I knew from my sketchy education that Princes often joined together in a kind of mutual cooperation societies that were called Houses, the only kind of family that we could have. But I didn't know how these Houses worked, how you joined them, or how many there were, or anything useful like that. I could have queried the Imperial Mind on the spot, but trying to sort through a mass of data while also talking to someone is difficult, and I had not yet learned how to manage it effectively.