Tenel Ka stood at the fore of the arena and looked out the crowds gathered for her father's funeral. It was the largest place of convocation in the Fountain Palace complex, and it was filled to bursting with the full rank of Hapan nobility who'd gathered to pay Isolder his due respects. Per Tenel Ka's request, the ceremony was also open to all commoners, just as it had been to commemorate the death of her mother during the Yuuzhan Vong War. She was impressed and humbled by the thousands more who had come to pay respects, inside the arena and in large crowds gathered outside.

They'd spent the past day filing down the long line leading to the two coffins placed before the speaker's platform. One was long, the other small, and both were closed. Mourners had been passing by all day to touch each coffin and pay respects to Prince Isolder in the large one, and, so they thought, the remains of the Hapan heir, Chume'da Allana Djo, in the other.

There were still too many uncertainties, too many loose ends to be investigated. The Imperial attack on Dragon Queen had succeeded in killing a number of their crew with its nanovirus, and for her daughter's safety, Tenel Ka had agreed to let her be raised by her grandparents while she tried to find out which Hapan nobles had helped the Imperials in their murderous schemes. It broke her heart to have to give Allana away, but she knew it was the best way to keep the girl safe.

It was impossible to make out faces is the throng, so instead he looked to one side, then the other, at the people arrayed on the speakers' platform. To her right were high-ranking Hapan nobles and military officers like Admiral Baas and Major Espara. To her left were the people whose presence actually gave her some strength right now: Master Skywalker and his son, Han and Leia Solo, their daughter Jaina, and the dark-haired six-year-old girl who, to all the galaxy save a select few, was a Hapan war orphan named Amelia that they'd adopted to salve the wound in their hearts left by their son's death. Tenel Ka knew many of the nobles would grumble bitterly about having four Jedi in places of honor, but right now she didn't care.

A short series of speakers each came to the stand and gave brief eulogies. Astarta, her father's long-time bodyguard and close friend, recounted the time in his youth when he'd joined one of the pirate fleets that lurked in the Transitory Mists, hiding his identity and risking everything to find those who had killed his elder brother, so that justice might be done. Justice, Astarta said, had always been Isolder's watchword, and he'd never deviated from it his entire life.

Next came Leia Organa Solo. Since the death of her elder son, she'd radiating an almost unbearable weight in the Force. It carried over to her eyes as she looked out at the crowd and in her voice as she began speaking of a brave man who'd once sought her hand in marriage. Her husband showed no discomfort at all when she said she'd almost taken Isolder's office, so impressed was she by the man's innate goodness. In the end, he'd proven that goodness by defying his mother and Hapan tradition by marrying a foreign woman, a half-civilized witch from Dathomir no less, for the simple fact that he loved her.

Leia Organa Solo said that she'd been proud to know Isolder, and Tenel Ka watched from the corner of her eye as her husband nodded in quiet, solemn agreement.

Then it was Tenel Ka's turn. She'd prepared a speech for the event but as she looked out at countless expectant faces she struggled to remember the right words.

Finally they came to her. She said, "We have come here today to memorialize two great losses. One represents the past. The other is the future. In losing my father, a great man whose virtues you've already heard extolled, we Hapans have lost the best parts of ourselves: not just beauty and grace and wealth, but honor and dignity, those lofty ideals we so often mouth fealty toward but rarely live out.

"In losing my daughter and heir, Allana, we've lost even more. We've lost a chance to become a new society, a better society."

Her voice wavered; it seemed surreal to eulogize her own child when Allana was really sitting alive and well a moment away, but she pressed on, focusing on the truth behind her words.

She found her honest anger as she said, "My daughter was targeted for deliberate murder. That heinous act claimed not only her life, but the lives of hundreds aboard the Dragon Queen. The act was an abomination against all civilized law and it will not go unpunished.

"That we, as Hapans, have even allowed such a tragedy to occur speaks ill of us all. For Allana's sake, and the sake of every daughter and sister we've lost in the recent battle, we must all do better. I, as your Queen, promise I will do better. For my child, and all our children."

