Variks is definitely the best candidate for Kell of Kells. He wants to restore the Eliksni to the days of peace and order. Eramis wants to restore their days of piracy and Mithrax wants to gather the Eliksni who are willing to join Humanity, but neither is set on uniting the species or restoring what was lost in the Whirlwind. I think everyone is jumping to an absurd conclusion over Variks’s size. The Most Loyal book states that Variks has low amounts of Ether and is rationing himself to just enough to survive. The excerpt you presented shows the effect/feeling of taking a dose of Ether, similar to how any human would feel when something gives them energy and strength, but says nothing about increasing his actual size. It’s ridiculous to assume that a single ration of Ether would be enough to automatically bump him up to the size of a Captain, especially because we know he’s been taking minimal rations. On top of that, Variks’s earlier conversation with Groks the bounty hunter shows that even several bales of Etheric Helix is an insignificant amount. Large Fallen are larger because of long periods of time consuming large rations of Ether. Even when Variks left the Prison with all the Ether he could take, he would of course still ration himself because he had no source of new Ether. He doesn’t have any means of stuffing himself up to the size of a Kell. If anything he is still the exact same size as before.