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IN A CITY BUSTLING WITH LIFE, bleeding and pulsing like a heart, an immortal could only find so many places to breathe. Each corner contained a senator or another politician, praying for Elliede to listen to them, to pass their message along to the Senator of Naboo. That's all they saw in her - another body to do what they asked, another voice to quash in their quest for vengeance or power. And with the Separatists looming over their heads, the various motions and bills for war on the table, Elliede found the whole thing suffocating.
But Xanthe made it ten times worse.
Her skin prickled, his watchful eye following her across the landing platform, through the halls of Padmé's apartment. She had muttered an excuse to the Senator, a feeble attempt at an escape. Padmé looked at her, her lips tight. She probably saw straight through Elli's glass skin, cracking and shattering under the pressure.
She had not bothered to turn the lights on, but the sunlight streamed through the large windows. Elli sat behind the couch, her back pressing against the fabric, her eyes closed. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest, pounding, escaping.
It was the smell that got to her. The burning flesh, the smoking hair. The death that still lingered on her skin.
She had known Cordé for six years. A bright girl, the sister of a jeweller. She had no skill with a blaster, but she looked and sounded like Padmé, so the match was made.
Elliede didn't have a life to give in service, and so she couldn't imagine what had gone through the heads of the handmaidens, what thoughts possessed them to lay down their life for a Senator or a Queen. Did their lives mean so little that they were happy to lose? Or was it a cruel trick to make those in power care?
Elli hated caring. It only made her suffer, her losses piling up one on top of the other. Xanthe. The Jedi known as Qui-Gon Jinn. Cordé. And a family she had never known.
She often wondered what had brought her to Tatooine. Had she been abandoned by parents? Taken by the slave trade? Or had someone always intended to come back for her?
Elli.
His voice whispered through her mind, and she squeezed her eyes tighter, covering them with her hands. "No," she pleaded. "Please. Just leave me alone."
I've missed you, Elli. My love.
A sob escaped her lips, bile rising in her throat. Would he be there if she opened her eyes? Would he look at her the way he used to, so full of light and hope? He promised they'd leave one day. At least, after everything, he had kept his promise. The Jedi had taken them to Naboo, and the two of them finally realised what life could be like. But before they could build a life together, he vanished in the blink of an eye.
