“He missed anything vital,” Bel said. “I’d bet most of the palace officers have never seen real action. I was fine by morning.”

Jainan looked at where his wristband should have been, then at the time display on the screen, and had to conceal his shock. It was the day before Ressid was due to land; the Unification Day ceremonies began tomorrow. He had been unconscious for three days. “I was told I’m not under arrest.”

“You’re not,” Bel said. “But Kiem definitely is.”

Jainan’s hand clenched in the bedsheet. “Kiem is? Why have they arrested Kiem?” The tube in his wrist tugged in its bandage, and he realized he was leaning forward. “I was the one they accused! What is Aren going to charge Kiem with? Sabotaging his own flyer? Aren was the one who killed Taam! He was the one who tried to kill both of us!”

Bel held up a hand. “Saffer’s also under arrest. Sorry. I’m not explaining well. It’s been a long few days. Let’s take this back to the beginning.”

She did have the look of someone operating on too much stress and no sleep.

Jainan felt a pang of guilt and looked around for a chair. The bench the orderly had sat on was bolted to the wall, so he drew up his legs, leaving a space on the bed. “You should sit down.”

Bel looked down and paused. Jainan realized it was uncharacteristic of him to let anyone who wasn’t his partner that close, and felt his throat close up in embarrassment before Bel unceremoniously dropped the folder she was carrying on the end of the bed and made herself comfortable next to it. “Tell me if I’m on your feet. How are you really feeling, by the way?”

“Fine,” Jainan said. Bel raised an eyebrow, and he gave ground. “My head hurts. It’s not too bad.”

“Ye-es.” Bel said. “You know prisoners who spend too long in that thing tend to suffer permanent brain damage?”

“That’s very reassuring,” Jainan said. “I’m glad we all went through this, or I might never have experienced your tactful bedside manner.”

“You should hear me when Kiem thinks he has a cold,” Bel said. She brought a foot up, resting her shoe on the bed, and slung her arm around her knee as she apparently collected her thoughts. “So. They found where Fenrik had stashed the stolen remnants, but the treaty is still on shaky ground, and the deadline is tonight. Even though the Emperor told the Auditor that Saffer killed Taam, the Auditor still says Thea doesn’t have enough indications of population consent.

He might be talking about the newslogs.”

“The newslogs,” Jainan said, with some dread.

“Saffer—may he run out of air on a junkship—threatened to leak the story to the press, and he did. All the Thean newslogs are running articles about how you were kidnapped. Some of them even picked up the Tau field angle. The entire planet is up in arms about what happened to you. It was technically a war crime.”