"Huh."

Kose thinks about this for a while. "So you're directly ... passing the voice through the diamond and reacting to it in the other part as well. Interesting! I could see that being a really useful technique."

She gives Aestrix a considering look. "Do you think it would be possible to use a technique like that to make two-part magic items with remote triggers? Like, a firestarter which you could build into a stove and then activate without having to reach in and touch it?"

"Oh, definitely! Do you think that would be useful?" she asks brightly, all perfect innocence even as she absolutely connects the dots to 'remote detonated bombs.'

"It certainly could be!" she agrees. "That was just an example off the top of my head, but there are lots of magical effects that would be safer if they could be triggered at some distance, especially for stuff used in refining and crafts."

"Okay!" agrees Aestrix, still perfectly innocent. "That seems obvious in retrospect, but triggering something at a distance isn't really... useful for me?? All of the stuff I want to do is all here, in my reach. But it'd be really good for adventurers! Do you know any good ideas that they might like a lot? ... I should probably finish the next puzzle before I get started on my next magic item, though. I guess." Huff.

Innocent innocent innocent she is an innocent cute nerd who just wants to play in her one specific chosen hobby.

Kose smiles at her. "It's not something I've really thought about, because my previous partners didn't know how to do it," she explains. "But I'll think about more use cases while you work on your puzzle and let you know."

"All right. Please do."

She is not in fact going to go work on that puzzle, at least not immediately, but she will be working in that designated location. Just, you know, on other things. Because that was a very scary conversation. Probably the riskiest she's ever had here, too. She doesn't regret it, exactly, but she definitely displayed a level of competence that marks her as potentially very scary. But also extremely beneficial to what she thinks are Kose's interests. She hopes she managed to thread the needle to hit 'innocent and dumb enough to be worth the risk,' instead of, well. Kose deciding that murdering sooner rather than later is the safest option. She's just a smidge wary, and keeping a vague eye on her core. Not on Kose herself, because she knows better, just. She keeps it in the back of her mind for a little while. As most of her attention is elsewhere.

In the puzzle room to be, she puts together a small stone tube and tests to see if she can make a magic railgun. Not at any kind of speed that would be noticeable, just seeing if she can set up something that will accelerate little tiny diamonds that are put into the tube. Gently. Quietly. That can then be scaled up later if it happens to come up.

Yes, the magic is perfectly capable of accelerating tiny diamonds down a tube. Without any kind of measurement apparatus to compare against, it's not clear exactly what speeds she'll be able to manage if she puts as much effort as she can into it.

It's indicative enough to calm her down, a little. She makes a couple, with the most speed she can pack into the simple stone tubes, and hides them away in the ceiling of the puzzle room itself. They're in the same sort of place she hid her communication devices; set as deep in the stone as can reasonably be managed, far from the archway itself. That's safer than her core room, probably. She really needs to get that stainless steel tube of core protection installed, but she suspects that if she makes any kind of obvious effort to protect herself, that'll tip Kose off. So. Well. This is the best she can safely do for now, and if Kose were going to kill her over just this, she'd have likely tried already. Aestrix tries not to think about how it's likely she would have succeeded, with her current strategy.

Anyway, time to actually do the thing she's supposed to be doing.

So, her major barrier to making the puzzle (besides, uh, the situation) was less 'not knowing what she was going to do,' and more 'wanting to make something that could have different solutions without too much trouble.' She vaguely has plans to be the dungeon equivalent of an industrial factory, churning out magical items that people want. Which means that if she wants to do that and sustain herself, she needs to not have easy pre-solved solutions. It's not exactly a challenge if you follow the designated dungeon walkthrough and just do what you're supposed to, after all. The ring puzzle is pretty straightforward to adjust; but something more complicated isn't quite so easy. Therefore, she will need to use all of the programming knowledge she's picked up from sheer osmosis to make this sort of thing easier.

With the idea of someone needing to only step on certain (irregularly shaped) tiles, she links the tiles on the floor to activate corresponding tiles on a 'master' map. While active, if they experience appropriate pressure, they mark themselves as complete. To keep people from just stepping on each and every tile to see if it's the solution, she sets it so that if any of the tiles that are not marked as active are put under sufficient pressure, all tile completion for the whole board resets. From there, she can tie all completed tiles of this master to then activate a final 'solved' clause, attached to its own little pebble. Order won't matter, only all active tiles being completed, and once it's been 'solved,' that variable will stay up as solved until she resets it. This is because the door that opens to the associated alcove, containing communication devices, will be tied to it, and it'd be kind of unfair if it shut closed after they'd solved it by accidentally stepping on the wrong thing. She might figure out a system later that'll let it reset automatically, but she's not that strapped for attention just yet. In her experience, computers and computer-alikes, which she's been filing this system under, are dumb until proven otherwise. Better to keep the whole thing under her direct control until she will definitely and reliably prove that people are probably not going to run into a puzzle related bug. That could end badly, with how there continues to be a fairy hanging around her core.

