In fascination, Zekke watched as Jaren and Nadia moved their pieces, each countering the other's moves.

He had long-since finished his cup of coffee and hurried back to the kitchen to get more and returned with the coffee pot in hand and repoured coffee for Jaren as well. He also brought out the girls' cups of tea, also refilled.

After settling those down as quietly as he could, he returned to his seat and continued to watch, his mind silently counting out moves until checkmate from either side.

:: Ganymede accepted her newly refreshed tea from Zekke and sipped it greedily as she anxiously watched the game that ensued in front of her. She gave a small gasp as Nadia's queen was nearly taken. In the process of watching she finished her tea and absent mindedly conjured some more into her cup. Taking a sip she placed the cup down warily. I bet he heard that. Ah well, I don't think the others need to worry. I'll just meet them when they arrive. She thought as she calmly continued watching. She stood up and walked a few paces about the room becoming a bit nervous. She resettled herself on the chair near Nadia and Jaren and gave them all a weak smile before trying to once more concentrate on the game. ::

Jaren was slightly distracted by Ganymede suddenly shuffling about and as a result almost didn't see an attack on his other knight, and saved it just in time. He had one bishop, a rook (castle, whatever) and the knight stationed in a three-prong attack on Nadia's king, though right now their progress was hampered by Nadia's defense. His queen remained hovering around his side of the board, while his pawns were all captured--deliberately, it would seem, to clear up some space for manuvering. A risky strategy.

Her 'let'sa save each other's butt' strategy was resulting in her defense working pretty good. Bad news were, the first of those pieces to go down will result in a domino breach of her defense. Mind, it would cause the same looses on Jaren's side, but those three pieces were actually bothering her.

Nadia made a move to save her knight and was forced to retreat, but... in doing that, she hadn't realized she had one lucky card to play. So it all went down if Jaren did what she thought he would... which would be a suicide move. It all went down if she managed to induce his next move to be the obvious attack on her bishop, desguising the opening her knight would give her as a defense move.

Well, it all depended if Jaren realized the move wasn't what it looked.

Jaren considered. He could attack the bishop, or leave it be for one round--it didn't seem that anything could spring up and attack his knight unless Nadia wanted to compromise her defense, which she probably wouldn't--and instead move the rook...to threaten an innocent-looking series of pawns from the side but at a distance where they couldn't retaliate. He decided on the latter.

To respond to the pressure over the pawns, Nadia moved one pawn forwards in between, the most threatened. That way, by being an space before the others, if taken, the thing that took it would be going down with that pawn. In fact, since the one pawn at the former's right was still in the initial position, it could go forwards two spaces and threaten the rook that was menacing them while covered by the pawn she just moved.

There was nothing behind that pawn but a castle, which she might be moving forwards to put it to attack and present an extra pressure. All that to take also Jaren's mind and to distract it from the obvious breach in her defense, which should so said activate the trap in mind. Besides, she might find another opening as she went...

ooc- Ooooh, this is getting interesting

Jaren moved his rook to persue that particular pawn, then when Nadia moved her piece to threaten it moved it back out towards another pawn in the set...

ooc: This blow by blow thing gets rather tiring lol.

:: Ganymede watched as each made thier moves. The game was reaching it's peak and Ganymede could feel the concentration in the room. Watching both, she wondered which person she'd like to play more. Then her thoughts stumbled back to something else. It's not like I want to sleep. Maybe I wasn't very loud. It was just a bit of tea after all. I wonder if Grandfather can feel the magic in the house, afterall, all magic is related in someways.

She placed her hands on her chin and leaned over onto her knees, in deep thought. Grandfather will come with Silk. Maybe after seeing the house, Silk will understand why I bought the dress. I can't wear my beaten clothes in a wonderful home like this. He'll understand, he buys finery all the time. Now.. Grandfather on the other hand will just be annoyed. Maybe if I take him to a nice resturant. He can order as much drink and food as he pleases, that will make him feel better for coming all the way out here. I'll apologize a few times after he has a few drinks and then send an owl to Mother saying where I am. Easy.
She suddenly perked up and asked, "Has anyone won yet?" Looking at the board a bit lost. ::

ooc: Lol. For some reason, I can actually see the moves while I describe them Maybe that's why it entertains me.


