God Save the Queen Episode II: Chapter 15

This chapter was beta'd by Maji! Hope you all enjoy a return to one of my longest ongoing projects

Episode II Chapter 15: Worlds Near and Far

The bright Serreno sun cast evening shadows across the valley, a tapestry of brilliant greens and deep darkness that drew my eyes from the balcony. My hand dangled on the edge of the warm adobe, loosely holding a holopad with a single message over the twenty-story drop.

“Still surprised?” Sabé asked.

I pulled back before I dropped the pad. “Isn’t it surprising?” I replied.

My two closest advisors stood on flanking the wide door out onto the balcony: Sabé in flowing white robes and hands clasped behind her back, and Bo-Katan in gleaming Beskar, arms crossed and fingers clenched.

In my hands sat an invitation to make a pilgrimage to Mandalor, signed by Duchess Satine. I’d been trying to arrange a meeting with her since the beginning of my Rim Unity Tour, only to be rebuffed at every turn. Even Bo had reached out and had been summarily ignored.

“I was almost relieved,” I said, “when I gave up on a trip to Mandalor. One less meeting, and no chance of stumbling into any more Mandalorian…history.” The history being the Mask of Mandalore the Preserver, which Bo-Katan thought we’d found a piece of: a sliver of metal matched to an ancient relic in the vaults of the Sundari Royal Palace on Mandalor.

Sabé’s lip quirked. “Then she sent you an invitation the next day.”

I rubbed my face. “Any idea what changed her mind?” I asked Bo. “Because it wasn’t you.”

A muscle twitched in my Mandalorian’s jaw. She looked especially severe today, auburn hair pulled back in a tight bun, and eyes flashing like vibroblades. “Kenobi called her.”

I blinked. “Obi-wan?”

“He was unbearably smug at breakfast this morning.” Bo rolled her shoulders. “When he caught me staring, he winked at me.”

That startled a laugh from me. “Sounds like him,” I said.

“It also sounds like he did you a favor.” Sabé tilted her head. “Why so upset, Kryze? We’re going to Mandalore after all.”

“It could be a trap,” Bo said.

“Just because you didn’t arrange it?” Sabé asked. “If anything, it’s the other way around.”

“Out of every system in the galaxy,” I said. “I believe I have the least to fear from Satine’s Mandalor.”

“Not least because all of the Mandalorian partisans are on Naboo…” Sabé said.

“Not the least because they’re all on Naboo,” I muttered. The clans held me in regard, but I didn’t want to invite sectarian violence. “We’ll need to—"

Bo lifted a hand. As one, the three of us turned to look through the door into the Palace of Serreno. A second later, Obi-Wan Kenobi stepped out into the sunlight with Anakin at his shoulder. Bo hooked her thumbs into her belt, wrist brushing against the grip of her blaster pistol.

“The man of the hour arrives.” I stood, ignoring the way Anakin’s eyes snapped to me. “We were just talking about you.”

Obi-Wan laughed. “About my chat with Duchess Satine, no doubt.” His eyes flicked towards Bo. “She was most put out after your call, by the way.”

Bo snorted. “So was I.”

“For different reasons, no doubt.”

“Strange.” Bo met his eyes. “I thought the both of us were upset to speak with a sister, as we usually are.”

Obi-Wan blinked twice in surprise, before turning to me. “Perhaps leave this one here,” he said. Then, “Miss Sabé, a pleasure, as always.”

“The pleasure is mine, Knight Kenobi.” Sabé dipped her head. “Padawan Skywalker.”

“Good to see you, Sabé.” Anakin nodded. They were almost the same height, these days, both noticeably taller than me.

Obi-Wan clasped hands with my bodyguards and then me. “You do plan to take the invitation, don’t you?”

I sighed, setting the holopad down on the wall. “Yes,” I said. “Just…did she happen to say what changed her mind?”

Obi-Wan shrugged. “I simply suggested that the two of you had more in common than either of you would admit.”

I raised an eyebrow. “We have nothing in common.”

“Actually, she said exactly the same thing.” Kenobi’s smile turned impish. “So you hold at least one commonality.”

