The Warenne seal rested beneath Gervase's thumb as he entered the Office of Sanctioned Contests.
The room possessed none of the grandeur its title might have suggested. Two long counters divided petitioners from shelves of numbered ledgers, while framed regulations occupied the walls between plain brass lamps. The Academy settled witnessed disputes, sparring permissions, formal challenges, and exhibition requests here; ceremony would only have slowed the clerks required to make violence orderly.
Gervase approved of the arrangement.
The registrar at the nearest counter finished marking a ledger before extending one hand. "Purpose?"
"A sanctioned challenge."
