Teres

- Yr has “done her best” with Faraday’s hair, and has now “coiled [it] into a neat roll in the nape of her neck”, with the worst tangles and mud removed.

How did Yr get the mud out of Faraday's hair? Tangles can be combed out with the fingers if you're tenacious enough, so that's realistic, but without water, I don't see that mud coming out.

- Finally the light gets so strong that Jack asks Yr to do the same, and “after a moment’s hesitation” Timozel does, too.

Sorry, but...I'm guessing this means they douse their lamps? It's not said.

- They go around one more bend, and then the stairs end at a “corridor that angle[s] towards an open archway in the distance”.

That light must be damn near blinding up close if it can be seen not only from a distance, but around a whole turn of the stairs, through solid stone.

- Timozel grips Faraday’s hand as they follow Jack and Yr.

Timozel, honey, I like you, but you've started to get awfully handsy this chapter. I know you mean well, but let's keep our hands to ourselves, shall we?

- Timozel whispers Faraday’s name, and she sees him point at the ceiling of the chamber, where “[b]lue shadows” leap and chase after each other. Timozel thinks it is like “demons”.

That's quite a strange conclusion to leap to. The way this is described, it makes me think of the patterns of sunlight on the bottom of a pool. It sounds pretty benign, so I don't get why he immediately thinks it's demons.

- He still stands in the archway and points at “what look[s] like the low rim of a large circular pool which occupie[s] the centre space of the floor.”

Called it! Kind of. Also, if the pool is that large, how come they only notice it when Jack points it out? They've already been looking around, so they should have spotted it before now.

- Without hesitation, she sits down, and we get a description of “[d]eep blue light” reflecting on her face and on the vault above.

Oh, well done, fools. If the Gate is so mesmerizing, maybe don't let her just run over and stick her face in it.

- Then Jack takes some responsbility and puts an arm around her shoulders, telling her not to be tempted, as it is not for her or for him to step through.

Where were you when she was running over to it in the first place?! What if she had tripped and fallen headlong through the Gate? Oops, there goes your hope of saving the world.

- Only “an Icarii Enchanter powerful beyond telling” could hope to survive.

Nice little bit of sexism, too. Only males are powerful enough to go through. Us puny wimminz better just stay away.

- The others lead... “elsewhere”, as the Icarii needed other ways of entrance than the “Barrows of the Enchanter-Talons”.

Then why put two dozen entrances in the same general location? I don't understand why every Enchanter needs their own personal doorway. That choice of design is still stupid.

- He says that there are “others who ply their way to and from the Star Gate and use corridors still stranger than those the Icarii used”.

...because tight corkscrew stairs are just so strange, I guess. I have a feeling that many medieval castles would beg to differ.

- He then tells Timozel to “make sure Faraday follows”, and then he will lead them out via another way. Jack takes Yr’s hand and leads them to a passage between two statues of ordinary Talons.

If Jack has to hold Yr's hand, does that imply that the women are just too susceptible to the Gate's allure, and will go jump in if they don't have a big strong man keeping them in check?