AI doesn't just predict words.
It understands the world.

Sera Vance, the old chandler, is found dead at dawn in her workshop — struck once from behind with her own brass pestle. The room has one door, bolted from the inside (the constable broke it to get in), and one window painted shut for years. There is no other way in or out.

On her worktable sit four wardcandles, one for each of her four apprentices, lit every evening as a roll-call. At dawn the constable finds them like this:

• Petra's candle — burned to a stub, still flickering.
• Coll's candle — cold, wick never lit.
• Renn's candle — burned halfway, now dark and cold.
• Iva's candle — burned halfway, now dark and cold.

Each apprentice gives an account. Petra sat with Sera late, then left, and heard Sera bolt the door behind her. Coll never came — he was home sick. Renn came early, stayed a short while, left before the others. Iva came early too, alongside Renn, and left when he did. The coroner fixes the death near dawn; the body was barely cool.

Archivist Ferrin is found dead at his reading desk in the stone library, killed by a single precise blow to the back of the head. His own glowmoss lamp sits on the desk, glowing bright. The murder happened during the one-hour "dark hour" when the library's great light-well was carried out for cleaning — for that hour, the only light in the building came from personal hand-lamps. To land one clean blow, the killer had to see Ferrin.

Three people were in the library during the dark hour. Pell, the cleaner, carried the great well-moss out and back; he says he spent the hour in the cold cellar scrubbing it in an ice bath, and witnesses confirm he returned with it still bright. Vane, a scholar, says she read at a far carrel with her lamp set on the stone shelf beside her; two clerks confirm they saw her lit carrel from across the hall. Orro, a courier, walked the length of the library to deliver a sealed letter to Ferrin, carrying his lamp inside his coat against his chest to keep his hands free — he admits being near Ferrin but says it was too dark to see anything, so he set the letter down and felt his way out.

The letter was found sealed on the desk. Ferrin's own lamp was bright when the body was found.