Private In Veré’s Wake

[Aurelian Veruna]

Location: Why is she so mean to me?
Tags: Sibylla Abrantes | Corazona von Ascania

Aurelian stared at Cora like she'd just claimed the sky was green. "All publicity is good publicity," he said without hesitation. "Obviously." His expression didn't shift from baffled as he glanced at his guards, then back at her with even more confusion. "They're paid well enough. What are you talking about?"

He muttered into his cup, just loud enough for her to hear, "You're in a mood today."

Before Cora could fire back, Sibylla spoke. Her voice was softer than before, careful in a way that made him straighten. When she asked if he would believe Set and Vere were truly trapped, he opened his mouth with the confidence of a man who absolutely planned to say something wise.

"No."

The word dropped between them with the bluntness of a stone tossed into a pond.

He lifted a hand, palm out, as if to soften it. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's all made up. Obviously stories start somewhere. I'm sure there were two people at the heart of it once, and maybe something tragic happened. Things like that don't survive a thousand years unless they mattered."

He reached for his tea again, rolling it lightly between his hands. "I just assume the truth is probably less… dramatic. Less cosmic tragedy and more real people being real people." He paused, shrugging a little. "But the idea behind it is lovely. That kind of devotion. It lasts. People want to believe in that."

He took a slow sip and settled back, entirely at ease. Whatever gravity Sibylla meant to place on the moment skimmed right off him. His smile was warm, almost proud of himself for contributing something thoughtful.

He looked between them, pleased. "Anyway," he said lightly, "if the legend is still being told, they clearly did something right."

And with that, he lifted his cup in a small, satisfied toast, completely unaware that he'd missed the point by an entire star system.

​

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Up went the other brow. Then, two dark blonde lines scrunched downward. Really? She was the odd one for expressing her concern (and disgust) over a leading galactic figure dropping unannounced, shirtless, and sweaty upon a pleasant gathering to which he was not invited?

In the end, there was little to be gained from trying to argue that point further. Especially given the monumental task now laid out before her and Sibylla - she hadn't even stopped to consider that he wouldn't believe that the legend was true.

In that, she could not blame him. A part of her still didn't quite believe the Queen, hokey religions aside.

"I thought so too," Cora admitted. She tilted her head, as if to give Aurelian a point for them finally being on the same page about something.

For now, at least.

"But Queen Abrantes has had an experience which leads her to believe that the legend of Set and Vere may be more than just a story about love and devotion."

Her gaze slid to Sibylla, trying to nudge them along a path that would - hopefully - direct the conversation where it needed to go.

Sibylla Abrantes Aurelian Veruna

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

THEED PALACE GARDENS
Mood: So remember Kyric?
Interacting with: Corazona von Ascania | Soon: Aurelian Veruna

Sibylla had expected Aurelian to say no. Of course he would. Myths rarely survived the journey into adulthood with their magic intact, and even the most obsessive historians rarely believed wholeheartedly in the legends they studied. That kind of fervor belonged to zealots and dreamers.

And Sibylla was not a zealot.

She was a romantic.

A romantic who had discovered, to her astonishment and horror and wonder, that the story of Set and Vere was true.

So when Aurelian dismissed it gently, she gave him a soft, hollow half-smile. The sort that said, I know how it sounds… and yet…

Lady von Ascania had already hinted at Sibylla's firsthand knowledge. There was no more hiding. It was time to tell him everything.

"They are real. As real as Lady von Ascania sitting there. As real as you before me," Sibylla began, fingers tracing the sides of her cup in a nervous, telling rhythm.

"Before you joined us, I was recounting what happened a few months ago, not long after our meeting at Veruna Tower…" She paused, inhaled, corrected herself. "No. It began even earlier, before you declared your candidacy for Sovereign at the Rainspire."

That alone told him how long she had been involved with this matter, long before any alliance or shared purpose had formed between them.

"There was an archaeological site on Katabasis overseen by the Jedi Order. I overheard my mother speaking of it during a holocall. Something about their need for her historical expertise. And because the subject aligned with my interests, I offered to assist with the research."

She bit her lip, bracing herself.

"To make a very long story brief… the site turned out to be an ancient prison, one that had been tampered with by the Sith with an ancient device meant to destroy it. It failed, leaving Katabasis in ruins. And when the archaeological team accidentally reactivated the mechanism, it… released the two entities that had been imprisoned inside for over a millenia."

She lifted her gaze, steady despite the tremor threading through her voice.

"They were identified as the Goddess Vere and her lover, Set.... after they took possession of two Jedi at the site."

