The Show Goes On

[Jamie Pyne]

"Mental dreariness is still a form of torture in some places in the galaxy, I think." White teeth bared as she flashed another smile, enjoying the small moment to tease Aela, something she wasn't able to do nearly as often since she had stepped away from the Allaince, SIS, and Jedi Order to pursue a more quiet life teaching children that would grow up to likely become far better Jedi than Jamie.

"Naboo will be starting the process of electing a new monarch soon. I'm sure things will be hectic there."

Little did she know that the eventual crowning in the weeks to follow would be her own. Even in her absence the houses had begun to organize and submit those they felt fit for the position. Even though Jamie's family had always been court advisors, philanthropists, and councilors, she had never expected to be the one elected to the position of queen. It seemed fate had plans of its' own.

"Wroosti will be a nice escape from everything and everyone. And maybe I will stop taking on research expeditions for a while."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Probably a good idea." Aela stated with a smile. "Since you have a penchant of getting into trouble during them."

That wasn't really true, this was the first time Jamie had getting captured during a research expedition, but Aela glossed over that fact. Instead she smiled and moved along the other topic, mainly the election of Naboo's monarch.

Aela often forgot that Jamie's homeworld elected their King or Queen. It was something that most would find rather unusual, but in retrospect there was no real difference between the Monarch of Naboo than the Governor or President of a planet. They performed the same function in effect and were seen as leaders of their people. "Are there any strong contenders?"

She asked.

"Anyone you know?" It might help to get Jamie's mind off of what had just happened, press her towards something in the future.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She thought for a few moments in silence, teeth gently biting down against her lip with a twitch of her nose. Her thinking expression.

"Well, I haven't been home in a few months, so I'm not certain of what may have changed, if anything. But if I had to take a guess? Lord Balway seemed keen on the idea in the past. He's shrewd, but fair and honest. I could see him being elected."

Jamie knew all of the noble houses, their heads and heirs. It was standard practice. Frequently enough the vast majority would congregate for various events, galas, fundraisers, meetings, or public addresses. Many of them served on the various councils to the crown or the government. Jamie herself served the King's council, young as she were she offered insight that others did not have.

"It will be interesting to see who is nominated."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela nodded, though of course she had absolutely no idea who Jamie was actually talking about.

In general the Jedi Master knew next to nothing about politics in the Galactic Alliance, and on Naboo that was even more true. The only time she had actually visited the planet was when she had rescued Jamie from Vrak, aside from that she'd only gone there to train Titavians. Both of those trips had been rather short, and neither of them had her deal with the planets politics.

"What about you?" She teased, nudging Jamie slightly.

"You could make a run for it." Aela smiled. "Did pretty good with that one speech."

Aela remembered that well, though she'd never talked to Jamie about it before.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The blonde's face flushed a shallow pink.

"I don't think so." Her head shook. "If anyone of my family were nominated I suspect they would choose one of my parents. They are more in the spotlight than I have ever been. That speech was just what was needed at the time, and I was asked to make it."

Jamie was a bit surprised that Aela had even recalled that moment, let alone even saw it.

"You never told me you saw that." Despite it having been broadcast about the Galactic News Network. "Though I guess I'm more surprised that you never said so."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I figured if you wanted to talk about it you would mention it to me." Aela shrugged.

The truth was she had been proud of her padawan, but with everything that had happened as of late Naboo seemed like something Jamie would want to keep to herself. The planet was her homeworld after all and in theory Aela had no real reason to ever be part of it. Not if everything went well anyway.

"Politics." She began with a small smile. "Has never really been in my wheelhouse."

She chuckled slightly.

"There was a Governor once in the Alliance that tried to recruit me as his Chief of Staff." She frowned for a second. "Though now that I think about it...that might have beena rather crude pick up line."

Her frown deepened.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie frantically covered her mouth with her hand, shifting her position several times to hide wide smile on her face from Aela, while simultaneously trying desperately to hold back the giggle that wanted so terribly to be released In her mind, it was definitely a crude pickup line. Aela wasn't the most personable person. The job of overseeing the staff beneath a head of state seemed unlikely to be something she was suited to.

"I see."

The two syllables were all she could allow for, before she quickly clamped her mouth closed again with a nod. It seemed by the expression on Aela's face she realized the same, only finding it far less humorous than Jamie. The way her cheeks puffed upwards from beneath the cover of her hand made obscuring her expression all the more difficult. Realizing this the blonde finally let her hand fall, leaving her head to lower downwards with thinned lips and a crooked smile.

"Perhaps he just wanted you on his staff."

Her eyes closed tightly, the strain to maintain what little she had of her composure now all but impossible.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"That seems likely." Aela's voice was almost too innocent.

