I may or may not have accidentally, after stressing out about this ski lodge for ages, managed to post under my real name.

Oh dear. No matter. (Elizabeth is a pseudonym, by the way–I'll reveal officially at the end, but considering I already have unofficially, you don't really not know who I am. On the other hand, I'm still a kind of obscure CBer, so maybe I'm not superrecognizable?? And for the ski lodge's sake, I'll just finish the ski lodge without posting under my real name, because, you know, that kind of ruins the effect.)

Day 3, Part 1

The snow blanketed Wayfarer's House thickly. The CBers meandered downstairs and had breakfast, which was waffles. Everyone had come down, including Moira, Squintina, Dr. Deipnosophist, Addie, and Nina, with one exception, which was Darkvine.
"I hope she's okay," Elizabeth fretted.
"She's fine," said Squintina. Moira shot her a suspicious look. "I mean, I trained as a doctor, and I asked to do a small inspection…she's fine, she just has a cold."
Moira muttered something.
"Anyways, why don't you go enjoy the snow?" Rosana posited.
"Sure," said Luna Silvermoon. They went out and actually did enjoy it; Ultimatium went on another hike, Suki climbed one of the pine trees, Tsuki did not lose her water bottle, and Luna Silvermoon and Silver Crystal attempted riding double on the sled, which resulted in both of them being covered in snow. They went back in for lunch, but instead of going out, Echo Hallowswift led them to the living room.
"We should probably find out what happened to Darkvine," she said seriously. "I mean, hollyberries don't exactly have two feet to hop into innocent people's cocoa mugs."
"I'm in," said Luna Silvermoon breezily.
"Me too," said Ultimatium.
"Yeah, I think we should," said Chaser. Suki, Jay, Silver Crystal, Hawkstar, Reuby Moonnight, and Tsuki all nodded.
"I swear on my life I didn't do it," said Echo Hallowswift.
"I do as well," said Reuby Moonnight.
"So do I," said Suki. 
All the CBers made various gestures and noises of assent.
"Okay then," said Echo Hallowswift. "We're down to Rosana, Elizabeth, Addie, Nina, Moira, Squintina, and Dr. D."
"Rosana made the cocoa," Reuby Moonnight pointed out.
"Let me check something," said Hawkstar, who stood up and ducked into the kitchen. She returned. "There's no holly in the kitchen, and she didn't come out until she brought the cocoa, right? Which is when we would have seen her."
"She's off," said Silver Crystal. "And Addie and Nina…"
"Why don't we look in Darkvine's room again?" Suki suggested. "We might find something that could explain it." They headed up the flight of stairs and Echo Hallowswift opened Darkvine's door. Inside, there was a huge mess, but under the cup of cocoa was a Polaroid photo. Echo picked it up. It showed a bathroom, like the ones in the inn, full of wet socks.
"Um," said Echo Hallowswift, who held it up. "What the heck is this?"
"It's a picture." Jay fixed it in his head, then opened a door to the bathroom. "Of a bathroom in this inn."
"It has to be someone's room, right?" Hawkstar asked.
"There are three rooms unoccupied, because there are thirteen occupied. 11 of us, but Chaser and Jay share a room, making it 10, and then three guests," said Silver Crystal.
"I'm betting it isn't one of the occupied ones, though." Echo Hallowswift examined the picture. "You can still see the ground in the picture, so I'd think that it's one of the lower floors."
"In fact," said Jay, "there's a new soap–and you know how in all the bathrooms the soaps are partial or at least have soft edges, but this one is hard enough to have just been cut with a knife–on the soap dish in the bathroom. Which makes it…" He paused for dramatic effect. "Squintina's." 

"Okay." Reuby Moonnight shrugged as the CBers went down the stairs. "So basically a picture of Squintina's bathroom is in Darkvine's room and Darkvine's poisoned. What connection is there?" There were a few people in the living room: Moira, who had an awl, a lot of paper, and scissors and appeared to be binding a book; Dr. Deipnosophist and Rosana, who were having an animated discussion about quadratic equations; and Nina, who was taking a picture of the frost on the window with a Polaroid.
"Look," said Chaser. "Behold our solution." He walked up to Nina.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi," said Nina.
"Do you get frost like this here a lot?" Chaser asked.
"No, not really," said Nina. "It's really nice, though. For photography class, we have to take pictures of things that make us curious, and even though this is more beautiful than intriguing, I think it makes the list."
"What else have you photographed?" Chaser asked again, trying to make it sound like he wasn't digging for information.
"Well, the snow, and all your boots on the porch, stuff like that…this conversation kind of reminds me of the one I had on your first night, with Darkvine. I remember we were sitting together and she seemed kind of interested in photos…it's sad that she has a cold now, isn't it?"
"It is," said Chaser. "Thanks for talking." He wandered back to the CBers.
"Okay," said Echo Hallowswift. "Nina took the photo and gave it to Darkvine."
"Dinner!" Rosana called, interrupting Echo's train of thought. The CBers headed into the dining room, where there was pasta laid out on the table, and for just a moment, forgot about everything that had happened recently, and dug in.

