The dining room was too big for the number of people. The extra tables and chairs had been pushed away and out of sight, adding to the impression. The additional lanterns created a small spotlight. It made the rest of the world feel distant and unimportant. It was just us left in the world. Once I was sure I had everyone’s attention, I began the show.

“A number of motives have been suggested Candidate Bethany’s death. Candidate Bethany was accused of bullying. Perhaps one of her victims took their revenge. Candidate Bethany was accused of cheating to enter the academy. Perhaps she was killed in order to expose the scandal, or in order to conceal the scandal. Candidate Bethany was accused of being a disgrace. Perhaps she was killed to prevent her from doing worse.”

House Holder Fairbanks didn’t show any reaction beyond focused attention. I couldn’t tell if that was self-control, or whether he didn’t realise I’d just suggested he might have murdered his daughter.

“Many of the theories were, in a way, comfortable. There was an argument. Things got out of hand. Candidate Bethany accidentally fell. There was no deep malice. Just a temporary moment of anger, followed by a panicked desire to conceal what had happened. Things that we would like to believe. That we do not live alongside someone that could intentionally set out to murder a young girl.”

A dramatic pause. I scanned the audience to make sure they were all still engaged. I was feeling good. Focused. Warm. I had come through the noise to that quiet place, the eye of the storm, the crest the wave that was taking me where I needed to go.

I said, “But it was not an accident. Someone murdered that girl. And we’re here to find out who.”

This pause was just a beat. I turned to Assistant Oxenden. “Assistant Oxenden, if you could fetch our first witness?”

Now was the time to slow everything down. Repeat what everybody already knew, and no-one disagreed with. Become obvious and boring. Slowly lull the audience into accepting everything at face value. I flipped over the blank page to show the diagram from our very first update.

“On Saturday morning the body of Candidate Bethany was discovered on the bonding grounds in the new section, correct?”

“Yes, Hero Percy.”

“And you were present to observe the situation?”

“Yes, Hero Percy.”

“And, under the direction of Assistant Oxenden, you drew this is the diagram of your observations?”

“Yes, Hero Percy.”

> It is noteworthy that His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator, goes out of his way to credit Assistant Oxenden, when it would, in fact, be better for his own reputation if he implied all of the investigation was solely done by him.

“Is the precise position of Candidate Bethany’s body?”

“Yes, Hero Percy.”

I flipped to the next diagram.

“And is the position of the viewing platform in relation to the original diagram?”

“Yes, Hero Percy.”

“This shows the body was immediately below the railing in this corner. Is that true to what you witnessed?”

“Yes, Hero Percy.”

I thanked the witness and moved on to the butcher. In a similar way, I walked him through the injuries Candidate Bethany suffered, and his statement that they were caused by falling head-first. The final person in that the set of witnesses was the destiny-weaver. They confirmed the time of death.

“Did Assistant Oxenden ask you to examine the suicide note?”

“Yes, Hero Percy.”

“What did you discover?”

“The note had previously had some sort of ritual cast on it, but it had already been stripped away by the academy wards.”

“Thank you,” I said. “You can step down for now.”

That was enough preparatory work. I turned to the audience. It was time for a more interesting speaker.

“Candidate Shanelly Oakswell,” I said. “Could you come take the seat?”

Her previous chair clattered rather alarmingly as she stood up too quickly. By the looks of her, I had been correct in choosing to handle her first. If I’d left it much longer, she would have been in no state to answer any questions.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“When did you last see Candidate Bethany?” I asked.

“When we were introduced to the dragonets on Friday night,” she answered.

That was a bit blunt, so I followed up with a few more queries. We established that she’d heard, but not seen, Candidate Bethany in the corridor of the dormitory. We established that the last time she’d literally seen Candidate Bethany had been at the viewing platform.

“Did you have access to Candidate Bethany’s writing tools?” I asked. “If you had wished to fake her typical writing, could you have done so?”

“Yes, Hero Percy,” she answered quickly, knowing exactly what I was trying to establish. “Easily.”

“Then just one last thing I think we should establish,” I said. “Candidate Shanelly, how strong are you, physically?”

And boy, did I hope that I already knew the answer to that question. I knew only one rule about being a barrister, and I’d look pretty silly if I’d broken it already.

> The rule referred to is ‘never ask a question you don’t know the answer to’ and applies to the type of adversarial trial system that His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator, deliberately avoided. In that system, a legal representative was expected to have already completed all investigations. They should only ask the questions they are certain would help their case.

