Palpatine strode down the corridors of the Senate Office Building with a snap and a tension in his step that Sereine had seen several times before and learned to be wary of. He fumed beside her all the way back to 500 Republica. She thought she knew what he was angry about, but she hadn't had a choice.
Once in his deep red living room, he came toward her and took her hands. Surprised, she let him—and then he gripped them hard and folded her hands behind her back. He loomed over her, backing her into the wall between two tall golden sculptures, and she had no choice but to let him.
He gritted his teeth in her face. His eyes burned beneath two severely angled brows with a deep furrow between them.
"Don't you ever—don't you ever!" he growled. "Shake your head at me in front of colleagues ever again!"
"Then don't you do things you're going to regret with me in the room!" She raised her chin to defend herself. "You don't want to get into sharp words with Mon Ane. Not over this. I needed to stop you and that was all I could do!"
"It was condescending and embarrassing!"
"You think I haven't shaken my head at Garm and Bail a few times? And Mothma, too. You've been on campaign with me, you know how I work! They all understand, that's me."
He pressed her harder, his eyes searing into hers.
"But Garm and Bail are also gentlemen, and they're likely to take offense if you're too sharp with Mon Ane. Especially over language like 'command and compel.' None of them know you, Sheev! But they all know each other, and they talk. They talk to everyone else in that caucus, too. You were right on the verge of attacking her with epithets applied personally, and I couldn't allow you to do that."
Palpatine eased some of his weight backwards and out of her space.
"This isn't the Aak caucus. You have to modulate yourself in that room, or you're going to damage your standing with the Valorum caucus before you've started. You're being judged on a lot more than your political acumen. I'm telling you this."
With a frustrated growl and a subtle shove, Palpatine let her go, and stalked across the room. "I appear to be junior senator in there, even though I'm senior to all of them, and I don't appreciate it!" he snarled. "They're blundering with that bill, and I have no influence. I'm beginning to wonder why they asked me on."
"No one knew it was going to turn into this," said Sereine. She folded her arms and crossed them over her chest. "Mothma's worried about what that language will do in the wrong hands. Don't give her ammunition."
Palpatine turned and threw his arms out in frustration. "She's writing a bill with no teeth in it!"
"I understand," said Sereine. "Yes, she is. And pinning my arms about it isn't going to help."
Some of the severity left his expression and he shook his head once.
"You could apologize," she said. "Stars know, I've apologized to you lately."
He heaved an enormous sigh and she saw his shoulders drop.
He nodded his head once. "Forgive me."
"Try not to do that again," she said. "It's no fun being pinned to the wall."
He answered her with a mischievous gleam. "There are times you don't mind it."
"That's different."
He strode to his small dining alcove, bright with floor-to-ceiling sunset views of the skyscrapers and the Senate Office Building. "Options?"
She walked forward. "I think I can go visit Finis over this and it will make a difference."
Palpatine waved to 11-4D, which stood silently at the doors to his living room. The droid glided over, and he stripped off his frock coat. "Hang that," he said, and handed it over.
He sat. "Why you? I am said to be writing part of this. It seems it should be me."
Sereine walked over and sat down. "Well … I'm his impartial observer in the room."
Palpatine raised his brows. "Observer?"
"At first I thought I was just asked in for my speechwriting. Then Finis invited me to lunch and spent an hour grilling me about all of you. Garm and Bail he follows and likes; Mothma, he doesn't know at all; and you, he only knows from a few gaffes on the floor, which is why he loaned me out to you in the first place."
Palpatine's brows lowered and he glanced out at the speeder traffic.
When he looked back to her, he said, "Why didn't I hear about this lunch?"
"It only happened today, and we were working all afternoon."
He pulled back one side of his mouth. "What did you tell him about me?"
Sereine smirked. "I told him you were mercurial and cantankerous and possessed of pure cussedness. And I told him you are the most intelligent, gifted person in that Rotunda, bar none. And that if he wants to pass his legislation, he could do a whole lot worse."
He frowned. "You did not say that."
She sat back with an even broader smile. "Didn't I? It's all true. I said the same thing about Garm. Well … almost the same thing."
"How so?"
"Garm is mercurial and cantankerous and possessed of rare courage. But anywhere near as brilliant, and anything close to your speaking talent? Nope."
Palpatine leaned forward, elbow on the table, one finger across his top lip. "What did our esteemed Chancellor have to say to all this?"
"That he hoped I had managed to teach you some manners and a little common sense. Which I continue to struggle to do. V and L Finishing School, at your service." She bowed and winked at him.
"Please tell me you did not say that."