Her throat tightened.

"Vere chose the new Grandmaster of the Order, Ala Quinn."

Aurelian would understand the gravity of that. But the second name would strike a familiar note. It was the man Aurelian himself had hired to protect Sibylla from the Nogrhi assassin his father, Remus Veruna, had dispatched to kill her.

"And Set," she said quietly, "took Kyric Karis."

Which would explain why the man had yet to pick up the child he had left in Aurelian's protection.

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Location: Ew Jedi
Tags: Sibylla Abrantes | Corazona von Ascania

Aurelian listened without interrupting, which in itself was unusual. The skepticism stayed on his face, but it shifted as Sibylla spoke, sharpened by the way her fingers worried the porcelain, by the steadiness she forced into her voice. She was not performing. She was bracing herself.

He exhaled slowly through his nose and leaned back in his chair.

"This," he said at last, rubbing a hand over his jaw, "is exactly why we do not let the Jedi go on their little spiritual adventures unsupervised." He gave a short, incredulous laugh. "Two Jedi possessed? Come on. That alone should tell you someone made a catastrophic mistake."

He shook his head, glancing down at his tea as if it had personally disappointed him.

"And let me guess. This is why I am still paying for that blasted child." His gaze snapped back up. "Kyric vanishes, leaves his kid in my care, and never bothers to come back for them because he's busy being… what. A host for an ancient god?"

Aurelian scoffed, though there was a hard edge under it. "He's lucky I'm a man of my word. The kid's safe. Well-fed. Educated. Annoyingly polite." He paused. "Kyric should be thanking every star he ever prayed to."

He leaned back further, arms folding loosely across his chest.

"Here's my professional, deeply informed opinion," he said dryly. "You should never, ever set foot on an archaeological site run by the Jedi. Ever. No good comes from monks with shovels and a belief they know better than history."

His mouth twitched. "I don't fully buy the gods-walking-around part. I'm not there yet." He glanced back to Sibylla, softer now, more careful. "But I do believe this. Every time the Order starts digging around ancient ruins, the galaxy ends up paying for it."

Then his attention shifted sharply to Cora. His eyes narrowed, measuring.

"So," he said, "is that why you're here?" His tone was not accusatory, but it was no longer playful. "Trying to pull her into something that ends badly?"

He gestured once between them. "Because if the Jedi are involved, history says it never stays contained. And I won't have her caught in the middle of that."

​

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"Kyric Karis has a child?"

Out of all the names she'd expected to crop up during this increasingly complicated conversation, his was not one. Had hosting Set contributed to Kyric vanishing? The young man was fighting against more than she knew.

Something else took hold of her interest, an outlier. Cora raised a disbelieving brow to Aurelian. "Pardon, you are raising his child?"

She said nothing more on that, as sipping her tea in silence said enough.

At least Aurelian was amenable to Sibylla's story - so long as it was framed within the fault of the Jedi. Fine, Cora could live with that.

His wariness wasn't entirely unwarranted. Jedi didn't have the best reputation in the galaxy, and there were times where they'd certainly lived up to it. Cora raised both hands in mock defense, noting not just the lack of edge in Aurelian's voice, but the way his lighthearted tone had disappeared.

"I am here because I was asked to be." She tilted her head toward Sibylla. "If I wanted to pull her into something you'd find questionable, I would have the sense not to do it in your garden."

Unlike some things she'd done in this garden.

"Respectfully, Chancellor, I don't believe that is your decision to make." Her voice was softer here, just by a hair, and measured without the snide drawl she'd been steeped in upon his arrival. Cora understood, in a way, his desire to protect through control.

"Perhaps it was the Force that called Queen Abrantes to the dig. Maybe it really was her own curiosity." A gentle shrug of her shoulder accompanied the next sip of tea.

"Queen Abrantes was consulting me regarding a particular Force-based ability that could help to untangle," she waved a hand, gesturing vaguely around them, "all of this."

Sibylla Abrantes Aurelian Veruna

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

THEED PALACE GARDENS
Mood: So what had happened was...
Interacting with: Corazona von Ascania | Aurelian Veruna

Now it was Sibylla's turn to pause in disbelief.

Wait. He was taking care of Kyric's child?

Delicate dark brows furrowed with confusion, mirroring Cora's expression as the realization caught up with her.

"I beg your pardon?" she echoed quietly, genuinely startled.

Whatever that revelation meant, it was something she would need to return to later with Aurelian. For now, the conversation had clearly shifted back to why Cora was here and why Sibylla had asked for her counsel.

