The Mate Games
Not until the evening, when I closed up shop and started walking back home to get ready to go to the bar for my shift.
I took the long way through the marketplace. It was busy, louder than usual, and I figured there must be a festival or something. Turns out, I was wrong. People weren’t celebrating. They were gathered around a platform, where three royal officials stood dressed in silver and blue—the colors of the palace. One of them was reading from a scroll, his voice loud and slow, so even the old ones in the back could hear.
“The first Mate Games in over a century…” he said, and suddenly the air felt strange.
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