Chapter 4: Into the Dark Times
She sees him. In the shadows of the crowd at Padmé's funeral. Older now, wiser and battered, but still the same sturdy presence she remembered. As she passes him in the funeral cortège she fixes him with a gaze. Brief, only a moment, but she silently shouts at him Get me out of here.
He catches her, after, in a dark alley on the way to her sister's home. She knows too much. Whatever got Padmé killed will surely come for her, too. She needs to disappear, but where? She cannot tell anyone - no one will understand. Kenobi came with Organa, but how? Can they take her with them?
Not right now, he tells her. Play the game. Be mournful and grief-stricken as a Naboo would. Tell no lies, but give no answers to any inquiries. Settle affairs as quickly and quietly as possible. Someone will come for her. Soon. One standard month, maybe less.
She deals with Panaka delicately, playing up the grief and hysteria for the Emperor's man. For Apailana, there's some measure of truth: that her connection to Amidala now endangers her, and she does not wish any additional undue attention. All her security and personal data, any trace of her, must disappear. Status unknown. For Roo'na's protection, and for her village's. The Queen insists on a single copy, Sabé's personal copy, for preservation, for posterity, for the future.
That she becomes Senator Binks' chief aide is a lie, but a well-crafted ruse that Ellé will play flawlessly, as she's always been one of the more shrewd political minds to come out of the training program. The Queen and Typho will help her settle in.
And Roo'na. Dearest Rioona cuts her hair, packs her bag, and weeps when Sabé insists for the fiftieth time that she can't know anything, that it's for the best. The night of her rendezvous, Sabé doesn't look back when Roo'na whispers "Is'braylem tué, jirféa*. Sabéa," into the dark.
It's not until she's safely in hyperspace, on the way to Force-knows-where with Master Kenobi, that she begins to weep. She is 31 years old, has a heart full of ashes, and wonders what's left to live for.
* "Is'braylem tué, jirféa" is butchered Gaelic for "Is breá liom tú, deirfiúr" which, translated, means "I love you, sister."
