Lakshmi the Nagai Animal Behavioralist and Skye the Skreek come up the stairs from the Garden and pass unmolested through the Stone Gargoyle room, coming back to the Gemstone Room. Lochinvar, the Vartan/Hekoye hybrid stands "guard" over the sapphire fish and other creatures in the Sapphire Aquarium beyond … obviously enamored with all of the "shinies".

Lakshmi hisses softly, "All right… assuming our guess is right, which color do you want to touch next?"

Skye dryly chitters, "Green, t'en blue, t'en red, t'en w'ite, t'en black."

Lakshmi slithers into the Gemstone Room after Skye, and smiles at him. "Be my guest then."

Lakshmi glances a little greedily at the beautiful Lapis stone, then sternly turns her head away to watch Skye.

Currently the room has only one pedestal sunken into the ground: the red one made of coral. The remaining ones are blue (lapis lazuli); turquoise; green (malachite); and black (onyx).

Skye walks around the crystal pedestal with the green stone protruding from its top. He stops then, quiet. "'Ow did it work, just tap them, like this?" Skye gently places his paw on the malachite pedestal.

As the pedestal is touched, the crystal portion begins to glow green, then sink down. The walls start to rumble.

Lakshmi looks thoughtful. "All right… so we're guessing the red one is fire, the turquoise air, green as earth, we know blue is water… and we're guessing black is night? Yes, just touch it."

Lakshmi taps a finger against her chin, "Strange… green is ordinarily associated with Ashtoreth, isn't it? … and the element of water, not earth. Earth is associated with Behemoth, and orange… ah, here we go." She looks around a little warily.

The opening in the wall leading into the crystal aquarium closes slowly, leaving only the portal leading out into the stone gargoyle room left. Where the doorway to the Sapphire Aquarium once was, a large section of crystal has slid neatly back into place, hiding any evidence that there was a door there at all.

Waiting for the pedestal to stop moving, Skye looks back to Laks'mi. "That' wasn't supposed to 'appen." Practical as ever, he just shrugs his shoulders. "Now we tap it again to open t'e wall?"

Lakshmi hisses softly, "Um… I guess so?"

Only one way to find out … Reaching down, Skye gently taps the malachite stone again.

The pedestal rises up again, darkening, leaving only the coral one depressed. The walls rumble again and the entrance into the aquarium room opens up once more.

Lakshmi looks faintly puzzled. "Odd… How did the coral one come to be depressed previously? It was the Lapis one I'd touched?"

Lakshmi hisses softly, "Wait… didn't I touch it, it descended, and then you touched the coral one?"

Skye dryly chitters, "I didn't. 'Is'honor'Loc'invar did."

Lakshmi slithers over to the depressed coral pedestal. "All right… if I recall correctly, touching this should make the pedestal you touched open the green room, yes?" She lightly touches the coral.

The coral pedestal rises, the crystal darkening, and the doorway to the sapphire aquarium closes,becoming a wall of crystal once more. All of the columns are now in the raised position.

Lakshmi looks exasperated.

Reaching up, Skye rubs his muzzle and straightens his whiskers. "I 'ope so." He watches the pedestal rise, and once all has stopped moving, he taps the malachite stone twice.

The malachite pedestal starts to descend, but stops and rises when the Skreek touches it a second time.

Lakshmi hisses softly, "All right, let's try recalling this again. I touched the Lapis pedestal and it depressed, right? Then you touched the coral and it went down, and then I touched the Lapis and it came up as the water room burst open, yes?"

"So I tap t'e malachite one like t'is … " And again the patient Skreek taps the stone of malachite.

The malachite column descends once more, and the crystal holding the green stone fills with an emerald glow.

Lakshmi frowns, talking while not having noticed yet that the malachite column is already descending again. "This is… not working the same as before. Okay, let's do this methodically. Tap yours and let it descend the whole way… then tap it up again, and once that's done, I'll tap the coral one… That way we'll have replicated what we did last time, but with a green instead of a blue stone."

Lakshmi looks back to Skye, now noticing the descending column, and watches. When the pedestal is fully depressed she hisses, "Now bring it back up, please?"

Tap!. Skye taps his pedestal again.

The malachite crystal darkens, and the column rises to its original position.

Lakshmi waits 'til it's fully up again, then taps the coral pedestal to go down.

As the coral pedestal goes down, the crystal column holding the piece of coral glows red, and the entrance to the sapphire room opens again.

Lakshmi sighs, and curls up to think. "What are we doing wrong here? Do we perhaps have to empty the water room first?"

