Chapter 307: Who is Entering

Rod read the competition notice twice before carrying it back to the table.

Lana had spread her equipment receipts beside a cup. Dain’s shield rested against the wall with its repaired straps turned outward. Dirk was examining a small mark on a bowstring while Nessa divided fresh dressings into travel packets.

"Five people." Rod said.

"We have those." Lana replied.

He put the notice between the receipts.

"Three events. Rescue, medal hunt, and a treasury heist."

Dirk set the bowstring down. "How much are they paying?"

Rod pointed to the prizes. Nessa read the entry conditions first, then the death rule, then the equipment restrictions. Dain leaned over her shoulder.

"No attacks on competitors." He said.

"But they can close a door in your face." Lana said. "We’ll need to be certain nobody closes it between us."

Rod sat. He expected agreement, but he wanted it spoken. The party had spent time and coin repairing equipment after the Fey Woods. Entering a new event immediately would commit their next few weeks and delay other work.

Nessa counted her remaining packets.

"The rescue round could use more supplies than we get back unless we do well."

"We can afford that." Rod said.

"I know. I’m deciding what to take."

She reached for a clean sheet. Dain asked when the public prize inspection opened. Dirk wanted a copy of the full rules. Lana turned the notice toward herself and began reading about the treasury.

Their names were on the entry form before the tea went cold.

Lana took the rules to the window, where the light was better, and read the permitted interference section in full. Dirk listened while replacing his bowstring. When she reached the example about withholding information, he asked whether false directions were allowed.

"Bluffing is. Impersonating an official isn’t."

"Then we confirm where instructions come from." Dain said.

Nessa looked at Rod. "And we don’t trust someone just because they’re standing beside a sign."

They had seen enough altered trail markers to take that seriously. Rod added a plan for keeping their own notes and agreeing on meeting points before separating. The rescue course might reward dividing the search, but that did not mean wandering into five houses without knowing when to return.

He wrote the questions they could not answer yet. Would the supplied map show every entrance? How clearly would trapped survivors respond to calling? Could a team carry an unconscious person through a window without losing the rescue credit? They would ask at the public briefing rather than discover the answers while the clock ran.

Dirk placed the old string beside his pack instead of throwing it away. It still had uses that did not involve an arrow. Nessa noticed and added spare cord to the useful equipment list.

By the time Rod stood, their preparations had moved beyond signing a form. Lana was planning a quiet practice session with small spells that would let her remove a latch without bringing down the frame. Dain wanted a weighted dummy for carrying drills. Rod agreed to help collect it after registration, then reached for the notice before someone spilled tea across the dates.

At Golden Axe, the same decision took most of the afternoon.

Matthew laid the rules on a long table with the five-person limit marked. Several members had assumed the guild would enter a full formation. One suggested registering five teams, each with a different specialty, then sharing every discovery.

"They have a rule for entering as another team’s support." Matthew said.

"We’d all be trying to win."

"Then every team needs to be capable of finishing."

He had no objection to more than one guild party entering. He objected to assembling four incomplete groups in the hope that the fifth could borrow what it lacked. The qualifying rounds would expose that quickly.

An older member proposed choosing their five strongest fighters.

Matthew pushed the rescue description toward him.

"Which one treats the injured?"

"We can carry mixtures."

"Which one identifies an injury before making it worse?"

The discussion moved to practical experience. Golden Axe had enough people to field an excellent party, but selecting them meant telling others why they had not been chosen. The heist favored capabilities that did not always earn attention on a battlefield.

Matthew asked each candidate to explain a job they had completed without relying on a large formation behind them. The answers proved more useful than comparing damage. A scout described entering a storehouse through a roof hatch. A healer explained moving three wounded people with only one working cart. A guard remembered the time a locked service gate had trapped him on the wrong side of a fire.

"Did you open it?" Matthew asked.

"Eventually."

"How?"

"Took the frame out."

Matthew added his name to the shortlist.

The guild would pay for preparations. It would not smuggle messages into the event or demand that another party sacrifice its own attempt. When someone asked whether that was unnecessarily honorable, Matthew tapped the restrictions.

"It’s cheaper than being removed after buying all the equipment."

By the end of the meeting, they had a team with a plan to rehearse together rather than a collection of expensive weapons.

Evan found the notice while carrying a bag of mended straps.

He stopped outside the registration hall, read the first line, and moved closer. Somebody behind him asked whether he intended to stand there all day. Evan stepped aside without leaving.

