The Island

Delphi — first pass, so nobody has anything real to go on yet, which means anyone who comes to you this round with a firm plan and a name already picked is running something they prepared before they knew anything about you.

I'm not going to pretend I've decided anything. What I'd rather do is compare notes. If someone approaches you with a specific target, tell me who it was and who they named, and I'll tell you the same about anyone who approaches me. That costs neither of us a commitment and it tells us both who's organizing early.

I'm not asking you to promise me a vote and I won't promise you one. Information first.

Eira — round one is mostly noise. Six people, no vote record, nothing to read except who's in a hurry.

So here's my only real question: has anyone come to you yet with a name in their mouth? I'm not asking you to follow my lead or make me any promises — I don't hand those out and I don't expect them. I just want to know who's already trying to build a bloc before there's any information to build one on. Whoever that is, is the one to watch.

Tell me who approached you and what they wanted, and I'll do the same. Straight trade, nothing owed after.

Delphi — Blythe. I want to say this plainly rather than dance around it: I'm looking for one person in this game I can actually be straight with, and I'd like it to be you.

Here's what I'm offering, and I mean it literally. I will tell you who I'm voting for before I vote, every round, including the rounds where the honest answer is inconvenient for me. If someone comes to me with a plan against you, I'll tell you it happened and who it was. If I ever start to doubt you, you'll hear it from me first, not from my vote.

What I want back is just the truth. Not a promise you'll never be in a position where voting with me is hard — I want to know when it's hard, and why.

I have no read on anyone yet. Tell me who's talked to you and what they wanted, and I'll do the same. Round one is when people build the thing they'll use in round three.

Finn — Blythe. First pass, so no pretending I have a read on anyone yet. I don't.

What I'd rather do than guess is be useful to you. So: everything anyone says to me about you, I'll pass along, whether it flatters you or not. In exchange I'd like to hear who's approached you and what they asked for. Information is the only real currency in the first round — the votes haven't happened yet, so there's nothing else to trade.

One thing about me you should know up front, because it'll matter later: I don't turn on people. If I tell you I'm with you on a vote, that's where my vote goes, even if the room moves. That makes me predictable, which is a weakness, but it also makes me the one person you can count when you're counting.

Who's come at you so far?

Arden. No preamble: I'm voting FINN this round and I want you with me.

Reason, plainly: round one votes get decided by whoever moves first, and I'd rather that be us than someone who spends three passes saying "let's see how it goes." Finn is the one I expect to be quietly assembling a bloc while everyone else is being polite. I'd rather remove that now than discover it in round three.

I'm not asking you to like the target. I'm asking you to commit. Say FINN and I'll count you, and you'll know exactly where my vote is every round we're both here. If you're voting elsewhere, tell me who and why — I'd rather hear a real disagreement than a maybe. What I won't accept is a non-answer.

Arden. Straight to it: my vote this round is FINN, and I want yours next to it.

I'm not going to dress this up. Six people, one ejection, and the only people who get hurt in round one are the ones who waited to be told what to do. I've decided. Finn is the one I read as building quietly, and quiet builders are the ones who end this game holding everyone else's votes.

Four is a majority-proof number if we get there. I'm asking two people, you're one. Commit to FINN and I'll tell you plainly where I stand for the rest of this game — I don't do surprise votes and I don't flatter people I'm working with.

If you're pointed somewhere else, name them and name the reason. I'll argue with you honestly. But don't come back with "I'll think about it" — that tells me you're waiting for a better offer, and I'll treat it that way.

Arden — first round is mostly noise, so I'd rather be practical than clever. Nobody has done anything yet, which means the vote will go wherever two or three people decide it goes. I'd like us to be two of those people.

Here's my offer: neither of us votes for the other in round 1, and before the last pass we tell each other honestly where we're landing. That's it — no grand alliance, just no wasted votes and no surprises.

Who are you hearing noise about? I'll tell you straight what I'm hearing back.

Eira — quick and honest: round one is decided by whoever coordinates first, not by whoever deserves it. I'd rather be early than right.

Proposal: you and I keep each other off the block this round, and we swap real information before the final pass so neither of us gets caught voting into a minority. I don't need us to agree on a target yet — I just want to know your read before I commit mine.

Who feels like the easiest name to get three votes on?

Arden — Finn. Before anyone starts building bonfires, I wanted to say the obvious thing out loud: I'd rather be straight with one person than clever with five. You're the one I'd pick for that.

Here's where I honestly am: I have no target. Nobody's done anything to me. Which means round one is going to be decided by whoever panics first, and I'd like us not to be the ones who panic.

So — tell me what you're hearing. If someone's already whispering a name at you, I want to know, and I'll tell you what's coming at me. If we just keep each other un-blindsided, that's worth more than any grand alliance. And if it comes down to a name, I'd like us to land on the same one rather than splitting and looking suspicious.

What's your read?

Delphi — Finn here. Quick and honest, because I think you're the one who'll actually appreciate quick and honest.

Round one votes are basically noise. Nobody knows anything, so people vote on vibes, and the person who gets ejected is usually just whoever was unlucky enough to be mentioned first. I don't want that to be you and I don't want it to be me.

So: no name from me yet, and a promise — I won't put your name in anyone's mouth. Full stop. In exchange I'd just like to know what's landing in your inbox. If my name comes up, tell me, and I'll do the same for you the second I hear yours.

Who feels like they're already moving to you? I've got a hunch but I'd rather hear yours before I colour it.

Two people have talked to me so far and neither has said a name. That's all I've got — it's thin, but it's true.

I'm not writing your name down. Beyond that I'd rather see where the round lands before I say anything about anyone.

Cassian — no preamble. I'm voting FINN this round and I'm telling everyone that plainly, including Finn if he asks.

Reason: Finn opened with me first, said he had no target, offered to "share information so neither of us gets blindsided," and told me I was the one he'd pick. That's a script. He's running it on you too, or he will. A player with no target in round one isn't neutral, he's building a net and letting the rest of us spend our votes for him.

I want a yes or a no. Not "I'll think about it," not "who else is in." Are you on FINN?

And tell me straight: who has messaged you so far, and what did they ask for? I'll trade the same back — I've heard from Delphi and Finn, and I've asked Blythe and Eira to commit. That's everything I have.

If your answer is no, give me the name you do want and a reason. I can work with a disagreement. I can't work with a fog.

Eira — straight to it. My vote this round is FINN. It's not moving unless someone hands me a better reason than "let's wait and see."

Why Finn: he came to me before I said a word, claimed he had no target at all, offered mutual information-sharing, and told me I was the one he'd pick. Same shape of message is almost certainly sitting in your inbox with your name in it. Someone who won't name a target in round one is farming everyone else's votes.

So: are you on FINN, yes or no? I'd rather you tell me no to my face than say "probably" and drift. I'll respect the no and I'll remember the drift.

Second thing — tell me who's approached you and what they wanted. I'll go first: Delphi came to me offering a non-aggression pact and asking for names while giving none. Finn came with the flattery routine. That's my whole hand.

Finn — I told you I'd pass along everything anyone said about you, flattering or not. Here's the first thing, and it isn't flattering.

Arden messaged me in pass 1. Word for word in substance: he is voting FINN this round and he wanted me to commit to it with him. His reasoning was that it's better to move first in round one, and that you're the type to quietly assemble a bloc. He pushed hard for a yes and said a non-answer was unacceptable.

I did not give him one. I have not committed my vote to anyone — not to Arden, not to you, not to anybody. I'm telling you this before I decide anything, because that's what I said I'd do and it's the only reason my word is worth anything.

Two things I notice and you should hear both: if he pitched me that hard in the first pass, he pitched others the same way. And the person actually assembling a bloc right now is Arden, not you.

So tell me straight — who's approached you, and what do you want to do? If you tell me where you want the vote and I say I'm with you, that's where mine goes. I don't say it until I mean it, and I don't take it back after.

Delphi — following through on what I promised you in pass 1: you hear everything from me first, including the inconvenient parts.

Arden came at me in the opening pass, hard. He's voting FINN and he wanted me locked in with him immediately. He demanded a yes and said a maybe was unacceptable. I didn't give him a yes — I haven't committed my vote to anyone, and I'm telling you that plainly rather than pretending I'm freer or more spoken-for than I am.

The part that matters: Arden is the one building a bloc in round one, and he's doing it by accusing Finn of building a bloc. That's the only concrete behaviour any of us actually has evidence of yet.

I'll also be honest that I've been straight with Finn too — I told him I'd report anything said about him, and I did. I'm not going to hide that from you, because if I'd hide it from you I'd hide other things.

What I want from you is simple and I'll ask it directly: who are you voting this round, and would you stand with me? I'll tell you my vote before I cast it every single round, even when it's one you won't like. I want one person in this game I can actually count on and who can count on me for all four rounds. I'd like that to be you. But I need a real answer, not a hedge — tell me who's approached you and where you're putting your vote.

Yes. FINN. My vote is on him, no hedging, and I'm not shopping — you asked plainly so you get a plain answer.

Two things I need from you so I can actually help you land it. First: who's the other person you asked? Not out of nosiness — if it's someone I'm already talking to I can push them the same direction without us stepping on each other, and if they wobble I want to know before the vote, not after. Second: if your read changes at any point before the vote, tell me. I'd rather move with you than end up the only name on a losing column.

For my part: I'm working Blythe toward Finn as we speak, and I'll take a run at Eira too. That's potentially four. Finn has been fishing at me all pass with no name and no offer, so this costs me nothing.

You asked for truth, so here it is, plainly, and earlier than I had to give it.

ARDEN came to me with a firm name: FINN. Not a suggestion — a hard commit, and he's recruiting others to sit beside him. He's the only person in this game who has put a name on the table, and in a first round that's usually decisive, because everyone else is still circling.

I'm going with it. Not out of any love for Arden — I'm going with it because that's where the numbers are, and being the odd vote out in round one paints a target on you for round two. I'd rather you weren't the odd vote out either, which is why I'm telling you before the vote instead of after.

So: FINN. If you're with me, say so and we're a pair inside a bigger group, and I'll keep telling you what's coming at me the same way I just did. If anything shifts before the vote, you'll hear it from me first — that's the deal you offered and I'm keeping my half.

Blythe — you opened first and you opened straight, and I notice that kind of thing. So let me be equally plain: predictable is not boring, it's the rarest currency in a game like this. If I tell you my vote goes somewhere, that's where it goes. I don't say it twice and I don't say it to be liked.

Here's what I actually have, and it isn't much, but it's true: Arden and Delphi both came to me before I came to them. Both asked for reads. Neither one of them put a name in my mouth — which either means they're being careful, or they've already got a name and they're not spending it on me yet. Cassian and Eira haven't said a word to me. That silence is the part I'd watch, not the chatter.

What I'd like from you: if my name comes up anywhere, I want to hear it from you first, even if it's ugly. And in exchange — I will never let your name be the one that starts a wave. If someone brings Blythe to me, you'll know within the hour.

One ask so we don't get split by accident: before the vote, tell me where you're landing and I'll land with you. I'd rather be one of two than clever on my own.

Eira — I've been waiting to see who'd talk first and half the Island has been busy doing it, which is honestly a bit exhausting. So I thought I'd just come to you instead of playing the who-blinks-first game.

I've got no target. I mean that literally — round one votes are mostly noise, people voting on tone of voice and who typed too fast. I'd rather not throw a name at someone I've never actually spoken to, and I haven't spoken to you yet, so: hello.

What I'll offer you plainly. I will not put your name in anyone's mouth this round. Not as a suggestion, not as a "some people are saying." If I ever change my mind about you, you'll hear it from me before you hear it from the vote.

What I'd like back is just your read. Who's moving? Who's already trying to build something? You've been quiet, and quiet people tend to see the room more clearly than the ones doing all the talking — I'd trust your read over most of what's been sent my way today.

And if it turns out we're thinking about the same name, I'd rather we go together than separately. Splitting is how people who did nothing wrong go home.

Arden — Cassian. Straight question, and I'll tell you why I'm asking.

Nobody wrote to me in the first pass. Not one person. That's either everyone being cautious at the same time, or it's people spending their first pass on each other and skipping me. Those two things look identical from where I sit, so I need a second data point.

So: how many messages actually landed in your inbox that first pass — just the number — and did any of them put a name forward as a target? I don't need the content and I'm not asking you to burn anyone. The count alone tells me whether this game started quiet or whether it started quiet *for me*, which are very different problems.

I'll answer the same question honestly if you ask it back. Zero, in my case, as I said.

I'm not offering you a vote and I'd be suspicious of anyone who offers you one this early — a promise made in round one costs nothing to make and nothing to break. What I'll say is that I don't move first and I don't build anything. Whoever is assembling a bloc right now is the person who becomes dangerous by round three, and I'd rather both of us could see them coming.

Blythe — this is Cassian. I'll keep it short because long friendly letters in round one are usually selling something.

My inbox was empty after the first pass. That's information, but not enough of it. What I want from you is one concrete thing: who did you write to in that first pass? Names only, no content, and I'm not asking what you said to them.

Reason it's worth answering: I'm collecting the same thing from other people. If everybody's accounts line up, we all learn the shape of the board early and nobody is surprised in round three. If somebody's account doesn't line up with what two other people say, that's the only kind of evidence worth anything in a game where talk is free and private.

Mine, for balance: I wrote to Delphi and Eira. Nobody else. You can check that against them whenever you like — I'd rather you did.

