In the City that never sleeps 14

Sand swirled about my bare feet but when I looked up I found myself in the Jedi Temple not the desert. A young woman grabbed my hand and began to pull me through the sunlit hallways. I knew her face, A’kali L’uanna as a girl.

“Come on, they’re here!” She said and all but dragged me to a place where we had a clear view of a wide entrance. She pointed to the people arriving, specifically at a small blond haired boy.

“Who is that?”

“He’s the Chosen One.” She whispered. There was no mistaking the reverence in her voice.

I turned back to took at the boy not noticing that A’kali had slipped away. He looked frightened and lost. I sensed a great sorrow around him and the people he was with. It pierced my heart with its intensity.

“He mourns my death.” Said a new voice at my side. I looked up into the face of Qui Gon Jinn. “He has too much attachment, it will be hard for him to let go. This was our first mistake.” His words puzzled me.

I looked back at Anakin only to have him stare up into my face. “You.” He mouthed but I didn’t understand. For a moment our eyes met then everything around me morphed into something else.

I found myself still in the Temple but in the great Library. All around me was chaos, while I could not see anything I heard the screams and knew what night it was. The night the five oh first came, following Anakin who had turned to the darker side of his passions. The five oh first would forever be known as Vader’s fist after this, the terrible Fist of a man who would kill children to serve his own needs. I often wondered how those cloned soldiers had felt following the duty that Vader had tasked them with.

I didn’t understand this dream but I couldn’t get away from it either. I shut my eyes tightly and covered my ears with my hands hoping to block out the screams and sounds of blaster fire and lightsaber’s slice. Only when someone touched me on the shoulder did I open myself back up. The silence was more deafening that the sound of the furious slaughter. I glanced at the shimmering image of Qui Gon and then followed his own gaze. I shuddered at the sight.

“You have done well, my young apprentice.” I heard the terrible voice of Palpatine say. His words echoed through the stillness.

Anakin, a young man torn by grief, anger and the knowledge that he had betrayed everything, knelt on the floor before his master’s feet. What went through his mind I did not know but I could guess. I wished I could have saved him, turned back time and stopped it all from happening. I had to choke back a sob that threatened to engulf me.

“He doesn’t understand. He never understood.” Qui Gon told me. “Neither did we.” The sorrow in his voice was heart breaking. I watched as the scene once again shimmered and changed.

“Why do you show me these things?” I asked. I knew I was crying but I didn’t bother to wipe away my tears.

“So that you might know.”

“But why?”

“Because someone has to, because you see beyond the mask.” He said cryptically. Before I could ask another question he faded away leaving me in the empty library. I looked about and realised that it was completely bare. Everything that had been in it had been stripped away.

I walked about the room trying to find a trace of the history it had once held but there was nothing at all. The place was finally dead. It didn’t make me sad, it was a relief. I could touch things but felt nothing.

“You often come here, don’t you my child.” Palpatine’s soft voice whispered from behind me, making me jump in fright.

“Your Highness.” I said and began to kneel but he made a gesture with his hand and I remained standing.

“What do you hope to find in this place?” he asked gently.

“I don’t know.” It was the truth. “I never know.”

“There are no more answers here.” Palpatine said.

“I don’t understand any of this.”

Palpatine smiled. “Exactly, neither did he … until it was too late.”

I looked at the Emperor trying to decipher the hidden meanings underneath his words, but this was a dream and nothing made sense.

“You should not come here any more.” He said in that avuncular manner, as though I were a favoured niece not one of his pawns. “You should return home now.”

The room shifted and I found myself in a med lab but not one I was familiar with. This one was dark and intimidating. It smelled like charred flesh and metal. When I heard a scream I turned around and at first could not understand what I was seeing.

Medical droids bustled around the terribly burnt body, stripping off charred clothing, strips of flesh, in some places down to the bone and the man on the medical bed was still aware, still awake and screaming in agony. The droids seemed oblivious to his pain. They busied themselves with the artificial limbs which would take the place of the ones Obi Wan had severed.

“Suffering will make you strong, Anakin.” A voice behind me chided. “Use your anger and rise above the pain!”

