Jahn sat in his throne, fuming and absentmindedly fingering the fresh tattoo around his wrist. It was an exact copy of the fresh tattoo around his queen's wrist. They were marriage tattoos, just now healing up. She had told him it was old tradition on Vondume to get matching bands after a couple had been married, but that it hadn't been used much since the old monarchy had been abolished a few centuries ago. They had decided to revive the tradition, hoping to make a visual connection for the people to those past times.
At the moment, Jael was sat next to her king, a concerned look painted on her face.
She was used to his outbursts by now, as over the past several weeks, Jahn had become more and more restless and unhappy with his new position on the planet, as its leader.
She wasn't worried for herself, or for the questionable future of her home with her now as Queen, but rather for Jahn.
"You alright?" She asked quietly.
"You know the answer to that. I hate this. It's ridiculous, and I never wanted any part of it."
Hoping to get him to open up to her, she probed him a little more. "Still, you don't think you may have overreacted a bit?"
Minutes earlier, a small dispute between two women had come to him for a decision over a baby. There had been a storm, and one baby had died, both women laid claim to the surviving child. Jahn approached them with his favorite sword, and told them the logical solution was to cut the baby in two, and give both a half. One of the 'mothers' immediately cried out against the idea and said she'd give it up. Jahn had cut the other 'mother', who had hesitated to protest the idea, from hip to shoulder.
"The child thief?" Jahn laughed, before catching the look Jael was giving him. "It was better than she deserved."
"Perhaps." Jael nodded. "She was overtaken with grief at the loss of her own child though, and was not herself."
"That doesn't matter. It's not the point anyway." Raezyr stood from his chair, throwing down his sword. "Ruling this place is such a drain of energy, and with no point to it. Yes, I know I agreed to it and it was the only way to achieve our goals." He began to pace. "I never expected that part of my 'duty' would be to decide the color of sidewalk paint, or the proper width for entryways into the constable building."
Jael stood and approached him, lightly draping herself on his shoulders and kissing him on the cheek, praying he would begin to calm down. "And per your orders, they are working on solutions to weed out some of the more menial tasks. It was you who insisted we start from scratch, leaving nothing of the corrupt government behind."
"Even the King can make flawed decisions." Jahn sighed.
Jael pulled his shoulder to turn him to face her, and had just begun to kiss him deeply when the doors to the throne room were thrown open and a servant came running in, clearly under distress.
"Your majesty, there's two men here who...."
The doors opened again, this time thrown from their holdings entirely, clanging off the floor as they bounced across the room.
Two men stood at the doorway, both wearing all black. One was diminutive, wearing a dark mask with blinking lights on his forearms and torso, and no flesh showing. The other was taller, though a few centimeters shorter than Jahn. His face was showing, though covered in the shadows of his cloak's hood.
Two of the elite guards tried to attack the men from behind. The taller man spun and blocked the shots of energy from the advanced weapons with some sort of energy sword. One of the guards was struck by his own shot, the other seemed to trip over his own feet and fall unconscious. The intruders stood at the ready for a moment, ready for another attack, but none came.
Jahn swept his sword up off the floor and pushed Jael behind him in single fluid movement. He didn't know if his metal sword would stand up to that 'laser sword' the taller intruder was weilding, but he wasn't about to go down without a fight.
"Who are you?" Jahn bellowed. "I'd like to know what names to put on your graves."
The two men straightened up, and the taller of the two shut off his weapon. "Um, wouldn't you like to know what we're doing here?" he said, clipping the metal cylinder to his belt.
"I assume you're assassins come to kill the King of Vondume," Jahn replied walking slowly forward, sword held ready. "Except I don't plan to die today."
"Put that thing down... it wouldn't do you any good anyway," the stranger said, chuckling.
Somehow Jahn knew he was telling the truth, and he eased his stance a bit, but still wary. "What do you want?" he asked quizzically.
"You don't recognize me, do you?" the intruder said as if the thought hadn't occurred to him before.
General Rizen suddenly burst in with a squad of troops, energy weapons leveled at the two intruders. Instantly their blades were ignited and at the ready.
"Stand down!" Jahn yelled. Somehow he knew that Rizen would pose no more threat to the strangers than the two guards had just a minute ago.
"Your Majesty?" Rizen questioned. He and his men stood their ground, weapons still leveled.
"Rizen, just do as I say," Jahn told him. "Put away your weapons and stand down."
"As you wish, Sire,"
When they had done as he asked, the strangers lowered their weapons as well. "You know, I came here to rescue you, but I should have known better. Even with amnesia, you took over the planet like a good Sith should," the tall intruder chuckled.
Jael came up behind Jahn and put her hands on his shoulder. "Jahn... what's going on?"
Suddenly it was all clear. Like a wave crashing down, clarity came rushing back. The king put his hand to his head, feeling his scar and then running his hand through his black hair. He turned and looked his wife in the eyes. "Jael... meet your brother-in-law, Trychon."
--------------------------
The black masked Darth Invictus had already boarded the ship, getting it prepped for departure when Trychon shook hands and said his good-byes, leaving Raezyr at the dock with Queen Jael, General Rizen and Commander Dael.
"Jahn..." she said and paused. "You know I'll never think of you as this 'Lord Raezyr' person, right?" She went on after Raezyr nodded. "Why can't you stay?"
The Sith warrior shook his head. "It's like I've told you all along. I wasn't meant for this. Everything I did here, I did for you. Every decision I made was one I made after listening to your suggestion. You did this. It's yours. This is what you were meant for." He bent down and kissed her lips. "I love you, Jael. I will return."
She stepped back from him. "I know."
Raezyr turned to Rizen and Dael. "Protect her. Protect the crown."
They saluted simultaneously. "By your command," they said in unison.
With a last look at his wife, the big Sith turned and boarded the ship.
Within a minute he had taken his seat in the cockpit with Trychon and Invictus.
"So," Trychon said after several minutes of silence. "You went and got married, and I didn't even get invited to the wedding."
"Shut up, Trych," Raezyr responded dourly.
His brother chuckled, then he looked over slyly. "I'm fine with that answer, but what's Di gonna say?"
"As always, what she doesn't know isn't gonna kill her... besides, we haven't seen her in years," Raezyr said as he stared out the wind screen, watching the Vondumian skies turn from blue to black as they broke atmosphere. "I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever see her again."
"That's just it, Raez," Trychon told him. "Di showed up a few weeks ago."
Raezyr turned and looked, almost in disbelief.
"She needs our help."
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