Chronicle of the solution: The Hour of the Banquet
Conspiracy Tier III
Whoever hatched the scheme in shadow now stands in the light. The chronicle below shows how they were drawn out of it.
The dossier as it reached the desk
The whispers began in Realm of the Crown like thin smoke; now the smoke smells of conspiracy. The crown demands not only the name but the proof: suspicion without grounds is itself a tool of the scheme. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Damaschin the Healer, Abbot Corvus, Duchess Amara de Corvin, Luca the Squire and Balasa the Seamstress. As for the impulse behind it, the court whispers of everything: revenge, a debt of honour, blackmail, fear of exposure and greed. The threads were tangled on purpose: investigate, weigh every word, and pronounce your verdict only when the grid leaves no room for doubt.
The Chancellery had to weigh Damaschin the Healer, Abbot Corvus, Duchess Amara de Corvin, Luca the Squire and Balasa the Seamstress. All of them had opportunity, and for that very reason opportunity was worth nothing.
The suspects
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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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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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Duchess Amara de Corvin
Widowed three times, heir on each occasion. Her smile has buried more nobles than the plague.
1.68 m tall · dark eyes · black hair · right-handed
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Luca the Squire
He polishes the knight's armour and dreams of a sword of his own. For a coat of arms he would do almost anything.
1.72 m tall · green eyes · brown hair · right-handed
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Balasa the Seamstress
She sews the garments of all the nobility and knows everyone's measurements - including those that do not show.
1.59 m tall · blue eyes · red hair · left-handed
Locations
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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 old dungeon
Cells abandoned since the new dungeon was built. "Abandoned" is one way of putting it.
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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 great stable
It smells of hay and hurried departures. Horses give no testimony.
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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.
Objects
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The abbess's bell
It calls the nuns to prayer. On the night in question, they all say, it rang once too many.
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The broken lantern
The glass cracked, the wick burned to the end. Someone needed a lot of light, fast.
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The ruby dagger
A short blade, its hilt set with a stone red as a frozen drop. It was sharpened recently.
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The ciphered letter
Orderly rows of meaningless signs. The ink is costly, the paper costlier, the sender - unknown.
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The royal seal
Whoever holds it can seal any decree. Which is why it should not be wandering the kingdom.
Motives
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Revenge
O datorie de sânge pe care numai fapta o mai șterge.
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A debt of honour
O făgăduială care cântărește mai greu decât viața.
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Blackmail
Un secret ținut ca funia la gât, strâns exact cât trebuie.
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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.
The evidence gathered on file
The list below is complete and pared to the bone. The Chancellery keeps no useless rows on file: each cuts something no other cuts.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the bald suspect was driven by greed.
- Whatever the market gossips: Luca the Squire was not driven by fear of exposure.
- The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit was driven by fear of exposure.
- The gate guard swears: the suspect with black hair was in the place where the rooms upstairs ask no questions.
- The chronicler notes drily: the Golden Boar inn and a debt of honour go together, whatever the court may say.
- Before the investigator, Luca the Squire firmly repeats: "I handled the abbess's bell".
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the suspect with grey hair was at the hunting lodge.
- Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was at the old chapel.
- Even the jester says it in earnest: the Golden Boar inn and the ruby dagger do not go together.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the old chapel and the broken lantern go together.
- The chronicler notes drily: the royal seal and blackmail go together, whatever the court may say.
- In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the great stable and revenge go together.
Reveal the Chancellery's reasoning — open only if you have already tried the dossier
The reasoning, step by step
The investigator guessed at nothing. Each finding went to its place in the grid, each testimony passed through the sieve of the Supreme Law, and elimination did the rest.
From one word to the next, the investigation arrived here: “A maid whispered it at confession: the bald suspect was driven by greed”. A pair was tied, and the knot dragged a whole handful of impossibilities after it.
The next line was the one that changed the reckoning: “Whatever the market gossips: Luca the Squire was not driven by fear of exposure”. A cell is struck out, and with it a whole possibility that until then looked as good as any other.
A witness of good faith cleared up one more corner: “The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit was driven by fear of exposure”. Without uttering a single name, this line divided the suspects into two camps: those it fitted and those it did not.
The file thickened quickly, and every fresh page cut something away: “The gate guard swears: the suspect with black hair was in the place where the rooms upstairs ask no questions”; “The chronicler notes drily: the Golden Boar inn and a debt of honour go together, whatever the court may say”; “Before the investigator, Luca the Squire firmly repeats: "I handled the abbess's bell"”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the suspect with grey hair was at the hunting lodge”; “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was at the old chapel”; “Even the jester says it in earnest: the Golden Boar inn and the ruby dagger do not go together”; “A maid whispered it at confession: the old chapel and the broken lantern go together”. Each closed a door, and by the last of them only one stood open.
It was set down, for whoever reads after us: “The chronicler notes drily: the royal seal and blackmail 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.
The archivist underlined the following line with his nail: “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the great stable and revenge go together”. The tick goes down without hesitation, and with it fall all the other cells on that row and that column.
Where the thread broke
Not a single lie was heard in this dossier. The single testimony on file withstood checking. Since a lie is, under the Supreme Law, the culprit's signature, its absence among those who spoke cleared them one by one, leaving the guilt with the one who chose to stay silent.
The seal on the file
After every cut, one possible suspect was left in the file: Balasa the Seamstress. At the hour in question, Balasa the Seamstress was at the old chapel, handled the broken lantern and was driven by fear of exposure. It was reached only by driving each supposition to its absurd end — a tier III dossier, and rightly so.
The remaining suspects
The remaining suspects received their release from the grid too: Damaschin the Healer was at the hunting lodge, handled the royal seal and was driven by blackmail; Abbot Corvus was at the old dungeon, handled the ruby dagger and was driven by greed; Duchess Amara de Corvin was at the Golden Boar inn, handled the ciphered letter and was driven by a debt of honour; Luca the Squire was at the great stable, handled the abbess's bell and was driven by revenge. They look like rows of padding and they are not: the whole of the rest rests on them.
Here the chronicle stops. If you followed it to the end, you did exactly what an investigator does: you believed the grid, not your impressions.
Play this dossier All mysteries
The chronicles are written by the Enigmerra Chancellery out of the dossier's own logic: every step above is verified by the solver which proved, at publication, that the dossier has a unique solution. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.