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There was a town near the stadium… and upon close inspection? It revealed that to totality of the tournament area was actually larger then the town itself. There were of course other nearby towns, but the closest one to the stadium was dwarfed by its presence. Not only did it have a large central fighting arena to soak up attention, but a number of smaller ones nearby as well.

Starting with the auxiliary stadiums, they were situated in such a way to radiate outwards and away from the main complex from each of the four cardinal directions. They got progressively smaller as you got further away from the centre. That’s not to say they didn’t make use of that space though. In between the arenas, the bulk of the space was taken up by large walls that stretched to stand as high as the largest stadium itself. Across from them was rows, and rows of seating.

Kat could guess, and would later confirm, that the walls were for projecting the fights, either as highlights or entire fights. Kat was starting to think this ‘small tournament’ was only small relative to the numbers this stadium normally drew. There was easily space for a million people, possibly more. There was seating everywhere, and the central arena really was that large.

The smaller domes were made out of the same icy architecture they’d seen throughout the sect, even if the large walls were black stone. The stadiums were all clear ice with a layer of cloudiness only in the centre. It was quite beautiful to see… even if the seats that looked to also be made of ice was a reason for some concern. Not for kat of course, but for others. How they regulated that would be interesting.

The main stadium though, it was something else. The entire thing was made not of ice, but of glass with rivers of gold running through it. Not stationary, and frozen in place, but actually running. The slow churning of the gold river as it passed around the largest stadium drew the eye even from kilometres away. It seemed to suck in the sunlight and trap it within itself, producing a bright, but not unbearable level of light to look at for mortals. Kat barely noticed the increased brightness, but the whole structure was breathtaking.

The town nearby was… less impressive. It was clear that instead of the sect building something nice nearby it was more a collection of staff and merchants that put together something ramshackle that worked well enough. The buildings were all different sizes, some looked sturdy enough to survive through a blizzard and a cyclone at the same time while others looked like they could be destroyed by a sneeze. The roads were scraped clean of snow… but where just as clearly packed dirt. Very well packed perhaps, but that didn’t change the fact that minimal work went into keeping them straight or upgrading them properly.

The carriage would naturally completely bypass the town. The main road they were on went straight to the stadium and didn’t stop by the town. Unless you count the packed road clearly added after the fact. Kat did wonder why they hadn’t built the town along the road… until she noticed a series of flat sections beside the road that were clearly broken housing foundations. Apparently the sect had decided they didn’t want anyone building right on the main road.

*Not sure how I feel about that. I can’t imagine the sect actually talked about anything here, just strolled in and destroyed however many houses were necessary before moving on. On the other hand… does the sect own the whole mountain? I mean… probably. And if they don’t, well… bigger army diplomacy is a strong way to enforce your beliefs. So even if technically they don’t, they might as well.*

.....

Sue and Kat made some light small-talk as the carriage continued to trundle along. The scenery sadly wasn’t much to chat about. Other than the arena, the place was pretty barren. Any trees that were once here had been crushed, and a few shrubs were hardly worth commenting on, especially when half of them are dead, and most of the rest were barely peaking out of the snow.

It was remarkably crowded when they reached the arena, people were everywhere. Nobody was too keen to start pushing and shoving of course, but they were close to it. It was hard to tell where the lines began and ended. Bodeir just walked around them, heading for somewhere else. Kat and Sue followed, with Hromdir taking up the rear. Eventually they made their way to one of the arena entrances with a much smaller line. It was just three people and the person at the desk was making his way through the paperwork pretty quickly.

In practically no time at all, it was Bodeir’s turn. The man simply held up a sphere that lit up when it was near Bodeir, before nodding and rustling through his paperwork for a bit, finding what he was looking for and stamping it. The paper vanished as soon as the stamp was applied and Bodeir started walking away. When Kat made to follow though, the man at the desk said, “I’m sorry, that way is one of the contestant holding areas. I’m afraid unless you’re competing, you can’t go down there. Though, as guests of the sect heir there is premium seating set aside for you,”

*Well. Damn. Hmm… am I about to do something stupid? Is it really worth it?* Kat waited, and considered not going through with her plan, expecting the Contract she had to twinge slightly, telling her she’d need to go through with it… only for the Contract to not complain at all. *Oh? So I could just not?*

Kat was correct, she could just go up into the stands with Sue and watch. It would not be a dereliction of duty. The arena had security and there was far too many references for most assassins to bother with. Especially when the arena was an ‘acceptable’ place for an ‘accident’ to happen. Of course… that wasn’t necessarily good enough for Kat.

“Hey desk-man, what are the entre requirements for the tournament?” asked Kat. Sue’s eyes shot towards Kat in surprise, but Kat just shrugged back.

The man nodded and said, “Under-50 for short lived races and Under-100 for long lived ones. Make sure you know and are willing to obey the rules. While multiple contestants from a sect may enter, only one person can receive a bi to avoid the free-for-all round,”

“That’s it?” asked Kat, just to double check.

“That’s it,” confirmed the man.

*Hmm… do I really want to enter a fighting tournament and essentially bully a bunch of people so that I can protect Bodeir in the waiting rooms? I mean… I’m not totally against it… but would it be considered a shameful thing? No wait, why isn’t there any rules against demons entering? Has it just not come up? Or are they assuming that any demons worthy of competing are too old to do so? I wish Lily was awake for a second opinion.*

“Sue… if I was to enter a tournament would you be able to look after Lily for a bit?” asked Kat ‘innocently’.

Sue glared back, “Kat. You don’t have to enter the tournament. I can tell because if you DID need to, my part of the Contract would be trying to get my attention so I could convince you one way or the other. It really isn’t necessary,”

“True… I did test that myself… but at the same time Sue… it would technically be safer for Bodeir…” offered Kat.

“No. No Kat, it would not. If you’re stuck in the waiting area when Bodeir is fighting it’d be much harder to save him from something. At least if you’re in the stands you’ll be closer and within eyeshot during the most dangerous moments. Heck, it might be safer for Bodeir if you’re visible in the stands instead of the ridiculous plan you’re trying to go for,” explained Sue.

“It’s not like I’d be in any danger though…” offered Kat with a smile.

“Kat,” said Sue slowly. “You’re just making more work for yourself. Sure, you’re not at risk here, this is a tournament for people much weaker than you. That doesn’t mean there’s a reason for you to jump in the thick of it. I mean, what would you do if you had to fight Bodeir?”

“Um… forfeit? I just need to get into the rooms and I don’t care if I win,” said Kat.

“Then you’d be brought up on charges of match fixing, with Bodeir under the same scrutiny,” said the desk guy. “Also you’re holding up the line,”

*You know… I sort of forgot about him.*

“Come on Kat… don’t be silly about this,” said Sue slightly pleadingly.