Fall of the House of Fortan; or, A House Divided [Invite]

[Natasi Fortan]

Herevan Hold - Dusk​

​

The sound of falling water was integral to the sound functioning of Natasi Fortan. Having been raised at Herevan Hold, a great palace straddling the lifegiving River Ellirhan at the bring of a massive waterfall, meant that she heard it always. The rushing river powered the turbines of a hydroelectric plant that serviced not just the estate but much of the county; its canals were used to irrigate the farmland that kept the Fortan family fed and wealthy, and the tenants in business and happy; it was piped through the house, in fountains and pools. In fact, there were no rooms in Herevan Hold, except in the staff quarters, where water did not trickle merrily into this basin or that fountain, or flow gently along this channel or that miniature aqueduct.

Natasi had sought to replicate the sound on her travels using machines, but it wasn't quite the same. So when designing the First Order's capital complex and the diplomatic vessels for the First Order, she incorporated these into the designs. The entire capital city for the First Order was dotted with fountains and gardens, and the public buildings featured fountains, aqueducts, and the like. It made her more comfortable, made her work more efficient, and her life more comfortable. Rank had its privileges. Some of her staff complained about having to use the facilities more often than before, but mostly they learned some bladder control.

Natasi stood in her father's study, her fashionable black nightgown covered by an equally fashionable dressing gown. She was surrounded by the blue striped damask and dark polished wood, all parts of the decor hand-picked by her father. When she had first comandeered the study -- her cousin [member="Maximilian Jens"] claim to the estate notwithstanding -- the study had smelled of her father's cologne. Now it didn't smell of anything which, she supposed, meant it smelled of Natasi herself. She stood in front of the large marble fireplace with a letter in hand, penned to [member="Gerion Ardik"]. She had been there for a few moments, hesitating. It was an uncharacteristic of Natasi Fortan to hesitate, but in this she felt herself paralyzed. The letter included an invitation for him to join her at Herevan Hold, with an eye towards rekindling the extremely -- painfully -- slow burn of their potential romance. She did miss having him around. It was nice to have an equal to talk to. She reached for the tasseled pull next to the fireplace and pulled it, summoning some member of staff to come. She would give them the letter, and they would post it.

But on the other hand... when it came down to it, what could come of this? Another few weeks of awkward courtship, however heartfelt, between two sincere yet rather chilly individuals. Another fizzle, with a vague promise of re-connection down the line? She sighed and closed her eyes. In the end, it wasn't fair to Ardik to continually distract him when it seemed neither of them could get it together. Yet, she couldn't imagine a life completely Ardik-free. It was an absurd proposition. Perhaps she would send a short e-mail later -- how are you, what's new, let's do lunch next time we're in the same galactic hemisphere, etc. -- to establish a dialogue without a romantic component. For now.

She dropped the note into the fire. It curled, darkened, before turning to cinders. This was the nice thing about putting pen to paper: it burned so beautifully.

Exhaling a sigh, the woman crossed the room to the bar and poured herself a drink. Over her shoulder, she heard the door open. "I'm terribly sorry to bring you all the way up here, but I'm afraid I've changed my mind," she said as she added a little soda water to her scotch. She took a sip and winced. Scotch, too, burned so beautifully. Satisfied with the quality of her drink, she turned to offer the footman who had entered an apologetic smile. She gasped, the glass slipping from her hand. The crystal was too fine to shatter on the plush carpet; it bounced once, spilling its contents across the rug before rolling to a stop a few inches from Natasi's foot. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded breathlessly.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

The Resistance strike team had landed upriver and used the lowest of low tech to get to Herevan Hold: wooden rafts. Using the codes Imogen Fortan -- now Evelin Redstar -- had always had, she let the team into the hydroelectric plant beneath the palace. They had taken the servants by surprise, stunning them and dragging them into the boot room. In an estate as old as Herevan Hold, there was no electronic communication in and out of the boot room, so they would be unable to raise an alarm. So far, so good. She had instructed the Resistance team to begin rigging the house for arson. Some were disabling the integrated fire suppression system. Others kept guard.