Day 3, Part 2

After dinner, everyone wandered into the living room. Moira was putting the finishing touches on her project, but no one else was very busy.
"I say," said Dr. Deipnosophist, "this is so boring I could have just stayed at the university! Why don't we entertain each other or tell stories or something like that?"
"Do you have a story, Dr. Deipnosophist?" Elizabeth said.
"No, I don't, alas," said the professor. "Squintina?"
Squintina shook her head vehemently.
"I suppose," said Moira as she lay down her needle, "I have a story." Then she went ahead and told it.

—

Listen.

Once upon a time, there was a girl. The girl's name was Morrigan. Morrigan Ensley, that was her name. Her parents were professional euphemizers for the city government, and she heard all the truths that they tried hard to obscure. She wished she had the bravery to tell the stories that had been so carefully swept under the rug, but it felt like she didn't.
The year she was thirteen had the longest autumn anyone had ever seen. One day, as Morrigan was walking home from school, she happened upon a traveling man. The man said that if she gave him a coin, his Book of Answers would answer any three questions she asked it. Morrigan was intrigued and gave him a few coins, then took the book. She pulled a pencil from her bag and wrote,
How can one be brave?
The book wrote back, in plain, hard script as clear as day. It said, In order to be brave, you must be yourself.
How can one be oneself? Morrigan asked the book.
In order to be yourself, you must find yourself, said the book.
How can one find oneself? Morrigan asked.
Going on a quest would do nicely. Here the book paused. The Queen of Winter has been locked up by her vengeant sister, the Princess of Autumn. She lies in the tower in the Forgotten Woods, just south of the city. Rescue her, and you should know who you are.

That Saturday, Morrigan set off for the woods. She packed a lunch of biscuits, a water bottle, a pocketknife, and her notebook and a pencil, but nothing else. The woods were thick with briars. Morrigan used her knife to pull the briars out of the way. After a few hours, she came to a crossroads. A man was sitting at the crossroads.
"Excuse me, sir," she said, "but which way will lead me to the tower?"
"In order to get directions," said the man, "you must answer my riddle. What can you hold in your right hand but not your left?"
"Your left hand," said Morrigan.
"Very well," said the man. "Keep straight." Morrigan kept walking. An hour later, she came to a young girl.
"I'm lost," she said. "Can you tell me the way back to the city proper?"
Morrigan remembered what the man had told her. "Just keep straight until you're out of the woods," she said.
"I'm hungry," said the girl.
Morrigan gave the girl a biscuit.
"Thanks," said the girl. "You deserve this." The girl handed Morrigan an old, old key. Morrigan thanked the girl and continued on her way. An hour later, she reached the tower. There was a lock on the door at the bottom, an ancient rusty padlock that looked so old that nothing could open it. Morrigan was right-handed; she tried the girl's key in the handle as most right-handed people would do, with her right hand, but it wouldn't work. Suddenly she thought of the man's riddle. She transferred her key to the other hand and tried it. The door swung open.
A young woman in a blue dress sparkling with jewels sat at a table inside. She had long hair that was so blond it was only a bit less white than snow and eyes darker blue than the darkest of night skies bedecked with stars and frost. She wore a small crown that looked like it was made of icicles.
"Are you the Queen of Winter?" Morrigan asked.
"I am," said the Queen of Winter. "Thank you for rescuing me. Why have you done it?"
"Because," said Morrigan, "a Book of Answers told me to do it so I can be brave enough to tell the truth. But am I?"
"You are." The Queen of Winter stood up regally. "You are kind, and smart, enough to get through Autumn's way-blockers. Therefore, you are brave enough to do anything you wish."
Morrigan didn't believe the Queen of Winter.
"What if it doesn't seem like it to me?" Morrigan asked.
"Well." The Queen of Winter pulled something from her dress pocket. It was a small silver bottle with a cork waxed tightly in. "If you ever feel like you need a little extra bravery to tell the truth or whatever you need to do, just rub this bottle."
"Thank you," said Morrigan. She took the bottle, and she and the Queen of Winter went back to the city together. Morrigan went on to do many things in her life, but always, she kept the bottle.

