Private The Gathering Storm

[Sibylla Abrantes]

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Aurelian Veruna

Sibylla stared at Aurelian.

And oh, the smirk for once did not help. If anything, it made the sinking feeling in her stomach worse. And while she could tell that he was trying to lighten the tension as she oft went to own wit in such situations, in this matter it only struck the severity of the situation worse. This went beyond Acier now.

Aurelian had concealed the location of fugitives from the Senate, coerced those same fugitives into breaking a Sith out of Jedi custody, and done so based upon intelligence from that very Sith. Whatever his intentions, whatever advantage he hoped to gain against the Black Wall, the means mattered.

And if this ever came to light... Gods, it would not only be Acier and Reingard answering questions. Aurelian would be standing beside them.

"...I..." Sibylla began only to stop, closing her eyes briefly as she drew a slow breath to try and quiet the racing thoughts that were moving too quickly to catch.

"How do you even know this intelligence is true?" she finally asked, looking back at him. "Who is this person of interest? How can you possibly know she is telling you the truth?"

Then something else struck her, and the dark, delicate slash of her brows furrowed in a half-huff of a laugh that held no amusement whatsoever. Did he not see the hypocrisy?

"For all your warnings to me about Acier, about how he is a Sith now, how dangerous he is, how I cannot possibly trust the man I once knew..." the tired incredulity etched its way over her heartshaped face as she gestured with her hands at it all.

"...yet you decided to trust the word of some Sith woman you barely know enough to blackmail Acier and Reingard into breaking her out?" Sibylla slowly shook her head, the dark chestnut waves of her hair glinting with the glow of the fireplace as the need for another stiff drink surfaced. Without further ado, she stepped away, going back to his bar to refill the glass she held tight with a white-knuckle grip.

"Do you not see the hypocrisy in that, Aurelian?" Her voice softened then, Sibylla turning towards him with the sound of her heavy skirts, glass still held loosely in hand. Those hazel eyes had regarded Aurelian with so many things over the years -- affection, love, respect, humor, exasperation, even incandescent fury. Now they held something far more chilling. Weary, wounded disappointment.

"So who is she?" She asked, the glass lifted slightly between them, almost accusingly.

"Who is this woman that you were willing to risk this much for?" Those hazel eyes searched his beloved face, trying to reconcile the man before her with everything he had just confessed.

"And what made her worth hiding all of this from me?"

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian sat in silence, absorbing the full weight of her words without offering another defense. She was right. For all his grand justifications about protecting her, he was a hypocrite, and the fight had completely drained out of him. Tired amber eyes tracked her movement as she refilled her glass, the absolute disappointment on her face cutting deeper than any shouting match ever could.

Rising slowly from the couch, he crossed the room toward a painted portrait hanging on the far wall. The gilded frame held the likeness of a long-dead Queen of Naboo, revered and heavily mourned centuries ago. A tragedy that he had no interest in recounting now. Reaching up, he pulled the heavy frame forward, revealing a hidden wall safe tucked behind the canvas. A quick entry of his code unlocked the steel door, and he reached inside to pull out a small listening device.

Walking back to the center of the room, he placed the bug firmly on the low table between them.

"I hid this because I was terrified you would throw yourself into the middle of it," Aurelian said, his voice quiet and stripped of its usual bravado. "I am sorry. The thought of losing you to this chaos was something I could not handle."

Meeting her guarded gaze, he gestured toward the device, taking full accountability for stripping away her choice. "You are my Voice, Sibylla. I made a mistake keeping you in the dark. Some operations simply move faster without the Senate or the Jedi dragging their feet, but that does not excuse leaving you behind."

A quick tap of his thumb activated the device, letting the recorded audio begin to play into the quiet room.

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

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Theed Palace
Interacting with: Aurelian Veruna
Items: x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x

Sibylla said nothing at first.

The admission that he had been terrified of losing her struck somewhere painfully beneath the anger and her expression softened for the briefest moment because she understood that fear perhaps better than she wanted to. After the assassination attempts, Parrlay, Corellia, and all the occasions where one of them had nearly died, she understood. But understanding did not make what he had done right.

