Royland returned with his friends to find a full blown tournament being set up. “What happened?” He looked at the tables being set up, and the paper being affixed up so it could display the names of those entered.
His three friends stayed right behind him, but Alain leaned over,”Does this mean we can go?”
Sumina approached, she’d been looking for him,”We’re having a larger tournament now.” She looked a little sheepish,”Would you all like to enter?”
The healer wasn’t the only one on the lookout for him. Lenoir glided over with a smile and touched his arm,”It will be such fun. We even have a prize.”
“What prize?” Royland asked, while all three of his friends' heads perked up. Now they were interested.
Lenoir guided him over to a table,”We’ve decided that tomorrow we could all take an excursion to those Elvish baths, and the winner will have a special surprise.”
The Prince’s eyebrow raised,”What surprise? I’m not sure I’m interested.”
Lenoir leaned a little closer,”Come now, surely the prize isn’t the point. We’re having fun.”
Sumina, however, crossed her arms and decided to disclose at least some of the surprise,”I’m to make a special tea, there’s to be a massage for those who rank high, things like that.”
“And we’re all to carry a chess piece according to our ranking in the tournament. The ‘King’ of the tournament will be the ‘King’ for the day, and the others defer to him, or her, for the day tomorrow. Or anyone who outranks them. The ranks go King, Queen, Nightingale, Knight, and Castle. Not enough brackets for pawns unless we get a lot more players. Not everyone is eager to join, but it’s enough.” The Princess of Zeravell interrupted, grinning. “Are you all joining? Guards and maids are allowed. We need more people anyway.”
“Count me in!” Alain announced loudly.
Sirius also nodded and said he’d join, as did Walter when Alain elbowed him. It left Royland little choice but to ask who he would face first. Lots were drawn to decide the playing order, with numbers on scraps of paper determining where each person was written on Sionia’s chart.
“Do you play chess much, Your Highness?” Castien leaned over the chessboard. His hair fell forward onto the pieces and he carefully pulled it back.
Royland shrugged,”Some.”
Their match was drawn out, more than most of the others. One of the first matches that ended was the one between Sirius and Sumina. It was a brutal match, their skill levels weren’t anywhere near each other. Iolas and Lily had been the only spectators since their game was over even faster since Lily had quite happily forfeited the match when she was pretty sure she would lose.
Iolas arrived to see Sumina missing almost half her pawns, a Nightingale, both Knights, and a Castle. Her Queen was in danger, and he tried to warn her,”Mina, maybe you should —”
“Shhh. It’s a tournament. You can’t help. I’ve got this.” She had so far only captured one pawn. The little black pawn was sitting lonely on her side of the table. She added another pawn to keep him company, but then her Queen joined most of her other pieces.
“Mina…”
“Hush, I don’t need your help.” Sumina continued without Iolas’s advice, and Sirius soon had her in checkmate. He’d realized by her reaction the second time he had her in check, that surprised look and desperate search for the way out, that she was not planning an elaborate strategy. All those moves he’d been desperately looking for a deeper meaning in really were her just not thinking of every possible move, and her not actually noticing the danger her pieces were in. By then it was too late and he secured his victory as quickly as he could to not string her along.
Her heartfelt congratulations crushed him. She’d sighed but then gave him the sweetest smile,”Wow, you’re really very good. I guess I wasn’t much of a challenge, huh?”
The sheepishness, as if [i she] felt bad for him after he’d gone totally overkill to beat her. He felt like he’d crumble into dust. This girl was too sweet to be real. She’d been sending Royland extra tea and medicine for him for years. [i Royland]. The Prince would kill him for being so cruel to her, even unintentionally.
“I, uh… You’re not so… so bad. Pretty good, really. I uh… I should go. I uh…” He left to go look at the brackets. To his horror there was a possibility he’d face Royland next. If he beat Castien. Royland might just knock the pieces down and hit him with the board once he found out about Sumina. It was clear to all of them that the Elvish girl was special to him in some way.
Lily and Sumina both seemed content enough with the loss in the first round and went to watch Royland’s match along with Iolas. Vaeril had beaten a maid of Lenoir’s who only joined because Lenoir insisted she did since they were short one person. Sumina’s brother won a blushing congratulations from the girl he’d beat since her bitterness at being forced to enter and lose right away melted during the match. He had complimented her skills, given her pointers for next time, and said she had real talent. A few added remarks about how lovely she was and that a man would be very lucky to win her heart, and he would simply settle for a chess match, had won her over to the point where she had a little crush on the usually quiet Elvish archer. Walter had also beaten Tarron with little difficulty, but it was drawn out by Tarron just managing to limp along and avoid the actual checkmate for a while.
