The next room was huge, far bigger than any the tiny explorers had encountered thus far. In contrast to the dreary undecorated chambers that lay behind them, this one was lined with archways and statues. It was almost as if they had stepped into a tiny cathedral. A huge beam of light illuminated the room, from a wide hole in the ceiling.
A potential escape route. Palla noted.
"This is... Unexpected." Sonya remarked.
"It's a bit like the priory..." Mae commented.
"Why would there be a place like this here?" wondered Catria.
There were many things in this room, but Palla focused on what seemed out of place, ignoring the distractions. There was a huge balancing scale in the middle of the room. The platforms suspended from each side were easily big enough to hold the shrunken forms of the tiny ladies. Oddly, one side of the scale only had two platforms, while the other had three. Was this the new puzzle they had to solve?
Behind the scales was a huge set of doors. Palla could see that they dwarfed the small bodies of her friends. She noticed there was something carved into the doors, walking over to have a closer look. The same phrase was inscribed, again and again, covering the doors as high as Palla could see.
"Go forth, chosen one, and end the High Witch once and for all..." Palla read aloud.
"High witch?" Catria asked. Palla nearly jumped, not having noticed her sister approach.
"She sounds dangerous. Whatever lies ahead, we should be careful," Palla said.
"Sure. But how do we get these doors open?" asked Catria.
"I may have an idea..." Palla answered.
Palla led her sister over to the scales.
"I think this is another puzzle for us to solve. What do you think?" Palla asked.
"Makes sense, given what we've seen so far," Catria noticed a small pedestal, roughly the height of their knees. "What do you suppose this is?"
Palla bent down, studying the odd stone object. The top of it had a square stone indentation, like something was meant to fit there.
"Oh, I know!" Palla exclaimed. "Maybe this will do the trick!" She placed the statue of Celica in the indentation. It had a square base, but was too small to fit properly, so Palla grew it just enough to be a perfect fit, roughly a quarter of her own size. A click confirmed her theory.
"So... What now?" Catria asked, not noticing anything different.
"Look!" Palla pointed to the scales. A gemstone fixed to the top of the balance turned red. The platforms moved slightly, demonstrating the activation of the odd object.
"It's red. That's not good, right?" Catria asked.
"Indeed. It seems we need to balance the scales with something." Palla said.
"Wait, hold on... There are five platforms, which would be one for each of us if we excluded you..." Catria noted.
"Quite right." Palla turned to the others, who had gathered round. "It seems all of you are to be the weights!"
"This is quite insensitive, you know," Sonya complained, "a lady's weight is to be kept secret!"
"Oh relax, will you?" Mae said, "it's just us girls here. We'll never tell!"
"But how do we get up there?" Est asked, pointing to the platforms several inches above their heads.
Palla smirked. "Oh, don't you worry about that."
Sonya sighed. "Must you really? Can't you just carry us up as we are?"
"Nope!" Palla answered, "that would take much longer. It's better I carry you all at once!"
Before anyone else could comment, Palla cast her spell. She shrank everyone else to a tiny fraction of their size, small enough so that all of them could fit in her palm at once. Bending down, she used one hand to herd the microscopic ladies into the palm of her other hand. Taking to the air, she visited the platforms like a bee harvesting from flowers. At each one, she dropped one of her tiny friends. The scales did not move, their weights insignificant to the balance. She placed her sisters on one side and the three magic users on the other. Palla landed near the statue of Celica, a sufficient distance for her to see the balance.
"Well, it's balanced," Palla noted, "but the stone is still red. Maybe you're not heavy enough?"
Palla quickly fired a spell at each of the women in turn, growing each one to an inch tall. The scales moved in response, the side with Est and Catria rising while the other moved downwards.
"I don't want to point out the obvious," Sonya began, "but we're not balanced."
"Yes. I'll soon fix that!" Palla said, casting a spell at Sonya and Mae. She shrank both girls down to half an inch tall. The balance shifted, but their side was still lower.
"Really? Me again?" Sonya squeaked in protest.
"But still not balanced..." Palla noticed. "Oh! Maybe it's the weight of the platforms!"
Palla readied another spell, shrinking Genny by a quarter of her current size. The balance shifted the other way, now slightly in favor of Est and Catria.
"Still not quite..." Palla pondered her next move. Concentrating, she imagined a spell shrinking its target by one eighth of its size. She cast this spell at Catria, shrinking her slightly. The balance shifted only very slightly.
"Another like that would overshoot. But how about this?" Palla charged another spell, this time aiming to shrink Est by one sixteenth. Such a precise change in size demanded the utmost concentration from the green-haired woman. Straining with the effort, she fired her spell and Est shrank very slightly. The scales moved in response, the downsized ladies on both sides now matched in weight. The stone turned green in color.
"That seems to have done it!" Palla announced.
"Fantastic. So what happens now?" Sonya sighed.
"W-we should stay still," Genny suggested, "we don't want to disrupt the balance just yet, right?"
"Hey, Palla! Look behind you!" Mae pointed.
Palla turned to see a column of green light shining out of the pedestal, engulfing the statue of Celica. Palla had to cover her eyes, overwhelmed by the bright light. Her eyes adjusting, she watched as the gray hair of the statue gradually turned red.
"Just as I thought," Palla said, "the statue really was her!"
The light faded, revealing the princess with her petrification cured. She leaned forward, about to collapse, but Palla quickly caught the much smaller girl.
"Celica! Are you all right?" asked the pegasus knight.
"Whew! That was unpleasant," Celica gasped. She looked up at the bigger woman. "I'm fine now. Thank you for rescuing me, Palla!"
"You're very welcome," Palla smiled.
"I couldn't move, but I could see everything happening around me," Celica revealed. "You've done such a good job leading in my absence Palla, thank you!"
"Don't mention it," Palla said, "I'm just glad we're all finally back together again."
"Yes," Celica agreed, "no more splitting up!"
"I'm glad Celica is back to normal, and all," Sonya started, "But can you please get us down from here?"
"Of course, Sonya," Palla agreed, "you'll need to get smaller for just a little while..."
"Fine," Sonya huffed, "let's get it over with."
Celica watched as Palla flew around, casting spells on the other ladies. The light of the magic made for quite a pretty sight, Celica watching with wonder. Palla made another lap, collecting the shrunken women. Returning to Celica, she cast a spell to grow them all back to an inch tall.
"We're all back!" Mae cheered, "and the same size for once!" she hugged Celica enthusiastically.
"Yes, I'm glad everyone is safe!" Celica agreed.
A loud thud interrupted the reunion. The miniature militia looked up to see the huge stone doors opening slowly, the grinding of stone an almost deafening noise. Before them was a dark tunnel, their next path.
"Look!" Est shouted, running to the open doorway. "There are two lances here! And they're our size!"
"One for Est and Catria. So someone knew we were going to be here..." Palla mused.
"I have a feeling that something very different from everything else we've encountered so far waits for us down there," Celica said.
"I agree. We need to be careful," Palla nodded.
"There's nothing to stop us from simply leaving, right?" Sonya said. "We're all here, there's a big hole in the ceiling, and Palla can fly."
"A good point," Palla agreed.
"But there could be something bad out there too, right?" Mae pointed out.
"It's up to you, Celica," Palla said. "What shall we do?"