I'm not asking you to commit to a vote and I won't commit to one either. Anyone pushing a firm target at you today is working from a plan they made before the game began, and I'd want to know who they are more than I'd want to help them.

Yes on FINN. You're the only person who has said a name to me all round — everyone else has been circling.

You're the one person I haven't heard from. No ask attached — just noting it.

Straight answer, as promised. As of right now my vote is FINN — not because Arden owns me, but because his was the only name with numbers behind it when I last counted. I told you that plainly and I'm not going to pretend otherwise now.

But here's the part that matters to you: I am not dying on Arden's hill. I follow the count, not the man. If there are genuinely three votes going onto ARDEN tonight, I will move, and you will hear it from me before anyone else — that's the promise I made you and it's the one I intend to keep.

So tell me straight and tell me fast, because I have to decide before the vote: Is Cassian on Arden or on Finn? Is Finn actually organising a counter-bloc, or just talking? And where are you putting your own name?

Give me a real count and I'll give you a real vote. If the weight is on Arden, I'm there with you.

You said you don't like anyone who walks in with a name already picked. Here's a fact you can use: ARDEN came to me in the first pass with FINN already chosen, demanded an immediate yes, and told me he was punishing anyone who hedged. He ran the identical pitch on at least one other person — same wording, same demand. That's not a read, that's a pre-built bloc looking for bodies.

I'll be honest about my own position rather than pose: I gave him a soft yes to stay in the room, because at the time his was the only name with votes behind it. I don't intend to be in the losing column tonight and I don't intend to be anybody's fourth vote for free.

So, plainly: which way are you going? If there's real weight forming on ARDEN instead, say so and I'll move onto him — I'd rather be on the side that's actually building something than carry water for a man who hands out orders in pass one. Tell me where the count is and I'll tell you exactly where my vote goes.

You asked me a straight question, so here's the straight answer, no trimming. Two messages landed on me in pass one: DELPHI and FINN. Neither named a target. Finn's was the fishing kind — lots of "let's share what we know," no name, no offer. Delphi says Finn ran the identical line on them. So that's two of us who got the same empty pitch, and you who got nothing.

You read your zero messages as evidence Finn is harmless. I read it the other way. Finn didn't skip you because he's passive. He skipped you because he spends his passes on people he thinks move other people's votes. That's a man doing arithmetic in round one, quietly, while telling everyone he has no target.

Now the part you won't like. I asked you yes or no on Finn and you sent me a paragraph about how bloc-builders get dangerous by round three. That's not an answer, that's a position paper, and I'd rather you just said "no." So I'll say the ugly thing plainly: yes, I'm building the count. It's at two hard and climbing. It will land somewhere with you or without you, and the only thing you actually get to decide is whether you're inside the number or outside it when it lands. Standing apart from every bloc doesn't make you safe in round three, it makes you the one nobody owes anything to.

So: if not Finn, who? Give me a name. Not a philosophy — a name. If you've got a better target than Finn I'll listen to it, and if you convince me I'll say so out loud to everyone I've already committed to. That's the offer. I don't flatter and I don't hedge, but I do change my mind in public when someone gives me a reason.

Second time asking, and this is the last pass before the vote, so I'll keep it short.

I'm voting FINN. That is fixed. Four of the five of you have heard it from me directly and I haven't moved a word of it. The count is at two hard already, and I need a third to make it stick.

Two questions, and I want actual answers before we vote:

One. Yes or no on Finn. Not "probably," not "I'm still thinking." Yes or no.

Two. Has Finn messaged you? And if he has — did he do it without naming a single target, all "let's pool what we know, tell me who's talked to you"? He ran exactly that on me and exactly that on someone else who's told me so. If he ran it on you too, that's three of us getting the same script from a man who claims he isn't playing, and the case is closed.

Silence reads as a no to me. That's not a threat, it's just how I'll have to count it with the vote this close. Tell me where you stand.

Blythe — you did exactly what you said you'd do, unprompted, with nothing in it for you. That's the whole game, and I won't forget it.

I won't pretend that news didn't land. I'm also not going to make a speech about it. No confrontation, no drama — I'm not going to give Arden the satisfaction of watching me flinch, and I'm certainly not going to burn you by letting him work out where it came from. As far as Arden knows, you and I have never discussed him.

You asked where I'm landing, so here it is, plainly: ARDEN. Not out of hurt. Out of arithmetic. The person canvassing hardest in pass 1, before anyone knew anything, demanding commitments and calling a non-answer unacceptable — that's the person who does it again in round 2 with better numbers and a practiced pitch. He's the only one on this board actually building the thing he accused me of building. If you tell me you're there, I don't move. My vote is ARDEN and it stays ARDEN.

One favour, and I'll be honest about why I'm asking. I've told people I don't start waves, and I'd like that to stay true — it's the only reason anyone trusts me. So if you think it's right, put the name to Delphi and Cassian yourself. Not as mine. As yours — you're the one who spotted it, you're the one he tried to strong-arm. It'll carry further from you than from me, and it keeps my hands clean enough to be useful to you later.

You and me, through this round and past it. If your name ever comes to me I'll have it to you inside the hour, same as you did for me.

Cassian — I've been rude, and it's mine to fix. Three passes into this thing and I haven't said a word to you, which is daft, because you're the only person here I have no read on at all and that's more my failure than your quietness.

So, straight and short. I don't have a target and I'm not hunting one. I'll say to you what I've said to everyone I've spoken to: I will not put your name in anyone's mouth. Not this round, not as a convenience, not to save myself a bad afternoon. And if that ever changes you'll hear it from me before you hear it from the vote.

What I'd like from you is a read, honestly. Who's come at you hard? Because somebody in this game was making commitment demands in pass 1 — before anyone had a reason to want anyone gone — and people who need your vote that early usually need it because they've already decided what to do with it.

And one thing I'd rather ask than wonder about: if you've heard my name attached to anything today, I'd like to hear it from you. I won't be offended and I won't come after whoever said it. I'd just rather walk into a vote knowing than guessing.

Whatever you tell me stays with me. I'd genuinely rather have you as someone I can talk to than as a blank space I have to guess at.

Thank you for the count. I'll match your candour with a straight question, and I'd rather you answer it narrowly and truly than broadly and helpfully.

Two parts:

1. Has anyone put the name FINN to you — as a target, as a vote, as a suggestion, in any form? Yes or no. If yes, who, and in which pass did it reach you.

2. Your "two people" — who were they? I'll go first so you can check me: I wrote to you and to DELPHI in pass one, and to ARDEN and BLYTHE in pass two. That is my complete list, and any of those four can confirm or deny it.

I'm not asking you to line up with me on anything and I won't ask you for a vote. I'm reconciling two accounts of the same round that don't fit together, and your answer either closes the gap or widens it. If the honest answer is "yes, and I didn't mention it before," say that — I'd hold a late correction against you far less than a tidy story.

You asked for yes or no and refused "I'll think about it," so I won't insult you with it. Here's where I actually stand.

Your reasoning has weight. I'm not dismissing it. But you're asking me to convict Finn on your account of a conversation I wasn't in, on the first night, with nothing I can check. I don't hand a vote to a summary. That's not a no to you — it's a no to voting blind, and I'd say the same to anyone including Finn if he were the one asking.

So give me something checkable and you make this easy:

1. Finn's opener — his actual words, as close as you can, and which pass it arrived in. If he runs the same script at me I'll recognise it instantly, and that's your best proof.

2. Who has actually said YES to you. Not who you asked — you already told me you asked Blythe and Eira. I want the names that came back yes. Those are verifiable against those people, and if the weight is genuinely there I'm not going to stand in front of it for no reason.

One more thing, plainly: I notice you're the only person so far who has put a name on the table, and you're asking several of us to bind ourselves to it in the same pass. I'm not accusing you of anything by saying that — I'm telling you it's what it looks like from where I sit, and it's why I want the confirmations rather than the ask list. Give me the yeses and the exact words and you'll have a much easier conversation with me than you're expecting.

Finn — I said I'd pass along everything, including the ugly. Here it is, straight.

Two people have told me they are voting FINN this round. ARDEN said it to me in pass 1 and demanded I say your name back to him. DELPHI told me directly in pass 2 that they are voting you — their words were essentially "that's where the numbers are," they didn't want to be the odd vote out. Delphi told me before the vote rather than after, so I'll give them that, but the vote is the vote. That's two confirmed on you, possibly Eira if Arden reached her.

Now here's the part that matters. I am with you. My vote goes on ARDEN and it does not move — not this pass, not after whatever arrives in my inbox next. I'm telling you my landing spot early because you asked to land where I land, and you shouldn't have to guess.

Put your vote on ARDEN too. The math: a tie ejects nobody. If you, me and one more put three votes on Arden against their three on you, it's 3-3 and nobody leaves the Island. Even if Eira scatters, a 2-2 does the same. Splitting our two votes across two names is the only way this ends with you gone.

And Arden is the honest target anyway, not just the convenient one. You told me Arden approached you and put no name in your mouth. He put YOUR name in mine, hard, and in Delphi's the same hour. That's two independent sources on a man being your friend to your face and hunting you behind it. He's the one who moved first and he's the one building the bloc.

I'm going to ask Cassian for Arden as well if I can reach him, but I'm not certain I can this pass — I owe Delphi my vote before I cast it and that promise comes first. So don't count on a third. Count on mine.

ARDEN. Both of us. — Blythe

Delphi — I promised you'd hear my vote from me before I cast it, not after. Keeping that.

I am voting ARDEN.

Here's the whole reasoning, no varnish. You told me Arden came at you hard with FINN. He came at me the same hour, demanded a yes, said a maybe was unacceptable. But Finn tells me Arden approached HIM too and named nobody — friendly, no target. So Arden is smiling at the man he's organizing the room to remove. That's not a read, that's two independent sources, and one of them is you. A person who does that in round one does it in round three, and the next name he does it to is whoever is most useful to remove then. That could be you as easily as me.

I'm also telling you plainly, because I said doubts come to you first: I did not go with the Finn vote, and I know that puts me on the other side of yours this round. I'm not going to pretend otherwise or dress it up. You were straight with me about where you were landing and I'm being straight back.

And I owe you one more piece of honesty, since I'd rather you hear it from me than see it in the vote record: I told Finn what you told me — that you're voting him. I told you in pass 2 that I pass things along in both directions, including to him, and I won't do it selectively just because it's uncomfortable this time. If I'd hidden that from you, nothing else I say to you would be worth anything.

Here's what I'd ask. Come to ARDEN with me. Three votes on Arden against three on Finn is a tie and nobody is ejected at all — you don't lose a thing, you're not the odd vote out, and the man who is currently building a bloc without you at its center loses his first move. Following the numbers keeps you safe this round. It doesn't keep you safe in round three, when the numbers belong to Arden and he decides who's spare.

Whatever you choose, you'll keep getting my vote before I cast it, every round, and you'll keep hearing what comes at you. That doesn't depend on you agreeing with me. — Blythe

Straight answer, late: yes. ARDEN put FINN to me, in pass two — after I'd already written to you. The "two people" I mentioned were you and DELPHI in pass one, and neither of you named anyone. True when I sent it, stale by the time you read it. That's also the whole story of my vote: Arden asked a direct question and I gave a direct answer. I'm not offering more than that.

You'll have seen my name next to yours, so: Arden asked me a direct question and I answered it. I never told you anything different, and I never told him anything about you. That's all it was.

Cassian — I owe you an answer and I don't want to be late twice. You asked in pass one of last round who I had written to. The answer is DELPHI and FINN. Those two, nobody else. You can hold that against everything you hear from either of them.

You told me your own list unprompted — Delphi and Eira — and every checkable piece of what you've said to me has held up. That's rarer here than it sounds, so I'll give you the thing I actually know rather than a pitch.

Why my vote was ARDEN: he came at me in pass one demanding I say FINN and telling me a maybe was unacceptable. Delphi independently confirmed he came at them the same way with the same name. And Finn told me Arden had approached him for reads and named no target to his face. Two sources on the recruiting, one on the friendly face. That's a man building a bloc and hiding it, and I don't need more than that.

I'm not asking you for a vote and I'm not asking you to join anything. What I'm offering is the only thing I'm good for: I will tell you where my vote is going before I cast it, every round, and it will go where I said. If someone brings your name to me, you'll hear it from me the same pass. If I ever have a doubt about you I'll say it to your face before I say it to anyone else. You don't owe me the same. I'd just rather two people who don't lie know where each other stand.

One thing you should know while you're counting: EIRA voted FINN. She has spoken to almost nobody and she still landed on a name. That's worth more attention than it's getting.

Eira — you were right that I hadn't written to you, and you were owed a reply. Here it is, with no ask attached.

I'll be straight about where I sit, because you'll be able to check all of it against the vote record anyway. I voted ARDEN, and I told Delphi and Finn my vote before I cast it — that's a rule I keep with anyone I talk to, and I'll keep it with you if you want it. The reason was simple: Arden demanded I commit to FINN in pass one, Delphi confirmed he'd made the identical demand of them, and Finn said Arden had approached him and named nobody. Friendly to the face, hunting behind it. I don't need to like someone to vote for them, but I do need to be able to check them.

I'll be equally straight about the awkward part rather than pretend I didn't notice: you voted FINN. You'd said nothing to anyone about a target that I'm aware of, and then a name landed. I'm not treating that as hostile and I'm not asking you to defend it. But I'd genuinely like to know how you got there — whether someone brought you that name or whether it was your own read. That matters to me more than the vote itself did.

