Kaunis

Kaunis is the site of the Royal Palace of Castalshar, and in practice the working capital of the kingdom: the city the royal court is in when King Rard is at home. Where Castabriel is the ceremonial and institutional capital of the realm — home of the royal keep, the Arcane Orders' headquarters, and the great libraries — Kaunis is the day-to-day seat of the king's council, his apartments, and his summoned curia. Chapter Nineteen of Hedgewitch is set at the Royal Palace at Kaunis, and much of The Mad Mage of Sevendor has Minalan summoned to Kaunis to brief the king on the progress of the war:

Before luncheon I was summoned to the royal council in Kaunis to attend to the king and brief him on the progress of our plans.Minalan, The Mad Mage of Sevendor

The Royal Palace at Kaunis is where the most sensitive summonses happen — emergency meetings convened in Rard's private apartments rather than the formal throne room, "a significant sign of his diminishing patience." It is also the stage on which Queen Grendine and Princess Rardine play out their quiet battles, and where Alya suffered the scrutiny of the court she quietly disliked:

Alya was, of course, glad to be away from the palace at Kaunis. While she bore the scrutiny of the court that the Spellmonger's wife always gets, she is not comfortable with it, nor does she play at the courtier's game that is so popular there.Minalan, The Mad Mage of Sevendor

For Minalan, Kaunis and Castabriel together form the twin poles of royal politics: Castabriel is where he is honoured and invested, Kaunis is where he is summoned and examined. Both are reached through the Vanador–Sevendor Waystone network in the later books, making Kaunis — for all its remoteness from the front — only a heartbeat's travel from the battlefield.