It was over three hours later when the light curtain reappeared.

“She’s back!” came the cry from someone in the audience. Everyone rushed down to the edge of the pit to see for themselves. A cheer ran up. Ellen stepped out of the light curtain. She swayed just slightly, a sign of two trips too close together. She looked up at the rim to see everyone still waiting for her. Her voice was lost in the noise of the crowd. She gave the group’s all clear signal and stepped away from the wall.

Glass armor loot emerged from the sand. There was the same number of pieces that Todd received. It was another indication that sometime recently Ellen reached tier four. The individual items were a different mix from what he got. The first steps emerged from the wall.

“What did you trade?” Grandmother called down when the crowd finally quieted. Ellen was picking up her loot. She started tossing it up to Todd, who was leaning out to catch it.

“I traded repairing cloth, wood, metal, leather and stone items to learn how to repair porcelain, glass and bone,” Ellen reported. Conversation among the crafter members of the audience exploded. Learning to repair those materials was equivalent to being made an apprentice in each craft. Kai brought knowledge of glassmaking to the square and porcelain was probably the same as the selkies pottery. Bone was completely new.

“I think Ellen has repaired nearly every integrated item Todd, Alex and I carried into the pit before her,” Grandmother commented to Sarah.

“Probably,” Sarah conceded. “The Tinkerer must consider everything brought into the pit, and not just the items brought in by you.”

“Since a visit by the Tinkerer is rare, the time span it considers must be limited,” Grandmother added. “Or any crafter that did repair work would eventually qualify.”

“I don’t know,” Sarah responded. “Most crafters will only do repairs in their own field. A blacksmith won’t work on leather armor, etc.”

“Interesting,” Grandmother said. Ellen climbed the stairs back up to the audience level of the coliseum. She headed straight to her pack where she pulled out her notebook and began making notes. Grandmother realized they needed to allow Ellen time to record what she learned before she forgot it.

“Are you next?” Grandmother asked Sarah.

“No,” Sarah said thoughtfully. “I think I want to enchant a few more items first.” Next Grandmother offered the chance to Companion.

“No, no, no,” the selkie said. “I am good right here,” he said, tapping the wide step he sat on. Companion possessed a powerful fear of heights. Grandmother suspected it was the drop down into the pit, and not what awaited the warrior there, that kept him in his seat.

“Does anyone else wish to give it a try?” Grandmother called to the audience. “Remember you can die in the pit. Your chances of death go up with tier. Tier four or above you win or die!” she called out in warning.

After a brief discussion a line of warriors stepped forward to accept the challenge. The second challenger lost. She was a tier three fire wizard. The automata appeared dressed as a warrior, carrying a sword and shield. Grandmother thought this was an example of Kai’s direct opposite possibility. The automata used the shield to block the wizard’s fireball spell. Grandmother didn’t think she saw that successfully done before and found it fascinating. Usually a thrown spell hit what you aimed at regardless of what was in the way. The automata must have cast a shield spell on it's shield to accomplish it.

When the woman made the mistake of letting the automata get too close, it used its sword to cut through the wizard's leg just below the knee. The wizard screamed and collapsed. Grandmother was on her feet in moments. She threw her body forward, but came up short against a force curtain in place around the top of the pit. The automata was still pacing the sand.

“Take your belt off,” Grandmother yelled down to the wizard. “Take it off now,” she ordered when the woman at first failed to respond. The wizard fumbled with the buckle. “Put the belt around your leg, just below the knee and pull it as tight as you can,” Grandmother ordered when the woman finally had her belt in her hand. The wizard fumbled trying to get the belt in place. She pulled the end through the buckle. “Tighter,” Grandmother commanded. The bleeding began to ebb.

The automata looked up at the audience at the rim. It paced around the wizard one last time. It stopped in front of the exact spot it emerged from just minutes ago. The wizard's severed foot sank into the sand, as the automata merged back into the wall. The force curtain vanished.

Grandmother stepped off the edge and dropped onto the sand. She cast a tier five heal on the wizard. The woman screamed and passed out. The open wound at the end of her severed leg closed. Grandmother removed the woman’s belt and slipped it back around her waist. Grandmother stepped back and scanned the pit floor.

Todd was standing at Grandmother’s back. He dropped down right behind her, but in her rush to get to the wizard, Grandmother didn’t notice. There was no exit stair. Todd held out his spear to Grandmother.

“I can sling her over my shoulder and carry her up the rope,” Todd offered.

“All right,” Grandmother responded. She accepted Todd’s spear and slipped it through her belt. Surprisingly the staff she took from the automata was still there. Alex threw down the rope. At the top, Todd carefully laid the wizard down. She was just coming back to her senses.

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“My leg,” she sobbed, when she saw the missing appendage.

“Don’t worry about it,” Todd told the woman. “Just rest and get plenty to eat. That was a tier five heal, with enough food your foot will grow back in a couple days.” The woman stared at Todd in total disbelief.

If Grandmother thought that might be the end of the challenges, she was sadly mistaken. When the wave rippled across the sand and the skeleton reemerged, a warrior in blue touched leathers stepped forward.

“Are you sure, Leo?” a younger copy of the man asked from just behind him. This second warrior must be the first one’s brother.