"I told him you took a big step up during your reelection campaign and you're getting it. Anything you apply yourself to, you master. That, I said." She smirked. "It's just getting you to apply yourself that's the problem."
He smiled as if at some secret jest. "Dare I hope you said anything less flattering about Mothma and Organa?"
"Mon Ane? I said she's a great legal mind, incredibly hard worker, and she's going to be a great champion of democracy, but she's too softspoken for the Rotunda right now and of course she's too green as yet. And Bail has wonderful instincts, he's comfortable with anyone, he gets along with everyone, he's a great defender of the downtrodden. But he's one of the weakest speakers in the Rotunda right now and it's going to hurt him. And every time I tell him that, he says he's got more important things to worry about. I don't mean he's a bad speaker, you have to have competence to get here, but compared to his present cohort, his skills leave a lot to be desired."
Palpatine dropped his hand and gave her a long, slow look. "My, my," he said at last. "It would appear that our beloved Chancellor relies on you quite a lot."
Sereine shrugged. "Maybe at the moment. I don't know the whole Rotunda." She laid her hand on the table and began tracing odd little patterns on it. "Finis is realizing his career is probably over in eight years. There's no place else to go from here. I think he's spending some time thinking about who he'd like to push, who he'd like to do favors for, who he'd like to leave in a good position here when his time is up. He's trying to leave the best cohort in the Senate that he can. I'm sure he's got twenty other 'me's' he's speaking to right now. Only this week, I'm the one."
Palpatine stared down at his polished table.
At last, he looked up and met her eyes. "Sereine, our contract," he said. "I signed for a year; we're six months in. What do you want?"
Oh, thank all that is, she thought. Movement, finally!
Palpatine watched as Sereine put her palms flat on the table. "I want your blade off my neck," she said. He had to smile briefly at that.
"Sheev, either you want me or you don't. The next time you talk about terminating my services, I will go. I can't work like this."
Truly, that was fair. Of course, he had no need or requirement to be fair … but the positives were piling up in her favor, and as he discovered more about his situation, the negatives were declining.
And Broi Tappan's behavior had been absolutely unacceptable. He should never have considered that firm again except under extreme duress.
Of course, losing all power of foresight everywhere Ederra was concerned was extreme duress. It took a lot to overcome that … but in Palpatine's mind, the fulcrum was tipping. In every future he had foreseen, he was Chancellor. He strongly suspected he had not seen the path there because she was in it. She would not allow him to make mistakes. Her strategy appeared more and more the correct one. She knew Valorum well and had his ear. She would push for her lover, and she would tell Palpatine everything she knew.
A spy in the house of Valorum was, in fact, a dire necessity.
He folded his hands on the table and tried to make up his mind. "And what would satisfy that for you? Are you asking me to sign with you for a longer period of time? Something else?"
The surprise in her face amused him. Don't get used to this, he thought. Under normal circumstances, Lord Sidious appeased no one.
Landmark legislation that stood a chance of making his name as a noted statesman less than three years into his service here, while chaining the Jedi legally to the Senate in a way he would have need of in years to come, however, did not constitute normal circumstances. If he could become known as controversial, so much the better. Firebrand? Even better.
Without her, this would not have happened. She had a talent for writing him stirring speeches and coaching him—no matter how much he hated it—into delivering superior oration. He could press her into that now. It could make his name.
Losing foresight in a large portion of the next eight years was more than inconvenient, it actually frightened him very much. But …
Smoothing and cementing their working relationship was becoming necessary.
She had glanced down, thinking. "I never meant to ask for that," she said finally, "and what good would it do? If you wanted, you could sign and then start this all over again." She got up and walked to the window, looking out toward the Senate Office Building. "Besides, I want you to be happy with my services, and if you're not, I want you to be able to walk away after a year if you need to. What am I going to do, sue you for breach of contract? I would never do that to you, Sheev, you know that."
She glanced back at him, and he said, "Thank you," unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
"I'm trying to be fair," she said with a sullen note.
"Yes. Yes, you are." And, indeed, she was.
She turned back to the window. "There is more that I think about," she said.
It must be difficult, or she would look at him. Sidious suppressed the urge to growl in frustration. As pleasurable as their association was, he was never going to like dealing with her.
Then again, Sidious did not like dealing with anyone.
He held back the impatient sigh. "Sereine. Out with it, please."
She turned to face him, apprehension on her face. "It's just … I have to travel, and there's no help for it. I don't want to come back here after six months on someone else's reelection campaign, and realize I've lost you, somehow, while I was gone."
"I presume you don't mean that in a professional capacity," he said.
She threw one arm in front of her in a jerky movement that reeked of frustration. "Of course not!"
