If you will forgive a little more belmeriaposting:
Witch from Mercury pays a lot of attention to the parent-child relationship in a lot of very different forms—Prospera's molding of Suletta, Miorine's fear of becoming Delling, Guel's desperation for Vim's praise, Chuchu's support from her six union dads—but who serves as the parental figure for the Elans? Elan Prime, for what little we've seen of him, seems of a piece with the Peil CEOs, but El4n and El5n don't share that relationship--unlike Suletta, they understand that they are viewed as instruments. The closest person they have to a real caretaker is poor beleaguered Belmeria, whom they end up mirroring. El4n does as she does pre-Prospera-return, resignedly doing whatever his controllers ask until, too late, he sees the possibility of a better life; El5n, meanwhile, shares her Prospera-era desire not to die.