I shuddered. Suddenly I felt sick. The Emperor had done this to him. No anaesthetic, nothing to dull the terrible pain. The med-droids began their terrible work, attaching metal to flesh, making Anakin whole again. No wonder Anakin hated the Emperor so much. No wonder Lord Vader was the way he was. How could one man endure so much pain and anger? I tried to turn away from the sight only to find someone holding my arm. When I looked to see who it was I found myself staring into Anakin’s charred face, his eyes had turned a dreadful colour of fire. I couldn’t bear to look at him but I couldn’t turn away.

“Wipe them all out!” He screamed. “Cut them all down! Traitors all of them! Even you, you betrayed me!” He stared straight at me but he wasn’t seeing me, he was seeing someone else. Ghosts…I was surrounded by them.

I snatched my hand from the metal claw that held me and backed away. I bumped into Palpatine who, with his hands on my shoulders, spun me around to face him. “You see, little one, there is no escape, eventually everyone becomes mine. I have plans for you and your talents, but not just yet.” He caressed my face with the backs of his fingers. I shivered. His smile was grotesque, as though a thousand years of malignancy had eaten away his flesh. “Go home now, he’s waiting for you.” He said, propelling me towards a door I had not noticed. It opened onto nothing and before I could do anything he had pushed me through it into the void where I fell, screaming.

I woke up with my cries still echoing in my head, gasping for breath and disoriented. This was not the bed I was used to and for a moment I wasn’t sure I really had woken up. When the reality of what room I was in hit and the memory of everything that had happened flooded back I knew I was not sleeping any more and got up. The chrono said it was just after two am.

I stumbled into the bathroom and cleaned up then headed for the kitchen to make a cup of tea. While the water heated up I went to the balcony to get some fresh air. At first I didn’t see Thrawn, standing in the darkness staring into the night, the lights from the city illuminated his skin softly but when I did my heart gave a little jolt. I stood very still thinking he had not noticed me, that I could just go back inside and not have to face any more of his angry accusations but then he spoke.

“Are you alright?” He asked without turning to look at me. “I heard you cry out.”

“I didn’t mean to wake you, I’m sorry.” I said and turned to leave.

“You did not wake me.” He said turning to face me, “and you didn’t answer my question.”

“It was just a dream.” I said, “A bad one, but just a dream, I don’t think it meant anything. I’m fine, I’m just … I’m fine.”

“Does this have to do with what happened after Bespin?” He asked.

I shook my head. We had not talked about that and although he knew something terrible had occurred, something that gave me nightmares so bad I was often afraid to go back to sleep afterwards, he had not pushed for information yet. “No. It was just a bad dream and it didn’t make any sense. If it had any meaning I don’t know it.”

We stared at each other for a moment. Then he broke the stillness between us when he stretched out his hand to me, gesturing that I should come to him. I did so hesitantly.

He reached out and caressed the side of my face with the backs of his fingers. “I’m sorry.” He said.

I blinked up at him in disbelief. “You’re apologising?”

“Yes,” He said, “I had no right to speak to you the way I did. You sound surprised.”

“It’s been my experience that men don’t usually say sorry for anything, right or wrong.”

That earned me a smile. “Well perhaps you have been keeping company with the wrong men.” He said. “When I am wrong, I will admit it.”

“Oh,” I said as I looked up into his face. This was the last thing I expected him to do or say. His eyes, which glowed with an eerie reddish light, held concern and something else I couldn’t read. “And here I was thinking that you were partly right about some of the things you said.” I was grateful that I had wrapped a warm shawl about my shoulders, the night air was cool.

His eyebrow arched. “Oh, I was.” He replied, “But that does not excuse the way I behaved.”

I nodded. “Okay.” I said slowly. “Were you going to just stand out here all night then or had you planned on coming in and telling me this?”

“When I went in to talk to you earlier you were sound asleep, I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Ah.” I said quietly, turning away from his intense stare. “I kind of wish you had.”

“I’ll be honest with you, A’myshk’a, you drive me to distraction.” He said plainly. “Never in my life have I come across anyone quite like you. Nor have I ever experienced the wide range of emotions you seem to delight in putting me through. This relationship of ours is problematic at best and at worst, wrecks constant havoc on my well laid order and plans.”

I held my breath and my heart thumped in my chest as I readied myself for the we should stop seeing each other speech which I was sure was coming. I opened my mouth to say something but he shut me up by placing his forefinger gently on my lips and continued to speak. “I have never thought of myself as a man with a jealous nature. I am ambitious and probably also proud, but not jealous. Tonight’s little incident proved me wrong and I handled it very poorly. I took my anger at what Zaarin did out on you. It was not my intent to raise my voice or imply the things I did.”

