Chronicle of the solution: The Sign of the Lady
Forged decree Tier II
The forgery has found its maker. This chronicle shows how one got from a doubtful parchment to a certain name.
How the file came to the Chancellery
A decree bearing a lying seal has left the Chancellery, and its parchment has already done damage. Whoever drew it up knew the Chancellery's ways by heart — and that is precisely what betrays them. On the Chancellery's list stand Countess Velica de Arin, Toma the Cellarer, Balasa the Seamstress and Iustin the Mariner; one of these names covers a lie. Among the things spoken of in whispers are the ciphered letter, the hunting crossbow, the guild seal and the abbess's bell. Open the grid, weigh every clue, and pronounce your verdict: the Chancellery awaits only your signature.
Suspicion settled on these: Countess Velica de Arin, Toma the Cellarer, Balasa the Seamstress and Iustin the Mariner. From then on the names mattered less than what could be proved about each.
The suspects
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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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Toma the Cellarer
He holds the keys to every cellar in the castle. He claims the wine vanishes on its own, by "angelic evaporation."
1.73 m tall · brown eyes · red hair · left-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
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Iustin the Mariner
He brings goods from ports with unpronounceable names. Half the cargo never appears in the customs records.
1.78 m tall · blue eyes · black hair · left-handed
Locations
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The customs cellar
Sealed crates, thick ledgers, and air that smells of undeclared goods.
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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 old dungeon
Cells abandoned since the new dungeon was built. "Abandoned" is one way of putting it.
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The cathedral crypt
The old kings sleep beneath crested slabs. Now and then, someone disturbs their rest.
Objects
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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 hunting crossbow
Light, accurate, with a walnut stock. Exactly one bolt is missing from the quiver.
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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 abbess's bell
It calls the nuns to prayer. On the night in question, they all say, it rang once too many.
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.
What the Chancellery had to hand
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.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: Iustin the Mariner was in the place where the old kings sleep.
- Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was there at noon.
- An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit handled the guild seal".
- The chronicler notes drily: Countess Velica de Arin was at the old dungeon, whatever the court may say.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Balasa the Seamstress handled the ciphered letter.
- The chronicler notes drily: the Golden Boar inn matches that hour: after matins, whatever the court may say.
- The chronicler notes drily: the old dungeon matches that hour: at dawn, whatever the court may say.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the abbess's bell matches that hour: after matins.
Read the unravelling, step by step — open only if you have already tried the dossier
The road to the verdict
The investigation ran contrary to suspicion: it did not ask who could have, it cut away, row by row, whoever could not.
The examination of the place yielded this as well: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: Iustin the Mariner was in the place where the old kings sleep”. Once the tick was placed, the investigation had nothing left to argue on that row and moved on.
This too was added to the file: “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was there at noon”. Without uttering a single name, this line divided the suspects into two camps: those it fitted and those it did not.
A piece of information dearly bought showed its worth: “An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit handled the guild seal"”. One attribute of the culprit, no more. Enough, though, to leave on the list only whoever has it.
The archivist copied on, without comment, everything that could be proved: “The chronicler notes drily: Countess Velica de Arin was at the old dungeon, whatever the court may say”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Balasa the Seamstress handled the ciphered letter”; “The chronicler notes drily: the Golden Boar inn matches that hour: after matins, whatever the court may say”. Each closed a door, and by the last of them only one stood open.
A witness of good faith cleared up one more corner: “The chronicler notes drily: the old dungeon matches that hour: at dawn, whatever the court may say”. A certain match thus enters the grid, and its row and column empty at once of every other possibility.
The gate register had kept a trace of its own: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the abbess's bell matches that hour: after matins”. The tick goes down without hesitation, and with it fall all the other cells on that row and that column.
The verdict
The Chancellery closed the dossier with a single name written on it: Iustin the Mariner. The arrangement in the grid is this: Iustin the Mariner was at the cathedral crypt, handled the guild seal and was there at noon. Nothing in this verdict rests on supposition: every row comes out of the grid.
What became of the others
The remaining suspects received their release from the grid too: Countess Velica de Arin was at the old dungeon, handled the hunting crossbow and was there at dawn; Toma the Cellarer was at the Golden Boar inn, handled the abbess's bell and was there after matins; Balasa the Seamstress was at the customs cellar, handled the ciphered letter and was there at dusk. Not one of the rows above is spare — remove it and the grid opens again.
The dossier is closed, but the method stays open to anyone with the patience to count cells.
Play this dossier All mysteries
This chronicle is no free retelling: it rises directly out of the dossier's logic, and every step passed through the solver which proved, before publication, that the solution is unique. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.