Chapter 9: What Happened Last Night?
After being startled by bright lights, deafening sounds, and the greatly annoying persistence of her best friend, Padmé finally opened her eyes. Grumbling, she immediately rolled over and tried to fall back asleep.
"Padmé!" Sabé shrieked, hitting the bed in frustration. "You promised me you'd come do research in the Archives with me today!"
"Take Yané," Padmé muttered into her pillow.
In the next moment, she screamed as something wet and cold was splashed over her.
With an annoying grin on her face, Sabé placed the now-empty cup on the dresser and crossed her arms defiantly over her chest. "Are you coming or not? There's more of that where it came from."
Padmé groaned loudly and fell back against the bed, her body shaking and hurting in ways she hadn't felt since… ever. "I don't feel good," she moaned, covering her face with her hands, sniveling as doing so hurt.
"We didn't work out that hard," Sabé protested. In a swift movement, she pulled Padmé off the bed and struggled to hold the shaking girl up.
"What's wrong with me?"
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Ten minutes later, they were striding down the corridors of the Temple. While her friend explained the overly-boring topic they were to research, Padmé stifled a yawn and consequently nearly ran into someone. "Master Windu!" she gasped.
Fortunately, the Jedi Master did not seem the slightest bit disconcerted. "How are you doing today, Miss Padmé?"
"Well… and a little sore," she said sheepishly.
He raised his brows. "Have you experienced any more… unsettling occurrences?"
His question left her uneasy, but why, Padmé knew not. "No," she murmured, tiredly rubbing her eyes.
"Good," was his short reply.
It was only then that Padmé noticed that another young man was watching her intently from where he stood at Mace's side. Vaguely, she remembered that his name was Ferus and that he'd been their tour guide a couple of days before.
"We feel that it is necessary that you have a protector with you at all times," Mace explained, gesturing to his companion. "One can never be too cautious."
Slightly miffed, Padmé was not at all thrilled with the idea of having someone follow her about.
Angel, Angel…
"Thank you," she said hastily, giving the Jedi a weak smile. Saying nothing else, she walked past them in the direction of the Archives.
Perhaps she would find some answers there.
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Unless you love books, Archives, even Jedi ones, are very boring. If you're there to kill some time, it can create a deep dissatisfaction with one's life. Even worse yet, if the Archive Mistress is cranky, it can all become a thoroughly unpleasant affair.
Padmé soon found herself victim to all of these. The drink she'd thoughtlessly brought along had been confiscated the moment of her entrance by the Archivist, Jacosta Nu. Bored to tears, the young woman had gotten up from the hard seat from which she was supposed to be skimming books and strolled about.
Jacosta Nu watched her every movement with a suspicious eye.
Having wandered about to the history section, Padmé found her interest perked by a holocron with the title Sith Among Us. Thinking that it might contain some highly useful information, she reached out to get it…
"Ouch!" she cried out, stung when a withered hand slapped her own.
"This is the restricted section," the Archivist tittered, giving Padmé a scolding look that clearly said she doubted the other woman's innocence.
"But I…"
"I want silence in my Archives," she whispered loudly. Practically pulling Padmé out of the row, she said with a menacing tone, "I'll be watching you."
"Excuse me," a childish voice said. When both women looked down, they saw a small boy of either ages six or seven. "Are you Miss Padmé?" he asked, stumbling over his words in a typical manner of any child.
"I am," she said with a small smile. Beside her, the old Archivist sniffed but did not draw any attention back to herself.
"This is for you," he announced, shoving something into her hand. With that, the boy ran out of the Archives only to be chased down by Jacosta Nu and given a scolding for running.
Blinking and forcing the grin off her face, Padmé looked down to see what the child had given her.
A letter with the red emblem.
So great was her fright that she actually dropped the note. With a squeak, the woman bent down to pick it up, but as she stood up, footsteps were heard from behind her.
"There you are," Sabé admonished, her arms overflowing with datapads and holocrons. "We've been all over looking for you! If it hadn't been for Ferus, I'd have been stuck doing this all by my self!"
Padmé was still stunned and hastily shoved the letter into her cloak's pocket.
"Are you alright?" Ferus asked. "You look rather pale." His cold eyes scrutinized her and she feared that he could read her mind and feel her fright.
With trembling hands, she shook her head. "I'm going to retire and take a nap," she said. Already walking away, Padmé was surprised when the others did not follow.
"You just got up, though!" Sabé cried out.
Soon in the privacy of her quarters, Padmé took the letter out of her pocket and laid it on her bed. Nothing was written on its interior, yet it somehow found its way to her. She shuddered upon thinking that the Phantom had probably trapped that innocent boy.
Miss Padmé,
Meet me in the sparring room at eleven o'clock sharp for a continuation of the previous night's lesson. Tardiness shall not be met with courtesy.
AS
What had happened last night? Was this some sick trick? Perhaps seeing the healer wouldn't be such a bad idea
Crumbling up the paper, Padmé flung it into the trashcan just as she heard the door leading to her quarters slide open. One thing was certain- the Phantom was going to have to find someone else to play cruel jokes on for she was not going to go that night.
With the lights on, Padmé soon fell into a dreamless sleep.
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Just as Padmé was nodding off, a newly-fledged Knight walked past the Forbidden Room on an errand.
There is nothing in there he assured himself It's just some nasty rumor devised by a few miscreant padawans
Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound from within the sealed doors.
The Knight broke into a sweat and gasped, quickly running down the hall.
There was a dead end.
That night, the Healer's Ward had yet another addition.
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