The initiate tournament round of sixteen started the next morning, Cooper dutifully sitting through each fight and cheering his friends on. Leander blazed through, along with Gabrielle and Rebecca. Helene was eliminated, falling to one of the clansfolk that had decided at the last minute he wanted to compete. Natalia had lost as well, but seemed content with the fact. For a cheerful girl, she had taken to the fighting more than anyone ever realized, and was pleased enough with her placement. The rest of the top eight were a smattering. Two of them were other Meristans, one from Devon's sect and one of the wandering cultivators that kept things mostly tame down south. There were two of the Somorin's left as well, having leveraged their unusual styles to surprise the locals.

Cooper didn't have time to dwell on the upsets. It was his turn. Finally. The round of eight would take up the later afternoon, but for now it was time for the knowledge and crafting competitions.

Tthe stands were nearly empty. At least, it felt that way in comparison to the rest of the events. Watching people be quizzed or present whatever things they had made was just not as fun as watching magic fights in the minds of the masses.

"Yeah Cooper!"

Of course nearly empty did not mean actually empty. There was still a respectable number of people around, either with nothing better to do or simply curious about the format of such a contest. And his mother had insisted they would all be there to cheer him on.

In a crowd of thousands, his brother's voice was easily lost. That morning he could hear it crystal clear, as Jean made a spectacle of himself in an attempt to embarrass Cooper. It was his primary-school days all over again.

He did his best to block out Jean's obnoxious cheering and focused on the matter at hand. There was a surprising amount of competition present, most of whom had competed in one or another of the contests so far, but not everyone. He made a note of those as strong opponents, if they had come solely for this round of competition.

In front of the assembled contestants was a panel consisting of Adam, Jade, and Devon. Their own Loremaster had been embarrassed to participate but Laurel had convinced him. Cooper had overheard the heated conversation where she forced the responsibility on the cantankerous librarian.

The mechanics of the competition were straightforward. Answer questions on your turn, get graded on the results. Best grades win. No need to beat on each other to prove themselves.

In his studies Cooper had read accounts from dozens of tournaments, and the format rarely changed. Long ago, as the legends had it, the grandmasters of the world had recognized the danger of having only battle-crazed students with nothing to balance them out. So competitions and rewards were devised to make sure the more bookish of young cultivators weren't left behind.

Rian and Eric were seeing to their own mental preparations nearby. The former he saw muttering the words to a song the initiates had come up with to remember the quirks of cultivation stages. On the other side, Eric was calm. So little ruffled the young man. Now that he had learned stronger healing techniques, he had paired his earnestness with a confidence few of the others could match. It would be kindling jealousy in all their hearts if Eric wasn't so likable at the same time.

There were no gongs or screaming crowds, but the competition started nonetheless. It had been Cooper's hope that his position in the middle of the field would allow him to glean some insights into the questions to expect. The tactics lessons weren't wasted on him.

He should have realized that problem would have been solved. Some quirk of mana hid both questions and answers from any subsequent competitors. If he based some guesses on the crowd's reactions, the same was not true for them. He couldn't imagine what was being said to generate such enthusiasm, but then again, a bored crowd plied with food and local beer would find something to cheer about in a snail race.

His first turn came faster than he expected. Knowledge. The first round was always knowledge. Then innovation, then speculation. For this round at least, he was confident at least here he could show himself well.

"Discuss how cultivation focus can impact the development of split paths within the same aspects."

"Describe the process of finding and using cultivation resources, how to anticipate their interactions with a given cultivator's unique path, and how one might optimize their own cultivation from such."

"Outline the historical differences between pre-collapse sects and those of the modern era, and how respective societies shaped and were in turn shaped by both."

A question each from Jade, Devon, and Adam. Though 'question' was a stretch. There were books on each of those topics. Many of them. But there was a time limit in play so he ignored the impossibility of his tasks and launched into his answers.

Afterwards he couldn't have repeated what he said for love or money. It had blurred together in a moment when stress met preparation. Nonetheless, he was cautiously optimistic. He could recall spitting out reference texts which felt appropriate; his brother certainly seemed to think he did well, if the shouting was anything to go by.

Cooper waited with the rest until it was his turn for the second round. It would have been nice if they had sprung for something interesting for the Arena, but he was resigned to his plain chair on the standard stone floor instead while he watched the remainder.

His sectmates joined him in short order. "How'd it go?" Cooper asked as the other two took their seats.

"Good, I think. Or maybe not. I forgot the tradition of wandering cultivators in the style of Mahari when they asked me about how cultivation techniques spread geographically, which was so stupid. I did part of the translation! I'm sure they'll take off points. But my answer about predicting phenomena by warps in the local mana matrix was better. I think."

"Went okay," Eric said.

