Private What the Empire Touched

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

He could still see her face. Every microscopic detail of the Chiss who'd done it. He replayed it over and over during hyperspace, the fantasy sharpening each time: fingers closing, not around a throat, but around atoms. Pulling. Unthreading her at the molecular level. The quiet, intimate finality of unmaking someone who thought themselves untouchable.

Dark Side Elite. That meant something, because if that was what the Empire's chosen monsters did to people like Sibylla, then maybe the real justice wasn't personal at all. Maybe the greater good was wiping the whole rot out in one single, glorious day. Burn the infrastructure. Collapse the hierarchy. Let the banners fall and the screams echo until there was nothing left but ash and silence.

He'd almost died himself not even a day ago. The ISB Headquarters collapsing had been a controlled burial. Walls giving way. Decks folding. He'd barely made it out alive, and hadn't fully recovered. He should have been grounded. He should have rested.

Instead, he'd seen the HoloNews. Sibylla. Corellia. Attacked. Stable, but not recovering in Naboo's capital. Ace hadn't said a word to anyone after that. No explanations. No goodbyes. He'd taken a confiscated TIE straight off Coruscant's bones, flight clearance be damned, and punched out toward Naboo with his jaw locked and the Dark humming tight along his spine.

He didn't need to be told where she was. If she wasn't in Theed, then there was only one place she'd go. Parrlay. Veruna's estate; Rainspire.

So that was where he landed. The TIE's scream cut across Rainspire's pristine calm as he set it down unannounced, uninvited, the fighter's scorched hull still wearing Coruscant's soot like a badge of offense. Ace climbed out without ceremony and crossed the landing pad with long, purposeful strides, boots striking stone like a countdown.

He didn't make it far. Aurelian's guards moved fast and clean, weapons lowered but ready, forming a barrier between Ace and the estate proper.

"You can't be here." One of them said. "This is private property. You're trespassing."

Ace stopped just short of them.

"My friend is in there. Move."

The guard frowned, already shaking his head. "You're not authorized. We don't have you on any access lists. You're an unknown--"

"I don't care." Ace took a step closer, the air shifting with him. "Let. Me. In."

The words landed like a threat because they were one. His expression had gone predatory, all sharp focus and coiled intent, the kind that made instincts scream even if training told you to stand your ground. One fist curled slowly at his side, knuckles whitening, the Force pressing outward in a low, dangerous tide. He was ready. Ready to push. Ready to break the line and whatever stood behind it.

He didn't come here to be turned away.

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

The alarm cut through Rainspire. Aurelian was halfway through a late meal when the shriek of it reached the upper halls. A TIE signature. On his landing pad. That didn't happen.

He was moving before the second tone finished, bare feet on stone, shirt loose. Home meant soft clothes and open doors, not armor. Still, his shield snapped into place on his waist out of habit, familiar weight settling his breath. He took a rifle from the wall rack and a blade from the table, steel sliding free with a whisper.

Outside, the guards moved just like they'd trained for this their entire lives. Formation tight. Weapons ready. Aurelian followed a step behind, pulse steady, mind racing. Someone arrogant, desperate, or stupid had just screamed a TIE down onto his roof. Possibly all three.

The fighter sat on the pad, hull scorched black, heat still bleeding into the air. The pilot climbed out and crossed the stone with purpose. All black. No insignia. No hesitation. The guards challenged him. The stranger answered. Three words. Flat. Possessive.

My friend is in there.

The air shifted. Aurelian felt it even from behind the line, a pressure that made old lessons whisper in his skull. Force. Heavy and poorly leashed. Dangerous. The guards stepped aside.

Aurelian stopped.

What are you doing? His grip tightened on the rifle as he moved past them, bringing it up in one smooth motion. The barrel settled on the stranger's chest, center mass. Shield flared faintly, a translucent curve between him and whatever this man was carrying inside himself.

"Think very carefully before you take another step," Aurelian called out. His voice carried easily, calm by long practice. "You are on private property. You arrived uninvited. And you are radiating enough bad intent."

He studied the man's face. Grief, sharpened into something feral. The kind that broke things. The kind that didn't stop when asked.

If this was an assassin, he wouldn't reach the doors. If he was something worse, then Aurelian would still stand here. Sibylla was inside. That was the only fact that mattered.

​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace noticed him immediately. Not the rifle first, though that earned a flicker of irritation, but the man behind it. The way he moved past the guards without urgency or panic. Barefoot. Unarmored. Calm in a way that only came from certainty. Dark curls framing a face too composed for the situation, eyes steady, posture grounded. Attractive, in a polished, cultivated way. The kind of man estates were built for.

So this was him. Aurelian. The name Sibylla never said lightly. Ace had felt him before ever seeing him, felt the gravity of him in the Force every time Sibylla spoke his name, the pure, unguarded affection wrapped around it. Admiration. Safety. Something soft and fiercely defended. This was the axis her heart kept turning toward.

He wasn't impressed.

He was even less impressed by the rifle now trained on his chest. Under normal circumstances, he would've de-escalated. Would've read the room, eased the tension, found the pressure points that didn't leave bodies on the floor. He knew how to make situations better. He also knew how to make them worse.

This wasn't normal. He was running on fumes and fury, injuries still knitting beneath his skin. The Dark roared in his veins like a star going supernova, a million burning suns screaming for direction. Tunnel vision had set in hard and merciless. There was only one objective left in the galaxy.

Sibylla. His best friend was inside. Hurt. And these… prey thought they could stand between him and her.

Ace's gaze lifted fully to Aurelian now, sharp and unblinking. The Force bled off him in visible pressure, a radioactive haze that made the air feel wrong, heavy, alive with threat. Gravel vibrated faintly beneath their boots.

Finally, he spoke.

"I'm not going to ask again, Jawline."

The words hadn't even finished settling before Ace's hand twitched. Every blaster in the vicinity ripped free of their handlers all at once, wrenched upward by invisible force and frozen midair, hovering in a slow, ominous arc above the landing pad. The rifle aimed at Ace's chest joined them a heartbeat later, dragged sideways and held there, impotent.

Ace took a step forward, unconcerned with shields or protocol or the weaponless men suddenly realizing how badly this was going to go.

