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Jayce turns up some interesting information.
Kiri leaves him in charge of everything and takes Aleko with her. She's closer with Aleko, but Jayce has initiative that Aleko doesn't and is less averse to the idea of running Ardelay business in her absence. Aleko can also draw; he has sketches of the missing prince and can make more.
They cross Soche-Tas, in their own carriage but as part of a merchant convoy that knows the way.
On the far side of Soche-Tas is the little country of Thiyec. Thiyec usually has improbably good weather. People who are less wedded to the culture of Welce than most talk about retiring there.
Thiyec has been getting plenty of rain.
They break off from the convoy and start showing the missing prince's picture to people. People in Thiyec consider nudity no more a remarkable fashion decision than hat-wearing, and it's not a terribly comfortable trip - it doesn't help that only about forty percent of Thiyec's population speaks any Soechin, Kiri's the only one who ever learned Soechin, and nobody in their party knows a lick of Thiyecine.
But eventually, there is a knock on a particular door.
calescent
calescent
"I missed you too, but I guess you needed to be gone. Nerine thought Valdin had arranged to have you kidnapped," she adds. "She made enough of a fuss to make it kind of difficult to investigate under the assumption that you'd run away on purpose. I may have helped."
calescent
"If you come back, alive and amphibious and everything - there'll probably be a demand for a public explanation."
calescent
"I stopped helping Nerine's rumor when the Serlast house in Chialto was my first and thus far only case of being on the scene in time to thwart arson. It matters to people what the primes are getting up to, and what the royal family are getting up to, and you're both."
free-flowing
"Yeah," he says, "now think about what'll happen if I tell people why I left."
It wouldn't be good. And most of the not-goodness would probably not fall on King Hector where it belongs. Some, maybe, but not most.
It wouldn't be good. And most of the not-goodness would probably not fall on King Hector where it belongs. Some, maybe, but not most.
calescent
"I didn't say the official story had to be the truth. Tell them you were kidnapped if you like, as long as you blame someone who's safely out of the picture and won't suffer for it."
free-flowing
"I don't want to," he says. "I don't - care. I like not caring."
'Care' isn't quite the word, but it's the closest one he can find. He is not any kind of public figure, in Thiyec. He is Loel who makes good food and pretty clothes, who tells good jokes, who helps out when people need things. His decisions do not have effects on a scale any wider than one town. If he wanted to tell everyone that his father beat him, he could do that, and no one would riot. He does not ever have to tell other people's lies for them, not if he doesn't want to.
If he decided to go back - which he hasn't, and might not - he might not also decide to start conducting himself like a country is watching. He might just choose to tell the truth. Because after all, some of the consequences would probably fall on King Hector. And he doesn't have to mind about the rest.
'Care' isn't quite the word, but it's the closest one he can find. He is not any kind of public figure, in Thiyec. He is Loel who makes good food and pretty clothes, who tells good jokes, who helps out when people need things. His decisions do not have effects on a scale any wider than one town. If he wanted to tell everyone that his father beat him, he could do that, and no one would riot. He does not ever have to tell other people's lies for them, not if he doesn't want to.
If he decided to go back - which he hasn't, and might not - he might not also decide to start conducting himself like a country is watching. He might just choose to tell the truth. Because after all, some of the consequences would probably fall on King Hector. And he doesn't have to mind about the rest.
calescent
Kiri drops her forehead onto her hand. "Well, that would probably still also be a slight improvement over two primes being completely missing."
calescent
"I don't want you to die. That would not be a global improvement, it would just make a few things easier to look after while I got busy grieving. I can't stop you from reckless experimentation with pretending to be a fish but I can sure recommend against it."
free-flowing
Well, it's sweet that she'd grieve.
But: "Wouldn't it be better, though? If you had some other prime who lived in Welce and wasn't - me?" Wasn't still sometimes so desperately angry when he thinks about the King of Welce; wouldn't be living under the pressure of that terrible secret; would probably be less inclined to do things like drown themselves just to see if it didn't work.
But: "Wouldn't it be better, though? If you had some other prime who lived in Welce and wasn't - me?" Wasn't still sometimes so desperately angry when he thinks about the King of Welce; wouldn't be living under the pressure of that terrible secret; would probably be less inclined to do things like drown themselves just to see if it didn't work.
free-flowing
"So maybe I'm supposed to go back and be - me - at everybody."
Which he imagines would hit Welchin politics rather like a spring flood, if he went sufficiently unedited on a grand enough scale.
Which he imagines would hit Welchin politics rather like a spring flood, if he went sufficiently unedited on a grand enough scale.
calescent
"I don't assign the primacy inheritance quite enough wit to interpret and obey its will on that scale."
free-flowing
Loel shrugs. "Might be what you get anyway. If I go back."
(He wonders what she'd prefer if he doesn't - him dead and a new prime to be found, or him alive and the coru prime missing from Welce for this generation.)
(He wonders what she'd prefer if he doesn't - him dead and a new prime to be found, or him alive and the coru prime missing from Welce for this generation.)
calescent
"If the Lalindar prime stays missing for an entire generation we can't ratify Isten when the time comes. Will you at least promise that if you don't die in the immediate future you'll come back when the king dies?"