NIGHTSPIRE - THRONE ROOM
Hyran Thornfell was sure about exactly three things:
FIRST: There were only three men alive who could play the game at this level and two of them were in this throne room.
SECOND: The most dangerous game of political chess was about to begin with him as the only witness.
THIRD: The problem with putting two grand masters at the same board is that there is room for only one winner, and both had already decided it was them.
The conversation between Tiberon and Nightspire was a cock-calibrated, crown-polished chess match where every word cost something and every silence cost more. Both kings played because quitting was for lesser bastards with smaller kingdoms and shorter memories.
Tiberon's opening position included ancestor intel and a file he had been building on both Maelor Vantheos and Riven Nightspire for months.
