In 2021...
"Shall we take this as a sign that the Human Side has lost?" sneered the Witch of Secrets.
"But you said that the Human Side couldn't lose unless they stopped thinking!" said the boy at the end of the table, leaping angrily to his feet. "How could you know we've stopped trying?"
With a sigh, the Sapphire Witch replied. "In the absence of even
incorrect guesses, the game must draw to a close. The tale of Witches shall overwrite the tale of Humans, and the events of that night will remain shrouded in darkness."
The boy couldn't accept this. But the Human Side
had stopped guessing... so what argument could he possibly raise? A clock ticked quietly in the background.
"
Hold it! I call Sphinx's Second!
'II. Any fair riddle must contain the information needed to solve it, and no "false clues" that mislead.' But there's
no way that L. V. was really chased by demons."
The boy tried to rally the others at the table to an act of defiance.
"How's the Human Side supposed to figure this out if you
lie? It's... it's like reading a mystery novel where the answer could be
magic and the narrator is
insane."
Slowly, Dudeney, that genteel Animate of the Witch, began to speak. There was something at once harsh and jarring, yet familiar and comforting, in the rhythms of his voice.
"The Human Side's final answer cannot involve the supernatural," he explained. "If the Witch side is playing fairly, it follows that there must be an explanation without magic."
"There are no false clues in this account," said the Sapphire Witch. "Only metaphors, illusions, and outright lies. When all of the clues have been seen, it will be possible to solve this story."
"Wait, what? How's an 'outright lie' not a fake clue?" said the boy, but some of the anger was out of his voice, replaced by a mixture of confusion and curiosity.
"Think about it this way," said Dudeney gently, pinching the ribbon at his chest as he spoke. "If a man says 'I am not the one who stole the ring,' you learn nothing, for he may be lying.
But if he says, 'I am not the one who stole the ring; it was Luke Skywalker,' you know that he's either lying or crazy. A lie can point to the truth."
Miss Cox spoke next, her voice a scratchy whisper. "You ought to ask yourselves: 'Who reported these events? Who is the viewpoint character right now? Can I trust the narrator at this time?' There is at least one character whose story is reliable."
"And," said the Sapphire Witch, "the words in Red speak only the truth."
The boy resumed his seat and sighed. Never stop thinking. At length, he said:
"The answer to the first riddle is 'Death.'"
The Sapphire Witch laughed. That was more like it. "Ha ha! It is nothing like that - not Death, not a funeral, not a wound, not Saint Peter, neither Heaven nor Hell! The answer to the first riddle can be found within the riddle itself. Come, mortals, guess again!"
