Dressed in frills with bodices and lace, covered in jewels and fine linens. Courtiers mingle and know there place as a grand charade beings. Polite in their tone with knives in their sleeves, each one sharp as a vipers fang. Walking a fine line of political intrigue, ever careful of who they offend. Taking care to mark their own place, offering compliments to betters and being weary of those who court their favor, for betrayal is one gossip away. All is pretense and theater as the hierarchy occasionally changes  on a political whim. In favor one second and returned to utter seclusion the next, one can never tell which way the royal interest will go. All is illusion and part fantasy as the reality of courtier life is played out in a constant chess game of pawns and royal players as life unfolds in the Kings Court.