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Old 03-18-2012, 10:31 AM   #45
WitchOfDoubt
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At the Banquet of 2021...

"You didn't really mean for that to happen, did you? When they found the ochre stone?"

It was Cox who spoke, more than a little impertinently. She was a truly rigid and inflexible servant of the Witch, and was shocked that this minor heresy was being committed. But she definitely had a point. "You never expected the answer of 'Dante's Inferno!' You couldn't have... Could you?"

"The Sapphire Witch is unpredictable! Who knows? Perhaps I anticipated this second answer from the start! After all, many of these riddles were forged with two answers in mind!" The Witch laughed, then added, airily waving at Miss Cox's garishly colored attire, "You ought to loosen your collar a little."

"I'm sorry, but It's not right! Letting a wrong answer pass is wrong! Let's just strike that out and - "

But fortunately, the pedantic argument proceeded no further, "It'll be fine," said Rathvon, another of the Witch's servants. Short and rubicund, and as flexible as Miss Cox was rigid, Rathvon frequently had to clean up after her mistakes when she spoke a little too quickly, which was often. "Try to see things from our Witch's position, sis. It's not a 'wrong answer'; it fits the clues and decodes neatly. It was just an unexpected move, that's all."

The Witch nodded, and by illustration, made a chessboard diagram appear.


----

As the sky darkens, the magic of the Witch waxes in power. Shall we have a little music?

(Theme: Witch's Chess)

Though the pieces were the same as in normal play, they were arranged in a pattern that couldn't possibly have been achieved in any sane chess game. As they watched, black moved a pawn out of the way, revealing an unexpected attack from a bishop. The white king was being threatened.

The Witch tapped on the figure to emphasize the threat. "You see? The Witch side must respond. We are in check."

"Can't we ignore it -"

"We cannot afford to. What if they invoke the Sphinx's Tenth Commandment? If any player's answer neatly fits every single clue of a riddle without breaking these rules, it is a correct answer."

Cox stopped short, for the full depth of the Witch's insanity had finally become apparent to her. "You mean to play this whole game by Sphinx's rules? That means that you can't use red herrings! Every clue would have to either be a genuine clue to some earlier or later riddle, or a hint to someone's character, or a clue to what really happened that night, or all of those things!"

Sphinx's rules were meant for short riddles and individual puzzles, but never for an entire game. Yet the Witch didn't seem daunted. "I never decreed in red that I was playing by Sphinx's rules. And no matter. We've moved out of check and lost little for it. Provided that we weave all these myriad details into our story without compromising the truth, we shall win."

"A reasonable move indeed," added Dudeney. "Conservative and cautious."

"Yeah. Great move," said the boy at the end of the table, rather impatiently. "But I don't care if you play easy on me. Okay? If I give you a wrong answer, I want to know! Don't talk down to me."

The Witch looked saddened at this. "Is that really all you care about? The right answer?"

"I care about the truth. It's okay if we play games," said the boy, "but I want to get an answer at the end. I feel like sometimes... you get close to showing me a fact, something that really happened that night, not just fake names and metaphors and riddles. But whenever you do, I bet you tell Cox to get rid of it. Just to keep me from seeing..."

The Witch mulled this over in silence. Dudeney looked up expectantly, as this was the point where a Witch was duty-bound to rebuff the arrogant mortal. "Annabel?" said Dudeney.

"Let me think!" Such a blunt demand was rare, and yet the boy had a right to ask. But a Witch needed to be firm in these matters, or else ruin would result. "Were the secrets of the Club's final meeting generally known," said the Witch, "I would be ruined. Why should I trust you?"

The boy considered his answer carefully, but couldn't really come up with a reason that appealed to the Witch's self-interest. "Because I believed in you."

"Well..." said the Witch, a little more softly. "We'll see. Let me speak to my mentor. When this Chapter's banquet arrives, and not before."
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The Sapphire Witch cordially invites you to a labyrinth of riddles and mysteries, The Witch's Epigraph.
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