Nanofic: The (Very) Condensed Guide to the Etiquette of the Court of Courts

“Whatever you may do at home, do not, under any circumstances, kneel. It is an insult that will kill you. Also, don’t bow any deeper than forty-five degrees, stand up straight while you talk, do look your interlocutor in the eye, even if it’s the Empress Herself, and while you ought to keep it to a respectful and formal register, speak straight out without stopping to grovel every couple of sentences.”

“And when I say ‘formal register’, I mean to say that there is no formal-register equivalent of ‘motherfucker’.”