Kiri's up early the next morning, restless with various low-level simmering concerns, and wanders out of her room.
A slightly disheveled Ekador wanders into the vicinity of the kitchen shortly after Loel starts cooking, and peers at the incipient breakfast.
"Hey," Loel says amicably. "I was gonna talk to you, actually. Kinda-sorta important thing. Is now a good time, or should I wait until you've had breakfast?"
"Okay." Loel smiles crookedly. "So - the thing, from yesterday, with my bones? How they used to break a lot? Can you... not talk to anybody about that? It's kind of personal, for me, and I really don't like the thought of people in general knowing about it. I can handle it when it's just us primes, but even then, I sorta wish it hadn't ever come up."
"Yes, of course," he says. "I'm sorry. I begin to think I should never have said anything."
"Mm." He smiles again. "I'd rather know you know. I'd just... also rather you didn't know. You know?"
Cooking cooking cooking.
It is well after breakfast, and in fact nearing time for lunch, when Patience arrives, alone and without a carriage, just on a horse with a big fluffy copper-furred dog following. She ties the horse to the nearest appropriate horse-tying object and heads up to the door, on which she knocks.
Loel's desire to meet Patience by himself first is generally known, so no one else is nearby when he opens the door.
Patience opens her mouth, pauses like that for a second, and then says, "What the heck?"