Thanks so much for your review as always, Guest! Yes, I love Tai's character as well. Such a good friend. This chapter is a little lighter as it's mainly setting up the stage for the next chapter, which will be a big one ;)
Amaya sat across the table from her father, anxiously taking a sip from the cup of tea a servant had poured for her. Mikol Morava, member of the High Council of the Kingdom of Ilfain, counselor to King Nyoka, and her father, was looking at her if she were a ghost. And perhaps, given her similarities in appearance to her mother, she was.
"You have the Force too." He said, after a long stretch of silence.
Amaya nodded, realizing he was the only member of the family who wasn't Force sensitive. How strange that must be for him.
"Mom taught me a bit about how to use it but I only started training formally this past year-"
"Why are you here?" Mikol interrupted, and Amaya blinked, taken aback and a little offended.
"I came to...meet you." Amaya said, beginning to wonder if that had been a mistake.
"Obviously. I'm asking you why." He said, and Amaya flinched, hurt turning to anger. She pushed back her seat from the table and stood up.
"Rash decisions and poor judgment apparently." She snapped, and her father stood up as well.
"Wait." He said. "Don't go. The question was genuine."
Amaya frowned. "I don't-"
"Last I heard from you, you wanted nothing to do with me." Mikol said. "I'm asking what changed."
Amaya stared at him, unsure how to feel. His manner was brusque and rude but she could sense he really didn't want her to leave. But how to even begin answering this question? "Well I...I realized it wasn't your fault. What mom did. It wasn't your fault."
Mikol's eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly, the only outward sign he had registered what she had said. But Amaya could sense through the Force the kind of emotional impact her words had had. "I didn't know you existed." He said, after a moment. "Until I received that message."
Amaya nodded. "Mom didn't know she was pregnant when she ran away. If she'd have known...I don't think she would have left when she did."
Her father turned away, walking over to a window, and Amaya sensed it was to hide the way his eyes were watering. When he turned back around, they were dry. It's Sentoh tomorrow." He said. "You're welcome to stay."
It was Sentoh. She'd completely forgotten about Alfazine holidays and lost track of time on this planet. "Okay, thank you." She said.
Mikol nodded. "I'll go ask for a room to be prepared." He said, turning to leave.
Before Amaya could say anything else, he'd left the room and she found herself alone in the large drawing room. She looked around it, taking in the elaborate patterns on the curtains, the antique furniture, the thick rug, the glistening chandelier above her head. It was all overly lavish and everything she had sworn she hated. But looking around it, she found she didn't have it in her to hate anything anymore. She was exhausted and drained. She was so tired of fighting.
When her father came back in, he gestured towards the door. "Come, I'll give you a tour."
Amaya followed him out the door, into the wide marble hallway she had entered through. Mikol led her up a winding flight of stairs and Amaya looked down as she went up, spotting servants walking around below. Ancai had grown up here. The thought was difficult to wrap her head around. She tried to imagine him as a child, running around the foyer, oblivious to how lucky he was.
They reached the top of the staircase and Amaya followed her father down a long corridor. He stopped every so often along the way, showing her his study, a guest bedroom, the door that led to the servants' quarters, a guest bathroom...There were so many doors and hallways that Amaya began to wonder if she might get lost in this maze.
"This can be your room." Mikol said, opening a door to a room at the end of the hall. Amaya followed him inside, finding she had her own walk-in closet and private bathroom. She felt uncomfortable, as if she had just stepped into someone else's shoes.
"Feel free to freshen up. Dinner is in an hour." Her father said, looking as if he was getting ready to leave.
"Dad?" Amaya asked, and Mikol froze, clearly deeply uncomfortable with the title. Amaya frowned, his discomfort making her even more uncomfortable than she already was. "Why didn't you look for mom? Surely you could have found her."
"She wanted to leave." Mikol said. "Who was I to stop her?"
Amaya couldn't help but realize this was exactly what she had said to the other padawans about Ben. The thought unnerved her.
"Is that why you never tried to find me?" She asked. "After I got off the island?"
Mikol shrugged. "Did you want to be found?"
"No." Amaya said, and Mikol nodded.
"Well then there you go." He said, turning to leave.
"What about Ancai?" Amaya asked, feeling the pain this question evoked through the Force. "You just let him go too?"
"Ancai and I never saw eye to eye." Mikol said. "I tried to teach him responsibility and put him in charge of company affairs but he threw away every opportunity I gave him. When I cut him out of the business entirely, he left. I haven't seen him since."
