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Post by Joan Dagar on Jan 4, 2011 23:56:53 GMT -8
62 ABY
The Fountain Palace, Hapes
Dramatis Personae
Cadien Veila
Amir Dagar
Hadeah Katella
Alija Thorne
Tindel Katella
Joan Dagar
Cassie Veila |
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Post by Amir Dagar on Jan 6, 2011 13:08:15 GMT -8
"I think I love her. You've known I had...feelings for her, for a while now. And...and now I don't know, something's changed. I feel different. I’ve never felt like this before." His words were soft, as they almost always were. But there was a fear in Cadien's eyes that Amir caught on to, and like a brother, he understood immediately. He wasn't fearful of his cousin's wrath, or Amir's potential urge to strike him. And it wasn't a fear of what the Hapans would to do him, if and when they found out why the Chume'da had called off the wedding. Cadien was afraid of loosing Amir's trust. The two had been almost inseparable since Amir had come into the galaxy. Raised together like brothers, the bond between them was stronger even than that between Cadien and his own twin, Cassie.
Only marginally older, Cadien was still the wiser, likely because he was also the calmer of the two. His deep voice was often just above a whisper. He'd inherited his mother's compassion and his father's brooding good looks. He was a better pilot and mechanic than Amir, but as two sons of the Force most of his strengths were eclipsed by Amir's prowess with the Force. But Cadien held no contempt towards his cousin for it. He had taken to heart when their uncle warned them about not living in anyone's shadow. Both boys had grown up without their father's because of both men's desire to be greater than themselves. Cadien had never been consumed by destiny like Amir, so since adolescence he'd been content with being his younger cousin's right hand.
"Amir I'm sorry."
The younger man's brow was still sharply furrowed as he tossed Cadien a pair of trousers and tunic. There was a pounding outside the heavy wooden door that led to the Queen Mother's apartment, followed by the sound of his mother's voice. "Amir!" They both ignored it.
"Why like this? Why make a fool of me in public?" Amir asked in earnest.
The sheet that had been wrapped around Cadien’s waist fell carelessly to the floor now that he was partly clothed. It would have been easy to tell the truth; to blame the whole thing on the girl, and let her deal with her would-be husband on her own. But Amir lacked most of Cadien’s sense of chivalry, and he knew a broken nose or busted lip would suit himself much better than Hadeah.
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Post by Amir Dagar on Jan 6, 2011 13:24:46 GMT -8
"I didn’t mean to! I thought she was still going to marry you. Look, even if I tried to explain, you'd never understand."
"Explain? You think there's a rational explanation for you sleeping with my fiancée, the night before we're supposed to be married."
"Don't suddenly act like she was your betroth by choice!" More rare than a binary solar eclipse on Tatooine was when Cadien lost his temper. But that moment was quickly approaching. "If anyone other than Mom or Jacen had asked this of you, you'd never have accepted this for yourself."
"Amir!" Joan called from outside again. There was much less patience in her voice this time. Still, it fell on deaf ears.
"You think you know so much, that you can ju--"
"I do! Sometimes I think I know you better than you know yourself. And I know, Amir, you'll go mad trapped on Hapes. All king means here is mate, you'll have no power. You'll father Hadeah's daughters, and if you're lucky they'll let you train them as Jedi. But I know you. You can't be faithful!"
"Is this your way of saying you've finally grown some ambition? You want to be the King Consort of Hapes? Is that it?"
"No. I told her I'll be leaving Hapes with you."
That seemed to be all Amir needed to hear— that Cadien would choose him over Hadeah, because Cadien felt the tension in the room evaporate, if only momentarily.
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Post by Hadeah Katella on Jan 6, 2011 13:33:13 GMT -8
"Neither one of you will be leaving."
The door from Hadeah's bedroom to her antechamber had opened, and the petite future Queen Mother stood staring; cloaked in a dressing gown of her regal colors: royal blue and gold. Her face was fresh and her flaming hair fell in long, soft curls, not the tousled mess Cadien had made of it. To Amir, she was more radiant than usual, more to do with her being suddenly less obtainable than anything else. To Cadien, she was perfect. But the sight of her made his heart go mad, as the guilt of his betrayal towards Amir came to a head. He could feel the blood rush from his face.
