“Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin: A Rose by Any Other Name”
NOTE: I wanted to wait to hear back from cariel about this story before I posted it where everybody could read it, but I've already been waiting for over a week, and I'm afraid that if I keep sitting on it I'll never remember to unlock it, so . . . here it is, folks! cariel, I hope you approve!
Second half-ish of story only, because of the LJ's word/character limits!
Title: “Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin: A Rose by Any Other Name”
Pairing: Illyn and Cianus Tammesin. Some brief references to other pairings.
Rating: Uhm, probably a PG-13 edging into an R (for reference to rape), maybe (?)
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Star Wars, more’s the pity! What I do have is an extremely contrary muse that refuses to shut up and leave me alone . . .
Summary: This is seventy-five random but essentially chronological moments from the life of Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin, the mother of (Ryseidas) Dormé Tammesin. There is an actual story here - one small thread among the vast woven tapestry of life that is the living history of the galaxy, stretched out and twisted, knotted into the whole, curled down among the roots of time, connecting various moments together - but one must read between the lines to capture it. It is not precisely the truth, for the subtle story of these moments is sketched out here in words, and, in the sin of writing down a life, it inevitably changes the shape of things. But it is nevertheless a form of truth. (From a certain point of view . . . )
Warning: This story functions as a sort of compressed codex for Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin, as she is going to be written (or at least referred to) in my not even nearly complete AU Star Wars series You Became to Me. If anything doesn’t make sense, please feel free to ask! Please be aware, though, that some of the material contained in this story ranges between being somewhat spoilerish and extremely spoilerish for other works that I either have planned (including an AU rewrite of TPM and at least one of the sequels for my Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith trilogy) or else in the works for the AU series You Became to Me!
Author’s Notes: 1). For anyone interested, this not-quite-a-story is compatible with my SW AU series You Became to Me, including the trilogy Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith, if you squint at a couple of things sideways and view a few others solely through the lens of Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin’s eyes. 2). Although this is technically modelled on a prompt set that I either borrowed from somewhere or another on the LJ or cobbled together from two or more such prompt sets I on the LJ (I really don’t recall from where anymore, exactly, though if someone would like to set the record straight, I’ll add the info and a link to the community in question here in my notes), it’s not really meant to function as a response to whatever the challenge actually is that’s associated with said (individual) LJ prompt set. I just used the specific prompts to give me a reason to string together a backstory of sorts for Illyn. 3). Readers might want to consider the fact that Illyn is fairly strong in the Force, but that she hasn’t received any training whatsoever to speak of and so has no real conscious control over that sensitivity to the Force. In addition, her mind walled off much of her latent empathy/telepathy ability when she was a child, to protect her from the hive virus induced death agonies of her mother and father as well as nearly all of her family and the members of her father’s extensive household. 4).Readers interested in knowing who the physical models are for EU characters like Illyn’s other children should please consult the latest versions of my posted lists of cast original and EU characters and for handmaid(en)s and other important Nabooian characters, which are available on my LJ! For clarity’s sake, though, please know that I specifically picture Zita Görög when I envision Illyn’s mother, the Lady Duchess Lesharia Aymaru Nanureen Jaffa, Giancarlo Giannini for Lesharia’s husband, Duke Raghvin Sargonus Jaffa, and Julia Dreyfus for the first wife of Duke Jaffa, Ehnduanna Imelda Barashi Jaffa. The three children Duke Jaffa had by Ehnduanna all died within the first two years of their lives (hence, their mother’s eventual suicide, after miscarrying of a fourth child, a daughter, so violently as to render herself barren), but I suppose that readers may imagine that, if Ehnduanna’s children had all lived, they might have grown to resemble Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, Nigella Lawson, and Rena Sofer, and their names would have been Amarshue, Sharruss, Ylexai, and Resharyn Jaffa. Both Lesharia’s mother and grandmother, Ylena Nanureen and Nímenna Rhojus, can be pictured as Helena Rojo (Ylana with black hair and dark eyes, Nímenna with brown hair and almost amber eyes). Edren Janren should be pictured as Rufus Sewell while his father, Lugale Janren, should be pictured as a slightly more curly-headed Rik Young. Cianus Tammesin is modelled on a young William Hurt, Adeé Russe (Princess of Theed and later Queen Ashtara of Naboo) is modelled on a young Katharine Hepburn, and her mother, Tharina Russe, is modelled on an older Katharine Hepburn. Katerol Jaffa can be pictured as Lambert Wilson; Druthma Jaffa can be pictured as Mark Strong; Rusilla and Marrité Ginborjo (and, later, Jaffa) can be pictured as Virginie Ledoyen and Audrey Tautou; Anjelica Huston and Jeroen Krabbé can be pictured as Remilla and Jherumee Ginborjo; King Muruka should be pictured as a young (in his early twenties, when Illyn first encounters him) and rather arrogant Spencer Tracy; and King Veruna can be pictured as a thirty-ish (when dethroned) Marlon Brando. Readers should please consider Illyn’s youngest three children, Laborue, Ioannes, and Yseultai (who should be pictured as Leonardo DiCaprio, Thomas Dekker, and Sophia Myles), to be roughly sixteen, thirty-two, and forty-five galactic standard months younger than Dormé. Also, for readers who aren’t familiar with the story of Etté Zirach, Lehari Nhaven can be pictured as a young (not quite eleven and a half, at the time of the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo) Ava Gardner. Please note that characters who may be alluded to but not referenced by name (certain family members of EU or original characters, for example) are considered too minor to be cast at this time, and that readers should feel free to imagine them howsoever they wish! 5). Readers should be aware of the fact that Illyn, Edren Janren, and Duke Raghvin Jaffa are all essentially AU versions of original characters by the same names in several of cariel and bloodraven77’s AU Dormékin stories, such as The Empire. I’ve discussed various additions to the basic names for these characters, AU aspects to these characters’ lives that have led to the creation of other original characters (such as Lesharia and Ehnduanna and Lugale, etc.), “borrowing” certain Uriashian words to make my AU Illyn more authentic, and such a couple of times with cariel to make sure I wouldn’t step on any toes, in the creation of this piece. cariel and bloodraven77 have already given me permission to present my Dormé Tammesin and Sabé Dahn as AU versions of their Dormé Jaffa and Sabé Nabish, but I wanted to be sure that they were alright with my mucking about with the Jaffa clan before I actually wrote about Illyn anywhere except my various notebooks. That said, I am presenting this story here with cariel and bloodraven77’s generous permission!
“Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin: A Rose by Any Other Name”
35.) Infant: The baby is born, after a hideously painful and difficult labor, too early for a full term if her father were not Cianus, but small and thin and sickly enough that she could’ve passed for premature, and, though the little girl is, according to everyone else, sweet and even-tempered and extremely tractable and adorable and beautiful and eminently lovable, Illyn cannot bring herself to hold the child for much more than a few moments at a time, and she certainly cannot even being to suckle the infant herself, so they are forced to hire a nursing ummeda for the infant immediately, once they leave the Healers’ maternity ward.
36.) Childhood: The girl - Dormé, as she comes to be called, going ever by her childhood name instead of assuming the name Ryseidas, the name legally given to her, at birth, in defiance of the traditional rules for the naming of children - is a truly wonderful and exceptional child, lovely and quick and precociously bright and painfully like Illyn was, as a young girl, and she cannot abide her presence for much more than a few minutes to perhaps an hour at a time (if they are in larger company), and she can tell that her seeming indifference (and increasing near-cruelty) and the increasing absence of the girl’s (supposed) father (as Cianus withdraws more and more from their family, in response to Illyn’s coldness, spending an increasing amount of time away, at work) is doing an incredibly amount of damage to the child’s spirit and self-esteem, but Illyn physically cannot make herself do anything else, instead inevitably driving herself to bouts of tears and sickness and violent nightmares every single time she tries to make herself be more of a real mother to the poor girl.
37.) Puppet: The fear is an ache that never subsides, a teeth-clenching, gut-wrenching pain that never sleeps, wraps around her (like a lover) and places itself firmly on her shoulder (like heavy hands, work-calloused and hardened with rage) and demands to be heard, quietly and simply but firmly, leaning close and turning to whisper softly but persistently in her ear, and she’s tired of the endless struggle to turn away (get away, escape), tired of being a puppet forever danced about on such strings, pushed and pulled hither and yon and never settling, never allowed a moment’s true rest, tired of being afraid that this is all her fault (grieving), tired of being afraid that this is something that cannot be fixed (nightmaring), tired of being afraid of her own name, her own nature, her own husband, of fearing that he might hurt her or she might destroy him and not knowing, not being able to tell, which is more likely, which would be worse, which has enough logical basis to truly require guarding against, to really justify all of this soul-swallowing fear.
38.) Sleep: Cianus doesn’t try to touch her, unless she invites it, doesn’t try to make her spend more time with him or with Ryseidas (no, Dormé, Dormé! Great Lady, let her not, in her fear, forget how vital, how important, a shadow name is, on top of all else she has lost!), but he will not let her sleep alone, for fear of what she might do, in the midst of a nightmare, choosing instead to sleep on a cot rolled into place every night before the door, and that would be fine, that would be wise, except there are some things he has not anticipated, some reactions (some sources of fear) he is not equipped to understand, and when she all but literally throws herself upon him, one night, his hands that will not touch unless invited do not know well enough to push away from such a false (fear-fueled) request, and she nearly manages to throw herself out the window, when he lies in an exhausted, satiated stupor, before he can rouse himself enough to stop her.
