Chapter 685

As soon as the explanation finished there was another flash of light and Kat felt herself being compressed for a moment. She didn’t know it at the time, but Thyme was compressing time around her to line up the teleport for everyone else. The feeling didn’t last long in Kat’s eyes, and soon she found herself in a medium sized room with a low ceiling. In the centre on the low ceiling was a signboard that says, ‘pick two imposters you have 20 minutes’. The ‘floor’ was by far the nicest part of the whole thing. It was made up of a squishy surface that had a velvety texture and felt like slime. Kat could already feel herself relaxing somewhat.

In the circle there were two teams, Kat’s team of course, and ‘The Numbers’ the dwarf team. Of course, there wasn’t just the original team members but a second set of everyone in question, even a second copy of Kat herself. The two sides were mirrored with Kat sitting across from her doppelganger and next to Kress on one side with the dwarf labelled three on the other.

*Well well well. I wonder how what makes the copies different. Plus there is that bonus... but I have a feeling it isn’t anything good. Thyme didn’t say it WAS good and I clearly remember Thyme saying this was all about teamwork. I’d be willing to bet my left horn that we don’t want the prize at the end. We want to get through this with the same number of people. Now... how do I prove that I’m not the copy?*

Kat gazed at her hand absently for a second before realising an answer. “Kress, can you please stab me?” asked Kat. When she finished there wasn’t even a split second of hesitation, Kress just whipped out his dagger and stabbed towards Kat. She moved her hand in the way letting it cut through her palm. It didn’t pierce her bones or even all of her muscles but the force was enough to shift them off to the side allowing the dagger to clean through.

“WHAT THE HECK!” shouted the two Greens in a panic. Everyone else was starring at the real Kat rather intently trying to work out that exact question. The only outlier were the two Nixilei’s that were keeping their eyes on the other Kat who looked just as shocked as everyone else, as if she could not understand why Kat had done that. The other Kress had drawn his weapon as if to throw it but saw he was clearly ‘behind’ on the order. Kat wasn’t entirely sure as she was mostly focused on her own double’s reaction, but she suspected the other Kress started moving after the one next to her.

“You can have you’re dagger back now,” said Kat. Kress hesitated for a moment, before shrugging and pulling the dagger out of her hand letting black ichor leek from the wound and drip over the soft flooring that seemed to absorb the mess. “To answer your question Green. While these fakes do seem quite good... does it bleed black?”

Suddenly every eye on in the room was turned to the other Kat instead. The two Nixilei’s were the only outlier, giving some signal Kat missed and one turned to Original Kat while the other turned to the one Kat herself was certain had to be fake. “Hey guys? Why are you all looking at me like that? What sort of madwomen just asks to be stabbed?” said the Fake Kat.

.....

“Seems very easy to test though...” said Nixilei 1. Nixilei 2 then added without turning away from Original Kat, “I agree. We’ve seen Kat bleed before and know that it SHOULD be black. If your blood isn’t black we have one easy traitor.”

Fake Kat’s face seemed to twitch for a second before whipping her arm around to stab Kress in the stomach. Obviously not expecting it, the move hit true digging deep into Kress’ stomach. If it mattered, the blood was red. That was about as far as Fake Kat got because Nixilei was ready with a dagger, throwing it straight into Fake Kat’s eye burying itself deep. Before Fake Kat stopped moving an arrow drawn from two Green’s embedded in Fake Kat’s chest and a potion exploded over her side setting the body alight. Dwarf Two, who was next to Kress quickly pulled him away uncorking a bottle of potion with his mouth before pausing. “Wait... should I heal this guy?” asked Dwarf Two 2. Oh, and Fake Kat did bleed red.

“We’ve got him,” said the two Nixileis together. They moved in sync summoning an identical circle and pouring energy into Kress who growled at the callous response. “Don’t be such a baby” said the Nixileis, “Hmmm... if that strike actually punctured the stomach badly I’m not sure this is going to cut it...”

“I hate the fact there is two of you now. Can’t you just let me bleed out? It’ll be less painful and I’m sure Thyme will heal me,” grumbled Kress 2 as they screwed up their nose in distaste because of burning corpse next to him. It didn’t smell though. As the body burnt it just smelt like normal wood smoke and everyone was very thankful.

“Don’t be such a wuss,” said the Nixilies with a synchronised eye roll. “Just because we don’t know the spell for fixing organs doesn’t mean that the job will fail fast. You’ll almost certainly live until the end of the task and we trust Thyme not to kill you,”

“Oh joy,” spat Kress, “what a wonder to be forced into stupid tasks with a stomach wound. I am ever so happy you decided to heal me,”

“Thanks accepted,” said the Nixileis with a cheeky grin, clearly just doing it to annoy Kress.

Gareth 2 slammed his steeled hands together. “Well, now that... that... is all being taken care of. Shall we try to determine a second fake? I doubt it’ll be so easy, but there is surely an easy way. We at least know they all bleed red, so if anyone else doesn’t for some strange reason I’d ask you to speak up.”

“Hang on there,” said Dwarf One 2, “are we just supposed to ignore the fact that one of your teammates was perfectly willing to stab the other? That doesn’t seem... strange at all?” at this point, much like the Nixileis the other Dwarf One picked things up, “Indeed, surely only an imposter would be so willing.”

Everyone on Kat’s team, except her of course, winced, both copies. “Um... hmm...” the Greens struggled to answer.

So Gareth 1 picked up the slack and said, “No... no that’s... honestly very in character for Kress. Permission from Kat to stab her. Well, he’d stab her in a heartbeat. If you didn’t notice the other Kress was readying himself to throw a spare dagger at Kat as well. It is... to our disappointment... quite believable.”

The dwarves all just stared at Gareth 1 like he’d grown a second head. That was Until Green 1, decided to flop forward. They were sandwiched between Dwarf 4 and 5 so they didn’t have a shoulder to lean on. “Welp, you can deal with that I’m going to sleep.”

This time it was the turn of Green 2 to get everyone’s scrutiny. She just shrugged and said, “What it might be a great idea but it’d be weirder to try and copy myself second. I mean, I think I’m the original of course, but does the copy know it’s the copy or does it think it’s the original? Also, I don’t know which Gareth is my Gareth. I can’t go to sleep on his lap until this problem is solved. It’s too big of a risk and one of the two Nixilei’s would pick on my if I tried.”

The dwarves upon seeing the Nixileis’ combined nods looked at each other until Dwarf Fives said, “Your team is feckin weird.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Nixilei 1 shrugged as the two Nixileis sat down, “I suppose but it’s our team. Also, based on the speed of the healed wound, the copies can use mana. That’s not too surprising... but the fact they can use basic healing magic is somewhat of a surprise. I don’t really know what that means for everyone else, as I’m almost certain Thyme has a healing affinity, or a similar enough affinity like nature that they can use low level healing spells. The thing is... I don’t know if the copies are just Thyme with illusions over them or if they’re something else.”

“What about items?” asked Dwarf Four 1 “Do you think Thyme went to the trouble of making sure all of our equipment works on both ourselves and the copies?”

The Nixileis shrugged together, “No but we can test it,”

Dwarf Ones and Threes had their maces light up with a bright glow reminiscent of a torch. Green 2, the awake Green pulled out a dagger and let the wind spiral around it, and the Gareths frowned. “I don’t think it’d be a good idea to summon a giant rock wall with such a low ceiling.”

“Ah...” said a mixture of voices in understanding.