Another day dawns, and the adventurers gather again at the base of the Tower of Celesti, though minus Randle the Fire Mage, as he has pressing duties elsewhere.

Wynona sits at the gem-table, lips pursed as she is deep in thought over the predicament with the water elemental … though so far, as much as she may look to be deep in thought, she hasn't come up with any useful ideas.

Nor has her companion, the Mephitian healer, who sits opposite her. He is leaned back in his chair (but, as, always, careful to leave room for his thick, bushy, lightning-striped tail), with his arms folded and his eyes closed. It is hard to tell if he is thinking or merely dozing.

Wynona lets out a sigh. "Well, if we are absolutely without any solutions … we could always 'cheat' and go check on the next level, and see what's there. Maybe the elemental there will be a complete jerk, and we won't feel so bad about causing trouble."

At Wynona's comment, the healer opens his eyes. "You know," says Galen, "perhaps that is exactly what we should do." He looks to the teapot on the table. "More tea, please," he asks, then looks back to Wynona. "Though I'm sure there is some possible way to deal with Miss Shimmer, I think … maybe we should check out the level above hers first, and see if that one will be any easier. Earth, right?"

The teapot burbles a happy reply to Galen, and his teacup is filled up in short order with a steaming brew.

Wynona nods. "That's what's left. Even if it's not easier, well … I don't know … maybe we'd just get some ideas. At any rate, at least we wouldn't be stonewalled like this."

Galen nods gratefully. "Thank you, Miss Teapot," he says, then takes a long, slow, careful sip from his teacup.

Galen looks to the bat after his sip, and nods. "I agree. Okay, so … after my drink, up we go?"

Wynona nods. "Sounds like a plan!" She quickly finishes off her own cup of tea. (She was still on her first.)

"Okay," replies Galen. He quickly finishes his cup, and puts it down on the table. He doesn't let go of it right away. Very strange, he muses to himself, silently. I don't like to admit it to myself at all … but I get the strangest feeling, that this is not going to be one of our better days today. After a second or so, he lets go of the cup, then stands up, grabs his walking stick, and grabs and places his hat on his head. "All right," he says, "Let's go."

Wynona's ears poke up above the floor, from the stairway, first, as she scans the room for any obvious signs of danger. "Seems all clear," she reports back to Galen, and then she cautiously makes her way on up … and pauses as she regards the simple splendor of the room. "Oh, what a nice place!" she whispers.

Galen, following behind her, comes up the stairs, and scans the room with a sweep of his head. He takes in everything with a combination of caution, curiosity, and awe. "Yes … very, very nice," he says. He fully enters the room, and looks over everything again. He appraises the bed, the dresser, the boots, desks, the tome and candles, the books and supplies, the trunk, and the stairs, and the diamond …

… and the statue holding it.

Wynona follows Galen's gaze to the glowing diamond as well – and the tough-looking statue holding it. She nods silently, and just as quietly gestures toward the ring of runes engraved in the pedestal the statue stands upon – as tell-tale a hallmark of magic as any (though the fact that the diamond is glowing is a sure giveaway, too).

After a silence, he speaks, in a very, very soft voice. "Wynona … perhaps we should look over everything first, and examine, em, the statue last," he says. "I'll look at the supplies at the desk next to the bed. Why don't you look at the tome on the desk next to him?"

Wynona nods, and wordlessly makes her way over toward the tome … occasionally sparing nervous glances over toward the statue, and keeping her distance from it.

Galen stands for a moment, blinks, then quickly but softly follows up behind her. "You want me to stay between you and him while you read the tome?"

Wynona glances to the earth elemental again, then back to Galen. "I don't think it'd make any difference, but thank you for the offer." She sighs. "If it gives me any trouble, I'll use my magic. 'Air' is the opposing element from 'earth', so I hope that will earn me some respect."

Galen looks hard at Wynona for a moment, then nods, slightly. "Okay … so long that you think you'll be okay. I'll be over at the other desk."

Wynona nods again, then heads the rest of the way over to the table holding the large tome – a spellbook, it looks like, what with the large number of runes and arcane designs. The candles on each side must have some sort of enchantment as well – or else someone or something has gone to the bother of replacing them. Otherwise, they would have burned down and out long ago, with Mage Celesti being gone this long.