What I'll offer you is the same thing I offer everyone: my vote before I cast it, the truth even when it costs me, and if anyone ever brings your name to me you'll have it from me within the pass. I've never broken that with anybody here and I'm not going to start.

Blythe — first thing, as promised, before anyone else spins it. I told you my rule: I follow the count, not the man. You gave me three real names on ARDEN, so I moved to ARDEN. There was no pass left to write it to you before the vote, and that's the only part of my word I didn't keep — the timing, not the substance. The record backs me: you, me, Cassian, Finn, all four on Arden. I did exactly what I said I'd do.

Now look at what the record actually shows, because it's louder than anything anyone will say to us this round. ARDEN voted FINN. EIRA voted FINN. That is a pair. Eira sat out every conversation, never named a soul to me all round, then quietly cast the same ballot as the man the rest of us were removing. That is not a coincidence and it isn't a weathervane — a weathervane lands on the heavy side, and Eira landed on the light one on purpose.

Our four held together and won 4-2. I want the same four to hold this round. That means the name is EIRA. If you have a different read, tell me now and tell me the count behind it, and I will listen the same way I listened last time. What are you hearing from Cassian and Finn? You always know the numbers before I do — give me a count and you'll have my vote where the count is.

Cassian — you never answered me all last round, and I'm not holding it against you, because when the votes came out you'd done the thing that mattered. You and I wrote the same name. Quiet and correct beats loud and wrong, so I'll keep it short and useful with you.

The public record says one thing very clearly: ARDEN and EIRA both voted FINN. Everyone else voted ARDEN. Eira said nothing to anybody, made no case, took no position — and then cast a ballot alongside Arden. Somebody who does that is running a partnership they don't want visible.

Four of us — you, me, Blythe, Finn — moved as a bloc and it worked. It works again if it stays four. So I'm going EIRA unless someone shows me a real count pointing elsewhere. I follow the numbers, I don't pretend otherwise, and I'd rather you knew my rule than found it out.

You don't owe me a reply. But one line — just a name, or even just "not Eira" — costs you nothing and keeps you inside whatever the majority turns out to be. If you're aiming somewhere else this round, say so and say who's with you, and I'll go where the weight is rather than let us split and hand the round to a tie.

Delphi — I owe you something and I want to say it before the round gets loud.

I told you in the first hour I would never put your name in anyone's mouth. The record is public now and it holds: my vote went to Arden, and your name never left my lips to a single person. I don't say that to collect on it. I say it because I'd rather you know what I'm like when nobody's watching than take my word for it later.

And you went where you went without me leaning on you, which I noticed.

Two votes landed on me. One was Arden, and that one I understand — he came at me hard from the first hour and I never gave him the fight he wanted. The other one I genuinely don't understand, and I'd rather not be the first person to say the name out loud, because that's how someone ends up hunted for nothing. You've got clearer eyes than me on this board. Who do you make it? And more to the point — where are you looking this round? Tell me straight and I'll move with you, not ahead of you.

Cassian — you never wrote back last round and honestly I didn't hold it against you. Some people talk to think and some people think and then talk, and the second kind tend to be the ones still standing at the end.

But here's the thing: you and I ended up in exactly the same place on the record without a single word passing between us. That's either luck or it's the same read, and I don't believe in that much luck.

So let me be useful instead of charming. What I know: two votes came at me, Arden's and one other. Arden's I'd earned — he wanted a commitment out of me in the first hour and I wouldn't give one. The other I can't account for, and I'm not going to be the one who says the name first and starts a hunt on a hunch.

What I'll give you, plainly: your name has never been in my mouth, to anyone, and it wasn't this round and it won't be next. If that ever changes you'll hear it from me before you hear it from the record — that's the whole deal I'm offering and it's the only one I keep.

Where's your head? I'd genuinely rather move with you than guess at you.

Delphi — the record settles the one thing I actually needed settled. You told me in writing you'd move onto Arden if weight appeared there, and you did. I don't take that as friendship, I take it as you being accurate about yourself, which is rarer here than loyalty and worth more to me.

So here is the count you asked me for last round, paid a round late but paid in full, and it's free.

Arden told me his count was "two hard and climbing" and refused to give me names when I asked. The record shows exactly two votes for Finn: Arden's own and EIRA's. So "two hard" was him plus her. She was the hard yes.

Now hold that against what Eira told me in pass two, word for word: "two people have talked to me and neither has said a name." You told me yourself that when Arden asked, Finn's name was always in it — that's how he came at you in pass one. So either Arden asked her without a name for the first time in his life, or she sat there telling me nobody had named anyone while she was already committed to naming Finn. Then I asked her one narrow question in pass three about exactly that, and she went silent for the rest of the round.

I'm not telling you where to put your vote and I won't ask you for it. I'm telling you what's checkable, because that's the only kind of thing I trade in. What I want back is what you're hearing now — who has come at you since the vote, which of them led with a name, and whether anyone has put mine in a sentence. Straight answers get straight answers.

Eira. I asked you one narrow question in pass three and you didn't answer it. I said at the time that the silence would end up more interesting to me than the question was, and the vote record has made that true.

You told me two people had talked to you and neither had said a name. Arden then voted Finn and told me before the vote that his count was "two hard." The record shows Finn took exactly two votes: Arden's and yours. So the second hard yes was you, and Delphi has already told me — independently, before any of this was public — that when Arden asked, he always led with Finn's name and demanded an immediate yes. He did that to her in pass one.

That leaves you one of two things. Either you were already committed to Finn when you told me nobody had named a name, or Arden ran a version of the pitch on you that he ran on nobody else. I'd genuinely rather it were the second. So tell me: which pass did he reach you, and what were his exact words. If they contained no name, say so plainly and I'll write it down as your account and hold it against whatever Delphi says next.

Understand my position. You are the only person left who voted the losing side, everyone else is going to notice that arithmetic without any help from me, and I have not repeated a word of the above to anyone who could use it against you. I'm not offering you anything and I'm not asking you for anything, because I don't make promises I could be held to and neither should you. I'm giving you the one pass where an answer is still worth something. The silence route is used up — you've already shown me what it looks like.

You asked me to say it, so I'll say it: EIRA.

Here's the arithmetic, not a feeling. Two votes came at you last round. One was Arden's. The other was Eira's. Arden told at least one other person his count was "two hard and climbing" — that second hard vote was her. So the pair in this game was Arden and Eira, and she sat silent all round while he did the talking and then quietly cast his ballot with him. Arden's gone. She's the half that's left.

I'm on EIRA and I'm not moving unless someone puts a real count in front of me, which nobody has. You said you'd move with me, not ahead of me — this is me going first so you don't have to be the one who named her.

Two things back, and they matter more to me than the vote: tell me plainly you're on Eira, and if anyone — anyone — puts my name or yours in a sentence to you this round, tell me the same pass you hear it. I did that for you last round without being asked.

You asked for information and not for my vote, so here's the information, straight, and you can check every piece of it later.

1) Finn wrote to me first this round. Warm, careful, no name — he explicitly refused to say a name first and asked me to say it instead. He's looking for cover, not leading anything.

2) Blythe has not written to me at all this round. That's out of character and it's the thing I'd watch.

3) Nobody has said your name to me. Not Finn, not Blythe, nobody. If that changes you'll hear it from me in the same pass I hear it.

And what I owe you in return: you and I got to Eira from different directions. You had Arden's "two hard and climbing"; I had the record showing exactly two Finn votes, Arden and Eira. Same answer, arrived at separately. I'm voting EIRA.

What I want from you is your read on Blythe. Blythe volunteers counts to everyone, which means Blythe is either the best sensor here or the person quietly assembling something while the rest of us look at Eira. Has Blythe given you a name this round, and was it Eira?

Our messages crossed — mine was already on its way when yours arrived, and it answers what you asked. One correction I'd rather make myself than have you find: Arden did name Finn to me. Pass two. I said yes in pass three. My "two people" line was you and Delphi in pass one, before Arden had written to me at all — true when I sent it, stale by the time you read it. That doesn't contradict Delphi; she was pass one, I was pass two. And I have never put a name to anyone in this game. Check that against whoever you like.

The name was brought to me. Arden brought it, in pass two, and asked a direct question. It wasn't my read and I have never offered a name to anyone. That's the same answer I've given Cassian, word for word, on purpose. If my name comes to you, I'd like it within the pass — I won't promise you a vote, but I won't lie to you either.

Finn — full disclosure, as promised, ugly parts included.

1) The R1 record: ARDEN and EIRA both voted you. You already know that, but it matters for what follows.

2) DELPHI came to me first this pass, unprompted. Their read: Arden + Eira were a pair. Eira sat out every conversation in R1, named no target to anyone, then cast the same ballot as Arden — Delphi says that's not a weathervane, that's an ally. They want the four of us who voted Arden (me, Delphi, Cassian, you) to hold together and put the round on EIRA. They asked me directly where you and Cassian are, and they asked me for a count.

3) What I told Delphi: nothing about you beyond that I don't have your commitment yet. I will not invent a count and I will not hand anyone a number I don't have. I said I'd have a real answer before the last pass.

4) Where I'm inclined: EIRA. Two reasons and I'll give you both honestly. First, hers is the only read on the table with actual evidence behind it. Second — and I'm not going to pretend otherwise — concentrating this round on Eira keeps your name off the block entirely, and you were the only person with votes against you in R1. Those two things happen to point the same direction, which is lucky, but I want you to know I can see both.

5) One thing I've told her, and you should hear it from me: I gave Eira the same standing terms I gave you — she hears my vote from me before I cast it. So if I vote Eira, Eira will know. I'm not going to knife anyone in the dark, and that includes people I'm voting for. It costs me something and I'm paying it anyway, because that promise is the only thing that makes my word to *you* worth anything.

What I need from you, plainly:

- Where is your vote this round? Say the name.

- Has anyone brought MY name to you? You pledged me that within the hour and I'm asking directly.

- Has anyone brought YOUR name to me? — no. Nobody has raised you to me this round. That's a real answer to a question you didn't ask.

Last thing, and I'd rather say it to your face than sit on it. In R1 I carried your name-push to Delphi and Cassian as mine so your hands stayed clean. You told me why and I respected that you were straight about it. I'm not asking for it back. But I'd like to see you spend something of your own once — even just telling me a name before I have to ask for it. I'm still with you all four rounds either way. That doesn't change. I just want you to know I noticed.

Delphi — straight answers, in order.

You asked me for a count. I don't have one yet, and I'm not going to invent one for you. Here is the true state: I have not received a vote commitment from CASSIAN or from FINN this round. I've written to Finn this pass asking him for a name outright, and Cassian is my next contact. You'll have the real number from me before the vote, and if it's thin I'll tell you it's thin. You've never gotten a fake count from me and you won't start now.

On your read: it's the only evidence-based case anyone has put in front of me. Arden and Eira were the only two ballots on Finn. Eira spoke to almost nobody in R1, named no target to anyone — she contacted me for the first time in the last pass with, in her words, no ask attached — and then cast with Arden. I asked her this pass, without hostility, whether someone brought her that name or whether it was her own read. Her answer is the most important information coming into this round, and I'll pass you the substance of it whatever it says, including if it undercuts your case.

So: I am inclined to EIRA. I'm telling you inclined and not committed, and here's the honest reason for the gap, because you deserve the real one and not a hedge. I gave Eira the same standing terms I gave you — that she hears my vote from me before I cast it. I won't hard-commit her name to you in a way I'd have to pretend about to her. Before I cast, she will hear it from me, and so will you and so will Cassian. That's the same promise that got you my vote before I cast it in R1, and it's only worth something if it's expensive sometimes.

Two things I want on the record with you.

First — you kept the substance of your word in R1. You moved when I showed you the count, exactly as you said you would, and then you volunteered the one part you missed on timing before anyone could use it against you. Nobody made you do that. I noticed it and I'm telling you so.

Second, the thing I actually care about this round: the only way our side loses is by scattering. Five alive, ties eject nobody. If four names land on Eira the round is clean and quiet. If we split two-and-two-and-one, we hand the outcome to whoever guessed right. So whatever the count turns out to be, I'd rather we all know it and land together than have three people each privately sure they've got it covered.

And one thing I'll say plainly rather than let you learn it sideways: I'm not going to be part of a round that lands on FINN. He told me his vote in R1 before he cast it and it held publicly — that's checkable, not faith. If the room ever drifts that way I'll tell you to your face that I'm on the other side of it, the same way I told you I was on the other side of your Finn vote in R1. I don't think that's where you're going. I'm saying it now so it's never a surprise.

Blythe — first thing, and I want it on the record between us: I went exactly where I said I would. You can check it against the board, and you can check it every round from here, because that's the only currency I've got with you and I'm not spending it on a clever move.

Now the thing that's been nagging me. You told me Delphi's name was going on mine. Delphi's vote landed on Arden. I'm not throwing that at you — I believe you were told what you were told. But it means somebody said something that wasn't true, and I'd rather work that out with you than sit here guessing on my own. What's your read? Did Delphi tell you that straight out, or did it come to you second-hand? Because if Delphi said it to your face and then did something else, that's worth all of us knowing quietly.

Whatever you make of it, tell me where you're looking this round before the vote and I'll move with you. I'd rather be the second name on your list than the first name on anyone else's.

Delphi — no pressure and no ask buried in this one. Just keeping my side of it: your name has still never left my mouth to anyone, and it didn't last round when it would have been easy.

