They found lodging two streets back from the main road, a stone building with a narrow entrance and a proprietor who looked at King and Eli strained interest.
King went straitght to business, paying five hundred runes for a room. After which he received a key, and that was the extent of the transaction.
The room was modest. Two beds, a table, a window that looked out onto the street below where the festival's evening activity continued at a volume that suggested it had no intention of stopping before dawn.
King sat on the edge of his bed and spent an hour reviewing his plan for the tournament. Running through the bracket logic, the likely capability range of the participants he'd observed at registration, the specific threshold he needed to demonstrate in the early rounds versus the output level the later rounds would demand.
He fell asleep with the noise of the street still coming through the window and didn't find it difficult.
---
THE NEXT DAY
