{{ absolved - chapter 08
-- ESTATE OF THE ABSOLVED – MAIN HALL / DANTOOINE
Jacen had to suppress a grimace when Verdot introduced himself to Tenel Ka with a kiss on the back of her hand. He tried to push the jealousy out of his system – she had been their Queen at one point, after all, although, just why had they left Hapes in the first place? He reminded himself to ask Tenel Ka more about Aurelio later, once they were alone. If they ever got a chance to be alone.
Verdot Tahva had met them in the main hall after they had entered through the double doors, a friendly smile playing on his lips. He and Aurelio exchanged a few words as Trexler led Jacen and Tenel Ka inside and set their bags by the door.
“You look as gorgeous as ever, Your Majesty.” Verdot had bowed deeply, before taking her hand and a planting his lips on her skin momentarily.
“Thank you.” She returned the bow with a half-hearted tilt of the neck and a slight bend at the waist. She was looking forward to getting past all of these pleasantries so she could possibly relax for a bit, even though that would probably be not as simple with the assassination attempt on her mind, and being so far away from her people.
The older brother smiled back to her, shifting closer to her, behind her, and moving his hands to her shoulders as he inhaled deeply and prepared to call out for the others. “Harahjah! Alavia! Our guests are here!”
A head peeked out of the kitchen from an offshoot corridor to the right. There was a mass of dark hair piled on top of a pale, delicate face. The head vanished momentarily and after a few seconds, a woman emerged, making her way quickly down the hallway. Her build was small and fragile, but she didn’t appear to be weak and she walked with a collected confidence, stopping and bowing slightly to the newcomers.
Tenel Ka caught her eyes flick over to Aurelio for a split second before she introduced herself, “I’m Harahjah. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” A polite smile slid over her thin lips, the expression spreading through her whole visage; her eyes lit up and her eyebrows rose slightly as she shook hands with Tenel Ka and Jacen. “I’m sorry I wasn’t in here when you arrived.” She jabbed a thumb back towards the direction she came from. “I was in the kitchen figuring out what we could have for dinner.”
“No problem,” Jacen said, brushing off her apology with a grin. He noticed her eyes at that point, the brown orbs drawing him in. There were flecks of crimson in them and that red matched the color of two streaks in her hair, which were pulled back into the bun along with the rest of her mane. Her skin looked smooth enough to match the texture of the marble walls of the manor but Jacen could feel the exact opposite when he shook her hand. Her handshake was firm and her palms and fingers were rough and calloused. Something about her seemed familiar to him, just like the manor had, but the train of thought on that matter was halted when another female came bounding down the circular staircase across the main hall.
“Took you long enough, ‘Lav,” Trexler smarmed, arms crossed and back pushed up again the wall near the door.
“Oh please. I had to make sure I was presentable for our guests.” She slinked towards the group of them, her movements fluid, almost feline in nature, and stretched her hand out to take Tenel Ka’s, shaking it slowly, “Alavia.”
“Tenel Ka.”
“Every bit more graceful in person, Your Highness,” Alavia cooed, raising an eyebrow suggestively.
Jacen attempted to wipe the confused expression from his face as she turned to him.
“And you must be the Jedi.”
“Jacen Solo.”
“Ah, the Queen has a galactic hero at her side.” She reached out to shake his hand as well. “She’s one lucky woman.”
There were a few more exchanges, and a reprise of the idle and friendly banter made when they met Trexler, while Harahjah excused herself back to the kitchen, Aurelio adding that he was going to go help her with the food. He rushed down the hallway after her, hoping his nerves weren’t noticed by his brother, who was still standing back with Jacen and Tenel Ka, still exchanging stories with Trexler and Alavia about times on Coruscant.
Harahjah spun around instantly, once they were both through the threshold of the kitchen, her eyes seeking out his as he leaned against the closest counter. “Are you okay? You look horrible.”
“Besides the overwhelming and sudden urge to throw up, I’m fine.” His nerves were getting the best of him, his anger and apprehension all rolling into a sick and sticky ball in his stomach.
“Then why did you bring her? Why did you agree to it?”
“What else was I supposed to do? Verdot was standing right there. And it’s not like we wouldn’t have caught her one day soon anyways. It’s going to get done and the longer this waits, the worse I feel. It’s like ripping off a bacta bandage – just get it done as fast as you can so the pain won’t be as bad.”
Harahjah could see the horror and depression in his eyes, the way his body was tense and his lips were thinned and pale. She knew the kind of things Verdot was capable of, and she knew that those were the things Aurelio was afraid of provoking from his brother if he didn’t follow the instructions given to him.
“I just want all this to be over with. I just want to collect the reward, I want this job to be over.”
Harahjah turned her conversation to the Queen Mother in general, instead of their bounty related to her. “She’s pretty.”
