Taam would have intimidated her into politeness by now. Kiem would have already extracted her name and exactly what was bothering her. Jainan could only look away. “It’s fine,” he said. He sat on the edge.

“Can’t find the abacus,” Professor Audel said, emerging with her hair clips askew. “I have your conclusions from the net, though. Oh dear, look at me jumping into work. One of my bad habits. Gairad, is that the coffee?”

“Coming,” the student said, pouring from the samovar. She passed Jainan and Professor Audel cups of extraordinarily strong coffee then pulled up a beanbag and took the third cup for herself. Something about her profile was naggingly familiar.

An illustration of the Iskat sector hung on the wall behind the professor’s desk. Unusually, it was drawn so Thea dominated the foreground, distinctive with its glittering ring and the cobalt-blue tint of its seas. The artist had delineated a network of ship journeys in gold. Thea had never been easy to reach: the asteroid fields were extensive and difficult to navigate, but there were lines to Rtul and the majestic bulk of Eisafan, and one desultory route to Kaan.

But all of those were dwarfed by the gleaming web of trade routes that looped around Iskat and spiraled out to the sector’s one remaining galactic link. The threads were so dense that they came together in a golden river pouring through the known clear paths to Thea: in the picture, it looked like you could take a rowboat from Thea to Iskat’s shores.

“Now then, dear,” Professor Audel said, “didn’t someone say you just got married? How are you finding it?”

Jainan choked. “We’re very happy,” he said. “Thank you.”

“Well, to each their own,” the professor said. “I tried it twice, and the second time was no better than the first. Don’t let me spoil your optimism, though.”

“It’s his second marriage, Professor,” said Gairad, with the long-suffering tone of an eighteen-year-old who is more intelligent than everyone around them.

“I told you. He’s our treaty representative.”

“I’m afraid I’m not up to date on politics,” the professor said to Jainan. “It’s been very helpful to have Gairad around. So much of this seems to be politics.

Maybe you two know the same people?”

Gairad was looking at him. Jainan could tell. He was tense even before she opened her mouth and said, “Know the same people? Professor, we’re related.”

Cold dread went through Jainan. “Are we?” he said, trying to make it as neutral as possible.

“My aunt’s cousin is Lady Ressid’s oath-sister,” Gairad said. Now the accusation in her voice was unconcealed. “I started at Bita Point University four years after you left. Lady Ressid came to my farewell ceremony on Thea when I switched to study here.”

And that meant—though the connection was distant—Jainan had clan duties to her he hadn’t fulfilled. Another name on the list of people he had let down.

“I,” he said, then stopped. He couldn’t explain to her why he hadn’t been in