text: > Go downwards
  Sitting on the edge of the dome, you slide yourself down into the garden below.
  
  The Blue Rose Garden is comprised of a single rose bush grown to magnificent proportions. Its offshoots form a prickled boundary, enclosing the garden. At precise intervals, blue roses grow. From a rockery in the centre of the garden, from which all the offshoots
  stem, is the core bush and from it grows a pristine bouquet.
  
  The Destine mansion rises up to the west. A maze of flowers are reflected in the tooth-glass dome of the greenhouse, its sliding door almost completely flush with the unpanelled pane.
  
  > examine the paintings
  Firstly the bronze framed picture: Framed by bronze leaf is a diorama of the Chief Destine, founder of his clan. In the painting he is a wearing a purple cloak and wielding an ornate dagger that is touched
  up against an egg of purest lead. In the background is a surprised looking goose.
  
  Then the iron framed picture: In the painting, the Confessor himself
  is standing regally in his purple cloak. On one shoulder, eating out
  of a raised palm, is a young quailer.
  
  And finally the silver framed picture: This is a painting of a young woman with a distinctive smile. She is dressed for the Hex wars, with
  a swine-net and a mace. The title underneath the portrait reads: Confidante Destine.
  
  > examine Silver
  This is a painting of a young woman with a distinctive smile. She is dressed for the Hex wars, with a swine-net and a mace. The title underneath the portrait reads: Confidante Destine.
  
  > look at Iron
  In the painting, the Confessor himself is standing regally in his purple cloak. On one shoulder, eating out of a raised palm, is a young quailer.
  
  > go east
  The library is a cramped room cluttered with bookcases that barely leave room for the armchair and the fireplace. Dim city light filters through the crack in the curtains. The open orange door leads west and the open window reveals the greenhouse roof to the east.
  
  > go east
  You stand on the apex of the perfectly reflective dome embedded in the side of the Destine mansion. The blue rose garden lies below you to
  the east. If you squint at the night, you can just about make out the intersection that leads back to the Mambling Plains.
  
  To your west is the open window to the Confessor's library, through which you can see the closed curtains.
  
  > look under rug
  You pull back the rug again, revealing a bone ladder leading down into dark depths below.
  
  > look at the spindleweed
  The plants in the greenhouse grow and die in a rapid cycle, proceeding through all possible stages of their life endlessly due to the lead enriched soil.
  
  The hayberry bush is laden with bright red round berries. The banberry shrub is a small sapling. The spindleweed is in thin yellow strands.
  
  > take the berries
  before you.
  
  The hayberry bush is dead, rotting on the soil. Large white flowers blossom on the banberry shrub. Tiny sprouts of spindleweed are
  growing.
  
  > look
  The greenhouse of the Destine mansion is a tooth-glass dome. The glass reflects back the light and heat of a microscopic sun that slowly orbits a huge grosvair tree. A variety of plants grow, bloom and die
  on a long plant bed.
  
  On the east of the greenhouse an open sliding door leads back out to the rose garden. An open blue door leads west into the house.
  
  The hayberry bush is bare, its leaves small and its branches stubby. Hard red berries hang like droplets from the banberry shrub. The spindleweed leaves are long and thin.
  
  > examine grosvair tree
  In the centre of the round greenhouse is a great grosvair tree, its shaggy fur hanging in rugose strips from the calcified trunk.
  
  Small yellow flowers blossom across the hayberry bush. The banberry shrub is covered in dozens of black obloid berries. The spindleweed stalks have grown higher and the leaves broader.
  
  > look at fur
  The wrinkled strips of furry plant-matter hang suggestively from the bone white branches.
  
  Hard green fruit bodies hang from the hayberry bush. The banberry
  shrub is crinkled and grey with mould. The plant bed is thick with spindleweed.
  
  > take the fur
  That's not going anywhere.
  
  The hayberry bush is laden with bright red round berries. The banberry shrub is a small sapling. The spindleweed is in thin yellow strands.
  
  > take the sapling
  There are no berries on the banberry shrub to pick.
  
  The hayberry bush is dead, rotting on the soil. Large white flowers blossom on the banberry shrub. Tiny sprouts of spindleweed are
  growing.
  
  > take the spindleweed
  You don't see any need to pick spindleweed.
  
  The hayberry bush is bare, its leaves small and its branches stubby. Hard red berries hang like droplets from the banberry shrub. The spindleweed leaves are long and thin.
  
  > give berry to the bird
  You pop the berry into the quailer's mouth and it gulps it straight down before starting a different litany.
  
  "Are you listening bird?" snuffles a low swine voice faithfully recorded by the quailer. "Good, so Confessor, you may wonder why you have no llama now. Heh heh, Sow 17 is why. I got out, didn't you know? I know it was you that stitched us. Don't try looking for llama, I ate her. Time you hear this I be long gone. Heh, heh.".
  
