In this game, you play as a witch whose home is based on the four classical elements (fire, water, earth, and air). Unexpectedly, every room is malfunctioning; every aether gauge reads empty. You need to restore the elemental affinities to each room and find out why this happened in the first place.
This solution is by David Welbourn.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction game. Please make an honest effort to play the game before reading this walkthrough.
Note that this map should be understood as topological, merely showing which rooms are adjacent to each other. Compass directions are not used in this game, and the map presented here may not match how the author envisioned the game geography.
Simplified Walkthrough
In Engine Room (Front):
Examine the aether engine.
Go to the Fire Room:
Take the steel butter knife from the drawers in the countertop.
Take the steel chair.
Go to the Earth Room:
Take the chisel from the dresser.
Water-change the steel butter knife into a limestone butter knife.
Using the chisel, sharpen the limestone butter knife into a pointy limestone knife.
Fire-change the pointy limestone knife into a sharp steel knife.
Using the sharp steel knife, cut the bed.
Take the earth quilt and the bone saw.
Go to the Air Room:
Take the poker from the fireplace.
Air-change the earth quilt into an air quilt. Deposit the air quilt in the fireplace.
Using the sharp steel knife, remove bricks from the fireplace.
Take the attic key from the birds' nest in the fireplace.
Go to the Water Room:
Water-change the poker into a plunger. Unclog the sink with the plunger. Take the soap from the sink.
Air-change the poker into a throwing star. Throw the throwing star at the shampoo. Take the shampoo from the bath.
Go to the Attic (automatically unlocking the door with the key):
Stroke the fur of the tiny dollhouse.
Go to the Fire Room:
Water-change the throwing star into an ice pick. Swing the pick at the ice on the oven. Take the tongs from the oven. Take the ice spheres from the Fire Room.
Fire-change the ice pick into an axe. Earth-change the steel chair into a wooden chair. Chop up the wooden chair with the axe.
Put the wood in the oven. Fire-change the shampoo into curling tongs. Light the fire in the oven with the curling tongs.
Go to the Earth Room
At the flowers, turn on the curling tongs so its heat opens the flowers.
Water-change the tongs (not the curling tongs, the other tongs) into a pipette. At the flowers, fill the pipette with nectar.
Go to the Fire Room:
At the fairy lights, using the pipette, put nectar on them. Take the mixing bowl.
Fire-change the mixing bowl into a cast iron saucepan. Put the soap in the saucepan. At the oven, melt the soap, creating questionable shampoo.
Go to the Air Room:
Air-change the curling tongs into a hairdryer.
Air-change the questionable shampoo into a misshapen hairdryer.
At the cloud, turn on both hairdryers to lift the cloud. Take the glass bottle lid.
Go to the Water Room:
At the bath, throw the ice spheres into the bath. Take the ship in a bottle.
Fire-change the ship in a bottle into a space rocket in a bottle.
Empty the space rocket in a bottle to get an empty glass bottle.
Fire-change the glass bottle lid into a wax bottle lid.
Put the wax bottle lid on the empty bottle to get a bottle of air.
Water-change the bottle of air into a bottle of water.
At the fountain bowl, put the water (from the bottle of water) into the fountain bowl.
Go to Engine Room (Front):
Examine the aether engine.
Go to any room:
Pet, praise, and hug everything you can find. Repeat until the house is mollified and happy again.
Full Walkthrough
> continue
Engine Room (Front)
> feeding > Back to room
> aether engine > power level > Continue
> Fire room > Back one screen
> Water room > Back one screen
> Earth room > Back one screen
> Air room > Back to room
> Go to other end of engine room
Engine Room (Back)
> veins, arteries and capillaries > pipes > Back to room
> Enter Fire Room > Continue
Fire Room
Let's examine everything, picking up stuff when we can:
> tiles > Back to room
> oven > Back to room
> fridge > food > Back to room
> microwave > Back to room
> countertop > drawers > Take steel butter knife > Back to room
> fairy lights > Back to room
> burned roses > human cultures > Back to room
> Take steel chair
> Exit room
Engine Room (Back)
> Enter Earth Room > ">" > continue
Earth Room
> floors > rug > Back to room
> wardrobe > clothes > Back to room
> dresser > Take chisel > Continue
> Look in Mirror > Continue > Back to room
> bed > Back to room
> living walls > flowers > Back to room
Take a moment to examine and experiment with your inventory:
> chisel > Sharpen knife(Can't, steel is too hard for the chisel.)
> Continue
> Change to fire(Ortho change denied; you're too weak.)
> Continue > Back to inventory
> steel butter knife > Change to water.(It's now a limestone butter knife.)
> Shapen knife(Using the chisel. The knife is now a pointy limestone knife; the chisel is gone.)
