Traitors To The Heart

Chapter 6: Palace Life

The first night in the palace was the hardest for everyone. Lyra was very against having anybody in the clone trooper crawling palace inspect even her leg, definitely not her brain. Aurora found it odd when she was especially against it when she suggested she may be more comfortable with a droid conducting the check up. Aurora got a little frustrated so she left the room. Nova was the only one by her bedside now.

"You know, ignoring it won't make the pain go away." Nova said with a soft smile towards Lyra, but couldn't take her hands off the fuzzy pillow on her bed. She clutched it to her face and sighed merrily.

"Have you ever felt anything so soft in your life?" She rapidly caressed the fuzzy pillow against her cheek with a wild smile. The sight made Lyra pause and take it in before bursting with laughter.

"Can't say I have, no."

"No seriously, feel it!" Nova started smothering her with the pillow as Lyra laughed until her leg twitched the wrong way. She seethed a painful grunt and held a hand out for Nova to stop.

"Oh, sorry. Forgot about that for a second." Nova set the pillow down and looked at Lyra's bare leg. She couldn't help but notice the scars on it that couldn't possibly have been caused by the crash.

"Did Dooku do that?" At first glance you would think the pattern was just a part of her skin since it was everywhere, but with a closer look it's easy to tell her skin markings from electrocution wounds.

"These old things? Nah. Would've preferred it was him, actually." Nova looked like she wanted elaboration on that, but Lyra didn't want to give it until she saw her pouty face.

"I befriended—or I thought I befriended android in my early days on Serenno. But Dooku ordered the droid to torture me, and it did. So excuse me if I don't like to have droids all up me with their pokey things and shocky sticks of death." Nova nodded in understanding but there was one question on her mind.

"How old we're you? When Dooku took you, I mean."

"12." Nova felt a little piece of her heart break from inside her chest as it tightened.

"And how old are you now?"

"18." A little gasp escaped Nova's lips against her will. She slapped her hands over her mouth, ashamed of herself for possibly making Lyra feel even worse about it than before. Lyra chuckled slightly as she rubbed her head.

"I wouldn't tell you anything I wasn't comfortable talking about, you know. Don't feel bad." It was a half lie. Lyra was clearly uncomfortable discussing this, but she didn't want Nova to be as well.

"Okay, I'm back and I have a proposition for you." Aurora announces as she came in the room. Nova picked up her fluffy pillow again and handed it to Lyra. She took it gratefully and gave it a squeeze.

"I do too. How about you go away and I'll leave you alone." Aurora wasn't as appalled by her rudeness as she was an hour ago.

"Might I remind you whose bedroom you're currently in." Lyra smirked as she realized Surora was right. There really wasn't much room for argument here, but that hasn't stopped Lyra yet.

"I told you I'd sleep on the floor."

"And I told you I'm not letting that happen. Now, here's the deal." Lyra rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, turning her head away from the two girls pleadingly looking at her; asking Lyra to listen with their eyes.

"You can either limp around for the rest of your life, or you'll let me and one of my lady's medical droids look at you and I make a dinner of your choice. So what'll it be?" Nova leaned in and cupped her hand to Lyra's ear.