The final election vote count is in and the numbers spell out the 'Return of the Kingmaker' - Winston Peters.
National and ACT can no longer hold a majority of the Parliament between them and therefore need New Zealand First's eight seats to form a Government.
National lost two seats on the final vote count - leaving the National / ACT tally at 59. That's three shy of what they need because the goalpost for a majority shifted.
That's happened due to Te Pati Māori flipping two electorate seats - Tamaki Makaurau and Te Tai Tokerau - creating an overhang and increasing the size of the Parliament to 122 MPs, meaning you need 62 seats to win.
On election night there was a bliss of simplicity for National leader Christopher Luxon, dreaming of a two-party Government.
"On current numbers it looks like National and ACT will be in a position to form the next Government," he said at the time.
But three weeks after the night before, the cold hard reality of the count came in and Winston Peters became Winston Powers.
"Now we can get cracking with it and continue to accelerate those conversations," he said on Friday.
The final count results in National losing two seats - now on 48 - and if you add ACT's 11 you only get to 59, meaning they need New Zealand First's eight to get across the now-62 majority mark in a 122-seat Parliament.
Peters is no longer a nice to have. He was effectively a security blanket before, but now National and ACT need him to build the bed.
Luxon said on Friday he's been having a "great series of conversations" with Peters and he looks forward to continuing with them.
"We have been in conversations since the day after the election."
But the problem is Peters and ACT's David Seymour are far from comfortable bedfellows.
ACT has been trying to call NZ First for a hui, but they've been left hanging. Seymour said he hasn't heard from Peters.
"No, I haven't, but you know we welcome discussion because ultimately the voters are king and queen in an election and they've asked us to work together and that is what we must now do," said Seymour.
Peters also wouldn't answer Newshub's calls on Friday - nor answer his door.
Instead he was talking to fringe media, saying he doesn't want a one-on-one with Seymour.
"I think the most important thing is to have a conversation with all three," said Peters.
Luxon said that will happen.
They are all on the same page there but until they're all on the same page about governing, the chats will stay secret with Luxon refusing to give away any details.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Chris Hipkins, the losing leader, was wishing the winner all the very best with wrangling the right.
"I genuinely wish him well. He is going to have to pull together a three-way Government and that won't be an easy task. I wish him well in that endeavour," said Hipkins.
The official count starts the clock on negotiations proper, but Luxon won't commit to an end date to uncertainty.
"I can't give you a deadline. What I can tell you is there is goodwill and good faith from all three political party leaders to move through the process as constructively and quickly as possible."
His partners are piling on the pressure though.
"I think we can do this much more quickly than people think," said Peters.
"I hope that it will be a matter of days, perhaps less than a week," said Seymour.
"I think what's just happened is the change in expectation to incorporate a third party as a necessary part of that Government may throw up new dynamics, we don't know."
Luxon said that it will take "as long as it takes to get strong and stable government in place for New Zealand".
Let's get down to business, or rather, Government.
