3/26/2

Kylo comes home to Rey sitting on the comfy chair, data pad in hand, a dark, black, almost visible cloud hanging over her head.

He sits next to her and raises an eyebrow. "Problems?"

She glares at him.

"Big problems?"

"Threepio and Ellie have me reading Alderaan history."

Kylo nods. His first feeling is a sort of rush of interest. His fingers almost twitch at the idea of grabbing the pad and doing some reading. "Okay. Can I…" Her eyes narrow a little. "Or not." He makes a mental note to look it up later.

"Alderaan history was written by sadists."

"Uh…" That's got him flatfooted.

"If this were technical specs, I'd read it once, and know it. If this was theology or philosophy, I'd have to walk around so I don't fall asleep, but I'd get it. But no, this is history, of a culture where the details are interesting, but everyone has one of six names. Do you have any idea how many Organas, Antillies, Corandas, and Durragas, there are in this thing? And they've all got one of the same six first names, too. There are seven Bail Organas in the last three hundred years. Your grandfather is, I think, Bail the Eighth."

Kylo winces. That would have killed him as a student.

"But they don't use numbers. You're supposed to know which Bail it is based on context. Oh, and there are two Bail Antillies and three Bail Corandas, and…"

"Context…" he says slowly. Lips against her head.

"I don't have because I'm reading this bloody thing for the first time."

"Ah…"

She's still frustrated with the work, and says, "You didn't miss out on anything by not learning this. It's… Shit… Okay, I'm sorry." She can see that comment hit him wrong. "It's just hard, and I know I'm going to mess it up, talk about the wrong Organa at the wrong time and…"

He rubs her back. "I spent today looking at trade contracts. Millions of credits slipping from account one to account two for parts and bits and whatnot, and…"

"Wanna swap?"

"Do you?" He's genuinely interested in that. Among other things, Rey likely actually knows what sorts of things he bought today, and why those specs mattered. And maybe he could just… write up the highlights on Alderaan history for her. Which Bail is which or something. He was a competent note taker back in the day.

She sighs. "I probably need to know this stuff." Then she kisses him. "You probably need to know what you bought for the Order." He makes a face at that. "I did learn why Alderaan is peaceful."

"Big horrible war and lots of people died?" he says, gathering her close as she turns to face him.

"Shockingly enough, yes. Here's the fun part. The two main contestants for said war were King Bail Antillies—"

Kylo rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, this is only going to get better from here. So, Bail Antillies on one side, and King Renald Corada on the other."

"All right. Not too bad, yet."

"Nope. But Bail Antillies gets captured by Bail Organa, not your grandfather, who was the lead general in Renald Corada's service."

He sighs.

"So, Antillies' Queen, Breha Antillies, rallies the troops to go get him back. They fail, but manage to capture Renald. So, Renald's Queen, Breha Corada, takes the field against Breha Antillies. Her top general, also Bail—"

It's not that he thought she was exaggerating; he just didn't expect it to pile on like that. "Okay, stop, you're killing me, here!"

"It's just going to get better, there are three more Bails, and another Breha, and two Leias, and…"

He groans.

"And that's just the one war. Oh, and they're all fucking cousins."

"Of course. So, who wins?"

"No one. They fight for two hundred years, manage to kill off every direct descendant of both families, and then the crown goes to the Rollandsons, who, in an effort to soothe the allies of Antillies and Corada families name their oldest daughters as new starts to the two families, and then they destroy every weapon on the planet bigger than a hand blaster, stick both sides on different continents, and let a few hundred years go by where they only interact with each other to trade.

"By the time that was done, the Rollandsons were no more, the Antillies and Coradas were back up in numbers, and the Organas were the family in charge of keeping trade flowing.

"By the time they had the ability to travel fast and easy between continents they'd been trading so long, and getting rich off of each other so well, the peace looked like it was going to hold, so they started intermarrying again, and…"

"And peaceful, prosperous Alderaan began?" Kylo says.

