RHOA: The Joiner Count

[Zark San Tekka]

"I've been monitoring nearby emergency frequencies, as you commanded," Antony stammered out by way of explanation, and haltingly proceeded when Tycho gave a nod to continue, "There has been a distress call."​

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"I know what you hear on that com may at times unnerve you," he reminded the younger man, "But our oath is clear. The Royal House supersedes all other responsibilities. Do you know these people? Where is this signal coming from?"​

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"Its from the House Alde estate, Knight-Praetor."​

- excerpt from Hope​

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The Past...

Tycho had ordered his Circle to make best speed for New Aldera that day, where they had received word Queen Organa was already personally overseeing relief and reconstruction efforts even though the battle was not yet entirely over. For a time, he had led their charge, a war raging inside between fealty and fidelity. In the end he could not abandon his family, and ordered Ser Antony to lead the others on to safeguard their Queen while he turned his Destrier towards home.

The Knight-Praetor immediately spotted flames rising in the distance once he crested the Juran Mountains, and he knew for certain his ancestral lands were under siege. Sith marauders had been drawn to the Estate by House Alde's reputation as stewards of many treasured Alderaanian relics. Passing over the once mighty Fort Alde now entirely ablaze, a sinking feeling grew in the Knight's stomach as he grew to believe he had arrived too late.

Yet as he neared the Alde Estate, he noted severe damage to the compound's exterior walls but many buildings were left standing, including the Royal Museum. Below, he caught glimpses of life among the rubble, not Sith troopers but Alde sentinels and civilians. Slowing into a descent, Ser Tycho noticed for the first time that they were not alone. He could not believe his eyes.

Present Day

Tumult and war.

It seemed to consume the Core, and while Alderaan had withstood worse when the Sith raided their world, the fall of the Galactic Alliance and the burning of Coruscant had not left them unaffected. Primarily concerned with ongoing reconstruction efforts in New Aldera and seeing to those most critically impacted, House Organa had not seen or heard much from the Aldes in the interim, and had no time to notice this conspicuous absence.

Daily reports from Fort Alde were still coming in as a routine, as well as a progress updates on when the Royal Museum would be fit once more to reopen. But no requests for aid, and certainly no invitations to host those displaced by recent events. That had all changed quite recently, the Alde Estate seneschal had reached out to arrange a private meeting between not Horis Alde as would be expected, but the Count Tycho and Queen [member="Faith Organa"] herself.

It was the first announcement of any kind that there had been a change in title bearers.

Today was the appointed day, and precisely at the appointed hour a private airspeeder bearing the Alde heraldry and flanked on either side by Destriers landed outside the palace gates. A hooded man stepped out of the backseat once the door was opened form him by a valet, and two Knights stepped off their speeder bikes, falling into step as the trio entered the palace.

 

[Faith Organa]

For every duracrete stone placed it seemed another would crumble but over time and with great patience New Aldera and Alderaan were rebuilt.

What changed what the sith had done was change the Alderani Queen. She was a long supporter of peace neutrality but that time was passing it was time for allies. Oh but those were thoughts for another day.

She stood in the throne room its fancy chair each wall held the Organa standard. She was meeting with [member="Tycho Alde"] she wondered if his father was ill or worse. She had not heard from them since the meeting and not since the attack.

When the paige announcef Duke Alde she turned surpised to see Tycho. Oh my she thought.

She stood on the the floor before the throne. A great sadness filling her eyes as announcements were made.

 

[Zark San Tekka]

The Past...

The Estate was surrounded by a veritable army of insectoid alien warriors, creatures which bore an impossibly striking resemblance to the mythological Killik of Alderaan's ancient past. Many scholars now argued that these fabled beings were simply an attempt by local to historians to whitewash a more warmongering history between houses than Alderaanian nobles were willing to admit to. Yet here they were now.

Not long after he landed, the Estate's castellan had somberly informed him that his elder brother Cay had perished in battle, fending off Sith Knights on Fort Alde's ramparts. His father the Count had been abducted by invaders, and while none could truly say whether Horis Alde was alive or dead there was little doubt he was lost to them now. His mother, the Countess Loren, had been grievously wounded and now lay close to death, beyond their ability to heal.

All would have been lost, if at the height of battle the surrounding mountainside hadn't erupted with a swarm of Killik who savagely pushed back the Sith, yet for some reason leaving every Alderaanian unharmed. A perimeter had been formed around the remaining civilians who were still cowering in fear, but so far not a single one had made a hostile move towards his house's sentinels, or any kind of move at all. Once the battle was over they had simply surrounded the Estate and remained still, as if waiting for something.

Present Day

"We bid you greetings, your majesty," Tycho greeted [member="Faith Organa"] once the formal courtesies had been observed, "And we bring grave tidings."

There was something different about his voice. Gone was the joviality, the brash personality, now he sounded remote...as if he were speaking in a dream.

"No doubt you wonder over our father," he delivered this news without a hint of emotion, "We regret to inform the Queen that Count Horis is missing, now presumed dead. It has been a time of great confusion and sorrow for our house, but we are here at last to present ourselves as the new Count of Alde and her majesty's Warden of the Juran."