Rian's nervous rant aside, Cooper relaxed. At least they had put up a good showing for Adam. It had been a worry that kept Cooper awake the previous evening. Fighting skill was more a reflection of experience. A poor performance in this battle meant it was their teachers who were failing.

All too soon it was time for their innovation round. Where they would be forced to prove they could apply their knowledge to do something new. Though from his research, it was often the case that a historical event would be used as fodder.

There was only a single prompt this time, Jade speaking for the judges. "What are the benefits and added challenges of a generally spiritually aware populace on mercantile efforts, and how that impacts existing power structures, including that of established cultivators and sects? Include moral implications and responsibilities along with specific resources and their existing constraints in your discussion."

Cooper took a full minute before replying. Long enough to feel the sweat beading on his brow and the small of his back. Then he began.

Overland transport logistics he had learned at his father's knee flashed through his mind as he outlined his strategy.

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There was no more discussion after that round, all three of the sect members deep in their own thoughts about all the ways their proposals might have overlooked the obvious.

The time dragged and flew and before he could center himself the speculation round had begun. The first two rounds had some level of objectivity around them. There were correct answers, though the second round still left room for creativity.

For this final attempt, they would be asked to discuss questions about things the judges themselves had no knowledge of. According to Laurel, the practice was to test their reasoning independent of anything else, and had inspired whole fields of research. That might have been a bit of a stretch but either way he wasn't aiming that high.

"Decorra experienced approximately sixteen centuries of a planet-wide mana desert. As such, civilization developed solutions for many problems without mana as a consideration. How will this impact our interactions with other cosmic entities in future once a World Capital is established?"

Cooper gaped at Devon for a moment before his decorum training kicked in. Predicting the future. That was his prompt. He channeled every presentation he had ever seen, from pitching ideas to his father to his university classes. From the depths of his mind he brought forth all the history lessons Adam had forced the sect to sit through.

"We have an unprecedented opportunity in front of us. Visitors have confirmed in the ancient past that most planets achieve a similar level of development before establishing a World Capital and entering the broader cosmos. As such, there is a homogeneity to their technological advancements. The existing technology in those already-established planets becomes a natural extension. By leveraging our own unique history, we will be able to carve out a different niche.

"In Meditations on the Iridian Peninsula, Haveer describes their travels amongst the Second Estrian Empire on the planet of Tanit. The rare example of off-world depictions included many public works of magic that make mortal lives easier, but there were gaps that our own technology and recent blends with magic infrastructure might assist with. While we cannot guarantee nothing has changed in the last sixteen centuries, it is likely. Those cultivators with the most influence are effectively immortal, leaving technological advancement to slow to a crawl.

"That is another area where we can thrive. Our work to educate the masses on the basics of cultivation will lead to those people with the need for innovation to have even more tools to do so."

He went on and on. Once he had started it was difficult to pull back. Speculating wildly, he spoke about what it might be like to visit those planets that can interact with the wider universe, and what Decorra might have that a galactic empire thousands of years in the making would not.

At each opportunity, he would reference some source or other. This was where the Archive had an advantage, one Cooper had taken advantage of more than most. He lived on top of a library with more first-hand accounts from those that had traveled beyond this world than anywhere else. Given the state of the world, they might have all of those resources.

That, and he had a mild addiction to the adventuring journals which his life was slowly beginning to emulate. His impassioned speech concluded with a discussion about changing cultural values and how that could set them up for cosmic success.

It was all guesswork, but it felt good, like his people hadn't just been stolen from, that something positive might come out of such a disaster. The crowd agreed. Slightly bigger than when he started, since the next round of the initiate tournament was starting later, they cheered him on as he returned to his seat.

He let himself relax for the first time all day. It was done. What happened now was not up to him. First one then the other of his sectmates completed their own trials, along with the rest of the competitors, and the judges moved to the side to deliberate while the rest of them were released back to the stands.

Without warning, Devon took command of the Arena and it began to change. It was one of Cooper's favorite parts of the whole event. Arenas were as old as Cities, cultivators always needing an area to practice without destroying the countryside. Or beat on each other as the case may be. But the Verilian Arena was special. With the main structure already in place, and a master enchanter on hand to assist, Laurel had been able to add in some flair. Including the cascade of chimes every time the area was reset.

The floor transitioned like a ripple in a pond, spreading from the center out to the edges. Devon was taking Martin's approach, crafting a domain that could be leveraged by any of the remaining contestants. Though where Martin created a jungle with each aspect interspersed throughout, Devon had made things more difficult.

Surrounding the floor were eight ….shrines was the only word Cooper could come up with. Each emanated the mana of the initiate they represented. For Gabrielle, it was another volcano, flanked this time by trees and bushes that were on fire without burning, created in miniature and their branches reaching only around his own height. On the other side, there was a more inert mountain, for the remaining earth cultivator. The most astonishing, however, was Leander's sector. Somehow, there was a tornado, just spinning away. Nothing obviously contained it, but the wind neither grew nor dissipated to nothingness. It gushed with air mana, spreading out and overlapping with the rest of the aspects to fill the arena.

