Kriff That

Thine Eyes Doth See:

And then the Duchess happened, and Ezra realized that Sabine wasn't perfect.

She was human. She made mistakes. She hurt. Actually, she was damn near broken after losing so many of her Clan. But she fought on, because that's who she was. Sabine wasn't a quitter.

It only made him love her more.

Sabine was genuinely happy as she talked with her father. It had been so LONG. And after the initial awkward moment, it was like they'd never been parted; teasing about art like old times.

Ezra, of course, had to get his own word in, but she didn't mind, not with how her father responded. And he was right. Mother really did love to destroy her enemies in the most creative ways. Too bad I was one of them.

But they'd moved past that. After a few months of proving herself a worthy clan member again, Mother was actually starting to trust her once more. It was a good feeling, even if the Wren Stronghold didn't exactly feel as much like home as it should.

More than anything, Sabine had enjoyed spending time with her little brother again. Little. Ha. That certainly doesn't apply anymore. Tristan had grown a LOT while she was gone. She didn't remember her grandfather very well, but she did remember he'd been a massive man. Tristan was definitely taking after him, and at only seventeen, Tristan was nowhere near done growing and filling out. She could tell how proud Mother was of him. He was a dutiful son. He hadn't betrayed their people. He was a strong warrior.

He was pretty much perfect.

But Sabine couldn't resent Tristan. She never would. He should have been the eldest. He would have made a much better Count than she ever would. Sabine didn't know what she was going to do when her mother was ready to step down. For the time being, she was simply pretending that her mother would remain the Countess forever and not thinking about the day when she was supposed to take over the job.

Tomorrow, Sabine would think that Fate, or the Force, or whatever, must have been laughing at her the last time she'd told Mother that dealing with Clan business matters was not her problem and she wasn't ready yet to learn about them.

Her mother had insisted anyway.

She was ever the pragmatic one. And efficient. And ruthless. And right. In that instance, anyway.

And she proved it once again as Sabine listened to her voice via Fenn's commlink, after he'd told the Countess that they'd rescued her husband.

"Then we have two victories today. Saxon's forces are in retreat." Sabine couldn't help but smile slightly at the sound of her mother's WESTARs in full voice as she pictured her chasing stormtroopers across the desolate landscape.

Tristan's voice came over the comm next a few seconds later. "Hold on. They're not all running. Looks like we've got an incoming Imperial transport."

"Reinforcements to cover their retreat?" Sabine asked, getting closer to Fenn so Tristan could hear her. That was highly unusual. What has Saxon got hiding up his vambrace this time?

"They deployed a single scout walker. With no other support. It's moving into attack position," Tristan said, the confusion in his voice just as apparent as what Sabine was feeling.

Her mother scoffed. "Laughable. Destroy it."

And that was when Sabine heard it over the comm; the sound that haunted her nightmares and kept her up for hours afterwards with tears leaving frozen trails on her face.