Contents
56. Towers
Overview
Kinch plays a high-stakes game of Towers against Ürmehen, outmaneuvering him in the War round with a risky, Servant-heavy strategy. Forced into a double-or-nothing rematch, Kinch deliberately loses. In private, Ürmehen reveals he once held a queen and sold her to the Guild’s Full Shadow, boasting of a Catfall ring. Kinch departs having pickpocketed that ring.
Summary
Ürmehen hosts a high-stakes Towers match on a macabre table while his den watches. Kinch takes a cautious approach in the Tourneys, baiting Ürmehen into overcommitting Means while saving Servants. After trading early wins, Kinch enters the War with an extreme Servant-only deck, correctly predicting Ürmehen’s heavy Masters and key Fates.
In the War round, Ürmehen opens with Queens, a King, Towers, and both Death and Traitor, but Kinch’s Thieves and Sappers strip away Bees, Coins, and Towers. Ürmehen uses Death and Traitor to blunt Kinch’s counters, yet runs out of cards. Kinch’s last Thief steals the Coin that would have fed Ürmehen’s King and Queen, starving them and winning the War pot.
With his underlings watching, Ürmehen demands a double-or-nothing game. Kinch, reading the danger, feigns enthusiasm and deliberately throws the rematch, averting a public humiliation for Ürmehen while ensuring his own safety.
In private quarters, Ürmehen choreographs noises to imply he is bedding Kinch, maintaining appearances for his guards. He casually displays reverence for the thief-god Fothannon/Reffra and confides that, after the king’s death, his crew held a queen beneath the city to ransom her, then sold her to the Guild’s Full Shadow when discovery loomed. Ürmehen credits a Catfall ring from the deal.
Kinch leaves seemingly chastened, but later spits the Catfall ring into his hand—he has filched Ürmehen’s prize—departing with both the War chest’s lesson and a new magical asset, plus the alarming knowledge that the Guild controls the queen.
Who Appears
- KinchNarrator; wins the first Towers War with a Servant-heavy gambit, throws the rematch, and steals Ürmehen’s Catfall ring.
- ÜrmehenUpright Man; loses the War, forces a double-or-nothing, reveals he held a queen and sold her to the Full Shadow.
- The Queen (unnamed)Offstage captive; reportedly held after the king’s death and sold by Ürmehen to the Guild’s Full Shadow.
- Full ShadowGuild figure; buyer of the captive queen and provider of the Catfall ring to Ürmehen.
- FiddlerOld woman who plays during the break; her music punctuates the tense game.