  Yes, that's definitely Sow 17's voice. Surely the Confessor would have heard that by now? But then, he hadn't wiped the record. Maybe he
  still doesn't know who stole his llama. Either way, this counts as a secret: Confessor Destine doesn't really have a pellucid llama.
  
  > look at quailer
  The quailer is a nervous looking brown bird that shivers every few moments as it talks endlessly to itself. Every few moments it pecks fruitlessly at the banberry stones that litter its cage.
  
  > examine the red door
  The door is formed of a single rigid strip of red leather,
  unmistakably from a letter-beast. The letter-beast door is open, allowing easy passage between the hall and the kitchen.
  
  > examine the purple door
  The door to the master bedroom is upholstered in several layers of purple keratin lace, made from untangled letter-beast claws.
  
  > examine the orange door
  The library door is a sickly orange and smells faintly of bile.
  
  > look at 1
  The spine reads, Bee Industry by Ewan Stores.
  
  > read 1
  (first taking Bee Industry)
  You open up Bee Industry.
  
  The author's debut work, a factual account of a machine he devised for the production of bees. It marks an early development in the field of apocriticism.
  
  > Examine 2
  The spine reads, One Hundred Uses for Letter-Leather by
  the Organisation for the Commercial Promotion of the Interests of
  the Knights Linear.
  
  > read 2
  (first taking One Hundred Uses for Letter-Leather)
  You open up One Hundred Uses for Letter-Leather.
  
  By about the 34th reason, it becomes obvious that the writers have run out of good ideas but they soldier on regardless.
  
  > Examine 3
  The spine reads, Treatises of Unending by the littlest
  porpoise.
  
  > read 3
  (first taking Treatises of Unending)
  You open up Treatises of Unending.
  
  At the foot of each page is a series of possible pages that the reader can sensibly turn to next. Flicking to the end, you see that the last page directs you back to the first. The content is mostly mildly obfuscated body horror.
  
  > Examine 4
  The spine reads, Strictures of Laxity by Yeastly
  Wristman.
  
  > read 4
  (first taking Strictures of Laxity)
  You open up Strictures of Laxity.
  
  Apparently an all egg diet has one very definite effect.
  
  > Examine 5
  The spine reads, Contract Ford by
  They-That-Recorded.
  
  > read 5
  (first taking Contract Ford)
  You open up Contract Ford.
  
  The book contains the complete rules to Contract Ford, a game so complex that only three people are said to have ever understood the rules, which is unfortunate as the game requires four players.
  
  > Examine 6
  The spine reads, Moving Celestial Bodies by the Monks of
  Mambling.
  
  > read 6
  (first taking Moving Celestial Bodies)
  You open up Moving Celestial Bodies.
  
  This pamphlet details one of the many theories of the Monks of Mambling: that anything could be moved with a lever and a fulcrum and place to stand. The latter half details an experiment to this effect, in which the great curse-stone monument of Never More Unseen was toppled using a thoroughly starched python as the lever, a hypnotised pygmy elephant as the fulcrum, with the younger members of the monastery forming a human pyramid from which the abbot could stand.
  The final chapter is made up geocultist ravings about the impossible geometry of the scattered stones.
  
  > Examine 7
  The spine reads, Their Terrible Forms by THEY WILL NOT
  FIT.
  
  > read 7
  (first taking Their Terrible Forms)
  You open up Their Terrible Forms.
  
  The author, evidently a geocultist in an advanced stage of madness, outlines everything that he has discovered about curse-stones. He appears to flirt with the view that it might not actually be possible to tessellate the stones to form a perfect solid and that those that claim to have done so are deluding themselves.
  
  > Examine 8
  The spine reads, Phenomenology of Unpleasant Pastries by
  Spinoza Kipling.
  
  > read 8
  (first taking Phenomenology of Unpleasant Pastries)
  In order to keep track of the ordering on the shelves, you shouldn't take any more Unsettling books until you've put some back.
  
  > return books
  Firstly Their Terrible Forms: (first closing Their Terrible Forms)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Moving Celestial Bodies: (first closing Moving Celestial Bodies) You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Contract Ford: (first closing Contract Ford)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Strictures of Laxity: (first closing Strictures of Laxity)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Treatises of Unending: (first closing Treatises of Unending)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then One Hundred Uses for Letter-Leather: (first closing One Hundred Uses for Letter-Leather)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Bee Industry: (first closing Bee Industry)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  And finally Advanced Fluid Dynamics: (first closing Advanced Fluid Dynamics)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  
  > read 8
  (first taking Phenomenology of Unpleasant Pastries)
  You open up Phenomenology of Unpleasant Pastries.
  
  The introduction reads:
  
  Each pleasant pastry has its own unique qualities, in contrast to
  every unpleasant pastry which is unpleasant due to one or more of the four-fold factors of possible pastry unpleasantness or one or more of the 15 synergistic combinations of unpleasantness, as schematised in the upcoming pages.
  
  > Examine 9
  The spine reads, Never More Unseen by Abbot Spigot.
  
  > read 9
  (first taking Never More Unseen)
  You open up Never More Unseen.
  