"'Reine, that won't happen." It was an easy reassurance, because he'd had to spend the last six months she was away on all the Sith teaching, writing, ops, and meditations he put off while she was home.
And that gave him an uneasiness, a feeling of skating far too close to breaking his oath. He could justify this partitioning of his time, as furthering his relationships with the Incorruptibles while his closest contact with them was available certainly smoothed his way with them.
But that wasn't the only reason, and he knew that quite well.
And that let him know right there that this attachment was inappropriate, and that he should be severing it now, not preserving it. And yet.
The inducements were there, both the obvious … and the illicit.
"I can only surmise from that that you don't want to lose me, either."
A bold thing for her to say. What did she want, some submissive declaration from him? Absolutely not.
He gave her the stoniest stare he could muster. She looked back at him with such clarity and strength in her eyes that at last he had to look away.
"And I don't want to lose you," he heard her say.
Anger flared within that he endeavored to keep out of his face. What was he to say? Actually, it's immaterial to me?
It was what he should say, immediately, and end this.
And there would go "command and compel." There would go his place in a piece of landmark legislation with which his name would forever be associated. He would have a much tougher time making his way to the Box, which he didn't want to take twenty years to do. He wanted to succeed Valorum, not Valorum's successor's successor. There would go everything the current Chancellor might do to pave his way.
And there would go absolutely intoxicating sex he had begun to crave, and everything that came with it as well.
He realized he was staring at the table, wrestling with a creeping sense of overcompromise.
Sereine spoke again. "And yet, we mustn't speak that we might love one another, or even think it. Sheev, where do you get all this?"
He glared up at her, about to rebuke her, and she held up a hand.
"I understand you don't want that. It's just that there are all these things, and we have to settle them, or we can't continue. I want some pact here that will create some peace between us, Sheev. One we each agree to honor, and that's it. May we please settle our areas of disagreement, and have done with them? That is what I want."
She put her hands on her hips and waited.
Well. It would be acceptable, even desirable.
"I imagine such a pact would change your feelings about exclusivity?" He raised his brows at her.
"No!" Well, that answer was surprising. From the look on her face, she saw that on his. "I'm away for months at a time. I don't want you miserable." She stopped and gave him an awkward shrug. "Of course, I don't want to be miserable, either. But yet, I don't want to lose you."
He said, "Out with it, Sereine. What do you want?" Otherwise, this distasteful business was likely to take them all night.
She said, "If we're apart and frustrated, we can have someone else. But I would like to be informed who and when, and I will inform you as well."
Might as well test her behavior on that point right now. "Pursuant to that, I have a confession to make, then. But, please. Let's settle this first."
Surprise and concern crossed her face, but she lifted her chin and calmly said, "All right."
If she could handle any indiscretion like she did this one, he could live with that.
She turned to face him, her hands clasped in front of her. "So, I'm going to propose this as a pact to you," she said.
He waited, prepared to say, Absolutely not.
"Point one: The next time you threaten to terminate me, I will go. I can't put up with this anymore."
The repetition rankled him; Sidious was sick of hearing about it. She stared at him.
He nodded once.
"I'd like some verbal acknowledgement from you on that point."
Irritation flared; for a moment, he was almost on the point of rising and ordering her out of his apartment.
He thought again of where things were at the moment, how inconvenient it would be to lose her.
At last, he said, "Agreed."
She walked part of the distance from the window to the table, hands still clasped in front of her. "Point two: I understand some of the issues people have with certain words. The implication of marriage, and babies, and marble halls … ugh. I don't want that. I'm not asking you for it. I never will."
"Hah!" burst from him, quite involuntarily.
She said, "But this only works the way it is."
And it was true. This legislation never would have happened if they had been married, or if Bail Organa or anyone else had any idea they slept together.
Finally, he said, "It pleases me that you value that."
She nodded solemnly. "Yes, I do. I never want that to change."
She walked over and took the chair beside him. "Sheev, I esteem you very much." Her eyes flickered to the tabletop for a moment, as if she were gathering courage, and then back to him. "And I would hope that you also esteem me very much as well."
He saw her swallow, and considered that.
It was the truth. It was.
Yet, he thought of his master for a moment, and realized one could esteem another and yet not care for them at all. Or one could care for a person and not esteem them a bit.
His eyes had drifted from her face. He returned his attention to her and saw two huge brown eyes studying him. She sat back a bit and lowered her chin.
She wanted an answer.
Did he really have to say this? If he didn't, she would leave, and all he had ever been taught said, Let her go.
Anger rose in him suddenly at that; anger and some perverse spirit, some sense of rebellion.
