Jaina Solo rests in Jagged Fel's arm as she dances. The young Jedi is extremely pleased that the Remnant Imperial pilot is also here on Hapes. Since the destruction of the planet Ithor, she has not seen Jag, as she affectionately calls the black-haired man with bright green eyes, and she'd no longer believed, that she would ever meet him again in this murderous war, but now he leads her in finely defined circled spins across the polished parquet, and at the same time they watch Prince Isolder, who has opened the dance ball with his daughter Tenel Ka and is dancing past them. Tenel Ka shows extreme concentration when dancing, coupled with unique grace.
"I wonder what happens to a man who steps on her toes," Jag tells Jaina.
Jaina grins. "The heads of all of them are stuffed and hanging in the trophy room of the palace."
More and more couples populate the dance floor and Jaina looks longingly at the door. The tight dress restricts her breath and dancing has never been her thing, even though she has naturally mastered this art of entertainment as the daughter of a born diplomat like Leia Organa-Solo.
"Let's take evasive action," Jag reads her thoughts.
Holding hands, the two young people run out of the hall and down the hallway, giggling. A red-veiled woman stands in their way.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" the Queen Mother Ta'a Chume asks Jaina and only Jaina.
"I was just about to," Jaina Solo replies pointedly.
"I was hoping to exchange a few words with you," Ta'a Chume says in a friendly but emphatic tone, ignoring Jag even more than she did in her first sentence.
Jag Fel understands and bows briefly. "Queen Mother," he says and disappears.
The Queen Mother leads Jaina into an audience room, whose red-gold wallpaper spreads a mixture of liveliness and royal seriousness in the room. In the right half of the room there is a seating area that can accommodate eight people. A little later, Trisdin Gheer, the Queen Mother's young companion, also appears, carrying Tenel Ka with him.
Everyone except Trisdin sits around the low table. Jaina watches the blue-eyed man leave the room again.
"You have already been introduced to Trisdin Gheer, Jaina?" Ta'a Chume asks her guest and looks searchingly into Jaina's brown eyes.
"Can I be completely frank?"
Ta'a Chume nods, her red veil bobbing.
"I believe this young man is up to no good. I felt something in the Force."
The Queen Mother's green eyes smile. "That's exactly what I suspected."
Jaina and her fellow Jedi Tenel Ka exchange glances. Then Jaina looks at Ta'a Chume again. "You summoned me here to expose a traitor?"
The Queen Mother lifts her red veil from her face for a moment and Jaina sees an enigmatic smile. "Our final two guests will be arriving soon to settle this matter once and for all."
The door opens again and Trisdin comes back. Ta'a Chume's body servant leads in two Yuuzhan Vong, one very tall and broad-shouldered with an amphistaff and in Vonduun crab armor. The other one is unarmed and a head shorter, according to the wrinkles in his angular face at least thirty standard years older and in comparison to his hulking comrade he looks not only slender, but even fragile. He is clad in an all green gown that makes him look more civilian. A black and white checkered scarf is artfully wrapped around his head and long black hair hangs braided from underneath in many waist-length braids.
Harrar looks at the two young Jedi in their exclusive ball robes and the queen, behind whose red veil he suspects a very even face. "Veiled like our goddess Yun-Harla – that's what I call a good and interesting beginning. You must be Ta'a Chume, the Queen Mother of Hapes."
Jaina Solo and Tenel Ka jump out of their seats in unison and stare hatefully at Ta'a Chume. "What kind of betrayal is this actually about?" Jaina asks the Queen Mother sharply.
"May I introduce you to Your Eminence Harrar, Priest of Yun-Harla, the Goddess of Cunning, and Commander Khalee Lah? They have come to negotiate a peace treaty between Hapes and the Yuuzhan Vong."
"Ah, that kind of betrayal – against the New Republic!" says Tenel Ka caustically.
Priest Harrar makes a sweeping gesture with both arms. "The negotiations could well include the New Republic as a whole."
Jaina narrows her eyes. "It's getting better and better."
