Chapter seven

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The last few days the cold reined over the kingdom. The weather never went up to zero degrees Celsius, some fruit trees have already sprouted, and the temperature was not in their favor. In patches, snowdrops have appeared, making spots of hope all around the earth. Seraphina was busy taking care of her garden, especially her plants. She had to be careful not to give the flowers too much heat, but enough to nourish them. The possibility of daydreaming about a certain boy was low because her grandmother, Xenia, got sick. John, her husband, was terribly worried about her, and he went to the village in that cold to get some medicine. She told him and her granddaughter that she would be better if only drinking some hot plant tea and sleeping some more hours, but neither one of them wanted to hear that. Seraphina knew her grandma was afraid of doctors, so she didn't push the matter. She made sure to make a light soup every day. Every night before going to bed she would raise a prayer for Xenia, in hopes of a quick recovery.

In the meantime, Belletem didn't waste time. He helped his father re-enforce a number of military strategies from centuries ago that seemed to fit in this day and era. The two men were in the royal office from sunrise to sunset. The queen usually brought them lunch without failing to tell them a rest never hurts. But, being stubborn from birth, they concentrated on the papers. Esmé was about to start the following semester, so their time together was ending, and they had to make the best of it. Being the awesome big brother, Belletem helped her improve her Latin and taught her a trick or two with the card game. When night fell upon the castle, the siblings went to the living room where they would play a game of chess focusing on tactical strategies aiming at the double attack of the king.

Like in the following chart where the move Kc4 (the white king moves to the intersection between column c and row 4) gives the white side the winning stroke.

 „These tactical strategies are very important and, in consequence, they are the very first layer of combinations, with their final goal of checkmate or material losses

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„These tactical strategies are very important and, in consequence, they are the very first layer of combinations, with their final goal of checkmate or material losses." explains him to Esmeralda.

She vaguely agrees. „I can see that." They both start to move the pieces around the board for another game. „By the way, how is your lover, Seraphina doing?" she raises the black queen at eye level and inspects it „You were quite these last few days, have you heard anything new?".

He finishes the row of pawns „I didn't go to visit her. The last time I saw her was on our first date, the most magical time of my life, I may add".  Indicating with his head towards the board, he says: „We decided to see each other on the Spring Festival day, and until then, I made myself busy with work, so I couldn't think too much about her, or her absence in my day-to-day life."

„You don't seem happy with this arrangement."

„Yeah, well... it would have been uncomfortable for her to have my persistent presence as often as I would have liked. Being an obsessive person in a relationship would have been a thing I would have done in the past, but the today me doesn't want to be like that. I want a healthy, long-lasting relationship, you know?"

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