A Game of Skill

[Draco]

"Do we really have time to sneak? Chances are the moment they realize we're gone, they'll come straight here for us."

He tosses his pan in the air and catches it, aiming it in the direction of the castle.

"I say we just march right in. The pan is mightier then the sword after all! At least I think that's how it goes. Once inside we can split up and do whatever."

[Pixie]

"Due to the current circumstances, we must only trust our own. " Ellen adds, frowning a little. "I realise now it's possible the princess really is innocent, and broke the mirror to stop her malevolent mother from viewing something she is dangerous knowing. Or- they are conspiring together."

"I would grab the shards for our selves to put in the mirror. Having us split into two groups is good, but note splitting up farther makes us weak. We hide ourselves in stolen armor. I figure whoever is out to get us wants things all going to plan, so we take out her own who straggle, unlike her plan, and come in with her allie's forms. They'll look for drawfs or children, not knights or guards! Then one group confronts the queen, the other the princess, for mirror shards and the truth."

Her face goes pale white and her eyes widen with a vague sense of doom. " I fear they might try to kill or torture us if we send in a bait... If we absolutely need to, I'm one of the physically weakest, and the least of use if we are brute-forcing it..." she lets her voice and eyes wander as she danced across the topic.

[Draco]

"Perhaps we can discuss then as we walk. We need to do this as soon as possible. Let's make final decisions as we walk close to the castle."

[Gelquie]

Gelquie went pale at the last thing Ellen said, and she let out a little whimper before shaking her head and looking towards her.

"Could you please just not bring up torture and death please? This is hard enough as it is. I have no plans on dying here today!"

Gelquie paused for a moment before exhaling. "It could be either one of them, yeah. I'm still not sure if we could pass off as knights convincingly, though. Either way, I have no plans on getting caught, so I'm really not comfortable charging right in there. ...Yeah, we can start walking. It'll save us some time anyway, and we won't be here if they come here."

[Tiger]

Following the others, Tiger said, "Stealing the armor might buy us enough time to get through the doors, but if we still need to investigate...I don't think the disguise will hold up.

"...You know, I imagine once we're in the castle, we'll have an easier time of it. If we get past the knights at the entrance, everyone would think the guards let us in, right? I know we don't want anyone hurt..." she glanced at Ellen and Gelquie, "but if I - or anyone else who thinks they're fast enough - ran past and made them chase me, the group might be able to sneak in while they're distracted."

[Celestial]

Celestial put a comforting hand on Gelquie's shoulder. "I'm not letting any one of the mages be tortured or killed here. If anything happens, well..." she brought her frying pan down into the air in front of her.

"Stealing the guards' armour at the entrance is good and if we can pretend well enough that we're supposed to be there, chances are that everyone will think so too," the mage said to the rest of the group. "Perhaps we can also try to put the mirror back together, see if what the queen told us about it only being controlled by her is true. It won't hurt to check if we have the opportunity."

[♥ Azzie]

((Instigating timeskip with permission!))

A while of walking and talking later, the company arrives at the castle.

"Okay, what are we doing?" Azzie asked. "I think we should hurry before something bad happens in there."

[Fraze]

They said that the best frying pan could also be used to brain somebody. If that was true, dwarf frying pans were among the best ones out there. Perhaps it was just like dwarf bread, a weapon first and culinary implement later.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: PIRATE CAPTAIN REFERENCE OF CHOICE.

You approach the castle, trying to be as stealthy as possible while at the same time being short, stocky men with a penchant for singing loud mining songs. As you draw near, however, you're spotted by some guards.

"Hey, you! The Queen demands an audience!"

This catches you off guard for obvious reasons. Keeping a firm grip on your weapons of cookery, you're led into the throne room.

The Queen sits on the throne. She sits straight, and her expression is solemn. To one side of her is the mirror. The cracks in it appear to have vanished. On the other side of the Queen sits the Princess, whose expression is difficult to grasp. Starting to get the hang of this thing, you bow tentatively while trying to conceal your necks as much as possible.

"You were imprisoned without my knowledge," the Queen says. "Since the circumstances seem quite...extraordinary, I have decided to hear what you have to say personally. Fortunately, with the final pieces of my mirror recovered, I have been able to repair it fully. I hope that it will help us to unmask the King's killer, but it may not be able to answer questions concerning events that occurred while it was still broken. Now speak. You may begin by telling us why the missing pieces of this mirror were found in your cabin. After that, you have permission to ask your own questions of those who are present here."

[Kristykimmy]

Bowing to the Queen, Kristy starts, "Milady, we know not how they came to be there. All though, the day the Princess recruited us to come look into the murder of her father, we found her at our cabin. And, of course, anyone could have gone and put there there during the time we were gone."