Lakshmi straightens, "Oh! Oh, I'm stupid – malachite is green is water – it is working!"

Crossing his arms, the Skreek chuckles very very dryly. "It's like one of t'ose days at t'e Bazaar. No matter w'ich stall ye look in, t'ey're all selling fish."

Lakshmi beams at Skye. "Let's try again! This time, I'll touch the Lapis, and we'll see what opens!"

Lakshmi slithers over to the Lapis pedestal, and lightly touches it.

As the Lapis pedestal sinks, the crystal glowing blue, the doorway closes again. Now, the coral and the Lapis columns are lowered (and glowing), while the others are in their original, upright position.

Lakshmi waits, then touches the Lapis stone again. "There… Now, Skye, touch anything but green once this is up!"

The Lapis pedestal rises again, leaving only the coral one depressed and glowing. Again, the crystal doorway to the aquarium opens.

Lakshmi arghs softly. "Waitwaitwait… let's get them all up first… " She slithers over to tap the coral one, to raise it.

The coral column rises, the aquarium portal closes. All of the columns are now raised, and none of them are glowing.

Lakshmi hisses softly, "Now let's try this systematically. I'll touch the Lapis one twice, then you touch any one but green."

Lakshmi touches the Lapis pedestal once to depress it…

The pedestal sinks down.

… then again to raise it …

Obligingly, it rises up again.

Lakshmi hisses softly, "Now you, Skye?"

Skye looks over and slowly walks the room. He taps the turquoise stone.

The turquoise stone sinks down into the floor.

Lakshmi looks around hopefully.

No new doorways open up.

Lakshmi smacks her stone lightly in exasperation, "Darnit! What did we do differently before?!"

Lakshmi settles glumly back on her coils to think.

Skye walks back, and taps the malachite stone again, so now they two pedestals down.

… and no new doors opening up.

Lakshmi looks around. "Well, what facts do we have to hand? First of all, it doesn't seem to matter what stone we touch – the aquarium door opens. Secondly, it sort of burst open when we first got it open… I wonder if the pedestals aren't linked to the doors whatsoever?"

Still considering, Skye looks around the room, kneels, and then taps the malachite stone again, trying to press it deeper into the floor.

The Lapis, malachite, and turquoise stones are now depressed, although as Skye touches the malachite it rises up again, almost lifting the Skreek off the floor as he tries to push it down.

Skye decides to ride the pedestal up. "So, if these control t'e doors, w'at did we accidentally do to break t'e lock?"

Lakshmi frowns, and slithers over to examine the coral pedestal. "I honestly have no idea, Skye. Perhaps this one is the key, but I doubt it… We've repeated the sequence that opened the aquarium door, and it's only reopened the aquarium door. Unless there's some specific pattern of taps for each room, or unless the pedestals really have no connection to the doors… then my only other suggestion is that we're perhaps supposed to empty the rooms before the next one opens?" She bends to study the pedestal closely before touching it.

The Skreek is now dangling on level with the coral and onyx pedestals.

The red pedestal looks like a normal chunk of coral, although how the magician found a coral reef in the desert is anybody's guess. Then again, he could have just made his own.

Lakshmi runs a hand down the pedestal, trying to feel any tell-tale roughness before it depresses into the ground.

Feels like a normal chunk of coral. It slowly sinks down, on level with the Lapis, and turquoise. The malachite column (with Skye on it) and the onyx column are still raised. However, Lakshmi's touch of the descending coral column appears to have triggered it again, as it rises once more, joining the onyx and malachite. That leaves only Lapis and turquoise depressed.

Lakshmi sighs, "Okay, I'm stumped, Skye. D'you have any suggestions?"

Skye pulls himself up to sit at least a little more dignified, frowning at the array of columns. "I remember yi tapping t'e coral stone with yi tail. T'at's about it. And maybe yi are right. But 'ow are we going to even move t'e bigger ones? And if yi are wrong, t'ere's going to be a huge feast of big fish eating little ones while we do everything else."

Lakshmi looks around the room, "Well… currently we have Lapis and turquoise down. Let's tap the turquoise one up and see what happens. That's vaguely similar to what we did before."

Lakshmi taps the turquoise stone, not looking very hopeful.

The turquoise stone rises, and no new portals open.

Lakshmi sighs, "That's it. Unless the two of you come up with some brilliant idea, I'm going downstairs, where there's actually something I understand to work with."

Lakshmi slithers over to the coral stone and taps it. "Well… first I'll let Lochinvar out. It would be rude to leave him locked in."

