Solsnam was old, hairy, and lanky, with slender elven fingers that ended in untrimmed nails. Both of his wrists were decorated with yellow drawings of the sun half-eclipsed by the moon. It was a symbol of rebellion against Helios, but few solar elves were bold enough to display it so openly. Like Eleanor, he wore heavy armor that covered most of his body, but it was of the gilded elven type. He didn’t carry any weapons, because an investigator-judge was only allowed an official notebook and a feather pen; but even with an empty sheath, he had an intimidating aura that was accentuated by his no-nonsense attitude.

“Step out,” he said, with an aged voice.

And Vance left the metal cage of the prison wagon.

After a storm of cursing, hissing, and booing—“Welcome back to our house, dear killer!”—the suspect and the investigator-judge arrived at the preserved crime scene. The bedroom wasn’t different from when Vance had left it, except that it was now illuminated by bright torches. Shannon was still sleeping naked on her side of the bed, but the thick blanket that had been placed over her was now gone. Her bloodsoaked body lay in the spotlight as if to show the world the gravity of the crime. And when Vance saw her, he felt a sudden pang of pain in his chest. He hadn’t expected that he would return or that she would still be there—frozen in time, trapped in the rift between revival and decay.

“Sit down,” Solsnam said.

And Vance sat on a stone chair. There were bloodstains on the ground near his socks, and he stared down at them for so long that they inspired a question. How did the blood reach this spot? He looked around him. The room was now bright enough for him to spot the details that he couldn’t notice earlier. His Mental Eye darted rapid glances in all directions, and wherever he looked there were dried-up dark-red splashes—on both sides of the window, in one corner of the room, and even behind the door. A thin trail of droplets often connected these large splashes, but more often they remained strangely disconnected. And right next to the double bed lay Shannon’s purple dress, saturated with more blood than the rest of the room.

“Something’s weird,” Vance said. “My clothes were on the floor, but they hardly got any blood on them. Meanwhile, her dress—”

“You’ll get a chance to speak,” Solsnam interrupted. “But not now.”

Vance returned to abject silence. It seemed that Solsnam wasn’t interested in his thoughts or observations, and this didn’t bode well for the future. When he gives me a chance to talk, I’ll have to be as convincing as possible. I need to make every word count, or he’ll dismiss whatever I say. He looked down at his manacles and then looked up at Solsnam. The elf had been pacing the room, but now he headed to its only stone table, put his hard-covered notebook on it, and turned the pages open. He wrote something down in elvenform. Then he stood silently as if he had been expecting the heavenly inspiration to write more.

What is he waiting for? Vance grew impatient, but the answer to his question wasn’t delayed for long. After a few minutes, Eleanor and Himilco entered the bedroom. At first glance, it seemed as if they were walking together without any animosity—as if they had agreed to either pardon or condemn Vance—but a close examination of their gaits revealed otherwise: Himilco walked with short, fast steps, betraying a mixture of impatience and testiness; while Eleanor took longer strides that swerved sideways whenever they were about to bring her closer to the elephant-mage.

They were still arguing. Vance felt slightly entertained.

“We’re here as promised, Solsnam,” Eleanor said.

“Yes. As promised,” Himilco grunted.

“Thank you for answering my summons, Himilco,” Solsnam said. “You and Eleanor will prove to be valuable advisors for me today.” Without wasting any more time, he picked up his official notebook, turned to Vance, and said, with a tone of authority and with some condescension, “Vance Wolfe, you have been brought here today because you are the main suspect in the unlawful murder of Shannon the Geomancer. Since you are new to Argilstead and have no criminal record, I will now explain how our justice system works.”

Vance listened carefully to understand how his fate would be decided.

“There is no traditional trial,” Solsnam said, a little pompously. “The legal process consists of four main steps. Step one: the investigator-judge, whose role I fulfill today, gathers evidence against the main suspect and listens to witness testimonies. Step two: the investigator-judge writes a comprehensive account of the crime and gives a preliminary ruling, which can be innocent or guilty. Step three: if the ruling is guilty, the main suspect gets a chance to challenge it and seek an acquittal. Step four: the investigator-judge and the advisors issue a final ruling that cannot be challenged. Any questions?”

