text: [Themes: Fantasy, slavery, fantasy]
  
  > descend
  The air is clammy and unpleasant, and clogs in your lungs.
  
  Nearby an open trapdoor leads up to the debtor's paradise.
  
  > go north
  Liquid squeezed from the surrounding earth here flows out through a fountain, then soaks back into the ground below.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes: mostly loathing and fear much stronger than your own, but whatever he knows does not come through to you.
  
  > examine the fountain
  The liquid is sludge-black where it pours in quantity, but where it runs thin, it appears red.
  
  > Smell liquid
  Despite its unappealing appearance and the rankness of the air, it does not smell as vile as you expect: more bitter.
  
  > fill the vial
  The vial is stoppered and full of the old poison; and in any case who knows how the liquid here would interact with the apothecary's brew? Better to find some other container.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  an ivory key
  a little gold dinner bell
  a silver bell
  a cow bell
  a stool
  a candle (providing light)
  a poison vial
  a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
  a sceptre
  an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
  some iron windchimes
  a great contract book
  a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
  a shackle
  some discarded embroidery materials
  a helmet (being worn)
  
  > go south
  The air is clammy and unpleasant, and clogs in your lungs.
  
  Nearby an open trapdoor leads up to the debtor's paradise.
  
  > Go upward
  The graves of men who died before resolving their debts.
  
  Nearby an open trapdoor leads down to the dank room.
  
  > go north
  The resting place of maidens who died before marrying those to whom they were engaged.
  
  > go to the upper bulb
  You head south to the central crypt. Then up to the law library. , emerging into the law library. Then north to the lower bulb. You walk far enough in to get a view of sand falling in a huge hourglass. Though it is only a thin stream, it sounds louder than it should: the noise, magnified by your helmet, becomes too much to bear, and you retreat.
  
  > remove the helmet
  You lift the helmet from your head, and the sudden quiet feels like going deaf.
  
  > go to the upper bulb
  You head north to the lower bulb. And finally up to the upper bulb.
  
  In the upper chamber, you find, there is almost as much sand as there is below; indeed for all you can tell the flow might be eternal.
  
  Nearby an ivory door leads southwest.
  
  > unlock the ivory door
  (with the ivory key)
  You unlock the ivory door.
  
  > go to the south-west
  (first opening the ivory door)
  
  Though not actually burnt, the walls are stained with smoke, especially at the south end. This mess has partly obliterated what was once a detailed mural on the west wall.
  
  Nearby an open ivory door leads northeast to the upper bulb.
  
  > look at the mural
  Though some of the detail is gone, the mural shows the path through the forest to the castle. At the castle gate, a smiling king with horns has just finished laying down a trail of silver coins leading into his domain; at the other end of the path, a crowd of astonished and eager peasants is collecting them.
  
  It is clear enough that in a few minutes they will get to the drawbridge and all be enslaved.
  
  > go to the south
  A corner tower severely damaged by fire, so that there is only framework between you and the sky.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes: A spectacular but unsuccessful attempt. My fur was singed
  and foul-smelling for weeks.
  
  > go east
  Lined with neat rows of inscrutable -- one might almost say pointless -- objects.
  
  There's a cane (probably a swordstick, by the look of the handle) and a silver buckle (without a mate); a homunculus, a glass leaf, a copper snake; an inkpot (empty), a white apple, a stuffed boar, a preserved goat, a parrot perch, a green cloth swatch, a dark-colored pendant, a gold ring, and a broken beam.
  
  > take all
  neat rows: A discouraging prospect -- moving everything from this room is really work for about a dozen strong spirits from the contract book.
  
  > take the inkpot
  You acquire the inkpot, and assess it curiously.
  
  A very curious object.
  
  > examine the homunculus
  A very very curious object.
  
  > examine the cane
  A very very very curious object.
  
  > examine the buckle
  A very very very very curious object.
  
  > examine the leaf
  A very very very very very curious object.
  
  > look at the snake
  A very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > look at apple
  A very very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > examine the boar
  A very very very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > examine the goat
  A very very very very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > examine the perch
  A very very very very very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > look at the cloth
  (the discarded embroidery materials)
  Unfinished linen and threads.
  
  > take cloth
  (the green cloth swatch)
  You acquire the green cloth swatch, and assess it curiously.
  
