Chapter Twenty-Eight.

"Where are we going?" Cameron asked, not for the first time that evening, and Adam let out an aggravated sigh.

"I told you," he said. "The second Saturday of November always begins the biggest auction in the world. My arena closes for its duration, that many people attend it. I'd rather have the arena open during this due to what happened, but there won't be that many people attending."

Cameron fidgeted again, then stood still as Eden stepped up to fix his tie. He really hated suits.

"Most people," Adam said once Eden finished. "Have to go somewhere with a gate leading to the ancient Colosseum, which the Roman one was based off of. Rather than rows of benches, however, it'll have individual pulpits, small rooms, for each group to have its privacy, among other things.

"Fortunately for us," Adam grinned. "I don't need to go to a gate generated by the people running the auction, and can open one there directly. Do you have your wristbands?"

Cameron and Eden pulled back their sleeves to show the black wristbands, and Adam showed his own, confirming all three had them on.

"Those are our tickets," Adam told them. "They're enchanted, making them impossible to steal. Only you can take them off or break them, since you're the one wearing them. They show that we paid the hundred dollars to enter. A lot of people go not for the goods, but in the hopes they can forge connections with others."

"And us?" Eden asked.

"We're there for the goods," Adam answered. "Which is why we have black wristbands. The auction lasts for nine days. A white wristband is one entry, red is two, orange is three, yellow is four, and so on, until black, granting access for all nine days. Black ones are the only ones without numbers on them, which would represent which days of the auction you paid to enter. With the others, you pick which day or days you plan on attending.

"It's not like they could stop me, though," Adam said. "I own one of the pulpits, so this is mostly a formality. Are you two ready?"

The two teens nodded, and Adam placed a hand on their shoulders, leading them to the slab of fae stone. There, he began weaving together the gate, ushering them through the moment it had opened. They stepped out of it and onto a cobblestone path leading up to a round building hundreds of feet high and at least a thousand across.

They walked down the path, joining the others on their way in, and showed their wristbands to the guards at the entrance, before making their way up the steps inside the building, stopping at the fourth level.

Adam led them down the hall until they reached one of the pulpit doors.

"Jared Leosvar," Adam said when a man moved to intercept them. "My family owns this pulpit."

"I'll need to see your family crest," the man said, and Adam produced a dark blue coin, which the man examined with a crystal before handing back. "Very well, you may enter."

Adam nodded, then led the other two into the pulpit. It was a cozy space, with two rows, each with three seats with thick, purple cushions and a pair of armrests for each, a long table at the front of the room and a smaller one between each seat. Fixed along the corners where the walls met the ceilings were strip of a glowing rod, which provided the only source of light to the room.

The window allowing them a view of the 'arena' section of the hall shimmered faintly, and Eden gave Adam an inquisitive glance. It was interesting in more ways than one, since even though they could see through it just fine, no light actually entered the room.

"It's a barrier," Adam explained as he sat on the right-hand seat facing the front, gesturing for Cameron and Eden to take the two seats beside him. "Prevents anyone from seeing in, and without the proper items, you won't be able to bid, either."

With that explanation, Eden realized that they saw only a white barrier in front of every other booth, none of the other attendees visible.

The guard outside returned a few minutes later with three modern tablets, handing them to the boys, who accepted them before he left.

"We can use these to order food, too," Adam told them. "Just go into the food section and order, and don't worry about the price. On the same thought, if you see something you want, just bid on it, and don't worry about the cost. All three will charge to my account, and we can figure out how you'll work off the cost over time, though what the warehouse makes off your fights will be considered part of the payments."

"Adam?"

"Yeah?" He looked at Cameron.

"So… where are we?"

Adam face-palmed as he realized what the boy had been asking.

"We're in," he answered. "A pocket dimension created through mixing void and spatial magics and supported by one of the world's natural leylines – or as I like to call them, dragon veins. It technically doesn't have an actual physical location, though its anchor, which is how it's powered by a dragon vein, is hidden in a location only one person alive knows."

"You?"

"Yep, and only because I was there when it was made," Adam said. "I didn't actually participate in its creation, it was back when I was still learning void magics, and was apprenticed to a mage who specialized in them and spatial magics."

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"Family?"

"Uncle," Adam nodded. "Even though your school of magic that's your roots isn't typically inherited – expect in cases like yours – my family had a tendency to consistently have lone schools. My father and I are both shifters naturally, two of my uncles were void mages, another was a spatial mage, and my aunt was a mind mage."

"Any of you have time mages?"

"My grandfather," Adam grinned at him. "Who's still alive. He's one of the only mages in the world more powerful than me. If I had to give you a scale to just how powerful he is, he's in the top ten most powerful mages in the entire universe, and can compete with some of the lesser gods."

"Damn!" Eden breathed.

"You almost make me sound impressive, Adam."

Adam threw a cheeky grin to the old man who had entered the room, a tablet tucked under his arm. He was dressed in a sharp, black suit with a dark purple dress shirt beneath it, his pale brown eyes looking at them in amusement, blond hair styled neatly, defying the aging body.

Cameron knew the hair was either dyed, or the body artificially aged. Natural time mages aged barely faster than a demigod, and powerful ones could age as unagingly as a full-grown demigod with his divinity unbound.