  An incomplete history of the forming of a dread monument made from curse stones. Apparently, the undoing of the monument is recorded in detail in the unsettling volume, Moving Celestial Bodies.
  
  > look at 10
  The spine reads, Meaning and Death by M. R. Sleet.
  
  > read 10
  (first taking Meaning and Death)
  You open up Meaning and Death.
  
  This well known volume describes the process by which we attribute meaning to our actions to avoid thinking about our looming demise.
  Most people consider the thesis ill considered, or at least,
  unpleasant to bring up at the dinner table.
  
  > look at 11
  The spine reads, Lost Time by the Orloger.
  
  > read 11
  (first taking Lost Time)
  You open up Lost Time.
  
  This awfully clever author argues that time might not be completely circular or self-reversing and that every moment we experience will be lost to us eventually. This book never got the attention it deserved.
  
  > Examine 12
  The spine reads, Love Letters by Bertrand Aleph.
  
  > read 12
  (first taking Love Letters)
  You open up Love Letters.
  
  Thankfully this isn't about the mating habits of letter beasts. According to the author, some letters are more loveable than others.
  It particularly singles out lowercase "b" as the most endearing of characters. You stare at the "b" until you start to get a little creeped out.
  
  > Examine 13
  The spine reads, Inverted Plains by Affronted
  Mandible.
  
  > read 13
  (first taking Inverted Plains)
  You open up Inverted Plains.
  
  The first line reads: The void between plains is one of distance, potential, and time. The plains we see dimly across the void may have ceased to be or may cease to ever become.
  
  > Examine 14
  The spine reads, Solarity by Naticca Wickbee.
  
  > read 14
  (first taking Solarity)
  You open up Solarity.
  
  The author explains how the glowing heat source that lights up every plain, the source obscured part of the time by the moving of other plains, is the intense point of convergence of every plain. There the interminable terminates.
  
  > look at the bookcases
  The bookcases have been shoved together precariously, leaning on one another for support. Each bookcase is labelled in a script comprised
  of interwoven azure flowers and thorny stalks. The labels are the
  seven eternal categories: damp, forgotten, implausible, pejorative, exhaustive, unsettling and beseeching.
  
  > return books
  Firstly Solarity: (first closing Solarity)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Inverted Plains: (first closing Inverted Plains)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Love Letters: (first closing Love Letters)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Lost Time: (first closing Lost Time)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Meaning and Death: (first closing Meaning and Death)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Never More Unseen: (first closing Never More Unseen)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  And finally Phenomenology of Unpleasant Pastries: (first closing Phenomenology of Unpleasant Pastries)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  
  > Examine 1
  The spine reads, Catalogue for the Destine Library by
  Confessor Destine.
  
  > read 1
  (first taking Catalogue for the Destine Library)
  You open up Catalogue for the Destine Library.
  
  The books in the library are apparently organised on shelves according to the seven eternal categories: damp, forgotten, implausible, pejorative, exhaustive, unsettling and beseeching. The location of
  some of the more consulted volumes, like Personas of Note and Reliquaries of Power have been highlighted.
  
  > look at 2
  The spine reads, Springcraft by Gerald Hatchet.
  
  > read 2
  (first taking Springcraft)
  You open up Springcraft.
  
  A dictionary of springs, with some hinges thrown in for additional colour.
  
  > look at 3
  The spine reads, Strictures of Succession by Robin
  Forkin.
  
  > read 3
  (first taking Strictures of Succession)
  You open up Strictures of Succession.
  
  This is a censorious tome on the rules of succession for the Destine clan. The back pages look to have been torn out quite some time ago.
  
  > look at 4
  The spine reads, Pudding Recipes by Scanner
  Alltongue.
  
  > read 4
  (first taking Pudding Recipes)
  You open up Pudding Recipes.
  
  A vast compendium of puddings, a veritable dictionary of desserts,
  most of which appear to include lard as their principal ingredient.
  
  > Examine 5
  The spine reads, Personas of Note by Abbot Spigot.
  
  > read 5
  (first taking Personas of Note)
  You open up Personas of Note.
  
  a half plains. If you wanted to look up anyone, you would consult this book.
  
  > look up confessor
  The entry for Confessor Destine spans several pages but the section on his early life before Confessordom has been blacked out. Through the ink, you can just about make out the name "Beningnell".
  
  > look up Beningnell
  Beningnell was the fictitious title holder of the Confessordom for at least thirty years before Grover Destine nobly convinced the Theocracy that Beningnell had in fact never existed. Prior to this, he was considered to be a quiet figure who had the good fortune of being both invisible and incorporeal. How this non-person came to be Confessor is unknown but the revelation of his non-existence was the key factor in Grover Destine's ascension to the title of Confessor.
  
  It all seems so clear now. Confessor Beningnell was a real person, although he may well have been invisible and incorporeal: some of the best people are. Grover Destine, eager for his position, performed the Strictures of Forgetting on Beningnell, uncanonising him, erasing his existence. Worse than simply killing the Confessor, he made it so he had never truly existed. This must be the Confessor's most dangerous secret.
  