It was serendipitous that Evelin arrived at the moment she did. She held her blaster pistol in an easy grip, her finger resting on the trigger, the barrel pointing directly at Natasi's chest when she turned around. Imogen couldn't help but frown. Even now, she was forced to admit her cousin's magnificence. A lesser woman would have shrieked and looked terrified. After she dropped her glass, Natasi Fortan just looked irritated. "Don't you know me, Moff Fortan?" asked Evelin, forcing her voice to remain neutral and even.

The study was the same as ever, just as her uncle had left it. It was a shame that his only daughter had to die here, in his favorite room. That is, unless she chose to see reason, come quietly, and help defeat the First Order once and for all. "I'm sure you've heard of me, though your intelligence services might not have been able to put a face to the name. Redstar." She shrugged, flexing her arm with the blaster as she noticed Natasi edge back towards the bar. "No, no. Don't do anything stupid, Natasi. This doesn't have to end with you dead."

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"Redstar," Natasi repeated thoughtfully, her eyes rolling upwards, as if struggling to remember. "Redstar... I'm sorry, I don't -- oh, wait a moment. Of course, that sad little Resistance of yours. I was wondering what happened to you. You haven't been doing a lot of resisting lately, have you?" She returned her gaze to Redstar and raised her hands hap-hazardly. "Very well. If I can't fix myself another drink, what do you want me to do?" Natasi moved over towards the fireplace under the direction of the intruder, but instead of sitting in the chair that [member="Evelin Redstar"] gestured to -- her father's leather Chesterfield -- she lunged for the fireplace tools and seized a poker --

She was rewarded with a blaster bolt in the arm, sending her to the ground. Redstar moved to stand over her and Natasi yanked the poker towards her, hooking Evelin's ankle. As Evelin went down, the blaster went off, catching one of the cables holding the light fixture. It swung loose, shattering against the curtain. Natasi rolled out of the way and crawled around the desk before throwing herself out the study door, clutching her burned arm as she hurtled down the hallway.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Evelin bit back a curse as she went down, and leaned around the chair to try to fire another bolt at the escaping Moff, but it missed her lithe frame as she disappeared out the door. The Princess pulled herself up and clicked her comm open. "The target has escaped. If you see her, grab her. Alive, if you can," she ordered her. "But dead if you have to." As Evelin headed for the door, the smell of burning fabric intruded, and she glanced over her shoulder. Blast, she thought. The curtain had caught fire, and that would accelerate the process. This place was full of tinder -- expensive tinder, but just as flammable -- so they had to move. Evelin raced up the gallery. On her left, the colonnade overlooked the grand hall, the large central fountain rendered silent by her team. On her right, the doors of the other rooms were open, with no sign of Natasi therein. The day nursery: empty. The blue library: empty. The music room: empty.

Where was she?

Evelin paused and looked over the railing into the gallery below. There was no way Natasi could have jumped and survived, unless she landed in the fountain, but there was no movement there and she hadn't heard a splash...

She turned and gasped as she saw Natasi hurtling towards her from behind. Natasi caught her around the midsection and they both smashed through the railing. Evelin barely had a time to scream and shut her eyes before they landed in the fountain, which did something to break their fall. Natasi's hands, meanwhile, were wound into Evelin's hair, holding her head under water. Evelin struggled to resist gasping for breath, and managed to elbow Natasi hard in the ribs, causing the Moff's grip to loosen. Evelin seized the initiative and crawled out of pool, sputtering and gasping for air.

