Espy was going to end the century with a bang, he was going to make 3999 the year of Espy. After an arduous application process and many levels of tests he had finally been accepted for an internship at the Tournament Corporation. The day he had received his acceptance had been the happiest day of his life. Up to that point everything had come so easily for Espy; even Ersatz university had scouted him with a full scholarship but not the Tournament Corporation, he had to fight tooth and nail to be accepted there.

Espy was looking forward to a nice relaxing morning to properly prepare himself for his first day of work; however, Espy wasn’t the only one with an exciting life shifts ahead of them. Espy was jolted awake by an eager young girl bouncing atop his tired body.

"Wakey Wakey!” His younger sister Patsy was bounding with exuberant energy, quite literally.

Espy groaned in pain while he tried to get out of bed with this unreasonably heavy alarm clock yelling at him. “Alright Patsy relax. What is up with you today?”

Patsy grew a cheshire smile as the question she was waiting for finally came. “I was accepted to Ersatz university. I’ll be starting next year!”

Espy’s tiredness then vanished into nothing as his energy leaped up to match his sister’s. He jumped out of his bed and enveloped her in a massive hug. “Patsy that’s amazing! I told you that you’d make it.”

Patsy followed Espy all across the house debriefing him on every detail of this news while he performed his morning routine. The two of them eventually found themselves in the kitchen. Espy made the two of them sandwiches while Patsy eagerly spoke of the classes, she chose for her first year. “which does bring me to a favor I need from you.”

Espy simply smiled and replied. “Of course it always leads to a favor. Certainly my sister would never wake me up just to share her happiness with me.”

“Hey! Don’t be like that. You owe me a favor anyways.”

“Do I now?”

“Yeah, I’m going to be a brand new little lost sheep at Ersatz university and you’re going to abandon me for your internship.”

Patsy’s hyperbole made Espy chuckle, he responded. “Oh don’t be so dramatic. I’m not quitting school; I’ll still be around.”

This time it was Patsy’s turn to laugh. “I know what you’re like Espy, once you enter the arena of Empedocles you won’t leave that place for at least a week, watch.”

Espy finished making the sandwiches passing one over to Patsy. He spoke up before taking a bite. “Alright fine, what’s the favor?”

“Before you disappear off the face of the planet for your oh so wonderful job, can you give me a tour of the university?”

Luckily for Patsy, Espy had to go to the university anyways to sort out some last minute details before going to his internship. Patsy had gone to the university many times before with Espy but she wanted a more rigorous touring of the specific places she would need to frequent. Espy was happy to oblige and also pointed out all of the secrets you only learn after years of scouring the school; the best spots to study, best food stalls, shortcuts.

While walking down one of the quieter hallways in one of the larger buildings, the two came across Professor Ream. As usual, this famous icon of the university was followed by an entire fandom incessantly questioning him over trivial nonsense. The crowd seemed to be quite the irritant to the professor as his face did not appear too pleased by the commotion. His mood totally shifted once he caught sight of Espy.

Professor Ream called out to Espy interrupting one of the nobles asking for an autograph. “Espy, if it isn’t the great Tournament Corporation intern.” Professor Ream laughed wholeheartedly both at his comment and at the gazes of his lackeys who eyed Espy with newfound curiosity.

“Actually, Professor regarding that I had a few questions for you that I would like to ask in private.”

"Certainly, can all of you give us some privacy?” The group of followers were sad to be shooed off, though they still respected the professor and complied.

Patsy looked over to Espy concerned. “Should I also give you two some privacy?”

Espy and professor Ream both laughed at the girl’s comment. Espy answered her. “I don’t have anything private to ask him, I was just getting rid of the annoying fans.”

Professor Ream added in. “I’m sure it is that sort of consideration that won you the internship at the Tournament Corporation.”

Espy laughed. “That must be it. Speaking of which, Professor I got into the Tournament Corporation at pretty much the best time possible but that means that it might get really busy…”

“Don’t worry Espy, I’ve spoken with your other professors. Starting last night, you have officially graduated from your year, just hand in your final research paper by the end of the next scholastic year and you’ll be an official grand-wizard of Ersatz university.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Don’t I have to have all my professors accept my research proposal before I start?”

Professor Ream appeared entertained by what he thought was a ridiculous question. “I’m sure anything you can come up with will be adequately entertaining.”

