They fell silent as the Tinkerers on stage got to work. After several minutes, Tilly got to work. Alison started about five minutes later. She was one of the last people to begin carving.

It was difficult to see exactly what the competitors were doing on the stage. Angel quickly made his mind up that Tinkering tournaments were a horrible decision, as it mostly felt like sitting around and watching a bunch of people stare at a pile of scrap.

“Why don’t they just have people make their stuff before the tournament?” Angel complained in a low whisper. “Surely they could send some judges to watch over the competitors so nobody cheated. This feels pointlessly long.”

“It’s to prove that there isn’t any chance of foul play,” Vanessa replied. “Since we can see everything they’re doing, we know that it’s actually them that made the artifact.”

“I can think of a dozen ways to cheat right now,” Angel said. “There could be someone in the crowd using a short range communication device to give them advice. I don’t see any protective runes on the stage to interfere with it.”

Vanessa shrugged. “It’s just how things are done, I guess. Why didn’t you participate, anyways? I’m sure you could have done well.”

“Because I want to see what the girls can do. Even if it apparently means sitting here doing nothing for an hour.”

They fell silent once again. Angel squinted at the stage, doing his best to figure out what was going on. He spotted several people making what he was pretty sure were little more than modified canister launchers.

Alison and Tilly’s designs were both too far from complete for him to put a finger on exactly what they were doing. After a few minutes, Alison raised her hand and got Vonty’s attention. He wandered over to her and she said something that Angel couldn’t hear.

Vonty looked taken aback. He scratched his head, then eventually nodded. Alison got back to work with a small grin.

An hour passed without anything of interest. All of the Tinkerers made significant progress on their constructs. Some people started to finish up, setting their work down on the table before them and starting to examine it for any flaws they might have missed.

With every passing minute, more competitors set their work down. Tilly finished around the middle of the pack. She’d made what looked to be a rough gauntlet from her parts. It didn’t cover her entire hand and was held together by a wire mesh. Tilly had made plating with pieces of scrap metal and lines of magic ran along it, coming from the power source at the back.

Alison had followed something of a similar approach to the structure, but she looked to be far behind. She’d also created a wire mesh, but there were no plates or other components connected to it yet.

“About half of the competitors have finished their products,” Vonty called, rubbing his beard. “I’m seeing a lot of gauntlets. We’ve gathered some standard issue canisters with fire magic for the purposes of testing them. I’m quite eager to see how much damage they do. As a reminder, there’s only one hour left for our Tinkerers to finish up their work. Let’s hope they can all finish before the time runs out!”

Minutes ticked by and tension started to rise. Tilly finalized her checkup of the gauntlet and nodded confidently, cracking her neck and glancing back at Alison.

Not counting her, there were only two Tinkerers left that had yet to finish. Low murmurs started in the crowd as people started to try and guess who might win.

One of the three finished a short while later, leaving Alison and a thin, gangly Tinkerer as the last two remaining people working.

“There are now ten minutes left,” Vonty said. “Let’s hope they’re taking longer because their artifacts are really complicated.”

A few chuckles rose up from the crowd, but people did their best to follow Vonty’s request for silence. Angel gripped the armrests of his chair, leaning forward subconsciously as time ran out.

The gangly Tinkerer put his artifact, which resembled a boxy dagger, down and slapped his hands on the table with a relieved sigh. Everyone’s eyes fell on Alison. If she noticed it, she gave no sign.

Her scribe continued dancing across the surface of her artifact. She’d added the power source to the side, but the wire mesh was still completely bare.

“There’s one minute remaining,” Vonty said. “I might have to start counting down the second–”

Alison put the gauntlet down and stepped back from the table. Vonty blinked, then clapped his hands.

“And it looks like she’s finished! That’s everyone, so we can finally get on to the next part. Feel free to cheer, scream, or whatever you’d like! There is no longer a need for silence. Go on, get it out of you.”

The crowd yelled in approval. Several assistants climbed onto the stage bearing white and red targets covered with runes. They set them up along the edge of the stage.

“These targets have been runed to withstand incredible impact,” Vonty explained once the crowd quieted down. “Each competitor will demonstrate the strength of their weapon by using it to attack one of the targets. The judges will either give a thumbs up or a thumbs down. I’m sure you can imagine what those mean. Now, would anyone like to volunteer to go first?”

A heavyset Tinkerer pushed his way up to the targets. He’d made a weapon roughly in the shape of a staff, with the power source at the top and runes running down the shaft. “I’ll go.”

“Help yourself, Teggron. Let’s skip the formalities, so go ahead and give your weapon a shot. Do you need a cannister to use your weapon?”

“No.” Teggron aimed the staff at a target and adjusted his grip on it. A beam of yellow energy gathered at its tip and seared into the target like a beam of sunlight. Smoke rose from the surface and the Tinkerer held the beam for several seconds before the light blinked out.