That is, not at all.

"Hello, Cameron, Eden," the time mage greeted them. "You may call me 'Alex' if you wish."

"It isn't like you to come here, Gramps," Adam said as Alex took the middle seat in the back row. "Got your eye on something?"

"Not particularly today," Alex answered. "My eyes are on the fourth and fifth days, when they're selling mage slaves. It's one way to find talent to train."

Adam looked at his companions, who had noticeably grown uncomfortable at the casual comment of his father's.

"He doesn't use them as slaves," Adam clarifies for them. "He looks for mage slaves with potential, buys them, then trains them, giving them employment as his servants in exchange for it. They live at his home, do work there, and get free lessons in whatever magics they know. He also lives on an island that isn't exactly always there."

Cameron raised an eyebrow at the comment, and Adam glanced at Eden before giggling.

"Don't worry about it," Alex said. "My island shimmers in and out of Earth. I do rather like being left alone, and that's one way to do it. I bring it back when I'm in need of something – or coming to an auction like this."

"So," Adam said. "What brings you here, Gramps?"

"I summoned a goddess a few nights ago," Alex told him. "And she let me know about your new students. I suspected you were going to bring them here, and thought I'd come and meet them."

"So you bought a ticket for all nine days?" Adam asked, and Cameron checked, noticing for the first time the black wristband on Alex's left wrist.

"I figured, 'why not'?" Alex answered. "And I'm not regretting it, either. There are two Angel Kings present, seven Archangels, nineteen other angels, as well as a Fairy King and three Fairy Lords. I think I even spotted two of the Ancient Vampires here. Seph and I were having a nice conversation before I cut it short so I could come say 'hello' before the auction began."

The image of a door formed on the barrier in front of them, and Adam frowned.

"Someone's at the door."

"Probably the food," Cameron said, and everyone looked at him. "What? I'm hungry, and they have burgers, pizza, fries, chips, chocolate, cake, pies, and ice cream."

"At least he knows how to navigate the tablets," Alex chuckled as Adam rolled his eyes, then tapped something on his tablet.

The door to their pulpit opened, and a servant dressed in white and pale blue entered, pushing a cart piled with food. He set it out on the front table, as well as two two-liters of soda and four glasses, before backing out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Okay," Adam said as Cameron started fixing himself a plate. "To know something about the auction: things can be bid in increments of fifty, one hundred, five hundred, one thousand, or ten thousand. It depends on the starting price. If its starting price is between two tiers, then it can be increased in increments of the tier below the lesser of them. So if something starts at three hundred dollars, you can bid in increments of fifty. As well, you can bid an increment of one, two, three, four, or five.

"During the auction," he said as Cameron sat down with his heaping plate of junk food. "You can look at each item on the tablet, which will give you the list and the order they're being presented in. You can only bet while the item's own betting is open, not before or after, and do so from the item's page, which also gives you the information on the item that they're presenting. It'll include details about it, as well as where it was obtained or who's selling it, if applicable."

Cameron nodded, continuing to eat his food, and Eden got up after a couple of minutes to claim his share of the fries and chips, though Cameron had taken all of the entrees, having ordered just enough for himself.

"So," Eden said. "How do they get away with auctioning mage slaves here? Aren't mage slaves illegal?"

"They are," Alex answered for his grandson as he looked through the listing of items. "However, this isn't a government-run auction, nor is it government-approved. You can be sure some governments have agents here – I know the US does – but they won't do anything other than attempt to buy a few black market goods to get them off the streets. We get away with the auctions because the forces behind it are too powerful to stop, and too many people come to it. It also gives them a general gauge for what's going on in the underworld as well, especially if they can see people coming and going."

"Oh," Eden said, then looked back outside. "Over some of the other booths, there are crests. Doesn't that tell people who's sitting them?"

"If someone's in them," Alex nodded as the teen looked back at him. "Some families own pulpits, like mine. However, due to the way the auction works, no one knows who's bidding. And it's beginning."

A masked man walked out in the middle of the arena, and immediately, the barrier in front of them zoomed in on him, showing him on the right, and the object on the pillow in his hands on the center. Resting on the pillow was an elaborate, cat-themed amulet made of gold.

Cameron pulled up the information and skimmed it as the auctioneer began giving them information about it. The amulet was called the Cat of Tongues, and granted the wearer the ability to converse with most small cats. Rather cheap, with bidding starting at a hundred dollars.

"I'd imagine some old cat lady will buy it," Adam said, and his grandfather smacked him in the back of the head. "Hey! Grandma was not a crazy cat lady, there's a difference between big cats and little cats, and she kept big cats. That amulet wouldn't work for them. Besides, I'm pretty sure it's only got another six months of charge in it. To be honest, I'm surprised it's lasted as long as it did."

Cameron and Eden gave him inquisitive looks.

"My sister made it," Adam told them. "For a friend of hers who'd been having troubles with a cat that wouldn't be shooed. Her roots were firmly in enchanting, and she made quite a few things that ended up lasting thousands of years as a solution to a temporary problems. It's actually rather funny. I have to wonder what she'd say if she were still alive."

"Probably 'I can do better'," Alex responded, and Adam laughed in agreement.