The Legend of the Jedi Queen

39. The Banquet

Galen Palpatine stepped down into the main dining chamber, and guided by the Force, all the nobles parted for him. No one else seemed aware of him, but Nellith and Tallis.

"Run," Nellith said, gently placing her hand on his arm to push him into action.

Tallis whirled around and started running through nobles, weaving his way seamlessly. Nellith hiked up her skirts and followed him into the nearest balcony. Outside, several small hovercrafts were floating over the meadow. The sun had turned the sky red.

"Can we take a ride?" Nellith shouted out to one that drifted close to the balcony.

The pilot hovered a few inches away from the edge of the balcony. Nellith glanced over her shoulder at the crystal banquet room. Galen Palpatine was continuing his calm, predatory pursuit across the room.

Nellith took Tallis's hand, and the two of them leapt into the airship. They landed right next to the pilot, who gently drifted off into the sky. It was only in a few heartbeats after that the cogs in Nellith's mind.

"I thought your father was dead," she said.

"I did, too," Tallis said bitterly, glaring back at the balcony as Galen Palpatine entered, looking dismayed at the airships. The sky still had yet to make the final stages of its arc across the sky, and so the airships hadn't yet launched their fireworks.

"What happened?" Nellith asked.

"Doesn't matter, does it?" Tallis pointed out. "Mother is still dead."

"You have one of your parents still," Nellith said.

"His was a Special Hand to Snoke, and now he's allied with Andromeda Hux," Tallis said. "I don't think he's a good man in any sense of the word."

"There was a time when I would've said the same about my father," Nellith said softly.

Tallis and Nellith exchanged a glance.

"But your father is also Ben Solo, the hero," Tallis said. His voice turned bitter as he looked down to the meadow. "Galen has never been anything good."

Nellith decided not to say anything. Then she felt a pull from the Force—like magnetic attraction. She turned to see that Galen had his hand reaching out, and she realized he was pulling the airship. The pilot looked dismayed.

"I'm not doing that," he said to Tallis.

"We can push back," Nellith said, exchanging a look with Tallis. He nodded, and they thrust out their palms, using the Force to push the skiff off of the balcony. Yet the skiff simply stopped moving altogether. It vibrated with energy, from the push and pull of the Force-users. The vibrations only grew and grew, knocking the pilot to the floor of the skiff.

"Let go!" Galen shouted. "I don't mean you any harm, Tallis!"

"Kriff off!" Tallis shouted back.

Galen pursed his lips as if he'd tasted a sour fruit on the banquet table. "Cursing is not going to solve this!"

"Neither is forcing me to talk to you!" Tallis shouted back.

Nellith tried to push off further, tapping into what she had— but she was tiring out quick, and was afraid of what would happen if she put more into it.

"Stop being such a child!" Galen shouted back, looking legitimately angry.

Then, all too quickly, she felt her power slip away from her, and she dropped to her knees. Tallis's resistance was only slowing the pull Galen exerted on the ship. They were going in, like it or not. As Nellith scrambled to her feet, catching her breath, she realized the skiff was not vibrating anymore.