"I'm here to see Sibylla." He said, voice low and absolute. "And if you try to stop me--"

His eyes locked on Aurelian's.

"--I'll show you bad intent."

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes ​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

The ground started to hum. Aurelian felt it first in his chest, a low vibration that rattled bone and teeth. Anger, rolling off the man like heat from a reactor breach. Force anger. The kind that flattened rooms and rewrote outcomes. His guards were frozen, weapons hanging uselessly in the air. Rainspire itself seemed to recoil.

So. That was the situation.

Jawline. Really. Aurelian almost laughed. If you were going to insult him while threatening mass murder, at least put some effort into it. He kept his face still, eyes locked forward, pulse steady by force of habit. This man was hurt, furious, and powerful. Which meant he was sloppy.

He felt the tug on his rifle a fraction of a second before it ripped free. Fething Forcies. The weapon slid sideways and joined the others in the air, stripped from him like it had never been his to begin with.

Aurelian didn't reach for it. Didn't shout. Didn't retreat. He stepped forward instead, boots crunching on gravel, shield flaring as he crossed the distance with intent. The man's focus flickered, just slightly. Enough.

Aurelian surged in and snapped his head forward.

The impact cracked loud in the open air. Bone on bone. He felt it through his skull and welcomed the pain. The stranger staggered back a half step, surprise breaking his rhythm, and Aurelian was already moving. His blade slid free and ignited with a sharp, hungry hiss, light washing over his bare hands and determined grin.

Idiot, Aurelian thought. You don't threaten someone in their own home and expect politeness.

He planted himself between the man and the estate, stance wide, blade angled low and ready. The hum in the ground didn't stop. If anything, it deepened. Aurelian met it with stubborn defiance and a dangerous calm he'd learned young.

"You won't be seeing her today," he said, carrying clearly over the tension. "But I'm happy to leave a message."

Rainspire loomed behind Aurelian, silent and waiting. Sibylla was inside. That made the math simple. Not here. Not past him.

"Take one more step," he added quietly, blade humming in the space between them, "and this gets very personal."

​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

The impact snapped his head back. Pain followed, biting deeper than it should have, flaring through bruises that hadn't finished healing yet. That just pissed him off.

Ace straightened slowly, eyes lifting back to Aurelian with something colder behind them now. For a moment, he considered raining fire on him there and then, with the blasters he held in suspension. But no, if they were going to do this, he wanted to break him down doing it.

He didn't say a word, his lightsaber snapped to life instead. Blue light flooded the landing pad, the blade igniting with a sharp, violent hiss that drowned out everything else. Ace held it angled low, loose in his grip.

Take one more step, and this gets very personal.

Was that supposed to scare him? If anything, it was an invitation. Ace stepped forward out of spite, blade remaining low, daring Aurelian to try something that wasn't a cheap shot.

His gaze never left Aurelian's. There was a modicum of respect there now, buried beneath the fury. Acknowledgment. The man had nerve. Resolve. He'd stepped into the teeth of a storm without flinching and put his body on the line for her. Maybe he actually could protect her.

But that didn't change the math. The Dark side rolled off him in waves as he held his ground, lightsaber humming between them.

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Rainspire | Parrlay
Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

Sibylla stood very still, confusion knitting her brows as she looked between Tona and the small chaos engine perched atop the coffee table.

Tic balanced there on spindly feet, the BD unit's little head swiveling back and forth with soft chirrs, optics flicking from Sibylla to Tona and back again like a spectator at a match he did not understand but deeply suspected involved yelling with concerned beeps.

Sibylla herself was dressed in little more than a pale muslin gown, light enough that it barely felt real against her skin. She lifted one hand slightly, as if she might ask a question, then let it fall again. Whatever was happening, it had already outrun explanation.

Aurelian -- for all that she adored him -- had gone entirely, unrepentantly overprotective.

He had seen to everything. Meals were placed in her hands even when she insisted she was not hungry. Water and tea pressed upon her between conversations. Bandages checked and rechecked with meticulous care, his touch careful, reverent. And he had refused, absolutely refused, to take so much as a step beyond the threshold of the room for more than a few moments at a time.

Even now, the remnants of their last attempt at normalcy lingered with a half-finished game of sabacc, cards fanned and trinkets used as credits forgotten. He had been trying to teach her the rules -- or more importantly, how to bluff without giving herself away. It had devolved quickly into relentless teasing, Aurelian cataloguing her tells with infuriating precision and far too much amusement.

Then the scream of a TIE fighter tore overhead.

The piercing sound cut through the room overhead even through the soundproofing, that was how close the starfighter had screamed past Rainspire's roofline. Aurelian had been on his feet instantly, chair scraping back and his expression tightening into calm, cold and lethal precision. He had issued a single, unmistakable order to Tona to ensure Sibylla's safety before striding from the room, weaponry already in hand.

Not that Sibylla was ever very good at sitting still.

She had moved quickly, gathering a robe and slipping her arms into the soft sleeves, her feet finding slippers as if by instinct. Aurelian's chambers crowned one of Rainspire's vast and airy towers, with its wide arched stone windows opening to a full sweeping view that revealed the estate, the sea cliffs beyond, and the city of Parrlay and its port cascading down below in lights and spires.

It was that view that betrayed everything.

She stepped closer to the window only for her breath to catch as she saw the TIE starfighter touch down. Guards surged forward with their weapons raised, their cries of alarm carrying faintly upward -- and that’s when she saw him.

Shock-white dreads and black armor. Then the unmistakable way he moved as he slipped from the pilot's seat.

Ace.

The color drained from her face.

Below, Aurelian advanced with determined strides with a rifle in one hand and a sword in the other, every inch of him a barrier meant to deny passage.

Shiraya no.

The thought barely had time to form before she was moving. Tona reached for her to try and block her path, but Sibylla pushed past, heart hammering as Tic bounded after her with distressed whistles.This was not about obedience. This was not about safety.

This was about stopping bloodshed, about stopping any chance of death.

Panic burned through her veins, dragging memory with it -- the clash between Cassian and Aurelian, the blood on stone, the way fury had nearly consumed them both. How close it had come. How she had been the only thing standing between them and something irreversible.

Aurelian had promised her he would try. That he would do better. But he did not know Ace or what he was capable of. He did not know the weight of the Force that Ace could bring to bear.

