The Tournament Committee War Room was high in the central spire of the Academy, but the shouting was loud enough to rattle the stained glass windows.
Around a massive, polished obsidian table sat the leaders of the visiting delegations. Headmaster Joric of the Iron-Clad Academy sat like a boulder, his arms crossed, watching the chaos with a grim amusement. Next to him, the High Arcanist of the Clockwork Mages, a woman whose left eye was replaced by a whirring brass lens, was on her feet, slamming a metal-gloved hand onto the table.
"This is a violation of the Charter, Subsection 4, Paragraph 9!" Arcanist Vex hissed, her mechanical eye zooming in and out as it focused on Alistair. "The roster was locked at dawn! You cannot simply drop a new combatant into the arena mid-match! The boy is an illegal variable! His mana readings during the intermission spiked higher than a reactor core!"
