"Uh - sure." Kiri turns back whence she came towards her room.

"Does he know that you do, and has he expressed opinions about what you should do with the information?"

"He knows I know. We've - communicated, about the details."

Kiri just looks at her.

"Yes," she says, quite as though Kiri had responded verbally. "That is what I thought."

"What are you driving at, Sarelle?"

"I have recently concluded that the vanished prince must have had a good reason to vanish," she says. "I prefer not to share this conclusion with anyone who does not already know it."

After a short delay to let Sarelle turn into another corridor, Kiri seeks out Loel.

"Sure." He steps back from the door to let her through.

"I didn't read her today but I did on the way here and the way her mind works is - really something else. I shouldn't be as surprised as I am that she's managed to come up with a guess out of a million little things."

"Okay. Fine. At least she said she's not gonna go talking to people about it. And she doesn't know who used to break my bones. Does she? There's no reasonable way she could know that, right?"

"She didn't mention it - but even I could probably make a decent guess from the facts we already know she has."

"There's a difference between a decent guess and knowing." He sighs. "But I should probably go chase down Ekador and ask him not to go talking about my skeleton, just in case anybody else ever starts guessing. That is a rumour I don't want to let get even a little bit started."

"Yeah, good plan. Just make it out to be about - privacy or something, not rumors."

"Yeah. I know."

"I'll keep you posted if Sarelle comes to me about anything else, I guess."

"Thanks."

"Depends how, and when, and to who, and what gets out. If it was anything about Father, I'd want to talk to Isten. If it was just rumours that I'm secretly a vanished prince—" he shrugs— "eh, rumours. I'd stick to my story unless there was a good reason not to. The story being, parents moved to Thiyec when I was a kid, I'm not sure which one of them was Lalindar but I don't think they were somebody's legitimate Lalindar child, and they died a while ago and I've made my peace with it. I haven't had to come up with details yet; people haven't been prying."

"Right - if you do produce details maybe send them to me, I haven't been keeping it secret that you let me read you."

"Sure. What do you want for breakfast?"

"Heh. Do you have the fixings for panbread and strawberries?"

Mmm, breakfast.

A slightly disheveled Ekador wanders into the vicinity of the kitchen shortly after Loel starts cooking, and peers at the incipient breakfast.

"Morning."

"Good morning," he yawns.

"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?"

"Mm?" He blinks. "No, go on. I am more awake than I may seem."

"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?"

Ekador also smiles, briefly. "Yes, I believe I understand."

"Speaking of primes, what protocol do you prefer when Patience shows up?"

"Sure, that makes sense."

Om nom nom.

Aleko wanders in and helps himself.

A few minutes later, so does Sarelle.

"Fantastic. Non-soapy," pronounces Aleko around a mouthful.

"Great," giggles Loel. "Just what I wanted to hear."

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?"

"Hi, Patience," he says. "It's complicated. Do you wanna come in?"

"Yeah, because what the heck?"

He steps back to let her in. "Your dog is really cute."

"His name's Mud, don't ask why, it's a long and stupid story. What the heck."

"I'm totally going to ask you why your dog's name is Mud," he says. "I go by Loel Lalindar now, but I'm pretty sure you know me as somebody else. Don't tell anybody, it's a secret, I ran away for a reason. As far as anybody who's not you, me, Kiri, or Aleko should know, I'm just a guy they found in Thiyec under a herd of lost rainclouds."

"Yeah, I recognize you, of course I recognize you, come on. Is there anybody besides us and Kiri and Aleko here right now?"

"Sarelle and Ekador. They're all playing cards in a different part of the house. So why is your dog's name Mud?"

"It's a long stupid story, my uncle breeds dogs, I wanted one, so did one of my cousins, we went and she asked our other cousin whether they named the dogs and - it is a long stupid story, stop me whenever."

"No, keep going!"

"And the cousin who is the daughter of the uncle with the dog breeding thing decided it sounded cooler if the answer was yes, only there's dozens and dozens of dogs around, this breed is for herding and guarding so they breed lots of them. And only the ones they keep as adults actually have names so the other cousin called her on it, and she started coming up with more and more desperately obviously made-up names until they got to where I was settling on this particular puppy and then the puppy was named Mud. Following littermates named, I don't even remember them all, Milk and Pinetree and Bubble. And it stuck. So, Mud."