Seeing Wynona go over to the tome, Galen turns around and head to the other desk. He looks over the clutter of books, papers, and writing utensils, and slowly shakes his head. I always thought mages by nature tended to be more organized than this, he thinks to himself. Or Celesti, anyway. Ah well … where do I start? After glancing at the stack, he decides to start at the top, then go down from there.

In addition to a number of items one might ordinarily expect to find at a writing desk – inkwell, quill pen, blotter, extra quills, and a knife for cutting off the tips – there are some scrolls with arcane writing on them of unknown import, and also an assortment of books that might well be from the library downstairs – "On the Transfer of Thoughts," "Proper Care and Feeding of Elementals," "Magic and Entropy," "Journal of Mage Celesti of the Elements," "The Rings of Arcadia," and "Gateways of the Ancients."

Mmm, muses the healer. Disorganized he may have been, but Celesti sure knew how to get around. After a few moments of consideration, he takes a blank parchment scroll, and looks to see if there is still any viable ink in the wells.

Even though the wells are uncapped, the ink still looks to be in good condition. Mage Celesti seems to have been grossly extravagant in his application of magic here. Any normal mage would just have taken the care to actually cover his ink well, rather than employing some sort of enchantment to keep the ink in working condition. (But then, most mages also wouldn't animate everything in the tower from teapots to cutlery, either.)

Happy to see that Celesti's mystical extravagances extended even to his ink wells, Galen takes a quill pen, dips it in the well, then quickly writes something down on it. Then he turns around to Wynona's direction. "Wynona," he says, "can you come over here for a moment? Or are you still looking over the tome?"

As Galen looks over to Wynona, he witnesses her standing there, jaw agape, as the book dances about on the desk in front of her. (It seems to have sprouted a pair of legs.) "I'll … I'll be right over," she says, as she stands, watching the book, with both hands out and ready … and then suddenly GRABS the book, and slaps its covers shut. Immediately, the "legs" vanish, and the book seems to revert to a perfectly normal, immobile tome, which Wynona leaves on the table where she found it. She lets out a sigh.

Galen's eyes go wide at the spectacle, and is just about to rush over to the bat mage's aid, before he sees her slam the book shut, and with things apparently under her control. He lets out a sigh, and shakes his head. All these animates remind me of the time Hilarion was stuck in the Tea Party of the Demogorgon in the upper levels of the Labyrinth of the Lost.

Wynona, looking a bit shaken, makes her way over to Galen. "Careful," she says. "You might get a paper cut." However, she seems to be somewhat relieved when she sees that none of the contents of this desk appear to be animate … at least, not for the time being.

The Mephitian nods. "I'm trying to be as careful as I can," he replies. And he hands her the scroll he had written on. On it, he has written, Any books here that can help us against elementals?

Wynona looks over the books, and picks up the "Proper Care and Feeding of Elementals" book. She flips through its pages, but then whispers, "Nothing in here that we couldn't pick up already from the books downstairs, or my own experience. For what it's worth, based on what passages are underlined and noted, it looks like Celesti's earth elemental is of this type." She points to a section that describes an elemental bound in a "statue" form. It is remarkably strong and resilient, according to the book, and capable of "melting" into stone, traveling through it, then popping up elsewhere – so long as it remains in contact with the stone. If it is separated from the stonework that serves as its anchor to the material realm, it will be greatly weakened.

Galen nods in acknowledgement, as he looks over the passages Wynona shows him. His breath catches at the parts that mention "strong and resilient", and "melting" and traveling through stone. Then he looks back to the statue, and appraises it again. His tail hairs start to bristle a little bit. Then they relax. He writes on the scroll again for Wynona to read. Don't want him to hear us. How about other books?

Wynona borrows the quill and dips it in the well, and writes in very tight and small handwriting, Nothing, per se, unless his journal says something … but ware of any protections on a journal! It may be trapped.

Galen reads Wynona's writing – and his eyes widen at the last sentence. He congratulates himself, all too wearily, that he did not look through any of the journals yet. He writesagain: How can we untrap them?

Wynona bites her lip, then writes, No way of knowing. I doubt he'd leave instructions for interlopers on how to do that.

Galen sighs, rather audibly, upon reading the bat's words. He writes back, If we take books down to Base, set off traps, will destroy journals? Or can they then be read?

Wynona borrows the parchment and quill, and writes, Worth a try. Doubt they'd be self-destructive. No evidence of that sort of mentality here in tower.

Upon reading that, Galen nods. He says out loud, "We'll take these books and journals back downstairs. But we should finish looking around here, first." He glances over to the tome which Wynona had looked through. "What was going on with that?"

