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]

"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?"

[calendarofcrime]

"I developed the habit over time, when I was very young. Not entirely deliberately. It is just - obvious. Comfortable. Something along those lines."

[calescent]

"It almost reminds me of my self-examination habit, which I also developed when I was young - but more deliberately and less constantly, it sounds like."

[calendarofcrime]

"Hmm. Yes. I am always paying attention. It's convenient that I have so much of it to spare."

[calescent]

"It sounds like it'd be necessary. Did you notice an expansion at all when you inherited? I did - I can barely remember what it was like before, but I have notes asserting that there was a jump in sensory space once it had constant input from all sources of warmth and especially nearby human beings."

[calendarofcrime]

"Yes," she says. "Although I haven't been thinking of it that way. I have more or less always, certainly for as long as I can clearly remember, had enough attention to distribute it among all available senses with enough left over to analyze as needed, all before touching on the sort of everyday mental activity most people seem to indulge in. That has remained true while the size of 'all available senses' has grown."

[calescent]

"I've never had opportunity to test if my space expands to fit extra more than a couple of people at a time if they crowd in around me," muses Kiri. "There's enough room for, say, Aleko and Jayce simultaneously without being too crowded; I don't know what would happen if I also added Loel and Patience, both of whom have also been known to allow it."

[calendarofcrime]

"I wonder," says Sarelle, "if you have enough room for me. It would be interesting to compare."

[calescent]

"I couldn't tell you unless you feel like trying it. I had room for Auney and Jerist - and for that matter Alser, Valdin, and Nerine - but it sounds like you're a separate category all on your own."

[calendarofcrime]

"I often am," she says. "Do you feel like trying it? It's possible that it might be - disconcerting, or overwhelming."

[calescent]

"I'm curious," says Kiri.

[calendarofcrime]

"All right then," says Sarelle. "It should be less of those things than it would be if we were near a lot of people, at least."

She reaches a hand toward Kiri, past the approximate perimeter of her range.



There is a lot going on in Sarelle Dochenza's mind.

The biggest and most complicated layer, but also the one that gets the least conscious focus, is situational awareness. Inside the closed carriage, her visual universe is limited to Kiri, the carriage's interior, and what she can see out the windows - but she pays attention to all of it. She is, as implied, constantly aware of the distance between herself and Kiri. She is listening to Ekador and Aleko, who are currently experiencing a lull in their conversation. She is listening to the horses, all of whom seem healthy and unimpaired - but she would notice if one missed a step. She can smell the elemental affiliations of everyone present, hunti strongly flavoured with sweela from Ekador and torz from Aleko and sweela from Kiri and her own elay with hints of sweela and overtones of hunti, each tied into a unique individual scent representing the person themselves. She can also smell faded traces of everyone who has passed along this road in the last few days. On a more mundane level, her nose tells her what kinds of soap everyone uses to wash themselves and their clothing, more things about the state and identity of the horses, what plants they are passing, the quality and origin of the dust on the road, and miscellaneous other details. A bird calls in the distance and she identifies its probable species. Through her magic she is aware of the patterns of local air movement, and sometimes absently tweaks the breezes to change which sounds and smells are coming to her more clearly than others.

After all that come the things on which she is consciously focused. She is watching Kiri to note exactly when Kiri reacts to the read, so she can update her estimate of Kiri's range, and to see what Kiri's reaction to the read is; she is ready to pull away if it seems prudent. She is curious about what will happen, and deliberately suspending any concrete guesses until Kiri offers her some information. Since so much of her attention is on Kiri in particular, the Kiri-related parts of her situational awareness are especially in focus, which raises her background awareness of several minor conclusions she has made during the trip based on immediately available data - speculations about where Kiri obtained this or that piece of clothing, theories about the possible origins of this small hole in the end of a sleeve or that scuff on the toe of a shoe.