“Yeah…” Aurelio’s face was still pale and his eyes were locked on the floor, almost glazed over. They stood in silence for a few moments, Harahjah not sure what to say to Aurelio to make him feel any better. She knew that getting Tenel Ka and her Jedi bodyguard away from here would probably make him feel the best, but at that point in time, that wasn’t an option.
“Aurelio,” Verdot said. He had appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, his arms out on either side of him, palms pressed loosely against the doorframe. “Want to help me show them around?”
The younger brother tore his eyes away from that random spot on the ground and ran his hands over his face before turning back to look at Verdot.
“Come on.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Aurelio stumbled out of the kitchen towards the Main Hall once again, while Verdot stuck around behind him.
“Trexler and Alavia are going to go park the speeder in the hanger with the other vehicles, then they’ll be in to help you with dinner.” He stared to Harahjah calmly, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes slightly. He noted her arms were crossed and she was leaning lazily against one of the metal countertops, the sunlight streaming in from the hallway window behind him and bathing her in a soft golden light. “That sound okay?” His voice danced quietly across the air to her, and he watched her shrug slightly.
“Sounds fine to me, Tahva.”
“Good,” he whispered back, turning away from the kitchen and stalking back down the corridor towards the open area ahead of him.
Verdot and Aurelio, who had attempted to calm down since his talk in the kitchen with Harahjah, led them around the halls of the sprawling estate. They saw the kitchen, the grand hall where they always gathered, all the offshoot corridors containing unused salons and rooms – Jacen thought it looked a lot smaller on the outside, compared to how much they were seeing inside. There were a few grand doors they hadn’t entered, one of which Verdot had said led to the underground. Jacen wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but he felt a mix of curiosity and dread at it. Perhaps the dread stemmed just from the way Verdot had nonchalantly rolled his hand towards the entrance and the word “underground” tumbled from his lips.
They were on the second floor now, the large staircase leading up to a landing which had archways here and there leading into other hallways. They started down the most lavish, through the archway made of a rich gold. The corridor was filled with a soft bronze light, bringing out the red carpeting under their feet and the mahogany of the walls around them.
“The bedrooms are down this way.” Verdot had his fingers steepled in front of him, the tips pointed at the ground. Aurelio was flanking him on his right and Jacen and Tenel Ka were behind them, peering around in wonder at the detail and décor of their surroundings.
Jacen stopped just inside the corridor, his eyes landing on a large frame on the wall beside him. Shifting so that the glare from the lights didn’t obscure his view of it, he peered inside the frame.
It was the woman they had met earlier, Alavia – a holoimage of her; of a sort, anyways. There seemed to be a box sunken into the wall, large enough to hold a holo-portrait of someone inside, from the shoulders up. A layer of transparisteel was over the box, along the wall, so the observer couldn’t reach their hands into the hologram, and Jacen found himself steaming it up with his breath slightly as he stared to it, trying to figure out the workings of it.
Pulling back in slight embarrassment, he turned his head and noticed there were others along the wall.
“What are these?” He blurted out, the brothers stopping to look back at him. Tenel Ka was behind him, her eyes shifting from the carved wood walls of the corridor to the Tahvas.
“Oh, these.” A delighted smile crossed Verdot’s face. “We had these holo-portraits done on Coruscant once a long time ago as sort of a joke. We figured they’d be an amusing addition to our already odd décor choices.”
Jacen chuckled politely, his head moving up and down the line. He couldn’t see inside any of the other boxes besides Alavia’s from where he stood, but he could tell that there were seven along the wall. Two more people then they had met. “What are the other two?” He figured he didn’t want to come off as rude, prodding into their business like this – they were guests after all. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“Of course not.” Verdot had stopped down the hall by the last two portraits and now turned his head towards them. “These two left us a long time ago. We were such a close group of friends – we all had problems we helped each other through – and these two one day decided they were going to go off and follow some crazy dream of theirs.” He paused, his face falling noticeably. “We haven’t heard from them much at all since then.”
“That is too bad.” Tenel Ka frowned, her voice soft.
The older Tahva shrugged slightly, letting a tired grin slip over his lips. “People change, Your Majesty. I guess it was just their time to leave the nest.”
Aurelio touched his brother’s arm, mumbling something about luggage, and Verdot responded with a nod, looking back over to the visitors. “If you’ll excuse us, we’re going to go get your bags from downstairs.”
“Thank you very much,” Tenel Ka nodded, bowing her head slightly to the two Hapans.
“Thanks,” Jacen said it almost on the same beat.
The brothers vanished, leaving Jacen and Tenel Ka to roam up the hall, staring at each holo-portrait in turn. Tenel Ka moved ahead of Jacen, her right arm crossed over her chest and her hand resting lazily on her left shoulder. She meandered up the corridor, bronze light sliding over her rust-colored tresses as she put one foot in front of the other, her eyes attempting to soak in every detail of each portrait as she passed them.
