ITEMS TO GET: Tent, Ice Brand

   Steiner and Marcus hatch a plan to break free by rocking their cage back and forth. Tap in either direction to get the cage started. A dialogue box will pop up over Marcus' head; wait until the cage reaches the end of its swing, and then tap in the other direction (i.e., if the cage just finished a swing to the left, tap right.) If you tap correctly, Steiner and Marcus lean in the same direction and Marcus' response is six characters long; if you tap the wrong way, they lean in opposite directions and Marcus has a three character response. As you get the cage moving more quickly, you'll need to tap twice per swing. The dialogue boxes will also stop popping up because the cage runs too near the edge of the screen; keep up the rhythm anyway. Eventually, you'll swing the cage off the right of the screen and crash it to the balcony.

   If you swiped an Ice Brand from Beatrix, equip it on Steiner, as well as any improved armor you might have. Don't bother upgrading Marcus' gear, however. Quickly run left, fighting through the endless stream of guards. Ignore the small door in the background; you can't get actually go through it. As soon as you start climbing up the ladder on the left, the guards will stop chasing you -- they're apparently not much smarter than the Resident Evil zombies.

   Marcus races off when you reach the next room, but Zidane's party appears and joins up with Steiner. You now have 30 minutes to rescue Garnet, but you'd be hard-pressed to actually use up all the time. (If you want to take a break, just hit Start to pause.)

   After Marcus closes the gate, go southwest to reach the waterside platform you first encountered way back during your first visit to castle. Just run north through the middle of the area; if you move fast enough, the guards won't catch you. Keep running until you get inside.

   If you want to take on an optional enemy, take a left to enter the libray. Search the bookcase in the lower-left corner and choose the top option twice. You'll do battle against a possessed book called Dantarian, which is a lot stronger than it sounds. It frequently puts Death Sentences on your characters, and its magic attacks . To damage Dantarian, you have to attack it and cause it to turn "pages"; it shuffles forward one page for each point of damage received. When it gets to high enough page number, the book lies down on the ground and a purple demon head pops out. This is the actual enemy; you have to wail on it before the book shuts up again and goes back to page 0. Be sure to have Auto-Potion equipped on as many characters as possible, and use Freija's magic to cast Regen on everyone. Remember, it's by no means necessary to fight it, but you can steal Demon's Mail or a better weapon for Quina if you do take on it.

   Assuming you don't want to fight Dantarian, just run forwards in the foyer and go up the stairs. For once, the guards will actually chase you up the stairs, which means you'll probably have a fight. The guard enemies are the same ones from Cleyra; defeat them and then go south. Take a left and go up the stairs. You can now open the previously-locked door to the north; go through. Ignore the two doors on the sides of the rooms, as you can't actually open them (they're just background). Just straight ahead and you'll be in the Queen's room.

   Search the lamp in the corner of the room to activate the classic revovling fireplace. Go down the stairs. Move up to the revolving platform stops and wait for it to stop. Quickly hit Circle to jump on, then jump off when it points towards the platform in the background. The two chests here contain an Ice Brand and a Tent; if you didn't already steal an Ice Brand from Beatrix, equip it on Steiner now -- it boosts his attack power tremendously. Ride the platform over to the right side and head down the stairs. Ignore all the doors you see; none of them are actual doors.

   Eventually, you'll reach a circular platform with a corner cut out of it. Heal up your party if you need to, then go north. Thorn and Zorn put in yet another appearance, and this time you actually get to fight them. For all their talk, they're extremely to beat -- you only need to do about 2500 HP damage to one of them to scare them both off. Since Thorn (the red one) is weak against ice, just attack him with Steiner's Ice Brand and VIVI's Blizzaga and he'll hit the road in no time. Once they leave, the clock stops ticking.

   The party recovers the unconscious Garnet from the altar. The A.T.E. notice pops up; hit Select to see a scene of Marcus back at the Evil Forest. Then go south to the screen where you fought the jester brothers. A Moogle is now here. Use a Tent or two to recharge your HP / MP; you'll want to be at full strength for the upcoming battle. Save your game, then head back up the spiral staircase to the Queen's room.