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A lot of talking goes back and forth over the table during dinner. If anyone from our world happened to stumble into this room, they’d think they found a meeting of the Quentin Arnbury fan club. Only Lindsey is the kind of supergeek who could tell you the names of various characters’ childhood pets. Tammy loves the series, but she doesn’t study it. Allison read it, but doesn’t remember much. Others of us (myself, Kingsley and Anthony) have seen bits and pieces of the TV show, but not enough to add much.
I’d say the girl could stand to get out more, but her obsessiveness is helping us out here. She’s our best resource for determining which of the nobles is acting out of character. So far, we’ve got Roldon Barathor and Anvar Londuin high up on the ‘unlikely’ list.
Not only did Anvar look more like his book character, his demeanor and general sense of being matched the stories. Tammy thinks Nesanth would’ve taken a shortcut and only watched the TV show, thus would have made Anvar look more handsome. Anthony pointed out it wouldn’t matter how much or how little media she consumed. As soon as she invaded Quentin’s mind, she’d know everything perfectly.
Ugh!
Kingsley asked if this meant it would be pointless to compare the people we met to how they should be, if Nesanth could emulate them perfectly. A valid—and quite frustrating—question.
The meal—not sure if this is baked ham or something similar in texture—potatoes, greens, and soft, warm little bread loaves is inappropriately amazing. Feels wrong to have such a great meal while in the middle of a conundrum like this.
Lindsey’s primary suspect is Malin Normund. After hearing us talk about dark masters, she thinks Nesanth would choose someone with magical abilities, and only one of the nobles has them. Tammy explains what she saw as a mouse exploring their manor: several shrines and a ritual chamber in the back. No sign of Quentin. Kingsley reminds her they found the man’s ghost frozen in a crystal.
“Which one do you think is Nesanth?” I ask, peering at Kingsley.
“Not a damn clue.” He grumbles. “I think we should just kill them all and see which one turns into a billowing mass of evil.”
Allison and Tammy laugh because they think he’s kidding.
He isn’t. Well, he’s not completely serious.
The duo stop laughing when they see the look on his face.
“What?” Kingsley raises an eyebrow. “If we make some educated guesses, we might only have to kill two or three of them before we find the right one.”
“… and we wind up doing Nesanth’s work for her.” Allison shakes her head. “You can’t be serious, big guy.”
“Ant?” I ask.
“I don’t have enough of a bad feeling about anyone yet to point a finger.” He frowns. “Nesanth is committed to her character. If we’re going to flush her out, we’ll need to catch her in a situation she either doesn’t see coming or has no way to brush off.”
“Allie?” I ask.
“Umm. Psychic powers are failing me.” She folds her arms on the table and lets her head flop down on them. “If you’re asking me to guess without any psychic intuition, I’d probably say she’s pretending to be one of the nobles who no one would think wants power.”
Lindsey raises a hand. “Stupid question time.”
Everyone glances at her.
“Umm. No offense, Demetria,” says Lindsey. “But how do we know you’re not Nesanth?”
Rage flickers in Demetria’s eyes. “A fair question. You also do not know the history the two of us share, so it would be short sighted of me to be angry with you for suggesting it. Even if it would allow me a sweet victory over her, I could not bring myself to pretend to be her, nor would she be able to utter my name without contempt showing on her face.”
“I don’t suppose you have any way to prove it?” Kingsley sounds so diplomatic, she doesn’t appear to get any angrier.
“Your suggestion to begin killing them all until you find her is unwise.” Demetria taps her fingers on the table. “That would be doing the same thing she is trying and failing to do.”
“Another stupid question.” Anthony purses his lips. “If this woman is omniscient here, how can her assassins fail to kill the nobles over and over again?”
Demetria’s glare softens when she looks at him. “She is omniscient, not omnipotent. She knows everything, true. But she cannot do everything. The longer she has Quentin, though, the more powerful she becomes. He does not want his characters to be killed off… yet.”
“Oh, okay.” Tammy grins “I was about to laugh until you added the ‘yet.’”
“However, he will not be able to hold her off forever.” Demetria stops tapping her fingers. “Think of it like she is a voice in his ear attempting to make him change how he plans to write the story. When he succumbs to the dark muse, people will begin to die as she directs.”
Damon drains the last of his wine. “There is something deeply, deeply wrong with Elden and Sansha Galahir. I don’t think they’re malevolent as much as not in possession of sanity.”
“Possibly.” I nod. “Does that mean you think they’re crazy or that they are Nesanth?”