Her feet pounded down the stone stairwell, hair flying loose behind her, nightdress and robe fluttering and clinging with every frantic step.

Even before she emerged into the open air, she felt it -- the pressure building, the Force bleeding outward like a gathering storm.

Wind whipped around her as she burst onto the terrace, chestnut strands snapping against her face, robe pulled tight against her slender frame, as wide panicked hazel eyes locked onto the scene before her.

Ace stood wreathed in pale blue light, his lightsaber humming, aura bleeding outward. Aurelian faced him, sword raised with bulwark determination, a man prepared to become a wall or a grave.

"STOP! Both of you!" Sibylla cried out in a raw and urgent tone as she ran toward them. Guards shifted immediately, some turning as if to intercept her, Aurelian's orders ringing clear in their minds.

She swung an arm sharply, knocking one grasp aside, eyes wild beneath the tumble of loose hair framing her heart-shaped face. The synthskin along the left side of her cheek and brow caught the light -- stark against her blanched skin. Raw. Ragged. Healing.

But alive.

"Ace. Aurelian, please," she pleaded, breathless as she closed the distance, the flash of Kenari still hot in her mind. Shiraya didn't need a reenactment. "...lower your weapons. Both of you. "

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

He felt her before he saw her. He always did. A familiar pull in the Force, sudden and sharp, like a hand closing around his spine and yanking him back into himself. The pressure he'd been radiating fractured instantly, his focus snapping away from Aurelian as something far more important asserted itself.

"Bylla…" The name left him without thinking. Soft. Barely audible.

Then he saw her. The scars along her eye caught the light: three angry lines, raw even now, too new. Heat surged through him all over again, fast and vicious, fury spiking like a temperature gauge shattering its limit. In that instant, the Chiss who had done this ceased to exist as a future problem.

She was already dead. She just didn't know it yet.

Sibylla's voice cut through the haze.

STOP! Both of you.

The words cut through him like a knife. But it wasn't the sound that brought him back, it was the fear braided through her Thread, vibrating straight into his chest. Panic. Urgency. The echo of memories she did not want to relive. Ace faltered.

The Verd fire guttered, rage collapsing inward instead of outward, burning down into a low, smoldering coal. He exhaled slowly, shoulders dropping, the iron tension bleeding out of him in stages. The weight in the air eased and the ground stopped humming.

His lightsaber snapped off with a quiet hiss. For a heartbeat, he lifted his hand toward her, fingers twitching with the instinct to check, to touch, to make sure she was really there. Although, he stopped himself short and let the hand fall back to his side instead. Reason crept back in and the Force around him thinned, no longer choking the space.

"Sorry." He said quietly.

The word was meant for Aurelian, but he didn't look at him. Ace's dark eyes returned to Sibylla, softer now, stripped of all the violence they'd held seconds earlier.

"I had to see you myself. To make sure you were okay..." He paused, biting his lip "If you'd been-- I would've--"

His metallic fingers curled into a fist, the Force swelling around him again.

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes ​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian didn't move when the lightsaber came out. He clocked the color, the stance, the barely restrained hunger behind it, and filed it away with everything else that wanted him dead someday. Forcies loved drama. This one practically bathed in it. Falling to the darker mystic nonsense too. Predictable.

Then Sibylla's voice cut across the landing pad. His name. Ace's. Panic threaded through it.

Aurelian's focus snapped sideways instantly. There she was, running toward them like she had a death wish, robe half gathered, hair loose, guards scrambling too late to intercept. His stomach dropped. He had told Tona to keep her inside. That was going to be a conversation. Still, she was upright. Breathing. Alive. That mattered.

The moment she said stop, Aurelian understood. Really understood. This lunatic was the Ace he had just discovered, he wasn't an attacker. Not now. Not like this. He lowered his blade without ceremony, deactivating it, and lifted his free hand toward the guards.

"Stand down," he said, sharp and final. They hesitated. He shot them a look. They obeyed.

His attention slid back to the man in black just as the blue blade vanished. Interesting. Even more interesting was the way the pressure eased, like a storm choosing not to break. Aurelian exhaled slowly, shoulders still squared, stance unchanged. He wasn't afraid. He was annoyed.

Bylla. The name echoed unpleasantly in his head. Familiar. Intimate. He did not like that.

He took a step closer, placing himself subtly between Sibylla and Ace without touching her. Protective, yes. Obvious, absolutely. He glanced at Ace's battered state and raised a brow despite himself.

"You didn't tell me your Ace was a Sith," Aurelian said aloud, voice calm, edge still there. "Or that he looked like he went ten rounds with Fenn Stag and kept coming back for more."

His eyes flicked briefly to Sibylla's injuries. Rage flared, controlled but sharp. He looked back at Ace.

"Why are you here?" he asked. "And how did you know she was here?"

Aurelian didn't raise his weapon again. Didn't need to. Rainspire stood behind him. Sibylla stood beside him. Whatever this was, he intended to understand it before it exploded again.

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Location: It is okay.
Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

Relief hit her in waves as the hiss of deactivation from both the lightsaber and the vibrosword cut through the wind. The pressure that had been clawing at her ribs receded, and for a heartbeat, Sibylla simply stood there, chest heaving, hazel eyes flicking between them as if afraid the moment might snap back into violence if she even blinked.

They had stopped.

Shiraya be praised, they both stopped.

And then she really saw Ace.

What… what in Shiraya's sake.

Sibylla's breath caught as horror blooming across her face at the extent of them struck all at once -- the deep purple bruising, the haphazard bandages, the way he was barely holding himself upright by will alone. Damage layered over damage, from the mottled shadows along his skin to the strips of white cutting across his face and body.

He looked like someone who had crawled out of a warzone.

By then, Aurelian had moved without hesitation to step in between her and Ace. The gesture was an Instinctive wall of protection, a line drawn in flesh and resolve. His stance said what his words did not: that no one would reach her, that no one would touch her, not without going through him first.

But Ace was someone who would never harm her.

At that point, the soft slip of Bylla from Ace's tongue with his apology folded into it and the sharp questions Aurelian hurled all blurred together, dissolving into meaningless noise.

