Private Doctor's Orders

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Corazona von Ascania

"Spared them, more likely," Aurelian said, his voice carrying a dry edge. He understood the fundamental gap between them. The Jedi treated life as a sacred, universal right, as if every wicked soul deserved a chance at redemption. To him, that was a dangerous weakness. Some people were the problem, and the only logical solution was to remove them permanently.

He glanced at her, thinking briefly that whoever was responsible for her current hairstyle might also fall into that category, but he kept the thought to himself.

"I imagine that Sith brother of yours could have used a sharp lesson when he first strayed," he mused. "Maybe eight of your siblings are actually better off without that influence."

A dull, singing pain returned to his temple, and he pressed a palm against it to steady himself.

He didn't look away when she asked about his guilt. "No," he said simply. The answer was honest. He saw only the practical results: safety, prosperity, and the survival of the people he actually valued. Guilt felt like a luxury he couldn't afford.

He watched her, wondering if his lack of remorse truly horrified her. "Do you suppose that makes me wicked?" he asked. There was no mockery in the question. He genuinely wanted to know if, in her eyes, his pragmatism had finally crossed a line he couldn't return from.

​

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Aurelian hadn't used her brother's name - but what he evoked still felt like the wrong edge of a knife. Then, it was a drawstring that tugged at her spine.

Cora sat up a little straighter. Those guilty eyes that had swept themselves into the corner of the room now met his own, head on.

Something sharp and dangerous flashed in her expression. A score of lightning across the stormy seas of ocean blue eyes. It quieted just as quickly as it had come, but still lingered in the harsh set of her features.

"You have no right," she snarled, "to suggest that he would've been better off if our father hadn't spared the rod."

He hurt to think about, but Cora was protective of her family.

Her anger began to wane when Aurelian brought a hand to his temple, replaced with tentative concern. Then he posed his question - do you suppose that makes me wicked - successfully distracting her ire.

She couldn't fault him for killing his abuser, even if Remus' cruelty towards his own son hadn't been the trigger.

What if his father had been kind? Would Aurelian still have killed him if it meant a better future for Naboo? To protect his loved ones?

And then, there was the way he looked to her. Not snide, no leading tone, no verbal trap set - at least not one that she could see. This was Aurelian Veruna, posing a genuine question to his friend-adjacent, and she chose to believe him.

"No," she answered. "In the same way I don't believe feeling guilt makes me good."

Cora pursed her lips a little. "That doesn't mean that I approve. Perhaps the consequences of our actions will find us, one day."

She sighed, allowing her shoulders to relax against the pillow a little more. Maintaining such rigid posture in bruised flesh wasn't particularly comfortable.

"I suppose this is why some Orders discourage practicing Jedi from the throne."

Aurelian Veruna

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Corazona von Ascania

The boy king watched the lightning flash in her eyes as she snapped at him. He had clearly struck a nerve regarding her brother. He suspected she carried the weight of the boy's fall as her own personal failure, but he didn't push it.

He remained convinced that a firmer hand from their father might have straightened the boy out before the Sith got their claws in. Still, he kept that thought to himself. He would be curious to see the brother for himself one day, preferably from the safe side of a prison field, to ask him in person.

His highness' head throbbed again, a sharp reminder of his own physical limits. He looked back up when she finally answered his question about wickedness.

"Good point," he said softly. He respected the logic. Feeling guilty didn't magically undo a horrific act; if anything, he felt it just made a person weaker.

He let out a noncommittal mutter when she mentioned consequences. "I doubt it," he added. "Only three people in the galaxy know the truth. Two of them are in this room, and the third wouldn't say a word." He let the implication hang there, a subtle reminder that he was trusting her with his life. He was relying entirely on the discretion of this friendship-adjacent bond.

He gave a small, dry chuckle at her comment about Jedi on thrones. "I imagine they discourage it because you'd eventually throw your people into that never-ending conflict with the Sith. But that's just my opinion."

The scion shifted, trying to find a comfortable position. The curiosity from earlier hadn't faded. "Did your Order ever find out what you did? Were they actually okay with it?" It wasn't a dig or a trap.

​

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"I was being hyperbolic," she murmured. "If the truth ever were to get out, then it would not be from me." Ukatians had their old ways, honor and integrity among them - even if those traits were quietly laughable in the high court of Naboo.

Still, her gaze flicked to Aurelian in a quiet measure of support. Maybe it would've been better if he hadn't burdened her with the knowledge of what as technically a crime, but she needed him on the throne rather than in a jail cell.

Jedi had covered up worse for their own.

Then, he posed a question she found odd. What did he care of the Order?

Cora wrinkled her nose and tilted her head towards the ceiling, as if the answer was written somewhere in the in unpleasant clinical lightning or sterile ceiling tiles.

"I'm sure they knew. I can only assume that they trusted my judgment."