Evidence-gathering, preliminary ruling, suspect’s defense, final ruling … So they’ll give me one last opportunity to defend myself before they dictate my fate. Without feeling particularly optimistic, Vance asked, “How long does the entire process take? Those four steps?”

“Fifteen hours is the strict upper limit,” Solsnam said. “If a final ruling is not issued within fifteen hours, the result is inconclusive.”

It’s like a speedrun of law. “And what happens if the result is inconclusive?”

“You will be banished from Argilstead.”

“Banished forever?”

“Yes.”

“And about that final ruling … How is it decided? By a majority vote?”

“Yes,” Solsnam said. “But each vote is weighted.”

“Weighted?”

“Let me explain. The vote of an investigator-judge counts as 1.0, while the vote of an advisor counts as 0.5. Similar votes are added together to create the Guilty Verdict Sum (GVS) and the Innocent Verdict Sum (IVS). If GVS ≥ 1.5, you are guilty. If IVS ≥ 1.5, you are innocent. Finally, if GVS = IVS = 1.0, the result is inconclusive. Nothing complicated here. Just simple math.”

“Simple math” my ass. They’re making my life harder on purpose. Vance paused to think. The numbers and variables danced inside his head for a few seconds before he started to decode them. Let’s see now. What are the possible outcomes? He closed his Mental Eye and populated an imaginary table:

Solsnam’s Vote (1.0)

Himilco’s Vote (0.5)

Eleanor’s Vote (0.5)

Guilty Verdict Sum (GVS)

Innocent Verdict Sum (IVS)

Final Ruling

Guilty

Guilty

Guilty

2.0

0.0

Guilty

Guilty

Guilty

Innocent

1.5

0.5

Guilty

Guilty

Innocent

Guilty

1.5

0.5

Guilty

Guilty

Innocent

Innocent

1.0

1.0

Inconclusive

Innocent

Guilty

Guilty

1.0

1.0

Inconclusive

Innocent

Guilty

Innocent

0.5

1.5

Innocent

Innocent

Innocent

Guilty

0.5

1.5

Innocent

Innocent

Innocent

Innocent

0.0

2.0

Innocent

Whenever Solsnam votes guilty, the result can only be guilty or inconclusive. It can never be innocent. Vance chuckled. And whenever the elf votes innocent, the result can only be innocent or inconclusive. It can never be guilty. Vance chuckled a second time. He said “majority vote,” didn’t he? Did he mean that he’s the majority or what? It was really comical how a meager 0.5 could rig an entire voting system, and the math that Solsnam had used to describe this rigged system was almost parodic. All this math is just a roundabout way to say, “You’re fucked if you don’t get the investigator-judge’s vote.” I bet many suspects before me tried to win the votes of the advisors, only to end up realizing that they were virtually useless.

Vance intertwined his fingers and looked at the elf. I should try to make him vote for me. This should be my main goal. Even if Eleanor and Himilco vote guilty, if Solsnam votes innocent, we will have a situation where GVS = IVS = 1.0. The result will be inconclusive, and I will just be banished from Argilstead. Of course, it would be bad to lose access to the resources in this village, but it would be better than getting the death sentence. He started to gain confidence in this strategy. The question now is: how do I convince Solsnam? Should I try to bribe him? No … a bribe won’t work, especially since he looks all uptight and self-righteous.

It was really difficult for Vance to figure out what should be done. For a few moments, he seemed unable to determine how he could win Solsnam over, but then a different thought popped up in his mind. I shouldn’t try to win him over. I should try to manipulate him into voting innocent. He liked this idea. Yes, I’ll listen to his accusations and slowly invalidate all the evidence he has against me. I’ll argue for my innocence using every truth and lie at my disposal … That’s one hell of a task, but I have to do it. I have to convince Solsnam that I’m being framed.

“If you have no more questions now,” Solsnam said, after he finished writing something in his notebook, “then we shall proceed.”

