calescent | swiftness

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?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

calescent

"And there's a fair amount of customization available in style of the symbol - they're all the same shape, but there's differences from source to source roughly on the level of handwriting - and in the size and material. If you wish to go around advertising your hunti prime status you might want them carved from wood or ivory."

From:

pyrophyte

"Wood sounds very suitable."

From:

calescent

"It might blend in with your hair unless you got particularly distinctively colored wood. Ebony, maybe, black and brown are the hunti colors."

From:

pyrophyte

"The colours are formalized?"

Edited Date: 2014-03-15 12:17 am (UTC)

From:

calescent

"Semiformalized. People can wear whatever they want, but the colors communicate things. I mentioned why I wear so much red and orange, I think? You might want to make a point of avoiding them to avoid exacerbating the misleading impression of sweela, if you don't relish being asked ten times a day 'wait, you're the hunti prime?'. Torz has greens, elay yellow and white, coru blue and purple."

Edited Date: 2014-03-15 12:21 am (UTC)

From:

pyrophyte

"Noted. How convenient for me," he says, glancing down at his long black coat.

From:

calescent

"The coat will suit very well, yes. Sarelle tends to confuse the issue, possibly deliberately, by wearing black and white at the same time more often than not."

From:

liakoura

"In case Kiri is misleadingly giving the impression that she knows anything about clothes - not true, I've been picking out her wardrobe for her since we were nine because she has no taste."

From:

calescent

"I have some taste!"

From:

liakoura

"Realizing that you can't wear heels because you are the human incarnation of the concept of tripping doesn't count as taste. Neither does acknowledging that that one dress we saw in the north corner of the Plaza of Women should have been sacrificed as cleaning rags. You need more than self-preservation and a pair of eyes to have taste."