  > Examine 6
  The spine reads, Sinua by Well-Wisher Golden Letter.
  
  > read 6
  (first taking Sinua)
  You open up Sinua.
  
  This is a guide to the great city of Sinua and all that can be done when insinuating there.
  
  > look at 7
  The spine reads, Reliquaries of Power by Federation of
  Cons.
  
  > read 7
  (first taking Reliquaries of Power)
  You open up Reliquaries of Power.
  
  This hefty tome lists what is known and what is suspected of all major and minor reliquaries that the authors thought worthy of mentioning. The tome is much too big and the print much too tiny to browse the
  book succinctly, but notable reliquaries could be looked up
  in the book.
  
  > look up cloak in the Reliquaries
  of powerful cloaks, you'll have to be more specific than that.
  
  > look up Destine Cloak in the Reliquaries
  The Destine Cloak: a sheet of regal purple in size 20, is one of two great relics of the Destine clan. It was woven from memories of the First Age and allows the wearer to turn gold into lead with the
  Destine Dagger..
  
  > look up Destine Dagger in the Reliquaries
  The Destine Dagger: The ceremonial dagger of the Destine Clan, that always must be held by the rightful chief of the Destine Clan. Famously, etched along the blade is the name of the current chief as detailed by the Strictures of Succession. It is said to have the power to turn gold to lead when wielded with the Destine Cloak.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You are wearing:
  the destine cloak
  your llama-suit
  
  You are carrying:
  Reliquaries of Power
  Sinua
  Personas of Note
  Pudding Recipes
  Strictures of Succession
  Springcraft
  Catalogue for the Destine Library
  a substance scanner
  a parchment
  the vax
  the somnuliser
  the attuning set
  a Winkerchief
  
  > look up Winkerchief in the Reliquaries
  find no clear or useful reference to winkerchief.
  
  > examine parchment
  The parchment, perfectly reformed as it was precisely three days before, is a letter which reads:
  
  Grey news, Confessor. I caught Assenter Cur sniffing around Beningnell's old office in the Holy Chambers. He asked if I had a copy of the Strictures of Forgetting. I think he knows, or at least suspects, what we have done. Send advice soon.
  
  > look up Cur in the Personas
  The book lists three members of the Cur clan: Assenter Cur, Counter
  Cur and Meredith Cur.
  
  > look up assenter cur in the Personas
  The Assenter is a prominent Cur clansman, a founding member of the Gibbous Monks and a theocrat who's role is to agree to every motion raised in the Chamber. Assenter Cur was previously known as Dissenter Cur, the official counter-advocate of the chamber, but a motion by Confessor Destine overturned that role. He lives in Sinua with life partner Counter Cur.
  
  > look up Sow 17 in the Personas
  An outlaw in seven plains, hero in three, Sow 17 is banned from re-entering Sinua and has the dubious honour of being the only swine
  to have their number taken off the Swinery number register.
  
  > look up counter cur in the Personas
  Theocrat of numbers, Counter Cur is most famed for developing the theory that there is not a point at which numbers wrap around and
  begin again. The Counter resides in Sinua with life partner Assenter Cur.
  
  > look up the llama in Reliquaries
  find no clear or useful reference to llama.
  
  > look up Confidante in the Personas
  Confidante Destine: Granddaughter of the Destine Doge, heir apparent
  to the Destine clan, and elder sister of Confessor Destine. Declared killed in action during the Hex wars.
  
  before she left to die in the Hex wars.
  
  > look up chief in the Personas
  Founder of the Destine clan, the Chief Destine oversaw the carving of the Destine mansion and built his fortune on turning gold into lead.
  
  > examine the suit
  (the llama-suit)
  From feet to appendages to head, your form is completely covered by a thin-weave suit made wholly from the wool of the pellucid llama. It renders you undetectable to all the senses that matter, including your own.
  
  Only the greatest of hunters can track down and capture a pellucid llama. They are invisible and silent, they emit no scent and move too fast to be easily touched. Fortunately for you, the greatest of
  hunters are rarely the best treasure-keepers. You had three pellucid llamas rustled from the pleasure gardens of Leaguer Mel, who's life-work was the capturing of a herd from the outskirts of the Boundless Plains. The rustlers (Carminative Brown, Sow 17, and She-Who-Regrets) believed the plan was their own and even saved you
  the trouble of the shearing. Each of them inevitably were found by Leaguer Mel's probability-hounds, along with the rustled llamas. But you fleeced the fleeces from them long before then.
  
  > look up Leaguer Mel in the Personas
  Owner of the finest menagerie and pleasure gardens in all the plains, Leaguer Mel is most famed for his impressive collection of pellucid-llamas.
  
  > look up brown in the Personas
  find no clear or useful reference to brown.
  
  > look up she-who-regrets in the Personas
  find no clear or useful reference to she who regrets.
  
