Kalars writes back; she has his utmost sympathy, but if she doesn't want a visit he doesn't need to be there for his own sake.
Raney doesn't write back; she just turns up the next day, dwarf caiman familiar tucked under her arm.
She wants to meet her son-in-law.
"Your mother is here. Help," he says.
"I would have asked her not to come if you'd told me it would be this distressing. What help do you need?"
"It's not distressing, exactly, I just don't know what to do and wasn't expecting her to arrive this soon."
"Are you looking for me to introduce you or keep you out of her way?"
Iobel goes to where her mother would most likely be waiting.
"Iobel sweetheart - and hello to you too, Cricket - and you must be Edarial - I'm assuming I can call you that, considering, correct me if I'm wrong," says Raney, embracing her daughter and looking over her shoulder at Edarial.
"Hello," he says, a bit shy for a king but a crown definitely on his head. "Edarial is fine. It's lovely to meet you."
Raney smiles in a friendly sort of way but does not verbally opine on the loveliness of the meeting. "It's been too long since I've seen my girl, how are you, Iobel? Is Cricket quite recovered?" The hug ends; Raney crouches to give the kitty scritches, about which he is quite enthusiastic.
"Nimmen's well. I've been trying to learn to transcribe music so I can write down those little tunes she makes up. And I'm well too, between school terms at the moment."
Well, Edarial can't think of anything to say. So he's just going to be quiet and let Iobel have her meeting with her mother.
Nimmen opens her long toothy mouth and sings! It is all wordless "ah" and "ooh", and it's very pretty.
His majesty smiles at that. It's very cute. "That's quite pretty," he says.
Raney translates for Nimmen. Nimmen - sort of smiles, it's hard to tell - and wags her tail in what is probably an affected gesture for communicative purposes than a natural caiman expression of pleasedness. "She's very musical," Raney says.
Edarial nods, smiling a little. He is not inclined to speaking much, right now. Berathyme uncurls a little around his shoulders to inspect Nimmen. Yup. That is a musical caiman. Huh. You don't see that every day.
"Oh, I could eat, and Nimmen's always hungry, you know, let's go get lunch."
"Should I ask Zevros to shoo? If not, he's likely to attend, too."
"Is he offended by little reptiles with bad table manners?" inquires Raney, patting Nimmen on the head.
"I've observed him to exhibit table manners at least as bad, if not as reptilian," confirms Iobel. "Come on." And she leads the way to the dining hall.
"Hey," he says brightly, waving.