The eldest (by ten minutes) of the Swan children, borne by the niece of the Ardelay prime, has been a suspect for her great-aunt's successor since she was five hours old.
The twins' father is a hunti fellow who makes an odd match for his elay wife and an odder one for her overwhelmingly sweela family. He comes home from his excursion to bless his twins with flexibility, imagination, and contentment for his son in his left pocket. In his right pocket are two sweela virtues, intelligence and clarity - that's a clue as to her alignment, if not a guarantee - and power.
Not every prime is graced with that particular hunti blessing in their first batch, but it's certainly suggestive.
Kiribel is possibly the most obviously sweela child of all time. She reads, she holds intensely strong opinions and defends them with more firey passion than wooden stubbornness, she seems to entirely inhabit her own mind to the point of forgetting that she's in the middle of trying to walk. Her twin is less obvious, but by the time they're seven people are guessing he's torz, and he doesn't dispute it. Their little brother is elay like their mother.
It's Kiri people pay covert attention to, because when the old prime dies, the new one is called up. The prime makes plans to start teaching her things, maybe bringing her to court, when the girl is ten.
The prime dies when Kiri is eight.
It's the middle of the night when it happens, and Kiri wakes up thinking the brightness filtering through her eyes is sunshine. It is not; she has set her bed on fire.
The accidental arson doesn't take particularly long to get under control. It's the other, less obvious power of the Ardelays that gives Kiri real trouble.
If the previous prime had the gift of mind-reading, she never saw fit to mention it to anyone. Kiri tells everybody, and screams at her parents and her brothers not to get too close to her, and weeps, inconsolable, in her replaced bed. There is a range limit. She can have company. But if someone gets within a few feet of her -
"I can feel it," she explains to Aleko, her twin, who is a safe distance across the room. "It's in your - warmness. Just stay about that far away and it won't happen."
"You can try it," she says dubiously to Jayce, their little brother, when he suggests wearing a lot of coats and mittens to obscure the warmness. That he does this in the hottest part of Quinnahunti demonstrates his dedication to hugging his sister.
But it doesn't help unless his face is covered up too, to the point where he can't breathe, so that doesn't work.
Kiri does without brotherly hugs for a month until Jayce has another idea without such suffocating pitfalls, and then she waits until Jayce is asleep, and climbs in with him, where she'll pick up nothing but fragments of dreams and only until she nods off herself. (Aleko sleeps lightly, and will surely wake up if someone joins him after he's managed to fall asleep; and Kiri talks at night; but if she sleeps first and he wears earplugs they can arrange things that way and only have Aleko sneaking back to his own bed at three in the morning half the time.)
She imagines this will work until she is at least twelve, but has no idea what she will do once it's weird for her to snuggle up to her sleeping brothers.
By this time there has been a fair amount of rumbling from various political interests that the new prime, eight years old or not, should be meeting various people, ranging from the king and queens and princes to the other primes, and Kiri is all for it. As a sort of concession to her age there is no objection that her brothers and parents accompany her to the Ardelay property in Chialto that she has inherited. They can't hug her - not without letting slip any secret that may cross their minds, and not without her nearing nausea from guilt; if Great-Aunt Ardelay did this casual invasion of everyone she met then Kiri is glad she's dead - but they can support her, with enough space between them.
Renny, her mother, has the most experience of anyone in the immediate family with politics, even if she couldn't stand the stuff and ran off with a man of no significant family at her earliest convenience. She's the one who goes shopping for Kiri's pretty new dress in sweela coral-red and other wardrobe items suitable for a newly visible prime. (Kiri dreads trying to navigate a crowd and doesn't care what she wears anyway.) She's the one who goes with Kiri to the palace. She stays five feet back as they walk in.
The king has already been immunized against the various powers of primes, so there's that.
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Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
The princes haven't.
With the younger one, that isn't much of an issue, because he is just a year old and not yet permitted to wander out of his nursery unattended.
The king's firstborn is a different matter.
Whether or not he is permitted to wander the palace, there he is, easily recognizable by the circlet perched in his mane of fluffy brown hair. He traipses cheerfully toward Kiri and Renny. One of his shoes is partly unlaced, and his extremely fine blue silk tunic has a rip in the hem.
With the younger one, that isn't much of an issue, because he is just a year old and not yet permitted to wander out of his nursery unattended.
The king's firstborn is a different matter.
Whether or not he is permitted to wander the palace, there he is, easily recognizable by the circlet perched in his mane of fluffy brown hair. He traipses cheerfully toward Kiri and Renny. One of his shoes is partly unlaced, and his extremely fine blue silk tunic has a rip in the hem.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri scrambles back when he approaches - into Renny's range, and then she falls down trying to reverse direction and go perpendicular. "Stay back, Pr-" She's ceased to make progress, and he hasn't stopped walking, which allows her to feel a flash of unpleasant anticipation about her finishing that phrase with his name. "- your highness. I don't know if Great-Aunt Elytte could but I read minds if people're too close."
"Oh," says the prince. He stops where he is, thinks for a moment, and then shrugs. "Okay. Does that mean you're the new Ardelay?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri gets up, finds a place to stand where she can't glean meaning from him or Renny - Renny helps with a couple long steps back - and says, "Yes."
He peers curiously at her.
"Do you not like reading minds?" he wonders.
"Do you not like reading minds?" he wonders.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I - what kind of question is that?"
"Well," he explains, "if you're acting that way because you don't want to read my mind, that's different from if you're doing it because you think I don't want you to read my mind."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I shouldn't read people's minds, it's not an okay thing to do to people. That's what I think."
"Why, though? I mean, probably most people wouldn't want you to, it's a good guess if that's what it is, but that's different from it being not okay whether somebody cares or not."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Why would somebody not mind?"
"It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing that's bad all by itself," he says. "There's people I wouldn't want reading my mind, but you're not one of them. So I don't care."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri digests this.
Then she says, "You're a prince. You probably know things I'm not supposed to know, don't you?"
Then she says, "You're a prince. You probably know things I'm not supposed to know, don't you?"
"I'm nine," he says, rolling his eyes. "Nobody tells me secrets."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"And you don't care and you're not going to start caring all of a sudden if you think of something you aren't thinking about thinking of right now? One of my brothers did that."