  > look up yourself in the Personas
  Your distinct aim these past seventeen years has been to avoid your current identity from appearing in Personas of Note.
  
  > examine the fireplace
  The fireplace is more functional than cosy. It's a simple pit beneath
  a narrow chimney, as far away from the bookcases as can be in a room entirely covered by bookcases.
  
  > take the curtains
  You get the curtains.
  
  > look
  The library is a cramped room cluttered with bookcases that barely leave room for the armchair and the fireplace. The empty curtain pole hangs from brackets above the window. The open orange door leads west and the open window reveals the greenhouse roof to the east.
  
  > take the pole
  You take the pole. The curtain pole is long and sturdy and unlike most items in the mansion it doesn't appear to be made of any improbably rare material.
  
  > Lever confessor with pole
  You wedge the curtain pole under the foul Confessor. Using the edge of the bed as a fulcrum, you flip him over. As you do this, one of his pyjama buttons pops off and falls into a crack in the floor. He is now lying on his back, revealing through his half-open pyjamas a tattoo that spreads across his stomach.
  
  > examine the tattoo
  The tattoo depicts a serpent twisted around in a sideways figure-of-eight, grasping its own tail in its mouth. This tells you
  two things: the Confessor is or was a Leminscater and if he still is one, that means they were not all wiped out by the Knights Linear.
  This nugget alone could be enough to secure his downfall.
  
  > look up Leminscater in the Personas
  find no clear or useful reference to leminscater.
  
  > take the button
  You try to squeeze your fingers into the gap between the floorboards but the gap is too deep and narrow.
  
  > Lever confessor
  (with the pole)
  You wedge the curtain pole under the foul Confessor. Using the edge of the bed as a fulcrum, you flip him over. He is now lying on his
  stomach once again.
  
  > take Dagger
  The Confessor is lying over the sheath, rendering it completely inaccessible.
  
  > Lever confessor
  (with the pole)
  You wedge the curtain pole under the foul Confessor. Using the edge of the bed as a fulcrum, you flip him over. He is now lying on his back, revealing through his half-open pyjamas a tattoo that spreads across his stomach.
  
  > take Dagger
  Taken.
  
  > examine Dagger
  This is the Destine Dagger, the ancestral weapon of the Destine clan, passed down from Chief to Chief throughout the ages. Etched into the blade are the words "Confessor Destine".
  
  > look at the plinth
  On the top of the stone plinth is an indent in the shape of a dagger. It's empty. On the edge of the hilt is what appears to be a coat hook.
  
  Looking at the plinth close up, you notice set into it is a small open cupboard.
  
  > Go west
  Confessor Destine has little taste in either selection or arrangement. The open bone door leads east.
  
  Unfortunately, most of the 'menagerie' is made up of stuffed exhibits.
  
  First the visitor is greeted by a pile of hay in an empty stall: the housing for a pellucid llama.
  
  Then they see a worried looking bird mumbling to itself in a cage.
  
  Finally, at the back of the room, they see a glass chamber swarming with shiny black beetles.
  
  > Go west
  In the centre of the polished wooden floor is a round bed on which is the sleeping figure of Confessor Destine himself.
  
  through the cracks in the floor.
  
  Tucked beside the bed is an unseemly bedside table. Opposite the open door east to the corridor is an open watercloset.
  
  > look at the crack
  You can just about see the button glinting through a crack in the floor.
  
  > Go east
  The library is a cramped room cluttered with bookcases that barely leave room for the armchair and the fireplace. An empty bracket juts out above the uncovered window. The open orange door leads west and
  the open window reveals the greenhouse roof to the east.
  
  > look under rug
  You pull back the rug and the ground underneath is sucked into its weave, taking the button with it, revealing the menagerie below. Directly beneath you is the big mound of hay.
  
  > look at rug
  The rug is a thick slab of carpet with a beguiling pattern of interlocking keys and doors, tessellating in queasy spirals. The
  button from Confessor Destine's ceremonial pyjamas has been sucked up into the weave of the rug.
  
  You have peeled back the rug, revealing the space about a foot's
  length below it.
  
  > take the button
  The button appears to be folded into the weave of the rug, safe from your invisible fingers.
  
  > look at the button
  The button has been sucked up into the weave of the rug.
  
  > take rug
  You lift up the rug entirely and a hole appears briefly underneath it before disappearing, putting the button back as it was.
  
  > attune the button
  (with your attuning set)
  You run the attuning set lightly over the button but the lead rods barely even shimmer; it doesn't need attuning to you.
  
  > look at 10
  The spine reads, Refresher Settings by Office for the
  Proliferation of Lead Products.
  
  > read 10
  (first taking Refresher Settings)
  In order to keep track of the ordering on the shelves, you shouldn't take any more Exhaustive books until you've put some back.
  
