Miranda stormed into the dining hall. Or… It seemed like that was her intention. She was able to walk, but there seemed to be a disconnect between the energy she wanted to display and what her body allowed.

“Has anyone seen Misty?!” She asked out loud to everyone present.

She certainly hadn’t… After a few moments of silence, Miranda marched back out of the room to continue her search.

“That’s kinda weird, isn’t it boss?” Anne said, her tone more cheerful than concerned. “Mistress said she wasn’t picking a villain last night.”

It was weird… Olivia had to admit… But there was something else that bothered her. “Anne…”

“What’s up boss?”

“Have you noticed… We’re the only normal people here.”

“What do you mean?” Anne asked casually, “Samantha, Miranda, and Eliza don’t seem to be special either. Seems like an even split to me.”

Olivia leaned toward and lowered her voice as she spoke. “That’s not what I mean… I mean… We’re the only ones from Earth.”

“So?” Anne asked, not seeming to grasp Olivia’s concern.

“So… Why are we here?”

“To play the game!” Anne said, leaning back in her seat. “What else?”

“No…” Olivia said softly. “Miranda’s here to play the game.”

She paused for a moment then continued “Miranda is a detective, Eliza is a diplomat, Samantha knows how magic works, even if she can’t use it… But what do we bring to the table? We’re just a couple mechanics from some rural neighborhood.”

“Come on, Boss!” Anne said cheerfully “You’re not giving yourself enough credit! Sure, you were dumb enough to let me enslave you, but you’re usually really smart!”

Olivia let out a slow sigh… Talking to Anne for any length of time always gave her a headache… It seemed like she took every opportunity to tease her about something. Yet… Her tone was always so cheerful and friendly… She didn’t get the feeling the teasing was meant to upset her.

“Well… What can we do?” She asked “Its not like a medieval castle has engines for us to fix.”

“Maybe it does!” Anne replied cheerfully “They put televisions in here. Maybe they set up some engineering puzzles or something!”

That… Wasn’t entirely unreasonable… This was a game, after all. Maybe the Leader did include some challenges that would depend on their skills as mechanics. Though… Why would they need two mechanics? They didn’t bring two vampires, or two ghosts…

Olivia stood up. “Well… I think I’m going to take another look around.”

“That’s the spirit, Boss!” Anne said, standing up along with her. “Lets go find something to do!”

They left the dining hall and walked back towards the first floor. Olivia had something she wanted to try. They walked down the stairs then to the side of the first floor. The dungeon they had been in before was on the left side of the first floor… But it was sealed off now that they had left it.

She examined the wall where she knew the door had once been. Maybe if she examined the wall closely, she could find a seam… Then… If she learned what the seam looked like, she could check the other walls for them as well.

She ran her hand along the stone wall. She wasn’t actually sure what she was doing, but after long enough working with small parts, she had a keen eye for detail. If there was something to see here… She would surely…

“Hey boss!” Anne’s voice cut into her thoughts. “You notice the mortar here?”

“What about it?” Olivia asked, looking closer at it. It looked fine to her… It seemed perfectly stable. No cracks, no chips, no holes… She wasn’t an architect but she couldn’t imagine anything could be suspicious about it.

“Well… Doesn’t it seem cleaner than the rest of the wall?” Anne said.

Olivia paused. She had been examining the spot she knew the door must have been at… Anne was a few steps over…

Curiously, Olivia took a few steps in the other direction and sure enough… The mortar between the stones shifted. It wasn’t much but… It was as though it had taken a very slightly murky tone to it’s coloration.

There were no cracks or splits… Just… The slightest shift in color. Olivia took a step back and looked at the wall as a whole. She couldn’t even see the doorway. The difference in color was too slight… and only in the cracks between the stones.

“You know what I think?” Anne said suggestively.

“What?”

“I think they use magic to move these stones around.” Anne said, her tone growing excited again. “That’s why the mortar is cleaner here. The dust on the surface gets mixed in while it’s moving!”

Olivia had to admit, it made sense. Though… If the secret doorways were activated with magic… How were they going to open them? If there was a hidden switch or something, they might stand a chance but… Neither of them could do magic…

“I guess we’ll need to ask one of the others for help.” Olivia said after a moment of consideration.

“Should we go find Misty then?” Anne asked cheerfully.

“If Miranda can’t find her, I doubt we can.” Olivia replied “Lets find Silvia. I think she could do magic.”

The two of them walked back to the staircase and climbed up it, and began the walk down the hall towards the dining area. That was the most likely place to find anyone. If she wasn’t there, they might need to start knocking on dorm rooms until they find her.

“See? I told you we could be useful!” Anne said, nudging Olivia’s arm as they walked. “Nobody else found that secret!”

“It didn’t take any mechanical skills.” Olivia responded, “They may have found it on their own eventually.”

Anne sped ahead of Olivia, spinning around to walk backwards and face her while they talked. “Come on, you’re be-”

Suddenly, Anne grabbed Olivia’s arm and pulled at her, yanking her towards the center of the hallway while Anne slammed against the wall.

“What the hell was that for?!” Olivia demanded, before noticing Anne sliding down the wall and onto her knees.

“Anne?!” She knelt quickly next to her. “Anne, what’s wrong?”

Anne looked up drowsily. “B-Blue…” She said weakly before her eyes went blank.

Olivia looked down at her, examining her body hastily before finding what appeared to be a small dart stuck in her arm.

