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Kiri stays away for weeks, and then she's back, and then she goes to the Ardelay house to learn her way around it and make (thoroughly advised) decisions about staff maintenance, and then she's back, and then she leaves again to be at the Chialto house, but this time Ko is allowed to go with her.
(At a safe distance.)
It's a long boring ride, or it would be boring, but Kiri has learned to make harmless fire-shapes in the air and entertains him with swirls and streamers of it crackling alongside the carriage until she decides to take a nap.
He's not going to be able to sleep in this carriage, it bumps too much, but he can scoot over and sort of nudge part of her onto his lap while she mumbles words.
(And then lurch away from her once she stops partway through "interior decoration".)
She smiles a sad smile at him like she always does when she wakes up and finds him halfway across the room. Or in this case, the carriage.
"You're not even huggy," he observes, on this occasion. "Not like Jayce is anyway." (Jayce is a very huggy little boy.)
She shrugs. "If I didn't have a family and it was just me, and distant Ardelay relatives I barely know, and stuff, then that would be fine probably. We just used to be next to each other all the time and now we can't. I don't need hugging, I just want my brothers."
Ko thinks about this, but doesn't get much of anywhere. Kiri's the smart one, all sweela, always thinking and writing. He isn't going to come up with a solution if she can't, probably.
"I could just try it again," he says.
"You didn't like it last time," she says.
"Yeah, but, you weren't mean about it or anything."
"Why would I be mean because you had to go to the bathroom?"
"I dunno." He fidgets, and looks out the window.
She makes a fire-dart that follows the path of his eyes.
They arrive in Chialto, and wait for the arrival of the prince.
liakoura
The prince did not have to bring a guard, and successfully acquired legitimate permission to go shopping with the Ardelay prime and her family. He arrives very shortly after they do.
"Hi, Kiri! Hi, Kiri's brother!"
"Hi, Kiri! Hi, Kiri's brother!"
liakoura
"I'm Aleko," volunteers Aleko. "Kiri says I'm supposed to call you 'your highness' and I said 'all the time?' and she said 'pretty much'."
calescent
"Hello, your highness," says Kiri, rolling her eyes affectionately at her twin.
He giggles. "Okay. Hi, Aleko."
And now he is standing in Kiri's invisible mindreading bubble (he pictures it as a giant soap bubble wobbling around her).
And now he is standing in Kiri's invisible mindreading bubble (he pictures it as a giant soap bubble wobbling around her).
liakoura
Aleko - observes this, marks out the distance as best as he can without being in the bubble himself, says, "Huh."
The prince giggles again. He is a giggly prince.
(It is nice to see Kiri and nice to meet Aleko and he is looking forward to the shopping!)
(It is nice to see Kiri and nice to meet Aleko and he is looking forward to the shopping!)
calescent
"We can leave as soon as Renny's done making sure the luggage all went where it's supposed to go."
liakoura
"And then I learn what he knows about what you should wear because you barely even know that lace is a thing," says Aleko.
calescent
"I know lace is a thing," snorts Kiri. "But you'll be better at this than me and you wanted to do something."
"Did you know it comes in kinds?" the prince inquires brightly. He does! He knows lots of things. And now he's going to get to teach them to someone who presumably cares more about them than Kiri does. (Caring more about fashion than Kiri does is not, he judges, very hard.)
calescent
"...Kinds that aren't just colors?" asks Kiri.
She might be teasing.
She might be teasing.
She might be! She probably is. Anyway, if she didn't know the answer to that question before, she clearly does now, because the prince is thinking about it. Lace is pretty. He likes it and its kinds.
"I just don't," he says, shrugging. "I don't mind all the same stuff most people do."
"Huh," he says. "Good question. I don't know, why do you mind it?"
liakoura
"Well - wouldn't anyb- wouldn't most people? One day she can't do anything like it at all and the next day she can't stop and she's setting things on fire and crying about how if Great-Aunt Elytte did this to people then it's just as well that she's dead, and now you're just sort of not minding, I don't get it."
"I don't mind because I don't..." He trails off, struggling to find the concepts to explain, let alone the words. On one level, it is just so that he doesn't mind, and he doesn't really know why other people do. But on another level, he can make guesses, and know that the guesses are things that don't apply to him.
"I don't have any big secrets, and I don't have any - things that - " He gestures helplessly. "The way that people are sometimes, that they don't like it if people know something about them, even if it won't hurt them any other way, they just don't want anyone knowing? I don't do that."
The concept he is attempting to describe is something like shame, or embarrassment, or fear for one's reputation as a thing in itself. He can't quite bring the words to mind.
"I don't have any big secrets, and I don't have any - things that - " He gestures helplessly. "The way that people are sometimes, that they don't like it if people know something about them, even if it won't hurt them any other way, they just don't want anyone knowing? I don't do that."
The concept he is attempting to describe is something like shame, or embarrassment, or fear for one's reputation as a thing in itself. He can't quite bring the words to mind.
calescent
"You just... don't get embarrassed?" translates Kiri slowly.
"Yeah! That," he agrees, nodding. "I don't do that."
"I'd teach you if I knew how!" he says earnestly. "But I don't really have a 'how', I just don't ever get embarrassed. It's not like I used to and then stopped."