Chapter 692

Kat pursed her lips, well she tried to. The cloth stopping her from speaking was still in place so the motion didn’t really carry. She was waiting for the next person to be called up, but with Two being declared a Fake despite being real... well things weren’t looking the best. Kat was certain everyone on her team was in fact real, and that amounted to ten votes total. Two from Nixilei, Green, and Kress, and double that for Kat after being confirmed as real.

On the other hand, Dwarf Three managed to trick everyone and now had double the voting power, making it so that the ‘fakes’ had at least, four votes, Dwarf Two lost their right to vote after being falsely declared fake, and Dwarf Four and Five were unknowns. *Really... I think we could force a vote through... but we’re close to the tipping point. Wait... no, say Kress is called up. That’s eight votes from us... and potentially eight votes from the others. What happens in the case of a tie? Thyme didn’t say... this could be bad.*

“Well, onwards to the next pick. It’ll... be...” Thyme said in their shaky old person voice as they reached over the edge of the Tophat, resting their weight on the brim as they dug for another oversized piece of paper. After a few moments of rustling paper Thyme surfaced again and unfolded the ticket to reveal a large number Four. “Dwarf Four. It seems you’ll be up next,”

*Can we use any strategy here?* Thought Kat as she watched Dwarf Four head for the stairs. *In an ideal world, would it be better to vote Real or Fake for this dwarf? Hmm... it might be best just to vote fake, make sure that they can’t build anymore points up on fake side... but wait. Thyme said we are being judged on correct guesses.*

*So, we don’t want to tank our score by voting incorrectly. I forgot about that part for a moment, or overlooked it I suppose. That means that it doesn’t really matter if they’re real or fake. What’s most important is guessing CORRECTLY. We don’t want to accidentally misidentify anyone regardless of how this changes things later. In fact, guessing correctly is only good for us. Much better then trying to game the system, even if it is a bit of a gamble. I mean, theoretically, we could... no wait, never mind. Doesn’t matter if we control the vote or not if we’re still guessing the wrong thing.*

Dwarf Four finally got to the podium and stood in the very centre. Four looked around eyeing every member of the crowd slowly making sure to meet everyone’s eyes for a few seconds. Once it was clear he had everyone’s attention... Four just shrugged, “I got nothin’ if you haven’t figured it out already I can’t help you,”

Kat’s jaw dropped and the binding on her mouth retracted. *What the heck was that?* Kat felt the boxes go around her hands but she was shocked enough to ignore that little fact. *No seriously... what sort of a speech is that? Does he mean if we haven’t figured out he’s a fake we’ll never know? Or that if we don’t know which he is at this point a few words won’t change things? What the heck should I vote?*

.....

Kat stared at the boxes covering her hands. Once again, she was tempted to just... not vote. She had no clues. Four seemed legit, but so did Three. Kat’s fingers twitched over the button once again before pressing, ‘Real’. *I don’t really have a reason for this. But... I think I’ll choose to believe. I’ll believe this time. Hopefully I’m right. If I’m not... well I’m not totally sure Nixilei is real so this could be a sign.*

The votes came in and Thyme sucked in a shaky breath, “Ok, we have ten votes for ‘Real’, and six votes for ‘Fake'” Thyme’s voice shuddered, “In the end... those who voted ‘Fake’...” the light flashed green, “are jumping at shadows. Dwarf Four is Real as they come and most of you recognised that.”

Kat couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief... and her sensitive ears picked up several other similar sighs. Kat wasn’t looking properly so she couldn’t be sure of the exact number of sighs but she was hopeful. There was at least two, and she was willing to bet they were Green and Kress. She was still on the fence about Nixilei. While Kat was relaxing Dwarf Four bowed and said, “Thank you for your belief,”

As Dwarf Four stepped down Thyme pulled out the next piece of paper to reveal ‘Nixilei’ written on it. The shackles binding her to the chair released and Nixilei glanced around at everyone for a moment before walking up to the stage. When she reached the centre Nixilei tapped her dagger twice, “As the dwarves know the other me claimed to have thrown her dagger during the challenge round. She had a bloody dagger on her waist, while mine was clean. This is how I proved my ‘Real’ status to the dwarves,”

Kat met Nixilei’s eyes and didn’t feel like she was lying. Then again, as a spy, Kat presumed the Nixilei copy could manage that pretty well. She was missing the fact that the fake Nixilei had revealed herself long before the dagger incident. It didn’t really matter though as the real dwarf was willing to put down 4 votes for ‘Real’ cancelling out Three’s false vote. That meant that assuming there was no other fakes, just one person needed to vote, or, if Kat voted, there could even be a fake and she’d still be fine.

Kat pressed on the ‘Real’ button willing to take the gamble, and a moment later Thyme said, “Excellent, excellent. I have 4 votes for Fake and the rest for Real. Perhaps it is no surprise... but Nixilei here is REAL” the spotlight turned green and shone down on Nixilei who simply jumped off the stage afterwards.

Another vote down and Thyme pulled out the next ticket to reveal Kress’ name. He kicked off the ground and managed to barely make it up onto the stage in a single jump, twirling in place to face the crowd. “We already established who was who last round so I won’t say anymore,” and Kress was right, this was an easy round. The votes were cast and it was the same result as Nixilei, just 4 votes on fake. Kress smirked as if the conclusion had already been forgone and hopped off the stage back into the chair.

Thyme went back to the hat for another go and pulled Green, the last of Kat’s teammates and the second last name in the hat. She used a burst of mana to get herself up onto the stage, landing softly with a second load of mana before turning to face the crowd with a grin. “With Kat proven real, Kat proved me real as well, in the second round. I’m a bit annoyed Gareth didn’t end up here but I understand why you and the other Kress chose to risk things. I am a little annoyed with him though. No offence Kress but I’d have expected him to win that fight,”

Kress couldn’t really shrug considering the chair was pinning his arms so he settled for a glare. Once more, votes cast, with four votes for ‘Fake’ clearly from Three. *Hmm, so is that then? Three was the only fake? We’ve just got Dwarf Five left... and we don’t really have confirmation for him... but the votes seem to indicate he’s not a fake... then again... there were at least a few votes that tried to mess with things.*n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

To nobodies surprise the next and final name was a big Five. The dwarf took the stairs, like the others, and headed up onto the stage. “Well urr...” mumbled Five, “I don’t really know what you all want me to say? I think I’ve proven myself so far, but I didn’t have any obvious moments of ‘Oh look that guys definitely ‘Real” I can point out either. So... get to the vote I suppose?”

Kat bit her lip and let her hand rest over the ‘Real’ button. Kat’s tail flicked around in annoyance, not really knowing what to do with this final dwarf. After a few real seconds past, and much longer internally, nothing was decided and Kat once again refrained from voting.

Perhaps, in her heart she did know and wasn’t willing to commit properly. Perhaps she wanted to abstain from the last vote because she was unsure. Whatever the case, Thyme nodded a couple times with an odd head bob, and said, “Hmm hmm, quite the mixed one here. Out of a total 24 votes we have... 10 for ‘Fake’ and 14 for ‘Real’. It’s a close one, with a single set of votes as the deciding factor... and I am pleased or afraid to announce...”

The light turned red, Thyme’s eyes glowed blue, “Five was the second of only two Fakes. It seems you guys are rather poor when it comes to spotting them!”