She had expected this reaction from him. Aurelian had never made a secret of his distrust of the Jedi or Force users. That had been evident long before they truly knew one another. Yet he held a certain regard for Lady von Ascania, and that was precisely why Sibylla had asked her to come.

Especially when Aurelian turned toward Cora and insinuated that perhaps she had drawn Sibylla into something reckless.

"Lady von Ascania is right," Sibylla said calmly. "I invited her here. I sought her counsel."

She drew in a measured breath.

"This was not a single endeavor, assisting with the dig. It became more complex. Removing Vere and Set from Grandmaster Quin and Kyric was imperative, and there were far too many unknowns. The iconography alone required careful translation before we could determine what to do next."

Sibylla's fingers tightened slightly around her cup as she continued.

"It was the information you gathered for me on Nabooian myths that allowed me to find the link. To understand what was truly happening on Katabasis. So I returned there to confirm it. I was still Voice at the time." she wanted that to be clear. To provide a timestamp. That this was before the invitation to Nar Shaddaa, and before they had agreed not to keep anything hidden and to come forward with everything to each other. She didn't want him to think she had been withholding this from him at all. It had just all come about long before their closer ties. That she had been fully intending to tell him now.

Another breath. Slower now.

"The mechanism used to imprison Set and Vere had a damaged seal. I will spare you the finer details, as I can already see this is upsetting you. But I met them. Vere and Set. In the World Between Worlds. I experienced the visions of past, present, and future and felt the agony they were trapped within."

Her voice lowered.

"Set had become obsessed with finding Vere. His corruption was causing havoc. In an attempt to guide him to her, Vere placed a fragment of herself within me. It worked. Set found me. But we could not find a way to end the cycle."

Sibylla swallowed hard.

"To prevent the destruction of reality as we know it, Vere chose to imprison herself and Set once more within that same moment of separation and close the seal."

Silence settled briefly before she continued.

"Grandmaster Quin and Kyric are free of their hold now. But Vere and Set remain imprisoned. And I am left with dreams and nightmares of a place the Grandmaster believes is tied to the fragment Vere left behind. A clue that might lead us to whatever could finally release them."

Her fingers curled more tightly around her teacup that the whites of her knuckles would shine.

"To explore that, the Grandmaster would need to use a specific Force technique. I would be asleep while she enters my dreams to make sense of what I am seeing.... I was asking Lady von Ascania about her thoughts on the matter, so I fully understand it and would be able to convey it..."

To you.

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Location: What a great plan!
Tags: Sibylla Abrantes | Corazona von Ascania

Aurelian straightened slightly, irritation flaring before he smothered it with a sharp breath.

"I never said the child was Kyric's," he corrected, waving a hand. "Ward. That was the word. His responsibility. Or it was, before he vanished and dumped him on me." He glanced between them, brows lifting. "And don't look at me like that. I didn't steal him."

He leaned back again, folding one ankle over the opposite knee.

"I'm not raising the kid as my own," he continued, tone defensive but controlled. "He lives in my house. Eats my food. Sleeps under my roof. I pay for the best education Naboo can offer. That's it." He played with his cup in front of him. "Lavish, sure. But temporary. He stays until Kyric comes back and takes responsibility."

His jaw tightened. "If nothing else, I'm a man of my word."

Then Sibylla spoke again, and the humor drained from him by degrees. He listened, really listened, but his disbelief was written plainly across his face. His brows drew together. He shook his head once, slow and incredulous.

"So let me get this straight," he said, rubbing his temple. "The solution is… a Force technique where someone I don't trust enters your sleeping mind."

He let out a short, incredulous laugh. "What could possibly go wrong!"

Aurelian leaned forward now, forearms braced on his knees, agitation finally breaking through his polish.

"This sounds foolish. Dangerously foolish. You're talking about handing the most private part of yourself over to an Order that has already proven it can't stop tripping over ancient disasters." His voice rose despite himself. "Possession, ruined planets, gods in people's heads, and now dream invasion. That's the plan?"

He stopped. Closed his eyes. Drew in a slow breath through his nose. When he opened them again, he looked steadier, but the tension sat tight in his shoulders.

"I don't trust the Jedi," he said quietly. "I don't trust Force solutions that come with reassurances and no guarantees. And I especially don't trust anything that puts you unconscious and defenseless while someone else decides what's inside your head."

His gaze held Sibylla's now, unflinching. "Are you telling me this is happening whether I like it or not?" His expression softened, just slightly. "Or are you asking me if you can?"

