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

[liakoura]

"This set," Aleko says, gesturing at the pair drawing the Ardelay carriage, "don't even like oats, but the one on the left goes out of her mind for apples."

(The one on the left flicks an ear in response to the word "apples".)

[pyrophyte]

"I see," he says. "And here I was thinking that since I now live in Welce it might be time to try to speak the language without obvious foreign influence. I had not accounted for the entertainment value."

[liakoura]

"Well, you're completely understandable, and kicking the accent would probably be really hard," shrugs Aleko. "And it doesn't make you sound like a hick the way a hills accent or something would."

[pyrophyte]

"How fortunate."

[liakoura]

"Patience has a bit of a hills accent but she manages, possibly via magic, to not sound like a hick while she talks in it."

[pyrophyte]

He laughs.

[liakoura]

"Maybe it's because she's so happy all the time and the stereotype of hills people is that they are drab and lifeless? That might be it. She might not be happy when you meet her though on account of dying grandfather."

[pyrophyte]

"Yes."

[calescent]

Meanwhile, in the carriage: "It'd seem like you and Tia are very little alike, except in the obvious visual sense."

[calendarofcrime]

"On innumerable levels," she agrees. "We are both very intelligent and that is just about where the similarities end."

[calescent]

"So she doesn't do your finding-stuff-out-even-pre-magic thing?"

[calendarofcrime]

"She does not. Or only in a very different context. Her specialty is the sort of thing the Dochenzas traditionally get up to - inventions, engineering, mechanical cleverness."

[calescent]

"Yeah, that sounds very little like - detective work. Or whatever you'd call it."

[calendarofcrime]

"'Detective work' is a reasonable term, if a little narrow."

[calescent]

"Narrow how?"

[calendarofcrime]

"I do not only find out the kinds of things that detective work is for."

[calescent]

"What else?"

[calendarofcrime]

She considers this question. It is surprisingly difficult to answer.

"...I am tempted to say 'everything' but I am not sure it would be informative."

[calescent]

"Not so much. Example?" suggests Kiri.

[calendarofcrime]

"Examples," she says, "would also be too narrow. I suppose I could put it like this... the same thing that I do with information I have already sought out, to solve problems or answer questions, I am also doing the rest of the time with whatever information I happen to come across about anything. I don't stop doing it except when I am thoroughly occupied with something else. And it is very hard to thoroughly occupy me."

[calescent]

"And this goes on even when there isn't something in particular you need to know, you're just - assembling data as it comes into your possession, in the background?"

[calendarofcrime]

"Hmm. Yes," she says. "About my immediate surroundings, if nothing else important is going on, and usually even if it is. That is part of why I told you that I would mind my own personal space, when we first met. It does not take very much extra effort to always be aware of exactly how far away from you I am."

[calescent]

"That sounds very - intense."

[calendarofcrime]

"I suppose that it is." She shrugs slightly. "I am used to it. Any less would feel... muffled."

[calescent]

"How do you do it, have you always or did you pick it up on purpose?"