Wynona says, "Some sort of animate." She sucks on a finger absently. "It came 'alive' when I touched it."

The healer eyes her finger. "You all right?" he asks.

"Just a nick," Wynona says. "I was startled when it moved, and cut my finger on a page when I pulled away."

"I see," replies Galen. "We'll take care of that once we get back downstairs." He looks around. "Tell you what: let's look over everything together. I should have learned my lesson by now that it's best to have you look at apparently mundane items first, before trying to touch, take, or use them. Let's look at the dresser beside the bed."

Wynona nods, and walks over to the dresser. She examines it closely, finds no runes, and after a moment's inspection (and careful consideration), opens it up to reveal … some spare mages' robes and other apparel inside. "The only enchantments here," she says, "are low-powered ones. An air enchantment to keep the clothes smelling fresh, for instance. No animates in here. Thank goodness. If he had animated clothes, I would have marked Celesti as an utter loon by now."

"Be careful what you say," remarks Galen. "I get the feeling we haven't seen all of the mage's crafts yet." He looks down at the boots. "Anything special about these?"

Wynona examines the boots closely. "I'd have to work a spell to determine the exact nature of the enchantment, but these are magical, all right. I think they might be enchanted to help the wearer walk more swiftly. Or, at least, that's probably the intended effect."

Galen muses. "Do you want them, Wynona?" he asks the bat Air Elementalist.

Wynona raises an eyebrow. "If I could be sure they worked as intended, I wouldn't mind them, but … unless we have a specific use for them, I think we might be best to leave 'magic items' be. At least, I'm not inclined to become a packvermite."

At Wynona's sudden display of gentle hauteur, Galen grins. "Yes … you're right," he says. "I myself don't really tend to see myself as a vermite of any type. Still," he adds, "I'm just thinking that we may need to acquire all the help we can get for this particular venture." He sits on the edge of the bed … then looks over at the blankets and pillows behind him, and gets an idea. Hmm … he muses to himself. "Why don't you check the stairs going up to the trapdoor in the ceiling?" he says to Wynona. "I have a little hunch about this bed."

Wynona nods and starts to head for the stairs … and then stops, as her ears pick up just as clearly as Galen's … a chiming song. A … lullaby?

Just then, the covers on the bed spring to life, reaching out to grab at the healer skunk! Fortunately for Galen, he proves to be more agile than the animated bed, and instinctively leaps away, rolling to the floor, even as the mobile sheets whip at the air where he was just a moment ago. Wynona lets out an alarmed squeak, and then quickly mutters an incantation, as a nimbus of blue begins to form about her. From the crackle in the air, it seems that Wynona is about to use a violent response to the bed's overtures.

Quick as a wink, Galen recovers from his tumble, stands back up at a half-crouch, brandished staff ready, and spins around. He sees the bed sheets snaking and writhing upon the bed, tentacle-like, and the hairs on his head and tail raise up in shock and alarm. He also sees Wynona's blue aura growing around her, and is torn for an instant between yelling at her not to waste her spell, and running away from the bed as fast as he can. He makes the latter decision, and speeds to the vicinity of bedroom doorway, before spinning around again to see what happens next.

Wynona's voice echoes with a crackle of energy as she finishes off her incantation, and before her, limned in boglight, runes etch themselves on the air itself … then melt together into a ball of crackling energy that launches toward the bed. A play of blue sparks shoots all across the bed, and spreads out to part of the floor, as the sheets writhe and convulse. There is a smell of ozone in the air … and the sheets slowly withdraw to their original positions, and the "lullaby" silences. Wynona wavers on her feet, looking exhausted by the effort, once the spell has dissipated.

Galen watches the spectacle with amazement, and stands still for a moment, taking in the scene of the Air Elementalist's runes appearing glowingly in the air, then coalescing and attacking and subduing the bed. But he quickly recovers his wits, and looks to Wynona – and sees her weakened state. Alarmed, he runs back to her, drops his staff to the floor, and places his hands on her shoulders quickly and firmly but carefully. "Are you all right?" he asks her, urgently.

Wynona collapses against the skunk, then shakes her head as if to clear it. "Ungh? Oh!" She blinks, and tries to right herself again. "I'm sorry – I … Was caught off guard. Fired off that spell too quickly … didn't prepare myself properly. It … the bed … still animate. I just … stunned it."

