> "Thanks for your help, Miss Meiling! Good luck in your duties!"
> Go through the gate and follow the fairy maid.
>"You too, kiddo!" says Meiling.
>You follow the maid down the stone path to the mansion itself. Along the way, you notice a statue garden to the east, and an old fountain to the west. In particular, near the statue garden, you see a little girl in a red dress and mop hat, standing in the shadow of the mansion and playing fetch with a basset hound. Most odd about the little girl are a set of artificial-looking wings on her back, with large crystals dangling from them.
>The house itself is a sizable western-style house, split into two broad wings with a clock tower extending from the central part of the house. It seems to be three stories tall, overall. The decor is hard to place, but it gives you a feeling of great age.
>Heading into through the front doors, you enter a foyer filled with wooden statues of baku and shiisha, stands of laced armor, and numerous framed ink paintings and prints. You barely have time to ponder of this clash of inner and outer decor before the maid leads you through a set of double doors.
>Through the door, you find yourself in a sizable library. Shelves line the floor, forming a kind of literary maze. The walls are lined to the ceiling with more bookshelves, with a landing running along the wall to create a sort of second floor midway up. The air in this chamber is very dry. As you look around, you see one book fly from a shelf and land in another bookcase, neatly reshelving itself.
>The maid takes to you a table in the center, where a small purple-haired woman in what seem to be a silken bed gown and nightcap sits in an overstuffed chair, poring through some tome. She looks up as the two of you approach. The maid curtsies and quickly flies away. "So why did Marisa think I want to give you a geode?" asks the woman.
>_
