He said it instinctively. He said it because Surit was afraid and tired and shouldn’t be made to go, but they couldn’t have the Resolution kicking them out of the treaty. But as he said it, the idea unfolded in his mind like a window opening in a small room. The universe was bigger and stranger than he’d thought. He didn’t have to stay in the Orshan sector. He could go where he liked—and maybe the Resolution knew about things that were weirder and more incredible than readers and architects or whatever Surit and Tennal had become. Maybe he could find out while he was there.

“What?” his aunt said.

“I can volunteer to go and talk to the Resolution.” The looks he was getting suggested this had been neither a normal instinct nor an advisable one, but Tennal felt all the adrenaline centers in his brain light up. Tennal had never considered he could stand up in the Codifier Halls, the dullest place in the entire sector, and get the familiar rush of applying a match to a fuse. “I was the other person in their projection event. And I’m still neuromodified. He’s not.”

The Resolution staffers swiftly conferred. The division chiefs on the front benches leaned forward, locked in their own muttered discussion. Even Zin whispered, “Tenn, what are you doing?”

But the only person Tennal looked at was Surit, several feet away on a front bench. Tennal no longer had a cell-deep awareness of Surit’s lungs, but he almost felt it as Surit inhaled sharply then let out his breath, his gaze not wavering from Tennal’s eyes.

And that was all that mattered, really. Surit trusted him. Tennal stopped second-guessing his irrepressible thrill at throwing the rest of them off course and just let his face do what it wanted to. He’d once been told his smile was insufferable. He hoped it still was.

While the Resolution still conferred, the legislator took Tennal’s shoulder and dragged him three steps out of the speaker’s platform, shoving her cane into the ground like it had offended her. When they were out of mic range, she said, “We don’t know what this means. Even if they say unharmed, this means we’d send you to Resolution space—with handlers, because they don’t allow unsupervised neuromods to travel—for Lights know how long. Tennalhin, this is not a responsibility I can ask you to take.”

“Auntie dear,” Tennal said lovingly, “I don’t think you can stop me. And in any case, I want to go.”

His aunt closed her eyes and let his shoulder go. “I won’t pretend we don’t need it.”

“Lucky you spent all that time hiding the syncs from the Resolution, isn’t it?”

His aunt grunted. “Don’t expect special treatment when you come back.”

“I want a planetary medal,” Tennal said. “And a new flyer. And a horse—”