***

The process of justice finally began, with evidence-gathering as the first step, and Vance was surprised to learn that he could observe the investigator-judge at work. The Dullahans acted as if it were natural to grant such a right, but it was unheard of in the human world, where the gears of justice operated behind closed doors. I guess I should call myself lucky. While Vance watched from his chair, Solsnam headed to the bed and started to scrutinize Shannon’s corpse. A late autopsy, huh? Vance almost laughed with ridicule. It might be an essential part of the process, but it’s not gonna reveal much.

He was wrong, however. There was a benefit in doing things in the correct order, especially since the corpse had been preserved intact. After a rigorous, painstaking examination, Solsnam snapped his fingers twice and said, with urgency but without alarm, “Himilco, take a closer look at her right arm. This isn’t blood, is it? She has five red patch marks on her skin. Can you see them? They start here near her wrist and end there above her elbow.”

Patch marks? Vance was surprised.

“Yes, she took a normal dose of Vermeil Activator,” Himilco purred. “I gave her the five patches when she arrived because she felt stressed. Well, honestly, ‘stressed’ is a bit of an understatement. She was quite overwhelmed … so much so that I felt concerned for her health and sanity.”

I can’t believe this. It wasn’t just me who was hallucinating. Shannon … Shannon was also going through a Redspine High.

“I see,” Solsnam said. Then he shifted his focus to the three stab wounds and continued, “She bled to death. There are no signs of a struggle, and all of her muscles are relaxed. It could be that her body is already decomposing, but since no one heard her shouting or calling for help, I think it’s fair to assume that she was stabbed while she was experiencing the effects of Vermeil Activator. It was a gruesome but painless end.”

But there’s blood all over the room. Vance looked at the disconnected stains, then at Shannon’s bloodsoaked dress. If there wasn’t a struggle, what happened? He wished that someone would ask this question, but the discussion advanced in a different direction.

“Did you locate the murder weapon?” Solsnam asked. “The wounds seem to have been caused by a short sword or a similar blade.”

“Vance had a steel dagger,” Eleanor said. “But we couldn’t find it.”

“Of course, you couldn’t,” Himilco said, with a mocking tone. “He had enough time to get rid of it. A weapon so small can be thrown away or discarded with ease … unlike the corpse.”

“Good observation,” Solsnam said. “I think the autopsy and the blood in the room have given us a good picture of what happened. Shannon was killed on the floor with the steel dagger. Then the killer dragged her body around in search of a place to hide it. This place was never found, so he put her on the bed and covered her with the blanket. Then he got rid of the dagger.”

No! Vance was appalled. The bloodstains don’t support this theory at all; if I had killed Shannon on the floor and dragged her body around, she would’ve left a more consistent trail. He became nervous and fidgety. There’s something else behind all these disconnected bloodstains … But I can’t bring this up now. Solsnam will just ignore my speculations unless I have a well-supported theory. I need to wait until more evidence presents itself.

Solsnam left the corpse to lie on the bed. It seemed that he wasn’t satisfied with the information that the long-overdue autopsy provided, and to advance the investigations, he started collecting more evidence from other sources. He confiscated all of Vance’s belongings and proceeded to check them. Still unable to find anything useful, he recovered the golden key from Himilco and ordered Vance to open the Imp’s Storehouse. Didier appeared from the shiny opalescent portal and listed the items that were in his safe custody: “Monsieur Wolfe has a Larval Dagger, Mantis Armor, a Farreach Token, and the Robes of Azara the Cursed-Knight.”

“Wait,” Vance said. “Something’s wrong.”

“Vance didn’t buy any robes,” Eleanor said quickly.

“According to my records, Monsieur Wolfe, it was sent to your storage as a gift from a Geomancer. Shannon is her name.”

“The imps allow this kind of item transfer,” Solsnam said. “And these robes are cheap, so I don’t believe they have any bearing on the case.”

“But why would she send me a mage’s robes as a gift?” Vance said.

“Simple,” Himilco replied. “The Redspine High made her do it.”

“She felt overgenerous during her euphoria,” Solsnam agreed. “Rather than these robes, I was hoping to find the murder weapon in the storehouse, but it seems my intuition was wrong. There’s only this unused Larval Dagger.”

