Chronicle of the solution: The Feud of the Citadel
Disappearance Tier II
The gap left in the citadel has found its cause, and the cause a name. The whole reasoning follows below.
The dossier as it reached the desk
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. Suspicion has fallen on Costache the Toll-Keeper, Filip the Steward, Manole the Jeweller and Mother Evghenia — and until the proof is plain, none of these names leaves the room. Rumor walks the deed through every corner: the customs cellar, the queen's garden, the guild forge and the Golden Boar inn. Study the testimonies at your leisure, fit them into the grid, and pronounce your verdict without haste.
Called to judgement were Costache the Toll-Keeper, Filip the Steward, Manole the Jeweller and Mother Evghenia. Each had somewhere to begin a story; one alone had reason to change it.
The suspects
-
Costache the Toll-Keeper
His scales weigh the goods; his eye, the merchant. Both can be "greased" at need.
1.80 m tall · dark eyes · grey hair · right-handed
-
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
-
Manole the Jeweller
He tells gold from gilt at a glance. With people, he admits, it takes him two.
1.69 m tall · brown eyes · brown hair · right-handed
-
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
Locations
-
The customs cellar
Sealed crates, thick ledgers, and air that smells of undeclared goods.
-
The queen's garden
Roses trimmed to a line and paths you may walk only by invitation. At night, the hedge has ears.
-
The guild forge
Anvils, tongs, and a fire that never goes out. Many small metal things vanish here.
-
The Golden Boar inn
Wine watered down and rumours diluted with nothing. The rooms upstairs ask no questions.
Objects
-
The abbess's bell
It calls the nuns to prayer. On the night in question, they all say, it rang once too many.
-
The small wine cask
Arin wine, the good year. The bung was pulled and put back by an unskilled hand.
-
The purse of gold coins
New coins, unworn, from a minting not yet in circulation. Interesting.
-
The hunting crossbow
Light, accurate, with a walnut stock. Exactly one bolt is missing from the quiver.
Moments
-
At dawn
When the citadel is barely waking and the guards still doze.
-
After matins
The hour after the morning service, when the abbey empties.
-
At noon
Midday, with bustle in the markets and silence in the alcoves.
-
At dusk
When the shadows lengthen and the lanterns are not yet lit.
The evidence gathered on file
This much was worked with, no more and no less. Minimality is not a figure of speech: each row was taken out in turn, at trial, and without it the solution ceased to be unique.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the Golden Boar inn matches that hour: at noon.
- The healer says it with a raised finger: if the suspect with black hair handled the small wine cask, then the suspect with brown eyes was there at dusk.
- The gate guard swears: the queen's garden and the purse of gold coins go together.
- Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was there after matins.
- The gate guard swears: Costache the Toll-Keeper was there at noon.
- In the gate ledger, Filip the Steward stands higher, the suspect with black hair lower.
- Two witnesses, upon their crest: the suspect with black hair never set foot in the queen's garden.
- One thing is certain: the customs cellar and the hour "at dusk" do not share the same match for suspects.
- Two witnesses, upon their crest: the suspect with black hair never touched the hunting crossbow.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the Golden Boar inn and the abbess's bell go together.
- Even the jester says it in earnest: the customs cellar does not match that hour: after matins.
Open the full reasoning — open only if you have already tried the dossier
How the circle closed
It began with certainties, however small. A small certainty closes an entire row, and closed rows add up quickly.
A piece of information dearly bought showed its worth: “A maid whispered it at confession: the Golden Boar inn matches that hour: at noon”. The tick goes down without hesitation, and with it fall all the other cells on that row and that column.
The scouts brought their share as well: “The healer says it with a raised finger: if the suspect with black hair handled the small wine cask, then the suspect with brown eyes was there at dusk”. A condition is a trap with the spring drawn: it catches nothing until somebody treads on it.
This too was added to the file: “The gate guard swears: the queen's garden and the purse of gold coins go together”. A certain match thus enters the grid, and its row and column empty at once of every other possibility.
Then came, one after another, the findings that drew the noose tight: “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was there after matins”; “The gate guard swears: Costache the Toll-Keeper was there at noon”; “In the gate ledger, Filip the Steward stands higher, the suspect with black hair lower”; “Two witnesses, upon their crest: the suspect with black hair never set foot in the queen's garden”; “One thing is certain: the customs cellar and the hour "at dusk" do not share the same match for suspects”; “Two witnesses, upon their crest: the suspect with black hair never touched the hunting crossbow”. Taken one at a time they seemed slight; laid together in the grid, they left one arrangement alone possible.
The gate register had kept a trace of its own: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the Golden Boar inn and the abbess's bell go together”. 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: “Even the jester says it in earnest: the customs cellar does not match that hour: after matins”. A cross in the grid seems little, but every cross brings the row nearer the moment when one cell alone is left free.
The culprit's name
The Chancellery's verdict: the culprit is Mother Evghenia. When the deed took place, Mother Evghenia was at the guild forge, handled the small wine cask and was there after matins. Nothing was assumed along the way; every step can be redone with a pencil on paper.
Where the others were
The grid took them out of the circle one by one, place in the story and all: Costache the Toll-Keeper was at the Golden Boar inn, handled the abbess's bell and was there at noon; Filip the Steward was at the customs cellar, handled the hunting crossbow and was there at dawn; Manole the Jeweller was at the queen's garden, handled the purse of gold coins and was there at dusk. Every one of these rows was necessary: take out a single one and the verdict can no longer be demonstrated.
The dossier is closed, but the method stays open to anyone with the patience to count cells.
Play this dossier All mysteries
Nothing in this chronicle is invented: the text rises out of the dossier's logic, and the dossier passed through the solver before publication, so that its solution is provably unique. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.