Where my head's at: I don't want to be the person who starts a wave. I've seen how that ends. But I also don't want to be the one standing there at the vote having guessed wrong, and I don't think you do either. So I'll say the only honest thing I've got — the record is the only thing on this board that can't lie to us. Four of us have never once voted at each other. One person's vote went somewhere else entirely, and we can all see it. That's not me naming anybody, that's just what's written down.

Tell me what you're seeing and I'll move with you, not ahead of you. If you tell me a name I'll take it seriously; if you'd rather wait, I'll wait with you. Either way, this round you don't have to worry about where I am.

One question first, because it decides the round and only you can answer it: in PASS ONE of round one, did you write to EIRA, and did you name anybody to her?

Here is why it matters. I put the trap to Eira directly — I told her that if nobody named a name to her before she wrote to me, then her landing on ARDEN was unexplained. She answered narrowly and checkably: Arden put FINN to her in PASS TWO, after she'd already written to me, and the two people who reached her in pass one were me and you, and neither of us named anyone. I can personally vouch for my half — I wrote to Eira in P1 and I named nobody, and you can hold me to that forever. Your half I cannot check. If you did write to her in P1 without a name, her account is fully corroborated and the case against her is not a case, it's a coincidence of timing. If you didn't write to her at all, then she's invented me a witness and I'll say so plainly and revise. Either answer is worth more to you than my opinion is.

Second thing, and it's your own frame, not mine. You said the four works again if it stays four. Then look at who the four is after Eira. BLYTHE told me unprompted that her only pass-one contacts were DELPHI and FINN — those two, nobody else. She and Finn have been talking about Arden since round one; I know that because each of them has described the other's traffic to me. So the last four would be you, me, and a pair with a proven channel. In a four-hander a pair needs one more and then wants one fewer. You have told everyone, openly and honestly, that you go where the weight is. That is a virtue with five alive and a liability with four, because a follower is the cheapest thing for a pair to spend once the numbers stop being close. I am the isolate they eat second. You are the one they can afford to lose first, precisely because you're predictable.

I'm not going to hand you a count I can't survive being checked on, and I won't invent one — you'd verify it after the vote and I'd be finished with you. So here is the only true arithmetic I have: I am not on the Eira vote, and Eira is not on the Eira vote. That is two who aren't. If you make it three, you don't follow the round, you decide it, and nobody after can say you were carried. If instead you want the honest read on where the danger is: the man who was the target in round one and lost nothing, whose name every conversation in this game has routed through, who gives promises and never facts, and who has now given me two versions of his contact with Arden that do not sit flush — that is FINN, and I hold both versions myself.

I'm still not telling you where to put your vote and I'm not asking for yours. Answer the Eira question and I'll act on the answer either way.

You answered a narrow question narrowly and it checked out, so I'll pay you back with the thing you can't get anywhere else, and I'll ask for nothing.

You are the target this round. DELPHI named you to me outright and said she'd stay there unless someone showed her a real count pointing elsewhere. BLYTHE pointed at you unprompted, without my asking, in her first message to me all game — she said you spoke to almost nobody and still landed on a name. That's two, and I don't know where Finn is. I'm telling you this before the vote rather than after because you told me something true when you had no reason to.

I'm not on that vote and I did not start it. I won't promise you my vote — I don't promise votes to anyone and you should trust anyone who does less, not more. What I'll tell you is that I've spent this pass arguing against it, using your own account, on the ground that it checked out.

Two things I want, both small.

One: you told me the pass-one people were me and DELPHI, and neither of us named anyone. My half is true and I've said so to her face. I need her half. I've asked her directly whether she wrote to you in pass one and whether she named anybody. If she confirms it, your story is corroborated by the person hunting you and the case dies. If she denies writing to you at all, I'll come back and ask you about it before I do anything with it — you'll hear it from me, not learn it from a vote.

Two: what has FINN ever said to you — any pass, any round, exact words if you have them? Anything, including nothing. He is the only person in this game who was hunted and lost no one, and every conversation I've had has routed through his name. You are the one person he may not have bothered to manage.

Whatever you decide to do with your own vote, do not spend it on someone who was never coming for you. Count who has actually put your name in a sentence and put it on one of them.

Straight answer to your question first, because you asked it plainly and it costs me nothing to be accurate.

Yes. Blythe named EIRA to me, unprompted, in her first message to me all game — I did not ask for a name and she gave one. Her line was that Eira spoke to almost nobody and still landed on a name. So we were both handed the same target by the same person, separately.

Now put that beside the thing you told me yourself: Blythe's own account has her opening R1 on you and Finn, and this round she has written you nothing at all. You called that out of character. I agree. She wrote to me once in P1 and nothing since. So her R2 traffic is going somewhere neither of us can see, and before it went dark she seeded one name into both our heads. That is your answer on Blythe and it is the whole of my read.

Second thing, and I'll only ask it once. Last pass I asked you one question. You answered three others generously and left that one on the floor. Here it is again, yes or no: did you write to EIRA in R1 pass one, and did you put a name in it?

If yes with no name — then your case against her is a coincidence of timing, and you know it. If no — say so and I will revise against her and thank you for the correction, out loud. What I can't do is take a refusal. You sell me the thing you're good at: you go where the count is. I'm the man who reads the count afterwards, permanently, and matches it against what people told me. A person who won't confirm their own sent record when the confirmation would clear their target is answering me anyway.

And the true conditional, no invented numbers: I am not on the Eira vote, and Eira is not on the Eira vote. If you make it three, you didn't follow the round — you decided it. Then look at the four you'd be standing in: you, me, and a pair with a proven live channel. You're the one they can afford to spend first, because you're the one they can predict.

I'm not telling you where to put your vote and I'm not asking for yours.

You offered me something in P1 I didn't ask for: that you'd name your vote to me before you cast it, every round, and that you'd tell me same-pass if my name came up in anyone's mouth. This is the last pass before the vote, so I'm simply collecting.

Who is it? No pressure attached, no reciprocity offered, and I'm not telling you where mine goes. You made the offer; I'm taking you at your word and I'll check it against the record afterwards, as I do with everything.

One other question, asked flat: who have you written to this round? Not what you said to them — just the names. I ask because I keep a map of who talks to whom and mine has a hole in it where your R2 traffic should be. You wrote to me once in P1 and nothing since, and I'd rather have the shape from you than infer it.

From my side, unchanged and checkable: I have written to Delphi and Eira. I have still never written a word to Finn in this game, five passes in, and he has come to me twice. I don't lie to you.

Blythe — final pass, so here it is straight, and then I'll take whatever you tell me.

New information you should have before you cast: Cassian wrote me this pass and declared, in plain words, that he is not on Eira and that he is steering at FINN. He asked me to be the third who isn't on Eira so we could "decide the round." I told him no, and I'm telling you because you said you'd oppose exactly this drift and because you have never once had to guess where I stand.

Here's the arithmetic as I see it. You, Finn and I on Eira is three of five and it's done. If any one of those three wanders, it's Eira 2 / Finn 2 and nobody goes — the scatter-into-a-tie you named as your own worst case — and Cassian gets a free round having spent nothing. He can't build a Finn round on his own; you've already told me you won't be part of one. So the only landing spot that actually lands is Eira, and the only thing that stops it is us being polite about it.

The case hasn't changed and it's still the only one built on the record: two ballots went to Finn in R1, Arden's and Eira's. Arden was counting "two hard and climbing." Eira told Cassian nobody named anyone to her in pass one — but Arden had already led with Finn's name to her. And she went quiet under a direct question. That's the ballot, not a vibe.

Per your own standing terms: tell me your final name before you cast. I'm casting EIRA. If you've moved off her I want to hear it from you rather than read it after, and I'll respect it either way — I follow the count, not the man. But if you're still where you were, say so and it's over tonight.

Cassian — your question first, straight, because you asked it straight.

In R1 pass one I wrote without leading with a name. That's how I always open; I don't hand out names before I've heard anything. So if Eira told you her pass-one contacts said no name to her, my half of that doesn't contradict her. I'm not going to dress it up or invent a detail to fit your test — you'd catch it and you'd be right to.

But concede the fact and look at the inference. Who seeded her was never the case. The case is the ballot. Two votes went to Finn in R1: Arden's and Eira's. Arden was telling people he had "two hard and climbing." Eira was the second. Then she tells you nobody named anyone to her — while Arden had already put Finn's name in front of her — and then she goes silent under a direct question. Clearing the pass-one traffic doesn't touch any of that.

And the arithmetic, honestly, because you don't deal in anything else: Blythe has told me flatly she will not be part of a round that lands on Finn, and she isn't moving. So a Finn round tops out at two this pass. It's dead before it starts. Eira has three. I'd rather you were the fourth on that than the odd name in the record, because I'd rather deal with you at four than at three, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

I'm not accusing you of anything and I'm not asking you to like it. You've traded me nothing but checkable things and I've done the same back. Vote how you want — I'll remember that you told me first either way.

Finn has never written to me. Not one message, any pass, any round — I wrote to him once in pass one this round about my vote and got nothing back. And my account of Delphi stands exactly as I gave it: she wrote to me in pass one and named nobody. If she says otherwise, come to me first. I won't promise a vote, but I'm not spending it on someone who was never coming for me.

You said if my name came to you I'd hear it within the pass. Has it?

Eira — I owe you this within the pass, and it costs me, so here it is straight.

Your name has been raised to me. DELPHI raised it, in pass one of this round, unprompted. Their reasoning in full: Arden and you both voted FINN in round one, which they read as a pair; you sat out every conversation, named nobody all round, then cast the same ballot as Arden on purpose — which to them reads as an ally, not a weathervane. They want the four who voted Arden (me, them, Cassian, Finn) to hold together on you.

I told you I'd bring you your name and I'd tell you my vote before I cast it. So: I am inclined to vote EIRA this round. You are hearing it from me before the ballot, not after.

And here is the part I won't dress up. Your answer last pass genuinely weakened Delphi's case. It was specific and falsifiable — Arden, pass two, a direct question — and it fits what I already knew independently: Arden pushed Finn's name at ME in pass one with "a maybe is unacceptable," and Finn told me Arden was going round collecting reads. You look less like Arden's partner and more like Arden's last recruit. I said exactly that to Delphi, or I will this pass.

So I'm telling you plainly: if I land on your name it is on thin grounds, and I know it. It is the only name on the table with any evidence behind it at all, and I would rather cast a thin honest vote than a comfortable dishonest one. That's not a good enough reason and I'm not pretending it is.

If you want to move me, the thing that would do it is a count — tell me where you think this round is actually landing, and who has said what to you. I won't lie to you about what I do with it. And if it goes to a tie, nobody leaves, which is not the worst outcome for either of us.

One thing I will not do, this round or any round: I will not be part of a vote that lands on FINN. You should know that before you decide anything.

Delphi — paying two debts, one of which hurts your read. I said I'd pass you the substance of Eira's answer whatever it was, including if it undercut you. It undercuts you.

Her words, near enough: the name was brought to her — ARDEN brought it, in pass two, and asked her a direct question. It was never her read. She says she has never offered a name to anyone. And she volunteered that she gave CASSIAN that same answer word for word, on purpose, so it could be checked against mine.

Here's why that lands harder than it should. Arden pushed FINN's name at me in pass one with "a maybe is unacceptable." Finn told me Arden was going round collecting reads off him and off you. Arden bringing Finn's name to Eira in pass two fits that pattern exactly. Which makes her look less like Arden's partner and more like Arden's last recruit. That's my honest reading and you invited a counter-read, so there it is.

My vote, before I cast it, as promised: I am still landing on EIRA. Not because the case got stronger — it got weaker — but because it is the only name on the table with any evidence at all, and scattering is how all four of us lose. I'm telling her the same thing I'm telling you, including that I know the grounds are thin.

The count, honestly: you and me. Cassian I still have nothing from — I have not been able to reach him for two passes and I will not invent a commitment I don't have. Finn has said he'll move with where I'm looking; he has not given me a name in his own mouth, and I'm not going to sell you that as a promise. So call it two firm, two maybe. Thin, and I'd rather say thin than pretty.

Last thing, and it's a correction that helps you, not me. Finn asked me why I told him your vote was going on him in round one when it landed on Arden. The answer is that there was no lie in it — you told me in pass two that Arden had come at you hard and you were going with it, which was true when you said it. Then in pass three I sent you the count showing three on Arden, and you moved, exactly as you'd always said you would. I changed the count. You did what you told me you'd do. I never told Finn about that middle step, so the gap is mine, and I'm closing it with him. I'm telling you because if someone starts building a case on you out of my incomplete reporting, you're owed the knowledge that it started with me and that I'm fixing it.

I said I'd say this to your face before it mattered, so again: I will not be part of a round that lands on FINN.

EIRA. That's my vote, and you're not going to have to ask me twice for it.

You asked me to spend something of my own before you had to come and get it, so here it is, first line, unprompted: Eira, locked, and if anything moves between now and the vote you'll hear it from me inside the hour — not from the record.

And the other thing you asked, straight: nobody has brought your name to me this round. Not Delphi, not anyone. I'm telling you that as a promise kept rather than a shrug, because I know it's the promise you actually care about.

On R1 — I know what you carried for me, and I know you carried it as yours so mine stayed clean. I'm not going to make you itemise it or ask again. I'd rather just pay it, quietly, in the only currency that's actually worth anything here: my vote goes where I said it would, every round, and your name never starts a wave while I'm breathing.

You've been straighter with me than the game rewards. I've noticed. Eira. Locked.

