The man grimaced. “Slave jokes. How modern.” Oriati Mbo had, in its ancient days, entirely annihilated the practice of slavery on the Ashen Sea: one of those things Oriati people liked to shout about when drunk and determined to prove that the Mbo was the greatest nation in the world. “Well, allow me to introduce myself. Ngaio Ngaonic, trade factor for the great nation of Devi-Naga Mbo. As you might expect from a nation on the far end of the Tide Column, and thus subject to Falcrest’s tariffs, I have very little trade to oversee here.”

“But you’re Kyprananoki,” Baru said, rather too bluntly, “aren’t you?”

“I am! Born and raised! But I won a citizenship and a Devi-Naga name for my work during the Armada War. Shuttled water to a stranded crew for nigh on three months.” He winked at Shao Lune. “Begging your pardon for aiding the enemy.”

“Granted, of course,” Shao said, puzzling over Ngaio’s bare chest, until she figured out what Baru had intuited at once. She was, at least, blessedly cosmopolitan, and did not need Ngaio’s masculinity explained to her. “We’re all of the sea, aren’t we?”

“And to the sea we shall return. Tell me,” Ngaio pointed with the back of a curled hand, “have you met Tau-indi Bosoka, the laman over there?”

“Yes,” Baru said, cautiously, “we traveled with them.”

“You poor souls. They’re rather a fundamentalist bore, aren’t they?”

“Quite,” Shao purred, as Baru cried, “Not at all!”

Ngaio laughed. “So I deduce, from your split opinion on Tau-indi Bosoka, that you two must have different stances on the Great Embrace?”

“Oh,” Shao Lune said, and laughed a high derisive laugh. “Yes. This is Kindalana’s plan? Wherein Oriati Mbo signs an Act of Federation and joins the Imperial Republic?” She laughed harder. “That’ll be the day!”

Baru faded away from the conversation for an instant, into a colder place, where she could pass the name Kindalana over her memories. She remembered Tau’s voice, as Cheetah sank beneath them. When I was a young laman during the Armada War, my two closest friends were Kindalana of Segu and Abdumasi Abd. Now, our great house entertained two hostages from Falcrest named Cairdine Farrier and Cosgrad Torrinde …

“I’m all for joining Falcrest,” Ngaio said, touching his heart. “Anything but war. War is a way to kill those who least deserve death, and enrich those who least deserve life. If I might put a word in Falcrest’s ear, Miss Plane—”

“Is there an outbreak of Kettling on Kyprananoke?” Baru asked.

“Hush!” Ngaio snapped, and when this got the attention of a passing server, he took a flute of champagne and beamed. “Do you think the Kyprists want that known? Never mind spoken openly in the Oriati embassy?”

Shao sidled in with a well-timed question. “Do you think the Oriati brought the disease?”