It was interesting how things had turned out. She hadn't exactly meant it, but her pawns were representing the most pressure from her side.

Since most her 'important' pieces were at defense, the offensive was the slow pawns, which represented a menace not because of their movements, but because they were moving forwards in groups and looking like a tempting to take if not that being the only possible play some times. And, usually it meant the piece that took them would would taken by the back-up pawn.

So, see the difficulty? With no unimportant piece (aka pawn) at Jaren's side, he couldn't sacrifice a black pawn for a white one; he needed to sacrifice the important piece like a knight to save a bishop, or the queen.

"No," she told Ganymede. "But it won't be too long. No, I suspect. You let me too far in," she regarded Jaren with a happy smirk.

Zekke remained silent as he watched, observed, and made notations. He sipped at his coffee as he observed and despite the general air of silence in the room, he could feel the intensity of concentration that was radiating from the two chess players.

He suddenly grinned to himself and chuckled into his coffee cup as he imagined the reaction on their faces at the sight of the winner's chess pieces dancing at the conclusion of the game.

Their particular chessboard actually wasn't all that magical. The de Barticot family already had two Wizard Chess sets and so when this particular chess set had been bequeathed to the family by means of some sale some years ago for some fundraising event, Zekke's father had removed the charms that animated the pieces.

At least... He had removed most of them. He did leave one charm behind besides the anti-theft charm and that charm animated the pieces to do a dance for the winner at the conclusion of the game and at no other time.

Actually, to be even more honest, his father had altered THAT charm as well.

Louis had complained about the chess set being too boring at one point or another after finally winning a game from his older brother and as a joke, their father re-enchanted the pieces to do a victory dance for the winner.

Unfortunately, their father had a pretty interesting sense of humour at times and he had enchanted the pieces to do the can-can.

Zekke had been the first unfortunate victim of the victory dance (he wasn't going to let Louis get his wins that easily after all!) and the first time he had witnessed the dance, he had stared in shock for several long moments while his pieces danced for him.

And as he had stared in utter shock, Louis had been rolling around on the floor howling with laughter. Of course, something so funny as that HAD to be laughed at and eventually, Zekke had given in to the laughter and he had laughed so hard his sides hurt for an hour afterwards.

Ever since then, that particular chessboard had become the family's "fun" board.

And of course... especially now with Nadia and Ganymede visiting, he had to pull out that board. A party wasn't a party without a little bit of fun and besides... it WAS their only other spare chessboard that wasn't in use at the moment.

Indeed, Nadia was right. He could attack the pawns from the rear, since that was where they could not move to defend themselves, however that would only drive them forward. The only plausible way to continue was to take out her king before the pawns could cause enough havoc on his side of the board, and perhaps stall for time, but he could see that he wasn't going to win this match. Blast the pawns...and blast him for underestimating them.

Positioning one bishop and a rook to defend his king, Jaren intensified the attack on Nadia's side of the board by sending his queen over to capture Nadia's bishop. He wasn't going down without a good fight.

Nadia bit her lip. She will have to admit it was a fool move to put the bishop there. But she was feeling the pressure of the moving queen, to the point the bishop had been the least of her worries. Dumb move, to be neglecting that one piece. But actually, she prefered having the castles and knights at the present time. Like now, that she was going after the defensive castle.

On the other hand, once the first opening let the Queen on the rear, she knew her pawns were going down. To protect the pawns from the queen, she put one knight covering the next pawn to go's back.

Her concentration failed just in one instance, where she looked with a curious expression that of Zekke. The boy had been chuckling to himself, with seemly a dreamy expression. It would make one wonder what was going on in that boy's mind...

Using his queen to harrass the pawns and the escorting knight simply by presence allowed him to manuver the first of the three attackers to check Nadia's king.

"Check."

Zekke imagined Jaren's expression upon discovering that the chess pieces dance and the corner of his lips quirked madly. He quickly hid his amusement behind his cup of coffee and proceeded to finish his cup.

As he waited for the game to conclude - his prediction was, at this point, about 75 and 25 - he started planning for... something.

