It took time. Jainan was less able than usual to explain clearly. He used too much detail; he forgot Kiem was not a mathematician; he lost the thread and had to go over things twice or more. His voice was harsh in his own ears and broke on some words without warning.

Kiem didn’t understand, and still didn’t understand—and then the frown faded from his face and was replaced by dawning horror. Jainan doggedly continued, laying out every piece of evidence he had found, until he ran out of things to explain.

They sat in silence. Jainan didn’t try and add anything.

“Well, shit,” Kiem said, finally. “Taam was committing a crime.”

Jainan clenched his hands on his knees. “I could be mistaken about the finances. The only criminal activity is on my account.”

“You said Taam had access to your account,” Kiem said.

Jainan couldn’t bear to look at him. He rose to pace across the room and examined the encrypted projection. “Why would Taam bother to send messages through me? I thought the account was just a data backup.” His voice cracked in the middle of the sentence. “Of course Internal Security is interested in me. The simplest explanation is that it was me.” He turned back, tapping each projection compulsively. “I am going mad. You should alert the authorities.”

Kiem raised a hand as Jainan passed his chair. “Jainan.”

Jainan stopped dead, but all Kiem did was spread out his fingers in midair, level with Jainan’s chest. Jainan breathed out. “You must consider it logically.”

“You’re not going mad,” Kiem said.

“How do you know?”

“Because I’ve been living with you, and I’d be able to tell,” Kiem said. “I think you’re just really stressed. And you said money is missing from Operation Kingfisher, which you weren’t even involved in.” He frowned. “And didn’t Internal Security say someone tried to hack into Kingfisher recently? You didn’t do that. Neither did Taam.”

Jainan sat down and pressed his hands against each other until he could feel the blood beating in them. The relief he felt was false: Kiem hadn’t yet thought it through. Kiem was not devious. Jainan wasn’t sure what it said about his own character that he could see the future very clearly.

“Kiem,” he said. “Please think through the consequences of Taam being accused of embezzlement. Consider the damage it will do to you.”

“Damage.” It was more a question than a statement.

Jainan’s stomach was tying itself up in knots again. He was going to have to spell this out. “The backlash from the scandal will hit the whole royal family, especially this close to the treaty. I will be directly implicated in his actions, and you will be dragged into it by association with me. You will be asked what you plan to do about your marriage and the treaty. There will be reporters trying to confront you for weeks. The Auditor will take it as further evidence of instability. We only have fifteen days to convince the Resolution to instate us and let us sign the treaty.”