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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?"
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calescent
calescent
And then off they go!
It is a longish and boringish trip. Aleko drives. Kiri plays with small quantities of fire and writes inscrutable cipher in her notebooks.
It is a longish and boringish trip. Aleko drives. Kiri plays with small quantities of fire and writes inscrutable cipher in her notebooks.
calescent
"Notes-to-self. When I was little I caught Jayce reading my more personal notebooks and invented a cipher."
calescent
"...Are you likely to do enough cryptanalysis in your head to decipher my cipher?"
pyrophyte
"Not quite," he says. "I have a perfect visual memory. If I ever learn your cipher, by whatever means, I'll know what was written on the page I saw. I assume you wouldn't be writing it in cipher if you wanted that to happen."
calescent
"...Lucky. I don't anticipate ever teaching anyone my cipher, but I appreciate it nevertheless."
pyrophyte
"It's very convenient," he says. "If I couldn't cart entire libraries around in my head, I'd be tempted to do it in an actual cart, which would make casual travel much more difficult."
calescent
"That is the most amazing thing I have ever heard of. I'm terribly skittish about using any form of active mind magic, or that would be the first thing I'd want to do for myself."
calescent
"Exactly. Even if Great-Aunt Elytte could do it, it might have worked differently, she didn't tell anybody or write it down, and getting it wrong would be a disaster. I've been asked for help a couple of times, and there weren't any disasters, but those were people who are in dire straits because their minds didn't work well enough - mine works fine; I'd like to add things like perfect recall to it, but not if it means taking risks with the rest."
calescent
"I like to think I'm sensible. It's possible I'm being too conservative, really - I don't have accidents with fire when I'm paying attention - but minds are complicated and I only receive surface thoughts, not full information about the underlying structure, whereas I get lots of detail about heat and fire around me."
pyrophyte
"And fire is something most people understand. If you set one by accident, someone else could control it - not as easily as you, but they could. If you made a mistake with mind magic, only another sweela prime could fix it, correct? And if the mistake was in your own mind..." He shrugs. "I wouldn't risk it either, in your place."
calescent
She sighs and nods. "Exactly. So I'll restrain myself to curing - gambling addicts and people with unpleasant hallucinations who knock on my door and sign waivers."
calescent
"Whereas I imagine you could fill your time entirely with touring hospitals fixing broken bones if you so chose, though whether that would appeal to you I cannot predict."
calescent
"Noted. I don't tour hospitals either even though I can break fevers - I tried to keep Jerist Dochenza alive and just wound up catching his disease and losing my hold on his temperature when I fell asleep and he died anyway."
calescent
"It might have worked better if he'd been less sick. I don't get fevers at all, so I was uncomfortable but not endangered when I caught it, but at any rate I'm not an efficient doctor."
calescent
"It does require a bit more creativity to deploy your magic than mine, admittedly. I'd pass on Valdin's ideas if he'd had any more interesting than weaving paper."