'She used a wooden stick to artificially narrow the terrain, forcing the numerically superior frog-flank into a single-file line of engagement, where her silver ducks have the defensive advantage. That is not how children play. Children crash things together and make explosion noises.'
Kaelus rubbed his temples, feeling a sudden, strange phantom headache creeping into his skull.
He suddenly remembered a conversation from three days ago, right before they had departed the Obsidian Gate.
He had been standing on the balcony with Archduke Leonidas Valen, drinking wine, watching Seraphina play in the gardens below.
She had been arranging river stones and flower petals into a complex pattern.
