With the institution of digestif after supper, tea was shortened considerably, mainly because Thrawn and Luxsolaria saved their conversation for later in the day. Thrawn found he enjoyed the ceremony of tea more than he did digestif. But he enjoyed the conversation and company of digestif much more than he did of tea.
However, he was now going to be denied both of them.
Admiral Viita had been recalled to Astarrax due to the rebel activity that had surged up. Unlike Ryloth, Astarrax did not have a civil war between the locals and the Imperial contingency. At least, not yet. Like Ryloth, the Astarraxi were almost tribal, with large extended families banding together. The local families jostled for prominence, similar to how the families back home did. That meant, however, if a leader of a household got it into his or her head to sympathize with the rebellion, the entire family would follow suit. If enough families did so, the population would turn.
"That will never happen," Luxsolaria had said during one of their digestifs together.
No one else joined them in the evenings after dinner. Thrawn did not know if it was because she had disinvited everyone else, or if everyone else simply wanted to steer clear of the two of them. He suspected it was the latter. The looks of confusion on several of the faces during tea were not lost on him when he and Luxsolaria got into a conversation.
"Why not?" Thrawn had pondered. "What makes you so sure?" He took a sip of the sambuca with caf she had prepared for them.
"The Empire has too established a presence there," she said. "It has schools and hospitals set up, infrastructure that helps the people. For some reason, Senator Taa won't broker the funds to get the infrastructure set up. I mean, look at this," she gestured to the building they were in. "It's lovely, downright opulent for the region, but where is the nearest school?"
"Schools and hospitals are for cities," Thrawn countered. "Even on Astarrax."
"True," she had conceded. "But Astarrax doesn't have the spice trade that Ryloth does. If the planet would rally that properly, using it for Imperial medicine instead of letting pirates and smugglers have it, Ryloth would be rich. They could have a school and hospital in every tiny village."
"Much of that is lack of law," Thrawn had said. "The Outer Rim is rife with the rule of piracy."
She had leaned forward and smiled at him, her eyes softening. "That is where you and my brother, and those like you, come in, my dear friend," she said. "An Imperial presence in the regions of the Outer Worlds will bring rule of law to the lack of it."
"Of that," he had said, "we can agree."
He liked talking with her. She was smart and witty and understood what he said without being offended or confused. He liked being her 'dear friend'. He liked her. She made him feel infinitely less lonely in a place where loneliness had pressed down upon him like a stone for so long. She gave him a reason to think about something else other than his duty to the Empire and Emperor. That, alone, was refreshing.
And now there would be no more digestifs. He had the briefest of thoughts that he should ask Luxsolaria to stay. She was lady of the house. He could return her to her brother when he left Ryloth himself. She would be safe under his care. He dismissed it as soon as it had entered his mind. It was a silly desire, selfish and petty.
He stood now just outside the courtyard next to Viita's Lambda shuttle, ready to take him and his sister back up to Crimson Asp.
"Until we meet again, old chap," Viita said. Thrawn noticed his face was heated and his voice had a hint of disappointment in it. He placed his hand on his chest and then reached out and pressed his palm into Thrawn's in an Astarraxi gesture of affection.
Thrawn stared down at his chest where Viita had touched him, mildly surprised that he'd done so. He wasn't touched often by anyone. Not that he cared, he didn't require a great deal of touch as some other people did. But the gesture seemed strangely intimate.
He inclined his head toward Viita, "Until we meet again," he repeated.
"I will write to you!" Luxsolaria promised, flinging her arms around his neck when she approached him for her goodbye. "Promise me you will write back!"
"Of course," he replied, gingerly putting his arms around her back. Her body was warm against him in the heat of the Ryloth day. He could feel the softness of her breasts against his chest as squeezed him, and suddenly Viita's farewell did not seem so intimate, after all.
She released him as quickly as she'd embraced him, stepping back and looking him in the eye. Her sky blue ones were shiny with unshed tears. Her face was pink enough that the swirls on her cheeks and neck were just beginning to show. "You've promised," she said. "Now you must write back to me."
"I never intended not to," he assured her, oddly pleased that she was so intent to continue their correspondence.
She touched her heart with her fingertips and then pressed her palm to his chest. "Until we meet again," she said.
Viita put his arm around her shoulder, gave Thrawn a dashing smile, and then turned her around and led her to the waiting shuttle.
Thrawn stood still until the shuttle took off, watching it take one of the few personal pleasures he'd found in the Empire back to where it came from. He turned and walked back into the courtyard where Slavin was waiting for him.
"Captain Slavin," he said, nodding in his direction.
"Admiral, sir," Slavin said, taking up beside him as he walked toward the house. "I would have a word with you, please."
"Of course, Captain," Thrawn answered smoothly. "What is it?"
Two stormtroopers opened the front door, allowing them entrance before following them in.
"Stand guard," Captain Slavin commanded.
"Yes, sir," they answered in unison, their voices electronicized from their helmets.
"You were saying, Captain?" Thrawn prompted, his hands behind his back as he kept walking.
"There has been a rebel attack at Tulara Ravine, sir," Slavin said. "I'm not sure why the rebels would be attacking so far here. It isn't a point worth holding."
Just at the edge of his hearing, Thrawn heard what might have been a gasp. He stopped and looked toward the wall that separated the entryway of the house to the no longer tea room. He could see the heat signature of two bodies on the other side of the wall, close together, frozen, as if caught in an act that they should not be doing.
"The rebels may be closer than you think, Captain Slavin," he said, eyes still on the infrared heat signatures in the adobe. When they moved slightly behind the wall, he continued walking again toward the stairs. He had not taken a second look at the items in the storeroom in the basement and wanted to examine the contents of the jewelry box. He noticed when Viita and Luxsolaria had gotten into their argument, that she had only claimed one set of the plethora of jewelry that was in the box. He would pick something else out for her, to give as a gift, for the next time they met.
"Closer than we think, sir?" Slavin repeated.
"Yes," Thrawn drawled. "But we shan't speak of that at the moment. I want to go to the storeroom. There is something I want to look at."