"I think so. I'm just getting to the point where they've got faster than sound travel, which is making the planet small enough that anyone can go anywhere in a matter of hours. They haven't figured out how to get off world at that point, yet."

"So… no recent history?"

"Not yet. I've got two weeks to learn this stuff, though."

3/28/2

It amuses the kids to no end when Rey has 'homework.'

Granted, most of the time, she's reading up on different Force theories and ideals of balance, and philosophy and whatnot.

But, they know she's studying for this eventual visit to New Alderaan, and they did get Threepio to come back for a few hours to give them a brief history of Alderaan and why it's so important. And the few hours they spent talking about the Empire blowing up Alderaan, and the changes that came after, how that galvanized the Rebellion, and shifted it from a few people nibbling at the edges of the Empire into a full-fledged political reality, capable of manning a truly functional army and then taking out the Empire for good.

Right now, it's quiet study time. All of them have their different books, and are sitting (or in the case of Rey, Critt, and Opal, pacing around) while they read.

She's finally getting to the 'recent history' portion of New Alderaan. The parts that Threepio told her needed to be paid attention to.

So, reading, paying attention, re-reading… Thinking, re-reading again.

Threepio gave her this history. It's (she double checks) from a New Alderaan civics text book. Children on New Alderaan read this as part of their secondary education. (She half wonders if the small blocks of text interspersed with lots of pictures is Threepio trying to keep her interested in the subject, or if he's trying to give her a 'native' point of view.)

And it's not what she's expecting.

There's a whole chapter on Leia Organa, heroine of the Rebellion. It's a breathless, fawning, packed with exciting details and death-defying capers and… Well, if Han Solo or Luke Skywalker were part of what was going on, it was only incidentally, and mostly they were in the background. (Wedge Antillies, on the other hand, has four pages of his piloting exploits.)

She hadn't known that Leia joined the Rebellion in her teens, or that she was nineteen when Alderaan was destroyed. And the things in her chapter of daring-do during the Rebellion, a lot of it is new to her, but it's the sort of thing she'd expect.

It's the end of the chapter that's a surprise. In this version of the story Leia, knowing that she'd be more valuable to the galaxy working on the New Republic level, bows out of local Alderaanian politics. She gives up her birthright, and devotes her life to building a galaxy-wide governing body, and when the First Order rises, and the powers that be in the Senate refused to fight it, she re-took the mantle of Rebel, and started the Resistance.

Then follows several glowing pages about the daughter of Alderaan, the Heroine of the Rebellion going forth to fight the First Order. It ends… on a less glowing note. The author of the book doesn't know what happened to Leia, just that she vanished shortly after the fall of the First Order. The book certainly indicates that she, personally, took out the First Order, but it doesn't explicitly say that.

There's no hint that anyone besides Leia had anything, at all, to do with her ceasing to be "Princess Leia."

There are only a handful of mentions of Han, and he's referred to as her partner or consort.

There are no mentions of Ben. You couldn't find out that Leia ever had a son by reading this history. There's no mention of Vader, at least, in the sense of being her birth father. There's no mention of her being adopted.

She checks the date. It was written a few months ago, after Kylo publicly stated his birth name.

In these pages, Leia's family is Bail and Breha, and they cease to exist when she was nineteen. Her life was devoted to allowing people the power to chose their own paths, and the spread of Alderaanian-style self-governance and non-aggression.

She was the eternal glowing light. She was the human symbol of fighting oppression against all odds, and winning.

The last page is two pictures of Leia. The first is with her parents. She's young, seventeen, eighteen? Can't be past nineteen. It's probably taken just about the time she learned of her parent's involvement with the Rebellion, and joined them in it. All three of them are beaming at the camera. It's clear that she's at the point in time where life is exciting and filled with endless possibilities. The second is one where she's by herself. It's the Leia that Rey knew. Older, softer, hair brown and gray and wrapped in a utilitarian braid around her head. She's by herself in this one, and the smile is a little jaded and wry.

Rey re-reads that chapter again.

And it's not that it's wrong, but it just isn't right either.