“Lovely,” I replied.

“Also,” he continued. “I mentioned that you could use some advice on how to approach that new species you discovered in the Outer Rim.”

“…There I could certainly use aid,” I replied. “Mandalore is practically a desert planet as well, isn’t it.” Satine, for her part, was a respected humanitarian, but I refrained from her praise in this company.

“Because of the wars,” Bo said. “The Republic has blocked past efforts to terraform the planet.”

I frowned, fingers tracing over the rough adobe. “So her help would be a powerful gesture as well. The only problem is fitting a pilgrimage into the Unity Tour. We’re already behind schedule because of that planet to begin with.”

Anakin and Obi-Wan shared a look. Anakin’s part in our delay was worth a story of its own, after all.

“I believe Dooku was more than willing to accommodate any changes to your itinerary,” Obi-Wan said. “He mentioned his support for your… ‘religion’ was the word he used, wasn’t it Anakin?”

I raised both eyebrows this time. “Religion?”

Obi-Wan shrugged.

I looked at Anakin.

“The Count is…old fashioned,” he said.

“The Jetii are a religious order,” Bo said. “We are a way of life.”

“By many definitions that would mark you as a religion,” Obi-Wan said. Bo bristled.

“Regardless,” I said. “I shall have to thank Count Dooku for his forbearance. A pilgrimage to Mandalore is…important.”

Obi-Wan leaned towards Anakin. “And they claim it’s not a religion, do they?”

“They can hear you, Jetii,” Bo snapped.

Obi-Wan ignored her with aplomb. “Do you plan on publicizing this little side tour?” he asked me.

“No.” I frowned. “Mandalore isn’t a signatory of our alliance, or even a prospective member.” Largely because of our antipathy. “Satine sent this invitation in good faith. I’d be ruining that if I used it as just another chance to advance my own interests in the Rim.”

There were other interests that might be advanced on Mandalor, but despite what Bo thought, I still hadn’t decided what to do with the mask.

Obi-Wan placed a hand on my shoulder, and I almost jumped. “I’m sure you’ll do the right thing.”

I looked up at him, blinking slowly. “…Thank you for your vote of confidence.”

Obi-Wan held my gaze for just long enough to become awkward, before nodding once.

“Is there…something else you needed to mention, Obi-Wan?” I asked.

It took him a moment, but then he stepped back, coughing into his fist. “Yes, well. I was also hoping I could accompany you to Mandalor, to see an old friend, as it were.”

Sabé leaned forward over Anakin’s shoulder. “Just a friend?”

He nodded most resolutely. “One of my dearest.”

Bo-Katan sighed.

I didn’t have the energy to deal with this conversation. “Of course you’re welcome.”

“Good!” He cleared his throat once. “Ah, that is to say, good. Please do inform me when we are scheduled to depart.” With one last nod, Obi-Wan disappeared back into the palace.

I shared a glance with my advisors, before turning to Anakin. “What was that about.”

He paused, shoulders stiffening. “I…shouldn’t say.” He looked at me again, expression torn. “I’ll be waiting for you when you get back, Padme!”

“Don’t slack off on your training, kid,” I said.

He only frowned for half a second before letting that frustration go. “I won’t. Promise.”

I nodded, distantly, as Anakin made his goodbyes and followed after Obi-Wan.

The balcony was once again Jedi-less.

“I’ll repeat myself,” I said. “What, exactly, was that about?”

Bo stepped away from the wall. “I’ll find out.”

“Good.” I nodded again. “I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought they were acting strange.”

“Little Ani always acts strange around you, Your Majesty,” Sabé said.

I placed a hand against my face. “Sabé, tell my retinue to prepare the Naboo Royal Starship for a trip to Mandalore.

“It would be my pleasure,” she replied. “I’ll send someone up to watch the door.”

“I’d prefer you didn’t.”

Sabé smiled. “How unfortunate for you, My Queen. When would you like to depart?”

“Sooner is better,” I said. “We’re delayed enough as things stand.”

“Understood.” With a salute from Bo and a wave from Sabé, I was alone on the balcony.

