Authors note: Hey all, I had really hoped to have this chapter finished before now, but life had other plans the last 9 or 10 days. I'd like to say the next will come sooner, but I would rather not! It is started, however!

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Special thanks to my Kenobi fangirl and my TLS fan!

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Chapter 12

Kindred

Kiya almost felt useless. That was something new for her. Ordinarily, she didn't stop moving from morning until night. Today, she was supervising. She stood to the right of the doorway, leading into Jiliac Desilijic Tiron borrowed chambers. Kiya watched as Toroga carried the tray of decanters filled with brightly colored alcohol toward the sideboard near the table. The foldable screens were taken down and leaned against the wall. Later they would be placed around the room for ambiance, as Bib Fortuna put it. The large fishbowl full of klatooinian paddy frogs brought to this chamber when Jiiliac arrived was moved to a small round table near the sideboards as well. The staff would serve their Hutt masters directly from the tables in this room. The kitchen was still one server short, even with Kiya. This gathering meant Porcellus would have to assign specific servers from his depleted staff to carry food upstairs. Kiya couldn't help but feel bad, and even more so, where all she had to do was stand around and watch preparations.

They'd opened the pool where Jiliac had bathed that first day and drained and refilled it. She had helped place an array of pillows of various shades of deep reds, blues, and yellow about it. Incense already burned in a tall wooden towers on the ornately carved stands around the pool. Three similar platforms to the one Jiliac slept on had risen from the floor since Kiya left this morning. More curtains of the same color and embroidered with either gold or silver thread hung about them—pillows like the ones Kiya slept on were scattered around the platforms' edges. Yarna told Kiya this morning that each Hutt coming would travel with their own servants. Kiya assumed the pillows were a place for them to sleep.

Bib Fortuna found Kiya in the kitchen just as she finished breakfast this morning, with a long list of instructions. He told her he would check her progress when he could. So far, she hadn't seen him. Not that she was complaining.

Two more of Jabba's guards appeared in the doorway, carrying another sideboard.

"This way," she said.

Kiya hurried across the room ahead of them as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She turned, so she faced them, taking a step back, her hips nearly rested on the stone table. She gestured to a spot on the sandstone floor beside the other.

"Thank you," Kiya said once they set it down. Neither guard acknowledged her words, just turned, and left the room.

She grabbed a long fabric runner from the table and made her way to the sideboard. She placed it on top. The soft threads slipped under her fingers as she stretched the embroidered material out. The balance of earth-toned colors and more vibrant hues blended well with the various tapestries hanging about the room and on the wall directly behind the sideboard. Kiya's gaze drifted up to the image of some long-forgotten battle between Jedi and other forces. Everything adorning this room was a testament to its makers' skill, but this particular piece fascinated Kiya. Every bit as much as the lightsaber handle. A lone Jedi stood in the forefront of the image. Her green lightsaber up, she had short blond hair and teal eyes. The long pale green cape she wore was thrown back over one shoulder and flowed out behind her. It was apparent she was a warrior. Somehow the tapestry maker managed to catch the determination in her eyes and the set of her jaw.

Kiya went back to stretching the runner out on the sideboard so that both ends hung evenly off the sides. All Kiya could surmise, were these touches were Bib Fortuna's idea and not Jabba the Hutt. Jabba had a taste for works of art and beautiful female humanoids from what Kiya had seen, but this kind of detail wasn't the Hutt crime lord's purview. She doubted Jabba would even notice unless it suddenly stopped happening.

Kiya made her way across the room to the dais where Her Ladyship slept. Her soft-soled slippers tapped faintly against the floor. She bent down beside the pillows where she slept, plumping them. Once she had finished with the side she slept on, she moved to the opposite end of the platform. There was something almost decadent or exotic about this room now.

