Videtur: Thanks to everyone who has favorited or followed, or left a review on the story! We love hearing from you. Nami would also like to thank those of you who are feeling sorry for her, lol. She needs a lot of sympathy!
Chapter Three: Getting to Know You
Dawn on Naboo often staggered its residents and visitors alike with its beautiful smears of golden and pink sky, bathing the domed roofs in a magical glow. Namita barely noticed today. She tugged fruitlessly at the riding tunic, straightening it over her hips and glancing back at Marme. Her sister stood in the courtyard's wide doorway, Niki wrapped in her arms, mother and son both content in the gentle warmth of the morning.
Namita could not feel the same heat and shivered. "I'm not sure I remember how to ride a gualama," she admitted. "It's been years, Marme."
"It will come back to you, Sister," Marme said. "Just don't panic."
"Panic?" Namita started to demand, but then her ears caught the distant droning of several powerful engines, and her eyes spotted a small convoy of triple-finned speeders coming down the long drive. Each speeder carried two or three human figures, both male and female. She could hear laughter now too, carried on the gentle wind. A merry gathering, and one she was expected to join. Could Marme go instead? she thought and inwardly laughed at her own cowardice.
As the guests drew closer and began to decelerate the engines, she spotted Senator Palpatine behind the yoke of the second, brightly colored speeder. He was smiling and saying something to the man in the passenger seat, who looked to be roughly his age or a little older. Namita took a deep breath when the speeders stopped at the bottom of the long stone steps. I can do this. I have to do this.
Nimbly, Palpatine slid out of the driver's seat and dropped to the ground, his knee-high riding boots clicking against the aged cobblestones. He too was dressed in the traditional riding garments of Naboo nobility, the masculine counterpart to her own outfit, with flared trousers and an almost military cut to the tunic. Namita thought it fit his trim figure very well, and then blushed at the thought. His companions also climbed out but remained with the speeder as he mounted the steps.
"Lady Malik," he bowed when he reached her. "Are you well?"
"I am very well," she smiled, and he smiled suddenly in return, his teeth white and straight. The casual gesture loosened the tightness in her chest. A little bit. She swallowed. "And you?"
"Quite well, and quite grateful to be back on Naboo for this short reprieve," he said. His tone was friendly, open, something he might say to anyone he met. His thoughts about her and this whole mad situation were obviously buried deep under his political training. Namita tried to get a reading on his emotions and found nothing there.
She also wondered for a moment why he did not turn and greet her sister, but when she glanced back to the doorway, Marme had disappeared along with her son. Her little sister had abandoned her!
Senator Palpatine studied her closely. "Shall we get started, then? Or do you need more time?"
"Oh, no, I'm perfectly ready," she lied and nearly froze when he extended his gloved hand to her. He lingered, a mercurial smile fading from his thin lips. Namita jolted herself into action at last, taking his hand in her own and letting him guide her down the steps to the waiting speeders.
One of his companions stepped forward, a Naboo perhaps in his mid twenties, with classic good features but already beginning to go bald along his forehead. He flashed a smile, flirtatious and appreciative, and offered a deep bow. "Palpatine has not done you justice, Lady Malik! Or perhaps he only wanted to keep you hidden away."
The Senator sighed theatrically. "May I present Kinman Doriana, a member of my staff on Coruscant and a man who thinks far too highly of his own influence among the fairer gender."
Kinman Doriana laughed loudly, a sharp bark that startled her, and she instinctively stepped closer to Palpatine. "Pleased to meet you," she managed.
"The feeling is definitely mutual," Doriana said, still smiling and drinking her in like a man dying of thirst. Palpatine frowned slightly and led her past his grinning friend to two more waiting near the back of the speeder. "This is my political advisor, Sate Pestage, and Ambassador Bromlin, recently announced to the position." Pestage looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties, and he possessed a thin, hawk-like face with beady dark eyes and a permanent furrow in his brow. He nodded to her, showing none of the interest that Doriana had displayed, and she was grateful for his professionalism. Ambassador Bromlin was young and starry-eyed, and he seemed more fixated on Palpatine himself rather than his introduction to her. She was fine with that, wanting no more attention than strictly necessary.