Drat. Now Nadia will have to sacrifce her other bishop, only to save the king. And that wouldn't mean she would have any backup plan to keep loosing pieces to the queen. And all because she had left the one loop open! Blast that small space and blast the queen's power. At the time, she did the only rational thing and that was to face her queen to his, after that lost. Because it was exactly one space from the king, the king defended the queen and forced the black queen to back off. Paradoxical, no?

She was soon with no bishops and lost a couple of pawns... though still compared to her black pawns pile, it looked not that disadvantagous. Maybe it was time to leave the defense for a more offensive style. It wasn't working for her this way. Hence she put the second castle and knight and managed to forge an opening by taking the defending rook.

Now his three-pronged attack was whittled down to two, not as good as he would have liked it ideally. With three you could box the king in and then go in for the kill, but this would have to do.

He maneuvered his queen around so that it was now harrassing both the pawn group AND a visible threat to the king, though not for two turns at least. But he would make Nadia pick which one of her pieces to sacrifice.

As the two turns were up, Nadia finally noticed the threat and obviously set the queen back to counter-attack Jaren's queen. This was resulting a tiring game. If only she hadn't made that one ridiculous mistake, leave that opening. In the end, she knew the pawns, at least one of them, wouldn't make such a loss. Not like the queen.

Still, she knew she had advantage over Jaren in other sense. While limiting the black queen to attacks away from the king, Nadia also had it positioned so that it was menacing HIS king, too. But it wasn't at first sight; the white queen had to act like a bishop though her own white pawn formation to hazard the king.

It was just a matter if she got to take the rest of Jaren's defense, either by him making a mistake or by taking the piece out from the game. And since that defense piece was a bishop...

That gave her an idea.

Right at this moment, Jaren was focused on taking down Nadia's king rather than to defend his own territory, save for that one last bishop there which he moved in front of his king to ward off the advancing pawns.

He moved his knight into position where it could check the king in the next move.

Noticing Jaren's last move, Nadia moved her own rook (the one put on defense) to position so when Jaren tried that attack, Nadia would take that knight.

The previous trap couldn't have worked with so many pieces changing positions, even if the so said 'trap' had been activated. She had to consider the pressure Jaren's queen had before represented, leaving that one strategy burried away but not forgotten. But at least for now...

With the working defense, Nadia positioned her rook (second, on offense) before bishop, threatening it but not moving. Then moved her queen one space, allowing the black queen to take a white pawn if Jaren so wished, but most importantly... doing what looked like a wild, wrong play in every sense. In fact, the space where the queen was now made it be menacing the defending bishop. Like a bishop.

So these were the options: 1) In the next play, Jaren made no important defensive move, so Nadia took that bishop side-ways with the queen, being just in front of the black king, the queen covered all the options where the king might run to and therefore force Jaren's king to take the white queen... the rook which is in front of the king therefore takes it, check mate.

2) The second option was, well, if you realize the bishop was menacing AND being menaced by the white queen. So the bishop could take the white queen, instead. It would mean it would drop the defenses, though, because there would be nothing in front of the king and between it and the menacing rook.

That way, by that seemly disastrous mistake, Nadia had given up the option of checking, to be able to check mate. There was a third option? Well, maybe, but Nadia is not telling~ Besides, Jaren was missing too many pieces.

A choice between moving the bishop away or keeping it where it was...

Jaren chose to move his knight into position. "Check."

As already explained, Nadia had the defensive rook ready. Took the black offending knight.

And it was obvious. Her strategy asked for two moves, not one, and she would be doomed if she lost the game on not recognizing the more immediate danger. She waited to see if Jaren could come out from her little trap...

:: Ganymede watched with much excitement. Afterall, she was going to have to play one of them. She tried to study the moves they made, but each had such a different plan.
She noticed Zekke acting a bit.. funny. With a smile, she looked at him inquisitively. Whatever he was smirking at must be funny. "Is there something going on? Are snakes going to jump out at the winner?" She asked hopefully. Ganymede liked snakes. Cornsnakes were her favorite.
She hoped the games would be over quickly, she wanted to play charades next. ::