3/29/2

It's a day later when she's got some time to talk more with Threepio.

"I got to the end of the book you gave me."

He nods slightly. "I take it you found it informative."

"I… did. Is this… Do…" He waits patiently for her to figure out how to ask that question. "Do they really believe that… about what happened with Leia?"

He'd smile, a sly annoyed one, if he could. "The ones raised on those textbooks do. It's possible that Queen Heloise might believe that version of the story as well."

Rey blinks. "But… that treaty, the one where she signed her and Kylo's—"

"Just hers. She no longer had the rights to Ben's."

Rey rolls her eyes. "The treaty that supposedly strikes her and Kylo from the succession. That's a… real thing… that exists, right? People could read it."

"They certainly could. I have a copy of it in my database. It's probably on display in the national museum somewhere. It's written to look like Leia had decided that she couldn't devote the time or attention to New Alderaan that it needed, so she formally removed herself and her son from the succession, allowing for Ania, the mother of Queen Heloise to take over. Three years ago, Ania died, and her oldest daughter took, and passed, the Day of Demand Trials, and became the current Queen of New Alderaan."

"And…" she takes a deep breath, "just to make sure, it… didn't happen that way?"

Threepio feels a surge of anger, and hits Rey with it. "It did not."

"Ah… But… If she wasn't on New Alderaan and…"

"The monarch of New Alderaan is a mostly ceremonial position. Unlike Kylo, who spends most of his working hours most days on the business of the Order, it does not require that much time or attention. At least, it doesn't have to. There is a tricameral house of representatives, seven primary political parties, and a judicial branch. If somehow, there's ever a deadlock between all of those branches, the Monarch is the tie breaker. Though, traditionally, in cases of a deadlock, the Monarch will offer up a compromise position to vote on. As of this point, there's never been a compromise that didn't get the approval, but if somehow it didn't, then what the Queen says will rule. But, other than exceedingly rare situations, that happen, on average, once a century, it's a primarily diplomatic position, both in planetary politics, and galactic politics.

"Given what Leia was doing with the New Republic, she could have done most of what she needed to do as Queen Leia, too. And, given how, especially in the early days, most of what was happening with New Alderaan was building and maintaining the image of being undefeated and alive, Leia was doing everything and more than what she needed to do in the New Republic."

"Reminding the galaxy they were still a going concern," Rey says.

"Exactly. The first thing she did as Princess Leia, for Alderaan, after the Concordance, was get them a new home world. That was the sort of thing that took more time and attention than was easy to manage as a founding member of the New Republic, though, since it involved producing a senate resolution, and networking enough goodwill for the idea to get it passed, her dual position as Senator Organa-Solo and Princess Leia were helpful, but once that was accomplished, being Princess or Queen wouldn't have been untenable."

Rey thinks for a moment. "So, the current queen… Who I'm meeting, believes the nice story?"

Threepio thinks about that. "I don't know that for a fact. Her mother, Queen Ania Antillies, obviously, knew the real story. She was one of the architects of the fall of the house of Organna. Several of Queen Heloise's advisers were there at the time, and know the real story. Whomever sent Lord Organa to poke around to get samples from Kylo absolutely knew the real story. I'd think, since they know we're coming, and since Organa met with me, they know that at least someone here knows the real version, that the odds of Queen Heloise knowing the real story now, if she didn't know then, are better than even."

"Okay, so… They don't want Kylo popping up and mucking up their succession lines, and possibly more than that, they don't want the carefully constructed, everyone happily played nice and got together to find a conducive end to things story line damaged."

"Like I said the last time we talked, image matters. And that's also why we'll get a warm… at least on the surface, greeting. Old friends gathering together to… reminisce, or something in that sphere."

"Ah… So?"

"So, we are leaving on the 10th for New Alderaan." Threepio hands over another datapad. "And this is my version of what happened. And, unlike the one you just read, this is the unfiltered, uncensored, and, more importantly, real version of what happened."

