text: [Themes: Surreal, metaphysics, gender-neutral protagonist, philosophy, unicorn, fantasy, ethics]
  
  > Look around
  The hill is now fairly pleasant, though the pyre is still smouldering softly away.
  
  From here, you could head west, back to the village, or further into the hills to the north.
  
  > examine the pyre
  An impressive mound of wood built up around the central stake, it's catching alight slowly.
  
  > look at the stake
  Rather wooden.
  
  > throw veil at the guard
  (first taking the veil)
  (putting the axe into the sack to make room)
  You've got your hands a bit full. You're going to have to find a sack or something if you want to carry any more.
  
  > Again
  (first taking the veil)
  (putting the wooden box into the sack to make room)
  You pick the veil up again. How tedious.
  
  You look shiftily from side to side, and when you assure yourself that nobody is watching, you cast the veil over the guard's helmet. For several long moments you wait. Hesitantly, you put a foot past the guard. She doesn't move.
  
  "Hello?" you whisper.
  
  "Excuse me, I seem to be completely ignorant to who I am and why I am here," she replies. "Can you help me?"
  
  [1] A living statue, your job is to keep still and quiet all day.
  [2] You're a guard -- you're guarding these stairs from me passsing [3] You're Bishop Berkeley and you're on your way to the tavern to give a lecture on Idealism.
  [4] You're a mild mannered accountant by day, but by night you don a cape and fight crime.
  [5] You're a very charitable person who would never dream of impeding someone's progress up some stairs.
  [6] You're an itinerant farm-hand who dreams of one day owning their own farm with rabbits and alpaca, but deep down you know it'll never happen.
  [7] You write Thus Spoke Zarathustra fan-fiction and go to heavy metal concerts.
  
  > unlock door
  What do you want to unlock the seconddoor with?
  
  > Bunch
  (first taking the bunch of keys)
  (putting the first key into the sack to make room)
  That doesn't seem to fit the lock.
  
  > First key
  (first taking the first key)
  (putting the bunch of keys into the sack to make room)
  That doesn't seem to fit the lock.
  
  > Examine box
  It's a smooth and very plain wooden box, with the mysterious words "Ding an Sich" inscribed on the lid. The martyr for truth told you to open it when you really needed to dispel an illusion. Is that time now . . . ?
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  a first key
  a lit lantern (providing light)
  a sack (open)
  a bunch of keys
  a wooden box (closed)
  an axe
  a Chinese key
  a lighter
  a qualiascope
  a manual
  file of Platonic forms
  a useless scrap of paper
  a Categorical Imperativator
  
  > open the box
  You make to open the box, and then remember the martyr's instructions:
  
  "If you ever need to dispel a dangerous illusion or establish a firm and coherent grounding, open this box. But it'll only work once. As soon as anyone senses the thing, it'll just become shrouded in appearance like everything else. So I suggest you only open this box when you really, really need it."
  
  Are you sure you want to open it now?
  
  > Yes
  You eagerly open the box and look inside it. There is what appears to be . . . what can only be described as a thing. You have no idea what to do with it. It just sits there, in the box, thing-like. At least, that's how it seems to you. There is the vague sense about the thing that there's something more to it, something you can't get at -- but all you seem to have is what appears to be -- a thing.
  
  > examine the thing
  It's some thing or other, it appears.
  
  > look
  Second Chamber (in the Time Machine)
  This chamber is exactly like the one below it but for two minor details: firstly, the atmospheric organ music is ever so slightly louder; secondly, the machine in the centre of the room is both not made of bees and clearly a time machine. The clue is in the words "Time Machine" engraved on its casing.
  
  > get the thing
  (putting the first key into the sack to make room)
  Taken.
  
  > look
  Second Chamber (in the Time Machine)
  This chamber is exactly like the one below it but for two minor details: firstly, the atmospheric organ music is ever so slightly louder; secondly, the machine in the centre of the room is both not made of bees and clearly a time machine. The clue is in the words "Time Machine" engraved on its casing.
  
  In the Time Machine you can see the thing.
  
  > eat thing
  That's plainly inedible.
  
  > get the newspaper
  (putting the thing into the sack to make room)
  Taken.
  
  > take qualiascope
  (putting the newspaper into the sack to make room)
  Taken.
  
  > get in Machine
  You clamber into the Time Machine and perch on the red seat.
  
  Second Chamber (in the Time Machine)
  This chamber is exactly like the one below it but for two minor details: firstly, the atmospheric organ music is ever so slightly louder; secondly, the machine in the centre of the room is both not made of bees and clearly a time machine. The clue is in the words "Time Machine" engraved on its casing.
  
  > listen to the music
  The organ music is very forboding.
  
  > look at the chrome dials
  The three dials are highly polished and highly mysterious. They could affect space-time co-ordinates or they could regulate the air conditioning. Each seems to serve a different function: the leftmost is a two-way switch, the middle one seems to be able to be set to a wide range of possible points, and the rightmost looks like some kind of timer.