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{James : Narnia : Residency Wing}

{{Cue: L's Theme}}

James quickly read the contents of the scroll which had clearly been written by the king as he described the situation and his fears regarding the perpetrator and his predicted end. As the note went to a plea for forgiveness the young man looked to the even younger king. Though his face showed no remorse or sympathy for boy, he did feel for him. All that he had wanted had fallen apart. Now the young king was gone and so too was his family. The final passage on the letter regarding the riddle made the corsair curious.

'If the riddle is the key, did the King know who his attacker was? Yet again none of this makes any sense... Why wouldn't he just say who it was?'

At the bottom of the message was the part of it that had stood out the most at first glance but that the corsair had intentionally ignored until the end. The text red and taunting, the menace evident and the final straw for the gunner.

"Catch me if you can~"

His hands shook as he let the scroll roll back up before he crumpled it in his hand. His expression one of pure rage.

"This is a game to you!? You want to play!? We will catch you and you will regret the day that you ever messed with the people that we care about!" He shouted.

He realized that unless Anthony and John had both been reading over his shoulder without him knowing that his outburst would likely have been alarming. He took a bit to calm himself as he held the note out to the two of them if they had any interest in reading it.

"Clearly the king-to-be is in no condition to provide us any answers, or tell us where the negator is so we can dismantle it. Unless you two have noticed something I didn't in this wing, I think we should head back and tell the others what we've found. No point in everyone having to see this...," he stated with a heavy sigh.

'Would have been nice if he had at least mentioned where the negator was in the letter...'

The corsair had seen all that he needed to see there and was definitely ready to move on. They were back to square one with the only helpful thing they learned was that the King's Riddle was supposedly the key to solving everything.

[ Anthony ; John : Narnia : King-No-More's Room ]

The two of them hadn't been reading over his shoulder, though they'd been nearby, waiting to hear what had been on the letter. The outburst caught them off guard, but only seemed to make them more tense toward the unknown assailant. Regardless, they nodded with him and prepared to go, though Anthony kept an eye on the gunner.

"So, what did it say?" he asked, raising a brow. "Anything remotely helpful, or just more about that stupid riddle? They went on and on about it earlier."

[[ We might wanna wait a little bit, since we explored an entire wing in the post-time it took for them to walk outside. ]]

[Kyla: Narnia:Grand Hall]

She thanked Josh for the info and decided she could take a small detour before she met everyone in the weapons room. "Thank you, I think I'll go take a look and copy them down then- then come back t the weapons room, save me a bow if you find a spare, anything for a weaker arm-Bobbi would know." she replied after them.
Sayrike then mentioned something interesting.
"What you mean like a typo?...that's a bit strange- you'd think for a monument they'd be more careful."
It was something to note. She jotted it down in a foot note as she finished up her sketch and nods in agreement. "I did find that title a bit strange, there's more like those too I think. I'll make sure to find them then. I know it's silly, but I can't help but shake maybe from previous encounters that this riddle shouldn't be ignored."

[[Fredric, Benjamin : Narnia : Grand Hall]]

The knight and his charge looked at Kyla as she went on about the riddle. She wanted to explore the rest of the castle when there was something like this going on? Fredric shook his head, he couldn't allow her to do such a thing alone, it was too dangerous. She seemed resolute enough that she might actually head off on her own so he quickly decided on the next best thing, "Allow me to escort you."

"But Fredric..." the young boy tugged on his arm, "I wanna come too."

The boy's whining made the knight roll his eyes, "Alright, but stick close and if I tell you to run, I want you to run as fast as you can and find Lady Amanda as quickly as possible. Understood?"

The boy looked dejected, but still nodded meekly and mumbled an agreement of sorts.

Fredric smiled and turned to Kyla, "Let's go find the other plaques shall we?"

{James : Narnia : King-No-More's Room}

In the course of his reading the letter and his outburst, the guards had searched the room and found no sign of the intruder who had done this. As they prepared to leave the room and head back to the others Anthony asked him regarding the contents of the letter.

"Pretty much just that yeah," he replied with a sigh as he held the letter out to the brawler. "Unless you can find something useful in there that I can't. It says the riddle is the key... which means that it is somehow connected to our assailant like the king knew who it was... Would have been so much easier if he had just said it... It makes no sense though. Why is the riddle connected to his assailant. Did the boy know he was going to be attacked when he set up the riddle? Again that makes no sense," The corsair concluded what had basically been just him thinking out loud unless his company bothered to listen.

As they stepped out of the King's room the corsair paused for a moment and in an instant the gunner's focus was on the guards that accompanied them. "Do any of you know anything about this? Did the king-to-be have any obvious enemies that he would have wanted to warn us about? Aside from the general evil and darkness this world is under... someone specific?"

[ Kyle : Narnia : Northeast Wing ~ Cathedral ]

After his words to the hostess, Kyle had turned to watch Daniel react. The Turk did nothing for the dull buzz in his head, or the odd strain his eyes felt, as if overwhelmed. His confused turn from one of the corpses in the corner, though, piqued his interest, particularly because of the dragoon's overwhelmed feeling.

Still, he raised a brow. "The question game? You played it with me twice literally this morning, once with Ajora and once with..." He paused, shaking his head. "Nevermind, you're obviously useless right now."Without warning, he made a beeline for the corner at which Daniel had been staring, using his long legs to efficiently, though awkwardly, walk over the pews in his way. "Tit for tat. I ask one of you a question, you answer, then you get to ask one of us a question, and so on. For instance."

Once he got to the body, he squatted, looking over its remains. The guy had been scratched all over, his flesh torn away--he, if anyone, might have been the only one to struggle. The scrapes were overwhelming; his shoulders, back, and even his face were absolutely torn apart. If he'd been in a more natural state of mind, Kyle would have likely retched."I'll start easy. This one yours?"

[ Kyle : Narnia : Northeast Wing ~ Cathedral ]

He grimaced at Daniel's response, still looking over the body, moreso to force him to get over the image than to discover anything new. He didn't understand how his mother dealt with that kind of stuff regularly.

Speaking of which..."Mm, pretty sure," he said, and for a moment his nonchalance cracked just a bit, standing up and looking toward the door. It had been a few minutes since James and the others had gone upstairs. His expression soured, hand rubbing against the golden fabric of the vest over his chest.

"If the other family members haven't come running out to check on the deceased by now," he said, looking momentarily between the hostess and Daniel. "I think my earlier wager is looking to have some weight."

He hesitated, chewing on his cheek.

Doors can only be locked within, and the only way to unlock outside was with the master key--but getting in and locking the door still trapped the person inside. And this wasn't a Heartless attack. So the murderer is, or was at one point, in here.He shared a glance between the two one more time. "This might be cheating a bit, but you both can ask something afterward. Did either of you see someone enter or exit this room between the time you unlocked it and the time Noelle entered it?"

[ Kyle : Narnia : Northeast Wing ~ Cathedral ]

Kyle simply hummed in response to Daniel's loss of appetite; he couldn't really blame him. Still, there was the issue of the living quarters and the king--if that door had been locked as well, then the murderer would have to have been trapped in there, too... perhaps. If they'd had their hearts taken, as well...They didn't seem to have anything to ask, so Kyle decided to jump a turn. "I suppose I'll add another for you, ma'am," he started, turning toward her. "You were clear that there were no secret passages out of the Cathedral. What of the living quarters? I would imagine that, in times of danger, the king would feasibly need a safe exit."

There was momentary pause, and he couldn't help but chuckle. "A wardrobe with a secret back opening, perhaps?"