Amaya nodded, wondering just how much she should tell him. "I met him." She said. "This past year."
Mikol made no reply, but his jaw clenched, and Amaya could tell he was too proud to ask the questions he really wanted to ask. "I showed him the house I grew up in." Amaya continued, unsure how to explain everything that had happened.
When Mikol still made no reply, Amaya frowned. "You're not even going to ask how he is?"
Her father's expression hardened. "I'll see you at dinner." He said, making yet another attempt to leave.
"I didn't come all the way here just to eat dinner, you know." Amaya protested, and Mikol let out a sigh of exasperation turning back to face her.
"Amaya, I really do not know what it is you expect me to say." He snapped. "Ancai made his decision. Just like your mother did. Just like you did."
Amaya flinched because how could she be angry with him for his reaction when she had had the same reaction to Ben leaving. "But you miss him right?" She asked, blinking back tears she refused to shed in front of her father.
He noticed them anyway and his expression softened. "Of course." He said.
Amaya made no reply and her father sighed. "I'll let you freshen up." He said, and, this time, Amaya finally let him leave.
She waited until the door was closed behind him before she let out the tears she'd been holding in.
By the time she descended to the dining room, Amaya felt better. She had showered and changed into a dress a servant had brought her. The servant had said it had been her mother's. Once upon a time.
Amaya found the long dining room table set for just two and felt a wave of loneliness wash over it. How had her father lived in this giant empty castle by himself all these years?
She took the seat that the servants directed her to and looked around, wondering where her father was. He entered a moment later and the servants dispersed, leaving them more or less alone. Amaya looked down at the food that had been cooked for her and felt guilty. She did not want to be waited on. She could cook her own food. Still, her father started eating and so she reluctantly followed suit.
"So who are you?" Her father said, after a moment, and Amaya looked at him in confusion before he smiled ever so slightly and she laughed.
"I don't know how to answer that question." Amaya said.
"Then start with this. What have you been doing since you left the island?" Her father asked.
Amaya sighed, taking a sip of some of the wine that had already been poured for her. "I worked in an orphanage and then hid in a bunker during the war." She said, watching her father's eyes widen imperceptibly. "Then I joined the rebellion." She said, waiting for a reaction.
When she didn't get one, she continued on. "When they found out I was Force sensitive they suggested I go train to be a Jedi so that I could be of more use so I went there. That's what I've been doing the past six months or so."
"I thought the Jedi were all gone." Her father said.
Amaya winced, the image of the Temple burning coming back unbidden. "No." She said. "Luke Skywalker started a Jedi Temple. He was training a new generation of Jedi."
"That name sounds familiar. Who is he?" Her father asked, and Amaya couldn't help but laugh. Now she knew how out of touch she had sounded when she'd told Ben she didn't know who Luke Skywalker was. Her smile faded at the look of offense on her father's face. She shook her head to clear it.
"He's the war hero who defeated the Empire." She said, and Mikol's eyebrows raised up in a look of recognition.
"Right." He said. "I remember now."
Amaya couldn't help but be surprised by how much of a relief it was to be back on Alfazine where no one knew or cared about the hellish drama she had just been dragged through.
"So you're a Jedi now?" He asked, and Amaya shook her head.
"No. I've only been training for 6 months. It takes a lifetime of training to become a Jedi." She said. "And besides, I left. I'm not going to continue with the training."
"Why not?" Her father asked, and Amaya grimaced.
"There was an accident." She said. "One of the padawans lost control and summoned a storm and the whole Temple burned down, killing everyone inside. I wasn't there when it happened but now there's not even any Temple to go back to."
She felt her father's eyes on her face and looked down at her food, unable to meet them.
"So then what is your plan?" Her father asked. "I assume you're not going to stay here forever."
Amaya looked back up at him, once again taken aback by his bluntness. "I don't know." She admitted. "It all just happened so suddenly. I haven't even had time to think."
Her father nodded. "Well take your time." He said. "Don't make any more rash decisions."
Amaya snorted, looking at him curiously. He was odd. He was intense and rude and closed off but, more than that, he was just odd.
"So who are you?" She asked, with a smirk, throwing the question back at him.
Mikol gave a small smile. "I think you already know that."
"I don't." Amaya protested.
"I am the only son of Vikrank and Bea Morava." Mikol said. "I was forced to marry your mother when I was 18. She was 16. You know the rest."
