"Yes. I have it under control now - although you should be warned that if you get within five feet of me, a little farther on a cold day, I haven't found a way to turn off the mindreading part." She holds her hand palm-up and calls a discreet little touch of flame into it.

Kiri dismisses the fire and puts her hand down. "Assuming Sarelle is correct, you're the hunti prime, and since your predecessor died in a duel - don't worry, there has been no ill will passed on to the rest of the family, you are not heir to a feud - that means you now own a lot of property and have a lot of non-transferable political power in Welce."

"I see."

"Ideally you'd come back to Welce with us. You could appoint one of your more or less distant cousins to manage the Serlast belongings for you if you don't care to worry about it, but whenever our king dies, all five primes are necessary to ratify his heir and, if it's while said heir is still a child, to choose a regent."

"And I cannot appoint anyone to carry out those duties for me, because... they involve magic?" he guesses.

"Well, the ratification does. I suppose regent selection could be done by proxy."

"You said ideally I would come back with you. What things that aren't ideal will happen if I don't?"

"Miscellaneous political instability. There's been a lot of prime turnover in a very short period of time. I'm seventeen years old and, except for a fellow who's most probably on his deathbed, I have been a prime longer than anyone else alive. The five families are important to an assortment of politics in Welce, and while an appointed agent could probably smooth over much of it, an actual prime being present would help. The king is not on his deathbed, but if something happens to him, failing to orchestrate the turnover with the relevant magical ratification procedure would also not go over well with the population. And - I wish to clarify that this is not a threat, but you asked - because the only way primacy transfers is through the death of a previous prime, if anyone both unethical and in a position to suffer from this miscellaneous political instability were able to locate you, they might consider assassination an obvious solution. It's quite possible no one else will be able to find you. Sarelle was using magic and on top of that you don't look hunti at all."

...He looks at Sarelle.

"As elay prime, I can more or less smell your soul," she explains. "If I could not, it would have been considerably more difficult to find you. Perhaps not impossible, but as well as being elay prime I am also particularly talented at finding."

"I... see."

"I managed to find the also-missing-abroad coru prime without help," mentions Kiri. "But that was because he was affecting the weather. You have no such obvious tells. If you want nothing more than for us to leave you alone, I'd ask that you write a letter authorizing some other Serlast to manage your estate in your absence - I can make recommendations if you like - and do something obviously magical to the paper it's written on so it isn't suspected of being a forgery. And we might come back when the king dies and ask you to at least visit."

"I detect a slight flaw in this plan," he says. "Namely, I don't know how to do anything obviously magical."

"It should be possible to figure it out," Kiri says. "I can probably help a little - Valdin Serlast didn't mind if I read his mind now and then, so I know bits and pieces of how the other magic works - but it's mostly pretty intuitive. You might find your magic in better or more accessible shape if you visit the forest on the estate, though."

He sighs. "No. If the inheritance is mine, the responsibility is also mine."

"Have you got a name apart from Serlast, by the way?"

"...Ekador."

"Ekador Serlast. Rolls off the tongue."

"So if we're bringing you back with us - how long do you need before we leave?"

He frowns. "That may depend on whether or not I plan to come back... you said I 'own a lot of property' in Welce; does that translate to significant material wealth? Enough that I shouldn't worry about finding work, if I stay?"

"Two houses, assorted businesses - the Lalindars gave you a winery to apologize for the duel, most recently; I would need to look up details about other holdings - plenty of cash, anything belonging to Valdin that your various cousins haven't designated personal and found some way to divide up, and you'll find that your credit is good anywhere in Welce unless you develop some sort of irresponsible reputation. Your job is 'be the prime', which can accommodate any amount of involvement in said property but certainly allows you to live comfortably even on negligible amounts of same."

"They're blessing symbols. Welchin children get three apiece - barring miscounts, anyway - within a few hours of being born. Mine are," she points, "power, intelligence, clarity. Primes get 'power' disproportionately often, so I was suspected as my great-aunt's heir right away, although not all primes get it and not everyone who gets it is prime."

"I've got flexibility, imagination, contentment." Point, point, point.