Sylas looked around him, reaching a hand to the side and pressing his fingers to the barrier that appeared near him.
"Sylas, are you alright?" Magnus immediately asked, but Sylas couldn't hear him. He only knew what his grandfather said based on the movement of his lips and a little bit of his Will leaking.
Sylas nodded in response. He would be fine.
He turned to face the old man who had slowly risen from his seat. Wispy white hair danced in the wind from both his head and his chin.
The old man clasped his hands behind his back, his movement slow and deliberate as though he was dragging out every moment.
On the sidelines, there seemed to be a growing crowd. They muttered out of curiosity, all of them stopping their endless flow of movement to pay attention to what was happening as well.
However, surprise wasn't something that any of them had on their faces. Rather than that, it was like this was more like a pleasantly uncommon event. Confusion, though, wasn't something any of them wore.
Sylas could guess at what sort of situation he was in now, but he was more curious about how it worked.
This was probably a duel of some sort, but in what way was it triggered? What were the rules? How was the winner decided? And if there was a vast gap in strength, then how was fairness decided?
Or, maybe… there was no real fairness at all like much of the world.
On the outside of the bubble, Magnus couldn't help but frown. He knew his grandson, so he knew that Sylas wasn't paying attention to the people around him much at all. And even if he could read their lips by just looking, he wasn't going to spare them the time of day.
However, Magnus could hear everything from out here.
"A Rune Duel. Lucky me."
"The stakes are getting higher every day. I bet that this is going to happen a lot more frequently the closer we get to the wonderful stuff appearing."
"You say the 'good stuff' like you wouldn't be lucky to be acknowledged by what's already hanging around now."
"Don't put me in the same bucket as that guy. It's not like I was the one looking down on everything, I'm just stating an objective fact."
Their laughter followed their words.
"Well maybe he has some skill. Don't be too heavy handed, you really don't know who you're facing in this space."
"He's human." The man replied as though that said everything that needed to be said.
"There are powerful human Rune Masters."
"Not base humans like that. He looks as base human as you can get." The man paused. "Hey, old man, what's your relationship with the boy?"
Magnus barely realized that he was the one being spoken to. He looked over with a serious glint in his eyes.
"My grandson."
"Hoho," the man chuckled.

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