The Republic has fallen.
In the final days of the Clone Wars, Chancellor Palpatine died under mysterious circumstances. With the Senate struggling to retain a sense of unity, it was the perfect time for the Separatists to strike. And strike they did...
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Aluxsidrian (or Lux, as he preferred to be called, and it made a nice mental substitute for 'Master') Noreino was by no means the stupidest person Ahsoka had ever met, but one could certainly make a compelling case against his perception.
It had been three days since she and the others were sold to his family. Three days she'd spent in his apartments sitting prettily or offering to serve him, and not a single minute in his bed. At night, when most came searching for companionship, he bade her farewell and sent her back to the slave quarters to sleep.
Not that she hadn't been dropping hints, of course – that was what was expected of her – but he'd taken none of them. And that, Ahsoka was beginning to realize, had the potential to become seriously problematic. She had no weapons, no backup, and calling on the Force as much as she had to get herself here had been taking a huge risk of being discovered. Her one bargaining chip was her body.
Had Lux no sense for how Onderonian society had been made to operate under his father's rule? Gaining a real foothold here in the palace would've been ten times easier had Lux been your average sleemo, easily bedded and charmed into giving her what she wanted – even more so with the Force to persuade him.
Ahsoka shouldn't have been so hopeful. She'd learned the hard way that life was never fair or easy in the thick of the Clone Wars, and everything that had followed had only hammered the lesson home. Lux Noreino was just the latest – and perhaps most elusive – addition in the series of unfortunate circumstances to befall her. In fact, she'd barely seen him since she'd arrived.
By day, Lux used his quarters only as a stopping off point to change clothes or collect documents for the functions that required his presence. At night, he sat at his desk for hours with only a single lamp to guide him, finishing paperwork or doing research on the HoloNet. Despite the intense concentration she felt from him in the Force, she could never glean from his thoughts exactly what he was studying.
Ahsoka forced herself not to look up as the door opened, instead folding her hands in her lap and angling her gaze toward the window and the city beyond it. She could tell from the stride it was Lux arriving, and she knew a proper slave would already have jumped to her feet and gone to help him take off his coat, offer him refreshments, offer him their body, if necessary. But if conventional tactics had her hitting a wall without so much as rattling what lay on the other side, perhaps it was time to try something else.
She had thrown herself into this situation on a whim in the midst of a sudden bout of weakness. Only careful planning would get her out with intel she could use.
Out. The concept threatened to swallow her whole until she'd laid out every last detail of her escape, but in a place where even her own thoughts could betray her, she couldn't start dreaming just yet. She had to take it one step at a time; live in the moment as she'd been taught to.
Ahsoka called up a bored, distant expression when he came over, and only glanced up once she was sure his eyes were on her. If it took a show to get his attention, she'd give him one. She had nearly a year of practice at it already.
