Miles accepts the Imperial Auditor appointment

Miles Vorkosigan’s acceptance of the Imperial Auditor appointment gives formal shape to a choice between service to Barrayar and a return to the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. The oath confirms not only his new office but his decision to serve as Miles Vorkosigan rather than revive Admiral Naismith as his life’s defining identity.

The Need for Authority

Miles’s path to the appointment begins with his demand for a fuller role in the investigation surrounding Simon Illyan. He wants access to every item of raw evidence, medical and otherwise, and oversight of the case; merely being able to arrange a visit to Illyan is not enough. Because General Haroche is likely to resist, Miles asks for real authority and requests an Imperial Auditor to assign him. The request makes clear that he wants not simply to observe the investigation but to examine its evidence and the decisions being made about it.

Once Miles is addressed as Lord Auditor, the work acquires an institutional reach. Haroche proposes inquiries into where the biological material originated, including a lead in Jackson’s Whole and the possibility of other sources such as Escobar, and offers to have Galactic Affairs pursue them. He also proposes reviewing Illyan’s movements during a period stretching from sixteen to five weeks earlier. Miles recognizes that this laborious investigation is work ImpSec can perform more effectively than he can alone, while noting that an established Auditor would normally have staff to delegate it to. His new authority therefore brings him into the agency’s detailed work even as it exposes the limits of his independent resources.

The Appointment’s Unusual Scope

When Miles later explains his new position to Elli Quinn, he describes the title as difficult to translate into a single familiar job. Its remit can resemble that of an imperial agent, special prosecutor, envoy, or inspector general, but is not limited to any one of those functions. It is open-ended and responsive to what Gregor needs. Miles says he has taken the oath, and that the office suits him precisely because its responsibilities are not fixed in advance.

That flexibility distinguishes the post from a career goal Miles had long pursued. He tells Elli he had never imagined becoming an Imperial Auditor, and argues that the work should go to someone willing to serve but not driven by personal ambition for the office. He sees the job as requiring dispassion, including restraint toward the position itself. Acceptance is thus not presented as the fulfillment of a longstanding plan; it is a commitment to a role whose purpose depends on the needs of the sovereign and the cases placed before it.

The Competing Offer

The appointment takes on sharper meaning against General Haroche’s attempt to draw Miles back toward the mercenary life. Haroche has obtained Miles’s neurological medical reports and has considered the proposed treatment for his seizure disorder. In a later disclosure, Miles tells Gregor and Illyan that Haroche offered him a return to work with the Dendarii on terms better than those under which he had served Simon Illyan, including a captaincy. The offer astonishes the men listening, and Illyan remarks that Miles had not told him about it.

Miles’s account to Elli makes clear that the alternative was not abstract: he had spent weeks trying to make himself leave for the fleet. But he concludes that he had never truly been a mercenary, even for a moment, and that the distinction matters to who he is. He refuses the idea that he can retain only the parts of himself that Elli prefers, describing himself instead as an indivisible whole. His acceptance of the Auditor’s office therefore stands opposite the captaincy: he does not simply choose one position over another, but declines to separate his public identity from his Barrayaran inheritance and obligations.

Explaining the Choice to Elli Quinn

At a hostel, Miles tells Elli the story of the preceding months so she can understand his new job and why Simon Illyan is no longer Chief of ImpSec. He recounts Illyan’s breakdown, returns to the story of Laisa Toscane and Duv Galeni, and describes exposing Haroche, his seizure treatment, and Gregor’s offer. The account comes readily when it concerns events and facts; Miles struggles to explain the inward change that connects them. Elli initially doubts that an Imperial Auditor’s title fits him, but Miles explains that its breadth is what makes it apt.

Elli proposes that he abandon the Barrayaran Imperium and join her in the Dendarii Fleet, offering a shared future as Admiral Naismith. Miles instead asks her to come to Barrayar, while acknowledging that she might be unhappy there with him. He insists that there is no other way for the long term and that full disclosure is necessary. The acceptance of the appointment is therefore also a difficult act of candor: Miles states the terms of the life he has chosen and invites Elli to choose whether to share it, without pretending that love or the office can erase the costs of that choice.