"Yes," says Sarelle. "Nevertheless, because of that cluster, we will as a set be both young and inexperienced."

"Assuming Patience inherits instead of someone unexpected, she's at least been brought up to expect it and accompanied her grandfather to various things since she was a child."

"That is likely to help."

"Yeah. And of course I'll carry on chipping in what I've picked up whenever I can, but it's - spotty."

She nods.

"You're kinda gloomy," Loel remarks, smiling at Sarelle.

"So I have frequently been told."

"She's got a twin, too," says Kiri conversationally. "Identical, but only in the loosest possible sense of the word."

"Yeah? What's she like?"

"Obvious blatant elay. Not remotely gloomy."

"Both of those," Sarelle agrees. "She wears all her enthusiasm on the outside. I do the opposite."

"She sounds fun," says Loel. "Bring her by for a visit sometime if you want. I'm not keen on crowds lately, but it does get lonely being all by myself in this gigantic house day after day."

"You could hire somebody. This place is huge, if nothing else it'll get dusty."

"I have... complicated feelings about that," he says. "Well, not about the dust, but if it gets to be too much for me to handle I can hire somebody to come dust every so often. I don't know, I just feel better about myself when there's nobody else picking up after me."

"I thought having servants around was weird at first when Kiri inherited. She got used to it way quicker."

"I made sure they were all being well-paid and confirmed that there were enough tasks going around to justify them, there didn't seem much point to fretting about it after that beyond making sure I said please and thank you."

Loel shrugs. "If it gets to the point where I can't do all my prime stuff and still wash my own clothes, then maybe I'll hire a servant. But I'd rather not."

"If you persist in not showing up at the palace, and particularly if you're willing to wash your clothes with magic, you can probably manage it a good long time."

"Of course I wash my clothes with magic, what else is magic for?"

—Ekador laughs.

So does Sarelle.

And Aleko.

"I hardly expected otherwise from you, but some primes have considered magic to be more of a special occasions thing."

"Nah. When I'm not busy with anything else I take walks on the bottom of my moat. Magic is too fun to save for special occasions."