Today she wasn't quite so scantly clothed; Melina Carniss left Kiya, dark grey linen pants. They fit loosely with cuffed legs and had slits on the outside of each leg down to her ankle. At least they were pants and not another sarong. She wore a cropped v-neck shirt of the same color. It ended halfway down her ribs and had crisscrossed straps over an open back. Yarna pulled all of her hair together at the back of her head. Once it was all pinned into place, the Askijian dancer wrapped a thin blue silk ribbon over the crown of Kiya's head, pinning it to the hair at the base of her skull. She had also added a touch of dark color to her eyes. She'd never really worn makeup before, and her eyes were itchy at first. Bib Fortuna had instructed Yarna to take extra time with Kiya's appearance today. Apparently, it was more critical that Kiya look the part of a handmaiden with other Hutts arriving.

XxX

Boba Fett stepped through the open doorway into Jiliacs chamber. With so many sentients freely moving in and out of the room, Boba Fett had told the she Hutt he would keep an eye on things. He couldn't stay, however. Jilaic had wanted him to, but Jabba needed Boba Fett elsewhere. One of the two Hutts arriving today was Jabba's son. Rotta was young, barely more than a Huttlet but Jabba wanted him here. He said it was important for his son to be here and start learning the way things worked. Jabba wanted Boba to keep an eye on security. The compromise was Dengar. He was going to guard the room; Boba Fett would remain until the cyborg arrived. The Hutts would leave in the next couple of rotations, and then Boba Fett could go back to taking care of other things. First of all, capturing that Krayt. He had decided to enlist the help of the Chiss swoop bike rider Jabba employed. Everyone thought Spiker wasn't the brightest of beings. It was a show. Spiker would jump at the chance for a chunk of that one hundred thousand credits. To ensure his silence, Boba Fett just wouldn't tell him what they were doing until they left.

Boba Fett reached up, touching a button on the side of his helmet turning on the scanner. He turned his head, slowly sweeping the room for any devices. His attention moved slower as it passed over the slave girl. He had seen more than one listening device planted on a sentient in his life. The girl wouldn't even have to know it was there. He finished his sweep finding nothing, then slowly made his way around the room's perimeter. Once he had circled the room, he shut the scanner off. Boba Fett took a place against the wall by the pedestal where they displayed the lightsaber. The position gave him a clear view of anyone who entered the room.

The slave girl knelt nearby, arranging silk pillows around one of the platforms. She had watched him as he made his way around the room.

Dark color smudged her lashes and around her eyes, making them even more assertive. This chamber was being changed into an opulently decorated boudoir, silk curtain, and pillows everywhere. The smell of exotic spices hung in the air. She was being turned into one of those decorations even if she didn't realize it yet, just like every other female that would adorn this room tonight.

If this was like other Hutt gatherings, entertainments could progress into things that might shock her. If they didn't, it was because Jiliac was here. The Hutt matriarch had little use for recreations that involved humanoid females.

The slave girl stood up, looking at him over her shoulder before she started fussing over the curtains.

XxX

Kiya rearranged the drape of one set of curtains. They hung between her and Fett, and she watched him through the sheer material. Her mother always told her she growled when she was irritated. Kiya certainly felt the need to growl right now. No matter what she told herself, being close to him made her uncomfortable. Try as she might to make it otherwise, he was one of the most unnerving sentients she'd ever seen. She was still pretty confident that it was mostly a byproduct of his ever-present helmet and the fact he rarely spoke. Take those things away and look at him subjectively, and he was really one of the smaller of Jabba the Hutt's retinue. He was maybe two or three inches taller than her, and she was only five foot five. The blue-skinned male with glowing red eyes and spiked red armor was at least a good foot taller than her. Yet most gave Fett a far wider berth than the other male. She also knew his reputation was supposed to be by far the most terrifying aspect of his persona. Reputation could also be misleading. She didn't, however, doubt his was warranted.

Refusing to stand there anymore, Kiya cleared her throat and stepped out from behind the curtain.

