Jainan only spared the noise a single glance over his shoulder. “Tomorrow,”

he said to Gairad. “I am at a dinner this evening.”

“Advisory Council banquet,” Kiem said helpfully. “But we don’t have anything tomorrow morning.” If he went by Bel’s meticulously color-coded schedule, it was easier to ignore that they only had four days to sort out the instation problem or none of the circus would matter. He touched Jainan’s elbow. “There’s a Resolution staffer over there. We should talk to them.”

Jainan caught his meaning at once. If the Auditor wasn’t speaking to anyone, a staffer might be the only way in. “Yes. Gairad, I will see you tomorrow.”

Gairad insisted on trailing behind him to point out some final things about the mass analysis, which Jainan listened to gravely before pulling himself away, but Kiem was already focused on the Resolution staffer. The bulkhead shuddered back against the wall, revealing another dozen remnants, each on its own stand.

It also revealed the Auditor himself, striding in from a side door, and Prince Vaile, skirts clutched in one hand as she hurried to keep up with him, saying,

“Auditor, if you would only explain—”

Kiem fell in beside her and slid himself into the conversation. “Hey, Vaile.

Explain what?”

The Auditor wasn’t answering anyway. Vaile gave Kiem a harassed look.

“Oh. Kiem. Of course, you were on a shuttle. Have you checked your confirmation status recently?”

Kiem traded a glance with Jainan and spun up his correspondence with the Auditor’s staff. A miniature web of pictures appeared on a small screen above his wrist, with the faces of the treaty representatives displayed above their statuses.

His and Jainan’s statuses no longer said UNCONFIRMED. They had been replaced by another tag, glowing red. REVOKED.

Jainan’s voice was gray and brittle behind him, as he caught up in time to see Kiem’s wrist-screen. “That— I don’t understand. That can’t be right. Not all of them.”

In his shock, Kiem hadn’t looked at the others. Now he saw there was red spotted all across the web: the Sefalan representative had also been labeled REVOKED, as had every Iskat half of the remaining couples.

“Yes,” Vaile said grimly. “You see the problem. Auditor,” she said, raising her voice. “I understand you must work by Resolution protocols, but the Emperor needs to know your grounds so she can respond. If you would just stop for one moment and tell me—”

“Here,” the Auditor said, stopping in front of one of the remnant stands. Two

junior staffers flanked it. Kiem hadn’t noticed before, but the Auditor’s eye-covering took on a different aspect this close to remnants: a new element crept into the swirling field. It looked like a color, but Kiem’s brain interpreted it not as visible light but as a sharp taste in the back of his mouth. The Auditor turned to Vaile. There was no way of telling where he was looking, but Kiem was for some reason sure he had acknowledged him and Jainan. “Prince Vaile, if you would step forward.”