"Do tell."

"Nothing I could articulate."

"Fair enough. I was taking Sarelle's word for it that you're hunti but by and large people self-identify."

"Well, I think she has identified me correctly."

"Score one for the soul-smelling methodology."

Which makes him giggle again.

Kiri elbows her brother.

"Hey!"

"You were asking for it."

"Sorry about that."

"I am untroubled."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Patience has a dog she got a couple years ago. She's the kind of person who ought to have a dog," volunteers Aleko.

"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."

"From what little I've seen, Sarelle doesn't seem like that type."

"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."

"And what is Prince Isten like, besides eleven, coru, and quiet?"

"He is... mostly eleven, coru, and quiet. He studies hard, he stays out of trouble. He likes visiting me but is rarely allowed to do it for more than a couple of weeks every quintile or two. Every now and again he'll explain something by stepping into my range, although that'll stop when he's ratified."

"Rarely allowed because... of princely duties?"