Prequel to Promises and Deals
ACT 1: The Age of Jedi [Episode I-II]
ACT 2: The Nameless Child [Episode III-IV]
ACT 3: The Age of Rebellion [Episode V-VI]
The lineage of Alora Naftiri in a way not seen before. This is the story of her life from befor...
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Warning: Abandonment
The light on Coruscant is the dimmest Loraana has ever seen. While hiding away in the shadows with her arms wrapped around the sleeping girl pressed against her chest, she watches the moderately busy square from beneath her hood. It feels wrong to be wearing her cloak, but what other choice does she have? Without it, she would be recognized instantly.
Tears have been streaming down her cheeks for hours since she returned from the Jedi Temple to Padmé's apartments. She knew this day would come: both of them did. The day when it became clear Loraana would not be able to care for her daughter safely. It does not make this any easier.
Loraana had been hurt before. She had almost lost her life many times before. She had lost those she loved and respected. She knew what it felt like to love unconditionally and have that feeling ripped away as savagely as a lion would rip up prey. What had she done in her few decades of life to deserve having another love stolen from her grasp? Her only hope for a life outside of the Order—of feeling something other than muted compassion—lies tucked in her grasp without knowing the pain that will follow, and it only tears her heart more.
She sniffles as a cloaked creature settles on a bench beside the fountain, his walking stick propped up beside him. Loraana smiles despite herself as many of the citizens of Coruscant slowly leave the square as the sun drops below the horizon, a deep purple replacing the blue of the sky.
As she waits for dusk to turn to night, watching people milling through the square without any idea of the pain she feels, her tears never slow. Her body is trapped and fluid all at once: trapped in a cage of emotions yet growing and shifting as a storm would before destroying a village. The emotions tear at her heart, skin, face, everything as if ripping apart her soul and putting it back together only to decimate it once more.
Every detail runs through her head like film on repeat. Going off to the Mid Rim means leaving her daughter on Coruscant alone. Loraana would rather die than bring her daughter into a war zone, and Padmé has her own dilemmas to deal with without needing to consider a child. A child who has already shown signs of being Force-sensitive, breaking toys in tantrums and moving a mobile above her head without wind. There is only one person she would trust with her child's safety, but her own irrationality quickly kicked her daughter's father farther away than she had intended to push him earlier in the day. He probably hates her now. Why wouldn't he?
Without any support, Loraana only has one other person to turn to. And it could mean death itself.
Only once the patrol unit has passed the square for this rotation does Loraana slip out from the shadows. The girl in her arms shifts and groans, but Loraana quickly comforts her, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.
