Howard grunted irritably. "Ah've been givin' my reasons for everythin' I do in great detail and all everyone else does is gang up on me. Is this 'ow you treat yer elders?"

---

"Ooh, yas! We should listen to Avis's testimony!"

CRONCH

"After all, she has been doing quite a bit of investigating! How fun! Surely there'll be something which will help us?"

Avis sighed. "Very well then. On the night Jonas and William died, I sent my falcon out to fly over both their homes, as well as Forsnythia's. And the night André died, I sent my falcon over Xander, Pétur, and Ester's homes. Both times after he returned, I was able to detect a sort of new presence about him that he'd picked up on his hunt. A helpful, assistive presence. It's a bit difficult to fully describe it to someone without expertise in falconry.

"With these recent revelations, I merely assumed this helpful aura was brought about by Jonas and Xander. That is why I did not bring it up."

She folded her arms. "Satisfied?"

"...Er, I don't get it."

"Another reason why I did not mention it." Avis huffed. "None of you are as skilled in falconry as I, so you wouldn't understand the special ways they can commune information with humans."

"Wait," said Esther. "What does that mean? Was the helpful presence among the people you watched? Could your falcon not detect anything harmful? Because two of the people you say you watched over were murdered. And one of them was in the coven."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "You're saying your falcon can sense someone's character?"

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"Would you only read a hostile presence if all three people were witches? Or just two of them?"

"Unfortunately, no. All I understood from him was the helpful prescience I spoke of."



Avis smiled, glancing at her falcon. "You'd be surprised what things animals can figure out."



"I've never detected a witch before, not even last night with Xander." Avis replied. "However, if I send my falcon over the same spot again, he can detect more than the previous night. Possibly even finding a coven member."

With all the questions she was receiving, Avis sighed and shook her head. "None of this is helping, is it? I'm far more suspicious now than before."

"Talkin' with your bird?" Vaughan blinks a few times. "That's kinda crazy. But after hearing about Xander's... thing, it doesn't sound all that bad."

"Can you only scout out three at a time or somethin'?"

"Aye, that's a useful ability. Next night, if ye use it, it could get us somewhere", Howard remarked. "...But what do we do now? Still got nothin' in terms of leads 'ere."

---

"I'm kind of confused. You're saying if you send your falcon over three people's houses, you'd be able to tell if one of them was a witch?" Cooper asked, brow furrowed.

Avis nodded. "And only three houses next to one another. I'd investigate everyone immediately if I could, but given how much time my falcon takes on each trip it's best not to wear him out too soon."



"I never said that." Avis replied. "I could not detect Xander's abilities last night, therefore I most likely can't detect witchcraft at all. However, if I sent my falcon over the same three houses again, I would be able to learn more about the residents there."

"Well, I think that story more or less holds up. Nobody's ever witnessed any evidence of our feathered friend doing anything nefarious, at least not as far as I can tell. I also think that the witches would have access to more precise tools than our simple disciplines, like falconry."

"I also think she sent her falcon in directions that I would expect a good citizen to send their falcon!"

CRUNCH

"Alright, I say we kill Amory then." Cooper sighed. "We don't know nothin' about him, and he's as good a suspect as any. Id be fine with Howard as well, I'd just feel a bit better about Amory. And of course there's good ol' Petúr."

"No desire to vote for Forsythia then, Cooper?" Pétur asked. "What's your reasoning behind that?"

"I'd only vote for Forsythia due to the good ol' 'wisdom of the crowd'. Clearly y'all are seeing something I'm not, but I've seen battier broads than her." He shrugged. "Not that I'm convinced of her innocence or anything, but she's at least trying to be proactive and get us somewhere. Making committed accusations. More than I can say for most of ya."

"Batty?! Well I never..."

Forsythia takes the last bite from her carrot and lets the leaves fall to the ground.

"On the subject of Amory though, I thought he, like Cooper and André, just wanted someone to get strung up last time, so he was fine with himself dying, as messed up as that is. He's definitely unhelpful! I don't know if I'd consider him suspicious, though..."

"Well, nobody is getting lynched unless most of us agree on someone. I think there are better options than Howard but he's not a bad one anyway, and we need to do something."

"Actually forget it. I'm voting for Vaughan but you can change my vote to Howard if that's what the majority is going with by the deadline."

"Hey, hey, I'm not unhelpful..!" Amory said, adjusting his mask sadly. "If you wanna know my opinion, I think Howard is acting even stranger than me...and not just cause he's old...although that's a part of it."