“You would be wise to think before trying to order me to do anything these days, highness.” Amir had moved towards, and was now looming over the young girl.
“And you will be wise to watch your tone. He may feel he owes you something, but I don’t. And you have no authority over me here, husband or not.”
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Post by Amir Dagar on Jan 6, 2011 14:08:43 GMT -8
Amir didn’t raise his hand to strike her, but Cadien could feel the malicious intent festering within his cousin. Hadeah feel silent and her face showed signs of strain as inwardly her throat began to tighten. Cadien looked to his cousin and watched as Amir's hand clutched tightly the air by his side. Amir towered over most, but had only a two inch advantage on Cadien. Both were nearly equally toned physically, though Cadien was the more slender of the two. One gasp from Hadeah and Cadien had Amir on the floor, taking down a table and lamp with them. Cadien's man goal was to restrain, but without pausing to think Amir rolled and struck Cadien across the face. Cadien recoiled, but kept himself between his cousin and the Chume'da.
“Open the door this instant Amir!” The door visibly shook as Joan tried to make her way in.
They were too audible from here. Scrambling to his feet, Amir hoisted Cadien by the arm and grabbed Hadeah by the wrist, pulling her to the opposite side of him. His voice roared, “Inside! Now!” as threw them both into the bedroom, slamming the door behind them.
“You have no right-“ was all Hadeah could get out before Cadien tenderly clasped his hand over her mouth.
“Amir, I think both of you need to take a minute to calm down, before you do anything you’ll regret.”
“Did you take a minute to think? Do you regret it?”
“Of course I do!”
Cadien swore he felt something inside Hadeah break before she squirmed out of his grasp. But she didn’t bother to turn to look at him, instead she started back at Amir.
“How dare you think to chastise me, after the things that you’ve done! Where were you last night? Who were you with? Angelique? Rachel? Or was it another one of my maids?”
Amir’s eyes narrowed at the mention of Rachel.
“Don’t you bring her into this! I have sacrificed my own desire, my own conscience, to keep you safe. Wherever I was last night, I was in that hall this morning, which is more than either one of you can say!”
“You think that makes it alright? I didn’t pick you either, Amir! This isn’t my will. But I’ve stood by silently while you slept with half the galaxy.”
“So what then, you want him? His pedigree is just as good as mine. Just remember it’s because of me that you’re not a puppet queen on a string.”
There was a long silence where none of them could look at each other, Cadien still standing behind Hadeah, his eyes not leaving the floor behind her bare feet. Hadeah wandered towards her window, staring out at the flags and decorations that announced the events that would clearly not come to be.
“I thought we could come to some arrangement, where you might save face, and I might get what I want too. But it is now clear to me you couldn’t care less for the well being of Hapes, and I cannot accept you as my consort. I want you, both of you, on your way by nights end. The treaty signed by my father and your mother is void. You have a month to find new refuge for your temple.”
The room grew uncomfortably warm as Amir’s temper soared. More than his personal relationships, military career, or political prospects, anyone who knew Amir Dagar knew he felt his calling in life was to serve the Unifying Force. And he felt particularly possessive over the Temple on Hapes.
“You can’t break the treaty just because you decided to sleep with him!”
Cadien shot Amir a glance that told him it was time to stop arguing that point, it was not an argument he could win.
“This has nothing to do with him. As Queen Mother I can, and will.”
“But you’re not the Queen Mother yet!”
“There are thousands of Hapan born suitors who would be happy to be the Queen’s consort, even without the title of King.”
“Suitors who would poison you as soon as you give them a daughter they can mold,” Cadien burst out of his silence.
“Please don’t presume to know my culture better than I do. The Queens of Hapes relied on their own guards for generations before, I’m sure I’ll fair well enough without Jedi by my side.” Hadeah replied, tilting her head in his direction.
