The Children of the Stars

Tenel Ka Chume'Dan

Allana stood in the private parlor of the Star Home, the one where the royal family could enjoy the flight in relative peace, without much interference from servants or nobles alike.

It was strange, to be among these stars again. Already, Allana had forgotten so many things that she had learned from her first stay in Hapes.

She'd need to recall them quickly, if she wanted to survive. Madrassa had been a shelter away from the conniving silver tongues and poisoned daggers of the rest of the Hapan court. But she would no longer be residing there, as she had learned when the Star Home first entered hyperspace.

Tenel Ka had sat with her, Hapan tea on top of the table. It was an acquired taste, but Allana had come to enjoy the taste of the Hapan teas. They might have been unbearably sweet if not for the pleasantly bitter undertones, sharp as a double-bladed sword.

Allana had approached the tea table with some hesitation. After all, tea was when backdoor negotiations were made. Tea was where the real Hapan work happened.

And this tea, in the middle of hyperspace in a small city, was no different.

"I am impressed that your handmaidens were able to carry out the deception for so long in your absence," Tenel Ka said. "That, among many other reasons, is why I have decided that you will not be returning to Madrassa."

"Where will I be going instead, Erenedi?" Allana picked up her teacup. On the side were paintings of the Vovina Lotus, the royal flower that was cultivated exclusively in the gardens of the capitol, Tenel Ka Chume'Dan.

"You will be returning to Per'Agthra with me," Tenel Ka explained. "This peace conference, I have decided, is the best time to make your official debut."

Allana nearly choked on her tea. "You can't be serious?"

Tenel Ka's stoic expression and ice-like gray eyes reminded her that Tenel Ka was never not serious.

"The nobles will be on their best behavior with all of the outsiders to be impressed," Tenel Ka said. "They will not react as poorly to your parentage because they cannot act out— that is a fact."

"How much are we going to tell them?" Allana asked, slamming down her tea cup.

"Given that you have been gallivanting around the galaxy the past few weeks, openly using your name and your true parentage, it might as well be disclosed." There was something fiery now, in those gray eyes. "Otherwise, your enemies will find it and will use it against you. Just like your grandmother's enemies used her parentage against her. And your mother."

"Did you know?" Allana couldn't help herself. "That Rey was a Palpatine, I mean?"

"Of course I did." Tenel Ka set her cup down. "We were— are— friends. I agreed with your father's objection to the truth. But they never could agree on what that truth was beyond their family names."

"What do you mean?" Allana asked.

"Your mother chooses to remember her parents as heroes who died to save her, martyrs," Tenel Ka said. "There is a way Rey has always dealt with her childhood. She makes legends out of it. But Ben knows it was different, he has seen that past in a vision."

"Dad once said they were alcoholics, Mum's parents," Allana murmured.

"They sold her for drinking money." Tenel Ka confirmed it grimly. "They needed to get off-planet. They did care about her, they did want to protect her. But they also had their problems and faults, and one was their beer, and the other was the bounty on their heads."

Allana had never felt so sorry for her mother.

"But your mother would be so angry for me to tell it like that," Tenel Ka said. "And I do not ever wish to make Rey Skywalker angry. It was all done a long time ago and Rey has for the most part moved beyond Jakku and all that happened there. We now need to make sure that you are ready to ascend the throne. I will not live forever, after all."

Despite Tenel Ka looking as beautiful as she did even in the oldest holos, Allana remembered that she was her father's age. Her father, who was starting to streak silver in his hair and was starting to show evidence of all the parsecs he'd lived.

"I understand, Erenedi."

Tenel Ka nodded, satisfied that Allana had finally come to see it her way. "We will prepare for your debut to take place during the opening ceremonies."

"I assume the idea we're going for is that I will bring a peaceful reign?" Allana asked.

Hapan debuts usually revealed something about the Chume'da. It was a hint of the reign to come. Tenel Ka's own official debut as the Chume'da involved her performing a dance with her Dathomiri staff and lightsaber— she still had two arms at the time— and had foreseen war, Jedi, and a cultural mingling that other Hapans had found rather distasteful.

There was something almost mischievous in Tenel Ka's eye as she sipped her own tea. "We'll have to see, won't we?"

Allana heard the door slide open. She turned to see all of her handmaidens enter, dressed in new gowns now that they had entered the Hapes Cluster once more.

"We missed you!" Vanya hugged her, now more exuberant and herself without the watchful eye of the Queen Mother.

"So much has happened while you were gone," Vasilisa explained.

"Like what?" Allana let go of Vanya and took Vasilisa's hands into her own.

"The Hapan nobles discovered you were the heir to the throne."

Allana looked to Inanna. "How did that happen?"

She and Sansa exchanged a glance.

"We don't know, but it seemed out of nowhere, they just knew," Sansa admitted. "Lady Serra told us. She had even been confronted while visiting a dear friend."

"I take it they don't like that a foreigner with no Hapan blood at all took the throne?" Allana asked.

"Worse." Sansa glanced at Inanna and then Vasilisa, as if asking them for courage. "Someone told them that you're a Jedi now. Is that true?"

Allana drew aside her cloak, revealing the polished saber-staff.

"It is true!" Vanya punched Vasilisa lightly on the shoulder. "You said that was a lie!"

"I thought—" Vasilisa's blue eyes revealed confusion. "I thought you didn't have your Force powers anymore."

"I got them back." Allana shrugged, letting the cloak fall back into place. "It's a long story."

"We can only imagine," Inanna said. "I hope you will inform us of your adventures?"

"Once we're in a secure location," Allana promised. "I'll tell you all about it."

And yet, looking out at Hapes, Allana knew she