That concept made her uncomfortable, in a way. What was more, several members on the council had already disliked her father for reasons that were, in her estimation, well-deserved.

"I was on the council then, you know. I'm not so certain I should have been - despite appearances, I'm not a particularly good Jedi. I play favorites, and involve myself in politics more than I should."

Cora picked idly at the stitching of the bedsheet, wondering how her life might've been different if she'd never been sent to Coruscant for training. Would she have ever learned to make her own choices, or would she still be deferring to those who'd placed themselves above her?

“Are you sure that you’re alright?” Sitting up a little straighter, Cora frowned when she caught his wince.

Aurelian Veruna

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Corazona von Ascania

"I am fine," Aurelian snapped, his tone sharpening with a sudden spike of frustration. He wasn't angry with her, but the persistent throb in his skull was becoming a personal insult. He hated being reminded of his own fragility. He shook his head slightly to clear the fog, refocusing on her with a narrow, calculating gaze.

"You Jedi are exhausting," he said, shifting back into the safety of his usual cynicism. "You preach peace and balance, yet you turn a blind eye to something so fundamentally against your code when it suits the narrative. Perhaps being a Council member had bought you that silence." He watched her closely, fully expecting her to take offense. It was a familiar dance, and he was curious to see if she'd step into it.

"Don't get me wrong, your judgment was correct. I'm not criticizing the result," he added, his voice softening just enough to show he meant it. "And I actually prefer your candor about what type of Jedi you are. Maybe that's why we get along. You don't spend your time pretending to be a saint like the rest of them."

He let out a short laugh that made his head pulse. "It really is funny, isn't it? The hypocrisy of it all. Deep down, the Sith and the Jedi aren't nearly as different as they'd like everyone to believe." He leaned back, his eyes searching hers for a reaction to the heresy he'd just uttered. He hadn't fully believed it. They definitely had their differences, but he was more interested in poking the bear over the focus being on him now.

​

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora signed, a ragged exhale of breath that betrayed her frustration. She recognized what Aurelian was doing, and took the bait because it felt familiar enough to be comfortable.

Slowly, she maneuvered to the edge of the bed. The hairline fractures scored into bruised ribs protested, and she hissed from between clenched teeth.

"Let me take a look," Cora snapped, already reaching for the scan monitor. "That wasn't a request. If you suffer a brain bleed in my presence, I'll be on trial for manslaughter."

As she tapped away, Aurelian's lambasting landed around her like barbs seeing a minefield. "Please," she insisted, "don't spare me your ill-informed, heavily biased opinion. I do so enjoy being berated by a man who owes the foundation of his country's power, in part, to the Jedi."

Before the Royal Naboo Republic had a formally organized military, the budding Jedi Order played a role in supporting what would become a widespread galactic power. Even if the Jedi now occupied a different role, it didn't erase the past.

Cora hadn't been apart of that, but she'd watched from the core.

The King's last remark landed somewhere personal, and she quietly seethed behind the monitor. She'd lost friends and comrades to the Sith. After a few long moments of stewing, Cora composed herself and peeked over the screen's edge.

"Now you're just being ridiculous for the sake of it." Both brows raised. "What do you know about the Jedi and Sith?"

Aurelian Veruna

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Corazona von Ascania

"Fine, but no Jedi tricks. Use the actual medical scanners," Aurelian grumbled. He begrudgingly allowed her to check his vitals, though he remained stiff under her scrutiny. When she suggested Naboo owed its foundation to the Order, he cocked his head back in pure disbelief. "No," he said firmly. "The Naboo monarchy has stood for over a millennium. We have never needed the Jedi. They simply got lucky hitching their guarlara to the best post in the galaxy."

He found the suggestion that a bunch of mountain-dwelling monks were responsible for his planet's prosperity laughable. In his mind, the Jedi were a relic of a bygone era, tucked away in the Gallo Mountains where the rest of the world could comfortably ignore them. The idea that they held any real influence in modern governance was a fantasy he wasn't willing to entertain.

When she pressed him on his knowledge of the Sith and Jedi, his expression flattened into something more serious. "I know enough," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "I know that if the galaxy didn't have the Force, we would all be significantly safer for it. You think your intentions make you different, but you're just two sides of the same coin."

He watched her reaction through narrowed eyes, the throbbing in his head becoming ever more present. "One side wants to control everything through fear, and the other through their own version of 'balance.' Both paths lead to people like me cleaning up the mess while you play gods with the galaxy. Tell me I'm wrong."

​

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"The wider Republic, not just your kingdom. Jedi bled for its protection in the early days while you were…." she rolled her wrist absently, searching for the words. "Imbibing your way around Naboo. You can still hate Jedi and acknowledge when they do something helpful. I know you’re capable of that much.”

Naboo, it seemed, had become synonymous with The Republic. Perhaps Aurelian had forgotten the many, many words who were not galactic crown jewels, that also dwelled within its influence cloud. She doubted it, chalking his reply up to reflex and fatigue.

