𝕮𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗫
━━ 𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝙊𝙁 𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘾𝙃

━━ 𝘊𝘙𝘠𝘓𝘓𝘌𝘚
𝟸𝟹 𝙱𝙱𝚈

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗧𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 narrow and they curl through tall, terracotta buildings like a serpent, meandering past market stands loaded with fabrics and spices, sellers offering food cooked directly over the fire and past dark, grand entrances, their golden ornaments shimmering in the light, dimmed by colourful sheets to protect the city's dwellers from the sun and washing hung up to dry above their heads.

Selyn and Anakin walk side by side, silently taking in the myriad of impressions begging for their attention. As suggested, they make their way towards the western quarter. None of them mind the heat that much, not since they are clothed in much more temperature-fitting robes now, so they have decided to just walk. That way they can gather the most information anyways.

"Give me a short briefing about the clans, please." Anakin says as they pass a stand selling glass lanterns.

Her eyes still scanning their surroundings for any hints, Selyn begins to explain. "There is a multitude of Clans on Crylles, formed to control parts of the desert or the town. They thrive because of the black market and criminal networks, but they also demand protection money or fees for passing the areas controlled by them."

Her heartrate speeds up as she spies a pin in the woman's hair before them, but it shows just the monarch's emblem. "There are six of them. They've split up the capital, the desert surrounding it, the most important travel routes towards the holometal mines, and the mines itself. The Clan of Serpent and Bone is the most aggressive one, sometimes they rob travellers or merchants coming from the mountains. The other ones are less violent, the Clan of Scales and Dragons as well as the Clan of Blood and Dust even receive money from the palace to keep the crime scene in their sectors under control."

"But for now we're looking for anything related to this emblem." Selyn pulls out the pin, which shows a serpent wrapping its torso around a bone that doesn't seem quite human. "Or anyone who seems...suspicious."

"That would be...every second person around here." Anakin is right, the western quarters aren't exactly filled with the most trustworthy people.

Surprisingly enough, as the sun dips lower and covers the roofs and cupolas in red light, their strategy has success.

"There!" Selyn touches Anakin with her elbow. "I could swear this person has a tattoo of the emblem on his right wrist. Over there, in the red hood."

Selyn feels Anakin reaching for the force and a basket filled with melons rolls over, red fruit spilling all over the street. They hear the person cursing, voice undoubtedly female, steadying themselves with their right hand, just like Anakin had hoped.

For a second the tattoo flashes on her skin and then it is covered by cloth again.

"Jackpot." Selyn grins. "Now, let's follow her. Discreetly."

Instantly both padawans slouch their posture so that they command less space, adapting to the slow way of moving like the rest of the sun-scorched and worn-out citizens wandering the streets.

They follow the woman to until she slows, casting glances over her shoulders, scanning the street. Anakin and Selyn bend towards each other, as if in deep conversation, hiding their faces.

From the corner of her eye, Selyn sees her enter a large warehouse to their left, red hood disappearing into the shadows.

Selyn and Anakin walk by, collecting impressions within seconds and exchanging their thoughts quickly.

"Seems deserted."

"No windows above," Selyn retorts.

"No security cameras."

"Wooden boxes inside."

Selyn thinks for a moment. "I know this type of warehouses; they have no back exit. I suggest we go in."

"I suggest we wait," Anakin disagrees. "Maybe the woman will lead us to their headquarters later if we follow her."

A short staring contest follows, each trying to defend their plan. Selyn loses, reconsiders and nods.

"Alright. We wait." Triumph glints in Anakin's eyes and Selyn crosses her arms, eying the round opening to the warehouse, gaping like a dark mouth.

And so they wait. Five minutes pass, then ten. Fifteen. Thirty. As an hour has passed Anakin's attention is captured by a local seller offering snow cones. Selyn remembers them from her childhood, they are snow brought from Crylles' mountains and drizzled with different flavours of sirup. A sweet treat.

"The blue one looks good," Anakin says, glancing at Selyn suggestively.

"No." She leans back against a wall. "We're on a mission."

"We have to wait here anyways, you know."

"This woman could come back any moment now."

"Yeah, but-"

"Skywalker," she says. "You're insufferable." And with that she turns her head towards the door.

Anakin doesn't seem convinced whatsoever, but he leans against the wall, too, and joins Selyn in staring at the door intensely. They fall silent as time passes. With every passing minute Selyn grows more awkward, staying like that, not even exchanging glances.

"This is weird;" Anakin finally voices what she thinks.

Selyn sighs. "It is. I suppose we could...converse," she suggests stiffly.

He throws her a sideway glance as if he's not sure whether she's joking or not. "You're so strange. No one says that."

But the smile on his lips takes the edge from his words.

"Shut up." Selyn rolls her eyes. "I'm just trying to be nice and approachable and...social."

