The Saga of House Corsai

[Malia Afredane]

Prologue:

It was a very long night when at last Lady Kaylon Corsai finally gave birth to her first children. She would have many, as expected of her as heir apparent of a wealthy merchant family on Kuat. The last test before her mother, Lady Merala Corsai would relinquish the position as head of the family was that Kaylon be able to continue the line.

It had been agony. Kaylon struggled to become pregnant, she struggled to carry a child to term. Indeed when she turned to fertility specialists, she had lost 2 already to miscarriages. It had been heartbreaking for her and for her husband, Seamus Kedara.

After therapies, and treatments, hoping and waiting, at last Kaylon was going to be a mother.

It was well after midnight when the labor pains began, and seeing as she was carrying multiples, the doctors decided to take no chances. Three nurses waited with blankets at the ready while a deeply sedated Kaylon delivered her daughters into the world by C-section, Lady Merala there to witness and bestow the names onto her new grandchildren.

The first, Gaisa, cried immediately and loudly, announcing her presence in the wee hours with fearsome wails.

The second, Kira, seemed to match her sister's cries, her own voice just a bit different in the chorus of newborns.

The third, Merusa, made no sound at first. She eventually cooed, and whimpered, disturbed by the racket from her womb mates.

Lady Merala smiled as the nurses swaddled the infants and lay them in a crib together. Her legacy was safe with Kaylon, one of these girls would take the reins of the House of Corsai one day.

Which one still remained to be seen.

 

[Gaisa Theron]

Kuat
Teatime

At nearly 80, Lady Kaylon should have been enjoying her golden years, however she had proved to be just as stubborn as her mother about the fate of the Corsai name. She had yet to name a successor, and with the way her oldest daughters had gone, it might be the end of the Corsai name. The merchant house was run by a talented young woman whom Kira had groomed and installed, and profits were incredible, however Lorta was not a Corsai. She could be the vice president of operations but she could never get the highest seat. That was a birthright. One that her children seemed to not give a feth about anymore.

Gaisa had run off and married a Coruscanti, dropped the Corsai from her name. She had raised a daughter, a fine one with a head for business however she was her father's child. She would always be a Theron, never a Corsai. Kuat always upset the child, too much technology, too many things and people. Garqi was a backwater hole in the universe compared to Kuat.

Kira had never wavered from her duties to her family, keeping the name, running the business but only with one eye on it. She played politics like her older sister, and they were ruthless at it. They were definitely a pair, two of the same soul split in two bodies. They were inseparable as children until the powers started and then they would never be close again. Kira looked down on Gaisa for her lack of gifts and the torment started more for Merusa.

She hadn't a clue where the third triplet was, or even if she still lived. All records of Merusa stopped when she ran away as a teenager. Kaylon had exhausted all leads and thousands of credits looking for her but to no avail. Considering the way she had ignored Merusa's complaints about the bullying Gaisa and Kira had subjected her to, she couldn't really blame her.

Kaylon looked up from her tea cup, as Gaisa entered the study. She was at least wearing robes of the current style and not the dreadful things that were considered fashionable in Pesktda.

Gaisa smiled brightly as she had been taught. 'Always be in a joyful mood to have an audience with the Lady of the House.' A tenet drummed into her head from a young age, when the Lady had been her grandmother. It had not improved when Kaylon had taken over.

"Good afternoon, Matriarch." She spoke crisply, and clearly as she was taught, bowing forward slightly at the waist. Kaylon flipped her wrist at her dismissively.

"Take a seat, Gaisa. What do you want?"

To the point as ever. Gaisa smoothed her robes down as she took the chair next to her mother in front of a window overlooking a large garden, the flowers in radiant blooms that seemed to cascade out of the side of pots like living water.

"To know what you are waiting for to name a new Matriarch." If her mother could be direct, so could she. Gaisa was not a child anymore.

 

[Gaisa Theron]

"For someone to be worthy of it." Kaylon clucked her cheek as she lifted her eyes out to the grounds outside her window.

"To the Ten with you. Just name Kira and be done with it." Gaisa's tone became brittle as she reached for the teapot, pouring it into the barren cup and saucer on the tray on the inlaid wooden table between them. The sharp clank of spoon on china nearly as sharp as the glare that Kaylon had fixed Gaisa with now. Gaisa merely arched an eyebrow and sipped her tea.

"I did not teach my children to speak to me in such a manner."

The cup left Gaisa's lip and rested quietly in in the saucer on her lap. The fight left her eyes, her features softened and the diplomat was back in control for the moment, though if her mother decided to keep being ornery, she could not guarantee that it would remain that way.