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi winced as she took the elbow to her side and released her prey. She shucked her dressing gown and its extra weight, revealing the bleeding burn the blaster had given her, and clambered out of the fountain. Where were the staff? Why had no one come to investigate? Why was the water off? She didn't have time to address these questions, as she still had the assassin to deal with. Natasi didn't have any weapons on her person, and the blaster was lost in the murky water of the fountain. Natasi dashed towards the door, where a rack of bladed weapons stood, a relic from a more dangerous time. She took a lightweight sword, tested its weight, and then began advancing on Redstar.

"Do you know," Natasi said conversationally. "I've had just about enough of you pathetic resistance types. Why can you not just accept that what the First Order plans for the galaxy might be for the best? Too long we have languished under disorder and chaos because of people like you and your egos." She lunged at Evelin, thrusting the sword at her midsection.

[member="Evelin Redstar"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Evelin twisted on the spot, twirling to the left, away from the fountain. She had no weapon, but was not weighed down by one. She easily dodged another of Natasi's untrained swings. "People like me?" she echoed coldly. "Do you not know me, Natasi? After all these years?" She twisted again, ducking behind one of the wooden columns supporting the upper gallery. Natasi's overeager swing got the sword stuck in the wood. Evelin seized the opportunity and came at he from around the column like a wampa. It was not like Evelin Redstar or Imogen Fortan to engage in a bareknuckle brawl, but when that was your choice, that was your choice. Her first punch caught Natasi squarely in the left side, her next jabbed at her wounded right shoulder. Natasi's scream echoed off the polished floors and walls, and even Evelin felt a touch of pity.

It had been a low shot, to be sure, but the freedom of the galaxy was at stake.

Natasi held up a hand instinctively, as if seeking clemency, but Redstar ignored her and advanced. Natasi, stumbling backwards, tripped over the plush carpet that lined the walkway around the fountain, and went down hard on her rear end, but immediately began pushing back with her legs. Evelin kicked her hard in the side, then dropped heavily onto her, kneeling with a knee on either of her shoulders. Natasi screamed again, kept screaming as Evelin's knee ground into her burning wound, until she could no longer produce sound and lapsed into silent, outraged, pitiful sobs. "Do you not know me, Natasi? I am trying to save you from yourself, so the Fortan name isn't ruined by its association with cheap fascists! Are you so blind that you don't see your own cousin? Answer me!" Years of anger and hurt at her cousin's mistreatment of her spilled out in her rage, and Evelin leaned even harder on the knee bracing Natasi's wounded shoulder to the ground.

The resultant screams were horrible and wonderful in equal measure.

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

It was pain unlike Natasi had ever felt. Even when the bomb had torn apart the office at Skye, when hot shrapnel had shredded her clothes and flesh, it hadn't been like this. Her entire existence was pain as the rough texture of Evelin's jumpsuit ground at her wounded shoulder. "Stop, stop, stop, please stop!" Natasi begged as she tried to process the information that Redstar was providing. "I have only one cousin left... Pierce... you bastards killed all the others. Do you not remember killing my cousin -- my friend -- at Skye?" Her face smeared with makeup and tears, her hair clinging to her face and neck from their dip in the fountain, Natasi still managed to look disdainful.

"She had never hurt anyone in her life. Never lifted a weapon. But you vaporized her when you tried to vaporize me."

[member="Evelin Redstar"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"No," Evelin said. "I didn't. I decided the only way to assuage my conscience and the guilt I felt at being unable to convince you to stop this madness... was to destroy you. And I'm just sorry I didn't. I didn't want to hurt you. I wanted it to be quick. You should have died at Skye, so the atrocities the First Order has committed since wouldn't be attached to our name." Evelin paused and brushed a hair off Natasi's forehead. "I always looked up to you, did you know that? Since I was a baby. You were beautiful and glamorous and talented. In a better world we would have worked together. Made a difference, in a good way. Not like this. Not with slavery and repression and hatred."

