The Children of the Stars

Tahiri Veila's Request

The party stood about in the back-corridor as Poe Dameron furiously commed at the pilot and security for his wife's speeder to extract them as quickly as possible.

"Jacen's alive," Allana whispered to herself— she couldn't help the smile. But it faded when the next thought came to her lips. "Dad's alive."

Why didn't that make her feel better?

"I never thought the day would come when we would try to save Kylo Ren," Finn muttered. "Even after Exogol."

"She spilled the secret."

Everyone looked back at Sam. Allana frowned. "What secret— wait."

It was easy to forget, because it wasn't really a secret, not among those who had close dealings with the Jedi. All of the Praxeum knew and made their peace with who Ben Solo was.

But this changed everything, Allana realized. She'd known what her father was. Her parents never exactly tried to hide or sugarcoat it. After all, her father had told them about how he didn't know about Vader being his grandfather until he was in his twenties and how horrific that was.

Allana now recalled a detail that had never stuck out to her before. How her father would look at her mother when he said that. A sort of pointed glance.

Did her mother's family, the one she never spoke of, have their own skeletons, their own Vaders?

Allana supposed that she didn't want to know, not with what was going to come. It was only on Hapes that she'd ever had to contend with the legacy of darkness her father once carried out.

She did know the rumors, for her handmaidens were the first to bring them up. She knew that most of Hapan space believed she was Kylo Ren's bastard daughter with Tenel Ka.

Not that she really interacted with any other Hapans.

But this meant that she would have the sins of her father foisted upon her. So would Jacen, so would Jaina, if she was still alive, so would Nellith—

"Wait, where's Nellith?" Allana asked aloud.

Right at that moment, Nellith came stumbling in, her eyes wide and an exhausted demeanor about her. Behind her were two people that Allana had not seen since before the Second Purge.

Kyp Durron, the rogue-ish Jedi that nearly every younger male-attracted Jedi fancied. Not that Allana ever understood that. He was too quippy, cocky, wild.

Then there was Valin Horn. Her best friend, Jysella's, older brother. Jacen's best friend. An upstanding sort of Jedi, the one that she'd had a crush on for as long as she remembered. Even though she once angsted over how he would never see her as more than her brother's little sister or his little sister's best friend.

"Valin— Kyp— it's good to see you." Allana internally winced at her stammering. She tried to retreat into the Chume'da personality she'd cultivated for herself. "I'm glad to see that you've escorted my sister out safely."

"Yeah, something like that," Kyp muttered.

"Allana Skywalker, that is you, isn't it?" Valin's hazel eyes shone brightly. "I wouldn't have recognized you if our intel hadn't told us that you became a princess."

"Oh, well—" Allana blushed, clutching fistfuls of her skirts. She could hear her handmaidens giving twittering giggles behind her— especially Vanya.

Kyp then elbowed Valin in the ribs. Valin hissed a curse, before forcing a smile again.

"That reminds me— there's someone who wants to see you— if I may?" He extended his hand to her.