*** Chapter seventeen***
The day Padme left office and the succeeding Queen was installed to the throne was also the day Padme received her commission as a Senator in the Republic. While the succeeding Queen would always assert that she placed Padme as Senator because she was best suited, many would speculate it was to remove a poplar leader from Naboo.
The Life and Times of Amidala, the People's Queen, By: Softa Jiane, Oralist and Historian
Even as Luke brought his fist up to pound on the cottage door, Leia had real concern. Less about the trustworthiness of the person on the other side and more how they would be perceived. They were people out in the mostly unhabituated lake country, the clothes ripped and their faces grimy. If they were turned away, they would be out of options.
It took Luke a few knocks on the door before it opened. In front them, was short woman, her white hair braided into a long simple braid that travelled down her back. Her face was nearly taken over by long sagging wrinkles around her jowl and encompassing her eyes. He clothes were homespun but did not lack the bright colors that seemed to popular on the plant, though instead of the sort of bright colors that can only manufactured in a laboratory, they were softer colors that appear so brightly in the land of Naboo, green the color of grass, yellow and blue of the flowers of the ground.
"Hello," She said, her voice shaky with age but still understandable. The accent of her basic was common on Mid Rim worlds, not the stodgy formal imperial accent, but a slightly refined educated lithe.
Leia started, they did not need a discussion to decide that Leia was the more elegant speaker, more likely to persuade a stranger to take them in. "Hi, name is Leia and this Luke, we have had a bit of an unfortunate time and we seem to be lost in the lake country. Do you perhaps have Comm unit we could borrow or perhaps a way to get back to Theeds? We can more than compensate you for any aid."
The woman looked them up and down and then said with a little gasp, "The twins."
Luke and Leia shared glance, no one besides Han knew they were twins and he would not have shared, least of all with an old Lady in the back woods of Naboo. Before they could ask what she meant, she spoke again. "Please come, in I'd like to hear your story, and I think I can help you out."
She opened the door wider, so they could step in. The interior of her house was much like the way she was dressed. The furniture appeared to be made out of the same wood as the trees just outside her door and the fabrics covering the surfaces where the same bright tons of the plants of world. There was a fire in the hearth warming the little house to a comfortable temperature and creating an overall inviting atmosphere.
"I'm Softa, by the way. Why don't have a seat at the kitchen table and I'll make some tea and you can tell me your story." She said, pointing them to little cottage kitchen. It was rustic, the stove seemed to produce open flame and run by gas. There were no fancy rehydrating units or auto cookers. All the amenities that the modern kitchen seemed to have were missing. Luke had never seen a kitchen quite like it and Leia had only seen an old out of service kitchen kept for posterity in the royal palace on Alderaan with the same set up.
As Softa moved around the kitchen making tea she probed for their story. In turn, Luke and Leia told the story of how they had come to be stranded in the lake country, only altering the part where she had sensed Luke's danger from her bedroom on Theeds, instead inventing a weak story about a planned rendezvous.
"Hmm, what a story." Softa paused as she poured three mugs, "I think I can help you out. I don't have Comm unit here, we're simply too far away for them to work. What I can do is take you to Lake Town in the morning, you can catch the Maglev back to Theeds from there. My eyes are old to give you a ride this late at night."
"It's very much appreciated." Leia invoked the most gracious tone she could muster.
Softa nodded and then asked, "I don't think I got your surnames, I'm Softa Jiane."
"Luke Skywalker and this is Leia Organa." Luke spoke for both before Leia was able to come up with false names. "Before, when you opened the door, how'd you know we were twins?" Luke continued with his bad sense.
Softa pressed her lips together and said, "I wasn't aware until now."
"But when we introduced ourselves, you called us the twins." Luke insisted.
"Surely you know the history of your own name sake, I mean I know the story has fallen out of favor in the past 100 years, but their story must have stuck out in school. Surely you learned Naboo folk stories," Softa insisted.
"We're not from Naboo." Luke provided.
"Hmmm, but yet you have the names Luke and Leia, are you sure you're not from Naboo?"
