Pandemonium: Chapter 29
Lets be clear about this: nothing belongs to me-ever.

I awoke before the sun.

Sometime during my silent slumber someone had placed a candle in the room.

I knew time was short. I needed to complete everything today.

I opened the chest again. This time, I took out pen and paper.

...

The letter that I wrote to you, which I presume you have already read, should explain everything. The contents of the box, the stories held within, and most importantly the letter from her are all pretty easy to understand now.

This narrative recount of what happened today will be the last before I pass, I believe. If I do not finish the story, then you should be able to deduce the ending from the letter.

But I shall endeavor to end today. It is better that I tell it.

You are arriving now, it is time I put this away. You cannot know too much too soon. It will ruin everything.

I will return to my bed, and you to your post from the previous day. I will probably have a hacking cough for a bit, but then we will resume.

You're here now. I'll let you fill in these blank pages.

Magnus was awoken by a loud knock on the door.

Struggling to roll out of bed, he haphazardly put on clothes and opened the front door to his house to be greeted by Tessa, who had an angry pout on her face.

"What?" Magnus asked, with a scowl.

"Where have you been! Jessamine's dead, and you were the last person to see her."

His drooping eyelids opened with shock.

"D-d-d-dead!?" he asked with surprise.

"Yes, dead. Murdered. Brutally. Now tell me. Where were you after the party?"

Magnus paused and his eyes leered awkwardly to the right. He had an alibi; however, it just so happened that his particular alibi would cause a large slew of problems for the person who could confirm his presence. So, he lied.

"Puking my guts out right here."

Tessa's eyes leered questioningly. She was many things, but stupid was not one of them. She knew Magnus was lying.

"I don't recall you having that much to drink that night."

"I have a weak stomach."

She almost scoffed right there and then. She knew Magnus well enough to know one fact far above all others: his stomach could handle quite a lot of alcohol. Something was wrong here, and she would be remiss to not investigate it further. Unfortunately, the look on Magnus' face seemed to say that the conversation was over. Putting on her best smile, Tessa said:

"Alright, I guess that's all then. See you another time."

"Tell Will I say hello!"

"Of course!"

She walked out of the house and quickly wiped the fake smile off her face. She knew Magnus was lying, but she still couldn't wrap her head around the idea that Magnus was guilty of murder, especially considering he was somewhat friendly towards Jessamine.

Later that night, at dinner with Will, she outlined her confusion.

"I just don't get why he would lie," she said, "It doesn't make any sense. He obviously didn't murder her, so why is he lying about where he was? What could he possibly be hiding?"

"Well, perhaps he and-" Will suddenly cut himself off.

"What? He and who?" Tessa inquired.

"Nothing. Never mind. Forget I ever said anything. He probably was just puking his guts out, but he probably went home with someone he's not proud of, so he's lying about it."

"He's never been shy about telling us that stuff, you know. This shouldn't really be an excuse."

"Never mind it, just start asking the staff. See if they saw anything."

And that was exactly what Tessa did. For three weeks she did that. For three weeks, she spent her time asking every single person what they saw, who was near Jessamine at the time, and who could possibly have been unaccounted for. Every time, the only person who's name came up was Magnus.

Then one day, she came across the Queen's ladies maid, Miss O'Brien. She was certainly helpful...

"I saw Miss Lovelace exit with Master Bane, though from what I could tell Master Bane was none too happy about that. In fact, he looked rather peeved about it. Not that I would be surprised... Miss Lovelace had been bothering Master Bane for hours that night. I wouldn't be surprised if Master Bane shut her up properly that night. She was sloppily all over him and would not stop talking."

Tessa just nodded through that testimony. It was too much. If Magnus had been as drunk as he was, and if Jessamine had been as bothersome as she seemed, it wouldn't have been too much for him to hurt her...and what if that went just a bit too far? What if she had died?

Tessa tried to remove those thoughts from her head; unfortunately, it was almost impossible. The worst part? There was only one more person left to see: Camille.

Camille smiled warmly at Tessa as she entered into her house. It was gorgeously decorated for someone with no job. Nonetheless, Tessa paid no attention to that, and did her job instead. She asked Camille about that night.

Laughing she said, "The last person that dumb idiot girl left with was Magnus. Magnus horrid, drunk Magnus. You know I used to date him? It was not exactly the best time. Let's just say he gets angry and violent when he's intoxicated, which he certainly was. If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that Magnus is more than capable of doing it. I mean he was the only one there, and he was clearly motivated enough."

Tessa wrote down everything that Camille had said without a single expression on her face. Before anything else could be said by Camille, she ran out the door and headed back home.

She slumped onto the couch and waited an hour there, just thinking, until Will came home.

Finally, she said, "I have some terribly damning evidence from Camille and from a ladies maid that it was Magnus. He was the only person not accounted for that evening; he was drunk and angry apparently. What else could it be? He killed her in a drunken rage, right? There isn't another explanation...but there has to be! It's Magnus. He doesn't get that drunk. He doesn't get that angry. And most importantly, he doesn't commit murder."

Will nodded in agreement silently, acting pensively. Suddenly, his eyes widened considerably with an intelligent thought. "You know he's lying," he said, "but you don't know why. Bring him down to the palace and question him like you would a suspect; make him feel the fear of the situation. He'll tell you the truth once he realizes that it's nothing is so embarrassing that it's worth being charged with murder for."

Tessa smiled and kissed him. He truly was quite brilliant.

The next morning, Magnus was rudely awakened by a heavy knock on his door.

He opened it up to find the Palace Guard standing before him.

"Get dressed," the captain said. We need to bring you in for questioning.

Magnus said nothing, but simply stared at the captain.

After a few moments, he beckoned the guards inside his house as he quickly dressed himself for his questioning.

As soon as he was ready, he was summarily dragged from his house and put into a dark, dank room in the palace near the dungeon.

There was only one candle in the room, and across from him on the table sat Tessa. She had a few guards and a number of larcanae behind her.

Coldly, she asked him, "On the night of the Ascension Ball, where were you?"

"At the Ball, of course" Magnus intoned equally as coldly.

"And after the ball?"

"At my house. Alone. I was purging my body from the alcohol that I drank in excess that evening."

"Is that all? You weren't anywhere else? You weren't with anyone?"

"I was alone in my house. I went there straight after the ball and didn't leave or even see anyone till you visited me two days later."

She nodded. Turning to one of the larcana next to her, she whispered something. The larcena nodded, and then passed her words along silently to the other larcanae, who all nodded in turn. As soon as everyone was in agreement, the guards moved.

They came behind Magnus and lifted him off his chair. The cuffed his back in irons and forced him downward on the table.

In a low, quivering voice, Tessa said, "I, Theresa Gray, with the power vested in me by Her Majesty Queen Charlotte, First of Her Name, Queen of Idris, do so hereby place you Magnus Bane, under arrest for the murder of the Lady Jessamine Lovelace. You are to face the Queen's Justice, and in accordance to her rules, you have the right to counsel. All statements made by you henceforth are permissible to the Court of Law by which the Queen's Justice shall be preserved. Should you be found guilty, I hope the Queen has mercy on your person."

Stormy gray met golden green, and a battle, the last battle, commenced.

A/N: So I took a different approach here and added a lot more Tessa (she gets to be really important from now until the end). If you're wondering about what Alec and Magnus did during the three weeks when Tessa was questioning everyone else, then I can sufficiently say that Alec spent a few nights a week visiting his old sick friend Mr. Moncrieff. :3 Again, if you want me to, I can write that.