calescent | flexibility

They leave Thiyec, cross Soche-Tas, and re-enter Welce.

Kiri sends a letter Jayce's way as soon as they stop in a Welchin town. It's brief - we found the Lalindar prime, we'll drop him off and my next stop is the palace so please forward my correspondence there.

The Lalindar house, on inspection, appears to be completely empty. There's a note from the butler on the dining room table stating - in appropriately formal language - that no one was paying them and so they have left, but he, the cook, the gardeners, and the maids may be contacted at the following addresses respectively if the new prime, when located, wishes to re-employ their services. Unlike the Ardelay house at the time of Elytte's death, this house as of Nerine's death contains no extended family. There's nothing to do but for Loel to move in. Kiri draws him a little map of the route between the estate and the nearest town, where he will probably want to buy groceries, and she and Aleko leave to let him plan his moat.

They're at the palace the following day.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...He looks at Sarelle.

"As elay prime, I can more or less smell your soul," she explains. "If I could not, it would have been considerably more difficult to find you. Perhaps not impossible, but as well as being elay prime I am also particularly talented at finding."

"I... see."

"I managed to find the also-missing-abroad coru prime without help," mentions Kiri. "But that was because he was affecting the weather. You have no such obvious tells. If you want nothing more than for us to leave you alone, I'd ask that you write a letter authorizing some other Serlast to manage your estate in your absence - I can make recommendations if you like - and do something obviously magical to the paper it's written on so it isn't suspected of being a forgery. And we might come back when the king dies and ask you to at least visit."

"I detect a slight flaw in this plan," he says. "Namely, I don't know how to do anything obviously magical."

"It should be possible to figure it out," Kiri says. "I can probably help a little - Valdin Serlast didn't mind if I read his mind now and then, so I know bits and pieces of how the other magic works - but it's mostly pretty intuitive. You might find your magic in better or more accessible shape if you visit the forest on the estate, though."

He sighs. "No. If the inheritance is mine, the responsibility is also mine."

Edited 2014-03-14 01:52 (UTC)

"Have you got a name apart from Serlast, by the way?"

"...Ekador."

"Ekador Serlast. Rolls off the tongue."

"So if we're bringing you back with us - how long do you need before we leave?"

He frowns. "That may depend on whether or not I plan to come back... you said I 'own a lot of property' in Welce; does that translate to significant material wealth? Enough that I shouldn't worry about finding work, if I stay?"

"Two houses, assorted businesses - the Lalindars gave you a winery to apologize for the duel, most recently; I would need to look up details about other holdings - plenty of cash, anything belonging to Valdin that your various cousins haven't designated personal and found some way to divide up, and you'll find that your credit is good anywhere in Welce unless you develop some sort of irresponsible reputation. Your job is 'be the prime', which can accommodate any amount of involvement in said property but certainly allows you to live comfortably even on negligible amounts of same."

Edited 2014-03-14 02:11 (UTC)

"Convenient," he says. "All right. Where are—"

He cuts himself off and peers more closely at Kiri's blessing necklace, then at Aleko's bracelet. "...Excuse me," he says slowly, "what is the meaning of those - symbols?"

"They're blessing symbols. Welchin children get three apiece - barring miscounts, anyway - within a few hours of being born. Mine are," she points, "power, intelligence, clarity. Primes get 'power' disproportionately often, so I was suspected as my great-aunt's heir right away, although not all primes get it and not everyone who gets it is prime."

"I've got flexibility, imagination, contentment." Point, point, point.

"And— one moment—"

He digs a small notebook and pencil out of his pocket, flips to a blank page, and draws three symbols.

"These, are they more of the same?"

"Resolve, love, loyalty," reads off Aleko. "Are those yours? Do you still have yours?"

(Kiri smiles faintly at the readiness with which he produced the notebook.)

"I... believe these three were my mother's," says Ekador. "And I believe that mine were... intelligence, flexibility, and resolve," with a glance at the presently visible examples of each blessing as he says them. "My mother had a bracelet she sometimes wore, with her three symbols on it, and she kept three coins in a little box near my bed when I was a child. She never mentioned what they were for."

"Intelligence is a sweela blessing, flexibility is coru, and resolve is hunti," says Kiri. "Though it's only a slight tendency for one's random blessings at birth to have anything to do with one's elemental identification later."

Edited 2014-03-14 02:42 (UTC)