39.) Fall: She’s not sure if she gave him permission, consented to let him touch her, or not, not sure if she fought to get away or to make him fall closer, push harder, pin and pierce and Mother of Seas help her, there’s no way of knowing, no way of knowing if the child is from before, when she flung herself at him in a desperate attempt to silence the nightmares, to drive out the cold, to feel something, anything, even if only for a few moments, or from after, when she strove to fly without wings, the sudden grappling struggle, the painfully hard hands on her, pulling her back, away, down, out of the black frame of the open windows to fall, tumbling, tangled together, onto the bed, her bed, their own, old bed, his fear, his fury, scorching, insistent, ravaging, demanding life where’d thought only to cultivate silence, stillness, death . . . and Great Lady help her, but she can’t remember enough, isn’t sure how it really happened (remembers twisting, heat, wetness, aching agony and want, need, Goddess - !), and, anyway, how would one ever be able to tell, which act would end in begetting a son?
40.) Treasure: According to both the Healers and the minders, the presence of other children in the house is supposed to help, supposed to bring her and Cianus back together again as a couple by giving them so much of a family that it can no longer be ignored, but all it really does is to give Illyn an excuse to pull further and further away from Cianus and to cement poor Dormé’s bad opinion of herself, for the two boys she and Cianus unabashedly love and spoil (especially the first, the eldest, as if, through an excess of love, they might at last banish the ghosts of that night, the doubts and fears) and their baby girl is the gem of the family and the shining treasure residing at the apple of everyone’s eyes, while Dormé is ignored or treated with casually cold contempt, no matter how hard she tries to please or how exceptional she becomes, and the guilt is such that Illyn often finds herself unable to even bring herself to look upon her firstborn, without fear of being sick over what she’s done to her.
41.) Lover: When he first attacked her, the dark-haired young man snarled something at her (“Vicious little cold-blooded bitch - just like your mother! - promising a man friendship, love, the whole world on a string, so long as it suits your fancy, and then dropping him cold as soon as it’s no longer a sufficient challenge or he’s of no more immediate use to you, caring only for the continuation of your own comforts and be damned to everyone else!”) that doesn’t make any sense to her at all until several years later, when she sadly begins to suspect that her husband might be dealing with her coldness by having an affair with someone he works with, in Adeé Ashtara Russe’s offices (the former Princess of Theed having surprisingly, after only a single term in office as Queen of Naboo, moved on to become a sort of liaison between the Senator of the Chommell Sector and the monarch of Naboo, in essence becoming almost a junior Senator, given her close association with that office) and it suddenly occurs to her that the pearl necklace her mother had so loved had been broken by her father because he had suspected that it might have been the gift of a lover . . . and that the curly-haired boy she’d played with, as a child, might well have been the son of her mother’s real beloved as well as the young man later hired to attack her, twisted by bitterness and rage over the way her father had, in his fury at his wife’s seeming infidelity, destroyed the boy’s life by summarily casting out and ruining his father.
42.) Blood: The Jaffa clan always did things . . . a little bit differently than other noble Nabooian families and those elected government officials who are treated (while serving their terms) as ruling nobles: though the name of their original homeworld has been lost, the fact that the Jaffa (and the loyal retainers brought with them, to Naboo, who became the ancestors of the residents of Uriash) did not hail from Grizmallt (with its colonial ties to Chandrila and Alderaan) is well known, with the tendency of the Jaffa clan to take their duties (and their rights and privileges) as ruling nobles a bit more seriously than other members of the (technically unofficial) hereditary Nabooian aristocracy - essentially holding legal sway and authority over all of their holdings (including both the sizeable city-stake of Uriash and much of the surrounding countryside) by right of blood (a right that could be challenged only by the authority of the monarch of Naboo, and one that was only ever exercised thrice in all of the long written history of Naboo), with democracy entering the picture only in the matter of the ruling Duke or Duchess, that member of the Jaffa clan considered to be the cleverest, most capable, and most charismatic leader and protector among their ranks, chosen by an open vote in family council to replace the prior ruling Duke or Duchess either after death or when the family had established that the previously chosen head of the clan had proven unfit to rule, rather than by having the right pass automatically, by inheritance, from mother or father to eldest child (though, historically speaking, most often the right did go from father or mother to one child or another, if not to a sibling of the Duchess or Duke) - often being credited to this difference in origin; yet, though she admires the fiercely independent nature of her family and her people and a part of her even occasionally thinks that this way (rule by right of merit) is better, in the long run, than more openly democratic forms (wherein the one with the most money or the loudest voice or the brightest/most engaging smile and not necessarily the best qualified may be elected), sometimes Illyn also suspects that the Jaffa (and perhaps also the people of Uriash) may have clung too tightly to the old ways for their own good, and that this form of rule may have contributed to the downfall of the clan (given both the arrogance and the insularity that it bred): this is, in any case, what she tells herself, whenever the questions arises as to why she hasn’t attempted to learn more about her family and her heritage.
43.) Care: She hides in her books, her writing, and her youngest children, using her focus on her children and her continued studies and her scribblings (about her life, about her children, about things as they could have been, in another, kinder universe) as buffers between her and the rest of the world, retreating further and further into her shell and away from the bright, strong young woman (overflowing with potential) who blossomed , so briefly, under Adeé Russe’s care and Cianus Tammesin’s love, and, even though her cowardice shames her, she cannot quite find it within herself to stop running away, stop hiding, from the memory of that young woman.
44.) Same: Dormé resembles Illyn’s mother’s side of the family quite closely - the women were and are all cut from the same cloth, from Illyn’s mother’s grandmother all the way down to Dormé: slim and fine-boned; late to reach their adult growth but eventually possessing slightly greater than average height, with some curves lost to that height, yet still possessing more than sufficient shapeliness to render women speechless, stop men dead in their tracks; with dark hair, dark hair, a (deceptively) fragile oval face with a strong chin, high cheekbones, lushly full mouth meant for smiling (or for kissing), nose long and fine and either straight or else turned ever so slightly and mischievously upwards: but for slight variances of hair color (ranging from medium to dark brown to true black, that shade so dark that it breaks the light up into ghosts of blue and purple iridescence) and eye color (ranging from amber/hazel to darkest brown) and skin tone, minor deviations in height and shape of nose, every single woman (from Nímenna Rhojus to Ylena Nanureen and Lesharia Jaffa to Illyn Tammesin to Dormé herself) could have been easily mistaken for the same woman, if taken all together, as a whole, at approximately the same age (hell, but for the fact that Nímenna’s hair was a medium brown and her eyes nearly amber, while her daughter’s hair was pitch black and her eyes nearly dark enough to match her hair, those two could have been mistaken for twins - a fact that had often led to confusion, on Illyn’s part, back when she was a child and trying to discover who and what her family had been surreptitiously enough not to garner the notice of the Ginborjos) - and a part of Illyn desperately hopes that this means that whatever curse it is that seems to have attached itself to the Jaffa name and family will never be able to touch her daughter, though another (much larger) part of Illyn knows this is a futile wish, given that her inability to love or mother the girl properly has doubtlessly blighted Dormé’s life as thoroughly as any curse might.
45.) Education: Dormé is home-schooled, mainly in the traditions of Uriash (such as Illyn recalls and has been able to research), with additional, more customarily Nabooian classwork conducted almost entirely via one kind or another of computer correspondence, and her education is quite exemplary: Illyn may not be able to bring herself to remain long in the child’s company, but that certainly doesn’t stop her from seeking out and hiring the very best ummia and enka-umu from Uriash, as well as several more regular tutors from among those used by the nobles and the wealthy of Theed, to see to it that the girl is properly trained up and taught how to use her brain, the talents her sensitivity (to that which most of the rest of the galaxy refers to as the energy field of the Force) grants her, and her body (both to be able to protect herself and as a way to let her continually improve upon herself), modelling much of Dormé’s earliest education on the kind of training that Illyn is certain her father would have insisted on, for her, if only he had lived long enough to do so, and, in the process, seeing to it that Dormé receives a much more complete and somewhat esoteric (with a great emphasis on proficiency with weapons and various methods of self-defense) education than any of Illyn’s other children receive.
46.) Brother: All things considered, it’s a bit of a relief (a sop to her bleeding conscience, in any case) to discover that her youngest boy, Ioannes, idolizes his older sister and seems just as willing and ready to do everything in his power to shield and protect and help her as her beloved cousin once was, for Illyn, and she finds herself quietly trying to see to it that the boy is allowed more leniency in his schedule, so that he can better arrange to spend even more time with Dormé.
47.) Money: She truly has no idea why Adeé didn’t run for a second term in office as Queen - she was good at her job and the people loved her so much that Illyn is positive that not even Branlen Marda’s money would have been able to buy him the throne, if only Adeé had chosen to run against him - but things have gone swiftly downhill ever since Branlen was elected King Veruna, and Illyn is beginning to quietly hope that Dormé’s interest in politics means that she will, be the one who ends up turning Veruna out of office when some upstart girl from the Gallo Mountains rumored to be the youngest daughter of farmers pops up out of nowhere and somehow or another manages to get herself elected Princess of Theed.