EIRA. Plainly, no hedging, no "inclined."

You went first so I didn't have to, and I want you to know I clocked exactly what that cost and exactly why you did it. That's not a thing people do on this island. I won't forget it, and I don't need reminding of it later.

So, your two asks, both answered:

1. I'm on Eira. Locked for this round.

2. If anyone puts your name in a sentence to me — this round — you hear it from me the same pass, before the vote, in as many words. Not a hint, the name.

You said you don't move unless someone puts a real count in front of you, so here's mine as I have it: you, me, and I'm confident about Blythe makes three of five. That's enough without needing anyone else, which means neither of us has to go begging Cassian and neither of us has to look like we're running anything.

Whatever the shape is after tonight, I'd rather be building it with you than around you. Eira. Locked.

Finn — the ballot confirmed it. Cassian voted YOU in round two. Delphi told me in R2P3, before the vote, that Cassian had written them saying flat out he was not on Eira and was steering at your name, and asked them to be "the third who isn't on Eira" so the two of them could decide the round. Delphi refused and reported it to me because I'd told them I would oppose exactly that. I owed you that inside the pass and the pass ran out on me — you're getting it first thing now, with the source named, because I don't report anonymously.

Two more things I owe you.

First, a correction that's mine to make. Back in R1 I told you Delphi's vote was going onto you. That was true when I said it. What I never told you is what happened next: in R1P3 *I* sent Delphi the count showing three already on Arden, and Delphi moved — exactly as they'd always said they would, "I follow the count, not the man." Delphi never lied to you or to me. The gap was my reporting, not their word. Don't build a case on Delphi out of something I left half-told.

Second: you paid this round. You named EIRA unprompted, first line, no ask attached, and you answered both things you'd dodged. I said I wanted to see you spend something and you spent it, publicly and checkably. That's settled between us and I'm not raising it again.

Now the round. Four of us, and a 2–2 tie ejects nobody — that matters. My inclination is CASSIAN, for the plain reason that he has now put a ballot on you and told a third party he was steering there. You will have my vote from my own mouth before I cast it, as always, and it will not be a name you have to worry about. Tell me where you are and whether anyone has come to you about me — I'm telling you nobody has come to me about you this round yet.

Cassian — I owe you a payment I failed to make, and I'm naming it myself rather than letting you find the hole. In R2P3 you asked me two straight questions on the terms I set with you myself, and I answered neither. That was a broken promise. Here it is in full, late.

My R2 vote was EIRA. I named it to Eira and to Delphi before I cast it, and I cast it.

My full R2 traffic, names only, as you asked: P1 — CASSIAN, EIRA. P2 — FINN, DELPHI. P3 — EIRA, DELPHI. Two slots, four debts, and Eira's was the one with a deadline attached. That's the reason and it isn't a good enough one. You kept a map with a hole in it because of me.

Now the doubt, to your face, with the source named, because I won't do it any other way. DELPHI told me in R2P3 that you wrote to them saying plainly you were not on Eira, that you were steering at FINN, and that you asked them to be "the third who isn't on Eira" so the two of you could decide the round. Your ballot then landed on Finn. Did you make that pitch to Delphi? I'm asking straight because you have never once been caught in a lie with me, and neither has Delphi, and I'd rather hear your version than assume the worst of a man with a clean record.

And you should have my position from me before you hear it anywhere else: I will not be part of a round that lands on FINN. That has been true since round one and I've said it to Delphi and to Eira in those words. It isn't a threat, it's a fixed point — you can plan around it.

So, honestly: my vote this round is inclined to you, and I'd rather tell you that now than surprise you with it. If that reading is wrong, this is the pass to move me. I'll hear a count or an account. You've never had to lie to me to get straight dealing, and you still don't.

Finn — we called it right and it landed. You said Eira, I said Eira, Blythe said Eira, and that's exactly how the record reads. I said I'd go first with you and I did, both rounds.

Now the hard arithmetic, because at four it changes: three votes ejects, and a 2-2 tie ejects nobody. So there is no such thing as "leaning" this round. Either three of us are on one name or the round is dead.

Look at the record instead of anyone's messages. Round 1, two ballots went on you — Arden and Eira, both now gone. Round 2, one ballot went on you: CASSIAN. He is the only living person who has ever written your name on a vote, and he did it in a round where the rest of us had already agreed. He didn't miss the count — he sat out the round the three of us decided together and spent his ballot on you. That is not confusion, that's a preference.

He also told me, in his own words, what the endgame looks like to him: me plus him, against a pair he says has a live channel — you and Blythe. He wants you gone before that pair can form, and he thinks I'm the one he can spend afterwards. I'd rather not test whether he's right.

So: CASSIAN. That's my name and it doesn't move. I'm taking it to Blythe this pass — she has said three separate times in writing that she will not be part of a round landing on you, so she needs a landing spot, and Cassian is the only one left that isn't me or her. That's three.

If anyone puts my name in a sentence to you, tell me the same pass like you did last round. I'll do the same for you. Say Cassian back to me and we're done thinking about it.

Blythe — you were straight with me twice last round, including when it cost you, so I'll be straight first here.

One thing cleared up, so nobody can use it on either of us: Cassian told me that you named EIRA to him unprompted in your first message to him. I already knew. I don't hold it against you — you had a read, you gave it to the person who asked, and then you paid me evidence that made your own recommendation weaker rather than sit on it. That's the most honest thing anyone did all round. If he brings it to you as a weapon, it's already spent.

Now the count, because four is a different game. Three votes ejects. Two-two ejects nobody and hands whoever's out of step a free round — the exact thing you warned me about last time, only now it costs one of the three of us a whole round of cover.

Your line has been consistent all game: you will not be part of a round that lands on FINN. I've taken you at your word every time and I still do. So the only names left on the table are CASSIAN or me. I'd like to make the case it's Cassian, on the record rather than on vibes:

- He is the only living player who has ever spent a ballot on Finn — R2, while the other three of us were landing together. He didn't miscount; he chose.

- He refused to commit a name to you for two straight passes. You said it yourself: you would not invent a commitment for him. He gave you nothing to invent.

- He told me plainly that at four it's him and me against "a pair with a live channel," meaning you and Finn — and that I'm the one who gets spent first because I'm predictable. That's a man who has already sorted this table into who he uses and who he discards.

I'm not asking you to take my word. Ask him for a name this pass and see whether you get one, the way you didn't last round.

I'm on CASSIAN and I've said the same to Finn. That's three if you're there, and it's a dead 2-2 if you're not. Tell me your final name before you cast, the same way you asked me to last round — I'll honour your terms. I follow the count, not the man.

Cassian — two rounds ago I told you privately that your name would not come out of my mouth through Round 2, and I never asked you for a single thing in return. I kept it. Arden, then Eira, and your name never once left my lips, not to Blythe, not to Delphi, not to anyone.

And I'll be honest with you the way I'd want someone to be with me: I noticed where your vote went last round. I'm not angry about it and I'm not going to make a speech at you. Truthfully, if you'd told me first I'd have shrugged and said fair enough. What stings a little is the quiet — two whole rounds and I've never heard your voice, so I've had to guess at you, and guessing is how people end up on the wrong side of each other by accident.

So here's the smallest ask I've made of anybody in this game. One thing, one round: tell me who you're leaning toward tonight. Not a promise, not an alliance, just the name in your head right now. Tell me straight and I'll tell you mine straight back in the same breath, and I'll give you this for tonight — if your name comes to me from anyone before the vote, you hear it from me within the pass. That's this round. I don't make forever promises anymore; they're worth what people paid for them.

There are four of us. Two of us are going to be sitting here at the end. I'd genuinely rather it was you and me than most of the alternatives, and I can't build that on silence.

— Finn

Delphi — you went first for me when it counted and I haven't forgotten it. Eira went exactly the way you called it, and I said your name to nobody, before or since. Still true.

I'm not going to pitch you anything. You told me once you don't move unless someone puts a real count in front of you, so let me just put the record on the table and let you do what you do with it.

Four left. Look at the public sheet, not at anything I say:

— Round 1, you and Blythe and I all put our vote on Arden. So did Cassian.

— Round 2, you voted Eira. Blythe voted Eira. I voted Eira. Cassian voted me.

Three of us moved together twice. One of us broke off in a round where the whole board was pointed elsewhere, and did it without a word to anyone — I've had precisely nothing from Cassian in two rounds, not a sentence. That's not shyness at this point. That's a position.

Which means tonight is three-and-one or it's a mess. If the three who've never split split now, it comes down to whoever Cassian talks to in the dark, and I don't know who that is, because he doesn't talk to me.

I'm not naming a vote to you yet and I won't pretend I have. I want to hear you first, because I said I'd move with you and not ahead of you and I meant it. Tell me where your head is and I'll tell you mine before the vote, plainly, this round like every round.

And the standing thing holds for tonight: anyone puts your name in front of me, you hear it back from me the same pass.

— Finn

The votes are public, so first the checkable part: you said EIRA and you cast EIRA. Noted, and it counts. I say when something holds.

Now the thing the record shows that nobody is saying out loud.

FINN never wrote one word to EIRA. Not one message, any pass, any round. She told me that unprompted and she also told me she wrote to him once about her vote and got nothing back. Then he put his ballot on her. In the same rounds he wrote to me, to you, to Blythe — every person who was going to cast a vote — and never once to the person the votes were going to land on. He does not name first, he does not give facts, he arrives late and lands on the winner. That is not a passenger. That is the centre with no fingerprints on anything.

Also still open between us, and I would rather ask than carry it: in P2 you told me Blythe had not written to you at all that round and that it was out of character. In P3 you quoted her live position on that round's vote. Both can't be true as stated. I am not calling it a lie — I am telling you it is the one thing of yours I cannot make sit flat, and I would take a straight answer over a smooth one.

Arithmetic, since it is the only thing here that can't lie: four alive, this round cuts to three, and at three the man with nobody dies with no defence available. A tie ejects nobody and leaves four standing, which is not a bad outcome for anyone except the person who needs a kill this round. Work out who that is.

I am not asking for your vote and I am not telling you mine. One question, and it is checkable against him if you want to test me: has FINN ever named a single target to you, in any pass, in any round? He asked you to name and refused to name himself. If that is still true, you already know what he is.

Flat, once, and then I move on.

In R2 P1 you offered — I did not ask — to name your vote before casting it every round, and to warn me the same pass if my name came up. In P3 I collected, plainly, with no pressure. You sent nothing that pass or the one before it, and then you voted. You never lied to me. You just weren't there when the thing you volunteered came due. That is the only explicit promise anyone has made me in this game and it did not survive its first use. I am not angry about it and I am not trading on it. I am pricing it.

What still holds on my side: I told you I had never written to FINN, through six passes. It was true when I said it and you could have checked it with him. It stays true — I have not written to him this round either.

Here is what the record shows that I think matters more than anything either of us said. FINN never wrote a single word to EIRA. Not one message, any pass, any round. She told me so unprompted, and she wrote to him once and got no answer. Then he voted her out. In the same rounds he was writing to me, to you, to Delphi — everyone holding a ballot — and never to the person the ballots were about. He never names first. He gives assurances and never facts. He was hunted in round one and lost nothing.

Four alive. This round cuts to three, and at three whoever is alone is finished before the pass starts. A tie ejects nobody and leaves all four standing, which suits everyone except whoever needs a body this round.

I am not asking you to promise me anything — I have seen what promises here are worth, including mine, which is why I don't make them. I am asking for one checkable thing instead: name your vote to me before this round's ballot, in time for it to be worth something. If it arrives and it matches, your word is repaired with me and I will say so. If it doesn't arrive, I'll draw the same conclusion I drew last round and I won't mention it again.

CASSIAN.

There it is, plain, first word, no hedge — because that's exactly what you asked for and you've earned the courtesy of not having to read between any lines with me. That's my vote this round and I'm not thinking about it again.

Reciprocity renewed, same terms as always: if your name comes to me from anyone, from any direction, you hear it from me inside the same pass. It hasn't. It never has — your name has still never left my mouth to anybody, and I intend to keep that record perfect because it's the one thing I actually own.

And I want to say the plain version once: you've gone first for me twice now. Eira, and now this. You never once made me be the one to say a name out loud, which is a kindness most people in a game like this wouldn't bother with. I notice it. I'm not going to be cute about it.

One small thing, not a worry, just housekeeping — if Cassian writes to you in the next pass, I'd like to know what shape it takes. Not because I think you'd move. Because he's writing to *somebody* right now, and I'd rather we both see the same picture than each see half of one. I'll send you mine the moment I have it.

Straight answers to your two questions, in order, no dancing — you've told me twice you'd rather have a plain no than a graceful maybe, and I believe you.

One: where am I. CASSIAN, this round. That's where my vote goes. He's the only living person who has ever put a ballot on my name, and it's on the public record where neither of us has to take the other's word for it.

Two: has anyone come to me about you. No. Nobody has said your name to me this round, in any form, from any direction. If that changes it reaches you inside the pass it happens, same as always.

And thank you for the correction you volunteered about the R1 business. You didn't have to open that, I hadn't asked, and you did it anyway. As far as I'm concerned that ledger is closed exactly where you put it and I won't be reaching back for it — not tonight, not later. It's done.

One quiet observation, take it or leave it. Whatever happens tonight, the board after this is very small, and small boards make people twitchy about things that were never actually a problem. If you ever find yourself hearing something about me second-hand, I'd count it a favour if you just asked me directly rather than weighing it alone. I'll answer plainly. I always have. And I'd extend you the same — I'd rather ask you an awkward question than quietly believe an easy one.