Ta'a Chume nods. "Hapes is ideally suited for a mediating role between the New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong," she begins. "And in order to seal this coming together through action, I would like to ask my granddaughter Tenel Ka to tell me what she observed yesterday."
Jaina realizes how happy her friend is at the fact that she can say something, while the enemy commander is staring at her with his yellow eyes the whole time.
"So yesterday I saw Trisdin sneaking into Meryssa's room late in the evening and staying there for a whole two hours," Tenel Ka begins to say.
Harrar and Khalee Lah exchange meaningful looks, then look at Trisdin Gheer. The young, blonde man has turned pale and his hands are cramped in his lap.
"When Trisdin left Meryssa's room, he was carrying a pink bag with him, in which I later found poison in an unobserved moment!", Tenel Ka ends her accusation.
"Is that true, my faithful Trisdin?" Ta'a Chume asks her servant sternly.
"But the poison wasn't for you, My Queen!" asserts the blonde man.
"Interesting that you immediately mention the poison in connection with the Queen Mother," Priest Harrar remarks smugly.
"Indeed," agrees Ta'a Chume. "So this one is dead." She looks around. "Which of those present would like to carry out the sentence?"
Jaina and Tenel Ka look at each other and the Queen Mother feels that she will not get a commitment to this execution from the two Jedi women. So she smiles at Harrar. "Perhaps your young commander would like to prove himself this evening?"
The priest nods to Khalee Lah. After an initial hesitation, which Harrar knows is due to the rejection of an unworthy and incomparably weaker opponent, the commander stands up and swings his amphistaff high. Trisdin spins around and wants to leave the room, but the warrior catches up with the traitor at the door. At the same time as Trisdin's hand rests on the ancient door handle, he sees the tip of the amphistaff emerge from his chest and falls to the ground, mortally wounded.
Khalee Lah pulls his blood-stained weapon from the corpse. Ta'a Chume picks up a bell and jingles it nonchalantly. Two other servants immediately appear to dispose of the body. Before they leave, one of the servants hands Trisdin's murderer a box of wet wipes so that the warrior can clean his weapon.
"Very kind, Your Majesty, but my amphistaff purifies itself. It feeds on the blood of its victims."
In fact, the tongue of the snakehead runs along the body - all the way to the weapon animal's pointed tail, which serves as a blade. After just a few moments, every trace of the brief use is erased. The freshly cleaned amphistaff curls around Khalee Lah's waist and takes a digestive nap.
Ta'a Chume pours him a glass of wine. "Well, young Khalee Lah, that was quite a debut." Her green eyes look the warrior up and down. "I am sure you also have other qualities to serve the new understanding between our realms."
"Wherever I can be of use, I will be of service to you," Khalee Lah vows to the Queen Mother. "So that your empire may also fight and prosper in the service of the Yuuzhan Vong and for the pleasure of the gods."
Ta'a Chume smiles while Harrar looks embarrassed for a second. "Really lovely, this eagerness," the Queen Mother says kindly to the commander and possessively places a finely manicured hand on his muscular, tattooed upper arm. "Yes, I think you could replace Trisdin well - in every way."
Tenel Ka pouts and Jaina wrinkles her nose in disgust.
Khalee Lah realizes that this encounter isn't exactly what he was hoping for and tries an evasive maneuver. He looks away from the Queen Mother and instead gazes adoringly at Tenel Ka. "I find it admirable that your granddaughter has not chosen any technological means of replacement to replace her missing arm. Maybe Tenel Ka would like to show me around the palace later."
Ta'a Chume laughs briefly. "Well, I've already encountered enough inappropriate couples in the palace today. I suggest we start with the really important things. Hapes needs a strong queen and my son Isolder needs a new wife, who can give him capable heirs to the throne. That's where you come in, Jaina Solo."
"Me?" Jaina says, horrified. "But Isolder is the same age as my father!"
Ta'a Chume makes a dismissive gesture. "What is age compared to obligations to a country from which your good friend Tenel Ka comes?"
"Yes, yes, then I would be Tenel Ka's stepmother," says Jaina. "That's just…!"
