Murder By The Book - Ender's Game

Day End Votals

Palamedes - 4 (Schazer, Sotek, Seedy, Palamedes)

Frustrated, Palamedes casts the final vote against his own end, confessing his guilt in the process. The makeshift gallows of the library are no longer accessible, so he simply steps over towards a printing press.

"It's funny. I was never even particularly good at murder mysteries," he says, sticking his legs in between some gears. "I liked the killing, but writing about it just lacked the same appeal. Yet that, not my prowess as a critic, is what I shall be remembered for in death. It's almost ironic."

Without another word, Palamedes pulls a lever and gets dragged into the machinery. He shrieks and screams for a few minutes before the press tears him apart.

Palamedes was Edgar Allen Faux, a literary critic. Ironically, for all his talent at picking apart the flaws in the books of others, his own efforts at murder mysteries were shallow - indeed, he often simply plagiarized other novels and added a mystery to them.

Regardless, he was still considered of value to Undercover. He was looking for the traitor, and would identify them by reading their in-progress works and looking for signs of murder mysteries. In doing so, he would learn what sort of books they wrote, potentially gaining clues as to powers they held as well.

Palamedes could recruit Gnauga by visiting him. If he had died before Gnauga, the surviving Undercover members would have been given an alternate recruitment method.

In addition, if Palamedes visited AgentBlue, the miller, he would have realized that they had an interest in writing murder mysteries. However, upon actually contacting Agent, he would have soon discovered that they were not the recruit he was looking for, and would form a mason team with them instead as an excuse for making contact. That is to say, they would have been able to talk to each other privately, day or night. Palamedes would have learned that Agent was a miller and revenge killer, while Agent would have only been told that Palamedes was a flavor cop who could read someone's books and learn the genre they wrote in.

In short, Palamedes was Undercover's flavor cop and recruiter.

There is a wave of relief. Another member of Undercover has been found. Perhaps this nightmare will soon end. Everyone returns to their rooms to prepare for another long day tomorrow - perhaps the last.

It's now night. Go do stuff.

Night subtitle courtesy of Coldblooded/Dragonpaul.