Her attention fell to the listening device as the recording began playing. At first, her expression remained perfectly flat, but as it progressed, her jaw tightened.

The recording was... convoluted. She couldn't tell who the two people were, but by the end of the recorded conversation, Sibylla stared at the device, the furrow in her brow deepening with growing frustration.

This was what had convinced him?

Slowly Sibylla drew a breath, reminding herself that anger would answer none of the questions already assembling in rapid succession. Aurelian had complained often enough about her insistence upon technicalities, most memorably when those technicalities had threatened to complicate attending that blasted Hapan wedding. Yet sometimes technicalities were the difference between intelligence and bait.

Sibylla took the whiskey from her hand and pressed it into his instead, apparently deciding he required it more.

"Do we even know who this Sith woman was speaking with?" Those hazel eyes of hers flicked toward him. "Do we know this recording is authentic? That it was not manufactured, altered, or deliberately provided to secure her release from Jedi custody?"

These were the sort of questions she would have asked if he had come to her earlier. Yet the lines between them had already become hopelessly blurred as King and Voice, as Aurelian and Sibylla, and between duty and love. They could no longer pretend otherwise. Which is why that made his decision to exclude her all the more dangerous and worse.

Aurelian distrusted Force users and held the belief that they would often lean towards their worst tendencies without fail. Yet he was willing to believe the intelligence this Sith woman gave him?

"...Shiraya's sake, Aurelian," she uttered quietly in frustration, both hands rising to rub wearily over her face before falling again. When she looked at him, the anger was still there, but concern had begun bleeding through it.

"How was any of this verified? How do we know she is not lying?" This wasn't like Mauve who had known connections to Quinn Varanin when they made that deal with the Zeltron. Her connection to Quinn had been verified by blood back at Wielu.

"Just who is this woman? And why was she under Jedi custody to begin with?"

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian stared down at the amber liquid as her rapid-fire questions tore through the recording's weak foundation. Seeing it through her analytical lens made the whole gamble look dangerously flimsy, but he had acted on instinct and tactical opportunity rather than legislative proof.

Refusing to meet her hazel gaze right away, he took a slow sip. He did not have a way to verify the recording's absolute authenticity, nor did he care to jump through bureaucratic hoops to get one. Until the Jedi dragged her into that cell, she had proven herself a remarkably capable asset against Imperial cells. Locked away for the rest of her life, she was entirely useless to Naboo and the Republic.

Shifting his weight, Aurelian set the glass on the table and leaned back, his expression darkening into something far more guarded. "It is complicated," he admitted quietly, turning his head away. "She is a long-time asset of mine. Whether she is actually a Sith or simply posing as one remains up for debate."

Silence stretched between them as he weighed how much more to lay bare. Pushing the asset back into the hands of Acier's renegade crew ensured that if the recording was a lie, the fallout fell entirely on the mystics, while any real intelligence could still be extracted for the war effort. It was a win for Naboo either way, though he knew better than to voice that cruel calculation aloud.

"She does nothing for the Republic sitting in a Jedi cell, Sibylla," he said finally, looking back at her with an uncompromising gaze. "If there was even a fraction of a chance that she could get us through the Black Wall, I was going to take it."

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[Sibylla Abrantes]

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Theed Palace
Interacting with: Aurelian Veruna
Items: x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x

"It is complicated."

Sibylla's voice cut through the room with such flat incredulity that, for one fleeting moment, she wondered whether she had simply consumed too much Corellian whiskey.

"It is complicated?" This time the words came louder, particularly when Aurelian turned his head away as though he knew precisely how ridiculous that sounded. Which of course, he did.

Shiraya's sake, how could the man be so utterly brilliant and so catastrophically impulsive at the same time? One day it was going to land him in trouble he could neither retreat from nor charm his way through.

"Whether she is Sith is not up for debate, Aurelian! You are risking people's lives on a fraction of a chance that someone who, according to this recording -- assuming it is even legitimate -- can somehow accomplish what entire governments have failed to do?" Her hand cut through the length of her hair, sliding the loose chestnut tendrils back before falling sharply against her thigh as she began pacing again.