"Well, we see how great that turned out as a padawan." He raises a brow, referring to her rather solitary childhood.

"Ouch." Selyn laughs, hitting his side with her elbow. "See, people like you are exactly why I never liked talking to anyone."

"You forget about the fact that you were really intimidating, too," he says. "With you knowing everything, always being best and so on. I barely mustered up enough courage to be talking to you. You were positively terrifying."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Look, even now I'm shaking with fear." He stretches out his hand, pretending it to be shaky.

Selyn raises her chin. "You better be, Skywalker. Or else I'd worry that I've lost my well-built reputation."

"But tell me about yourself," she adds quickly, aiming to manoeuvre them out of this banter and joking around. It is something she is not entirely familiar with, she's treading on ground she doesn't know, and it makes her self-conscious.

He throws her an easy smile. "I'm sure you already know everything there is to know about me."

"Then tell me something I don't know."

Anakin shrugs. "I like building things. Tinkering, if you want. It makes me...happy to work with my hands, to create something, to understand how stuff works." He looks at her. "Now you."

Selyn rummages her mind for something interesting to say. Her glance falls onto the snow cones.

"If we were to take a cone," she says, eyes still fixed on the door, "if we were to take one, then definitely not the blue one. It tastes horrible.

Anakin laughs, light and easy. Selyn feels herself relax in his presence. Maybe he is not the worst person to spend an hour waiting with.

"And, hypothetically speaking, which one would you recommend? If we were to take a cone?"

Selyn considers. It has been long since she tried these sweets of her childhood. "Definitely red," she says.

"Mh-hm." Anakin grins, knowing that he has won.

"It would only be to blend in," Selyn quickly adds. "We look suspicious here, just sitting around doing nothing."

"If you say so." Anakin's tone is drenched in irony as he quickly gets up, buying a snow cone for each of them.

They sit down, enjoying the bustling of the street around them, the sweet flavours and the welcome cold against the sun burning above them.

"I never knew you lived on a desert planet, too," Anakin remarks after some time.

"You never asked."

"You can't really blame me, can you? Shaking with fear, remember?"

The sunlight hits Anakin's eyes as she shifts to face him, turning the colour of his eyes into a dazzling shade of blue.

The reality of the moment unfolds around her like a kaleidoscope, with all its vibrance- the scents, the sweet ice, the sun above and the fact that she enjoys his company surprisingly much.

She had always been a rather lonely padawan, she knows that, and it feels good to see that change.

"Well it's sad that you thought me so intimidating, because maybe..." she trails off, not sure where her sentence is going. "Maybe I would have found out earlier then that you're not so bad after all."

"Not that bad, huh?" Anakin grins with ridiculous pride. "That's a rare proclamation of sentiment from your side."

"Don't take it too far, Skywalker," Selyn warns. "We will keep a healthy amount of rivalry between us."

Anakin grins. "Counting on it. Anyways, I'm happy to finally fully make your acquaintance, Selyn Val'aeon."

"I'm delighted to say the same, Anakin-"

Their hands touch briefly in the manner of a handshake, and Selyn notices irritated the warmth and comfort the pressure of his hand around her offers.

But before she can finish her sentence, there is movement in the warehouse. The red hooded woman exits swiftly, carrying a package under her arm. Selyn is a little annoyed to acknowledge that Anakin's strategy had really been the far better one.

There is no time for caution now as they follow the woman, she is moving faster now and soon they have to sprint to keep up with her.

A quick glance over the shoulder, and she has seen the two padawans following her through the crowd. With two smooth steps and a smooth jump she swings herself onto the flat roof of a smaller shop, Selyn and Anakin follow shortly after. Their feet hit the roof in a steady rhythm, accompanied by their jagged breaths.

The woman turns around shortly, pulling something from inside her coat – a blaster, Selyn realizes - and fires multiple shots at them. Selyn dodges them, but Anakin isn't so lucky.

"Shit!" he exclaims, and they lower their pace slightly while he examines the burnt fabric of his right sleeve. He swiftly pulls it off, revealing only slightly reddened skin.

"Got lucky," Selyn comments.

He throws her a cocky grin. "Bet you were really worried for me there."

Selyn scoffs. "I really wasn't, Skywalker." She picks up their original pace again. "Let's get on with it."

The figure is only two roof lengths ahead of them, as she suddenly stops. Another woman has appeared, strangely familiar and in golden armour, braided blonde hair flowing around her head as she swings her spear. A citadel guard.

Heavy blaster fire is the response to the guard's sudden appearance, and Anakin and Selyn have to ignite their savers to protect themselves from the burning lasers.

Gold and blue light sways and sizzles as they continue their way forward to the two fighting women, slower this time, dodging and deflecting the fire.