"No, you did not. You taught us that you were above reproach but that we were not. That your affection and this family were prizes to be won and that no matter what we did, we would never be worthy so we decided not to play. Well most of us. Poor Torin is trapped in a marriage of your machinations because I chose Cyrus. All he ever wanted was for you to see him as you did us. Was it so terrible that he was born male?"

"Torin is a fine man, he is a proud member of House Vercet. More than I can say for his sisters."

"Hells, mother. I'm a senator for the Republic and my daughter runs a corporation that is nearly the size of the merchant business. Just be honest for once. You are punishing Kira because she has the gift. You let her take the business but made her choose someone to help her run it. You want her to be the Matriarch but she has no heirs. You act like you have no other children because we chose to get away from Kuat. You made this rat's nest."

"You drove Merusa away, not me."

"You never stopped us no matter how horrible we were. I regret the things I did to her but let's not pretend your hands are clean in this business. What about Drucillia? What about Denida?"

Kaylon shook her head. Her youngest daughters Dru and Denida were split by roughly a year in age but they could not be more different. Drucillia looked up to Gaisa and Kira, and followed their lead when they rebelled from the strict and tireless upbringing. Denida was ever the faithful child, she lived in the manor still, with her husband and their children, but Denida was never a leader. She dutifully tried to be everything her mother wanted and in such, she proved that she could never be Matriarch. There was only the want to please others in her.

Kaylon loathed to admit that Gaisa had the right of it. In being independent and seeking successes beyond the opulent shipbuilding planet, all of her daughters proved they could best their mother and their grandmother at their own game. However, now she had to entice someone to come back home. She was too old to change now.

"Dru is as much for this as you are. She has no heirs, and from what I heard from her last, she cannot bear them. Denida would be a disaster. It cannot be either of them."

Gaisa let the silence stretch out. There was a reason she came here today, a piece of the puzzle she had uncovered and held onto until the right moment. When she could use it to great benefit, to pull things into favor more in line with her wishes and perhaps to throw a jab at Kira.

"Then if your daughters be not the ones you seek, why not look to their progeny?"

Kaylon looked harshly at Gaisa a moment.

"Aurora has no interest here, and Denida's daughters are not yet teenagers."

There was a fleeting ghost of a devious twinkle in her eye as Gaisa pulled a small hololink out of her pocket and set it on the tray. 'Oh sister, you thought I forgot the slight at my wedding, you thought I had let it slip away into time but I told you once to never cross me and now I will have my due' she thought as she casually sipped at her tea again.

"Kira has a daughter."

 

[Kira Corsai]

Randon
Late Afternoon

It never bode well to be summoned to Kocari at her earliest convenience. The invitation was a formality her mother was endlessly trapped in. And so, in her own time, Kira arranged the trip to satisfy her Matriarch's whims. It was exhausting, the pomp and derision she endured for years in order to keep her cover intact. It was a dance she still moved to, the choice to be free on her own made, she still slipped into the mask and armor to don her ego, the Sith Lord. It was a secret self that not even her mother knew about. However, her mother had taken precautions ages ago to negate Kira's gifts in the house. Lashing out at her mother with her powers would only draw attention to herself and allow one of her sniveling sisters to take the position of Matriarch.

Of all of them, at least she could stomach Gaisa. The rest?

She sighed disgustedly as she thought of them. The mental blocks she had maintained over the years, the things she had done to herself to forcibly separate her mind into partitions were taking a slow toll. It became harder and harder to access certain memories, and by extension, to make the switch between the Corsai and the Sith. It might have looked like it was protecting her family, but all it did was protect her from those who would seek to use her family against her.

When she had decided to come clean to Joran, she had opened a door to make all of her careful planning over a lifetime moot. Joran could compromise her at any time so perhaps this was providence. Perhaps it was time to truly make the break from the Corsai.

She couldn't fathom what was so urgent as to make her mother recall her to Kuat. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't good. Her thoughts drifted to Merusa, a numbness and ennui surrounding her womb mate. She felt no personal responsibility towards her disappearance, Merusa was weak and she hated Kira and Gaisa. Let her run off and die in the blackness of the void. It was no concern of Kira's. However, she wondered if this summons was related to her lost triplet's whereabouts. She's not sure why she made the mental connection, however if something was speaking to her, she would listen. The darkside could be a powerful guide.

 

[Kedara]

Irith
Early evening local time.

"Hmm?" Kedara was distracted as she peered up into the coming of the night, the soft breeze of twilight carried through the streets as the last bit of daylight perished over the far horizon behind her back, her eyes belonging to the indigo depths and pinpricks of starlight. The balcony of her apartment was not too high off street level, but high enough that she could see over the rooftops of this part of town to watch the colors of the waking world herald the arrival of night.