"May I?" Palpatine proffered his arm, and she took it as she climbed into the passenger seat of the speeder. Sate Pestage, who had been sitting there, slid without a word into the back with the other two politicians. As Palpatine settled comfortably into the driver's seat, she felt the engine roar to life under her, the vibrations and deep sound filling the air. He said something, and she missed it.
He leaned closer and raised his voice. "You might want to belt in, my lady. We have a great deal of ground to cover, and time is fleeting."
By the time they arrived on the edge of the game grounds, she was thankful for the safety harness around her shoulders. If she had discovered one thing about her future husband today, it was the fact that Palpatine had a need for speed. Simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying, their trip out into the western plains resembled a racing course more than any leisurely outing. The other speeders had fallen far behind in the hands of more cautious drivers, but Palpatine's expression as he skimmed expertly over the plains and around obstacles was the closest she had yet seen to genuine contentment.
Doriana whooped in pleasure when the speeder drifted to a stop, slapping the backs of Pestage and Bromlin, both of whom looked a little green around the cheeks. "You haven't lived until you've ridden with this son of a –" He stopped at a sharp look from Palpatine and finished sheepishly, "with the Senator."
Namita glanced at Palpatine and saw that he was watching her closely, his expression perfectly blank as though waiting for something. Her reaction? She forced a smile. "It was very enjoyable, I've never gone that fast before."
His pale eyes flickered, but he said only, "I like to keep things interesting." What does he see in me?
He vaulted over the side of the speeder and came around to her side, offering his hand as she stepped out. Suddenly, over a dozen lean greysors were leaping around their feet, barking sharply, long tails lashing against their boots. The eager hunting primates, distinctive for their long tusk-like teeth, belonged to the game groundskeeper, Larrs Beckon, who billeted over thirty of the finest specimens to be found in Theed. He also stocked the lodge with perfectly trained twirrls and elegant gualamas. His operation was well known to every noble family on Naboo; even the monarchs had hunted his fields and lakes in the past.
Palpatine waved their panting, furry admirers away. He noticed that Namita had been backed up against the speeder by the largest manadept greysor, her hands trembling in front of her, and he put his boot against the narrow back and firmly shoved. The greysor hissed and skittered out of reach, large eyes regarding the human cautiously. "You can't give them anything," he told her, "or they'll take everything. But they are fairly harmless."
Namita did not sense any cruelty from him in that moment, only a calm and dispassionate observation of what he clearly regarded as the truth. Did he feel that way about more than greysors? "I see," she finally replied and followed him into the open, columned courtyard of the domed hunting lodge. The other three men followed, laughing, and the greysors trailed out behind in a gibbering mob. She could see the other speeders in the distance, finally catching up.
As they waited for the others to arrive, Doriana, Pestage, and Bromlin disappeared into the lodge to find nourishment and drink. Palpatine remained outside with her, but he drifted along the inner wall before stopping in front of a low fountain, watching the water spill over the stone face of a scowling tusk-cat. Namita moved to stand beside him, steeling her nerves. If he was not talkative, did that mean she needed to fill in for him? Or would she be better off silent as well?
He somehow sensed her discomfort, or it felt that way, for he turned slightly and said, "I apologize if my driving frightened you."
Namita knew a flush was spreading across her cheeks. "It didn't. I just, I've… My father has never let us drive like that before. I was unprepared." She winced at how infantile she sounded, how dependent and naïve, and she finished quickly, "but I liked it."
He raised one thick eyebrow. "Really?"
She was not certain, to be honest, but she nodded. I think you'll have to learn to like it.
His face softened, and the distant wariness disappeared. "Well, I must admit, any time I get the chance to depart Theed, I may move faster than normal."
She was unprepared for that as well. "You dislike Theed?" she asked, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. He trailed one hand through the gentle fall of the fountain and watched the water flow over his fingers.
