Palpatine woke, but kept his eyes closed. He sensed she was near, smelled cooking on the fire. He felt clean and warm, yet knew he was not at full strength. When he felt her near him he opened his eyes. "I lived." he said, his voice unexpectedly hoarse.
"I am glad to say you did. It was a rough two rotations though." she said placing her hand on his forehead and closing her eyes.
"I was...I've been out for two days?" The surprise in his voice was not fake.
"Yes," She replied gently, "But you are well now, albeit probably fairly weak."You've suffered no permanent damage." Fay said leaning back, offering him an arm to help him sit up.
Palpatine took her arm, and as she predicted he felt weak. "Have you been up all this time?" He asked, making eye contact with her, doing his own appraisal of her status. She looked strong and focused, no worse for any wear his care might have taken. Impressive.
"More or less," Fay replied with a chuckle, "Are you hungry? The locals brought me some small game from their hunt. I prepared a stew with it to help you regain your strength."
He nodded, "I'm starving, though I am sorry to have been such an imposition these past days. I feel so guilty." he gave her his most charming smile.
Fay moved off the bed and went to her stew pot, "A life is worth a couple of hours inconvenience, Sheev. As a senator, I would hope you'd feel the same."
His eyebrows raised in amusement, "Touche, my good Fay. Please just indulge me as I poorly attempt to flatter a beautiful woman who so diligently cared for me. I woke, "He paused when she handed him a bowl of stew, nodding his thanks, "clean and smelling of soap, not sickness. I am in fresh garments, the bed has been changed. I have seen people supposedly in love not so well cared for. To be honest, my late mother did not care for me half as well, ever." He paused again to eat some of the stew, which he moaned in delight of, once swallowed he looked directly at her, "I sit before you a weakened man, who now wrestles with twin desires."
He saw her roll her eyes and grin, "Oh dear, dare I ask?"
He held up his hand, "Hear me out, Fay."
"Do I have a choice?"
"Not really, "Palpatine said, giving her a charming grin.
"Very well." she said sitting on the dirt floor next to the bed, "Tell me."
He took in a small breath, and grinned, "Part of me wishes to pay any price to have you as my advisor, at my side to help me lead my people." He paused, trying to read her reaction, he pursed his lips in disappointment when her face remained neutral.
"That is a noble enough desire, what is the second?"
"The bigger part of me would have me seduce you and make you my bride, and keep you at my side…"
Her face remained neutral as she spoke, "That option might save you and your government a good deal of money."
He feigned being appalled, "You wound me, Fay. It's not about the money, it's about the partnership. With you at my side there would be peace. Surely, you would save me from myself and make me a better man." He watched her to see if there was any temptation at all, and then struck with a tease to diffuse the seriousness of their negotiation, "And don't judge me by my state when you cleaned my body. I assure you that at complete health I am...fully operational."
She laughed softly and blushed, shaking her head, "Oh, I didn't...I used, the...Force to…"
He threw his head back laughing, really laughing. She had used the Force to protect his, and presumably her, modesty. What innocence and purity, wrapped in what seemed like unlimited power. He doubted she could be turned to the darkside, but he could use her in other ways. When his laughter died down he sighed and took her hand, "I will not press you or beg, but you said yourself that you felt the Force within you pine for me. Think on it, search your feelings." He grinned, "Though I suppose that I should be offended that it does not seem to be a temptation at all. Do Jedi forbid love?" he asked pretending not to know.
Fay's lip curled into a small smile, "I heard no talk of love, Sheev, only possession. Both of your twin desires only include possessing me, the second just saves you money and grants you access to my body." Fay paused, "You must be a formidable senator. You have a way of making it seem as if there are two choices, when truly you offer only one."
He finished his bowl and sat it aside, sliding down to sit on the dirt floor with her. She was impressive, and he was patient. "Your beauty is only exceeded by your brilliance. Naturally, either option is exactly the same, I grant you. The result is also the same, and surely you can see that. With you at my side, I could be...a better man."
"You have several days here to regain your strength. I will meditate on the offer to go with you back to the core, if the Force moves me it will be."
