Senator of Vandelhelm
"Late was the hour."
DUSK | REPUBLIC SENATE BUILDING
TAGS | OPEN
Had it not been for recent events, the representative of the planet Vandelhelm was usually among the first to board a charter off Naboo. Rarely did she linger in the Senate Building after formal operating hours had concluded. Yet now, the ghosts of deadly thoughts and terrible permutations circled through her mind like carrion birds preparing for slaughter.
She would have to ensure they did not feast upon her flesh.
That meant late nights, preparation, and the eventual necessity of networking and diversifying her political partnerships. Of course, she reassured herself that through hard work and dedication, anything was possible within these halls.
Or credits.
The latter certainly seemed far more expedient to some.
Elara, however, made every effort to avoid corruption and short-sighted decisions where possible. If she were to achieve the greater ambitions she had destined for herself within the High Republic, then she would need to remain clean without alienating those of a more self-serving nature. The key, she believed, was positioning herself as the perfect middle within a galaxy divided between the corrupt and greedy on one side, and the devout and stern on the other. A woman capable of shaking the left hand of one faction while offering her right to the next.
But such ambitions could wait.
Ensuring local assignments and maintaining loyalty came first. Preparations needed to be made, people needed to be convinced, and paperwork needed to be filed.
And so she sat alone within the Senate chambers and, for the first time in her political career, remained long after the majority had departed. Engrossed within her dedicated holo-workspace, she busied herself drafting recommendations and structural procedures to present before the senators once she had fully confirmed her intended course of action to capitalize upon recent intelligence.
Part of her wondered whether any of the senators even cared enough to notice.
Had she become so predictable that their minds had already assumed her departure from the chamber? Or had someone, somewhere within the sprawling machinery of the Republic, noticed that the Senator of Vandelhelm had, for the first time in her career, chosen to stay behind?