Luke and Leia looked at each other. There were two different ways a person could be from somewhere. On some worlds, being raised on the planet, speaking, knowing the customs was what it meant to be "from" a world, that was more common on more modern cosmopolitan worlds and on others, worlds with old traditions, you had to be born on that world or your parents had to be. You could live your entire life on world but never be from there if you were not born there. And by the same measure you could have left the planet at a very young age, but always be claimed by the locals. Based on Softa's question, they could infer she meant latter definition. Regardless, neither could answer definitely that they were not from Naboo. In fact, the only planets they knew they could not have been born on was ironically the planets they had been raised on.
Leia, realizing a distraction was necessary, asked, "Can you tell us the story The Twins?"
"I thought you would never ask, I am an Oralist, though mostly retired these days. It would be my pleasure." Softa took a deep swig of her tea and then she started her story, her words transforming.
"Naboo, used to be true monarch, the throne passed down from Monarch to Monarch. The only thing that could disrupt one's rule was death. One day, about a millennium ago, there was a Queen, Queen Lehi and she gave birth to twins. Now, at the time, if twins were born, the older one would inherit the title of Monarch when the current ruler passed and younger one would not. The Queen knew that this sort of inequity would burden her children and being twins it would be noticeable. The Queen along with her midwife concealed the birth order of her children. Her twins, a boy and girl were Luke and Leia. Throughout the years, the Queen and the midwife would be pestered about who was older, but holding true neither revealed the secrete. The Midwife passed without ever sharing, leaving the Queen the sole proprietor of the knowledge." Softa paused to let the story settle."
"When the twins were 20, the Queen fell very ill and it soon became apparent that she could not be saved. In the days leading up to the Queens death, her advisors would stand at her bedside and ask, who's older, who should rule. And the Queen would not answer. One day, the Queen was in bed and she could feel that the end was near. And asked for advisors. 'I ready to tell you who should lead' the Queen said, her voice weak, the sickness had nearly taken her. 'The people should elect which one of my children should serve, I always intended to do myself, but how does a mother choose that sort of thing'. The Monarch had spoken, and the history books will expand on dissent and politics, but it does not matter, because the Monarch's word became law."
"And so, Naboo held its first ever election, for one office with just two candidates. Leia won the election and Luke was accepting of the results. Luke travelled the galaxy for nearly decade, and he was content. And then Leia decided she wanted family and that she would like to do so without the burden of ruling and she convinced her brother to take the throne. And Luke returned, but quickly just in three short years, he realized he was better suited for the stars. And so, the twins held counsel every day for three weeks. And at the end of the three weeks they called in their advisors they told them the plan. Two days later, the Twins stood on the balcony of the palace and gave an address to people of Naboo. They told them that neither wanted to be Monarch and they then continued that they felt it unfair such an important title be inherited and impractical that it be for life. In one years' time an election would occur and any eligible Nabooan could run for the title of monarch and the monarch would be elected by the people. Luke and Leia would go down in history as the Monarch that gave the throne to the people. Both of the names remain popular on their own, but there have been many sets of twins names Luke and Leia." Softa finished.
Luke and Leia looked at each other. As far as either of them could tell, their father had been from Tatooine. That's how Luke ended up on the Lars' farm, but their mother was still a mystery. Whoever named them must have known the story, a coincidence was unlikely, and it was even more unlikely the person was from anywhere but Naboo.
"Oh, you don't even offer you dinner. I have stew leftover. It's pretty good." Softa started jaunting around the kitchen.
"It's very much appreciated, I don't mean to insult your hospitality, but does it happen to have favttie?" Leia asked carefully.
"No, I don't care for them myself, you're not a fan either?"
"We're allergic." Leia explained.
"Well, it's good thing then that you're not from this planet." Softa put the stew on the stove so it could warm up and then took a seat at the table with her unplanned guests.
"Skywalker, right, that's what you said your name was right?" Softa asked with squinted eyes as if trying to remember.
Luke nodded.
"I knew a Skywalker once, but he was Jedi, they were celibate, so probably no relation." Softa was leading, she wanted to get facts before she let two strangers hear a truth meant for someone else.
"Apparently, not all of them, my… our… father was a Jedi named Anakin." Luke explained, he had never been shy about sharing that his father was Jedi nor that his name was Anakin, that was common enough among those that knew him well. Only Luke, Leia and Han knew what became of Anakin.
"Your mother was also a Jedi then?" Softa asked, probing, slowly, surly this was all a coincidence, a long-held desire for an alternative version history that never existed.