"He is not a Sith," Sibylla said, the words leaving her with quiet certainty, threaded through with empathy rather than argument. She did not raise her voice or not look at Aurelian when she said it.

Instead, she tried to move around him, her hand brushing along Aurelian's arm as if to plead to please trust her.

To let her go.

Sibylla's steps were hesitant at first, instinct warring with urgency, but worry pulled her forward all the same. The sea breeze surged again, tugging at her robe, tossing her chestnut waves across her face, cold fingers brushing her skin but she barely noticed. Her attention was fixed entirely on Ace.

No, he was not Sith.

But she had feared the dark might claim him.

She had feared the Covenant, the exposure, the way power could fester and turn into a spiraling mess. She had feared waking one day to find that Ace had slipped beyond the edge into something hollow and unreachable to her. And while the immense pressure she had felt moments ago had faded now, there was no denying the naked strain that etched the dark planes of his expression. The worry. The anxiety.

"What happened to you?" she asked in a hoarse whisper, her voice breaking despite her effort to keep it steady.

She drew closer, hands lifting instinctively, hovering as if afraid to touch and afraid not to. Her gaze traced every injury she could see, cataloguing damage with the precision of someone who cared for him too much not to notice.

And then the Force swelled again as his voice broke, Sibylla didn't think -- she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.

She held him close, held him tight, pressing her cheek against his shoulder, breathing him in. The scent hit her all at once: the scorched metal, smoke, fire, and blood. It smeared into her robe, into her hands, into her hair. Grime and ash and who knew what else stained the pale fabric.

She did not care.

Her grip tightened around him, as if she could stitch him back together simply by refusing to let go.

"It is okay, Ace," she murmured, her voice low and steady against him. "I am okay."

Her fingers curled into the back of his clothing, holding firm as the wind whipped around them, as guards shifted uneasily nearby, as the world waited to see what would happen next.

"I am right here," she whispered again, softer now. "Breathe."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace clocked the subtle shift, the way Aurelian placed himself just a fraction closer, angling his body so Sibylla was no longer fully in Ace's line. Protective. Territorial. Polite about it, even. Ace had to fight the urge to roll his eyes.

He didn't rise to the Sith comment. If anything, the assumption was useful. The more people who thought he'd already slipped, the safer his cover stayed.

When Aurelian demanded why he was here, and how he'd known, Ace finally spoke.

"Are you kidding me?"

That was it. Flat. Almost incredulous. As if the answer were so obvious it didn't deserve breath. As if Sibylla being his best friend, as if knowing exactly where she'd go when hurt, didn't explain everything on its own.

His attention shifted to her fully when she asked what had happened to him. Confusion crossed his face.

"What do you--" He stopped short.

Awareness snapped back in. The guards. Aurelian. The estate. Had she told him? About the Covenant? About Coruscant? Regardless, she should've known he'd been there, he'd sent the encrypted transmission. His thoughts tangled, trying to run three paths at once.

Then she moved. Ace went still as Sibylla closed the distance, watched as her eyes traced every bruise, every bandage, cataloguing damage with quiet horror. His gaze did the same to her in turn, lingering on the scars along her eye, the rawness of them.

Her arms wrapped around him. For a split second, Ace froze. His hands hovered awkwardly at her back, fingers half-curled, as if he'd forgotten what to do with them. As if he was still in fight or flight.

Then, eventually, he leaned into it. Slowly. Carefully. His arms came around her, solid and sure, pulling her in as the density around him finally began to thin. The pressure eased, unraveling strand by strand.

Her words sank in.
I am okay. I am right here. Breathe.

Ace did. A deep, shuddering exhale left him, the kind that came after holding yourself together for far too long. His forehead dipped briefly toward her shoulder, just enough to steal a moment of stillness.

"I'm… glad you're okay." He murmured.

After a moment, he lifted his head and finally looked past her, at Aurelian.

"I--" He paused, then nodded once. "Thank you. For taking care of her."

The words were simple. Earnest. And for Ace, that made them harder to say than any threat he'd thrown moments earlier. And what came next, was even harder.

"Sorry." He said again. "About... earlier. I've just... come from Coruscant." He paused "Empire dropping a building on your head would made you irrational too."

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes ​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian watched her step around him, and irritation flared sharp and immediate. Of course she did. Of course she went straight to him. Not a Sith, she'd said, like that settled anything. He didn't turn to block her. He didn't reach out. That was trust, or the performance of it. He told himself it was enough.

It wasn't.

He kept his eyes forward as she closed the distance and wrapped herself around Ace like the world had narrowed to the space between their ribs. Aurelian stared past them at the landing pad, at scorched stone and hovering weapons that hadn't quite settled yet. Anywhere but at her hands clutching the back of Ace's ruined armor. Anywhere but the way Ace folded into her like he'd been waiting to collapse.

Breathe. He caught the word in passing, nothing else. His jaw tightened. He was breathing. He had been breathing this entire time. That didn't seem to be the problem.

There was something ugly in his chest now. Not fear. Not jealousy, he told himself, because that was undignified and he was better than that. Call it despair, then. Call it the sinking realization that there were parts of her life he could not intercept with walls and guards and vows.

Ace thanked him. Aurelian pretended not to hear it.

He turned away before his expression betrayed him and strode toward the guards, checking stances, murmuring orders that didn't need to be given. Busywork. An excuse to put distance between himself and whatever that was behind him. His hands curled at his sides. He forced them to relax.

Then Ace said Coruscant. Aurelian stopped.

The word lodged itself neatly between his ribs. Coruscant. The Core. Buildings collapsing. Sith ransacking the heart of the galaxy while he had been here, counting bandages and pretending the galaxy wasn't on fire. He hadn't told Sibylla yet. He had wanted to wait. Wanted her stronger first.

Slowly, he exhaled.

So that was it. Not a Sith, she'd said. Maybe not by creed. But he felt the math click into place all the same. Power like that. Rage like that. Coruscant didn't just happen to people. He turned back halfway, eyes cutting briefly to Ace's silhouette. Friend, apparently. The kind that arrived in a stolen TIE and almost leveled his estate.

Interesting choice.

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

Sibylla was grateful that Ace had managed to calm himself, that the volatile edge had receded enough for him to stand there and breathe. But relief did not banish the confusion that followed close on its heels. That concern for him lingered, not just for the state of his injuries, but also for what he told her next.

