Ask Deja Vu

[Jin Vaisra]

Another day, another charity ball.

Jin stood in the traditional wear of his family name: a silk, collared suit with two dragons embroidered on each side, set with a necklace of prayer beads and a pair of black pants. It was nothing too fancy, but the whole point was to look the part of a generous senator, not a royal prince. Last thing he needed to do was outshine the reason for the banquet, the woman of the hour—Princess Reyna Vernize.

He had invited the princess to Fondor in order to curry favor and, hopefully, forge a permanent alliance between their respective planets. Given the consequences left behind by the Fifth Fleet and Chancellor Xerxes’ actions, Jin was in a desperate hurry to maintain friendly relations with the Outer Rim, even as the Republic teetered on the verge of collapse. He needed to put on a show for the influential Free Worlds legislator, as well as the future Queen of Onderon.

He needed things to be perfect.

Descending the steps into the main foyer, where dozens of noble guests danced and gossiped under a glittering chandelier, Jin searched the woman out. He had extended the invitation relatively last minute, but he fully expected the princess would be there, waiting to meet him. He’d been close friends with Senator Graves, her former lover, prior to his death, and Onderon had just as much to benefit as Fondor with an alliance. She couldn’t just refuse him, could she?

Jin grimaced. He supposed he’d have to wait and see.

@llamallove

 

[Reyna Vernize]

A footman stood waiting to conduct the Princess of Onderon from the repulsorcraft that had transported her from her personal ship to the front steps of the palace, and a doorman stood by the great doors to escort her into The Palace of a Thousand Stars. Her host had thought of everything.

The Palace of a Thousand Stars. Cassian would have remarked that it reminded him of the title of some inexpensive harlequin novel found only in the bargain bin of a twenty-four hour corner convenience store. It was not quite elegiac enough for the Zeltron, she supposed, ever the realist in all matters except, perhaps, in the one that mattered most. Reyna, on the contrary, ever the idealist, found it elegant. Just as elegant and as enchanting as the palace's architectural and ornamental style, which dated back to the Battle of Exegol, when the Vaisra Dynasty had stabilized Fondor in the aftermath of the war, if not before.

Reyna's invitation had arrived last minute. Only days earlier, in fact. An after thought, her mother would have aptly surmised. Princesses, she could recall her mother's coaching clearly, Are not afterthoughts. It had not been extended by the Jade Queen but rather by her son, the Senator of Fondor. Jin Vaisra. A name that had passed the lips of Cassian more than her vanity cared to admit. It was the first contact Fondor had initiated since the Sith had invaded, and, late or not, Reyna would not decline.

Not yet, anyway. If the reputation that proceeded the senator was accurate, he did nothing without a purpose. An ulterior motive. There was no time like the present to find out just what that purpose was. A fitted but modest, floor-length white dress glided across the marble floor, assisted by the princess' queenly figure as she approached the senator that stood in the main foyer.

"Senator Vaisra," the half-Sephi greeted, offering the senator a half-curtsey. Far above what duty demanded, from a princess to a senator, but she hoped that where Cassian had failed—or more likely chosen—to start off on a good foot, she would succeed. @Song

 

[Jin Vaisra]

Jin took in the young princess, who’d clearly dressed for the occasion in a long, snow-white gown that put most of the palace draperies to shame, a feat very few, including Senator Graves, would have managed. But what more did he expect from royalty? They were two sides of the same coin, the cream of upper society, and the darlings of their respective worlds. One almost had to imagine what a partnership between the two might accomplish.

“Princess Vernize,” he said. “What a distinct privilege.”

He traded a bow. If she offered a ringed hand, he would kiss it. If she extended an arm, he’d take it. Jin had resolved to do what he could in order to earn Reyna’s trust and favor. Venka, his advisor, and the overhanging threat of war, was enough to convince him not to walk over the princess like a pile of dirty laundry. He had to at least make a show of trying.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Jin said. “My invitation was relatively last minute, so I was afraid you wouldn’t show.” Proceeding through the foyer, he cast her a princely smile. “I hope the ride here was not too hard on you?”

Pleasantries. Jin despised them, but he had no idea what Reyna was like. While he was familiar with her through Senator Graves, he’d never discussed her at length—although perhaps for good reason. The woman was a notoriously private figure in the past, which made Jin wonder if she had crawled out from under her rock as a direct result of Cassian’s death. Maybe she wanted retribution. To take up the mantle.

Or maybe she had no else left in her life to coddle her.

@llamallove

 

[Reyna Vernize]

Where Reyna was ladylike, going beyond the decorous demands placed upon a woman in her position by curtseying, Jin Vaisra was all the more chivalrous, going so far as to kiss the slender, ebony hand that she extended, pastel lips brushing against her knuckles. It was just a kiss, a nod to some of the old regnant customs that had fallen by the wayside over the decades, but it communicated more to Reyna than just an appreciation for tradition instilled in him from a young age by the Jade Queen or—more likely than not—a governess. It meant he was just as eager to make a good first impression, too.