The coral stone sinks down level with the Lapis stone. Nothing happens.

Lakshmi blinks… then blinks again. Her tone is worried as she hisses softly, "Okay… now we're in trouble… "

Lakshmi sighs, "Let me get them all up again, and you get off that one… and then we can try to replicate what we did the first time to open the aquarium… and then let's get Lochinvar out of there!" She touches coral, then Lapis.

The crystal columns with the blue stone and the red piece of coral rise up.

Skye bounces off the malachite pedestal, looking at what's up and what's down. "T'e coral 'as to be t'e only one down, boss'Laks'mi."

Lakshmi gives Skye an amused glance. "Are you sure?"

Skye shrugs, holding out his paws. "Well, t'at was t'e way we came back up t'e stairs."

Lakshmi hisses softly, "Here, now I'll touch Lapis down, then you touch coral down – and I'll touch Lapis up at the same time. If that doesn't work… ," her words are flippant, although her tone is deeply worried, "Lochinvar is going to probably spend far more time with his shinies than I think is healthy for him… "

Lakshmi touches the Lapis, then looks to Skye.

The Lapis stone sinks down.

Skye taps the coral stone once again, sending down.

The coral stone sinks down again.

Lakshmi immediately touches the Lapis stone again.

The Lapis stone begins to rise up. The moment it stops moving, the crystal walls rumble again. A section of the crystal wall across the room parts, forming a doorway that opens up into the aquarium room once again.

Lakshmi looks terribly relieved – then hisses, "Lochinvar! Come out of there, please, at once!"

Just inside of the door, Lochinvar stands leaning against the wall, wearing a look of patience on his face, then steps into the room with Skye and Lakshmi. "Thanks," he says with an ever-so-slight smile. "I figured it should be just a matter of time before you got this open again."

Lakshmi gives Lochinvar a faintly disgusted look, then turns to Skye. "Well… unless you've got any bright ideas, like I said, I'm for downstairs."

Lochinvar arches one eyebrow at the Naga's expression, then asks, "Downstairs?"

Skye shrugs quietly, but as he steps away, he places his hand not on the stone, but on the side of the onyx column.

Skye dryly chitters, "We could always try t'e corridor too, Laks'mi."

Lakshmi hisses softly, "According to you, it's a trap, Skye… so… why would that be wise?"

The column begins to sink, glowing with an eerie "black light", and the door begins to close in on the Hekoye's wings and tail.

Lakshmi looks up, then hisses, "Move, Lochinvar!"

The Hekoye jumps out of the way of the door, since it appears that he wasn't as far into the room with the gems as he thought.

Lakshmi whews softly, then gives Skye a long look.

The doorway snaps shut, yanking out a couple of the Hekoye's wingfeathers and a clump of tail-fur as he hops out of the way.

Lakshmi winces slightly, "Sorry, Lochinvar."

Skye nods quietly. "Apologies, yi'honor."

Lochinvar quickly checks his tail rather than his wingfeathers, making sure that the door didn't claim any of the shinies woven into his tail-fur.

Thankfully, no. It just gave the Hekoye's tail a bit of a trim on the tip.

Lakshmi sighs, "That really does it… now we're starting to hurt each other in here. I'm certainly not going to harm my companions out of curiosity if I can help it." She turns and heads for the stairs.

"Eh, no harm done," says the coyote, after the checks on his person are complete.

The Skreek does, however, take a look at the lowered column. "Am I remembering wrong, but didn't t'e first time we do t'is, t'e column stopped below floor level?"

Lakshmi hisses softly over her shoulder, "It went about a hand-span down, Skye. So?"

Skye dryly chitters, "Nothing we've done today 'as gotten them below t'e floor. We aren't doing t'e first tap correctly or in t'e proper manner."

Lakshmi pauses in the door, and looks over her shoulder at Skye, "Yes, but we have no idea how to make them do that, Skye. Until we do, we're just wasting time."

Lochinvar taps a finger to his muzzle in thought. "I'm a little out on what you've tried so far. Maybe, if I knew, I could offer something."

Lakshmi murmurs dryly, "We've been playing musical pedestals, locking you in, and not much else."

Skye nods quietly. "We've been pushing on t'e stones themselves. Now if'n yi look, there's other ways to touch t'e columns, since t'e stones are only poking out o t'e top, which is why I pushed t'e column and not t'e stone."

Lakshmi hisses softly, "No, actually I've touched the column on the coral and the Lapis pedestals."

"And any difference on what happened when touching the same column in different ways?" asks Lochinvar.