  > put the books back
  Firstly Reliquaries of Power: (first closing Reliquaries of Power)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Sinua: (first closing Sinua)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Personas of Note: (first closing Personas of Note)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Pudding Recipes: (first closing Pudding Recipes)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Strictures of Succession: (first closing Strictures of
  Succession)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Springcraft: (first closing Springcraft)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  And finally Catalogue for the Destine Library: (first closing
  Catalogue for the Destine Library)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  
  > read the Refresher
  (first taking Refresher Settings)
  You open up Refresher Settings.
  
  The manual for the refresher in the kitchen makes clear that ordinary use is limited to reverting spoiled food to its state three days
  prior. It is constrained to this normal settings by the dial at the back. If the dial is set to uncontained, then the refresher will make use of the full power it has available from the lead in its compartment. Unfortunately, the standard amount of lead in the compartment has only enough power for three days any way.
  
  > look at 13
  The spine reads, Wanted For Crimes Known by the Knights
  Linear.
  
  > read 13
  (first taking Wanted For Crimes Known)
  You open up Wanted For Crimes Known.
  
  pages. Upon each page is the name of an uncaught fugitive, their details disappearing from the enchanted pages upon their capture.
  There are only three names: White Widow, Chromus, and Carminative Brown.
  
  > look up white widow in wanted
  WANTED: WHITE WIDOW
  He-Who-Wept offers the gift of justice served to whomever slays the White Widow, killer and mother of He-Who-Trembled (formerly known as Erigone). He-Who-Trembled was a sworn brother of the Divergent
  Diaspora and life-ally to He-Who-Wept and his murder must be avenged.
  
  > look up Chromus in wanted
  WANTED: CHROMUS
  The Knights Linear offer a permanent death granted on behalf of anyone who presents them with information leading to the capture of Chromus, (A.K.A. King Ant/the Fathergod/his Chromeliness).
  
  > look up brown in wanted
  WANTED: CARMINATIVE BROWN
  Leaguer Mel offers the sum of one extraordinary boon for the proven recapture of Carminative Brown for the crimes of Llama-Rustling, Insouciance and Grand Escape Without Explanation. Looks like Carminative got away after all. Shame about the others.
  
  > Examine 11
  The spine reads, Insects That We're Pretty Sure Aren't Edible
  by Ewan Stores and Jan Shore.
  
  > read 11
  (first taking Insects That We're Pretty Sure Aren't Edible)
  You open up Insects That We're Pretty Sure Aren't Edible.
  
  This book lists all insects that the authors suspect aren't edible but wouldn't want to definitively rule out. Research, we are are assured, is ongoing.
  
  > read 14
  (first taking Factional Dispentations)
  You open up Factional Dispentations.
  
  An easily-consultable history of various factions and clans.
  
  > look up knights in factional
  find no clear or useful reference to knights.
  
  > look up linear in factional
  find no clear or useful reference to linear.
  
  > look up Knights linear in factional
  A holy order of the Sinuan Theocracy, they strictly maintain that
  every plain persists endlessly along exactly one axis. They regularly send scouts out to prove this hypothesis and none have come back yet. This only bolsters their claims.
  
  > look up sinuan Theocracy in the Factional
  find no clear or useful reference to sinuan theocracy.
  
  > look up leaguer in factional
  find no clear or useful reference to leaguer.
  
  > look up the swine in the Factional
  The Swinery is a breeding conglomerate that produces swine. Each swine is given a unique number from a register when they are born. When a swine dies, their number is returned to the register. A swine is considered to be the same person as all prior incarnations with the same number. It is for this reason that swine do not make use of mortality refreshers.
  
  > look up Theocracy in the Factional
  find no clear or useful reference to theocracy.
  
  > look up leminscater in the Factional
  find no clear or useful reference to Leminscater.
  
  > look up human in the Factional
  find no clear or useful reference to human.
  
  > look up the ants in factional
  find no clear or useful reference to ants.
  
  > look up the lemniscaters in factional
  A heretical sect that believe in the infinity of infinities.
  
  > look up the letter beasts in the Factional
  find no clear or useful reference to letter beasts.
  
  > look at 11
  The spine reads, Mythological Possibilities by M. R.
  Sleet.
  
  > read 11
  (first taking Mythological Possibilities)
  You open up Mythological Possibilities.
  
  with the study of mythic potentialities.
  
  > look up the Mythologicians in the Factional
  find no clear or useful reference to Mythologicians.
  
  > Examine 12
  The spine reads, Rarer Elements of Noble Design by Hum
  the Drummer.
  
  > read 12
  (first taking Rarer Elements of Noble Design)
  You open up Rarer Elements of Noble Design.
  
  A thick slab bound in letter-leather, with pages made from the pulped wood of the lachrymose oak. It outlines unconventional building materials like tooth-glass and grosvair fur.
  
  > Examine 13
  The spine reads, Transcendent Gardens by Roly
  Lentil.
  
  > read 13
  (first taking Transcendent Gardens)
  You open up Transcendent Gardens.
  
  In which the five transcendent gardens are described. The Destine Blue Rose Garden is the third of these, famed for its perfect symmetry, complete curse-stone rockery and, of course, the unique blue roses themselves.
  
