Private Not By Chance

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Noelle Varanin

"A good end, if end it was. Dubrillion." Ashin set the noodles in a pot and boiled the water with a gesture. Steam fountained up to the high ceiling.

"That's extraordinarily remote. What was she doing that far out on the Braxant? Who conquered the planet? And who in the Bendu's name is Alekto? I've never heard of it. Him? Her?"

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Her brows shot up. "Darth Alekto? Braith? Empress of the The Sith Empire. Or was. Her son now sits on her throne. A shapeshifter."

And he had Quinn.

Her throat bobbed, keeping this one reveal to herself for the time being. Last thing she needed was Ashin jumping up and taking off before she got straight answers on her plan for Spencer. Quinn was unreachable. Discounted. Begrudgingly released.

Her mother however...

"...The galaxy has become a hostile place," she informed, starting slowly. "The sith splintered. An imperial regiment rose from their ranks. They've been acquiring planets relentlessly. Mother supported their efforts until... well I'm not sure what changed. But something did. I believe she was trying to protect Eshan. It was on her mind that day when she left. She wouldn't have done it if she didn't think it was vital for our home."

Or so Noel told herself.

Any other reality was simply unpalatable.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Ashin chewed on that as she served up the noodles with grated bluemilk cheese, one bowl on either side of the kitchen island. She'd bring Avalore up a plate afterward.

"Ahh, Achlys. I never knew her personally, but I had the chance to handle some of her alchemical work. Quite decent. If Spencer sacrificed herself to take her down, she must have been the genuine article. She took Kaine's throne?" Ashin frowned in mingled frustrationand confusion. "You're saying some young shapeshifter is Sith Emperor now? What happened to the Zambrano dynasty?"

The noodles were good.

Noelle Varanin

 

[Noelle Varanin]

"I-I don't know," she admitted, an apathetic shrug hitting her shoulders. "Reports are ... rumors at best. They say he wore the face of Alekto for months before the coup was revealed. I only know he's a Zambrano because, well... Quinn confirmed it herself. Not much has reached me recently, I haven't... cared to look."

She accepted the bowl, stirring it mindlessly.

"Do you think there's more to it? Mothers death-- the moves on the throne?" Her thoughts jumped back to her sister, protective this time. She wasn't a pawn in it. Was she?

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Noelle Varanin

An actual coup, then - but Zambranos against Zambranos, that whole metastasized extended family playing private games with grand consequences.

"What about Kaine and his uncle? Prazutis? The last I knew, they were ruling the Empire together. Do I finally get to raise a glass to whoever took them down - or did they retire to become gods or something?" She snorted and shoveled a twirl of noodles into her mouth. "What's Quinn up to? Is she in the Empire or...?"

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Her jaw clenched, her knuckles white over the fork she had not yet brought to her lips.

"Well. She's dating him," came the clipped, cryptic reply. One did not need to be echani to read the pure frustration festering through her.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Noelle Varanin

Ashin went very still.

"You're saying that Quinn is sleeping with the current Sith Emperor? A Zambrano? One of Kaine's sons?"

 

[Noelle Varanin]

"Yes," came the clipped confirmation.

She could have defended Quinn in that moment. She didn't.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

An incredulous laugh shattered the mansion's quiet. For the first time in years, Ashin laughed until she cried.

"That is...I have no words. Oh my." She wiped a tear away. "And no idea how I'll play it once I learn a little more. Spectacular. That genuinely brightened my day, thanks for that." She reached across the island and patted Noelle's hand. "How have you been, Noelle? I've been gone, what, close to a year? I'm sorry it took so long."

Noelle Varanin

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle watched on, unlaughing. For once it was parent that baffled the child. There was nothing funny in any of this. Not when you were the one here living it. A lash of bitter resentment crept forward at the apology. It was nice to have one parent still here, now more than ever. But drawing attention to the wound of her absence only reminded Noel that it hurt. None of this played across her face, her gaze dropping to her bowl at the million credit question.

The bite of pain through the force spoke of an answer she was too polite to give.

"My lessons on alchemy are unfinished." Spencer had filled the role of mother and master to the elder Varanin. While she was neither jedi nor sith, she was an adept fighter and even stronger force user. With Spencer gone, Noel found herself instruction less.

"There's one.... compound I've been trying to properly brew but whenever I do it ...blows up in my face." There it was. The sly request for her time. She was warming back up.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Noelle Varanin

Ashin stifled the last chuckle or two.

