Seraphina asked, her eyes shining. "I want to try the trick with the towers this time."
Kaelus looked at the board. His brain was melting.
He had a headache the size of a mountain. He had never been so thoroughly, intellectually thrashed in his life.
But looking at her bright, eager face... the Reaper of the North knew he had absolutely no choice.
"Very well. Set up the board, little Sovereign," Kaelus sighed, a fond, defeated smile on his face, mentally preparing himself for another four hours of humiliation. "The Vanguard requires a rematch."
And as the carriage rolled onward toward the golden spires of the Royal Capital, carrying the most dangerous, intelligent, perfectly bonded father-daughter duo in the history of the Empire, the true victims of their wrath, the scheming nobles of the court, remained blissfully, tragically unaware of the storm that was coming for them.
***
