigree and jewels. All of the animals are motionless and still, perhaps through the art of a taxidermist. In one cage is an elephant, so short that he reaches only to your knee; you easily could lift him under one arm and carry him away. In another cage, a giant mouse lies, curled as though slumbering, his paws folded in the semblance of prayer.
  
  Mounted on a swivel on the wall is what looks like an irregular hourglass, one bulb larger than the other. There is no sand within -- nor could there be, since the contraption is open at each end. At the moment the smaller end is uppermost.
  
  > put the tube in the hourglass
  You put the tube into the contraption; predictably, it squinches down, passes through the narrow neck, and emerges from the other end larger than it was when it went in.
  
  > examine tube
  A tube made of wood, but now more like a length of pipe. There seems to be a vellum scroll tightly rolled within.
  
  > get scroll from the tube
  Removed.
  
  > read the scroll
  A single sheet torn from a much larger volume. Front and back are covered with diagrams of optical devices: silvered mirrors both flat and concave; a convex lens; a round ball of glass. Lines represent the passage of light, bounced or bent. Your master has just such papers at home, marked with the emblem of the Society of the Lynx.
  
  Considerable text accompanies these drawings, but since it is neither in Latin nor the vernacular, you cannot guess the sense of it. There is, however, a marginal note, in red letters, that appears to be in Latin. This is in a crabbed hand and too small to read.
  
  > read the latin with the lens
  (in the contraption)
  You discover nothing of interest in the contraption.
  
  > look at the note through the glass
  With the aid of the magnifying glass, you're able to make out what is written:
  
  Front and back are covered with diagrams of optical devices: silvered mirrors both flat and concave; a convex lens; a round ball of glass. Lines represent the passage of light, bounced or bent. Your master has just such papers at home, marked with the emblem of the Society of the Lynx.
  
  Considerable text accompanies these drawings, but since it is neither in Latin nor the vernacular, you cannot guess the sense of it. There is, however, a marginal note, in red letters, that appears to be in Latin:
  
  Beyond the four elements there is a fifth; as the others are to the body so is the fifth to the soul. Possessing it, one is set free.
  The paths of light lie open, the swiftness of thought, the bending, the division, and the reflection.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  a vellum scroll
  a tube (enlarged)
  a delicate key (enlarged and made of metal) (which opens the
  silvered door)
  a magnifying glass (shrunken)
  a rock
  a workbox
  a ball of yarn
  a needle
  a brown dress (being worn)
  a ring (being worn)
  some slippers (being worn)