vision

[calescent]

Kiri's up early the next morning, restless with various low-level simmering concerns, and wanders out of her room.

Comments

[calescent]

"He knows I know. We've - communicated, about the details."

[calendarofcrime]

She nods thoughtfully.

Then she says, "You were friends with the vanished prince."

[calescent]

Kiri just looks at her.

[calendarofcrime]

"Yes," she says, quite as though Kiri had responded verbally. "That is what I thought."

[calescent]

"What are you driving at, Sarelle?"

[calendarofcrime]

"I have recently concluded that the vanished prince must have had a good reason to vanish," she says. "I prefer not to share this conclusion with anyone who does not already know it."

[calescent]

"Okay then."

[calendarofcrime]

She nods.

"That is all," she says, and departs.

[calescent]

After a short delay to let Sarelle turn into another corridor, Kiri seeks out Loel.

[free_flowing]

Loel is in his rooms. He opens the door when she knocks.

"G'morning."

[calescent]

"Morning. Can I come in?"

Sarelle probably isn't deliberately eavesdropping; a closed door will help prevent the accidental kind.

[free_flowing]

"Sure." He steps back from the door to let her through.

[calescent]

Kiri comes in, shuts the door, gets a ways into the room, checks for open windows, and when she's satisfied that the room is reasonably secure, says:

"Sarelle visited me just now and asked if I know why you broke those bones - and when I said yes, she wanted to know if you knew I knew, and if you'd registered an opinion on what to do with the information - and I again said yes, and then she said, 'You were friends with the vanished prince'. And then I didn't say anything much and she said that she's concluded the vanished prince must have had good reason to vanish and that she didn't wish to share that with anyone who didn't already know it."

[free_flowing]

"Where did she pull it from?" he wonders. "I never met her before."

[calescent]

"I didn't read her today but I did on the way here and the way her mind works is - really something else. I shouldn't be as surprised as I am that she's managed to come up with a guess out of a million little things."

[free_flowing]

"Okay. Fine. At least she said she's not gonna go talking to people about it. And she doesn't know who used to break my bones. Does she? There's no reasonable way she could know that, right?"

[calescent]

"She didn't mention it - but even I could probably make a decent guess from the facts we already know she has."

[free_flowing]

"There's a difference between a decent guess and knowing." He sighs. "But I should probably go chase down Ekador and ask him not to go talking about my skeleton, just in case anybody else ever starts guessing. That is a rumour I don't want to let get even a little bit started."

[calescent]

"Yeah, good plan. Just make it out to be about - privacy or something, not rumors."

[free_flowing]

"Yeah. I know."

[calescent]

"I'll keep you posted if Sarelle comes to me about anything else, I guess."

[free_flowing]

"Thanks."

[calescent]

"What're you going to do if it gets generally out despite our best efforts?"

[free_flowing]

"Depends how, and when, and to who, and what gets out. If it was anything about Father, I'd want to talk to Isten. If it was just rumours that I'm secretly a vanished prince—" he shrugs— "eh, rumours. I'd stick to my story unless there was a good reason not to. The story being, parents moved to Thiyec when I was a kid, I'm not sure which one of them was Lalindar but I don't think they were somebody's legitimate Lalindar child, and they died a while ago and I've made my peace with it. I haven't had to come up with details yet; people haven't been prying."

[calescent]

"Right - if you do produce details maybe send them to me, I haven't been keeping it secret that you let me read you."