"You haven't heard a word I said."

Kedara turned to look at the Rattataki woman in the door of the balcony, the bright lights of the apartment behind her shrouding her features in darkness although Kedara would know them by touch at this point. Juun had been her lover and companion for years now, and the smirk on her partner's face had been clearly conveyed in the tone of her voice.

"Sorry, just thinking about my mother."

"Oh? I haven't heard you mention her in years."

"If I read the calendar right, her birthday is coming. I always got so stressed out about trying to find her the perfect present. There's no such thing."

"Hard to please?"

"Impossible. She never chose my gift as her favorite."

"She would choose a favorite?"

"Mm,hmm. She said it was meant to foster healthy competition between us for her approval. It was part of the contest to be picked as her successor. Only the favorite gift would be kept. She threw the rest away as punishment for failure."

"My gods, who does that to children?"

"I'm sure there are loads worse than that in the universe."

"It's a wonder you stayed as long as you did."

Kedara chuckled as she slid her arms around Juun's waist.

"Irith is a polluted drop of corruption and vice and I would take it any day over the gilded halls of Kuat."

Juun's fingers moved a stray bit of grey streaked brown hair behind Kedara's ear.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to have beans along with dinner. I have plenty left from supper with Rika the other night and I don't want them to spoil."

"Yes, I'll eat them again. I like them with the sauce you made. It almost masks that weird aftertaste."

Juun pulled back in mock disdain, but allowed Kedara to plant a kiss on her pouting lips.

"My beans don't have a weird aftertaste."

Kedara laughed as she released her, and stepped back hands up.

"Alright. When's dinner?"

"A few minutes. I'll call you if you'll pay attention this time."

"Yes, my love. I'll pay attention."

Juun narrowed her eyes in a playful manner before she headed back to the kitchen. There was nothing about Kedara's life that her mother wouldn't have hated. Her apartment, her work, her partner, her family. She didn't know if Kaylon had ever looked for her but considering that she had not heard from the Matriarch in over 30 years, it was either that she hadn't looked or hadn't found her. Part of her was perfectly fine with that.

 

[Kira Corsai]

Kocari Manor
Kuat
Mid morning

Kira had decided that rather than deal with her mother late in the evening, she would time her trip to arrive in the morning, hoping to catch the Matriarch after her breakfast when she had not yet had time to sour over the course of the day. There was no guarantee though. Kaylon could have woken up in a foul mood. Considering the sudden request, it was probably not a pleasant check in. The wording was pointed. It was not an invitation.

And why did she acquiesce to it?

There was no reason to continue. She had the Imperium, she had her work, the things she enjoyed. And none of it was here on this planet, playing with such small stakes. There were larger things for her to spend her time on and the cover was really no longer necessary. Let her enemies threaten her family. She didn't care for them anyway.

No, this would be the last time she bowed to the wishes of Kaylon.

The house was open to the spring air, the scent of flowers and freshly trimmed grass wafting through the halls. She could hear the laughter of children out in the gardens, Denida's brats no doubt. Kira had no use for her youngest sister. She was a vapid creature, groveling to Kaylon's whims.

There was a certain routine that Kaylon instituted after Merusa ran off, forcing Kira to wear a shock collar upon her visits to the house. It was demeaning but it was control. Another level of control her mother flaunted over her. It truly did not stop her from using her gifts, it allowed her mother to force her into submission if she remotely thought Kira was using her gifts or being insubordinate. Today, she would not allow herself to be cobbled. No more. As her mother's security chief Bran, moved to attach the collar around her throat, she looked into his eyes and murmured something. He froze, as if trying to understand what she had whispered. After a moment, he dropped his hands, blinked and stepped back. The collar in his hand offered to Kira, as he was compelled by the mind trick she employed.

She took it quickly and pulled the electrodes out that would normally sit against her skin, ruining the wiring before she reached up and secured it around her neck. Kaylon would never meet her without the collar on her and a remote safely in hand. Bran blinked again, Kira's grip on his mind gone. He had the remote, her collar was on and she looked concerned for him.

"You ok Bran? You looked like you were going to faint there a moment."

He raised a hand to his forehead and nodded.

"Think I'm getting a headache. Must've zoned out. Well, you're all set. Let's get on with it."

