Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

When the lady is finally fully manifest, she is still a statue. Disappointed that she is not yet fully alive, Anodos disregards the sign telling him not to touch her. He throws his arms around her and pulls her from the pedestal. She comes to life and tears herself from his arms, crying that he should not have touched her.

Anodos pursues her, but she disappears behind a heavy oak door. A sign warns that no one can enter without the permission of the queen, but Anodos rushes through and finds himself on a barren hillside surrounded by great tombstones. The lady flits by him and disappears behind a stone, and Anodos finds nothing there but a wide hole in the ground like a deep well into which he supposes the Marble Lady to have fallen. He sits down and weeps.

When daylight comes, Anodos sees a natural staircase circling the perimeter of the well. He descends until the stairs end at a horizontal passage. Proceeding along the horizontal path, he emerges into an underground world with a sky of stone and fantastic rock shapes instead of trees and flowers. The underworld is inhabited by malicious kobolds.