Magister Sevran Hale
lecturer in Remembrance and Echo · suspect
Three years ago he helped look into Mara’s death, and he speaks of her tenderly. Neat folders, two cups on the desk, smooth answers.
The Girl Who Drowned Twice
A student is pulled from the Black Lake — a student who died there three years ago.
- 25–35 min
- Medium
- 8 locations
- 3 suspects
- 5 endings
- free, no sign-up
The premise
The Second Death of Mara Venn
A body found in the Black Lake
Three years ago Mara Venn drowned in the Black Lake. She was found, identified and buried. Her portrait still hangs in the Memorial Gallery.
Tonight Ors the boatman pulled Mara Venn out of the same lake. The body is fresh. The face is hers. Even the small mole under her left eye is in its place.
“If the lake has started giving back the dead, the whole Collegium will know by breakfast,” says Dean Olv. “Bring me a simpler explanation before the morning bell.”
Cast
Lys Ravel
senior student · suspect
Mara’s roommate, who never made her peace with it. Calls up echoes by the lake though it is forbidden — and is the first to admit it.
Ors Cade
the Collegium’s boatman · suspect
First to find the body and first to lie about where he was. Knows the lake better than anyone and sells its water to the Lower Court.
Nella Oris
junior Archive assistant
Quiet, meticulous, with an archive burn on her palm. She put three sources on Mara’s death into one table and went to ask one unpleasant question.
Mara Venn
drowned three years ago
A portrait in the Memorial Gallery, fresh flowers beneath the frame. She was afraid of the experiment by the lake and asked for it to be postponed.
Healer Od
Infirmary
Unimpressed by miracles. Knows what a veil can change and what it can’t, and checks bones, not faces.
Dean Olv
head of the Collegium
“Bring me a simpler explanation before the morning bell.” Simple does not mean convenient.
How the investigation works
01Follow the trailCrossing the campus costs time. You can’t see everyone before dawn.
02Gather threadsSome questions only open up after other discoveries.
03Prove your theoryAt the end you need a culprit, a motive and evidence.
More cases from the Collegium
- Case 01The Night Before the RiteThe Threshold Codex has vanished from the Vault. You have one night and three names.
- Case 03The Wager in the Trial GardenThe best shield-caster of his year never came out of the maze. Everyone says “a duel.” The gate says otherwise.
- Case 04The Dean’s VoiceThe Dean ordered the Vault opened — at the very minute she was sitting in her study with a guest.
- Case 05Echo on the WaterThe lake showed Isa pushing a man off the pier. Twenty witnesses. Four seconds. One night.