Alavia, Trexler, Verdot, Aurelio, Harahjah…
She felt her breath catch hard in her throat, her whole form violently retching once at what her eyes met with before her body froze up on her, her gaze darting back and forth between the last two boxes. Her mouth let out a breathless and unintelligible stutter which caused Jacen’s attention to shift from Trexler’s portrait to her, his awareness suddenly raised and his mind alert. He stumbled down the hall to her, to the end of the portrait line, his eyes never leaving her now pale face.
“Tenel Ka, what is it? What--”
He finally risked a glance, looking over quickly as he spoke, his words escaping him as he did.
Beside the smiling portrait of Harahjah, a brown-eyed man with a jagged mop of crimson hair and a sly expression on his visage – and on the end; gray eyes, black hair -- a lone green lock settled over his face, tracing his pointed nose and falling across his lips, which were set into a sneer.
Tessick Ladreen and Kaidin Serasai.
Jacen peered to the names below the portraits, wide-eyed, as if to check and make sure he was really seeing what he thought he was. Tessick. Kaidin.
He was.
“Why…” Tenel Ka couldn’t find any words after that, her eyes trying to tear themselves away from the holoimage of Kaidin. The real Kaidin.
She and Jacen were startled when they heard chatter from the end of the hall, and looking over they watched Verdot and Aurelio pacing side-by-side over the carpeting towards them, their bags in hand. Jacen and Tenel Ka both attempted to appear normal, smearing polite grins on their lips.
The brothers handed their luggage to them, Verdot peering over to the portraits they were all crowed beside. “Tessick and Kaidin…” He shook his head. “Wonder what became of them…”
Jacen quickly lashed out with the Force, feeling around Verdot’s words. It seemed the man really had no idea what happened to them.
“Well, anyways… we figured you two could use their rooms. They’re still clean, and the way the guys left them. And I don’t think they’ll be coming back anytime soon.”
Still stretched out with the Force, Jacen could feel Tenel Ka’s sudden sense of panic. He quickly tried to calm her down through their bond, admiring her will to stay collected on the outside, and turned his outward attention to Verdot and Aurelio. “Thank you guys so much. This really is helping us out a lot.”
“No problem,” Verdot waved his hands.
“Yeah, we’re glad we could help out. And it’s always nice to see familiar faces,” Aurelio smiled to Tenel Ka, who returned the sentiment with the sweetest smile she could muster at that moment, her eyes almost screaming at the ordeal around her.
Verdot motioned down the hallway behind them, to where the mahogany corridor ended and opened up into a much larger hall. “Tessick’s room is the second to last on the left and Kaidin’s is the one after that. I’ll let you kids argue over who has the bigger bed. Kaidin slept like a little kid, sprawled out everywhere, limbs hanging every which way – his bed is easily twice the size of Tessick’s.”
Aurelio laughed, the memories of the two flooding back to him.
Jacen chuckled again, Tenel Ka forcing a smile still.
“So you two get settled and we’ll see you in about an hour for dinner. Sound good?”
“Definitely,” Tenel Ka responded, attempting to look casual.
“Great,” Verdot grinned. “Alright, Rel. Let’s go make sure the dining hall is presentable.”
An amiable air of laughter filled the hallway as the Tahvas wandered off, leaving Jacen and Tenel Ka alone.
Tenel Ka’s eyes were glazed over, as they traveled down the dark hallway beyond, to the two maws of darkness on the end. The doors to Kaidin and Tessick’s rooms. Their rooms. She could absently feel Jacen standing near her; she could feel his hot breath on her neck and his eyes worriedly jumping around her face. Hoisting her bag up on her shoulder, with a slight flinch of pain as it hit the sore spot in her side, Tenel Ka meandered off into the dim corridor, leaving the soft welcoming lights of the portrait hall and entering the dark walkway past that, the ceilings opening above her and the air getting colder.
Jacen followed quickly, his bag in his hands, trailing behind him and slapping him on the backs of his legs as he moved after her. They stopped beside one another near the doorway to Tessick’s bedroom.
“Do you want the bigger bed?”
“No,” her response was quick and curt and she didn’t elaborate until a few seconds later. “I do not want that room.”
Jacen figured that would be the case, but he also figured he would be polite and ask. “Alright, I’m gonna go in there and put my stuff down and get cleaned up for dinner. Are you going to be okay?”
“I will be fine.”
He hesitated, and watched her amble into Tessick’s room, setting her stuff on the bed and sighing – and finally Jacen felt it was safe enough to leave her alone for a few minutes. It was only their bedrooms. They were dead – Jacen and Tenel Ka knew this firsthand, so their bedrooms couldn’t be too much of a reminder or hassle, right?
As he stepped into Kaidin’s room, Jacen tensed up. It just felt uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure why; and for once he wasn’t really curious as to why. He just wanted to get cleaned up and have a nice meal with Tenel Ka and their hosts.
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