Any remaining trace of dampness from their cavernous excursion earlier was quickly deteriorating as the small tram whisked the three through another dark tunnel. Though Elena's hair had been pulled back into a taut braid, she had to fight a few loose strands that whipped around in her face along the way. Koril sat beside her with his arm tightly around her shoulders, but thankfully he didn't seem to notice her vain struggle. He was staring at the tram's floor in front of him, apparently lost in thought.
Finally giving up, Elena looked up at Deilia who was standing at the controls in the front of the tram. The mysterious nature of the Ghost Heirs had baffled Elena, but at the same time fascinated her. How could they live their whole lives with very few others knowing about or even interacting with them? The whole concept was so foreign, so difficult to gain perspective on, that Elena had to force herself to focus on something else.
Back in the dry cave where the two of them had briefly spoken with the Rys'tihn Ghost Heirs, Koril had easily become embittered, more quickly than Elena had seen him become before. He seemed to be wrestling with more than just the revelation of his Ghost Heirs' identities, but something far more personal. She wondered if it had to do with his lack of knowledge of his family's operations; if that wasn't behind his anger, it was behind hers.
The tram began to slow as the light in the tunnel intensified, presumably indicating their arrival at their destination. At the front, Deilia powered down the tram, and it came to a soft stop just in front of a series of ascending stone steps. Without a word, Deilia clambered off the tram and up, touching a panel on the wall that illuminated the long staircase. Koril followed his sister closely, though he had to carefully monitor his own ascent up the uneven steps. Elena used the Force to heighten her senses, allowing her to flawlessly navigate her way up.
Deilia touched another panel at the top of the stairs, and it slid aside to usher them into a comfortable home that bore an obvious resemblance to the Rys'tihn Manor in its floors and wall designs. A few black stone statues bordered the hallway's entrance in which they were standing, and a dozen paintings lined the walls beside them. Deilia strode between the statues uninterestedly, walking down the hallway in a brisk pace as she spoke to them without turning.
"This is the Rys'tihn Retreat. Do you remember it, Koril?"
Though both Elena and Koril struggled to keep up with Deilia, they walked side by side with their hands locked together between them.
"Vaguely. I think we only came here once when I was four or five."
Deilia turned down a connecting hallway and disappeared, but once they had caught up with her, they stepped inside a room devoid of its neighbor's vibrancy and saw her standing at a table, bent over a small box emblazoned with the Rys'tihn Crest. Touching her pendant to the box, Deilia straightened and held the box to Koril.
"The spare crests are kept here, opened only with another." She lifted its lid and after Koril had taken hold of it, she pulled one pendant from the tangled mess of seemingly hundreds more. Silently Deilia closed the box, pocketed the pendant, and returned the box to a nondescript shelf in the bland room. With a smile, she turned back to Koril and Elena and resumed her brisk pace, leading them out of the room and back into the hallway. Deilia's smile hadn't done anything to alleviate Koril's mood, however, so Elena once again took hold of his hand, wordlessly expressing her support. He had begun to speak when Deilia caught their attention up ahead.
"Dad was hoping to give it to a museum, but he never could find a place that would truly appreciate it..."
At the end of the hall, Deilia was standing beside a perfectly spherical opaque stone that sat atop a solid black stone pedestal. A soft light was shining up through the half-meter wide stone from its base, catching and refracting light in pockets of...
Elena gasped in awe.
"That's a Hoth diamond," she breathed, amazed. "I've never seen one so..."
"Big?" Deilia finished for her. "It's the largest known single stone to still exist today. Other larger stones were found in the past, but they were quickly divided up and sold for profit."
"Jaala gave it to Dad a day or two before she died. I didn't know he had hidden it here..." Koril added, sounding distant as he gazed at the glowing sphere. Without provocation, Elena felt him tense beside her, and his eyes suddenly sharpened as he focused on Deilia and spoke pointedly. "Was there a reason you brought us here, Deil?"
