Chronicle of the solution: The Feud of the Dawn
Theft Tier I
The archivist has tied the file with red cord, the sign that the theft has found its author. The chronicle below shows how.
The opening of the investigation
The bells had barely finished ringing when word reached the Chancellery: a theft, within the very walls. The loss is not only in gold: it is in the trust that shattered along with the lock. Suspicion has fallen on Sir Bogdan de Fag, Countess Velica de Arin and Grigore the Cupbearer — and until the proof is plain, none of these names leaves the room. The places named in the testimonies — the abbey library, the watchtower and the great stable — each await their turn under scrutiny. Study the testimonies at your leisure, fit them into the grid, and pronounce your verdict without haste.
Called to judgement were Sir Bogdan de Fag, Countess Velica de Arin and Grigore the Cupbearer. Each had somewhere to begin a story; one alone had reason to change it.
The suspects
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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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Countess Velica de Arin
She collects fans, debts of honour, and bedchamber secrets. She wields all three as weapons.
1.70 m tall · green eyes · red hair · left-handed
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Grigore the Cupbearer
He tastes the king's wine before anyone else. A trade with a short future, he says, but a rich past.
1.70 m tall · brown eyes · chestnut hair · right-handed
Locations
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The abbey library
Thousands of leather-bound tomes. Some of the chains on the shelves were cut recently.
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The watchtower
The highest point of the fortress. From here you see everything - and from below, everyone sees who climbs up.
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The great stable
It smells of hay and hurried departures. Horses give no testimony.
Everything that could be learned
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.
- An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was in the place that smells of hay".
- Two witnesses, upon their crest: the suspect with red hair never set foot in the place from which you see everything.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the suspect with brown eyes was at the abbey library.
Open the full reasoning — warning: past this line, the mystery ends
The unravelling of the thread
It began with certainties, however small. A small certainty closes an entire row, and closed rows add up quickly.
This page was stitched into the file too: “An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was in the place that smells of hay"”. The fact stuck to the guilty party like a seal, and whoever did not bear the seal was left in peace.
The Chancellery asked for one more check, and received it: “Two witnesses, upon their crest: the suspect with red hair never set foot in the place from which you see everything”. The cut named nobody, but it shortened the list of those who could still be named.
This too was added to the file: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the suspect with brown eyes was at the abbey library”. The cell filled, and around it a space opened: that is what a certain match does to a grid.
The Chancellery's verdict
The seal fell on a single name: Countess Velica de Arin. The grid shows plainly how matters stood: Countess Velica de Arin was at the great stable. Nothing in this verdict rests on supposition: every row comes out of the grid.
The remaining suspects
And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Sir Bogdan de Fag was at the watchtower; Grigore the Cupbearer was at the abbey library. Every one of these rows was necessary: take out a single one and the verdict can no longer be demonstrated.
The truth did not surface in a flash of insight but out of a run of small cuts, every one of them checkable.
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.