—-

"Well," said Moira. "What do you think?"
"Ah, that was great," said Dr. Deipnosophist. "It hit the spot."
The CBers awakened from their states of being withdrawn inside their heads and went back to their respective activities. Jay went over to the bookshelf and picked up a book that looked interesting. It was titled The Truth about Mayor August Grint and looked fictional, but…wasn't, because it said that it had been eventually verified by the city lawmakers in the front of the book. The actual first sentences were The year I was thirteen, winter came so late that it felt as though it had been locked up in some kind of tower. That was the year I began looking for answers in every nook and every cranny, and seven years later, I found big ones. That sounded…familiar. Jay looked at the cover: the author's name was Morrigan Ensley. He hadn't been thinking the person in the story was real, but…what if it was?

Silver Crystal asked Tsuki to play Scrabble with her, but Tsuki declined and said she'd go to bed. Silver Crystal dumped out the tiles anyway and decided to use them for anagrams puzzles, which she'd done before. She started with her own name (crystallise VR) and then, for some reason, lingered on Moira's. The pause when Moira had introduced herself struck Silver Crystal as odd, and before she knew it, she'd spelled out 

M O I R A N S L Y G R E E N 

and rearranged it into 

M O R R I G A N E N S L E Y. 

Across the room, Nina was taking a picture of something for her assignment; if Silver Crystal had been assigned that, then her camera would have been out and clicking right about now. 

@Echo: It's okay, I'm glad you're here with us now!

————

Day 4

The CBers headed downstairs one by one in the morning. Breakfast was waffles; they were very good, and no one other than Darkvine had weirdly disappeared. Then they all headed out into the snow. Echo asked if they wanted to go on a hike and discuss the case of Darkvine's poisoning; eventually they all said yes, even the ones who had preferred not to go hiking.
"So," said Echo. "Does anyone have any new information?"
"Well," said Jay, "there's a book by someone named Morrigan Ensley called The Truth About Mayor August Grint that seems like it was written by the same Morrigan Ensley in Moira's story."
"How do you mean?" Reuby asked skeptically. "It's just some fairy tale. She probably made up a random name."
Jay kept trying to convince Reuby. "In the book, it starts that the year Morrigan was 13, the autumn was so long it seemed like someone had locked winter up."
"And," said Silver Crystal, "Moira N. Slygreen and Morrigan Ensley have all the same letters."
"Okay, I'm convinced," said Reuby. "Moira seems a little…suspicious."
"I don't think so," said Echo Hallowswift. "Squintina's soap thing seems bigger than that. And the way she shook her head so much when Dr. D asked her to tell a story?"
"I'm with Echo," said Suki, and Tsuki nodded.
"To me," said Ultimatium, "it seems like Dr. Deipnosophist is looking for information or something, because he was doing so much talking, and he asked everyone to tell a story." 
"Yeah," said Chaser.
"I honestly can't decide," said Hawkstar.
"Okay." Suki plodded through the snow to a tree and started climbing it. "Why don't we try and do more work on this when we get back from lunch?" 

————

When the CBers got back at around 2 PM, Rosana had laid out lunch (risotto) and left the guests to eating it. Moira was sitting in the living room binding another book and Dr. Deipnosophist was arguing with someone again, this time Squintina, who was knitting.
"I don't think," she was saying, "that being open with your information in the workplace is a good thing."
Chaser's feet were cold from being out in the snow. He climbed the stairs to his and Jay's room and looked through his stuff to find another pair of socks. He couldn't find a single pair. He searched everywhere, then took the liberty of looking in Jay's bag. Starting to be annoyed, he climbed downstairs and went into the living room, where the CBers were sitting doing assorted things.
"Have any of you stolen my socks?" he asked. Moira lay down her awl, Dr. Deipnosophist turned towards Chaser, and Squintina gave a little start, but none of the CBers did anything that looked suspicious.
"Um, no," said Ultimatium. "I can lend you some, if you don't mind not putting them actually on your feet and just over other socks."
"That'd be great," said Chaser. Ultimatium went up to his room to find socks, but came down with a weird look on his face.
"I swear I packed some," said Ultimatium. "I swear. But there aren't any there."
"Strange," said Luna Silvermoon. "I'll see if mine are there too."
"All of us should," said Echo. The CBers climbed the stairs to look in their rooms; when they came down, all of them had confused expressions on.
"I mean, honestly," said Suki. "I really do think I had socks…"
"Huh." Tsuki beckoned the CBers to huddle. "When I checked Squintina in, she tripped over her own bag or something like that, and two socks fell out–both really weird ones. And then, in the bathroom–"
"She was washing a bunch of socks," said Luna Silvermoon. "So considering two criminal things have happened, why don't we not assume that two people did them and just blame it all on Squintina." 