If he wanted to stand there so silent and stoic, she would talk. Her attention moved to the lightsaber. Kiya glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Have you ever seen one before?" she asked, waiting for him to look at her. She nodded toward the pedestal when he did. She didn't wait to see if he would reply, however. If she did, she might lose her nerve despite her bravado. "My grandfather did. During the Clone Wars."

He made no reply, but that wasn't the point. "Florrum is where he was, I think. There were two; he said they were amazing." Again, it didn't matter if Boba Fett responded, she wasn't going to tiptoe around him. The memory of her grandfather's story took her. He was there to see the pirate Hondo Ohnaka. "He said one was a young Togruta female. He said she was tenacious and unimpressed with Hondo."

Kiya moved closer to the pedestal, unaware the edge of her mouth hooked up. "This one belonged to a Wookie." there was a touch of wistfulness in her voice. "My grandfather said when the Jedi died, it was like hope died."

He snorted loudly. "Then he was a fool." the edge to his voice brought her gaze shooting to him and dragged her back to the present. Kiya stared up at Boba Fett, confused for a moment, her brow furrowed. "The Jedi were not the stuff of bedtime stories," he added.

Kiya's brow furrowed even more. She never said they were.

"If the Jedi and the Republic truly valued freedom and life so much, tell me why they grew an entire army of clones to fight and die for them," he added before she could speak.

Kiya stared into his visor, taken by surprise again.

"Let me guess; you believe the rebels are right as well?" he spat contemptuously.

She would never have expected one such as him to have an opinion, but he obviously did. She weighed his words. "I believe we are talking about two vastly different things," Kiya began, shaking her head. "On one hand, you're right. I know you are about the clones. The disregard for life, especially on the part of the Jedi Council, was wrong." She started with a shake of the head, "but weren't they ultimately a tool of the Empire?" It was definitely a questionable action for those who, as he said, valued life and freedom so much, but everyone knew they had butchered their Jedi masters in the end.

She was right, Boba Fett knew that, but the empire had simply taken advantage of the inhibitor chips the Jedi who commissioned them had had implanted in their neural cortex to control their behavior.

"The rebels, however, I don't think are wrong." Kiya's gaze fixed on a point over his shoulder. She was silent a moment before she went on. "Maybe some things aren't as simple as outsiders think they are." her attention returned to him.

Boba snorted again, his jaw tightened even more. This was priceless. A rebel sympathizer capable of seeing the grey, morally ambiguous area of a question when it suited them. His empty hand contracted. He wasn't surprised to see she made excuses for the rebels, but again she betrayed her ignorance. He stared at her, his eyes boring into hers through his helmet. She couldn't possibly be that naive. No one was. Maybe he should tell her he wasn't an outsider. That he had been there, that he had seen the noble Jedi firsthand. If he did, it might be enough to make her reveal herself with just a simple look. There was also a chance she knew all about him and his past and was toying with him even now. "You speak your mind freely for a captive," Boba Fett said, shifting closer.

She was silent for a long moment. Something flashed through her eyes, she didn't look away from his visor. She lifted her chin as she had before. "Maybe that's because I have no interest in remaining one."

Boba Fett continued to stare at her. Those words were honest. It was tempting to grab her arm and drag her off and make her tell him if she was a spy. He could force her to tell him whatever he wanted to know, and he wouldn't have to touch her to do so. She liked to pretend he didn't intimidate her, but Boba Fett knew it was all a show. His fingers twitched, and he took half a step closer.

Someone stepped through the door, drawing both their gazes.

Kiya's attention moved back to Boba Fett for a brief moment before she moved toward the Aqualish coming through the doorway carrying a large green hooka. His bulbous eyes on her. Another slave followed him through the door with a purple hooka. Kiya bit her lip, doubtful where to have them placed. "Set them on the sideboard," she would have to ask Bib Fortuna where to place them later.

Kiya saw someone move out of the corner of her eye and turned just in time to see Fett exit the room. The cyborg that Kiya believed was named Dengar filled the doorway with his back moments later.

