There were long seconds of silence. They could both hear Professor Audel clattering in the inner room. Gairad seemed to remember she was getting coffee, pressed the wrong hidden button, and cursed as a spray of hot water splashed her hand. At length, she said, “Why do you look over your shoulder when you laugh?”

It took Jainan a moment to find any sort of answer to that. “I don’t,” he said.

Did he?

“Both times,” Gairad said. She dabbed her hand dry with a corner of the curtain. “Ugh. At least I can tell the Ambassador I’ve seen you.”

“Don’t—” Jainan started, alarmed, but at that moment Professor Audel came back in, holding up a cube-shaped abacus.

“Found it!” she said. “Good thing I never clear out, eh? Let’s have a look.”

She shut down the first abacus and put the new one next to it. “Now, Jainan, why don’t you talk Gairad through the basics of this? And then we can discuss the consultation work you’ll be doing on the project.”

Jainan pried his fingers away from their death grip on the edge of the crate.

This, at least, was something he could do. He found himself more grateful for that than he would have thought possible. “Of course,” he said. “Happy to help.”

When Jainan returned Kiem was in, for once, frowning over a tablet with the expression he got whenever anyone made him do extended reading. It was midmorning on a bright, cold day, and the pale dawn sky had deepened to a porcelain blue. On Thea, birds might have been chirping outside the window, but this was Iskat, so instead there was the occasional sharp tapping as the skeletal predators Kiem and Bel called doves made another attempt on the glass. They made a rattling noise with their beaks whenever they were thwarted. It was starting to become familiar.

Kiem looked up hopefully when the door opened. “Jainan!” he said, brightening up and casting the tablet aside. “You went to the College? How was it?”

That was the helplessly compelling thing about Kiem, Jainan had found: he was always glad to have company, whoever you were. Jainan had to remind himself that it wasn’t him specifically Kiem was happy to see; Kiem still went out of his way to avoid touching Jainan when they were anywhere near each other. Kiem just preferred company over solitude. “It went … well,” Jainan said.

It had, on balance. “Yes. Well.”

“Do you like it? Are you going to do the project?”

“Professor Audel has asked for further help. Yes.” Jainan knew this would help Kiem’s leverage in the College, so Jainan expected him to be pleased about that and he was; Kiem was almost transparent when he was pleased about something.

“Let me know if you need anything, okay?” Kiem grabbed his tablet again, though he’d thrown it far enough that this involved an undignified lunge on the couch. “Also! I wanted to tell you. I was researching Thea.”