Kiri actually doesn't understand how Aleko - having sworn up and down that they were twins and that made it fine at least for a little bit at a time - was able to sit next to her at breakfast that one day for fifteen minutes thinking about his variously flattering opinions of all their relatives, half-formed speculations about the meanings of suspect song lyrics, and plans to be a police officer like Karls upon growing up, only to find that the thought that pushed him into a panic about her scrutiny was the realization that he needed to relieve himself. Being confused about this does not make her feel any less guilty for having let him try it.
Kiri actually doesn't understand how Aleko - having sworn up and down that they were twins and that made it fine at least for a little bit at a time - was able to sit next to her at breakfast that one day for fifteen minutes thinking about his variously flattering opinions of all their relatives, half-formed speculations about the meanings of suspect song lyrics, and plans to be a police officer like Karls upon growing up, only to find that the thought that pushed him into a panic about her scrutiny was the realization that he needed to relieve himself. Being confused about this does not make her feel any less guilty for having let him try it.
The prince laughs.
"I might change my mind," he says. "But I don't care now. And you almost called me Prince Hector and then you didn't, so I think I'd rather you read my mind than not."
"I might change my mind," he says. "But I don't care now. And you almost called me Prince Hector and then you didn't, so I think I'd rather you read my mind than not."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Well, once I know stuff I know it," she mumbles.
Renée Higgenbotham Swan
kindestgarden
"'Your highness' is better?" asks Renny, who's just within earshot.
He grins at Renny. "Yeah. I was wondering if you talked!"
Renée Higgenbotham Swan
kindestgarden
"Kiri is the prime, not me. I'm only here if she needs help with something," says Renny.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Great-Aunt Elytte always thought I was going to succeed her," says Kiri, touching the symbol for power on her necklace, "but nobody thought I'd do it this young so I don't know all the - stuff. And some people are still sorting out who from her staff should work for me and who should get replaced and everything, so Mother's helping me not get lost or be undiplomatic while I'm learning."
She shuffles one step closer to the prince, then two.
She shuffles one step closer to the prince, then two.
The prince turns his grin toward Kiri.
His thoughts aren't especially complicated at the moment; mostly, he is just feeling friendly and cheerful, with an undercurrent of 'see?'.
"Kiri, huh? Nice to meet you," he says. (And she knows what not to call him, which frees him from saying it. Perfect.)
His thoughts aren't especially complicated at the moment; mostly, he is just feeling friendly and cheerful, with an undercurrent of 'see?'.
"Kiri, huh? Nice to meet you," he says. (And she knows what not to call him, which frees him from saying it. Perfect.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Kiribel Miar Ardelay," agrees Kiri, smiling tentatively. "Kiri's fine for everyday. Mother was going to show me around the palace but she hasn't been here in more than ten years, I bet you know it better?"
"Bet I do!" he agrees sunnily. "What parts do you wanna see? There's the kitchen and dining rooms and a bunch of people's rooms I'm not supposed to go in and my little brother's nursery and lots of decorative crap. Some of the decorative crap is pretty nice I guess."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I'm probably going to wind up living here at least a quintile out of every year or two," says Kiri. "So I should know where everything is."
"Okay," says the prince. "Kitchen's closest. This way."
(This is not technically literally true—they will have to go through some of what he termed 'decorative crap', and past some of the rooms he is not supposed to enter, along the way—but the kitchen is closer than the dining rooms or nursery or any especially notable decorative crap, and is therefore the closest thing he would like to specifically show them. Which is the sense in which he meant it.)
He leads Kiri and her mother out of the boring room (that is what it's for, it is for wasting a lot of space, it's the stupidest thing he's ever heard and he considers the prevalence of kiertens strong evidence that all grown-ups are crazy) and down a hall.
(This is not technically literally true—they will have to go through some of what he termed 'decorative crap', and past some of the rooms he is not supposed to enter, along the way—but the kitchen is closer than the dining rooms or nursery or any especially notable decorative crap, and is therefore the closest thing he would like to specifically show them. Which is the sense in which he meant it.)
He leads Kiri and her mother out of the boring room (that is what it's for, it is for wasting a lot of space, it's the stupidest thing he's ever heard and he considers the prevalence of kiertens strong evidence that all grown-ups are crazy) and down a hall.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri relishes the stream of information. It's not as sharp and clear as words, transmitted through the medium of heat and through a few feet of space, but it's fast and it's interesting and he doesn't mind.
"Most people put things in their kiertens at least temporarily sometimes," she points out. "It's just that the palace is so big I guess they never have anything that doesn't have somewhere else to go."
"Most people put things in their kiertens at least temporarily sometimes," she points out. "It's just that the palace is so big I guess they never have anything that doesn't have somewhere else to go."
The prince giggles. "It's not for putting things in, though, is it? It's for like exactly the opposite of that. If you're using it right you don't ever have any stuff in it at all except pretty things on the walls and maybe a fountain. That's what gets me, is that everybody's house is supposed to have a room just for not using, and then after that they think 'well, we could dump this extra cartload of flour in the corner' or 'if we want to get a ton of people in the same room and don't care that none of them are going to be able to sit down, we could do that here'. A kitchen is for making food and a dining room is for eating food and people's rooms are for living in and sitting rooms are for sitting, but a kierten is for not doing anything with."
If it were strictly up to him, he would rather show off the wealth of the royal family with lots of decorative crap - beautiful gardens, nice clothes, pretty statues, books, paintings - than with a big empty room that could probably fit four other entire houses in it if they were little enough.
But it is not, in fact, up to him.
If it were strictly up to him, he would rather show off the wealth of the royal family with lots of decorative crap - beautiful gardens, nice clothes, pretty statues, books, paintings - than with a big empty room that could probably fit four other entire houses in it if they were little enough.
But it is not, in fact, up to him.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Well, it'll probably be up to you one day," Kiri points out. "Kings can get away with doing unusual things like filling up kiertens. Unless it's your little brother. What's he like, does he have a personality yet?"
"He doesn't talk much. Smiles at me sometimes, cries when he breaks things."
(The prince has a sense of knowing why it might be that little Isten would cry when he breaks things, but is not thinking directly about any specific reasons.)
(The prince has a sense of knowing why it might be that little Isten would cry when he breaks things, but is not thinking directly about any specific reasons.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri frowns, a little. She doesn't ask.
"Well, now you all add up to five, the king and two queens and two princes."
"Well, now you all add up to five, the king and two queens and two princes."
"Yeah."
(He considers the thing about numbers more or less complete nonsense. But it's nonsense on a much smaller scale than kiertens, so it doesn't bother him particularly.)