I sighed again, sitting slowly on the padded bench set into the wall of the veranda. In the distance, the sun began to set towards sharp, piercingly blue mountains. I curled my feet underneath me, and found that I fit distressingly snuggly into the corner of the balcony. I pillowed my head on my arms, and watched a rushing of silver-green birds dart through the canopy below. I fell asleep.

I didn’t dream. I never did.

When I woke up the sun was set and the ship stood ready to depart. There were downsides to having some of the best star pilots and crews in the galaxy, and I’d clearly walked right into one. I’d expected the ship and my retinue to take a full day to prepare, given plans with Count Dooku, but he’d waved all those considerations.

Instead of making my people stand up a whole crew only to make them wait, I boarded and departed for the short hyperspace trip to Mandalore. The Naboo Royal Starship still stood as the fastest vessel in our fleet, and we landed only a few hours after Sabé confirmed the details of our trip with the planet.

I wasn’t surprised to see Satine waiting for me on the landing pad, flanked by two members of her honor guard. They looked strikingly similar to the Naboo Praetorians, another point of contention between us.

I put on my most humble expression, and strode down the starship to meet her. For my retinue, I took only Sabé and Tallanes Qros, a member of my clan and personal bodyguard both. Appearing as such marked my visit as one by a Mandalorian, instead of by the ruler of a powerful starsystem at the other end of the galaxy.

Satine narrowed her eyes for a moment at the two of us, before her face smoothed back into serene decorum. “Greetings, Amidala of Clan Naberrie.”

I lowered my head. “My greetings, Duchess Satine.” While I allowed her to greet me as merely the head of my clan, I also did not complete a formal bow. She noted the decision, and likewise declined to comment on the complexities of our relationship.

All this, and we’d only just met.

“I am grateful to have received your invitation to make a pilgrimage to the holy sites of our people, as is my sworn brother, Tallanes Qros.” I continued. Qros did bow, drawing a slight tightening of Satine’s lips. “We are likewise honored that you came to meet us in person.”

“I could do nothing different.” Her voice came not accusatory, but almost resigned.

“That does not mean I am not grateful,” I said.

She laughed once, a huff of air. “Already this meeting defies my expectations. Is this your entire retinue, Amidala?”

 A smile pulled at the corners of my lips. “We are also accompanied by a Jedi Knight from Coruscant. I believe you may be familiar with him?” With that, I stepped to the side.

Sabé and Qros followed, letting Obi-Wan and Satine lock eyes as he walked down the ramp.

Satine did not gasp, she did not even smile. But I saw her eyes soften, the tension slip from suddenly limp fingers. “Greetings, Obi-Wan.” She stepped forward to meet him at the foot of the ramp. “Mandalore always welcomes the Jedi who helped protect it.”

“Yes, well.” Obi-Wan cleared his throat. “Would that my duties allowed me to come more often.”

“Would that they could,” Satine repeated. She recovered herself a moment later, and turned. “There are no other…Mando’ade who wish to make a pilgrimage?”

“Most of my clan is preoccupied on Serenno.” I took and idle step closer, lowering my voice. “If you mean your sister, I gave her orders to remain with the ship, unless you wish for her presence.”

Satine closed her eyes slowly, before opening them again. Whatever she felt, I couldn’t read from her face, but her voice came sharp as she said, “By what authority do you command another clan leader?” Ah, of course. Estranged or not, Bo was still Satine’s younger sister, and some relationships are the same even in galaxies far, far away.

A flurry of rejoinders to Satine’s question flickered across my mind, from ‘I was unaware you had abdicated as head of your clan’ to ‘Now the Duchess of Mandalore recognized the Death Watch.’

I swallowed them. “I command her by the authority she has granted me, no more or less.”

Satine sniffed. “I would never deny anyone the chance to return home…if she deigns to appear.”

I took the permission for what it was. “Sabé, if you could…”

My aide took a step to the side, tapping quietly at her commlink. Satine took a step back, away from Obi-Wan and the ramp of the ship. She waited silently, hands folded at her waist. A few seconds later, a pair of Beskar boots appeared at the top of the ramp.

