Vaile let the hem of her skirts fall back to the floor and moved toward the stand. It was the largest remnant, big enough that Kiem couldn’t have fitted his arms around it, and seemed to be made of hundreds of metal sheets melting into each other. Kiem recognized the unpleasant prickling down his back from the ceremony back on Iskat, along with the horrible feeling there might be someone behind you. The stand was surrounded by a bubble of light.

Vaile regarded the remnant like it had personally tried to sabotage her reputation with the Emperor. “I recognize this one,” she said. “General Fenrik provided it. The Tau field?”

The Auditor laid a hand on the remnant, reaching through the force field as if it weren’t there. The remnant reacted immediately, sharp light running in waves over its surface and clustering hungrily around his hand. His face shield went pure black as he stood there for a long moment, light running around and over his fingers.

“Auditor?” Vaile said, with what Kiem felt was commendable composure.

The Auditor’s face turned to her, returning to its normal state. “This is the biggest find we have had from a system as small as yours in quite a while,” he said. “I’ve seen the designs you submitted for a therapy machine—a sorely misplaced idea, but even if you were running it continuously, it should barely have drained any of the remnant’s energy. I should not be able to touch a sample like this, even with assistive tech, and stay within the parameters of my own mind.”

“But you are,” Jainan said evenly. “So?”

“This is a fake,” the Auditor said.

“That’s not possible,” Vaile said. “It’s been under guard the whole time.”

The Auditor gestured to his junior staffers. One of them took out a tool that seemed to be a cutting wheel on a handle, spinning lazily. It looked too slow to do anything, but its rim glowed violet. As the staffer brought it down to touch the remnant, the remnant split, like wood beneath an axe. The two halves crumbled gently away from each other, falling off the stand, and froze in midair

where they hit the force field.

A small, dense shard clattered to the stand. It was the size of Kiem’s thumb.

“That is the only legitimate remnant,” the Auditor said coolly. “A shard nestled in a clever fake, enough to simulate some of the effects. We have discovered fourteen other fakes among the materials submitted to us.”

“Why would anyone fake a remnant?” Kiem said.

Vaile pinched the bridge of her nose. “I assume so they could remove the real ones without the Resolution noticing,” she said. “I cannot think why anyone would want multiple remnants.”

“Some of the smaller ones have been carved up and used to fake the effect of larger remnants,” the Auditor said. “My staff have now tested all of them. Your Emperor wanted to speak to me, Prince Vaile. Tell her I will have the current location of the remnants, or there will not be a treaty.”