He nodded, "That is fair. I do not believe the Force brought us together for no reason."
"Did you get enough to eat?"
"Yes, it was…like everything connected with you thus far, divine." He replied gazing at her warmly, his mind already trying to plot ways to influence her to choose him. "Your eyes, were they always silver?"
"No, ages ago they were brown, but the Force changes things."
He nodded, "Yes, I have heard. I heard a legend that the dark Jedi...the Sith, I believe they are called, their eyes become," he paused as if to think, "A red...or yellow I believe. Though, I have never seen a Jedi's eyes change. They all appear normal colors, not like yours, which are stunning."
Fay rose slowly taking his empty bowl and hers, she turned from him and paused, "You aren't used to, um, attempting seduction of a woman are you? Given your power and influence, I have no doubt you've had many women of substance fall to your charms with ease. So easy in fact, the instrument has grown stale."
"If you strike with your lightsaber as hard as you strike with your words, then no foe can stand before you." He said genuinely stunned and amused by her candor.
"My tongue is my weapon, Sheev. I carry no lightsaber. I mean no offense, it's just an observation."
He held out his hand to have him help stand. When she did he leaned into her. It was delightful that she did not carry a lightsaber. He did, normally, but only to moch the Jedi. She apparently believed as he did, that the Force itself should be weapon and tool enough.
"Then don't make me play games, Master Fay." he said taking her hand, "I do desire you, as I have already said."
"Don't you think I am a little old for you? I am centuries older, you know, " she teased.
He huffed, "Don't toy with me, Fay."
"Forgive the jest, please, but your words sound like...a Sith I once knew. You speak of ownership, and desire yet again, but not of love. You see a powerful Jedi who is aesthetically pleasing to your eye, beyond that you do not know me, nor I you. You've been delirious for the past two days and awake passionately in need of me." She said gently patting his chest where he placed her hand. "Who is truly toying with whom?" With that she nodded to the chair, "Sit a while, I must go into the village with medicine. I will return shortly."
Fay pulled away without another word. She placed the bowls beside the stew pot, grabbed her pack and left before Palpatine could speak.
The Sith took the seat she indicated, his physical strength waning from the toll the poison had taken. She wasn't wrong, in some ways, about his seduction instrument seeming dull against her. The people he corrupted, even the best of them, weren't hard to turn. Politicians, soldiers, even some Jedi-a few careful words, a seed of doubt, and they were clay for him to sculpt. It was artless how easy it was. This woman, this pure Jedi, that would be a true conquest. With her he could shed his Master and move forward with his plans of Sith domination much sooner. Beyond that, her knowledge of the light side of the Force could aid in him in his quest for immortality. If she was simply a human centuries years old with the face and body of a youth of twenty then she could hold the key to turning back his own clock. He didn't just want her. He needed her.
Palpatine closed his eyes, he needed to meditate to gain his strength back and to find some path that might bring her to his side.
When Palpatine opened his eyes again the sun was much lower in the sky. He looked to the door just in time to see Fay's shadow approaching. Taking in a deep breath, he already felt stronger from his meditations so offered Fay a genuine smile as she entered.
"Your color looks good," she observed immediately, "You must have rested well."
His smile broadened, "I did, thank you. I was waiting in hopes that you might help me get out and walk a bit. The fresh air would do me good, I believe."
"As you wish, Sheev. Perhaps after the walk I will make a fire outside so you can sit and look at the stars. I find the night sky as rejuvenating as the midday sun, only more calming."
"That sounds charming." He said moving carefully to stand as he held out an unnecessary arm to Fay. "Shall we?" His warm smile broadened when she took him in her arms to help steady him.
"You surprise me with your strength, Sheev. I have seen the pirate poison cripple men half your age and double your physical strength." She said wrapping an extra cloak around him with her free arm.
Turning toward her to help her dress him he found his face in her hair, she smelled of alien flowers and purity, and an almost ozone quality-like kyber crystals before they bleed. "I had a good physician, and a strong will not to disappoint her."