Espy found his emotions whirring in a strange mixture of confusion, apprehension and excitement at this unexpected news. “Well thank you very much Professor. I don’t want to keep you, Patsy and I will be on our way.”

“I expect to hear great things from you the next time we meet.” The professor waved goodbye to Espy and Patsy as they continued their tour of the campus.

Patsy looked at her brother with renewed admiration. “Wow, you were right, working at the Tournament Corporation really did open all kinds of doors.” Rather than reply Espy chose to ruffle his hand in Patsy’s hair and watch her squirm away irritated. It was true though, he had been going through a few interviews at Ersatz to see if he was applicable for an early graduation but it never would have come to be without having the Tournament Corporation under his belt.

Eventually Espy had come across his friend Picayune and managed to pawn off touring Patsy to him so that he could get to his internship. He didn’t do this because he was in a rush or going to be late or anything, it was simply that Espy had always been an eager person, always bounding at the opportunity for another discovery, another job. He wasn’t late at all for his first day of work, in fact he had arrived at the arena of Empedocles three hours early, much to the annoyance of his supervisor Mark. It was clear that Mark considered himself too important to have to deal with pesky interns, let alone deal with them when they weren’t even on shift, so he just told Espy to walk around and familiarize himself with the building.

The arena of Empedocles was an amazing construct, a humongous sphere that miraculously balanced on a single point, seemingly unable to roll away by the circling stairs that fed into the vomitoriums which were slightly raised from the ground. It was the second largest building in all of Proselyte beaten only by the unfathomably massive Ersatz university.

The inside of the arena was an equal architectural marvel, a giant hollowed center housed the combat area itself which was surrounded by rows and rows of seating for the audience. A short gap between the seating and the combat area was filled by an elevated platform which followed the entire circumference of the combat area; the floor was colored in a complex weave of detailed runes which at the time of the Tournament would combine with a large suite of staff at the ready to prevent any of the contestants attacks from hurting the audience. This would be one of Espy’s tasks once the Tournament started.

Besides the main combat area, the arena was comprised of many ringlet layers, large hallways that wrapped around the entire circumference of the structure. These floors naturally grew smaller or larger depending on how close they were to the vertical center of the sphere.

Closer to the combat area were the basic necessities for guests, such as wide hallways, washrooms, food stalls and such, but the much more interesting part to explore for Espy were the outer rings.

It was in these outer rings that contained all of the nitty gritty bureaucracy that Espy would look forward to partaking in throughout the coming years. Supposedly, Empedocles himself was situated at the very top offices of the sphere but Espy had neither the clearance nor the time available to go see it or him.

Espy had ended his exploration of the building and returned to report to Mark still a half hour early but Mark simply gave in and started delegating tasks. Espy had rapidly found himself disheartened as it became immediately clear that the role of an intern was nothing like the prestigious dream like job that the Tournament Corporation internship should be. He found himself buried in menial tasks mainly acting as a mule to bring files across the building or sometimes just to get someone’s lunch.

Unfortunately for Mark, Espy was very athletic and no matter how many benign tasks he threw at the boy he could never distract him for long. Finally, he had enough, and so Mark brewed up a genius strategy to hand over an impossible trial to Espy. To give Espy a job which had been delayed for centuries by this point and surely even someone as keen and energetic as Espy would take forever to accomplish. Espy had been tasked with reorganizing the legacy files in the storage room.

Unbeknownst to the general populace, the arena of Empedocles had a basement and it had a big basement. This single room, a behemoth warehouse simply containing detailed reports of all the activity of the arena and even of some of the other arenas dating back to the beginning of the Tournament five hundred years ago. The whole place was a history book taken solid form, detailed papers on every minute happenings were accompanied by old relics; large out of date rune tablets were strewn about, discarded armor and weapons from either fighters who left them behind or were left behind. The basement was the ultimate rabbit hole to gobble up any over-excited Tournament fan.

The strategy worked; Mark had not heard from Espy for months. The boy overburdened by his task hadn’t even bothered to return to Mark before quitting in shame. Mark was currently working in his office. He despised that his office was all the way down on the first floor but at least he did have a private room. While working through the barrage of paperwork given to him from his superiors, he heard a rustling from beneath the floorboards. Perhaps, rats had finally broken into the storage room and were infesting the place below.

A weak hand paler than snow slithered its way towards the prey across the table. The prey was caught completely off guard by the sudden strangle hold of the hand and had its delicious contents dumped into the mouth of the hand’s owner.