She had grandparents. She had nearly forgotten. "Your parents are-"
"Dead." Mikol said. "They died in a ship crash 10 years ago."
"Oh. Sorry." Amaya said, her face falling.
"Don't be sorry, you wouldn't have liked them." He said, and Amaya nearly choked on her wine. Hadn't this been essentially what Ancai had said to her about their father?
"What about mom's parents?" She asked.
"They're still alive." He said. "They haven't spoken to me since she ran away though."
Amaya stared at her father, realizing that, in the end, literally everyone had left him. He'd wound up alone in this castle with an inheritance he hadn't asked for and no one around. She understood why her mother had left but she couldn't help but wonder how things might have turned out differently if she hadn't.
"Did Ancai know them?" She asked, sensing Mikol tense again at the mention of her brother. She didn't care. She wanted to talk about him.
"No." He said, anger in his voice. "They cut off contact completely. Not caring that they were abandoning their grandson."
"Mom never talked about them." Amaya said. "What are they like?"
"The kind of parents who would marry their daughter off against her will before she finished school." Mikol said, definitely angry now.
Amaya nodded, taking another sip of wine. She felt its warmth make her bold.
"Ancai joined an organization called the Knights of Ren." She said. "Do you know what that is?
Her father narrowed his eyes, looking confused, and Amaya took that for a no. "It's a criminal organization of Dark Side Force sensitive users who are now working for the First Order."
Her father's look of confusion intensified and Amaya realized he probably had no idea what the Dark Side or the First Order was. How lucky he was.
"The First Order is an authoritarian political entity that is fighting the New Republic for control of its territory." Amaya said, knowing this would be of little consequence to someone from Alfazine, which had never belonged to either the Republic or the Empire. "The Dark Side is...the negative side of the Force."
"There are sides to the Force?" Her father asked, and Amaya couldn't help but smile. This was the ideology she had grown up with and it was a breath of fresh air to hear it taken for granted that the Force was something whole.
"Depends on your point of view, I guess." Amaya said, shrugging. "But the Jedi sure seem to think so."
"So these Knights of Ren..." Mikol said, frowning. "They do what exactly?"
"They're like the armed special service of the First Order." Amaya tried to explain. "They serve Snoke, the leader of the First Order, but they also spend a lot of their time just pillaging the galaxy and creating chaos for the sake of it. They'll go rob a bank and then splurge the money and then go steal some centuries-old artifact prized by its home planet as central to their religion, only to use it as target practice just because they can." She said, disgust slipping into her voice.
"Sounds like Ancai." Her father said, and Amaya bit her lip.
"Why do you say that?" She asked.
Mikol snorted, gesturing around himself. "Look at this place." He said, and Amaya looked up at the glass chandelier above her head. "It was all just a game to Ancai. He never took his responsibilities seriously. I tried to teach him how to govern this kingdom and run the family business. He was supposed to take my place in the High Council when I die, but he was wholly uninterested in any of it. He had no focus, no ambition, no drive..." Her father shook his head in dismay.
"What did he want to do?" Amaya asked, remembering Ancai's account of their father strict perfectionism. Was it possible Ancai had revolted against their father's overbearing nature by becoming the polar opposite of what his father wanted him to become?
"Nothing." Mikol said. "He would disappear for days at a time with his friends and then show up again, hungover, without telling me where he'd been. He blew through money like it grew on trees. He just never grew up."
Her father was truly angry now and Amaya took another sip of wine. "Why do you think that was?" She asked.
Mikol let out a sigh and gave her a look. "I suppose you think it was my fault, don't you."
"Was it?" Amaya asked.
Her father took a sip of his own wine and looked away. "He never had a mother." He said, at last. "He grew up knowing she had abandoned him. And I couldn't fill that hole."
Amaya nodded, falling silent.
"You seem like you turned out alright though." Mikol said, raising an eyebrow, and Amaya laughed.
"Well I'm so glad you think so." She said, rolling her eyes.
He poured her another glass of wine. "Maybe it was a good thing your mother took you away."
Amaya shook her head. "No." She said. "I wanted off that island. You don't know how often I dreamed of the world beyond it no matter how horrible mom insisted it was."
"Well it is horrible." Mikol said. "She had that much right."
"I wish I'd known you." Amaya said, and Mikol stared at her, a look of sadness passing behind his eyes. "And Ancai. I wish I'd known you both. Before everything fell apart."
