The Flame [3]

Chapter 4

"I'm not helping you with anything," Maz states. "If you recall, last time I stuck my neck out for the Resistance, the First Order destroyed my castle. Do you know how much I loved that castle?"

"More than you hate the First Order, apparently," I mutter letting my thought slip out, than immediately regret it.

"It was a great castle," Poe says covering my sentance. Thankfully Maz didn't hear.

"The best. Do you know how long I had it?"

"A thousand years?" Poe questions.

"A thou..." she looks at Poe, and he grins That grin. "Longer than you've been around, flyboy, that's for sure. So don't sniff at me like I'm being unreasonable."

She takes a pile of goop from a bowl next to her. It smells like sulfer. She leans towards Poe and I getting out of her recliner, and puts her hand in front of us.

"You want?"

I take a sniff. "No, thanks."

"No, I'm fine," Poe tells her.

I look at Maz who is wrapped in a fluffy white towel, and another towel wrapped around her head. Poe and I share a lounger. My uniform sleeves tied tightly around my waist, and Poe still has his fully on. An attendant offers me a tea.

"Gatalentan tea, you and your father's favorite," Maz says to me.

"You remembered?" I ask her taking the cup from the tray.

"Of course, I did. You two always had a strong opinion about tea."

"Thank you, Maz," I smile as I take a sip. Me and dad had a cup every evening after a day of flying. We have a stash of it on the Falcon. Everyone thinks it's Chewie's, it was our little secret. Dad and I had many secrets we kept from mom. Like we would sneak out and go on late night flights where he let me fly. Well, Poe knows. We told each other stories of life before the Resistance, late at night. We still do, late night talks with Poe are something I cherish. Everyone makes bets that we'll get together, I heard my mom made one. I've told Jess, if I ever say I want to date Poe to slap me as hard as she can.

I snap out of my thoughts when I see Maz rubbing the goop all over her face. I almost spit out my tea. But cough it down. Poe looks at me and I wave my hand putting my other one over my mouth.

"What is that stuff?" Poe asks Maz. "It smells terrible."

"Feline poop. From some species that's lived here so long that it's practically native to the planet. Imagine. A planet with no solid ground but plenty of cats. The story is that the founder of Ephemera was a Rothkahar philosopher. He domesticated the species because he thought them of advanced intelligence... or maybe they domesticated him. I forget. Anyway, later on, he found that their excrement had healing properties. High concentrations of tibanna gas, naturally processed into tuusah." She laughs. "Does wonders for the skin."

"Fascinating," I say.

"That's great, Maz," Poe tells her, disgusted. "But can we get back to the topic at hand? The Resistance needs your help."

"Yes, you told me."

"Oh, come on." I say annoyed. "You can't do us this one favor? Maz, you were around when the Empire was. You've seen first hand how evil the First Order is. That's my brother, he's trying to kill the Resistance. And me. Why? I don't know. You don't think that scares me. I'd say you aren't helping us because you're scared. Scared you're going to loose this place. Yes, you lost your castle. Isn't that worth fighting for? You can always rebuild it, anyways." I pull the cap off the bottle, and when that happens, there's no going back.