  > Examine 4
  The spine reads, Strictures of Deviation by Louis
  Filler.
  
  > read 4
  (first taking Strictures of Deviation)
  You open up Strictures of Deviation.
  
  This is just thinly veiled gossip couched in terms of universal principles.
  
  > look at 12
  The spine reads, Sinuan Theocracy Best Practices by
  Senator Nag.
  
  > read 12
  (first taking Sinuan Theocracy Best Practices)
  You open up Sinuan Theocracy Best Practices.
  
  While ostensibly a manual detailing customs and process of the Sinuan Theocracy, it appears to have been written mostly to justify writing a lengthy preamble decrying how the whole system is hopelessly outdated and impossible to change.
  
  > look up sinuan Theocracy in the factions
  can look things up in.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are wearing:
  the destine cloak
  your llama-suit
  
  You are carrying:
  Sinuan Theocracy Best Practices
  Strictures of Deviation
  Transcendent Gardens
  Rarer Elements of Noble Design
  Mythological Possibilities
  Factional Dispentations
  Insects That We're Pretty Sure Aren't Edible
  Wanted For Crimes Known
  Refresher Settings
  a rug
  the destine dagger
  a pole
  some curtains
  a substance scanner
  a parchment
  the vax
  the somnuliser
  the attuning set
  a Winkerchief
  
  > look up Sinuan in the Factional
  find no clear or useful reference to sinuan.
  
  > return books
  Firstly Sinuan Theocracy Best Practices: (first closing Sinuan Theocracy Best Practices)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Strictures of Deviation: (first closing Strictures of Deviation) You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Transcendent Gardens: (first closing Transcendent Gardens)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Rarer Elements of Noble Design: (first closing Rarer Elements of Noble Design)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Mythological Possibilities: (first closing Mythological Possibilities)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Factional Dispentations: (first closing Factional Dispentations) You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Insects That We're Pretty Sure Aren't Edible: (first closing Insects That We're Pretty Sure Aren't Edible)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  Then Wanted For Crimes Known: (first closing Wanted For Crimes Known) You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  And finally Refresher Settings: (first closing Refresher Settings)
  You slot the book back on the shelf where it belongs.
  
  > look
  The library is a cramped room cluttered with bookcases that barely leave room for the armchair and the fireplace. An empty bracket juts out above the uncovered window. The open orange door leads west and
  the open window reveals the greenhouse roof to the east.
  
  > read 2
  (first taking Strictures of Forgetting)
  You open up Strictures of Forgetting.
  
  The Strictures of Forgetting is a ritual that can be performed by two determined individuals. The effect of this ritual is to uncanonise someone or something targeted by the ritual. Once uncanonised the target is considered not only to no longer exist but also to have
  never existed. This technique is forbidden except by a majority decision in the Holy Chamber.
  
  > look at 4
  The spine reads, Calibrations Divine by Merkin
  Daily.
  
  > read 4
  (first taking Calibrations Divine)
  You open up Calibrations Divine.
  
  A dry tome on holy mechanics, the practical application of holy numbers. The diagrams on suspension bridges buoyed by disbelief could be better annotated.
  
  > Examine 1
  The spine reads, The Last Days of The Red Letter by
  Scarlett O'La.
  
  > read last Days
  (first taking The Last Days of The Red Letter)
  You open up The Last Days of The Red Letter.
  
  This slim volume tells of the downfall of a famous letter-beast in the Divergent Plains. The letter-beast laid claim to the Plains, marking out edges with his endless burgundy tail. Like all letter-beasts, he sublet his territory in exchange for victuals and favours. His
  downfall came by the cleaving points of the Knights Linear. The book describes their first encounter:
  
  "I will lease you all the land that you could possibly need, fair Knights, or I am not a letter-beast!" said the Red Letter, with sincerity uncommon in his kind.
  "We accept your word as it stands," said the Knights Linear evenly.
  
  But the Knights' need was great and in their attempts to halt the machinations of the Leminscaters they needed much land to grow lead groves. Soon all the land they'd let from the Red Letter had been filled and yet their lead rod requirements were nowhere near met.
  
  "What can I do for you, fine and fair knights?" asked the Red-Letter, smiling with all his sincere mouths and frowning with all his
  insincere mouths.
  "Letter-beast," said the Knights Linear, "our need is greater than the land that you have let us."
  The Red Letter opened his mouths for making deals and closed his
  mouths for making idle talk. "Even knights, I could easily let you
  more land for an appropriate price."
  "You misunderstand," said the Knights, "you said that you would lease us all the land that we could possibly need or you are not a letter-beast. Our need has outstripped the land that you have leased us, and yet you are still a letter-beast."
  
  And so, of course, the Knights Linear were entitled by their creed to undo any breakers of oaths. Upon that day they bisected the great
  beast and took all his land, evicting all other tenants and selling
  his great hide in millions of rectangular strips. Though the Knights Linear had merely acted justly, they gained the unearned favour of all other letter-beasts, who always rejoice when one of their kind is felled, and the unsurprising enmity of what was to become known as the Divergent Diaspora: a collective formed by many of the Red Letter's landless former tenants who mark their old landlord's demise each year with renewed vows to destroy the Knights Linear.
  