Amaya looked down, unable to keep looking at the heartbreak in her father's eyes. "Maybe if we'd all been together...things might have turned out different."
Mikol was silent for a moment before shaking his head. "There is no point in wishing for things to have happened differently."
Amaya took a bite of her dinner, dismayed by his words. "But I am glad you came home." Mikol said quietly, almost haltingly, as if it were hard to say out loud.
Amaya smiled, surprised and comforted by the admission. "Me too."
When she finally went up the stairs to bed, it was close to midnight. Amaya felt a little drunk, a little sad, but more relaxed than she'd been since Ben left. If the galaxy was burning and everything was falling apart, at least she wasn't alone anymore. At least she finally had a family again even if it was broken into a million pieces.
Entering her bedroom, she closed the floor and fell back on the bed. She stared up at the golden tiles on the ceiling and then closed her eyes, reaching out with the Force. She found Ancai easily. He was in his bed, alone, trying to sleep.
Hi. She said and felt him jump.
Amaya? He asked.
Happy Sentoh. She said, feeling the words strike a chord inside of him. She wondered how long it had been since anyone had wished him a happy Sentoh. She would be willing to bet at least 4 years.
Maya... Ancai said. Why are you-
I'm here at our dad's house. She said, before he could finish the thought. She felt his shock reverberate through the Force, mixed up with a lot of resentment and pain.
Why? Ancai asked, his anger palpable. I told you, you were better off not knowing him-
Because everyone I've ever loved, I've lost to the Darkness. Amaya said, her eyes welling with tears. Mom, Ben, you...dad is the only one I have left.
Ancai froze and Amaya realized why a second too late. She'd told him she loved him. Did she love him? She barely knew him. It was just that he was her brother and perhaps she had loved him from the moment her mother had first shown her a photo of him in her locket. All her life, she had known he was out there. She had hoped that one day she might find him and now she had.
Sometimes family...just isn't worth it. Ancai said, the pain in his heart audible in his thoughts.
But then what is? Amaya asked, feeling a tear roll down her cheek. You don't know how many nights I spent lying awake on that island, thinking about you and dad. Imagining what it would be like when I finally met you for the first time.
You must have been disappointed. Ancai said, bitterly.
I was so angry for so long. Amaya said. I blamed you and I'm sorry for that. I thought dad was a monster but he's just a man. He's just a little lost and I am...I am so tired of being angry, Ancai.
Amaya felt her words evoke a strong reaction in Ancai, a mix of jumbled emotions she couldn't begin to untangle.
I want a home. She continued. And I want a family. I thought I had one at the Temple for a while but that went up in flames and now I...
Some things that are broken cannot be fixed. Ancai said. Mom split up our family when she left and she permanently broke it beyond repair when she killed herself.
But we're still here. Amaya protested. The three of us can be a family.
You and I are on opposite sides of a war. Ancai said. Dad hates me and I hate him. These are differences that can't be overcome.
He doesn't hate you. Amaya sighed, this conversation starting to remind her of the unending arguments she would have with Ben, trying to convince him all was not lost. And look how that had turned out.
Maya... Ancai sighed, sounding tired.
Amaya fell silent, resigning herself to the truth that she could not make things better. She could no sooner heal the rift within her own family than she could bring Ben home. And no matter how much it hurt, there was no point in being angry at any of them. Her fury would not change their minds. It would only leave her exhausted and drained.
Her mother had not left Ancai because she did not love him any more than Ancai had left his father because he didn't love him. And by that same logic, Ben had not left her because he did not love her. She had always known this deep down, but in her hurt, she had refused to acknowledge it for fear of the implications it would bring. Because if you could leave someone you loved that meant that love was far less powerful than she had previously thought it to be. It quite simply wasn't enough sometimes.
Have you...seen him? Amaya asked, her pulse quickening as she waited in anticipation for the answer.
Your little boyfriend? Ancai asked. Of course. He's been moping around here like a lost puppy.
Amaya felt her heart break. Please take care of him.
This isn't a nursery, Maya. Ancai said. In the Knights of Ren, it is kill or be killed.
Ancai, please. She begged, and Ancai fell silent.
They lay in silence for a moment, having reached an impasse.
Well I should go to sleep. Amaya said, and she felt Ancai's disappointment through the Force. She knew he'd deny it until he was blue in the face, but he wanted a family too. She could feel it.
Goodnight Maya. Ancai said, and Amaya opened her eyes, looking back up at the tiled ceiling.
