"What title are we presumed to have infriged on?  I'm a Ryder, you can't do this to me..."

"Relax, Ryder No-one, you're way lower down this particular totem pole than you think you are..."

"And you're not?"

"If they are indeed hassling us with undue cause, I'll ask Auntie to have a chat with them."

"You're with A.u.n.t.i.e.?"

"No, not that particular task force no, my actual aunt... by adoption."

"Who happens to be?  My Father is Domei of Jannet!"

"My aunt, may she shelter in the embrace and grace of the Elements forever and a day, is Meihomei of Kagomei , whose will booms and outlouds all others, Aumhavar of her own self."  Avalline, long used to being the loudest fussbudget in a room, had to sit down.

"Please, come this way, I will explain when we arrive at our destination."  The precise, clipped tones were like rain on a slate roof, brooking no nonsense.

"By what authority do you hold us?"

"You've deputized yourselves with that paper, which is now classified, being relevant to the state of readiness, or lack thereof, of a major ally of Kagomei, and of especial military interest to the defence of the realm."

"How long will you keep us?"

"You're not in detention, but you are to make a deposition on your paper, and the original research you made, and how you could know what you knew.  Outside our intelligence agencies, this was considered..."  She paused. "...sensitive material."

"And you needed to get us out of school?  Wouldn't that bring attention to this knowledge."

"Well, it would, now, wouldn't it?"

"You sound unfazed by the possibility."

"I am convinced whatever happens is more pleasant than what'd happen if I gave the slightest hint that what happens to you six is predicated in any way by you being the firstborn children and heirs of some of the most powerful nobles in Kagomei."

"Oh, so this is all spectacle, to show we're not getting preferential treatment?"

"In a sense, and you are not getting preferential treatment, anyone who'd written such an intriguing paper would get an invitation to work with us... You six just happen to make us work for it more than most..."

"I already have a job, outside of class, I'm afraid..."

"But of course, and the duties of a Bameimeito are not small..."

"I meant my military service, I am..."

"Was your service related to the paper in any way?" She thought the answer obvious, but her orders were explicit.

"No, this knowledge predates my entrance in the academy."

"And you?"

"Feyd Veneer speaks of what he knows in the paper, I don't, although, not all the ideas are his in there, and I fully support our conclusions, from the testimony he bore."

"Obviously, you don't remember me?"  She smiled a coquettish smile.

"Douallé?"  Both Avalline and Amarat started.  Then doubly so, realizing the other had done the same.

"You know her?"  They spoke in unison.

"Before you do any more synchrony, I baby sat the both of you, no you're neither of you unique, people in my line of work supply details for security purposes to nobles all the time.  You just happened to have been my charges during the same year, I was watching Avalline in winter and Amarat in the summer.  And you've both grown so much!"

"I bet, I was only five."

"You were both that young age, no wonder you took so much time to recognize me."

"Why'd they send you?"

"Because your conscious minds didn't recognize me, but your subconscious minds did.  Your body language was not someone going with a stranger wearing a strange uniform."

"It's not, you're wearing Meihomei Second Lifeguard colours..."

"What, my, aren't you observant.  And what does that signify, for the rest of the class?"

"That you're not Meihomei's own bodyguard, but that of everyone in her immediate family, Nameihomei, Senior Voices, while they're in the capital city."

"Yes, except him.  He's First's problem."  She pointed to Amarat.

"What, when?  What happened to Shen?"

"We're stopping by his hospital bed... It's... not good."

"Then where are they?"

"They're looking for you, I told Senya I'd bring you to them, simplifies so many things, when first and second aren't trying to count coup on one another."

"Who's Senya?"

"Senya Frangibald, my majordomo's daughter, and head of Meihomei's First Lifeguards.  She was second- in-command of Meihomei's Lifeguards."

"She no longer the second in command, Senya's third.  Command of first cannot be the senior position, there's an edict.  And Shibué Dandelion is in command."

"And you know this Shibué?"

"Douallé wasn't my only babysitter...  And she's dating my cousin now, according to rumours."

"Fie, for shame!  You'd listen to rumours?"

"Well, yes, 'a rumour' is the only thing I can call what my cousin told me about his new Miptun."

"We're getting sidetracked, where are we going?"

"@[Restful Repose Military Hospital](landmark:949d54c8-0ff6-4de6-a750-654b7ee0b47d), penthouse section."  Douallé's clipped tones were back.

"What's there?"

"My cousin, Shen, Bameimeito."

"Except..."

"I'm saying goodbye, then we're going..."

"Spyglass."  Douallé swore.  "Forget I called it that, we're going to Lai Dang Treaty Authority Command Centre."

"We should declassify the name, LDTACC is not nearly as nice a name."

"Sure, right.  At any rate, we're going there because you six wrote a paper that all but declassified a key element of our intelligence posture vis-a-vis the Moniqans."

"Like how could we know?"

"It's not that obvious, but it's not that unobvious, either.  Whoever thought of it thought it was repressed enough the Moniqans wouldn't admit it, even to themselves."

"Oh, great, Arndology, but applied..."

"Yeah, applied arndology, aka headology.  How to get people to do what you want, without telling them..."

"That's the last lesson in the class we're taking..."

"Oh, well, you're getting extra credit, I think, for this... Getting a whole intelligence agency to sit up and take notice..."  Her tone was tart.

"Did you expect this, Amarat?"

"What? No, I had no idea this was classified, if anything, it sounds prudent, to have your judges stay at home, less chance for them to be influenced."

"Clan Mothers are judges?"

"Not per se, but they have the power of tribunal, and the head of the Hunarch's clan has the power of Edict in certain fields."

"Edict?"

"Yes, by all that is holy, do not make her mad.  Edict includes power of summary execution in Moniq."

"And you know this?"

"Hunarch Xanadrigal's wife passed sentence on her husband's moniqan assassin, who was a known agent of one of my ancestors.  She also said, in my presence, that if she knew who had slain Prithyanka, they'd die the same coward's death."

"Prithyanka?"

"Prithyanka-who-was-Nameihomei to you, my adoptive grandmother."

"Prithyanka Dandelion, the Dandelion Soul of Diamond?"

"I hadn't heard she had become Dandelion Soul."

"She was rehabilitating the role the Dandelions were granted in Kagomine society, when she married Meltran-who-was-Meihomei."