Pacing through the hallways of your vast spaceship, the Palace of Hawks, your eyes and ears are alert. Every sound, every sight--anything that you and your crewmate, Green and Cyan, could sense, can lead to your great discovery, or untimely doom.
You and your team have been alerted that an imposter from a hostile alien warship has slipped inside your ship, leaving Violet, one of your crewmates, behind. By the time you found this out, though, you are too far to turn back, for the energy from the Klancerian crystal fuelling your ship is too low for the rescue mission.
Princess Althea, the captain of this ship, has already set course to a nearby planet now five Earth hours away for refuelling. You and your team split up in order to find the imposter and banish them into space before landing, so they won't be able to harm anyone else.
When you think about Violet, your stomach twists into knots and tears prick your eyes. You know how violent these imposters can be, yet a small part of you hopes that Violet is still alive on that enemy warship. She's your closest and longest friend--the first of the crew to welcome you aboard when you entered the Palace of Hawks. The first to see potential in you, and everyone else around her.
"I wish I saved her." You whisper in the dark. "I should have known."
Cyan comforts you, saying, "We'll come back to her, no matter what it takes."
No sooner has she spoken these words that you and Cyan were summoned to a meeting, hearing the reports of a dead body. You see the remaining members of the Knights of the Hawk--Red, Orange, Yellow, and Blue--and the Guardian of the Knights, Naroc, as all of you approach the main table.
Blue, standing in the center, reports that he found the princess lying dead in Navigation. She has been dead for only a couple of hours. He takes one long look at each of you, and asks where each of them had been two hours ago.
Yellow says that he and Orange had been in the Medbay, scanning. Orange confirms this to be true. You and Cyan report that you both were in Admin two hours ago, before heading to O2. Naroc, when asked, said he was in the Lower Engine, before bursting into tears and walking away from the meeting, sobbing "If only I stopped the imposter."
Red looks at Naroc with suspicion, and voices his doubts about him, due to the fact that he was the last crewmate to enter the ship. The other knights swarm to defend Naroc, but Red is adamant about his beliefs, and harsh towards anyone who disagrees.
In response, Blue accuses Red for being the imposter. Red denies it. Neither crewmate backs down.
Tensions escalate, soon becoming a toxic, brutal argument between Red and Blue, each of them accusing the other for being the imposter. You and the rest stand by the walls, terrified at the sight of the people who used to be the close-knit family you once knew. You wonder how Violet would feel, seeing the whole crew fall apart without her calming presence.
So, you step between Red and Blue, and tell them that maybe the Knights should try a different way of identifying who the imposter is.
You and the Knights go to Naroc, who is standing outside in the hallways, and ask if he can play the magical Pidhunkshiro Flute--the flute of clairvoyance--to find out who the imposter is. Naroc, at first, is hesitant: the instrument is very ancient, and its magic, quite mercurial. And even if it does oblige, the answers that come out of it are mysterious, and almost never straightforward. You and the team decide to take that risk, and Naroc begins to play.
As he does, the lights around them leave their lightbulbs, and as ethereal swirls and rays, begin spinning around the crew. Its strange music fills the ship, almost sounding human. Finally, as Naroc ends this peculiar melody, the lights all come together at the ceiling to form these words:
Counting the souls within this room
One by one, the truth gets closer
Rising up and down, it will be soon
All the clearer before our journey's end
Note, the answer 's at the end of this flute--
The one where the lies begin...
Who is the imposter?
