With the sudden flood of light, the surroundings were revealed. In the distance, thousands of tightly packed things were moving up and down. These ‘things’ were split between elated and devastated, throwing their arms up in victory or shaking them angrily because of their defeat. At this same time even more lights came to life, illuminating a large circular tunnel at each of the cardinal directions. Seeing this change, Sage quickly kicked his feet, sending him shooting towards the closest of these tunnels. He swam towards the circular tunnel while keeping aware of the behemoth he was just in conflict with. There was another loud boom and a cloud of red spread into the water on the other side of the monster.

As he got closer to the tunnel it became far more obvious what all those moving things were. The faces of thousands of people looked down at him from their space in a sea of seats. The tunnel he moved towards was positioned just beneath row after row of tight packed chairs which were at this time mostly filled with people of every shape, size, and color. There was another loud boom but this time the others seem to have learned their lesson and there was no spray of gore.

Sage swam into the tunnel and two others followed behind him, but they all shared a glance and then moved down the tunnel without any further interference. The tunnel carried out for some distance before abruptly pointing straight up. They all turned the corner and swam upward till they found a small room. The room was filled with air, not water, and as soon as they reached the ‘top’ of the tunnel they pulled themselves out of the water like they were climbing out of a pool. In this room there was a set of guards that were watching their actions closely but didn’t stop them from leaving through the set of double doors and passing down a long hallway. Along this hallway were many large open locker rooms and shower areas along with doors that he knew led to private rooms. This hallway looped in a circle all the way around the whole stadium where the spectators had been seated and he had to travel quite a way before reaching the only exit that was blocked by more than a dozen heavily armed guards.

Their eyes lingered upon the things tied to his belt for a moment, but they let him through after conferring among themselves. Sage walked into a large chamber that had four large ramps and four stairways leading out of it. He didn’t even slow down as he stepped onto the second stairway and started climbing upwards. After climbing a single flight he followed a tunnel down for some time, walking past many closed doors before climbing up more flights of stairs. Eventually he reached the top and walked down another hallway. In this hall there were many people that looked like high class waiters carrying trays full of food and drinks. There were doors with guards on either side of them, checking the trays before letting them into the rooms. Sage walked past some of them before stopping in front of one and looking at the two guards. They didn’t stop him as he walked before them and pushed the door open.

Inside the room, the dull rumble from the hallway was replaced by loud cheering. He had only heard a fraction of these sounds before, echoing through the structure, but now he had entered what looked to be a private box and the sound of the audience and the ‘show’ were perfectly amplified. The room he was in was somewhat large and the opposing wall from where he’d entered didn’t seem to exist. It was a large open side that gave them full view of the massive crab that Sage had been battling previously. At this time there was a team of men riding on the back of fish carrying long lances circling around the giant crab and taking turns poking it. Each time they stabbed with their lance a spark of electricity lit up the tip and crackled against the body of the immense crustacean.

Sage wasn’t really interested in this current battle and instead was focused upon the occupants of this room. He walked into the center of the room and waited patiently for one of them to take notice of him. The person in question seemed amused by the men with lances, and he even gave a little cheer when one of these men was turned into a paste when the giant crab stabbed one of its legs down unexpectedly. After stomping one of them to death, the huge crab seemed sated and it slunk backwards to where a huge hole had opened up on the floor of the chamber. It scuttled down a ramp and out of the area. Then the hole was covered up once more and teams of people swam out to start cleaning up the mess left over from the battle.

“Buh hah hah. I earned the bonus bet on that one!”

“Your wisdom is boundless, Sir Thele. You’ll surely win favor from Lady Cera this time.”

A similar line was repeated by some of the others, and it was quickly obvious that most of the people in the room were sycophants fawning over the person that seemed to be in charge. This was the same person that Sage was waiting to speak to. Eventually, they seemed to have enough of the flattery and they stood up, rising from the rows of chairs in front of the open wall and walking over to where he was waiting. It was at this time that this person’s appearance was finally apparent. This person was only slightly over four feet tall with a body that was not thickly built, yet had a neck and face that was wide and bloated. There was not much of a divider between head, neck, shoulders or waist, as its upper body was quite square in shape, only narrowing suddenly at the thigh area and trailing down to a pair of spindly legs with wide duck flipper-like feet.

What was even stranger was that this person was wearing what could be described as a tuxedo, complete with two long tails at the back of his jacket. There were shiny polished leather shoes that looked more like sandals as they covered only the top of the foot, but were split open to allow the wide flipper feet to touch the ground. Weirder still was that instead of a tophat to go along with the monocle it wore over one eye, this creature wore a silver tiara complete with sparkling diamond-like gemstones.

The strange body shape and feet were not the only signs that this wasn’t a human, in fact the person’s wide mouthed fish face was the most obvious. They had a mouth full of long thin teeth that jut out of their lips like a metal cage and a long thin tendril of flesh shot out of its forehead just above the tiara. This dangling bit of flesh hung in front of its forehead and the teardrop shaped tip of it glowed with light. The others that had been sitting beside it had similar looks and clothing, but this one seemed more vibrant and had a more powerful personality. There was something about this strange creature that captured attention. In spite of its weird appearance it still had a sort of powerful charisma.

Sage waited for the short fellow to walk over to him and then he took off his outer belt and held it out. This creature, Sir Thele, grabbed the belt with two white gloved hands and counted the four bundles of kelp and seaweed. A large bobbling eye swung up towards Sage without Sir Thele even moving any of the rest of his body and Sage quickly spoke.

“As you can tell, I didn’t look inside any of them.”

“They do seem sealed quite well. Buh hah hah! Nicely done. You’re a good chap.”