> Continue
> Change to fire.(It's now a sharp steel knife.)
Go near the bed...
> bed
...and cut it with the sharp steel knife.
> Cut > Continue > Back to inventory
> Take earth quilt. Take bone saw. Exit room.
Engine Room (Back)
Learn that the attic key is missing:
> Go up to Attic. > Continue
> Go to other end of the engine room > Enter Air Room
Air Room
> cloud > Back to room
> corner > Back to room
> coffee table > glass > Back one screen
> paper flowers > these > Back to room
> TV > Back to room
> window > Back to room
> Take poker(It ought to be a fan) > Continue
> fireplace > chimney
> earth quilt > Change to air(It's now an air quilt.)
> Deposit quilt > Continue
> sharp steel knife > Remove bricks > Continue
> Back to inventory
> Back one screen
> birds' nest > Take attic key > Continue
> Exit room > Enter Water Room
Water Room
> tiles > polystyrene > Back to room
> bath > Climb on bath > Continue > Back to room
> sink > Back to room
> mirror > Back to room
> fountain bowl > Back to room
> poker > Change to water(It's now a plunger.)
> sink
> Unclog sink > Continue > Back to inventory
> bone saw > Change to air(It's now a throwing star)
> Take soap > back to room
> bath
> Throw at shampoo > Continue > Back to inventory
> Take shampoo
> Exit room > Go to other end of engine room
> Go up to attic(using the key) > Continue
Attic
> creatively stimulating > anyone else > holds you in place > Back to room
> livelihood > potions > Back one screen > desperate > Back to room
> dusty > Back to room
> Bookshelves > heaps
> Valerie Flick's(she combines elements) > Back one screen
> Keldora Hart's(does 'kettle magic') > Back one screen
> Isioma Okoro(scientific approach) > Back one screen
> the Petrichor Coven(dense theories) > Back one screen
> Yan(mixed presentation style) > Back one screen > Back one screen
> 'On Materials'(links materials to elements) > Back to room
All gauges are full, and you realize your home is alive and needs affection.
Go to every room and Pet, Praise, and Hug everything until the house becomes active. Go nuts. I can't predict exactly how much attention is needed, so I can't be explicit about this part. Make sure to express your affections to each room's individual furnishings, not just the rooms as a whole.
When you've won the game, your choices are to play again, visit the author's Twitter page, or close the program.
Extras
Characters
Three chicks sit in their nest in the chimney.
Fireflies are attracted to any flowers that have nectar.
Your house itself is alive, but you don't realize that until near game's end.
Mentioned:
The local chemist buys your potions for resale.
The townspeople are afraid of you (and other witches) in general.
Valerie Flick deals with elemental combinations.
Keldora Hart deals with "kettle magic".
Isioma Okoro takes a scientific approach to witchcraft.
The Petrichor Coven is a collective that publishes dense, highly theoretical works.
Yan blends fiction and autobiography in their unconventional works.
Agatha Tollingwood wrote the seventy-volume work 'On Materials'.
Other research witches will need to be consulted before you can progress further in your studies.
Credits
From the ABOUT popup window:
MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO TESTED THIS GAME:
Sam, Stephen, Colleen, Ellie, Mathbrush, Kate
Inventory
Initial versions of an item are underlined. Unneeded versions of an item are italicized.
The shampoo is near the bath in the Water Room. Throw the throwing star at the shampoo to make it accessible.
You can turn on the curling tongs anytime.
Turn on the curling tongs near the flowers in the Earth Room to make them open and attract fireflies.
Light the oven in Fire Room with the curling tongs after you've put some wood in it.
When near the cloud in the Air Room, turn on both this hairdryer and the misshapen hairdryer to make the cloud float.
attic key.
It's in the birds' nest, in the chimney of the fireplace in the Air Room, after you've removed some bricks using the sharp steel knife. The key has no elemental affiliation. It unlocks the attic door.
Create the questionable shampoo by putting the soap into the cast iron saucepan and melting the soap in the lit oven.
When near the cloud in the Air Room, turn on both the normal hairdryer and the misshapen hairdryer to make the cloud float.
wax bottle lid (fire) ⇔ mother of pearl bottle lid (water) ⇔ stone bottle lid (earth) ⇔ glass bottle lid (air).
Find the glass bottle lid under the cloud in the Air Room; make the cloud float by turning on bothhairdryers.
Most lids are too big for whichever empty bottle you try to put it on.
Create a bottle of air by putting a wax bottle lid on an empty (non-wax) bottle.
bottle of fire (fire) ⇔ bottle of water (water) ⇔ bottle of earth (earth) ⇔ bottle of air (air).
Create a bottle of air by putting a wax bottle lid on an empty (non-wax) bottle.
Put the water (from the bottle of water) into the fountain bowl in the Water Room.
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