  A very very very very very very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > take the pendant
  You acquire the dark-colored pendant, and assess it curiously.
  
  A very very very very very very very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > take the ring
  You acquire the gold ring, and assess it curiously.
  
  A very very very very very very very very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > take the leaf
  You acquire the glass leaf.
  
  > take the beam
  The broken beam is too heavy for you to lift.
  
  > Examine beam
  A very very very very very very very very very very very very very very curious object.
  
  > take the cane
  You acquire the cane.
  
  > take the buckle
  You acquire the silver buckle.
  
  > take the homunculus
  You acquire the homunculus.
  
  > take the leaf
  You already have that.
  
  > take the snake
  You acquire the copper snake.
  
  > take the apple
  You acquire the white apple.
  
  > take the boar
  The stuffed boar is too heavy for you to lift.
  
  > take the goat
  The preserved goat is too heavy for you to lift.
  
  > take the perch
  The parrot perch is too heavy for you to lift.
  
  > Go south
  From the looks of things, immediately above the Guard Tower. An assortment of weapons, most of them hundreds of years old and no longer useful, are collected here, though from the gory appearance at least a few of the daggers have been sharpened and tried in the relatively recent past.
  
  > take the dagger
  You have learned that the Beast cannot be killed so directly -- though to judge by the evidence he did try here. And in general physical violence has never been much use against the castle's more spiritual powers.
  
  > go north
  Lined with neat rows of inscrutable -- one might almost say pointless -- objects.
  
  The neat rows have been thinned down to the stuffed boar, the preserved goat, the parrot perch, and the broken beam, thanks to your diligent action.
  
  > Go north
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand (on which is a storybook) here.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes: Ah, now here's an interesting little locale. Lucrezia had
  it built. She was always her father's daughter, you perceive. It is so powerful that it makes false the things that are brought in -- I used it once to void a lady's marriage contract --
  
  The thread of thought stops. On second thought, that is not a
  story I am proud of.
  
  > Examine storybook
  A collection of fanciful tales "which were once true but are no longer". It is stamped across the front as having been inducted into the Lie Library.
  
  You read: Once upon a time, there was a young Russian girl whose mother died, leaving behind only a painted wooden clapper which made a loud noise. When the girl's father married again, the second wife was very cruel and miserly... (etc. at some length); but whenever the girl was lonely, she took the wooden clapper to the mirror in her mother's bedroom and clapped it loudly; and her mother's spirit would appear to her and advise her... (And so on, for several dozen pages of adventure, ending in marriage to the Tsar.)
  
  > go to your bedroom
  You head west to the smoke-damaged chamber. Then northeast to the upper bulb. Then east to the gallery of still life. Then east to the white gallery. Then east to the bellroom. Then south to the private parlor. And finally south to the crystal bedroom.
  
  A fantasia of gleaming and glittering, chandeliers and mirrors: all that shines or reflects has been moved here, into this room that you inhabit, which he never enters.
  
  The south end of the room is most dazzling, because of the daylight from the balcony.
  
  The Beast's thoughts intrude on yours, courtesy of the enchanted shoes: affection, longing, guilt; amusement at your innocence and anger at your blindness; frank desire. Such a tangled, terrifying mess of emotion that you barely recognize yourself in the mirrors.
  
  Sorry. The thought is sleepy and not entirely comforting.
  
  > ring the cow bell
  You ring the cow bell, and a heavy fog coalesces around you; then at the mirror there forms the image of an exceptionally beautiful young woman, wearing a green girdle.
  
  "It is a long time since I was called," she says, pressing her nose and fingers to her side of the glass and looking at you with interest. You see around her neck the burn of a noose, and guess uneasily at what she did to herself. She looks at you with plain curiosity.
  
  "So you're the one?" she asks. "Did you know that he carried me over the drawbridge into the castle, and made me slave to his wishes even though I was betrothed to another? and that for the breach of contract my father died impoverished?"
  
  You say nothing. You have not known him to be like that; but many human lifetimes have passed since Yvette was alive.
  
  She shrugs one shoulder. "If you can love such a creature, then I will leave the green girdle for you on my grave; you come take it and kiss him," she says.
  
  Then she fades from view.
  
  > go to the virgin's end
  You head north to the private parlor. Then west to the upstairs helical staircase. Then down to the ground floor helical staircase. Then west to the central courtyard. Then north to the state rotunda. Then southwest to the law library. Then down to the central crypt. And finally north to the virgin's end.
  
