His words struck a nerve, leaving her stinging. Eloise gritted her teeth, jaw clenching like a vice even as hot tears came unbidden, making her green eyes glisten in the pale glow of the navicomputer.
“
I was never her beloved daughter,” she spat. “
But you must’ve been Daddy’s favorite. Why else would he have saved only you?”
"Forget it, Eloise, why don't you just go? It's clear you don't want to be here, and I don't know what sort of safety you think you can bring. Your temper is as bad as hers."
Now he was just trying to hurt her. For a moment, she really wanted to hurt him back. But that would’ve just proved him right. “
Shut up, brat,” she growled half-heartedly, turning to leave.
All that she had ever tried to do was tell the truth. Her intentions were good—and she paved the road to hell with them every damned time. Of course nobody ever listened to her. The truth was cold and harsh, and she had no love in her to soften it. There was only that ever-present anger, smoldering hot just beneath the surface, righteous but scorching.
As she left the
Leviathan and Starlin behind, her thoughts turned to Zaathru. Taking time away from being Headmaster of the Vonnuvi after she was just promoted would be hard to justify, but she would find some excuse for her absence. Nor would she show up to Zaathru with a contingent of Jedi Masters, tempting as it was. Such activity would draw too much attention, too much suspicion from what was left of the Pantheon.
She would find her brother—her true brother, the boy she had grown up with—and get to the bottom of this bizarre mystery. And if she could, she would take the rest of her siblings with her when she left. She should’ve done it earlier, when they were still young, but better late than never.