The scanner hummed, soft and pitched. Cora observed the values and figures as they appeared on the output. Dull outcomes were what you wanted in medicine.

Anti-Jedi sentiment was nothing new, and something all Jedi would have to contend with. It was evident during the Alliance's height - when Jedi power and influence was thought too great - and then again, during the Alliance's fall for their perceived failures.

Some of which had been very real. Cora still held a seed of bitterness for how their leaders fled the core after Coruscant fell.

"Maybe you're right about that," she conceded without much prodding. "The galaxy would be safer without the Force. But it exists, and here we are."

A soft chime indicated that the scans were complete. No sign of a brain bleed on imaging, and all of the king's vitals appeared stable - aside from his blood pressure, which seemed a bit high.

She didn't need any medical tests to tell her that.

Cora pushed the monitor aside and let her gaze settle on Aurelian. For a few long moment, she ruminated on his words and the sentiment behind them. "I can imagine it terrifying. Surrounded by people who have a strange cosmic power that has the potential to destroy lives - worlds - in a very short time. If I wasn't one of them, perhaps I wouldn't have as much faith in the Jedi as a path."

Cora sighed, a slow rise and fall of her shoulders.

"We certainly have our flaws. But my time with the New Jedi Order was spent rebuilding what the Dark destroyed, protecting civilians and managing disputes. Not razing worlds, taking slaves, dismantling democratic governments or abusing populations of innocents."

A vein at Aurelian's temple leaped, and she watched it pulse in silence before speaking again, pinching the bridge of her nose: "I could help you with the pain, if you want. That can't be comfortable."

Aurelian Veruna

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Corazona von Ascania

"Yes, sadly it does exist," Aurelian muttered as the scans finished. He tipped the screen toward himself to verify the results. He was fine. It was just a stubborn head injury that would make the long trip home a nuisance. He watched her push the monitor away, his gaze steady and unapologetic.

"The Force isn't terrifying, Cora. It is annoying and inconvenient for everyone caught in its wake." He understood her perspective and even felt a flick of sympathy. She hadn't chosen to be born with the ability to move things with her mind. "I know you mean well, but it's inevitable. Jedi always seep into the darkness eventually. They cause the same mayhem as the Sith in the end." He didn't want to bring up her brother again, but the point stood. To him, both sides were destined to become the same problem.

He looked at her, wondering if she felt that pull already or if she was still in the denial phase. In his mind, the galaxy would be better off if the Force simply vanished, taking both the blatant cruelty of the Sith and the eventual corruption of the Jedi with it.

As she offered to help with the pain, he snapped his hand up in a sharp, defensive gesture. "No mystic shit," he stated firmly. He wasn't about to let her reach into his head with her cosmic energy. He let his hand drop, his expression shifting into a weary, crooked smirk. "I will, however, take comfort in the form of drugs if you have them. Anything to make this trip more bearable."

​

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

What disturbed Cora the most wasn't his pessimism and distaste for the Force - those were nothing new as far as Aurelian was concerned- but in how cavalier he was about it all.

"A pity," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "That mystic…energy is all that I have to offer.”

She couldn't blame him for not wanting someone to root around in his mind. Let him call a nurse if his pain was that great; a doped up Aurelian would be a curious sight.

Between parenthood and the Jedi, Cora began to wonder if there was an aspect about her he hadn't criticized today. The former was a touchy subject, but he seemed ill informed on the latter - there were quite a few notable Jedi who'd lived into old age without sinking into depravity. Did a few bad apples really spoil the cart?

"The Dark is alway a risk, but it's not an eventuality," she sighed, rubbing absently at her aching neck. The impact of being thrown against a wall had run like a shockwave through her body. "Most Jedi don't fall."

She lofted a brow, and her gaze focused more readily on the King.

"Why bestow me the vaunted title of friend-adjacent if I'm just going to turn into a chaotic darksider somewhere down the line?"

Aurelian Veruna

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Corazona von Ascania

"A pity indeed," Aurelian said, his disappointment clear. He'd been hoping for something more substantial than a lecture on cosmic energy. Drugs would have been a lovely escape from the rhythmic pounding in his skull. He waved her off as she defended the Jedi's record of staying in the light.

He began rooting around the side table for anything useful, but found only boring medical paraphernalia. He was finished with the conversation. His head hurt too much to continue debating the morality of monks, and a nap seemed like the only logical next step. He reached out and grabbed the curtain partition.

He paused as she asked her final question. It was a fair point. Why invest time in a friendship destined for a dark, chaotic end? He dragged the curtain mostly closed, leaving just enough space to look at her one last time.

"So I can say 'I told you so' when it happens," he said with a final, weary smirk. He shut the curtain completely, blocking her out, and climbed back into the bed for a long, quiet nap.

​