swiftness

[calescent]

Sarelle and the Ardelay twins go to their inn. They are greeted there the following day by Ekador apparently-Serlast, who says he'll be another two days settling up his affairs and then they can all go to Welce.

Ekador packs quite lightly for someone who's leaving the country on short notice and otherwise bears negligible personality resemblance to Loel. The carriage isn't particularly crowded as they make their way back to the port to find a boat leading back to Welce.

"There are three stops to make," Kiri tells him as they drive. "Although we'll land close to Chialto, I don't think that should be the first place we go. You'll have a much smoother go of taking over as uncontested prime if you can demonstrate at least minor magical power on demand - I don't think fielding questions of your legitimacy is anyone's idea of a good time and it would be better to have more than Sarelle's word to lean on. It doesn't help that anyone but her will mistake you for sweela. The Serlast estate is a couple of days by carriage from Chialto, there's a forest on the property, it's supposed to be special to the Serlasts, and going and having a walk around it might give you an idea of how to perform some minor visible magic."

"Might not. Loel figured out how to do magic without jumping into the Marisi River," shrugs Aleko.

"It might not. But it's worth a try if you don't have an epiphany before we get there," says Kiri. "Anyway, some of your cousins are living at the Serlast estate - off the top of my head, one of Valdin's children, his younger sister, and one of his grandsons, but I don't know how you're related to the family so I don't know who they are to you. You can kick them out if you want, but I recommend getting to know them and soliciting their help with the family business, and you have plenty of room to continue to board them. The Chialto house of the Serlasts was empty last I heard, but I'd be willing to bet you can re-hire Valdin's old servants if you want them, and you're entitled to maintain your own suite at the palace, too. You can divide your time between these places more or less however you please, although if you neglect the palace then the royal family may start issuing pointed invitations, and you might want to become acquainted with Prince Isten in particular, as he is heir to the throne and it's his succession you're necessary to ratify later."

"Isten's eleven," Aleko adds. "Coru, quiet."

"Questions?" Kiri inquires. "Do you want me to write any of that down, possibly in chart format?"

Comments

[pyrophyte]

After a moment's consideration, he makes lace out of that, too - a perfect, delicate sphere of it.

"Will that suffice?"

[calescent]

"Beautifully. Oh, that's pretty. Let's go inside."

[pyrophyte]

He smiles, pleased, and follows her in.

[calescent]

There follows fairly unremarkable introduction of Ekador to his relatives - one of them determines that Ekador was Valdin's first cousin twice removed. Ekador makes no attempt to evict them, the paper-lace ball suffices to convince everyone that he is who he is. He's conducted around the house from kierten to kitchen, and one of the cousins (not the genealogically inclined one) produces a list of Serlast holdings and who's currently managing them.

[pyrophyte]

Ekador reads the list and asks a few questions. He comes away satisfied that none of the family holdings are in egregiously incompetent hands.

[calescent]

Since there have been people living here, it, unlike the Lalindar house, is currently staffed. It can offer the prime and the visitors dinner without much ado.

[pyrophyte]

Dinner! Excellent.

It seems obvious enough, but he nevertheless asks Kiri afterward, "Does your itinerary have room in it for staying a night here before we return to Chialto?"

[calescent]

"Yes, assuming you'll have us."

[pyrophyte]

"Certainly."

[calescent]

"All right then. I think I'll go see if the guest room I had last time I was here is open."

And so they stay overnight, and in the morning, are refreshed and presumably ready to head to Chialto.

"Do you want to come in our carriage or just ride alongside on one of your horses?"

[pyrophyte]

Ekador considers this.

"I'll ride one of the horses, I think. I may as well start getting acquainted with them."

[calescent]

"All right, take your pick. I'm unable to advise you on this one."

[pyrophyte]

He chooses a horse with minimal fuss.

[liakoura]

And they're off. Aleko drives.

"Kiri theoretically knows how to drive, it's just better to have her safely enclosed if there's anything bigger than an ant to cause a bump in the road so she never practices."

[pyrophyte]

"Aha," says Ekador. "That explains it."

[liakoura]

"She's actually gotten better since we were little, mostly because she doesn't forget that she can't run, anymore."

[pyrophyte]

"That... seems like the sort of thing even most people would find it hard to forget," he says.

[liakoura]

"Well, if you're six, and your brothers are six and five and they're tearing around the backyard like there are wolves after them and they will tease you if you just go read a book instead of playing with them..."

[pyrophyte]

"Ah, yes. That is somewhat more understandable."

[liakoura]

"You'll meet Jayce if you visit the Ardelay estate, he's there about two-thirds of the time these days. Rest of the time he lives with our parents in their little nowhere town. Could not pry Dad out of that town with a spatula even when he had a mansion he could live in on his daughter's behalf."

[pyrophyte]

"Were any spatulas employed in the effort?"

[liakoura]

"We did not actually literally try a spatula. We didn't try very hard at all, he just made it kind of obvious we wouldn't get anywhere."

[pyrophyte]

He chuckles.

[liakoura]

"Mom traveled around with Kiri a lot at first because Kiri needed to be shown around places and it's Mom's side of the family that's related so she knew a little from her aunt, but Mom never actually liked all that politics high-stakes court-y stuff so I learned what she knew and took over the Helping Kiri Be Prime Because For Some Reason It's Not A One-Person Job after a few years."

[pyrophyte]

"Is it not?"