————-

The rest of the day was very awkward; whenever any of the CBers were in the same room as Squintina, they were so scared of acting weird and giving away their suspicions that they acted more weirdly than they would have if they hadn't worried. At dinner, it was still so deeply awkward that Dr. Deipnosophist said, "What's going on? Are we witholding information from each other or something?" Moira shot him a look that could have been interpreted as That's honestly quite a good guess. "Fear not," Dr. D continued. "That's quite common, and I've studied it a lot. In fact, allow me to tell you about one occasion where that happened…" The resulting lecture took about an hour, and after that everyone went to bed early, ready to call it a night.

Day 5

The CBers woke up the next morning. After all of them (except Darkvine, who remained in her room) had eaten breakfast, which was French toast, they gathered in the living room. All of them were too antsy to go out into the snow.  Echo gathered them in the living room, where Squintina and Dr. D were arguing again, and Moira was doing yet another bookbinding project.
"I think," Echo said, "that we ought to find out who stole the socks and poisoned Darkvine. We might as well think of them as the same person, because that'd simplify things."
"We do kind of know," said Luna Silvermoon. "Squintina."
"Okay, then we should verify it," said Hawkstar. "This is our last day, and if Darkvine can't go home, then…"
"Oh," said Reuby. "I forgot. Today is the day Squintina's going to…you know…"
"Then we need to confirm that Squintina did it," said Echo Hallowswift. "Some of us can search her room and the rest of us should distract her quite a bit so that she can't even get within ten feet of the stairwell."
"I have an idea." Chaser watched Squintina and Dr. Deipnosophist arguing their heads off. Unfortunately, Squintina looked like she wanted to leave. Chaser couldn't blame her, but he also knew that Dr. D would in part be their solution.
"Some of us go up to Squintina and Dr. Deipnosophist and get her riled up," he said in an undertone, "and have them start a fiercer argument or something. Then some of us search Squintina's room."
"You should talk to them," said Ultimatium, "and I will as well, I guess."
"I volunteer to search," said Suki.
"I'll search as well," said Luna Silvermoon.
"Great," said Echo Hallowswift. "I'll tell you guys when to leave. Chaser and Ultimatium, go do the talking."
Chaser and Ultimatium got up from the sofa and strolled over to the other sofa, where Dr. D and Squintina sat, arguing vehemently.
"I was wondering," said Chaser to Dr. D, "if you could tell us something about conversation in settings where it's forced? Like at, you know, turn-and-talk time in classrooms, or discussions in meetings."
"Yeah, it's kind of interesting to us," said Ultimatium. "And considering you have a doctorate in this kind of stuff, you might be able to tell some stuff about it?"
"I could," said Dr. D. "For starts, there are some people who'd be enthusiastic about talking to random strangers, and some who would hate it. In the second group are the people who just sit down and stare at the wall, and the people who make an effort anyway."
Squintina started to leave, but Chaser made a "sit back down" gesture.
"I'm sure you'll have stuff to add to this conversation," said Dr. D. "You told me that you used to teach elementary school. What were your students' reactions to forced conversation?"
"Well," said Squintina, "they hated it–"
"Alas, that is all too common in children." Dr. D began to lecture and Chaser and Ultimatium traded victorious glances. 

———

"Okay," said Hawkstar. "It looks like she's pretty absorbed, so you can go upstairs."
Luna Silvermoon and Suki stood up, and they walked towards the stairwell. No one seemed to notice them. They climbed to 5C and Suki opened the door carefully. The room was almost totally bare, except for a knitting project on the nightstand and the carpetbag, sitting in a chair. Wordlessly, Luna Silvermoon eased open the bag's clasp, which worked like a giant pocketbook. She and Suki looked inside.
There were many, many, many socks inside the bag. Luna Silvermoon recognized one pair as hers. They were neatly balled up and there appeared to be about a hundred sockballs.
"Whoa," said Suki. "She's our sock thief for sure."
"What's this?" Luna Silvermoon pulled out a pamphlet. The header read Operation Sock Puppet. Luna Silvermoon opened the fold of the pamphlet.
My dear henchpeople,
Please take note of this pamphlet. In order to start working on the special election, we will be practicing with sock puppets in order to gain an understanding of how to tell people that I am the only mayoral candidate. Please get exactly one hundred (100) pairs of socks from any and all sources. None of the socks may be ripped. Give them to me by Friday, December 16, 2022.
Regards,
August Alaric Grint.