He met her eyes and said, "Yes, 'Reine. Indeed, I do."
She reached forward and took his hands. Sidious flinched; he hadn't expected her to do that. Her velvet eyes sought his.
"And I don't want to lose you," she said. "And you don't want to lose me."
His stomach roiled suddenly. He spoke to himself, sternly: She is my mistress. She is only my mistress.
She said, "Can this be our pact to one another, and peace between us, then? That we each esteem one another, and we don't want to lose one another?"
It didn't violate any code or any teaching.
He had the right to choose whom he would. The right to her body and anything else he might desire.
He was Master.
Something mitigated his sense of wrongness in this: his vision. He didn't know how, but in eight years or less, he would see her no more.
He said, "'Reine, I can't promise you this forever. We live in a constantly changing universe, and I can't foresee what lies ahead. Not when it comes to you, at least."
She said, "For as long as we can, then?"
Sidious looked into two devoted brown eyes, and he said it. "For as long as we can."
She whispered, "Thank you," and he watched the water run up in her eyes.
He had a sudden panicked thought that while he had obeyed the letter of the rule, this stood right on the edge of breaking its intent. Right on the edge of cuckolding the great Sith Order itself.
He knew all the reasons for the prohibitions, and yet something in him strained in rebellion.
She said, "You're very precious to me."
Fear laid two of his fingers over her lips and said, "Sereine. Enough."
She kissed his fingers, and then, inexplicably, she bowed her head to him.
As she should.
It settled some feeling of rightness within him, confirming, as even she did, his supreme place in the universe.
With that, he could stand and gather her into his arms. After a moment, he felt her arms slide around him.
Now and then, it is acceptable to have something for oneself.
They stood and held one another.
At last, Palpatine said, "A pact, is it? Then I believe we need some method of sealing it."
She looked up at him with her wet brown eyes and said, "You do?"
Lord Sidious leaned down and kissed her, their deep, soulful, crackling kiss that ignited passion.
xxx
Palpatine turned over and spooned her from behind, pushing aside her hair to plant warm kisses on her neck. "I have an addition I propose to our pact."
She turned her head. "You do?"
She felt his warm breath in her ear. "I do. I am informed by various males of our species that in a long-term arrangement, the female starts denying sex."
"Ohhh." Sereine reached behind her to stroke his hip and thigh.
"So, I am adding the condition of frequent and satisfying sex. When that's over, so is this."
"Sounds fair," said Sereine. "Although, since we do indulge very frequently, I expect some understanding from you if I'm ill, or if something hurts, or if I haven't slept well, or things of that sort."
He busied himself kissing her shoulder.
"Sheev? I expect an agreement on that point."
"Of course," he said at last. "If you'll do as much for me."
"Agreed," she said, and rolled onto her back. "While we're discussing … I think you alluded to some … confession, you needed to make?"
"Ah," said Palpatine. He had half hoped she would forget.
Well, now for the test. "This Queen Renata, involved in our Jedi matter. I actually did meet her at a reception at the Theta Delegation, while she was here."
Sereine's fingers lightly stroked his forearm. "You did?" she said, her voice coy.
"I did. Apparently, the King is about age seventy, and she is only thirty-three. She's quite attractive, and she seemed to find me so, as well …"
"Smuggled you back to her suite, did she?"
"As a matter of fact, she did."
"I don't blame her." Sereine folded her lips and gave him a conspiratorial smile. "Did you have a good time?"
Palpatine searched her face, looking for any signs of jealousy or displeasure. "Well enough. Not this good."
"Oh." She stroked his cheek, letting her fingers stray into his hair as she was wont to do. "Glad to hear it. I presume you remembered health and pregnancy precautions? Since you don't need either one here?"
"Yes, my dear." He kissed her cheek. "I imagine a king of his age may wonder where a sudden baby came from."
Sereine laughed. "Thank you," she said, "for telling me."
His fingers traced circles on her chest. "Thank you for keeping your promise." He kissed her neck. "I do wonder if you have any confessions for me."
"No," she said. "Frankly, it takes a lot for a man to appear as attractive to me as you are. Plus, without the practice we have, it's not as good. And a lot of men are boorish, they take what they want and don't necessarily give in equal measure. I'm not saying I'd never do it, but … you are a very hard act to follow."
He laughed softly. "Glad to hear it."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Am I going to hear a jealous rant if I do?"
"You're being more than fair. I'll try to contain myself."
She smoothed a stray curl behind his ear. "All right, then."
He lifted some of her own hair and inspected it closely. "Tell me, is this infernal brown ever going to wash out? I believe it's beginning to turn your hair green, Ederra."