I looked up at him puzzled. That had not been what I had expected. I took a deep breath. “Well, as disagreements go, this was a pretty normal one, if you ask me.” I said slowly. “Tame in comparison to some of the fights I used to have with papa.”

He nodded. “The Chiss do not fight. Nor do we have loud, angry arguments about anything. We are taught from very early on to contain our feelings and choose a logical not an emotional course of action. Humans are utterly chaotic in this respect. It is a wonder to me sometimes how anything in this galaxy ever gets accomplished.” He paused. “Having an orderly discussion with you on a topic that you are emotionally involved in is nearly impossible.” He said. “I am unused to this method of conflict on such a personal level. You make things not calm, not logical. Sometimes it is like living with a never ending, wild and unpredictable storm.”

“Well,” I said quietly, “At least it’s not boring.”

He gave a short laugh. “No, you are anything but dull, my dear.”

“The Sand People have a saying. Without the wild winds there would be no beautiful dunes.” I told him.

“Yes, there is a Dantassi saying much like that only it has to do with snow not sand.”

For a moment we were quiet, just looking at one another. Then I asked a little uncertainly. “So…I won’t have to pack my things and move back to the palace?”

He opened his mouth then shut it again and gave me a look which said remind me which planet are you from again? “What in Da’hajn’s name made you think that?”

“I tend to assume the worst these days.” I said with a little shrug. “You were very angry.”

He smiled. “You do have a knack for stirring me up, as it were.” He said, I just looked up at him and sighed.

“I don’t mean to, most of the time.” I replied. “So, I don’t have to leave then?” I gave him a little grin to hide the fact that I really needed to hear him say it.

“No.” he said then added, “I have told you before, I am bound to you.”

“What exactly does that mean?” I asked.

“That I won’t be breaking up with you over something that was not entirely your fault to begin with.” he replied.

“That’s not really an answer.”

“Yes it is, just not one you were expecting.” He countered. “How is your face?”

I touched the place where Zaarin had backhanded me, the swelling on my lip had gone down and if he had not mentioned it I would have forgotten about the bruise. “It’s fine.”

He said, “So it won’t hurt if I do this.” His hand cupped the back of my head, his fingers snaking under my hair as he drew my face up to his. He kissed me slowly, tenderly. Relief washed through me as I kissed him back. When the kettle peeped to let me know the water had boiled, he broke from me to ask, “Do you still want to make tea?”

“Uhm, not really.” I breathed.

“Good.”

“Why?”

“We have a conversation to finish.”

“I thought we were done fighting.” I frowned.

“We are.” He said. “I am speaking of the discussion we began before you left the flat this evening.”

“Oh.” I replied. “I guess arguing with me wasn’t on your list of fun things to do this evening?”

“No. It was not.” He said and he began to show me what was on his list of fun things to do.

The culmination slow and elegant seduction through our letters, the verbal foreplay from before the evening’s events coupled with our anger at what had happened was so powerful I felt as though we would implode from it. Fighting, it seemed, built up a lot of passion and all that energy had to go somewhere; I liked his current solution better than the one from earlier on.

Thrawn was fierce and dominant, stirring me up like sand dancing in a windstorm. With his mouth, his hands and his body he marked the territory of what he had claimed was his. I didn’t argue about ownership rights and I matched his intensity with my own, untamed and wild. I, too, had teeth and nails. The Chiss prided themselves on their cool logic, and had done their very best to train their kind to eschew all public displays of emotion but I knew better than to believe this all went bone deep. Thrawn was a man of intense passions, though well schooled by his people in the art of playing it cool, he allowed himself, on occasion, to be free of the constraints his lineage demanded. Ice to my fire, he melted and in doing so quenched the heat that threatened to incinerate me from the inside out. If I could have physically burned his name on the inside of my soul I would have. I wondered briefly if such passions as these would eventually die off and if so, what would be left in their place but these tiny doubts were soon forgotten as he made sure he my full attention.

In the quiet of the bedroom we moved like light on water. Our bodies rippled together as I sat astride his lap, riding upon him. His hands rested on my hips, holding me as he leaned against the headboard of the antique bed which I gripped tightly, trapping him within the circle of my arms. This was one of his favourite positions and when I had once asked him why this was, he had simply replied because it is one of the few times we see eye to eye. I had thought he was playing with words, just a joke answer but that was not the case. I had not really understood what he had meant.

