Chapter 286: Beyond the Recordings
On the way to the Coliseum, Jin photographed a sign outside a reptile-care stable. It listed heated resting bays, specialist feed storage, and overnight supervision.
He didn’t need any of it today. He liked knowing where it was.
The Highmarch Coliseum stood beyond Tallwalk’s busiest streets, four connected buildings surrounding a broad public approach. Jin had imagined one enormous arena. Instead, the delegation entered a registration hall lined with counters, colored floor markings, and notices telling people where not to leave their beasts.
"Keep the aisle clear," their orientation officer called. "Have your registration open before you reach the desk."
Jin checked his screen and moved Flicker’s carrier out of the way of a passing handler.
Registration occupied most of the next hour. The staff checked identities, contracts, and care requirements, then issued passes for the delegation’s permitted areas. Jin watched the officer mark the restriction on Glitch’s throat before attaching his approved care sheet to the venue record.
That was one less explanation he would have to give tomorrow.
Rank-1 competition used the east wing. There were four arenas, team areas behind them, and a shared warm-up hall. The larger Rank-2 spaces occupied the west wing, with separate access controls and more spectator seating.
"Different containment and medical arrangements," the officer explained. "Your passes cover your own team facilities. If you want to watch another division, use the spectator arrangements on the schedule. Don’t follow someone through a restricted door."
Between the wings were practice rooms, medical stations, a canteen, and the supervised beast-holding area.
Jin paid particular attention to that last one.
Each bay had water, a handler call point, and a gate suited to the assigned beast. He asked where Glitch would go if he wasn’t competing.
"Here, unless your coach requests another approved arrangement," the officer said. "Small beasts in secured carriers can remain in the team area if they don’t obstruct anything."
Flicker peered through the mesh when Jin tilted her carrier toward him.
"You heard that? You have to behave."
She tapped the frame with her beak.
Glitch was walking at his left side, interested in a scent near the holding-wing entrance. Jin brought him along before he could investigate somebody else’s bay.
He traced the route back toward Arena 2 in his head. Team entrance, warm-up hall, second turning. He would find it much faster tomorrow if he learned it now.
The other academies were busy with much the same things.
A boy sat on a kit bag eating an apple while his coach dealt with a missing form. Two girls compared booking confirmations. An armored beetle waited patiently while its tamer untangled a strap from beneath one of its legs.
Jin had expected more staring and sizing one another up. There was some of that, but most people wanted to finish registration and eat.
Near a public roster terminal, a student in Verdance Hall colors glanced from Glitch to the screen.
"Peak Silver?" he said, then looked embarrassed when Jin turned. "Sorry. I was checking tomorrow’s delegates."
"It’s public."
"I know. I didn’t mean to say it like that." The boy hesitated. "Does he need a specialist mineral ration?"
That became a conversation Jin hadn’t expected. The student’s plated beast had trouble with the standard regional blend, and he was trying to find somewhere that could store the feed he had brought without mixing it into the general supply.
Jin showed him the stable sign on his phone.
"They advertise separate storage. Reception might know if there’s somewhere closer."
The student copied the name. "Thanks. Our handler’s already arguing with someone about it."
Glitch lowered his nose toward the student’s feed case.
"That isn’t yours," Jin told him.
The other boy laughed and moved it back beneath the bench. "Mine does that too."
After lunch, the delegation had time to watch part of the warm-up hall before the draw.
Jin opened the public profiles corresponding to the students on the floor. A nine-Star beast worked through short turns while its tamer practiced moving outside the same attack lane. Beside them, another nine-Star waited for a coach to reset a target.
He checked a third profile, then a fourth.
Most of the likely starters were at the top of Rank 1. Some had spent considerably longer there than Glitch had spent at eight-Star. Jin watched a tamer correct a movement with one quiet word, and the beast adjusted without breaking its stride.
There was plenty here that another Star wouldn’t teach him.
Still, he wanted it.
Glitch’s evolution had given him a foundation worth developing. Reaching nine-Star would put him closer to these beasts in current strength, and it would bring the next breakthrough within reach. He could work toward that even while selection belonged to the coaches.
There’s time after the briefing.
He checked tomorrow’s loading arrangements, then closed the schedule. He would fit the game around what he had come here to do. He wasn’t going to spend the entire League staring at a wall because the hotel room had a locking door.
On the practice floor, a beast missed a turn and knocked a padded marker over. Its tamer laughed, reset it, and tried again.
Jin stayed to watch the second attempt.
The draw appeared at two, on the hall display and their phones together.
[Novice Division — Group C]
[Meridian Academy]
[Cassel Ridge Academy]
[Verdance Hall]
[Ashfell Institute]
[Round robin: three ties per academy. Top two advance to knockouts.]
Jin found Meridian’s first fixture.
[Meridian vs Cassel Ridge — Arena 2 — tomorrow, 10:00]
[Team report: 08:45, east team entrance]
[Ordered lineups due: tonight, 21:00]
[Individual pairings released: 21:30]
He looked at Cassel Ridge’s name for a moment.
This morning, Emery had been holding Wren’s paw and complaining about packing lists. Tomorrow, someone from Meridian would have to beat her.
Around him, the delegation began comparing rosters. One student remembered Cassel Ridge from an earlier event; another was already searching Verdance Hall’s recent results.
Dray stopped beside Jin with her tablet in hand.
"Sun’s on their delegate list," she said.
"I met her at the hotel."
"Did you?" Dray glanced at him. "Keep the scouting between us. Friendly outside the arena is fine. We still need the advantage inside it."
"I didn’t tell her."
"Good. We don’t know whether we’ll be paired yet, but have the file ready for tonight."
Jin saved the fixture. Three ties, starting tomorrow. Until now, the League had been a date he was working toward. He could finally point to where he needed to stand and when.
They returned to the Longstable on foot, with handlers keeping the heavier beasts to Tallwalk’s rough-surfaced lane.
Jin walked beside Glitch. At a crossing, a pony-sized sablehound waited with its owner until the lower signal changed. Further along, a bakery had a separate notice explaining that its food was for humans only.
He bought a small roll after checking the price, then broke it in half while they waited for the rest of the delegation. It was still warm.
His mother would have wanted to know what it tasted like. Elsa would have asked why he hadn’t photographed it before eating.
He took a picture of the remaining half and sent it with the hotel room photograph.
Back upstairs, he put the care folder on the desk and checked his messages. Elsa had already replied to the room picture.
Glitch gets his own room too?
Jin looked down the internal stair at the lizard stretched comfortably across the bedding.
Bigger than mine, he sent back.
Then he opened Cassel Ridge’s roster and started getting ready for the briefing.