Deilia stood motionless, expressionless, her gaze locked with Koril's. She nodded slightly after a long moment and led them through another hallway to a large study. On an interior wall was a large display screen connected to a half-circle console. Deilia sat at the console and punched in a series of codes, bringing up a detailed diagram. Seemingly frustrated, she stood and walked over to another console, though again, she appeared defeated. She turned back to them and sighed.
"Cade sent us over here so I could show you a message from Dad - Merli'il," she corrected herself for Elena, "but I can't find it. You two can stay here while I look for it in the other comm room." Deilia swiftly left without even glancing at Koril, and he seemed to ignore her, as well. He sat on a bench against a window, holding his head in his hands as he supported his upper body on his elbows.
Elena felt her stomach tie into a knot. As much as she hated seeing him so distraught, it pained her more to know she had little power to help. Intent on doing what she could, she sat beside him and gently put a hand on his shoulder.
To her surprise, he spoke first. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, his head still lowered in his hands.
She made her voice as tender as she could. "Koril, what's bothering you?"
After a moment, he sat up, resting his back against the wall behind them. He kept his gaze on the floor between his feet, though, his hands on his knees.
"Apparently I was the only one left in the dark," he began, sounding more resigned than angry. "I just can't help but wonder...if anything my father ever told me was true."
Feeling her heart sink, Elena slowly took hold of Koril's hand, holding it between both of hers. He eventually turned and met her eyes, finally allowing her to see his pain.
"I can think of a few things," she said lightly, and she smiled a little when he looked at her with cautious curiosity.
"When Rech and I first met him," she smiled more, "he hardly stopped talking about you, and the way he talked about your flying skills, I thought that maybe you had taught them to him first." Koril looked back down at the floor, his expression more relaxed. He still didn't smile, though, so Elena continued even more quietly.
"He was very proud of you, Koril."
At that, Koril's hand tightened around hers, and although his eyes remained on the ground, she could tell his spirits were lifted somewhat.
"I also know," she continued, "that he loved you very much. If you believe nothing else, believe those two things, okay?"
Koril lifted his head and met her eyes again, nodding as she saw the slightest hint of a smile beginning to soften his face. She leaned against him, and they both rested their heads together for a long, quiet moment. Thankfully, Elena felt his tension ease as he seemed comforted by her touch, and even though she knew he still had other issues to resolve, he at least was conscious of her support.
Together they stood from the bench and wandered about the room, inspecting the various displays that Deilia had left behind. The largest screen was alight with thousands of lines spreading and branching down, some ending earlier than others. Each line had a name and brief information under it, and beside her, Koril confirmed her suspicions.
"The Rys'tihn Family records," he said quietly. Elena nodded, scanning the various names and progressions of lines while Koril sat at the console and began searching the archives. Within a matter of seconds, a smaller set of names were displayed and just as Koril was about to investigate further, he picked up a datapad that was resting on the console beside him. Curious, too, Elena bent over his shoulder to look at it and frowned.
The entire text was written in Paneau, the planet's primitive character script. Elena instead watched Koril's expression as he read over it. Only after his face fell from a slight grin to a look of dread did she interrupt.
"What does it say?" Noticing that the script was more commonly used than she had previously thought, she made a mental pledge to learn its translation to Basic.
Koril glanced up at her hesitantly, only answering her after she intensely held his gaze.
"It says...that this is a list of the remaining prophecies to be realized." He looked back down at the datapad, scanning over it. "They don't make any sense, though." Elena watched his eyes read the same line repeatedly before he read it aloud.
"'Only with the death of a Jedi friend does the fallen king return to save his sovereign.'"
Elena's own expression fell, too, realizing what she understood the prophecy to mean. The "fallen king" was Veon Banarecc, but what Jedi did it condemn to die?
"What else does it say?" she asked carefully. Koril looked it over again, shrugging as he struggled to understand what he was reading.
"It...talks about Jec becoming Paneau's greatest king, about Rys'tihns descending from Black Ice, about alien, soulless evil ending the longest era of peace..." After a moment, he looked up at her again, only this time seeming remorseful. "Elena," he said quietly, "we can't know this."