"That's adorable," giggles Loel.

Loel sits down on the floor and hugs him. This seems like an appropriate way to greet such a cute fluffy dog.

Mud licks him on the face messily, still wagging.

Awww. He giggles again. Fluffy hugs!

"I can get you one if you want one. Sounds lonely being out here if you haven't even hired anybody, yeah?"

"Nah, I don't want a dog. But I'll cuddle yours while he's here. You are cute and fluffy," he informs Mud.

"Thiyec! I liked Thiyec. I miss Thiyec," he says. "I had a little house by a pond and most everybody in the village liked me and nobody gets upset if you walk around naked in public there, it was pretty much Paradise."

Patience spends a discreet second (during which Mud continues to lick Loel) contemplating a mental image, then says, "So Kiri had to drag you back kicking and screaming, or you doing okay here too?"

"Kind of... yes and yes? And also no and no," he says. "It's complicated. I really didn't want to go back when she showed up and told me everything, but then I - did something to see if I could change my mind, because I knew it was important, and that helped enough that I came here. And I'm okay being here, I like having prime powers, I'm getting along with the people I buy food from and write letters to, I'm really excited about my moat - but I wish I didn't have to be. It's hard and it's a lot of responsibility and I have complicated feelings and it would all be much simpler if I'd never inherited the primacy in the first place."

"I guess. Well, now I know why I had to come all the way out here to meet you instead of Chialto, I guess you don't want to personally fuel the rumor mill for the next quintile?"

"Yeah. I'm going with the 'subtle campaign of lies' approach."

"I really wasn't," he sighs, absently giving Mud scritches.

"Do you not wanna tell me?"

"I don't know if I wanna tell you. I don't know if you wanna know," he says. "Most people who find out seem to regret it some way."

"Yeah. I mean..." he shrugs; sighs; repeats, "Yeah."

"Okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't wanna. Whole thing is secret from people who aren't Ardelay twins - just the twins, not Jayce?"

"Just the twins, yeah."

"Okay. Anything else I should know before I meet the other new primes?"

"Guess not," he says.

"Okay. Where are they at?"

"Back of the house, I think. By the way, is it just me or were you imagining me naked a minute ago?"

"Was that not the point of bringing up how you lived in a clothing-optional country?"

"That was not the point of that! I actually just really liked living in a clothing-optional country and now I miss it," he says, laughing. "But I don't mind. Imagine me naked all you want."

"Probably not if I'm gonna go see Kiri in like a minute."

He giggles. "Going to see Kiri right this minute is technically optional!" he points out, leaning back on his hands. (He hasn't bothered standing up yet since saying hello to Mud.) "I'm sure they can keep playing cards without us."

"That sounds kind of like you want me to stand here for a while. Thinking about you naked."

"You could, if you wanted! You could also go somewhere slightly more comfortable than my kierten and think about me naked, you know what else I miss about Thiyec? No one has a room at the front of their house that they can't put any useful furniture in because people would be snobs about it!"

"Nobody has a kierten? That sounds weird," says Patience, apparently distracted from thinking about Loel naked.

"Yes! Nobody has a kierten. I was really happy about that when I left Welce," he says, laughing a little. "Kiertens always bothered me as a kid, they just seemed so pointless. I care less about it now but it's still fun to complain about. Anyway," he gets up, "I do actually wanna sit somewhere comfier than this floor, so what'll it be? Meeting everybody else or finding somewhere comfortable to flirt?"

"Why don't you give me a tour of the whole house. Wherever the others are can be last."

"Sure," he says, grinning. "It's a pretty house! I like my house."

"It is! I was here once to meet Nerine but it was years ago."

"I never came here back then."

"Yeah. It was a long time ago. You went and got all - interesting to imagine naked."

"You can see me naked, if you want," he offers cheerfully. "You might've guessed I'm not shy about it."

"I did kinda guess, considering! Mmmmaybe. Since you're offering."

"Well, y'know. If you want. I won't be offended if you'd rather stick to imagination."

"Backing out of your tantalizing offer, huh?"

"Nope. You can absolutely still see me naked if you want to."

"Right, where in this big old house of yours is suitable?"

"Lots of places! Of which," he says, "my room is probably the prettiest, and it's also right up these stairs."