By now he was close enough that Faith could clearly see obsidian pools where once there had been human eyes, but Tycho made no comment on this peculiarity.

 

[Faith Organa]

[member="Tycho Alde"]

"My house is filled with a great sadness your father was a great to us and I will miss his council" The Council yes she would have to inform all the other Houses. They too would be sad to hear of the loss to House Alde.

"I accept the new Count to my court and as Warden of Juran. Come now and sit with me let us discuss that matters ahead." She didn't know what to say sometimes people dealt with pain in different ways. Some dove deeper into their work others become reclusive.

Either way she was here and would help in whatever way needed to House Alde.

She had started to step away but there was something different about Tycho his eyes she would have sworn they were different from that day in the Council hall. She did not want to be rude and stare but she was almost certain of it.

"There are perhaps other things as well to talk about..." Like restoration efforts....offices..loyalists...things

 

[Zark San Tekka]

The Past...

"Do you speak for this House?" a voice pierced this tense stand off not long after Tycho arrived, and to their continued amazement a human form with Alderaanian features and obsidian eyes stepped out from among the phalanxes of insectoid soldiers.

After a brief hesitation, Tycho strode out to meet this strange woman before them.

"As eldest surviving heir of Count Horis, I claim that right," he said, eyeing her suspiciously. Her garments looked a few centuries out of date at least, "Who are you? Why have you come here? Helped us?"

"In a past life, this body was known as Qira Panteer," she answered, unblinking orbs of midnight black gazing back unflinchingly at his power armored form, "Now we are simply Qira of the Aesea Nest. Our hive is from this world, long have we slumbered under Juran, driven from our ancestral lands by the Oroboros and their foul Sith consorts."

Present Day

"Yes," Tycho agreed with [member="Faith Organa"] dreamily, gaze drifting from his sovereign to wander across the royal place. It was a serious breach of decorum, but the newly anointed Count seemed captivated by their surroundings, as if he was beholding them for the first time, "Much to discuss."

He made no move to sit by her, despite his queen having bidden him to do so. Yet it did not seem like an intentional slight so much as the behavior of a man dazed like he had been standing too close to some great blast.

"Forgive us, majesty," he said at last, rubbing his temples in discomfort, "All these voices can be at times disorienting. We have tried to explain royal protocols, but the nest has so many questions."

"We agreed!" Count Alde snapped suddenly, drawing a reaction even from Faith's highly trained royal guards. The nobleman did not seem to be speaking to anyone in the room, "Only Tycho would speak. First they must understand the others are not a threat."

 

[Faith Organa]

Faith had to pause she wasn't sure what to think of all that was being said by [member="Tycho Alde"] . Had he lost his mind? How was she to proceed?

She just wasn't sure, "Voices Tycho" she opted for his first name perhaps it would make things easier. "You are unnerving me a bit Tycho perhaps" before she could finish her sentence he seemed to become more agitated.

Faith stood up, a couple of the guards started to move Faith put up her hand to stop then. At this moment he didn't seem violent he seemed out of sorts.

She decided to play along instead, "yes tell me about the others." Her voice may have shaken just then she wanted to help him and if this did it, so be it.

She had never seen anyone who lost their reason and it saddened her to think that young Tycho who showed such promise at the High Council meeting with his intel and presence to be mad just made her sad.

 

[Zark San Tekka]

The Past...

"You have spared my people. More than that, you saved them from annihilation. What is your price? What do you want from us?"

"Long our hive slumbered under the mountain, too long," Qira tried to explain, "We cried out into the song-weave, but there was no answer. The others are gone, all hives of this world ours for the taking, and yet we mourn their loss. The Aesea sense your house has suffered this day as well. The dead of our enemy is prize enough, now that we have awakened we will need them until we can acquire more humane sustenance. Our nest seeks only to provide aid, and for your house to leave our colony in peace. If you will allow us, we can also mend your wounded."

Present Day

"We did not mean to alarm you, our queen," Tycho stammered sincerely, seeming at last to come back to himself a little, or at least wrest some brief control away from the so called other voices that now shared his mind.

"It has been so long since the Aesea have dealt with humans," he tried to explain to [member="Faith Organa"], as if searching for the proper words, "The others find the single minded species to be...confusing."

The newly anointed count paused briefly, as if listening in on a conversation only he could hear.

"Killik. That is what you used to call us," he snapped his fingers in triumph at the recollection, "The Killik have returned to Alderaan, majesty. The one you know as Tycho now serves as our Dawn Herald."

 

[Faith Organa]

[member="Tycho Alde"]​

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She was almost lost to what was being said till finally a word was uttered she did know, killik. How long had the killik been gone? She didn't have time to think on all of it.

She nodded, "Please explain Dawn Herald." There were rumors and legends in the holo books in the library talking about the killiks. She needed to be schooled in all that was to happen or had happened. She just didn't track it all well. Tycho was the Dawn Herald, dawn the beginning of the day a herald one who announces...so was Tycho now representative of a new day for the killik on Alderaan?

She wouldn't assume. She would ask and be taught what she needed to know.