The air inside the Noble Etiquette Club was thick with perfume, polish, and malice. Candlelight glittered from chandeliers above, refracting through crystal droplets so finely cut they might as well have been frozen tears.
The nobles at the long table leaned in like spectators at a bloodsport, except the arena was a velvet-draped hall and the weapons were porcelain teacups, book stacks, and sharpened tongues.
And now?
Now the weapon was chess.
The board was set upon a low table at the room's center, carved from marble so white it glowed, its squares alternating with slabs of polished black onyx.
The pieces themselves were works of art: pawns shaped like miniature knights with silver inlays, bishops carrying delicate glass staffs, rooks fashioned into tiny fortress towers studded with gold.
The king wore a crown that glittered faintly in the light; the queen's carved eyes seemed to judge.