"We can't act on it," she corrected him, rubbing her forehead. Divining future events via meditations and visions had always been a tricky realm of Force studies, and as she had never dealt with them directly before, she was unsure of how to proceed.
"Deilia and Cade seemed reluctant to tell us specifics back in that cave... Maybe we're not supposed to know these prophecies."
Elena nodded after a moment, taking the datapad from Koril and setting it back on the console beside him. "It's probably best they don't know that we found this."
Just as Elena had turned back to Koril, Deilia strode back into the room, carrying a small holoprojector.
"Sorry about that; it's been a while since I've been through here." Oblivious to their change in attitude, Deilia stepped up beside them and set the projector on the console in front of Koril, powering it up to begin playing its message.
A miniature Merli'il Rys'tihn appeared, hovering over the projector. Even through the message's static, Elena could tell it was an older recording; Merli'il sounded...younger.
"Forgive me for not doing this myself, but I need your help, Koril," the message began. "Before she was killed, your aunt confided to me that she had made an important discovery concerning our ancestry. She wouldn't tell me specifically, but I suspect it has something to do with a stray Heir that appeared in our records some centuries ago. Trauger Rys'tihn's father was never identified, though it wasn't necessary since his mother Aeona was the first Rys'tihn of her generation to have a child.
"I think Jaala somehow had identified Trauger's father and traced him to Hoth. She had compiled a lot of information, but we were never able to acquire her things after her death. What I need you to do is travel to Hoth, meet my contact Horatio Sheridan there, and he'll give you Jaala's belongings. Horatio's information is in this holodisk.
"Again, I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to take care of this, but I'm sure you understand." With a wry smile, the holo disappeared and its projector powered down.
"I still don't understand what's so imperative about knowing one Rys'tihn Heir's father who lived hundreds of years ago."
Elena clicked her saber on, checking its functionality after traveling underwater with it. Its familiar snap-hiss was a comforting sound for her to hear, as was the gentle hum of its formidable purple blade. She powered it back down as Koril climbed into their landspeeder's pilot seat beside her.
"It sounded like it was important to your father, and to your aunt," Elena answered him as they took off for Dalon. "I thought you'd want to know, too."
"Well, I do," he confessed. "But the timing is what's weird. Why give me this mission now? I just met them, and they send me away to Hoth?"
Elena stared ahead in thought. The request was a bit strange. Sending him to gather his aunt's things almost 12 years after her death was odd enough, but right as he was planning to help the new young king? It was almost as if they were trying to steer Koril away from some kind of danger.
He seemed to be following the same train of thought. "You don't think..." he began, glancing at her as they sped through an open field. Elena shook her head, wary of jumping to conclusions.
"I don't know," she said honestly, "I'm not sure what to think of them."
Koril waited a moment before changing the subject slightly. "If I went, would you come with me?"
Elena couldn't help but smile. "You know I'm from Hoth, right?" Koril held her gaze, smiling a little himself.
"Your hands don't let me forget it."
She looked down, embarrassed. She couldn't control her body's response to her emotions. When she felt a feeling, almost any feeling, so strongly, her skin cooled more than the average human's as she became immersed in memories of home. Her face was the exception; she could tell her cheeks were warm with blood as she blushed.
Koril took her hand and locked her fingers with his, effortlessly navigating the landspeeder with his other hand. He watched her face. "Well, would you?"
Elena thought for a moment, though she already knew her answer and would have answered him immediately were it not for other obstacles. She was still unsure of what Master Skywalker had in store for her pertaining to her discipline, and she wanted to at least stay on Paneau for a few more days, during which Jec would be crowned king. Koril seemed to understand her hesitation.
"We don't have to leave immediately. Even though I don't have official duties, I'm not going anywhere until after Jec's crowning."
Elena nodded and smiled after a moment. "If I can, then I will." Koril smiled, too, returning his attention to the landspeeder's controls. He seemed to have forgotten his previous concerns, relaxed with the thought of traveling with her. She, too, was comforted, imagining returning home after not having seen her parents or her brother for almost a year. They would be excited to see her again and meet Koril.
