Chapter 4

A few hours after Logan came to visit Lizabea, a tutor came to teach the young girl her afternoon studies. Consequently, Logan was excused. Katiara spied in on Bea and her teacher to make sure things was getting along well. She hoped that her rival had left permanently. She stepped away from the door to the young girl's room and moved towards her personal balcony with no intent in mind.

With her arms crossed, Katiara stood on the balcony and stared into the courtyard below. Nothing interesting or suspicious caught her eye in the gardens so she looked up. The surrounding apartments were quiet and still. She saw no one and therefore she relaxed a little bit. Then there was a beep at her door and she turned slightly startled.

A guard rushed into the room with Logan trailing behind him looking rather annoyed. In the guard's hand was a folded up piece of paper, which Logan tried to snatch numerous times with no prevail. "Senator Bel Iblis told me to report to you with another note…um, threat from…" the guard stuttered on in a puzzling formal way. But he was interrupted when Katiara impatiently grabbed the note from his hand and began to read it silently.

The secret is out and the secret is in.

No one is safe and no one is threatened.

Until you pay your respects you will have no rest.

My eyes are on a girl in a green dress.

Katiara raised a questioning eyebrow, pondering the subtle thread. Then she noticed Logan waiting to read the note with notable edginess. She crumpled up the paper and threw it at him. He eagerly began to open it up and read the note himself. The young, blonde Jedi turned her eyes towards Lizabea's room, seeing clearly all that was happening through a glass door that she had installed to replace the old fake wall. As she watched all that was happening inside the room, a hundred suspects filled her thoughts.

"So, are you going to try to play detective today?" Logan inquired with his usual arrogant tone. Katiara turned towards him with her arms crossed. She noticed that the guard retreating out of the room.

"As long as you insist on playing a spoiled, laserbrain, brat of a prince with more arrogance than the scum on Nar Shaddaa" – she paused. – "Then yes. The role of detective seems to fit under my job description rather nicely," Katiara replied with as much wit as she could muster. She hoped he would stomp away like the haughty young man he was. Unfortunately, he didn't.

"Oh, so that's it then…" Logan replied as if he had just realized something, crossing his arms against his chest. "So at the end of it all it's not just about protection or honor or heritage, but the few filthy credits you'll be paid for a job well done."

Katiara abandoned any hope of scaring him away at this moment and placed her hands on her hips, ready to win this little argument. "Reality check, prince. Not everyone is born with a lifestyle of jewels. Some people actually have to work to stay alive," she told him, dismissing that fact that she was a senator's daughter herself. But she had left that way of life when she was much younger. It seemed to her that the senator's son was more naïve than a squeamish hoojib.

"Really? I had no idea," Logan replied sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. "But even if I wasn't living in this Corellian palace, I wouldn't just take any job just because it pays well. You act like if you got a good enough offer, you would wipe us all out yourself!"

"Don't worry. I would gladly 'wipe you out' for free!" Katiara responded hastily. She glanced into Lizabea's room; things were still fine on the other side of the wall. "But I would say there is more honor in risking your life for others than simply wearing a fancy uniform and shaking some hands."

"So a scruffy smuggler is more honorable than a senator? Is that what you are saying?"

"I didn't say that exactly, but now that you mention it, the shoe does fit. If anything, my job is at least a more difficult task. It takes no special effort to look pretty and sign some silly papers."

Logan snorted in annoyance. "You seem to forget that your very own mother was a senator just like my father."

"And look where it got her," Katiara said with a very cynical, casual tone; but she didn't really mean it in her heart. There was a silence as both parties of the argument stood still, surprised at the words of Cacilya Ky'Varm's own daughter. Of course Katiara had mourned, but they had never had a good relationship so the sentiment didn't last long.

Suddenly Lizabea ran in from her room with an excited grin and laughing eyes. "Logan! Jedi Katiara!" she said with thrill as she grabbed her brother's arm, hoping to grab his attention as well. "My teacher has just told me that I will be allowed to attend the Victory Day Ball tomorrow evening!"

