"Maybe there's a clue in the statue?" Celica and Mae walked up the small steps to the statue. The others spread out, looking at different objects around the room.
"Who would make one so small?" Mae questioned.
"I wonder how they got it in here..." Celica pondered. She gently placed a hand on the stone. "Strange. There's no energy coming from this statue, unlike the others we've found."
"So this is some cheap knockoff then?" Mae thought.
"Maybe. Perhaps it needs to be activated somehow?"
"Great," Sonya moaned in the distance, "there's no other exit. Looks like we'll have to solve this stupid puzzle."
"We're getting nowhere here," Mae pointed out, "let's look somewhere else." Celica agreed.
The two mages headed down the steps to find Est and Catria. They were crouched down, Est poking at the floor.
"Oh? Did the two of you find something?" Celica asked.
"There are some colored tiles here!" Est pointed out two tiles, both with a colored circle on them. One was pink and the other was blue. "They're the same color as us!"
"It seems the colored parts are like crystals..." Catria observed.
Est suddenly jumped up, leaping onto the pink tile. The three other women gasped, afraid of what she'd done. But nothing seemed to happen.
"Est, what are you doing?!" Catria chided her.
"Aww, I thought something cool would happen..." Est was disappointed.
"Don't scare me like that! I thought you'd set off a trap!" Mae said.
Catria sighed. There wasn't much point continuing this discussion, Est would always be Est. Celica walked over to Genny next.
"Genny. How are you doing?" Celica asked the young cleric.
"I-I'm OK. This place is creepy, but I know I can count on you, Celica," Genny replied.
"I'm glad. Have you seen anything here?" Celica asked.
"N-not much, really. These two stone rectangle things are pretty big." she pointed to two large stone blocks. They seemed big enough to fit several members of the mini militia inside at once. Assuming they were hollow, Celica reminded herself.
"There's something else too." Genny kneeled down, pointing to part of the stone. Celica and Mae moved closer, trying to see what she had found. "There's a hole here. It's too small for me to fit through, even when I tried to crawl."
"That's odd..." Celica commented. She lay down on the floor. From this position, she could see a small, yellow stone cube inside the hollow rectangle. She tried reaching in, but her arm was not long enough.
"There's something in there," Celica said as she got back up, dusting herself off.
"This other thing also has a hole in it," Genny said, pointing to the other rectangle, "it's much smaller though, like the hole we sent Mae through earlier."
"No way I'm doing that again," Mae said, recalling her ordeal with a shudder.
"Seems like we need Palla's help for this," Celica suggested.
Palla was on the other side of the chamber, so Celica headed over. On the way she found Sonya, studying an area behind the statue. She decided to check in with the older mage first.
"What do you think, Sonya?" Celica asked the purple-haired woman.
"I think I'd like to get out of here. But I've found a couple of things you may find interesting."
She led them over to a large blue cube. "I tried to move this, but it just won't budge. There's a tile with a blue square on it, just... here," she indicated to the two young mages. Celica noticed this tile seemed to be set in a small depression.
"Do you think this cube goes in there?" Celica asked.
"Yes. But we won't know unless we get stronger somehow. I'm not sure we could move it with all of us working together," Sonya said.
"Well, that sucks," Mae commented.
"You could say that. On another note..." Sonya led them both to a smaller, pink cube.
"I can move this one easily enough. It seems to go in that spot over there," she pointed. "this appears to be the first step in the puzzle. I'd like to try moving this one over there, with your permission."
"Good idea, Sonya," Celica agreed, "go ahead."
"Of course," she smirked. Sonya wasn't one for manual labor like this normally, but she was keen to be out of here as soon as possible. Pushing as hard as she could, she had soon moved the cube to the tile. It sank down into the floor with a click, briefly glowing. Nothing else seemed to happen.
"That was underwhelming," Mae said.
"But something seems to have happened," Celica pointed out.
"Yes," Sonya agreed, "perhaps we should..." but she was interrupted by a shout.
The trio turned and ran towards the noise. They found Est and Catria, who had been inspecting the odd tiles.
"What happened?" Celica asked, her other allies gathering around the commotion.
"T-there was a light!" Est stuttered, "A blue light around Catria!"
"I just stood on this tile for a moment!" Catria said, afraid to move, "It didn't do anything before, but now..."
Looking to the floor, Celica could see that the blue tile was glowing. Before she could say anything, a burst of light surged forth, engulfing Catria. The sisters called out for the middle whitewing, worried for her safety. The light quickly faded, revealing a bewildered Catria.
"What was that?" Catria wondered. The sisters stepped forward, very concerned, when Catria felt a sudden change in herself. Like she was surging with power. Trying to find the words to describe this feeling, she looked to her sisters, only to see them getting smaller. Surprised, she looked around to see everyone else getting smaller too.
"Catria, you're..." Est began, but didn't finish. Catria suddenly doubled in size!
"Oh... dear..." the blue-haired girl said, looking around sheepishly. Her new size had made her the center of attention, embarrassing her somewhat.
"Are you all right, Catria?" Palla called up to the biggest sister.
"Y-yes, I... feel fine," Catria replied. There was plenty of room for her in the chamber, though she felt awkward being this big. She wasn't really very tall, she reminded herself, two inches tall at most.
"Would you like me to shrink you again?" Palla offered, "I'd probably overshoot a bit, but it would be easier to move."
"No, wait," Celica interjected. "I can think of a reason it made her this size..."
"Never mind that," Sonya pushed at Catria, "I'd like to be super size too! Move over!" There was no way she was strong enough to shove the bigger Catria aside, but she stepped out of the way regardless. Sonya stood on the blue tile, eager to feel just a bit bigger. But nothing seemed to happen.
"Work damn you!" she shouted at the ground, stomping in frustration.
"Looks like it only works once," Mae pointed out.
Sonya sighed. "I just want to be more than a single inch tall..."
Celica ignored the conversation. Catria's bigger size opened many new possibilities in this room...