She stepped away from the podium and sat down. A few more speakers, including Admiral Baas, finished the ceremony, and Tenel Ka remained seated on her pearly throne as she watched the mourners slowly begin to file out.

Once she was sure all attention was no longer focused on her, she dared to look beside her at the Skywalkers and Solos all in a line, their expressions uniformly somber. Jaina was sitting the closest to her; the dark-haired woman had her arms crossed over her chest and was staring outward into noting. Her expression was stern and slim bacta-patches marked spots on her forehead, cheekbone, and neck where wounds were still healing after her fight to the death with her brother.

Tenel Ka and Jaina had barely spoken since then. It seemed impossible to find the right words, and Tenel Ka struggled to say something, anything, now.

Finally, she managed, "Thank you for coming, friend Jaina."

The other woman nodded, very slightly, but didn't respond.

Under her breath, Tenel Ka continued, "I know that your parents and… Amelia plan to leave soon. Will you be going with them, or will you be going with the Skywalkers?"
Luke and Ben were going to Shedu Maad, which Tenel Ka had permitted to remain as the Jedi's secret training ground in the Transitory Mists. Even though she was sure no one could hear her speak with Jaina, she kept from mentioning it in case some Baldavian lip-readers were hiding somewhere in the exiting crowd.

For a long moment it seemed like Jaina would ignore her entirely. Finally, she said, "I was going to try searching one more time for Zekk."

"I understand," Tenel Ka nodded.

In the wake of the battle, clean-up crews had scoured the Throat and all the starship wreckage littered there for Zekk's body. They'd found other dead but not him. The only clue was pieces of several wrecked StealthX fighters, but even then it was impossible to tell where he was. It was as though he had simply vanished, and losing him was almost as bad as losing her father and Jacen, in some ways it was worse, because they might never know Zekk's fate for certain.

Jaina dragged in a deep, deep breath and turned to fully face Tenel Ka. She leaned in close so dark hair fell in curtains on either side of her face.

Tenel Ka leaned closer too a raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What is it, friend Jaina?"

"I've been talking with my parents," she said. "There's something… we want to do."

"What?"

She took another deep breath, in and out. "We recovered his body from the Anakin Solo. It's still… in tact, mostly."

His body. They weren't going to say his name. To Tenel Ka that was a relief; she didn't even know if she should call him Caedus or Jacen. She didn't know which would hurt her less.

"We've been keeping it frozen on Uroro Station," Jaina continued, "But Mom and Dad loaded it into the Falcon before coming here. They think… They think they want to finish it here."

"Here? On Hapes?"

Jaina nodded slightly. "It's where we burned Anakin's body, remember? I think… Well, I think it would be appropriate, somehow. Sending them off in the same place."

Tenel Ka's uncertainty must have shown on her face. Jaina quickly added, "You don't have to come if you don't want to. But still… I think we'd like to do it tonight. Quietly. Privately."

Tenel Ka closed her eyes and allowed a faint shudder to run through her body. "This will be very… difficult for me."

"It will be hard for all of us."

Tenel Ka's mind flashed back through the years, to the night where they'd Anakin's body and watched his flames leap toward the stars. She wasn't sure how she felt about burning Jacen's body the same way. He simply didn't deserve the send-off his brother had received; instead of dying a hero he'd died a monster and that fact pained her to the core.

And yet she knew that if she didn't come, she'd regret it for the rest of her life. Maybe, just maybe, it would even give her some small sense of closure.

"I'll do it," Tenel Ka opened her eyes and looked into Jaina's. "But I have one question. Will your parents bring Allana?"

"You're her mother. They wanted you to decide."

Tenel Ka simple didn't know which was the right decision. On one level she suspected seeing Jacen's body disappear in the flames might calm Allana's fear of her father; alternatively, it could emblazon them forever in her heart.

"Are Ben and Master Skywalker attending as well?" she asked.

Jaina nodded. "They're family."

"Then so is Allana." Tenel Ka swallowed down tears. "We will be there for you."