“This opening is called the General Asad opening,” Tonagek said, pg the st knight where it o be, while Konarot pced her own pieces to form one of the most popur aile openings. Her opening was referred to as the Slumber Cw opening, named after the brass dragon who developed it while pying against so many dragon chess experts.

  “It is also called the Prince Asad opening, but in the Iyr, we show the General the appropriate respect,” Tonagek said, sipping his tea slowly as the girl reached up to her , hiding her lip behind a furled finger, her eyes narrowed in thought. Tonagek pat his thigh and the girl climbed down from her seat before Tonagek lifted her up onto his seat.

  “You see? The wizards are still to the side, because General Asad and The Slumbering King both did not trust the wizards, so they remain outside. Here, you see? The knights surround the priest, while the other remains with the king. The priest must advise the king, but one knight must remain. With the Slumbering King, both priests remain beside the king, yes?”

  The girl nodded, her silver hair boung gently. “Wizards to the side. Priests protect. Two knights protect. Two knights attack.” The girl held up two fingers, her thumb and index finger, before she poio each of the knights, paired up in defend offence.

  “That’s right,” Tonagek said, pointing out towards her side of the board. “With your pieces you attack or defend. The Slumbering King created this opening because it is versatile, it is good against many openings. There are a few openings I will teach you ter, which are difficult to deal with with this opening so you know. Do you remember why I taught you this opening first?”

  “So useful,” Konarot replied, leaning her head back to look up towards her grandmother’s brother.

  “That is right. It is always one of the first openings taught. This opening, the General Asad opening, is the opening my grandfather taught me.”

  “Baba’s baba?” Konarot asked.

  “Yes.” Tonagek brushed her hair gently. “I will teach you this opening because it is a good opening to develop against the Slumber Cw opening. This opening is very good with defence, and you are of the Rot family. A battle of attrition is a battle a Rot enjoys most.”

  Konarot blinked, not quite uanding his words, but she nodded again, before her eyes fell back to the board. She listened ily as Tonagek expihe pieces to her and the positioning, as well as showing her how the pieces should develop.

  Meanwhile, in the minor fort, another pair were also pying dragon chess. Sara set up the board with her own pieces, while the senior officer of the minor fort opposite her set up her own board. The senior officer was an old erhaps in her sixties, with white hair cut extremely short, and with rivers of wrinkles across her face. She wore a simple breastpte, but the varis and medals all about her buckle revealed her status as a lifetime soldier. She had ihe young devilkin to py dragon chess, but ione of voice was very mu the way of an old person who wasn’t asking.

  “Where are you from?” the senior officer asked after pg the st piece down.

  Sara bliaken aback from hot the question was. “I am Lady Sara of Bck Mountain.”

  “Sir Margaret Rosekeep,” the old woman replied, the woman the to flip. “Heads.”

  Sara raised her brows in shock before noting the gre of the old woman tellio hurry up. She flipped the , catg it in the air before pg it onto the table, revealing heads. ‘Rosekeep?’

  Margaret took the first move, moving one of the knights forward, a very cssic opening move which did not betray her opening as of yet. Sara moved her own piece forward, mirr the move.

  “Staring at my pretty face, are you?” Margaret asked, gring at Korin, who watched the match from beside them.

  “The beauty of the Rosekeeps is well known,” Korin replied.

  “You keep looking,” Margaret replied, before fog on the game. “Should have expected.”

  Sara smiled, pg the third knight forward, as was typical of the Bck Mountain opening. “It is my favourite opening, the sed I learnt.”

  Margaret began shifting some of the pieces slightly, going from the Slumbering Cw to the Waking Cw, a modified opening which was more offence oriented. “What are four members of your order doing so far north?”

  “We came to Aldnd to find Amira, who was missing for quite some time.”

  “Did you find her?”

  “Yes. She’s the other devilkin.”

  “The oting with the priest?” Margaret asked, already beginning to push on the offence, far quicker than Sara expected.

  “Yes.” Sara hadn’t pyed dragon chess in quite some time, so tried to recall how to ter the Waking Cw, only to realise Margaret had forsaken the Waking Cw to push through into the unknown with her vast experience of games.