"And yet you tell me I should not trust Ace? That he is no longer the man I knew? The friend who spent half a year providing us with actionable intelligence on the Covenant is somehow too dangerous for me to trust, but you may keep a Sith asset quietly on the side?" She turned sharply toward him.

"Do you not see the hypocrisy in that?" A few more steps carried her across the room before she wheeled back.

"Again, do you even know why the Jedi had her in a detention cell in the first place?" Her expression tightened, repeating the same question she had asked before because Aurelian had seemingly deliberately avoided answering her.

"How dangerous was this woman, Aurelian? Who exactly did you have Ace and Lorn release for this plan of yours?"

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Sibylla Abrantes

Angry heat flared behind Aurelian's eyes as the comparison struck a sensitive nerve. He surged off the couch, his jaw locked tight and every muscle in his neck strainingly taut under the sudden spike of adrenaline.

"Do not compare me to him!" Aurelian retaliated, his voice slicing through the room with harsh authority. "I have not committed genocide across an entire star system in the name of gathering intelligence. I have simply moved a prisoner from one cage to another. My methods might be unorthodox, Sibylla, but they work. They have kept us safe up until this exact moment!"

Snatching his glass off the table, he drained the remaining amber liquid in one sharp, aggressive swallow. His hands shook faintly with raw exhaustion, restless fingers fidgeting with the heavy fabric of his trousers as he tried to anchor his roaring temper. He was entirely done with this day, battered by politics and thoroughly sick of defending a tactical necessity to the person whose opinion mattered most.

"The Jedi had her because she turned herself in," he spat out, pacing two heavy strides toward the hearth. "And I quite like to think their little renegades can handle a single prisoner. There is a whole damn group of them on D'Qar."

Turning back to face her, a fiery, unyielding resolve burned in his amber gaze. A heavy ache settled into his chest as he looked at her, torn between the deeply ingrained isolation of his upbringing and the terrifying vulnerability of loving her.

"It is complicated because I am used to operating completely alone," he confessed, the harsh edge in his voice softening into something gritty and desperate. "I grew up not having to consider anyone else's feelings or safety. Now every move I make forces me to calculate how it affects you, and worse, how you will inevitably insist on throwing yourself right into the center of the crossfire. I should have trusted you with this, yes. I was wrong for keeping you in the dark."

Chest heaving, he squared his shoulders, refusing to let the insult stand. "But I act when I must for the survival of Naboo and our people. I am no hypocrite, and I am definitely no Sith. If you truly believe I am no better than them, then there is the door."

A nod pointed toward the heavy entry doors, his heart hammering against his ribs as he offered her the choice to leave.

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[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Aurelian Veruna

Sibylla merely stared at him.

She did not interrupt as Aurelian surged from the couch, anger pulling every line of him taut. She let him speak. Let him defend himself. Let him tell her that his methods had kept them safe.

Because he was right, they had -- but every success had carried risks. Every secret had consequences. And somewhere between King and Voice, between Aurelian and Sibylla, those risks had become impossible to separate from her.

So when he admitted he was accustomed to operating alone. That now he had to think about how everything might affect her. What she might do. Whether she might be hurt...Sibylla finally understood.

I am the complication.

She was the conflict in all this. The variable that had not existed or had cared for before. It only made his ultimatum cut worse when he nodded toward the door.

Seconds stretched after he finished and still, Sibylla said nothing. Instead, the harsh sound of her breathing was the only betrayal of what those words had done, her chest rising and falling as she stared across the room at the exhausted man she loved.

Because honestly, could she fault how he felt? No, she couldn't, because she equally worried for his life as well. She loved him. And that love meant that whatever choices she would make would also be colored with him in mind.

She had just thought that they'd be able to do this together.

She was wrong.

When Sibylla finally spoke, she did not raise her voice. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It held the temperance that had defined her on Foundation Day, through her brief reign as interim Queen, and now as Voice of Naboo. She let that armor quietly wrap over her even as her throat seemed to grow tight and her heart hammered within her chest.