  The resting place of maidens who died before marrying those to whom they were engaged.
  
  You can see a magic girdle here.
  
  > take the the magic girdle
  You acquire the magic girdle, and assess it curiously.
  
  It is the green girdle familiar to you from paintings here; a possession of Lucrezia's.
  
  > think about the girdle
  (the magic girdle)
  You're still missing some information that might be useful to understanding the problem.
  
  > wear the girdle
  You put on the girdle, securing it around you. It fits unexpectedly well.
  
  > examine the scepter
  Studded with measly turquoises and semi-precious stones.
  
  > go to Beast
  You head south to the central crypt. Then up to the law library. , emerging into the law library. Then north to the lower bulb. , emerging into the lower bulb. Then up to the upper bulb. , emerging into the upper bulb. And then east to the gallery of still life.
  
  Natural light from the south -- coming in from the courtyard, you suppose, though you are too short to see out -- illuminates a series of still life paintings on the north wall: one showing the Wedding Treasure when Lucrezia arrived from Medici-Credenza, the other rather fancifully entitled Supper with M.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads east to the white gallery.
  
  And here Beast lies, sprawled on the ground as if he'd fallen.
  
  When you look at the Beast this time -- it must be the influence of the girdle -- you see him as more animal than human, though you long ago learned to discern a man's expressions on his face.
  
  I was afraid of him, says the memory of Yvette in your head,
  as though she's trying to justify herself to you. There are other thoughts as well, murkier; but you are left with the impression that she killed herself, in the end, not because of her family's misfortunes or the lord she was separated from; but because she was carrying a child, and feared that it would be born some kind of monster.
  
  > Kiss Beast
  As you do, you can't help remembering -- because of the girdle -- how many women before you this king imprisoned against their will. And why should he deserve to be forgiven, merely because he has been less cruel to you than to the others?
  
  When you lift your head, he is his proper self: a man, about forty-five. Handsome, perhaps, but in the style of the lord mayor, not someone you would have aspired to wed. His face has perhaps softened a little since his youth, but he is still recognizably the same person.
  
  He looks ruefully at his restored hands. "I failed to free them," he says. "And now I've dragged you into the trouble with me."
  
  You shake your head, and try to calm him.
  
  > go to Lie Library
  You head west to the upper bulb. Then southwest to the smoke-damaged chamber. And finally east to the lie library.
  
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand (on which is a storybook) here.
  
  > take the storybook
  You acquire the storybook.
  
  > put the contract book on the stand
  You put the great contract book on the book return stand.
  
  > look at the contract book
  The runes are unfamiliar to you, but you know what the book is: a record of all the contracts of all the souls enslaved to the king of this castle.
  
  > look at the stand
  Carvings around the outer edge of the stand indicate how one should use it: a small tonsured figure places a book on the stand, then rings a bell; whereupon a librarian, bearing the traditional shackles and sheets of a ghost, appears to take it away.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  a storybook
  a magic girdle (being worn)
  a white apple
  a copper snake
  a homunculus
  a silver buckle
  a cane
  a glass leaf
  a gold ring
  a dark-colored pendant
  a green cloth swatch
  an inkpot (empty)
  an ivory key (which opens the ivory door)
  a little gold dinner bell
  a silver bell
  a stool
  a candle (providing light)
  a poison vial
  a pair of cloven shoes (being worn)
  a sceptre
  an iron key (which opens the iron cage)
  some iron windchimes
  a small key (which opens the iron windchimes and the small door)
  a shackle
  some discarded embroidery materials
  a helmet
  
  > go to the bell room
  You head west to the smoke-damaged chamber. Then northeast to the upper bulb. Then east to the gallery of still life. Then east to the white gallery. And finally east to the bellroom.
  
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs. Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window, lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar items are a cow bell and a leather tambourine.
  
  > go to the bell castings
  You head west to the white gallery. Then west to the gallery of still life. Then west to the upper bulb. Then down to the lower bulb. Then east to the state rotunda. Then east to the parliamentary chambers. Then east to cloister walk. Then north to rose garden. Then down to rooted room. And finally south to bell castings.
  
  A room of scrap and refuse: wooden structures and clay molds from which bells might be made, scrap metal, pieces of bells now broken.
  