While the shorter matches were ending, Royland and Castien asked how Sumina and Lily’s games had gone. Lily admitted to a quick forfeit, while Sumina said Sirius had beaten her. That didn’t surprise Royland, but then Lily and Iolas filled in details. How by the end Sirius had captured almost all of Sumina’s pieces while she’d only gotten two of his pawns, and Iolas commenting how it was “Pretty obvious he just crushed her, no mercy. She didn’t stand a chance. Honestly it was hard to watch.”
Which got him an elbow from Sumina,”It wasn’t all that bad.”
“Mina, at the end all you had was a single Nightingale trying to save your King when he got you in checkmate.”
Then Sirius was over watching the match from a little farther away and Royland saw that guilty look on his face. He’d be facing Sirius next, and he usually lost, but maybe… Well, he had to beat Castien first.
The more challenging matches included Lyrei and Alain. It was a match which Lyrei cleanly won, leaving a flustered and impressed Alain staring at the finished game for several minutes trying to work out how he hadn’t seen her trap coming. He wasn’t a strong chess player, but he hadn’t noticed it at all. What he had noticed was the characteristically Elvish low cut of her neckline, especially when she leaned over to move pieces farther over on the board. Was she really that indecisive about moves or was staying leaning over hemming and hawing at pieces a strategy? Aias and Lenoir’s match lasted a little while until she had him in check repeatedly, and while he was on the defensive chased him right into a checkmate. Sionia and Ayre’s lasted for a little while until Sionia won, though she wondered if Ayre had really tried. She knew he was usually a better player than that and suspected he’d lost deliberately because of her status as a Princess.
In the end everyone was watching the endgame of Royland and Castien’s round, which took quite some time. Eventually Castien was struggling along in a situation that was almost unwinnable and Royland eventually had him boxed in. Castien sighed,”I suppose it was over once you took my Queen. You have a very aggressive play style. It’s… invigorating to play against. I must have a rematch.”
Castien’s gaze briefly wandered to Sumina, who had a better seat than anyone else by virtue of losing her own game quickly. Royland looked as well and frowned slightly. Was he trying to impress Sumina? “Sure. When you’re ready to lose again, come find me.”
Castien’s smile was a little tight,”We’ll have to see who emerges victorious.”
Things moved along after that. Lyrei and Vaeril had a drawn out match which ended up with a bit of an audience by the end since Iolas lost to Lenoir without too much hope of victory and Sionia bested Walter in what she assured him was a good game.
Most were interested in watching Lyrei and Vaeril since surprisingly neither had lost a single piece by the time the other matches were done. They were running a little commentary, like Lyrei leaning over on the edge of the table to look at Vaeril over the board. “I was surprised you didn’t take my Knight.”
“You’d have taken my piece. I saw your Castle guarding it.”
“Then take my Castle.”
“I don’t think so. The pawn there is a little too obvious, My Lady.” Vaeril had smiled, while Lyrei laughed. They were pretty evenly matched and both played pretty defensively. They could also tell traps the other laid, and everyone was waiting to see who would lose the first piece. Vaeril seemed completely unfazed by her leaning over the table farther, and so she had eased off on trying to distract him to focus on winning fairly.
It left Royland and Sirius almost alone. All the better for Royland to use the only hope for victory he had. The fact that he could tell Sirius felt horribly guilty over his last victory. It was throwing off his game, and Royland just needed to push to keep him off balance.
“I can’t believe you took advantage of her like that. Hadn’t she been kind to you?” Royland shook his head.
“I-I didn’t! It’s a game. I didn't mean to!” Sirius shot back defensively, but without conviction. He felt bad, and he was glancing from their game to Sumina, who was for the moment watching her brother play, with her other three brothers around her.
“I can’t imagine how she feels after you humiliated her. Do you think she’ll still be upset tomorrow?”
It was working. Royland took one of Sirius’s Castles off the board. Sirius looked surprised, but made a hasty move anyway,”She congratulated me, she seems fine. Lady Sumina isn’t…”
Royland made a noise to indicate he wasn’t convinced and made his move,”She’s probably not angry, but she’s probably disappointed. Why do you think she’s not here? She’s probably avoiding you. Do you think she’ll still want you to have tea? She might send less next time.”
“D-do you think so? How do I… Lady Sumina has always been so good to us. I need to apologize.”
The strategy worked beautifully. Sirius was too distracted worrying about if Sumina would avoid him or end up not sending him tea that Royland managed a win, just barely. Royland wasn’t sure he’d be able to repeat that, but it was the only way to beat Sirius at chess. Play the player and not the game.
Sumina wandered over while they were resetting the board,”Oh, I’m sorry I missed it. Tarron dragged me over to see Vaeril play. He’s the only one of us to still be in the game. Who won?”