Ancai leaned against the door frame, a cup of coffee in his hand, as he watched Vicrul and Cardo play Dejarik. Ben, Ushar, and Kuruk sat nearby, watching in silence.
He didn't understand what Amaya saw in Ben Solo. He was unstable, confused, and now he'd gone and broken her heart. Ancai had felt her pain when she'd reached out to him and it had made him want to run his lightsaber through Ben for having had the audacity to leave her. He'd had everything. He'd had parents and a girlfriend who loved him, friends who cared about him, and he'd been the star pupil of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Temple. What possible reason could he have had to throw all of that away to join the Knights of Ren of all people? If he wanted to ruin his life then he deserved whatever happened next.
"Morava, it's time to pay up!" Cardo cried victoriously. "I told you the idiot wouldn't realize."
Ancai pushed off off the wall, walking over to inspect the board. He'd made a bet with Cardo that the strategy he swore by wouldn't work on Vicrul, but it had. "You probably cheated." Ancai snorted.
"Oh he definitely did." Vicrul said, fuming over the loss.
"There are three witnesses." Cardo protested. "They saw everything."
"Yea, we saw you nudge the Grimtaash up when Vicrul wasn't looking." Ushar said, and Ancai could sense he was lying just to create conflict.
"Oh come on, everyone knows that's a lie. Kuruk, tell them." Cardo exclaimed.
"I'm not getting involved in this." Kuruk said, standing up with a roll of his eyes.
"Okay then Solo." Cardo said, looking at Ben. "Surely your Jedi Master taught you not to lie. Give me the justice I deserve."
"Careful Solo." Vicrul said, tilting his head to the side. "You don't want to make enemies on your first day here."
"He didn't nudge the Grimtaash but he did move the Houjix up two spaces." Ben said, looking between Cardo and Vicrul. "And Vicrul used the Force to control the roll of the die. So they both cheated."
"Oooooh Skywalker's precious golden boy has got you both." Ushar said as he and Kuruk laughed at the looks of annoyance on Cardo and Vicrul's faces.
Ancai watched Ben's face, noticing the way it clouded over with fury at the mention of Skywalker. His hand clenched into a fist under the table, the reaction seeming almost subconscious.
"Well then I guess I don't owe you anything." Ancai said, with a smirk.
He turned around and found Ren watching them from the doorway, a smug smile on his face. Ancai walked over to him, taking a sip of his coffee.
"He doesn't really fit in does he?" Ren said, glancing over at Ben.
"No, he's not dumb enough." Ancai replied.
"He's strong in the shadow though." Ren said. "Today we'll see what he's really made of."
"What's happening today?" Ancai asked, finishing his coffee.
"Black Sun is willing to pay 100,000 credits for an artifact in the Minemoon of Mimban." Ren said.
Ancai nodded. "Alright, that's not a difficult mission. We'll be done by lunch."
"Skywalker's other padawans know we're headed there. They're coming for Solo." Ren said, and Ancai froze. Surely Amaya was not...
"Don't worry, your sister's not involved." Ren said, with a derisive snort. "Snoke says she's left them. Given up apparently."
"I'm sorry how do Skywalker's padawans know where we're headed?" Ancai asked, trying to wrap his mind around this. "They don't even know where we're headed." He said, nodding towards the other Knights, who were still bickering over the Dejarik game.
"The official explanation is one of the padawans had a Force vision." Ren said, with a smirk that let Ancai know that was not in fact what had happened.
"Snoke planted images of the future in their head to lure them there." Ancai surmised.
Ren winked. "Well aren't you a crazy conspiracy theorist." He sneered, turning to leave.
Ancai looked back at Ben, slowly understanding the implications of what Ren had just revealed. If Snoke had lured the padawans to them, it could only be because he hoped they would be killed. If Ben were truly to become a Knight of Ren, he needed a good death. Not just any death. One that meant something. What better way to cement his loyalty to Snoke than to have him kill his own friends, ensuring he could never go back to the Jedi.
Amaya would never forgive him if he let this happen.
Ancai put down his now empty coffee mug in the kitchen and walked back to his room. He locked the door and checked through the Force to make sure no one was within earshot. Finding no one, he pulled out his hologram, plugging in the number he had sworn never to use again. He waited and waited, and, just when he had begun to think he wouldn't get an answer, a miniature holographic image of his father appeared in front of him.
"I need to speak to Amaya." He said. "Now."