Lovesong followed Tristan to the arboretum. Halbert was waiting there. The inquisitor held Laika on a leash, but she seemed to think she was standing guard for them. Halbert spoke first.

"Interrogator. I have an investigation for you. I've formed my suspicions, but I need a second opinion and I don't have the time to dedicate myself to it. I'm expected to give a speech at the Millenium party."

"Is that coming up?"

"Yes. Tomorrow."

"Time really flies," Tristan noted.

Halbert handwaved it. "Be discrete with this case. Recruit assets and use them. Do not act directly or I fear we will tip our hand to an adversary."

Tristan narrowed his eyes. Halbert was trying to tell him this case was potentially dangerous. Not just a pet project on a long voyage.

Laika barked, announcing an approaching Sister of Battle. Two of the nuns were still in their chambers, and in a panic, Lovesong couldn't tell who was whom. Lovesong hoped this was Odia.

The nun approached, her armor making her a head taller than other humans. But Laika was brave. The Cosmonaut stood her ground and barked, and the Sororitas had to step around her carefully.

Halbert introduced, "Sister Fidea."

The nun nodded, then looked at Tristan quietly.

Halbert handwaved his presence. "Please, speak freely. I want him to hear everything."

She was slow to answer. "… I am nervous. It is very impressive to speak to an Inquisitor and someone on his retinue."

Tristan's dimples drifted upwards. Halbert sighed. "Sister. You are on an Inquisitor's retinue."

"I had not thought of that," she admitted. "Still, to be in such adventurous work. You two practice intrigue and seduction. I'm an avid follower of Ravenor and-"

Halbert turned stiff. Tristan looked alarmed at the name, and he placed a calming hand on the Inquisitor. Laika read their posture and barked. Tristan asked, "May I, Inquisitor?"

Halbert, still glaring, nodded, "You may. Come, Laika," he said as he left.

When he was out of earshot, the nun noted, "He has an unkind opinion of Inquisitor Ravenor."

Tristan put his hands on his hips and scolded, "He has an unkind opinion of the action novels and the spinoff holovids."

"I apologize if I offended," the nun offered.

Tristan reset his expression to a mellow smile. "Let's start over. I'm Hablert's right hand man, Interrogator First Class."

The nun nodded silently.

Tristan offered, "You gathered some intel for us?"

"I suppose I did. Although it didn't feel that way. I thought it would be more like… Yes. Counsellor Soloveng. He has taken on the entire workload of the Matrimonium Counsillarium, but no one has ever met him and he has no office. That is all."

Tristan kept his eye contact with her battle-helm while he thought this over. Then, slowly, he grinned. "You thought it would be more like the episode where Patience Kiss breaks into a building through an air duct in a skinsuit and seduces someone. Maybe using some sanctioned warpcraft on the way."

The nun leaned forward in excitement. "I loved that episode! I always imagined this work is a great deal of fun."

Tristan chuckled and checked the entry/exits to this corner of the arboretum. They were alone. He pursed his lips again, but licked them and smiled, "If that kind of thing interests you..."

He resumed eye contact with an intensity of seriousness, then took a step closer to her so the nun straightened and shifted away in her armor.

"If you think that's a fun career path… I can teach you a few things."

He had to wait for an answer. She asked, "What are you doing, Interrogator?"

"Seduction." He returned to his neutral expression, a joyless shape for an otherwise beautiful man. Then, bluntly he asked, "Was it the 'great deal of fun' you imagined?"

"You did not seduce me," she corrected.

"Seduction doesn't trick anyone into falling in love. Seduction convinces the target of my own interest."

"What does that accomplish?"

"It put you on your hind foot. And gave you tunnel vision. So you wouldn't notice my knife in your hip actuator."

The nun blinked, realizing what was clearly in her visor's field of view. It wasn't just a knife. If he pulled the trigger on the handle, she'd lose most of her mobility.

"Oh," she admitted.

