ProbablyATurnip

So not only did I not get an extra chapter done but I missed Sunday too. Sorry squad. As fun as it's been to see how many words I could squeeze out this month its time to give up in favour of trying to keep my release dates more consistent.

As she laid against the tree, feeling the hot light of the sun pass through her robe and warm her skin, she initially didn't want to get up, everything was just too comfortable.

She was sure Ben could stay on watch a little longer while she enjoyed her rest, but something felt wrong with that thought, and her eyes flew open. She wasn't supposed to be resting. She was supposed to have gone on to the next branch of the trial, why had she been asleep? 

She looked around for Ben, praying nothing had happened to him through the night before locking eyes with him.

Well, one of him.

She thought she was seeing double for a minute, maybe she was even still asleep, but for whatever reason there were two identical Bens holding hands in front of her. She grabbed her staff at her side, unsure of what to do, when they spoke to her in one voice.

"Oh good, you're both finally awake." The way they spoke in unison took Thera by surprise, and she felt a shiver go down her spine.

Creepy. She had no clue what to make of this development and had no idea what to do. Was one the real Ben or were they both fakes? Should she attack? Run? Her mind was moving so fast that she didn't immediately process what they'd said. Wait...

"What do you mean both?" Two voices spoke out at the same time, causing Thera to jump back.

The other person reacted the same way and Thera got a good look at them. It made her stomach drop. A long hooded cloak and a staff in hand, it was like she was looking in a mirror. She was facing what looked like a perfect copy of herself.

She wasn't sure what she should do but nothing didn't seem like an option. What if it attacked while she was in her state of confusion? She didn't want it to get the drop on her and raised her staff to prepare her spell while her duplicate did the same.

Each of them began pulling earth from the ground to use their magic when both Bens came between them.

"I get you're both surprised but maybe killing each other can wait until we've talked things out?" They said, still holding hands and continuing to speak at the same time

“What are we supposed to do then?” Her duplicate asked. “This seems like the sort of thing where we defeat the fake and continue on.”

“Watch who you’re calling a fake. And why are you both so comfortable together already Ben, doesn’t this freak you out?”

“Well first, when you were talking about the trial last night I think you were right. This section at least doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with combat. The point is likely to figure out who the original is through our shared history.”

“So I just need to figure out which one is my Ben then?” She said thoughtfully. Would it just be a day of questioning then? But how long would that take, and what to ask. She tried to think of a question that could cut to the heart of the matter but the Bens shot her down as she and her own duplicate struggled.

“That’s not going to work. We aren’t close enough.”

She froze when she heard that, not knowing how to react and feeling a small panic come over her. Oh my gosh was I the only one that thought we were close now? But he’s the one who said he wanted to be friends and he agreed to do this trial and I guess I really didn’t tell him that this trial was supposed to be taken with the person you're most close with and I let it slip. Is that why he’s telling me this cause it’s terrible timing and-

The Bens stepped forward, one grabbing her hand and the other taking her copies. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Seems thinking with two brains isn’t enough to keep me from saying something dumb. You’re one of the people I’m closest to on the planet, but that’s the issue. I’ve only had a bit over a year to form relationships here. Even though you’re important to me, we don't have a long history.” The one looking at her looked to the other Ben. “We’ve spent the entire time you were both asleep talking, and from what we can tell there's almost zero divergence in the knowledge we both have since we came to this world. The farther back we go though the easier it is to spot. The issue is that you don’t have the proper context to know which is which. Hell in some cases you wouldn’t even know the questions, it’s not like I’d expect you to know the name of my favourite movie or the street I grew up on.”

She swallowed her embarrassment. Sometimes it seemed like he saw right through her, even without using his skill. “So what? We just lose the trial now? Nothing we can do?”

“No.” They shook their heads. “If it comes to it we have a way to sort it out, but when we were talking we asked a question. Is there any reason not to simply work together?”

“Obviously,” Her copy said, shocked at the suggestion. “What if they attack us? What if they’re evil? If you have a way to figure out who’s real and who isn’t you should just do it now.”

Something about hearing that from someone who both looked and sounded just like her annoyed her to no end, but the same thought had passed through her own head, she had just been slower in asking.