(He considers the thing about numbers more or less complete nonsense. But it's nonsense on a much smaller scale than kiertens, so it doesn't bother him particularly.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri giggles. "I think the numbers are silly too. Or - well, I don't think they bring luck, anyway, but they're sort of tidy. But people do a lot of things to get good numbers that they wouldn't do just to be tidy."
The prince laughs.
Tidiness is not a major internal drive of his. To put it mildly.
Tidiness is not a major internal drive of his. To put it mildly.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri giggles again. "I don't know what I expected a prince to be like but you aren't it."
"A lot of people say that!" he says cheerfully. "Maybe I'm not a prince. Maybe I'm just dressed up as one for fun."
(No, he is in fact a prince.)
(No, he is in fact a prince.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri laughs. "Your costume has a rip in it," she points out.
"Does it?"
He stops walking and looks down at himself and twists to try to see the back of his pants and turns a full circle one way, and then another full circle the other way with the opposite twist, and then untwists and inspects the torn hem. Which he sort of knew where to find all along, but the elaborate search was more fun than merely remembering.
He stops walking and looks down at himself and twists to try to see the back of his pants and turns a full circle one way, and then another full circle the other way with the opposite twist, and then untwists and inspects the torn hem. Which he sort of knew where to find all along, but the elaborate search was more fun than merely remembering.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri laughs hard enough to trip again.
The prince giggles. "Aww, are you okay?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Yeah, I'm fine. I fall over all the time." Kiri gets up again.
"Okay," he says, taking her at her word, and continues along the way to the kitchen. (They are passing through some decorative crap - a series of quite lovely tapestries on the walls - which he doesn't consider notable enough to stop for.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri admires them, but doesn't see a need to stop either.
Traipse traipse. Traipse traipse traipse.
Kitchen!
The prince pokes his head in and announces, "Cook's not here! Wanna see the gardens next, or the dining rooms, or what?"
(The two named options lie along equally convenient paths for seeing all the interesting parts of the palace without doubling back or looping. Anything else, and he'd have to figure something out.)
Kitchen!
The prince pokes his head in and announces, "Cook's not here! Wanna see the gardens next, or the dining rooms, or what?"
(The two named options lie along equally convenient paths for seeing all the interesting parts of the palace without doubling back or looping. Anything else, and he'd have to figure something out.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Gardens," pronounces Kiri.
"All right!"
Gardens it is. The ones just outside the kitchen aren't very pretty, but the ones after that are nice if you like gardens. Which he does. So many pretty plants!
Gardens it is. The ones just outside the kitchen aren't very pretty, but the ones after that are nice if you like gardens. Which he does. So many pretty plants!
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I'm glad I don't set things on fire by accident anymore," Kiri remarks, running her hand over some leaves.
The prince's first reaction is that he would've liked to see that.
Which leads him to, "Do you do it on purpose?"
Which leads him to, "Do you do it on purpose?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I light the hearth that way sometimes. I've been trying to see if I can cook eggs in their shells, now that I'm pretty sure it won't get out of control. But most things around me don't need to be on fire."
"I guess."
He expects that if he were the Ardelay prime, he would disagree. He expects that he would find plenty of things that could be on fire without bothering him one bit. 'Himself' comes to mind as an obvious example.
He expects that if he were the Ardelay prime, he would disagree. He expects that he would find plenty of things that could be on fire without bothering him one bit. 'Himself' comes to mind as an obvious example.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri stops in her tracks, (stumbles, catches herself, and) frowns.
"Mm?" he says, glancing back at her. "What is it?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"It..." She glances briefly over her shoulder at Renny, still following at the prescribed distance. "Doesn't work like how you were thinking," she decides to say. She holds up her hand and gloves it in flame. "I don't burn. It's just like sunshine. Or holding a cup of tea."
Fascinated, he reaches for her hand.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
The fire's out before he gets close enough to touch it, although she leaves her hand where she was holding it in case he wants to touch her anyway.
He does, as it turns out.
"You don't feel like you were on fire," he comments. "Weird. I can't decide if I'd like it or not."
On the one hand, being all covered in fire and not burning sounds snuggly (and would be an excellent way to deter unwanted physical contact). On the other hand, if he couldn't ever get burned—that just sounds terrible.
"You don't feel like you were on fire," he comments. "Weird. I can't decide if I'd like it or not."
On the one hand, being all covered in fire and not burning sounds snuggly (and would be an excellent way to deter unwanted physical contact). On the other hand, if he couldn't ever get burned—that just sounds terrible.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri glances at Renny again.
Renée Higgenbotham Swan
kindestgarden
"I think I can leave you and go see how setting up your suite is coming along," says Renny. "I'll see if I can find you again before dinner in case you lose track of time. You have fun."
And she goes back inside the palace.
And she goes back inside the palace.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Why would you want to get burned?" exclaims Kiri when Renny is out of earshot. "I remember it from before I - primed, it hurt!"
"Well, yeah," he says, shrugging. "Hurting's not bad by itself."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Yes it is, that's why they call it that!"
"Is not!" he laughs. "Maybe to you."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"It's -"
Kiri decides this is a stupid way to conduct an argument with someone who'll be willingly within five feet of her.
She steps a little closer, closes her eyes -
"I don't get it. Help?"
Kiri decides this is a stupid way to conduct an argument with someone who'll be willingly within five feet of her.
She steps a little closer, closes her eyes -
"I don't get it. Help?"
There are kinds of hurting that are unambiguously bad. These kinds invariably come at the hand of the prince's father.
There are kinds of hurting that just sort of are, and might be okay or not-nice or kind-of-nice, depending. Old injuries with unhappy origins, and hurting when he'd rather not be distracted from what he's doing or for some other reason doesn't feel like it, are this kind.
Most other kinds are actively nice. If he caught on fire a little bit, he would expect it to be fun. When he fell down the stairs last month, he giggled the whole way even though (as he found out afterward) he'd cracked a rib.
When his father beats him it often hurts more than most other things do, but 'more' and 'worse' do not run on the same scale. Falling down the stairs hurt as much as some beatings, but it was still fun, and they weren't.
There are kinds of hurting that just sort of are, and might be okay or not-nice or kind-of-nice, depending. Old injuries with unhappy origins, and hurting when he'd rather not be distracted from what he's doing or for some other reason doesn't feel like it, are this kind.
Most other kinds are actively nice. If he caught on fire a little bit, he would expect it to be fun. When he fell down the stairs last month, he giggled the whole way even though (as he found out afterward) he'd cracked a rib.
