The Sands of Jakku

Princess Reya

Rey was unprepared. Everything Obi-Wan told her, everything he trained her to say seemed so insignificant once she was faced with performing the task at hand. She had been near the palace before, she had seen it from beyond the gates, but being on the other side of it, standing in the shadow of the huge marble pillars, she was not at all ready.

Doing this alone, without servants or an entourage, made her feel exposed. But Obi-Wan had informed her, fondly and with a sly smile, that this was a power play. The royal family of Coruscant was filled with women who did things like this. Rey tried to imagine what those women were really like. The way Obi-Wan spoke of them made her curious.

She walked up the steps, hand brushing along the surface of the stream that ran beside the stairs. When she reached the top of the staircase, she was amazed by the entrance to the palace. The fountain that fed the water by the stairs filled the center of the parlor, and Rey caught a glimpse of her reflection in the water. She had to stifle a gasp.

Her lips were red, her face painted like porcelain, her hair pulled back and filled with delicate golden combs. The gown she wore was pale gold and spun of silk, and around her throat she wore a necklace made of gold and rubies. She looked nothing like herself.

The inside of the palace was beyond what Rey had ever imagined. All of Obi-Wan's descriptions and warnings had not prepared her for the sheer magnificence of it. The ceilings were impossibly high, the walls made from gold and ivory. There were fountains and man-made streams everywhere. Rey had never seen this much running water in her life.

"Princess Reya Naberrie, I presume," a high-strung accented voice said. Rey turned away from the beauty before her to address the man who had called her by her pseudonym.

The name was chosen by Obi-Wan. He said it meant something important, though he would not elaborate. He only said that it was the name of a prominent family from the Mid Rim, a family he had known well once upon a time. But now, like most of the other royal houses, they were corrupt enough to not rouse suspicion in the palace.

The man who addressed her stood tall, dressed in all black, hands clasped behind his back. His hair was a fiery red, eyes deep blue and filled with cruel indifference. Rey disliked him immediately.

"Advisor Hux," Rey responded to him in kind, curtsying to show respect as Obi-Wan had taught her.

"What a lovely accent," he responded, feigning interest. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, you are from Coruscant after all."

Rey smiled softly at him, smoothing out the silk of her gown where it clung to her waist.

"Thank you, advisor," she said, forcing a charming smile, despite how her skin crawled at his compliment.

The advisor did not smile back. Instead his lips curled upward into a sneer.

"No one from your family has been interested in Prince Ren before, why now?" He asked. His stance was so rigid that he looked uncomfortable.

"I've just recently come of age," Rey lied easily, reciting the backstory Obi-Wan had fed her, "and your kingdom has been gaining more influence as of late, advisor. It would be foolish of my family not to consider an alliance."

Rey's voice and tone sounded so foreign to her. She was never one to sound so proper. It didn't have a place anywhere outside of the walls of the palace. But she would dutifully play her part in this despite the amount of discomfort her new alias caused.

"I see," Hux responded. "That is very wise." His blue eyes skimmed over her form, considering her for the first time since he entered the room. Rey felt uncomfortable, but she held her own. She kept her expression schooled and her hands clasped in front of her.