‘Lady Chettamandey Brobantis,’ Chetta said. ‘As for how you can assist me, Junior Sub-Prefect Yunn…’ She paused, considering for a moment how best to word her next sentence. Well, DeShelle wasn’t here to paint pretty pictures with words, and Chetta always had believed in being direct with people. As much as anything else, it meant they weren’t prepared for it if you had to obfuscate in the future. ‘How would you like to die a horrible, painful death?’

Yunn swallowed visibly, his eyes flickering nervously from her to her guards, and back again. ‘High lady, I…’

‘It’s a simple enough question, junior sub-prefect,’ Chetta said mildly, ‘and I assure you, it is not a trick.’

‘I… would not like that to happen?’ Yunn ventured.

‘Marvellous,’ Chetta beamed at him. ‘It seems we’re in agreement, then. I also don’t wish to die a horrible, painful death, Tekoa, and I need your help to ensure that both of us, along with anyone we’ve ever loved, can avoid that.’

‘High lady, I confess I do not understand.’

‘Walk with me for a few moments, Tekoa,’ Chetta said. ‘I’m none too steady on my feet, after all.’

‘High lady, I have duties here–’

‘I’m well known to be a foul-tempered battleaxe, Tekoa,’ Chetta told him bluntly. ‘Being accosted by me is a thoroughly understandable reason to have to leave your duties briefly. Listen to what I have to say, and then you can return to them if you wish.’

She saw Tekoa Yunn weighing up his options for a moment, glancing surreptitiously around at the rest of the antechamber, and she took the opportunity to do the same. Gurrit’s seneschal was already calling the names for his master’s next meeting. The guards at the doors were staring blankly ahead, clearly not caring about anything taking place in front of them unless it was going to threaten those doors. None of the other adepts in the chamber, taking notes or checking data-slates or hurrying from someplace to someplace else, were paying Yunn any attention at all. In fact, several of them appeared to be deliberately avoiding his gaze, presumably in case they got roped into having to deal with the First Lady of House Brobantis.

‘Very well, high lady,’ Yunn said, reaching out to take her hand. His grip was warm and firm, and his eyes twinkled for a moment with the light of a man daring to step outside his routine for the first time in years. ‘I would be happy to assist you. For a few minutes.’

‘What do you know of the warp, Tekoa?’ Chetta asked quietly as they walked through corridors filled with grey-robed scribes, blank-eyed servitors and even the occasional buzzing servo-skull.

‘I know it is the medium through which the Imperium’s starships travel,’ Tekoa said carefully. ‘I know that Navigators such as yourself guide those ships through it. I… have heard that sometimes ships become lost in it.’