Koril's other hand broke into her thoughts, fisted and held in front of her. "Here," he said simply, and dropped a Rys'tihn crest necklace into her open palm. Elena frowned.
"Koril, I really don't think they're trying to keep you out of some kind of danger. Why are you giving me your crest again?"
Koril kept his eyes locked on the terrain ahead as he brought a hand up to his own neck and fingered his crest which was hanging at his collarbone. "It's yours."
Elena stared down at the jeweled crest in her hand, studying it closely as she hadn't yet before. The brightly colored stones were set in the pendant's solid metal base, with thin silver strands weaving each color together in an elegant pattern. Regardless of the history behind them, the pendants themselves were beautiful enough on their own, boasting priceless gems over the entire front surface. Elena always felt a bit uncomfortable wearing Koril's as she had a few times before, since they were worth so much, but after seeing the box full of dozens of others just like it, she felt a little less self-conscious. She reached up and clasped the pendant around her neck, looking down at it as it rested atop her light, sleeveless swimming shirt.
Koril grinned, glancing over at her. "Just don't lose it," he teased, repeating his only concern he had when he had first given his to her for safe keeping. Elena laughed lightly and shook her head, looking out to the beautiful green field they were traveling through. A mountain ridge followed alongside them, bordering the field and guiding them toward Dalon, Paneau's capital city. They were still several hundred kilometers from the busy city, but Elena guessed they would make it back before dark.
The rest of the trip was quiet, though Elena's mind continued to tumble the prophecies around in her head as they passed through Dalon's bustling streets. Was it an accident they had found that datapad? Had Deilia left it there intentionally, or had she just forgotten about it? And what of the prophecy concerning Veon? "Only with the death of a Jedi friend does the fallen king return to save his sovereign." What could it mean? As far as she knew, Veon's only Jedi friends were her close friends, as well: Rech, Mand, Noor... Losing any of them would be devastating. She didn't even want to think what her death would do to her friends, to Koril.
Shaking the thought from her head, she moved onto the other prophecies, trying to picture the mosaic in her mind. The various images and people scattered about the wall seemed to be randomly arranged at best, as she remembered seeing a vague representation of Stormtroopers in one corner, predicting the Imperial Invasion that happened just a few years ago, and on the opposite side, the crumbled remains of the Dalon Palace, with dozens of other smaller images and words scrambled in between the two. The central image of a young man seemed most important to the Jedi artist who created it centuries before. Piecing together what Deilia had said about Paneau approaching the most crucial era of its history and what one of the prophecies said about Jec becoming the planet's greatest ruler, Elena surmised that the Prophecy culminated with Jec's reign, predicting the young man would return the disillusioned planet to its former glory and peace. The thought made her smile, knowing she had a decent part in bringing it to fruition. She had always wanted to make a difference in a grand way, and with her involvement in Paneau's recent events, she felt she had.
After passing through several security checkpoints, the two arrived at the Rys'tihn Manor's hangar and were greeted by Kaydee and Rech. Though he had changed into some more casual clothing, Rech still wore his standard issue leather Jedi utility belt with his lightsaber clipped to it at his hip.
"Welcome back, Master Koril, Mistress Elena!" Kaydee said happily as she approached them. "I am glad your search was successful." Her tone hardly changed as she continued, turning to Elena. "Mistress Elena, come with me, please. You have an urgent message from Coruscant."
Elena fought an icy chill that gripped her stomach, doing her best to keep her expression neutral. She saw Rech try to give her a supportive smile, but she numbly followed the protocol droid, leaving both Rech and Koril behind.
"I don't care what you think the Prophecy says or doesn't say, she would've done what was necessary!"
"At the highest cost, Cade! I'm not going to let it destroy him. He's suffered through enough already."
"So you'd prefer to see Paneau fall, just so he can be happy?"
Deilia stood defiantly with her hands on her hips. Just as stubbornly, Cade wasn't going to understand her reasoning. "I don't think she's the one who's supposed to find him. I've already enlisted the help of another."