"I'm no master alchemist - but I'm as good as anyone the Empire can field, so by all means, let's take a look at it while I'm here. I need to put out some feelers with the hypercomm suite and wait for responses anyway. This galaxy is too opaque."

She put aside the last of her bluemilk-cheese-beslimed noodles. Delicious, just too...blue.

"Glad to hear you've been pushing ahead with your learning. Alchemy's a lifelong pursuit. Frustration is normal. Useful, even. Are you leaning more toward animate or inanimate?" Creatures and biohacking, or swords and sorcerous machines?

 

[Noelle Varanin]

She took her first bite then, the blue better than the crackers and bread she had been substituting meals with. She hadn't minded her adventure-less diet, but there was a comfort in the warm meal someone else had prepared for her. Not just someone-- Ashin. She ate with renewed vigor, her appetite rediscovered.

"Oh, I dont know if I like it that much," she confessed. "Mother thought it was right I dabble in everything before choosing a focus." At 18, that fork in the road was coming up. Or it had been. Her lips pursed, her chewing slowing.

"I want to know what you're planning for her. I want to help."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Well, 'from passion I gain strength' - and if you don't have a passion for it, there are probably better ways to spend your time. But we'll take a look at your project anyway."

Avalore's bowl had grown cold. Ashin heated it with a thought, much more gently than she'd boiled the water. Steam hissed up from the re-melting bluemilk cheese. She'd have to bring it up shortly.

"As for helping bring your mother back...there's an obstacle, Noelle," she said, cradling the bowl. "The core task is up to me, and there's no way you can make those sacrifices for me. But there are plenty of ways to support it. Things I'll need, people to speak with. It's not glamorous or exciting work for the most part. I know you miss her as much as I do, and..."

Her train of thought derailed irrevocably.

Noelle Varanin

 

[Noelle Varanin]

"And what," came an intense reply, the girl hanging on her every word.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Ashin lost her thousand-yard stare and focused on Noelle.

"You need to contribute, to grief while she's gone, to give substance to the hope I've offered, and to respect yourself regardless of whether it works or not. I wouldn't deny you that, it's just taken me too long to see it clearly. Yes, you have my word, Noelle: I'll give you a way to help.

"Spencer had a throne made of Nihil smokestone, a powerful telepathic antenna. In the right circumstances, we could use it as a beacon to help guide her back. I don't know if the throne still exists, or where it is. For all I know it's in the basement or drifting through interstellar space in the Unknown Regions - do you know where it is, where she kept it? Track it down and recover it, and it could be a significant help."

Noelle Varanin

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle dropped her fork, her posture correcting. "I- it's possible. She was sedimental towards it, she did move things in from the office when she resigned." Her thoughts were already moving a beyond her, the task bringing a lost spark back to her features.

She pushed off the stood, already standing to move. "I'll go see?" She offered abruptly, minding her manners and not leaving the matriarch's dinner table without dismissal.

Even if they were just sitting on stools.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Noelle Varanin

Come to think of it - if memory served - the throne had been the next best thing to immovable, affixed to a bulky platform of Nihil smokestone. Maybe the whole thing was here, or only the throne part, or maybe it was off in the Unknown Regions somewhere. Ashin couldn't remember no matter how she tried. Noelle might be busy for a while.

Bearing a warm bowl of noodles and bluemilk cheese, she knocked on Avalore 's guest-room door - but gently, in case the kid had fallen asleep again.

 

[Avalore]

The room smelt like smoke.

No. She wasn't going to talk about that.

The door opened to a bewildered Avalore. Noelle had not answered any of her questions.

"Am I allowed to come to out?" She plied. Her mood seemed to have improved. Usually leaving her to her own devices did that. Spare wet hair that clung to her back, the wet cat motif had been rectified.

A hungry look leveled on the bowl. She reached out for even as she spoke. "Is that for me?" Her stomach snarled, reminding her that it had been a while since her last proper meal.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Ashin surrendered the bowl without nonsense. "Glad you've settled in. And yes, of course you can have the run of the place. Just don't...let's see...don't go into any of the other bedrooms, the workshop, the outdoors, the speeder bay, or the comm centre. All for safety reasons. Everything else is fair game, especially the library and training rooms. Eat what you want, use what you need."

Avalore

 

[Avalore]

She walked back to sit on the edge of the bed, slurping on noodles as she went. She glanced up mid bite, half settled down. "You have all that in your house?"

This room was the size of her home back on Sorgan. Wind proof, too. Thank gods. The blizzard howled on beyond the tall widows.