Somehow when he seized power, Emperor Hux didn't imagine he would spend so much of his days and even nights meeting people. He certainly didn't think that suddenly all kinds of more or less distant relatives would come begging for crumbs of power fallen from the Imperial table. The one currently standing in front of him was older, vaguely reminding him of his father which set him off and triggered a natural dislike he did his best to hide.
"Cousin Adan, what a delightful surprise…", he said, extending his hand to the much older man. He had been told that his cousin looked forward to being received in the Throne room so he could show off his lofty ties, and found it difficult to stand. As a consequence he decided to meet him in a private salon with only one seat. That he would occupy mercilessly. Adan took hold of the pale, refined hand and kissed the ring of power, engraved with the symbol of the First Order, as if he found it all natural to pay respects to a man who could - easily - be his son. Hux had looked young for a General, and he was excessively so for a ruler, except maybe those sons who inherited too early, either through tragedy or patricide, and appeared decevingly frail under the full imperial regalia and the medals for prowess real or invented. No bother; his eyes, cold and harsh, belied that.
"I must say I don't remember you well… Didn't we meet once when I was much younger?". His voice was strangely quiet. Adan knew what this was about on the spot. Of course. When his mother passed and his father went more than a bit odd, no one in the extended family lifted a finger for the little boy raised as a baby soldier and a baby Brendol.
"Your Majesty", he pleaded, suddenly feeling his back drenched in cold sweat as if he was catching a cold, even though he was burning. They were much too afraid to step in, and anyway, couldn't a father do anything he wanted to his own flesh and blood? He didn't say so, but their eyes met and Hux understood it all.
Finally, Hux still not speaking, Adan couldn't bear the silence anymore.
"This was also the moment my daughter got married… we were quite overwhelmed". It was the right answer, but also such a wrong one, because Hux was old enough to remember this was years after his mother's death. He remembered the announcements and even some holofilms. The bride - Luisa? Something like that?- actually looked happy and it had puzzled him. Until then he had thought all women and all children went through what his mother and himself experienced. That night he had dreamed of exploding ships, people thrown out an airlock… The green eyed monster never really left...
"Yes, of course", the Emperor replied airily. "A wedding is so much more important". There was a sort of glee in his eyes, malicious and hateful. Silence again, and Adan dreamed himself back to his planet, wondering why he thought it was a good idea to ever be under the Emperor's all seeing eye.
"You mentioned your eldest daughter getting married… I assume she has children now. Would you have a portrait?", Hux asked, and it was almost normal, almost domestic. Would Adan have been a younger man, one who didn't survive through various wars, he would have taken this as a good sign. But Adan was after all a Hux too, and he trembled.
He allowed himself the liberty to wipe his forehead with his sleeve, quite unaristocratic for once, before fishing in his inside pocket for a small device. Turning it on, he scrolled through for a picture.
"Those are all of my grandchildren", he stated, deadened voice. It was difficult to breathe. Even worse when Hux all but ripped it out from his hand and started perusing.
"So many of them, blessed be", the Emperor commented, some light irony in his tone but also real admiration. "So this is the new generation…". He must be thinking of the fact that he grew up all alone, without even knowing of the existence of so many relatives, somewhere.
So much red hair.
Those ones clearly weren't receiving an education fit for a Hux. He was commandeering already when some of them were still playing balls or dolls. No matter, this could change. And. Yes. The eldest daughter apparently had an eldest daughter.
"Who is this?", he said, pointing at the young girl. "She looks just like me"
"This is my granddaughter Shana, my eldest's eldest". As he thought.
"Our House always married in, as you know, right?". The question was rhetorical. Adan tensed and his cheeks turned beet red, then death white.
"I would like to invite Cousin Shana to court", he smiled. He hoped it was clear that neither her grandfather nor her parents were invited.
She was young, much too young, and it didn't appeal to him to handle a child - but she would be moulded and educated into the perfect wife. As for marriage… He had time. He had never been in a hurry, even though his advisors kept speaking of heirs and friends and enemies alike wouldn't stop sending women in hope he would notice one of them. He never showed any interest in those. But this one was innocent and pure, the stark opposite of a temptress who would have her very own opinions on many things including on how the Emperor's performance ranked compared to her previous lovers. She was familiar also, red hair, green eyes, pale skin, not one of those pesky foreigners with their odd customs and odder demands. Lax as they seemed, she had been raised in a Hux household.
The Emperor was completely innocent in these matters, and it should have made him harmless, but it was quite the opposite. He assumed that if education could create perfect soldiers, there was no reason it couldn't conjure up the perfect wife. A girl that had never left her backwaters planet, handpicked by the Emperor, sent straight to his court, given trinkets and jewelry and courted by the most powerful being in the galaxy would have no reason not to fall for him hard. Maybe a title would amuse her. He probably wouldn't need to use force, not even on their wedding night. It was preferable.
"We are unworthy of such honor, Your Majesty", Shana's grandfather whispered. All blood had left his face, it was incredible that he could still be alive. This was not what he came to find. He wanted to get closer to his powerful cousin, yes, but not in such an intimate way.
"I understand". The leader of the galaxy didn't bother denying that fact. "But you are really lucky. I am not a man to bear a grudge and I believe in opportunities freely given". That might be the biggest lie he ever uttered, if not for the fact that Emperor Hux, like most great liars, believed his own lies…
"There is no older, unmarried cousin, I gather?", he asked, just to make sure.
Adan swallowed and croaked something that sounded like a no.
"Hmmm. Well then, Shana it is". Marriage would wait for a few years, or at least until the courtiers got used to the idea. He only then seemed to understand what was going on in his cousin's mind.
"This is a bit sudden, certainly, dear. But I look forward to meeting my bride. Would you like to get some medical attention? You appear like you are on the verge of collapsing. This is such a difficult trip for a man your age, and you must be overwhelmed at the wonderful news. Weddings are so important. Rest assured I am going to take care of everyone in your household- But I wouldn't want you to get in harm's way, you are almost my grandfather now".
Hux chuckled at his own half joke. Men would kill for the honor, even though Adan seemed to be more intent on killing himself. Still he said not a word as he bent to kiss the Emperor's ring, the green eyes staring straight at him. He didn't think of how he would break the news to his wife, or to his daughter, or by the gods, to his granddaughter. He did think of the fact that in some cycles, it could be Shana bending to her imperial cousin, kissing…
Adan choked, hoping he wasn't going to get a heart attack or worse break down and cry in front of the Emperor, his own green eyes suspiciously watering. It had not happened since Shana's birth, and now it was for her again.
Once the old man had gone, actually looking decades older than previously, the Emperor pondered that sending a medical droid after him could be the right thing to do. He had been so upset at first that he dared to show his face at court, calling himself an imperial relative, certainly full of pride and demands, and yet something good came out of it. It wouldn't do for him to fall dead outside of the salon as Brendol had, years before. Except somehow, the droid called on the spot never received the order… This wouldn't happen to the cousin yet... After all, this Adan was family. Maybe it was time to reconcile with that branch. Alone, the Emperor of the known Galaxy smiled.
The thing about innocence making you all the more dangerous comes from the fantastic novel Death of the Heart (Elizabeth Bowen)
"The innocent are so few that two of them seldom meet-when they do meet, their victims lie strewn all round."