"All right then. Can I leave Mud in your kierten?"

"Sure."

"Ooh, view. Of the outdoors, for the time being."

"For the time being," Loel agrees, and then he starts taking off his clothes.

Patience flounces gracefully into a chair and supervises this process approvingly.

When he's done, he grins at her. "So how do I compare to imaginary me?"

"Faaaaavorably. Much less fuzziness around the edges."

"Good!" he says, laughing.

"Well, it's the kind of thing I'm cool with," he says, laughing. "But that doesn't mean I'm not also flirting with you."

"Suspected that, wanted to check, also flirting if you were curious."

"I suspected that! I'm glad," he says. "You're fun to flirt with."

"Am I? I was worried I was doing it wrong."

He giggles. "Is there such a thing?"

"Search me."

He giggles harder.

Patience laughs too.

"Ooh, I might have to see the menu. Wine list. Inventory. Whatever you call it."

"We-ell, you could touch me naked. For example."

She reaches out and runs her fingertips from shoulder to elbow.

He grins and makes a happy little chirping sound.

"Try it and see," he suggests.

Patience grins and repeats the gesture, a little less tentatively.

Chirp!

Is that a fluff of hair? It is a fluff of hair. Perhaps he will also chirp if she starts scritching his head.

Snuggle snuggle chirp.

"I missed you," says Patience thoughtfully, "but I am also glad you were not around when I was being Awkwardly Pubescent, I think, 'cause then we would've done this years ago and then I would've said something Awkwardly Pubescent and then it would be weird."

"I did a bunch of stupid things with cute boys when I was fourteen and fifteen, and conveniently, none of them are going to be politically important or were my friends when we were ten, so I can mostly forget about having done it most of the time!"

"Aww." His head is flopped in her lap. Therefore he is in an excellent position to rub his cheek against her tummy. He does that. "You're cute," he declares.

Patience giggles. "You're cute."

"I know!" he says happily.

"Is this the part where I lean down and kiss you, it could be that part."

"It could be that part," he agrees. "That would be a good part for it to be."

It is that part!

"I'm fine," giggles Loel. "That was hilarious."

Ooh. That was a good choice. He sighs happily.

"Is this a 'we make out for a while and then you put your clothes on and we go hang with some primes' or is it a 'while one of us still has clothes on, that person should scurry out of the room to find something to write 'health' and 'fertility' and 'luck' and 'surprise' on so we can put them in a bowl and see what we're looking at for today'?"

"I dunno," Loel says cheerfully. "One of those. Actually you might not have to scurry anywhere, I've probably got paper and a pen around here somewhere. Want to?"

(Nuzzle.) "I brought it up exclusively to string you along and have no other motives whatsoever," she singsongs.

He giggles and kisses her nose.

She kisses him on the mouth again, and says, "Paper, pen?"

Can he sit in her lap again? He's gonna sit in her lap again.

"Makes sense," he says, snuggling her some more.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he says, concerned.

He hugs her, for lack of any better ideas.

"Aww, Patience," he says, and hugs her again.

Snuggles. Such snuggles. Comforting snuggles, he hopes.

"Gross like how?"

"The knowing all the - flesh - things. It kind of covers a lot of stuff."

"Huh, I guess it would," he muses. "Knowing blood things is a little weird too, but it's not that gross. I mean, or I just don't gross that easy."

"Maybe a combination? And also blood is basically one kind of thing, I think? Tubes and blood and that's it. There's definitely kinds of flesh."

Loel giggles.

She gives him an apologetic sort of nuzzle. "So, um, mood killer twice over, let's reschedule for Sometime After I Am Used To This And There Has Been A Funeral I Guess."

"Yeah," he says, cuddling her some more.

"Yeah, I guess." He shrugs. "Responsible conversation now, or responsible conversation later before we get into anything?"

"Later, I think, right now I'm already processing - stuff." She sighs. "I knew he was dying, but..."

She smiles weakly and gets up. "You're gonna have to show me where they are. I can tell how many bodies are where, but I don't know a damn thing about doors and staircases that I didn't this morning."

"I promise not to get you lost in my own house," he says, hugging her again.

Hugs. "Good."

So. Down the stairs to the kierten, first.