Bran never agreed with Kaylon's insistance that Kira be collared but that didn't stop him from following her orders. They walked through the house to her mother's office, Bran knocking smartly and opening the door. Kira did not smile. She never smiled to be in her mother's presence. Bran walked crisply across the room, placing the remote in Kaylon's hand before he turned and exited the room, closing the doors behind him.

Kaylon looked bitter, older if that were possible and Kira could read the anger in her from across the room.

"Good morning Matri-"

"Where is your daughter?"

Kira narrowed her eyes. Well that would explain the unexpected call to Kuat. Someone had been digging into her past and decided to share what they found with Kaylon.

"I don't know. I gave her up at birth."

"YOU WHAT?" Kira wasn't sure she had ever heard her mother screech like that before but the spectacle of the old woman losing her temper made Kira laugh.

"I gave her up. I had no interest in raising her, and neither did her father. We put her up for adoption."

"Who is her father?"

The laughter became greater, a smile splitting Kira's lips wide. Her voice was throaty, velvety and rich.

"A young knight I knew from school. I believe he is a Jedi Master now. I would bet decent money that the gift you abhor in me is strong in her. Maybe she's a Jedi as well. You know they don't get to be heirs of fortunes or to have families."

Kaylon had slid down into a chair by the window. Composing herself, Kira reached up and undid the collar, crushing it in her hands as she walked over to where Kaylon sat. Fear flashed through her mother's eyes but Kira just dropped the ruins of the collar to the floor as she leaned over her.

"Your daughter wil-"

"My daughter will never know you. I know when she was born, and where, and I know who took her to be adopted. I am steps ahead of you already."

Kira stood up, a menacing expression on her face as she stared down at the woman who had tormented her for her entire life. In her own way, it was Kaylon who had truly set Kira on the path of the darkside all those years ago. Her brown eyes had turned sulfuric, hatefulness in them as she contemplated crushing the woman's heart in her grip. Kaylon's eyes flew open as she clutched at her chest and Kira grinned, calling out in a frightful voice.

"Mother? Mother?! MOTHER!!"

Kaylon gasped for breath as she slumped out of the chair, sputtering as she tried to fight for consciousness. Her eyelids fluttered and she fell to the side and Kira pulled her out of the chair, laying her on the floor. She squeezed the invisible fingers around the heart again until it fought against her no more, but outwardly Kira started chest compressions so that when Denida and Bran burst in the door at her screams, they found Kira frantically trying to save Kaylon's life, tears streaking down her face.

Kaylon Corsai was nearly 80 when she passed away from a heart attack.

The fight for Matriarch had begun in earnest.

 

[Gaisa Theron]

Kocari Manor
Kuat
Three days after Lady Kaylon Corsai's death

Gaisa stood in the crypt, watching the stonemasons fit the faceplate back into place. Space was a premium on Kuat, and sometime in the past, only Matriarchs continued to be buried in the family crypt. Cremation was the standard for hundreds of years, but here the Ladies of House Corsai were recorded in stone, their ashes interred with their ancestors. Kaylon's remains rested along with her mother, Merala in a deep vault, dug down into the sides of the spiral crypt that twisted down towards the bedrock and draped in marble.

The results from the autopsy were what she expected to see. Cardiac arrest, no signs of a struggle, no signs of foul play. There was nothing here to prove that Kira had murdered their mother, but she knew she had a hand. It was too convenient.

Denida bought Kira's act, and cried on her shoulder about the loss until her simpering husband drug her upstairs to rest. His eyes follow all the sisters around the manor house, speaking in hushed tones to Torin who brought his children to pay their respects. So far, the only child not to show up was Merusa.

Perhaps it was time to find her other triplet, to level the playing field. But would it?

A search of her mother's office when she arrived turned up that the information on Kira's daughter had been taken. She had no way of knowing if her mother had told Kira where the information had come from but considering what Kira did for a living, secrets could never hide for long. She needed to take matters into her hands, though she was running out of time. The rights of inheritance would have to be settled and any disputes had to be filed with the Ten inside a month of the death.

Kuati laws were very clear on grievances.

Still, to have no idea who would serve as executor of the estate until the formalities were complete infuriated the eldest Corsai. It should have been her. It always should have been her.

 

[Aurora Theron]

"It smells like decay down here." The clomp of her footsteps heralded Aurora's arrival at the vault level where the dim blue lights of the ornamented fixtures lit the final actions of the workman who sealed the cremains of Lady Kaylon behind a carved marble panel. His work completed, the stonemason nodded to the pair, then gathered his tools and began the climb back up to the small mausoleum that sat at the far side of the gardens of Kocari.