“I’ll give you until the end of the night to let your father talk some sense into you. You don’t want me? Fine, I don’t want you either. But don’t you dare touch our temple.” Looking past Hadeah to Cadien, Amir added one last shot, “Next time just keep it in your pants.”
Without waiting for his cousin to join him Amir left the bedroom and threw open the doors to the Queen Mother’s apartment. His own mother still standing there waiting, he walked past her without a word.
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Post by Hadeah Katella on Jan 6, 2011 14:24:13 GMT -8
“Don’t make him your enemy,” Cadien advised as he locked the door behind Amir. “He’s stronger, and darker, than I’d ever care to be. Even if you don’t want to marry him he’d still be a powerful ally.”
“I don’t understand you. There hasn’t even been enough time for the blood to stop running down your face, and you’re already back to defending him.”
So pumped full of adrenalin, Cadien hadn’t realized Amir had split open his cheek. Brushing his hand up to wipe it away he realize the whole left side of his face was covered in his own blood.
“I’m not defending him.” He said with a reluctant grin as she handed him a towel. “Just trying to warn you before you do something you’ll regret.”
There was an awkward moment of silence and Cadien realized he’d shoved his bare foot right back into his mouth even before she spoke.
“If you regret your decisions, why didn’t you just tell him why you made them?”
“Why doesn’t really matter. The future will judge you on your actions, not your intentions.” Cadien cringed. “Now you’ve got me sounding like him.”
Sighing he lowered himself to the edge of the bed and rested his head in his hands. “He wouldn’t believe me, so it doesn’t really matter now.”
“Why wouldn’t he believe you?”
“Why would he? Better men than me would have done it for less...selfless intentions.”
“Would you have?”
Of course. He thought but didn’t say. Proof once again that he had a better hold on his own filter than Amir.
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Post by Hadeah Katella on Jan 6, 2011 14:28:59 GMT -8
“I’d like to think not. But then, I think I’d have stopped after the first time.” Hadeah was now standing dangerously close to him, her slight form inches from him. He steadied his breathing and closed his eyes to keep from looking at her. But he could still smell her, the soft flowery sent of her hair. “But..,” he continued cautiously, “when I let myself think about it, I start to tell myself, if you’d had any intentions of going through with things today, you’d have stopped me after the first time.”
His eyes shut even tighter, that last statement was too bold. Instantly he wished he could take it back. Even if she reacted the way he wanted her to, he knew it was wrong for him to want her to.
“I’ve known since shortly after my grandmother’s death, that I could never live with Amir.”
He opened his eyes and frowned. “Then why didn’t you ever say that? Call things off before it came to this?” His voice was low and raspy, but for the first time was able to hold her gaze.
“Because I knew if he stopped coming, you’d stop coming.” She’d expected him to be flattered, but the look on his face implied more that he was insulted.
He ran his hands through his hair, frustrated beyond comprehension. “Hadeah, do you have any idea what you’ve done? He’d go on a crusade against you if you dismantle his temple.”
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Post by Hadeah Katella on Jan 6, 2011 14:39:47 GMT -8
Taking a seat beside him, she ran her finger against the bloody gash on his face. “If you stayed, if the Hapan Royal line became Jedi as well, there would be no need to close the temple.”
“You can’t do that Hadeah! I could love you, be good for you, but I’m not one of your pawns. You can’t use the way I feel about you to barter with Amir. I won’t side against him, I can’t.”
She continued to sit, even after Cadien stood and began to pace. Never before had it been so difficult for her to get what she wanted. Even when dealing with Amir.
“With or without you, I wouldn’t have married him, so take Amir out of the equation. When my father agreed to let Jacen Solo build a temple here, it was with the understanding that the future Queens of Hapes, my children, would be Jedi. It was assumed that would be through Amir. But maybe they just got it wrong. What if it was supposed to be you all along? Cadien, this could be your destiny. What do you call it...the ‘will of the Force”?”
“Enough!” The storm brewing inside the temperate young man had finally become too much to bear. “I don’t believe in destiny! There’s something about you royals, you have to feel that out of all the hungry and the poor, someone or something chose you, that it wasn’t just luck. And now you’re building this all up to be some kind of twisted romance, and its not! Chasing destiny is how people get themselves killed, and I don’t want anything to do with it.”