Rey takes it, thinking, and then says, "And it's how the… people who make the decisions about what happens with the treaty… Because the Queen is a figurehead, it's the people in the senate and judicial branch that actually make the decisions, right?" Threepio nods. "That's how some… most… of them understand it?"

"Certainly some, and the some that are likely higher up in the eschalons of power. Possibly most, though I'm less sure of that. It has been more than ten years since I was at New Alderaan."

"Not after Leia signed her name away?"

"Actually, no. We went several times after, there were still friendships and appearances to be kept up, but once the war began to get hot, the last place Leia wanted to draw attention to was New Alderaan."

That makes a lot of sense to Rey.

"Kylo's never been there."

"Not to the best of my knowledge."

"And… he's not in the history book." Rey can feel that Threepio would sigh silently, just the intake of exasperated breath, and the exhale, if he could.

"Rey, it is a recent history book, one designed to make everything about Alderaan and New Alderaan look good. The idea that Ben Solo, who eventually became Kylo Ren, right hand of Snoke, would be in there… No. I believe earlier versions may have mentioned that Leia had a son, but since he's been using his birth name, he's no longer in those history books. It wouldn't do to have the son of an Alderaanian hero be the Supreme Leader of a group that exterminated and entire system."

"Threepio…"

"I know he was not in charge when it happened, but, you must understand the look of these things."

The look then. "And yet, you want to put our daughter on that throne."

Threepio doesn't exactly shrug. "I think that's a possible outcome with a high likelihood of happening which would benefit everyone involved."

"What's the likelihood of it happening if you do nothing?"

"Significantly slimmer."

"So, we're… clean enough to produce an eventual Queen, but not to rule on our own."

"I didn't think either of you wanted to rule New Alderaan."

"Neither of us do, I'm trying to understand how it looks."

Threepio would blink, but he can't, so… "Fine. I understand you do not intend to continue ruling the Order for more than another eleven years."

"That's the plan."

"If, at the end of that time, you were to retire to New Alderaan, or possibly Naboo, and quietly, and then not so quietly, get involved in worthy political situations and organizations, in likely another ten years, you and Kylo could make a decent play for the monarchy of either of those planets, should an opening arise. It's, assuming the Order stays on the course it's on now, a possible play, and likely not too many people would fuss. Leia is and was popular enough on New Alderaan… well, you can see how her history is recorded. And Padme Amidala is still beloved on Naboo.

"It would look better if it were your child, because both cultures value youth and the supposed clarity of thought and innocence that comes with youth, but Kylo could make a blood claim for either throne, and if he had a daughter, put her in the running for Naboo, or make a play for her, or himself, for Alderaan.

"People will, continually, bring up the First Order, and likely Vader, and much of Kylo's past. If he were willing to do what his mother was not, rip the fragile alliance apart, and really fight for it, he could take, for himself, the throne of New Alderaan.

"In the case of a potential child, especially one who was mostly raised on the planet in question, an eventual succession is cleaner, less likely to cause strife, and should the right alliances and marriages be made, some, but significantly less fussing than Kylo would inspire, would occur. Does that give you a good idea of the look of things?"

"I think so. And for what we're doing now?"

"We go, we visit, we socialize. There will likely be a gathering of people who knew Leia well. They'll tell pleasant stories of her. They will also likely ask vague questions as to what she's doing now, because, as you likely know, Leia Organa just," and his voice catches on this, "vanished one day. Some of them may have met Ben when he was a little boy. They may also have a few pleasant stories of him as a baby or toddler."

"But not as a child."

"No." Threepio doesn't say that after the age of three Ben didn't get taken out in public much. He doesn't have to.

"Han?"

"Unlikely. Though it wasn't widely publicized, people who were watching noticed that he and Leia ceases intimate relations about fifteen years ago. They absolutely noticed that she only went by Leia Organa-Solo for three years."

"Ah." Rey's almost tempted to ask about that, but decides that maybe she doesn't need that close of a view of Han and Leia's marriage.

