Chronicle of the solution: The Chancellery Intrigue
Disappearance Tier III
What had been made invisible was found, and whoever hid it answers for it today. Here is the road there.
The dossier, on a first reading
An absence has fallen upon the court heavier than any presence: the disappearance can no longer be denied. Open searches have brought nothing; the time has come for questions asked aslant. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Abbot Corvus, Sir Bogdan de Fag, Damaschin the Healer, Mother Evghenia and Filip the Steward. Motives abound — a debt of honour, jealousy, revenge, fear of exposure and greed — yet only one moved the guilty hand. A sharp eye is not enough here — it takes an archivist's patience: fit everything together, then pronounce your verdict.
The circle closed around these names: Abbot Corvus, Sir Bogdan de Fag, Damaschin the Healer, Mother Evghenia and Filip the Steward. The investigation was not permitted to step outside it, and had no need to.
The suspects
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Abbot Corvus
He raises ravens in the abbey tower. His birds arrive faster than any messenger - and cannot be held to account.
1.78 m tall · dark eyes · no hair · right-handed
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Sir Bogdan de Fag
He pawned his armour to pay his tavern debts. Honour, he says, does not rust.
1.85 m tall · blue eyes · brown hair · right-handed
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Damaschin the Healer
He knows the cure for any illness and the dose at which the cure becomes something else. He swears he has never mistaken the dosage.
1.71 m tall · green eyes · grey hair · left-handed
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Mother Evghenia
She runs the abbey with an iron hand and a golden pen. The register of donations has pages she shows no one.
1.60 m tall · dark eyes · black hair · right-handed
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Filip the Steward
He counts the crown's silver every evening. On some evenings the count comes out different - and he says nothing.
1.79 m tall · grey eyes · chestnut hair · right-handed
Locations
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The hunting lodge
The royal cabin in the heart of the forest. Far from the eyes of the court - which is exactly what suits some.
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The Golden Boar inn
Wine watered down and rumours diluted with nothing. The rooms upstairs ask no questions.
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The castle cellar
Barrels as big as carts and corners the lantern never reaches.
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The old chapel
Candles, incense, and a silence in which every footstep echoes like a confession.
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The guild forge
Anvils, tongs, and a fire that never goes out. Many small metal things vanish here.
Objects
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The bishop's chalice
Gold set with blue stones. Blessed three times, stolen twice.
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The amber necklace
Beads of golden resin strung on a silk thread. The thread is broken and hastily reknotted.
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The herald's horn
It sounds the muster, the alarm, or the retreat. Whoever holds it can start a whole panic with a single breath.
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The royal seal
Whoever holds it can seal any decree. Which is why it should not be wandering the kingdom.
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The ceremonial crown
The "wearable" copy of the true crown. At least, that was the idea.
Motives
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A debt of honour
O făgăduială care cântărește mai greu decât viața.
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Jealousy
Otrava care mistuie pe cel ce râvnește ce nu-i al lui.
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Revenge
O datorie de sânge pe care numai fapta o mai șterge.
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Fear of exposure
Groaza de a fi dat în vileag, care împinge la orice.
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Greed
Dorința nesățioasă de avere, care nu se oprește la nimic.
What the Chancellery had to hand
The list below is complete and pared to the bone. The Chancellery keeps no useless rows on file: each cuts something no other cuts.
- The chronicler notes drily: the Golden Boar inn and greed go together, whatever the court may say.
- However it may seem, at suspects, the guild forge and the amber necklace take different roads.
- Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was in the place where every footstep echoes like a confession.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the herald's horn and jealousy go together.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the royal seal and a debt of honour go together.
- In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the bald suspect handled the bishop's chalice.
- A maid whispered it at confession: Sir Bogdan de Fag was driven by revenge.
- In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: Sir Bogdan de Fag was at the guild forge.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the hunting lodge and fear of exposure go together.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: Abbot Corvus was driven by fear of exposure.
- The gate guard swears: Filip the Steward was driven by a debt of honour.
- Damaschin the Healer declares under oath: "I was driven by revenge".
Open the full reasoning — the culprit's name is spoken from here on
The unravelling of the thread
No confession was wrung from anyone here. Only the grid was drawn tighter, until nothing but a single name still fitted inside it.
The examination of the place yielded this as well: “The chronicler notes drily: the Golden Boar inn and greed go together, whatever the court may say”. The cell filled, and around it a space opened: that is what a certain match does to a grid.
A detail overlooked at the start came back into the file: “However it may seem, at suspects, the guild forge and the amber necklace take different roads”. The finding went into the file and did its work in the grid, quietly.
From one word to the next, the investigation arrived here: “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was in the place where every footstep echoes like a confession”. A fact fastened to the culprit cuts without naming: whoever cannot carry it leaves the circle at once.
Then came, one after another, the findings that drew the noose tight: “A maid whispered it at confession: the herald's horn and jealousy go together”; “A maid whispered it at confession: the royal seal and a debt of honour go together”; “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the bald suspect handled the bishop's chalice”; “A maid whispered it at confession: Sir Bogdan de Fag was driven by revenge”; “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: Sir Bogdan de Fag was at the guild forge”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the hunting lodge and fear of exposure go together”; “The tracks in the dust do not lie: Abbot Corvus was driven by fear of exposure”. At the end of them the grid looked like an almost-erased page: one cell alone still had anything to say.
The Chancellery began with what could be verified: “The gate guard swears: Filip the Steward was driven by a debt of honour”. From then on that cell could no longer be disputed, and the dispute moved one row down.
The Chancellery asked for one more check, and received it: “Damaschin the Healer declares under oath: "I was driven by revenge"”. Under the Supreme Law a testimony is not a finding: it weighs only if the one who speaks it is not the culprit.
The lie
The Chancellery caught the mismatch on its first reading of the grid. Damaschin the Healer swore before the Chancellery that I was driven by revenge, when in fact Damaschin the Healer was not driven by revenge. The innocent have no cause to lie; under the Supreme Law, whoever does points at themselves.
The culprit's name
The name the grid could no longer force out of the circle is Damaschin the Healer. At the hour of the deed, Damaschin the Healer was at the old chapel, handled the herald's horn and was driven by jealousy. Plain elimination was not enough here: every suspect had to be tried as the culprit until all hypotheses but one shattered. Hence the dossier stands at tier III.
Those taken out of the circle
The grid took them out of the circle one by one, place in the story and all: Abbot Corvus was at the hunting lodge, handled the bishop's chalice and was driven by fear of exposure; Sir Bogdan de Fag was at the guild forge, handled the ceremonial crown and was driven by revenge; Mother Evghenia was at the Golden Boar inn, handled the amber necklace and was driven by greed; Filip the Steward was at the castle cellar, handled the royal seal and was driven by a debt of honour. Not one of the rows above is spare — remove it and the grid opens again.
That is how a dossier closes: not with a well-contrived suspicion, but with the only arrangement the grid still allowed. The Chancellery needed no confession — it needed only logic.
Play this dossier All mysteries
The chronicle is written from the logic of the file, not from memory. The uniqueness of the solution was demonstrated by the solver before the dossier ever became public. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.