Standing wide-eyed, the young girl was at a loss for words. For all her scheming, she’d gotten very little of what she wanted. And somehow this boy, this Jedi, was making her, the future Queen Mother feel guilty.
“I should go.” He said, finally pulling on the tunic Amir had thrown at him what seemed like hours ago. “You have a kingdom to sort out, and I need to make sure my cousin hadn’t killed any one.”
Hadeah watched as he made for the door of her antechamber. She didn’t want him to go. Not like this, not at all.
“Do you see what you just did?”
“What now?” His jaw clenched silently, not knowing how she was going to come at him next.
“You called him your cousin. I’ve known you both nearly my whole life, and that’s the first time you’ve not called him ‘brother.’”
I do not believe in destiny. He told himself again, but gave no more good-byes or potential ammunition to the scarlet haired princess behind him.
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Post by Cassie Veila on Jan 13, 2011 21:14:24 GMT -8
His anger was like a raging storm, every force capable person within the palace walls could have felt it. Amir was doing a lousy job of masking his feelings. If there was any uncertainty regarding whether or not this wedding was to take place, her cousin's broadcasted fury set that question to rest.
Unlike the rest of her friends and family who had gone to the chapel Cassie had lingered behind and waited for Amir to pass like she knew he would. Over the years she'd learned that sometimes telling people about her visions did more harm than good and this was one of those times. If she'd told Amir that Hadeah wasn't going to show the morning of their wedding she might have saved him some embarrassment but knowing Amir he might have used the knowledge to get back at the to be Queen Mother before she actually did anything wrong and that would have been a good way to get them all kicked off the planet. At least Amir's anger now had a warranted reason and Hadeah might be willing to forgive future actions Amir might make in response to it.
What she hadn't seen was that Cadien would be the reason the marriage wouldn't take place. If she hadn't felt the Cadien's rare anger rising in waves with Amir's she wouldn't have realized... Hadeah and Cadien. The thought was strange and yet somehow appropriate. How could she possibly have been so blind to this? How could Cadien nor Hadeah have not told her? It hurt that they hadn't when Cadien was the closest person to her in the universe and Hadeah her closet friend. She would have told them if she were having a secret love affair with someone. Which of course she wasn't but maybe would have liked to have been.
She always felt like she was living on the sidelines. Like she could see everything but couldn't really touch it.
The full skirted bridesmaid dress cover almost the half the staircase Cassie sat on while she waited for the approaching Amir.
Cassie heard him well before she saw him. It seemed his footsteps where trying to match him anger.
Quickly Cassie stood and started down the stairs so that she reached the bottom just as Amir stormed into the room.
"I'm so sorry Amir." She said with genuine sincerity in her voice.
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Post by Amir Dagar on Jan 14, 2011 12:40:48 GMT -8
Amir sloughed off his robes and threw them onto the table by the door. Next to where his robe now lay, stood an ornate decanter filled with Corellian Reserve. He poured himself more than he should have and downed it in one take.
"Yeah. I'm sure you are." Slamming the glass back on the wooden table he began to pour another. "I bet you saw all this coming, didn't you?"
He wasn't speaking of her woman's intuition. His cousin had a way of knowing things. At least when they would have reactions that rippled as far as this undoubtedly would. But Amir tended to be one of the few who took council from her advice, however she obtained it. It had saved his life more than once in his twenty years. And he considered knowing the future to simply be another blessing bestowed on those who could master the Force. He couldn't understand why Cassie wouldn't have helped him save face, but she was the last person he would hold it against. There was an innocents about Cassie, something special and at times off putting but he'd found over the course of their young lives that he'd never managed to stay angry with her for more than a few moments.
Kicking off his boots and pulling off his dress tunic he let them carelessly fall where they may. Walking towards the sofa he used the Force to throw shut the heavy curtains that lined the two-story window, blocking out the light; trying to make it dark and make the day seem to pass quicker than it was. His heavy body fell limp onto the couch with a grown, and he pushed his long hair out of his face.
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