Patience whistles to Mud, who trots up to her making happy doggy noises; he heels.

"Really, really off-type," is the first description that comes to mind. "You look at Ekador and you think sweela; you look at Sarelle and you think hunti. He's from Malinqua, moved there when he was just a baby, and his birth blessings are a couple of things I forget, and flexibility. It's hard to forget flexibility; he's adapting really well to suddenly living in a different country with a bunch of new responsibilities and also magic. I have no idea what Sarelle's blessings are, come to think of it. I'm betting there's at least one hunti in there, though. Probably certainty or determination or something."

"Huh. That's weird. You and me and Kiri are all very our things."

"Yeah. I dunno, though, it sort of makes sense to me. What people see you as and what you actually are aren't necessarily the same, you know?"

"Yeah, I just mean - if I went around acting like I was coru or something but I was really torz, I - I don't know why I'd do that and don't have a good idea why other people would, so it sort of snags me when I think about it? Just never got used to it even though I have plenty of cousins with this or that crown."

"Mm. Well, maybe you can ask Sarelle about it. Ekador too, but he didn't grow up here, I'm not sure he's got the hang of the elements yet."

"That... sounds weird. It's really handy to be able to sort people who you're going to interact with more than a little but less than a lot."

"I got out of the habit when I was in Thiyec. It didn't seem to make much of a difference. I mean - in Welce it matters what element you are; in other countries it's not a thing." He shrugs. "But maybe I'm the one who's weird. Wouldn't be the first time."

"Maybe. I'm not sure what I'd be like if I didn't have this core of - I am torz, I am so torz that I am probably gonna be the Queen Of Being Torz one day, torz torz torz. It's big in my head."

"Huh," he says. "I'm not coru that way. Well, I'm the Queen Of Being Coru, but I mean - there's not a part of me that's the coru part going around being really coru all the time. It's just that what I am and what coru is are a lot of the same things."

"King of being coru," corrects Patience.

"Says who?"

"...What'm I missing?"

"Yeah. I think I'm still different," he says. "Because - it wasn't a thing, in Thiyec. I wasn't going around being coru. I was just me. I'm the same person either way, but in Thiyec nobody thinks about elements, so I didn't either. It'd be different for you, right? If you went and lived in Thiyec for a few years you'd still be torz torz torz, you might have less reason to think about it but it'd still be a thing that you'd think, wouldn't it? Being in a different country where nobody cared wouldn't be enough to make it stop mattering to you."

"Yeah. I dunno, though, I haven't tried it."

Loel shrugs again. "Yeah. Anyway, I already knew I was all kinds of weird."

"I don't think you're literally all kinds of weird. You'd have to be... green, and have an extra arm, and stuff."

"I'm many kinds of weird. I'm weird in the head."

"So much tastier! Do you still cook? I mean, um," she coughs, "so, do you cook? Oh, this is gonna be hard, I'm sorry in advance if I screw it up."

"Yeah, I cook. I forgive you in advance, but please try not to screw it up too often."

"Yeah. You gonna make me food while I'm here?"

"Absolutely!"

"Yaaaay you are the best."

He beams and hugs her.

Hugs!

Hugs.

Okay, one more snuggle, then he lets go. "That sounds good."

"Yeah, it was very - sensory at first, in this squishy weird new way, but now I'm turning it into information better."

"Cool," he says.

"It's still pretty squishy. I wonder if it will always be squishy. Does your thing feel wet?"

"I guess," he says, "yeah. I don't know, it feels - like itself? Water and blood are both wet things, though, so you're not wrong."

"I mean, earth and stone and stuff aren't squishy, but they're not doing anything right now, so it's easy to ignore what's around. The bodies are doing stuff. And being squishy." She squeezes his hand. "Squish!"

He squeezes back and grins at her.

"I keep being tempted to do stuff. More with the rocks than the bodies. Maybe after I say hi to everybody I'll go mess with the contents of your yard if you'll let me."

"Sure, go for it."

"Cool. Your moat is already very nice so you probably don't want me to add to the designs in the floor of it."

"Yeah. It is a great moat. I love my moat."

One of the bodies behind the door - a very hunti-seeming woman who is presumably Sarelle Dochenza - looks up at her, inhales, and says, "Condolences."

"Oh - already?"

"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.

