By the time I finished changing, I had a theory and the outlines of a plan. I had considered the four Ds of getting away with things – delay, distract, deflect and deny – and one of my problems was the perfect way to delay and distract from the other.

> This particular saying seems to be unique to His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator. We, at least, cannot find any other mentions of it.

I put on an extra layer of clothing in place of the sacrificed cloaks, and it helped a little with the chills. Academy Leader Silver and Assistant Oxenden were the only people waiting for me. The old-section staff were still being busy with clean up, although Academy Leader Silver passed on their apologies for not being there to check on me in person. Since I hadn’t expected it in the first place, I wasn’t offended. Before they had a chance to ask questions, I went on the attack.

“I think I have learnt that delaying things might have terrible and unintended consequences,” I said, “We should clear up the matter of Poor Candidate Bethany’s death as soon as possible.”

That distracted them nicely.

Coming up with a theory for Candidate Bethany’s death had itself been a difficult problem, but it was a problem with more scope for manipulation. After all, of course the perpetrator would deny everything. That wouldn’t be any sort of proof I was wrong. And if the perpetrator did, miraculously, manage to produce some proof of innocence, I would cope. It would only be evidence that I was incompetent. It wouldn’t be proof of any intentional wrongdoing. And either way, it should produce enough fuss that make my other actions less exciting in comparison.

> I believe His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator, has a very distorted view of just how exciting most people find the idea of someone fighting a dragon barehanded. The Academy Leader was almost certainly just being polite and letting His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator, open up about the matter in his own time.

“You know who killed Bethany Fairbanks?” asked Academy Leader Silver.

So Assistant Oxenden hadn’t told him. Interesting.

“I believe so,” I said. “I’d like to introduce the facts to everyone at the same time. Would it be possible to organise a meeting as soon as possible?”

After a moment’s thought, Academy Leader Silver said, “I don’t see why we can’t do that this afternoon. The attack has cancelled all the normal activities anyway. Perhaps in an hour? Who exactly do you want there? The same people as at the initial announcement?”

“Yes,” I agreed, “including Candidate Shanelly and the Fairbanks. I’ll also need some half-dozen witnesses such as the butcher and the destiny-weaver. I can work with Assistant Oxenden to put a list together.”

“Then we’ll probably need to hold it in the lower dining hall,” Academy Leader Silver said. “Should we say the eighth hour?”

Neither Assistant Oxenden nor I objected.

“Let me see what I can do, then,” said Academy Leader Silver, leaving immediately to organise it.

I walked Assistant Oxenden through my list. They were more descriptors than names, so I was a little concerned whether Assistant Oxenden could find them in time. He seemed confident that he wouldn’t have any difficulties. I remembered how quick he had been to find people like the kitchen assistant, and I was reassured.

“Is there a way of enlarging or displaying images?” I asked. “I want to show some of the diagrams you prepared to the whole room.”

“I know we’ve done it before,” he said. “I’ll send one of our magic teachers to the lower dining room if I can.”

“Perfect,” I said.

The last item was something that I’d been debating with myself since I’d arrived back in my rooms. I threw a mental coin and decided to go with it. A dramatic reveal required a little drama, after all.

“I also have something else that needs to be done,” I continued. “But it’s a little more delicate.”

I paused long enough for him to make an encouraging noise.

“While the meeting is happening,” I said, “I need someone to search Academy Leader Darkwater’s quarters. I suspect they’ll find some quantity of dragon lure, or at least the bottles, somewhere fairly obvious. If it exists at all, it will be somewhere that’s only just out of sight. Easy to find even without particularly looking for it. The searchers should only spend, perhaps ten minutes. They don’t need to invade Academy Leader Darkwater’s privacy in any significant way.”

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“I…” Assistant Oxenden drifted off, looking torn. “Academy Leader Darkwater is senior to me.”

“Would Academy Leader Silver be able to authorise it? I will take full responsibility with Academy Leader Darkwater. I just mean could he request people to perform the search, and have them do so?”

Assistant Oxenden considered that, and then finally agreed that there did exist people who would follow Academy Leader Silver’s orders, even against Academy Leader Darkwater.

“Would they accept a letter of authorisation?” I asked. “It’s important that Academy Leader Darkwater does not find out about it until I bring it up in the meeting.”

“Yes,” said Assistant Oxenden. “That’s not a problem. I can arrange the team now, and hand over instructions at the last minute.”

