How you deal with an enemy:

Tell them, to their face, exactly what you are going to do.Buy the people around them, and then wait.Remind them who you are, at volume, in front of everybody.Hit it once, extremely hard, and consider it settled.

Your family's reputation, in one line:

Charming, generous, not to be trusted near an inheritance.Hard people from a hard place, and proud of both facts.Warm to their own, and unforgiving about everybody else.Grand, careful, and rather too pleased with the view.

What would you actually die for?

Having said that you would.The thing that was taken from your family.Your people's position, which is not the same as your own.A person. One. Specifically.

Pick your worst quality:

You keep an account of everything, affection included.You get bored the moment the fighting stops.You would rather take it than be given it.You decided some time ago that you were above most of this.

A room full of people cleverer than you. You:

Say the plain thing, and let them do what they like with it.Get loud, and remind them you are not here for the talking.Charm everybody, agree with all of it, leave with what you came for.Say almost nothing, and get quoted afterwards.

Where does your sense of self come from?

The name. It opens doors, and it costs you constantly.Being the last of something, and knowing it.What you have taken, rather than what you were given.The people you belong to, and what was done to them.

Somebody betrays you. You:

Confront them openly, from the worst possible tactical position.See them ruined, legally, over roughly two years.Smile, keep them close, and remove them when the season suits.Deal with it yourself. Immediately. Personally.

Your ideal seat at the table:

At the head of it, because it was always going to be yours.Wherever the food is, and near whoever is fun.Somewhere you can see everybody's face.Not at this table. You keep your own.

What you want your children to inherit:

A word that means something.A story people still tell in a hundred years.Something you took and held, not something handed over.A grudge, and the patience to see it through.

The fear you would not say out loud:

That the family name is the only interesting thing about you.That the thing you were promised was never really coming.That the charm stops working and there is nothing behind it.That being careful was cowardice with a better view.

Pick a weather:

Cold, clear, and hard underfoot.Golden light over somewhere expensive.Dry heat, and an enormous empty sky.A storm everybody has to stop and watch.

A hundred years on, what is said about your family?

"Nobody saw it coming, and everybody was fond of them.""They took what they wanted and made no excuses for it.""They never forgot, and they were right not to.""They stayed out of it, and they are still standing."