My legs were still trembling when I walked towards my room. The dark of the night didn't make the journey easier, but it did hide me from the patrols around the castle. When I rounded the corner and came face to face with Sir Paul, he swallowed loudly and stepped aside so that I could pass through. "Has there been anyone here to visit me?" I questioned as I opened the door and lowered the hood covering my face.

"No, your majesty, it's been quiet." He clenched his jaw and looked away. His cheeks lightly reddened as he shuffled uncomfortably. 

"Paul, listen." I sighed, feeling quilty. After all, confidentiallity was one of the most important parts of the role of a doctor. After using his condition against him, I couldn't help but feel like I betrayed him even though he was kind of a douche. "I would never tell anyone about anything you come to me for, you know that right?" 

Paul softly chuckled and finally dared to meet my eyes again. "Not even for those jedi?" His back straightened as I nodded and looked down.  "Desperate times, princess. I don't blame you."

"Just.. Keep it in mind, okay?" I awkwardly patted his shoulder and entered my room. When I shrugged off the hood my head was bombarded with different emotions, feelings and thoughts about one certain jedi. I sighed deeply and plumbed down onto my bed, removing some of the the cushions that were supposed to be representing me.

"What the hell am I doing?" I groaned loudly, hiding my face in my hands when it burned up and probably turned red. I fell on my back and stared up at the ceiling, a phantom sensation still left on my lips. My fingers reached up to them, slightly tracing the places he'd touched before.

When I closed my eyes I could almost picture him before me, the way the moon cast warm shadows on his soft features, the small smile he gave me when I showed him my powers. My stomach was doing flips when my mind went back to that moment and remembered the confidence he suddenly showed. Where it came from I had no idea, or rather I just couldn't think rationally.

All I knew was that I was in serious trouble. I was in way too deep, having the feeling I was drowning on the bottom of the ocean. A beautiful ocean, but terrifying nonetheless. There was one thing for certain: when it came to Obi-Wan, I had lost all control and rationality.

Suddenly I heard two knocks on my door, making me sit upright immediately. "Come in!" I said quickly and readjusted my hair, watching expectingly as the wooden door slowly opened.

"Princess?" I recognized one of Aidan's servants as he hesitantly stepped inside my room. He had slick black hair that was combed neatly away from his face, revealing his ocean blue eyes that seemed to look through everything. He glanced towards the cushions that were still positioned in a oddly shape under the covers and then towards me, his eyebrows slightly raising when I awkwardly tried to hide it from view.

"The king has summoned you." His eyes stuck to the redness of my cheeks. He scoffed and then motioned for me to follow him without even waiting for a response.

"Wait, hold on." my feet touched the ground as I stood up. The suddenness of this request left me dumbfounded. "What if I refuse to come?" I crossed my arms before my chest and glared at the man who was so obviously judging everything I did.

"Are you sure you want to infuriate the king even further?" he lifted his eyebrows.

"Well, I..." all of the smart ass comments I ussualy had stored in my head seemed to have completely disappeared in an instance. The bluntness of the servant had caught me off guard, so much that I couldn't even form normal sentences and stood there with my mouth wide open.

"After you, your majesty." he motioned to the door and stepped asside. Somehow I couldn't find it in me to fight against him, even if he was just a servant. With the way he looked at me I just didn't want to emberass myself even further, afraid I'd loose all my self respect. Huffing in frustration I followed him. He led me through the dark, quiet halls in a way too awkward silence. His steps were confident and there was a smug smirk on his lips that I just wanted to punch off.

"He's in here." He stopped before the small chapel we had in the west wing off the castle. Without opening the door, he stared at me with blank eyes. I knew what was behind the door, and I didn't know if I was ready to face it yet. These past few days all I've done is hide from those emotions, basking in others that were easily distracting me from the simple truth.

I sighed deeply, my hand reaching for the stone cold metallic doorknob. The chills spread through my body swiftly as my heart started to beat faster. I could almost hear it beat as I closed my eyes and bit on my lips to try and distract myself from the fear I was feeling.

"Well, go on then. He's waiting." the servant nudged his head.

"Do you have an ounce of respect left in your whole body?" I hissed at him and glared, but he stared back unimpressed. He even nudged his head towards the door again. I huffed and opened the door, my eyes soon spotting Aidan standing behind the altar.

He looked up momentarily but his eyes soon returned to the body that was lying before him. His hand was lying on top the colder, older and lifeless version of his. "I never thought I'd see him like this." Aidans voice was soft as he traced the patterns on my father's armor. They had dressed him in his complete battle attire, with golden decorations on every silver plate that covered his body. His simple yet beautiful crown rested on his head, while his hands were clasped around his sword that lay on his chest.