“That won’t happen.” They told them with more confidence than Thera herself could feel. “Everyone here truly believes they’re the copy. We already checked both of your minds while you were asleep, and we checked each other immediately.”

“Which seems pretty dumb to do.” Her duplicate said. “What if you were attacked and killed while I was asleep?”

“And are you still connected? Plus why have you been talking like that? It’s creepy.”

“Ah, well for the first I guess curiosity got the better of me,” He said sheepishly. “We spoke a little and he seemed safe enough.”

Both she and her duplicate put their head in their hands for a moment and accidentally said in tandem themselves, “Ben people die doing these things, don’t just hold hands with something that may be trying to kill you.”

They quickly glared at each other, not willing to extend the same trust Ben seemed to be giving so easily.

“And second,” They raised their voice to get the attention of both Theras off each other. “We have the same skillset, so connecting created a more interesting result than either of us anticipated.”

“What do you mean? What did it do?”

“It connected us more deeply than I’ve ever been able to before. It’s more like we’ve become one mind that happens to have two bodies. It’s honestly incredible, I can see with two sets of eyes, hear with two sets of ears.”

“Think with two brains.” She muttered. Remembering what they said earlier.

“Exactly.”

“Okay that sounds a little interesting,” Her duplicate conceded. “But do you need to keep it up?”

“I just want to enjoy it while I can.” They responded with a casual shrug. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do something like this again, it’s proving to be an interesting training experience for me.”

“Just practice with one of your god's new believers, something about this gives some real crazy person vibes.” They were too perfectly in sync. Not just talking at the same time, they were blinking at the same time, and their movements were perfectly aligned, creating an unnatural level of fluidness in their actions. She got that he wanted to experiment with his skill, but she would much rather he explored this aspect in a way she didn’t have to see.

Unfortunately he shot her down. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to use my skill like this again. Even if I connect to someone else with the skill, their minds are too different. Here, with only some small variances we are essentially the same person. Our minds are blending in a way I don’t think it would be possible to do with someone else unless we were both at an incredibly high level of the skill. Maybe not even unless we awakened it.”

“And that’s why you don’t want to tell us how to tell who the originals are? So you can practice longer?” She understood he was big on improving himself, but at the same time if he knew who the real ones were he should just say so they could move on.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a big part of it, but also if there’s four of us we may have some easier times with whatever’s ahead.”

“Who’s to say they’ll even be able to make it to the next section?” Her copy asked them. “It doesn’t look like any more monsters followed us from the last one.”

“Maybe we killed them all. Anyway who’s to say they won’t be able to? We may as well try and see how it goes.”

Both Theras looked at one another and felt defeated. It was clear to see neither Ben would budge on the matter so what could they do? Infighting would only be more dangerous.

“Fine.” They said together, before her duplicate turned away and let Thera continue. Even if they weren’t connected the way Ben was it seemed like having the same memories led to the same thought process. “So what should we do?”

“We were thinking that if this was the start of the new trial then things are probably pretty safe here for now. Why don’t we take the day to recover a bit and then we can start moving on?”

Her copy was quick to say what was on both of their minds. “You just want to have more time for your experiments. Plus you’re injured, we shouldn’t waste time.”

“This is one of the mildest injuries I’ve gotten since coming to this world, I’ll be fine. Besides, a bit of rest would do us all well.”

Thera didn’t like it. Being stuck with what was basically a perfect replica was an unsettling experience, but then again a bit more rest would feel pretty nice. “Fine, but if they kill us in our sleep later I’m going to be pissed.”

“We’ll keep taking turns to sleep like before. If we watch with our copies then we can keep an eye on them too, sound good?”

All she could do was sigh. At least the stakes seemed a bit less life and death.

ProbablyATurnip

I genuinely feel like I'm forgetting something in this chapter and for the life of me I have no clue what. Hopefully that's just my brain over worrying but we'll see if I remember later and need to course correct. In other news I saw my grandmother recently and she got me to butter a cinnamon roll before eating it. Having now tried it I've decided it was a lot better than the prospect of living to old age so I'm 100% eating them that way from now on.