When his father beats him it often hurts more than most other things do, but 'more' and 'worse' do not run on the same scale. Falling down the stairs hurt as much as some beatings, but it was still fun, and they weren't.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri is distracted from her original question by the answer to one she never thought to ask.
(Her hair catches fire when she's startled, down from initial incidents that involved more distant objects or her less resilient clothes. She promptly extinguishes it, as near-reflex by this point.)
(Her hair catches fire when she's startled, down from initial incidents that involved more distant objects or her less resilient clothes. She promptly extinguishes it, as near-reflex by this point.)
"...Is it that surprising?" he asks, giggling.
(And he thinks it was his reaction to non-parentally-sourced pain that surprised her so much; he is vaguely under the impression that what his father does to him is nothing out of the ordinary.)
(And he thinks it was his reaction to non-parentally-sourced pain that surprised her so much; he is vaguely under the impression that what his father does to him is nothing out of the ordinary.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri is momentarily at a loss for words.
The prince regards her curiously and waits to see if she will say anything. If he has permanently taken away her ability to talk, maybe he will go get her mother or something. Even though this line of thinking is almost entirely a joke, he still contemplates ways to simultaneously make sure that Kiri gets safely back to her family and whatever help she might receive from that quarter, and make sure that his father doesn't find out he had anything to do with it.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"- I can talk," Kiri snorts.
And:
"I get the thing about wanting to be on fire - kind of - that wasn't the thing that surprised me so much, that was what I was looking for in the first place."
And:
"I get the thing about wanting to be on fire - kind of - that wasn't the thing that surprised me so much, that was what I was looking for in the first place."
"Then what? Was it the stairs? If you fall down a lot you might want to stay away from them; there's ones that aren't so steep, I was just messing around where I shouldn't have been."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"No, it's - your father."
He's the king. Even if she decided that it would be best if the king were on fire, she could not bring this about. Thanks, Great-Aunt Elytte.
He's the king. Even if she decided that it would be best if the king were on fire, she could not bring this about. Thanks, Great-Aunt Elytte.
"...Really?"
He blinks at her.
"Yours doesn't do that, then? Good." He is happy for her. It must be nice to have a father you aren't afraid of. Unless hers just does different things, he supposes.
He blinks at her.
"Yours doesn't do that, then? Good." He is happy for her. It must be nice to have a father you aren't afraid of. Unless hers just does different things, he supposes.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"He doesn't do any things. Renny either. To any of us. It's not normal," insists Kiri.
(He entertains a brief image of a vaguely Kiri-looking statue of a man in a vaguely not-a-palace-looking house, and people conversing with it as though it is a person, but he understands what she actually meant.)
"Isn't it? Are you sure? How do you know?"
"Isn't it? Are you sure? How do you know?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Well, my parents are really normal. Also people mostly like their parents."
"I thought maybe other people didn't mind as much, like I don't mind stubbing my toes but other people curse and jump around and all when they do it."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Well, I'd mind, and my brothers are also really normal and they'd mind, and everybody I know would mind."
"Do you know everybody you know would mind? You wouldn't have known what I do and don't mind unless you asked."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Well, like..." says Kiri, "are you supposed to tell people?"
"I'm not supposed to talk about it, but I'm not supposed to talk about people having sex, either, and I'm near sure most people's parents have done that at least once."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Not if you're just talking, but - I got told that you can tell doctors anything if it has anything at all to do with how you're sick or hurt, did you hear that?"
He shrugs. "No. There's a doctor I see when I'm hurt, though, and he isn't surprised about how."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Then he's a stupid doctor!"
"Or he likes what my father pays him."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"So he's a greedy evil doctor then but he's not a good doctor."
"Good enough for the job he's doing," shrugs the prince. He still has the full use of all his limbs, after all.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"- I just remembered. You've see me fall over all the time, right? It's always like that, I'm really clumsy. So I have little injuries a lot. My first year of school me and my twin had Renny teaching us because she's a teacher, but the year after that we had somebody else, and he asked me - and he asked Aleko in a separate room even and I didn't find out until later! - if our parents were hurting me and I told him no because they don't and he said that he wanted me to know that if anything like that did happen I could tell him and he'd do something about it. A teacher wouldn't do that if it was normal."
"...Huh," says the prince.
That clears his last doubt.
This is interesting news. He briefly entertains the notion of finding someone to tell and then telling them, but he isn't sure that this would lead to his father actually stopping, and - as he has been reminded several times since Isten's birth - his father now has a spare son, in case the first one needs replacing.
That clears his last doubt.
This is interesting news. He briefly entertains the notion of finding someone to tell and then telling them, but he isn't sure that this would lead to his father actually stopping, and - as he has been reminded several times since Isten's birth - his father now has a spare son, in case the first one needs replacing.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri shudders.
"I don't know what to do about it but I just - you should know it's not. Normal."
"I don't know what to do about it but I just - you should know it's not. Normal."
He smiles.
"Thanks, I guess," he says. It seems like she is trying to do a nice thing for him by telling him, and he appreciates that, even if he can't really do anything with the information.
"Thanks, I guess," he says. It seems like she is trying to do a nice thing for him by telling him, and he appreciates that, even if he can't really do anything with the information.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"If your dad wasn't the king I could set him on fire for you," she offers. "Or at least threaten to. Unless the other primes wanted to stop me I guess. But he's the king so I can't even do that."
"If he wasn't the king I'd want you to," he says. "I'd set him on fire myself if I thought I could get away with it."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I'm sorry," says Kiri.
He smiles again. "It's okay," he says. "Well, I mean... it's not. But I'm okay."
(What he means by this is something that feels very simple to him, but that he would have a lot of trouble explaining to anyone else if he tried. He calls himself 'okay', and he means that of all the many, many things that aren't okay in his life, none are preventing him from being happy, having fun, remaining himself, staying alive, or wanting to stay alive; he means that he has not decided that his situation is so intolerable he needs to change it at any cost.)
(What he means by this is something that feels very simple to him, but that he would have a lot of trouble explaining to anyone else if he tried. He calls himself 'okay', and he means that of all the many, many things that aren't okay in his life, none are preventing him from being happy, having fun, remaining himself, staying alive, or wanting to stay alive; he means that he has not decided that his situation is so intolerable he needs to change it at any cost.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri soaks up the meaning of the statement from the warmth in the air. She sighs, and nods.
"Want to show me the rest of the gardens?" she asks tentatively.
"Want to show me the rest of the gardens?" she asks tentatively.
