Twice every year, the heads of the various Mandalorian clans met at Sundari, to advise their ruler, Bo Katan. It was the closest thing Mandalore had to a legislature, though it was purely advisory.
"They have encroached upon our territory for the sixth time in half as many weeks," the head of Clan Rook shouted, pounding his fist on the table. "That is an act of war!"
Sabine could've rolled her eyes at Rook's theatrics. Why were people so eager for war when there were other ways of handling things? Ways that would spare countless lives from unnecessarily being spent.
"The Republic is simply doing some military exercises," the head of Clan Eldar replied. "They are no threat to us."
"Then they can do their so-called 'exercises' on their side of the border!" Rook fired back, the venom dripping from his voice. "Those inbred rats—"
"Count Rook," Bo-Katan snapped, "you will keep a civil tongue in this room or I will have my guards remove it for you." Just because she was against war if it could be avoided, didn't mean that she was about to let chaos run amok in her own court. Rook had never respected her, even when she wasn't the ruler of Mandalore. The only way to reign him in was to match fire with fire.
The man's lips twitched as he failed to keep a sneer off his face. "My sincerest apologies, Lady Kryze."
Bo-Katan let the subtle hit at her title slide for the time being. She was the ruler of Mandalore. And as such, she was to be addressed as "My Lady". The only people she allowed to call her by the more informal "lady kryse" were her handmaidens and Sabine, yet even she rarely did so.
"However, my point still stands," Rook continued. "The Republic needs to be put in its place. It's intentionally crossing the border to see how we'll respond. We must send our warriors up there to—"
"To what?" Sabine interrupted. "To start a war? To die?"
"To send a message. And yes, should it come to it: to die. Because that's what warriors do."
Before Sabine could respond to his ludicrous statement, they heard the door to the council chambers creak open. She frowned in confusion when she saw nobody enter. That is, until a light tap on her forearm caused her to look to her left. A smile crept up on her face as she stared down at her daughter.
"Now how did you find your way in here?" she asked, picking the girl up and sitting her on her lap.
"I hide from Daddy," Amira giggled.
"You're hiding from Daddy? So I take it he doesn't know you're here?"
The little girl shook her head, feeling ever so proud of herself as she grinned from ear to ear.
Sabine chuckled. There was no denying that Amira was every bit their child. She had Sabine's wit and insatiable appetite for curiosity along with Ezra's humor and deceptive cleverness. And she was only three years old. They were certainly in for a wild ride when she got older, but Sabine wasn't allowing herself to focus on that now.
Remembering where she was, Sabine's attention snapped back to the waiting council. A few didn't seem to mind the interruption, even going so far as to smile with amusement at the girl when she waved "hello" to them. Others, like Rook, weren't as impressed.
Sabine smoothed down her daughter's hair and addressed Bo-Katan.
"This, my Lady, this is why I advise you not to go to war. Especially over something so trivial. The others may think that sending warriors to the border—to the Republic—is no big deal. But the warriors you send—the warriors that I send? They're fathers. Sisters. Sons and nieces." She swallowed and thought of Ezra. "Husbands. They have families in Mandalore. And for you to ask them to go to war with a country that has never shown an ounce of malice towards us…That, to me, is unimaginable."
Sabine pressed a kiss to Amira's temple. "And even if some of those men and women have no families. Even if they're all alone and they think that no one's left to care about them. Well they'd be wrong. Because I know that you care about them. Those are your people. When you took the throne after defeating Saxon, you swore to do everything in your power to protect and serve them. Yet here some of these people sit, asking that you declare war.
"Count Rook says that dying is what warriors are meant to do. But it's not what they have to do. Not if you can prevent it."
Sabine put her arms around her daughter and stood from her chair. She had everyone's eyes trained on her with rapt attention. "You must not go to war if this can be resolved peacefully. You must not see your people needlessly die." She cleared her throat and went on.
"Have a message sent to the Republic and inform them that we are aware they've entered our territory. We will allow them one week from when the message is delivered to pull all of their troops back across the border. If they have not complied by the deadline, then we will arrange a meeting between their Chancellor and you where we can discuss and settle this matter once and for all."
"And if that still doesn't work?" Bo-Katan prodded.
Sabine paused and shifted Amira in her arms. "We defend our system whatever the cost may be.
The ruler of Mandalore smiled. "Now that we've found a reasonable answer for this problem, I believe we can—"
"Sabine!" Ezra came rushing through the doors, his eyes wild and frantic. "I can't find Amira! She was here one minute and then the next thing I knew she wasn't. She—" He stopped when he finally noticed the child sitting calmly in his wife's arms. His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "But…how did…?"
Sabine bit her lip to stifle her laughter and strode over to him. "She is truly your daughter. She slipped past you and the guards to get here."
"Daddy!" Amira exclaimed. "I hide from you, I hide from you. I's sneaky!"
Ezra couldn't keep the proud smile off his face as relief simultaneously washed over him. He let Sabine transfer her to his arms and bounced her on his hip a couple times. "Yeah, you sure are! But try not to do that again, Amira. You scared Daddy."
"I can't believe you were outsmarted by our three-year-old," Sabine snorted.
Ezra shot her a look. "How about you try to wrangle this wild child in for a day?"
"Oh, I have no problem at all with keeping track of her."
"Yeah, well, that's because you're perfect," Ezra said sweetly, giving her that cheeky grin of his.
"Save the flattery for later, dear. I have a meeting I have to get back to."
Ezra glanced over her shoulder and nearly winced at some of the heated looks he was getting. He had no idea how Sabine was able to put up with these old, spiteful geezers day in and day out. He thanked his lucky stars that he didn't usually didn't have to.
"Yeah, of course. Sorry about the interruption."
"It's okay. I'll see you both later tonight for supper."
He turned to leave but stopped when she called after him.
"Oh and Ezra? Try not to lose our daughter this time."
And just to piss off some of the clan leaders who hated him for originally having been a commoner, Ezra smirked and said, "Our Princess has street rat blood in her. I make no promises."