“Me.” Royland stood up,”Are they done?”
Iolas, who had followed after Sumina once he noticed her walk away, answered,”Nearly. Better get ready for your next match. Looks like it’ll be against one of them.”
Lyrei emerged victorious against Vaeril, who was a gracious loser and said she was an excellent player. The next round began, the semi-finals. By now the weaker players had long since been eliminated. Lenoir still didn’t seem to have much difficulty beating Sionia, which left people watching Royland and Lyrei’s match as it shifted into the endgame phase.
“You are quite the strategist, Your Highness.” Lyrei complimented, as a piece of hers was taken. She hadn’t noticed the trap when she’d moved her Nightingale there to take his pawn. Now he was just a little closer to taking her out of the game entirely. Lyrei saw how he looked when she had an excuse to try to look especially alluring, but it didn’t fluster him like it had Alain to see her bent over, cleavage on full display.
Royland set her white Nightingale down on his side of the table,”I’ve had some practice.”
A modest response considering she was just barely keeping herself in the game at times. That shadow of a smile on his face said the modesty was feigned, so she went on with her praise hoping this would be her road into his favor. “I can tell. I really must play you again after this. Castien is my usual opponent.”
“Hm, and do you win often?”
“More often than not.” Lyre answered, cautiously moving a pawn forward.
“I can tell.” Royland smirked, glancing to where Castien was watching. His jaw tightened a little seeing how Castien had weaseled next to Sumina and was leaning over to whisper in her ear. What was he saying to her? He couldn’t get distracted. His attention returned to the game, taking it more seriously. He was not so good that he could afford to lose his focus.
By now several nobles who had been engrossed in other games and rejected the chess tournament had come over to watch the last couple of games. While Lyrei succeeded in drawing him into a couple of traps, she had to admit defeat after the loss of her Queen in a failed trap where she hadn’t realized that piece was vulnerable to his Knight. It left her King running away and eventually with no way out. Rather than looking upset at the loss, she seemed impressed. Alain had patted Royland on the back and congratulated him on getting ‘revenge’ for Alain’s earlier loss to her.
That led to Lyrei walking right up to Alain into his personal space,”I’d be happy for a rematch if you like.”
Alain looked red in the face but waved dismissively,”At chess? I don’t care. So you win at chess, but in a [i real] contest of skill you’d lose.”
“Then I challenge you in this ‘real contest’. Tomorrow evening, you choose the game. If you’re man enough to get revenge for yourself.” Lyrei was almost in Alain’s face. They were both looking a little flustered, on the edge of a full blown argument.
“Fine. I won’t go easy on you because you’re a Lady.” Alain was bristling a little, but Royland put his hand on his friends back to remind him to calm down. What was Alain thinking?
“Good, I’d be disappointed if you did.” Lyrei took a step back and turned to Royland, a little pink in the cheeks. She’d sort of lost her temper for a moment there,”Ahem. You’re invited to join if you like, of course.”
Royland raised both hands,”I’ll merely observe.”
The half-elf gave him a charming smile and traced her finger over his shoulder,”An impartial judge. I look forward to it. Good luck in your next match.”
The final match between Royland and Lenoir had gathered quite the crowd. Both of them were quite skilled and while initially Lenoir had paid Royland several compliments over the game which Royland had politely returned they eventually settled into a serious silence while the contemplated moves and worked through possible moves for themselves and their opponents several steps ahead.
Royland saw an opening and considered it long enough that Lenoir had a coy smile, guessing what he was thinking. When he didn’t take the bait Lenoir commented lightly, but flirtatiously,”You usually go after the Queen quite aggressively.”
Royland hummed vaguely in the affirmative,”But she’s guarded.”
“Is she? You could take her anyway. Isn’t she worth it?” She batted her eyelashes, but he didn’t seem to pick up on the double entendre. Her move took a pawn. The game would likely be decided soon, pieces were leaving the board quickly.
A noncommittal shrug as he made the next move. He was focused on the game, while she was a little more focused on him. That might have been the deciding factor in the game ending in his favor, since they were so evenly matched. Even losing Lenoir seemed pretty pleased by the outcome.
Sionia helped hand out the pieces to everyone who played. Royland was handed a black King and Lenoir the black Queen. Lyrei and Sionia each kept a black Nightingale from the same set, while Sirius and Vaeril were handed the black Knights and Iolas and Walter the white Knights. After that Castles from multiple sets were given with Sumina, Castien, Lily, and and Alain receiving white pieces while Lenoir’s maid, Aias, Ayre, and Tarron took the black pieces. They were all instructed to meet in the entry hall in the morning after breakfast and to bring their chess pieces.