Star Wars: The Last Qymaili | ✔

34 | Salvation

"There's still another way to get the information needed. Do you have a photographic memory?"

"Not photographic, but...." she sighed. "I've been dreaming about the droid for over a decade."

"I need you to recount to me all the information from before, just as you recall it."

She looked down at what had been her organic hand. She flexed the four-fingered metallic blackness, shuddered, and spoke.

"Dooku had a conversation with someone from back on Kalee...." she swallowed. "About my murder once I returned."

Arna's brows shot up. "Who was it?"

She sighed. "I don't know. Someone who was around during Jenuwaa. It's one of Qymaen's wives. Dooku also...." Nausea welled in her stomach. "He said that he had a purpose for Qymaen. The only good explanation I see is that he plans to kill Qymaen and send this thing to Kalee to rule in his stead as a dictator."

"Why would that be true?" Arna asked gently.

"Qymaen won't join their side," she declared. "He doesn't like the Republic much, but he'd never betray me for the Separatists."

"You also said he would never marry anyone but you; yet here we are."

A tremor rang through her gut. "This is different. And what alternative do you propose? That droid is definitely connected to Kalee. I've seen it in my dreams."

He gave a sigh. "So, Dooku's planning an uprising. He's planning on using the Kaleesh to accomplish this. He wants you and your fiancé dead. Do I understand correctly?"

"Yes," she said, surprisingly quiet. This was the truth—the truth about what had been planned for her and Qymaen this whole time. She clenched her fists, wincing at the electricity coursing through her bad hand. "I have to leave soon. I have to go back to Kalee to warn him."

"At the cost of your own life from this jealous wife of his," Arna pointed out. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you risk yourself."

"Sometimes you have to put your duty before your feelings," she said. "Isn't that what you told me once?"

"This has nothing to do with attachment," he said coolly.

"Arna, only one of us can live anyway." Her throat closed with tears. "He's more prominent, and too important to die. If he dies, Kalee's freedom dies with him." A pause. "You just don't want to let me go, do you?"

"We have an obligation to protect all life."

"Then why are you excluding his? Come back with me if you must. But I will not leave him to die."

"I'm afraid I can't take you back to Kalee until your time is up."

She scowled. "You always have Jedi business," she whispered spitefully. "Always, anytime I bring up the man I swore myself to. And if you think that trapping me in this miserable pit of corruption is going to make me inclined to stay longer, you are sorely mistaken, Master Jedi."

Arna ignored her, picking up a file folder. "I'm going to report to the Council," he said, his voice crystallizing. "When I come back, we shall see if you will get your wish. I'll be legally obligated to let you go if your account checks out."

"Fine then," she said, simmering in rage as he departed, her teeth grinding. "Go and deliver your report."

✺✺✺

Khetsuu crossed the room to rest a hand on Shia's sleeping face. She'd contracted an illness that the doctors hadn't been able to cure, just as the other amas had. Her time was running out.