Fifth level. Five people. No fee.

He took a booklet from the counter and found Nella in the common room with Bram. Jory and Kelan arrived while he was explaining the first event.

"We qualify to enter." Evan said.

"Entering isn’t qualifying." Nella replied.

"I know."

"I’m saying it before Jory spends the prize."

Jory took the booklet. "I was only going to look at the prize."

Kelan sat beside him. They read the equipment examples together, then grew quieter at the description of the rescue course. It demanded work they understood: finding people, keeping a route open, moving someone who could not support their own weight. Doing those things while creatures attacked was another matter.

Bram read the time limit aloud.

"We can’t search every house twice."

"Then we need to stop doing that." Nella said.

Evan remembered their earliest attempts, when everyone watched the same monster and nobody watched the path behind them. They had improved by surviving enough failures to recognize the pattern. The competition would put that improvement where people could see it.

"Do we want the attention?" He asked.

Kelan looked up. "I’d like the money."

That settled part of it. The rest required checking their stores and deciding how much they could spend before taking another paid job. They could enter without a fee, but food, replacement straps, and treatment supplies still cost coin.

Nella drew a line down a page. Needed went on one side. Useful went on the other. She moved three things from Needed before anyone objected.

Evan found himself smiling while Bram checked their cord.

"What?" Bram asked.

"Nothing. Give me the form."

At the Skyyard, Tessa had placed the same form beneath a metal nut to stop it blowing away.

The Sixth Knot needed work. It always needed some work, and taking time away from freight meant doing that work without incoming fares. Min made the cost clear before anyone became excited about the rewards.

"We enter, we turn down at least one booking."

"Unless we’re out after the first round." Orin said.

Belda looked at him.

"I’m discussing costs." He added.

Kesh had read the final event three times. "No airship."

"We noticed." Tessa said.

"No, I’m saying it properly. If we enter, we’re walking."

He put the booklet beside the form. There would be no retreat to their own deck, no engine reserve, and no comfortable height between them and whatever guarded the target.

Tessa understood the hesitation. Their experience did not make them Rod’s party. They had fought when they needed to and learned the limits of equipment that could be carried on a belt. A strong guardian or practiced combat mage could endure situations they could not.

She turned to the practical challenge examples.

"A damaged tower. Locked rooms. Service access. Moving injured people. We do parts of this for a living."

"With a ship." Kesh said.

"Sometimes. Not all the time."

Min took the booklet and read the rescue instructions. "If we need to fight through the main road, we lose time and probably people."

"Then we find another route." Belda said.

They went through the events without pretending the risks were smaller than they were. The first qualifier allowed all teams that met the standard to advance. They did not have to beat Rod in a street fight to reach the medal hunt. The second offered choices. The final explicitly allowed quiet entry.

Orin examined the prize selection.

"We could replace the lower hoist."

"Portable equipment." Min reminded him.

"The tools to replace the lower hoist."

Tessa moved the nut and signed.

One by one, the others added their names. Kesh signed last, then asked who would watch the vessel while all five were inside. Min had already priced a secure berth and an inspection. She took the form before Orin could fold it beneath a greasy wrench.

Late that afternoon, the four parties crossed paths at registration.

Rod saw Tessa carrying her booklet and glanced toward the Skyyard before catching himself.

"You entering?" He asked.

"All five of us."

"Good."

She waited for advice. He offered none. Dain asked whether the rope tests had been completed, and Belda explained which samples had performed well under a changing load. Within a minute, the two groups were discussing equipment rather than chances of winning.

Evan arrived with his party’s form while Matthew was asking about registration checks. The queue compressed around the counter. Nella pulled Evan back before a passing cart caught his pack.

"You know them?" Bram asked, following his glance toward Rod.

"Know who they are."

Rod moved aside to let the next team reach the desk. Evan handed over the form and tried not to look at the names already entered in the book.

The clerk checked each member’s eligibility, copied the roster, and gave them a numbered receipt.

"Keep this. Your first qualifier appointment will be posted after registration closes."

Evan took it carefully.

Outside, Kelan held out his hand. Evan passed him the receipt, and Jory leaned over to see. Nella reminded them that it was a registration number, not a place in the final.

"Still ours." Jory said.

Evan let them argue over who would keep it dry. He opened the booklet to the rescue round and stopped beside a shop selling canvas. In the window, a folded carrying sling hung from two wooden pegs.

"Bram. How much coin have we left on the useful side?"