"That... seems like the sort of thing even most people would find it hard to forget," he says.

"Well, if you're six, and your brothers are six and five and they're tearing around the backyard like there are wolves after them and they will tease you if you just go read a book instead of playing with them..."

"Ah, yes. That is somewhat more understandable."

"You'll meet Jayce if you visit the Ardelay estate, he's there about two-thirds of the time these days. Rest of the time he lives with our parents in their little nowhere town. Could not pry Dad out of that town with a spatula even when he had a mansion he could live in on his daughter's behalf."

"Were any spatulas employed in the effort?"

"We did not actually literally try a spatula. We didn't try very hard at all, he just made it kind of obvious we wouldn't get anywhere."

He chuckles.

"Mom traveled around with Kiri a lot at first because Kiri needed to be shown around places and it's Mom's side of the family that's related so she knew a little from her aunt, but Mom never actually liked all that politics high-stakes court-y stuff so I learned what she knew and took over the Helping Kiri Be Prime Because For Some Reason It's Not A One-Person Job after a few years."

"Is it not?"

"Not if you want to be all thorough about looking after all your stuff, and Kiri does. You can just live a life of indolence if you feel like it," Aleko assures him. "Or take on exactly little enough that you don't need an Aleko-equivalent. But it's easier when you have somebody to answer the door for you and pick your clothes and handle routine correspondence. I'd be a terrible prime but I'm a pretty good accessory-to-Kiri."

"I'm not sure where I would find an... accessory."

"Pick your favorite cousin? Put out a job ad?"

"Perhaps, perhaps."

"Wider selection if you do the job ad, more built-in cares-not-zero-about-Serlast-stuff if you pick a cousin."

"Yes. And the cousin is likelier to have more background knowledge to start with."

"Yeah. Yours seem okay. And one of 'em wasn't even hunti so she definitely hasn't been dreaming of having your job."

"Indeed. What of the rest? Is it common to dream of being one's relevant prime?"

"I dunno about common, 'cause, Kiri's my reference here and next best thing is Patience who's pretty low-key about absolutely everything. Kiri always wanted it, but she also always expected it. Two sweela blessings plus power and a personality that threatens to catch fire even if you only spot her out of the corner of your eye from a mile away? She expected it from the day she knew what it was and wanted it really bad. Not that early though."

"Yes. I imagine she also didn't anticipate setting her bed on fire."

"Yeah, that was a surprise. So was involuntary mindreading. She had a haaaard time with that. If anybody did it to her she'd pretty much want to kill them, so she was really careful, but it meant she had to stay far away from everybody all the time. But then Jayce said he didn't care if she saw what he was dreaming so if she just snuggled up after he fell asleep that would be fine, and I said that'd be fine too except it didn't work as well with me because I'm a light sleeper. And then we both got more used to it even when we were awake."

"Hmm," he says.

"Hmm?"

"I'm not yet sure what I think of this mindreading business."

"Well, she won't do it unless you let her. Unless she falls and it happens to be in your direction, I guess."

"Which seems to be more of a danger with her than with most people."