48.) Sure: Illyn isn’t too sure about this Padmé Naberrie girl who’s challenging Veruna for the throne: she agrees that Veruna needs replacing quite badly (as much as if not more so than King Muruka once had) and admits that the girl originally from the small and isolated mountain village of Ashistagalum certainly has the right kind of credentials for the throne (given that her paternal grandmother, Shelané Tannis, was once the Queen’s First handmaiden, or aónes dævítru eisharti, of Queen Madeva - Lataré Nabishu Najaffa - the most famous and beloved Queen of Naboo’s recent history) and seems to have been doing a good job as Princess of Theed (though with less than one of a two-year term in office complete, it’s difficult to really tell, for sure); yet, the girl herself is . . . strange, somehow, lacking utterly in that special shine that lets those sensitive to the flows of power that the people of Naboo deem divine (and which most of the rest of the galaxy insist on calling the Force) recognize others who are like them (others who have seemingly preternatural talents and abilities because of this sensitivity, because the Great Mother has chosen to give to them a part of her infinitely vast power, thereby blessing them and consecrating them to the service of life) and possessing an odd kind of recklessness, an indifference to her personal well-being that speaks to Illyn of fanaticism and, frankly, makes her skin crawl horribly.
49.) Relief: Despite her personal misgivings about Padmé Naberrie, it’s an unabashed relief, to find that Dormé has secretly gone about the process of applying to become one of the new young Queen’s handmaidens, and Illyn shocks Cianus by fighting for her daughter’s right to be accepted into the program (even if she did attempt to technically illegally submit her application without her parents’ consent and writ of approval), desperate to allow her child the chance to get out of this household and into a position where she can be seen for the truly remarkable young woman she is and loved for her own sake, certain that Dormé will be able to find more of a real family among this young Queen Amidala’s handmaidens than she’s ever truly had in her own home, even if she’s still not entirely sure that she likes or even much approve of the new Queen.
50.) Blade: Illyn has seen the girl at practice, and Dormé is grace incarnate with a blade - any kind (every kind) of blade, though she seems to prefer the wakizashi, the short curved sword that customarily accompanies the katana, the longer, single-edged fighting blade typically worn by the Samuuka warriors (the guardsmen, law-enforcers, and soldiers of Uriash, traditionally employed by and answerable to the rule Duke or Duchess of Jaffa and more recently headed by the Najaffa cousins who returned to Uriash after the sentence came down that banished as traitors the last of those who legally born the name Jaffa as their sole surname, when Illyn made it clear that she had no wish to ever try to assume any of the rights and titles or duties associated with the name of Jaffa and would therefore prefer it if the Najaffa family would take responsibility for Uriash instead) - dancing so lightly across the training mats that her intricate moves seem utterly natural and effortless, and, while Illyn prays her daughter will never have need to use such skills in an actual fight, she is nonetheless grimly pleased to know how eminently capable Dormé would be of protecting herself in any such altercation, especially since it seems less and less likely that Queen Amidala’s reign is going to be a peaceful one.
51.) Underground: She is furious when the Trade Federation invades, to the point where, when she discovers that Ioannes is secretly meeting with a group of like-minded individuals who want to do something to disrupt the process by which the Trade Federation will attempt to consolidate power over Naboo, instead of confronting him angrily about his dangerous actions, she instead decides to join the underground rebellion herself, and, in the aftermath of that decision, despite her considerable terror for her little boy, Illyn simply cannot find it within her to deny either Ioannes’ talent for organization or leadership or his choice to eventually go and lead a rebel cell of his own, rather than remaining under her watchful guidance.
52.) Decoy: When her girl is made the new primary decoy for Queen Amidala (to take the place of her mentor, Sabé Dahn, who is to be made interim Senator for Naboo and the Chommell Sector, in place of Palpatine, who has been elected Supreme Chancellor and can therefore no longer serve as a Senator) and her youngest boy is among the heroes of Naboo publically recognized with a medal of honor for his bravery and intelligence in not only helping to organize resistance against the Trade Federation invaders but for his part in the successful attempt to recapture Theed Palace, Illyn begins to feel as if her world is slowly spinning out of control, becoming a place strange and unfamiliar to her, and it isn’t until her baby girl begins to determinedly lobby for her perceived right to profit from the political cachet of her two famous elder siblings that Illyn begins to suspect that the strangeness isn’t so much because of the improbability of the situation but rather a result of the fact that she can clearly no longer be said to be the lone surviving member of the Jaffa clan to have been badly hurt because of the family name and yet nonetheless heroically found a way to carry on with life.
53.) Play: Every now and again, she turns a corner in their home to unexpectedly find Ioannes right there, in front of her, and her heart stutters and leaps in shock, her breath catching painfully in her throat and her pulse thundering in her ears so loudly that it stuns her, that he cannot hear it: she finds herself going away from him, from these surprise encounters, feeling bruised, for, by some vague trick of genetics she cannot even begin to understand, Ioannes looks far less like his either his father or her than he does the child she remembers so well from Uriash, who used to play with her while his soft-spoken father would visit with her mother and occasionally sing . . .
54.) Baby: She resists acknowledging (even in her most private inmost thoughts) how spoiled and horribly like those two witchlike sisters and her eldest, weak, self-serving cousin two of her children are until she’s no longer able to ignore the proof, at least in one case - her baby, Yseultai, having come perilously close to squandering her chance to make something of herself by, in her laziness, nearly getting the weak (and still recovering from injuries taken during the invasion and occupation) Princess Ellie of Theed killed by assassins, and then compounding the error by trying to hide and deny her culpability, in the process of attempting to argue her own blamelessness nearly giving another group of would-be assassins access enough to the Queen to get her killed, apparently not only having been saved from a formal charge of aiding and abetting the criminals because of her sister’s passionate pleading, but given one more (utterly undeserved) chance to make things right and to be a true and loyal and good handmaiden, by rejoining the ranks of the Princess’s handmaidens and serving with true dedication - and Illyn is so devastated by her (self-imposed, in many ways) blindness that she nearly manages to make herself issue an ultimatum of reform to her eldest boy and a real show of actual repentance to her eldest child for the shameful way she has neglected her . . . almost.
55.) Model: The more her Dormé accomplishes and the more her youngest boy and girl both prove themselves determined to model themselves and their lives on Dormé, while her eldest boy becomes more and more like her hated eldest cousin, Druthma, the greater Illyn’s shame grows and the harder it is for her to justify to herself her treatment of her children, even given what Dormé might be (her physical resemblance to Illyn conceivably also betraying a physical resemblance to Edren Janren, whose hair had also been pitch-black and his eyes dark), but it isn’t until her eldest boy, Laborue, casually and cruelly refers to Dormé as the probable spawn of the attempted murderer of his mother in Illyn’s presence, in an attempt to sneer down his nose at his famous older sibling in response to a potential girlfriend’s far too warm regard (in his opinion, anyway) for Dormé, that Illyn is finally pushed over the edge, and the explosion of her scathing fury is such that not even Cianus can be wheedled into attempting to intervene on their boy’s behalf, not even when she threatens to have the boy cut off financially or even cast out of the family entirely if he doesn’t quickly change his ways and prove himself a truly productive member not only of their family but of society as well.
56.) Stranger: Cianus is a virtual stranger to her, and (even though she’s fairly certain that he is no longer seeing someone else, under the cover of his work) she’s not sure if she can salvage her marriage or her family, after so many years of far less than benign neglect, but she finds herself utterly determined to try, and even, eventually, discovers a highly sympathetic (if utterly, strangely, no-nonsense) ally in her youngest child.
57.) Eldest: Her baby is easy enough to win back, but her eldest boy is sulky and intractable, her youngest boy is skittish and untrusting of her sincerity, and Dormé . . . well, Dormé is all but unreachable, in the Palace, and so adroit at sidestepping Illyn’s every attempt to meet, to attempt to reconcile, that she finds herself turning to her husband and drawing him back to her, with her desperation and determination, instead.
58.) Strength: Illyn is well aware of the fact that the handmaidens (be they of a Queen, Senator, or Princess of Theed) draw strength from the familial ties and bonds of love they form amongst themselves, and it is a principle she is certain should apply equally well amongst the families of those brave girls - especially those who are survivors, left behind by daughters or sisters who have, sadly, met their deaths while in the service of their individual sworn lady - and so, in an effort to prove not only to Dormé but to Ioannes, too, the sincerity of her desire to make things right, she goes about organizing first monthly and then tri-weekly and then bi-weekly meetings of various groups of those families, in many cases building on ties already forged between specific families by the bonds formed between specific handmaidens, working hard to try to provide some of the same measure of support and sense of shared strength and purpose among those whose children, whose siblings, risk their lives (or have given their lives) in defense of another.
59.) Sacrifice: So many of the handmaidens are such remarkable young women and have such regretfully short lives that there are times when Illyn finds herself hating the practice, the custom, that encourages such wonderful girls to be willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of some politician, times when she finds herself sitting out by the monument for fallen handmaidens and shaking uncontrollably, half terrified that she might lose Dormé (as so many of these girls have been lost) and half furious that Dormé should be accounted any more expendable than Padmé Amidala, and wishing desperately that there was some other way of doing things, some way that would not leave their most important leaders vulnerable to attack.
60.) First: The first time Dormé is nearly killed in Amidala’s stead (or at least the first time that she’s told of, the first time that things have gone badly enough to result in an injury to Dormé sufficiently serious for the family told), Illyn has a flat out panic attack, collapsing in a shaking (half crying and half hyperventilating) heap and repeating over and over, “I can’t lose her before I’ve ever even had the chance to really have her, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!” until Cianus gathers up in his arms and rocks her soothingly, stroking her hair and whispering reassurances about how strong and smart Dormé is (much too strong and far too smart to ever let some mere would-be assassin or bounty hunter truly get the better of her) and they won’t ever lose her, until Illyn finally breaks down in wrenching sobs and the blind panic passes, dissolving into a mixture of grief and sick fury at the being (or beings) who’ve caused her daughter harm.
