Chapter 711

As soon as Kat got comfortable on her seat, which as it was the conner of a bed that compressed rather well was more difficult than one might think, a puff of smoke happened and a Thyme appeared. This one was in different attire though, they were wearing a plain black wizard robe, but instead of a pointed hat they had a turban and instead of a wizard staff they had a lasso. Frankly, Kat wasn’t entirely sure what to classify this Thyme as. There was no obvious through line in Thyme’s theming.

“Congratulations on completing this round, Kat and Blue. You both managed to find a bedroom to call your own first in this round. Nice job skipping the chess set. A few teams are still there actually. I didn’t think anyone would actually find that shortcut of mine, so good job on that front. You were the only team to find it, though Nixilei and Nel managed to do really well against the chess set they are having poor luck against the random nature of the mansion.

“I am here to tell you the round is well and truly over and I welcome you to sleep or relax as you will. You cannot leave this room as it has been disconnected from the rest of the house to prevent others stumbling over it,” Thyme pointed to the door they hadn’t been through yet, “through that door is a full bathroom and shower with a large enough bath for two people to sit in comfortably, about the size of a spa.

“The dressers have some spare clothes, and if you leave your current robes in the hamper in the bathroom they’ll be cleaned by the time you wake up tomorrow if you so wish. It’s a purely optional service and they won’t be cleaned until everyone makes it to a room, or I class that team as ‘failing’ the round so you don’t have to worry about your clothes ending up in the laundry where others might find them,”

Kat blushed slightly at the idea, not having realised that could be a problem at all. *I might be used to cleaning other people’s clothes but I went out of my way to wash my own for the most part. It was weird when they were all kids back then and I still find it a bit weird now. I’m glad I don’t need to wash anything, and gladder still that if I did there is no chance my teammates finding my clothes. Praise demonic attire.*

“Hey Thyme... if we’d just gotten to the room would I have been healed?” asked Blue.

Thyme made a so-so gesture, “Yes but I would have waited until just before the next task assuming there wasn’t anything that would cause permanent damage. That way you would have had a poor sleep as punishment for this round... and I might have docked you some points from your final score depending on how things worked out.”

.....

Blue frowned at that, “Thyme... what do you mean ‘depending on how things worked out?’ don’t you have a point system in place already?”

Thyme nodded easily, “Of course I do Blue. It comes down to how much time I’m willing to add or subtracted. You both correctly guessed that this was a time trial and while I am willing to take away and add seconds based on performance in certain rooms, only by so much. I haven’t looked over everything you both did, just watched more generally so I don’t know how much it will effect your final time.

“It’s nothing major to worry about though, you both finished first and despite this conversation running a bit longer, nobody else has finished yet either. I’m not changing things more than a minute either way based on performance, so whatever happens you’ve still won this round,”

“I see...” mumbled Blue as she trailed off in thought. Kat personally thought Thyme’s way of going about things made a decent amount of sense.

“What do we get points for?” asked Kat.

“I won’t give you specifics, but primarily for how efficiently you dealt with rooms. For example, when you were both tied up I was judging how long that specific room took you, as well as any creative solutions you could come up with. I... I was not expecting slicing of your hands as a tactic but it got the job done...” even Thyme shivered slightly looking back at the thought. Sure, to Thyme loosing an arm, a leg, a couple dozen fake bodies, really it was nothing, but Thyme was well aware of how weird it was for a being that could only have two of those to just cut them off even if they could be reattached.

Kat shrugged, “It seemed like a good idea that time, still does,” was her answer.

Thyme sighed, “Yes well, sadly I have to give you points for creativity. On the other hand, I’d probably deduct points for your poor dancing during the ballroom song, though I probably won’t take the full set of points from Blue, because she couldn’t hear the music. That’s the sort of details I need to look at closer. From my other viewpoints I know you danced your way through the ballroom, somewhat poorly, but not the exactly how badly, if it was bad at all.

“Hmm... how do I explain this... it’s... it’s a bit like I’m guessing running is for you both as more standard humanoids. You know how to run, and you can run better when you practice with it... but when you’re actually running there isn’t much that you do intentionally, you just run, one foot in front of the other. For me, I can choose how much a copy of myself is just sort of running on instinct or how much of ME is actually there.

“For the servants, I gave them orders essentially and just let them do their things. Much like how when you run, you tell your legs to get going rather then playing conductor with each individual muscle fibres.”

“Is it possible for you to control them all individually?” asked Kat noticing that Thyme had tried to make their power seem like it was less micro control and more macro control... but Thyme also said it was a choice.

Thyme’s face split into a Cheshire grin at the question, “I can indeed Kat. I have a limit, and I won’t be spreading it around, but I do have one. I can increase that with the use of time magic though, speeding up my mind or creating a minor time loop where I act out each part one after the other. Of course, I can also handle more then the one body by default, but that’s not how I really stretch it. Any other questions?”

Kat started to think of one when Blue threw a pillow at the back of her head. Turning around slowly Kat saw Blue rolling over towards the edge of the bed. When she popped herself up she noticed Kat’s look and said, “What? I want to bath and then sleep. If I let you, you’ll just spend the rest of the night asking Thyme questions. The fact that you don’t look tired at all says it already. I’m not a demon and I NEED sleep. I might not be Green, but it’s been a long day,”

Kat sighed and waved Blue off who gave her a raised eyebrow before heading to the bath. “Well, seeing as I’ve been told off by my partner... I’ll just ask if I can hang out with Lily?” queried Kat.

Thyme nodded and a point in space was opened before Lily was pulled through. She was still sleeping on the cushion Thyme had placed her on back before the first round. “As you can see, she’s fine, but still sleeping. You can cuddle up with her if you want though. She’ll just have to leave when the next round starts because you chose to leave her out of it. I have to keep things consistent for everyone else after all,”

Kat nodded and happily took the pillow from Thyme. Kat placed the pillow down softly on the bedside table, knowing she wanted to have shower first and the risk of Blue just flopping down on the bed, potentially with Lily there, was too high. Unlikely, but still too high. “Thanks Thyme,”

“It’s no trouble at all Kat. She’s been easy to look after, though...” Thyme trailed off wondering if they should explain but shrugged before continuing, “ok, I want to preface this with the fact this is just my guess... but I suspect Lily hasn’t actually been getting much rest since you handed her over to me. With the link stretched and her not nearby you her body has been keeping itself asleep to prevent any issues arising. Oh sure, she was clearly tired when I checked her over and was a bit sleep deprived, but under normal circumstances she should have woken up already. Not a major concern... but I imagine she’ll wake up some time during the night. When that happens, tell her to be more mindful of her sleep in the future,”