Apprentices Faelan and Bryony are working on the Grand Carousel of Winter Delights, which has inexplicably seized up and refuses to move. They observe that the gears are packed not with ice or dampness, but with a heavy, dense foreign substance that resists standard warming spells. Recognizing this as a physical jamming sabotage rather than a resonance failure, Bryony recalls the highly restricted Grotto Seals—a dense, heavy wax used in older repairs to physically displace subterranean intrusions. Despite the strict regulations against accessing the obsolete Repair Depot without authorization from Lead Engineer Barnaby, Faelan argues that the ceremonial necessity of the Carousel outweighs protocol. Bryony agrees, retrieving the key to the restricted depot. They plan to use the Grotto Seals, softened with an emergency heat lamp, to physically force the obstruction out of the Carousel's main drive mechanism, risking severe disciplinary action and potentially introducing another unstable element into the already stressed town systems.