The tournament did not slow down to let anyone catch their breath, and round by round, the crowd's mood changed with it.
Fewer names filled the rings each time. Whole kingdoms that had entered proud and hopeful found themselves watching from the terraces instead, and the ones still fighting carried themselves like people who understood exactly how much closer the ground had gotten to running out.
Two more rounds passed in the space of a single day, brutal and fast, the kind of stretch that blurred into itself for everyone still standing in it. A field already cut down to thirty-two names became sixteen, became eight, and the crowd watching it happen stopped being surprised by anything except how few familiar banners were left among them.