Skye dryly chitters, "So far … I 'ave only succeeded in clipping yi tailfeathers.

Lakshmi shakes her head at Lochinvar, "No. They just sink a foot into the ground."

Lakshmi hisses softly, "Guys, I'm sorry, but I'm headed downstairs. If you find anything or hurt yourselves, I'll be happy to help… but this is just giving me a headache."

The coyote nods, and pauses for a moment again. "You tried depressing one column at a time, I imagine? Or always in combinations?" he asks, still trying to get his head around what's been tried.

Skye nods quietly, looking at the circle of pedestals. "We started one at a time."

Lakshmi smiles and waves to both the others, and slithers quietly down the stairs to the garden.

"All right," says the Hekoye, "and when you tried them one at a time, how many opened doors?"

Skye looks to Lochinvar, and he then pads across the room, to bring all the columns back up to there original position. The little Skreek pauses for a long moment, looking at the upright columns. His whiskers twitch.

Walking over to the center of the room (so as to avoid any more mishaps with doors) the coyote watches the Skreek's actions carefully.

There are five crystal columns, each rising about two feet from the floor, and the tip of each having a stone trapped within the crystal: One stone is blue, Lapis lazuli; another is turquoise; another is green, malachite; and the last is red, coral; and another is black, onyx.

Pacing silently, the Skreek crosses to the malachite column. "If I remember right, we first – and I think it was accidentally – sent one column down." He taps the malachite column, hopefully setting it into motion.

The malachite column obligingly sinks down a foot.

"Then I sent another column down … " Two quick paces, and Skye's paw once again pats the onyx column, taking a pair of steps back towards the malachite column.

"Hold on a moment," says Lochinvar quickly. "I thought we were just checking what happens when you send down one column at a time. Not multiple ones."

The onyx column sinks down.

"And then. Then. W'at did we do then? As it was going down, Laks'mi tapped her column again." A quick pace, and Skye taps the malachite column again.

The crystal column with the green stone trapped inside rises up again.

Faint whistling trickles up from downstairs. Sounds like multiple voices.

Skye looks to Lochinvar and sets his paws on his hips. "Now t'ere's supposed to be a s'attering of crystal. An t'e door for t'e black stone s'ould 'ave opened up. I can't t'ink of w'at we did different."

"That's what I'm trying to work out," the Hekoye says. "However, I'd still like to see what happens when you try one column only at a time."

Nodding, the Skreek steps back. "There's one black one down. Your turn."

Lochinvar walks over to the black column, and taps the stone embedded in the top. "Let's get this 'reset' first of all," he says.

The onyx column rises.

"Okay," the winged coyote says once the column is back up fully. "Now, to make sure that it didn't get affected by another column being down already, we'll send this one down again." He taps the black stone once more.

The onyx column sinks.

The Hekoye taps the column again so that it rises. When it's all the way up, Lochinvar waits a second or two, then taps the blue stone.

Lochinvar goes around the columns in the room, touching each one in turn and then raising it back up. Nothing happens until he touches the red one… and as soon as it sinks, the door to the sapphire aquarium opens again.

The coyote looks up from the column with the coral stone that he just depressed, and glances over to Skye. "Are we that sure we need a combination?" he asks.

Skye dryly chitters, "No, I'm not sure … but I think so. let me try again. If coral and Lapis, blue, worked in combination, what others are matched pairs?" Skye taps the turquoise column, sending it down. After it glows and sets, he taps the malachite stone, sending it down. And as the green stone glows, he taps the turquoise stone again, sending it back up.

The door to the aquarium closes the moment the turquoise column goes down, but nothing more happens beyond that.

"It would seem to be," Lochinvar notes, "that the door to the, uh, shiny room, only opens when it's just the column with the coral that's down."

Skye dryly chitters, "T'at's t'e only thing we know. And I forgot t'e aquarium door was open." The Skreek sighs, as he once again resets the circle, all up again, before trying his last routine again, making sure the final swap is made while the stones are glowing.

Nothing happens.

Skye scratches his head, quiet. "Somet'ing is not quite right. I t'ink I need to t'ink more on t'is."

Lochinvar shrugs a little. "I don't think there's much more than what we've seen. This may be the only combination that works," he suggests.

Skye dryly chitters, "Maybe, maybe. Quite a bit, to 'ide some fishes." Shrugging, Skye pads to the door to the Gargoyle Room. "I'm for downstairs. Yi coming?"

"All right, just give me one moment," the coyote says, and taps the columns back so they're all in the "up" position, before following the Skreek out.