Selen closed a door behind her and the roar of the crowd vanished like a snuffed candle, leaving behind only silence. She let out a small sigh of relief. The Proving Grounds were a little too high energy for her. Working in silence was far preferrable — even if the opportunity was rarer than she’d like. “You look tired, Selen.” The voice came from the shadows of the small room she’d stepped into. She turned to it, but there was no surprise in her features at her sudden company. Sitting in one of the two wooden chairs flanking a rickety old table was a man with cold blue eyes. “I am tired, Xiodan,” Selen replied. She pulled the chair across from him out and lowered herself into it. “I have to keep track of everybody.” “That’s an exaggeration. You’ve only been assigned a subset of the groups. A rather interesting one, I would say.” The corner of Selen’s lips twitched upward. “I never said it wasn’t interesting. Just tiring. We have quite the number of little snoopers this year. Even more than normal.” “A natural part of the Proving Grounds.” Xiodan gave her a knowing nod. “After all, there’s no point merely testing the warriors that enter the fight. We seek the abilities of the guild as a whole. Anything they prove themselves capable of must be judged.” “That’s a fancy way to say we don’t mind when people cheat.” “Don’t try to tell me you don’t like it.” Xiodan crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back on the rear legs of his chair. “Cheating is the most interesting part. It’s just so creative. Are you really telling me you prefer watching people smack the shit out of each other with swords and magic?” “Not yet. There are a lot of people in the stands. I don’t think they’ve infiltrated the fighters, though. They seem to have some other motive.” “Perhaps they just want to watch.” “Or recruit,” Selen said darkly. “We have a number of people participating this year that have… less than stellar morals.” “You’ve made your displeasure with some of the teams more than evidently known,” Xiodan said. He rose from his chair with a heavy sigh and stepped past Selen on his way for the door, only pausing when his hand was on the handle to look back at her. “And, for what it’s worth, I don’t disagree with you.” “Our purpose is not to question our orders. It is to gather information. If the Secret Eye has deemed such weapons appropriate, then that is what they will be. We will simply observe what happens. Just as we always have. That is our duty.” Selen didn’t give Xiodan a response, and he didn’t wait for one. He pulled the door open and slipped out, letting it close quietly behind him and leaving her alone in the room. “I’m back,” Reya said, flopping down in the chair beside Arwin and nearly scaring the lights out of him. He’d been so focused on the melees that he hadn’t even heard the door open behind him. “Shit,” Arwin said with something between a sigh and a laugh. “I didn’t hear you coming. Did it go okay? No trouble?” “No trouble,” Reya confirmed. “Rodrick taught me a bunch about sneaking around better. Basically everything he said was right. It’s crazy what you can do when you just look in place.” Then she stuck her hand out into the air and brought it down, clawing a buzzing white hole right into reality. Reya plucked a bag free from it and tossed it onto the ground before her. It landed with a loud, metallic clunk. “Sorry. Didn’t want to sit around with that thing poking at me.” Arwin squinted at the bag. “And what is that thing?” “I am more interested in what you’ve placed in your bag.” “Gold. Some idiot left it lying around.” “Could it have been a trap?” Reya stared at Arwin. “What do you think I am, an amateur? I doubled back to check on it after I first passed. It was still there. Most traps work by rigging the vessel, so I took the gold out of the bag I found it in and stuck it into mine. Never touched the actual bag.” Arwin shook his head. Evidently, some things would never change. “I’ll trust you, then. Say, did you find any information about someone called Arnold?” Reya frowned. “Arnold? No. I don’t think so. Why? Who’s that?” “Someone that I promised I’d look into. It’s a bit of a long story, but Esmerelda is here too, and apparently someone called Arnold is going to get killed in the tournament.” Reya’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Oh, shit. Next melee is starting. Is he one of them?” She thrust a finger at the arena below them. Arwin followed it down to the stone platform, where teams were taking the stage once more. He scanned over everyone in search of the boy that Esmerelda had shown him but was relieved to find that he wasn’t among there number. But, while Arnold’s group wasn’t in the crowd, someone else’s was. Art’s team had just taken the stage. It seemed their turn for the melee had arrived. Art and Vix looked much as they had the last time Arwin had seen them, but Kien wore a plain white mask that concealed all of his face other than his eyes. “I can head out and see if I can find him if you can describe him,” Reya offered. “You’ll have to tell me how this fight goes.” Arwin did just that, recounting everything Esmerelda had told him. Reya nodded her understanding. “I’ll look into it now. Maybe I can find him in the fighters’ quarters somewhere. What should I even tell him?” Arwin just shook his head. “I don’t know. Find him, for now. We can figure out what to do from there. I can’t control the future, but information always helps.”