  > take factional
  Taken.
  
  > look up divergent Diaspora in factional
  You open up Factional Dispentations.
  
  An easily-consultable history of various factions and clans.
  
  Ex-renters of the Divergent Plain, they are spread out almost everywhere else. They nurse a blood feud with the Knights Linear and mourn the loss of the Red Letter.
  
  > take the Personas
  You get Personas of Note.
  
  > look up red Letter in the Personas
  You open up Personas of Note.
  
  a half plains. If you wanted to look up anyone, you would consult this book.
  
  A letter beast who previously bounded the Divergent Plains. Was killed by the Knights Linear and his body sold for leather to fund their ongoing campaigns.
  
  > Review
  -> The blue rose motif appears to be everywhere in the Confessor's wing. You wouldn't be surprised if there was something untoward
  beneath it all.
  -> There must be some trick to opening the brick wall in the cellar, you only wish you knew more about codes.
  
  -> You have discovered that the Confessor Destine no longer has a pellucid llama: his most valuable possession is not in his possession. -> You have learnt that Confessor Destine usurped his title by causing Confessor Beningnell to be uncanonised, removing him from veridical existence.
  -> You have seen the Confessor's tattoo proclaiming him a member, at one time or other, of the Lemniscaters.
  -> You have unveiled the Confessor's secret stash of lead-sweetened port, a strictly forbidden substance.
  -> You have discovered the Confessor has consumed the flesh of swines.
  
  > Examine 14
  The spine reads, Forbidden Libations by Narcissa
  Gout.
  
  > read 14
  (first taking Forbidden Libations)
  You open up Forbidden Libations.
  
  A list of which drinks are forbidden on each plain. The most well
  known is lead-sweetened port, a draught so potent only the Doge is permitted to drink it. He might have eventually ruled overwise, but since cracking open a crate of the stuff fifty years ago he hasn't appeared at any of the drink policy meetings.
  
  > look at the bookcases
  The bookcases have been shoved together precariously, leaning on one another for support. Each bookcase is labelled in a script comprised
  of interwoven azure flowers and thorny stalks. The labels are the
  seven eternal categories: damp, forgotten, implausible, pejorative, exhaustive, unsettling and beseeching.
  
  > read 4
  (first taking Well Known Secrets)
  You open up Well Known Secrets.
  
  There are two kinds of secrets: living secrets and dead secrets. This book explores some of the more famous dead secrets, facts which people once tried to keep hidden but now are well known. It strikes you that the Confessor must know many of the other kind of dead secret, things that no one else now knows but wouldn't care to know.
  
  > Examine 12
  The spine reads, Quanto-Dispaine for Beginners by M. S.
  Rawl.
  
  > read 12
  (first taking Quanto-Dispaine for Beginners)
  You open up Quanto-Dispaine for Beginners.
  
  A set of steps for an awkward formal dance of uncertain origins.
  
  > Examine 13
  The spine reads, Glyphic Grammar by F. Furnaces.
  
  > read 13
  (first taking Glyphic Grammar)
  You open up Glyphic Grammar.
  
  A compendium of unlikely symbols and their untenable interpretations.
  
  > Examine 14
  The spine reads, Notes Towards Jamming by Eliza
  Enseled.
  
  > read 14
  (first taking Notes Towards Jamming)
  You open up Notes Towards Jamming.
  
  It's a raft of design notes detailing how a jam lock manipulates probabilities.
  
  > Examine 1
  The spine reads, Marmalade by Dee 'Six' Crapps.
  
  > read 1
  (first taking Marmalade)
  You open up Marmalade.
  
  An unlikely tale set in a world in which swamps have a pleasant citric aroma. One rather suspects that Marmalade contains a
  satirical subtext several layers of allegory removed from the actual description of events in the novel, such that only the most dedicated and unhinged of literary analysts could discover the true meaning of the work.
  
  > look at 6
  The spine reads, Songs and Codes by Bore Boar 44.
  
  > read 6
  (first taking Songs and Codes)
  You open up Songs and Codes.
  
  The book details the shameful practice of embedding secret codes into songs, whether revealed when played backwards or deciphered from stressed syllables. While disapproving, the work goes into some considerable detail on the mapping of the initial letters of
  individual syllables in a song line to letters in code grids. The danger here being that songs can be transmitted unwillingly between people once they stick in minds, and so messages may be spread through seemingly innocent ditties that secretly function as ciphers and crypto-mnemonics.
  
  > Go east
  You stand on the apex of the perfectly reflective dome embedded in the side of the Destine mansion. The blue rose garden lies below you to
  the east. If you squint at the night, you can just about make out the intersection that leads back to the Mambling Plains.
  
  To your west is the open window to the Confessor's library, through which you can see that there are no curtains.