Matter

A desperate flight and a search for the one—maybe two—people who could clear his name. For his brother, it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the entire truth, it means returning to a place shed thought abandoned forever. Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has changed almost beyond recognition to become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilizations throughout the greater galaxy. Concealing her new identity—and her particular set of abilities—might be a dangerous strategy, however. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter.