Lady Amalia: The Almost Queen [Star Wars | Obi Wan Kenobi]

Chapter 4

From her rooms she could see the Temple burning; a hazy red smudge on the horizon at the base of a massive column of black smoke. Anxiety flaring with in her chest, Neva's thoughts suddenly turned to Obi-wan before remembering with no small amount of relief that he was off-planet. It was then that her thoughts turned to Padmé; Anakin was not off-planet, and the Senator was alone this evening. Without a moment's hesitation, she tore herself away from the window, leaving her own portion of the apartments and entering Padmé's.

Everything felt wrong. Padmé had been acting even more on edge than usual. After her conversation with Obi-wan earlier that morning she had re-entered the central chambers of the apartments looking distinctly troubled. It was not a new state for the former Queen; since his return, her few rendezvous with Anakin hadn't had the same soothing effect they'd had in the past. Something was going on with the young Jedi, something more than his sudden strange appointment to the Jedi Council as the Chancellor's Representative. Even Neva had noticed that during the one encounter she'd had with him since the Battle over the Capital.

In addition to that, some of the meetings the Senator had attended in the last few days had been doing little but causing Padmé even more stress. Whatever had been happening behind those closed doors, Padmé was deeply troubled by it. Neva had been tempted to pry, both into the conversation with Obi-wan and the mysterious meetings, but refrained from doing so. Padmé wasn't likely to reveal what was troubling her. In keeping her secrets, the Senator had become far less open with Neva as the years had passed. She internalized everything now, or, if she desperately needed to talk, which was rare thanks to all the secrecy, she only confided in her handmaidens.

Neva was only an aide, not a confidant, and even then, she had been charged with running the Senator's household more than assisting her with Senate business, but that was something Neva was grateful for. After the attempt on her life and her soul-searching conversations with Obi-wan, Neva had wanted little to do with politics anymore. At first she had found Amidala's proposal odd, but when she found out the duties she was to be charged with, she felt far more at ease consenting. However, it did mean that she was not to be nearly as close to Padmé as she might have been as a true Senatorial Aide. It also meant that, as far as confidences went, Neva was close to the Senator, running her household and all, but she was not nearly so close to Padmé as her Handmaidens. True, she did periodically help the Former Queen design and create her elaborate senatorial garments, but if Neva hadn't been so involved in Padmé's wardrobe, she wondered she would have even been told of Padmé's pregnancy. Even so, she had found out by accident. But, she had kept the secret, and had even helped in altering and creating fashions that hid Padmé's condition. She had even suggested that she, the Handmaidens and any other female staff begin wearing similar styles to further imply mere fashion dictated the Senator's changing garments rather than her changing body.

Neva suspected that part of Padmé's request for Neva to join her staff on Coruscant came from her background in Naboo's garment and textiles industries. The Adyés had run their Dressmaking Shops for generations. Her paternal Aunt and Cousins had opened a popular salon in Theed shortly before Neva was appointed as a Princess, while Neva's father, and her grandmother before him, ran their ancestral shop in Fara quite successfully. Both shops had, on occasion, produced Gowns for Naboo's monarchs, including Amidala. Even as a Senator, with her expanded choices for fashion, Padmé's closet still contained gowns created in Adyé Shops. Clothing was a deeply ingrained mode of expression on Naboo, particularly in the political arena, and it was a tradition that Padmé had retained even after her duties catapulted her into Intergalactic Politics. A Nabooian Politician's Garments had the ability to say as much as a well-written speech; it was an aspect of public life that was often taken quite seriously.

Neva had inherited the talent that had brought so much success to her family, and even during her tenure as Princess of Theed, had still worked closely with her father, designing and supervising the creation of most of her own official, ceremonial and personal clothing. In fact, during many of Neva's more informal encounters with the Former Queen in the time they had known each other, conversation had eventually turned to fashions, and admiration on Padmé's part of Neva's wardrobe or her family's handiwork. It had created a closeness that, while perhaps shallow in some respects, had helped pave the way for a casual friendship that lasted through Amidala's terms as Queen. It had opened the door for the two Royal women to further bond when Padmé caught wind of the Election results, the assassination attempt and Neva's subsequent abstention from accepting the Throne.