Star Wars Republic Commando: Knight of Honor ✓

Chapter 43

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who continues to be interested in this story! If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

As always, I continue to hope that I am doing justice to the spirit of Star Wars as well the respective authors and characters from which I borrow. Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

Mandalorian (Mando'a) words

Buy'ce (BOO-chay, BOO-shay): helmet; Colloquially: pint, bucket

Ika (EE-kah): diminutive suffix written as 'ika - also added to a name as a very familiar or childhood form, e.g, Ord'ika - Little Ordo

Ner vod (nair-vohd): "my brother/sister"; colloquially also "my friend"

Ni kar'taylir darasuum gar (nee kar-TILE garh dah-RAH-soom): Colloquial: "I love you."

Shab (SHAH-ab): Mandalorian word for excrement

Shebs (shebs): backside, rear, buttocks (also rear of building etc)

Vor entye (vor-ENT-yay): Thank you (lit. *I accept a debt*)

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Chapter 43

Any member of the royal family that is within consensual age to wed is forbidden to marry a consort born out of the ranks of royalty. There may be only one exception to this law and that is in the rank of a knight. The loyal protector is required to take the sacred vow of duty and honor and must have a definitive understanding of the proceedings during royal court. Before the marriage can be finalized, however, the knight must forfeit active duty in the military establishment in lieu of personal duty to the royal family.

Early Tochin law pertaining to a royal marriage, adopted towards the end of the Ancient Era

Tochin Moon II, 787 Days ABG

"What if I never return?" he asked, his fingers grasping hers tighter. He couldn't imagine letting her go now, not after he finally touched her again. However, he needed to understand what his absence would cause for her, especially if it would be permanent.

Arlesse took a heavy breath, caught between the joy of Jas' touch and the fear that he would not be able to promise her what she hoped he could. "Without proof of your death or disloyalty, I am to assume until I die that you will return."

Jas thought of the clone trooper from Hazar's ship who had never been identified, and if that happened to him, Les'ika would be doomed for the rest of her life waiting for someone who would never return. He shook his head now and looked at their entwined fingers, knowing he had to let her go but was unable to release his hand from her. "I can't do that to you. You deserve better than me."

Arlesse didn't try to hold back any longer the observations her father had made. The words just escaped her, and she saw no reason not to say them. "Jas, I don't need a lifetime with you to understand what I feel..." she paused long enough to allow the tidal wave of emotion to wash over her and let herself drown in the brown infinity of his eyes. "I'm in love with you. There's no one else I want to spend my life with."

Jas felt the chill in his body suddenly warm his chest, sparking into an inferno. Words he never entertained in his wildest daydreams were honestly told to him by a woman far beyond any kind of societal ranking that he would ever imagine knowing. Jas knew he was never supposed to be anything more than a man used to fight a war that wasn't his and now he had a princess – a royal-born woman of all people – declaring her love for him. What kind of man would he be to walk away from her and what she wanted to share with him?