…~oOo~…

3:45 in the morning. That became the set time that the King's protocol droid woke up the inner circle slumbering inside the royal apartments. Amidalo had to be on the throne and ready to hold court by 6 in the morning Galactic Standard Time each day. So, each of my manservants had to be up and moving by 3:45, attending to the long list of tasks that needed to be performed each morning in order to bring forth the image of Amidalo and his manservants—all by one hour before the crack of dawn.

On Naboo, the part and the politics went hand in hand. Nothing remained too minute to address. With the people's faith so shaken after Rélàta's reign, which was largely considered to be a corrupt one, Amidalo must be even more perfect, even more the pristine HoloVid king I had created him to be.

Being King rather than a manservant had its benefits, too. For one thing, King got to sleep in. I got all the way until four fifteenin the morning.

Lucky, right?

Thankfully, my team remained on it their various roles, even at such early hours. Soon after receiving their acceptance into the inner and outer circles, the manservants had begun dividing their talents to different tasks within my service.

In addition to being my most personal attendant, Tsaben orchestrated the ongoings of the other eight as a manager of sorts. It was with him that I discussed Kingly matters in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep, he who I trusted most deeply, and he who always remained by my side during court even as other manservants rotated in and out. We had a budding friendship, too, even if it was a strange one.

Rab began his work as wardrobe master. He orchestrated clothing of all kinds, from mine to the manservants'. Anything that touched my skin besides the one Refugee Relief t-shirt I'd taken with me from home was under Rab's command.

Young Sashan knew political theory. Most importantly, he was an expert on the finer points of politics and traditions in the courts of Kingly reigns centuries ago that I just hadn't had the time to study. Naturally, we agreed that certain traditions should be left in the past, but his suggestions often held great merit. Contrary to popular belief, Kingly and Queenly reigns on Naboo highly differed in their politics and courtly life. Since there hadn't been a King for a solid century, Sashan's expertise was invaluable; people were very rusty.

When it came to the protocol and mannerisms, it was all Eritam. He was a rather stiff-spined fellow, as I soon discovered, set in his ways and in the determination that I should perform every point of etiquette to a 't'. He annoyed me, but he had jumped in front of the droid to protect the hologram King. When he got in the passionate throes of lecturing me on one fact or another, like the determination that a soup spoon absolutely must be held this precise way or else the galaxy itself would end in fiery fury, I worked to remember that.

Finally, Yan proved an engineer at heart. Though a competent bodyguard and skilled with a blaster, his true skills lay in making the weapon rather than wielding it. Panaka had practically kissed Yan when he began suggesting various alterations to the palace security to make it better and me safer, like adding a few blasters into a new secret compartment in the throne. For some reason, Panaka seemed wholly convinced some imminent disaster might befall me at any minute. So, Yan made him very happy indeed.

The four outer-circle manservants, Felan, Adan, Holl, and Kilk Dareed rotated through various positions as was proper until one of the inner circle decided their role. Soon enough, Holl became a steadfast secretary to the inner circle and, indirectly, to me. Felan began using his musical talents to compose pieces to go with my reign. (This, according to Sashan, was absolutely imperative; every King had had a theme or more. I tried to tell him I didn't care, but then he got all pouty about it. It was easy to forget he was only twelve, the youngest of us. So I relented.) Kilk was an expert on martial arts and unarmed combat, and apparently spent a lot of time beating up the others in training. And Adan varyingly advised me along with Eirtam and Sashan on protocol and politicking.

So, though the hours were early, we invariably proved a well-oiled machine. For the most part.

"Hey. Time to wake up, loser."

I moaned and buried my head beneath the pillow. This was a dream. A nightmare. I just knew it. This was the same way and the same words Sola used to wake me up.

Only Sola had never given a sigh and said, "O-kay," in a vaguely ominous, sing-song way. My muzzled mind had moments to muse on this fact before the ice-cold water drenched me to the core.

"Aaagh!" And I was up and swearing viciously at Tsaben, who retained utter mildness.

"Breakfast," he said with a bow, "Your Highness." And then he left.

…~oOo~…

I'll tell you the truth. Rab scared me, sometimes. I don't mean that in the sense of, Oh, yes. Haha. He scares you, King Amidalo. Excellent joke. I mean it literally. The boy proved himself somewhat mad when it came to clothes.