Tristan retrieved the weapon into his sleeve. To recover her pride, she argued, "This only worked because you abused my trust."

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Without the Inquisitor's introduction, I would not have believed you."

"The Inquisitor introduced me as a person you should speak to. I convinced you I'm an Interrogator First Class."

"Which was easy, because you are."

"I'm an Interrogator Second Class. Look, everyone wants to feel loved. It's not fun or sexy to hurt people that way. Don't romanticize it. What we do is hurt people in service of a greater goal."

He still hadn't resumed his more charming smile.

The nun observed, "I see now why the Inquisitor has assigned you to the case of the marriage counsellor."

Tristan changed the subject. "We've chatted enough. Do you have anything else on Soloveng?"

"The electronic address that he communicates from."

She gave it to him.

"Thank you." Tristan stepped past her to leave.

"Interrogator…"

Tristan stopped and turned back to her.

"You were. Very convincing, I mean. Were you in love once?"

He seemed to be in pain for a second. She understood, suddenly, why he had lashed out at her with his performance. He was like an animal maddened by agony. But it was only for a second. He put on a mirthful grin again and scolded, "It's our first day as coworkers. We don't need to know each other that well."

"I have a confession to make."

He sighed. "What?"

"Sister Fidea was too busy to come. My name is Spera."

Tristan stared at her. Eventually, he noted, "The Inquisitor introduced you and you didn't correct him."

Spera nodded. "I wanted to see if I could trick an Interrogator."

Tristan smiled. "You almost got away with it. Why'd you confess?"

"I'm afraid I made a fool of myself several times in these last minutes. I didn't want you to think less of Sister Fidea for it."

Tristan laughed as he left.

Laika lay on her pillow and watched Halbert work. Halbert had lost himself in the Grox's Write of Trade, so when Tristan entered, he found the Inquisitor closely inspecting the cup of a very large bra.

"I need to take Laika for a walk," he said.

Laika barked.

Halbert looked up and asked, "Why?"

"If I'm gathering accomplices, I'll need to talk to a lot of women quickly."

Lovesong panicked. Tristan was reserved for Odia. After weeks of altering their schedules, Lovesong's worst fears had come to pass. Laika was about to parade Tristan before thousands of single women.

"While you're here," Halbert stayed. He folded the bra with the reverence due to any relic which bore the Lord's Signature, then placed it in his desk. "I sometimes see," he began, "that you regret this job. And I want to know if I can fix that."

Tristan couldn't hide this. He'd delayed talking about it to form his thoughts. He took a seat and shared what he'd learned about himself. "I believe I was on the Golden path when I joined you. Later, on Calondria, the same was true. I felt the current of the grand arc of history. I'm not sure when that feeling left me, but it was after Calondria burned."

"After I burned Calondria," Halbert corrected.

Tristan tucked a dimple and shook his head. "I don't mean that. It's like those nightmares I told you about, where I realize I've left my hiking trail behind and then the sun sets and never rises again. Something went wrong on Calondria. Not just that we failed. Something imperceptible and cosmic. Like how a planet seems flat when you're on it because it's so damn big."

Halbert thought about this in silence, then asked, "Is there anything more personal that bothers you about Calondria?"

Tristan nodded. "I dreamed about Grace again. She was veiled in black. She told me that we would be together forever, but then she lit me on fire. And I woke up."

Halbert had once harbored a suspicion that Tristan was warp-touched. Gifted to be a psyker. It was paternal hope and professional caution. But inquiry had settled the matter. "Terrible dreams," Halbert nodded. "But just dreams."

"I think sometimes dreams tell the future," Tristan admitted. "Even for normal people."

"You think Grace is in your future?"

Tristan sighed. "I got her record from the convent. They have a terraforming project on their planet. Saint Diomede decided Grace was a lost cause, so they threw her out there to die like fertilizer."

Halbert wasn't going to correct this version of events. What good would it do? For Tristan to be enamored of a nun? Halbert asked, "This bothers you."