  “I thought you devilkin were mean to be good at the game?” Margaret stated, taking the third piece while Sara took her first, having lost her knight so early.

  “It has been a few years.”

  “Don’t they say devilkin ied the game?”

  “They do say that,” Sara replied. “Devilkin ied dragon chess while the Aldish ied treachery.”

  Margaret tilted her head slightly, though her lips formed a small smile. “That they did.”

  “I heard Rosekeeps do not retire until death,” Sara said.

  “Isn’t that why so many of us have died to you Aswadians?” Margaret had cimed the tre of the board and begun pressing the attabsp;

  “It is unbelievable to hear Florians and Aswadians fighting side by side after all these turies of death we have brought to one another,” Sara replied. “Especially from Rosekeep and Bck Mountain.”

  Margaret only bowed her head. “How is Priest ander Hassan?”

  Sara remained silent for a long moment, her thoughts no longer about the board. “The Priest ander is well.”

  “That is good to hear,” Margaret replied, waiting for Sara to make her move.

  Sara wasn’t sure how to feel about such a statement, not when it was the Priest ander who had killed a Rosekeep in his younger years. It had been in the middle of a skirmish, and though typically the nobles wouldn’t kill one another, in the heat of battle much was at stake and tragedy could strike without effort. Sara moved a priest into position, pressing them forward towards the nearby soldiers, while Margaret moved her knight forward, taking and of the tre of the board, and threatehe priest.

  Korin remained silent, providing no support to Sara while the awkward air hung in the air. His eyes remained focus on the board, and though he had only casually pyed dragon chess as he grew up, he uood how terrible of a position Sara was in. It was only amplified by the older woman coaxing her verbally.

  ‘The Rosekeeps are so scary.’

  Laygak sighed, sitting down beside Faool, who pat his shoulder. The young Iyrman crossed his arms, smiling to himself. He had fought st, fag one of the soldiers who wasn’t a soldier, though had apparently fought quite well in previous wars between Aldnd against Aswadasad, and then Floria against Aldnd.

  ‘I was meant to reach such a strength at thirty,’ Laygak thought.

  Faool uood his friend’s thoughts, though he also uood the differeween them. As much as Faool wasn’t quite on the level of Kitool or the others, their family had mao reach heights the Gak family hadn’t in some time. Shaool, their grandaunt, had mao train to bee one of the top guardians of the Iyr, and though Laygak had his grandaunt, Gangak, the level wasn’t quite the same.

  Yet…

  Jaygak was strong, able to match the likes of the One Hundred. Jaygak, that Jaygak, was able to match them? Then Laygak, who was already an Expert so young, just like himself. Faool couldn’t have imagined such a life. No, he had previously, always imagining them to reach Experts at a quick pace, by the time they reached their mid twenties, but before they turwenty? Such a thing was impossible.

  “It was a good fight,” Nirot said, nodding her head to Laygak.

  “Yes,” Laygak replied, allowing Nirot to pour him a drink. He sipped the alcohol lightly, his face still holding a satisfied smile.

  Naqokan stared down at her hands. They were calloused, as one might expect of an Iyrman. She could see the scars she had gained from her life being raised as an Iyrman. She heard some Iyrmen preferred their lives outside of the Iyr, retiring in the various cities or towns across Aldnd and Aswadasad, but Naqokan couldn’t imagined her life away from the Iyr, not when it had done so much for her. Yet, equally as impressive, she had been raised by the hand of another, who was lio the Iyr, but who was no Iyrman. While the Iyr had slowly raised her, it was Adam who had quickly tempered her into great warrior.

  Uwajin snoozed lightly beside Naqokan, having been uo sleep as much as she liked. The young woman, who preferred to sleep at least half the day away, tio dream her dreams, though she could feel the thoughts of the Iyrmen all around her seep into her dreams. She fought alongside them against all manner of terrifying foes.

  Bavin remained silent and still, almost fotten as he sat in the er. He could feel the gaze of anainst the back of his neck, a gaze which had been glued to all the Iyrmen as they won every bout against the soldiers in the early evening.

  I wonder how they still ended up fighting...

  Iyrmen.