Espy had long since lost track of how much of that stale coffee he had consumed nor was he aware of how long he had stayed awake because of it. What he did know was that there was no way he was going to leave this basement until he solved the conundrum.

It seemed like another simple and malign task when he was first ordered to reorganize the legacy files, but he could not be more wrong. It slowly crept up on him, he ignored it at first, assumed it was clerical error, but the issues compounded and kept arising consistently until he was finally convinced that a conspiracy was afoot.

To put it humbly, the records of the Tournament Corporation was the most disgusting cataloguing heresy he had ever seen.

The first red flag was that the Tournament was not run by the Tournament Corporation! That’s right, histories most endeared and celebrated event was not run by the people who were named after said event. It seemed that the Tournament was organized by a single individual, or at least the only point of contact to the organization that did run the Tournament was through this single individual: some mysterious entity simply labeled as the Chauffer.

Even more strange was that the Chauffer never met with the corporation itself, instead it only spoke with two groups, The arena directors and an investor for the Tournament Corporation dubbed in the files as just ‘Dead God’ or ‘DG’. From there the rabbit hole continued.

Apparently, the arena director’s despite in practice being the top brass of the Tournament Corporation were technically not a part of the corporation at all and instead worked directly under the Chauffer. Even more strange was that the directors were technically not citizens of any country and in fact Espy could not find record that they were even born in Trammel! Except for of course Throne, the director of the arena of Thrones. The only reason of which that files for that director existed in this arena was because Throne was once a contestant in the second Tournament and upon winning was granted a position as a director to fulfill its wish of becoming a devadoot.

That then led to the whole issue regarding the devadoots and ‘Dead God’. As Espy dug deeper into the files he became increasingly convinced that the title ‘Dead God’ was an in-house mocking name for the deavadoots themselves. That would explain the strange rule set in that no devadoot was allowed to enter the Tournament. It would raise a few eyebrows if the largest investor took part and subsequently won the Tournament after all. But that still left the question of why the devadoots were funding the Tournament at all, or why Throne’s wish of becoming a devadoot was granted by making him a director? Were all directors devadoots? Espy didn’t think so but there simply was not enough data in this arena alone.

Once Espy had discovered that Throne was once a contestant, Espy just HAD to search over all the past contestants to see if there were any other characters of interest. Espy was not disappointed.

The winner of the first Tournament had no wish granted and just disappeared after their last fight. A mokoi in the third Tournament had a life-expectancy of three days but invitations are always sent out a month before the first round. The mokoi khan was invited to the fourth tournament, but if the devadoots were the Tournaments biggest investors why would they allow their greatest enemy to ever enter, the mokoi khan obviously won but then its wish wasn’t for world domination or anything but for a child?

It brought a much-needed smile on Espy’s face to read about his professor’s escapades in the fifth Tournament. It was professor Ream who was the first contestant’s file that Espy read in excruciating detail which led to Espy noticing more discrepancies. There seemed to be data entries simply missing. Each contestant was documented in perfect detail for their every action so long as they were in the arena itself but there were moments in Professor Ream’s data log where he seemed to just vanish into thin air.

Espy started searching through other contestant’s data logs and found that not all, but a concerningly large number also shared these moments of seeming non-existence. It took a lot of searching, coffee, and thoughtful analysis but Espy finally found the common thread between all of these people with blank spots in their schedules. The answer was found in the fights themselves.

The Tournament Corporation also had large entries that contained explicit detail of each minute action of each fight. Espy didn’t think the fights would have any important information in them but he read them as a way to relax in between his hours of work, they were truly fascinating reads after all. Thanks to that ‘light reading’ Espy was able to identify the schedule blanks, the blanks always appeared on contestants who fought in a way completely unique to any other contestant throughout the entire Tournament history, and the blank also happened one day before the contestant had a fight scheduled. Another finding was that each one of these contestants only had a single schedule blank except for Professor Ream and the three-armed dragon.

These schedule blanks reminded Espy of back when he was reading up on the directors. The directors were not technically a part of the Tournament Corporation and a large majority of their activity was accomplished off the books, a fact that greatly concerned Espy. A quick double check of the directors’ schedules and it was clear that there was some connection between the directors disappearing off the books and the contestants disappearing off the books.