"Arms up!" Rab chirruped at five AM that same morning. I obliged, allowing him and Adan to wrap the sash of golden silk around my waist and then drop the robe sleeves down through my arms.

Together with the help of Sashan and Adan, Rab had been designing an entirely new wardrobe for Amidalo. Having called my previous styles "drab," which for him clearly verged on stylistic blasphemy, he'd actually burned all my old outfits left over from the election period in the palace furnace. It'd apparently been a whole thing where he gathered the manservants from both the outer and inner circles, gave them a lecture on why these clothes should never grace the form of the King again, and then tossed each outfit subsequently into the flames with various comments like "shameful" and "look at this" and "just no". Though, I'd learned about this only after emerging from the shower wearing nothing but a towel and looking for the day's outfit in my suddenly-empty closet.

"Oh, yes! There it is!" Rab declared once the vestments had been wholly secured and I was allowed to move again. He sighed out, though it seemed more like the relief of one suddenly and happily healed from a chronic pain than anything else. "Much better."

Tsaben, who all week had been begrudgingly submitting to fittings by Rab since he was my closest physical match, raised his eyebrows and then gave Rab a nod, an evident peace offering. "You were right. It is good."

"I'm so glad you feel that way, because we'll have more fittings after lunch each day while I get together the next piece for the Summit." And any peace Tsaben felt or offered evaporated.

I turned to the full-length mirror, ready to put a good face on things for Rab's hard work; the fashion of the Kingly role never interested me much. But on seeing the figure looking back at me, I stopped short. The pants had been woven of some kind of shimmering golden silk which blended with the sash that tied the brocade robe, and everything about the reds and oranges of the shirt seemed to suggest fire, almost like Amidalo flickered with the flames of his resolute will. The King's face was pale, and perfect, and complemented in full by each of the garments.

Amidalo, I thought, amazed. Yes. This was Amidalo.

"It's… incredible, Rab," I said in Padmee's voice. "Thank you. I think… this is just what I'll need for the summit."

He scoffed, waving a hand dismissively, though I caught his hidden smile in the mirror. "You'll do fine regardless. But I am very glad that you like it, because for the next three days after tomorrow we have to fit the rest of your wardrobe for the Summit. So, you'll need to be up by three."

As I took several deep breaths, I caught the shadow of Tsaben's gleeful grin in the mirror.

…~oOo~…

As per schedule, court convened at exactly six AM. The advisors scurried in, taking their seats with varying bows and curtsies. Soon, Bibble followed. It was he who addressed me first, as was proper:

"Your Highness. Good morning. Preparations for the Anti-Corruption Summit are proceeding on schedule, except for a few details…" Bibble began to lay out the issues so far. Originally, when I'd presented the idea of this summit, gathering all Chommell sector governments together and creating new anti-corruption laws, Bibble had fought me tooth and nail. Soon, I'd realized his aim: once he had finished fighting me, the other advisors (some of them on the payroll of the Plasma Miners or other special interest groups) would have no grounds left on which to object. It was brilliant. "—and that about sums it up," he concluded.

"It sounds as if we are making very good ground indeed," I intoned in the King's voice. "Is is an honor that so many from the Chommell sector have accepted our invitations to aid in this effort to fight political corruption in our worlds. When will Senator Palpatine be arriving?"

"The Senator's aide said that she should be here by tomorrow morning at the latest."

"Excellent. I am certain that she can help resolve the issue as relates to the Karlini governor." I rose from my throne, and those in the cabinet rose with me. "Now, Governor, if you would, I wish to see the preparations that have been made for the opening banquet first hand."

Bibble bowed. "As you wish, Your Highness." And I swore I saw a twitch of lips from him, too. Satisfaction.

It was always good to gain further allies.

…~oOo~…

A/N: So… forgot to put an author's note in the original chapter lol. I am clearly tired.

Challenge 1. Favorite part and/ or line? 2. What do you think will happen at the Anti-Corruption summit? 3. How much detail about Amidalo and the manservants would you like to see?

Thank you all for reading and for your support.

Until next time,

Rivkah