Even the details Nicosar and only a handful of others in the Empire knew about the Culture and its true size and scope were there, included and displayed on the board, but probably utterly indecipherable to those who did not already know; the style of Nicosar’s board-Empire was of a complete thing fully shown, the assumptions about his opponent’s forces were couched in terms of fractions of something greater. There was, too, a ruthlessness about the way the Emperor treated his own and his opponent’s pieces which Gurgeh thought was almost a taunt; a tactic designed to disturb him. The Emperor
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