patience

[calescent]

Alser's granddaughter has the same suggestive "power" blessing from her first set of three that Kiri has. Her other blessings aren't torz either - flexibility is coru, loyalty is hunti - but she is torz, and Alser's current best guess for a successor. She's about the elder prince's age, just a little older than Kiri. Alser asks Kiri if he might visit her at home with this grandchild-of-interest in tow.

Kiri says sure, why not.

And so Alser and Patience Frothen - who is only named for the blessing of patience, and does not wear it in her hair - comes to the house not too long after the princes do.

Comments

[calescent]

"If you get lost in here, it's a good idea to go down stairs," says Kiri. "Unless you see a lot of books. The library's in the basement." She shows him to the nearest stairwell.

[pythbox]

"Thank you," says Isten.

[calescent]

"You're welcome." At the bottom of the stairs she turns left, and shows him all the way to the door of his room. "Here you go."

[pythbox]

"Thank you," he says again, and produces a tiny little smile.

[calescent]

Kiri smiles back.

[pythbox]

His smile brightens a little, and then he disappears into his room.

[spinnaker]

"Who wants to draw blessings!?" cries Jayce loudly in the hall off which the Ardelay kids and the princes have their rooms. Patience has already been collected and is at his elbow, smiling.

[pythbox]

There is no response from the princes' rooms, and then both princes emerge from Isten's room.

"We do!" says the elder, grinning.

[spinnaker]

"Cool. Aleko and Kiri are off doing some kinda twin thing," says Jayce vaguely. "But who needs them? Let's go!" And he leads the way off to the chapel.

[pythbox]

The elder prince bounces along in his wake, trailing a somewhat more sedate Isten.

[spinnaker]

Jayce holds the door for everybody.

[salt_of_the]

And Patience goes in first. "Are we each doing for one other person or are we feeling greedy for blessings today?"

[pythbox]

"I think it's more fun when everybody draws for everybody," says the elder prince.

[salt_of_the]

"Sure," says Patience, and she draws for him first: joy. Jayce gets a swiftness, and Isten gets a contentment.

[pythbox]

Isten giggles a little at his contentment.

"Recognize that, huh?" says the elder prince, smiling. "I got joy this time, look." And he shows Isten his coin.

[spinnaker]

Jayce starts rummaging. He gives Patience a beauty, Isten a contentment - "I've never seen a blessing like somebody this much before!" - and the elder prince a kindness.

[pythbox]

"Looks like I'm having an elay kind of day," the elder prince remarks, observing his little collection of blessings.

Then he takes his turn. For Jayce, he draws love; for Patience, serenity; for his brother, the third available contentment. Isten giggles again and hugs his little handful of coins.

[spinnaker]

"You must be one heck of a content kid."

[pythbox]

Isten smiles tentatively at him, and dares to comment, "It's nice here."

Then he gets his brother to pick him up. They stir their blessings back in, and Isten draws:

Joy for Jayce - he recognizes it and smiles.

Health for Patience - his brother murmurs the word to him as he hands it over.

And for his brother, luck.

"You know that one, right?" says the elder prince. "'Cause it's in both our birth blessings." Isten nods.

[salt_of_the]

Patience stacks all her coins on top of each other, kisses them, and tosses them back in the bin.

[spinnaker]

Jayce returns his too. "I wonder how long one has to stir around before you can't read it anymore and it turns into a ghost coin. Ages, probably."

[pythbox]

"Yeah," says the elder prince, dropping his luck coin back in the bin. "Unless it's made of something softer, I guess. If you made blessing coins out of gold I bet it wouldn't take that long to ghost 'em. And it matters how busy the temple is, too."

[spinnaker]

"Some of the temples have gold ones." Jayce stirs his hand through the chapel's supply. "I think these are copper. They look like copper."

[pythbox]

"Yeah," the prince agrees. "I dunno for sure, but they look like it."

[salt_of_the]

"So you both got luck, did I understand right?" Patience asks the princes.