"…an extraordinary family constellation that only successful dynasties like ours produce," says Ta'a Chume proudly to the group.
"What does Prince Isolder say about that?" Harrar interjects.
"He's already doing what I tell him," Ta'a Chume replies confidently.
"But isn't there already a queen?" the priest continues. "Teneniel Djo, Prince Isolder's wife?"
Ta'a Chume's gaze darkens. "Teneniel Djo is seriously ill. She recently had a miscarriage and is no longer able to be a capable queen mother to Hapes. That's why we need a new queen – one like Jaina Solo!"
"With me as queen, there will certainly not be the peace between the Yuuzhan Vong and Hapes that you seek, Queen Mother," Jaina says forcefully.
"Are you always so direct?" Ta'a Chume parleys with amusement. "Or should I interpret this sentence as an agreement for you to marry my son?"
"If I were you, Queen Mother, I would do a better job of keeping things like marriage and peace separate," warns Jaina Solo. "Because if one doesn't work, it could have devastating consequences for the other, i.e. the state."
"Your words are wise beyond your youth, young Solo," Priest Harrar says approvingly. "Thus speaks a true incarnation of Yun-Harla, the Cunning One."
Jaina's blood rushes to her head. It's one thing for her, Tenel Ka, and other Jedi to tease each other with this equation to spite the Yuuzhan Vong. But when a real Yuuzhan Vong priest, who also serves Yun-Harla, says something like that to her ... Jaina Solo suspects a clever trap.
"What good is an incarnation of Yun-Harla in your mind when she is soon to be sacrificed to your gods?" she throws into Harrar's tattooed face.
Ta'a Chume raises her eyebrows. "Jaina Solo is to be sacrificed?"
Harrar smiles at the Queen Mother and then at Jaina. "That was once. Now the Yuuzhan Vong have realized that they want to live in peace with the New Republic and so select Jedi are now equated with the gods and so as a divine emanation they are now given every reverence one could wish for as a God Avatar."
"That means in plain language, either the Yuuzhan Vong are at our throats with hate or they lie at our feet and worship us," says Tenel Ka with amusement.
"I would worship you in a heartbeat, Tenel Ka," Khalee Lah tells her, "as an incarnation of Yun-Txiin, the goddess of love."
"About that later," Harrar waves and turns to Ta'a Chume. "As a gesture of goodwill, we will not take any punitive action against Hapes for our damaged fleet, and in return you will let Jaina Solo go so she can meet with our Warmaster. Then, in Tsavong Lah's presence, I will bestow upon her the title of an incarnation of Yun-Harla during a proper ceremony."
Unveiled doubt is emanating from Jaina's brown eyes. "The message well I hear, my faith alone is weak."
"And then who will give birth to capable heirs to the throne?" asks Ta'a Chume doubtfully.
"Our shapers will take care of that," promises Harrar. "Just tell me who you want to have offspring with, and our shapers will create it."
"Well, if that's the case, then I would like to raise a child like that," says the Queen Mother, relieved. "Jaina, you could donate some eggs and we can then combine them with my son's sperm."
Jaina shakes her head vigorously. "Forget it! My eggs belong to me alone!"
"If that has been clarified, Tenel Ka could show me the palace now," says Khalee Lah, returning to a topic that was thought to be closed.
"I would like to go dancing again," Jaina adds.
"Well, whoever believes it," says Ta'a Chume pointedly.
"Then we two could talk about other things that matter, My Queen," Harrar buts in again.
Ta'a Chume looks the priest up and down. "Yeah, why not?"
Jaina goes back to the dance hall, but Jagged Fel has disappeared. Tenel Ka finally shows Khalee Lah the royal palace and Harrar stays with Ta'a Chume.
The Queen Mother takes the priest's hand. "How come you're missing the ring and little fingers on both hands? Did you want it to be … symmetrical?"
"A Yuuzhan Vong priest is almost expected to sacrifice body parts to honor the gods, but you can be sure, that I can handle all of my daily errands with just six fingers."
Ta'a Chume giggles like a teenager. "Yes, if I really think about it, you could get me a lot of things."