The Midnight Sun

Naoki’s knife traces lines across the slab of meat before her, separating it cleanly into bite-sized cubes to be individually consumed. As the group forges ahead with conversation, she adopts a primarily observational role. If they’re willing to showcase their characters and speak about themselves without any prompting, she’s perfectly content to simply listen and eat, offering small tidbits here and there where appropriate, and handling queries directed in her direction.

Really, a rather strange sort of group, their continued conversation confirms. But one that inspires confidence. Without too much to offer, Naoki simply absorbs, learning a fair bit about naval strategy and her newest subordinates in the process.

Eventually, however, Naoki polishes off the final bite of her meal, wiping her mouth and sighing contentedly, decidedly more satisfied than when she sat down. After spending another moment to place her cutlery on her plate, and rest her hands in her lap, she looks up to consider her dining companions. If they’re finished with the meal, she could begin wrapping things up, or if not, there are a few topics of conversation she might choose to bring up.

"Mighty kind of ye ma'am. But, uh, what the hell is a hangover?"

His tone suggested he was genuinely curious as to what that was. The hard-drinking borderline alcoholic orc rarely ever even got drunk, let alone suffered any consequences for it.

Once he received his answer, he would again thank Naoki before heading downstairs to get more drinking done.

Stark clapped both of the other men on the shoulders as he stood.

"Come on boys, lets leave them to their meeting and proceed downstairs to the bar. I haven't seen either of you in a long time, and I am certain you have stories to tell eh?"

He turned and bowed to Ema and Naoki before exiting after Gothmog.

"It has been an absolute pleasure to meet with you both. I hope we see other again soon."

As the door shuts behind the men, Noki nods to herself, but does not sit. Instead, she moves from her chair at the head of the table over to one of the cabinets sitting around the room, stretching as she does so. Bending at the knees, she opens one of the lower doors, and begins to shuffle things about inside, presumably looking for something. Turning her head slightly to one side, she addresses Ema in a decidedly more casual tone, “So, Emahra. How have you been? Anything you’d like to discuss?”

Before going into the topics she has for discussion, Naoki figures it best to allow Emahra the opportunity to share her thoughts.

Naoki nods thoughtfully into the cabinet as Ema relates her frustrations with Cyronin and her enjoyment of Valerian’s company. However, she offers no comments beyond acknowledgement. They had spoken once before, telepathically about Cyronin, and how Naoki thought that Cyronin’s actions were reasonably justified from a practical standpoint, but still quite rude, especially considering the level of respect Emahra ought to be afforded. Naoki has yet to speak with Cyronin, seeing as how he’s still out in the field, doing the whole ‘lead the army’ thing, but she intends to, and there isn’t much more to say until she does.

“Do you really find my company so abhorrent that you would rush me so into giving you your next assignment so you can be rid of my presence?”

Naoki chuckles, her inquiry clearly in jest.

“I do have an assignment for you, but I’ll get to it when I please. Unless you would really prefer not to- and I won’t force you to, if you’d prefer to go knock a few back with the boy downstairs, but I’d simply like to sit you down and speak with you for a short while. I don’t know you as well as I’d like to.”

“You see, now that my reign is… reasonably established… well enough, at least, I’ve begun to turn my thoughts toward the future. The future, more long term strategies, far reaching and permanent plans, and what I would like to happen should something untoward happen to me...”

For one speaking of the concept of their own untimely demise and preparation of successors, Naoki speaks with an apparent lightheartedness, casually meandering her way toward the point that she’d like to get at, taking her time to pause where she sees fit and not taking each step too seriously.

“Ahah.” Her exclamation signals her success in the cabinet. After a moment more, she extracts the result of her search. It is a box. A wooden box, and a very well made one, at that. Hewn of some dark, slightly reddish wood that very nearly matches the tone of her hair, it has been polished to an impeccable sheen, and reflects light very well.