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Location: I am asking you to help me decide how it happens. Or if it should at all.
Aurelian Veruna Corazona von Ascania

Sibylla did not flinch from Aurelian's frustration. She saw it in the tight line of his shoulders, the flex of his jaw, the careful way he reined himself back in before his temper could truly break loose. Others might have taken it for anger alone.

She knew better.

So Siblylla set her cup aside and leaned forward, closing the distance just enough to make this feel less like a debate and more like a conversation meant only for the two of them, her voice lowering to a more intimate tone.

"I am telling you because I trust your judgment," she said quietly. "And because I wanted to understand this fully before I ever brought it to you. Not after. Not as an afterthought."

Those almond-shaped eyes held his with a subtle softening.

"I do not understand the Force the way Lady von Ascania does. I will never pretend that I do," she admitted. "What I understand is faith. In Shiraya... and love. And what it would mean to be trapped in the heartbeat of losing the person you love, unable to move, unable to change it without someone else's help."

Her fingers curled lightly against the edge of the table, trying her best not to reach out for his hand when every desire within her wanted to.

"I am not seeking danger for its own sake. I am trying to understand what this truly entails. The risks. The redundancies. What safeguards can be put in place so that no one is left vulnerable or exposed? That is why I was seeking Lady von Ascania's counsel first."

She inhaled slowly, then spoke the truth she had been carrying since Katabasis.

"Because regardless of whether Grandmaster Quin finds anything useful in my dreams, there is still something inside me that I cannot ignore. Vere's torment. Her ache. Her love. It is not abstract to me. I feel it as if it were my own."

Sibylla's hazel eyes softened, but not in pleading, but in earnestness.

"So no," she said gently. "I am not telling you this will happen whether you like it or not."

A pause.

"I am asking you to help me decide how it happens. Or if it should at all... because I would never move forward without hearing you. Not on something like this at all."

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Location: Terrible idea
Tags: Sibylla Abrantes | Corazona von Ascania

Aurelian did not interrupt her. That alone said more than any reassurance he could have offered. He stayed still, eyes fixed on her face, absorbing every word with a focus he rarely gave anyone. If this had been a minister, a general, or a Jedi trying to justify themselves, he would have dismantled the argument halfway through. With Sibylla, he listened.

When she finished, he remained quiet for a moment longer. His fingers rested against the porcelain of his cup, unmoving. The tension in his shoulders had not eased, but it had changed, pulled inward, contained.

"I believe you," he said at last. His voice was calm, stripped of edge. "Every word."

He leaned back, gaze drifting briefly to the garden beyond them before returning to her. "Now that is exactly why this worries me."

Aurelian shook his head, slow and deliberate. "I do not think this should happen at all. Not now. Not like this. No matter how much Lady von Ascania can explain the mechanics, there will never be enough safeguards for me to trust the Jedi with something like this." He glanced toward Cora, polite but firm. "No offense."

His mouth tightened, old frustration surfacing. "They play at being gods of the galaxy. They speak as if knowledge and wisdom are the same thing, and most of the time they are just as blind as anyone who can't touch the Force. They dig. They prod. They decide they know better than history, better than consequence."

His tone sharpened. "And when they get too close to the fire, when it burns them, they don't stop. They turn into fething Sith and terrorize the galaxy instead."

A humorless breath left him. "For Shiraya's sake, one of them even thought she could run for Sovereign of Naboo against me. No experience. No understanding of governance. Just the arrogance the Order cultivates and calls enlightenment."

He looked back to Sibylla, expression steady but unyielding. "I trust Cora. As a person. As an individual. I do not trust the Jedi as an institution, and I never will. Not with something this intimate. Not with your mind."

Aurelian exhaled, heavy and honest, the sound of someone conceding something he did not want to concede.

"Your life is not worth theirs," he said quietly. "Not Set's. Not Vere's. I understand they are trapped. I understand the suffering. But your life, your sanity, your sense of self is not an acceptable price."

He leaned forward again, voice firm now. "They have endured this long without anyone crawling through your dreams. They can endure a little longer while those mystics find another way. A safer way... Without you."

Then he settled back, decision made.

"You know where I stand," he said. "I don't like it. Every instinct in me says no." His gaze softened, just enough to matter. "But I also know you are your own person. I trust you."

His lips tightened in frustration.

"If you choose to do this anyway," he continued, measured and resolute, "I don't want to hear about it. Not before. Not after. I won't bless it, and I won't pretend I agree. But I won't try to cage you, either."

His eyes held hers. "That's as far as I'll go."

​