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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"Quite the reception today, huh?"
At the sound of Alynna's voice, Lux' crossed legs and the datapad propped against his topmost knee phased back into focus. It took him a second to remember he'd been rereading the information he found in the Izadash mine in the hopes of following up on some leads. He had no idea how long he'd been zoned out.
"Sorry?" he slurred. Immediately he saw his father's disapproving scowl in his mind's eye, and cleared his throat to try again. "I don't take your meaning."
Alynna grinned at him from across the speeder, and Lux caught a hint of one sharp canine beneath the curve of her lip. "Turn around, genius."
"Wha–"
He broke off when the shapes of people flashed by his peripheral vision. Glancing over his shoulder, Lux spotted what Alynna must have seen from her front-facing seat: the thick crowds gathered on either side of the street.
The chauffeur, a gruff but sweet old butler at the villa, was already slowing down to make a smooth landing in the center of the latest town on his itinerary, but Lux reached out to touch his shoulder anyway. "Pilot, slow us down a little more."
The speeder decelerated until Lux could make out individual faces in the throng – tired and drawn, but with a spark in their eyes that made him hopeful – and even hear snatches of conversation:
"The bright young lord will have Kindness bless us–"
"Do you bring the Lady? Kyze Jarash?"
"Lady Kindness? Is that the one they say–"
Alynna frowned. "Who's Lady Kindness?" she asked him, tilting her chin at the last person who'd spoken as the speeder passed out of earshot.
Lady Kindness... Kyze Jarash. Yes, Lux remembered her. "She's from an old legend. Do you know what the distinction is between the Great Houses and the Lesser Houses?"
"Well, the Great Houses are a lot richer, for the most part – old money and old titles versus new ones," Alynna said, a little snidely. Lux let it pass uncontested. It wasn't like Onderon's nobility had been very good to her, after all. "And the Great Houses are the ones that can trace their lineage all the way back to the original settlers on Onderon... and that affords them extra status, I think?"
"Yes. But the point I'm getting at is the fact that most of the Great Houses are several millennia older than any of the Lesser. The jungles are dangerous, and the original settlers faced difficult odds. It was said that while they blazed the trail, they had a guardian angel, so to speak, called Lady Kindness – Kyze Jarash in Onde'er."
Alynna nodded, her face held in suspension between a warm smile and cold eyes. Perhaps she'd heard this story before. Still, it was an odd reaction...
"Since the Great Houses are descendants of those settlers, and legacy and history are so important," he finished, hoping her expression would change and give more away, "a lot of people think Lady Kindness still watches over the nobles and protects the common people from harm. The ones who are worthy of her, anyway."
