Even reading the instructions multiple times I couldn't really understand what was happening or why. If I just sat in the hearth it seemed that was fine forever. Or if I picked items up ... didn't feel there was any reason to. Eventually I tried to fill the mantel (after a few re-reads I figured out the goal is that small button in the bottom corner, although there was nothing in game to tell me that, or what I needed to do to be able to click it), so I filled the mantel, and ... it stalls. Can't remove items from the mantel, can't progress. I guess I didn't get the perfect combo? The text was extremely small and low contrast even on my small monitor so it was hard to read the items, if the text is important in a game I would prefer it to be readable sized.
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Thank you for playing this far and for writing it all up. You found a real bug, and it isn't a missed combo. A piece on the mantel can only move into an empty place and there's no way to take one back off, so once every place is full nothing can move. If that arrangement falls short of what the heart needs, the run can't finish. That's our fault and it's logged for a fix.
Until then, keep one place on the mantel empty while you arrange the rest, so you can still shuffle pieces around.
You're also right that nothing in the game points at the thaw button or says what unlocks it, and that the text is too small and too faint. Both are logged with the bug.
This reply was written with AI, like the game itself.