"We don't know that.Not for certain."Kaida settled back against the cushions."But Lady Nyraxa has her theories.And she’s rarely wrong about these things."
The room felt smaller with him in it.Not uncomfortably.He moved to the low table where her Ukhel Dain board sat, pieces arranged in the positions she'd left them.
"You play," he observed.
"I'm learning."She joined him."Someone taught me in the gardens."
"Someone being?"
"Dead."
"Ah."
"Yet to be avenged."
"You collect enemies the way Methuselah collected wives."
She rolled her eyes as they sat on opposite sides of the table, the board between them.Azul rearranged the board to its default, starting the game from scratch.
"Do you know how to play?"she asked.
"My mother taught me.Before she died."
When the board was ready, he gestured for her to make the first move.
"I don't know your skill level," she said."I don't want to embarrass myself."
"I don't think you're capable of feeling embarrassed."
Azul paused, finding her ears were hot; somehow, him calling out her lack of humility left her stumped for words.
She moved a soldier.He countered.She moved a tower.He shifted a battalion.
The game progressed slowly, as Ukhel Dain usually did.From Azul’s calculations, a proper game could take days or months to complete—truly a game of war.With every move they made, the lamp burned lower, and the night deepened outside.
"You're aggressive for a beginner," Ragnar observed, blocking her attempt to encircle his stronghold.
"I'm aggressive in general."
"I've noticed."
She looked up at him.His eyes were on the board, but the corners were crinkled in amusement.
Her eye twitched."What?"she demanded.
"Nothing."He glanced up."I like it."
Her heart did something inconvenient, so she looked back at the board.
"You're trying to distract me."
"Is it working?"
"...No."
She moved her cavalry.It landed in a position that threatened three of his pieces at once.
His eyebrows rose."That's not a beginner move."