Gaisa didn't say anything but she looked at her daughter with a raised eyebrow, her lips pursed still from her thoughts about Kira, the estate and the future of the family. Aurora leaned against an older wall of faceplates, the carved names and dates several generations removed from the two Corsai who stood in the low ceilinged room. Her arms crossed over her chest, Aurora stared at the place that had just been sealed, a starkly clean surface and freshly carved in a room where everything else looked dusty and somehow also slightly damp.

"You really think Aunt Kira did it?" It was the first time Aurora had vocalized the conclusion that Gaisa had strongly hinted out in their discussions around the manor house.

"Oh yes. Kira has some nasty tricks up her sleeve. Your grandmother was mean, but Kira is worse. I'm surprised she waited this long or why she bothered to humor mother at all."

It was odd for Gaisa to call her mother, it fell clumsily off her tongue but Kaylon was dead now and she was over the need to please her petulant wishes. Aurora looked a little surprised at the wording herself, but shook her head.

"You can't really want this. This place isn't you, mum."

Gaisa's fingers reached out and touched the cold stone, a small sigh of resignation escaping her lips.

"In some ways, this place is very much me. I was trying to prove to her that I could be Matriarch."

"You're my Matriarch. You're a Theron. The Violet Glade is a greater treasure than Kocari and all the ghosts that go with it."

Gaisa turned to look at her daughter, a wry smile on her face.

"When did you become a philosopher?"

Aurora pushed away from the stone wall, and reached to embrace her mother, resting her head on her shoulder, a cascade of black curly locks hiding her mother's unbound mahogany ones.

"When we lost dad. I can't hang on to a dream of a future that will never come to be. And neither can you. I know you're disappointed that I want nothing to do with this place, but you made your choice to leave it, to marry dad, to go to Garqi. You chose Theron and now you're pushing me to choose Corsai. I can't do it."

"I know. It's not so much that I want it, as I don't want Kira to have it."

"Then what can we do?"

"Find Merusa or Kira's daughter."

"Are you so sure that will work?"

"I'm not sure of anything anymore."

 

[Dru]

When she was a kid, Dru had taken to not wearing shoes around the manor. It allowed her to sneak up on her siblings, or better yet, to eavesdrop on them. Dru was the worst thing a child can be to their siblings. A snitch. It had served her well in the house and also in life, as she learned early that the value of information could be better than money.

Her mother would allow Dru a treat for telling her when Torin was sneaking out at night, while Torin would do her chores for a week to keep that piece of information secret. Of course, you had to be careful when you hung someone up for a piece of intel, there was always a point where your price was more than the consequences of facing the music.

Dru had started as a childhood snitch, but now she was an information broker and the things she could do with a properly applied bit of information were astonishing.

For instance, it had not taken her much to anonymously send Gaisa a bit of information about Kira secretly birthing a daughter. What Gaisa had done with that information was up to her but it was bound to make waves and now, here they all were.

Dru stood at the open door of the mausoleum, her shoes dangling from one hand, her bare feet on the marble slab and steps that lead down into the crypt where Gaisa and Aurora were talking. The voices were a little garbled by the echoing of the sound up the spiral stairs but she listened intently, her ear to the wall as it carried the voices of the conspirators to her scheming little mind.

Finding Merusa was a tough nut to crack, but Dru had an idea where to start looking. Now that Kaylon had finally died, the sisters could gain access to the Matriarch's bedroom which contained all of their late father's belongings. Merusa was very close to Seamus and she refused to believe that Seamus didn't know where Merusa was. For that matter, she had a sneaking suspicion that Kaylon knew as well.

Backing away from the mausoleum door, Dru turned and started walking back towards the manor house. Hopefully she would be able to get in. Kaylon kept the room locked and so far, no one had entered it. There had to be a way though. There was always a way.

 

[Kedara]

Irith

Juun lay sleeping, a troubled pout on her chalky white flesh, bared to the night air as the windows allowed the slight breezes to drift through. Kedara couldn't sleep. It had been three days on Kuat since her mother had passed away, and her remains would be in the vault on the far side of the estate gardens. Kedara had only learned this morning from a press release put out by the Corsai Merchant House.

The unexpected weight of her sudden passing hung on Kedara, dragging her backwards to the last time she remembered the house, the things Kira had done to her. The bruises faded, the scars never would.

Together, her twins had knocked her down the stairs, shaved part of her hair off, choked her, hit her. The barrage was nonstop and Kaylon turned a blind eye to it all. Claimed that if she wanted it to stop, she should grow strong and take Matriarch. A broken nose later, and the name Merusa was left behind along with everything she had. If enduring that was what it meant to be a Corsai, she didn't want it.

