“—the Iskat Minister for Thea decided he was coming planetside for Unification Day, which caused a huge hoopla as usual, and now he doesn’t like that we’re meeting with out-of-system representatives when he’s not in the room—oh, you know, the usual mess of my life.” Ressid’s grin over the screen was tired but wry. “But I’ve been blathering on. Tell me about your week. Your … month?

Has it really been a month?”

“It was fine,” Jainan said. His head hurt, and he couldn’t remember why. It was starting to hurt all the time. “Sorry, Ressid, could you keep your voice down?” He had the bedroom door shut and the volume down, but Taam was due back soon.

“Headache?” Ressid said. She made an effort to modulate her voice from her forceful alpha-diplomat tones. “Or something else? You’re quieter every time I talk to you.”

“I haven’t been well lately,” Jainan said. “I had the flu.”

There was a pause that was at least a second too long. “I’m kind of worried about you.”

“Don’t be,” Jainan said. This had to be headed off fast. “I’m much better now.”

“It’s not that,” Ressid said. She leaned closer to the screen. Jainan frowned and glanced to the side, trying to locate the source of a sudden metallic taste in the air. “You seem to have a lot of money recently, and I don’t know where it’s coming from. I think you’re in over your head.”

Jainan’s head snapped up. Ressid’s face was hard and intent, her elbows propped on the table.

“No, you don’t,” Jainan said, and her image flickered and disappeared.

Hold on to yourself, Jainan thought helplessly as another set of lights and emotion rose up around him. It swallowed his conscious thoughts like the sea.

“Well? What did she say?” Taam demanded.

They were in their rooms. The sky outside the windows was dark. Jainan blinked and remembered what was going on: they had just come back from a commemorative dinner to mark an Iskat anniversary of some victory or other.

Jainan had been seated next to High Duke Tallie, who chaired the Advisory Council—a dull name for a group with enormous power over how the Empire was run.

As the conversation came back to Jainan, the muscles in his back coiled up in embarrassment. “I mentioned it.”

“Subtly?” Taam said.

“Yes.”

“You’re no bloody good at subtle,” Taam said. “What did she say?”

Taam wanted a committee seat. Jainan had at first had no idea why he wanted Jainan to make the request for him, but he’d found out soon enough: Duke Tallie was a woman of ironclad opinions, and the ones she held about Taam were scathing. Jainan hated asking favors at the best of times. He could still feel the humiliation of it pricking at his cheekbones. She hadn’t even been scathing about Jainan himself, just given him a look as if she couldn’t believe he’d had the audacity to make the request. “I don’t think she liked the idea.”