Coruscant.

The word landed wrong, jarring, and when Ace added that he had just come from there, shock flickered openly across her face.

Wait, what?!

"Wait -- hold on," she cut in, lifting a hand, palm out, a quiet plea for him to stop for half a heartbeat so she could think. Another sharp gust of sea wind tore at her hair and robe, cold and insistent. Sibylla barely noticed. Her focus narrowed entirely on his words, turning them over, trying to make them fit.

"What do you mean you just came from Coruscant?" she asked, bewilderment threading her voice. "I thought you were in the Tapani Sector. What happened on Coruscant?"

The question carried more weight than confusion alone. In the days she had spent recovering at Rainspire, Aurelian had been unwavering in one thing -- no work, no duties, no Naboo, no political fallout. Nothing about Corellia. Nothing about the Empire. He had shielded her from it all with quiet, relentless intent.

And now Ace was talking about Coruscant and the Empire.

Sibylla turned, her gaze flicking to Aurelian, the unspoken question clear in her eyes as she felt a sinking sensation in her belly: Do you know something I do not?

Throughout her recovery, Aurelian had insisted that she not check her comm and that if someone truly needed her, they could contact Tona. That she had to focus on her recovery, that he knew how she was, and that if she had her comm, she would not be able to help herself and read anything regarding work, then stubbornly try to do something about it.

So the compromise was made, and for the first time in over a decade, Sibylla was media and comm-free for several days, ensuring that her mind was on her well-being and relaxation rather than on duties being handled by Corde and Tona.

It had made sense at the time... but had there been more that he had not relayed to her?

A sense of alarm grew, and her head canted slightly to the right as she stared at Aurelian, the wind briefly whipping dark strands of hair over the scarred synthflesh profile.

Only then did the reality of their surroundings cut in: the open air, the watching guards, the rifles still hovering nearby, and Aurelian giving low orders for what to do next.

"Can we please put those down and go inside?" she said, voice gentler but firmly, her attention drawing back to Ace, her jaw tightening as that feeling of dread and anxiety grew. "You need to see a medidroid to tend to your injuries. And then you can explain to me exactly what happened."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Aurelian didn't acknowledge the apology or the thanks. Didn't even look at him, he just turned away and busied himself with guards and orders like none of it had happened. Noted. Ace let it go just as quickly, his attention settling back where it belonged.

Sibylla's confusion drew a faint lift of his brow. That answered a question he hadn't realized he was still holding onto. She hadn't gotten the transmission. Either missed, intercepted, or... deliberately kept from her while she recovered. Guess it made sense.

He didn't mention it. Not here. Not now. He still didn't know how much Aurelian knew, if anything, about the Covenant and the knife-edge he'd been walking for months. Better to assume nothing and speak carefully.

Ace glanced briefly toward Aurelian, then back to Sibylla, his tone shifting almost imperceptibly as he slipped into the code they'd created.

"I left a note before I stepped out." He said mildly. "Guess you must've been resting when it came through. Hard to know who hears what, these days… especially with aliit like ah-liht." He paused. "When you have a moment, though… worth a second look."

Her request came next. Ace's gaze lifted and only then did he notice the blasters still hovering where he'd left them, forgotten remnants of a different version of himself. Without comment, he loosened his grip on the Force. All at once, the weapons settled back to the stone with muted clacks, the last of the tension bleeding out of the air.

"Bylla, I'm fine." He said quietly. "You know I've been through worse."

A familiar whirr cut in before she could argue. Ace's head turned, eyes catching on a small, spindly shape nearby, optics swiveling uncertainly as recognition dawned. His expression softened instantly, something warm and unguarded breaking through the fatigue.

"Tic…"

He crouched down, one knee to the stone, gloved hand lifting in greeting. But as he did, he felt it, a tremor along another Thread. Aurelian's. Tight. Knotted. Not anger. Something heavier. Despair.

Ace looked up briefly, catching the man half-turned toward them, tension written in the set of his shoulders. His gaze returned to Sibylla, and he inclined his head subtly in Aurelian's direction.

"Might want to check on your man before we go inside." He said evenly.

Then his attention dropped back to the little droid at his feet, a faint smile tugging at his lips as he reached out again. In the meantime, he'd tend to a friend he'd missed... and hadn't seen in far too long.

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian let them have their moment.

That was the lie he told himself as he stood there with his back half-turned, listening to soft voices and watching the last of the weapons settle onto stone. He didn't interfere. Didn't interrupt. Didn't remind anyone whose estate this was.

It still infuriated him.

Ace was here now. In his house. In her space. Dragging the stink of war and the Dark and Coruscant's ash straight into the quiet Aurelian had carved out for her with stubborn hands and sleepless nights. Peace shattered by a reckless idiot who thought flying a stolen TIE was an acceptable way to check on a friend.

Like Aurelian hadn't been doing exactly that. Every hour. Every breath.

He turned back fully at last, jaw tight, eyes sharp. Sibylla hovered near Ace, worry written all over her face, fingers twitching like she didn't know where to put them. That twisted something unpleasant in his chest. Jealousy, maybe. He bristled at the thought, dismissed it on reflex.

Protective instinct, he told himself. That was all.

Still, the way Ace stood there, battered and dangerous and familiar in a way Aurelian could never be, made his stomach sink. A Forcie. A Sith-adjacent Forcie, if he was being honest. Rage barely leashed. Power that chewed through cities. A walking promise of future pain, and Sibylla standing far too close to it.

He hated that he could see where this went.

Aurelian exhaled through his nose and turned to one of his guards. "Get that thing off my landing pad," he said quietly, nodding toward the TIE. "Impound it. I don't care where you put it, just not where I have to look at it."

The guard nodded and moved immediately.

Aurelian's gaze flicked back in time to catch Ace's comment. Check on your man. The words landed harder than they should have. He ignored Ace entirely and looked at Sibylla instead, expression smoothing into something controlled.

"Two of you," he said to the guards nearest her. "You don't leave her side. Not outside, not inside. If he even looks at her the wrong way, I want to hear about it."

There was no argument. There never was.

He didn't wait to see if Sibylla would protest. He didn't trust himself to stand there another second and watch them fawn over each other like this was normal. It wasn't. It was a warning sign with a familiar shape.

