Three days before the Bellirex began, Mattiew confirmed the greatest feat of construction in all of Veyshtar was the Great Gridiron of Shai’tar, the sacred arena where the tournament would be held.

At least, most of it. An infamous reputation surrounding the organizers and a tendency to spring trials and challenges on the contestants at random put Mattiew on edge. The eerie clay masks that every organizer wore did no favors to quell his unease.

From the outside, the arena looked like any other monument in Veyshtar, with a blocky, sun-baked exterior that slanted upwards similar to an Alazarite pyramid, minus the pointed top. The interior was a massive rectangular sandpit with rows upon rows of seating stacked on top of each other.

Mattiew and Adriana waited for Alo’aharu to do their part of the registration for the tournament.

He felt Adriana’s grip on his hand tighten as the masked organizers tested Alo’aharu’s mana density.

Mattiew only had to give his name to register. It was Dakkar and Alo’aharu who underwent any kind of real tests and registration as his Kingmaker and General.

As the two of them waited, Mattiew couldn’t help trying to process just how big everything was. The streets outside the arena were thrice the size of Cudean ones and the most basic buildings towered over the King’s Archive in Mattiew’s homeland.

Nightborn of species he’d never heard of roamed the city and interacted with humans without an inkling of hesitation. Veyshtar was just as much the Nightborn epicenter of the world as the hub for human culture.

“Mattiew!” Adriana hissed, “Look!”

Mattiew followed Adriana’s gaze to a young, but imperious noblewoman who with someone far less interesting than the gold-adorned skeleton man that stood at her side, an unwieldy curved sword at his hip.

“Is that...some kind of Nightborn?” Mattiew asked.

“That’s Annoub, the Imperishable.” Adriana said, “A king from the ancient cities of the Alazarite desert.”

“Hold on, that man's been resurrected from the dead?” Mattiew asked.

“Annoub had already cheated death before the Eight Emperors were born. He and his undead legions helped turn the tide in a battle that resulted in the death of a god. They were all destroyed in the process.” Mattiew probably would’ve learned about this in school if he hadn’t dropped out.

“If he was a skeleton before then, how is he here?” Mattiew asked.

“You really know nothing about the Bellirex, do you?”

“I know what I know.”

“Each Bellirex contestant has to summon an ancient Champion from humanity’s past to guide them in the ways of kingship and help them fight.”

“Hold up. Then why has no one talked about that with me? How are we going to...y’know…” Mattiew stopped himself from saying ‘fake it’ in public.

“You don’t need to be a sorcerer to do the ritual. But contestants are given the ritual after they make it through the preliminaries. Those who already have Champions paid a lot of money for the secret and are extremely confident or have done this before.” Adriana said.

“There are people who’ve done this more than once?” Mattiew could hear the quickening thumps of his heart in his ears. At the very least, people could make it out of the tournament alive.

“There are some you could call Bellirex veterans. The woman with Annoub at her side is Lady Maera Diamedes. Her house specializes in necromantic sorcery. I hear she’s over two hundred years old.”

“How many Bellirexes is that?”

Adriana pursed her lips. “Around twenty?”

Mattiew let out a low whistle. “I am so fucked.”

Adriana squeezed his hand. “If all she’s been fighting are powerful sorcerers for the last two hundred years, she won’t be expecting you. Besides, she’s apparently getting married in the middle of the tournament. A lovely distraction for you to take advantage of.”

“Why?” Mattiew said. “And why after two hundred years?”

“Every noble has to get hitched at some point. As for doing it in the middle of the tournament, old superstitions? Some nobles think getting married during the Bellirex will give their children more powerful abilities.

Mattiew scoffed.

“Are you entering the Bellirex for the first time?” A voice from Mattiew’s left asked.

Mattiew glanced up at an Alazarite man with dark skin, a head of styled black hair, and dressed head to toe in layered lamellar armor. He was straight-backed, but had relaxed shoulders.

Behind him stood a Nightborn woman with four arms, skin made of green scales and a snake tail in the place of legs.

“No offense, but you look about as out of place here as I do.” the man grinned, “There’s a certain malicious intent lacking in your glare. Those three have been trying to figure out how to kill you for at least ten minutes.”

Mattiew followed the man’s finger to a group of noblewomen who looked away the moment he caught sight of them.

“Do I know you?” Mattiew asked.

“Name’s Khemti Sett.” He put his hands on his hips and jabbed his thumb back at the snake woman. “That’s my Kingmaker, Senna.”