61.) Resemblance: Yseultai looks almost eerily like a blonde, blue-eyed version of Dormé, and sometimes it surprises Illyn a little just how much deeper that resemblance seems to be seeping into her baby’s bones, the longer Yseultai works for one of the Princesses of Theed (her services having been in such high demand that she has been shared out amongst several of the young girls elected Princess of Theed by the time Padmé Amidala has finished her second term as Queen of Naboo and moved on to becoming the Senator for the Chommell Sector).
62.) Sign: Yseultai provides much but not all of her information about Dormé, about what goes on at the Palace in the court of the Princess of Theed, and in the Senator’s court, as well, but an increasing amount of information gets sent along to her from Dormé’s own fellow handmaidens (especially that lovely couple, Rabé and Eirtaé, both members of which have been with Padmé Amidala essentially since her first election to the throne), the longer she works at building bridges both to her own family members and to the other families of the handmaidens, and she takes it as an encouraging sign, for surely such a sign of increasing trust and respect can only bode well for her attempts to reconcile with Dormé.
63.) Clear: Something about Obi-Wan Kenobi has always reminded Illyn a little bit of Katerol, at his most loving and gracious, and something about Anakin Skywalker has always made her remember the curly-haired youth who played with her as a child, in Uriash (and grew up to nearly kill her), so she’s always been a little bit puzzled about how close the two young men seem to be and how well they work together, and it makes many things that had never really made a whole lot of sense to her abruptly become quite clear, when Illyn finally learns (through Yseultai and Eirtaé) that the Jedi High Council’s paranoia and fear and dislike of the boy had apparently been so great (when Anakin’s rather spectacular part in winning Naboo’s freedom back from the Trade Federation and Qui-Gon Jinn’s unexpected death during that liberation had essentially left the High Council with no real choice but to allow Anakin to join the Order after all, given that Obi-Wan - the newly famous Sith Killer - was so adamant about fulfilling his promise to his dying Master to train the young boy as a Jedi Knight) that Kenobi and Skywalker had decided it would be necessary for them to provide Anakin with a measure of protection against those Masters, by coming up with ways for Anakin to play up to certain of the High Council’s expectations while at the same time disguising much of the truth of himself and his nature from both the Council (and most of the Order at large) and, by extension, most of the rest of the galaxy, too.
64.) War: The war, when it finally comes, is unbelievably awful - both long quietly dreaded and equally long fought against the coming of - but once it has arrived there is nothing to do but to accept it and try to move past the pain and the horror it represents to find a solution that will let her have both her family again (fully intact) and peace, and she is immensely glad, as the war drags on and more and more attacks occur against Naboo, of the network she’s helped establish, among the families of those who number at least one member as a handmaiden.
65.) Peace: There are things that Cianus still won’t speak to her of and neither one of them is much closer to making any kind of real peace with Dormé and their eldest son still sometimes behaves like a spoilt brat (though this happens with less and less frequency and is followed by more and more convincing displays of true regret and remorse, ever since he met that wonderful girl, Lehari Nhaven - the young foster sister of the unfortunately now deceased handmaiden Etté Zirach - and began to consciously try to change, to be the kind of man she truly deserves to have, so that he might win her heart); yet, all in all, she finds herself happier than she an remember being since . . . well, since before the attack, if she’s perfectly honest with herself, and so it’s that much more of a shock, when word comes that Coruscant itself is under attack and their Senator (and former Queen) is missing.
66.) Troop: She manages to catch Dormé off guard, showing up at the Palace with a ridiculous amount of food and drink and a troop of sensible young men and women recruited from among the noble (and not so noble) households of her and her youngest daughter’s and her virtual daughter-in-law’s friends (including the many friends they’ve made among the families of the other handmaidens), to take over the job of manning all the comms and waiting for word both of the battle (and the attempt to rescue the apparently kidnaped Supreme Chancellor) and of their missing Senator, and to order her daughter and the other frantic handmaidens and handmaiden trainees to eat and to rest, before they all collapse of nervous exhaustion, determinedly loading those young women and teenaged girls down with food and soothing teas and then waving them all off to bed whether they necessarily want to go or not.
67.) Shock: The news of Padmé Amidala’s death is such a shock that, for several long moments, the whole of the universe seems to be holding its breath in stunned wonder, and it’s not until she hears Laborue’s quiet remark, “Frag all, but Dormé is going to find some way to blame herself, for this, even though she wasn’t there and Amidala told her to stay here, with the trainees!” that she remembers how to breathe again, much less speak or move.
68.) Comfort: Her heart aches to try to comfort her eldest child, but given that Dormé is refusing to see even Ioannes (easily the most beloved of her family members), Illyn knows better than to try to do so, just yet, and busies herself with trying to comfort her youngest daughter and as many of the other painfully bewildered and shocked and grieved handmaidens as will let her try to help.
69.) Relationship: Her relationship with the Naberrries has never been particularly strong - she’s never quite been able to completely hide the fact that she considers Padmé Amidala a naive damn fool idealistic crusader likely to get those closest to her hurt or killed and a poor Queen and Senator, compared to the job she wholeheartedly believes her eldest daughter could easily do - but of all people she knows what tragedy is like, and so she goes and she sits with Jobal and Ruwee and offers as much comfort as she possibly can, quietly helping to arrange what little can be arranged, until the body has arrived, and lending Jobal a shoulder to sob on when the reality of their loss finally sinks in past the awful shock of the pronouncement that the youngest Naberrie child has not only been killed but is just another incident of collateral damage from the battle over Coruscant.
70.) Opinion: Illyn has always had an extremely high opinion of that lovely young man, Bendu Master Kenobi, though her opinion of the Jedi’s former Padawan has always been somewhat tentative and uncertain, even after finding out about the deception he and Master Kenobi have been perpetrating/perpetuating against the High Council and the Order, regarding much of Anakin’s basic nature (in part despite of and in part because of her knowledge of the young man’s close friendship with her daughter, Dormé, which has always struck her somehow as being both a good thing and a potentially highly dangerous thing), so Illyn is, on the one hand, stunned by that particular turn of events, while also, at the same time, being completely unsurprised.
71.) System: The cleansing of the Force feels, to her, like a sudden shock to the system, like waking up one day after a lifetime in darkness to suddenly discover that she has eyes that work and light enough to properly see, and she weeps, unabashedly, not caring who might see or what anyone might think of her, too thankful for what has happened for any other thoughts or cares to intrude, at least for a little while.
72.) Order: She can’t decide if she’s truly surprised by the fact that Team Kenobi and Skywalker have chosen to take on Bail Organa as their shared Padawan learner and the first true new recruit for their New Jedi Bendu Order, but she is at least a little worried by the implications of such a move, for she knows that if a man like the Crown Prince of Alderaan is going to be sought out by the newly reformed Order, then that means that people like Dormé and the other handmaidens and other members of the handmaidens’ families are going to be clamoring for a chance to volunteer for such training.
73.) Calm: In a moment of relative calm amidst the various shocks rocking the galaxy, Ioannes tentatively approaches her over the possibility of eventually testing for (and, hopefully, joining) any chapterhouse for the New Jedi Bendu Order that might be established on Naboo, and she shocks him speechless by admitting that she’s seriously considering undergoing the same testing, if only to see if it might be possible for her to fashion her Force-sensitivity into a better tool for protecting her family from any harm that might otherwise befall it.
74.) Truth: The truth of what Sola Naberrie is and what she has done (apprenticing herself to the Sith Lord, Master Sidious) hits everyone like a shockwave - she even finds Laborue sitting pale and trembling, half furious and half terrified that he may have inadvertently said something to her, once or twice, about Dormé’s movements and duties, that may have somehow helped Sola in her dastardly deeds - and, even though the whole things brings up terrible memories for her and she still isn’t what she would consider extremely close to the Naberrie family, Illyn grits her teeth and gathers her courage and makes herself available for the Naberries, hoping that the presence of someone who has gone through similar proceedings (the exile of a family member for crimes so awful as to amount to treason) may, in some way, help.
75.) Talk: She is, quite possibly, one of the absolute last people her eldest child would ever want to know this news, but Illyn’s dogged persistence in trying to rebuild her family and mend her fractured relationship with Dormé has gained her an increasing amount of sympathy among the other handmaidens, and, after Dormé tells her old companions and Eirtaé makes the decision to inform Dormé’s little sister, it’s inevitable that Illyn should discover that Bendu Masters Kenobi and Skywalker have asked Sabé Dahn and Dormé Tammesin to agree to become Naboo and the Chommell Sector’s next Queen and next Senator and to both agree to receive training as full members of the New Jedi Bendu Order, impossible that Illyn should hear such momentous news and know of all that’s been and is being done to reorder and revive both the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic and not imagine that her girl and that lovely Sabé (a young lady Dormé has always fiercely adored and who has been her greatest ally and mentor among the handmaidens, not to mention one of her closest friends) are, quite possibly, being put into positions where they are being groomed for eventual shots at becoming Consuls of the New Alliance of the Republic, thereby bridging the gap between politician and Jedi Bendu protector, and even less likely that Illyn should know all of this and not act: thus, it is that her eldest child finds herself being faced with an utterly intractably determined visitor, who merely repeats, “We have to talk, child,” over and over again until the girl finally gives up and, exasperated, invites Illyn to come share a light noonday meal with her and to talk just as much as Illyn would like about whatever she’d like . . . an invitation that, at long last, leads to a meeting of minds and a reconciliation (of sorts) between mother and daughter.
