All hat, no dragon

      Wickham pointed at him. "You conducted the swap in the cloakroom."

      "The plan went a bit awry."

      "You did not think to mention it earlier?"

      "This is inter-society business," hissed the Wocky through clenched teeth. "We just wanted it to be shown with the lady's hat, and then everyone would forget again."

      "Well?" barked Penelope. "What of the real Negg that you swapped out of the box?"

      "I was trying to put it in their pile of junk, but I tripped in the dark while holding it. It must have rolled off into a corner. The show was just about to start. It was a round bundle wrapped in a scarf, I just dropped it off somewhere."

      Margaret was eyeing Wickham meaningfully. The Kyrii cleared his throat and raised his arms to draw everyone's attention once more.

      "Gentlefolk, time is of the essence here. We could go on a very early Negg Festival Hunt, but what Lady Cecilia must know is who dared to steal from her hoard. Once we find the true culprit, we shall know what to do. All of us who were near the scene of the crime at the time of the crime have justified their whereabouts. All of us, except, of course, our own Lady Eaves, who always arrives at midnight sharp.

      "When a crime is committed, one must always focus on whether a suspect has a motive. Why should any of the Neovians in this room wish to be trapped with an increasingly angry dragon? Should things go wrong, we could not escape. Only one person here, of course, knows all the ancient secrets of the Vaults and can travel throughout with little need for doors. Only one person was walking near Lady Cecilia's corridor with enough time to spare before arriving here. Only one person would benefit from having the ancient, magical Vaults cleared of all its modern inhabitants, with all the work done by a dragon."

      Wickham turned to the lady and said, in an apologetic tone: "That someone is Lady Adeline Eaves."

      The Gelert smiled coolly. "Lady Cecilia's vault does happen to be on the path that leads directly from my family's apartments to this hall."

      "You think she would have brought it here in her own hatbox?" cried an outraged voice.

      "How could you make such accusations after all that the Eaveses have done for our town!"

      "We still have not found the real Negg!" shrieked Prudence. "Won't someone please search for the Negg before we are all sent on a one-way holiday to Moltara!" The Bruce, having been through enough for one night, was in the process of collapsing in Penelope's arms.

      "Aunt Penny," whined yet another club member, "please, do ask the spirits to find the Negg for us!"

      Penelope "Penny-for-your-thoughts" Bronsten was not one to make a fuss over her abilities. In Neovia, conversing with spirits was hardly an uncommon occupation. Ghosts popped out of attics, basements and garden sheds on the daily. One only needed an invigorating stroll into the Haunted Woods surrounding the city to run into flocks of ghosts engaging in their daily gymnastics. Bringing a bunch of the local pallid, drooping flowers to the nearest cemetery was always a welcome conversation starter.

      What truly made a difference was not whether one could hear spirits, but whether one bothered to listen. Aunt Penny always listened - to spirits, to the living, and especially to her greatest friend: common sense.

      "Punch!" she cried.

      "Whom?" Karen, the leader of the Xandra Truthers, shouted back, fists at the ready.

      "No! Punch to drink," said Penelope. "My friend badly needs a drink and all this food has been languishing on the tables since we arrived."

      The Elephante took a long ladle and reached into the enormous vat of punch. There was a horrible grating sound. Penelope paused, still supporting Prudence with one arm, and strained against the ladle.

      "Natalie, would you be a dear and -"

      Quick as a flash, the Cybunny was at her side and reaching into the punch. In her paws, she lifted out a large, rounded item, still dripping, somewhat discoloured.

      She held it high above her head, walking slowly up to Wickham through a parting crowd.

      "Here is the true egg," she announced. "It must have flown out of the arms of the Knight of Nox and landed inside the punch."

      Penelope cleared her throat. "Negg, dear. It's the lady dragon's Negg we must return."

      "Egg," Natalie repeated, more emphatically. She turned to the dragon, who had poked her head further into the room. "It was your egg, of course, which you had disguised as a filigree patterned Negg, doubtless so that it would not stand out from the rest of your hoard."

      Wickham let out a chuckle. "Miss Natalie, if you will forgive me for asking, upon what in Neopia are you basing this deduction? I cannot follow your reasoning. The lady dragon only ever requested a Negg, and we certainly have not come across any eggs on our search."

