Corvin Ashe held rank one hundred and thirty-one, an Ivory Guild banner, plus a sword form the district had admired for three years without naming. Two hundred and six recorded sessions on a copper drum had put it in his hands, each session carrying a date in a Directorate register.
The fifth bout was scheduled for the Ivory demonstration floor rather than an Association ring, which the guild had arranged before the ladder posted. A demonstration floor holds sponsors, and sponsors watch a fight the way a buyer watches a horse.
"They are selling him," Luna said over the relay on the Wednesday, "four Ivory sponsor houses have positions on the day, and the guild has priced the form as a teachable asset."
Vell read the sponsor sheet twice without letting anything show on his face. Ashe was being offered as an instructor as much as a fighter, at eleven thousand credits for a six-week course in a form his guild did not own.