“An impressive weapon!” Vonty exclaimed. “Let’s see what the judges think.”

The five men and women leaned in and whispered amongst each other for a minute. Two of them raised their hands in approval, while the other three all gave thumbs down. Teggron’s mouth dropped open.

“You’re full of shit! My weapon could burn a man alive in seconds!” Teggron roared, waving it around.

“If you’ve got complaints about the judging, you may bring it up with the Molten Ridges city council,” Vonty said with practiced ease.

Teggron growled, but he spun and stormed off the stage. Vonty cleared his throat and extended his hands. “Alright, then. Who’s next?”

Several Tinkerers stepped forward. None of them looked perturbed by Teggron’s disappointing defeat. However, the next few all received similar or worse ratings. One man’s artifact didn’t even work at all, netting him zero approvals.

Some of the weapons used canisters, while others ran on the user’s magic or the power source. It didn’t seem to matter what the Tinkerers chose – none of them got above three thumbs up.

Soon, only five people had yet to go. The thin man that had finished right before Alison stepped up to the targets.

“What do you have for us, Alister? If I recall correctly, you placed second in the tournament last year,” Vonty said.

“Magic modifier,” Alister replied, holding up a claw shaped apparatus. “It amplifies the pressure in a canister, then releases it in a thin stream to maximize the damage. It mixes my own magic with that of the canister.”

He fitted a canister into it and aimed the tool at one of the targets. The claws punched into the canister and energy sparked around it. A ray of flame shot out of the end, searing into the target. It burned a hole clean through the runed metal and punched into the stage on the other side, setting it on fire.

Alister shut the artifact off and Vonty ran over to the fire, stomping it out.

“I can do that two more times if I had more magical energy,” Alister said. “This design isn’t optimized yet. If I had more time, I could have done it three.”

“Very impressive,” Vonty said. “Although I’m afraid this will have to be judged on what you’ve shown, not what it’s potential is.”

“That’s understandable,” Alister said.

The judges didn’t take long to come to a conclusion. Four thumbs rose up into the air in approval. Cheers rippled through the crowd.

“That’s a high score, all right,” Vonty exclaimed. “Let’s see if anyone can tie it up – or maybe even beat him. There are still four Tinkerers left, after all!”

A woman approached the targets and tested her weapon, but she only got two judges to approve. Before someone could take the next spot, Tilly stepped up, donning her glove.

“You’re one of the youngest contestants we’ve ever had, Tilly,” Vonty said. “Someone must have a lot of faith in you. What do you have for us, and does it need a canister?”

“It’s a gauntlet that saves residual energy,” Tilly said, pride in her tone. “It’s something I’ve been working on a while as a side project for Magistrate Dalliah, and I realized that the pattern could be applied in a weapon.”

“Saving residual energy?” Vonty asked, raising an eyebrow. He handed her a canister. “Interesting. Let’s see it, then.”

Tilly fitted it into the gauntlet and aimed at the targets. A fireball launched from her palm and struck one, sending a plume of smoke up. Another fireball fired. And another. And another. A total of ten blasts shot from her gauntlet. By the end, a thick cloud of smoke hung over the targets.

“That’s something else,” Vonty murmured. “Very impressive, Tilly. I’ve never seen so many spells come from a single canister. Let’s check in with the–”

Before he could finish, four of the judges raised their thumbs in approval, tying Tilly with Alister. There was a moment of silence, followed by a deluge of cheers from the crowd. Tilly flushed.

Once they’d calmed down, everyone’s gazes went to the last two remaining contestants – Alison and an older man. The older man went first, drawing out a decent three thumbs up with his device.

And then it was Alison’s turn. She walked up to the targets nervously, slipping the gauntlet on nervously.

“And last but not least, Alison. You cut it a bit close there, didn’t you?” Vonty asked with a chuckle. “You’re our other youngest contestant, if you hadn’t guessed. I’m excited to see just what you can do. What does your artifact do?”

“It’s just an energy cannon,” Alison said and raised her arm. A few seconds passed. She lowered it and cleared her throat. “Could you move? You’re a little too close to the targets.”

Vonty blinked. “I’m not even close to them.”

Alison stared at him. The announcer shrugged and walked behind Alison. “Is this fine?”

“It is. Thank you.” Alison lifted her hand again. A dull hum rose from the gauntlet. The power source flared and red light gathered at her fingertips. With a muted thud, a pulse of energy leapt from her gauntlet with such force that the metal mesh ripped apart.

The energy slammed into a target and exploded. A brilliant flash blinded Angel and a shockwave washed over the first row, blowing Angel’s hair back. It took several seconds for the ringing in his ears to fade away and his vision to return.

There was nothing left of Alison’s target but molten slag. Her artifact hadn’t done much better. She pulled the shattered remains of the gauntlet off and examined them with a critical eye. Vonty’s mouth hung so wide open that Angel could have tossed an apple into it.