It was rather amusing, though. Bullied her entire childhood, it wasn't until she came to Irith that she learned to stand up for herself. It was in the pit of corrupted hells that she learned love, sacrifice and family.

She slipped out from under the covers, pulling a robe around her shoulders as she walked out to the balcony. Her fingers curled over the edge of the railing, her jaw set as she looked down at the empty streets.

For good or ill, Kaylon was her mother, her first role model for what a woman could be and perhaps for what a mother should never be. It had taken a long time before she had figured any of that out for herself and by that time, all Kedara could do was hope that she had not screwed up her own children. Kaylon would have been appalled at them. Two sons. One daughter. Lovingly raised, and hard as nails.

They were bounty hunters and seldom worked apart. She'd sent off the notice that Lady Kaylon had passed. They radioed they were coming home. In the morning, she'd tell Juun what she was doing. Right now, she wanted to listen to the quiet and think.

 

[Dru]

Kuat
Later that evening

Dru was sitting on the patio, about halfway through a bottle of wine as she watched the sun sinking into the verdant pastures, the radiant light of it dyeing the skies and the shores of the artificial lake on the edge of the gardens, a bright defiant orange even as indigo seeped from the other horizon to overtake it. The breeze was soft, smelling of flowers, carrying the sounds of insects welcoming the night. Her glass was nearly empty and she pondered another one but she knew that it would only exacerbate the growing headache she had.

She almost didn't care.

In trying to gain access to the Matriach's bedchambers, she set off a security alarm, scrambling Bran and sparking a massive argument with Kira, Gaisa and Denida. Bran had barked at all of them, and then securely sealed her mother's office too. Apparently Bran had been in the know about the arrival of the executor all along. Whomever had been selected by Kaylon prior to her death would be arriving tomorrow morning, along with an arbiter sent by the Ten. That was a twist none of them were prepared for. Arbiters are a special request. Kaylon intended to leave the inheritance of the family in limbo otherwise she would not have called for the arbiter.

The sound of steps behind her alerted Dru to the fact that she wasn't alone, but she didn't bother to turn around to see who it was. Draining the glass of the last bit of the deep red wine, her fingers closed around the dark green glass cylinder and she upended the bottle into her glass. A long, deep sip and she rested back against the chair.

"What do you want?"

 

[Torin Vercet]

"Tch."

Torin walked over and pulled the heavy metal chair across the flagstones, the sound a grinding screech as he adjusted the angle so he could enjoy the view of the gardens and see his younger sister's face. The cigarra in his hand curled smoke upwards as he pulled a small flask from the inner breast pocket of his mourning jacket. As fair as his features were, he looked rather distinguished in the muted colors and black of funeral customs.

A sip of whiskey, a drag off the cigarra. He swept his eyes over to Dru, her porcelain face a mask of indifference.

"You should have known better that the old woman was not going to make this easy."

 

[Dru]

"Spare me the lecture, I've had one."

She looked over to him, the smell of the cigarra pulling at her drunken habit. Dru didn't smoke most of the time. However, after she had been drinking a while, she usually ended up with a cigarra or worse. She couldn't explain it, and didn't want to try. Right now, Torin's cigarra smelled like stress relief and something her mother and sisters would strongly disapprove of. All the more reason, she thought.

She motioned to the small black paper roll in his fingers, and he wordlessly dug into a pocket, pulling out a pack and lighter, setting them on the table. Dru fished one out, screwing it between her red lips, flicking the lighter open to send a lick of flame on the end. An ember burned to life and she exhaled a long slow cloud of grey over the table.

"Thanks Tor."

They sat in silence, smoking and drinking as the night grew behind them to overtake their view, the sounds of the house behind them forgotten for the shared solitude of sitting on the patio. Kira and Gaisa were fighting about something. Something about Kira's job, the Imperium, the fall of Gerrenthum, politics. It was all politics.

Letting the yelling seep back into the forefront of her thoughts, she flicked the end of the cigarra out into the hedge row next to the edge of the duracrete. Kaylon would have been mortified. Dru just smiled, as she turned to Torin.

"You'd think this was the first time Gaisa found out that Kira's a damn spy."

 

[Torin Vercet]

Torin glanced to Dru, butting his cigarra out on the sole of his shoe and setting the butt aside to police later.

"Spy's a bit harsh isn't it? She's the Intelligence Director. It means she's controls the spies."

He gave her an obvious mocking expression, as it was the worst kept secret in the family that Kira was a clandestine operative for whatever shadowy government she worked for. Although until she had been openly named as Intelligence Director of the Imperium, it was widely believed that she had been the president of the Corsai Merchant House.

