The army comes along nicely. The engineering does likewise. They have sound recording and playback; they have comms; they have railguns; they're working on holovid and plasma arcs and any kind of scanner that has a spare for someone to take apart. Ténië is reinventing computers, prototype by prototype, each more intricate and delightful than the last.

Miles continues to refine his illegal orders lecture. He works on it at scheduled intervals and in spare moments and when he wakes up in the middle of the night from dreams of Dagoola. He announces that it will be delivered at the end of the first full training cycle, which is projected to arrive four months after the coronation. Anyone who wishes to attend may do so.

The King expresses the desire that everyone attend. 

Well, that may present something of a logistical challenge, but Miles is all in favour. He arranges an appropriate venue. No one should have difficulty seeing or hearing him. The talk is also likely to be osanwë-heavy; he makes no secret of the fact that he is going to retell some of Miles Vorkosigan's Life Lessons.

The end of the first cycle approaches. Tyelcormo and Irissë are in the top tier of Miles's students, but they're not the only ones there. Out of the three hundred people in the initial batch, he's proud of every single one.

"Well," Tyelcormo says to him when he expresses this, "Maitimo chose them. I don't know what you were expecting."

"I said nothing about being surprised."

"Lot of the locals are interested too, think you can teach this thing in Thindarin?"

"My Thindarin's pretty good, and a lot of the content is going to be memories anyway... it shouldn't be that much harder than doing it in Quenya. On a separate occasion, though, unless literally every Noldo speaks fluent Thindarin by now, which I suppose isn't strictly out of the question..."

"A lot of people do, but we've been really busy. Separate occasions are probably the way to go."

He laughs. "Yeah, no kidding. I'll do two lectures. I can do two every time, if interest from the locals continues."

"That'll probably depend on the content, I'mma guess."

"Yeah. Well. I'm honestly not sure how the content is going to go over, especially to people who haven't already heard me tell the story of the Solstice Massacre three different times."

"And to people who think of themselves as from a species that just doesn't do violence among ourselves."

"That too. It's not always direct violence, though. Like, there's this case from Komarr where they'd sealed a dome because of rioting, nobody was supposed to go in or out, and there were some people caught outside - they had breath masks but they hadn't been expecting a riot and the masks didn't have enough charge to last them, they were going to suffocate out there, so one of the guards went out and brought them fresh ones, and this was technically desertion because he left his post while he was supposed to be actively on guard against rioters, but the investigation concluded that he'd been right to disobey. I was editing that one all last week; I know I've got some of the details wrong, but I don't want to leave it out."

"Suppose it'd be hard to find one just as ...convenient."

"Mm?"

"That example didn't strike you as particularly tailored to recent events?"

"The parallels aren't that striking. If I were in the mood to invent tailored examples I could do one much more pointed than that."

"Oh, I wasn't saying you invented it, just that I see why you wouldn't want to leave it out."

"I am not going to give as good an illegal orders lecture as my father, but I am going to give the best illegal orders lecture I possibly can."

"Nelyo'll be thrilled."

"I expect so."

It helps Miles a lot in his eyes that Miles is obviously completely committed to being maximally useful to Maitimo, but he can't think of a good way to say that. "Thanks. See you tomorrow."

"See you!"

And off to polish the lecture some more. It's not going to be as hair-raising as the authentic Aral Vorkosigan original, but it's going to get the job done, he thinks.

And the appointed day arrives and his audience gathers.

Wow, that's a lot of people. Okay. Showtime. He puts himself in the storytelling mindset, opening up his mind and memory as the most direct possible teaching aid. His nerves settle rapidly. He doesn't need his notes; he's been breathing this thing for months.

"Welcome to my first lecture on illegal orders," he says. "I plan to give these twice a year, every time a new batch of trainees is about to graduate, and they will be one of my only truly immovable graduation requirements. This is because the subject of illegal orders, how to identify them and what to do about them once you have, is important. Those of you who have been following the development of your army will have noticed that I am reluctant to stop at teaching someone how to use a weapon, and strongly prefer to also include lessons about when and why. Those parts may seem trivial. The arc of human history suggests they are not."

He lets his thoughts give colour and substance to that assertion, but doesn't dwell on any specific examples just yet.

"I will begin by discussing what sort of thing an illegal order is. It's a more complicated question here, where you haven't had time to build your own codes and precedents around the idea. My understanding is that there are very few orders it would be literally illegal to give or carry out, here; but that is not the only condition under which an order may or must be rightly disobeyed, and that's the real definition of the term once you get the legalities out of the way: an order which may or must be rightly disobeyed. For example, during a period of unrest on the planet Komarr, one of the domes was briefly sealed against riots..."

Miles tells that story, defining very precisely which details are true to memory and which are reconstruction or supposition on his part. He leads from there into the Solstice Massacre. He talks about Kyril Island, Stanis Metzov ordering the disobedient techs to freeze themselves to death, his fear and uncertainty, the way the legal and ethical and political implications seemed so hopelessly tangled and fraught, and the abrupt clarity that came once he, too, was standing naked in the arctic chill in front of nerve disruptors held by teenage trainees. He talks for hours, bringing in examples both personal and historical. Sometimes, like with the sealed dome, you are not asked to commit any direct violence and the person giving the order had no ill intent but the thing your orders end up making you do is still wrong. Sometimes, like on Kyril Island, it can be very hard to be sure you're looking at an illegal order even though it's going to be obvious in hindsight. Sometimes you genuinely don't have enough information to tell, and have to go with your best guess.

His thoughts are open the whole time. He made sure to circulate a warning beforehand that the talk would involve disturbing content including but not limited to his memories of nearly freezing to death, so at least it won't come as a surprise to anyone.

"I'd normally take questions now," he says at the end, "but given the size of my audience that's a little intractable, so I'll be holding discussion sessions over the next few days. Thank you all for listening. I hope it has been educational."