Second half-ish of story only, because of the LJ's word/character limits!
Title: “Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin: A Rose by Any Other Name”
Pairing: Illyn and Cianus Tammesin. Some brief references to other pairings.
Rating: Uhm, probably a PG-13 edging into an R (for reference to rape), maybe (?)
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Star Wars, more’s the pity! What I do have is an extremely contrary muse that refuses to shut up and leave me alone . . .
Summary: This is seventy-five random but essentially chronological moments from the life of Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin, the mother of (Ryseidas) Dormé Tammesin. There is an actual story here - one small thread among the vast woven tapestry of life that is the living history of the galaxy, stretched out and twisted, knotted into the whole, curled down among the roots of time, connecting various moments together - but one must read between the lines to capture it. It is not precisely the truth, for the subtle story of these moments is sketched out here in words, and, in the sin of writing down a life, it inevitably changes the shape of things. But it is nevertheless a form of truth. (From a certain point of view . . . )
Warning: This story functions as a sort of compressed codex for Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin, as she is going to be written (or at least referred to) in my not even nearly complete AU Star Wars series You Became to Me. If anything doesn’t make sense, please feel free to ask! Please be aware, though, that some of the material contained in this story ranges between being somewhat spoilerish and extremely spoilerish for other works that I either have planned (including an AU rewrite of TPM and at least one of the sequels for my Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith trilogy) or else in the works for the AU series You Became to Me!
Author’s Notes: 1). For anyone interested, this not-quite-a-story is compatible with my SW AU series You Became to Me, including the trilogy Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith, if you squint at a couple of things sideways and view a few others solely through the lens of Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin’s eyes. 2). Although this is technically modelled on a prompt set that I either borrowed from somewhere or another on the LJ or cobbled together from two or more such prompt sets I on the LJ (I really don’t recall from where anymore, exactly, though if someone would like to set the record straight, I’ll add the info and a link to the community in question here in my notes), it’s not really meant to function as a response to whatever the challenge actually is that’s associated with said (individual) LJ prompt set. I just used the specific prompts to give me a reason to string together a backstory of sorts for Illyn. 3). Readers might want to consider the fact that Illyn is fairly strong in the Force, but that she hasn’t received any training whatsoever to speak of and so has no real conscious control over that sensitivity to the Force. In addition, her mind walled off much of her latent empathy/telepathy ability when she was a child, to protect her from the hive virus induced death agonies of her mother and father as well as nearly all of her family and the members of her father’s extensive household. 4).Readers interested in knowing who the physical models are for EU characters like Illyn’s other children should please consult the latest versions of my posted lists of cast original and EU characters and for handmaid(en)s and other important Nabooian characters, which are available on my LJ! For clarity’s sake, though, please know that I specifically picture Zita Görög when I envision Illyn’s mother, the Lady Duchess Lesharia Aymaru Nanureen Jaffa, Giancarlo Giannini for Lesharia’s husband, Duke Raghvin Sargonus Jaffa, and Julia Dreyfus for the first wife of Duke Jaffa, Ehnduanna Imelda Barashi Jaffa. The three children Duke Jaffa had by Ehnduanna all died within the first two years of their lives (hence, their mother’s eventual suicide, after miscarrying of a fourth child, a daughter, so violently as to render herself barren), but I suppose that readers may imagine that, if Ehnduanna’s children had all lived, they might have grown to resemble Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, Nigella Lawson, and Rena Sofer, and their names would have been Amarshue, Sharruss, Ylexai, and Resharyn Jaffa. Both Lesharia’s mother and grandmother, Ylena Nanureen and Nímenna Rhojus, can be pictured as Helena Rojo (Ylana with black hair and dark eyes, Nímenna with brown hair and almost amber eyes). Edren Janren should be pictured as Rufus Sewell while his father, Lugale Janren, should be pictured as a slightly more curly-headed Rik Young. Cianus Tammesin is modelled on a young William Hurt, Adeé Russe (Princess of Theed and later Queen Ashtara of Naboo) is modelled on a young Katharine Hepburn, and her mother, Tharina Russe, is modelled on an older Katharine Hepburn. Katerol Jaffa can be pictured as Lambert Wilson; Druthma Jaffa can be pictured as Mark Strong; Rusilla and Marrité Ginborjo (and, later, Jaffa) can be pictured as Virginie Ledoyen and Audrey Tautou; Anjelica Huston and Jeroen Krabbé can be pictured as Remilla and Jherumee Ginborjo; King Muruka should be pictured as a young (in his early twenties, when Illyn first encounters him) and rather arrogant Spencer Tracy; and King Veruna can be pictured as a thirty-ish (when dethroned) Marlon Brando. Readers should please consider Illyn’s youngest three children, Laborue, Ioannes, and Yseultai (who should be pictured as Leonardo DiCaprio, Thomas Dekker, and Sophia Myles), to be roughly sixteen, thirty-two, and forty-five galactic standard months younger than Dormé. Also, for readers who aren’t familiar with the story of Etté Zirach, Lehari Nhaven can be pictured as a young (not quite eleven and a half, at the time of the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo) Ava Gardner. Please note that characters who may be alluded to but not referenced by name (certain family members of EU or original characters, for example) are considered too minor to be cast at this time, and that readers should feel free to imagine them howsoever they wish! 5). Readers should be aware of the fact that Illyn, Edren Janren, and Duke Raghvin Jaffa are all essentially AU versions of original characters by the same names in several of cariel and bloodraven77’s AU Dormékin stories, such as The Empire. I’ve discussed various additions to the basic names for these characters, AU aspects to these characters’ lives that have led to the creation of other original characters (such as Lesharia and Ehnduanna and Lugale, etc.), “borrowing” certain Uriashian words to make my AU Illyn more authentic, and such a couple of times with cariel to make sure I wouldn’t step on any toes, in the creation of this piece. cariel and bloodraven77 have already given me permission to present my Dormé Tammesin and Sabé Dahn as AU versions of their Dormé Jaffa and Sabé Nabish, but I wanted to be sure that they were alright with my mucking about with the Jaffa clan before I actually wrote about Illyn anywhere except my various notebooks. That said, I am presenting this story here with cariel and bloodraven77’s generous permission!
“Illyn Leshra (Jaffa Ginborjo) Tammesin: A Rose by Any Other Name”
35.) Infant: The baby is born, after a hideously painful and difficult labor, too early for a full term if her father were not Cianus, but small and thin and sickly enough that she could’ve passed for premature, and, though the little girl is, according to everyone else, sweet and even-tempered and extremely tractable and adorable and beautiful and eminently lovable, Illyn cannot bring herself to hold the child for much more than a few moments at a time, and she certainly cannot even being to suckle the infant herself, so they are forced to hire a nursing ummeda for the infant immediately, once they leave the Healers’ maternity ward.
36.) Childhood: The girl - Dormé, as she comes to be called, going ever by her childhood name instead of assuming the name Ryseidas, the name legally given to her, at birth, in defiance of the traditional rules for the naming of children - is a truly wonderful and exceptional child, lovely and quick and precociously bright and painfully like Illyn was, as a young girl, and she cannot abide her presence for much more than a few minutes to perhaps an hour at a time (if they are in larger company), and she can tell that her seeming indifference (and increasing near-cruelty) and the increasing absence of the girl’s (supposed) father (as Cianus withdraws more and more from their family, in response to Illyn’s coldness, spending an increasing amount of time away, at work) is doing an incredibly amount of damage to the child’s spirit and self-esteem, but Illyn physically cannot make herself do anything else, instead inevitably driving herself to bouts of tears and sickness and violent nightmares every single time she tries to make herself be more of a real mother to the poor girl.
37.) Puppet: The fear is an ache that never subsides, a teeth-clenching, gut-wrenching pain that never sleeps, wraps around her (like a lover) and places itself firmly on her shoulder (like heavy hands, work-calloused and hardened with rage) and demands to be heard, quietly and simply but firmly, leaning close and turning to whisper softly but persistently in her ear, and she’s tired of the endless struggle to turn away (get away, escape), tired of being a puppet forever danced about on such strings, pushed and pulled hither and yon and never settling, never allowed a moment’s true rest, tired of being afraid that this is all her fault (grieving), tired of being afraid that this is something that cannot be fixed (nightmaring), tired of being afraid of her own name, her own nature, her own husband, of fearing that he might hurt her or she might destroy him and not knowing, not being able to tell, which is more likely, which would be worse, which has enough logical basis to truly require guarding against, to really justify all of this soul-swallowing fear.
38.) Sleep: Cianus doesn’t try to touch her, unless she invites it, doesn’t try to make her spend more time with him or with Ryseidas (no, Dormé, Dormé! Great Lady, let her not, in her fear, forget how vital, how important, a shadow name is, on top of all else she has lost!), but he will not let her sleep alone, for fear of what she might do, in the midst of a nightmare, choosing instead to sleep on a cot rolled into place every night before the door, and that would be fine, that would be wise, except there are some things he has not anticipated, some reactions (some sources of fear) he is not equipped to understand, and when she all but literally throws herself upon him, one night, his hands that will not touch unless invited do not know well enough to push away from such a false (fear-fueled) request, and she nearly manages to throw herself out the window, when he lies in an exhausted, satiated stupor, before he can rouse himself enough to stop her.
