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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?"
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calescent
calescent
"I couldn't agree more. Although this level of discontinuity is unusual I doubt it can be relied on to never recur."
pyrophyte
"And it could be much worse. If, oh, a building were to collapse on top of a - 'magic handholding thing'."
calescent
"The magic handholding thing tends to take place in the palace, which is made predominantly of stone. I don't think either Alser or Patience Frothen would ignore it if it were liable to collapse."
calescent
"It would be difficult to catch the entire batch of primes off guard and kill us all, but I'll grant it's not strictly impossible. So, yes, I approve of the policy of writing things down, Sarelle seems practical enough to agree, I imagine I can convince Loel and Alser-and-or-Patience."
calescent
"Did I explain Patience? She's Alser's predictable heir but it's not impossible the primacy will surprise us instead. If it sends me out of Welce again I'm going to be very annoyed."
pyrophyte
"You've mentioned her a few times but this is the first time you've explained."
calescent
"She has power as a birth blessing and she's torz, although she's not quite as torz as I am sweela - to be fair, it's sort of hard to scream torz."
liakoura
"I am, actually, torz," Aleko adds. "Not just shouting for fun."
calescent
"I wonder if you'll be able to develop the ability to tell by looking or if you have to grow up around it. I mean, some people make it obvious - the reason I have so much red and orange in my wardrobe is to make it obvious. But sometimes you've got a person dressed in gray, not wearing their blessings, and we can still tell, 'she's all coru', 'he's completely elay', whatever."
calescent
"Right, some people have what are called 'crowns'. You could describe yourself as hunti with a crown of sweela; Sarelle is elay with a crown of hunti; our father is hunti with a crown of torz."
liakoura
"And some people have subtler secondary elements. Our little brother Jayce is elay but kinda has a heart of coru."
pyrophyte
"I... see," he says. "What are the characteristics of people associated with the various elements? Are there any?"
liakoura
"Oh, yeah, plenty. Good and bad. Torz people are solid, reliable, content, prosperous, you want us for next door neighbors. We're also painfully boring!"
calescent
"Sweela people are brilliant, cerebral, passionate, extroverted - hotheaded and rash. Nobody fits all the stereotypes. I'm intensely sweela but not really an extrovert."
liakoura
"Elay people are ethereal creatures of happiness and elegance and insight, and they can't keep their feet on the ground. Literally, Sarelle's predecessor died while failing to fly for the dozenth time."
calescent
"Hunti people are brave and firm and self-assured, and impossible to get along with."
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.