He was pretty sure Leander wasn't yet at Laurel's ability to throw something like that at another competitor, air was apparently difficult to use kinetic manipulation techniques on with that level of precision. Cooper appreciated the aesthetic nonetheless.

The quarterfinals were anticlimactic. Since his first bout, Leander had dominated, and this was no different. He advanced to the top four with a zeal Cooper had come to associate with the lad. Rebecca made it too, this time without Flint as an ally, relying on her own ability to channel the ferocity of different creatures as she fought, though with some battle wounds to show for it.

Gabrielle lost after an impressive showing. Hopefully she wouldn't be too upset later or they would all pay for it. There was a practicality to Gabrielle's worldview that tended to see her through such scenarios, but that didn't mean she couldn't be disappointed.

The rest of final four was made up of Rex, the guild member that had stumbled onto their trip to see the Forest Monarch, and a Somorin with a pinpoint control over plants and wood. As might be expected of Jade's protege.

It was a strong lineup. Surprising. Not Leander, he was apparently born to be a cultivator in the classical sense, but the rest were underdogs. Rebecca was scrappy but better in the unstructured format of a real fight, rather than this kind of formal setting. And Rex, well, he hadn't impressed Cooper overmuch on their one shared adventure, but he couldn't deny the boy's effectiveness in his bouts so far. Being continuously pelted with rocks from all angles was difficult to defend against, and Rex had gotten quite proficient with his own kinetic skills. Far faster than most of the other earth cultivators in the tournament.

His musings were cut short when Jade and Adam rejoined Devon, who had refereed the round, on the podium. Cooper's nerves kicked back up to their highest level. Not that he had to win, he understood there were lots of fine competitors, and he had done his best. But that didn't mean he didn't still want it.

"How about one more round of applause for our final four!"

The crowd responded to Devon's prompting, saluting the fighters with stomping feet and cheers.

"And now we will announce the winners of our knowledge competition. For those of you that watched, I'm sure you will join me in congratulating these young cultivators on their pursuits, which will benefit not only themselves, but every cultivator now and in future."

The cheering this time was still enthusiastic, but there was an air of confusion surrounding it, most of the crowd had skipped that part of the day. Cooper would take it.

"In third place we have Ravessa Litore, for her expert mastery of ancient history and her well reasoned theories of how traditional alchemy and modern chemistry might be intertwined."

A girl Cooper recognized as a member of Devon's sect scurried up to the podium and shook hands with the judges. That was fine, third place still left two for someone from the Archive.

Perhaps he was more competitive than he thought. A piece of mana crystal, carved into a plaque to commemorate her achievement was presented before they moved on.

"In second place, Alexei Farrow, for their thoughtful ideas of how to apply modern resource management principles to Core development."

Again there was polite applause, as a guild member from Lanport accepted their prize. Cooper took a deep breath and tried to prepare himself. He had done his best and should be proud of that. Getting his hopes up would only crush him when they announced the winner. He fought against that trap, reminding himself that there was no shame in an honest defeat.

"And finally. Cooper Sarsenne takes first place. We hope to see the world he envisioned, and the steps he takes to bring such ambition into reality."

That was quite the dollop of extra pressure added on for no reason. He scrunched his face at the thought of establishing Decorra as a cosmic powerhouse.

Then he realized what happened while Eric shook him on one side and Rian on the other.

"Go, go," Eric urged him up and shoved him towards the stairs.

Cooper got his feet moving and hurried up to the podium to accept the trophy. This close he could feel the mana running through the crystal, keeping the markings stable, and doing something else he couldn't quite capture.

"Well done lad." Adam said as he handed it over. "We'll be celebrating later, I'm sure. You should invite your family."

Such grace from the biggest curmudgeon in Verilia.

"Thanks," was all he could get out.

Crowds streamed out of the Arena as the day concluded and there was no more entertainment to be had. But some spectators pushed against the flow. On one side he saw his friends from the sect, shoving their way onto the field.

On the other, his mother, her decorum and presence splitting the sea of humanity on either side as she descended along with the rest of his family.

Both groups converged at about the same time.

"Fantastic -"

"So proud -"

"Dinner tonight's going to be great."

That last one came from Eric, who was smiling without a care in the world. "I'm sorry," Cooper started only to be waved off by the younger boy.

"You earned it. You've been studying since the tournament was announced."

Cooper suspected his own graciousness would not be so apparent if the situation was reversed, but he accepted it for what it was.

Dinner was amazing that night, when Cooper's families, born and found, converged on the sect house and the wonders Esther had wrought within.

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