Without another word, Aurelian turned and headed back toward the estate. Inside, the walls would hold. Inside, he could think.

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Location: Talk to me
Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

Left a note?

The thought barely formed before the cadence of Ace's words shifted, careful and coded. Sibylla paused, her attention lingering on him a heartbeat longer than necessary until understanding slid into place.

Then it clicked.

Ace had sent her an encrypted message, one she had yet to review, to see if it dealt with why he was here in a TIE fighter and injured.

If it mattered enough for him to use their codewords, then the suspicions or clues he had collected regarding the Covenant regarding that nobleman who may be working with them were close -- close enough to perhaps implicate House Veruna itself.

Whatever Ace said next softened into background noise as Sibylla turned her head toward Aurelian. For the briefest moment, their gazes locked as amber met hazel. And while his posture was immaculate and controlled to the point of severity, the tells she alone could pick up caught the tension in the hard line of his mouth, in the faint twitch along his jaw as he ground his teeth once, restraint drawn so tight it showed in the rigid set of his shoulders before he lifted a hand and issued a low command.

Two guards moved immediately.

Sibylla blinked, reality coming back to her as Veruna security surged past her, their boots moving with purpose as they fanned out toward the TIE. She watched Aurelian turn away without looking back, his stride long and distinctly purposeful, every step sharp with intent. The way his shirt shifted with the motion, along with the way his hands clenched once at his sides before relaxing again, told her everything words did not.

He was upset.

Tic's bright trill cut through the tension as the little droid bounded forward, his metal feet clattering softly before he launched himself into Ace's arms. Ace caught him automatically, one battered arm curling protectively around the droid as TIC chirped and wiggled in clear relief. The sight tugged a small smile from Sibylla for a brief moment.

Ace may have suspicions about House Veruna using code, but she trusted Aurelian implicitly. She had already told him about the matter with Ace, and he had simply asked and done what she had requested him to do.

There had to be more to it. And in order to do that, she'd have to read exactly what Ace had sent her.

And find out what exactly had been going on all this time.

"Aurelian has taken care of everything for me," she replied to Ace in assurance, even as concern lined her features. She lifted her chin and gave a slight shake of her head, "I do not require the attention of the medic droids, you do."

It was then that Sibylla took a longer moment to study Ace. To take in the way his shoulders sagged now that the adrenaline had burned off, the subtle tremor in his fingers when he shifted his grip on TIC. Bruises bloomed dark beneath his skin, bandages pulled tight across raw edges. And beneath it all, she could feel the echo of what had nearly broken loose, the way he had used the Force in a manner that even she recognized as being pushed by pain, emotion feeding something volatile.

I need to call Master Reingard.

The thought settled heavily in her chest. She didn't touch the Force, but even she knew this wasn't a good sign. She'd seen bits of it back at Yavin, and now, it bled off him. And while Sibylla had told Aurelian that Ace was no Sith, she honestly wasn't sure what he was in the grand scheme of things. Only that he was her friend. And he needed help. Whatever Ace had endured had carved deep and the damage went far beyond what her eyes could see.

"Come inside," she said gently, stepping closer, one hand lifting as if to guide him without touching. "We will get you a medic droid first. I will touch base with Aurelian, and then we can regroup and talk."

She guided him into Rainspire, the fortress and seat of power of House Veruna. The carved stone reliefs rose high along the walls, and the acoustics turned even the softest whisper into something that carried. The place radiated power and history, elegant and imposing all at once.

Sibylla flagged down a nearby attendant, her voice calm but unmistakably authoritative as she requested a medic droid. The woman's eyes flicked to Ace, curiosity flashing across her face as she took in his condition, before she dipped her head and hurried off.

Only then did Sibylla slow.

She hesitated, fingers brushing the edge of the sleeve of her robe as she looked down the branching corridors. She didn't know Rainspire well enough yet to choose the right place for this. Certainly not Aurelian's bedchamber nor the studio they shared.

She turned back to Ace, resolve softening her expression.

"Wait here," she said quietly. "I will return shortly."

Then she pivoted and moved down the corridor, the length of her robe and nightdress whispering against her slender legs, already searching for Aurelian as the weight of unanswered questions pressed close behind her.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Naboo - Parrlay

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace's fingers continued idly brushing along Tic's scuffed casing as the little BD-unit chattered and wiggled in his arms. He let the moment exist. Let the familiar weight, the soft whirr of servos and beeps, ground him.

He heard Aurelian speaking behind him, about the TIE, but he didn't look up. Ace barely reacted, murmuring something low to Tic as the guards moved. Then Aurelian's voice cut sharper.

"If he even looks at her the wrong way, I want to hear about it."

Ace stilled. Slowly, he lifted his gaze, not turning his head, just letting his eyes slide sideways in Aurelian's direction. The man stood rigid, issuing orders like they were law, convinced authority was something you inherited rather than earned.

Lucky, Ace thought distantly. You're lucky she's here.

From the moment they'd met, Ace genuinely could not see what Sibylla saw in him. All he'd clocked so far was arrogance dressed up as composure. Pomp wrapped in privilege. A man who thought walls, guards, and a name meant power. Authority. He wouldn't know real power if it stared him in the face.

Maybe one day, Ace would show him.

The thought lingered for half a second too long. He shook it off. Unnecessary. Pointless. A waste of energy he didn't have to spare. If Sibylla chose to spend her time with someone like Aurelian, that was her choice. Ace wasn't here to compete. He never had been.

But her voice pulled him back. Ace looked up properly then, meeting her gaze as she spoke about medic droids and regrouping. He exhaled through his nose, shoulders sagging just a fraction.

"I'm good." He said automatically.

A beat passed.

"…Fine." He amended, quieter. "If it stops you from stressing out."

He rose and followed her inside, and Rainspire swallowed him whole. Polished stone. Towering arches. Carved reliefs that screamed history, power, permanence. The place was immaculate in a way that made his skin crawl. Too perfect. Too clean. Like the galaxy's blood hadn't splashed here yet.

Ace hated places like this. They reeked of denial, elites pretending they weren't made of the same fragile stuff as everyone else. Posturing as if being born right made them better. Untouchable. It pissed him off. And sometimes... it made him align with the Covenant's goal of tearing it all down. Sometimes.