"Sure," he says, brightening.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri follows his lead.
The gardens are very pretty.
The prince is very good at being wholeheartedly happy regardless of the upsetting things he might just have been thinking about.
Perhaps he gets a lot of practice.
The prince is very good at being wholeheartedly happy regardless of the upsetting things he might just have been thinking about.
Perhaps he gets a lot of practice.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
It's very soothing to be around. Kiri's a mindreader, not an empath - she suspects the Dochenzas may throw empaths - but mindreading is still a very direct sense, and his thoughts are happy ones. It's like reading a pleasant story.
Renée Higgenbotham Swan
kindestgarden
Renny comes and finds them still in the gardens shortly before dinner. "Hello again, your highness. Kiri, dear, you'll need to change into one of your formal things - don't make that face, I know it's tiresome but everyone's going to watch you and watch what you wear - in time for dinner."
His highness giggles.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Isn't this a perfectly nice dress?" Kiri asks petulantly, looking down at her coral red hem. "And I didn't even fall outside, only inside where the floors were pretty clean."
Renée Higgenbotham Swan
kindestgarden
"It's a nice dress, but not for a palace dinner," says Renny. "And I'm not going to be accompanying you on trips here forever so you might as well start working on developing an eye for it now."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Teach Aleko," suggests Kiri. "He cares at all ever about clothes. And then I can bring him."
"It is a perfectly nice dress," says the prince. "It's just not court."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Do you want to come give opinions on my new wardrobe? I have got so sick of looking at dresses and dresses and dresses. I don't even wear dresses when I'm picking, they make me fall more than usual."
"Sure!" he says cheerfully. "I'd love to."
He would. He likes clothes. Clothes are fun. The patterns of fashion make sense to him in obvious ways, and they're usually pretty to boot.
He would. He likes clothes. Clothes are fun. The patterns of fashion make sense to him in obvious ways, and they're usually pretty to boot.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
And so they all troop up to the suite that belongs to the new Ardelay prime, and Kiri shows him what Renny bought for her to wear around the castle. "Dresses and dresses and dresses. And accessories. It's all stupidly expensive but at least we can use Ardelay money for it because that's important enough to do that, apparently."
The prince shrugs. "Clothes are - a thing. People pay attention."
He will be changing out of his torn shirt before dinner, or hearing about it from his father. (It's only a fleeting thought before he focuses his attention on evaluating Kiri's wardrobe for prettiness and suitability to various functions.)
He will be changing out of his torn shirt before dinner, or hearing about it from his father. (It's only a fleeting thought before he focuses his attention on evaluating Kiri's wardrobe for prettiness and suitability to various functions.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
(Kiri winces, not such that her mother will see.)
When he settles on an opinion on whatever dress will be good for dinner this evening, she grabs it.
When he settles on an opinion on whatever dress will be good for dinner this evening, she grabs it.
"Speaking of clothes," he says, tugging at his torn hem, "I better go change too. See you!"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"See you!" agrees Kiri.
She puts on the dress (it's pale frothy orange lace; she thinks Renny may have leaned too hard on sweela colors) and some hairclips and a bracelet. Her blessings stay where she always wears them.
"I'm just going to outgrow everything in this closet," she tells Renny.
She puts on the dress (it's pale frothy orange lace; she thinks Renny may have leaned too hard on sweela colors) and some hairclips and a bracelet. Her blessings stay where she always wears them.
"I'm just going to outgrow everything in this closet," she tells Renny.
Renée Higgenbotham Swan
kindestgarden
"You aren't supposed to wear things too many times anyway," says Renny, who has already changed for dinner (white and lavender; only one of those is her own element's color). "So it doesn't matter much. I know it's silly, but you can give the clothes away after you're too big for them if you like."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri sighs, and they go to the dining room.
The prince is there. He has changed his circlet for a slightly shinier circlet, and his tunic for an undamaged version, and put on rings that show his blessings - surprise and luck on the first two fingers of his right hand, imagination on the thumb.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri contrives to sit next to him. Renny puts a napkin on the seat on her other side, and takes the next chair, and in this way Kiri only has to sort of lean awkwardly in order to not read anyone's mind except for His Highness's.
"Hi," she says. She peers at his blessings. "Very coru. Are you? Coru?"
"Hi," she says. She peers at his blessings. "Very coru. Are you? Coru?"
"I am very coru," he says, grinning. "So's my mom, which isn't a secret but it might as well be, almost everybody guesses elay." He nods up the table to the woman sitting on his father's right, wearing beauty, contentment, and health on a gold necklace. There is a strong family resemblance between mother and son. The other queen, sitting on the king's left, is wearing her blessings on a bracelet that isn't visible in such detail.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I'm the most sweela sweela who ever sweelaed," Kiri says. "Well, that's what Aleko says. And I guess you already knew that since I'm the Ardelay prime. Aleko's torz and our little brother Jayce is elay like Renny, though not as obvious. And our father's hunti but people guess torz sometimes."
"To guess my mom right you have to know her either really well or not at all," he says. "She acts elay." (Flighty, oblivious, never quite connected to the world around her. Of the virtues of that element, she displays none that he's ever seen, except the one she's wearing. Beauty, yeah, she's got plenty of that. He hopes he grows up that pretty.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Where does she hide her coru, then?"
"She's really..." He can't remember the nice word he is meant to use for it; the quality that actually describes his mother is passive. She floats through her life without making a single decision she can possibly avoid.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Huh. Sometimes," she says, "I think if I had to be something besides sweela I'd be coru. But other times I think hunti, I don't know. I'm very sweela so it's a weird question."
"If I wasn't coru I'd be sweela," he says. "Maybe elay. Definitely not hunti." (And not just because it's his father's element.) "I don't know about torz, I'm not really it but I'm not really not it either."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I'm really really not torz. I love my twin but we are not the same person at all."
"I wonder what my brother's gonna grow up to be," he muses.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"People say it runs in families. But there's five people in my family and we've got two of just one thing and none of just one thing."
"Well, Mom's coru and I'm coru, but I don't feel like Isten's going to turn out sweela," he says. (Because of two things, mainly - one, while Queen Risella is very definitely sweela, she also has very definitely zero interest in her child and he's not going to get any direct influence from that quarter. Two, Isten just doesn't come off that way. If he had to guess with this little to go on, he'd guess torz, or coru. But he doesn't think guessing with this little to go on is especially reliable.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I can't remember not knowing what I am. When'd you know?"