First it was the blood. Vance felt restive and frustrated. Now it’s these Robes of Azara. Another thing that makes no sense to me … Another thing that Solsnam is dismissing with a casual explanation.

Didier left, and the investigations continued.

Having had no luck with evidence, Solsnam turned to witnesses for crucial clues. One by one, they were summoned to another room on the same floor, and they provided one-on-one testimonies that combined like jigsaw-puzzle pieces into a chronological sequence. Eleanor, Hollie, Himilco, Oswald, and Gunner the highlander were among these witnesses. But Hollie was the only one who caused unnecessary drama. Solsnam and several other Dullahans had to hold her back, with all their strength, to prevent her from crashing into the crime scene and re-attacking Vance, who had been ordered to stay there—heavily guarded—until the witness testimonies were compiled.

Still trying to be a hero? Vance laughed, as he heard the violent shouting and screaming. Someone needs to teach her a thing or two about unhealthy obsessions.

An hour later, after this little piece of drama was over, Solsnam filled several pages of his notebook and completed what he called “a definitive and conclusive account of the murder case.” Good for you. Vance assumed that this account would be filed under Dullahans v. Vance Wolfe in a library, where it would gather piles of dust and feed the bureaucratic termites; but then he was surprised again: Solsnam told him that he had the right to examine this account and criticize it. In fact, the elf didn’t stop there but also offered to read it out loud, since it was obvious that Vance had no knowledge of elvenform.

“Will I get the right to defend myself after you read me the account?”

“Yes,” Solsnam said. “That is proper procedure.”

“Go ahead, then. Please read it.”

***

“Dullahans v. Vance Wolfe

“Below one can find an account of the murder of Shannon the Geomancer, which occurred on Duskgloom 19, 879, of the Argilean Calendar. At the end of our investigations, this document will be considered the one uncontested truth, and it will act as the sole reference for any future individuals who show interest in this case. Copying or reproducing this account is not allowed, to prevent any loss of information. The owner of this notebook, Solsnam the Swordsman, bears the full responsibility for the accuracy and veracity of the information presented here. And the lost flames are witness.

“Background

“The victim, Shannon the Geomancer, woke up at Haraldr’s Spring, where her Blood Pilgrimage ended. It was her First Death. She traveled to Argilstead alone and arrived after much difficulty. Ingrid the Shieldmaiden (Witness 9) reported seeing a fight between a Geomancer and several Targhouls, and it is fair to assume that the aforementioned Geomancer was Shannon. The tough journey to Argilstead convinced her that it was impossible for her to survive alone. Believing that she had no other option, she stayed at the House of Turncoats and started looking for a partner she could rely on.

“[The background of the main suspect, Vance Wolfe the Spectral Assassin, has been omitted from this reading for brevity.]

“First Contact Between Suspect and Victim

“During her stay in the House of Turncoats, Shannon met Hollie the Spectral Assassin (Witness 2). The two women visited the Fly Market and bought gear together. Despite her new equipment, Shannon still felt unable to venture out on her own. She confided her fears and anxieties to Hollie, and Hollie then decided to find her a suitable candidate for a short-term partnership. As the two women looked around, Vance walked into the House of Turncoats with Eleanor the Warmaiden (Witness 1, Guard of Area 15).

“Shannon wanted to donate time to Vance in an effort to start a conversation with him, but Hollie advised her against this donation because it was a sign of subordination. Afterward, Shannon made several attempts to approach Vance and broach the idea of a partnership. The latter did not notice her because of her excessive shyness, however, and the last of her attempts resulted in a rather heated argument between Vance and Hollie, which almost turned violent. It seemed that there was no real hope for Vance and Shannon to become allies, but then Vermeil Activator entered the picture.

“The Events Leading to the Crime

“Frustrated by her long standstill, Shannon used the five Vermeil Activator patches that Himilco Magus (Witness 3) gave her. She asked Hollie to leave her and sat alone brooding at one of the tables. After a short while, she stood up and started walking around. Several witnesses (1, 2, 3) saw her approaching Vance, but according to Oswald the Timemaster (Witness 4), she didn’t talk to Vance or try to sit with him at the same table. Oswald said in his testimony that he saw her shadow hanging over Vance several times, but he believes that Vance did not notice her at all.