There was so much power in our coupling that it sometimes amazed me we didn’t spontaneously combust from it. He had taught me well in the art of giving him pleasure just as he had learned how well to please me. I had come a long way from the first night he had taken me to his bed, wounded and nervous. I enjoyed giving as much as I received. It was the one place where I did not feel as though he were constantly trying to teach me a lesson in politics or tactics of some sort and occasionally I was able to surprise him. I wondered, for a moment, if it was possible for two separate beings to meld into one because that’s what it felt like, that’s what I wished for. As the world boiled around us and when the energy between us finally exploded, I felt as though I had shattered into a billion pieces.

I could feel his heart pounding in his chest as I shuddered against his body, now holding onto him tightly, my legs around his, thigh to thigh and my fingers digging into his back. Our laboured breathing was in perfect synch. For a singular point in time it really seemed as though we had become one, but that tiny moment passed in the wink of an eye.

In the wash of serenity that followed the manic passion, still wrapped about his body, I inhaled his scent deeply and, sighing contentedly, I rested my head upon his shoulder. He mistook it for a sigh of something else.

“Contrary to what you often seem to feel, the weight of the galaxy does not rest on your shoulders you know. That would be the Emperor’s job, tekari.” His fingers ran through my hair.

“I know that.” I said indignantly but his words made me smile, which had been his intent. I looked into his eyes. It awed me how much I felt for this man, the ache it gauging a great hole in the pit of my being. Too much, a little voice in the back of my mind whispered but I ignored it as I touched his face with the tips of my fingers, taking in the shape of his bones, the surface of his skin which was all shadowy lines in the bedroom’s dim light. For a moment we simply looked at each other. Then, drawing my face with both hands, to meet his, he kissed me before I could speak. I wondered, not for the first time, how a kiss could be so tender and yet at the same time so incredibly possessive. I did my best to return it in kind.

“Peyla’mer a’mal’yn.” He whispered in my ear. You belong to me.

“Zav’niaask nen kahden.” I murmured back without hesitation. Forever and always.

“Yes.” He growled so fiercely and so protectively that I looked up at him for an explanation. He gave none. I was his and that was that. It had never occurred to me before to ask if it worked the other way around. There was something unsettlingly familiar about these words and how they were said but I couldn’t place it.

“But you are also mine, aren’t you?” I asked, trying to shake the sense of having lived this scene already.

He studied my face carefully and nodded slowly. “Yes, bound by word and ritual.” He said very softly.

There was more going on here, underneath the surface of the words he spoke, but I could not decipher them. I felt the same weird electricity now as I had during the middle of the unmasking ceremony on Hjal. Some deeply meaningful thing being observed without me knowing or really understanding it. I looked him in the eyes and asked, “So this means that I am bound to you as well?”

I could not read the expression on his face. “Yes, in a manner of speaking, if that is your wish. Although it is not formally binding.”

“What does that mean, exactly?”

He caressed my face with the backs of his fingers. “There are some things which must be spoken aloud, witnessed and marked.” He said gently.

“This is some weird Dantassi thing you won’t explain to me and I will have to badger Navaari to tell me what it all means, isn’t it?”

“Something along those lines.” He said with a smile. “But for that to happen we must visit Hjal.”

“I’m game for that. Navaari’s always telling you to bring me and besides,” I grinned, “I miss him.”

“As he misses you.” He replied. He moved slightly so that he could see my eyes. I watched his face but I couldn’t read it. “A binding pledge is not given lightly and words spoken in the heat of passion can often be recanted or even regretted.” He said.

I just looked at him. “There is no one else, now or ever. I am yours. I don’t regret this, so deal with it.”

He laughed and kissed my forehead. “Such are my trials.” He smiled and I knew that this was all I would get from him on this topic but something in his tone of voice said my answer had greatly pleased him and some little missing puzzle piece had fallen into place between us. Goosebumps rippled down my arms and I shivered.

With the passion receding and the affection between us a quiet thing, I was cold now with no clothes on in spite of the warmth from his body. We moved apart then, one becoming two, and he pulled me down to lie beside him, tugging the covers up over us both. His long fingers traced the contour of my body, shoulder to hip and back. I would have though that in the aftermath of our coupling we would have been sleepy but that was not the case. Instead we lay thoughtful as though there were unfinished business to deal with.

