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Chapter 29: The flame miniature
The week went by in a blur. Ayesha went to the Centre on Centaxday as usual, but she swapped her shift with another volunteer on Taungsday to spend the evening with Thrawn, and her friends came over for a going-away party. They brought food and drinks and plotted at length how they would revolutionize the Coruscant art scene with a collective exhibition dedicated to the use of unconventional materials, until Tam fell asleep on the couch between Ayesha and Thrawn. "I hope this fascinating project of yours will materialize," Thrawn told Kal as they walked to the landing pad. "I will be back in the new year if all goes well and I would very much like to attend."
Kal laid his son in the baby seat of the speeder. "Your timing sounds good, Capt'. Now you go and save the Galaxy, and don't worry, we'll take good care of our girl here."
On Zhellday, Thrawn returned early from the Palace and prepared an exotic dinner for Jorj Car'das while Ayesha cooked chyntuck-and-topato mash. "You'll see, it's delicious," she said, "and it's great comfort food. Ata' Messiri used to prepare it for me when I was sad." She had insisted that they invite the smuggler for dinner at her place, but she was a little apprehensive as they waited because of his reputation for ruthlessness. She was surprised when he turned up. He was a kind-looking man in his early fifties, roughly the same age as Thrawn, but his hair and goatee were silvery white, his face sagged in tired lines and there was a haunted look in his eyes. The two men grabbed each other's elbow in their right hand in a traditional Chiss gesture Thrawn had described to her and exchanged the greetings of old friends who haven't met in a long time.
Car'das finally took a step back and gave Thrawn the once-over. "Every time I see you, I can't believe it," he said with a strong Corellian accent. "I've known you for almost thirty years and you hardly aged thirty days."
Thrawn gave him a warm smile. "I could say the same about you, Jorj."
"I know far too well that it's not true," Car'das replied with a sigh. The haunted expression in his eyes briefly became more intense before he forced a smile. "I taught you the word 'flattery', remember? So I know it when I see it." Thrawn smiled again and Car'das said, "Now, instead of exchanging cryptic jokes, will you remember your impeccable manners and introduce me to this charming woman who is doing her best not to stare at us?"
Thrawn turned around and introduced Ayesha. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Car'das," she said.
The smuggler gave a mirthless laugh. "I take it that Thrawn hasn't told you our story about first names. Please call me Jorj." He laughed again at her puzzled look. "Well, then, I guess I'll have to tell you everything about the good old times, but first you need to tell me everything about yourself."
"There's not much to say," she said shyly. "I'm an artist."
Car'das looked at Thrawn before sitting on the conversation circle. "Why am I not surprised?"
Thrawn disappeared to the kitchen to fetch Forvish ale – Ayesha had taken a liking to the drink and had purchased an abundant supply for the evening – and Car'das started telling Ayesha how he had found himself in the Crustai asteroid base. He was narrating the story with great gusto but she could plainly see that he was faking it. After a first drink they moved to the dinner table, and Car'das continued talking, until he uttered the words "... and as if all this weren't enough, Thrawn convinced me to pull a crazy stunt with this nomadic race called the Vagaari and..."
Thrawn raised a hand to interrupt him. "I do not think that the Vagaari are appropriate dinner conversation, Jorj," he said with the briefest of glances at Ayesha.
"Why? I want to know," she interjected.
Car'das looked from one to the other, trying to decipher the situation. There was undisguised curiosity in Ayesha's expression, while Thrawn was giving him a stern look. Thrawn won. "Don't get me wrong, Ayesha," the smuggler said when she shot him a frustrated glare, "I'm going to spend several weeks with Thrawn on the Lost Reef, and the blaze in his eyes right now would wither one of those giant wroshyr trees from your homeworld. I'm not taking that risk," he said with another forced laugh.
The conversation turned to other topics – news of Maris Ferasi who had been with Car'das on Crustai, art, smuggling, technicalities of the two men's upcoming trip – and Ayesha started clearing the dessert dishes from the table. Thrawn sat back in his chair and looked at Car'das. "You have changed, Jorj. Something happened to you many years ago already, but now it seems to be catching up with you. You have changed."
"So have you," Car'das countered as Ayesha left to fetch the brandy. "You look... relaxed, one might even think emotional, if such a thing can be said of a Chiss. What happened to you?"
A smile touched Thrawn's lips. "What happened to me has been sitting across the table from you all evening. Do not get used to my being emotional, however. I will be all business again as soon as we are aboard the Lost Reef." His glittering eyes seemed to bore for answers in the other man's head. "I am very much afraid that what happened to you was not quite as pleasant."
"You could say that," Car'das mumbled, his fake cheerfulness gone. Ayesha returned with the bottle of cortyg brandy and three snifters, and poured a glass for each one of them. Car'das accepted it gratefully, then looked at Thrawn. "I had a close encounter with a Dark Jedi on Bpfassh sometime after the Clone Wars. He took me and my crewmen hostage. One of them he shredded to ribbons, and he took control of the others' minds until there was nothing left of them inside their heads." Ayesha took her glass from the table and downed her brandy in a single gulp, but the two men were so absorbed in the smuggler's tale that they didn't notice. "The only reason I survived," Car'das continued, "is that he needed a pilot. And also, I think, that he enjoyed having someone who was properly terrified of him."