Katiara glared in defiance as Logan grinned with assumed victory. "Wonderful! I'm sure you will enjoy it; being able to dress up all pretty and show all of our important guests your esteemed manners," Logan said to Bea, though Katiara didn't need her Jedi intuition to know that it was directed as a challenge at her. Logan short her a glance that clearly said 'can you handle it, Jedi?'

A public ball. Great idea, just what the situation needed. But Katiara knew that the Bel Iblis family was arrogant enough to think their security tight. So despite her better judgment, Katiara decided to take advantage of the occasion to prove she was worth something on their own level. In fact, Katiara planned on beating them all at their own game.

Katiara put a hand on Bea's shoulder and a phony grin on her face. "I'm sure you will have a great time. You will be the belle of the ball. Everyone is sure to be impressed." She spoke encouragingly to Bea, but her eyes to fixed on Logan. I accept your challenge.

The next day, while Lizabea was preparing for the ball, Katiara sat in her same-old grungy clothes trying to find any clues in the threat. Her first thought would have been to examine the printing, but she saw clearly, even through the wrinkles, that it was a computer-generated letter, decrypted and untraceable. She thought that maybe there was a clue hidden in the words themselves.

"The secret is out…and in? What does he…is it a he?" she said allowed to no one but herself as she read the note on her bed, trying to make some sense out of the letter. She wished that the senator wasn't allowing Lizabea to go to the ball. The traitor could be there, or he could make a booby-trap in Bea's room. There were so many risks. But he wouldn't listen.

For a few hours she turned these random thoughts in her head, bouncing back and forth between the letter and the files stored on her datapad. So far she had been having no luck. In her heart, Katiara didn't really expect to make much out of the note, she was just trying to buy herself time, hoping that Senator Bel Iblis would change his mind. But he didn't. Senators were always very stubborn. Katiara knew from personal experience.

After hours of working on the threat in vain, Lizabea ran in. Katiara was pleased to see that she was not wearing a green dress. It was clear that the enemy was arrogant enough to assume he knew her preferences. It reminded Katiara how easily this could be an inside job. Bea pranced in and jumped onto the Jedi's bed wearing a cheerful, yellow dress that sparkled with glitter. Her black hair was pinned back in a braid of sorts with small, yellowish flowers woven into it.

"Jedi Katiara, look! I'm all prettied!" she exclaimed with pride as she sat up straight on the bed and smiled widely. It was quite obvious that this was her first ball. Katiara looked up at the young girl and smirked. She looked like a little buttercup princess.

"Yes, you do look quite nice," she said. Any chance of them skipping the ball was lost now that Lizabea was all ready. Even though she seemed like the perfect angel daughter, Katiara was sure that her father would never be able to refuse her. She definitely had her parents wrapped around her finger…and she didn't even know it.

"But you are still wearing your grungy space clothes. Aren't you going to change into one of the gowns in the closet? You only have a couple hours to get ready by now," Bea said, sounding a bit concerned. She hopped off the bed and ran over to the closet, quickly searching through the things held inside. She pulled out a pink dress with frills and flowers and silk and velvet and everything that could possibly go on a dress. "I like this one."

"I don't. It's hideous," Katiara said with disgust, then laughing at the idea of it. Were all the gowns Adeline Bel Iblis had brought so over done and ugly? She got off the bed and took the dress from the young girl and hung it in the closet again. "You go finish getting ready, shine your shoes or whatever. I'll get dressed and then you can help me do my hair. Deal?" Katiara simply wanted to get the little girl out of the room while she prepared for the horrors she expected to encounter at the ball.

"Deal!" Lizabea responded. She seemed pleased to have used one of Katiara's 'informal' words. She smiled widely and ran back into her room, closing the door behind her. Katiara sighed and began to look through the closet for something at least half decent.