Boba Fett met Dengars amused gaze as he stepped through the door. The irritation he felt grew as one edge of the cyborg's thin lips lifted, his eyebrow raised. Luckily for himself, for once, Dengar kept his thoughts to himself. Boba Fett's irritation didn't lessen as he headed back down the stairwell. Dengar had heard at least part of his exchange with the slave girl, but it wasn't just that that had his blood up. It was her. He had to start his security sweep. Rarely did anyone provoke him like the slave girl just had. Let alone where others could hear. It was also rare he came across someone so willfully ignorant, his jaw tightened more.

Boba Fett dismissed his thoughts of the girl. Her stupidity didn't matter; he had other things that needed his attention. He was even more sure that Bib Fortuna was planning something imminent. It wasn't to do with Rotta, though. The Huttlet might be his father's heir apparent, but Jiliac and her own child were larger obstacles. If the child died, that ensured no competition for the Desilijic clan leader when Jiliac died. There was always the chance Fortuna had found out where Jiliac hid the child, but that wasn't it.

The more clear and present target was Jiliac herself. Her offspring would be defenseless afterward.

XxX

Kiya hurried down the hallway that led to the dancer's pit. She moved out of the way, squeezing herself to the wall so two guards could move past her with the crate they carried. So far, the day had seemed to fly past, despite Kiya's feeling useless. Bib Fortuna had sent her to freshen up," as he put it. He said he had left a box in the dancer's pit with Yarna. Kiya was determined not to think about her exchange with Fett earlier. She hadn't seen him since he walked out of the room this morning. She wasn't sure that she wanted too but somehow, today, it felt like she'd rather know where he was. She had somehow hit a nerve.

Kiya shoved thoughts of the man Mandalorian armor aside yet again. She hurried through the door into the pit. The place was teeming with activity.

"There you are," Yarna said, offering Kiya the box Fortuna had left for her.

"Apparently, I'm now a hairdresser," Yarna said.

Kiya paused, looking about the room for Sarita.

"She's already upstairs," Yarna offered.

"Is she?" Kiya asked, not wanting to finish the question.

"Not today or not as of yet today."

Kiya nodded and sunk into the chair, opening the box the Askijian gave her as Yarna unpinned the ribbon from her hair; nestled inside the case were a small silver armband and several silver bangles.

Yarna gave a low, slow whistle. "Look at those," she said as Kiya slid the armband over her right wrist and up her arm.

"I guess it's important I look the part," Kiya said with a shrug.

Yarna let down the sides of Kiyas hair as Kiya slid the bangles over her left hand.

"Do you think Nola's father will return today?"

Yarna's hands stilled. She met Kiya's gaze in the mirror. "She told you he was on Nar Shadda," she said after a moment.

Kiya nodded.

"Nolo is dead."

Kiya turned in her seat, looking up at her friend. "But I thought he was a scientist, " Kiya said, not wanting the words to be true. Deep down, she already knew they were.

"He was."

"Jabba forced him to come here and work for him when Nola was six."

She had been here for six years. That was as long as Kiya had been a slave. "How old was she when he died?"

"He died two years ago," Lyn Me said, drawing Kiya's attention. Kiya's stomach turned even more.

"She told me he left her here with you when he was away," she said, looking up at Yarna.

"He did," Yarna confirmed.

"Does. Does she know, " Kiya began with a shake of her head. "Does. Does she understand he's dead?"

"She knew, but… It's like she…" Yarna's brow furrowed more. "It's like she pretends he is coming back."

Kiya turned around in her chair again. There was nothing that made losing your parents better, but at least she had had her grandfather. Still, she'd felt like she was suffocating every day. She had felt it all over again, years later, when she lost her grandfather. She couldn't imagine being orphaned in a place like this. Kiya reached up, brushing a tear from her eye. She was feeling it again now.

"We all take care of her. Watch out for her," Yarna said, pulling Kiya's attention back to her. "Even Carniss."

Kiya met Yarna's gaze in the mirror. "She was the same age I was when I lost both my parents."

XxX

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