The Ardelay twins loiter in the palace for a few days, then fall back to the Chialto house, in plenty of time to receive any prompt reply to the correspondence Kiri sent out when they arrived in the city.
She picks one up and inspects it. It seems to have been dyed a faint blue, shading lighter and darker in places according to no particular pattern. When she opens it, the slip of paper inside shows the same pattern, and is just slightly stuck to the inside of the envelope.
"Clever," she remarks.
"Wet," she reports. "Interesting."
"He sent me a letter with a drop of wet blood under the wax, apparently he's gotten plain water to work now."
Aleko strolls back around the corner and peers at what Kiri's looking at. "Oh, hey, less gross forms of authentication, go Loel."
He strolls up to Kiri and hugs her, thinking cheerful thoughts about how happy he is to see her and Aleko (lots) and be introduced to the other primes (not as lots, but still plenty).
Hugs! Hugs are nice. "So, Loel, this is Sarelle Dochenza. Sarelle, Loel Lalindar. And the one behind you is Ekador Serlast if he hasn't already introduced himself."
"Nice to meet you both," says Loel. "You can come in if you want. How long are you staying? Anybody hungry?"
The kierten is very large, very windowed, and appropriately empty. The guests can have a nice view of the sparkling Marisi River through the windows as they pass through into the house.
"You haven't been here that long; I'm surprised all those little fiddly bits are already done."
"When I don't wanna waste time, I don't," he says. "Also, magic. I did a lot of that detail work myself. It was fun."
"Not nearly as long as you'd think," says Loel. "Here's a sitting room, it's nice, anybody who doesn't feel like watching me cook can wait here."