"Not this soon, anyway." Aidan sighed deeply and glanced back at me. All the anger that had taken refuge in me seemed to slowly fade away as I saw my dead father lying there. I wanted to yell, to scream and curse him for doing what he did. Yet when I saw our father there, I remembered the simple truth that we were family, and that we had just lost the most loving father anyone could have ever wished for.

At a loss of words I slowly made my way towards the altar and dared to look at my father's face. He seemed peaceful yet oddly stern, his mouth pressed in a thin line.

My hand instinctively reached for his wrist to feel his pulse, but when my fingers touched the coldness of his skin they didn't even try to search for the reassuring thumb of a heartbeat. I closed my eyes and fought against the tears that were threatening to spill.

"3 days, and we haven't even found a single moment to mourn." Aidan's voice broke when he saw what I had tried to do. "Too busy with what was happening to even realise what we had lost."

I glanced at the white roses that were surrounding my father's body. They were beautiful, yet they only brought me sadness. They reminded me how easily one could destroy something so precious, yet so defenseless. The most beautiful ones would always be picked first, and be the first ones to perish.

"If you hadn't locked me up, I would've come sooner." My voice was deprived of any emotion as I retracted my hand. I could feel my brother's gaze burning the side of my face as he studied me.

"I did what I did for the good of Valeria." He seemed to actually believe what he was saying, which made it even more frustrating for me. Letting out a loud scoff, I turned my back towards him and my father, crossing my arms before my chest.

"You were openly undermining me during my first few days as king, Lyanna. I had to do something."

"Maybe, but that shouldn't have involved locking up all the people that are trying to help you!" I turned around swiftly and raised my voice. "I am your sister, Aidan. You should've trusted me enough or at least respected me enough to listen to what I was saying, not locking me up and silencing me."

He bit his lip and gasted his eyes down, sighing deeply as he balled his fists and leaned on them. The lack of response pushed me over the edge, unleashing something I had never thought was in me.

"You betrayed everything he stood for!" I yelled, my fists suddenly engulfed in flames. "You take over his Power instantly, using it to reach your own personal goals without even thinking what it would do to Valeria, without thinking what it would do to your own goddamn family!"

My fist connected with another statue of one of our old gods, knocking it over and sending flames across the floor. The heat almost burned everything down but I didn't even notice.

Aidan remained silent and unmoving, watching me closely. I swallowed the lump that was growing in my throat and turned my gaze to the now black scarred floor. "He deserved better. They all did."

Aidan nodded, sighing as he walked around the altar and towards me. His footsteps were slow and a thoughtful look remained on his face. He even dared to come right before me, his hand reaching under my chin to make me look him in the eyes.

"I lost him too." He spoke carefully. The hurt that I saw in his eyes made me regret everything I'd just said. They left me speechless, and made my eyes glaze over with tears almost immediately. They seemed empty, lost, like everything he ever loved just burned right before his eyes. And maybe it did.

"In my first few days as king I've had to deal with a revived, undefeatable legend that will attack in two weeks time, had to surpress a civil war by locking up foreign invaders and had to deal with hundreds casualties of war." his eyebrows furrowed together." I lost a loving mentor, most of my army and the trust of many people I hold close to my heart. Above all, I lost my sister."

"I never wanted any of this. I wasn't ready to lead, to be king. But it happened and I had no choice but to act. It all happened so suddenly that I... I didn't do it right." He put his hand against the side of my face, a single tear dropping down his cheek." I cannot do this alone, Lyanna. Please do not turn against me." he pleaded and his voice broke."I cannot loose you too."

When I looked at him I saw the boy he was, not the king. He was broken and trying to mend, desperately looking for someone to help him put the pieces back together. He had no idea how to do it himself, for he had never had to learn to do it. Even though he looked much like my father; the golden hair and their stern Grey eyes, he was but a reflection of what he was trying to be, of who my father was. And even though he wanted to become like him desperately he never fully could, for he was but another human trying to do his best for his people in the ways he knew how.

"Set them free." I demanded, fighting against the urge to comfort him. I wanted to hug him, tell him I'd always be there for him. But that'd be selfish, for there were people relying on me with their lifes.

Aidan tried to read my face as he frowned. He remained silent for a while, watching me carefully as he thought about what I was asking. "Do you love him?"

It was like he punched me in the gut. I took a few dazed steps back, my voice stuck in my throat as I slowly processed the question. "Love him?" I repeated, looking away momentarily. Did I? I'd never thought about it before, I didn't even truly know what it meant. Love was something I never truly experienced, for I was always too busy worrying about saving people's lifes than anything else.

