The Legend of the Jedi Queen

53. Resisting Arrest

It was late at night once more, and Nellith couldn't sleep as it was. She could still hear the echoes there.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN.

The vision had grown more specific, fewer changes every time, it was shifting less and less, revealing more and more about the future that had been decided. And every time, it looked like the bad path.

She wondered how to mention it the next morning to her parents. Telling them that Tallis would murder them in the future wasn't exactly the best breakfast conversation-opener. Besides, what if that made them stop looking for Tallis?

She'd come up to the alcove once again, to sit in the cold and be alone with her swirling thoughts. She looked out the snowy woods and ice caves, and wondered if she would see Tallis, or any of his ancestors, in the cave where she had met her grandmother's ghost.

Before she could ponder the things she would need or the possibilities of such an expedition, she felt a small ping in the Force. She didn't know how else to describe it. She could feel her father's rage within the castle, like a tsunami getting ready to crash as the storm gathered above.

As quickly as she could, Nellith navigated the passageways within the Imperial Palace, only hoping she could get to her father in time. She had to. She could feel her mother, also, as she got closer.

Her mother felt like a river in the Aquilaean springs, ready to overflow and destroy all in its path as the rain kept falling in.

Nellith quickly came to a hidden alcove within the Jedi training room. Obscured by the gridded vents, she was unseen as she saw the Jedi split into two factions. But one, led by Kiernan, had circled around her parents.

"Enough of this!" Kiernan shouted. "I think we have all the evidence we need!"

He ignited his yellow lightsaber. All of the others surrounding her parents did the same. If Rey or Ben tried to push past, they would walk straight into the end of a lightsaber.

Nellith's heart picked up, wondering what she could do. If she could—

"Rey Qel-Droma and Kylo Ren, I arrest you as traitors to the Jedi Order and wielders of the Dark Side of the Force!" Kiernan shouted. "You will go on trial for your perceived darkness—"

"I think not," Ben said, looking to Rey.

She outstretched her hand, and what Nellith saw made her heart skip a beat.

"You will deactivate our lightsabers, and let us leave this room," Rey said. Her dark eyes were confident, her voice serene and commanding. Like that, the will of everyone in the room crumbled like the Massassi temple did before Nellith when she screamed.

In perfect synchronization, the Jedi surrounding Ben and Rey repeated Rey's words.

"We will deactivate our lightsabers, and let you leave this room," they chorused. They then lowered their lightsabers, switched them off, and stepped back, expressions eerily blank. Ben and Rey ran past them and out the door, Jedi on their side following them.

Nellith quickly navigated back to the hallway where she always crawled in, and screwed the panel back on behind her. Heart pounding, she continued to her room, and locked the door to the main apartment behind her. She grabbed her cloak and boots, when she heard it.

Over the intercoms, she could hear her father's voice. He sounded angry, and incredibly out of breath.

"Code Blue!" Ben shouted. "The Knights of Ren are no longer allied with the Jedi— any Jedi Knight who isn't a Knight of Ren, my sister, my daughter, or my wife is no longer welcome within the Imperial Palace, and will be forced to leave if necessary!"

Alarms blared throughout the castle, and Nellith grabbed her cloak, throwing it on as well as her boots, and shut the door to her balcony, and closed all the curtains between doorways within the apartment. With her lightsaber, blaster, and multi-tool on her belt, she was ready to fight, should it come to that. She simply had to trust her parents would come for her. She shut herself into her closet, and sat in the dark behind the clothes.

Then she heard the pounding on the door.

"Princess! Open up!" It was General Mitaka. "Princess?"

Nellith reached for her wardrobe door before hesitating. Something felt wrong about it.

Reach out.

She heard Jaina's voice in her head, clear as day. She reached out her hand— not necessary, she knew that, but it was a sort of shortcut that helped her tap into the Force. She sensed Mitaka behind the door— and she saw Kiernan's presence, and it was vaguely threatening.

"Princess?" Mitaka shouted, before there was muffled scuffling, and Kiernan pounded on the door before giving a grunt of frustration.

"We're coming in there!" Kiernan roared.

Nellith burst out of the wardrobe, and grabbed a cable hidden in the bottom for emergencies. She clipped it to the balcony and started rappelling down. By the time Kiernan and his friends had cut through the door, she had touched her boots to the snow-covered ground.