‘Four kasha and one, blind.’ Cort was aglow with arrogance. ‘That’s an auxiliary flank- in case you,wondered Dortan’ Cort was one of the three guards sat around a square table. He had a peculiar halting way of speech that despite its many Interruptions wasn’t hard to follow. Cort’s understanding of the Shan language was actually very impressive, he spoke with the same cadence as if he was still speaking Asifie and yet still came remarkably close to perfect annunciation. He often won these games quite handily, the captin and the other one often cursed him as a lucky Asif harlen and blamed his strange speech for how they could never tell when he was bluffing or not. The real reason they usually ended up shouting at him, beyond of course them losing at cards, was that he often came across as quite stupid, and therefore it was quite the offence when he easily trashed them. That was the reason that when Cort loudly announced his suspiciously good hand the captain and Dolten simply glared bitterly.

After a while of angry staring they both folded simultaneously, thoroughly at the mercy of the foreign guard. Analin wondered when the two would eventually wise on to the entrepreneuring mans schemes, clearly not any time soon, as it has been a year of these games with the two often ending up under Cort’s dainty thumbs.

With the two other guards folded Cort glanced up from the wooden tabletop, worn smooth from the years of palace guards using it, where he was tapping his cards and raised an expectant eyebrow in Analin’s direction. ‘Do you want to,challenge my grand forces? want to call my bluff? You want, to?’ Cort’s arrogant smile eventually twitched as Analin simply stared placidly back at the jockeying card shark.

‘I would like to bet my royal coffers’ Analin placed two more silver coins into the pile and an extra half silver piece. The game was called Lord’s bet and slowly through each round the pile of money grew and grew. No one really knew where the game had come from but it had recently become popular in Shanlax’s capital, which again didn’t say much about its origins considering Shanlax had just conquered it’s eighth kingdom. The point was to pick from three types of armies and whittle down a force of a thousand enemies that could besiege your city. The force arrayed against you could be anything from a animal stampede to mercenaries to a naval armada. Once you dealt with the invading force you were free to build strength until you could attack the other kingdoms. It was like chess, but faster and more stressful. You drew cards from different piles in different amounts to defeat the first phase but after that you drew from the middle and drew blind. This particular they’d rushed the first stage and all entered the second relatively fast, as such they had been drawing blind and growing cards for a while, amassing defences. Of course there was much more then that to the game, but you get the gist. The only thing not told was the fact that there were five cards in the middle that could be purchased by discarding two of your own cards. That’s what Cort was claiming he would do, the two auxiliaries and three blinds on the table meaning he could easily wipe out someone’s army in a turn by discarding his unneeded six cards-if he wasn’t lying that is.

Cort laughed nervously ‘my friend you have, surely lost, why not give up?’ Cort inflected the last words slightly ,not fully hiding his hope. The captain and Dorten had looked up excited from the table from the moment the nerve tinged chuckle had left Cort’s lips. They grinned sinisterly sensing his trepidation like yakt sensing blood in the water. Cort raised the bet by three half silver leaving only one silver peace left in his bank. He smiled with sympathy his sun baked face trying to reassure Analin as if to say there was nothing wrong with conceding-this of course did nothing but goad him further. Analin simply smiled back before raising the bet another silver. Cort pushed the rest of his money into the large pile his smile flickering like a lamp bug.

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’Cort, it’s your turn’ Dorten whispered his words eagerly, leaned in toward the table like a boy waiting for a gift to be opened. Cort’s smile dropped to the wayside and set his mouth in a grim line. He placed down one card of infantry in front of Analin’s army. Cort then discarded four cards. He bought two blinds. He played his four auxiliary units and three blinds. He was just short of a perfect flank, but even those with a good sense of the cards would of struggled to know that. He split his force and left one unit at the front of the charge leaving three units cloaked behind it. Cort smiled a little once his force was clearly displayed. All Cort had to do was whittle down Analin’s forces enough so that his less impressive army could defeat Analin’s.

‘Your turn, My Lord’ Cort said, remembering his manners now it looked like he would take a decisive victory. In response Analin laid down two cards he had picked at the start of the game and never played Rough terrain, Skiping Cort’s next turn, and the scout-letting him reveal flanks to his army.

Analin viewed so many things about his life with contempt, detesting it’s irregularity when compared to all others and detesting the way he couldn’t find someone his equal to spend time with, lest he drop his false facade. Analin was alone in the way only those truly cunning could be. Even now, away from the politics of the court he told himself was distasteful, he was here working politics of his own. Even now Analin thought about who he should dance with in the room across the palace to build the goodwill he would need with certain factions. Analin did everything in his life with purpose, dedicated all his life to furthering one design. Analin’s brain constantly turning over the paths he would take to his goal. To Analin, happiness was a foreign concept intermingled with success, his mind was too busy to currently process anything resembling joy. Analin was unable to enjoy the life he lived as he was too busy striving to control it.

So Analin played his hand, and Cort’s tanned face paled as his turn was passed Analin still believed he was here because it was necessary. When Analin played his two commanders and combined his entire army of infantry into sprawling archery and poleaxe auxiliarys, he still believed he was here to build important relations. As Analin took the mens money to the cajoling of Dorten and the Captain and incoherent spluttering of the Asif man he still deceived that he was here to build towards his favoured future. To an extent Analin may of been right, and yet when Analin was pocketing the sliver slivers of the guards salaries, there was smile a very genuine smile spread across his features.

Analin stood after pocketing the generous pile of the soldier’s money and backed away from the well worn table with a boyish grin ‘As always, a pleasure gentlemen’ He gave a shallow bow, still grinning ‘I feel the sudden need to go dancing’ Analin turned and began to flee from the empty barracks as the previously joyous men remembered that although Cort had not beaten them, they had still lost the majority of their pay checks. ‘Come back here you prancing dandy’ Analin heard the esteemed Captain of Shanlax city guard shout. ‘Yeah you don’t need that money, it’s ours!’ Dorten shrill scream was quick to follow. Laughter echoed as Analin’s form faded quickly into the shadows. ‘Next rounds on me boys’ The brightly illuminated exit blackened to hide the royals flight, and when the torches reignited it was was empty.