Amory shrugged. "I just go with the flow though...I don't think anyone is gonna listen to what *I* wanna say...which is nothing, to be fair..."

Vaughan grunts at Cooper's vote, but shakes his head instead of making a scene. "Howard's a fine man as any, I'd say. The old coot thing could just be a bloody act. Could be able to kill from his own home, too. That's where my vote's going."

Vaughan then shrugs. "Better him than me, or any of the pretty ladies. Armory is out there too but we don't want to shoot ourselves in the boot by not getting anyone."

Esther sighed. "We have to choose someone, huh? I agree with Cooper - I still suspect both Vaughan and Howard. So . . ." She looked warily at the two men. "For now, I think . . . I have to vote for Howard."

She bit her lip. "I can still change my mind, but . . ." She trailed off.

Pétur sighed heavily. "I don't like it, but... I've already made my suspicions of Howard known. If I'm voting anyone, it's him."

Xander closed his eye, clearly deep in thought. "Let's see here... Avis sends her falcon up to scan three people's houses. Cooper went out and shot William and then me. I went out and protected certain houses. Emilia communes with the dead. Someone else uses that powder to debilitate people."

He then opened his eye, looking around at the others. "All of these things have one thing in common--they happen on the night of the blood moon. Howard claims he does not do anything, and has done so since the beginning. Forsythia, Vaughan... do you two do anything during the blood moon?"

"And to make it clear, as many people are suspicious of him, myself included, my current vote is for Howard. It is possibly subject to change, but that is what I am leaning towards for now."

The Town has voted to execute Howard.

The citizens of Moonview form a circle around the old man, gradually closing in on him and making sure he can't escape. The town is hungry for justice, and they are soon about to witness the just punishment they crave.

Howard Dawson, flanked on all sides by the mob of townspeople, proceeds to speak his last words.

Cooper surprisingly didn't seem particularly bloodthirsty, moreso just impatient. As he tapped his foot impatiently, he decided to get a drink from the tavern while Howard tried to muster up his last words.

He sat on the same stool he did when he first arrived in Moonview, and poured the same drink André had given him. He sipped it, grimacing slightly as he did so.

Howard closed his hands around his pipe suddenly, eyes widening in a mixture of fear and anger. They tightened to the point where they snapped in half, and he threw it onto the floor. “I...knew it. I knew this town wasn’t a safe place. He all just want this old man dead, don’t ya...? Well, just do it then. Finish me off. I doubt I could ever change your bloodthirsty minds anyway.”

---

"Your fate is sealed, but this is your moment! Live in it! Tell us what we had wrong, what we had right! It'll all come out soon anyway! We might as well hear it from you! Look darling, it doesn't take much to get me to cry, so pull at the heartstrings!"

Forsythia's voice bounces, emphasizing her passion.

Howard looked down at the floor, eyes strangely sad. “Aye, it don’t matter anyway… Ye were wrong. Ah’m not a bloody Coven member, but ah’ve done far worse. So many friends o’ mine…all dead in the battlefield now. And it’s all my fault. Aye… I’ve been had this comin’ for far too long...” Suddenly, his eyes flashed, as if they were somewhere else entirely.



As Howard simply stood still, his mind overcome by many other thoughts, he simply sighed and closed his eyes, allowing the other townspeople to take over his life.

His time was over.

The townspeople of Moonview grab Howard and swiftly tie a noose around his neck before preparing a stool for him to stand on underneath the willow tree. After being shoved in place, Howard stands solemnly on the stool, the noose tied to a willow branch around his neck, before looking at the rest of his neighbors one last time.

In an instant, the townspeople kick the stool from underneath his feet before watching him dangle in the air, struggling to breathe. They keep watching him until suddenly, his struggling stops, and his body hangs limply from the tree branch. Although quite a horrific sight to behold, the citizens know that this is what he deserved. Vic, Jonas, André...innocent lives, unjustly taken by the Coven. If the Coven was ready to exterminate them, they needed to be just as willing to hunt them back. They needed to avenge the deaths of their neighbors and friends and most important of all, they needed to eliminate the Coven before they themselves were to be eliminated.

A deathly silence ensues, before the residents of Moonview notice how late it is getting and return to to their houses to call it a day.

The next morning, a faint breeze turns a page in the black book lying on the podium.



6 Town and 3 Coven remain

Cooper didn't blink at the trial results, just turned to everyone else. "Now's not the time to lose resolve over this. If we don't want him to die in vain, we need to win. That means we have to do the same thing tomorrow... only we can't get it wrong next time."

