"Yeah. I mean, I was expecting it. Maybe not fifteen minutes ago, but there you go. Hi, I'm Patience Frothen, you must be Sarelle Dochenza and Ekador Serlast, the Ardelays I know already. This is my dog Mud."

"Hello."

"Yes. That. Hello," says Ekador.

"Loel says you're from Malinqua and I should maybe ask you what it's like to be so not used to people having elements?"

"I'm not sure I understand what it's like to be used to people having elements well enough to explain the opposite," he says.

"Oh, well, so much for that idea." She flops into a chair. "How are you liking Welce?"

"The search for a card game I can't cheat at remains engaging."

Patience laughs. "Oh, I hadn't even thought of that - that's funny. I wonder what else you could make cards out of?"

"I haven't come up with any alternative card materials yet. I suppose I could cheat at cards too, but it's easier to avoid."

"There are few among us who couldn't," Sarelle says dryly. (She has previously observed - and subsequently proved - that while her advantage of memory is not quite as automatic as Ekador's, it is equally powerful when she chooses to exercise it.)

"I dunno how Patience or Loel would do it," comments Aleko. "Also me, I cannot cheat at cards."

"I know tons of ways to cheat at cards, are you kidding? I can probably even think of one that takes magic," says Loel.

"Okay, well, maybe you can teach me the kinds that don't and I can compete on a level playing field? Game full of cheating."

"That actually sounds kind of fun, but I wonder if it'd balance, me and you and Loel cheating by not-magic and Kiri only knowing half the other players' hands plus how we're cheating while Ekador knows everything and - what is it you're doing, Sarelle?"

"I have an excellent memory and an abnormal capacity to pay attention to things."

"And I have a perfect memory, at least visually," volunteers Ekador. "I can avoid reading all the cards by magic if I don't want to read all the cards, but I can't avoid remembering the ones I've seen."

"Huh. I think there are games where counting cards doesn't help? Or at least not very much?"

"Apparently so," he says. "I've been taught several."

"Cool. Hey, does your magic work on - leaves? Like, they grow out of trees but they aren't wood. I don't think they'd last long but if it really mattered you could probably write card names on them and have them last long enough for one or two games."

"Hmm. But leaves have distinctive shapes," he says. "Much more so than paper rectangles. I'm not sure I could avoid learning which were which."

"Not to mention," says Loel, "can you imagine trying to shuffle that?"

"Sarelle could probably shuffle it, but getting it into a tidy dealable stack would be another thing entirely."

"Maybe instead of playing with cards we should invent a game that uses blessing coins. None of you works on metal, right?"

"Not me!" says Loel.

Ekador shakes his head.