“I’m a blue,” Leo responded. “Grandmother can heal me. Don’t you remember how long it took to regrow Kai’s hand with the lesser heals?” The challengers after that were heavy on those with blue and red magic, the two colors Grandmother could heal. When no more challengers stepped forward, Grandmother decided to hold another quick debrief.

“What did we learn?” Grandmother asked the crowd.

“Lower tier challengers don’t lose a limb,” someone called. Four tier two warriors lost their challenges. The injuries they suffered were far less life threatening than the amputation of a foot. As soon as they released their weapons and stayed down, the automata would circle them once and step back into the wall. Grandmother's heal spell returned them to apparent health, although their blood loss left them weak.

“Don’t count on that,” Kai warned. “I lost my hand at tier two.”

“Blood loss is a problem,” one of the wounded tier two’s commented in an exhausted voice. “The sand wicks it away so it is beyond the reach of a heal spell.”

“Yes,” Grandmother affirmed. “It will be easy to bleed to death from a lost limb. Everyone should consider wearing a belt. Practice using it as a tourniquet one handed, since you never know what limb you could lose.”

“Arnie sells fast bandages,” one of the hunters commented. “They work pretty well at clotting blood after a mauling. Do you think they would be allowed in the pit?”

“I took my lunch down,” Grandmother commented. “I don’t think there are any restrictions on what you can carry. Before someone decides to take down an armory, remember the automata adjusts to match your capabilities.”

Kai listened to this group conversation with fascination. He was impressed by the performance of Home Square’s warriors. He would never have expected so many to win. Additionally no one died. Now Grandmother was leading a discussion of what everyone could do to reduce the chance of death. Peking held with the idea that if you died in the arena it was no loss to the community. They believed only the strong held worth.

Grandmother made it clear she expected anyone capable to provide life saving care after a failed match without cost. Anything beyond that could be sold. That included the magic required to regrow a limb. The cost needed to be agreed upon before the heal. She would not be charging their red wizard for the care already given.

The group packed everything up and began their trip back to the square. There were at least fifty people in the group, actually the number was closer to a hundred. There could easily have been more, but the trip was not planned. Grandmother and her companions returned to the square from their maintenance duties on the Speedwell a few days ago. Todd, Alex, Ellen and Sarah spent most of their free time over the winter training for this challenge, with coaching from Kai.

On the fourth morning after their return Grandmother descended from her room at the inn for breakfast in the common room. When Todd brought her food out, Grandmother told him, “Let’s go see about the coliseum today. See if you can find Kai. I would like to bring him along for any last minute pointers he can give.”

Although the comment was aimed at Todd it was said loudly enough that everyone in the room overheard it. A group gathered in the courtyard before Grandmother finished her food.

The square’s primary butcher, who was a tier four crafter, picked up the wounded wizard to carry her back. The wizard and butcher shared no resemblance, Grandmother didn’t think they were related. The butcher was just being kind. The sight reminded Grandmother of something. She adjusted her pace so she fell back to walk beside Sarah.

“I’ve always considered butchering a skill, not a craft,” Grandmother commented to Sarah, “just like Todd’s ability to cook, but the butcher is a tier four. I feel like I am missing something. Did she do something else previously?” Grandmother was using her new wizard's staff as a walking stick. It seemed to do the job well enough, although its diameter was just slightly off from her old broom stick. She found herself idly squeezing it as if she could narrow it down.

“No, not that I know,” Sarah responded. She glanced back at the crafter behind them. “She seems in a good mood,” Sarah commented. “I’ll just go back and talk to her for a while.”

Grandmother walked through an intersection. One of Harry’s guards stood in each side passage, keeping an eye out for any danger to the group. She nodded at them in approval. A set of guards from a previous intersection passed Grandmother making their way to the front of the group, where they would stand watch on another cross corridor.

Several wandering animals were spotted and killed along the way. The carcasses were picked up and carried along.

Some of the hunters in the group broke away as they crossed the green. When the group reached the square, the guards lingered in the training yards, obviously reporting their success and failure to their leader, Harry. The crafters went on to the courtyard where they scattered into the shops. Grandmother saw the butcher, still carrying the wounded wizard, enter one of the stairways that led to the apartments above.

Grandmother headed to the inn. She set her new staff in the weapon rack inside her room. She pulled the glass armor out one piece at a time and set it on the bed. The armor was very pretty. It was a pure clear glass when she didn’t touch it. She wasn’t certain what she was going to do with it. She could put the integrated armor into her inventory, but that would cause wear on the pieces. She could sell it. If she was ever short on funds she would. She didn’t need the coins right now, and she was a little afraid that whoever bought it might become overconfident and get themselves killed.

Grandmother thought about setting it up in some kind of stand on display, which made her wonder how it fitted together. Metal plate armor was held on the body with leather straps. The transparent nature of the armor would make the leather clearly visible. There did appear to be slits and holes on the pieces where straps or lacing could be added. Perhaps the lacing was on the undergarment. As she handled the gauntlets she noticed they only had five fingers. She was certain the skeleton had six.

She scooped the armor off the bed and dumped it on the floor. She would fiddle with it later. Right now she was going down to dinner. She took the staff with her, it was starting to fit her hand better.