In Fair Aldera Where we Lay our Scene

Chapter Three

One of the many things Leia liked about being back on Alderaan was family meals. When on Courscant she usually ate alone and seeing as she lacked most cooking skills she usually either had ready made meals to take away. On Alderaan however she had most of her meals with at least her parents and the palace chiefs and kitchen droids always served proper meals.

Tonight however her parents were unable to join her for dinner. They hadn't really explained why only saying that they needed to prepare for the arrival of some guests who would be arriving at the palace tomorrow. This should be a very simple explanation but it confused Leia. She assumed the guests must be personal guests of her parents as Leia would have know if they were expecting diplomatic visitors or ambassadors but for some reason they hadn't told her who it was that was coming. Another thing, that was arguably even weirder, was that it seemed that this 'meeting' only included the two of them and not any of the palace staff or even the family's majordomo Tarrik. If it was only personal guests arriving then surely their wasn't that much that needed to be done.

Leia cut off another piece of her nerf steak and took a bite of it as she looked over at the view of Aldera from the south terrance watching as a thranta flew overhead of the palace. She was sat in her usual seat at the table and as her parents weren't occupying the seats opposite her it gave her a clearer view.

She had previously been joined by two guards on the balcony but as they clearly weren't comfortable with the idea of having small talk with the Princess, Leia had begun to feel awkward with having them just stand there so she had dismissed them early. A part of Leia had wished that she had eaten in her room instead but her room was a fair distance even from the private kitchen in the royal wing so it would require her having to take down her dirty dishes afterwards or asking one of the servants to.

Leia took a sip from her glass of Alderaanian white.

She suddenly felt very lonely which wasn't a feeling she experienced much on Alderaan but at this moment it felt true. Her parents were in their 'meeting', her aunts and cousins were at their private estates, she'd given her handmaidens the day off and Winter and Neena, the two girls who were practically her sisters, were currently away for school.

Leia didn't want to complain or come off as whinny she just whisked that she had someone to talk to right now. She brushed the thought away as she finished her meal and downed the last of her wine. That didn't matter right now. She had important things to do and prepare for and it was childish to complain about eating alone when she ate alone pretty much every day before this for the last several months.

Now finished with her meal, she cleaned her mouth with her napkin and smiled politely to the server droid who had come to clean up the table before leaving the terrance.

As she walked through the palace halls, towards the royal apartments, she smiled politely to the guards on duty. Before she came to the royal apartments she walked past her father's office. Bail Organa's office had an old fashioned door that needed to be opened and closed by hand rather than doing it automatically and the door was slightly adjacent allowing Leia to hear snippets of a conversation between her parents.

" . . . the boy . . . sister . . . "

"No . . . right away . . . twins . . . not safe."

" . . . never . . . secret . . . deserve to . . . "

Then it seemed that they noticed the door was slightly open as it closed tightly just as Leia was about to pass it, stoping any more sound from coming out. None of it sounded particularly interesting or important so Leia decided to brush it aside though she did wonder why this 'meeting' was happening in her father's office rather than in the palace meeting room. It probably had to do with the fact their guests sounded like guests of Bail and Breha Organa rather than the Queen and Viceroy of Alderaan.