"You know they will make her choose."

Kuati Matriachs and business leaders had responsibilities to Kuat and its aristocracy. One simply did not devote anything less than your all to those ventures. If Kira was the heir apparent, then she would be forced by Kuati right of succession to take her fulltime place on Kuat. It was something none of her siblings could see her doing.

 

[Dru]

"And if she chooses the Imperium over family? Then what?"

She let the question hang between them as the sounds of fighting subsided. Denida had managed to quiet all of them with the threat of expulsion from the house if they did not quiet down. Out of the shadow of her mother, Denida appeared to have a spine after all.

"Is Ona in line for succession?"

Torin's daughter was about the same age as Denida's, and for all her information brokering skills, her brother's life was something Dru never bothered to dig into.

 

[Torin Vercet]

"No. Olivia's older sister had been named heir before Olivia and I were married. Ona is allowed to do as she pleases as are her brothers. The burdens of inheritance will not touch them. I don't think Ona would want it, and I know Olivia doesn't."

Despite the arrangement of their marriage, he and Olivia had eventually become friends, and in their own ways that relationship might have some love in it, but they did not love each other. Torin had 2 mistresses at the moment and he was fairly certain that Olivia was involved with a widower in her garden club. Neither saw fidelity as a part of their marriage so long as they were dedicated parents. Chic, Ona and Tad never wanted for their affections or attentions. After his tenure of being a Corsai, it was something Torin had been adamant about.

"How is Dresden?"

Torin took out another cigarra and lit it, the curling smoke encircling his head.

 

[Dru]

"Dresden is Dresden. Out there doing what he does and being home when he can. I worry about him but then again, I knew what I was getting into there. He's a merc and that's not a 9 to 5. So I run my business and see Senna."

She finished the glass of wine, the rim stained with red half moons that would have annoyed the Matriarch to no end. 'A lady always sips from the same spot so as not to have a messy glass. And a Lady never wears red.' Dru's smile curled tighter at the memory of the barbs. She took great pride in raising Kaylon's hackles. She hoped that the ghost of the Matriarch drifted around the house fuming.

 

[Character Legion]

Kocari Estate, Kuat.
Just after breakfast.

Jennica looked up at the house in question, a structure of brick and tradition surrounded by the greenery of gardens and the scent of flowers. Kocari had been the home of the Corsai family for generations. Granted minor station after their merchant house became prominent centuries ago, they were not related to the Ten, nor really any of the well known Kuati families, however, they strove to meet the expectations of their peers.

Not that they did, as evidenced by Jennica's assignment to act as arbiter and executor in the matter of succession. Scandal already and they hadn't even made a public mockery of themselves yet.

Jennica Renata approached the front door and was greeted by Bran, the security chief. A few pleasantries and official documents exchanged between them and Bran was showing her to the late Lady Kaylon's private rooms.

It was lavish, but not garish and something befitting the stature of the head of the House. Attached to the bedroom was a small private office. No one had set foot in these rooms since Lady Kaylon's death. A cold pot of tea sat on a tray, not even the staff had been allowed in to do their duties.

"Bran, you may call for the maid to set the chambers right, otherwise I am not to be disturbed for an hour."

He moved at her word, stationing someone outside in the hall while Jennica opened the coded safe in the office, right where the arbitration filing listed it would be. The small vault opened easily and there inside sat a single datachip. The records that Lady Kaylon had insisted could not be revealed until she had passed away.

Jennica sat down at the desk, and plugged the chip into her tablet and watched as the image of Lady Kaylon spoke to her through the screen.

"Greetings arbiter. I pray you can be the voice of reason in this very delicate matter..."

 

[Character Legion]

Three days after her arrival

Jennica Renata had been sequestered with the records left to her by the late Lady Kaylon Corsai for nearly two days. She had interviewed the heirs before locking herself in, listened to their words and recorded her notes. She had rewatched the holo several times, relayed her findings to the Ten and awaited for the bureaucracy to affirm that her decision. Shortly after breakfast this morning, she received official word to proceed and she had requested that the surviving members of House Corsai gather in the parlor of the manor.

Jennica dressed in her formal arbiter robes, her sash and medal affixed to her breast. This had been straightforward, there was little room for any other resolution than the one she had sent to the Ten. However, she did not relish her job as she allowed the servants to carry her things down to the foyer and load them into her speeder. Once she had read the will and handed down the decision, she wanted out of the house. There was nothing about this meeting that was going to go well.

There was a room of anxious faces as she entered, all of them witnessing that her bags were being loaded but Jennica's face was a mask of indifference, as she carried the files with her in order to turn over to the children of Kaylon Corsai.