39.) Fall: She’s not sure if she gave him permission, consented to let him touch her, or not, not sure if she fought to get away or to make him fall closer, push harder, pin and pierce and Mother of Seas help her, there’s no way of knowing, no way of knowing if the child is from before, when she flung herself at him in a desperate attempt to silence the nightmares, to drive out the cold, to feel something, anything, even if only for a few moments, or from after, when she strove to fly without wings, the sudden grappling struggle, the painfully hard hands on her, pulling her back, away, down, out of the black frame of the open windows to fall, tumbling, tangled together, onto the bed, her bed, their own, old bed, his fear, his fury, scorching, insistent, ravaging, demanding life where’d thought only to cultivate silence, stillness, death . . . and Great Lady help her, but she can’t remember enough, isn’t sure how it really happened (remembers twisting, heat, wetness, aching agony and want, need, Goddess - !), and, anyway, how would one ever be able to tell, which act would end in begetting a son?
40.) Treasure: According to both the Healers and the minders, the presence of other children in the house is supposed to help, supposed to bring her and Cianus back together again as a couple by giving them so much of a family that it can no longer be ignored, but all it really does is to give Illyn an excuse to pull further and further away from Cianus and to cement poor Dormé’s bad opinion of herself, for the two boys she and Cianus unabashedly love and spoil (especially the first, the eldest, as if, through an excess of love, they might at last banish the ghosts of that night, the doubts and fears) and their baby girl is the gem of the family and the shining treasure residing at the apple of everyone’s eyes, while Dormé is ignored or treated with casually cold contempt, no matter how hard she tries to please or how exceptional she becomes, and the guilt is such that Illyn often finds herself unable to even bring herself to look upon her firstborn, without fear of being sick over what she’s done to her.
41.) Lover: When he first attacked her, the dark-haired young man snarled something at her (“Vicious little cold-blooded bitch - just like your mother! - promising a man friendship, love, the whole world on a string, so long as it suits your fancy, and then dropping him cold as soon as it’s no longer a sufficient challenge or he’s of no more immediate use to you, caring only for the continuation of your own comforts and be damned to everyone else!”) that doesn’t make any sense to her at all until several years later, when she sadly begins to suspect that her husband might be dealing with her coldness by having an affair with someone he works with, in Adeé Ashtara Russe’s offices (the former Princess of Theed having surprisingly, after only a single term in office as Queen of Naboo, moved on to become a sort of liaison between the Senator of the Chommell Sector and the monarch of Naboo, in essence becoming almost a junior Senator, given her close association with that office) and it suddenly occurs to her that the pearl necklace her mother had so loved had been broken by her father because he had suspected that it might have been the gift of a lover . . . and that the curly-haired boy she’d played with, as a child, might well have been the son of her mother’s real beloved as well as the young man later hired to attack her, twisted by bitterness and rage over the way her father had, in his fury at his wife’s seeming infidelity, destroyed the boy’s life by summarily casting out and ruining his father.
42.) Blood: The Jaffa clan always did things . . . a little bit differently than other noble Nabooian families and those elected government officials who are treated (while serving their terms) as ruling nobles: though the name of their original homeworld has been lost, the fact that the Jaffa (and the loyal retainers brought with them, to Naboo, who became the ancestors of the residents of Uriash) did not hail from Grizmallt (with its colonial ties to Chandrila and Alderaan) is well known, with the tendency of the Jaffa clan to take their duties (and their rights and privileges) as ruling nobles a bit more seriously than other members of the (technically unofficial) hereditary Nabooian aristocracy - essentially holding legal sway and authority over all of their holdings (including both the sizeable city-stake of Uriash and much of the surrounding countryside) by right of blood (a right that could be challenged only by the authority of the monarch of Naboo, and one that was only ever exercised thrice in all of the long written history of Naboo), with democracy entering the picture only in the matter of the ruling Duke or Duchess, that member of the Jaffa clan considered to be the cleverest, most capable, and most charismatic leader and protector among their ranks, chosen by an open vote in family council to replace the prior ruling Duke or Duchess either after death or when the family had established that the previously chosen head of the clan had proven unfit to rule, rather than by having the right pass automatically, by inheritance, from mother or father to eldest child (though, historically speaking, most often the right did go from father or mother to one child or another, if not to a sibling of the Duchess or Duke) - often being credited to this difference in origin; yet, though she admires the fiercely independent nature of her family and her people and a part of her even occasionally thinks that this way (rule by right of merit) is better, in the long run, than more openly democratic forms (wherein the one with the most money or the loudest voice or the brightest/most engaging smile and not necessarily the best qualified may be elected), sometimes Illyn also suspects that the Jaffa (and perhaps also the people of Uriash) may have clung too tightly to the old ways for their own good, and that this form of rule may have contributed to the downfall of the clan (given both the arrogance and the insularity that it bred): this is, in any case, what she tells herself, whenever the questions arises as to why she hasn’t attempted to learn more about her family and her heritage.
43.) Care: She hides in her books, her writing, and her youngest children, using her focus on her children and her continued studies and her scribblings (about her life, about her children, about things as they could have been, in another, kinder universe) as buffers between her and the rest of the world, retreating further and further into her shell and away from the bright, strong young woman (overflowing with potential) who blossomed , so briefly, under Adeé Russe’s care and Cianus Tammesin’s love, and, even though her cowardice shames her, she cannot quite find it within herself to stop running away, stop hiding, from the memory of that young woman.
44.) Same: Dormé resembles Illyn’s mother’s side of the family quite closely - the women were and are all cut from the same cloth, from Illyn’s mother’s grandmother all the way down to Dormé: slim and fine-boned; late to reach their adult growth but eventually possessing slightly greater than average height, with some curves lost to that height, yet still possessing more than sufficient shapeliness to render women speechless, stop men dead in their tracks; with dark hair, dark hair, a (deceptively) fragile oval face with a strong chin, high cheekbones, lushly full mouth meant for smiling (or for kissing), nose long and fine and either straight or else turned ever so slightly and mischievously upwards: but for slight variances of hair color (ranging from medium to dark brown to true black, that shade so dark that it breaks the light up into ghosts of blue and purple iridescence) and eye color (ranging from amber/hazel to darkest brown) and skin tone, minor deviations in height and shape of nose, every single woman (from Nímenna Rhojus to Ylena Nanureen and Lesharia Jaffa to Illyn Tammesin to Dormé herself) could have been easily mistaken for the same woman, if taken all together, as a whole, at approximately the same age (hell, but for the fact that Nímenna’s hair was a medium brown and her eyes nearly amber, while her daughter’s hair was pitch black and her eyes nearly dark enough to match her hair, those two could have been mistaken for twins - a fact that had often led to confusion, on Illyn’s part, back when she was a child and trying to discover who and what her family had been surreptitiously enough not to garner the notice of the Ginborjos) - and a part of Illyn desperately hopes that this means that whatever curse it is that seems to have attached itself to the Jaffa name and family will never be able to touch her daughter, though another (much larger) part of Illyn knows this is a futile wish, given that her inability to love or mother the girl properly has doubtlessly blighted Dormé’s life as thoroughly as any curse might.
45.) Education: Dormé is home-schooled, mainly in the traditions of Uriash (such as Illyn recalls and has been able to research), with additional, more customarily Nabooian classwork conducted almost entirely via one kind or another of computer correspondence, and her education is quite exemplary: Illyn may not be able to bring herself to remain long in the child’s company, but that certainly doesn’t stop her from seeking out and hiring the very best ummia and enka-umu from Uriash, as well as several more regular tutors from among those used by the nobles and the wealthy of Theed, to see to it that the girl is properly trained up and taught how to use her brain, the talents her sensitivity (to that which most of the rest of the galaxy refers to as the energy field of the Force) grants her, and her body (both to be able to protect herself and as a way to let her continually improve upon herself), modelling much of Dormé’s earliest education on the kind of training that Illyn is certain her father would have insisted on, for her, if only he had lived long enough to do so, and, in the process, seeing to it that Dormé receives a much more complete and somewhat esoteric (with a great emphasis on proficiency with weapons and various methods of self-defense) education than any of Illyn’s other children receive.
46.) Brother: All things considered, it’s a bit of a relief (a sop to her bleeding conscience, in any case) to discover that her youngest boy, Ioannes, idolizes his older sister and seems just as willing and ready to do everything in his power to shield and protect and help her as her beloved cousin once was, for Illyn, and she finds herself quietly trying to see to it that the boy is allowed more leniency in his schedule, so that he can better arrange to spend even more time with Dormé.
47.) Money: She truly has no idea why Adeé didn’t run for a second term in office as Queen - she was good at her job and the people loved her so much that Illyn is positive that not even Branlen Marda’s money would have been able to buy him the throne, if only Adeé had chosen to run against him - but things have gone swiftly downhill ever since Branlen was elected King Veruna, and Illyn is beginning to quietly hope that Dormé’s interest in politics means that she will, be the one who ends up turning Veruna out of office when some upstart girl from the Gallo Mountains rumored to be the youngest daughter of farmers pops up out of nowhere and somehow or another manages to get herself elected Princess of Theed.
