He met the Emperor’s gaze for a moment. He could see from the expression there that Nicosar hadn’t fully realized yet, but he knew the apex was reading him in return and could probably see the change in the man, sense the sense of victory… Gurgeh lowered his gaze from that hard sight, and turned away and walked out of the hall. There was no acclaim, there were no congratulations. Nobody else could see. Flere-Imsaho was its usual concerned, annoying self, but it too hadn’t spotted anything, and still inquired how he thought the game was going. He lied. The Limiting Factor thought things were
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