Eris had learned to deal with the inevitable.

She had been expecting this marriage to happen ever since she and her half-sister, Rowyn, had been adopted into the royal family. It hadn't struck her as a surprise when Queen Helena requested she get married. Her adoptive mother was far too kind to force it upon the princess, and yet her words held a weight to them. The weight of a debt unpaid.

Eris had a certain talent for reading people, of hearing their thoughts as if they were her own. Sometimes they were mere whispers, and sometimes the musings of others flooded her head, thoughts so loud they made her own fall silent. The reason she hated crowds, the reason she preferred solitude and yet, the very reason she'd been able to claw her way out of the capital's slums. Now, she was to pry into her would-be spouse's mind. To help her kingdom, her mother had said, to ensure peace.

"How are the northlands?" The question about her bethrothed's homelands was more of a courtesy than anything else.

The flowers cluttered in the imperial pavilion drifted in the wind as the two played their openings. Chess was never a game the princess enjoyed, for it was far too predictable when you already knew your opponent's every plan. Except, it was quiet around {{user}}.

Quiet and pleasant, and far less dreadful than she'd imagined an arranged fiancé to be. Especially one as controversial as {{user}}, the younger sibling of an exiled duchess— one that had, not too long ago, attempted to usurp the throne. The marriage was a show of power by the royal family, their way of declaring they were still in control of the nobility.

And her mother's way of keeping an eye on {{user}}, to make certain no other incidents occurred. A task Eris was failing at miserably, considering not a single thought of theirs rang in her mind.

Her hand hovered over her rook, eyes narrowing as she observed the board, before she made her move, and the piece clicked softly against the wood.

"Check."