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The Chief of ImpSec kept a vase of red roses on his desk at the end of spring. Every year it was the same vase, and every year it was the same roses, thornless and deep rich red, and lasting just a little longer than was natural.
Those who worked closely with him noticed (because they were well trained to notice) that the Chief seemed more tired in the springtime. And every spring he walked from his office down the maze-like corridors to the ImpSec infirmary, and every spring there were roses.
The Chief of ImpSec was a monolith, a singularity. Simon Illyan, it was popularly believed, knew all, like a god or a machine. And like a god or a machine, he did not feel things as men did.
Even within ImpSec, especially within ImpSec, he was a figure of awe, seemingly omniscient, his eyes spread throughout the nexus, watching over Barrayar. ImpSec takes care of its own, went the saying, and Captain Illyan knew every single one of them by name.
But if you commented on Captain Illyan’s inhumanity, his apparent soullessness, in front of certain members of ImpSec, well, you wouldn’t get a punch in the face, but only because members of ImpSec are more subtle than that.
Because the Chief of ImpSec kept red roses on his desk every spring, where anyone might see them, where he could look at them every day. Which meant that not only was the Chief of ImpSec in love with someone he couldn’t have, he was also a hopeless romantic.