Opening post by Cathryn Furr · #1
Before the first arrow was loosed, someone had left the latch unfastened. In my level 26 keep, the lobster treats vanished from the west pantry, one empty tin left beside the hinge. I counted Niko, Bianca, and Allie Blu; Allie Blu had crumbs on her whiskers, and Niko looked serenely betrayed.
Sheldon would investigate with a whiteboard, three colour-coded arrows, and no patience for a missing key. I inspected the barred gate instead, because a small neglect becomes a larger raid when nobody admits seeing it. Bianca received the speech, naturally.
You know the sort of mystery I mean, the one where the evidence is not dramatic but sits in plain sight, like Allie Blu’s pawprint across Niko’s map. I counted Niko, Bianca, and Allie Blu again; the nearest absent lord remains my preferred suspect. A hinge. A cat. The missing treat.