“Ah,” stuttered Candidate Shanelly. “Well… I mean… Normal? For a girl?”

Oh good. She didn’t have some sort of super-strength everyone had forgotten to tell me was possible.

“Could you have picked up Candidate Bethany?” I asked.

“Perhaps?” she said, increasingly wide-eyed. “I mean, I never tried, but I suppose in the right circumstances...”

I smiled reassuringly. “Then let me clarify the circumstances. Could you have picked up Candidate Bethany, lifted her over the railings of the viewing platform, and turned her upside down?”

“No,” she said, with a nervous laugh, relieved to have an unambiguous answer to give at last. “That would be completely impossible.”

“Thank you for your assistance, Candidate Shanelly. You can take your seat again.”

I turned to the audience. “We have had it confirmed from the witnesses that Candidate Bethany did not jump from the viewing platform, nor was she pushed. She was positioned in place and then allowed to fall headfirst.”

They all already knew that, but it was important enough to be repeated.

“I believe,” I said, projecting absolute confidence, “that we can all agree that Candidate Shanelly simply does not have they physical strength to have committed this crime, even if she had wanted to. She is not a suspect.”

I collected a few nods. There were no outright objections. I hadn’t expected any. This was my least controversial elimination. Precisely why I had started with her. Despite the suicide note being in her handwriting, I didn’t think there was anyone who had seriously proposed her as the culprit.

“I think this would be a good point to summarise just what elements we are looking for to identify a suspect. Our suspect must have met up with Candidate Bethany between when she left the dragonets, and when she died. This is a time period between the first hour and shortly after the second hour. Our suspect needs to be physically capable of lifting Candidate Bethany and placing her into position.”

If House Holder Fairbanks had been as drunk as he claimed, then that alone might clear him of any suspicion from his wife.

I continued, “Finally, our suspect either didn’t know about Candidate Bethany’s affliction and had access to her registration of intent, or knew, but did not have access to the writing tools that Candidate Bethany used and had the magical skill to conceal it.”

I waited long enough for everyone to unconsciously signal their agreement to encourage me to continue. Excellent. They could keep that up.

“Given everything that we knew, our immediate interest was in the people who failed to attend the purification ceremony. Assistant Altengart, would you mind stepping forward?”

He moved to the witness seat, his expression giving absolutely nothing away besides polite helpfulness. He knew as well as I that he couldn’t have committed the crime. I doubted it was the first time he’d been asked to defend against accusations when no-one else was. He’d had a lot of experience on the easiest way through it.

“Assistant Altengart,” I asked. “When you first saw the schedule for the last few days, did you intend to attend the purification ceremony?”

“No,” he agreed easily. “I wanted to catch up on some sleep that afternoon. I knew it was going to be a very tiring week.”

“When did you discover that the ceremony had been moved to the evening?” I asked.

“Only yesterday,” he said, with a half-laugh. “I have to admit, prior to that I’d been very confused.”

It would have been immensely satisfying to have revealed that particular misunderstanding during questioning, but I couldn’t have everything. In retrospect, a good decision not to bother isolating him in the hopes of succeeding.

“And where were you Friday night?” I asked.

His smile might have edged into smug, but I felt the same way, so I could hardly criticise.

“I was directing a team of students to harvest night flowers,” he said.

“Is there any possible twenty-minute period when you were out of sight of other people from First Hour to halfway past the Second Hour?” I asked.

“Definitely not,” he said firmly. “We were roped up and up a cliff at the time.”

“Thank you for your assistance, Assistant Altengart,” I said. “That’s all we need. You can take your seat again.”

I waited for him to retake his seat and examined the reaction of the audience. Lilianna looked relieved, while Branneth looked like he was contemplating standing up and punching me in the face. I had told Branneth that it wasn’t Assistant Altengart. It wasn’t my fault that Branneth hadn’t believed me. Minister Greenfield and Academy Leader Silver showed no reaction. Academy Leader Darkwater was looking away, adjusting himself in his chair.

I summarised the obvious. “Assistant Altengart was somewhere else from before the last time Candidate Bethany was seen, until after the time we know that she died. He is not a suspect.”

The agreement was even less enthusiastic than with Candidate Shanelly, but still no objections. As much as some of them might prefer it otherwise, there was no rational argument that he could be the culprit. The easy part was now over. Next, we were getting into the real fun.

Memo to Self

- Survive [success!]

- Bluff my way out of my escape attempt

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