Chapter 207: 207: The Hall Opens II
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Mira lifted the bell chain again. "The auction begins now," she announced.
A staff mber rolled out the first display case. It was not a legendary item. It was a warm-up.
A high-grade piece that would attract bidders without revealing the strongest cards imdiately. A polished weapon with visible runes, sealed under glass, aura humming faintly. The crowd leaned forward, interest rising.
Mira described it professionally, including grade, known function, and verified origin. Buyers began bidding.
Numbers rose fast. Not insane yet. But eager numbers.
Sekht watched the pattern of bidding more than the item itself. He watched who tried to raise early. Who hesitated. Who waited. Who bid in pairs, suggesting they were coordinating. Who acted alone, suggesting personal wealth.
Iron House participated early, throwing stones with confidence, trying to set a tone: We control this room.
They did not win the first item.
A neutral rchant house outbid them at the last mont, and the hall murmured in surprise. Iron House rarely lost early bids unless they wanted to, which ant either they were conserving stones for sothing bigger, or they were being cautious for reasons the room did not yet understand.
Mira’s bell rang again. The second item rolled out.
Another strong piece, still not legendary, but impressive enough to make the crowd believe Dawn House was not bluffing. Bids rose higher. The room ward.
Sekht’s gaze flicked over the crowd again.
That was when he noticed three figures seated not in the best seats, not in the worst, but in the kind of seats people chose when they wanted to watch without being watched. Their clothing was modest but too clean. Their posture was too calm. Their eyes moved too precisely, not like excited buyers, but like hunters reading a field.
Alex. Sofia. And Natasha.
Sekht did not know their nas. But he felt sothing cold in his blood when he saw them. It was not fear. It was recognition without explanation.
A familiar wrongness.
Like hearing drip... drip... drip... in a room that was supposed to be dry.
He did not activate Blood Eye openly. Not now. Not in the middle of a hall full of watchers. But his attention tightened.
Lily noticed his stillness. "What."
Sekht’s voice remained calm. "Nothing."
Lily narrowed her eyes. "That is a lie."
Sekht did not deny it.
Mira’s voice continued. The second item sold.
The crowd’s excitent rose again. Iron House bid again, heavier this ti, trying to make a statent. They still did not win.
A beastkin collector with a heavy pouch of stones took it, smirking openly as if stealing victory from Iron House was a sport.
Dickoff Iron’s expression did not change. But his fingers tapped his armrest once.
Sekht watched that tap. He filed it away.
He is counting, Sekht thought. He is watching what I reveal. He is waiting for the legendary wave.
Mira rang the bell again. Then she spoke the words that made the entire hall lean in.
"Now," she announced, "Dawn House will begin the legendary sequence."
A hush moved through the hall like a wave. Even people pretending not to care sat straighter. Even those who had co only for gossip sharpened their eyes.
Because legendary items were not normal goods in the lower domain. They were the difference between a rchant being rich and a rchant becoming untouchable. They were also the kind of thing that attracted the wrong attention.
Sekht’s posture remained calm. Inside his chest, his blood moved slightly faster.
It was not hunger. It was anticipation.
Auri, from her position behind Mira, glanced briefly toward Sekht. The look was subtle, but it carried aning.
Everything was ready.
Mira signaled the staff.
The first legendary case was rolled out.
The aura from it was different. It felt sharper, cleaner, older. The runes in the hall lamps humd faintly in response, like recognizing a higher class of object.
The crowd inhaled. Soone whispered a curse. Soone else whispered a prayer. Iron House’s bidders leaned forward together.
Dickoff Iron finally moved his gaze fully to the item.
Mira began her description.
Sekht listened, calm and still, while his mind asured the room and the predators hiding in it.
Because the auction had officially started. And the stage had been built. And sowhere inside the crowd, hunters had arrived who did not look like buyers.
anwhile, casual buyers sat straighter. Proud nobles stopped pretending to be bored. rcenary representatives leaned forward as if slling blood. Beastkin clan buyers narrowed their eyes, ears twitching, tails stiff. Even the city guards on duty shifted their stance subtly, because legendary items made fools brave and made brave n desperate.
Mira waited for the noise to settle into the kind of tension she could control. She had a talent for that, not magic, not charm, but timing. She let the crowd feel the weight of what was coming, then she spoke again, voice clear and unhurried.
"The first legendary item," she said, "is verified under the Dawn House seal and confird stable for public sale. There is no active curse. There is no binding owner mark. It is a clean acquisition."
The staff rolled open the case, and the air itself seed to warm near it. The case was reinforced glass with rune edges. Even so, the aura leaked through like heat through thin cloth, not dangerous enough to burn, but intense enough to make buyers imagine power in their hands.
Inside lay a weapon that looked like it had been designed for war and for theatre at the sa ti.
Mira’s hand lifted slightly in a controlled gesture toward the case. "Legendary Grade Three. Fla-Etched Warblade."
She let the words breathe, because Legendary Grade Three was not a casual phrase in Slik City. That grade ant it would not end in a street brawl. It would end in a personal guard’s hands, or in a noble house vault, or on the battlefield of soone important enough to survive carrying it.
(Give golden tickets and power stones.)
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