"I can tell different metals apart by smell but I do not think that is the sort of thing you meant."

"Yeah, they'd all be copper or whatever. Does this house have a chapel?"

"I don't know for sure that I don't work on metal, but I probably don't. I mean I could tell where ore is but that might be more because it'd have earth around it."

"Yeah, this house has a chapel. So do we go there or do we bring the coins here? Here seems comfier."

"We don't even have a game invented yet."

"Yeah, but we're going to, aren't we? And I don't know about you guys, but I'll find it easier to think up games with the coins actually in front of me."

"All right, who wants to haul the other end of the bin of blessings?" asks Aleko, getting up.

"I'll do it," says Loel.

"Yeah, she did."

"Isn't her dog cute? He grew really fast but for a while he looked like a weird-colored dust bunny, all fur and feet and ears."

"Her dog is adorable! I love her dog."

"Thought you would. How far are we gonna have to haul the blessings?"

"Not that far, I guess. Down some hallways. At least it's all on the same floor; I wouldn't wanna have to lug that thing upstairs."

"Yeah, me neither."

He laughs.

Meanwhile, Patience finds someplace to sit, just about exactly five feet away from Kiri so she might absently lean or gesture into range but isn't going to have a hard time scooting out if she wants. "So this is us, I guess. Loel met me at the door and stuff and I've known Kiri for years, tell me about yourselves?"

"I often find that a difficult question," says Sarelle.

"I... grew up in Malinqua?" says Ekador.

"Okay, um, well, you're not wearing your blessings, what are they?"

"Intelligence, flexibility, resolve," says Ekador.

"Clarity, vision, talent," small sigh, "determination."

"...Insert obvious question?"

"Absent-minded father neglected to count properly," she summarizes. "Now my twin and I have four blessings each. Which, as you may imagine, is why I don't wear them."

"Makes sense. And I guess in Malinqua you can't buy sets of blessings in a dozen configurations and more materials so you don't have yours yet?" Patience asks Ekador.

"Correct. And I think I will make them myself," he says.

"Ooh, I hadn't even thought of doing that. I like my hairclips, though, I've had them forever. Maybe if I lose one I'll make myself a new set. I haven't tried doing anything yet."

"Are you going to try doing something, or will you wait?"

"Probably going to go out on the grounds and mess with... the ground."

He chuckles.

Sarelle smiles.

"Maybe I will make statues. I've never been much of an artist though, Kiri, do you think -?"

"I bet Aleko would sketch you some designs."

"I would be interested to see this."

"Aleko draws pretty well. Usually he doesn't spend enough time on a specific piece to leave it 'finished' to the point where it looks like it belongs in a frame, but he'd be perfect for helping Patience play with the ground."

"Yeah, it'll be great. I guess if I'm gonna do it here Loel should have input too, in case he doesn't want weird Alekomonsters statue-ing around in his yard."

"Statue-ing," giggles Ekador.

"Well, once I'm gone they're sure not gonna do anything else. I guess while I'm here I could make them move around. We could make a giant bluestones board and I could move the stone pieces and you could turn some trees into wood pieces and it would be only useful when we were both here, does that sound like enough of a pointless display to suit the occasion? Oh and speaking of occasions are we gonna do the magic handholding thing?"

"An excellent question," says Sarelle.

"Because we are all here, now, and I've never tried it."

"I'd like to, and I think the choreography works if I stand between you and Loel, since order doesn't matter. But there have been some misgivings." Kiri gestures in the direction of the misgivings.

Ekador sighs. "Yes. Although I suppose, given that we have the opportunity, and you've said we will have to do it eventually regardless..."

"Well, with that level of enthusiasm I can't believe you're not bouncing in your chair waiting for Loel to get back. It's pleasant, I swear."

"Grandpa said so," agrees Patience.

"I believe you that it is pleasant. The question is not whether it is pleasant. The question is whether I want to do it."

"Well, what are the reservations, then?"

Patience shrugs. "I wanna try it. I don't know what it's like and I want to."

"And I am wary for no specific identifiable reason."

"I mean, I guess you're allowed," says Patience, shrugging again.

And here is a bin of blessings, and its bearers.

"Loel, how do you feel about magic handholding?"

"I feel just fine about magic handholding!"