He shrugs. "I dunno. I don't remember ever wondering. I think - I knew what I was before I knew what coru was." He has vague memories of other people discussing his elemental affiliation while his concept of the elements themselves was still hazy, but he can't remember what their speculations were; the sheer obviousness of how coru he is has blotted them out in retrospect.
(There's - something - about the way in which he identifies with his element. He isn't thinking about it directly, so it's not very clear. But it's a thing that he sees as unusual about himself, and is proud of or satisfied with.)
(There's - something - about the way in which he identifies with his element. He isn't thinking about it directly, so it's not very clear. But it's a thing that he sees as unusual about himself, and is proud of or satisfied with.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri tilts her head, leans a little closer. She's not sure how much it helps but there's no time like the present to find out.
"Mm?" he says - and now he's wondering what she's wondering about, and not thinking about the elements at all.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"It's - doing words about it is hard, I'm not mostly getting words. Something you like about how you're elemental, that's different from how most people are whatever."
"Oh! That," he says. "Yeah." And now he is thinking about it.
It goes something like this: He is very coru. But he is very coru only because lots of things about coru are him and lots of things about him are coru. He hears people all the time talking about their own or others' elements like the element defines the person - as though someone who is elay but very practical, or hunti but sometimes indecisive, or sweela but shy, is not just imperfectly their element but imperfectly themselves. As though, unless they can be appropriately categorized into another element that fits a defined role - his mother's crown of elay, for example, that leads people to guess it for her all the time, or the palace cook's heart of sweela that puts art and fire into her work when to look at her you'd think torz through and through - any trait a person has that plain doesn't fit is something wrong and strange about that person.
To the prince, this is nonsense on the level of kiertens. People are themselves. The elements define obvious categories, but if someone doesn't fit those categories perfectly, that's just a fact of who they happen to be and it doesn't make the not-fitting parts of them any less theirs.
It goes something like this: He is very coru. But he is very coru only because lots of things about coru are him and lots of things about him are coru. He hears people all the time talking about their own or others' elements like the element defines the person - as though someone who is elay but very practical, or hunti but sometimes indecisive, or sweela but shy, is not just imperfectly their element but imperfectly themselves. As though, unless they can be appropriately categorized into another element that fits a defined role - his mother's crown of elay, for example, that leads people to guess it for her all the time, or the palace cook's heart of sweela that puts art and fire into her work when to look at her you'd think torz through and through - any trait a person has that plain doesn't fit is something wrong and strange about that person.
To the prince, this is nonsense on the level of kiertens. People are themselves. The elements define obvious categories, but if someone doesn't fit those categories perfectly, that's just a fact of who they happen to be and it doesn't make the not-fitting parts of them any less theirs.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Huh," says Kiri. "I'm not shy, but sometimes I'm - I guess the word for it is 'calculating' but I don't think that's a nice word for it - and even though that's a very think-y mind-y thing to be and it seems perfectly fitting to me it's not how some people think sweela people are supposed to be. We're supposed to be the most emotional."
"Yeah," says the prince. "And I'm coru in like the exact opposite of the way my mom is coru, and plenty of people think that's weird, but I don't."
Now that he's thought about the palace cook, it occurs to him that while at this point the food here is nothing remarkable to him, Kiri probably did not grow up on Beryn's cooking and is therefore about to be pleasantly surprised.
Now that he's thought about the palace cook, it occurs to him that while at this point the food here is nothing remarkable to him, Kiri probably did not grow up on Beryn's cooking and is therefore about to be pleasantly surprised.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri grins. "Renny mostly cooks at home. I can do a little. The Chialto house that I guess is mine now has some staff in it and one of them cooks pretty good but I bet palace food is better."
("Home" is still the little house in Swiftford where she grew up, even now that she has technically inherited both the Chialto house and the larger Ardelay manse farther upstream on the Swiftness River, and between those places and the palace she'll probably spend less than a quintile "home" in any given year.)
("Home" is still the little house in Swiftford where she grew up, even now that she has technically inherited both the Chialto house and the larger Ardelay manse farther upstream on the Swiftness River, and between those places and the palace she'll probably spend less than a quintile "home" in any given year.)
"I bet palace food is better too," he says smugly. "Beryn's the greatest."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I'm looking forward to it."
And food should be occurring aaaaaaany minute now.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Here it is! Kiri watches Renny for cues on how she's supposed to eat. Renny is obligingly making everything she's doing fairly obvious from Kiri's perspective.
"Mmmmmmmmmm," says Kiri when she has eaten a taste of the main course.
"Mmmmmmmmmm," says Kiri when she has eaten a taste of the main course.
The prince beams.
If she wants extra tips on table etiquette, she can listen in on him; he is aware of all the rules even while he breaks them.
If she wants extra tips on table etiquette, she can listen in on him; he is aware of all the rules even while he breaks them.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
She makes use of his thoughts once or twice. She wants to get this right from the beginning; she's going to be prime for the rest of her life and is rather keenly aware that this means she's going to have to live with whatever reputation she begins to collect at the age of eight. However clever she considers herself, this is a handicap she wishes to work around.
The food continues to be amazing. The prince thinks cheerfully smug thoughts about how great a cook Berynette is and how lucky he is that she works here.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"This is the best food I have ever had," pronounces Kiri after she has eaten enough to make such a judgment.
He grins at her.
"I am not even a little bit surprised."
"I am not even a little bit surprised."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"You'll have to satisfy that blessing someplace else, I guess."
He giggles.
"I think I surprise other people more than they surprise me," he confides.
"I think I surprise other people more than they surprise me," he confides.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I guess. I was surprised when you didn't mind being mindread."
And she was surprised after she read his mind, too! But he is not going to bring that up at the dinner table.
"I noticed," he says instead.
"I noticed," he says instead.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"My parents told me not to worry about it if I need to pass them in a hallway really quick or something, so it's not as bad as it could be, but nobody hugs me anymore."
He would really like to fix that. He would so much like to fix that. He would not like to fix that while they are supposed to be eating dinner, because he doesn't feel like inciting punishment today, but he would like to fix that at the earliest available opportunity. And then continue to fix it afterward. Hugs are good and he wants her to have lots.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
She doesn't reply aloud, but she smiles at him.
He grins back.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Does anything usually happen right after dinner?"
In terms of court functions, demands on his time, whatever.
In terms of court functions, demands on his time, whatever.
He shakes his head. No, nothing usually does.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"You can come comment in more detail on my clothes and I can tell Aleko everything you have to say and then he can go shopping with Renny."