"Then I am thankful for that." She let him lead them out the door at his own pace.
"You said earlier that you knew a dark Jedi, the Sith I believe they are called. I have questions about that, if you don't mind chatting as we walk."
"Of course."
"First I must ask, what do you think of these dark users of the Force. I'm afraid the Jedi I know see them as something of a legend. I believe the word they use is...extinct."
"They are not extinct." She said matter of factly, "If the council of masters were not blind they would know that it could not be so."
Her answer shocked him, "Really? How is that?"
"You are a well learned man, how familiar are you with lore and legends of the Jedi?"
"Not as well versed as I would like, the subject fascinates me."
"There is a story of a powerful Jedi woman who lived long ago. She and her lover lived on a planet in the outter rim. Her lover became ill and no medicine could cure him, he was going to die of his affliction. She could not heal him, so to keep him alive she used all of her force ability to put the planet they lived on in a Force shield of pure light and life. The planet became a paradise. It was lush, green, full of food, and wildlife. And her lover hung in a limbo, neither well nor dying. She held the planet like that for years, until one day, unable to bear his existence any longer, he took his own life." She paused and looked at Palpatine, checking to see if his stamina was holding. He stopped walking and turned to her, gripping her tighter than need be to feign the need to be near her.
"What happened then?" He asked, truly fascinated by the story.
"She left the planet and turned to the dark side. The planet lingered in that lushness for about a year after she left, a testament to her power I think. Then, because of the complete lack of balance between the two sides of the Force, the entire planet fell into darkness and ruin. Legend has it that where the Jedi's lover killed himself now sits a powerful Sith temple. So you ask what I think of these dark side users…." She helped guide him to sit on a fallen tree to give him rest, "I think that if I exist, and the Jedi council exists, then they too must exist or we in our quest for the light have the greatest potential of doing more harm than the Sith ever could." She said placing her over-cloak over his shoulders and sitting next to him.
Palpatine sat silently watching the shadow of sadness pass over her silver eyes. Her answer was much more fascinating and complex than he had expected. In honesty, he had assumed that with her saint-like quality, he expected her flat refusal to accept any darkness at all in the universe. "This truly saddens you?"
She stared up at the stars in silence for a few moments before turning to Sheev, "Does it sadden me to think that if the sun shines too brightly and never sets that it will kill as surely as if the sun sets and never shines again? Perhaps. Truly what I see that gives me reason for some grief is that…" she stopped and shook her head, "There are ten-thousand Jedi attempting to make the universe lush and green, by their will. What will come next?"
Sheev nodded. He understood that she was, in a way, foreseeing his rise to power coming, whether she realized it was him or not. "The Jedi say there is a prophecy that one will come to restore balance to the Force."
"I know, I was taught that as a youngling." She replied with a sad smile, "Many among the ranks long for that, but I do not believe they understand the price it will exact from them. What must be done will be done, in the fullness of time."
Palpatine saw her shiver and took it upon himself to put his arm around her with the cloak she had given him, "What of you?" he asked, "What will you do? How can you make a difference in this? Would you turn to the darkside to aid in returning the balance?"
The warmth of his arm was welcome in the dying light of the day, but she found she could not look at him as she spoke, "A bird cannot become a fish nor a leopard cat yearn to eat grass. I am what the Force has made me by my surrender. It is my hope, that by that surrender, I am doing my part for balance. By acting only when and as the Force wills it, I am fulfilling and will fulfill my destiny."
Palpatine could suddenly see the perfect symmetry of her saving his life. "Yes, yes, I do believe you are." he whispered in a low baritone. "Which is why I think our place is together." he lifted his hand to gently touch her chin and turn her face toward his, "I may not be a Jedi, but I long for balance in this universe so we can have...peace."
"If that is the will of the Force, Sheev, then it will be so."
Again, it was not the answer he wanted to hear, but one he should have expected.
"Come, let's return to my home. I will fix food and if after you eat you still have the energy I will make the fire I told you about."
He let his hand drop from her face and gave her a charming smile, "Yes, of course."