I tried to follow what Haken was getting at and couldn’t. It was an uncomfortable feeling—usually I’m the one who understands what’s going on. Now I was the clueless one and I didn’t like it. Council politics are byzantine and I was out of my depth.

One part I did understand: the attack last night and what it meant. I studied Haken, searching through the futures to see how he’d react to what I was about to say. “Is that all there is?”

“What do you mean?”

“White Rose have their own areas of influence, don’t they?”

“Maybe.”

“From what I’ve heard, some of White Rose’s clients work for the Council,” I said. “Maybe they’re on the Council.”

Haken glanced out over the floor. It looked casual, but I noticed his eyes do a quick sweep of every area within earshot. “You might want to be careful where you talk about stuff like that.”

“Yeah, well, if I’m getting called as a witness, you probably want me to have some idea what I should be saying. So am I right? It’s not about which factions want to do something about White Rose, it’s about which factions are in bed with them. Kind of literally, in this case.”

Haken let out a breath and turned to me. “Look. You’re coming into the middle of something that’s been going for a long while. White Rose controls a lot of secrets, and if they get out, there are Light mages who are going to lose big. Now, you’re not involved in the Rayfield case directly, but sooner or later someone’s going to connect the dots and when they do, you need to keep your shit wired tight. If they can save their careers by disappearing you, they aren’t going to think twice.”

“Does this happen with every case the Order of the Star gets?” I asked. “One faction wanting one result, another faction wanting another, both of them willing to stab if you get the wrong answer?”

“Not every case. But the high-profile ones? Yeah.”

I looked at Haken curiously. “How do you live with it? It’s bad enough having to watch the people you’re supposed to be policing without having to worry you’ll get shot in the back by the ones who are supposed to be on your side.”

Haken shrugged. “You survive. What else can you do?”

We sat in silence for a little while, listening to the murmurs and footsteps echoing around the Belfry. “Mind if I ask you something?” I said.

“Go for it.”

“You’ve worked with Caldera a while, right?”

“Since last year.”

“Does she have some kind of issues about this stuff that I should know about?” I said. “Because I was talking with her about this and it didn’t go so well.”

“What did you say?”

“I sort of implied that we might not be able to trust the people we were working for,” I said. “Kind of like what you just told me.”

“Ah.”

“Ah?”