It was hard to tell for certain that one caused the other since this storage room only had extensive data on the two directors Empedocles and Throne but just the schedule of those two had enough matching moments to cast suspicion. Espy was sure that if he could see the schedule of the other directors, they would have schedule blanks lining up with the few contestants who disappearances didn’t line up with Empedocles or Throne.

Espy came up with a theory, the directors and by exchange this strange Chauffer and maybe even the devadoots wanted something from these unique fighters and the Tournament was simply a means to gather them. This would explain the rule that no contestant is allowed to be accepted to another tournament. It was an efficient way to explain why they didn’t need people that they’ve already obtained what they needed from. Although he didn’t need to be so apocalyptic, it could also be that the Tournament itself was still the main objective and the things they’re collecting from the contestants is just a side benefit. What sort of conspiratorial nonsense was he talking about, he needed some more coffee.

Espy made his way back to the bags of stale coffee beans to make himself another drink. The coffee tasted awful, probably due to the fact that these beans were most likely centuries old but Espy could not waste time going to the surface. Sadly, and also confusingly, the bags were empty. There were enough bags to last and entire family half a year how was it empty? Espy decided to cast a small scrying spell to check what day it was and to Espy’s bafflement it had actually been half a year!

Espy decided to leave the basement for the first time in six months. He had no idea that he had spent so long down there. He had only ever slept a dozen or so times, perhaps his body enhancing magic was more potent than he thought. It was probably the healthy decision to leave that place, stretch some limbs, get some coffee, ask Mark some questions.

Mark nearly jumped out of his seat when he saw Espy approach him. “My goodness you’re alive?” Espy certainly didn’t look alive, his strong build was betrayed by pale skin which hadn’t seen daylight in months and the heavy dark bags under his eyes. His clothes were disheveled, his shirt was partly untucked from his pants and his vest seemed to decide which buttons to be buttoned at random. His hair was a bird’s nest striking out in every direction.

Espy’s bloodshot eyes flinched at the harsh sound of Mark speaking, the actual contents of what he said barely registering in his mind as he stared at the cup of coffee on his superior’s desk. Espy spoke with a heavy slur that made it rather difficult for Mark to even understand. “Is that coffee?”

Mark’s usually annoyed glare shifted to genuine concern as he saw the damage that he had inflicted to this once spry young man. “Yes, it is.”

“Thank you.” Espy spoke in a near whisper as he took the cup off Mark’s desk and began drinking it. Mark couldn’t even respond, he didn’t know how to, an intern just stole his coffee! Mark was about the berate the boy on his insubordination but was stopped cold by the sight of pure bliss on Espy’s face. Espy let out a satisfied sigh and spoke. “Real coffee.” There was almost a sense of loving in his voice and Espy followed his words by kissing the warm cup in his hands.

Mark was afraid of the answer, but he had to ask anyway. “Espy, are you okay? Where have you been.”

Espy’s eyes widened excitedly as if someone had just asked a question regarding his lifelong career. “Oh I was reorganizing the legacy files as you told me to. I wasn’t able to finish, frankly I think it may be literally impossible given the state of things. Speaking of which. I have some questions regar-“

Mark quickly interrupted Espy before he could get too lost in his monologue. “Espy I can barely understand a word you’re saying with that lisp. Go take a nap in the staff lounge or something. Here, if you really have a desperate need to work then you can mull over the list of contestants for the next Tournament, we just got it last week. Give it a look over, but only after you sleep got it?”

Espy had so many questions but a nap was too tempting an offer to deny. He quickly made his way over to the lounge and his eyes were greeted with the most welcoming couch he had ever seen. He could already see the jumping sheep, a floating collection of z’s emanating from the couch. Similarly, the list of contestants was burning a hole in his pocket, Mark had said to only look at it after his nap but how could he sleep with his curiosity being tugged as it was. He pulled out the list and read it.

His mind was swimming. There were both devadoots and previous contestants invited to this Tournament! Though the noumenon was invited again as a previous winner the three-armed dragon was not? And the white witch was invited to the Tournament even though she was explicitly avoided in previous Tournaments!

Beyond all of the outlandish contradictions with every rule and regulation he had just come to familiarize himself with there were also the normal anxiety inducing things like his best friend Picayune being invited to the Tournament. Espy looked at the inviting couch just a few steps away from him, then his head turned and he saw a steaming pot of coffee.

