"Um... Imperial Auditors are... I don't know any offworld equivalent. They don't have an explicit job description as such, but in the old days when Counts were the Emperor's tax collectors, Imperial Auditors were the fellows who went out to shake them down when they got sticky fingers. Nowadays, Counts have more duties than overseeing the flow of money to Gregor from his subjects, and Imperial Auditors have more duties than unclogging their financial pipes. But the basic concept of being the person the Emperor sends to deal with things when somebody important has majorly effed something up is still the foundation of the post. They speak with the Emperor's Voice - meaning, for practical purposes, that they wield his full authority and only he can countermand their orders. It's supremely prestigious, needless to say, and they all have to be men of absolute integrity and impeccable reputation."

He frowns thoughtfully at the list.

"I suppose inviting two of the less threatening ones is Gregor's way of firmly declaring his Imperial approval of our marriage without actually showing up and saying," he puts on a half-decent impression of Gregor's dry tones, "'We request and require that you louts be very, very polite to the new Lady Vorkosigan.' Although I see he's also written himself in as Count Vorbarra. A nice little bit of social sleight-of-hand so he can come to the party without the kind of fuss generated by a public appearance of the Emperor."