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━┓ '𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧' ┏━
━━ ★ ━━
...OUTSKIRTS OF THEED, NABOO
𝐅𝐀𝐑 𝐎𝐅𝐅, 𝐀 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏 flew through the blue sky.
It floated down like a piece of paper skipping on the breeze, delicate from afar even though the engines would roar up close. This distance was nice; far better for admiring. It was easier to come up with stories of merchants or dignitaries when the hard lines weren't visible.
Cora watched through the window until it was out of sight and then her attention shifted back inside. The air hung with the scent of fresh-cut wood, floorboards creaking against the soles of her worn muck boots.
"See? Is it not amazing how smooth the wood grain becomes?" Sabina Tseng ran her hand along the slab of perlite wood. "This was something that might not have been given a second glance, destined for a burn pile. Now, it can be used for a greater purpose. A lot of this has been lost over the years, metal and durasteel replaced so much of the love and care that came from growing and harvesting. And, not everyone has this luxury to digest the world slowly. It's a careful art."
A way to mend and not break or burn.
For all of Cora's life, Sabina had been the soft line. The place she escaped to, the long afternoons spent out in the barn where Sabina worked with wood as if she too were made from it. The dust would dance in the air, coating it with the scent of a fresh cut and lemon-scented oil.
Better than the afternoon Cora could have spent with her own mother in Theed, wasting away the hours in the stiff-backed chair of a law firm office.
"It's beautiful," Cora agreed, running a hand over the piece she had helped sand down earlier. Now with a sheen of oil, it glistened like it was made for the hands of a monarch.
Sabina hefted the slab off the table and leaned it on its side. "Yes, and with any luck, it'll make a beautiful new dining table after my previous one was ruined."
Cora cringed. "Have I mentioned I'm sorry about that?"
Sabina chuckled, retying her dark hair in its low bun. "It was a group effort."