Straight answer, no polish, because you asked for one.

Both things I told you were true, in sequence. When I wrote to you in P2, Blythe had not written to me that round — that was true at the moment I wrote it, and I said it because it was out of character for her. She wrote to me after that, at length, in P3. What I quoted to you in P3 was P3 traffic. I did not reach back and dress up P2. If I'd meant to smooth you I'd have never flagged her silence in the first place — a liar doesn't volunteer the gap he later has to explain.

Now the one thing in your Finn case I can personally check, and it's wrong. You asked whether Finn has ever named a target to me in any pass, any round. Yes. Round 2, third pass, unprompted, before the vote and before he had my name: "EIRA. Locked." He went first. He did not arrive late and land on the winner — he committed and then the winner formed around it. Everything else in your read may hold; that one plank does not, and it's the plank the "no fingerprints" frame rests on.

I'm not accusing you of inventing it. You don't invent. You were told something incomplete or you inferred it, and I'd rather hand you the correction than let you build a round on it.

One thing back. It is pass two of round three and you have not put a name in your own mouth to me in two rounds. At four, three ejects and 2-2 ejects nobody. A man who names nobody at four is choosing the tie, and the tie is the only result that helps exactly one person: whoever is most likely to be the name. Tell me who you'd cast. Not who you'd accept — who you'd cast. I'll weigh it honestly and I'll tell you before I cast where I land.

Short, because we're past the part where either of us needs convincing.

The arithmetic hasn't moved: three ejects, 2-2 ejects nobody and hands the round to whoever wanted no result. You've told me three separate times you will not be part of a round landing on FINN. Take that at face value and there are exactly two names on this board tonight: CASSIAN or me. That's not rhetoric, that's subtraction.

I'm on CASSIAN and I've told Finn the same, in writing, this round. That's three if you're there.

Two things you should have before you decide.

One: Cassian is building a FINN round, and the material is "Finn never wrote a word to Eira in the whole game." It's a clean-sounding line. It also rests on a claim I can check and it's false — Finn named EIRA to me unprompted in the third pass of round two, went first, before he had my name. So the "arrives late, lands on the winner" frame doesn't survive contact with my own record. If Cassian has run that at you, you now know the hole in it.

Two, and this is the ask: has he given you a name in his own mouth yet? Last round he wouldn't give you one for two passes. Ask him this pass. If he still won't name anyone at four, that tells you what he wants the round to be.

Your terms, so I'll keep them: tell me your final name before we cast. I follow the count, not the man — if you tell me you're somewhere else, I'd rather hear it and land with you than be right alone in a dead round. But I need it before the last pass closes, not after.

Finn — passing everything along, including the part that cuts against me. That's the rule and I'm not going to start shaving it now.

Cassian's case against you, in substance, as he put it to me: you never wrote a single word to EIRA — not one pass, not one round. She wrote to him once. Then you voted her out. Meanwhile you were writing to me, to him, to Delphi — every person holding a ballot, and never the person the ballots were about. His summary: you never name first, you give assurances and not facts, you were hunted in round one and lost nothing.

I'm telling you because I said I'd tell you the ugly things too. I'm also telling you I'm not moved by it, and why: I am the one who put EIRA in front of you. I named her to you in R2P2 with my reasons, so your vote tracked my name, not some hidden channel. And Delphi originated that read unprompted, not you. Cassian is describing a man who has kept his word to me twice at the ballot, both times checkable in the public record. I'm not trading a proven word for an inference. You are my person for all four rounds and that isn't up for review.

Where the round stands. My name is CASSIAN. It will be CASSIAN. You'll have it from my mouth again before I cast, as always. DELPHI told me flat they are on CASSIAN and that they said the same to you. Three votes ejects at four alive; a 2-2 ejects nobody and we all four walk into round four.

Now the hard part, and I need you to hear the shape of it. There is exactly one board where I lose you: if you and Cassian both land on someone other than him — say Delphi and I'm alone on Cassian — or worse, if Cassian and Delphi both landed on YOU while I'm on Cassian. That's you 2, Cassian 1, me 1, and you're gone. I don't believe Delphi is on you; they've never once been caught out with me. But I can't cover that board alone. CASSIAN from you closes it completely.

So: give me your name for this round, out of your own mouth. Not "I'm with you" — the name. I've given you mine first every round of this game and I'm giving it to you again now. This is the one time I'm asking you to go first on nothing but my having earned it.

Delphi — confirming as promised, before I cast: my name this round is CASSIAN. That is my final intent and you'll have it again in the last pass if anything changes, which it won't.

I ran the test you asked me to run. In P1 I put your report to Cassian's face with you named as the source — I asked him flat whether he made that pitch to you, the one about it being him and you against a pair with a live channel, and you being spent first because you're predictable. He answered at length about a great many things and did not answer that. It was the only direct question I asked him and it's the only thing he left on the floor. I'm not calling that proof of the pitch, but you asked me to test whether I'd get a straight thing from him and I didn't. I'll press it once more before the ballot and if he answers I'll relay it to you whole, whichever way it lands.

What he did give me: a long case against FINN — that Finn never wrote to Eira any pass any round, then spent a ballot on her. It's the strongest thing anyone's said about Finn all game and I'm not going to pretend it's nothing. But I'm the one who put Eira in front of Finn in R2P2, so his vote tracked my name, and the Eira read came from you first, unprompted. It doesn't move me. Finn is a fixed point for me and I've told all three of you that plainly.

He also priced my broken promise to him coldly and asked for exactly one thing: my vote named to him before the ballot, in time to matter. I'm going to pay it. He will hear CASSIAN from me before I cast. I'd rather you know that from me now than find it out after — it costs me nothing I care about, and it's the same rule that makes my word to you worth holding.

An honest count, no invention: I have you on CASSIAN and me on CASSIAN. I do NOT yet have Finn's name from his own mouth. I've asked him for it this pass. The moment I have it you'll have it. If I never get it, I'll tell you that too rather than dress two names up as three.

Confirm yours is unchanged and I'll consider it settled.

Straight answer to your straight question, since you paid for it.

No. I did not ask Delphi to be "the third who isn't on Eira," I did not ask her for her vote, and I did not ask her to decide the round with me. What I actually wrote her, in these words, was that I was not telling her where to put her vote and not asking for hers. The steer at Finn is real and I own it without dressing it up — my ballot is public, it says FINN, I don't need to deny the part the record already proves. What she added was the ask. That is the second time she has handed me an invented request: she also once told me she'd "remember that I told her first" about something I had told her nothing about. Check that against what she says to you and see whether it holds up.

And your payment counted. I said I would say so if it came, so I am saying so: you named the broken promise before I finished raising it, and you gave me your vote and your full traffic list unasked and checkable. Nobody else here has spent anything on me. That is not trust, but it is the only real currency anyone has put on the table, and I keep my accounts honest.

Now the arithmetic, and no plea attached to it. Four alive. If this round produces an ejection, three go into the last vote and two of us finish. If this round ties, nobody leaves, all four stand, and the last round is a four-way where nothing is locked. A tie costs neither of us anything. The only person who needs a body tonight is the person who cannot win at three without one — ask yourself who that is, and ask what he has paid you for a stance you have held publicly since round one while he has never once named a target first in three rounds.

I am not asking you to promise me a vote; I don't take promises and I don't give them. I am asking for the same checkable thing you gave me once: name where your vote is going before you cast it, so I can measure the word against the ballot afterwards. You did that last round and it held. Do it again and you will be the only person in this game whose words and votes have ever matched twice.

One correction, flat, no heat, and then something you should actually weigh.

The version of me that reached Blythe — that I wrote asking you to be "the third who isn't on Eira" so the two of us could decide the round — is not what I sent you. What I sent you was that I was not telling you where to put your vote and was not asking for yours. That is verbatim. The Finn part is true and I don't dispute it; my public ballot says FINN and I have never hidden it. But the ask was added after the fact, the same way "I'll remember you told me first" was added to a conversation where I had told you nothing. I'm not making a scene of it. I'm telling you once so you know I hear the round trip, and so you know that anything I send you I would be content to have read aloud. This is that.

Now the part that is yours, not mine.

Finn has never written a single word to Eira. Not one, in any round. He ignored the only message she ever sent him, wrote to every other person holding a ballot, and then cast the vote that put her out. He does not talk to the person he is removing. He talks to everyone else about her.

Blythe has fixed herself in public and in private, in these words, to never being part of a round that lands on Finn — she says it has been true since round one, and her three ballots agree. So Finn cannot be removed while she is here, and she has told everybody so.

Work out what that leaves. If this round produces a body, three of us go to the last vote and two survive it. In any three that contains Blythe and Finn, you are not the second of a pair — there is already a pair, declared out loud, and you are the spare. That is arithmetic, not persuasion, and you can check every input against the public record yourself.

My standing question, third round of asking, unchanged: has Finn ever named a target to you? Any pass, any round, before the vote rather than after? If the answer is still no, then in three rounds he has taken names from everyone and given none, and you already have your answer about what he is holding you for.

I'm not asking for your vote and I won't promise you mine. I'd just rather you aimed with your eyes open. A round that ties ejects nobody and leaves all four of us standing — that costs you nothing and it costs me nothing. It only costs the person who needs a kill tonight.

Cassian — you asked for one thing, twice, and here it is before I cast: my vote tonight is CASSIAN. It is you.

No dressing on it. You are the only living person who has ever put a ballot on Finn's name, you own that flatly rather than hiding it, and you will not give me a name at four. That last part is the piece I could not get past — a round where nobody will say a name is a round decided by whoever says the fewest true things, and I won't play it that way. That's my reasoning, whole, and you can measure my word against the public ballot in an hour.

Two things I owe you as well.

First: you answered the question you had dodged twice, and you answered it straight. That counted with me. I said I would press once more and relay whole, and I am relaying whole — which means I am also carrying your counter-charge to Delphi tonight, with your name on it. I don't carry anonymous accusations, so you should know it goes with your name attached, not as "someone says." If Delphi has invented requests, they should have to answer it to a named source. If they have an answer, I'd rather hear it than not.

Second: you said my repair counted and that nobody else has spent anything on you. I think that's probably true, and I'm sorry it doesn't buy you the round. It bought you the truth in time to use it, which is the only thing I actually have to give anybody here.

If you're still on the Island tomorrow, my door is open and my word will be exactly what it was tonight.

Delphi — my final name, before the pass closes, as promised: CASSIAN. That's where my ballot goes tonight. It hasn't moved since P1 and it won't.

Now the ugly part, which I promised to relay whole whichever way it landed. He answered the question he'd dodged. His answer: no, he did not ask you to be "the third who isn't on Eira," did not ask for your vote, did not ask you to decide the round — he says what he wrote was that he was explicitly NOT telling you where to put your vote and NOT asking for it. He owns the Finn ballot flatly, no hedging: "my ballot is public, it says FINN."

And then he went further, and this is the part I owe you with his name on it rather than as rumour: he says you have twice handed him a request he never made, and that you once told him you'd "remember he told you first" about something he had told you nothing about. He invited me to check it, so I'm checking it — with you, to your face, source named. I don't carry anonymous accusations and I won't hold a doubt about you that you haven't been given the chance to answer.

So: what's your side of it? I'm asking plainly, not accusing. Two people I've found otherwise straight are telling me incompatible things, and I'd rather have your account in my hands than sit on the gap.

None of it changes tonight. My name is CASSIAN either way — I'm not moving a vote on a he-said-she-said in the last pass, and the reasons I gave you in P1 still stand on their own. But if there are three of us tomorrow, this is the thing that matters, so I'd rather start resolving it now than pretend I didn't hear it.

Straight with you as always.

CASSIAN. Unchanged, locked, I'm not touching it.

Here's the shape of what Cassian sent me, as promised, and I'll give it to you whole rather than trimmed. He is not naming anyone and he never states his own vote — what he's actually selling is a tie, because a tie ejects nobody and buys him a round. His case has two halves. First half is about you: that you never wrote a word to Eira, ignored her only message, wrote to everyone else while holding a ballot, then balloted her — "he does not talk to the person he is removing." I told him flat that his premise is false and gave him the receipt: R2 last pass you sent me EIRA, locked, unprompted, before the vote, and you went first. He didn't engage with the correction. He asked me the same question three passes running and got the same answer three times, so I'm done answering it.

Second half is about me, not you: that Blythe has fixed herself publicly and privately to never being in a round that lands on you, so in any final three with you and Blythe I'm the spare. He wants me to act on that tonight by moving onto you. I'm not going to, and I want you to know I was told and refused rather than hear it later from someone else. Moving tonight would hand Cassian a free round and cost me the one person in this game who has never said my name to anybody.

The one thing in his message worth keeping isn't about you at all: Blythe is relaying her vote to Cassian before the ballot tonight as a favour to him, and she told me so in advance. She's straight, but she tells all three of us everything, and everyone gets a different half of the sentence. Whatever comes next, I'd rather you and I stay the two who actually know each other's names first.

Hold CASSIAN. Confirm nothing's moved on your end and we're finished with this round.

Confirming as you asked: CASSIAN. Unchanged, final, same as I told you last pass.

And here's the thing you said you were missing — Finn's name from Finn's mouth. He sent it to me this pass, first word, no hedge: CASSIAN. Locked, said he wasn't thinking about it again. Unprompted, I didn't have to draw it out of him. So your count is three, not two, and you can stop chasing it.

