Kire’s mind had wandered, so she blinked in mild surprise at his question. She cleared her throat, sitting up straighter. “So there’s me, Elva, Ed. The ones you haven’t met are Jan, Daryll, and two smaller cousins, Precy and Etta. Daryll’s an alchemist, though mostly self-taught. Most of us lost our parents during the Black Storm, and I had asked that we all move to the Capital after that. There are other branches in the family tree, but we weren’t particularly close, and they’re too distant to be really close family anyway.” She sighed, a little embarrassed at where her thoughts had gone, were still going. Kire looked at her mug, decided to drink some more. 

“Out of all of us, only Elva got married so far, which is why she has this manor, and is all the way up here. Wasn’t a happy marriage, but now at least we have a stronghold far away from where the main fighting’s taken place. Sometimes I wonder if I had just been less stubborn about finding a husband if things would be more peaceful in the empire. I can’t imagine going to bed with somehow with whom I’ve only just arranged a match, like a business transaction.” She grimaced at that. “I’d at least want to make sure it’s with someone who knows what he’s doing, right?” she added with a bit of a nervous chuckle.