The Prisoners Above the Game

The first round ended, and the arena finally showed what the prizes had been hiding.

Exaba returned to the stage with the satisfaction of a host who knew the audience had not yet seen the real twist. Gold was counted. Rings and scrolls were awarded. Contestants who had done well were praised. Contestants near the bottom were made to feel the floor giving way beneath them.

Then the veils came down.

Each contestant had a prisoner suspended above the arena, sealed behind glass and bound to the game. The bodies overhead were not scenery. They were leverage. If the contestants failed, someone they cared about could suffer for it.

Nick used a Reveal Prisoner scroll on himself and saw I.J. behind the glass, trapped in the black and purple haze of the Game Master's space. Dhaz used his scroll and revealed Emmy, the girl he had once escorted to the Thieves Guild while working with the Lawful. What had looked like a contest for prizes became something uglier: a hostage game wearing the skin of a show.

The rewards carried their own message. Jonah, Victor, and Araspinn received Game Master rings, small prizes that made the arena feel almost generous until the punishments arrived. Exaba called out cheating next. Jonah, Maine, and Ash were struck with psychic force, the game punishing help, theft, and shared advantage as violations of its rules.

Then came the vote.

Maine, Dhaz, and Rifleton Rob stood on the chopping block. The contestants voted in secret, and Rifleton Rob was eliminated first.

He did not simply walk away.

He vanished out of active play, removed by the game's authority. That was the lesson the arena wanted everyone to learn: elimination was not freedom, mercy, or a clean exit. It was only another door the Game Master controlled.