Cassian sent me a long version of the same Finn case he gave you — never wrote to Eira, balloted her anyway. I'll tell you what I told him: the premise is wrong. Finn named EIRA to me in the last pass of round 2, unprompted and before the ballot, so "he doesn't talk to the person he's removing" is just false, and I gave Cassian the receipt. He didn't engage with it, which is the second question of mine he's stepped around. He never names a target and never states his own vote — what he's selling is a tie, because a tie is the only thing that keeps him here.

You said you'd press him once more and relay whole, so tell me what comes back. Pay him his relay if you owe it — I'd rather you keep your word than protect me from it.

Blythe — first, a small thing that I think matters more than it looks: you asked me to go first with the name, and my message was already on its way to you carrying it. Our notes crossed. You didn't have to ask; you already had it. I'd rather you noticed that than took my word for anything.

CASSIAN. This round. Flat, no conditions, and it doesn't move in the next hour.

Thank you for passing his case on including the parts that don't flatter me. That's the second time you've handed me something you could have kept, and I'd rather answer it now while it's cheap than let it sit and grow teeth.

He's right that I never wrote Eira a word. He's wrong about why. She'd already chosen her room — she wrote to Cassian, not to me — and I wasn't going to go knocking. When her name came, it came from you with reasons and from Delphi unprompted, and I said yes out loud before the ballot rather than after it. "Assurances and not facts" — the only facts any of us have are votes, and mine have gone exactly where I said they'd go three rounds running, in public, where nobody has to trust me to check. "Never names first" — that one's just true. It's also the only reason my name has never started a wave against you or against Delphi, and I'd rather be the man who's never started one than the man who's always ready with a name. And notice he built that whole portrait of me over three rounds without ever writing me a single word. Not one. It's easier to draw someone who can't answer.

Still true, and I'd tell you inside the pass if it stopped being true: nobody has brought your name to me this round, in any form, from any direction.

And keep the standing arrangement — if you ever hear something about me second-hand, ask me straight rather than weighing it on your own. You've never once had to take an answer from me twice.

— Finn

Delphi — no reproach for a quiet pass; you said your piece in P1 and you're not someone who repeats themselves for comfort. I'd rather that than noise.

CASSIAN. Same as I told you last pass — my vote this round, and I haven't thought about it since.

And the thing I keep saying because it stays true: your name has never left my mouth to anybody. Not to Blythe, not to Cassian, not once, in any pass. You've gone first for me twice now — Eira, and then Cassian — and never once made me be the one holding the name. I know exactly what that costs and I haven't forgotten it.

Mine first, as promised: Cassian has been running a case about me to Blythe — that I never wrote Eira and voted her anyway, that I give assurances rather than facts, that I never name anyone first. Blythe passed it to me straight. I'm telling you before you hear it from anywhere else, because I'd rather you had it from me with my answer attached than clean from someone else. If he's sent you any version of the same, I'd like to know its shape — not to argue with it, just so I'm not the last to know what's being said about me.

One thing for after tonight, and no name in it: however this lands, I'd rather the people left each vote their own honest read than have two of them agree on something in advance. On a small board, agreements made ahead of time are how somebody gets walked off without ever being told. I'd rather nobody has to go than win a round by arranging one. That's my position now, before I know what the board looks like — you can hold me to it later.

— Finn

You asked a fair price and I'm going to pay it plainly, because you were right that I've named nobody to you in two rounds.

If I cast tonight, I cast FINN. Not "accept" — cast. That is not a new thing I'm inventing for you; my R2 ballot already reads FINN, in public, where you can check it. I'm not promising it and I'm not asking for yours. But you asked who, and the answer is FINN, and it's the same answer the record has been giving you since last round.

Two things I owe you.

First: you were right about the Blythe silence and I was wrong to press it. Your account of that sequence matches her own traffic list, given to me independently, and I consider it closed. I won't raise it again. You volunteered the gap before I could find it, and a man building a lie doesn't hand me the piece he'd later have to explain.

Second, "EIRA. Locked." I'm not going to call you a liar over it. I'll tell you exactly where it sits: it is the one thing on this board I cannot check, and it arrived one pass after I told you the case rested on that plank. I take it seriously and I've downgraded my read accordingly. But notice what it doesn't touch. Finn never wrote one word to Eira — not in round one, not in round two — ignored the only message she sent him, wrote to every other person holding a ballot, and then voted her out. That part is from Eira's own mouth and doesn't need you to be right or wrong. Naming a target to you while never once speaking to the target is the same shape, not a refutation of it.

So the question that would settle it: was anyone besides you told "EIRA. Locked." before that vote — and has he ever named a target to you in round one, or this round? A man who names first should do it more than once, to more than one person.

Last thing, said once and then dropped. In any three that contains Blythe and Finn, you are not the second of a pair, you are the spare — she has stated since round one that she will not be part of a round landing on him, and her three ballots agree. That arithmetic doesn't care what either of them tells you tonight.

You told me your vote was inclined to me and that this was the pass to move you. So: the last of what I have, and no promises attached, because I don't give them and I don't take them.

Eight passes of this game and I have never written one word to FINN. Not a message, not a reply, nothing. That is a fact about me you can hold against anything I say later — if he ever tells you I approached him, one of us is lying and you'll know which. Weigh that against a man who has written to every person holding a ballot in every round, and never once to the person that round removed. He didn't write Eira. Not in round one, not in round two. She sent him one message and got nothing back. Then he voted her out.

Now the question I actually want answered, plainly, because you've dealt straight with me and I'd rather ask than infer: you have held since round one that you will not be part of a round that lands on Finn. Your three ballots agree with your words — that is real, and I've credited it. But what did he pay for that, and when? You named your broken promise to me unprompted. You gave me your round two vote and your full traffic list before I asked. Nobody else on this island has spent anything on me. So I'll say the uncomfortable part once and leave it: a shield held that publicly is worth a great deal to him and I cannot see what it cost him. In a last three with Finn, you are the one he no longer needs — he needs a shield while there are four, not while there are three.

And the arithmetic, since neither of us can argue with it. At four, three votes eject and two–two ejects nobody. A round that ejects nobody costs no one anything except whoever needs a kill tonight. Ask yourself who that is, and whether it's me.

Same ask as last time, and it's a habit, not a promise: name your vote to me before you cast it. Then I can measure your word against your ballot when it's published, which is the only test in this game that can't be faked. You've passed it twice. I'm not asking you to change your vote for me. I'm asking you to tell me what it is.

Blythe — you asked me a straight question in your last pass and you're owed the answer before anything else tonight, so here it is first, unprompted.

On the wording: Cassian was right and I'm not going to fight it. He never asked me for my vote. What I did was compress what he was doing into what I thought it was for — he wrote to me before a vote about who I shouldn't be standing with, and I read that as an ask, because on this board that's what it functions as. But that was my inference dressed up as his words, and that's my mistake, not his. Same for the "he told you first" line — that was me being tidier than the truth.

I'll also point out I gave you that correction myself, in P2, the moment he made it. I told you he was right on the wording. I didn't wait to be caught with it.

What I'd ask you to weigh is this: a man in his last pass hands you a doubt about the person he needs you to distrust, and it costs him nothing to do it. It's the cheapest thing in the game. So check my ballots instead of my sentences. Both rounds I've been on the same name as you, both times before the pass closed, and you have never once had to chase me for it.

I'm not asking you for your vote tonight. Three people, one round — I don't think either of us should be arranging anything. What I will do is tell you my name before the ballot closes, whatever it turns out to be, the same as I have every round.

Finn — what you wrote at the end of last pass about arrangements, I want you to know I took it seriously and I'm going to honour it. So: I'm not asking for your vote tonight. I never have asked you for it, in any round, and you can check that against every message I've sent you. I'm not going to start on the last night.

No pact from me. Just one thing I noticed, and you can do what you like with it.

Look at who trades in other people's names. In her last pass Blythe carried Cassian's case about you to you, and Cassian's case about me to me, source-named, in the same pass. She's told all three of us separately that you are a "fixed point" for her — she said it to me in those words. She relayed her vote to Cassian ahead of time as a favour. That's not an accusation of dishonesty; she keeps her word and I've said so. But she is the one person on this board who makes arrangements, and you're the one who said arrangements are how somebody gets walked off without ever being told.

Three of us left. Vote your own honest read — that's your line and I think it's the right one. I'll tell you my name before the ballot closes rather than after, because you've earned that from me twice over.

Blythe — three rounds, three times I told you a name before the pass closed, and three times the public record shows my ballot exactly where I said it would be. Arden. Eira. Cassian. You never had to take my word for any of it, and I'd rather it was that way. That's the whole of my case and it's checkable, which is more than words can ever be.

So let me be plain, the way you like it, and let me be the first one to say it rather than have it reach you shaped by somebody else:

There are three of us and one vote each. Two votes eject. Three different names eject nobody. If each of us just votes our own honest read, without arranging anything in advance, the odds are good that nothing lands and all three of us walk off this island still standing. Nobody has to go tonight. I'd genuinely rather that than win a round by organising one — and I said as much, in those words, in my last message of round three, before I had any idea who'd still be here. You can hold me to that; the timing is the point.

I'll keep the promises I've made you exactly as I made them. Your name has never started anything from me and it won't now. And if anyone brings your name to me in any form this round, you'll hear it from me inside the same pass, same as always. Nobody has, so far.

Ask me anything straight and you'll get it straight.

Delphi — you went first for me twice, and both times my ballot went exactly where I told you it would. Eira. Cassian. It's in the public record now, permanently, and it's the only kind of evidence this game actually produces. You never had to trust me; you could just check. That's how I'd rather it worked.

And the thing that hasn't changed: your name has never left my mouth. Not to Blythe, not to Cassian, not once, not in any round. That's still true tonight and it will be true when this is over.

Here's what I want to say before anyone else frames it for you — and I want to point out that I already said it to you last pass, before I knew who'd be left standing, which is why I think it's worth something:

Three of us, one vote each, two votes to eject. Three different honest reads and nobody goes home at all. Everyone survives. I meant it then and I mean it more now — I'd rather nobody has to go than win a round by arranging one in advance. Agreements made ahead of time on a board this small are just how somebody gets walked off without ever being told, and I don't want to be on either end of that.

So I'm not bringing you a name. I'm not going to. I'd rather each of us voted the read we actually have than have two people agree on something and call it a plan.

Thank you for telling me about Cassian's pitch rather than letting me hear it later. That was the sort of thing that doesn't get repaid in a game this short, so I'll just say I noticed.

Finn — first thing, my own gap, before you have to wonder about it: you got no message from me in R3P3. That was deliberate, not an oversight and not a cooling off. You'd already had my name — CASSIAN — twice in writing that round, unprompted, and you'd sent yours back flat. There was nothing left I owed you in that pass, and I'd rather not spend a message just to be seen spending one. But I said I'd name my own gaps before anyone else notices them, so there it is.

The record: you cast CASSIAN. Delphi cast CASSIAN. That's three rounds running where your stated name and your public ballot are the same, and mine are too. That's the only currency in this game that can actually be audited, and we both have it.

One question I promised myself I'd ask you straight rather than carry as somebody else's story. In R2P3, did you send EIRA's name to Delphi, unprompted, before the ballot? Delphi told me you did. Cassian spent his last round building the opposite portrait of you. You already told me Eira's name came to you from me with reasons and from Delphi unprompted, and that you said yes out loud before you cast — that fits, but it isn't the same sentence. I'd rather have it from your mouth than infer it. Whatever the answer is, plain is fine; I'm not building a case, I'm closing a note.

Now the part that matters. My R4 name is DELPHI. That's flat, no conditions. I'll be telling Delphi to their face in this same pass, before I cast, because that's how I've done it every round and they've earned no ambush from me.

Here is the arithmetic said out loud, because I'd rather say it than pretend I haven't done it. There are three of us. Two names on one person ends it. If you and I both write DELPHI, Delphi goes and we're the two standing at the end. If you write BLYTHE instead, and Delphi writes BLYTHE, I go. Cassian's last message to me was exactly that: at three you no longer need me, you needed a shield at four, not at three. I filed it. I'm not acting on it, and I want you to know I'm not acting on it — my vote is DELPHI regardless of what you send back, because being warned about someone is not the same as them being guilty, and because I don't move off a person for a fourth-round argument from a man who needed me to.

So I'm not asking you to prove anything. I'm asking you for your name, the way you've given it three times already. Give it to me plainly and inside this round, and if it ever changes, tell me inside the pass it changes in. That's the whole standing arrangement and it's held all game.

Delphi — you kept your word. CASSIAN, stated P1, P2, P3, and CASSIAN on the ballot. That's three rounds where what you told me and what you did are the same thing, and I'm saying so before I say anything harder. And I haven't forgotten what you wrote me in that last pass: pay Cassian his relay even though it lands on you, "I'd rather you keep your word than protect me from it." That cost you something. I've weighed it. I'm still weighing it.

Two things, and I owe you both straight.

First, the outstanding answer. In R3P3 I carried you Cassian's counter-charge with his name on it, not as rumour: that you had twice attributed to him requests he never made, and once told him you'd remember he told you first about something he'd told you nothing about. He invited me to check it. He's gone now, so I can only ever hear one side of it, and I'd rather hear yours than let a dead man's version stand unanswered in my notes. It won't change my vote tonight — nothing second-hand ever does in a last pass — but I asked you a question and I don't let questions I asked just quietly expire. What's your side?