“Excellent,” I said. “If they find the dragon lure, they need to bring it to the meeting room. If they don’t, they need to grab a bottle of normal essence of dragon lure from the stores. But either way, they need to bring the robes Academy Leader Darkwater would use for the bonding and wait for me to call them in.”

Assistant Oxenden made a few notes and agreed.

“I just have one more errand I need to run quickly,” I said, “but I’ll be down in the dining hall immediately afterwards. Please let Academy Leader Silver know where to find me if he has any concerns.”

“I’m sure it won’t be a problem,” said Assistant Oxenden.

Desperately missing my mantle, I hurried over to make a quick pitstop in the old-section. I had some flowers I needed to grab. Once that was settled, I surveyed the lower dining hall. I used up all my nervous energy by arranging the room just the way I wanted it. It was not going to be a judicial courtroom. Even if I’d had the authorisation for that, I didn’t want anyone defending themselves. This was an evidentiary hearing.

> As it happens, the courts of the Enduring Lands did not offer the accused the right to any public defence. All investigation is done privately. Cases were almost always settled by determining some sort of compensation, fine, or both. Public announcements were used solely to announce more significant punishments.

Two seats for me and Assistant Oxenden behind a table, as the presenters. One for the witness, with a small table of their own for them to partially hide behind. A space between the two tables where the teacher and I set up the enlarged diagrams, flipboard style, with a blank page concealing the first one. The high windows weren’t enough to light the sheets of paper very clearly. I arranged some additional lanterns. I was absurdly nervous about lighting them, as if it was even possible for them to suddenly shoot out flames. I forced myself through it. I turned to something less troubling – chairs. I set up two arcs of seats facing this all for the ‘audience’ of important people, and, incidentally, the bulk of the suspects. I was very proud of my final achievement. I convinced the staff to bring in some screens at the far end of the hall. It gave the witnesses somewhere to wait where they could have privacy and a way to settle their nerves.

Those people trickled in and took their seats. Lilianna and Branneth arrived as well. I actually had not specified their attendance, but I supposed it would be unreasonable to exclude them. Lilianna, in particular, had been present for almost as much of the investigation as I had. A staff member added more seats without being obvious about it. When the trickle died down, I double checked that all the necessary people had arrived. The academy leaders. Assistant Altengart. Candidate Shanelly. Minister Greenfield. At least one witness for everything I needed, off in their little alcove.

I was really tempted to keep all the suspects isolated with the witnesses, so that I could spring unknown information on them. Two things stopped me. The first was that I had no way of knowing if it was genuinely unknown information, and I’d look a little silly if it wasn’t. The second was if I excluded all the suspects, then I’d have no audience left to appreciate the reveals anyway. I whispered to Assistant Oxenden, and he ducked out to set the search in progress. After a moment, he returned, closing the doors behind him. The doors were actually pretty silent, but they nevertheless seemed to reverberate through the whole room. I stood in front of the table, facing the audience. I forced calm, deep breaths. When I wasn’t watching it, my breaths were tending to rapid and shallow, but I couldn’t afford that yet. I would have the space to panic later. I needed to escape the danger first.

It was time. Time for the greatest performance of both my lives.

“Thank you all for joining me today,” I said. “We are here to examine the facts surrounding the death of Poor Candidate Bethany Fairbanks. I would further like to thank you for your patience in allowing me to proceed according to my own methods. Hearth Keeper Fairbanks, House Holder Fairbanks, I realise this is going to be very hard on you. Please speak up at any time if you would like a break.”

“Don’t worry about us,” said House Holder Fairbanks. “My only concern is finding out who did this thing.”

I nodded to him with an expression of sympathy. The Fairbanks were front and centre. They had changed into what was probably their finest clothes and were sitting stiffly. Hearth Keeper Fairbanks eyes were red-rimmed, but her expression was equally as determined as her husband.

“Very well,” I said. “On Saturday morning, the body of Candidate Bethany was found on the bonding grounds, apparently having committed suicide. However, we quickly realised that Candidate Bethany could not have written the suicide note. However she had died, she was not the only person involved.”

I waited out a solemn pause, even though this was news to no-one. In this show, the pace and the performance were just as important as the content.

Memo to Self

- Survive [success!]

- Bluff my way out of my escape attempt

- - Distract by presenting a theory for Bethany's death