They are too late and too far away as the hooded woman shoots into a barrel. Its contents explode in a bright flash, the impact strong enough to knock the guard off her feet. In the heat of the moment the other woman takes her chance and escapes down into the street, lost in the maze of market stands and sellers so quickly that Selyn has no chance of following her.

Instead, they rush towards the guard, which groaning as she tries to muster the strength to lift herself from the floor.

The blonde hair falls over her shoulder, revealing a familiar face.

"Cleodys!" Selyn gasps, supporting her sister as she gets up. "What the hell are you doing here?"

But Cleodys only grits her teeth, pushing Selyn's hand aside. "I got this."

She sees Anakin flinch upon the obvious pain that must surely show on her face, but he doesn't say anything.

Cleodys brushes the dust off her trousers.

"Are you hurt? Are you alright?" Selyn swarms around her worriedly.

"I'm fine," Cleodys snaps. She reminds Selyn of a trapped animal, snapping and lashing out even more because of her wounds.

Selyn crosses her arms, still worried but increasingly mad at her sister's harsh words. "Then what are you doing here?"

Cleodys casts down her gaze, embarrassment creeping up her cheeks. "I followed you," she murmurs.

Selyn inhales. "You followed us? But why? I thought the queen assigned this task to the Jedi!"

"Because the Jedi are so much better than everyone else. They come and sweep the queen off their feet with their important fussing, but what about us guards? We're the ones fit to defending the crown, we know this town better than anyone else!"

The sunset tints her face red and golden and her eyes flash with anger.

But now rage burns within Selyn too, increasingly hot against her cheeks. "By the force, what is your problem? You treat me as if I was your enemy, like something horrible, like I'm not your sister anymore." The pain in her voice stings, sharp as a knife. "Why?"

The same hurt is mirrored in Cleodys' eyes now, mixed with regret and...jealousy?

"Because...you left us!" she snaps. "You left me. You got to see the stars, to see the galaxy with those Jedi and all I could do was watch from the ground whilst you have everything I've ever wanted, only able to hope to get a glimpse, only a scrap of the life you're living. For me the stars stayed out of reach. Always out of reach." Cleodys' voice is bitter, so bitter and Selyn is speechless at the jealousy and the pain tainting every syllable.

"But..Cleodys," Selyn says tentatively and she steps forward, as if her feet are on thin ice separating her from wild waters. "You got to stay at home, here with mom and dad. You can't imagine how much I wished for that sometimes."

Cleodys shakes her head. "You don't know how it was for me. I was always so sure I was meant to leave this planet. You listened to dads stories of the galaxy with awe, I listened to them with hunger. I needed them like the air we breathe and there was never a doubt that I'd see these stories come to life one day."

Cloedys furiously wipes the tears shimmering in her eyes away. "You know, when the jedi came...I was so sure they had come for me. They had to, it only made sense. But they picked you. As I listened to them explain everything to our parents I thought, alright, maybe they didn't notice me. Maybe I didn't try hard enough. I asked and they were polite, but stern with their decline."

Tears roll over her cheeks now and suddenly she seems so young, so fragile. "I have never begged for anything in my life, Selyn. Never but this one time. I cried, I humiliated myself before them." Her expression turns harsher. "They were sorry to turn me down again and the next morning they left, taking you with them."

"I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even watch the spaceship leave. You got to live the dream, Selyn. And I stayed. Stayed with the desert, the small life and everything I've ever dreamed for far out of reach."

She swallows. "I've always wanted to be a gardener, but I became one of the guards instead. Because even if the chance to leave the planet was excruciatingly low, it was better than nothing."

Cleodys laughs, the sound raw like broken glass and filled with bitter irony. "I've never left Crylles since."

"Cleodys, I-"

Selyn steps forward, unsure what to say to do.

Her sister wipes her tears off. "I'm sorry I was so harsh towards you. You didn't deserve that, and you deserve the fullest of life that you've lived," she says curtly, but with sincerity.

Picking up her spear and adjusting her armour, Cleodys turns her reddened eyes away from a speechless Selyn and a stunned Anakin. "Let's get back to the citadel."

✧･ﾟ:* 𝕬𝘜𝘛𝘏𝘖𝘙'𝘚 𝘕𝘖𝘛𝘌 *:･ﾟ✧

HEY HEY HEY this was a ride huh

What are we thinking?? of Cleodys? of Anakin and Selyn being stupid together? of this roof scene?

I know Cleodys is a complicated character and she definitely isn't easy to like, but we're only starting to get to know her now. She's gonna play a very important role throughout the fic, and honestly I've grown quite attached to her and all her layers and flaws whilst writing her - you can be curious for what's in store for you guys with this new Val'aeon sibling 🫡

Anakin watching the Val'aeon family drama reality tv show unfold before him like 🤨😃

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