Rounds of the tournament wore on. Arwin watched them with an odd mixture of interest and apathy. There wasn’t anything wrong with the adventurers on the field. At this point, every single person that still remained was an incredibly talented individual in their own rights. Many of them put on incredible fights. If they’d been for any sort of purpose, Arwin would have been impressed. But to him… this just felt like theatre. Arwin knew the need to understand the abilities of those under one’s command. The Secret Eye had their purpose in the kingdom, even if parts of their organization were rotted to the core. It just wasn’t a purpose he cared for. Arwin didn’t draw any joy from watching people pretend to try and kill each other. He was, however, relieved to see that nobody else had gotten killed so far. Just because he didn’t care that the assassins had died didn’t mean he wanted to watch as people slaughtered each other for the sake of entertainment. But for the most part, the teams seemed to be playing aboveground. That, and the healers were definitely far more attentive after the incident in the first round of the tournament. It seemed they didn’t have any plans of losing more people, which was probably wise. The Secret Eye wouldn’t get a very good reputation if they killed half the people that showed up to their tournaments. “Whoa,” Reya said from beside Arwin, leaning so far over the railing that Arwin was tempted to pull her back so she wouldn’t fall. She’d returned about an hour after setting out to meet Olive. “Did you see that? That was awesome!” “What?” Arwin blinked and glanced back to the arena. A fight had just ended and he’d completely missed it. “No, sorry. I was distracted. What did I miss?” “You think they’re planning something?” Reya asked. Arwin nodded slightly. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid. But if I had to guess…” “…Starforge is revealing that ability because their actual trump card is considerably stronger,” Art concluded. He always did his best to be as impartial as possible in his analysis of anything, but a burning note of anger lit in his chest and refused to leave for as long as the Starforge team was still in sight. This was the guild that had hunted men from his family. Sure, there was no official way to prove it in a way that would get back at the guild, but that changed nothing. Given what he’d learned of the Adventurer’s Guild, he didn’t trust them to properly punish any misdeeds anyways. That would have to fall onto their own shoulders. “We’ll get our chance,” Vix said from beside Art, her words as cold as ice. “You can deal with the Gravity Mage, right? His magic is fucking ridiculous. It’s going to completely stop us in our tracks before the fight even starts.” “Don’t worry about that. I’ll handle him,” Art confirmed. Cards rifled through his hands in a blur before he slammed them back together in their deck. “I’m far more worried about what the twins are capable of. One controls fire, the other water. They haven’t revealed any of their abilities yet — which means they’re the biggest threat. I don’t know how much stronger they’ve become since I last got information on them.” “You have history with this team,” Kien said. It was a statement, not a question. “We do,” Vix said. “Starforge is a guild of snake bastards. They’re trying to steal Thornhelm from our father by undermining his influence and attacking our people whenever they get an opportunity to get away with it. Unfortunately, they’re also very good at covering their tracks. We’ve only been able to get word of mouth proof to what they’re doing.” Kien’s lips thinned. “That is not the purpose of a guild. More and more, I realize that this kingdom has gone awry. It is rotted to the core. The purpose of guilds is not one of power. It is to provide a service to the people of the kingdom, be that protection or any other.” “You might want to let them know,” Art said dryly. “But something tells me they aren’t going to listen.” “The unwilling student never listens until they are left with no other choice,” Kien said quietly. “I would know. Rest assured. We will not fall to this team.” “Not that I’d argue with you, but if you’ve got some strategy we can use against them or an ability that you think would turn the tides, I’d love to know about it,” Art said. “It’s much easier for me to plan when I know the full extent of what we can all do.” Kien leveled a flat look in his direction. “I understand your dilemma.” Several moments ground by where nobody said anything. Art tilted his head to the side, but the silence didn’t seem to bother Kien in the slightest. “Does… that mean you’re going to tell me?” Art asked.