“Excuse my king’s boorishness.” Senna bowed her head.

“Mattiew Nikoliades. This is my wife, Adriana.”

“A pleasure,” Adriana smiled.

“And my Kingmaker.” Mattiew pointed at Alo’aharu as they returned from the density test.

“Alo’aharu.” The elemental’s voice echoed.

“Ancient Kings, your Kingmaker’s an Arcane Elemental?” Khemti chuckled, “You got lucky.”

“I...suppose.” Mattiew muttered.

“Good meeting you.” Khemti said. “Here’s hoping you make it past the Preliminaries. No one seems able to get a read on you, so I’m eager to see you in action.”

Mattiew watched as the princeling left. “What’s with him?”

“I’ll bet my front teeth he’s tried to make the new and naive contestants trust him before the tournament starts. Then he has a number of meat shields to throw in front of an enemy.” Adriana narrowed her eyes.

“Matty, catch.” Dakkar tossed something to Mattiew.

He caught a papyrus scroll. “A love letter? How sweet.”

“The schedule for the tournament, ass. Or at least, what they’re willing to give away.”

Mattiew opened the scroll as Adriana, Alo’aharu, and Dakkar huddled around him.

“Three days from now, they’ll host the preliminary round.” Dakkar said, “I asked around and failed to find out anything about specifics. These tournament organizers have a real hard-on for surprises.”

“So they intend to cull the numbers in one sweep and I have to go in blind. Great.” Mattiew frowned, “What are these Trials? Trial of Passion, Trial of Humility, and whatnot.”

“The Bellirex is paced by eight different trials that, if you do well in, can earn you a bye or advantage in the next bracket.” Adriana explained, “They weed out all the people who would be terrible leaders and lesser fighters. The last few trials are more combat and competition oriented. Finding the best of the best.”

“If that’s everything, I’ve got three days to figure out how I’ll hold my own against the most powerful sorcerers in the world.” Mattiew said. “Let’s go.”

Mattiew turned to leave the arena. Someone’s shoulder bash into him as they passed through his group.

“Hey, watch yourself,” Mattiew said. “Bludgeoning through people doesn’t make a good first impression.”

A woman with dark skin, striking silver hair, and tattoos all across her face turned to face him. A pair of emerald green eyes looked him up and down.

Mattiew didn’t even need to be a sorcerer to feel the tingle of mana density coming off her. She was a small woman, but she held herself as though a Nightdweller walked in her shadow.

She glared at Mattiew. “And why should I care about the opinion of a common ape?”

But for all the presence she carried, Mattiew had no intention to put up with arrogant sorcerers. “You’d best think again about who you cross, little noble girl.”

“It is you who must reassess your audacity.” The woman’s stare pierced, but never broke through to anger. “Lest you run into unforeseen consequences.” The woman raised her open palm as a tiny ball of light sparked into being.

Mattiew took a step back from the wave of heat that surfed across his skin, but shifted his weight, ready to make her regret threatening him.

Adriana clutched at his arm and held him back.

“Semiramis.”

A willowy man with a wispy black beard and short hair, dressed in a multicolor Veshtari robe, put a hand on the sorceress’s shoulder.

“You will have plenty of time to engage your enemies in the tournament.” the man said.

The light in Semiramis’s palm extinguished as she closed her fist. “You’ve a lot of nerve, Abil.”

“My apologies.” Abil ignored Semiramis and bowed his head to Mattiew before walking off with the sorceress.

Mattiew stared after them. Something didn’t feel right in his chest.

“So much power…” Alo’aharu released a quivering breath.

“How...how did she know about you?” Dakkar whispered.

Mattiew felt a tight squeeze on his arm from Adriana, whose every muscle was full of tension.

“Semiramis...” Adriana’s voice trembling.

Mattiew looked at his wife with a furrowed brow. “You know her?”

“That was Semiramis the Sun Killer. Avoid her in the preliminaries. At all costs. If you fight her, you will die.”

***

Adriana stepped into a musky, candle-lit room made of limestone and dirt as a large wine rack sealed the entrance behind her.

The cellar of the Callione house was connected to all sorts of secret passages through the old sewer systems of Veyshtar. This room was just one of many that her parents’ cohorts had no knowledge of.

The dim candles lit a small wooden table, around which stood seven cloaked men and women, each a representative of the various factions under the Callione House’s covert network. From gang members to assassins, all kinds of agents now served the Nikoliades house.