"Not once did I imply that you were Sith, Aurelian. Nor did I say that you were no better than them." She told him quietly, the soft sound of her weary voice cutting through the emotions he had projected onto her. He had utterly missed that she had been trying to say that the hypocrisy was that he was using a Sith asset for intelligence while cursing Ace as a friend who had stood beside her.

"However, you have made something else painfully clear," Sibylla added, and she drew a slow breath.

"Our relationship and your feelings for me are affecting your judgment. I cannot fault you on that, because I feel the same way for you as well."

Shiraya, saying it aloud hurt considerably more than realizing it.

"You withheld intelligence because you feared what I might do. You acted without your Voice because you feared for my safety. And now, when I challenge those decisions, you hear condemnation where I have offered counsel." Unconsciously, her fingers went curling against her palms, barely registering the slight pain of her nails cutting halfmoons into her skin.

"I cannot properly serve as your Voice if being Sibylla to you prevents you from treating me as one."

So there it was. Finally out in the open. And while her composure nearly faltered, she did her damnest to hold it, her jaw working as she took another breath and her lips pursed.

"You need someone whom you can trust with matters concerning Naboo's security without first wondering how that knowledge might affect them personally. Someone whose counsel you can hear without having to consider whether you love the person giving it." she continued, a breath trembling through her nose.

"And perhaps I should have recognized sooner that I can no longer be both." Those hazel eyes remained fixed on his, already seeing the dawning realization bloom in their amber depths of what she was doing.

"I shall submit my resignation as Voice of Naboo and convene an emergency session of the Houses to appoint my successor."

Only afterward did Sibylla glance toward the door he had shown her. When she looked back, something wounded had finally slipped through all that careful composure.

"But do not mistake what I am resigning from," she added, her voice dropping to almost a whisper.

"I am stepping away from your Crown, Aurelian... not from you."

And perhaps that was the cruelest distinction of all.

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian threw both hands above his head, letting out an incredulous huff as utter disbelief washed over him. He was the King. Every decision rested on his shoulders, and when he needed counsel from his Voice, he would ask for it. Leaving her out of this operational gamble had been a deliberate tactical choice to keep the mission clean, not an invitation for a constitutional crisis. He had acted in everyone's best interest, yet here she stood, turning his protective instinct into a weapon against him.

"Unbelievable," he muttered under his breath, a breathless laugh escaping his throat as she turned toward the exit and delivered her parting blow.

The sheer audacity of her resignation shattered whatever thread of restraint he had left. Hearing her draw a line between the King and the man, between her duty and her heart, made his blood run scalding hot. He did not want a replacement. He needed her beside him in the senate chambers just as desperately as he needed her in his home.

"I do not and will not accept!" Aurelian burst out, his voice echoing off the high stone walls with terrifying force.

Her steps did not falter, and the heavy blast doors slid shut behind her with a final, echoing thud.

"Get out! Just get out!" he screamed at the empty doorway, his roaring voice carrying easily into the quiet residential wing outside.

A wave of pure, unadulterated fury took hold. Snatching his heavy crystal whiskey glass off the table, Aurelian hurled it across the room, watching it shatter against the hearth into a thousand glittering shards. He charged the low table next, kicking it with enough force to flip it on its side, sending books, decanters, and the listening device skittering violently across the polished floor. Armchairs were shoved aside, ornaments smashed, and his ragged breaths rattled in his chest as he tore through his own living quarters in a blind rage.

He was done. Done with the Senate, done with the Jedi, and thoroughly sick of rogue Sith playing their tragic games at Naboo's expense. If the galaxy insisted on tearing itself apart through mystic nonsense, he would burn the whole board down before letting it touch his kingdom again.

Wading through the wreckage of shattered glass and upturned mahogany, he marched over to the wall comm and punched in a private frequency with violent force. He didn't have to wait more than two seconds before the line connected.

"Prepare the artifact on the Grace of Theed," Aurelian ordered into the comm, his voice stripped of all warmth and dripping with cold malice. "I want it deployed toward the Northern Border immediately."

It was about damn time these mystics learned what it felt like to play on an even field.

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