"Okay," said Suki. "Didn't Jay say something about a guy named August Grint who tried to run for mayor?"
"Written by Morrigan Ensley," said Luna Silvermoon. "Let's go downstairs and tell the others." They did.
"Okay," said Echo Hallowswift. "At lunch, we ought to interrogate Squintina. In front of everyone."
"How're Chaser and Ultimatium?" Tsuki asked, with a glance at the two CBers who had been caught up in a furious debate with Dr. D and Squintina.
"No idea," said Jay. "Although I have a feeling that lunch and only lunch will save them."

Day 5, Part 2

Lunch rolled around early, and Chaser and Ultimatum's debate with Dr. Deipnosophist and Squintina finally finished.
"How was it?" Jay asked after he'd looped them in on the way to the dining room.
"Um…" Chaser shrugged. "Let's just say that we're glad we did it for the good of most concerned, but that we probably won't repeat the experience."
They all sat down at the table. Echo surveyed them: Rosana and Elizabeth, the owners of the establishment; Addie and Nina, sitting together and talking quietly in a siblingly fashion; Moira, looking nervous as ever; Dr. Deipnosophist, who looked as though the morning's argument had actually been quite fun; and Squintina, who looked as though it hadn't.
"I have an announcement to make," said Echo. "Squintina Howard is a sock thief and quite possibly also a poisoner. All of our socks are in her carpetbag, and there's a pamphlet in her luggage that talks about stealing another mayoral election in favor of August Grint."
Moira got out a small notebook and began writing madly.
"Did you or didn't you poison Darkvine," said Echo, "and what do you have to say for yourself?"
Squintina threw up her hands.
"I confess," she said. "I stole the socks because August Grint is a worthy cause, and I poisoned Darkvine because she had a picture of me washing the ones I'd picked up on the way here."
"You should have poisoned me," said Nina. "I took the picture."
"Well, you're lucky I didn't," said Squintina. "But you really shouldn't have written 'Darkvine' on the bottom back of the Polaroid that misprinted, and you really, really, shouldn't have thrown it in my wastebasket."
Nina looked like she was about to start crying. On either side of her, Addie and Rosana patted her on the back.
"It's all right," said a voice that none of them had heard in quite some time. "I'm okay. Ish."
They all turned around: Darkvine stood in the doorway.
"Darkvine!" said Echo Hallowswift, who got up and actually hugged her. "You're okay?"
"Kind of," said Darkvine. "I threw up today and spent the week being dizzy in bed. Squintina fed me some holly every day."
"That's great you're all right," said Hawkstar, who then turned on Squintina. "Why did you give us three days before you were going to…you know…get rid of Darkvine instead of just doing it right away?"
"Because," said Squintina, "I don't actually have a murder weapon."
"All right," said Moira. "I'm calling the police, just so you know." As she stood up, Jay stopped her.
"Are you or aren't you Morrigan Ensley?" he asked her. "And is the story you told, you know, real?"
"I am Morrigan Ensley," said Moira. "I was being hunted down by August Grint's henchpeople for writing a book about them being evil, so I came here. I've known Nina since we were in kindergarten, and her parents, as well as cooking good food and running a nice hotel, have a reputation as keeping this as a sort of safe house. How did you know what I'm actually called?"
"Well, the two names have all the same letters, for starters, and the moment Echo mentioned August Grint, you started taking notes like mad. But is or isn't the story true?" Jay asked.
"Moira was a nickname of mine," said Morrigan, "from none other than Addie when she was an infant and me and Nina were nine, because she didn't really know how to say the word Morrigan."
"You keep ducking the question," said Jay.
"Crazy as it may seem," said Morrigan. She didn't finish the sentence, but withdrew a tiny silver bottle from her pocket. Then she went off to the landline in the kitchen and dialed 911.
"Anyways," said Elizabeth, "thank you for coming, but this is the end of your stay. If you have your snowglobes, please shake them and you will go back to your homes. Thank you for visiting, and if you ever need us again, just shake the globes."
All the CBers climbed the stairs to their rooms, packed up their luggage, and shook their snowglobes. They returned to their houses. It was an average cold, cloudy day in winter, but as the contents of the globes finished swirling, a single snowflake drifted down from the sky and landed on each of their noses. 

  ◇◆◇ The End ◆◇◆

(And, as I managed to reveal by feat of forgetfulness, I, Elizabeth, am Seadragon.)