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He was nowhere to be found.

Harl Menhim, the man that was supposed to start the tournament this morning was nowhere to be found. He had not left a message, not told anyone where he was and no one had seen him leave. Caitlyn sighed and removed her glasses so she could rub the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. Perhaps he got called away for some reason, she didn't know, she simply knew that she had the entire school sitting in the dueling stadium, and then some seeing as a lot of influential members of the conclave and the national capital and hell probably even a few members of the emperor's entourage were seated out there, and the person that was supposed to start it all was nowhere to be found.

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, she felt something soft brush up against her leg and opening her eyes she looked down to see the smiling face of her daughter looking back up at her. She smiled back and scooped little Eva up, fine she would simply have to do this herself. With deliberate steps she walked out onto the stage, keeping her head held high. On the field in front of her were the teams of students, they were visually distinct seeing as they were dressed in there school uniforms, all of which were different colors and designs. The Retcliff school, Termlin, Motrasi, and Wolfthir, and of course there own Grulik school, even the small enchanting school of Saint Francaris. Each and every one of them were arrayed before her, each and everyone of them waiting to be pitted against one another. “Greetings one and all! I would like to welcome you to the first event, today we will be running the Monolith challenge, a challenge specifically designed to test the cooperation of the students and their familiars without the abilities most take for granted, that means no magic, the goal of this tournament challenge is to find the enemy monolith and destroy it before your own is destroyed, if neither team can do this task in under thirty minutes then both are considered to be a loss,” her words echoed out across the stadium. “The first teams to play today will be the two lowest ranking, after that it will be by random draw, until we have only one team remaining.” she pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to little Eva, who scrambled out of her arms and up to sit with her legs on her mother’s shoulder, holding the paper in her small hands and reading it out loud.

“The first tou- tour-” she stumbled over the word and leaned forward ever so slightly to read it better. “What are these words mommy?” she asked showing the Headmistress the paper.

“Tournament challengers,” her mother said with a smile, helping her out.

“The first tournament challengers today will be Grulik vs Saint Franc-” she narrowed her eyes at the paper. “And this one mommy?”

“Saint Francaris.”

“Saint Francaris,” she repeated and looked up with an innocent smile.

“Will the contestants step towards the gates?” the headmistress said, and Leon and his group rose, walking towards the gate on the right side of the stage, he looked over at the other gate where Aaron was standing with his other party member. It looked like they had a smaller team due to the fact that there was only Aaron and another man, and there two familiars, both of whom were small unassuming animals, Aaron’s hawk, and the other man’s rabbit, whereas the four of them stood at their gates.

“Good luck!” Aaron called out to him.

“Our thanks, but we won't be needing luck,” Leon called back.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, we have skill,” and before he could respond back Leon stepped through the gate and into the woods. It would seem that he was in a strange location of the woods that he had never seen before, old trees grew twisted and gnarled, the branches overhead so dense they almost completely blocked out the sun. he stepped aside allowing the others room for when they materialized.

“Ah but if it isn't our brother in law!” a voice called out, and from the nearby tree the naked torso of a dryad leaned out. “What a treat!” she said with a large smile, “It is not too often we get visitors here in the old parts of the woods,” she shook her head, “for shame on my sisters, scared of some old spiders and snakes,” she laughed. Her skin was an ashy color, like the tree that she was a part of, with ram-like horns and dark green eyes with no pupils.

“Akura!” he called out and gave the woman a hug, “It's good to see you again!” he laughed, he had a drinking contest with this dryad, and much to his amazement he had lost, but he was willing to bet she had cheated somehow, like perhaps she could drink so much due to the fact that her actual body was a tree that had to weigh several thousand pounds. Which was probably the reason Hymwine was so high in alcoholic content, it needed to get creatures drunk that must weigh several thousand pounds.

“So what brings you to my part of the woods dear brother?” she asked, propping her arm on a knot in her tree and resting her head in her palm.

“Monolith tournament,” he said, pointing at the black obelisk that stood behind them. It was a tall thing, standing over 9 feet and looking like it was made out of polished marble, with several runes carved on each side.

“Ah,” she purred, pulling herself out of the tree, “perhaps you would like my help with that?”

***

Caitlyn held little Eva in her lap and watched the massive mirrors situated above the stage, there were two of them, each set to scry one team, and while they could not hear what was being said, not because the spell was incapable of it, but simply because they did not want the strategies of the teams to be heard. It put the lower teams at a significant disadvantage, seeing as they could be studied by all other teams, and their forms and strategies could be deduced long before they ever met on the field. She smiled as watched Leon talk to the dryad, even if they knew what his strategy for this tournament was, they would never be able to counteract it.

“Look mommy! It's sister Akura!” Eva shouted, pointing at the glass and bouncing up and down on her mother’s lap, a few hundred eyes centered on her and Eva, and she groaned inside, simply smiling she ignored them and patted Eva’s head, brushing the golden hair out of the way and arranging it so that the red feathers that poked through could be seen.

“Just watch my little bird,” she cooed to her, and Evangeline nodded and stared fixedly at the screen, completely absorbed. Caitlyn briefly wondered if it was a good idea to let Leon influence her daughter as much as he did, but then again, she doubted she would ever be able to tear them apart, not with how Eva had grown so attached to the man. She sighed, she would have to talk to him about what he said and did in front of her daughter, she could already tell how that conversation was going to go...