Chronicle of the solution: The Enigma of the Abbey
Espionage Tier I
Whoever carried the secrets out no longer walks free. Here, though, is how they were given away, step by step.
The dossier as it reached the desk
A spy has crept in among the people of the court, and the realm's secrets have begun flowing toward foreign ears. The spy knows the corridors better than the guards do — an ill sign: it is one of the household. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Iustin the Mariner, Princess Smaranda and Sir Bogdan de Fag. Rumor walks the deed through every corner: the castle cellar, the north wall and the abbey library. Take up the quill, follow the thread of the clues, and set your seal upon the verdict.
Brought before the Chancellery were Iustin the Mariner, Princess Smaranda and Sir Bogdan de Fag — names that, until the grid's last row, weighed exactly the same.
The suspects
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Iustin the Mariner
He brings goods from ports with unpronounceable names. Half the cargo never appears in the customs records.
1.78 m tall · blue eyes · black hair · left-handed
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Princess Smaranda
She has refused seven suitors and kept the gifts of all. She calls it practicality, not greed.
1.66 m tall · green eyes · chestnut 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
Locations
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The castle cellar
Barrels as big as carts and corners the lantern never reaches.
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The north wall
The stretch of wall the patrol skirts when the wind blows. Everyone knows that.
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The abbey library
Thousands of leather-bound tomes. Some of the chains on the shelves were cut recently.
The findings and the testimonies
Nothing is missing from the list and nothing is surplus. Every row below is necessary: without it, the grid would allow several solutions at once.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Princess Smaranda was in the place where the lantern never reaches.
- Whatever the market gossips: the suspect with black hair never set foot in the place with thousands of leather-bound tomes.
- About the culprit, the Chancellery knows one thing for certain: the culprit was in the place the patrol skirts when the wind blows.
See how the verdict was reached — open only if you have already tried the dossier
The unravelling of the thread
The start was not a culprit hunted by candlelight but whatever could be proved. The rest followed of itself, by cutting.
The Chancellery began with what could be verified: “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Princess Smaranda was in the place where the lantern never reaches”. Once the tick was placed, the investigation had nothing left to argue on that row and moved on.
The next line was the one that changed the reckoning: “Whatever the market gossips: the suspect with black hair never set foot in the place with thousands of leather-bound tomes”. A cross in the grid seems little, but every cross brings the row nearer the moment when one cell alone is left free.
A witness of good faith cleared up one more corner: “About the culprit, the Chancellery knows one thing for certain: the culprit was in the place the patrol skirts when the wind blows”. A fact fastened to the culprit cuts without naming: whoever cannot carry it leaves the circle at once.
The seal on the file
The Chancellery closed the dossier with a single name written on it: Iustin the Mariner. When the deed took place, Iustin the Mariner was at the north wall. Nothing was assumed along the way; every step can be redone with a pencil on paper.
The acquittal of the rest
The Chancellery recorded the others' movements as well, because it was precisely they that closed the grid: Princess Smaranda was at the castle cellar; Sir Bogdan de Fag was at the abbey library. Not one of the rows above is spare — remove it and the grid opens again.
The page closes. What is left of the whole affair is a truth that can be demonstrated, and that is worth more than a confession.
Play this dossier All mysteries
Everything you read above rests on the dossier itself. The Chancellery's solver checked, at publication, that the given clues yield exactly one solution — no more, and not none. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.