Chronicle of the solution: The Secret of the Blazon
Poisoning Tier III
The poison has found the hand that poured it, and the Chancellery sets down here, for the archive, the whole course of the investigation.
The opening of the investigation
Someone slipped poison where it did not belong, and now the whole court eyes its goblets warily. The dose was measured with care — enough not to look like chance, too little to go unpunished. On the Chancellery's list stand Pantelimon the Gardener, Sword-Bearer Dragos, Nichifor the Spy, Margica the Innkeeper and Anica the Miller; one of these names covers a lie. Motives abound — blackmail, a debt of honour, revenge, jealousy and ambition — yet only one moved the guilty hand. A sharp eye is not enough here — it takes an archivist's patience: fit everything together, then pronounce your verdict.
Under suspicion stood Pantelimon the Gardener, Sword-Bearer Dragos, Nichifor the Spy, Margica the Innkeeper and Anica the Miller. One of them alone lied; the rest, without knowing it, spoke the truth that gave that one away.
The suspects
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Pantelimon the Gardener
He tends the queen's roses and no one's beds of belladonna. The second garden is the more sought-after.
1.73 m tall · green eyes · greying hair · right-handed
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Sword-Bearer Dragos
He bears the king's ceremonial sword. At the tourney he has never lost; at dice, always.
1.86 m tall · brown eyes · chestnut hair · right-handed
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Nichifor the Spy
Officially, he does not exist. Unofficially, he was seen in three places at once - which is, of course, impossible.
1.74 m tall · dark eyes · brown hair · left-handed
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Margica the Innkeeper
At the Golden Boar inn, wine and secrets are spilled in equal measure. She never forgets a debt - or a word let slip.
1.61 m tall · dark eyes · chestnut hair · right-handed
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Anica the Miller
Her mill grinds grain by day and rumours by night. The flour comes out white; the rumours, always black.
1.63 m tall · brown eyes · blond hair · right-handed
Locations
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The wharf
Moored boats, wet ropes, and goods that prefer to arrive in the fog.
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The scriptorium
Slanted desks, ink, and working silence. Here a quill creaks louder than a conscience.
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The cathedral crypt
The old kings sleep beneath crested slabs. Now and then, someone disturbs their rest.
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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 throne room
Gold, purple, and the most closely watched place in the kingdom. In theory.
Objects
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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.
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The small wine cask
Arin wine, the good year. The bung was pulled and put back by an unskilled hand.
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The map of the realm
The kingdom's borders, drawn with a fresh correction where there should be none.
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The herald's horn
It sounds the muster, the alarm, or the retreat. Whoever holds it can start a whole panic with a single breath.
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The guild seal
The stamp that turns any goods into goods "of certified quality." Worth a mine of gold.
Motives
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Blackmail
Un secret ținut ca funia la gât, strâns exact cât trebuie.
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A debt of honour
O făgăduială care cântărește mai greu decât viața.
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Revenge
O datorie de sânge pe care numai fapta o mai șterge.
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Jealousy
Otrava care mistuie pe cel ce râvnește ce nu-i al lui.
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Ambition
Setea de a urca, chiar peste trupuri, spre o treaptă mai înaltă.
The pages of the file
Here is the whole file, as the investigator received it. Not one row is spare — it was checked by removing each in turn and watching the unique solution disappear.
- Before the investigator, Sword-Bearer Dragos firmly repeats: "I was at the throne room".
- At the Chancellery, Pantelimon the Gardener maintains: "I handled the guild seal".
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the scriptorium and ambition go together.
- The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit handled the herald's horn.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the small wine cask and revenge go together.
- In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the ermine cloak and blackmail go together.
- The chronicler notes drily: the suspect with blond hair was at the scriptorium, whatever the court may say.
- In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the guild seal and a debt of honour go together.
- The gate guard swears: Nichifor the Spy was driven by blackmail.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Margica the Innkeeper was at the wharf.
- The gate guard swears: Nichifor the Spy was in the place where all is gold and purple.
- A note in the margin of the ledger: if Nichifor the Spy was in the place where all is gold and purple, then Pantelimon the Gardener was at the cathedral crypt.
Break the seal: the Chancellery's reasoning — the culprit's name is spoken from here on
The road to the verdict
The start was not a culprit hunted by candlelight but whatever could be proved. The rest followed of itself, by cutting.
This too was added to the file: “Before the investigator, Sword-Bearer Dragos firmly repeats: "I was at the throne room"”. A suspect's word carries weight only after it is known whether the mouth that spoke it is clean.
From one word to the next, the investigation arrived here: “At the Chancellery, Pantelimon the Gardener maintains: "I handled the guild seal"”. The testimony was set aside on the scales: if the speaker is innocent it is true; if not, it is precisely the reverse.
There followed a detail that narrowed the circle: “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the scriptorium and ambition go together”. The tick goes down without hesitation, and with it fall all the other cells on that row and that column.
From here things gathered pace. Within a few hours the file received: “The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit handled the herald's horn”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the small wine cask and revenge go together”; “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the ermine cloak and blackmail go together”; “The chronicler notes drily: the suspect with blond hair was at the scriptorium, whatever the court may say”; “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the guild seal and a debt of honour go together”; “The gate guard swears: Nichifor the Spy was driven by blackmail”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Margica the Innkeeper was at the wharf”. Each closed a door, and by the last of them only one stood open.
A note in the margin of the page read: “The gate guard swears: Nichifor the Spy was in the place where all is gold and purple”. Two names bound themselves for good, and the binding undid, at a stroke, every pairing that contradicted it.
This particular came to light as well: “A note in the margin of the ledger: if Nichifor the Spy was in the place where all is gold and purple, then Pantelimon the Gardener was at the cathedral crypt”. While the first half stayed uncertain, the second had nothing to say. Afterwards it said everything.
The mismatch
Here everything broke. Sword-Bearer Dragos swore before the Chancellery that I was at the throne room — the one testimony in the whole file that will not sit with the rest of the grid. The truth, laid down by the other findings, is precisely the reverse: Sword-Bearer Dragos never set foot in the throne room. Under the Supreme Law only the culprit lies, and whoever lies names themselves.
The seal on the file
The verdict wrote itself — the culprit is Sword-Bearer Dragos. The arrangement in the grid is this: Sword-Bearer Dragos was at the queen's garden, handled the herald's horn and was driven by jealousy. Plain elimination was not enough here: every suspect had to be tried as the culprit until all hypotheses but one shattered. Hence the dossier stands at tier III.
Those taken out of the circle
And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Pantelimon the Gardener was at the cathedral crypt, handled the guild seal and was driven by a debt of honour; Nichifor the Spy was at the throne room, handled the ermine cloak and was driven by blackmail; Margica the Innkeeper was at the wharf, handled the small wine cask and was driven by revenge; Anica the Miller was at the scriptorium, handled the map of the realm and was driven by ambition. They look like rows of padding and they are not: the whole of the rest rests on them.
It was not cleverness that unravelled the thread, but order. Order can be learned, and that is exactly why the chronicle is written.
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.