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]

"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?"

[liakoura]

"Not if you want to be all thorough about looking after all your stuff, and Kiri does. You can just live a life of indolence if you feel like it," Aleko assures him. "Or take on exactly little enough that you don't need an Aleko-equivalent. But it's easier when you have somebody to answer the door for you and pick your clothes and handle routine correspondence. I'd be a terrible prime but I'm a pretty good accessory-to-Kiri."

[pyrophyte]

"I'm not sure where I would find an... accessory."

[liakoura]

"Pick your favorite cousin? Put out a job ad?"

[pyrophyte]

"Perhaps, perhaps."

[liakoura]

"Wider selection if you do the job ad, more built-in cares-not-zero-about-Serlast-stuff if you pick a cousin."

[pyrophyte]

"Yes. And the cousin is likelier to have more background knowledge to start with."

[liakoura]

"Yeah. Yours seem okay. And one of 'em wasn't even hunti so she definitely hasn't been dreaming of having your job."

[pyrophyte]

"Indeed. What of the rest? Is it common to dream of being one's relevant prime?"

[liakoura]

"I dunno about common, 'cause, Kiri's my reference here and next best thing is Patience who's pretty low-key about absolutely everything. Kiri always wanted it, but she also always expected it. Two sweela blessings plus power and a personality that threatens to catch fire even if you only spot her out of the corner of your eye from a mile away? She expected it from the day she knew what it was and wanted it really bad. Not that early though."

[pyrophyte]

"Yes. I imagine she also didn't anticipate setting her bed on fire."

[liakoura]

"Yeah, that was a surprise. So was involuntary mindreading. She had a haaaard time with that. If anybody did it to her she'd pretty much want to kill them, so she was really careful, but it meant she had to stay far away from everybody all the time. But then Jayce said he didn't care if she saw what he was dreaming so if she just snuggled up after he fell asleep that would be fine, and I said that'd be fine too except it didn't work as well with me because I'm a light sleeper. And then we both got more used to it even when we were awake."

[pyrophyte]

"Hmm," he says.

[liakoura]

"Hmm?"

[pyrophyte]

"I'm not yet sure what I think of this mindreading business."

[liakoura]

"Well, she won't do it unless you let her. Unless she falls and it happens to be in your direction, I guess."

[pyrophyte]

"Which seems to be more of a danger with her than with most people."

[liakoura]

"Yeah, kinda inconvenient. Poor graceless Kiri."

[pyrophyte]

"Indeed. But I don't think I'd be particularly upset if she fell into range and happened to catch a glimpse."