"Theed is a city of many people and many ideas, many… pretensions. Out here in the wild, things are simpler. More straightforward, as it were. I suppose I am what you might call a minimalist," he admitted with a self-deprecating smile.
"You are?" Her jaw dropped slightly.
He looked up from the disrupted water. "That surprises you?"
Namita wanted to disappear into the ground, but the tiles would not accommodate her. She said at last, "Well, not many nobles of Naboo would admit to that."
His eyes narrowed. "You will find I set my own expectations in most matters."
Oh. That's comforting… I'm guessing he has expectations for his wife, too. She looked down at her feet, embarrassed and thrown off by the abrupt coolness in his voice, and she cast about desperately for a safe topic of conversation. "So, did you grow up here in Theed?"
He paused. "On the far outskirts, the Lake Country, actually."
Hadn't Marme said something about that last night? "Your family's ancestral home is there, isn't it?"
"Yes." His eyes hardened infinitesimally, and for the first time she felt it, a cold anger that was not directed at her but deeply unsettling in its intensity. His fingers trailed in the water, seemingly forgotten.
I think I felt safer with that greysor back there, Namita thought, her mouth going dry and her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth.
And then the moment was gone.
His smile betrayed nothing of the tightness in his eyes, and she could imagine that he was perfectly happy, but imagination was not reality. "It was called Convergence. I sold it several years ago. To be frank, I spent little of my time there as my schooling required me to move often."
"I see," she said, for lack of anything else.
He met her tentative gaze and nodded. "But enough about me, what about you?"
x-x-x-x
Already the little half-wit sought to pry into his past, something he and Hego Damask took great care to safeguard. She possessed no inkling of the danger she courted, asking these questions and raising old ghosts to life. Thanks to Darth Plagueis, he could look back on the shuttle incident with clinical calm, but mention of Convergence still stoked the passionate anger buried deep inside, still sparked the dying embers of his hot rage.
Soon, it too would cool into glacial purpose, but too many memories still surged into his thoughts when he pictured the old, cold mansion dwelling, the haunts who had once dwelt there. He forced the images deep under his surface. "Have you always lived in Theed?" he asked, but he already knew the answer thanks to an evening of research with Sate Pestage.
The young noblewoman nodded, her cheeks turning bright red. Was she ashamed of it? "Yes, I'm afraid I'm not very well traveled."
"It matters little," he told her. In fact, your naivety could prove quite useful in some ways.
"Thank you, Senator." She looked like she wanted to say more, but the others were pouring into the courtyard in a medley of shouts and laughter, and he was soon surrounded by colleagues seeking to take his hand in friendship. He watched Namita slink away to the side, content to go unnoticed. She has no ambition. The idea was alien to him, repellent. She would not challenge him, but neither would she interest him unless she were hiding some part of herself away. He opened his senses to the Force then, sliding tendrils of his dark power along the currents even as he smiled and clapped Bromlin's shoulder in camaraderie.
Her magnitude within the Force rippled the currents around her no more than most of her fellow Naboo who swarmed the courtyard, but her presence burned brighter. He pondered at that. Is she perhaps slightly Force-sensitive? He tugged on one of the ethereal tides that eddied around her and received almost nothing in return. Perplexed, he tried again, but the Dark Side remained stubbornly silent.
Deciding against further pressure, he turned his mind back to the profane world around him in time to see several of the party leading out the gualamas from the stables, already decked in their ornate bridles and saddles.
Palpatine brushed his gloved hand against the flank of a smaller, brown-flecked gelding that Sate brought to him. The creature's mind was simple and unmotivated, a perfect mount for his purposes. Many Naboo regarded the long-limbed mammals as graceful representations of Naboo's natural beauty, but he only saw witless animals. Animals had uses, but they certainly held no deeper meaning for him. If he did not need to wine and dine the new ambassador to create the future connection, then he would not have put up with such drivel.