"The idea has been proposed as an event for today's agenda and Ekador's got vague misgivings," explains Kiri.

"Mm," says Loel, nodding understanding. "Well, no rush, right?" He gestures to the bin of blessings, by way of suggesting an alternate pastime.

"Right." Kiri peers into the bin. "Well, there's five 'suits' like cards, but then there's the extraordinaries, and the numbers aren't right, so we might or might not be able to adapt any given card game successfully depending on how much that matters."

"Nothing stopping us from making a new one," says Loel. "And anyways, the blessings don't come in numbers, that seems kind of important. We could give them numbers, but it might be more natural to do something else."

Kiri tilts her head. "Some of the blessings are more - physical, about physical circumstances - than the others, but it's not quite even between everything - grace and beauty, strength, nothing for sweela, swiftness and travel plus you could argue for flexibility, health and fertility plus more you could argue. So that doesn't match up neatly. Maybe some kind of collecting game like Daisypicking would work; it doesn't matter that four is larger than two, for that, so it wouldn't matter that grace isn't 'larger' than wealth or whatever."

Kiri laughs too. "We might be able to divide them randomly if we did it by pouring them into bowls instead of picking them up by hand, we can try it anyway."

"And it might be kind of fun to play the other way, too," he says, grinning.

"It is interesting being able to hear only one and a half sides of your conversation," Sarelle remarks.

"Kiri does her best to fill in the essentials," laughs Patience. "Unless it's private."

"Jayce can sometimes get something he's looking for specifically - not so it'll work, but so he'll be holding it, sure. But Jayce isn't here. We could come up with a non-random system, anyway, or - would it make sense to make rules that depended on player birth blessings?"

"I think pouring into bowls would suffice for random distribution," says Sarelle. "On the other hand, rules dependent on birth blessings could be interesting. Did you have a specific suggestion?"

"I dunno, maybe something like Daisypicking only you want some blessings and not others? That might not be fair for those of us who share some, though..."

"True. Not to mention that I would be in an interestingly unique position."

"Yeah, that too. I dunno."

"Maybe if - via whatever mechanism - you collect a set of anybody's blessings this allows you to do... something. Sarelle's would be harder to collect, but if the something doesn't target the person belonging to the blessing set and anyone can collect it, that wouldn't matter."

"It favours those of us with better memories, but I suppose most things would."

"I'm not seeing how. I mean, they're not a secret and half of us are wearing them."

"No, the guy's got a point, I've already forgotten two of his," says Loel, grinning. "But I don't think it's that big a deal. If we remind everybody at the start of the game, maybe, for those of us who don't know each other that well or forget things more easily."

Patience nods. "Which leaves us with how we collect 'em and what happens when we get a set. I'm drawing a ghost coin here."

"Pour 'em into bowls and... offer... trades? With some point value for each set, more for Sarelle's, and also points for having lots so even though nobody has, say, time in their birth set, you can still trade them away for other things two for one or whatever. So if I have clarity and intelligence I could give up a time and a resolve or whatever for somebody's power, and then I have Kiri's blessings and they have more total coins?"

"Ooh," says Loel. "That sounds workable!"

"And Sarelle and Ekador and, optionally, I have an advantage here because we'll know more about why someone might offer a trade, but not an overwhelming advantage, I guess... do we take turns or all talk over each other trying to get a set of coins we like fastest? When do we stop?"

"Take turns," Loel suggests. "Stop when, I don't know... when we go a full round and nobody wants to make any trades?"

"That works. Could go on for a long game, though. Where do we want me to sit?"

Loel laughs. "Depends, do you wanna spy on people?"

"I thought the aim of this whole endeavour was to reduce magical cheating."

"Yes, but there's a tradeoff if I have to sit far away and ferry the coins to a midpoint and then back off so someone can collect them, on account of that would be tedious."

"Spy on me, I don't care," says Loel.

"All right, and you can pass anything I'm trading along."

"Good, I wanna have a shot at winning and I dunno how well you'd partition, Kiri."

"Partition?"

"Not use the things she reads, do what she would have done if she didn't know."

"Huh," says Loel.

"That is certainly a skill," says Sarelle.

"I can do it some of the time, and I think I can do it for the purposes of making uncontaminated trades in a game we just made up that I don't much care about winning, but I'm not a particularly good actress."