The Jedi wasn't a complete fool of course, and not only could she read Jamie's body language, but through the bracelet she could sense her padawans amusement. She didn't say anything, her voice remaining even and her face remaining straight.

"Wouldn't have been my first choice though." She stated plainly. "Or even second."

She let that hang in the air for a moment. "Speaking of staffs."

Aela glared at Jamie now.

"Did you ever settle things with Kurt?" They had never really spoken about that either.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"How does settling things with Kurt relate to staf---"

Then she understood. it took her mind about a second longer than her mouth had started to respond to realize what she meant by the correlation.

"Oh."

Her left hand rubbed the side of her face, the amusement falling away from her almost immediately.

"In a manner of speaking, we settled things, somewhat."

Jamie still wasn't overly keen on the whole situation, but supposedly it wasn't his kid, so that was a start.

"Apparently his friend slept with someone else, and the claim is that it's that person's kid, not Kurt's."

Sometimes that felt like enough for her, other times her nerves crept up from the depths of her mind, preventing her from sleeping, or waking her in the midst of rest. It was possible that despite all the promises that Kurt was wrong, or had been lied to, or that he lied to her. She forced herself to believe him, because if nothing else she wanted to, but she knew there was still a chance. As time passed she'd simply tried to forget the situation and leave things as they were.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She ran a hand through her hair.

"I see." It was clearly something that Jamie was not to keen on, and Aela understood why. The whole situation was a bit...messy. It was something that she tried to understand as best as she could, but with no frame of reference Aela could really only sympathize so much without it seeming...well dishonest. Eventually she let out a sigh, nudging Jamie slightly with her shoulder.

"It'll be alright." Aela said quietly. "We can go out drinking again on Wroosti."

She gave Jamie a small smile.

The experience that they had back on Borleias was something that likely neither girl was actually eager to repeat. The morning after their outing had been a horrid, headache filled nightmare that had seen Aela vomit more than once. The worst part of it all had of course been the fact that they had to work the next day, something that Aela was still rather embarrassed about.

The Jedi Master glanced at her padawan. "That will make you forget about everything."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Are you certain you want to do that?"

Jamie passed a curious look to Aela. "Don't you remember how drunk you got at the casino? If my memory serves me you practically let that guy grab your butt!" That was a lie, in fact Jamie hadn't even seen anyone even touch Aela, so the whole thing was likely fabricated to begin with, starting with Aela's assumption. But her own recollection of that night was also really hazy.

"And you got terribly sick! More than I, Miss I Don't Drink!"

Pushing herself up straight with her hands Jamie flipped the switch of the table lamp beside the bed, brightening the room a bit more. "Speaking of forgetting though." There was a pause as Jamie fingered the hem of her own shirt, pulling it up and over her head before setting it beside herself. Clearly the Jedi was more than comfortable enough around Aela now to remove her clothes in front of her. "What do you think?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She frowned for a moment. Aela had plenty of scars, most of them acquired over the years fighting either Sith or Slavers. A few of them even decorated her chest. She frowned for a moment as she glanced at the ones Jamie showed her.

"Not too bad." She said in honesty.

The marks were deep, but they would heal over time. A bit of bacta treatment and maybe some special lotions and they would fade away. It was a fact of battle, of war, that eventually you would accumulate and get many scars. Some wore them as a source of pride, others saw them as nothing but shameful. Aela landed somewhere in the middle. She didn't mind them so much, though often she did wonder if people found her less attractive because of them.

She was only human after all.

"We'll get you some bacta gel." She said as she gently poked one of the wounds. "Cream, they'll fade."

She turned slightly and glanced at Jamie's back. "They'll be gone in no time."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"You think so?"

The scars Kurt had across his back were still fairly present even after the time that had passed, and while Jamie didn't care about them in the least bit, she wondered if Kurt might. If nothing else she expected some terribly stern lecture about the dangers of what she was doing, how she needed to be more careful, and why she should stay away from places like Mustafar and the dark side.

That wasn't going to be a fun conversation to have.

Her own hand lightly traced a portion of the wound before settling back into her lap. "I should have been better prepared. He's got my lightsaber now."

As if the cutting of her hair hadn't been enough, Castor had used her own weapon to do the deed, and then proceeded to keep it as a trinket.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela frowned. She could understand the loss of a lightsaber, the thought of losing either of hers was devastating. She shook her head slowly and considered for a few seconds. ”You can’t win every fight.”

That was a simple, but rather harsh truth.

”You fought as best as you could.” She smiled. ”Sometimes you’re going to lose.”

The lesson was of course a rather harsh one, but Aela wasnt about to lie to her padawan. She had lost her fair share of fights too, and she was sure she would lose more in the future. It was just how it was, but every loss could also be a victory, as long as one looked at it the right way. ”Take from it. Try to see what you did wrong, how you could have won.”