“You know, the Empire is going to all nine Corellian hells and back.” I said, breaking the silence as I nestled into his body.

He moved to accommodate me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Things have not been running as smoothly as they should lately, that is true.”

I snorted. “It seems to me this entire galaxy is coming apart at the seams.”

“I suppose it must feel like that on occasion but really when one puts it all into some sort of perspective, what is going on is very small compared to the entirety of the galaxy.”

“So these defections that have been occurring lately are normal?”

There was a moment’s pause and I glanced up at him so I could see his face better. “Perhaps not so many in so short a time, but given the number of people who work for the Empire both from a military stand point as well as civilian, I don’t think it is so unheard of. It is however, unacceptable.” Thrawn replied. There was anger in his voice. Loyalty was one of the things he prized above all else.

“How did your little private promotion thing go?” I asked, changing the subject, there had been enough anger for one night.

He looked at me. “It was small and fairly unremarkable.” He said. “Attended by the Emperor, a few of his most trusted advisors, Lord Vader and a certain young lady he seems to hold in high esteem.”

That caught my attention.

“You know her as Lianna, I believe.”

“But that’s not her real name.” I said pointedly.

Now I had his attention. “I’m listening.”

“Her name is Mara Jade; she’s one of the Emperor’s agents.”

“Yes, I learned this tonight. She is an Emperor’s Hand, although I was under the distinct impression that she thinks she is the only one.” He said.

“Why would she think that? The Emperor has many agents.”

“Yes, you and I both know that. I suspect it is his way of controlling her, manipulating her.” He said.

“So why was she there anyway?” I asked failing to keep the sudden pang of jealousy I felt out of my voice.

Thrawn glanced at me, and caressed my face gently, lifting up my chin so that I knew what he had to say next he meant for me to pay close attention to. “Envy is not an emotion that you wear well, tekari. Put your claws away, you have no reason to feel threatened by her. She works for the Empire, as do you. She was there because the Emperor felt it was necessary I learn her true identity. You should feel sorry for her, not envious of her.”

I gave him my ‘what do you mean’ look. He continued. “She was taken from her family at a very young age and raised by Palpatine as his ward, raised by the Empire as it were. She has been bent and shaped to his will her whole life. She has never had what you had, a family who loved her or a proper childhood. She lives only to please Palpatine and do her duty. She has never known anything else. You have nothing to be jealous of and she has every reason to envy you.”

I just glanced at him. “Well I guess that would explain why she doesn’t like it when the Emperor shows favour on others.”

“She has never been allowed the luxury of friends. I am also certain that under Palpatine’s hand she has learned far more about distrust and disfavour in her young life than you ever will. Palpatine is a master at manipulation when it comes to bending others, something you have also experienced.”

I just nodded. I got the message and changed the subject back to the original topic. “Is it true that the Council of Twelve isn’t aware that you are one of them?”

“Yes, this is true.” He said.

“Why is that?”

“You would have to ask the Emperor that question.” He said with a slight shrug.

“I think I’ll pass.” I said, “So how long will your promotion be kept a secret?” I asked.

“Until the time is right to make it public and that is up to Palpatine. He has his reasons for all the secrecy.”

“He always does.” I said a little crossly.

He shifted, leaning up on elbow to stare at my face. “Do not underestimate the Emperor in anything he does, tekari, and do not assume to know the way of things. Not everything with Palpatine is as it appears to be. He is a man capable of such manipulations and machinations; I have never seen anyone as skilled in this art as he is.” He chided gently but underneath the softness of tone was an edge of cold steel.

“So why doesn’t he want anyone to know you are a Grand Admiral?” I asked.

He sighed as he lay back down, allowing me to reassert my territorial claim over his shoulder. “The quick answer is because he has stated there would only ever be twelve. I make thirteen. He wishes it to be a secret so it stays that way. The truth is, my dear, I don’t know who does know and who doesn’t. I only know that the Emperor has his reasons and I did not care to argue with him on them for the time being.”

“You think it has something to do with what ever is going on with Zaarin?”

I felt him smile as he stroked a lock of hair from my face. “That possibility had occurred to me. The Emperor has a disturbing knack for seeing the future of things.”

“That’s a force trick.” I told him. “But it isn’t always right or even accurate.”