“Shortly afterward, however, Vance himself stood up abruptly and walked away from the philosophical discussion that he was holding with Oswald. He staggered and tottered around the room. Then he found Shannon and took her to an empty table. They sat down together and started talking. Eleanor, who secretly continued to monitor Vance, mentioned that it seemed as though the two had reached some form of agreement about a potential partnership, and this sharp observation is supported by the simple fact that they spent the next eight hours together—until the death of the victim.

“In these eight hours, they did not stay foot but wandered around the House of Turncoats and engaged in various activities. Vance was more active and took the lead more often. He challenged Eleanor to an arm-wrestling match while Shannon watched. Gunner the Berserker (Witness 5) claims that Vance and Shannon came to ask him for tips and training after a very humiliating loss. When Gunner tried to help them, however, they ignored him and left to join a group of solar elves. Lislama the Hydromancer (Witness 6) and Solzaghir the Pyromancer (Witness 7) confirmed that both suspect and victim joined the solar elves at their table.

“Once there, Vance started to talk about King Solario of Nekhen. He showed knowledge of solar-elven optical locks and said that he had been into the Solar Sanctum of King Solario himself. While none of the elves believed him, he did gain their favor as an entertainer, and they invited him and Shannon to join one of their drunken orgies in another building. Vance and Shannon, however, refused the offer. To the disappointment of the elves, the two humans jumped out of their seats and ran away like xenophobes. Several witnesses (1, 2, 3, 6, 7) saw them running around in circles as if they were chasing ghosts.

“Of course, Himilco Magus had to interfere. He stopped the two and asked them to calm down. Vance agreed and told Himilco that he wanted to rent a private bedroom. Eleanor hadn’t brought up the fact that she had met Vance in the Witch’s lands—fearing she might cause infighting among Turncoats—so Himilco saw no reason to deprive Vance of the bedroom. The suspect and the victim entered together and locked the door from inside. No one could open the room’s door from outside, and no one could climb through the window without being seen by the Turncoats on the ground floor.

“The Crime

“Vance and Shannon spent seven hours alone in a locked room. During this time, Shannon was stabbed three times—once below her neck and twice in her abdomen. She did not struggle, because she was experiencing a Redspine High, and no screaming was heard from her. The weapon that stabbed her could not be found, but it is thought to have been a steel dagger that had been forged in Engelsburg. The owner of this dagger is thought to be the main suspect, Vance Wolfe. No other weapons were discovered at the crime scene, and no traces of hostile magic or magical attacks could be detected.

“The crime was discovered in two stages. First, Himilco Magus teleported into the bedroom. He removed the blanket off the corpse, found the suspect’s golden key, and then started to chase the suspect through the streets. Second, Eleanor knocked on the bedroom’s door. She got no answer and suspected that Himilco Magus had attacked Vance. Accordingly, she asked Gunner to break down the door. The highlander did, and the corpse was discovered for the second time. As the Guard of Area 15, Eleanor took all the necessary steps to preserve the crime scene and sent Gunner to alert the rest of the Dullahans. In less than ten minutes, the House of Turncoats was surrounded. No one was allowed to enter or leave. Afterward, Vance Wolfe was caught and brought back through the combined efforts of Himilco Magus, Hollie, and Eleanor.

“Analysis and Preliminary Ruling

“The crime occurred in a locked room, so it is easy to see that Vance Wolfe is the only possible perpetrator. He lured the victim to the room and then killed her in seclusion. The multiple stab wounds and the gory state of the crime scene suggest that he is a Necronette that was sent by the Witch of Decay to attack the victim, Shannon. And while the suspect brazenly claims that he is a normal Turncoat who happened to wake up at Rust Lake, any rational Headbound will find this claim to be absurd. It is a lie based on ignorance—a lie that was made necessary by the lack of other suspects.

“Our preliminary ruling: Guilty as charged.

“The main suspect will now challenge this ruling.”