"He did," she breathed in a hoarse whisper. "They feed on your fear, it keeps them alive. They learned it from the Anzati."
Both men turned their gaze at her. She was deathly pale and trembling, and her eyes were rolling back and forth in their sockets of their own accord. "Ayoo'sha, look at me," Thrawn said. "Look at me," he repeated forcefully, cupping her head in his hands and pulling her to face him. "Focus. You are here and you are looking at me."
The physical contact made her shudder at first but she suddenly snapped out of the trance and stared at Thrawn as if she were seeing him for the first time. "What happened?" she whispered. Her eyes travelled to Car'das and she stood up abruptly. "Excuse me for a minute," she mumbled, and she disappeared to the kitchen.
Car'das gave Thrawn a quizzical look as he got up to follow her. She retched violently over the sink, then hugged the bowl of chyntuck-and-topato mash and shovelled the leftovers in her mouth as if she hadn't eaten in days. She finally composed herself, wiped her face clean and took Thrawn's hand to go back to the dining table. "Sorry for that," she stammered, lowering herself in her chair.
Car'das studied her face. "I should get going. It's late and you need to rest."
"Not at all," she replied as casually as she could. "I want to know more about you. Tell me about Corellia. My father was from Coronet City and I've never been there."
Car'das gave her a curious look but he complied with her request. Colours slowly returned to her cheeks as he told her about his childhood and youth and described the main attractions of the Five Brothers. She nodded knowingly when he spoke of Corellians as family-oriented daredevils who enjoyed defying all odds. "And you would love the Museum of Fine Art in Coronet City. It holds most of Venthan Chassu's works, including nearly all of his Selonian nudes, as well as his last painting, Palpatine Triumphant, and it has the largest collection of Corellian flame miniatures in the Galaxy. I don't know about art nearly as much as you and Thrawn of course, but flame miniatures were always my favourite. I find there's something reassuring about their twinkle, it cheers me up," he added a little sadly.
At these words, her face broke into a radiant smile. "I like them too. I've actually been studying them recently. Wait for me, I have something to show you."
"Is this where I finally find out about this secret project of yours?" Thrawn asked as she vanished to the workshop. She didn't answer and returned with a small box that she pushed across the table.
"Open it," she told Car'das. The wrapping tissue fell apart to reveal an exquisite crystal carved in the shape of a flame, together with a small diamond-shaped one. Ayesha showed him an indent on the base of the flame. It was the perfect fit for the multifaceted lozenge, and when the two pieces were assembled, the crystal flashed brightly before settling in the warm glow of a candle, with tiny sparkles flaring up and down its grooves. For the first time since he arrived on the landing pad, Car'das lost his haunted expression and gave a smile that actually reached his eyes.
"This is amazing," he said. "It looks like a flame miniature and it feels like a flame miniature. It's actually even more cheerful than a flame miniature. But the material is different."
"It is," Ayesha said. "Corellian flame miniatures are made of transoptical fibres, pseudoluminescent plant material and Goorlish lights. I used a Rathalayan firestone instead; Thrawn got it for me last year. I was lucky; there were two crystals inside the stone, so it glows when you fit them into each other. Do you like it?"
"It's beautiful," Car'das said. He was still staring at the little flame with a smile.
"Good. I made it for Thrawn, but I'd like you to have it instead."
Car'das looked at her with the expression of a Corellian child who has been offered a mound of ryshcate. "You're serious? I can keep this?" Ayesha nodded happily and Thrawn chuckled. "Awww, thanks. This is the nicest present anyone gave me in years."
They finished their brandy and Car'das left after thanking Ayesha again for her gift. She activated the housekeeping droid and, suddenly looking very tired, she went straight to the bedroom and switched on the neuro-lamp before stripping off her clothes and slipping under the covers. Thrawn soon joined her and entwined himself around her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he murmured. There was no need to specify, he hadn't taken his eyes off her since her reaction to Car'das's tale about the Dark Jedi.
There was a long silence. "I can't, Qubshi be-khadeeb," she finally breathed. "I just can't."
She was shivering. Thrawn rubbed her chest with the flat of his hand to steady her heartbeat. "Calm yourself, Ayoo'sha, calm yourself. Barring that, I may have to resort to drastic measures to calm you down." It made her smile, and she snuggled against him. "Why did you give the firestone to Jorj?" he asked after a while.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I should have asked you. It was your present to me and I shouldn't have given it away like that. I hope you're not too upset."
"I am not upset at all, Ayoo'sha. Jorj is one of the few people I have the privilege to call friends. I am happy I could contribute to a gift that pleased him so much. I was merely being curious as to why you made that choice."
There was another silence. "There's darkness all around him," she sighed. "He's in the dark and he needs a light."