Cade angrily ran a hand through his hair, pacing about the main chamber. "You've gone too far, Deilia. This is...this is exactly what we were supposed to guard against."
"As if other Rys'tihns haven't had their hands in matters of the Prophecy."
"They haven't! How else would every single one of those prophecies have been proven true after all these years?"
Deilia crossed her arms over her chest. "Because they made the choices that effected the necessary outcomes."
Silenced, Cade crossed his arms, too, holding her gaze. She had finally gotten her point across, but it still hadn't abated his anger. He pointed an accusatory finger at her, speaking only after his initial fury had subsided.
"You had better do everything in your power, short of finding him yourself, to be absolutely sure that he makes it home alive."
Deilia nodded confidently, easily absorbing her uncle's anger. She couldn't quite explain why, but she was sure she had made the right decision. Instead of informing Koril and Elena of Veon Banarecc's disappearance, as Cade had sent them with her to the Retreat to do, she had given them a diversionary mission to Hoth. There they hopefully wouldn't catch wind of the frantic search being conducted on Coruscant. That way, Deilia felt assured that Elena wouldn't be the Jedi death the Prophecy spoke of. There was too much at stake for Koril to lose yet another person he loved.
Cade walked off to one of the back equipment rooms and took to repairing a comlink. After thinking for a moment, Deilia sat at the comm station nearby and sent a short message to a fellow Ghost Heir. In a matter of seconds, the image of Keor Ordeel, the Ordeels' Master Ghost Heir, appeared on the viewscreen in front of her.
"Our intel's not changed, either," he said quickly. Deilia nodded in response.
"Just checking one other thing." Keor's blue eyes intensified, focused on her. "Who's your contact at Davik's apartment?"
"Stenlen Aelley, why?"
"Tell him he's to expect a Jedi investigation team. They'll be interested in the apartment."
"Deilia, our agents have combed over that place a dozen times. He hasn't left anything traceable behind."
"Our agents aren't Jedi. This team will find something, I'm sure of it."
Keor sounded suddenly sad. "For his sake, I hope you're right." He nodded and ended the transmission, but his image was immediately replaced by Veolar Banarecc, who looked distraught.
"Jolani said you're sending a team of Jedi," he stated quietly. Deilia nodded, curious as Veolar continued. "Do they know him?"
Again, Deilia nodded, trying her best to look supportive. "I knew he'd want to see someone he trusted. Don't worry." Veolar looked somewhat relieved as he sighed and glanced somewhere offscreen.
"Thank you, Deilia," he said quietly, and her viewscreen went black.
Though preparations had been made in haste, the day of Jec's crowning was already going smoothly. The ceremony was being held in the city's great arena, built into the ground mere steps from the ruins of the Dalon Palace. Packed to the brim, the arena could hold well over 150 thousand people, and even more would be watching the event via camera droids that were already buzzing about the area.
Koril sighed. He, too, would be watching from a distance. All of the Royal Families were represented at Jec's side at the arena, except for one person from each who stayed behind in the Rys'tihn Manor. From the fourth floor balcony that overlooked the Manor's main atrium, Koril watched the five Royals downstairs discussing quietly as they sat in front of a large viewscreen that displayed live feeds from the event. He would join them eventually, as soon as he stopped shaking.
Another vision dream had again haunted him in his sleep the previous night, but it surprised him with a new element. He saw the same strange ship set down in front of him with Rech and Mand at his side, the same six dark figures floated out of it, and the bright flash of Lightning tore through his body as before, but he hadn't previously seen Elena in it at all. After a series of flashes in the vision, Elena's pained face hovered over him as if he were lying on the floor. Her eyes were red and bereaved, her cheeks damp with fresh tears. The sheer anguish in her expression was so painful for him to see, yet it played over and over in his mind, tormenting him. He was beginning to wonder if he was somehow seeing his own death on that Coruscant landing platform.