She shrugged.

”Maybe you'll face him again and get your lightsaber back.” Aela smiled slightly. ”Or you can come with me and the younglings when we take our trip to Illum.”

Aela smirked at Jamie, of course implying her padawan was yet a youngling herself.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"What makes you think I need a washed up Jedi Master to help me make another lightsaber, hmmm?"

Jamie reached for her shirt, pulling her arms through the sleeves first, then her head, adjusting and brushing out the wrinkles as she settled back.

"Besides, I already know what I'm going to do." Picking up the datapad from the end table beside her she quickly closed the log entry she had made so that Aela wouldn't get any ideas, and searched for a moment until she found the small diagram she had started to work on, before passing it off to the other girl.

"That is what I'm going to make in its' place."

The diagram itself depicted a hilt made of Zaela wood, a tree native to Jamie's home world of Naboo, wrapped as well in songsteel to protect it from destruction. Within the crystal chambers were notations of a Bondar crystal, similar to her original blade, as well as a still empty chamber slot, denoted by a question mark. "I want something unique, special, for that space." Finally, along the sides of the hilt, in her native language were the engravings of her family name, as her previous weapon had been, as well as the name for the weapon, Rominaria.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Of course Jamie had it all planned out.

Her Padawan had apparently taken the time over the last three days to design a replacement lightsaber. She couldn't really blame her padawan of course, everyone needed something to do in times of crisis and apparently this had been a good distraction.

”Excuse me? Washed up? Im pretty sure ten minutes ago you were practically kneeling at my feet. Not entirely true but that hardpy mattered.

She knew Jamie was kidding of course.

”Where exactly do you think you'll get the parts for this hmmm?” Aela questioned. ”The Jedi supply store?”

There was a reason not just anyone could make a lightsaber. The parts were difficult to produce and acquire, the crystals even more so. Jedi Order's relied on an entire network to get the things they needed. Though Jamie being rich and from Naboo would help.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Kneeling at your feet?" Her eyes raised, lips pursing with hands falling to her hips and a slight cock to her head. "You'd like that way too much. Don't mistake gratitude for groveling." Out came the tongue for a quick flash before she returned to a more serious expression. Getting parts for a lightsaber surely wasn't easy, but it was hardly impossible.

What she did have was the knowledge of where to get crystals, and she had discovered a cave buried beneath the surface of Naboo that housed a small supply of the crystals. It was something thus far nobody else knew of, to her knowledge, aside from Connor Harrison. Though she hadn't been in contact with the man for some time, she was quite certain he would not reveal its' location either.

"No, not the Jedi Supply Store." Her eyes narrowed. "I'm going to steal the parts I need from yours while you're asleep, obviously."

Her fingers wiggled in the air as she reached towards Aela's waist jokingly.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela smacked Jamie’s hand straight away.

”Please, one of my lightsabers doesnt even have those parts.” The ancient saber had been one of the first designed millenia ago, which of course meant it was missing many of the standard pieces of a lightsaber that one might find today. It made the weapon more dangerous to use, but it also made it stronger when carving through certain things.

”Maybe if you're nice I’ll get you what need.” She stuck out her tongue. ”Though right now my younglings have more manners than you.”

She let out a ‘hmpf’ and stood up from the bed.

Aela shifted slightly then turned to her padawan. ”Come on, let's go get something to eat.”

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Only because you scare them with your resting queen face. Eventually they'll learn that you're not scary!"

Jamie couldn't help it, she laughed in response to her own joke, her other hand rubbing the sting away from where Aela hit her. With a push she climbed out of the bed, feeling the cold metal of the floor beneath her feet on the way towards the door that slid open as the two approached.

Jamie poked at the hilt on Aela's hip again as they turned out into the corridor.

"I forgot you still carried that rusty old pile of garbage. Maybe I'll have to see about opening that Jedi Supply Store after all. You could be the first customer."

Despite the back and forth, there was something strangely comforting whenever Jamie found herself in Aela's company. Perhaps it was the artificial Force bond between the bracelets, or the actual bond of friendship between them, or some combination of the two. Regardless, whether the situation was serious, relaxing, or like this, now, it always felt to her like they understood one another, even in the most unlikely circumstances.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She let out a gasp. ”None of my students are afraid of me!”

Aela said with a slight frown. A few of them had been when shed first arrived, but that was something that always happened with kids, they didn't like new people. She frowned for just a few seconds and then glanced down at jamie with a glower.

She was confident the younglings didn't feel anything but confidence and admiration towards her. At least she was pretty sure.

”I like my lightsaber.” She added with a wag of her finger. ”It is a piece of history. One of the first lightsabers ever created.”

She stuck her tongue out. ”No need to make jealous remarks my young Padawan.”