Espy found himself in Mark’s office, his body sort of just moved on his own. He did want to nap on that couch but he grabbed the coffee instead and made his way back here. Espy rapidly spoke before Mark could question why he was back so soon. “Mark what is with this list? Why are there devadoots and why wasn’t the three-armed dragon invited? Is he not considered useful anymore? What even is the Tournament? I just need a few things explained to me. Could I speak with Empedocles or even better if I could just have a few moments with this Chauffer guy please?”

Mark stared at Espy in utter confusion while defensively protecting his new cup of coffee. “Listen Espy, just relax, you’re an intern. I know you want to work hard and show the big boss up high that you’re a big boy and deserve to be hired for real but you’ve already reached the point where no one doubts your dedication or ambition. Just calm down, do as you’re told, and don’t ask questions.”

“but.”

“Don’t ask questions.” Mark waited for Espy to retort but when he saw the boy’s spirit broken he happily continued. “Now if you want real work then I need you to develop meal plans for the contestants. We want them to feel comfortable when they visit our arena and that means satisfying their stomach no matter how strange the diet.”

Espy was heartbroken but he knew he couldn’t get any answers now. He was promptly banned from entering the basement and forced to have a healer see if he was poisoned by the old coffee. Once Espy was considered fit to work again he was set into motion doing relatively minor jobs here and there. He even had time to resume his studies, he had a lot of catching up to do but everything felt trivial in comparison to what he had recently discovered. Also he felt very uncomfortable being at Ersatz university because he didn’t want to bump into Picayune, he couldn’t look his friend in the eye with the knowledge he held. But his interest in school had greatly diminished anyway, he found a new interest in finding the time to barrage Mark with pleas to speak with the Chauffer or Empedocles, pleas which were always rejected.

Espy also had many questions he wanted to ask Professor Ream but he never found the chance with Picayune often being nearby.

Eventually Espy found his moment. The Tournament was finally one month away and invitations would be handed out soon to the sixty four candidates. Espy would become very busy and unable to participate in research groups anymore so he would have to hand in his final research paper. Truthfully speaking the paper he had ready for Professor Ream under any other circumstance would have been his magnum opus, the greatest discovery he would ever make and would change the way magic was viewed by the world forever; despite this he couldn’t find any excitement in himself for it.

Espy waited outside of Professor Ream’s office when the door opened and one of the king’s attendants angrily stormed off. Well that was another question that nibbled at Espy’s curiosity, but he was filled up already on questions to ask.

Espy entered the professor’s office and as usual was accosted by an unparalleled cacophony of extravagance and flamboyance. The professor really did love his intricate carvings and trinkets and had no limit of people willing to donate him gifts for his attention. Despite this Espy knew that for some unknown reason it was that rotten gnarled crossbow sitting on a shelf to the side of his room that was the professor’s favorite gift. Espy never understood what the professor saw in that thing, there was nothing unique or grand about the crossbow other than maybe at one time it was of better than average make. It was clear that whatever this crossbow was it must have once belonged to Forgo Miff whose massive portrait painting was displayed above the crossbow in a golden frame. Espy never took professor Ream as the sentimental type but then here he was.

"My goodness, Espy you look awful.” Professor Ream exclaimed as Espy entered the room. Espy could not even see his professor through all the smoke in the room and the second Espy took a breath he was inundated with a fit of coughs. “What are they doing to you over there?”

Espy took control of his lungs while cycling through all the questions he needed to ask when his professor’s words finally registered in his mind. “What? Oh sorry, I’ve been running around a lot these past few days. There’s been a lot to do but I’m nearly done now. The tournament corporation has been keeping me busy.”

Espy tried to give a smile but it came out wholly unconvincing. While pretending to smile as if everything was under control his mind ran over all the ways it wasn’t. “Oh crap! I still haven’t submitted the One-armed dragon’s dietary plan to Mark! I need to do that when I get back.” He was sad to admit it, but he found himself so pre-occupied in trying to put all the information from the storage together that he was beginning to lag behind on his usual duties.

Professor Ream manipulated his magic through his pipe to cast a spell on Espy to calm and relax him. A much-appreciated boost, one which reminded him that it had been almost an hour since he last had a coffee.

Espy felt bad that he was confronting his professor in such an obviously weak-willed state but he hadn’t the time or energy to be picky. He quickly pushed forward with their conversation. “Sorry, just have a lot on my mind, it’s super exciting to be working for the tournament corporation the year of The Tournament, but it is really stressful as well. I just wanted to hand in my assignment on theoretical cabalistic abrogation early because I won’t be here when its due.”

