Star Wars: The Last Qymaili | ✔

35 | Truth's Burden

Song: "The Immolation Scene" from Revenge of the Sith OST

Arna entered Ronderu's room the next day after she'd dressed in her old uniform. "The Council wants you."

"Why?"

"You can ask them," he said, jamming her hands into a pair of cuffs. "Come on."

"Pouting won't get you your way," she said primly as they slowly walked down the hallway to enter the elevator.

If I only have a little time left, she thought—as much to Arna as it was to her—now may not be the best time to hold grudges.

The Republic has not done anything special to me before. All they bring me is pain.

The elevator door opened, and she stepped into the ornate circle of the Council chambers. A bald human with smooth brown skin leaned forward and spoke. "Greetings, ambassador."

"Your greetings are meaningless to me," she spat. "Probe my mind for the information you need, and let me return to my people."

Murmurs echoed amidst the Council members. The man spoke blithely. "Do you know who I am?"

"I know enough."

"That is not a viable answer. I am Master Windu, Jedi Master of the High Council."

"Flashy."

"Gray, you are dismissed," Windu said, gesturing to Arna. He shoved his hands in his robe and left the room swiftly, and Ronderu was left at the mercy of twelve masters who held prejudice against her people and home.

✺✺✺

After she had recounted what she knew, the Jedi passed many gazes to each other, as if communicating with each other silently through the Force. After a while, a Togruta woman with a red-and-white face spoke. "What makes you think that Count Dooku wishes the death of your friend?"

Ronderu clenched her fists, shivering. "I've had dreams of the Krath droid I described," she said. "It sat on the throne of Kalee, and the khagan wasn't there. Dooku said he would deal with Qymaen soon, and he had the plans for the droid. Burkhadaar, can't you see it? They will come for him soon!"

"You are not Force-sensitive," a Nautolan man pointed out. "Your dreams may not mean anything."

"I'm able to sense the Force." Her voice was smooth. "I was tested by Jocasta Nu herself. I just can't wield it—don't the Jedi know of people like that?"

"What do you think of this, Master Yoda?" the Togruta said, addressing the short green alien in the middle of the circle.

"Experience reliable premonitions, do you?" the withered Grand Master inquired, his sleepy green eyes fixed on her.

Ronderu pressed her lips together. "I used to get visions when I was young of things I had to do to survive. When I did them, I lived." But at a cost, her mind added.

As the Jedi Masters spoke, she contemplated the implications of Separatist control on Kalee. The Republic may have made a terrible mistake by turning Kalee against them. Would our people rally around a dictator like the Krath warrior? A society of warriors against the Republic....

Or would they revolt because he killed their khagan?

But if Qymaen's death was staged as an accident, like Jenuwaa was for me....they may not know better.

Her hands clenched. "Masters."

All eyes turned to her. "I must ask for permission to return to my homeland. I have a good relationship with the khagan—" this was fudging the truth, but the difference between had and have was only two letters— "and can warn him. Surely you understand that they cannot be allowed to rally around someone like Dooku."