Atticus had misspoken, but he could still salvage it.
"She was trying to fight him off, even without magic," Atticus said simply. "Eugene Attonson was using his powers to toy with her and he wanted to take her away. He clearly wasn't expecting me to show up."
Atticus did not mention how the baby griffin tried to find him, calling for help. If this group of vultures knew they had something so valuable, they'd stop at nothing to snatch it away.
"Then we fought and I won using the jewels Daphne brought in," Atticus continued, lying easily through his teeth. "And then the maze detected magic use and all of you came running. Fat load of good it did though. So many of you and you couldn't even arrest one criminal that I had helpfully subdued already."
"Why didn't Queen Daphne break the clear quartz crystal though?" Someone else pointed out. "Surely that would have summoned help."
