okay but do we have to leave so soon

[liakoura]

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.

Comments

[calendarofcrime]

"Yes," Sarelle agrees.

[calescent]

Eventually, they all show up at Loel's place, which is bemoated.

[free_flowing]

It is bemoated! It is so bemoated.

The moat is very pretty. Loel contacted the people Kiri recommended, and the result is a deep, broad channel circling his estate, walled and floored in the same yellow stone as the house within and the mountain on which it all rests. The water in the channel is so clear that someone standing on the edge can look down through all fifteen feet of it and see the rippling patterns lightly etched into the stone blocks on the bottom. It is thirty feet across, and the single wooden bridge is twenty feet wide, anchored at either end by thick chains but left to float freely in the water. The whole thing could reasonably be called decorative... but that bridge looks like the kind of thing a coru prime might have designed to be swept away at need.

When they arrive, they will find Loel sitting at a little table in his garden, next to the path that leads from the bridge up to the house, playing with envelopes. Mercifully, there seems to be no blood involved this time.

[calescent]

Aleko stops the carriage, and Kiri peers out the window and lets herself out and espies Loel.

"Loel!" calls Kiri across the moat. "Company!"

[free_flowing]

"I noticed!" he calls back, waving cheerfully. "Hi! You can bring everything across, I guarantee the bridge!"

[pyrophyte]

Ekador examines the bridge, determines it to pass inspection, and leads his horse across.

[liakoura]

Aleko drives over it.

"Hullo again," he says to Loel. "Where should all this go?"

[free_flowing]

"I'll show you the stables," he says, abandoning his envelopes and standing up.

[calendarofcrime]

Sarelle takes this opportunity to disembark from the carriage.

[liakoura]

Aleko waits till she's clear, then follows Loel.

[calescent]

And Kiri crosses the bridge to see what Loel has been doing with the envelopes.

[calendarofcrime]

Sarelle is also curious about the envelopes.

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.

[calescent]

"Pretty," agrees Kiri, sifting through the others.

[calendarofcrime]

There are a few with wax seals (some imprinted with the symbol for coru, which is the standard Lalindar seal, some with luck instead) and no outwardly visible markings; a few more that are like the first one, but with different patterns, the blue fainter or more vivid. One of the sealed ones is open, with a small spot of warped paper just under the cracked seal. Sarelle inspects it curiously and then picks up one of the other sealed envelopes and sniffs it.

"Wet," she reports. "Interesting."

[calescent]

"He sent me a letter with a drop of wet blood under the wax, apparently he's gotten plain water to work now."

[calendarofcrime]

"Blood. I see," she says, mildly amused.

[liakoura]

Aleko strolls back around the corner and peers at what Kiri's looking at. "Oh, hey, less gross forms of authentication, go Loel."

[free_flowing]

Loel, following him, laughs. "Hey, I work with what I've got. With plain water it's harder to tell if I've got it right or not."

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).

[calescent]

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."

[free_flowing]

"Nice to meet you both," says Loel. "You can come in if you want. How long are you staying? Anybody hungry?"

[liakoura]

"I would totally eat food if offered food!" says Aleko, waving a hand.

[free_flowing]

"Great," he says. "I'll make food. Anybody else?"

[calendarofcrime]

"By all means," says Sarelle.

[pyrophyte]

"Why not," says Ekador.

[calescent]

"I'm kind of hungry too. Your moat is lovely," adds Kiri. "Very elaborate."