      "She mentioned that the Negg was irreplaceable - did you not, Lady Cecilia? If a priceless, painted, filigreed Negg truly was irreplaceable, then whyever should Lady Cecilia threaten us all with fire? The minute craftsmanship, the detailed paintwork, the minuscule details of the filigree, all of that would be gone," the Cybunny explained calmly, "charred, melted, her most precious treasure ruined in an instant. Surely Lady Cecilia realises that there is no point in such wasteful destruction.

      "Dragon eggs, on the other hand, are not only tough enough to withstand avalanches but also fire. Should we refuse to hand it over, Lady Cecilia need only sift through the debris and find it herself. She simply preferred to use that as a last resort."

      "Very interesting facts, Miss Natalie." Wickham eyed her warily. "Though they do not explain how this... egg could have got here, other than in Lady Eaves' own hatbox."

      "It is curious that you should mention the hatbox in question, Cedric Wickham, when you were the one to bring up motives." The Halloween Cybunny's red eyes flashed as she met Lady Eaves' steady gaze.

      "If Lady Adeline's goal was, as you conjectured earlier, to anger Lady Cecilia with the theft of her egg, and to let the lady dragon dispose of the entire assembly, then the egg only needed to be hidden anywhere within this chamber, somewhere it would not be found by accident.

      "Lady Adeline's hatbox, however, is the most anticipated revelation of the year. Anyone who placed a stolen egg inside this box would be aiming for the egg to be seen by every person in this room. Which makes the hatbox the best place to frame Lady Eaves for an assassination attempt on all the associations of the Vaults, discrediting the entire Eaves family in the eyes of the public.

      "On to the motive, Mr. Wickham. Who benefits from having Lady Eaves deemed an unfitting guardian for the Vaults of her family and the Neovian Catacombs?"

      Eyes were already turning to Miss Margaret.

      "Are you trying to imply that this is the builders' plot to have the Catacombs repossessed by the town and finally get permission to develop this area, Miss Natalie?" The Bori crossed her arms, surveying her coolly from behind her glasses.

      Wickham shook his head tiredly. "We have already been over our alibis -"

      Natalie cut him off. "Your alibis only cover for each other. You said yourself that you thought you would be late when you reached this hall. She must have tampered with the last clock you checked. You left the storage room earlier than you thought, and she had more time to wander on her way up here."

      "And what, pray tell, would I have been doing on the way to take me ten minutes longer?"

      "Oh, you were just stashing illegal potion ingredients down there," Pamela hissed suddenly. "I saw you. That's why I was late. That's probably why you jumped on the chance when Margaret offered you an alibi, too."

      Wickham opened his mouth, ran a hand through his mane, and dropped his clipboard limply. "Well, I have tried all that I could."

      "I do not understand." Penelope was shaking her head. "What motive could Miss Margaret have, as a secretary to the construction firm? Is that not a little too far? On the contrary, it seems like it would go against her interest to take such risks for her employer's reputation."

      "Oh, no." Gustave Cheltenham shook his head sadly. "Miss Egerton is already a junior partner, set to inherit a huge share of Egerton & Cheltenham, you see. It truly is in her interest."

      Finally, the Bori uncrossed her arms. "Perfect, Miss Natalie. You even guessed that there was a clock while I was conversing with Cedric downstairs and that I had forwarded it. He saw through it, but each of us could count on the other's silence. I will leave you the honour of returning the lady dragon's Negg, and of waltzing with the witch who rules these sewers while we Neovians strive to make an honest living."

      The festivities were more than dampened by this very rough start. Lady Adeline's organ number was dutifully played, though, after which she exceptionally allowed the others to use her instrument. Margaret was kept awkwardly in a corner, as far from potential dragon vengeance as possible. The associations and orders, after having been through the same fright, seemed to have set aside their differences, if only for a few hours.

      "Adeline."

      The Gelert had retreated into a corner. "Natalie." She turned to face the Halloween Cybunny. "It has been too long."

      "There will always be someone to guard the Eaves family, as you watch over us."

      Penelope and Prudence left as the sky was just beginning to lighten up.

      "Of course you should be the one to find the egg, Penny. Everyone knew you had it in you!"

      Behind them, the door swung open once more to let out Natalie. "You were right, Prudence," she said, red eyes twinkling. "I did stumble into someone my age."

     The End.