text: [Themes: Fantasy, telescopic descriptions, platonic solids, mythopoeic, female protagonist, physical simulation]
  
  > Go downward
  You have reached the lowest extent of the stair, and stand on what might best be described as a small balcony. The surface of the water is still some distance below you.
  
  Perhaps to deal with predicaments such as that in which you now find yourself, a pulley mechanism has been installed at this level.
  
  > look at the workbox
  The wooden box in which you keep small tools for your work around the house.
  
  > take the hook
  That's fixed in place.
  
  > U,E,S,W
  This is the rim of a great cistern, which is built of bricks and lined with plaster, and must be very old. Along the inside of the cistern, a spiral stair descends towards the surface of the water, more than a full story below you.
  
  The walls themselves are painted with images of the vast unsociable ocean: of the broad empty water, the clustering clouds, the thin and distant crust that is the beginning of the New World.
  
  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 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.
  
  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 slippers in the hourglass
  You put the slippers 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.
  
  > look at the slippers
  Tattered by too many errands of this kind. And now too large to wear.
  
  > 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.
  
  The silvery door to the north stands open.
  
  > W,N,W,D
  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.
  
  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.
  
  This is the rim of a great cistern, which is built of bricks and lined with plaster, and must be very old. Along the inside of the cistern, a spiral stair descends towards the surface of the water, more than a full story below you.
  
  The walls themselves are painted with images of the vast unsociable ocean: of the broad empty water, the clustering clouds, the thin and distant crust that is the beginning of the New World.
  
  You have reached the lowest extent of the stair, and stand on what might best be described as a small balcony. The surface of the water is still some distance below you.
  
  Perhaps to deal with predicaments such as that in which you now find yourself, a pulley mechanism has been installed at this level.
  
  > wear the slippers
  (first taking the slippers)
  You put them on, but they slip off again.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  some slippers (enlarged)
  a needle (enlarged and made of stone)
  a ball of yarn (enlarged)
  a magnifying glass
  a tube (enlarged and made of metal)
  a delicate key (enlarged and made of metal) (which opens the
  silvered door)
  a workbox
  a ring (being worn)
  
  > examine the ring
  A plain metal band, without adornment, that you have been accustomed to wear on your right hand. It is the only thing of value you possess.
  
  > remove the ring
  You take off the ring.
  
  > put the ring on the hook
  Nothing happens -- perhaps something heavier?
  
  > U,E,S,E
  This is the rim of a great cistern, which is built of bricks and lined with plaster, and must be very old. Along the inside of the cistern, a spiral stair descends towards the surface of the water, more than a full story below you.
  
  The walls themselves are painted with images of the vast unsociable ocean: of the broad empty water, the clustering clouds, the thin and distant crust that is the beginning of the New World.
  
  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 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.
  
  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.
  
  > ask W,  to go west
  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.
  
  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.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  some slippers (enlarged)
  a needle (enlarged and made of stone)
  a ball of yarn (enlarged)
  a magnifying glass
  a tube (enlarged and made of metal)
  a delicate key (enlarged and made of metal) (which opens the
  silvered door)
  a workbox
  
  > E,N,W,D
  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.
  
  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.
  
  This is the rim of a great cistern, which is built of bricks and lined with plaster, and must be very old. Along the inside of the cistern, a spiral stair descends towards the surface of the water, more than a full story below you.
  
  The walls themselves are painted with images of the vast unsociable ocean: of the broad empty water, the clustering clouds, the thin and distant crust that is the beginning of the New World.
  
  You have reached the lowest extent of the stair, and stand on what might best be described as a small balcony. The surface of the water is still some distance below you.
  
  Perhaps to deal with predicaments such as that in which you now find yourself, a pulley mechanism has been installed at this level.
  
  On the pulley is a ring.
  
  > take the ring
  Taken.
  
  > put ring on the hook
  (You have a feeling you won't get it back.)
  
  The chain shifts, tugging against its own rust. Then, with a long resentful screech that you can feel in your teeth, the pulley shifts and the ring descends into the water. At the same time, something else is lifted out.
  
  You rub at the bare spot on your ring finger. You've worn that for nearly five years now.