He lingered a step behind Sibylla as she flagged down an attendant, watched the woman's eyes flick to him, cataloguing his injuries with open curiosity before hurrying off at Sibylla's command. When Sibylla told him to wait, Ace nodded once.

Then she was gone, and the silence settled in. Tic climbed up onto his shoulder, settling there like he'd done a hundred times before. The familiar feeling of nostalgia hit him.

The droid made a soft, worried sound. Ace lifted a hand, palm open, a calming gesture.

"You've seen me through worse."

Tic beeped again, insistent.

"I know." Ace said quietly. "I miss you too. A lot."

He stared down the corridor Sibylla had disappeared into, expression unreadable.

"But where I am now..." He added softly "What I'm doing… You're better off with Bylla."

Aurelian Veruna | Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian didn't look back once he crossed the threshold. He moved fast, stride clipped and purposeful, jaw set hard enough to ache. Let them linger outside. Let them reconnect. He had no intention of standing there like a third wheel in his own home.

Tona appeared at the junction ahead, already reading his posture. Good. At least someone in this estate understood tone.

"Make sure we get the Sith water," Aurelian said without slowing. "Warm."

He paused just long enough to meet Tona's eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching with something sharp and unapologetic. "And bring up the oldest medical droid we have. The one that still complains."

Was it petty? Absolutely. He didn't care. If Ace thought he could barrel in, land stolen military hardware on Veruna stone, destabilize half his household, and be treated like a honored guest, he was mistaken. Courtesy did not equal permission.

Aurelian turned down the corridor toward the gardens before Tona could respond, already knowing she would comply. She always did when he was in this mood.

His breakfast tray waited where he'd abandoned it earlier, still warm, steam curling gently from the tea. The garden opened wide around him, green and quiet and stubbornly serene. He carried the tray out himself and set it down with more force than strictly necessary, porcelain clinking in protest.

Only then did he breathe.

He sat, shoulders finally lowering, eyes fixed on nothing in particular. Somewhere deeper in the estate, Sibylla was tending to Ace. Of course she was. That was who she was. Compassionate to the point of self-erasure. Drawn to broken things like it was a calling.

He hated that he admired it. He took a sip of tea. Too hot. Good. The sting grounded him.

This was not jealousy, he told himself again. This was foresight. A Forcie steeped in rage and secrecy was not a harmless presence. Sith or not, Ace carried disaster with him. Aurelian had seen enough men like that to recognize the pattern. They burned bright. They took people with them.

And Sibylla had already been burned once. Let them have their reunion. Let Ace breathe, bleed, unload whatever horrors he'd dragged in from Coruscant. Aurelian would not hover. He would not posture.

But he would be watching.

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Location: We were on borrowed time.
Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

Sibylla eventually found him where she expected.

The garden opened wide before her with its green hush and salt-bright air, the sea stretching beyond the cliffs in a restless sheet of blue. Aurelian sat with his back to her, shoulders squared but not rigid, those dark inky curls being tousled by the breeze. She recognized the mused effect immediately, in the way those dark forelocks fell over his brown whenever his hand dragged through his hair in frustration, the tension still there along his jaw as he stared out toward the horizon where water met sky.

Only minutes ago they had been laughing over Sabacc, arguing about whether the garden or his bedroom made for better company. She had accused him of grinning at her tells; he had countered by mockingly accusing her of having none at all. It felt impossibly distant now, like something borrowed from another life.

There was no denying how careful Aurelian had been these past weeks with her. Patient in a way that never felt like an obligation. Protective while trying his best to not be smothering.

He had watched her eat, insisted she rest, humored her attempts at pottery in the studio, and sat quietly while she played the piano, as if the sound itself were enough. Began to learn who Aurelian was behind the curtain from morning to night, held in his arms in slumber and awoken with his maddening, mischievous grins. Rolled her eyes at his utter brazenness as much as fallen even more in love with him for it... and for the first time in years, she had been allowed to exist without the galaxy pressing in.

And now it had come crashing with the shriek of a TIE fighter.

And while her stride did not stop, it did slow, until the scent of waterlilies gently drifted close. But Aurelian would already know it was her. He already did.

And as her quiet, frustratingly empathetic voice drifted over him, perhaps that made it worse.

"These weeks were quieter than the galaxy ever really allows," she said softly, coming to a stop beside him. "I believe we both knew that." The wind stirred the hem of her gown as the waves continued to crash below.

They had been living on borrowed time. She did not need to say it aloud for it to be true.

So she drew in a slow breath, then let it out. She wanted to hear it from him first and not pieced together from fragments and warnings and whatever horrors Ace carried with him from Coruscant.

She knew Aurelian had kept things from her. Deliberately. Omissions made with intention, with love, with the quiet certainty that her healing mattered more than the truth in those moments. She did not resent him for it.

But she needed to understand what those three weeks had cost. What had been held at bay while she rested inside the protected bubble and calm he had painstakingly built around her.

"So," Sibylla said at last, hazel eyes quietly resting upon the sea rather than on him, making her recall Kadaara's beaches and another quiet conversation so long ago, "what have I missed?"

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Tags: Acier Moonbound | Sibylla Abrantes

Aurelian heard her long before she spoke. Not the sound of her steps, but the quiet certainty of her presence, the way his chest eased even as it tightened at the same time. He had known she would follow. She always did now. He had grown predictable to her, and that both comforted and wounded him. When he finally turned, there was no anger waiting for her. No jealousy. Just sadness, bare and unguarded, sitting heavy behind his eyes. The kind that came when you knew something precious had already slipped into the past.

"You always come after me," he said softly. Not an accusation. An observation. Almost fond.

He studied her for a moment, really looked at her. The way the light caught her hair. The steadiness in her posture that hadn't been there weeks ago. Healing, slow and real. He had given her that. Stolen it, really, from a galaxy that never stopped taking. Three weeks, he thought. Only three. He turned back toward the sea, jaw tightening as memory pressed in. Mornings that started too late. Nights that ended peacefully. Her laughter in the studio. The quiet weight of her asleep against him. Time that felt borrowed because it was.

"It was never going to be enough," he said, mostly to himself. "Not for me."

