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Jayce turns up some interesting information.
Kiri leaves him in charge of everything and takes Aleko with her. She's closer with Aleko, but Jayce has initiative that Aleko doesn't and is less averse to the idea of running Ardelay business in her absence. Aleko can also draw; he has sketches of the missing prince and can make more.
They cross Soche-Tas, in their own carriage but as part of a merchant convoy that knows the way.
On the far side of Soche-Tas is the little country of Thiyec. Thiyec usually has improbably good weather. People who are less wedded to the culture of Welce than most talk about retiring there.
Thiyec has been getting plenty of rain.
They break off from the convoy and start showing the missing prince's picture to people. People in Thiyec consider nudity no more a remarkable fashion decision than hat-wearing, and it's not a terribly comfortable trip - it doesn't help that only about forty percent of Thiyec's population speaks any Soechin, Kiri's the only one who ever learned Soechin, and nobody in their party knows a lick of Thiyecine.
But eventually, there is a knock on a particular door.
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calescent
calescent
"If you don't drown yourself with your experiment - then what?"
free-flowing
"Then I'll think about it some more," he says. "I don't know."
He knows he's not going back today, not on what she's said. He doesn't think he'll change his mind anytime soon in the ordinary course of things, although it's possible. He doesn't know if breathing water will make any difference, or what kind it would make if it did, but he thinks it might.
He knows he's not going back today, not on what she's said. He doesn't think he'll change his mind anytime soon in the ordinary course of things, although it's possible. He doesn't know if breathing water will make any difference, or what kind it would make if it did, but he thinks it might.
calescent
"I can't stay forever. Me being gone doesn't help with the primacy-in-a-shambles issue. I can stick around a couple of days, though, unless Aleko actually starts screaming at your nudist neighbors and runs out our welcome."
free-flowing
"Nudist, is that what you call it?" He laughs. "It's just Thiyec."
As cultural quirks go, he thinks it's harmless and charming. Certainly much nicer than Soche-Tas.
As cultural quirks go, he thinks it's harmless and charming. Certainly much nicer than Soche-Tas.
calescent
"I like it better than Soche-Tas too, but it's not my favorite thing. Aleko is highly uncomfortable."
free-flowing
Well, it's sad that Aleko is highly uncomfortable, but Aleko can always go home.
Loel sighs.
"Do you wanna stay with me, then? No naked people wandering around my house, I promise." Wearing clothes all the time for just a few days won't be that much bother. And his place is nice and quiet and out of the way and he doesn't get that many visitors, at least not frequently, and if he does get visitors they will probably be wearing clothes because of the rain.
Loel sighs.
"Do you wanna stay with me, then? No naked people wandering around my house, I promise." Wearing clothes all the time for just a few days won't be that much bother. And his place is nice and quiet and out of the way and he doesn't get that many visitors, at least not frequently, and if he does get visitors they will probably be wearing clothes because of the rain.
calescent
"For a day or two, yeah. We can stay. Do you have a place to put the horses or should we stash them and the carriage in the inn we passed and walk back?"
free-flowing
"I don't have a good place to put the horses," he says, envisioning them in his garden. Neither the horses nor the garden would be likely to benefit.
calescent
"Okay." Kiri goes and confers with Aleko briefly, and then Aleko drives off. She returns to the doorway. "He doesn't want me slipping in the rain so he'll put them away for me. We're hoping the sign outside the inn suggesting that the proprietors are at least aware of the existence of Welchin will let him make the transaction."
free-flowing
"The innkeeper speaks it," he says. "Probably half the reason I still know how. You wanna come in and dry off?" He has many cuddly towels! Originally obtained because he lives very close to a large pond and likes to go swimming; now useful because of the unceasing rain.
free-flowing
Loel fetches cuddly towels. They're very cuddly. His hair becomes even more fluffy than usual after he fluffs as much water out of it as he can.
calescent
Kiri does not become fluffy, but she is able to decrement her bedraggledness.
"So what have you been doing for the past five years?"
"So what have you been doing for the past five years?"
free-flowing
Well, first there was the year and a half he spent as a prostitute in Soche-Tas. That was... not universally pleasant.
And then he moved to Thiyec, which is much nicer, and sold what was left of his stolen jewelry, and found this nice little house with its nice little garden where he spends much of his time sewing clothes to sell in the nearby town. That Welchin-speaking innkeeper periodically tempts him to come and work there as a cook, but he has yet to accept the offer; he is very fond of his little house.
"Things," he summarizes out loud.
And then he moved to Thiyec, which is much nicer, and sold what was left of his stolen jewelry, and found this nice little house with its nice little garden where he spends much of his time sewing clothes to sell in the nearby town. That Welchin-speaking innkeeper periodically tempts him to come and work there as a cook, but he has yet to accept the offer; he is very fond of his little house.
"Things," he summarizes out loud.
calescent
"Things," sighs Kiri, running a hand through damp hair. "Of course."
free-flowing
He is so far managing not to directly contemplate the details of what was so not-universally-pleasant about his time in Soche-Tas, because he feels like Kiri would probably be upset about them, and he would rather avoid that unless she really wants to know.
But anyway. He drapes his cuddly towel around his shoulders and hugs her again.
But anyway. He drapes his cuddly towel around his shoulders and hugs her again.
calescent
Hugs. "It might be relevant if you could have left a kid in Soche-Tas, or for that matter here. Especially if you do wind up drowning yourself. Otherwise I don't have to know if you don't want to, er, think about it."
free-flowing
Loel laughs. "Nah." His encounters have not, by and large, been of the kind that produces children.
calescent
"I've been all right apart from the aforementioned emergency. The king continues to ignore me in spite of the fact that I'm no longer eight. I have the Ardelay belongings under control. I've demonstrated my proficiency in Soechin by crossing a country full of people who speak only that."
free-flowing
"Thiyecine is more fun," Loel says cheerfully. "And it's amazing how much the books don't teach you about Soechin."
His first few months in Soche-Tas were an extended vocabulary lesson.
His first few months in Soche-Tas were an extended vocabulary lesson.
calescent
"Yes, I'd imagine. I didn't really need much more than 'how much to stable the horses here' and 'why yes, we're Welchin' and 'your suggestion is inappropriate'."
free-flowing
He winces. He can just imagine what kind of inappropriate suggestions she would have gotten in Soche-Tas.
calescent
"Yes, well, if anyone had tried to press the point, I am still the sweela prime."