Chronicle of the solution: The Riddle of the Night
Forged decree Tier II
The file on the forged decree is closed; what remains is the reasoning, which deserves keeping rather more than the deed.
How the file came to the Chancellery
A seal that never lies has been placed, this once, in the service of a lie. Until the hand that pressed the seal is found, every written order stands in doubt. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Chancellor Veniamin, Chamberlain Iorgu, Ilinca the Baker and Princess Smaranda. Rumor walks the deed through every corner: the old chapel, the queen's garden, the Golden Boar inn and the north wall. Take up the quill, follow the thread of the clues, and set your seal upon the verdict.
The circle closed around these names: Chancellor Veniamin, Chamberlain Iorgu, Ilinca the Baker and Princess Smaranda. The investigation was not permitted to step outside it, and had no need to.
The suspects
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Chancellor Veniamin
Every charter of the kingdom passes through his hands. A comma he once moved started a war.
1.64 m tall · grey eyes · no hair · left-handed
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Chamberlain Iorgu
He arranges the king's audiences and, for a small courtesy, the order in which petitions are read.
1.77 m tall · grey eyes · brown 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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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
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 queen's garden
Roses trimmed to a line and paths you may walk only by invitation. At night, the hedge has ears.
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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 north wall
The stretch of wall the patrol skirts when the wind blows. Everyone knows that.
Objects
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The ledger of accounts
Neat columns of figures, with one page torn out exactly at mid-month.
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The silver-clad icon
The silver casing is old craftsmanship; the nails that hold it were driven this week.
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The hunting crossbow
Light, accurate, with a walnut stock. Exactly one bolt is missing from the quiver.
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The ermine cloak
White fur with black tails - only the royal family may wear it. It has a tear at the hem.
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 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 suspect with brown eyes handled the hunting crossbow.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the left-handed suspect handled the silver-clad icon.
- Two witnesses, upon their crest: Ilinca the Baker never set foot in the queen's garden.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Chancellor Veniamin was in the place the patrol skirts when the wind blows.
- Even the jester says it in earnest: the old chapel does not match that hour: at noon.
- The gate guard swears: Chancellor Veniamin was there at dawn.
- Two witnesses, upon their crest: the old chapel and the hunting crossbow do not go together.
- The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit was there at dusk.
- A maid whispered it at confession: Princess Smaranda was there at noon.
- Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit handled the ermine cloak.
See how the verdict was reached — the culprit's name is spoken from here on
The reasoning, step by step
The start was not a culprit hunted by candlelight but whatever could be proved. The rest followed of itself, by cutting.
The examination of the place yielded this as well: “A maid whispered it at confession: the suspect with brown eyes handled the hunting crossbow”. A pair was tied, and the knot dragged a whole handful of impossibilities after it.
A piece of information dearly bought showed its worth: “A maid whispered it at confession: the left-handed suspect handled the silver-clad icon”. From then on that cell could no longer be disputed, and the dispute moved one row down.
A detail overlooked at the start came back into the file: “Two witnesses, upon their crest: Ilinca the Baker never set foot in the queen's garden”. A cross in the grid seems little, but every cross brings the row nearer the moment when one cell alone is left free.
The pages gathered fast, and each cut a strip out of the grid: “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Chancellor Veniamin was in the place the patrol skirts when the wind blows”; “Even the jester says it in earnest: the old chapel does not match that hour: at noon”; “The gate guard swears: Chancellor Veniamin was there at dawn”; “Two witnesses, upon their crest: the old chapel and the hunting crossbow do not go together”; “The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit was there at dusk”. Not one of them named a culprit. Together, though, they left room for one alone.
The next line was the one that changed the reckoning: “A maid whispered it at confession: Princess Smaranda was there at noon”. Two names bound themselves for good, and the binding undid, at a stroke, every pairing that contradicted it.
The Chancellery asked for one more check, and received it: “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit handled the ermine cloak”. One attribute of the culprit, no more. Enough, though, to leave on the list only whoever has it.
The Chancellery's verdict
The Chancellery closed the dossier with a single name written on it: Chamberlain Iorgu. At the hour of the deed, Chamberlain Iorgu was at the old chapel, handled the ermine cloak and was there at dusk. Nothing was assumed along the way; every step can be redone with a pencil on paper.
The remaining suspects
And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Chancellor Veniamin was at the north wall, handled the silver-clad icon and was there at dawn; Ilinca the Baker was at the Golden Boar inn, handled the hunting crossbow and was there after matins; Princess Smaranda was at the queen's garden, handled the ledger of accounts and was there at noon. It is these acquittals that made the verdict possible: without them, room for doubt would have remained.
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.