  > go to Lie Library
  You head north to rooted room. Then up to rose garden. You climb into the pale light...
  
  , emerging into rose garden. Then south to cloister walk. , emerging into cloister walk. Then west to the parliamentary chambers. , emerging into the parliamentary chambers. Then west to the state rotunda. , emerging into the state rotunda. Then west to the lower bulb. , emerging into the lower bulb. Then up to the upper bulb. , emerging into the upper bulb. Then southwest to the smoke-damaged chamber. , emerging into the smoke-damaged chamber. And then east to the lie library.
  
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand (on which is a great contract book) here.
  
  > ring bell
  Which do you mean, the little gold dinner bell or the silver bell?
  
  > go to the fountain
  You head west to the smoke-damaged chamber. Then northeast to the upper bulb. Then down to the lower bulb. Then south to the law library. Then down to the central crypt. Then south to the debtor's paradise. Then down to the dank room. And finally north to the press room.
  
  Liquid squeezed from the surrounding earth here flows out through a fountain, then soaks back into the ground below.
  
  > take the liquid
  That's hardly portable.
  
  > fill the inkpot
  You fill the inkpot from the fountain, trying to get as little as possible on yourself.
  
  > go to Lie Library
  You head south to the dank room. Then up to the debtor's paradise. Then north to the central crypt. Then up to the law library. , emerging into the law library. Then north to the lower bulb. , emerging into the lower bulb. Then up to the upper bulb. , emerging into the upper bulb. Then southwest to the smoke-damaged chamber. , emerging into the smoke-damaged chamber. And then east to the lie library.
  
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand (on which is a great contract book) here.
  
  > take the contract book
  You acquire the great contract book.
  
  > go to the translation room
  You head west to the smoke-damaged chamber. Then northeast to the upper bulb. Then down to the lower bulb. And finally west to the translation room.
  
  Endowed with a deep power that dissolves into ready vernacular even the most ancient and secret scripts of the Law Library.
  
  You can see an ordinary quill pen here.
  
  > read contract book
  You read with interest the indenture of a certain fighting-man. Thanks to the neat way the names are written at the top right corner of each page, you could easily look up anyone, though.
  
  > read the contract book
  You read with interest the indenture of a certain ostler. Thanks to the neat way the names are written at the top right corner of each page, you could easily look up anyone, though.
  
  > go to the bell room
  You head east to the lower bulb. Then up to the upper bulb. Then east to the gallery of still life. Then east to the white gallery. And finally east to the bellroom.
  
  Kept, conveniently, close to where the masters of the house would once have slept. There are bells large and small, clappers, tambourines, and gongs. Most of these you have never seen used at all.
  
  Roses from the garden below have crept up to grow around the north window, lending a sickly smell to the place.
  
  Nearby an open heavy door leads south to the private parlor.
  
  Catching your eye among many other unfamiliar items are a glass bell, a cow bell, and a leather tambourine.
  
  > take the glass bell
  You acquire the glass bell, and assess it curiously.
  
  Thick glass with a clapper on a chain.
  
  > go to Lie Library
  You head west to the white gallery. Then west to the gallery of still life. Then west to the upper bulb. Then southwest to the smoke-damaged chamber. And finally east to the lie library.
  
  Fables, fictions, and falsehoods, arranged by number by type, and containing such categories as "In which the hero receives help from three aged figures," "In which the villain has a mysterious name," and so on.
  
  You can see a book return stand here.
  
  > put the contract on the stand
  You put the great contract book on the book return stand.
  
  > ring glass bell
  You summon the librarian, who comes and looks at the contract book: you see this as a sort of fog. It frowns at the condition of some of the pages, then searches the front and back of the book; then, grimacing, it takes out a red seal like those used in the empire of the Chan. It is about to mark the contract book property of the Lie Library, when it discovers that its seal ink has dried up: so the stamp has no efficacy. Disappointed, it vanishes again.
  
  > put the inkpot on the stand
  You put the inkpot on the book return stand.
  
  > ring glass bell
  You summon the librarian, who comes and looks at the contract book: you see this as a sort of fog. It frowns at the condition of some of the pages, then searches the front and back of the book; then, grimacing, it takes out a red seal like those used in the empire of the Chan.
  
  It inks this carefully from the inkpot, then stamps inside the front of the book:
  
  ...whereupon the contracts inside begin to unravel and dissolve into the merest stories.