Love. It was such a foreign concept. But the question puzzled me more than I could've ever thought. I'd known him for maybe a week, 12 days tops. Yet every time I saw him he awakened something deep inside me, something warm yet oddly terrifying. He changed me in a way I wasn't sure I wanted to be changed, made me unsure of everything I did or said.

"Love him." He was a good man, I was sure of that. As a jedi he always put other people's needs before his own much like myself. But that also meant that that'd leave little room for love, or even a notion of it. Sure, I cherished the little moments we shared and I knew he did too but I always knew that somewhere back in his head he was trying to get away from them, for he was afraid to have love again.

No, what we had was not love. It wasn't even near the beginning of it. It was two people too afraid off their emotions, running away from everything else and finding their reflection in someone else, thinking that maybe this was what they needed.

But then how do I explain what happened to me everytime he was near me? The fastened heartbeat, the total loss of words yet the odd fascination for everything around us, the adrenaline he released inside of me and the way he made me feel alive, on edge. Those things I had never experienced before and I couldn't possibly begin to explain what it was. Was there maybe a chance that that was it, was that love? I could not decide, not then.

"I..." I looked up at Aidan after that train of thought. "I don't know him enough to possibly presume..." I saw his eyebrows knot together, his eyes turning dark and his mouth straighten. "Listen, that has nothing to do with this-"

Aidan shook his head and turned away from me. "They were trying to help us!" I protested when it became clear he had no intention to free them. "Wheter or not Obi-Wan and I are whatever we are, they don't deserve to be there, they don't deserve to die!"

"I told you, people are rising against the throne because of their very presence here." His back was still turned towards me.

"No they are rising, because you aren't leading them correctly!" I saw his shoulders tense, but other than that I got nothing from him.  "How come that when father was still alive people were fine with them, but now suddenly that you're king they are not?"

"Because he lied!" He turned back, his eyes filled with both hurt and anger. "He lied to us about almost everything. People have been rebelling for the past few months, organizing small coups, stealing food, taking outposts and he kept it from us. Now, they are waiting for their chance, waiting for even a small sign of weakness from me so that they can take the throne from us."

"This is all bigger than you think." Aidan sneered, walking closer again. "This is bigger than your petty little love for a foreigner, bigger than just 2 jedi and their little army. This is about our kingdom, our land, that is about to be taken from us by 2 different forces. And I am the only one who can stop them from taking over. "

"You're lying." I defiantly stared back at him. Somewhere in the back of my head came the gnawing sensation, the little voice that told me that it was true. But I ignored it, for it was too painful to accept. "Father would.. He would never lie to us."

"Think again." Aidan stared right through my eyes. It was intense, but I couldn't look away. It was a battle of sorts, but we were both too stubborn to let the other win. "What did he give you before he died? In Borovia?" he questioned. "You can't tell me it was something he didn't keep from you your entire life."

My mind went back to the pendant, to the only clue he had given me to find my true parents. Could I trust Aidan? He was my brother, but his lust for the throne was evident in every word he spoke. If the pendant revealed something he didn't like, I wasn't sure he'd put my needs before his own.

"It was just a pendant." I softly spoke. Aidan didn't seem convinced, not at all, but a knock on the door broke the tension.

"Come in." Aidan bellowed but his gaze remained on me.

"Your majesty, it's someone from the hospital." His servant came in, his voice dripping with annoyance. "Claims there's a patient of your sister who refuses to be treated by anyone else. Says it's a little girl, and it's urgent."

Aidan sighed deeply, finally turning away his gaze. "We will continue this later." He walked back towards the altar, his hand gliding along the cold stone. When I didn't move, he glanced back at me. "What is it?"

"Will I need another escort?" I spoke through gritted teeth.

"There'll be no need for escorts anymore." Aidan said as he crossed his arms. "You're no longer confined to your quarters, you're free to do as you please." His eyes narrowed as he continued. "But if I find out you've been doing anything against my wishes, I will lock you up in a different place than your own, luxurious room."

"Got it." I clenched my jaw, knowing I'd probably do something stupid. Hell, I would be doing the exact thing he didn't want me to do. Free the jedi. I turned towards the door but just before I could leave Aidan spoke to me again.

"I will find out what father gave you, Lyanna, and I will kill Obi-Wan. I just hope that in time you will see it's the only choice I had."

So hello there.

It's been some time again.

I'm sorry the update was delayed, or rather I'm not sure I am. I've been working in the hospital the past few months trying to cope with the Corona patients and its been HELL. Luckily here in the Netherlands the amount of new cases is starting to drop so they're letting me take more time off. Now that I'm starting research to determine which treatment works best I hope I have a bit more time left to write for you guys, but I can't promise anything. Corona has a grip on everyones lifes nowadays, sadly.

I just hope you're all healthy and doing well. Be safe, and look out for each other!