"I'm sure they'll show you the capitol gardens and the Alderaan Memorial. There will probably be tea. There will definitely be supper. It will be vegetarian, and will show off the wide selection of fruits and wines available on the planet."

"Great." She sounds slightly put out. Threepio looks, as best he can, curious. "I don't… I get drunk really easily, and that's bad for something like this, right?"

"It is. You only have to have a sip of each, and there are medications that can prevent your body from metabolizing alcohol if you want to go in that direction."

"Really?"

"Yes, I understand that they generally don't recommend it unless you're going to a culture where the ability to drink everyone else under the table is a status symbol. The side effects can be unpleasant."

"What kind of unpleasant?"

"Hot flashes, uncontrollable sweating, tremors in the hands and feet, blurred vision, and drooling. Leia only used it when it was completely unavoidable."

Rey recoils at that. "It sounds a lot like being drunk."

"It is, but your head stays clear, so you get to remember it, and you'll stay upright and won't get alcohol poisoning, no matter how much you imbibe. I understand the hangover is just as bad as it would be otherwise, though."

"You're right; I'm not interested in doing that."

"Indeed, just a sip or two, and intersperse them with food and whatever else there is to drink. Likewise, since New Alderaan has an ideal climate for tea plantations, asking for tea will likely be perfectly acceptable. I'm sure you'll be fine."

Rey offers a slight smile. "Just kick me under the table if I'm going wrong, okay?"

Threepio sounds startled as he says, "I couldn't possibly—"

She holds up a hand to stop him there. If Threepio won't, Ellie will. "What else happens?"

"I'm not sure. We don't have the finalized itinerary, yet. We'll get that closer to time."

"Okay."

Threepio puts his hand on the datapad. "Read, Rey, and then think about the difference between what's in here, and what's in the text book. The text book is how New Alderaan wants to be seen. This is what it is. It's the job of a good diplomat to make sure they always know both of those things, and balance between them, keeping the host country convinced that you see the textbook version, while understanding what's going on under the textbook version."

"Do I ever let it slip that I know the real version?"

"Sometimes, to the right people, in the right situation. I would not be shocked if we'll have a private meeting with someone who is not the Queen, but is one of her high up advisers, and that'll be a person who will hope we only know the textbook version, but will, the moment they see me, understand that you know the real version inside and out, and possibly better than they do."

"Will that… cause trouble?"

"Only for them."

"And that private meeting, is that where we'll really talk about the treaty?"

"No. It's probable we won't actually talk about the treaty. After all, they won't have had the time to really read it. That's the meeting where they'll try to figure out if Ben is going to make a play for New Alderaan. That's the meeting where they'll see if the House of Organa is going to rise again. The treaty is… not unimportant, but it's a layer of shiny veneer over the real reason for going. They want to make sure Ben is not going to try and take over, and you're going to make sure they know that while his current plans are not aimed in that direction, if he were to ever decide it would be to his advantage to control New Alderaan he could do so without having to fire a single gun."

"And then…" she's thinking, "they'll get nervous?"

"Maybe. As best I can tell, they should. But, it's possible that whomever we may speak to may be interested in the House of Organa rising again. When Samath Organa came to call, I had Artoo do a bit of snooping, and not everyone loves the House of Talmash or the House of Antillies. Or, at least, not their current members. So, it's possible that plans within plans may be attempting to resurrect the House of Organa through this move.

"However it is, you'll suggest that in addition to non-aggression, that perhaps open immigration between the two populations, and a recruiting station or two, and maybe, if they're feeling… amenable, full free trade recognition would be in order. It won't get hashed out, and you won't demand it, you'll just… theorize, or possibly Ellie or I will, in their direction.

"One, and possibly more, of the three of us will paint an image of our two societies happily flowing along together, in a very peaceful, prosperous Alderaanian sort of way."

Rey thinks she's getting it. "We'll do that as a way of suggesting that's the sort of thing that makes sure Kylo Ren doesn't suddenly decide he wants to be King of New Alderaan, in addition to Master of the Order. But it's not in the treaty, and won't be… until a later draft?"

