The dragon hotel was pretty nice. He figured the travelers that stayed there were considered important people, so they made sure the place was comfortable enough for them. He was just thankful for something nicer than the beds the water temples had. While their entire magic system was based on if they were compassionate enough or not, he didn’t see that reflected in their bedding choices.

He slept hard, with a full belly and a comfortable bed. The Mighty Martin had filled their ears with stories of his victories in the gladiator rings. Kaden hadn’t known much about the dragon games in the first place. He didn’t even know there were different parts of it. He had heard it was all on dragon back so he didn’t even know normal people were fighting in them.

He wondered if he had known about them before he had been blessed if he and his brothers would have tried harder to see them in person. His family had been so outside of the world that he didn’t even know there were gladiators like Marty even able to disable a mage. He probably would have been a fan of him, too.

He wondered if that’s where a lot of his fans came from. Mages were considered so special and unique in their society. Normal people probably flocked to Marty if he, as what they would see as a normal person, was able to win over them. Not just once, but eight times. He was probably a fan favorite.

They were in some type of breakfast nook, munching away at the provided fresh bread and meats left for them when Reese finally came in to join the rest of them.

“We can’t embarrass these gladiators too quickly,” he said as he grabbed a plate and began filling it up. “I know Marty thinks he’s some amazing warrior, but he hasn’t been blessed.”

Sayori smirked as she sipped her tea, not engaging in the commentary.

Reese shoved a piece of bread in his mouth and continued to talk. His muffled words took some straining for Kaden to understand. “I mean, yeah, sure, he did disable those fire mages in the street. Who knows how skilled those guys even were? They were probably the bottom of the barrel fire mages, and he caught them off guard.”

“I wouldn’t be saying that,” said Evonne. “They looked to be officer ranks.”

Kaden’s eyebrow raised. “How do you know? What are the rankings here?”

She patted her shoulder. “We put symbols on the shoulders to show rank. They all had symbols. This meant they weren’t just trainees or foot soldiers.”

“Are your mages referred to these military ranks?”

“Yes. Well, kind of. It gets mixed in with how your country refers to your mages. They’re a bit more strict on the mages here. You all will learn as we travel,” she said before taking her own sip of tea.

“I was wondering about that,” said Sayori. “We probably should figure out our itinerary here while we have the time. We need to go to each temple to give them our regards and respects.”

“Not how we did in the water nation,” added Kaden.

She let out a huff of a laugh and said, “No, not at all. That was a mess. We’re supposed to go to each major temple in a nation and greet their matriarchs and give them our own blessings of respect. This allows the leaders of the dragons to know and respect you as a dragon rider. You’re stepping into their world with your bond, your’re supposed to respect them.”

“What if you weren’t a dragon rider?”

Reese had finally stopped stuffing his face. “Same thing, but you have to focus on the grandmaesters more than the matriarchs.”

Evonne nodded and said, “we have to appeal to both as we are in both of their worlds.”

Kaden thought of Zuma and how she reacted to all the other dragons. He wondered how she would react to all the different breeds of matriarchs. “Do we have to greet them with our dragons?”

“Of course,” Reese said as he shoved more food in his mouth. “They have to greet your dragon, too. It’s how we keep the peace between everyone. Dragons don’t forget each other. Something to do with their connections to magic and nature.”

Evonne said quietly in almost a whisper, “do you think they will talk to us like the water matriarchs?”

The air got sucked out of Kaden’s lungs. He wasn’t the only one who had been spoken to now, who had been shown visions. Each of them had heard the rumble of the matriarch’s words. They had been shown the horrors of the future. He hadn’t thought about the possibility of getting more visions from them.

“It’s a possibility,” said Sayori. “We don’t know if they are seeing the same thing that the water matriarchs saw, though.”

“The ones at the citadel were seeing danger.” Kaden had to remind them. He had been shown visions, not them. They were two different breeds of matriarchs.

Evonne let out a deep sigh. “I’m worried what they might show us.”

They all sat in silence, contemplating it. Reese was chewing slowly next to them, which pulled Kaden back out of the rumination about the issue. He turned back to him and said, “What makes you think that trained gladiators wouldn’t be difficult to fight?”

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“I’m not saying they won’t be.” He was quick to change the subject back to something more lighthearted. “I’m just saying we’re far more skilled.”

Sayori laughed and said, “Well, we need to go meet Marty if we’re going to test that theory.”

Someone gave them directions to the coliseum, and it took them longer than they thought to follow said directions. They had to stop several times and ask for help so they didn’t get lost in the city. Eventually they came upon it just at the edge of town. There was an enormous field between it and the city. Fans were funneling down several pathways toward it. They just followed the crowd to get to the building.

It was massive, rising high into the sky. There was a large entrance that hung open to allow the crowds inside. Behind it was a large tower. Evonne leaned over and said, “that’s a mage temple.”

“It’s connected to the coliseum?” Kaden was shocked that they were connected. He thought that they would have separated themselves from the fighting. The mage towers in the water nation had nothing to do with any coliseum. To see a fire mage temple being built in tandem to one surprised him.

Sayori laughed and said, “I bet it’s to keep tabs on things. Is every temple attached to a coliseum?”