Bo-Katan Kryze appeared in her full regalia. Her armor was polished to a shine, still bearing every scorch and scour mark from over a decade of combat. The helmet bobbed at her hip, proudly displaying the painted face of the Nite Owls, and her face was every bit as cold and distant as Satine’s. Each step rang against the metal of the ramp, clarion bright.

She stopped at the bottom, fingers twitching as if they sought the comfort of blasters she’d left on the ship. Then Bo-Katan bowed. “Duchess Satine.”

Something went through Satine, the most complete emotion I’d seen from her. It looked like grief mixed with ample longing. “What clan do you hail from, daughter of Mandalore?”

The words came from the old greetings in Mando’a, but Satine spoke them deliberately in basic.

Bo answered in the same. “…Clan Kryze.”

Satine let out a breath that was more a gasp. “Then…Clan Kryze welcomes its prodigal daughter home.”

Bo-Katan bit her lip, eyes fixed on the hem of Satine’s robe. They were the last two members of Clan Kryze, one ruler, one rebel. Bo struggled to master her emotions, brow furrowed deeply as she tried to reconcile the welcome with whatever response she’d been expecting.

I felt almost obscene, witnessing their reunion. Obi-Wan had averted his eyes.

After long seconds, Bo-Katan straightened. She pressed a fist to her breastplate. “It is good to be home, clan leader.”

Satine nodded once. Then again. It took a third nod for her to remember the rest of us, and even then only because of Obi-Wan. Her eyes went to him first as he pretended that he had not heard a word untoward. But the moment she turned to him, he met her gaze with a smile.

She spoke to all of us, but her gaze never left Obi-Wan’s. “My guards shall show you to your quarters. Rooms have been prepared for you in the Palace. I extend an invitation to you all to join me for the midday meal.”

I nodded once in assent, but remained silent.

“It would be an honor, Satine,” Obi-Wan said.

She smiled. Then she turned away and returned down the long white-stone walk from the hangars to the palace. One of the guards followed, while the other remained. No one spoke until Satine had vanished back into the depths of the Sundari Palace.

I let out a long breath, shading my eyes against the bright sunlight. Finally, I had the space to gather my thoughts and take a look at the world of my second people.

Bright, almost bleached white. The Sundari Palace glistened in the noonday sun, reflecting light off of hundreds of windows. The city sprawled out around us, in pale dun and beige turned almost white. Aircars filled the skylanes, and the streets thronged with people. Mandalorians.

No crowd formed to acknowledge my visit, or watch warily from the wings as the Mando’ade apostates came back to their homeworld, bearing armor that Satine’s New Mandalorians had discarded.

“If the guests would please accompany me.” The remaining guard took a step forward. “I am sure all are weary from the journey. Allow me to direct you to your lodgings.”

I nodded, distantly, and fell in step with the rest of my group. Obi-Wan made conversation, and Sabé helped him fill the air. Bo and I remained silent. I wondered how many years it had been since her feet had walked these halls. Had she even grown up here?

The inside of the palace was almost austere: vaulted ceilings, ample light, and a single carpet that led past empty plinths of white stone.

“We used to have the masks of previous Mandalores displayed here.” Bo’s voice was for Qros and I alone, Mandalorian history for the Mando’ade. “All the way back to the first Duke of Kryze, who assumed the headship from Clan Ordo…”

Now those masks were gone, and only empty space remained. I wondered also why Duchess Satine had left the plinths bare, instead of replacing the displays. Perhaps she thought it sent a more powerful symbol, perhaps she couldn’t bring herself to.

The history of this place settled over me, drawing tight around my limbs. This is the heritage I had claimed, a hard and pale world, so different from my Naboo. I had come here to bargain for more than the trappings of this history, knowing it would plunge a peaceful people into another war. I clenched a hand into a fist, before forcing myself to release it.

Even the conversation died.

My rooms were a spacious set of apartments, obviously intended for a much larger retinue. I sat on a low divan, and allowed my retinue to arrange themselves around me.

Within my chest, the lodestone of my goals tightened and crystalized into purpose.

“We’re here,” I said. “Now let’s get to work.”