And hug her. But she leaves that unsaid.
"Unless the other primes want to talk to me or something. Renny thinks they might leave me alone for a little while but not that long."
And hug her. But she leaves that unsaid.
"Unless the other primes want to talk to me or something. Renny thinks they might leave me alone for a little while but not that long."
"I will absolutely come comment on your clothes!" And hug her.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I would have brought Aleko this time but Karls didn't think he ought to miss school just because I have to, at least not every time. And Jayce would have complained."
"Complained about what?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"About Aleko being gone too. He was mopey enough about me taking a long trip."
"Aww." That is cute.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I don't mind missing school though. It's kind of boring. I read ahead and then there's not much worth sitting through."
"I don't go to school," shrugs the prince. He has tutors, who he frequently avoids. He'd usually rather learn cooking from Beryn than anything else from anyone.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"How come you don't like your tutors?"
"It's not that I don't like them..." just that he doesn't like them enough to make up for being taught things he doesn't feel like learning.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"If you don't learn things how will you know how to do things when you want to do things?"
He shrugs, devoid of specific examples to argue; all he has is the strong feeling that this is not the problem she is making it out to be.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Do you not want to be king? Kings have to know things."
"I don't really care about being king," he says serenely.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"But if you were king you could do all kinds of things."
He blinks at her, entirely failing to see the point. The only major positive thing about being king, to him, is that it would necessarily mean his father would be dead.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"But you could make all kinds of - positive social changes." She is quoting this phrase from one of her teachers, who summed up her extremely rambling description of things wrong with the world as things that require "positive social changes".
"Like what? Getting rid of kiertens? I don't hate them that much," he giggles.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Like - like not shoving everybody off the Marisi river flats when there are foreign visitors so they have nowhere to go and can't get at the river to drink from it. Like making sure there's well-run stores for famines and proper fire brigades and enough police in every town." (Karls sometimes complains about there not being enough police in their town.)
He shrugs. "I guess I'd do that kind of stuff if I was king."
It's just that he doesn't see the opportunity to do that kind of stuff as a reason to want to be king.
It's just that he doesn't see the opportunity to do that kind of stuff as a reason to want to be king.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"If you'd want to do something if you could that seems like a reason to want to could. To be able to," she corrects herself.
"Not really," he says, shrugging again.
For example: If he ran away from home, he would probably spend some time on the river flats himself. That would be an obvious choice, if he ran away from home, at least for as long as it took him to get out of Chialto entirely. But that doesn't make spending time on the river flats a reason to run away from home. It's just something he would do, if that happened.
For example: If he ran away from home, he would probably spend some time on the river flats himself. That would be an obvious choice, if he ran away from home, at least for as long as it took him to get out of Chialto entirely. But that doesn't make spending time on the river flats a reason to run away from home. It's just something he would do, if that happened.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"That's not what I meant. I mean if you can't do something now, but there's something you would do with -" She stops and starts over. "I mean, power, the ability to do stuff, it's useful, and some people seem not to want it and sometimes that seems to be because they don't much want anything, and there's some power it'd be wrong to use - like what I have most of the time - and that would also be a reason, but -" She stops again, and this time does not start over. "Never mind."
"It's useful, but... I dunno."
His highest ambition is to become completely separated from his father, so that neither of them can affect the other one at all. He can get that by waiting for his father to die and thereby becoming king, or he can get it by running far enough away, or he can get it by dying. He hasn't picked one for sure yet. But the first option does not tempt him, coming as it does with the implicit necessity of staying in his father's power for the rest of his father's life, and most likely having to be called by his father's name - King Hector, ugh - for the rest of his own life after that. Any charms that the monarchy might have are washed right out by those glaring flaws.
His highest ambition is to become completely separated from his father, so that neither of them can affect the other one at all. He can get that by waiting for his father to die and thereby becoming king, or he can get it by running far enough away, or he can get it by dying. He hasn't picked one for sure yet. But the first option does not tempt him, coming as it does with the implicit necessity of staying in his father's power for the rest of his father's life, and most likely having to be called by his father's name - King Hector, ugh - for the rest of his own life after that. Any charms that the monarchy might have are washed right out by those glaring flaws.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"You can probably change your name if you want if you are the king, you know."
"Maybe."
He's not sure it would be as uncomplicated as all that.
He's not sure it would be as uncomplicated as all that.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Maybe not. Is it that bad?"
"It's not nice," he says.
The name feels ugly and awful whenever someone attaches it to him, and the thought of an entire adult life lived with it hanging over him makes death look attractive by comparison.
The name feels ugly and awful whenever someone attaches it to him, and the thought of an entire adult life lived with it hanging over him makes death look attractive by comparison.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Do you like some other name more or should I just call you your highness all the time?"
He hasn't thought of a name he actually wants. 'Your highness' is unobjectionable, and so is any nickname unrelated to the name he hates.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Okay."
He smiles.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Eventually the delicious food is gone.
Kiri is approached by the Frothen prime, an elderly torz fellow who walks with a cane. He says, "Hello, Kiribel."
And she says, "Hello, Alser."
"All of the primes will be meeting soon. Will you come with me?"
"Okay," agrees Kiri. "How long will it take?"
"Not long. We should be done before sunset," Alser assures her.
Kiri nods. "I'll find my way back to my rooms when we're done, Mother," she adds in Renny's direction, though she's plenty loud enough for the prince to hear too.
Kiri is approached by the Frothen prime, an elderly torz fellow who walks with a cane. He says, "Hello, Kiribel."
And she says, "Hello, Alser."
"All of the primes will be meeting soon. Will you come with me?"
"Okay," agrees Kiri. "How long will it take?"
"Not long. We should be done before sunset," Alser assures her.
Kiri nods. "I'll find my way back to my rooms when we're done, Mother," she adds in Renny's direction, though she's plenty loud enough for the prince to hear too.
"Bye, Kiri!" says the prince. He waves and departs.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri goes with Alser Frothen.
She comes back to her suite shortly before the sun sets.
She comes back to her suite shortly before the sun sets.
And the prince finds his way to her rooms a few minutes after.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Did you know," says Kiri sort of distantly when he comes close enough for her to hear, "that primes can do a weird magical hand-holding thing?"
"Nope!" he says. "Is it fun?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"I wish they hadn't surprised me, but I'm not going to complain if they want to do it again, though I didn't think to ask if it's every time the primes are all in Chialto or just when there's a new one. It's kind of - well, it's very something. Everything's really sharp now. Valdin says that lasts a few hours."