48.) Sure: Illyn isn’t too sure about this Padmé Naberrie girl who’s challenging Veruna for the throne: she agrees that Veruna needs replacing quite badly (as much as if not more so than King Muruka once had) and admits that the girl originally from the small and isolated mountain village of Ashistagalum certainly has the right kind of credentials for the throne (given that her paternal grandmother, Shelané Tannis, was once the Queen’s First handmaiden, or aónes dævítru eisharti, of Queen Madeva - Lataré Nabishu Najaffa - the most famous and beloved Queen of Naboo’s recent history) and seems to have been doing a good job as Princess of Theed (though with less than one of a two-year term in office complete, it’s difficult to really tell, for sure); yet, the girl herself is . . . strange, somehow, lacking utterly in that special shine that lets those sensitive to the flows of power that the people of Naboo deem divine (and which most of the rest of the galaxy insist on calling the Force) recognize others who are like them (others who have seemingly preternatural talents and abilities because of this sensitivity, because the Great Mother has chosen to give to them a part of her infinitely vast power, thereby blessing them and consecrating them to the service of life) and possessing an odd kind of recklessness, an indifference to her personal well-being that speaks to Illyn of fanaticism and, frankly, makes her skin crawl horribly.
49.) Relief: Despite her personal misgivings about Padmé Naberrie, it’s an unabashed relief, to find that Dormé has secretly gone about the process of applying to become one of the new young Queen’s handmaidens, and Illyn shocks Cianus by fighting for her daughter’s right to be accepted into the program (even if she did attempt to technically illegally submit her application without her parents’ consent and writ of approval), desperate to allow her child the chance to get out of this household and into a position where she can be seen for the truly remarkable young woman she is and loved for her own sake, certain that Dormé will be able to find more of a real family among this young Queen Amidala’s handmaidens than she’s ever truly had in her own home, even if she’s still not entirely sure that she likes or even much approve of the new Queen.
50.) Blade: Illyn has seen the girl at practice, and Dormé is grace incarnate with a blade - any kind (every kind) of blade, though she seems to prefer the wakizashi, the short curved sword that customarily accompanies the katana, the longer, single-edged fighting blade typically worn by the Samuuka warriors (the guardsmen, law-enforcers, and soldiers of Uriash, traditionally employed by and answerable to the rule Duke or Duchess of Jaffa and more recently headed by the Najaffa cousins who returned to Uriash after the sentence came down that banished as traitors the last of those who legally born the name Jaffa as their sole surname, when Illyn made it clear that she had no wish to ever try to assume any of the rights and titles or duties associated with the name of Jaffa and would therefore prefer it if the Najaffa family would take responsibility for Uriash instead) - dancing so lightly across the training mats that her intricate moves seem utterly natural and effortless, and, while Illyn prays her daughter will never have need to use such skills in an actual fight, she is nonetheless grimly pleased to know how eminently capable Dormé would be of protecting herself in any such altercation, especially since it seems less and less likely that Queen Amidala’s reign is going to be a peaceful one.
51.) Underground: She is furious when the Trade Federation invades, to the point where, when she discovers that Ioannes is secretly meeting with a group of like-minded individuals who want to do something to disrupt the process by which the Trade Federation will attempt to consolidate power over Naboo, instead of confronting him angrily about his dangerous actions, she instead decides to join the underground rebellion herself, and, in the aftermath of that decision, despite her considerable terror for her little boy, Illyn simply cannot find it within her to deny either Ioannes’ talent for organization or leadership or his choice to eventually go and lead a rebel cell of his own, rather than remaining under her watchful guidance.
52.) Decoy: When her girl is made the new primary decoy for Queen Amidala (to take the place of her mentor, Sabé Dahn, who is to be made interim Senator for Naboo and the Chommell Sector, in place of Palpatine, who has been elected Supreme Chancellor and can therefore no longer serve as a Senator) and her youngest boy is among the heroes of Naboo publically recognized with a medal of honor for his bravery and intelligence in not only helping to organize resistance against the Trade Federation invaders but for his part in the successful attempt to recapture Theed Palace, Illyn begins to feel as if her world is slowly spinning out of control, becoming a place strange and unfamiliar to her, and it isn’t until her baby girl begins to determinedly lobby for her perceived right to profit from the political cachet of her two famous elder siblings that Illyn begins to suspect that the strangeness isn’t so much because of the improbability of the situation but rather a result of the fact that she can clearly no longer be said to be the lone surviving member of the Jaffa clan to have been badly hurt because of the family name and yet nonetheless heroically found a way to carry on with life.
53.) Play: Every now and again, she turns a corner in their home to unexpectedly find Ioannes right there, in front of her, and her heart stutters and leaps in shock, her breath catching painfully in her throat and her pulse thundering in her ears so loudly that it stuns her, that he cannot hear it: she finds herself going away from him, from these surprise encounters, feeling bruised, for, by some vague trick of genetics she cannot even begin to understand, Ioannes looks far less like his either his father or her than he does the child she remembers so well from Uriash, who used to play with her while his soft-spoken father would visit with her mother and occasionally sing . . .
54.) Baby: She resists acknowledging (even in her most private inmost thoughts) how spoiled and horribly like those two witchlike sisters and her eldest, weak, self-serving cousin two of her children are until she’s no longer able to ignore the proof, at least in one case - her baby, Yseultai, having come perilously close to squandering her chance to make something of herself by, in her laziness, nearly getting the weak (and still recovering from injuries taken during the invasion and occupation) Princess Ellie of Theed killed by assassins, and then compounding the error by trying to hide and deny her culpability, in the process of attempting to argue her own blamelessness nearly giving another group of would-be assassins access enough to the Queen to get her killed, apparently not only having been saved from a formal charge of aiding and abetting the criminals because of her sister’s passionate pleading, but given one more (utterly undeserved) chance to make things right and to be a true and loyal and good handmaiden, by rejoining the ranks of the Princess’s handmaidens and serving with true dedication - and Illyn is so devastated by her (self-imposed, in many ways) blindness that she nearly manages to make herself issue an ultimatum of reform to her eldest boy and a real show of actual repentance to her eldest child for the shameful way she has neglected her . . . almost.
55.) Model: The more her Dormé accomplishes and the more her youngest boy and girl both prove themselves determined to model themselves and their lives on Dormé, while her eldest boy becomes more and more like her hated eldest cousin, Druthma, the greater Illyn’s shame grows and the harder it is for her to justify to herself her treatment of her children, even given what Dormé might be (her physical resemblance to Illyn conceivably also betraying a physical resemblance to Edren Janren, whose hair had also been pitch-black and his eyes dark), but it isn’t until her eldest boy, Laborue, casually and cruelly refers to Dormé as the probable spawn of the attempted murderer of his mother in Illyn’s presence, in an attempt to sneer down his nose at his famous older sibling in response to a potential girlfriend’s far too warm regard (in his opinion, anyway) for Dormé, that Illyn is finally pushed over the edge, and the explosion of her scathing fury is such that not even Cianus can be wheedled into attempting to intervene on their boy’s behalf, not even when she threatens to have the boy cut off financially or even cast out of the family entirely if he doesn’t quickly change his ways and prove himself a truly productive member not only of their family but of society as well.
56.) Stranger: Cianus is a virtual stranger to her, and (even though she’s fairly certain that he is no longer seeing someone else, under the cover of his work) she’s not sure if she can salvage her marriage or her family, after so many years of far less than benign neglect, but she finds herself utterly determined to try, and even, eventually, discovers a highly sympathetic (if utterly, strangely, no-nonsense) ally in her youngest child.
57.) Eldest: Her baby is easy enough to win back, but her eldest boy is sulky and intractable, her youngest boy is skittish and untrusting of her sincerity, and Dormé . . . well, Dormé is all but unreachable, in the Palace, and so adroit at sidestepping Illyn’s every attempt to meet, to attempt to reconcile, that she finds herself turning to her husband and drawing him back to her, with her desperation and determination, instead.
58.) Strength: Illyn is well aware of the fact that the handmaidens (be they of a Queen, Senator, or Princess of Theed) draw strength from the familial ties and bonds of love they form amongst themselves, and it is a principle she is certain should apply equally well amongst the families of those brave girls - especially those who are survivors, left behind by daughters or sisters who have, sadly, met their deaths while in the service of their individual sworn lady - and so, in an effort to prove not only to Dormé but to Ioannes, too, the sincerity of her desire to make things right, she goes about organizing first monthly and then tri-weekly and then bi-weekly meetings of various groups of those families, in many cases building on ties already forged between specific families by the bonds formed between specific handmaidens, working hard to try to provide some of the same measure of support and sense of shared strength and purpose among those whose children, whose siblings, risk their lives (or have given their lives) in defense of another.
59.) Sacrifice: So many of the handmaidens are such remarkable young women and have such regretfully short lives that there are times when Illyn finds herself hating the practice, the custom, that encourages such wonderful girls to be willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of some politician, times when she finds herself sitting out by the monument for fallen handmaidens and shaking uncontrollably, half terrified that she might lose Dormé (as so many of these girls have been lost) and half furious that Dormé should be accounted any more expendable than Padmé Amidala, and wishing desperately that there was some other way of doing things, some way that would not leave their most important leaders vulnerable to attack.
60.) First: The first time Dormé is nearly killed in Amidala’s stead (or at least the first time that she’s told of, the first time that things have gone badly enough to result in an injury to Dormé sufficiently serious for the family told), Illyn has a flat out panic attack, collapsing in a shaking (half crying and half hyperventilating) heap and repeating over and over, “I can’t lose her before I’ve ever even had the chance to really have her, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!” until Cianus gathers up in his arms and rocks her soothingly, stroking her hair and whispering reassurances about how strong and smart Dormé is (much too strong and far too smart to ever let some mere would-be assassin or bounty hunter truly get the better of her) and they won’t ever lose her, until Illyn finally breaks down in wrenching sobs and the blind panic passes, dissolving into a mixture of grief and sick fury at the being (or beings) who’ve caused her daughter harm.
