“Truly, Lord?” Cretak had responded, humoring him, but also curious. “And what are they?”

“There are those who like things just the way they are and will stop at nothing to keep them that way, and those who understand that change is the natural order of the universe, and one must change with it.”

“I see,” she said, amused at the very idea that it could be so simple. “And which are you?”

“Why, the latter, of course! I am a simple man, Cretak, so lacking in guile it’s a wonder I ever made it into politics. I shift with the tides and follow the times, always. There is no mystery to me at all. But you, you are the mystery. Which kind of Romulan are you?”

She didn’t even have to think of an answer. “I believe I am as committed to growth and change as you are, Lord.”

Pardek had smiled indulgently. “Ah, but you’re young yet. We will see if age and experience have their way with you.”

Her conversation with Pardek was still fresh in Cretak’s mind a few mornings later when she awoke beside Koval.

She propped herself up on one elbow and studied his face. He was feigning sleep, but she knew him well enough by now to tell it was only pretense. He was so seldom himself, it was safer to assume he was always pretending.

He has a weak chin,was her first thought. Why did I never notice this before? Then again, even the kindest of my kin say my jaw’s too strong. If we had had children, would they have favored him or me or something halfway between?

The match would have been an acceptable one. She and Koval were of the same caste, children of the intellectual and military families who made up the outer circle that protected the inner circle of the imperial court and who, of course, aspired by either marriage or accomplishment to be permitted into that inner circle someday. When and how had their society ossified into these rigid little boxes? Vulcan society, while nominally a meritocracy, also had its subtle class distinctions; it was a given that the old, propertied families wielded most of the true power. But Romulan society had subdivided into castes within castes, each ringed about with customs, laws, and taboos which made it all but impossible to escape from one into another.

Was this, too, an outcome of the Gnawing? Had the Sundered begun as a communal entity, with everything shared equally, or had they brought the concept of the Old Families with them from Vulcan? And with half their number gone, did the wealth shift to the survivors? Did they, anticipating a future Gnawing, build shields and fences of class and caste around their possessions, so that even if they died, their offspring would be safe?

Lost to the mists of time and revisionist history. No way of knowing in the here and now.

In the event, Koval and Cretak had recognized each other, at least by type, before they ever met. Though they came from different sectors, they were of the same caste, and had gone to the same sort of exclusive schools, studied the same subjects, been imbued with the same familial and societal expectations designed to shape them into good little apparatchiks in the service of the Empire, and both had followed form, each in their own way.

Their affair was discreet, and might have led to marriage, but after the initial blush of passion, it had become ordinary, predictable. The first thing to go had been anything resembling real conversation, and now Cretak understood why.

Koval was one kind of Romulan; she was another. He had accepted his role by moving smartly from his caste’s mandatory military duty into a low-level position with intelligence, and slowly climbed the ladder, stepping on hands or necks as necessary, but always carefully. Now that he was halfway up that ladder, it was said behind his back that Koval didn’t so much serve the Tal Shiar as much as it served him.

Most Romulans looked sideways and whispered whenever they said the words Tal Shiar.It could accurately be said that no one, not even the Emperor himself, for whom the organization was named, was safe from them, and there was no Romulan living whose life had not been touched by them, who did not have a relative or sometimes an entire branch of the family gone missing in the night, all their possessions confiscated. Everyone knew of former prisoners who had returned from detention in distant places with hollow eyes, silenced voices, empty souls, looking like nothing so much as survivors of the Gnawing.

To actually want to be a part of that…Cretak shivered, and not only because the room was cold. Koval was one of those who would do anything, to anyone, at any cost, to preserve the status quo and his place in it.

Has he ever been offworld?Cretak wondered, still studying that weak-chinned face. His masters have probably sent him on all sorts of secret missions that I would never know about, even if we wed. What kind of relationship would that be?

His breathing was far too regular to be natural. Was he watching her under his eyelids? Difficult to tell. His eyes were so small, so hidden behind over-large eyelids and prominent brow ridges that it was hard to tell what he was looking at even when he was awake, something his employers no doubt cherished in him.

Cretak had been to other worlds in Pardek’s train. Those outside the Empire assumed that Romulans only interacted with Romulans, that all their worlds were the same, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Empire might not have the multiplicity of species that comprised the Federation, but there were wide variations in race, language, culture, technology. Ironically, the homeworld, ruled by suspicion and the assumption that everyone was watching everyone else, was backward in comparison to some. It was hard to be innovative when you were always being monitored, hard to keep the machinery repaired when the budget went first to the military.

The constant state of war, with others and with the paranoia within themselves, was to blame. Even a simple letter to a friend, a stray remark to a family member, could be read as seditious. Progress does not flourish in an atmosphere of dread. There was so much more they could become, if only they could set aside their fear.

Had Koval ever harbored thoughts like these? Could he see beyond his own nose, or did he truly subscribe to the credo that the Romulans had created the perfect state and simply look no farther?

Cretak was not looking at him now, but at the view beyond the gauzy curtains. It was the cold season, the trees bare, the sky as gray as the city they had left behind. They were staying at one of his family’s houses, a grand old multi-roomed estate complete with servants in one of the better suburbs. Still, grand as it was, it was cold.

Sensing that her attention was no longer focused on him, Koval at last opened his eyes.

“You’re pensive,” he said.

“I was thinking of futility,” she answered.

“A suitable topic for a winter’s morning. It must be the weather. I will have one of the servants build a fire. That should perk you up.”

“Do you know how many we could feed and clothe and educate if we weren’t always at war?” Cretak said with sudden passion, ignoring his desultory attempts to placate her, sitting up abruptly but keeping the coverlet wrapped around herself, and not only against the cold.

“Why would we want to do that?” Koval wondered indolently, suppressing a yawn. “They’d only breed that much faster.” He stretched and seemed about to reach out for her, but changed his mind.

Was he always this shallow?Cretak wondered. Why have I only now noticed that, too?She rose from the bed, her back to him, and began to dress.

“Where are you going?” Koval asked, suppressing a second yawn.

“Away” was all she said, terminating the relationship with no more fanfare than that.

As if she could ever truly have gotten away, she thought ruefully a lifetime later. For all the millions of them streaming through the streets of the Capital, they of the blood could not avoid bumping elbows, and more than once had she felt Koval’s eyes on her in public places. Should she have remained in his bed a little longer, to learn a little more of him? All she really knew was that she did not trust him, and that is far too little to know about Koval!