Bloodline

by Claudia Gray

When the people with authority don’t have to answer to citizens of the galaxy, the result is tyranny.”

“Is everybody enjoying their drinks?” “Free intoxicants are among those gifts most welcomed by sentient biological life-forms,” the droid replied.

She knew how to learn the true measure of an individual: Watch what he does to someone he believes is at his mercy.

Yes. It was Toniray, true Toniray. The first moment the cool wine touched her tongue, she closed her eyes to better savor the sensation. Leia could imagine the valley where the fruit would have been grown, see the deep-green leaves of the vines—for one instant, she could taste the very soil of Alderaan again. Home. The intense wave of emotion she felt never altered her expression. Leia let it happen, then let it go.

“Thank you.” Leia could say this much to Rinnrivin with total sincerity. “It’s been a long time since anyone gave me such a gift.”

Leia couldn’t quite smile. “Someday.” “Someday.” The words sounded like a promise. But Leia couldn’t make herself believe that day would ever really come…and she knew Han couldn’t, either. Someday was the sun disappearing behind a cloud, a morning lost to darkness long before night should have come.

But there were few quiet moments. Leia found Ransolm Casterfo surprisingly easy to talk to. He was intelligent, cultured, and even witty. Also, he was young enough that she didn’t have to worry about any misunderstandings of the romantic variety—but not so young that she had to feel guilty about appreciating the view.

Indeed .

They let go of each other at the same moment and leaned back, but Leia knew the connection they’d forged wouldn’t be broken that quickly. Only a few short hours before, Ransolm Casterfo had been her uneasy ally. Now, for better or for worse, they had become friends.

The next morning, Leia wondered whether she’d had too much of the ale—but she hadn’t. Her weariness and bad mood were the natural result of reliving memories so dark she rarely allowed herself to think of them, much less speak them aloud. Think of your conversation with Casterfo as practice,

Some wild-eyed loner with a grievance no rational person could ever understand.

Ransolm had turned out to be a fan of Ivarujari cuisine as well, so they’d turned her office desk into a sort of picnic table, eating while they worked by the light of a few candledroids.

Mirrorbright, shines the moon, its glow as soft as an ember When the moon is mirrorbright, take this time to remember Those you have loved but are gone Those who kept you so safe and warm The mirrorbright moon lets you see Those who have ceased to be Mirrorbright shines the moon, as fires die to their embers Those you loved are with you still— The moon will help you remember It was a sadder song than Lady Carise had realized. What a thing to sing to children.

“Threepio, in the quarter century you’ve served me, have you ever known me to run away from danger?” “Well. No.” The droid considered this a moment before adding hopefully, “Yet you might eventually develop a stronger instinct for survival.” Leia couldn’t help laughing. “Don’t count on it.”

The bridges they’d built between them had collapsed, but she still felt the urge to step out onto the thin air where they had been.

He concluded, “Please know that my love for you, and your mother’s love, endures long past our deaths. We are forever with you, Leia. In your brightest triumphs and your darkest troubles, always know that we are by your side.”

Beautiful final words

Answer suffering with kindness. That was what his mothers always said, one of the tenets people on Gatalenta tried to live by.

One of the best things about Han was that he boiled everything down to the essentials and disregarded the rest.

Yes A good strategy

“Hey. Just now, for tonight, let it go. Not even you can save the whole galaxy before breakfast.” Han smiled gently. “You take too much on yourself.

“Ransolm.” Leia shut her eyes for a moment, shocked by the depth of her sorrow and anger. In this hour it was as though he had never betrayed her, as though their friendship were still as strong as it had been the night they shared some of their darkest secrets. “This didn’t happen because you outed me. This happened because you defended me.”

She realized, then, something she had never fully understood before. She’d always wondered what had led her father to turn to the dark side, to become Darth Vader. She’d imagined it came from ambition, greed, or some other venal weakness. Never had she considered that the turn might begin in a better place, out of the desire to save someone or to avenge a great wrong. Even if it led to evil, that first impulse might be born of loyalty, a sense of justice, or even love. Had it been like that for her father? She could never know. But for the first time in a very long while, she had some sense of who Anakin Skywalker might have been before his fall, and of the goodness that must have survived in him through all the darkness, all the years.

Beautiful

“I’d rather burn in a better kind of flame.”

“The sun is setting on the New Republic,” Leia said. “It’s time for the Resistance to rise.”