"Oh. Wanna hug?" he inquires.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Sure." She holds out her arms. "But you don't have to feel like that's the only way I will ever be hugged again. For some reason the other primes don't any of them seem to think mindreading is a bigger deal than what they can do."
He giggles. And hugs her.
"So what're they like? I don't know 'em that well." Because none of them has caught his attention before now, but that might change.
"So what're they like? I don't know 'em that well." Because none of them has caught his attention before now, but that might change.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Alser is nice. Very very somebody's-grandpa-kind-of-torz. Jerist wasn't paying attention to anything going on but I don't know if that's his personality or him being really old. I don't think Nerine and Valdin like each other but they both seem to like me fine."
Hug hug! "What can they do that's as big a deal as mindreading, anyway?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Hug. "I didn't get a lot of details - I was asking Jerist about his because that one sort of worries me but he wasn't listening and then everybody wanted to do the thing. But I think I was right that Dochenzas can be empaths, but I'm not that worried anymore because Jerist obviously couldn't care less. Nerine was thinking something about knowing how everyone's related to everyone else. I was going to ask Valdin but then we did the thing."
"Must've been some thing," he remarks.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"It was cool."
"Cool!"
Hugs. Hugs are so nice.
Hugs. Hugs are so nice.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"But super hard to describe," she laughs.
"Too bad you can't - whatever the opposite of mindreading is, huh?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"...You know I don't actually know if I can do that? But I'm afraid to try."
"Why?"
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Well, it's not like Great-Aunt Elytte gave me lessons. I'm not even sure if she could read minds. Nerine said she thought she could tell when people were telling lies, but that's so much less than actual mindreading. If I start putting things in people's minds what if I do it wrong?"
"Huh. I guess," he says contemplatively.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"It could be terrible. I could accidentally put it in too hard or something. Or take something out and then you'd never be able to remember it. Or break something. Or maybe it's just not a good idea to have other people's memories in your head. I don't know."
"Yeah, I guess it would be bad if you broke something," he agrees.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Yeah. I don't think I'll try it. Maybe ever, definitely not to anybody I like and probably not even to people I didn't like if there was anything else to do."
The prince giggles. Something is funny about 'definitely not to anybody I like' - the way she says it, maybe.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"You're very giggly."
"Yep!" he agrees. "Things are funny."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"You're funny." She tilts her head. "Are you related to Nerine? I thought I caught something about that but it wasn't clear and then she wasn't thinking about it anymore."
"Maybe. My mom's got some Lalindar in her somewhere but I don't know how far back."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Anyway. If you tell me - or think at me I guess - what you think of all the clothes I can write it down and tell Aleko."
"Okay!" he says cheerfully. "Let's see 'em. I'm good at clothes."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
She shows him what she's got, and pulls a notebook from her luggage, and sits with pencil poised.
The prince examines all her available clothes, and produces detailed opinions, some of which he even says out loud. He knows which things are good to wear at official events, and which are just okay, and which will make people look at her funny; he knows which events a particular thing might be better or worse for, and which things are better or worse for Kiri. And he usually, although not always, knows why.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri takes diligent notes. "Renny's information was pretty out of date, I guess," she remarks when he agrees with her about a particularly terrible pair of shoes.
"They are bad and you should not wear them," he snorts, flapping a hand as though to shoo the shoes.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Is there anything they'd be good for ever?" giggles Kiri.
"Anywhere people can't actually see your feet?" he suggests, grinning.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Okay," giggles Kiri. "Do you think I need to be wearing red and orange constantly? I like them okay but I like other colors too. Renny's worried people are going to forget that I'm actually Ardelay prime if I don't really play it up."
"You don't always need to be wearing red and orange everything, but a red or orange something is a good idea. Otherwise—" He shrugs. People can be silly about things like this; they expect primes to wear their elemental colours, so when it doesn't happen, they fuss.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"And I can't re-wear things too often?" sighs Kiri. "So far being prime is more about my outfits than it is about politics. I hope it's just because I'm eight. If it's still like this in five years I'm going to set something on fire. Probably nothing very important but still."
The prince giggles. "Lots of politics is about outfits." (Well, maybe not lots, but - an amount. Fashion is a language, and you have to watch what you say.)
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"What kinds of things can I say? Besides 'look how sweela I am'."
"How much you care about things - the more times you wear the same thing too close together, the worse you're insulting whoever or whatever you're wearing it for. And how much you know about things - if you wear something somewhere that's not right for it, it means you didn't know any better. If you wear things that are perfect all the time, then you look really smart. If you wear something new or different that's so great other people start copying you, you look like you're really something special, but that's mostly for grown-ups anyway, nobody's going to let a kid set fashion trends unless it's something absolutely amazing. If you wear things that aren't nice enough, you look like you can't afford better. If you wear things that are too nice you look like you're trying too hard - Queen Risella does it all the time. My mom's really good at this stuff," he adds as an aside. "She's always dressed right."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"So she looks really smart? Is she actually smart?"
(She's still taking notes on all this.)
(She's still taking notes on all this.)
"Not at most stuff that isn't clothes. But she's really, really smart at clothes."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri snorts. "I'd like to look smart, I guess. But I don't dare go shopping myself."
"Take me shopping with you," he suggests. "Then you'll have all the best things."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"No, I mean, anywhere I could buy clothes, it will be crowded enough that people will wander within five feet of me. I guess if I brought enough people you could all shoo them away. You and Renny and Aleko maybe. Are you allowed to go shopping with me if you want?"
"Sure," he says carelessly. What he means by it is: he doesn't know, but he expects so, and he also expects that if he isn't he can contrive to go shopping with her anyway and not land in too much trouble for it.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Do you need to bring anyone?"
"Maybe a guard or something. But maybe not."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Do you have your own one?"
"Not really," he shrugs. "Sometimes there's one who comes with me when I go places, but I don't go places that much and it's not always the same one."
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
"Well, I'd like it if you did come shopping with me and Renny and Aleko sometime."
"I'd like that too!" Also he would like to hug her again now. He holds onto the impulse for a moment to see what she thinks of it.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Kiri snorts and holds out her arms again.
Hug! It misses being a tacklehug only in that he does not actually knock her over.
Kiribel Miar Swan Ardelay # "Kiri"
calescent
Which implies a fair amount of gentleness, since Kiri can be knocked over by unevennesses in floors that are in fact several rooms away.