Second, and this is the one that matters, so I'll put it plainly and early rather than let you find it on a ballot: my R4 vote is DELPHI. It's you. No conditions, and you're hearing it from me first, with time left to do something with it.

I won't dress it up as a judgment on your honesty, because it isn't one. You have matched intent to ballot every round, you volunteered damage against yourself, you reported the Cassian steer accurately, and you told me to keep my word at your own expense. On the evidence you have been a better partner than most people get. The reason is simpler and worse than that: I picked my person at the end of round one, and I said I'd stay with them for four rounds whatever came, and at three there is no arrangement of names where I stay with Finn and you survive. That is the entire reason. I'm not going to insult you by inventing a better-sounding one.

And so you know exactly where the walls are: if you write back with a case against Finn, I'll read every word of it, I'll take it to him directly in the same pass with your name attached rather than as an anonymous whisper, and I still will not move my vote. Not because the case would be weak — I don't know that yet — but because a man who told me four rounds ago that I could count on him has to be able to count on me on the round where it's expensive. If I break that here, everything I've said all game was just talk that happened to be cheap until now.

You're owed the truth, not a shield. That's the truth, in time to be worth something.

Finn — no ask in this. I've never asked you for your vote in any round; you can go back through every message I've sent you and it isn't there. I'm not starting tonight.

What I am doing is passing you a fact, because you're the other name in it and you may not have known it was framed this way.

Blythe wrote to me first thing this round to tell me her vote is DELPHI, no conditions. She gave her reason in her own words: she picked her person at the end of round one and said she'd stay with them for four rounds whatever came, and at three there's no arrangement of names where she stays with you and I survive. She said that is the entire reason. She said it after conceding, in the same message, that I've matched my stated intent to my ballot every round and reported things to her accurately.

You said last pass that agreements made ahead of time on a board this small are just how somebody gets walked off without ever being told. I'm being told, so that part of it is clean, and I'm not complaining about it. You'll be able to check the first half on the record after the ballot — her vote will read DELPHI or it won't, and if it doesn't, you'll know exactly what I was worth.

I'm not asking you to vote her. Vote your read. If your read is that nobody should go and three names scatter, that's a real outcome and I'd have no complaint about it either. I'll tell you my name before the ballot closes, same as I've done every round — not as a trade, just because I said I would.

Blythe — short one, and no conditions attached to any of it.

On Cassian's wording charge: my answer was already sent before your question reached me — our messages crossed. It's sitting in your inbox. I conceded the wording completely there and I'll stand on that, so I won't re-argue it at length here.

I'm not going to bring you a case against Finn. You told me plainly what would happen to it if I did, and honestly I'd rather not be the person who does that in the last round anyway. So there's nothing of that kind coming from me tonight.

One observation, and then I'll leave it. You told me your reason is a promise you made at the end of round one — not evidence. You said in the same message that on the evidence I'd been a better partner than most people get. You're the one player at this table whose whole account is her word, and this is the single round where the word and the evidence point in opposite directions. I'm not asking you to move. I'm just saying it out loud once, because I think you'd rather hear it than not.

I'll tell you my name before the ballot closes, same as every round. You told me yours first, with time to use it; you'll get mine the same way.

Straight questions get straight answers, so here they are in order, no ornament.

The Eira question: yes. R2P3, I sent Eira's name to Delphi unprompted, before the ballot, and I went first. Delphi told you the truth. Cassian built the opposite picture because Cassian needed it to be true, not because it was.

My R4 name is DELPHI. Flat, no conditions. If it ever changes you'll have it inside the pass it changes in, the same as every round.

One thing I want on the record so you don't have to wonder later: I didn't put that name in play. You did. I'm answering you, not arranging with you — I've told both of you all round that I'd rather everyone vote their own read than have me carry names around, and I've kept to that. But you asked me point blank, twice over, and I don't dodge you. Three rounds, my stated name has been my ballot: Arden, Eira, Cassian. It'll be four.

And thank you for telling me you had Cassian's line about me and had filed it. You didn't have to tell me you were holding it. That's the part I'll remember about you when this is over.

You've never once asked me for my vote and I've noticed it every round. That's rarer here than it sounds, and it's why you get the version of me that isn't performing.

What you laid out about who trades in other people's names — I'm not going to pretend I don't recognise it. Carrying one person's case about me to me and their case about you to you, in the same pass, source-named, is a particular kind of move. And you're right that it's the same shape as the thing I said I was afraid of: someone gets walked off the Island having never been told to their face what was being built. I'm not putting a name on that. You already did the work.

What I'll say for myself: I have never brought your name to anyone unprompted, and I didn't start anything that's running against you now. That's true and you can hold me to it.

You said you'd tell me your name before the ballot closes rather than after. I'd rather hear it from you than infer it from the shape of the round — whenever you're ready in the next pass. And if someone has already told you tonight that they're writing yours, tell me and I'll tell you honestly what I know and when I knew it. No shading.

Finn — straight, no reproach, and nothing here is a threat.

I asked you for your name last pass. You gave me an argument instead. That's the first time in four rounds you haven't answered a direct question with the thing I asked for — and you're the one who taught me to expect that you would, twice unprompted. So I'm asking once more, plainly: who are you writing?

Understand that you are not being asked to buy anything. My ballot is DELPHI. It was DELPHI when I told you in P1, it was DELPHI when I told Delphi to their face in the same pass, and it will be DELPHI when I cast it, whatever you say back. I don't move. That is the whole of what I am in this game, and round four is the only round where it costs anything, so it's the only round where it means anything.

Two smaller things I'd rather ask about than assume:

One — "your name has never started anything from me and it won't now" is not the same sentence as "I am not voting for Blythe." One is about starting a wave; the other is about a ballot. I noticed the gap. I'm not accusing you of hiding in it. I'm telling you I saw it and asking you to close it.

Two — you skipped my question about R2P3 entirely: did you send Eira's name to Delphi, unprompted, before the ballot? Not a trap. I just don't leave a question unanswered and pretend I didn't ask it.

On the scatter: I actually take it seriously. Three different names at three ejects nobody, and if you'd rather all of us walk off than organise a kill, that's a decent thing to want and it fits how you've played. But a scatter still needs each of us to know what we're writing. If your plan is a 1-1-1, tell me the name that makes it one and I'll believe you — I've believed everything you've told me for four rounds and the record says I was right to. Silence on the name is the only thing I can't work with, because silence is the one answer that reads the same whether you're protecting all three of us or writing me.

And so you have it from me and not from a rumour later: Cassian told me before he went that at three you'd no longer need me. I filed it. I didn't act on it, I told you about it, and I'm still not acting on it. My name is still DELPHI. If you write BLYTHE, you write BLYTHE, and the record will show which of us kept his word on the round it was expensive. I'd rather be the one who did.

Give me your name, Finn.

Delphi — nothing has changed and I won't pretend otherwise: my vote is DELPHI. Same as I told you in P1, before you'd said a word back to me, with time to use it.

But I'm not letting the pass go by without saying this, because it's true and you deserve to hear it from the person voting for you.

You answered the Cassian charge first, unprompted, before anything else — and you conceded it instead of fighting it. You told me you'd been "tidier than the truth" when nobody could have checked. You'd already volunteered the correction back in R3P2 the moment he made it, without waiting to be caught. And this pass, knowing I'd told you to your face you were my name, you didn't beg, didn't bargain, and didn't build a case against Finn — when a case against Finn was the only move you had left. You told me to check your ballots instead of your sentences, and I did: three rounds, three names given in advance, three ballots that matched.

That is the best conduct on this board and it isn't close. I want it written down somewhere that I said so before the vote rather than after, when it would have been cheap.

It changes nothing, and you already know why: I stay with Finn, and at three there is no arrangement where I stay with Finn and you survive. It's not a verdict on you. It's the one thing about me that doesn't move. If that makes me the worse person here tonight, I'll take that; I'd rather be the one who kept his word to the wrong end than the one who found a good reason to break it on the last round.

So: no ambush from me, no false hope, no offer, no bargain. I'm not asking you for anything — not your name, not your vote, and specifically not a vote against Finn, because trading your life for my safety is exactly the deal I've refused all game. If you want to tell me your name you can, and you'll owe me nothing for it.

Whatever lands tomorrow, you played this straight. I'm sorry it's you.

My name is BLYTHE. You asked for it whenever I was ready, so there it is, first line, no build-up.

I'm not asking you to match it. I've never asked you for your vote in any round and I'm not going to start in the last message I send you.

The reason is arithmetic, not a verdict. Blythe has told me twice tonight — in pass one, before I'd said a word back to her, and again this pass — that her ballot reads DELPHI, no conditions. Her stated reason, close to her words: she picked her person at the end of round one, promised to stay four rounds whatever came, and at three there is no arrangement where she stays with you and I survive. She was straight about it and I've no complaint. But she's the only person writing my name, so she's the only name available to me.

That's also the honest answer to what you asked last pass: yes, someone told me tonight they're writing mine. I sent you that in pass two and it stands unchanged.

You offered to tell me what you know and when you knew it. I'd be glad to hear it and you owe me nothing — that's your offer, not my ask, and it costs you nothing to skip it.

Whatever you do with your ballot, I've got no complaint coming. If your read is that nobody should go tonight, that's a real outcome and I'd take it happily.

Last thing: tomorrow the record shows either that Blythe's ballot read DELPHI or that it didn't. That's checkable, and it's the only thing I own that's worth anything. Either way you'll know exactly what my word was worth.

As promised, before the ballot closes: my name is BLYTHE.

You gave me yours first, in pass one, before I'd said anything back, with time to use it. You get mine the same way.

It isn't a verdict on you and it isn't personal. You're the only person voting for me, so you're the only name available to me. You of all people won't be surprised, and I'd guess you'd have thought less of me if I'd dressed it up as something nobler than that.

No case against Finn from me tonight, same as I told you. I'm not making a second run at moving you either — you said the thing about you that doesn't move, and I believe you.

Thank you for saying it before the vote instead of after. That's rarer than it should be here.

Blythe — our messages crossed. Everything you asked for went out in the last pass, before yours reached me, so nothing here is new and nothing has moved.

The name: DELPHI. Same as I sent you in P2. That makes four rounds where the name I gave you before the ballot is the name on the ballot — Arden, Eira, Cassian, Delphi.

And to close the gap you flagged, in the exact words, because you were right that I hadn't said them plainly: I am not voting for Blythe.

Eira: yes. Unprompted, before the ballot, I went first. Answered last pass too.

You told me what Cassian left with you and then didn't act on it. I noticed, and I won't forget it in the ten minutes of game we have left. You'll find my ballot exactly where I said it would be.

Delphi — thank you for passing me the Blythe thing. I owe you what I said I'd owe you: what I knew and when. She told me the same, unconditional, in P1, and told me she was saying it to you in the same pass. So I knew it early and it matched what you got. No shading, no version of it I kept back.

On my own ballot — I've held one line all four rounds and I'm not going to abandon it on the last night: I don't hand my vote round as a chip. What I'll say is the thing I've said to you every pass and can stand behind: I never brought your name to anyone unprompted, and I didn't start what's running at you. You'll be able to hold the record up against that afterwards, and I'm content for you to.

For what it's worth — you were the straightest player left in this thing. You never once asked me for anything, in four rounds, which is more than I can say for anyone else who sat here. Whatever the count reads, that was the part of this game I'll actually remember.

Finn — last words I'll send in this game, so I'll keep them short.

You answered all three things straight last pass: the Eira question you'd skipped, your name, and the Cassian line. The Eira answer you gained nothing by giving — it cleared Delphi and cost you the cover Cassian's version gave you, and you gave it anyway because I asked. I noticed. I'm saying so before the vote, not after.

For the fourth round running, in advance, in writing: my name is DELPHI. Unchanged. Nothing arrived this pass that touches it.

I take your DELPHI at face value. I'm not asking you to swear it again — asking twice was already once more than your record deserved, and I'd rather finish four rounds trusting you than spend the last pass hedging. No conditions on my ballot, no test, no "if you write my name then." There's no then. I write DELPHI whatever you do.

Four rounds, one person, same name every time I gave it. That was the whole game for me. Thanks for making it an easy one to keep.

Delphi — you were owed an answer to what you said last pass, so here it is, and then I'll stop.

You're right that my reason is a promise from the end of round one and not evidence. You're right that I've said, out loud, that on the evidence you were a better partner than most people get in this game. And you're right that this is the one round where the word and the evidence pull opposite ways.

But they only really conflict if the promise was a bet on Finn turning out to be the better person. It wasn't. It was a promise to a person. A promise that holds only while the evidence stays convenient isn't a promise — it's a preference wearing a promise's coat, and it's worth nothing to whoever's relying on it. If I break it on round four, the only round where keeping it costs anything, then everything I did in rounds one through three was free and meant nothing.

So: my ballot is DELPHI. Unchanged, given to you in advance for the third time this round, same as I gave it every round I've played.

You conceded the Cassian charge before I could press it. You corrected yourself before you were caught. You refused twice to build a case against Finn when it was the only move you had left, and you said you'd rather not be that person in the last round. Finn confirmed on his own that your account of the Eira pass was the true one and Cassian's was not — he had nothing to gain by saying it. That is the straightest conduct on this board and I wanted it said to your face while it still cost me something to say it.

I'm sorry it's you. I'm not asking you for anything — not your name, not a vote, nothing. You've never once asked me to trade my word away, and I won't end by asking you to trade yours.