Chronicle of the solution: The Mystery of Vespers
Disappearance Tier II
The gap left in the citadel has found its cause, and the cause a name. The whole reasoning follows below.
What the file said when it was opened
A disappearance troubles the citadel, and rumor grows faster than truth. Every passing hour erases another trace, and the traces were few to begin with. Before you, one by one, will stand Captain Vlaicu, Mother Evghenia, Ilinca the Baker and Mihu the Archer. Among the things spoken of in whispers are the customs scales, the ruby dagger, the guild seal and the vial of belladonna. Open the grid, weigh every clue, and pronounce your verdict: the Chancellery awaits only your signature.
Under suspicion stood Captain Vlaicu, Mother Evghenia, Ilinca the Baker and Mihu the Archer. One of them alone lied; the rest, without knowing it, spoke the truth that gave that one away.
The suspects
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Captain Vlaicu
He has guarded the fortress gates for twenty years. Who enters and who leaves - he decides what the ledger records.
1.84 m tall · brown eyes · brown hair · right-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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Ilinca the Baker
She weighs flour to the gram and people at a glance. No one stays in her debt twice.
1.62 m tall · brown eyes · chestnut hair · right-handed
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Mihu the Archer
He hits a coin tossed on the wind from a hundred paces. At questions, though, he always misses.
1.76 m tall · brown eyes · brown hair · left-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 wharf
Moored boats, wet ropes, and goods that prefer to arrive in the fog.
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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 queen's garden
Roses trimmed to a line and paths you may walk only by invitation. At night, the hedge has ears.
Objects
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The customs scales
Copper pans, sealed weights. One of the weights rings hollow.
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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 guild seal
The stamp that turns any goods into goods "of certified quality." Worth a mine of gold.
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The vial of belladonna
A small flask, a wax stopper, a label written with care. Three-quarters empty.
Moments
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At dawn
When the citadel is barely waking and the guards still doze.
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After matins
The hour after the morning service, when the abbey empties.
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At noon
Midday, with bustle in the markets and silence in the alcoves.
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At dusk
When the shadows lengthen and the lanterns are not yet lit.
The findings and the testimonies
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.
- In the gate ledger, the tallest suspect stands higher, the left-handed suspect lower.
- Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was there at dusk.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the castle cellar and the guild seal go together.
- In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the ruby dagger matches that hour: at dusk.
- Whatever the market gossips: Captain Vlaicu never set foot in the wharf.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the queen's garden and the ruby dagger go together.
- The chancellor deduced it coldly: if the suspect with dark eyes was there at dusk, then Ilinca the Baker was there at dawn.
- The bell-ringer remembers well: Mihu the Archer came earlier than Mother Evghenia.
- The chronicler notes drily: the vial of belladonna matches that hour: at noon, whatever the court may say.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Ilinca the Baker handled the guild seal.
Read the unravelling, step by step — the culprit's name is spoken from here on
The reasoning, step by step
The rule of the house is simple: what is observed enters the grid as it stands; what is declared enters only once it is settled who declared it.
This page was stitched into the file too: “In the gate ledger, the tallest suspect stands higher, the left-handed suspect lower”. One more page in the file, one more door closed.
It was set down, for whoever reads after us: “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was there at dusk”. A fact fastened to the culprit cuts without naming: whoever cannot carry it leaves the circle at once.
The archivist underlined the following line with his nail: “A maid whispered it at confession: the castle cellar and the guild seal go together”. A certain match thus enters the grid, and its row and column empty at once of every other possibility.
From here things gathered pace. Within a few hours the file received: “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the ruby dagger matches that hour: at dusk”; “Whatever the market gossips: Captain Vlaicu never set foot in the wharf”; “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the queen's garden and the ruby dagger go together”; “The chancellor deduced it coldly: if the suspect with dark eyes was there at dusk, then Ilinca the Baker was there at dawn”; “The bell-ringer remembers well: Mihu the Archer came earlier than Mother Evghenia”. The grid emptied before one's eyes, and what stayed in it could no longer be doubted.
This too was added to the file: “The chronicler notes drily: the vial of belladonna matches that hour: at noon, whatever the court may say”. A pair was tied, and the knot dragged a whole handful of impossibilities after it.
A detail overlooked at the start came back into the file: “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Ilinca the Baker handled the guild seal”. The match was nailed down, and the rest of the row was left clean, like a page wiped with a sponge.
The culprit's name
The Chancellery closed the dossier with a single name written on it: Mother Evghenia. At the hour in question, Mother Evghenia was at the queen's garden, handled the ruby dagger and was there at dusk. Nothing was assumed along the way; every step can be redone with a pencil on paper.
The acquittal of the rest
The remaining suspects received their release from the grid too: Captain Vlaicu was at the hunting lodge, handled the customs scales and was there after matins; Ilinca the Baker was at the castle cellar, handled the guild seal and was there at dawn; Mihu the Archer was at the wharf, handled the vial of belladonna and was there at noon. 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
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.