61.) Resemblance: Yseultai looks almost eerily like a blonde, blue-eyed version of Dormé, and sometimes it surprises Illyn a little just how much deeper that resemblance seems to be seeping into her baby’s bones, the longer Yseultai works for one of the Princesses of Theed (her services having been in such high demand that she has been shared out amongst several of the young girls elected Princess of Theed by the time Padmé Amidala has finished her second term as Queen of Naboo and moved on to becoming the Senator for the Chommell Sector).
62.) Sign: Yseultai provides much but not all of her information about Dormé, about what goes on at the Palace in the court of the Princess of Theed, and in the Senator’s court, as well, but an increasing amount of information gets sent along to her from Dormé’s own fellow handmaidens (especially that lovely couple, Rabé and Eirtaé, both members of which have been with Padmé Amidala essentially since her first election to the throne), the longer she works at building bridges both to her own family members and to the other families of the handmaidens, and she takes it as an encouraging sign, for surely such a sign of increasing trust and respect can only bode well for her attempts to reconcile with Dormé.
63.) Clear: Something about Obi-Wan Kenobi has always reminded Illyn a little bit of Katerol, at his most loving and gracious, and something about Anakin Skywalker has always made her remember the curly-haired youth who played with her as a child, in Uriash (and grew up to nearly kill her), so she’s always been a little bit puzzled about how close the two young men seem to be and how well they work together, and it makes many things that had never really made a whole lot of sense to her abruptly become quite clear, when Illyn finally learns (through Yseultai and Eirtaé) that the Jedi High Council’s paranoia and fear and dislike of the boy had apparently been so great (when Anakin’s rather spectacular part in winning Naboo’s freedom back from the Trade Federation and Qui-Gon Jinn’s unexpected death during that liberation had essentially left the High Council with no real choice but to allow Anakin to join the Order after all, given that Obi-Wan - the newly famous Sith Killer - was so adamant about fulfilling his promise to his dying Master to train the young boy as a Jedi Knight) that Kenobi and Skywalker had decided it would be necessary for them to provide Anakin with a measure of protection against those Masters, by coming up with ways for Anakin to play up to certain of the High Council’s expectations while at the same time disguising much of the truth of himself and his nature from both the Council (and most of the Order at large) and, by extension, most of the rest of the galaxy, too.
64.) War: The war, when it finally comes, is unbelievably awful - both long quietly dreaded and equally long fought against the coming of - but once it has arrived there is nothing to do but to accept it and try to move past the pain and the horror it represents to find a solution that will let her have both her family again (fully intact) and peace, and she is immensely glad, as the war drags on and more and more attacks occur against Naboo, of the network she’s helped establish, among the families of those who number at least one member as a handmaiden.
65.) Peace: There are things that Cianus still won’t speak to her of and neither one of them is much closer to making any kind of real peace with Dormé and their eldest son still sometimes behaves like a spoilt brat (though this happens with less and less frequency and is followed by more and more convincing displays of true regret and remorse, ever since he met that wonderful girl, Lehari Nhaven - the young foster sister of the unfortunately now deceased handmaiden Etté Zirach - and began to consciously try to change, to be the kind of man she truly deserves to have, so that he might win her heart); yet, all in all, she finds herself happier than she an remember being since . . . well, since before the attack, if she’s perfectly honest with herself, and so it’s that much more of a shock, when word comes that Coruscant itself is under attack and their Senator (and former Queen) is missing.
66.) Troop: She manages to catch Dormé off guard, showing up at the Palace with a ridiculous amount of food and drink and a troop of sensible young men and women recruited from among the noble (and not so noble) households of her and her youngest daughter’s and her virtual daughter-in-law’s friends (including the many friends they’ve made among the families of the other handmaidens), to take over the job of manning all the comms and waiting for word both of the battle (and the attempt to rescue the apparently kidnaped Supreme Chancellor) and of their missing Senator, and to order her daughter and the other frantic handmaidens and handmaiden trainees to eat and to rest, before they all collapse of nervous exhaustion, determinedly loading those young women and teenaged girls down with food and soothing teas and then waving them all off to bed whether they necessarily want to go or not.
67.) Shock: The news of Padmé Amidala’s death is such a shock that, for several long moments, the whole of the universe seems to be holding its breath in stunned wonder, and it’s not until she hears Laborue’s quiet remark, “Frag all, but Dormé is going to find some way to blame herself, for this, even though she wasn’t there and Amidala told her to stay here, with the trainees!” that she remembers how to breathe again, much less speak or move.
68.) Comfort: Her heart aches to try to comfort her eldest child, but given that Dormé is refusing to see even Ioannes (easily the most beloved of her family members), Illyn knows better than to try to do so, just yet, and busies herself with trying to comfort her youngest daughter and as many of the other painfully bewildered and shocked and grieved handmaidens as will let her try to help.
69.) Relationship: Her relationship with the Naberrries has never been particularly strong - she’s never quite been able to completely hide the fact that she considers Padmé Amidala a naive damn fool idealistic crusader likely to get those closest to her hurt or killed and a poor Queen and Senator, compared to the job she wholeheartedly believes her eldest daughter could easily do - but of all people she knows what tragedy is like, and so she goes and she sits with Jobal and Ruwee and offers as much comfort as she possibly can, quietly helping to arrange what little can be arranged, until the body has arrived, and lending Jobal a shoulder to sob on when the reality of their loss finally sinks in past the awful shock of the pronouncement that the youngest Naberrie child has not only been killed but is just another incident of collateral damage from the battle over Coruscant.
70.) Opinion: Illyn has always had an extremely high opinion of that lovely young man, Bendu Master Kenobi, though her opinion of the Jedi’s former Padawan has always been somewhat tentative and uncertain, even after finding out about the deception he and Master Kenobi have been perpetrating/perpetuating against the High Council and the Order, regarding much of Anakin’s basic nature (in part despite of and in part because of her knowledge of the young man’s close friendship with her daughter, Dormé, which has always struck her somehow as being both a good thing and a potentially highly dangerous thing), so Illyn is, on the one hand, stunned by that particular turn of events, while also, at the same time, being completely unsurprised.
71.) System: The cleansing of the Force feels, to her, like a sudden shock to the system, like waking up one day after a lifetime in darkness to suddenly discover that she has eyes that work and light enough to properly see, and she weeps, unabashedly, not caring who might see or what anyone might think of her, too thankful for what has happened for any other thoughts or cares to intrude, at least for a little while.
72.) Order: She can’t decide if she’s truly surprised by the fact that Team Kenobi and Skywalker have chosen to take on Bail Organa as their shared Padawan learner and the first true new recruit for their New Jedi Bendu Order, but she is at least a little worried by the implications of such a move, for she knows that if a man like the Crown Prince of Alderaan is going to be sought out by the newly reformed Order, then that means that people like Dormé and the other handmaidens and other members of the handmaidens’ families are going to be clamoring for a chance to volunteer for such training.
73.) Calm: In a moment of relative calm amidst the various shocks rocking the galaxy, Ioannes tentatively approaches her over the possibility of eventually testing for (and, hopefully, joining) any chapterhouse for the New Jedi Bendu Order that might be established on Naboo, and she shocks him speechless by admitting that she’s seriously considering undergoing the same testing, if only to see if it might be possible for her to fashion her Force-sensitivity into a better tool for protecting her family from any harm that might otherwise befall it.
74.) Truth: The truth of what Sola Naberrie is and what she has done (apprenticing herself to the Sith Lord, Master Sidious) hits everyone like a shockwave - she even finds Laborue sitting pale and trembling, half furious and half terrified that he may have inadvertently said something to her, once or twice, about Dormé’s movements and duties, that may have somehow helped Sola in her dastardly deeds - and, even though the whole things brings up terrible memories for her and she still isn’t what she would consider extremely close to the Naberrie family, Illyn grits her teeth and gathers her courage and makes herself available for the Naberries, hoping that the presence of someone who has gone through similar proceedings (the exile of a family member for crimes so awful as to amount to treason) may, in some way, help.
75.) Talk: She is, quite possibly, one of the absolute last people her eldest child would ever want to know this news, but Illyn’s dogged persistence in trying to rebuild her family and mend her fractured relationship with Dormé has gained her an increasing amount of sympathy among the other handmaidens, and, after Dormé tells her old companions and Eirtaé makes the decision to inform Dormé’s little sister, it’s inevitable that Illyn should discover that Bendu Masters Kenobi and Skywalker have asked Sabé Dahn and Dormé Tammesin to agree to become Naboo and the Chommell Sector’s next Queen and next Senator and to both agree to receive training as full members of the New Jedi Bendu Order, impossible that Illyn should hear such momentous news and know of all that’s been and is being done to reorder and revive both the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic and not imagine that her girl and that lovely Sabé (a young lady Dormé has always fiercely adored and who has been her greatest ally and mentor among the handmaidens, not to mention one of her closest friends) are, quite possibly, being put into positions where they are being groomed for eventual shots at becoming Consuls of the New Alliance of the Republic, thereby bridging the gap between politician and Jedi Bendu protector, and even less likely that Illyn should know all of this and not act: thus, it is that her eldest child finds herself being faced with an utterly intractably determined visitor, who merely repeats, “We have to talk, child,” over and over again until the girl finally gives up and, exasperated, invites Illyn to come share a light noonday meal with her and to talk just as much as Illyn would like about whatever she’d like . . . an invitation that, at long last, leads to a meeting of minds and a reconciliation (of sorts) between mother and daughter.