[color=95A5A6][b]> "Do you know any magic that can help us decipher it?" <[/b][/color]

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	[color=95A5A6]"I'm not savvy with magical seals,"[/color] you mentioned with a light-hearted shrug. [color=95A5A6]"Maybe there's a spell you can cast that can help?"[/color] Aika squinted at you, a leer of slight and musing judgement. You returned to her a more animated shrug and excused yourself again. [color=95A5A6]"What- isn't that how magic works, you just make it do what you want?"[/color] You seemed to dig yourself even deeper into this comedic hole, and Aika closed her eyes with a long sigh in response. [color=7ea7d8]"N-no, you can't just wave your hands and make anything happen,"[/color] she explained as she took a step closer to the central pedestal. [color=7ea7d8]"I do happen to know one spell that can help but- I swear it's just a coincidence!"[/color] she threw her gaze back at you with an intense glare, one that soon after broke into a smile, fully aware of the joke in the room. She shook herself back to focus, and turned her attention to the dim glass orb clutched within the spindly fingers of the stone claw before her. Her hand lifted, not to the orb, but to her own face as she spoke the arcane tongue to weave her spell. You could see a blueish illumination reflecting off of her fingers as her hand pulled away, and as she stepped slowly around the pedestal, the origin of this glow became apparent in her eyes.

	[color=7ea7d8]"Hmm..."[/color] Aika pondered out loud as she scrutinized the orb carefully, and then the other orbs around you two. [color=7ea7d8]"It seems like these glass spheres share a harmonized and multi-layered aura of abjuration and transmutation. The aura in its entirety is misaligned, preventing the energy flow needed to operate what is likely some kind of arcano-technological mechanism within the door itself."[/color] She blinked, and the spell alighting her eyes faded as she looked into yours. Perhaps she was expecting some equally educated response? Nevertheless, you could only muster a murky [color=95A5A6]"Huh?"[/color] She blinked a second time, registering only after that you were confused. [color=7ea7d8]"Oh! Right- um- these orbs aren't sealing the door. They're the magical focal points to unsealing it, like uh... like the teeth on a key, for each pin within the lock."[/color] You nodded along as best as you could, the analogy certainly helping. [color=95A5A6]"Well then, we might as well try to pick this lock then, yeah?"[/color] You gave her a nod of confidence, and she returned it with a smile. As you huddled together around the orbs, you got to work exploring the functions of their light and dark states.

	First, the central pedestal. Upon touching the glass, the light from the [i]Emperor[/i] statue faded momentarily as the center orb took on a smidgen of a little light within, not nearly as bright. The orb on the door flickered a similar wilting luster before they both faded and the [i]Emperor[/i] reignited to a full glow.

	Second, the [i]Emperor[/i]. As Aika stumbled upon earlier, touching this orb seemed cause to all six of the statue orbs to switch their lit and dim states.

	Third, the [i]Acolyte[/i]. Each time you touched this orb, it would change its own state, and the [i]Emperor[/i] would then match this new state.

	Fourth, the [i]Knight[/i]. If and only if the [i]Scoundrel[/i] was alight, touching the [i]Knight[/i] would snuff out the [i]Scoundrel[/i] and alight the [i]Emperor[/i], otherwise this orb seemed to do nothing.

	Fifth, the [i]Scoundrel[/i]. Touching this orb if and only if it is dark and the [i]Emperor[/i] and [i]Acolyte[/i] are both alight would cause all three to switch states.

	Sixth, the [i]Fool[/i]. Frustratingly, every time you tried to use this orb, any one of the six statue orbs would instead change its state at random.

	Lastly, the [i]Hermit[/i]. This orb only changed its own state when touched.

	With seeing how the orbs changed their luminescence at your fingertips, the central orb seemed to never glow quite as bright each time. It did seem to glow more true with every glowing statue around it, but you had yet to see what would happen if you could manage to alight all six statues at once. You reached out to the center once more, and in a now familiar flash, the room returned to its initial permutation, only the [i]Emperor[/i] held a glowing orb.

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[color=95A5A6]
	• Try to solve the glowing statue puzzle.
		[Write in: Choose which statues to touch and in which order.]
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