"We don't know, as far as either of us had ever heard, she died in childbirth. Neither of us ever met her." Luke explained whether through the force or through a shift in Softa's tone he could tell they were on the verge of something.
Softa looked at Luke and then Leia and then back to Luke and so on until she had taken in their faces a half a dozen times each. Softa could see the resemblance but…. She got up and served the stew, a momentary reprieve from the decision she had to make.
When she sat down again, she spoke in spite of her own reservation. "There's story, another story, one that's not known at all, not documented in the history books or in the official oralist record, but it's a story I alone hold."
Luke and Leia left their stew untouched even though they had done their hike without sustenance, this story seemed more important.
"You know Queen Amidala?" Softa asked.
"I read a book… you wrote the book." Realization dawned on Luke.
"I did, I was the royal historian at the time. I knew Amidala well. And if you read her book, you'd know there was a period during her time as a senator when she was under threat and she came back to Naboo to seek safety. She was accompanied by a Jedi protector; you probably know this as this has drawn the fantasy of the planet for a generation. Here's what no one knows, the Jedi's was Anakin Skywalker and they got married."
"Amidala was never married." Leia argued.
"She was married, the wedding was held right here in the lake country. My husband, late husband now, was the officiant. The next time Amidala would retune to Naboo would be for her own funeral. The thing is, is that history agrees that she was pregnant at the time of her death and that her child lies with her. I never knew for sure, but I was fairly certain the father of her child had to have been the Jedi she married. The thing that I am confused about is that fact that Anakin Skywalker's children are sitting at my kitchen table with overtly Naboo names. Now, I could come to one of two conclusions, the first, is your father, a Jedi of supposed moral superiority, would have taken another woman on the very same planet his wife was from or I could assume that Amidala's child is not resting with her and that she had two children, twins and they lived. Both options seem unlikely, and yet I am sure that Padme Amidala Naberrie is your mother."
"Did he love her?" Leia asked with bated breath, the question sitting heavy on her lips.
"Anakin was very much in love in Padme and Padme very much love with Anakin. I had never seen a love so true." Softa answered softly.
For a long moment the three occupants of the table stared at each other in a sort of suspended animation, waiting for someone else to respond. Even without confirming with each other, Luke and Leia knew that the most likely interpretation of the story was that Amidala had in fact been their mother, but their own deaths had been faked to hide their existence from their father.
"GRRRRRRR." Luke's stomach grumbled, breaking the silence.
Softa chuckled lightly, "Oh, look, don't let my story keep you from your supper, you've had a long journey, eat, eat." Softa motioned to the steaming bowls of stew she had placed in front of her unexpected guests.
Once the had fully tucked in, Softa started up the conversation again. "I don't mean to pry, well that's not true, I do, it's my nature as an Oralist, to gather stories, but I am interested. If you're not from Naboo, where are you from?"
For the first time ever, Luke and Leia told a stranger about how they had been separated at birth, had grown up on different planets with no knowledge of the other. They told the story of how Han and Luke rescued Leia from the Death Star and delicately, as if it were a dance they had rehearsed over and over again, they left out the truth of what Anakin Skywalker had become. For the first time, Luke and Leia worked out how to write Vader out of their history. A skill that would become necessary, not just for their sakes, but of the sake of the galaxy they had pledged to serve.
They did not speak of Queen Amidala or her Jedi husband again and once the meal was finished, Softa gave them each fresh homespun clothing to wear. She gave Luke clothing that had belonged to her Husband, claiming this was a better use than anything she could do with it and Leia clothes from her own closet
She showed them to soft country beds and then they settled into for the night.
In the morning, as promised, Softa took them Maglev station.
"It was really a pleasure meeting you." Softa said.
"We genially appreciate your hospitality; we'll make sure you are reimbursed in full." Leia replied.
"Dear, don't worry about, your company was more than enough. I so really get visitors. My kids and grandkids are busy, and they don't make it out often." Softa explained.
"Still, it's appreciated." Leia thanked again.
The goodbyes continued, and it was finally the impending train that broke the new friends up.
Luke and Leia boarded the train and took their seats. They looked at each other, surely this was the time to talk about their mother. Surely, they needed to process this information together, but really there was very little left to know. Their parent had been in love and had loved truly. Even so, even if they wanted to linger on the past, they needed to turn their attention to future of Naboo.