Adriana projected the most commanding voice she could. “You know why we’re here. It’s no secret that I have a personal vendetta against my father. You all have your reasons for betraying the house lord. But if we’re to turn House Callione against its patriarch, we need reasons to appeal to our potential recruits. Let me hear your ideas.”

The cloaked agents looked at one another.

Lagopis then spoke up. “Pardon me, Lady Nikoliades, but...we believe that this issue should be tackled one group at a time. Not all will respond the same way to any given argument.”

Adriana went a bit red in the face, but nodded. She wished she had more experience in these sorts of things. But feeling amateurish was a mere taste of the daunting tasks Mattiew had to face.

“Go ahead, then.” She said.

Lagopis nodded. “Andromeda?”

A woman stiffened her posture as she readied to speak, the hood of her cloak pulled far over her eyes.

“Within the Callione House, we have identified three primary factions that will be major players in subverting power within the family.” Andromeda began. “First and foremost are the rest of us covert agents, led by the family Spymaster. He and the other agents will likely respond to arguments for better leadership. The Callione network is unwieldy and we agents see that better than anyone.”

“So what do you suppose I should say?” Adriana asked. “That they’ll be better off in my hands? I won’t be around forever.”

“It would be ideal to find a candidate to transfer power to, if you do not intend to take up power yourself.” Andromeda said. “If we can find someone with decent managerial skills and an understanding of intrigue, we can convince the hesitant ones to side with us.”

Adriana nodded. “I’ll give it some thought. One of my cousins would probably do the trick.”

“As you say,” Andromeda bowed. “The next faction is the house staff. Servants, butlers, cooks, handmaids. All led by the Head Maid. Getting them on our side will give us eyes and ears all throughout the house without needing to plant agents domestically.”

“What’s your suggestion for strategy?”

“Many of the serving folk are poor and indentured to the Calliones.” Andromeda said. “Promise to erase their debt, promise them better working conditions, anything will do. Though I would advise against more radical changes and attempt a solution that won’t put the house in financial shambles.”

Adriana nodded. “Understood. If we can get one of the house accountants on our side, we could ask them.”

“The third and most challenging faction to persuade is also the most powerful. The guard. The House’s private military force. They are the only ones with any martial power and, if persuaded, would allow us to put our plans into motion almost immediately.”

Adriana felt a little bloom of excitement sprout in her chest. Immediately? The guard would make things that easy?

“Aside from a few guardsmen sympathetic to you personally, there is very little we can offer the guards in order to persuade them to our side. Andar pays them well. Any further increase would both be unnecessary to the individual guards and send waves through the house’s finances. And I doubt they will take threats well.”

As Andromeda explained the situation, Adriana’s mind racked for something the house could offer those guardsmen.

Eventually, Adriana cut Andromeda off. “Let’s put the guardsmen issue to bed right now. The agents and the staff are two factions who I think we can persuade pretty easily.”

“As you wish.” Andromeda said.

But Adriana couldn’t just hold off on the guardsmen. Even if they got the two other factions, the guardsmen were the determining factor of the success of her plan.

And the longer she took to get them on her side, the longer Mattiew’s life would be in danger.

“There is one other matter of importance, Lady Nikoliades.” Lagopis spoke up. “Relating to the other contestants of this tournament and their...networks.”

“We don’t need to worry about that.” Adriana waved the issue away. “The more chaos, the better.”

“Pardon me, but I must disagree.” Lagopis kept his eyes on the ground as he spoke against her.

“Lift your eye, Lagopis. Why do you say that?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Spies will not hesitate to exploit both sides of our conflict. And more often than not, espionage levied against this house will target your husband, as he is the one fighting. To invite such characters into the inner workings of our coup may invite disaster at the same time.”

Adriana bit her lip. Lagopis was right. But should she divert so much of her attention to outside forces when the inside was so hectic? Was it worth it to slow the advancement of their plans?

“What do you suggest?” Adriana asked Lagopis.

He shrugged. “I am not sure myself, my lady. It is only a chance, but a risk that should be considered nonetheless.”

“I...will think on this,” Adriana said. “Keep a small force on the lookout for outside influence until then.”

“As you command, my lady.” Lagopis bowed.

“We’re done here.” Adriana licked her finger and extinguished the candle before her by pinching it, returning her to the shadows. The agents followed suit until only darkness remained in the chamber.