There could be many reasons for that, but Alcuin still finds his cheeks warming at the faint praise. "Give me a riddle, then, if you must obfuscate. Or grant me a misty vision. You are mistress of the long and winding game - you cannot tell me that you do not know your way around the rules as well as within their strictures," despite his light and teasing tone, he is in earnest. "The Mage holds one both brilliant and strategically gifted who sees himself as expendable. If you wish me to compete..."

He stops the dance as abruptly as it began, taking her hands and falling to one knee before her to press them to his bowed forehead. "I do not know how to help you or if, indeed, that is what you wish at all! It seems to me more likely that you might play not for yourself, but for another, in a roundabout fashion only you can see. Help me to understand what you need. Please, my lady. It is so dark where I stand. Lend me but the faintest moonglow or whisper of wind."