This whole system also makes it very easy to make a map for adventurers based off of the master, and she does. She puts that map on a wall between where the door will be and where the puzzle is, facing away from the puzzle itself, so it's the first thing to be seen upon entry into the room. Activate tiles will be shown glowing on the map. The idea is, of course, you can't look at the given map and activate the tiles at the same time. Playing into the theme of communication, one of the most straightforward ways to solve it is with two people coordinating. Along with shooting projectiles at it or something, but that level of skill with aiming is a challenge in itself, so if anyone pulls it off they deserve it and they can take the loot with her blessings.

With it mostly complete, she considers how much feedback a user, she means adventurer, should have for optimal enjoyment. Hmm. Probably she should make it clear when they get things right and when they mess up, instead of only spitting out the reward at the end. That's the kind of thing that is frustrating and not fun. Therefore: the tiles can light up with a gentle glow when they have been activated, and are dark when they are not. Because of the set of conditions she's already worked in, this also means that if they mess up, everything will go dark again. It also means she can have some dramatic lighting, though she's not going to go so dark that it'll freak the adventurers out and think she's plotting murder. Tasteful inset lighting from above, to go with what's coming in from the window to the main corridor.

There. Now it's ready for alpha testing. That is to say, letting Kose look at it, and hopefully approve of how it is not at all threatening. In order to accommodate this, she actually makes a door to enter it. Kind of important, that. And then let Kose know.

.... Maybe see if she can sneakily take a peek at one of Kose's rings without alerting her, before letting her know. If it tips her off, she has the perfect excuse, and if it doesn't, well. That's very interesting, isn't it.

Kose perks up and turns to her when she starts examining the rings. "Hmm? Finished with the puzzle?" she asks.

Knew it. Damnation.

"Yeah!" she says, brightly. "Come take a look?"

"Sure!"

Kose heads out of the core room and examines the newly built puzzle space. She taps one of the floor tiles experimentally, and then jerks back when it lights up.

She steps back, and examines the map.

"So the Adventurers have to remember where the selected floor tiles are, and then step on those to get to the alcove?" she ventures.

"Yeah! And if they touch any incorrect ones it resets."

"Hmm. That makes sense!" she agrees. "A puzzle of memory and dexterity. Is that the full puzzle, or are there any hidden pieces?"

Kose makes no particular move to complete the puzzle herself.

"Nope, that's the full puzzle. Do you think it's enough, or I should add other stuff to it??"

While Kose is busy being distracted, Aestrix will take this opportunity to create and install the stainless steel tube, off in her core room, set inside the pedestal itself. It's not very big, but it's wide enough to fully encompass her crystal thing. She makes a small cover to place overtop of the cylinder if she so happens to need it. The mention of magic sensing items kind of implies that the best way to hide something here is just genuine subterfuge, not any clever tricks with invisibility. Even though, no really, she does want to play with that, just as soon as her to-do list stops growing exponentially.

"No, I think that looks like a full challenge," she agrees. She turns to walk back into the core room, up the little flight of stairs which Aestrix added. "Hopefully the Adventurers will be back soon and we can get a better idea of how it will work in practice."

"Yeah. What do you want in your room, by the way? I don't think I have the spare extent to make it yet, I kind of... uh, spent it on materials, sorry, but. I want to make some place you'll like!"

"Don't worry about it!" Kose replies. "I'm used to it taking a little while before my partner can make me a room. Usually, I like to ask for just a little sleeping nook with a soft bed."

She ponders for a moment. "Do you think you could do decorations like my dress? Like a faux-vine curtain, a leaf bed-spread, etc."

"Ooo!! Yeah, I bet I can! That'd probably be a good place to put the wood, too." It is of course still sitting there awkwardly, in a pile. She has mostly been sourcing her carbon from the large amount of dirt she hasn't been able to put to much use.

"What would you use the wood for?" she asks. "Part of the structure of the bed, or decoration?"

"Decoration, but I can add it to the bed too, if you like? I'm open to suggestions. It'll be your room, it can be whatever you want."

Kose isn't very picky about designs, but that's mostly because she usually does her own decoration of her room. Aestrix is unusually good at putting together pretty rooms, so she's willing to give it a shot. They discuss floorplans and materials. They're talking about designs for a wooden writing desk when the next set of adventurers poke their heads in.

"... out for anything threatening," Tanth says, leading a pair of women older than himself.

"Oh, don't baby us, Tanth," one of the women complains. "We were adventuring in dungeons when you were still in nappies. We know very well what to look out for. I'm just glad we can be of use doing something other than spinning for once."

Oh man, you know what dungeon powers would be so incredibly good at? Spinning yarn. And thread. And then weaving textiles. She thought that when she first got them and she still does, thank you, just. ... She's a bit too nervous to bring this up yet. Look, they're strangers, and she's shy. She'll just be oh so quiet and watch. And notify Kose that they're here, but still. So quiet!!!!!