"...the death of a Jedi friend..." Koril wasn't a Jedi, but he was Force-sensitive, which meant he could learn the skills if he wanted to. The Prophecy was vague enough, but it had suddenly taken on a totally different meaning, now that he knew why he was having these disturbing dreams. And Veon, the fallen king, was last known to have been residing on Coruscant. Was he seeing the fulfillment of that prophecy in his sleep?
Koril heard the door to his room open at the end of the hall, and Elena's boots clicked on the stone floor as she made her way towards him. He had left her sleeping in his room after his dream had woken him up and refused to let him get back to sleep. Relieved that she wasn't going to be facing any disciplinary action since Master Noor had successfully pleaded her case for her, Elena had stayed by his side, almost protectively. She would notice his trembling muscles the moment she touched him, and he had yet to explain his dream or his Force-sensitivity to her. It was going to be a difficult conversation.
Turning to face her as she strode up behind him, Koril did his best to hide his earlier anxiety by smiling tiredly at her and pulling her into a tight embrace. He held her for a few silent moments before she released and looked up at him, worried.
"You're shaking again." He tried to shrug off her concern, and hopefully, her attention to it. He didn't want to tell her in the midst of all the other events going on.
"Rech can help me, don't worry." He brought a hand up to the side of her neck and gently ran his thumb along her jawline. "You're beautiful," he whispered. Elena's expression, however, didn't lighten.
"And you're changing the subject. Koril, what is wrong?"
He dropped his hand and looked back over the balcony at the others below. The viewscreen was still displaying the various processions that were converging on the vast arena; the real ceremony had yet to begin. Elena took his hand at his side and brought his attention back to her, though he suddenly found it difficult to look into her eyes. They were perfect, glowing emerald green and focused on him, but he could only think of the dream, seeing her so distraught...
"Koril?"
"I'll tell you later," he finally managed to say. Elena looked slightly hurt, but confused, as well.
"We've got time right now."
"I don't want to ruin the day."
She seemed more hurt. "Koril..."
"Please?" He squeezed her hand, and after a tense moment, she sighed lightly.
"Promise me we're going to talk about it later?"
Koril nodded strongly. "I promise."
Pacified for the time being, she leaned into him and kissed him sweetly, dissolving his pain for a brief moment. When she stepped back, she smiled wanly and glanced over the balcony, as well.
"I'm going downstairs to talk with Ariler. She looks like she could use some friendly conversation."
"I'll be down after I see Rech," he said, and Elena nodded as she began walking towards the turbolift. Koril went the opposite direction to the staircase on the side of the atrium. Rech had almost stepped on the top stair when Koril met him.
"Have you talked to Mand?" Rech asked immediately. Koril could only shake his head.
"No, I haven't seen her since Elena and I left for the lake the other day."
Rech seemed concerned, but not overly so, nodding as he looked Koril up and down. "Another vision?" Without even awaiting Koril's response, Rech directed him to a bench against the wall at the top of the stairs. Koril sat obediently as Rech stood beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you know where she is?" Koril asked after a moment. He could feel that Rech had already started to detoxify his muscles, quelling the tremors.
Rech spoke without breaking his concentration. "Not exactly. I know she was trying some new meditation techniques, and with one of them, the primary focus was...masking her presence in the Force. She could be anywhere, and I can't tell if she's even still on Paneau."
"She'd tell you if she went anywhere, wouldn't she?"
Rech was silent for a long minute, though Koril guessed he was trying to stay focused. "I thought she would."
After another few minutes, Rech stepped back and offered his hand to Koril to pull him up to his feet. Koril stood and thanked him, walking with him over to the turbolift to join the others watching the ceremony.
The five other Royals, Lara Gedall, Vianne Banarecc, Ariler Ot'rio, Annaliza Trislena, and Deri Ordeel, all smiled at Koril and Rech as they approached. Though she was standing behind the women, Kaydee remained silent, watching the area alertly. Elena was seated beside Ariler, but she seemed more concerned as she looked from Koril to Rech. They wordlessly sat on an empty couch that with the other chairs and couches in the open atrium made a semi-circle around the viewscreen. Elena began to ask a question when Vianne caught their attention.
