Taam frowned at him. “Why are you here?”
Kiem had no idea, but wasn’t going to let that slow him down. “To stop you from making really boneheaded decisions, apparently.”
“Kiem,” Jainan said.
“I’m not sitting here to be insulted,” Taam said. “Who invited you?”
“I’m the Thean treaty representative.” That felt wrong, but Kiem knew it was true. “Aren’t I supposed to be here?”
“You’re bloody not the representative,” Taam said, pushing back his chair to stand. “Is this a joke? I’ll take this behavior to General Tegnar if you don’t get out.”
Kiem glanced at Jainan, who was rigid, his hands resting folded on the table in front of him. “I’m fine right here.”
Taam propped his hands on the table and leaned forward, scowling. “Meeting over, then. We’re done here. Get out, Kiem.”
“I’m sorry,” Jainan said.
The officials were already packing up, clearly used to rapid changes of direction from Taam. Even the elderly man was prodded awake. “Wait,” Kiem said, but the officials only paid him cursory attention. “Wait—you can’t just cancel the meeting because you want to, Jainan had a point, this is ridiculous—” He tried to stride forward and catch up with Taam as he left, but as he stepped over the threshold, everything around him wavered. Taam turned back, an incredulous eyebrow raised, but he was fading, and the walls around him started to dissolve. Jainan was sitting in the room behind him, alone.
Kiem thought, That was the wrong person to chase, at the same time as everything disappeared again.
* * *
When Kiem next opened his eyes, he heard voices even before the dark surroundings resolved enough for him to see.
“I don’t know what it is you want.” That was Jainan’s voice. It was low and close to him.
“Will you just shut up?” That was Taam.
Someone took a heavy breath, but Kiem couldn’t tell who. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. It felt close and warm in here, but not pleasant. He started to realize that wherever the field was generating, the surroundings weren’t going to get much lighter. The murk was resolving into the faint silhouettes of a bedroom. Kiem felt a sick guilt rise. Invading Jainan’s memories was bad, but this felt like a part he shouldn’t see at all.
“Hell,” Taam muttered savagely. “Do you have to just lie there? I could pay for better.” There was silence, then rustling in the dark. Taam made a noise of disgust and moved, and now Kiem could see him faintly outlined, rising to kneel over Jainan. “Is that why Thea sent you? Send someone to marry the Iskaner, but let’s make sure they’re like a damp flannel in bed?” Jainan said something nearly inaudible. Taam cut him off. “You don’t have to talk.”
It only took Kiem three steps to get over to the bed. In the next moment he had Taam’s bare shoulder in his grip and yanked him roughly away.
Taam grunted in shock. He flailed backward with his arms for purchase on the bed, and Kiem shoved him away. The lights came up enough to see by, showing Jainan half sitting up with one hand near the light sensor, frozen in surprise. He was naked, and Kiem didn’t want to see; it felt like a profound violation just to be in the same room.
“Kiem?” Jainan said.
“The—the hell!” Taam pushed himself upright, choking with rage. “Who are you? The hell do you think you’re doing?” He shoved himself up and grabbed Kiem by the collar of his shirt.
Kiem was done being reasonable. He caught Taam’s arm and went to shove him back, but suddenly realized that would put Taam closer to Jainan. In that moment of indecision, he’d forgotten Taam had military training. Taam drove a punch into his gut. Kiem doubled over.
He tried to pull back before the next punch. He might not have combat training like Taam, but he knew he was in a horribly vulnerable position, and a blow to his face now might knock him out. But it didn’t come.
When he looked up, he saw Jainan had caught Taam’s wrist.
Taam looked as blankly shocked as if the bedspread had come to life and held him back. He tried to break out of Jainan’s grip. His muscles flexed, but it didn’t have any noticeable effect. “Let go.”
“No,” Jainan said. “Kiem, you had better leave.”
“Let go,” Taam said again, low and dangerous.
It felt like the haze around Kiem was starting to clear. “Wait—Jainan,” Kiem said. “This is the Tau field.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jainan said. His eyes were on Taam. “Please leave.”
“Jainan!” Kiem said. “The interrogation machine Aren put you in to alter your memories, remember? Bel and I came to get you!”
Jainan looked up in shock. With a roar, Taam broke free of his grip and swung for his face, but even as he did, he was starting to become transparent. So were the bed, the walls, the floor beneath his feet. It all faded into black. Kiem braced himself for the next room.
It didn’t come. Instead, as he stared into the darkness around him, he realized it was actually a kind of gray. His feet were on what felt like solid ground, but it was completely featureless. He couldn’t see more than a few meters—or maybe he could see for kilometers, and it was just all unbroken gray.
“No,” a voice said behind him. Kiem whirled to face it—dizzyingly, because it was hard to keep your balance when it wasn’t obvious where the floor was. Jainan was standing there with his hands over his face, now dressed in light-shaded casuals. “Something’s wrong.”
“Jainan!” Kiem’s initial wash of relief drained away when Jainan took his hands away from his face. His eyes were tightly shut and his skin had a sheen of sweat.
“My name is Jainan nav Adessari of Feria,” Jainan said in a barely audible voice. His eyes were still shut. “I am a diplomatic representative to the Empire. I am an engineer. I. I. I am proud to represent my planet. I have always tried to do the right thing for Thea and the treaty. I have nothing to be ashamed of.” The litany turned his voice into a bleak, steely thread, like the safety tether that spooled a spacewalker into the void. “I might be easy to manipulate. But I am very difficult to break.”
Kiem felt like he had been punched in the stomach. “Yes.”
Jainan opened his eyes and fixed them on Kiem. It was like watching shutters open behind a porthole: they were black and glassy and had shut off all ways in. “You are not real.”
Kiem didn’t realize he’d taken a step toward him until Jainan deliberately backed away. Kiem froze. Right. “Uh. No. I’m real. I thought we’d sorted that just now.”
“You are not,” Jainan said. “You’re the technician. The interrogator.”
“I’m not,” Kiem said. “Jainan, listen, we found you and followed you in here. We took the interrogator out. Bel’s keeping guard over her.”
“How long have I been in here now?” Jainan said. “Am I to expect you to go off-shift at some point?”
Kiem stared at him, then scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration. “No, it’s really me. Look.” He held out his hand for Jainan to take.