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Spoilers ahead. Room guides solve each room completely, achievement guides lay out whole-journey routes, and the room list names every space of the journey. Guides contain solutions and may reveal encounters and progression.

Velstraven · Wiki

Silent refectory

Where a new journey begins: three one-spell lessons that lift the refectory's ward grilles.

A lesson room at the start of chapter 1, with first lessons. It is not one of the 35 puzzle rooms, but its ward grilles close the way on until it is done.

Narrated walkthrough

Silent refectory — Silent refectory: the first lessons

Getting there

Ground floor, at the south end of the university. A new journey starts here. The arch facing the hearth leads north into the Old buttery and on to the Entrance court. The arch by the basin leads west toward the Shelf passage, through a second grille that answers the buttery's seals. These lessons are not among the 35 university rooms.

What is wrong

"The ward grilles are down. Restore the hearth, trolley and basin (0 of 3 lit)." Three seals over the door are dark: ember for Fire, violet for Will, blue for Water. Each matches the fitting in the room that wears its colour.

What you can work

Cold hearth: Cold kindling on old ash; any fire lights it. Lit, it reads "Refectory hearth · burning".
Serving trolley on the ward plate: A trolley laden with crockery whose weight holds the ward plate down. Far too heavy to shift by hand.
Dry rinse basin: A dry basin whose brass float is chained up to the seals over the door.
Ward plate under the trolley: The plate the trolley pins down; it answers for the trolley.
Ward seals: The three seals over the door; Handle them to have the colours explained.
Ward grille: The grilles in both arches; they answer only to the three seals.

Solution

A nudge

Spells are cast from the four slots, and every slot starts empty. A recipe is three element orbs, in any order. The orbs you start with, Wind, Water and Water, make Draw off liquid, which none of these fittings needs.

The full solution

Bind three spells. Press C (pad L2) to open the spell list, choose Heat, then hold Ctrl and press 1 (pad: hold R1 and press a face button). Bind Draw to 2 and Supply liquid to 3 the same way. You can also build a recipe yourself: Q and Z pick an orb, the mouse wheel or B and V change its element.
Spells are cast from the four slots, and every slot starts empty. A recipe is three element orbs, in any order. The orbs you start with, Wind, Water and Water, make Draw off liquid, which none of these fittings needs.
What you see: "Bound to slot 1." The slot card shows the spell's icon, its three element marks and its name.
Aim at the Cold hearth and cast Heat (Fire + Fire + Growth) with its slot key.
The kindling needs fire. Any aimed spell with a Fire orb in it lights the hearth.
What you see: "Heat catches in the kindling; the refectory hearth burns. A seal over the door glows (1 of 3)."
Aim at the Serving trolley on the ward plate and cast Draw (Wind + Will + Water).
The trolley's weight holds the plate down. Pull it off and the plate springs up. Draw is one of four spells that move it.
What you see: "Draw pulls the trolley off the ward plate toward you. A seal over the door glows (2 of 3)."
Aim at the Dry rinse basin and cast Supply liquid (Water + Water + Water).
Water in the basin lifts the brass float, and its chain pulls on the seals. Only Supply liquid pours enough water to fill a basin.
What you see: "Supply liquid pours water into the basin; the brass float rises on its chain. The third seal glows (3 of 3) and the grilles lift."

Other ways that work

Cold hearth: any aimed spell carrying a Fire orb lights it, for example Sever (Fire + Fire + Fire) or Directed impulse (Fire + Fire + Will).
Trolley: Directed impulse ("shoves the trolley off the ward plate"), Suspend (Will + Will + Will: "lifts the trolley and holds it above the plate") or Lighten (Wind + Wind + Will: "makes the laden trolley light as a basket; the ward plate springs up and rolls it off") work as well as Draw.
Basin: Supply liquid is the only spell that fills it.
The three lessons can be done in any order.

Watch for

Water on the hearth: "... soaks the cold ash. The kindling wants heat, not water."
A hand on the trolley: "The trolley's weight holds the ward plate down, and laden with crockery it is far too heavy to shift by hand."
Draw off liquid at the basin: "... finds no water here to draw: the basin is dry." Other spells carrying Water only bead on the stone.
Spells that act on you (Boost jump, Rising draught, Hasten, Short traverse) never reach a fitting: "It acts on you, not on the ..."
Handle the Ward seals for the colour key: "Three seals: ember for Fire, violet for Will, blue for Water, each matching the fitting in this room that wears its colour."
T (pad R3) turns you to the next fitting; Tab opens the spell reference (the Codex).

If it goes wrong

Nothing here can fail, and there is no timer. A spell a fitting cannot use gets a reply saying what it did and what the fitting needs.

Achievements here

Recipe Committed: Recipe Committed (spine): your first bind here earns it.
First Working: First Working (spine): your first cast that reaches a fitting.
It Took Hold: It Took Hold (spine): your first cast that changes something, for example lighting the hearth.
Pure Recipe: Pure Recipe (spine): bind Supply liquid (three Water orbs) or Suspend (three Will orbs).
All Five Orbs: All Five Orbs (spine): Heat (Fire, Growth) and Draw (Wind, Will, Water) bound over the journey use all five elements between them, so the route above earns it.
Nothing to Hold: Nothing to Hold (aimed): cast at empty air and watch the spell unravel. It ends any chance of Every Word Counted on this journey, so skip it if you are going for that one.
Five Purities: Five Purities (aimed): Sever, Suspend and Supply liquid, three of the five pure recipes, all have a use in this room.

Spells used

Heat, Draw, Supply liquid, Sever, Directed impulse, Suspend, Lighten.