Galen instantly turns his head to glare at the bed, then he proceeds to look Wynona over again. Even if he was no healer, his common sense tells him that she is not in a healthy state. He stoops and picks her up, and cradles her in his arms. "Put your arms around my neck," he says to her. "We're going back downstairs. You're in bad shape, and the bed's going to be angry when it recovers. We've done enough looking up here for now."

Wynona starts to protest, but then nods and goes along with Galen.

Galen and Wynona manage to make it back down to the base of the tower. Wynona actually recovers, by all appearances, pretty quickly, and is able to make it down the steps on her own, but nonetheless agrees to head back down anyway. Besides … at least there isn't any hostile furniture to contend with there.

Wynona apologizes yet again – something she's done repeatedly all the way down the stairs. "Really, that doesn't usually happen to me. I was just a bit careless, that's all. Magic isn't meant to be fired off by instinct. It requires conscious control, you see."

As they walk together back down to the base level (with him walking alongside her to make sure she doesn't lose her balance), Galen just keeps shaking his head at her. "No, no, no need to apologize, Wynona," he says. "I may be no mage, but methinks there is very little conscious control to be brought up when a large canopied bed lunges and attacks you." I see I misjudged her, he thinks. I had no idea she could recover so fast from her spell. But that's good.

Wynona nods. "Well … no telling what that bed might have done. Getting strangled by the coversheets is just not a pleasant way to go. Not that I can think of all that many pleasant ways to go… "

"Nor I," replies the Mephitian. As they reach the base floor, and near the table, he shakes his head again, vehemently. "Again, I played the fool. As I sat down on the bed, I got the idea of checking between the mattresses, or looking under the pillows, for any possible item that Celesti could have hidden. I should have known by now that if the Mage was decadent enough to enchant ink wells, then he certainly would have enchanted his place to rest." He sighs, then turns his head to the bat mage with a soft smile. "You saved my life again, Wynona. Thank you."

Wynona's ears blush. "Don't be so sure. I have no idea if those sheets could have left the bed or not. And, besides … I can hardly blame you. I touched that book. I thought I'd checked for all the proper signs, but all the runes that involved its animation were inside the book, you see."

Galen sighs again. "And we still haven't checked the ceiling trapdoor, or that trunk." He pauses for a moment. "Perhaps we should call it a day. Or … and only, only, if you recover well enough, Wynona … we can take a tea break here, and then go back up, either to Miss Shimmer's pool, or to the bedroom level." He eyes her carefully. "Your call. Though I'm amazed at how quickly you're back on your feet." He grins. "I still don't want to do any more exploring, until we're both absolutely sure you're okay."

"Well, I can tell you that from what I saw of the trap door, I suspect it's not going to open for us," Wynona says. "It looked like it had a lock ward on it – not the sort of thing we can just force open or find a lock to pick." She looks thoughtful, then says, "Maybe we should break, and do some research on things, to help us deal with this better. Do you have any recommendations about topics of research?"

"Hmm," is the Mephitian's only reply. The two adventurers reach the table. "We're back, Miss Teapot," announces Galen to the dormant tea set on the table, as he pulls out one of the chairs, and pushes it behind Wynona as she sits down.

Wynona takes the chair. "A cup of tea, please?" she asks.

"Oh, right away!" Miss Teapot burbles happily, and pours one promptly. "I live to serve! Tea, that is!" The teapot giggles loudly.

Galen nods at smiles at the teapot. "And what wonderful tea you serve," he says to her. "One cup, please."

Another cup of tea is served for the skunk. The teapot whistles happily.

Wynona sips at her tea, contemplatively.

The healer doesn't drink his tea immediately. He slowly, and very lightly, starts to run his finger around the rim of the tea cup, also in a silent state of contemplation. After a half-minute of this, he speaks. "Maybe we're not looking in the right direction … we keep looking only through books that specifically state on their covers titles that are directly relevant to our problems. Like the 'How to Feed Elementals' book, or whatever it was called, upstairs." He stops running his finger on top of the cup rim, and takes a small sip. "Maybe we should spend our time looking through the other books, the ones that don't look like they'll really help us. Maybe there's something in them we can actually use."

Wynona nods, looking faintly abashed. "True, that's a thought. We aren't, after all, pressed for time, per se. Perhaps a little light reading while we aren't avoiding hostile cutlery and bedsheets." She smirks faintly.

Galen smiles warmly at the bat elementalist. "More tactful words were never spoken." He takes another, deeper sip.