Professor Ream happily took the thick booklet from Espy. “Thank you Espy, I can always count on a good read from you.”

Espy managed to feebly speak “Thank you, sir.” as doubts began to corrupt his mind. Maybe he shouldn’t torment his professor with his insane mutterings. What if he brings back passed traumas? Espy turned around about to leave without asking any of his questions but steeled his will and turned back. “You were in the fifth Tournament last century, right?”

Espy was relieved to see that the professor did not act negatively in any discernable way as he spoke. “Well, mentioning how many years it has been was unnecessary, you’ll hurt my old ears. But yes, I was in the fifth Tournament. Those were exciting times.”

Espy chose to carefully continue with his line of questioning. “Your Tournament title was... The Apprentice?” The professor’s sudden outburst of noise had initially scared Espy, but once his tired mind identified it as laughter he relaxed.

The professor merrily entertained his strange student’s questioning. “Yes, that’s right, it has been a little while since I’ve heard anyone refer to me as an apprentice of any sort though.”

But now was the time for the real questions. “What were the arenas like?”

“They were fairly large-“

Espy quickly corrected his previous statement. He wasn’t sure if the professor was purposefully misinterpreting the question but Espy had already decided to commit. “no, I mean the private areas for the contestants. How were the directors? Did they ever ask you strange questions, did they make you take a test?”

Professor Ream previously jovial attitude relented a little as he took Espy’s questions a little more seriously. A good sign Espy thought, but professor Ream’s answer was not so helpful. “Well, I never visited all of the arenas, nor did I even meet all of the directors of the arenas I did go to. But the directors never made me take any test.”

His answer seemed so dismissive, was Espy being paranoid, was it just him that thought the professor’s word choice seemed strange. He decided to push the matter. Enough was enough and Espy had deemed it about time he got some answers. “Did you take tests?”

Any illusion of a cordial student speaking to his teacher had completely dissipated and Ream had paused for an uncomfortable time before answering in a distinctly lower register. “No, I did not.”

The answer surprised Espy, his leading theory was that the unique contestants were posed with some kind of test in that schedule blank but perhaps he was wrong. Then it hit him, maybe it was the reverse, there was still a test but Espy was thinking of it the wrong way. To test his new theory he asked again. “Did someone else?”

Espy was waiting with bated breath, he felt so close to attaining some kind of answer, to take even a tiny step towards the truth. Then Ream spoke. “Espy… I have a class I need to teach now.”

Espy mind had blanked, he was waiting so absolutely on an answer to his question that when Ream spoke the way he did Espy could not understand how it fit into the equation. Espy’s brain spun through hundreds of simulations of how Ersatz university fit into the conspiracy. Then it suddenly dawned on him that Ream was not answering his question but dismissing it. “O-oh of course. Surely you are very busy, sorry for taking up so much time.”

“No, no. It’s of no hindrance. I always enjoy speaking with you Espy. It’s just that I have my duty to attend.”

Embarrassed by his train of thought Espy was ready to end the interrogation as well. “of course, of course. I will see myself out first then.”. He gave the professor a respectful bow then quickly turned around and walked out of the room.

He pondered over their conversation and realized that it was not a total waste. Ream’s refusal to answer was in itself a sort of answer. The question was what answer. Was it that yes someone did have some kind of auxiliary test aside from the Tournament itself? If so who? Or was it that the answer was no but Espy was unknowingly getting close to a different answer that he hadn’t quite caught onto yet.

“Esp!” Just the sound of his nickname pierced into his self-query and dragged his attention up to see Picayune. He could not help but feel happy and relieved to see his friend but then he was reminded of the Tournament. He wanted to just turn around and leave, avoid the confrontation entirely but when his best friend opened his arm wide, Espy’s heavy soul could not hold back and took it. The two embraced in a strong heavy hug.

Such a menial thing somehow just sapped so much stress and tension from Espy and for a short moment he forgot about everything else. “Good to see you Yune! What is up, how are you?”

Picayune happily replied “I’m doing great Esp, we just finished giving Patsy a brief tour of Proselyte’s wild market district.”

Another soft feminine voice resounded from beside Picayune. “And, next time you meet your sister, let her know that Picayune already has a girlfriend.” The startling new voice drew his attention and Espy only then noticed that Picayune’s girlfriend Belabor was there the whole time.

