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"There you are," Mr. Bacca said when she finally found her way out of the building.

She offered him an apologetic smile. "I met the Princess! She wanted me to accompany her for a while."

Helping her into the carriage, he nodded. "Ah. I've known her a long time. She is not the kind of person one says no to," he agreed. "Ready?"

"Yes." He shut the door and she settled back, thinking. The legendary Princess Leia was smaller in stature than expected but her manner certainly matched what Rey had heard about her. Did she go to the assembly every night? Did she have to watch her son oppose her, serving Snoke, every day? Did he still attend now that Snoke was gone?

He must. She had seen him in the building, and Rose had said he caused quite a bit of trouble after… well, after she left him. Why had he been sitting there all alone? What would he do next?

Her heart pounded so she pushed that thought away. Should she have told the Princess the truth about her brother? About the real reason she had taken B.B. away? Ben was right – she had no place in this story and didn't know how to react to any of these important people. It was a relief to go home and sink into her own bed. In the morning, she would teach B.B. and she knew how to do that. Perhaps she should stop helping Master Dameron in the evenings. It would be nice to go back to the way things were, after all.

The next day passed much like many of those before it. B.B. was a delightful student, as always. Rey allowed herself to be involved with the work Master Dameron and Finn did in the afternoon but was glad to see them leave without her. Their proposal had been shot down, which hadn't been a surprise. So they worked on a new approach. She helped where she could and played with B.B. after they had left. Supper was more enjoyable with the girl than it would have been on her own, then she spent the evening reading fairy stories.

A predictable routine was just what she needed to sooth her frazzled nerves. It was easier not to think about Ben or his mother, or what Master Dameron spent his evenings fighting for. Keeping it an intellectual exercise was preferable and she did not think about how what they were doing might be received by people like that man Hux. There was growing unease in the house as Master Dameron and Finn became more and more frustrated with the lack of progress in Parliament, but Rey pretended not to notice. So long as the rioting did not repeat, she was not particularly worried.

Or so she told herself, anyway.

One morning, she rose early to find Master Dameron and Finn still awake, speaking in low tones in the library. Her curiosity overran her good sense and she lingered nearby to listen. But their voices did not carry, so she went inside with the excuse of looking for a book.

"Oh! I'm sorry, good morning," she said in feigned surprise.

"Rey, come look at this." Master Dameron ran his fingers through his hair and looked exhausted, gesturing briefly toward the page in front of him. Finn was, as ever, standing nearby, with a dour look on his face.

She moved toward them quickly and leaned over the table to read the document. It was a proposal not unlike the one they had presented before, but with several changes and addendums. Frowning slightly, she considered these. They seemed to make the reform something that would be more palatable to the other side, without sacrificing the intent of the thing in the first place.

"Where did you get this?" The handwriting was unfamiliar to her, so she knew they had not written it themselves. If their general demeanor hadn't given that away.

"Do you think it works?" Finn asked, looking at her intently after shooting Master Dameron a quelling look when he started to answer.

She looked at it again, pursing her lips as she considered it more closely. "I think it maintains the changes you determined were most important while appeasing some of those who oppose you. It looks like a few prominent members of their party will lose their offices, though, so I'm sure they will not vote to ratify."

"See? Hux will never allow something that makes him lose his power," Master Dameron insisted, clearly continuing the conversation she had interrupted.

She frowned at the paper. That was true – Hux seemed to enjoy his position far too much to allow it to be taken away by this document. Perhaps the others on his side might accept it, but not with his influence. "Is there no way to get around him? I mean, the whole point of getting rid of the rotten boroughs is to keep people like him from having so much power."

Master Dameron and Finn exchanged a look. "We can't," Master Dameron said sharply.

"We have reason to believe that the leader of the other side will vote to support this," Finn explained.

Master Dameron threw up his hands and Rey glanced at him, confused. "What reason?"

"Finn, listen to me. You've only met him, what, twice? Three times? You don't know him like I do. He won't vote to lose his position any more than Hux would," Master Dameron told him, sounding exasperated.

Rey tried to ignore the way her heart had started to pound. "Who?"

"Then why did he send this to us?" Finn countered, though he sounded far from certain.

"To bait us? Who knows!"

Unconvinced, the younger man looked back at the document with a furrowed brow.

"Look, Finn. Snoke is gone. I don't know why, but I don't expect it was because he wanted to retire. More likely, Ren got rid of him to take over. And while I'm sure he'd be very happy with Hux out of the picture, I can't imagine he'd allow his own district to be broken up and reassigned. No, he has some plan and if we do this, we're just going to fall into it."

Finn didn't respond right away, considering his friend's argument. Master Dameron looked relieved to have finished what he had to say and sank back into his chair. Both of them were clearly exhausted and silence filled the library for a while.

Finally, Rey cleared her throat. The two of them looked up at her, perhaps startled that she was still there. "Who wrote this?" she asked quietly.

"Kylo Ren." Master Dameron practically snarled the words and she felt a confusing sensation in her chest as her heart soared at the thought of Ben reaching out, but she feared her employer might never forgive him.

"And he gave it to you?"

"He sent it, this afternoon. He wasn't at the assembly tonight. Last night," Master Dameron amended, rubbing his temple.

"Do you think it's a trap?" she wanted to know, turning to Finn.

He let out a sigh. "I think I know very little about him and what I thought I knew must not be true for this to be real. Or for him to be manipulating us," he added, glancing at Master Dameron. "No, my friend, I know it's something Snoke would do. But I…" With a shrug, he got slowly to his feet. "I know what it's like to switch sides. And how hard it is to do without help."

Master Dameron opened his mouth, then shut it again, looking hard at Finn. "Alright. Maybe you're right, Finn. But maybe you're not. I suppose it doesn't matter. This is a good bill, it might even get passed. If it is a trap, I think we should try to figure out what we're not seeing that would make it so instead of trying to figure out a man none of us really know."

"That's true," Finn agreed, frowning at the document thoughtfully.

Rey wished she could say something to convince them, but she had a feeling that revealing her own connection to Ben would make them suspicious of her more than anything else. So she held her tongue while Master Dameron insisted they get some sleep and the two of them took their leave of her. Then she settled down to study the document and determine if perhaps it was the olive branch she had been hoping Ben might extend.

If this proposal passed through, quite a few party members would lose their appointments or have their influence significantly reduced. This was true of both sides, and it looked like the ones who would lose power were among those that were the hardest to appease anyway, according to Finn. Hux, for example. But Kylo Ren would lose his appointment as well, since there was virtually no one living in the desolate corner of the country where his estate was. And where Master Skywalker's estate was.

Why would he do that? Was ruling the country not all he had hoped it would be when he'd offered it to her? Perhaps. She wouldn't let her hopes get up too high, but she allowed herself to smile.