"Unless Auney discussed the ruled-out methods with you before trying them I'm not sure how you're going to do that. It's really very troublesome that our magic only ever belongs to one person at a time."

"I will begin from the premise that any method that relies on supporting myself solely by magic is automatically ruled out. Tia is already working on a few ideas."

"Tia being?"

"My twin sister. Tianetta Stark. She strongly prefers Tia. She is... much more traditionally elay than I am. Although she shares my streak of sweela."

Kiri giggles at the... diplomacy of that description.

"Our mom and our little brother are both elay," volunteers Aleko. "Her more than him, personality and random blessings and all - hey, what are your blessings? You're not wearing them."

"That is four," says Aleko. "Four is the number of things you just said."

"Our father was also elay," she explains. "Much like Tia - ravenously intelligent, but forgetful of mundane details. The story goes, as we were told it, that he went out to get our blessings and lost count of how many strangers he had petitioned. When he arrived home and turned out his pockets, he had no idea which ones had been our respective extra draws, and decided to keep them all for lack of a better solution. We are at least very sure that he correctly identified which pocket was for which twin. Hers are innovation, courage, joy, and charm."

"I guess you don't wear them so people aren't like... 'that is four, four is the number of charms on that necklace' or whatever?"

"Yes," she says. "Tia doesn't mind, but I find it tedious."

"Is it his side of the family that relates you to the Dochenzas?"

"No - our mother's. Jerist Dochenza was her grandfather."

"Is your mom elay too?"

"No. Sweela. As sweela as you could possibly imagine."

"As sweela as Kiri?"

"A little differently, I think, but no less."

"Kiri's the sweela-est person I have ever in my life met."

"Kiri is extremely sweela," Sarelle concurs.

Kiri and Aleko wait outside, leaning on the building within Kiri's range of one another.

"Lead the way. If it's the younger of the possibilities who's prime now - do you suppose they'll have any understanding of what primes even are? Will we even be able to ask them whether they'd call themselves hunti and have the question make sense?"

"I will know if they are hunti," she says. "And I will know if they are prime. As to their level of knowledge, well, you will be there to provide explanations."