Approaching the table, Naoki carefully sets the box down, and runs one finger around the upper edge as she continues, pulling out the chair. Naoki slides herself into the seat Valerian recently occupied, to the left of the head of the table, and across from Ema, whom she now establishes eye contact with.

“And you, Emahra, I think that I would like you to play a role in those sorts of things. But before we get to that, do you know of the game they call ‘chess’?”

At this, Naoki levels an inquisitive, somewhat mischievous eyebrow across the table, genuinely unsure if Emahra, what with her history and all that, would know of chess.

At Emahra’s admittance of her unfamiliarity, Naoki’s face lights up, evidently somewhat pleased to have the opportunity.

“Ah, well then, allow me to introduce you!”

Turning her gaze to the box, Naoki moves excitedly to unhinge the lid, revealing the contents of the box. It is a chessboard, of a rather audaciously gold and black motif. Carefully removing the board from the box, Naoki sets it on the table between them, and proceeds to unpack the pieces, explaining as she goes.



“Chess is a game of strategy and logic played between two individuals using a set, like this one. I received it as a gift from some impudent Gauldish noble who thought he could buy my hand in marriage. He was… informed otherwise, but I kept the gifts. Turns alternate between the players, and on their turn, each player may choose to move one of their pieces- one set of which, in this case, is the gold, and the other is black. For conversation’s sake, allow me to take the black pieces, and you the gold.”

“Each piece- you can see how they’re not all the same, can only move in certain ways across the board. Some are more capable than others. To start with, we have the pawn. Though- I should preface, the whole game, names, movement, and style of the pieces, are all styled very directly after warfare. The pawn, for example, represents a spearman. They are only capable of moving forward. One space at a time, or two spaces if it is the first time that pawn is moving. However, if there is an opposing piece to the forward diagonal, the pawn can move diagonally to capture the piece, like so…”

Naoki demonstrates the motion, toppling a gold pawn with her gold. Over the course of the next short while, she proceeds to explain the rules of chess, how each piece moves, the objective of the game, and speaks for a few minutes as to the nuance of the game, and how to play well, one ought to put themselves in the mind of their opponent, and attempt to engineer situations that seem appealing to them, but ultimately result in a favorable trade for you. What she says is mostly correct, and touches upon some rather complex theory, but lacks all personal experience, and comes off more as a scholar reading a dissertation than a master explaining their craft.

“And… I must admit. For as much as I know of the game, I’m not a particularly excellent player. I mean to say, understand the game, but…” Naoki shrugs noncommittally. The truth of the matter is that she has never fully applied herself to the game. The extent of her experiences go no farther than a few casual games with Artemis shortly following the acquisition of this jeweled set, (of which she lost all) and a book written about the game, which was read some nine years previously but is remembered as clearly as anything else.

“It’s not a bad way to spend some time with someone, though. And you seem like the sort who might enjoy this manner of game. So, unless you’d prefer not to or have any questions- I may very well have forgotten something important, gold moves first.”

Resting her elbow on the table and cupping her chin in the palm of her hand, Naoki gestures toward the board, which is now fully prepared, set for their game.

“Mmm.” Naoki nods thoughtfully, both in response to Ema’s move, and her statement.

“Things work… differently in Gauldin. I’ll not use the word ‘backwards’ publicly, but I find their system, of their kings and their vassalage and their dukes and heredity transfer of power to be… inefficient, at best. My preferred principle is meritocracy. He or she who is best suited to the job, barring any complications, ought to have the job, generally speaking. What Gauldin does, with its overly complicated and massively ineffectual system of feudal land ownership and horrid arranged marriages and whatnot… I simply don’t like it. It leaks into their morals, too, which is even worse. Buying marriages is a very common and socially acceptable practice over there.”

The disgust practically drips off Naoki’s words as she speaks of the practice. Having mulled over her move as she spoke, she simply opts to move her pawn from E7 to E6.

“I mean no offense to the people, of course. King Renaux is a fine man, as is his queen, and the country itself is beautiful- you ought to visit sometime… but I must wonder where they would be with some more logical policies.”