"The new Governors have all filed in, now the Royals are leading Jec to the stage."
All eyes were on the viewscreen as a steady stream of armed guards and officers of the Royal Guard made their way down the steps to the bottom of the arena. Vianne's husband Joshua Redgrave, in his New Republic squadron uniform, led a group of armed Royal Navy pilots that flanked the first few Gedalls, followed closely by the Ordeels and Trislenas. Veron Banarecc, with his five-year-old niece Ri in his arms, stepped in behind Dran Ot'rio, and the two men marked the end of the last procession.
As the aisle cleared and everyone stepped into their places, Jec stood at the very top of the arena. With his two Scepter Guards on either side of him, he began the descent. The packed rows upon rows of Paneau citizens became eerily silent, no longer chatting amongst themselves, but watching the young man slowly stepping down the stairs.
Koril watched with a strange look on his face. He should've been there at Jec's side as his Head of Security. But he wasn't; he hadn't even been allowed to help with the planning of the ceremony. To him it was almost surreal, watching the crowning of the planet's new king from so far away. Only Rech and Elena could understand his frustration. They, too, looked at the viewscreen with anxiety, forced to stay behind.
A former ambassador for Paneau, Sol Gedall stood at a podium in the middle of the stage, addressing the crowd easily.
"Today is a day to be remembered for years to come..."
Koril couldn't keep his gaze from wandering over to Elena, though she was focused on Sol's speech and unaware that he was so transfixed on her. His mind wandered from thoughts of the time they had been together recently, to the moment he had first seen her at the Rebuilding Ball, and back to the night they had just spent together in his room. Before he realized how much time had transpired, he looked back at the viewscreen just in time to see the newly elected Governor of Dalon place the ceremonial crown on Jec's head to the sound of thunderous cheers. Jec smiled and stepped over to the podium with his Scepter Guard beside him, trying to quiet the crowd with a wave of his hand. Finally silence descended and the new king began to speak.
"I thank you all for your generous support today. As I am your servant, I would not be here, standing before you in this grand arena if it were against your wishes. You believe in me, and it is my duty from this point forward to be the strong and dedicated king you, the people of Paneau, need me to be.
"As my first actions as your king, I will divert all the funds necessary to restocking and reopening the medical centers across the planet. All medics and doctors will be paid, and every willing cargo hauler is asked to bring all the medical supplies they can safely transport, and they will be justly compensated.
"I will also restore the Royal Guard and the Royal Navy to full operational order. Squadrons are to return to the skies, and guards are to return to the streets. No longer will we be unprotected but safe and prepared.
"There are still many other issues today that need attention, and I pledge to you that they will all be addressed in due time. I encourage every one of you to show each other the same support you have bestowed upon me. We are all starting this new chapter in our history together. No one will be left behind."
Again, cheers engulfed the crowds and Jec smiled, waving as his guards escorted him away. The Royals followed behind him, as did their detachment of guards, and soon the Governors and citizens were the only ones left in the arena.
Koril felt strangely numb, remaining seated on the couch as the others got up and left around him. He had thought that once Jec had been crowned king, things would return to normal, but so many new problems had surfaced. He sighed, rubbing the spot on his chest where there had once been a gaping hole. The bounty hunter responsible for his wound had yet to be captured, or even identified. He had still had that threat hanging over his head, and now the Prophecy, his Force-sensitivity...
"Master Koril?"
Koril looked over to see Kaydee still standing in the place she had been earlier. She hadn't left with the others, but had stayed and watched him intently. With her head cocked to the side in curiosity, she stepped towards him, moving out from behind the couch.
"Is everything alright?"
He sighed, not answering, instead posing his own question quietly.
"Kaydee, what did dad do with mom's ring?"
"I am not sure, Sir," she responded sadly. "I do not recall him saying. Perhaps he returned it with her crest?"
Koril sighed again, defeated, and nodded to dismiss Kaydee. The chrome droid quietly left, and Koril decided he'd ask Deilia about it later that night.