"Do you like him, Senator?" The question came from his right, and he realized that Namita was at his side, her green eyes staring up with appreciation at the gualama's gentle face. In her own hands, she held the reins of a willowy white mare that cropped contentedly at the spare bits of grasses between the courtyard tiles.
"He strikes me as an honest fellow," Palpatine smiled. "I work well with that type." If she only knew… She would not quite meet his eyes as he watched her. Is she already so frightened of me? Maybe the woman has more intelligence than I thought. "Do you need assistance mounting?"
Her embarrassment was plain to see. "Actually, I haven't gone on a twirrling in some time. Thank you."
"Here," and he reached out to her waist and settled both hands on her hips, noting her thinness with almost clinical detachment. She blushed deeper and wrapped the reins tightly in her hands, and he released her to untangle them with a soft chuckle. "Ah, you don't want to be doing that. If she spooks, you'll be dragged under her."
"Oh, of course," her hands were shaking under his, and he slipped the long cords into her left palm.
"Just hold on to that. It only takes a little pressure to get her compliance. Now hang on," and he seized her waist again and lifted her onto the long white back. Namita settled awkwardly into the side saddle, clutching at the low pommel with a white-knuckled hand, and he suppressed a mocking laugh, turning away to pull himself into his own saddle.
Twirrling had been one of his few pleasures outside of racing when he was young. The thrill of the hunt had both satisfied his darker urges and formed him powerful alliances among his fellow nobles. He found that it bored him now, since he had been opened to a larger, grander world. It's almost quaint, he pulled the gelding's head around to fall in alongside his future wife. The party began to form a gentle flow out of the courtyard's main entrance and into the fields. Sate rode on his other side, his narrow face pinched with longsuffering boredom. He looks like I feel.
"Senator?"
By Korriban, she was speaking again. "Of course?" He increased the warmth of his smile as the gualamas rolled into an easy lope through the tall grasses. Ahead of them, the greysors were spreading out into the underbrush, a wide fan that bent the tall stalks in long and winding patterns.
"When… when we are married, will we be staying on Naboo, or…" she coughed and clung to the reins. "Or…?"
He caught snippets of her sentence from her unguarded mind. Together? Apart? Coruscant? "After the wedding, I will be resuming my duties with the Galactic Senate. I planned to include you in that journey." Beside him, Sate shifted on his gualama and sighed. His assistant was no happier about the wedding than he was, though to his credit the advisor kept most of his thoughts to himself.
For a moment, she could not speak and her eyes shined bright with a disgustingly pure excitement. "To Coruscant? I've heard so many things about it. The variety, the art!" She was practically speaking over herself, tumbling her sentence fragments end over end. Pitiful.
"You like art?" he asked, tilting his head to watch as a distant greysor scuffed up a youthful quadduck, and half the party tore after it with wild cheers. He remained behind, content to watch and suspecting that his future wife might fall out of her own saddle if her gualama moved any faster.
"I love it!" she said, and the sudden passion that infused her voice startled him. He raised one eyebrow and saw her blush. She demurely lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry, but I've heard that the art on Coruscant is very different."
"From Naboo?" He returned her slow nod. "It is. The amount of free-thinkers in the Capital may astonish you. It is nothing like our world."
At her silence, he stretched out with the Force, and her satisfaction was obvious to see. Curious. He would have thought her the type to cling to her culture, her normal way of doing things, her whimpering status quo. Instead, she was looking forward to it. Palpatine's lips twitched. I wonder if the backwater could be bred out of her. The accent on her Basic will need to go first if she frequents my social circles. "Well, my lady, if that is enough to get your attention, I imagine you will enjoy it very much."
"I hope to," she said, her voice feathery with simultaneous apprehension and wondering delight.
She will be a quadduck among the greysors of the galaxy. I wonder how long the chase could possibly last? Best not to dwell on that one. He spurred his gelding forward into a trot. "Come, my lady, the hunt awaits us."
x-x-x-x
DarthRuinous: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain… Palpatine has quite the challenge cut out for him. At least he's taking it a little better with time. That's not saying much, especially since the wedding is on the horizon. Stay tuned!