Private Blink, and You'll Miss It

[Corazona von Ascania]

The air between them didn't sour – but there were emerging threads of tension. Nothing overt. Nothing directed at anyone present. Between them, Lucy gurgled happily as she gnawed on her snack. Cora absently wiped at the baby's cheeks and chin, cleaning the drool from her.

Despite having nine younger siblings, she'd forgotten how much young children leaked.

Then, Lily said something that made her gut drop into her feet – her parents were from the Marr family.

It had been quite some time since Cora had her last encounter with Malum, during which their familial ties had surfaced. Not long after, she'd learned that her mother – whom her daughter was named for – had been adopted by a barren noble couple on Ukatis. None of the children she'd borne had red eyes.

Cora glanced to Lily. The girl had cast her own gaze elsewhere, but a sliver of her iris could still be seen. Chestnut brown. Something in Cora's chest eased a fraction, and she turned back to her skewer.

"I am familiar with the Marr family," she said. Her tone remained conversational, as if they were discussing the weather at a garden party. "In concept, primarily." Then, she paused. Her silence stretched while she weighed the phrasing of what she wanted to say next.

"They are cousins of mine," she offered. "Though, I've only met one member of the main family."

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily could feel it in the silence that stretched for a beat too long, the kind that said someone was picking their words carefully to avoid offence or cover up the truth. Lily reacted instinctively, before Cora could form her sentence she was probing, mental fingers reaching tentatively for the Princess’s mind. She wasn’t digging deep enough for full thought or memory, she was pressing just enough to understand any shift towards deception or ill intent.

Her expression never changed as she did, licking grease from her fingers like their conversation was nothing out of the ordinary.

Lily froze, thumb still in her mouth, her heart racing.

Cousins?

Fething cousins.

Was there anywhere in this galaxy she could go without running into them one way or another? She withdrew her thumb, slowly looking up at Cora, trying to keep this rising panic in her chest under control. Trying to keep a calm exterior despite fear making her want to flee.

“Oh?” she asked, though her voice was definitely not as steady as she hoped. “Who?”

Corazona von Ascania

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora’s expression almost shifted when she felt metaphysical fingers tentatively prod her psyche. One corner of her lips lifted into a little-half smile.

Instead of steeling her defenses or lashing out, she let Lily skim the surface of her thoughts and take what she needed. The girl would find surprise, laced with threads of caution. Beneath those lingered a vague sense of sentimentality and protectiveness.

“Well,” she began, reaching into her breast pocket and retrieving a cloth. She passed it to Lily as the girl licked her fingers, a faint wrinkle at her nose before her expression smoothed out. “His name is Malum.”

Cora saw little sense in lying. She was also curious as to what Lily knew - would she flee at the mention of a Sith Lord’s name? Would she care? Would she recognize it, even?

“We haven’t spoken in quite some time,” she added softly. “I’m not even certain that he’s still alive.”

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Corazona von Ascania

Lily didn’t move to take the offered napkin, she was still frozen, clinging to Cora’s mind, her heart hammering so hard she could feel it in her throat. She was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the shift from kindness to deception, waiting for the ill intent to surface like it always did.

And then she dropped his name and Lily took a sharp intake of breath, taking an instinctive half step back as her eyes dropped, panic welling in her chest. No no no, she’d avoided him for so long…

Tears blurred her vision and she blinked hard, swallowing against the lump in her throat.

“I’m not even certain that he’s still alive.”

Her head snapped up. “What?” she said, fear for herself suddenly shifting to fear for him. Yes, she had left him, she’d left all of them behind, refusing to become what they asked of her and she had avoided all of them since, but she did not hate Malum, she loved him. She simply couldn’t stand everything he was doing.

“What-why...why would you say something like that?”

She tried to collect herself, tried to make sense of the tumbling emotions. She closed her eyes.

“He’s my cousin.” she whispered.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"Why…?"

Cora's voice, already so soft, died when tears began to cling at Lily's lash line. She could feel the ambient agitation around the girl - perhaps, she would feel it even if she couldn't sense the Force.

She didn't move toward Lily. She didn't withdraw the napkin. She remained perfectly still as she processed everything - the hurt in her voice, the instinctive step backward, the trepidation. Suddenly, they were linked not by common interests or philosophy, but by the blood of a vanished Sith Lord. Two perfect strangers, who'd just happened to meet on the streets of Theed.

Finally, Cora spoke. But before that, she drew in a slow, shuddering breath.

"His garrison on Alvaria was attacked," she said quietly. "I have not heard of him since, though I do not run in the same circles as he did."

Fragments of news still made their way into the greater galaxy through even the blackwall, and Cora had still been mired in the aftermath of Nefaron's assault on Ukatis to look further into it.

"He may still be alive yet," she offered.

Lucy batted at the napkin between them, gurgling in determination. Cora surrendered the cloth as she fought the urge to reach for Lily. Her fingers twitched, then stilled.

"I've…." she swallowed subtly, allowing her voice to gather to a steady rhythm before she went on. "I have heard that there were others. Like us. Born to those scions without red eyes."

Lucy had shoved the napkin into her mouth, happily gumming on the fabric while Cora and Lily both tried to make sense of this stunning revelation.

"What do you make of our shared cousin?" she asked gently.

Lily Rhodes