Kiri sends a letter Jayce's way as soon as they stop in a Welchin town. It's brief - we found the Lalindar prime, we'll drop him off and my next stop is the palace so please forward my correspondence there.
The Lalindar house, on inspection, appears to be completely empty. There's a note from the butler on the dining room table stating - in appropriately formal language - that no one was paying them and so they have left, but he, the cook, the gardeners, and the maids may be contacted at the following addresses respectively if the new prime, when located, wishes to re-employ their services. Unlike the Ardelay house at the time of Elytte's death, this house as of Nerine's death contains no extended family. There's nothing to do but for Loel to move in. Kiri draws him a little map of the route between the estate and the nearest town, where he will probably want to buy groceries, and she and Aleko leave to let him plan his moat.
They're at the palace the following day.
"Aleko has me modeled pretty thoroughly and consults the imaginary 'miniature pocket Kiri' on assorted matters. Occasionally, as you can see, even when I am standing right here."
"I see," she says, smiling. "As to the substance of the comment - understanding things is my specialty. My own mind is both the nearest available target and the lens through which I perceive all the rest."
"Miniature Pocket Kiri approves of self-knowledge because it's something I practice as - how did Jayce put it - 'something between a hobby and breathing'."
"It's why we have all those blank books in our luggage. I mean, I also draw in them, but mostly they're for Kiri to scribble in about herself."
"I am not much in the habit of writing things down," says Sarelle. "For most purposes, memory serves."
"I have a fine memory, but I don't like to trust it when it is one of the things I'm trying to examine."
Onward to Narena.
Kiri and Aleko sit in the back and do their not-talking-aloud-except-for-occasional-
"Would you rather accompany me on my search, or stay here until I return to deliver news of the prime?"
"How you're deciding where to look. Especially if it's with magic, I barely know how anybody works except for Kiri."
"Yeah, but if I have clarifying questions you usually can't answer them about anybody except you, and I can't get demos from anybody except you most of the time. Maybe Patience will, when it's her, if it's her, she knows me."
"Hmm," she says. "I have never had much success explaining what I do in detail, even before magic was involved."
"Well, I follow Kiri okay when she talks about hers as long as I don't go down too far into details."
She walks a short distance away from the carriage, to stand in a more open area, and closes her eyes and goes very still except for deep regular breaths.