Threepio nods. "That is part of the idea, Rey. The other part is, it genuinely is to the benefit of New Alderaan to have extremely powerful friends who are armed to the teeth and desire their long and fruitful survival. Alderaan was able to be Alderaan because by the time anyone outside of their system could muster a threat, they were beloved of much of the galaxy, and founding members of the Senate."

Rey's feeling… she's not sure. It's like being in the cave seeing a billion versions of herself stretching onto infinity. There are so many ways this could go, so many possible ramifications, and deals that may last hundreds of years, and…

Threepio lays his hand on hers. "You will do this, and you'll do it splendidly. You handled the K'Arans with grace and poise, and you will do this just as well. I'm not sure I believe in destiny, Rey, but if such a thing does exist, I think this might be yours."

She smiles a little at that. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He glances to the chrono. "And if I'm correct, it's getting onto when you're in charge of supper?"

"You are. I need to get moving."

"Come see me when you finish the real version."

"I will."

Rey's not paying too much attention to supper. She's reading. And while she does so, Jacen sidles over, bopping her hip with his. "Something's got you interested."

She looks up and offers a quick, tight smile to him. "Something."

"Gonna tell us?"

"Do I need to?"

"I'm behaving. Your thoughts are in your own head right now."

"Remember yesterday, Threepio came by to talk about Alderaan and New Alderaan?"

He nods.

"More homework. I'm learning about Kylo's mom, and how she ended up not being Queen of Alderaan."

"Oh. You look like it's interesting."

"I think so…" She looks back at the pad. "And maybe not just for my visit there week after next."

Jacen raises an eyebrow.

She shakes her head. "Still rough ideas. I'll share when I've got them more smoothed out."

He nods, and heads back to his rice, making sure to turn the heat down before it boils over.

It started, at least according to Threepio, easily. Senator Organa of the New Republic didn't get back to New Alderaan very often. As often as her father ever did, but her mother had lived, full-time, on Alderaan, and that's, generally speaking, where people prefer their monarchs.

At home.

Being… Queenly.

And, well, she was sharp, and sarcastic, and she didn't have the picture book marriage or child.

There were whispers about finding someone who would… look better… someone who could… 'devote' their full time to the needs of New Alderaan on New Alderaan.

(After all, while it was true that setting up the Galactic Republic, and the Senate, and figuring out it's charter, and the thrust of the government and how centrist it should be, and who could be members and… All took quiet a bit of time. And were, of course, vitally important. But, maybe the person doing that on New Alderaan's behalf didn't have to be their monarch.)

And it's not like Leia had the only claim. The best one, but… There was her cousin, Almath Organa. (It makes Rey smile to imagine Threepio's thought process as he directly quotes Almath Organa in saying, 'Fuck the fuck off and die. You can pry my ass out of my shop with a crowbar when I'm dead,' when he was asked if he'd like a turn at monarch.) And well, he didn't want it. His sons, younger than Ben, were also a possibility, but… Their potential turns might come later. (As evidenced by Samath Organa's current position.)

But Breha's mother had sisters, and one of their offspring had survived. Jaxon Talmash. And, of course, the Antilies clan had surviving descendants. And when Jaxon Talmash married Ania Antillies… Well, it wasn't the first time those two houses had commingled.

So, there were, options.

And it's true that Leia was stressed. She was fighting hard in the senate. The tighter the central control, the more the Republic could do. The more useful it was in creating a good life for everyone under it. The tighter the central control, the harder it was to get people to join and stay. The Old Republic had inertia on its side. People didn't just leave, because they were used to being members, and reaped benefit from continuing to play along.

That was not true for the New Republic.

So, Leia was stressed, and she was distracted, and… Well… "reasonable" people pointed out who her father truly had been, and what he and his had done. And they nodded to her hardline centrist positions when it came to military matters. And whispers began to flow from ear to ear about how, maybe… Leia didn't need to be their Queen. About how… when he was young, and passionate, Anakin had been a crusader for good, but eventually, something went… wrong.