When he reached for her hand, it wasn't urgent. It was careful, almost reverent, fingers closing around hers as if anchoring himself. Stealing a few more seconds. Maybe more. He let the silence stretch, the wind doing the talking for him.

"I wanted more time," he admitted quietly. "For you to rest. To heal. For us to… exist without the galaxy clawing at your back." His thumb brushed over her knuckles. "I knew it wouldn't last. I just hoped I could keep it away a little longer."

Then she asked the question. What have I missed?

Aurelian closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, something had settled in his expression. Resolve, edged with grief.

"I issued warrants," he began. "For everyone involved in the attack on you. On Corellia. We were preparing to move on them. Quietly. Cleanly." He swallowed. "Then out of the no where... Coruscant burned."

He felt her hand tense in his, but he didn't stop. If he paused now, he might never finish.

"A Sith faction hit the Core. Not a skirmish. A massacre. The same group that tore through Genarius." His gaze flicked briefly toward the estate behind them, unspoken words heavy between them. "The same group your friend is tied to. Undercover or not, he was there... and the reports are..."

His voice dropped. "The casualty numbers are… staggering."

Aurelian looked back out at the sea, as if it were easier than looking at her. "Sibylla, the Galactic Empire doesn't exist anymore. Not in any way that matters. They shattered it. The remnants fled into the Unknown Regions, chasing rumors of their Emperor who may already be dead. Others broke off, declared themselves warlords."

He tightened his grip on her hand, grounding himself again. "Your Mandalorians have taken the fight to Diarchy space. Open conflict. And those Imperial offshoots are for some reason attacking Sith holy worlds again."

A bitter smile touched his mouth, gone almost immediately. "The galaxy is tearing itself apart, and it doesn't care who just wanted to rest."

Finally, he turned fully toward her. His composure cracked then, just slightly. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep it from you longer. Sorry I couldn't give you more peace. I wanted you whole before the galaxy found you again."

He searched her face, sadness deep and sincere. "But it's here now. In my home. At my door."

His thumb stilled against her hand. "And no matter how much I wish otherwise," he said softly, "I can't hold it back anymore."

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Location: What is next then.
Aurelian Veruna Acier Moonbound

So, it wasn't just rain.

But violent monsoons, each revelation arriving in waves that crested high before the last had fully broken, and Sibylla felt herself standing very still as Aurelian spoke, as though any movement might send the whole world tilting. Three weeks. Only three weeks. And in that narrow pocket of borrowed quiet the galaxy had come utterly undone.

By the time Aurelian finished, Sibylla was breathing harder, her fingers clenched tightly around his hand. It was too much to take in all at once, and the color had drained from her face as the reality of the galaxy beyond Rainspire settled in. Not only what was happening out there -- but how much Aurelian had been carrying alone.

Blessed Shiraya...

The color drained from her shows as the implications stacked higher and higher. Her grip on Aurelian's hand tightened further, knuckles pale now, her pulse loud in her ears. She could hear it in his voice too -- the exhaustion threaded through every tight word, the sorrow of a man who had carried too much alone and could no longer keep it from her.

She understood, painfully so.

And in that, she understood him. They had already been running on fumes long before Corellia -- the mounting tensions between the Mandalorian Empire and the Diarchy, the unknown dangers lurking beyond the Blackwall, the growing instability in the Tapani sector that Ace had warned about, now proving itself a chaotic new threat to the Core.

That such an aggressive push by this Covenant had managed to crack the Empire was blood-curling enough. When the Empire had revealed the Death Star III over Atrisia it had marked a turning point -- the moment the Empire became the true concern. And now, to learn it had been scattered by this new Sith faction? One Ace had infiltrated, one that even had Lysander caught deep within it?

The implications branched endlessly. Sibylla could feel her thoughts racing down too many paths at once, each more unsettling than the last. Corellia, Naboo, and the Coreworlds... and how this would affect the growing strain of refugees who arrived daily with nothing but fear and hunger, straining already fragile systems. Former Alliance citizens. Former Imperials. All of them desperate. All of them potentially the churning point of volatile interactions on the streets and the Senate. She thought of Cora, still in recovery after childbirth, holding Luciana close, and wondered if she knew what her brother was now involved in.

If Cora could bear it, if she did.

And Ace -- his injuries, the message she had yet to read, the question of whether he had come straight from Coruscant carrying all of this on his back before collapsing at Rainspire's gates. Not to mention what he had experienced, where he was emotionally at, how that had affected him then and still now. He certainly wasn't the Ace she'd known, in that Aurelian had been correct. And while she couldn't, wouldn't, call Ace a Sith, the very real ramifications of what will happen next with Ace were there.

What next?

Would the Covenant turn toward the Republic now that the Core had cracked? How would that collide with Mandalorian obligations, with their retainer agreements, with manpower already stretched thin by war. The calculations spiraled faster and faster until a dull ache bloomed behind her eyes.

Sibylla lifted her free hand and pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose, pinching there as if she could physically hold her thoughts together.

Frustration. Alarm. Shock. Anger. And beneath it all, a deep, bone-weary exhaustion.

But not anger at him. Not that.

It was the cruelty of it that cut deepest. The irony. That just as she had learned what it meant to breathe without the stress of their responsibilities and what could destroy all they knew coiled in her chest, just as she had been allowed to rest inside the quiet he had built for her, the galaxy had decided it would not wait.

"Will this ever end?" The words slipped free before she could stop them, a soft, fractured murmur far too heavy for nineteen years.
She swallowed and shook her head faintly, forcing herself back into the present.

"I know. I know," Sibylla said quietly, hand falling to her side. "It is not the sort of thing we can ignore any longer."

Because deep down, Sibylla knew she would not walk away from it.

Hazel eyes lifted towards Aurelian, searching his beloved face even as the sound of crashing waves roared in the distance, the concern there etched upon her expression turning into resolve even as her fingers remained curled tightly around his.

"Where is Dominique in all this?" she asked softly. "And what is the next move?"

A pause, then a sigh.

"Well... beyond what we had delayed for too long. We must meet with Aether and the Mandalorians. We must settle and agree to a new treaty." there was no doubt there.

The galaxy was getting increasingly smaller, and the Republic was getting quickly boxed in by a storm of impeding threats.