Tristan wobbled his head side to side. "At first, she was a disgusting, blackened soul. I thought we should hang her from a street lamp. But I stuck at it, like you said. And I remember the first time she ever talked about herself. Introspectively, I mean, not in vanity. She knew she'd sold her dignity; She knew mine was intact. She wanted to define herself instead of chasing passions." Tristan swallowed. He was frowning and thinking about it all. Through the pain, he still hadn't decided how he ought to feel.

"After we burned Calondria and killed everyone she'd ever known- and abducted her- she attended services. She asked questions and dressed modestly. She tried to learn our ways and fit in on the ship. I watched her, like you said, made sure she wasn't a threat. She was still a degenerate, but conversion is a long road. She was recovering."

"And then I sent her to the convent," Halbert observed.

There was pain in Tristan's frown. He admitted, "I couldn't spend the rest of my life waiting. And I trust the judgment of the Sororitas."

"But…" Halbert egged.

"I'm in love with the woman she would have become. It wasn't supposed to end this way."

Halbert let the silence hang for the respectful length, then said, "I agree. And I'm just as stumped about what went wrong. About both Grace and Calondria. If you'll take meaning from my dreams… We were supposed to meet someone on Calondria. Female. Malformed so that she cannot speak the The Imperial Truth, but able to swallow the enemy."

Laika barked.

Tristan straightened, remembering her presence. He held up a finger. "Don't interrupt the Inquisitor." Then, to Halbert, he said, "I'll keep an eye out. And don't worry about me, Inquisitor. The pain is bearable."

"All the little plains of life accumulate," Halbert cautioned. "Until you die of them."

Tristan smiled sympathetically, then nodded to the dog, as a question. Halbert assented, and Tristan left with Laika. She was an explorer at heart, and took the lead on all her walks.

Lovesong waited for them to reach the hall before the tram station, then sprung a trap. A fire door violently triggered shut on Laika's leash, snapping it and separating the dog from the Interrogator. Tristan blinked at the door, looked up at the fire alarm, dormant, and looked at the leash in his hand. A few seconds later, the door slid open. He saw, distantly, Laika boarding the tram. She departed without him.

He hissed a pejorative and backtracked to find another route.

The whole day was wasted in that pursuit, but he was very familiar with the tram system now, and he'd gathered twelve new attractive contacts. Eventually, Tristan headed Halbert's way to admit he'd lost the dog and investigated nothing. On his way, in total frustration, he took a gamble. A Guard Captain rode beside him on the tram, and Tristan showed his credentials and borrowed The Guard's data slate. Lovesong watched this curiously. Tristan typed a formal letter to Soloveng, signed with the borrowed identity.

Dear Counsellor Soloveng,

I'm a young man running out of time in my prime. I was sweet on a girl a long time ago, but she was executed by the church. Will I ever fall in love again? With a decent girl?

-Guard Capt. Sorrel

Tristan sent it and Lovesong replied. But Tristan didn't see that because he was looking around for Laika. Lovesong hated how slow correspondence was with the crew.

The Guard Captain had watched over Tristan's shoulder and was now quietly squinting in confusion. Tristan said, "Just to be clear, none of this ever happened."

"Course," the Guardsman nodded.

Tristan looked down at the data slate and saw that he'd received a reply. He checked the metadata and realized it had arrived in several milliseconds.

The answer was short:

Dear Tristan,

Grace is alive.

Tristan arrived in Halbert's office with a dour expression. He wanted to bring the appropriate solemnity for his terrifying discovery and of course the sad news that Laika was missing. As he entered, Laika sat up on her pillow and wagged her tail. Tristan sighed at her. Halbert chuckled. "One of the Sororitas caught her. She spent the day riding the tram fore and aft."

Tristan stroked his own face, to see if he'd gone numb with fear. "I've made contact with Councilor Soloveng," he said.

"Electronically," Halbert guessed.

Tristan nodded. "There's abominable Intelligence aboard the ship."