“Ma’am,” Kiem said, his voice only a thread.

“You will have to attend the run-up ceremonies by yourself,” the Emperor said. “The worst of all possible outcomes, but it cannot be helped. I expect you to rise to the challenge. Dismissed.”

Kiem’s bow was even clumsier in comparison to Rakal’s punctilious one, but the Emperor was already dictating orders to her aide and didn’t notice. As they both left the room, Rakal’s projection faded out at the threshold of the door.

Kiem’s wristband woke up and flared into life again as he strode past the guards without speaking. He raised his fingers in a call command, counting in his head the seconds it would take Rakal to walk through the Emperor’s outer office where her aides worked, all the way down the tower’s elevators, and into the main corridor. Then he called.

He’d calculated accurately. When Rakal opened their screen, the corridor

behind them was empty. They stopped, folded their arms, and tilted their chin up aggressively. “Say what you’re going to say, Your Highness.”

“What can they do to interrogate him?” Kiem said.

Rakal’s shoulders were tense. “They have arrested him under military law.

There are very few legal limitations, though I’m sure they’re aware that if they don’t acquire damning evidence, there will be serious consequences if a Thean representative turns out to have been physically harmed. Nevertheless.”

“And you’re okay with this?” Kiem demanded. “Everyone’s okay with this?

Jainan lives for duty! He’s probably never done anything illegal in his life!”

“The Emperor has given a direct order,” Rakal said. “The civilian legal process should be followed for civilians, but what is Internal Security against the old guard?” There was a note of bitterness in their voice that threw Kiem off for a moment. The Emperor had called him General Fenrik, Kiem remembered, when she barely gave anyone else their title. General Fenrik was the Emperor’s generation, back when the military had been vastly more powerful than the civil infrastructure. Rakal was young, could not be more than forty. “Count Jainan may not come to much harm.”

“May not?”

Rakal glanced around before they answered. “There are drugs.”

Kiem took a deep breath. “I’m not going to let this happen.”

“I will not be drawn into this line of conversation,” Rakal said. “We did not speak about this. However,” they added. “If Jainan were to somehow … walk out of military custody, I believe that would change matters.” They looked Kiem right in the eye. “The treaty situation is changing hour by hour. I believe if Jainan were to somehow leave, I would be able to keep his case under civil authority and stop him from going back in.”

“Right,” Kiem said. He took another breath, and said again, “Right.”

Rakal gave him a hint of a nod.

Kiem canceled the call. Then he raised his wristband and spun up the Thean Ambassador. As he strode back to his and Jainan’s guest suite, he wrote out, Jainan falsely arrested. Petition for release, and added a précis of everything the Emperor had said. He finished just as the door of his rooms shut behind him.