The smallest grandchildren of Kaylon were absent, a request of Jennica's, while the adult daughter of Gaisa sat next to her mother, holding her hand. Jennica ignored the tray of caf and instead set the collection of holos and files on the desk.

"This arbitration is now called to order. I am Jennica Renata, of House Renata, and Arbiter of the Ten. The official transcripts of this mediation will be available once I have returned to my office. There is to be no discussion until I open the floor for questions. I have been dispatched because prior to her death, Lady Kaylon Corsai, Matriarch of House Corsai had not chosen an heir and successor, and officially requested the intercession of the Ten in the matter of inheritance for House Corsai. Lady Kaylon left explicit instructions and records and after careful review by myself and the council, it is our finding that House Corsai has no officially recognized heirs according to the laws laid out by the Ten. Therefore, the minor title and standing of House Corsai is hereby rescinded. The estate known as Kocari reverts back to ownership by the Ten, however, the council has decided to deed the manor grounds and house to the Corsais in light of their business dealings for a small price."

Stunned silence met her as she looked up from her pad.

"I open the floor for questions."

 

[Kira Corsai]

Gobsmacked.

Sitting off to the side, she had slid forward in her chair when the news had been dropped on them.

"What do you mean she had no officially recognized heirs?"

Inheritance of titled aristocracy on Kuat had a very long and prestigious history that tended to focus on the things that were deemed essential to being Kuati. It kept the lines purely Kuati blood, it ensured that the aristocracy was not hijacked by off-worlders or others whose agenda might be bent towards destabilizing to the balance of Kuati power and therefore to the Ten themselves or the Drive Yards.

Jennica reached for a small holo device, blue files blooming above the palm of her hand.

"I know this will be difficult for you to hear but your matriarch was keeping secrets from all of you. Judging by what I've found and heard, it began with the previous matriarch, Lady Merala. Having only 1 daughter herself after many sons, there was tremendous pressure applied by Merala on Lady Kaylon to conceive not just one but several daughters so that the line of Corsai would survive. Lady Kaylon only became Matriarch upon the death of Merala because she was the only heir who could, and Merala had petitioned for the House to be rescinded then. However, the Ten found that Merala had an officially recognized heir in Kaylon. House Corsai has been under threat of revocation for sometime. Lady Kaylon struggled to have any children and was forced to seek out fertility treatments in order to satisfy Merala's demands for a daughter. Those treatments and experiments resulted in the births of Kira, Gaisa and Merusa. However, it should be noted that only 1 of you was cultivated embryo of Kaylon and Seamus. The other two are clones of that embryo. Gaisa and Merusa never manifested the gifts that Kira did. The council sought out medically accepted opinions from Kamino and it is decided that Gaisa and Merusa's lack of abilities in relation to the entity known as the Force is proof that they are the cloned embryos of Kira, regardless of their cobirth."

"It is also known and accepted within the family that Kira is a clandestine agent for governments foreign to Kuat and therefore by virtue of her career, residence and choices to pursue opportunities apart from Kuat, Kira is deemed unfit to succeed Kaylon. Gaisa and Merusa are ineligible due to their cloned status and residence off world."

She looked then to Torin, Dru, and Denida who were sitting horrified, her voice strong as she continued.

"In the matter of the three younger Corsai. By virtue of your biological records enclosed by Lady Kaylon, you three are the children of Seamus Kedara but you were not born of Lady Kaylon. The treatments left Kaylon infertile and your births were the product of Seamus and an unnamed woman but likely believed to have been his mistress. Seamus and Kaylon colluded to hide his mistress' pregnancies and to raise the children as their own as part of the plot to deceive Merala into relinquishing her control of the seat of Matriarch. As such, neither Drucillia or Denida are eligible to the seat."

Jennica set the holo down and leaned against the desk.

"I know this is very hard to understand and from what I have seen, Lady Kaylon was ruthless to all of you because that was all she knew. You have an opportunity to take this situation and make something else from it. Houses rise and fall on Kuat, and Corsai had a long and storied run however, the last couple generations have placed too high a price on aristocracy. You are free from those constraints now. You are still welcome among society events, you retain your lands, your business is thriving. Your crest is retired, not because of what you did, but what your mother and grandmother did."

She looked back to Kira.

"There were notes in the files that you have a child. Should she come forward and commit to being a Corsai, and make Kuat her home, there is a path to regain your title. However, the council cautions that it is a very long and difficult process that you are not allowed to interfere with. It must be her choice. You have already been found unfit to succeed."

She looked up.

"Any other questions?"