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Sarelle and the Ardelay twins go to their inn. They are greeted there the following day by Ekador apparently-Serlast, who says he'll be another two days settling up his affairs and then they can all go to Welce.
Ekador packs quite lightly for someone who's leaving the country on short notice and otherwise bears negligible personality resemblance to Loel. The carriage isn't particularly crowded as they make their way back to the port to find a boat leading back to Welce.
"There are three stops to make," Kiri tells him as they drive. "Although we'll land close to Chialto, I don't think that should be the first place we go. You'll have a much smoother go of taking over as uncontested prime if you can demonstrate at least minor magical power on demand - I don't think fielding questions of your legitimacy is anyone's idea of a good time and it would be better to have more than Sarelle's word to lean on. It doesn't help that anyone but her will mistake you for sweela. The Serlast estate is a couple of days by carriage from Chialto, there's a forest on the property, it's supposed to be special to the Serlasts, and going and having a walk around it might give you an idea of how to perform some minor visible magic."
"Might not. Loel figured out how to do magic without jumping into the Marisi River," shrugs Aleko.
"It might not. But it's worth a try if you don't have an epiphany before we get there," says Kiri. "Anyway, some of your cousins are living at the Serlast estate - off the top of my head, one of Valdin's children, his younger sister, and one of his grandsons, but I don't know how you're related to the family so I don't know who they are to you. You can kick them out if you want, but I recommend getting to know them and soliciting their help with the family business, and you have plenty of room to continue to board them. The Chialto house of the Serlasts was empty last I heard, but I'd be willing to bet you can re-hire Valdin's old servants if you want them, and you're entitled to maintain your own suite at the palace, too. You can divide your time between these places more or less however you please, although if you neglect the palace then the royal family may start issuing pointed invitations, and you might want to become acquainted with Prince Isten in particular, as he is heir to the throne and it's his succession you're necessary to ratify later."
"Isten's eleven," Aleko adds. "Coru, quiet."
"Questions?" Kiri inquires. "Do you want me to write any of that down, possibly in chart format?"
calescent
liakoura
"Coru people are tenacious and lively and cosmopolitan and adaptable, but passive and unreliable."
pyrophyte
"...I begin to see how I am supposed to be hunti while coming off strongly sweela," says Ekador.
calescent
"Fair enough. I was taking Sarelle's word for it that you're hunti but by and large people self-identify."
calescent
"Anyway. How much do you think you might want to involve yourself in politics? Because I can give you more information about the five families and the royalty if you want it."
pyrophyte
"I can always use more information," he says. "I seem to be involved in at least a little bit of politics regardless of my intentions."
calescent
"Well, a little, yes. Anyway. Alser Frothen could conceivably recover from his illness, so you might interact with him. I tend to describe him as 'somebody's-grandpa torz', which I suppose would be more evocative if you knew more torz people, it's not just referring to the fact that he has nineteen grandchildren. He's kind, not particularly opinionated, blessings are honesty, fertility, and power. His granddaughter Patience has power, loyalty, and flexibility. She cares more about individual people than about policy or ideas, which is sometimes a virtue, sometimes not. She's nineteen now. Very close to Alser, but she visits me occasionally - Alser started bringing her to various places primes might want to be familiar with, after I inherited at age eight and had a hard time getting up to speed."
liakoura
"Patience has a dog she got a couple years ago. She's the kind of person who ought to have a dog," volunteers Aleko.
calescent
"She is the kind of person who ought to have a dog. Anyway. Sarelle will be able to tell you more about herself than I will. She was not an expected inheritance and was only Auney's second cousin. And Auney wasn't prime long and didn't stick with a consistent set of helpers or relatives in orbit. So I can't help you very much as far as Dochenzas are concerned, though in general if you tell someone the last Dochenza died trying to fly, they will... not be shocked."
calescent
"She doesn't. There's a reason we've been saying she comes off as hunti. She claimed to have a sweela streak too, which I buy. But she's apparently elay enough to suit the magic. So then there's my family. I have staff, but you mostly won't see them - well, I guess considering where we found you, you might meet my librarians, but you won't run into anybody I formally employ at the palace. I tend not to rely on my cousins for anything important since I have brothers and have never been close with the cousins. I bring Aleko with me wherever I go, and Jayce helps me with less portable business when I need it and does a sort of survey of what useful things I could be doing when I don't. The king has been ignoring me since I inherited, probably initially because I was a child and since then because neither of us has cared to disturb the status quo so far. I can get most of what I want to do accomplished with non-king-related resources. I am friends with Prince Isten, though, I've known him since he was two."
