A flogging pole had been planted in the center of the arena, disrupting the area solely used as grounds to train me. Here, my guardian had overseen many of my practices from above on tall rocks, while I remained on the ground and heeded my teacher's lectures. The chaos from my magic, Spring's criticism, and Taegen's warm praise had always been controlled here in the arena.
However, it was noisy this afternoon, with thousands of bewildered conversations filtering through my ears as thousands of elves began filling the high levels of seats. Every elf from the ten nearest villages had been gathered for today's event. And now, an abundant estimate of fifty thousand people would serve as witnesses for the human's trial.
It was unusually warm today. Dry. The dust on the ground picked up and blew into my eyes. I ignored it.