Espy couldn’t help but stifle a laugh at his own deteriorating mental faculties but quickly responded to her hoping that neither of the two noticed. “Patsy has always been fond of you Yune, but I hope you can still help her out every now and then since she’s never been the most…”

“She’s very awkward yes.” The three gave in to silly giggles at the curt response.

Picayune was the first to break the giggling with another question. “Anyways Esp, how’s work with the tournament corporation? Invitations should be coming out soon right?”

With that simple question it all came back, the weight of his knowledge bearing down on him. It felt like a deadly anchor that he could not escape from. A burden he could not share with Picayune. Espy tried his best to give a dismissive answer. “It is such a mess Yune, I can’t say much because I’m under a nondisclosure agreement right-“

“Sure.”

“-But there has been a lot to do and it’s… it’s just weird. I can’t really get into it.”

Picayune nodded his head in understanding. “Sounds pretty rough, but I guess that’s what comes with the most prestigious job in the world. Just make sure to save some front row seats for us.”

Espy was petrified by Picayune’s comment. His best friend joking amicably completely oblivious to the fact that he won’t be in the front row seat but in the field. Picayune seemed to notice Espy’s reaction and tried to comfort him but none of the words managed to break Espy’s mental stupor.

It was Belabor who finally managed to break Espy out of his stasis when she said “Maybe he can’t get you a ticket Picayune since you’ll actually be invited to the tournament. You can beat the hero of New Heirisson conquest.”

Espy couldn’t hold back his terror at how accurate her comment had just been. She seemed to notice as well. “NO.WAY. Picayune WAS invited to the tournament!? That’s insane! Congratulations Picay!”

Belabor was overjoyed by the news embracing Picayune in a deep hug and loving kiss but Picayune was much more knowledgeable of the world and the scale of power within it. Picayune understood the gravity of the statement. Whereas Belabor saw his name on a list, Picayune saw his odds of surviving on a list. Picayune forced some pathetic optimism to fumble out of his mouth “That’s great, maybe instead of asking Ken to get the autograph for me I can just ask the hero himself after he beats me.”

Espy was riddled with guilt as the two pair of defeated eyes met each other. Espy could only give out a weak “Sorry…. Sorry I have to get back to work.” Before walking off.

Espy felt horrible for the next couple hours. He returned to the arena of Empedocles and continued his work in a half comatose haze. Finally Espy collected himself and decided to confront Mark one more time. Maybe he could change something, maybe he could cancel the Tournament with how many rules were being broken in it.

Espy opened the door to Mark’s office without even knocking and declared. “Mark, I have some important answers that I need to get from the Chauffer. I know I’m just an intern, but this is important, and I think the Chauffer would want to know if the Tournament got side tracked this badly I-“

Mark’s eyes were growing larger and larger as Espy continued to speak before finally he couldn’t stand any longer and interrupted Espy with his own declaration. “Espy you are going to drop this. Believe it or not Espy I actually like you. You were a bit annoying at first, but you’ve come to grow on me. But you have to keep in mind that the Tournament Corporation is a machine. Each member a cog that does its part and that is all, no less, no more. Part of my job is to report on what the people who work under me are doing so I have been mentioning that you want to meet with the big boys. They have been listening Espy, and you don’t want them to be listening.”

Espy was overjoyed for a second but his hopes were crashed with that last sentence. Mark continued to speak. “People are starting to hear you Espy, and they’re starting to notice you and not in the good way. I would seriously advise you to keep your head down and appreciate the job you have or else-“

Mark was interrupted by the chime of a bell and his face paled. Espy recognized what the bell chime meant and then all of his concerns disappeared, the Chauffer was here and they could finally straighten things out. Espy faced the small pink rhombus, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes.

Espy couldn’t wait for the Chauffer to finish its movement and exclaimed. “Thank you so much for coming Chauffer. I’ve been going through all the legacy files and discovered some things I think you’ll want to hear about.”

The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with two limbs. One limb was outstretched towards Espy and holding a glowing parchment and the other towards Mark holding a normal piece of paper. Mark took the paper with a confused look, he read it and spoke out confused. “Well I wasn’t expecting this, It’s a revised list of the Tournament contestants.”. Espy grabbed the glowing parchment that the Chauffer pointed at him: It read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are the Obstacle