Chapter 690

After stepping through the door at the end of the trapeze rooms Kat was whisked away back to the voting circle, complete with plush seating and blood stains. The only thing worth noting was that the order was mixed up again. The two teams were separated this time with Kat and her team on the left side and the dwarves over on the right.

There was only ten people left, theoretically enough to have eliminated all of the fakes. It was immediately obvious that they hadn’t completed the task though. The reason for this was that Gareth and Dwarf One were nowhere to be seen. There was neither the real or the fake left behind only empty space. There was only one of each Dwarf Two through Five which might be a good thing, or a really bad thing. Trying to figure out which of them were the fakes would be a nightmare, if any of them were.

The real problem was that there was a Nixilei on either end of the team, a Kress for each of them, and then Green and Kat in the middle. Once again there was a sign in the middle ‘twenty minutes before a vote is required’ and Kat couldn’t help but groan. *Ugh. How am I supposed to figure out who is who? It’s not even clear which Nixilei is which. Better to treat them as ‘new’ people jut in case. Dammit, I might have been able to find a clue otherwise. I’ll call the one on the left 1 and the one on the right 2 for both Nixilei and Kress.*

“Welp, seems clear who we need to focus on now,” said Dwarf Two. “We got two fakes over there,”

Green stuck on her tongue and said, “Sure but at least we have two people on our team we know are real. The whole lot of you could be fake!” Kat was somewhat surprise Nixilei wasn’t the one pointing out that little fact.

Dwarf Three huffed, “Well I helpfully pointed out the real Dwarf One and Two, so I think that speaks in my favour. I also managed to get rid of the fake Dwarf Five when they attacked me during the challenge. It was a bit of a gamble... but YOU LOT rigged it so I had to pick between them,”

Nixilei 1 shrugged, “It’s not our fault. We picked the best course of action at the time. It just worked out that way with you two left behind.”

.....

“Yeah, Dwarf Four and I had a great run, we managed to speed through the challenge together!” said Green cheerily.

“The real problem is...we have two Kress’ still...” grumbled Nixilei 2, promptly ignoring the fact she was also part of a set of doubles, “They both picked a Gareth to team up with and the fact they’re both here means that they crazy shits were lucky enough to get matching Gareths... honestly I bet the real Gareth couldn’t attack Fake Kress,”

“Even Fake Gareth didn’t attack me,” said Kress 1 and 2 together.

Lovely. Kat looked over the two Kress’ wondering about that particularly bit of information. Looking closely, she noticed that one Kress had a set of armour with a few nicks and scrapes on it, the other, Kress 2, actually had a completely clean set of armour. Not a spec of damage in sight. *Hmm... does that make Kress 2 the fake?*

Kat didn’t say anything because the two Kress’ started to growl at each other and everyone else decided to just ignore it. “How will we deal with us though?” said the Nixileis together, “personally, we vote that we try to find a dwarf imposter and the Kress imposter.”

Kat let her tail rest over her mouth to hide the smile creeping onto her face. *That’s so Nixilei. Even though one of them is a fake they’re still willing to just go for it. Really, she will be the hardest to deal with in the end. Well, maybe not. If we try not to rely on luck she’ll be the hardest.*

“How about we all go through who we were paired with and what happened, well asides from Kat who we all know,” offered Dwarf Three, “We’ve got a few of them out of the way already, including mine,”

Nixilei 1 huffed and said, “I fought Dwarf 1. We got along fine for the first two puzzles but they took a swing at me right before the final puzzle started and I threw my dagger into their eyes. How about you go next other me,”

“Well, I went with Dwarf Two,” Nixilei inclined her head, “and we’re both still here. We actually managed to work together without any kind of betrayal. Perhaps you’re a bit too incompetent to solve a puzzle while avoiding attacks other me? Oh, and Kat, the choice after you was Kress trying to show off and selecting ‘Gareth’ as his pick. The crazy bastards managed to do it at the same time.”

Kat wasn’t really sure why Nixilei was insulting ‘herself’ or what it meant in terms of if they were the real one or not, Dwarf five hopped in, “Well that just leaves me till last. Dwarf One and I were doing the fighting challenge and he got hit by a surprise attack. I think he was the fake though, otherwise would I still be here? Doesn’t the challenge end right away if we’re both on the same team?”

*Ok, that was... informative, I guess. I still don’t really know who the fake between the Nixilei’s are. They both have reasonable stories. I am however pretty sure Kress 2 is actually the fake. They both claimed Gareth didn’t fight them but if that was the case, they’d have similar looking armour. One of them is lying and I think the liar is the fake, Kress 2.*

“Five minutes,” said Thymes voice coming from everywhere.

Kat decided this time she was going to point out her suspicions early, “I believe that Kress,” Kat pointed at Kress 2, “is the fake. If you look closely, you’ll see his armour is completely clean, not a scratch on it. If they both supposedly didn’t fight their Gareth why is that the case?”

“What?” asked Green confused, “Why would he be the issue if his armour doesn’t have anything wrong with it?”

Dwarf Two jumped in, “Nay Kat is right. He hasn’t got any wear marks at all on his armour. That means it was repaired, or its new. I reckon it was badly damaged in the fight and during the transition Thyme cleaned it all up. Notice that none of us have issues with our armour?”

Kress 2 put both hands up, “Who guys, remember I also went down the combat path, I just got a bit banged up during the fighting and needed repairs that’s all,”

Kress 1 scoffed, “Well if you couldn’t handle those monsters when we are so much faster then them I bloody well hope you’re the fake. Don’t think I could live with myself if I actually got hurt fighting those weaklings,”

“Yup that’s the real one,” said both Nixilei’s and Green all at once pointing towards the bragging Kress 1, or just Kress now.

Kress 2 rolled his eyes and looked away, not wanting to engage in the argument anymore, perhaps hoping it would prove his innocence but it didn’t seem to be working.

“Now, how do we decide between the two Fae lasses,” said Dwarf Five, “They don’t have any fancy armour and they went to the intellect challenge.”

Kat looked closely at them both but there was no damage on either set of robes. Well, there was, the general wear and tear that came with simply existing was present on both sets in about equal measure. Oh sure there was a thread loose here a pulled stitch there, but nothing major and nothing obvious. “We could always look at the dwarves?” offered both Nixilies.

The dwarves all huffed in unison. “I can’t believe we have two poisonous lasses,” said Dwarf Three, “Why don’t you lot vote for ya fake Kress and we can split our votes between the two ladies. Mayhaps you’ll both get caught out. Might even be better in the long run,”

The Nixileis pursed their lips in frustration, both knowing very well that the chance all the dwarves were the real deal was nearly impossible. That’s when one of the Nixileis, Nixilei 2 sneered at the dwarves while turning herself slightly. Kat wasn’t able to see from her angle, and thus neither was Nixilei one, but Nixilei 2 let the light hit the dagger clearly still strapped to her waist, indicating she still had it... but when the dwarves looked over to try and spot the empty holster that should have been on Nixilei 1’s hip was a her own, blood stained dagger.

“Thirty seconds left!” said Thyme cheerfully.

Kat glanced at everyone and walked up slowly, picking up the paper marking which Kress she wanted, showing everyone, and slowly letting it fall into the box. After Kress followed suit, while Fake Kress huffed in annoyance. The dwarves, noticing the hint Nixilei had given them, waited in the hopes of being forced to vote in the black space once again, not wanting to risk the other fake noticing their change of heart.