Even when Doll recovered, Doll didn't do anything, just hung against the woman's shoulders, and thought.

It was, on the one hand, going forward. And it has met a monster that thinks. But it isn't too happy about this.

Partly because this monster is many times more powerful than Doll, and has Doll at her mercy.

But mostly because efforts to communicate have been painful.

Doll wants to talk, really it does!

But it doesn't want to talk like this. This woman, scaled, with her powerful tail, claws, and talk of petrifying (what is that?) is not her mommy. Doll somehow knows what a mother is, but knows that this is something else, that Doll doesn't have a Mommy, and feels an emotion its intrusive knowledge calls acute embarassment that its uncontrolled speech called this powerful woman that.

Doll can't see very much from this shoulder, but it vaguely feels that she's looking at each junction, and feels a brief surge of... Something occasionally.

It resolves to simply wait, and not pay much attention. It can't learn anything like this, the woman isn't talking, and is powerful enough that Doll can simply recover its strength.

Besides, the corridors have returned to the way they were when Doll first awoke, so it has even less reason to pay attention than it did before.

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Soon, however, this changes, as once again, the corridor opens wider, to reveal many interesting things.

Open wooden boxes against one wall, with a variety of objects inside them. A pattern on the ground, a circle broken with... Patterns of some sort? Doll isn't sure.

But, most important of all... Adventurers that appear to be made of stone. They don't move. There are... Twelve of them. And nearly all of them look surprised. Doll can vaguely feel life from them, but only vaguely. Doll wants to know why, and... Maybe it will learn? Maybe it will have a chance to learn?

Doll is shifted from the arms to the clawed hands, and placed, feet first, in the circle. "Don't move from there. I have wind magic, little doll, and you won't be able to move fast enough."

Magic. That's what Doll felt. It didn't know because it wasn't water (although the woman has plenty of water inside her, just like Doll. More, in fact. But that power... This woman has plenty of magic, more than Doll. Doll stands still, as the woman reaches into one of the boxes, pulls out an object, and flips through it, muttering to herself...

"Let's see, let's see... Yes, a Living Doll... Normally not intelligent, and definitely not able to do what it did..." The object is replaced, and another taken out. More flipping. Another replacement. Flipping... And suddenly, a smile from the woman. "Yes. Yes, I believe this will work." Her smile widens as she looks right at Doll. "Or it will kill you. But if you are intelligent, little doll, you'll realise you don't have a choice."

Doll shakes their head, to let the woman know that she understands. And the woman seems satisfied.

Good, Doll might have saved herself.

That thought lasts until the woman raises her hand, and begins muttering.

Until the circle below Doll starts glowing, brighter and brighter.

Until Doll's head begins screaming with pain.

And so does Doll...