“No, just this one and another. That’s where the dragon battles are held. This one is for the ring fights.”

“Ring fights,” Reese laughed. “You make this sound like it’s some backwoods operation.”

“It is that on a massive scale,” Evonne said with no humor in her voice.

It made Kaden wonder if she was even okay with them joining in on the event. She must be going along with their ideas again. He needed to take her aside and ask her if it was making her feel uncomfortable.

They followed the growing crowd toward through the entrance. There were people outside directing people where to go. Reese had gone up to one official and explained they were needing to find the gladiator’s entrance. Kaden thought they’d get some kickback, but the official seemed to not care at all and directed them down a side passage.

There were a few people walking the same direction, so they ended up just following them down the pathway. They were all armed to the teeth themselves, so they assumed they were going the right direction. It must be a “bring your own weapon” type of arena for how well equipped everyone was walking into the place.

Kaden wondered if this was the safest thing. There were known House of the Serpent agents lurking in the crowds and they just let people walk around with weapons and armor. They could hide in the crowd easily and wreak destruction if they wanted.

There was another official leaning on the door frame of a large wooden archway. She had a clipboard but seemed board with having to check people in. The line was longer than Kaden would have liked to get past her. There was a cheer from behind them, causing everyone to turn and look at the commotion.

The Mighty Martin was making his appearance, with a crowd of fans trailing behind him. The official at the door straightened her posture at his arrival. He caught a glimpse of them and opened his arms to hug all four of them in an embrace.

“My friends! You actually showed up! I’m so glad. Come, come, let’s get you in!”

The glares they received from all the waiting warriors were intense. Kaden felt like shrinking himself down so they wouldn’t be able to see them. The woman with the clipboard took down their names, and they passed the line with ease next to Marty. He hoped this didn’t make them a target out there with the rest of the fighters.

Inside was a large gym with shelving units for gear and people’s valuables to be placed safely. There was a guard monitoring the wall of shelves to ensure there weren’t any issues. Kaden marveled at all the fighters practicing at the gym. There were mages of all types, as well as non-magical fighters using many weapons.

Sayori nudged him and pointed at a magical net being thrown. It was the same net they had been subdued with on their first train ride. During their hearing in the white city, Ambassador Malfor had accused the wind nation of providing the weapons to the serpents, citing they focused on gladiator technology. He was now seeing that equipment was being used where it was intended.

Marty was greeting people as he escorted them across the room. Kaden felt out of place, more so than he usually does with the mages. The fact that there were non-magical fighters practicing right next to magical ones was throwing him off. There was a whole world of combat he didn’t even know about.

“Who are these scrawny fighters you have with you?” Asked a snarky voice from behind them.

Turning around, they saw a woman with fiery red hair that ended in blond tips. Kaden wanted to assume she was a fire mage at the coloring of her hair, but he knew he couldn’t rule out that she wasn’t also a non-magical fighter. Marty chuckled and gave her a big hug. She was a large woman, tall and muscular. Kaden didn’t want to challenge her either.

“Friends, this is Pumpkin! She tends to always come in second place to me.”

She pushed his shoulder and said, “not this year! I’m taking that trophy from your cold, unconscious hands!”

She was his number one competitor, and yet they were being friendly with banter. This world was so strange to him. He would have thought they would have been more aggressive and mean.

“These are some champions of fallen wings or something.”

Her eyes lit up. “No way! Marty! These baby riders saved the white city!”

Again, he shrugged as if the concept wasn’t important.

“Welcome to the coliseum! Are you four going to be joining us today?”

Reese crossed his arms, trying to look as big and imposing as he could, but the fact of the matter was he was a teenager and they were trained adult warriors. Nothing he could do would make him look intimidating to them. “We thought we’d give it a go, for fun, of course. We don’t plan on taking the championship from you or anything.”

Marty and Sayori shared a playful look. Pumpkin laughed and said, “of course not.”

“They didn’t know that non-magical users could incapacitate mages. So I thought I’d let them see firsthand how hard we can fight.”

She laughed again. “This is one hell of a first experience to have.”

Taking them toward a corner of the gym, she offered to help them practice before the games even started, so they knew what they were going to expect. Marty agreed to join them but was pulled away by others before he could start.

She grinned at Reese standing across from her as he posed himself, readying for an attack. “One of you is a water mage, correct?”

They nodded.

“Do you know healing techniques? I advise you might need them.”

Reese rolled his eyes at her, his pose relaxing as he did so. She took the opportunity of distraction and was on him before Kaden even noticed. Reese frantically flailed his arms, trying to dodge out of her way. All the pomp and presentation he had was gone, as he was just jumping to escape her moves.

Kaden had to admit that Reese was incredibly quick in his movements. He knew that was a natural adaptation of having magic inside, but also the wind magic was helping push him about. This wasn’t a big issue for Pumpkin, as she was able to anticipate his movements.

She was able to jump ahead of him, close line him with her arm, and he fell hard on his back. The air punched out of his lungs as he gasped from the gravity. Sayori burst out laughing, and all Kaden could hear from Reese was an irritated groan.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that, little lordling.”