And she was sharp, and she was sarcastic, and she didn't compromise as much as she could or, maybe, should. And… she kept harping about 'dangers' and the need for a defensive military force. Hadn't the Emperor sung that song?

Could the Queen of Alderaan really afford to be a… militarist? A battle commander? The whispers suggested that blood will out, and Leia didn't actually deserve the name Organa. Organa died in the genocide, and somehow, Leia wasn't with him. Somehow, she'd been in the custody of Vader, and somehow she'd survived.

Another whisper began to circle though other ears. Because, when removing a monarch, bloodlessly, it wouldn't do to whisper the same message to everyone. Rumors and gossip need to be tailored. So, while some were starting to look at the child of Vader with new eyes, others were contemplating if Leia actually wanted to be part of New Alderaan.

After all, how interested in it could she be? It had been more than twenty years at that point, and she still hadn't formally cemented her title. She didn't live on New Alderaan. Her family didn't live on New Alderaan. They rarely saw her 'consort,' and had never seen her son.

How can someone claim the mantle of queen if they aren't willing to put their family on the land they claim to rule?

How could someone who didn't have roots in the community, rule it?

It, as best Threepio could tell, took five years. From first whisper to the day that Jaxon Talmash showed up to 'have a chat' with Leia.

He explained that, if Leia signed the, nice, oh so polite, papers, that she would be able to maintain her seat in the senate. After all, by the laws of the Senate a planet needed 50,000,000 people on it to have a seat in it's own right, and her seat was appointed by the government of New Alderaan, and offered as a courtesy because of the Genocide of Alderaan, and it's important history in maintaining the Old Republic.

And Leia, who was ever the deal maker, ever the politician, took the document, read it over, nodded, smiled, offered tea, spoke politely about New Alderaan current events, and asked to have the time to speak to her consort about this at length, to run it by her advisers.

Leia, of course, knew what she was doing. If Jaxon could hand her this document, let alone put it together, she no longer had popular support at home, and going back and regaining it, would have meant abandoning the much more important work she was doing in the senate.

There was something coming. The outer rim regions were reporting trouble. Ex-Imperials were starting to vanish. Whispers of something called The First Order were starting to filter through their spy networks. She couldn't afford to lose the Senate position, which meant she had to play nice with New Alderaan.

But she didn't have to play that nice. The document handed her was designed to remove her and her son from the line of succession.

Concordance Day, Ben's birthday, ABY 23 was seventy-four days away. She 'didn't get a chance to talk to Han' for fifty-five of them. That ate up a good bit of time. But not quite enough.

When she spoke to Jaxon again, and she told him she would be willing to abdicate. They could have a formal signing ceremony, and she'd pass the title on with grace and honor. But, as one of the primary heroes of the Rebellion, she was completely swamped in obligations until after Condordance Day.

Jaxon didn't fuss. The last thing anyone in his cohort wanted was a long, messy fight.

Maybe they didn't know Ben's birthday. Entirely likely, Leia and Han had never publicized it.

Maybe they decided that it didn't matter. That having her go ahead and graciously sign the documents mattered more than the legal standing a future Ben Solo might have.

And maybe, playing a longer long game than expected, perhaps several of the would-be queenmakers, setting Ania Antillies on the throne, decided that keeping Ben Solo on the list of possibilities, but not actually having to deal with him, was an ideal way to manage the future. After all, just because Ania looked good now, did not mean she wouldn't be good later.

And thus, in a blooming garden, with the flourish of an actual pen, on a physical piece of paper, and what certainly looked like a genuine smile, the house of Organa fell.

Rey finishes reading. She knows there are lessons here. Things she should see. Easily. She feels like she should see the practical applications of what Threepio's offered her as easily as she sees Kylo sleeping beside her.

But she doesn't.

Shadows, hints of ideas. They aren't solid, and she's… not easily focusing on them.

Not yet.

You will. She's not sure who's voice that is. It's as much a ghost as the shape of what that lesson is supposed to teach, but… It's real. Probably.