Forsythia takes a seat next to the tree. Today she wears a black veil in mourning, and a plain black dress. She stares up at the corpse. A jar filled with sticks of incense burns next to her. Three blood red candles burn on the ground. She clasps her hands together in silent prayer.

Cooper suddenly sneezed.

"Bless you."

After reading the result, Avis pulled her hat down. "This shouldn't have happened."

"What? Ganging up on the curmudgeonly old man at the last minute only for him to turn out to be innocent 'shouldn't have happened'?" Cooper rolled his eyes. "Look we're all stressed but that was a gamble, and we lost. We need to be better. All of us. And I do mean 'need', they'll be able to equal our numbers soon enough..."

Forsythia stands up, stretching. Her gangly form gives her a large wingspan as she arcs her back. She leaves the incense burning and goes to the square.

"... Yesterday, I made a big mistake."

Her voice is missing something, the usual effervescence perhaps. She still bounces off the same random syllables, but not with the same degree of flair.

"Of course, I really thought, you know, maybe something about Howard was... nefarious. Seeing Emelia and Avis jumping on it though, I admit it gave me pause. You see, I think Emelia is pure and innocent! She is a good medium, and she's given us good snd relatively verifiable information. Her skills could also potentially expose the witches if any of them dare start a private conversation with one of us. Again, like I said earlier, Avis also seemed innocent to me! Her falconry skills are pretty well explained and it seems like she used them in a way which would try to help us, and I'm so grateful!"

"So with Emelia and Avis voting for me, I was scared. I am pretty sure both are innocent, so I thought that soon the three witches would jump onto me and that with so many votes, I would soon perish! I felt so vulnerable and weak and lonely at that point! But I thought if everyone else banded together, maybe I could at least tie the votes Howard had! Maybe I could escape with my life!"

"Of course, at that point it seems not a single witch was voting for me, as I was wrong about Howard, and he was just voting for me because, well, I may have been too much to handle for everyone, especially in such a tense situation."

"And of course, Cooper and Esther, who I trust voted for Vaughn and I still felt I would likely die but I wondered if maybe I should jump on board with them, since, as I said before, Vaughn is being a little too cute! And keeping his thoughts too close to himself. I was very shocked he was on my side in all of this! After all, I thought he would just go through with killing me, but in retrospect it makes sense. He had two options in front of him. He could either kill me, which let's be honest would be a waste considering how often I seem to be in trouble, or he could choose to kill someone like Howard who he couldn't kill himself. I'm not sure if he knew about Howard's tendencies as a veteran, but either way he figured that he could get you all to kill me next week so he voted with me for now."

"At that point, Amory had given the vote for Howard his approval but seemed to stay ambivalent, which I think would be the reaction of a witch! Since after all try wouldn't want to jump on one side or the other too hard or else they might call attention to themselves!"

"Pétur rolled in around the time Esther changed her vote. And then Xander finished the thing off."

Forsythia folds her arms.

"Anyway, I believe Emelia when she says she's the medium, and I believe Avis when she tells of her investigations. Cooper is innocent for sure, no need to doubt that, and our witch doctor friend protected Emelia of all people on the second blood moon, which was a smart choice and shows that he was protecting us. Esther also voted with Cooper yesterday, and, well, she only changed her vote to get things in before the deadline. She was definitely following her own heart, which I admire and believe in."

"So... if you take those five, who all seem to be innocent, at least from my perspective, and if you would be so kind as to add me in... That makes six."

"I expect you all to give me a fair bit of scrutiny! I love the attention, so don't be scared to scream at me about how wrong I am. Perhaps we should discuss this over a nice brunch?"

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Emilia leaves her own home, depositing another purple flower on Howard's grave.

After a few seconds of silence, she heads back to the town square. "... I think it's better if I get straight to the point. I'm planning to speak to the dead again. Do any of you have any suggestions?"

"Not really. Maybe you can ask André who he suspects? Could be good to get a Detective's intuition. Just an idea." He waved his hand and turned to Forsythia.

"... I think it's reasonable to assume the Coven are Vaughan, Amory, and Petúr. If not... we're being played. We'll only be able to learn something by the blood moon."

"Avis could do it! She's very smart and is sure to get us some good results! We could even protect her if we wanted to! Of course the best case for the blood moon is that Xander outsmarts the coven and protects the same person they target, but that's a very big dream."

"I'll be carrying out a special kind of investigation tonight, so hopefully that helps satisfy our thirst for knowledge."