"Now, my question. If we were imprisoned without your knowledge why did Maxwell help us to escape instead of just coming to you and telling you what had happened?"


((I was horribly tempted to end that first sentence with 'but may I say, hey there, how're you doing?'))

[♥ Azzie]

Azalea nodded and bowed. "I am not quite sure how the mirror pieces appeared in our cabin, Your Majesty, but I do know we can prove it was not us who placed them there." She looked up. "Before we were imprisoned, we had not left this castle once in the last few days. Your own servants gave us lodging, and we would have had absolutely no way to leave a place so tightly guarded as this castle without notice."

[Draco]

"We don't know much, and probably don't know all the answers, but... What we do know is that the killer of the king is in this room!"

He waves his frying pan around at everyone in the room, including a random cricket that was hopping past him.

"The princess asked us for help, and we came right here. We searched the area for clues. We spoke to each of you in private."

He nods at both royalty and the butler. Pacing back and forth now, he waves his hands around from time to time.

"It seems none of you trust each other. Well, except Maxwell here. He just wants to do his job and get back to it. He seemed to flit around magically at times. One moment in one spot, the next somewhere else. In some cases it was sort of creepy.... Really, someone attach a bell to him or something."

He stares at Maxwell for a moment before shaking his head.

"Honestly, we have enough evidence to say any of you are the culprit. The Queen has knowledge on chemistry, and a motive. The late King's lechery. Now we come to the Princess. The mirror shows that she was the last person the mirror saw before it was smashed. Then she came to us, where shards of the mirror were apparently left. Her motives are similar to the Queen. Now we come to Maxwell of course can get anywhere he wants, has access to everything, but has no known motive. Yet he allowed us to be thrown in prison, then shared knowledge on how to escape, and by the time we escaped he was there to meet us again. Once again, freaky fast movement. Invest in bells."

He points his pan at Maxwell and smiles.

"Maxwell, unlike you two, have spoken nothing but good of you. Especially to the Queen. So my first question is this. Maxwell. How do you truly feel about the Queen?"

((If Maxwell isn't here. I just assume he is, since he's everywhere. He's a ninja butler.))

[♥ Azzie]

"I have a question myself," Azzie said. "I think it will help us sort this whole mess out. Are any of you aware of who brought the apple pie to the table for the banquet?"

[Fraze]

"If we were imprisoned without your knowledge why did Maxwell help us to escape instead of just coming to you and telling you what had happened?"
Maxwell, who is currently standing directly behind Draco, looks up at the Queen. She nods. "Her Majesty asked me to find a way to get you out of the cell discretely. You were lucky that you were put into that particular cell; breaking you out of any of the others would have been less pleasant."

"I was wary of making a public action at that time," the Queen adds. "If it was discovered that I was openly supporting you, I believe that the murderer would have felt cornered, and taken drastic measures. As it was, the time that you spent outside of the castle gave me the opportunity to reassemble my mirror, and call the entire castle together here."

"Before we were imprisoned, we had not left this castle once in the last few days. Your own servants gave us lodging, and we would have had absolutely no way to leave a place so tightly guarded as this castle without notice."
"But you did leave without notice, just a few hours ago." The Princess, who has been silent until now, finally speaks. "The circumstances might have been extreme, but you were still able to get out undetected. You could just as well have broken in without detection through the same means. The poisons are kept in the dungeons, and the wine cellar is just down the hall from there, so you could have snuck in the same way you just escaped, stolen the poison, put it in the bottle, and broken out again without being detected."

"Maxwell. How do you truly feel about the Queen?"
Maxwell somehow finds a way to stand even straighter than he already was. "I owe HerMajesty my life and my allegiance. She has provided a good life for my family and me, and I am honored to serve her and this castle."

"Are any of you aware of who brought the apple pie to the table for the banquet?"
"I did," one of the servants answers. It isn't someone you recognize.

[Gelquie]

Gelquie, who had been listening, finally steps forward.

"It may be true that we did just break out of the castle," Gelquie said. "But we had still been trapped in there with no ideas until Maxwell came to help us out of the cell discretely. If it weren't for his help, we wouldn't have been able to escape the cells and the castle at all. If you asked us to name any other escape or secret entrance routes in this castle other than the one pointed out to us, we wouldn't be able to do it, even with truth-inducers. We'd never been to the castle before we were approached about the death of the king."

[Draco]

"Oh, and Princess.... I don't ever want to go through that escape route again. Why would we go through it multiple times? Believe me, just be glad we washed off before coming back. The smell alone might have killed a few people..."