She plucked it from Anne’s arm and looked around. The hall was empty from both sides now. Taking a deep breath she screamed at the top of her lungs…

***

Miranda crossed her arms as she counted everyone up. There were nine of them present.. Misty was still… Gone. Where was she?! Had the Mistress lied to her? Was Misty assigned to be villain last night?

Well… Someone clearly had been assigned the villain role at some point today… Fortunately, she happened to be in the dining hall when it happened.

She took watch on the right side of the hallway to make sure she knew exactly where everyone had come from after the scream. The left side of the hallway was where the attack had come from, so with her watching the right, it would have been impossible for the villain to sneak upstairs without her notice.

Silvia, Raven, Dominya, and herself had all come from either the dining hall or dorms. So they had at least some claim to an alibi.

Olivia was with the victim at the time of the incident. She was also not a suspect. She had searched Olivia thoroughly and did not find any tool she could have used to launch the dart. Had Olivia simply stabbed Anne with the dart, she would expect the wound to look less clean than it did. A single pinprick, with no tearing or slicing… It was definitely fired properly.

That left her with four suspects. Holi, Samantha, Eliza… And Raven.

“Why am I one of the suspects!” Raven pouted, stomping a foot on the ground. “I was upstairs! I should be with the non-suspects!”

“As you demonstrated earlier,” Miranda said, tapping the side of her neck where the bite mark still lingered, “You can travel great distances in almost no time at all. You are the only one of us who could have reasonably shot the dart, and crossed the entire first floor before I could leave the dining hall.”

“What about Misty?!” Raven argued “Why isn’t she a suspect? Isn’t it suspicious that she isn’t here?!”

“I don’t know where she is.” Miranda admitted “And it’s… Possible that she’s in hiding because she did it. But… I don’t think so.”

“Why not!” Raven snapped back.

“Because… She would have been seen by someone.” Miranda said.

“No way!” Raven snapped again, “She could have peaked out of a wall, shot her, and snuck back through the wall again!”

“No, she couldn’t.” Miranda insisted. “She cannot pass through solid objects while holding a solid object.”

“Is that why she was naked when she visited our room last night?” Eliza asked curiously.

“Yes.” Miranda said “If she’s wearing her clothes, she can’t pass through the walls at all. I think it’s safe to assume the same applies to blow darts.”

“Now… Our first order of business is finding the tool the villain used to fire the dart. I will need to search each of you.”

The suspects weren’t happy about it, but Miranda conducted a thorough body search on each of them one at a time. She was as thorough as she could get; a pat down, pocket search, even inspecting the clothing for any unusual hard spots that may be the tool sewn into the fabric. By the end of it, she was satisfied that none of them had the tool on them.

“Alright. Spread out and search the bottom floor.” Miranda instructed, “The villain must have discarded it either on the stairs or somewhere on the first floor. Do not touch it when you find it, just call for me.”

After that… All she had to do was wait. She kept an eye on the four suspects. Three of them were innocent, so if any of them attempted to flee, it would be four against one. She waited for some time, but eventually she heard a voice calling from downstairs.

“The weapon is located!” Dominya’s voice called up from the bottom floor. “Come and inspect it!”

“Well. That’s my cue.” Miranda said. “Try to stay put while I check on this.”

Miranda strolled down the stairs and to the first floor. When she got there… The place was a mess. Some of the decorative armors had been entirely disassembled… Violently. But more importantly… Near the base of the stairs, the other women had gathered around a painting.

“How did you even spot that?” Olivia asked, looking up at the painting. It was a massive painting of a battlefield, and now that Miranda was looking at it more closely, she could see that one element of the painting stuck out from her angle. Though… As she approached the front of the painting it faded into the background.

“I used my staff as a light” Silvia said “As soon as I held it up, the tube cast a large shadow. It was easy to see after that…” She held her staff up again, demonstrating as a light shone from the tip and a wide long shadow appeared across most of the painting.

“Dominya, you are wearing full gauntlets at the moment, right?” Miranda asked “Could you get it down for us?”

“I don’t see why that matters… But yes I am.” Dominya replied, raising her hand to show her sharp claw-like gauntlets. Sometimes she wore these, and other times she wore finger-less. Depending on what kinds of orders she expected to receive.

Reaching up and pulling the dart gun from the painting. The pattern on the gun perfectly matched the painting. But more importantly… It perfectly matched the pattern painted on the dart. They were clearly intended to match.

Miranda reached into one of her pockets and produced a small makeup kit. Gently, she took a small brush out and began to apply powder to the tool.

“What are you doing?” Dominya growled.

“I’m dusting for prints. Give me a moment.” Miranda said, continuing her task. She pulled some clear tape from another pocket and after a little more effort… She had a full set of prints.

She didn’t have a way to take good prints from everyone present; she only had so much powder and she needed it to last through every case. This did give her one vital piece of information though. She stood up and looked around at the rest of the girls present. “There were finger prints on the tool.” She declared “Which means Misty was not the one to handle it.”

Suddenly, a television screen nearby lit up, and Helen appeared on it again. “Very good work, Detective!” She said, sounding as cheerful as she usually did, “The villain decided to strike a little early. I was hoping for after lunch but… Why don’t we get something to eat and then we can start the first trial?”

Miranda looked up at the woman, pausing for a moment. Why the delay? If the investigation was finished, shouldn’t they get straight to the trial? “I believe we are ready now.” Miranda said after a few moments of consideration.

“Absolutely not!” She said with a smile, “You will eat some food first. Then we’ll hold the trial. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you overworking yourself.”

Miranda let out slow sigh. She was being pampered here… It was… Mildly insulting. But still… If her Mistress insisted on it, she couldn’t argue. “Very well. We will eat first.”