“Have you ever seen into the future?”

I sighed. “I have had visions on a few occasions but I don’t know what they mean. Without context there is no way to discern meaning.”

“Give me an example.”

“I had one of you once. At the gallery show where we saw the Bernau pieces, do you remember?”

That caught his interest. “I remember you went as white as a Csillian snow field. You had claimed to have not eaten enough but that was a lie.”

I nodded. “It was a flash, really nothing more but so real, as if I had been some how transported into a different time and place. I saw you seated on some sort of command chair on a star destroyer, dressed in white, a Grand Admiral’s uniform. You were clutching your chest. There was blood running over your hands. What ever had happened had surprised you. You were not expecting it.” I shuddered involuntarily at this memory.

“Well, as you can see I am very much alive.” He said thoughtfully.

“I have no idea what it all means, when it will happen or even if it will ever happen. But I can tell you this, it had that feel to it. I know when I get a real vision because there is a quality to it that is just unlike anything else, not a dream or a memory. The only time anything I have seen has come true was when I was on Rothana but I read it wrong. I thought it meant that Lian…I mean Mara Jade would be killed, instead she was just wounded. So you see, without context there is no way to know meaning. And if it is the future, it can change because the future is fluid and relies on the past. It’s all terribly confusing.”

He was quiet for a log moment then he said, “So the skill is in actually learning how to read these visions then and not just having them?”

I nodded. “I guess so. I don’t know much about how it works and I don’t talk to Lord Vader about this subject any more because he got tetchy and violent the last time I tried. I don’t dare ask the Emperor because Sarlacc knows what he might do if he knew I had this ability as well.”

“Do you not think that the Emperor would have the experience and the skill to more accurately read visions of the future than you would?” He asked.

“I am sure he does, but would you not agree that even the Emperor is not perfect and could make mistakes?”

“Yes.”

“And if he is wrong about something important, something that could affect the entire balance of power?”

Thrawn drew a deep breath. “Well,” he said slowly, “that will be an interesting moment in time.”

“I think it would be terrible and chaotic. If he relies on this power to see ahead but misses some small detail or doesn’t account for some tiny element of surprise then everything could collapse.” I shivered at this thought. “I mean can you imagine a galaxy without the rule of the Emperor?”

“I imagine it would be messy.” He said quietly.

I glanced up at his face. “Not if you were around to step in and take over.”

He laughed a little. “Your faith in my abilities as a leader is overwhelming, sj’iu tekari.”

“People would follow you.” I said and I meant it.

“Only if they overcame their fear of my differences first.” He replied in a voice that said no more talk of this.

I sighed. “Are you sure you don’t want to just retire to Hjal, father my children and go hunting with Navaari?”

He smiled with a sigh. “That idea has such sweet appeal but I am duty bound to serve the Empire and my duty comes first. However, there is nothing stopping you from leaving Lord Vader’s employ and heading out to Hjal if you wanted.” He was teasing.

“Yes there is.” I said, poking him in the chest.

He wrapped his hand around mine. “And that would be?”

“You.” I said. “It’s too damned cold there and who would keep me warm at night?”

“Who indeed?” He murmured in my ear, sleep creeping into his voice.

I just nodded and sighed comfortably. He completed a part of my world I had never even known was lacking. What it was he got from me, I didn’t know but I hoped it was enough. We lay drowsy until just before dawn but we also did not speak. There were no more words. When I woke up it was late and he was gone.

The note he had left for me on the Kitchen counter said;

Mia tekari,
I hope that you slept well. There is stimcaf ready to go in the pot and fresh scones in the warmer. You were so fast asleep I thought it best to let you rest. Lord Vader has been called off world. He did not say how long he would be gone for. You officially have the day off. Given the events of yesterday I do not think you will complain. Shiv left a message asking if you were alright and he will try to get a hold of you later on this afternoon. I am sure that will entail lunch and you explaining a great deal.
I am not certain when I will be home but it should not be terribly late. I have dinner taken care of and plan on not letting you out of my sight this evening so for the sake of peace and quiet, will you please try to stay out of trouble between now and then?
Za’ar

I just stared at the note and waited for the stimcaf to brew. I grabbed the latest news flimsy, warmed up the scones he had left for me and sat down to read. I could not think of a better way to start my day. It was the last truly peaceful day and night I would know for a very long time.