She sighed, her face crumpling, overcome with emotion. "I'm so sorry, Natasi," she said quietly, shifting her knee further down the Moff's arm, off the wound. "I failed, and that's on me. But this time, it will be easier. Now -- damn it, stop struggling," she gritted her teeth and grabbed Natasi by the front of her hair and then slammed her head into the floor. Despite the carpeting, she could see the Moff's eyes become glazed and somewhat dazed. She drew a stiletto from her boot and jammed it into Natasi's chest, drawing a shocked wheeze from Natasi's pale pink lips, and a look of painful revelation on her dark brown eyes. Evelin stood up and looked down at Natasi one more time before lifting her comlink to her mouth. "Blow it."

 

[Natasi Fortan]

She coughed, violently. Specks of blood rained back down onto her face. She forced her eyes open and looked around. Evelin -- Imogen -- was gone. She didn't know how much time had passed, but it was enough time that she could see patches of the night sky through the blazing ceiling. She coughed again, and pain seared through her as she breathed in smoke. That must have been what woke her up. She turned her head to one side; the wooden front doors had burned away, as had the wooden columns. Anything flammable was gone, burnt to cinder and ash, but Herevan was mostly stone, and stone didn't burn. The marble under her felt warm, like bathwater. It wasn't an unpleasant way to die.

Natasi coughed again and turned her head to the other side. Flames and smoke. Destruction and death. Smoke poured out of the door under the stairs where the staff quarters were. Surely they were all dead now.

She lifted a shaky hand, pulled the knife from her chest. Her throat was too raw to let out a cry, so she simply whimpered. She tried to toss the knife away, but it simply skittered a few inches away from her hand on the formerly polished floor. she put her hand to her chest and immediately regretted her actions; hot blood seeped from the wound. "No... no, no," she whimpered to herself, pressing as firmly as she could with her hand to staunch the blood. "No, no..."

* * * * * * * * *​

The estate agent stood outside the smoldering ruin of Herevan Hold. The fire had been out half an hour now, thanks in large part to a light morning drizzle. The day was grey and sad, particularly for those connected to the estate. The agent sighed and put his hat back on, turning back to the fire chief. "I had a breakfast meeting with her ladyship this morning. Came 'ere to find it like this."

"And you didn't see anyone? No vehicles left the estate?"

"Not a one, while I could see. The two landspeeders are gone, o'course, but they were often sent on errands when her ladyship was in residence." He doffed his cap again, then sighed and put it on as the rain plunked onto his balding head. "Fire must have been burning all night, though. I can see straight through to the dining room from here," he said, pointing to where the fire had consumed the wall separating the salon from the dining room, leaving only the stone supports, black with fire. The upper floors were gone, leaving charred wood where the floors had been, and stone walls. "Surprised to see the walls are still up," said the agent. "Building this size, this old, you'd think they'd come right down, but no. Built solid."

"Mm," muttered the chief. "Well, thank you for your help, sir."

"It's least I could do," said the agent. "Will you contact the Baron, then?"

"Someone from our office, yes."

"And they'll collect the body?"

The chief sighed and nodded, gesturing to a coroners' van speeder parked nearby. "The medical examiner believes it to be the body of a human female of slightly above average height. Basic human varietal. No jewelry or other identifying features on the corpse. We'll run the dental records, but you know how these la-de-da people are. They have their own physicians and dentists, might not keep records. It could take awhile, if it ever happens. But judging by the fact it was known that Fortan was here, it doesn't seem like that will hold up the process. Should have a death certificate by the end of next week, after the inquest. We think it was a gas leak in the servants' quarters, but that will all be in the inquest."

The agent turned and looked back at the castle, then sighed. "Too bad. Fortans've had naught but tragedy for a generation, what with the Countess' death and then their son and heir, and a cousin not long ago. Now this. At least there's an heir so the estate won't fall into disrepair. I hope," he added glumly. "Anyway... you've got my contact information if you need anything."

"Thank you, sir." The two men shook hands and parted ways, with the agent pausing once more to look into the ruins of the castle before turning and getting on his speeder bike.