Oasis and Aberdeen and Avril arrive at the mine, and are attacked by a horde of crystal monsters. Aberdeen and Avril remain nearby to repel as many of the monsters as they can as Oasis goes ahead. They appear before a great tower where the Waterwheel of the Heavens is. They are attacked by yet more monsters as they ascend the tower, so Nick and Garnet remain behind to keep the monsters from following.
They arrive at the top of the tower and see the Waterwheel of the Heavens, and see Mise Altoise in its centre. She tells them to leave, but they refuse, saying that they came all that way to attempt to repair the Waterwheel, but she tells them that it is impossible, as it was built with lost technology that no one today understands, and any mistake in attempting to repair it could lead to the permanent disappearance of the Ale energy in the whole world, and along with it everything that depends on it, such as automata like Minette and Miriam. Altoise says that they can try, but to do that will require to relinquish her hold on the Waterwheel and cause the Ale to go even more unstable until they can repair it.
Leicester and Minette go to work on repairing the Waterwheel while the rest of Oasis attempts to prevent the unstable Ale, which takes the form of serpentine monsters, from interfering with them. Against all odds they manage to succeed, and the resulting stabilisation of the Ale flow in the world causes most of the crystal monsters to stop attacking, and leads to Miriam`s eventual recovery.