"The pleasure is all mine," the princess replied, inclining her head in the direction of the senator, the fixed source of all her curiosity that night. The predominant reason she had accepted the invitation at all. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the bouquet of words they supplied one another. Doubtless an arrangement they had received before. and would receive again
The pair passed through the foyer, into the dance hall with its marble floors, crystal chandeliers, and high ceilings, which allowed the strains of the orchestra on stage to carry, filling the entire room. Beneath the chandelier's incandescent light, Reyna studied the senator, eyes bright but veiled to the inner workings of her mind. He was handsome. More handsome than Cassian had ever given him credit for.

That she would keep to herself. For now. "I must confess, Senator. I feel as if I already know you, given the frequency with which Cassian spoke of you." That, she imagined, she should have kept to herself, for Cassian's sake if nothing else. For his pride, which she was convinced that even in death—wherever he was—still meant more to him than all the gin joints on Zeltros. The Zeltron was probably rolling over in his grave as they spoke, knowing that Vaisra had gotten the better of him, and not for the first time. @Song

 

[Jin Vaisra]

“Did he?”

Jin raised an eyebrow, unable to restrain his surprise. He knew he tended to have that effect on people, but he never thought Cassian would’ve deigned to speak about him to the princess, no less as often as she was implying. The news almost hurt. It’d been quite sometime since the senator’s death at the hands of the Sith, and Jin couldn’t deny the small part of him that missed the man, dumb and foolish and terribly dressed as he was.

“I never was able to offer you my condolences, Princess. With everything that has been going on, I’m afraid I never had the chance. Let me offer them now.”

Looking her way, he offered a deep bow of his head. A rare sight, since the prince never bowed outside of introductions. His pride was far too strong for that, but in this respect, he could afford to show a little sympathy to the lover, and perhaps the mind, behind one of Jin’s oldest allies. Friends, even, if he could call whatever it was they had a ‘friendship.’ The real question was…

What kind of relationship would Jin and Reyna have?

With sympathies dispensed, he turned back to the party, to clinking glasses and whispered conversations. “If it doesn’t bother you, I have to ask, what did Cassian say about me? Nothing bad, I hope?” As a liveried servant passed, he took a pair of champagne flutes and offered one to the princess with another dazzling smile. “He and I may have had our differences, but I’ve always seen him as a friend.”

And a royal pain.

@llamallove

 

[Reyna Vernize]

"Thank you, Senator Vaisra."
The deliberate pause that proceeded those four words showcased the princess' mastery of her own demeanor if not her own thoughts, both mercifully hidden. One inherently, the other through years of exercise at her mother's behest and the natural inclination toward the inscrutable, stemming from her Sephi heritage. Reyna held herself upright, shoulders back and straight, with a greater ease of self-possession than she would have been capable of had that same condolence been expressed six months earlier.

That old, familiar tightening in the chest returned, but it was nothing that could not be dispelled by the flute of champagne the Prince of Fondor handed her. Reyna took a single sip, savoring the crisp, golden liquid that ran down her throat, dark eyes watching the politician beside her from over the rim of the glass with interest. Not many politicians within Cassian's working circle had expressed their condolences following his death. That Vaisra of all people, who had more reason to loathe Cassian that most, should be numbered with those select few was astonishing.

"Nor was it all good, I'm afraid," the princess replied, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips for his sake. Most of it had been bad, but the fact that Cassian had spoken of Vaisra at all—and with such frequency—was complimentary enough, to Vaisra's intellect and formidableness if nothing else. Lying was not a habit of hers. She could be straightforward to a fault. Even if she had been inclined to spare his ego, those calculating, charcoal eyes of his would have seen straight through her deception. She had a feeling he had plenty of ego to spare anyway.

With the conclusion of a lively country dance, it was time for a waltz. A slower tune, the rise and fall of its melody luring new dancers to the center of the ballroom. Reyna's gaze returned to Vaisra, studying him with what would appear to be the detached, soul-searching scrutiny of an observer. "He praised you quite highly in some aspects." Perhaps not highly enough in others.

"Chief among them your dancing. He said that you had the grace of a danseur and the presence of a prizefighter." His words, not hers. The princess extended her hand to him, a spirited twinkle in her dark eyes as she stared at him unblinking. "Care to prove it?" @Song

 

[Jin Vaisra]

Reyna was a masterpiece of composure. As much as Jin pretended not to see it, the princess had matched him on every front as a member of royalty and high breeding. Cut from the same fabric, if you would. Clad in a silken dress, with hair shinier than his most polished silver cutlery. He couldn’t deny the fact that she was beautiful, that Cassian had good taste.

He felt that strange tug in his heart again at the thought of his old rival. Like Emil, they shared both good and bad moments, but every single one had been nothing short of entertaining for Jin, and he missed it. He missed him.

“How generous of him to say,” he told Reyna. He swirled his glass of champagne and considered for a moment. “I never thought myself much of a danseur, but a prizefighter? Well, I have been told I’m not the kind of person you would want to cross.” The warning was clear, and it was the first real hint of Jin beneath his princely mask, but if Cassian had told Reyna anything, she likely already knew just what he was like.

“But please,” he continued, accepting her hand. “Let us dance.”

With that, Jin swept her out to the center of the ballroom floor, where other couples made sure to give them plenty of space to move. Here, at the heart of the royal palace, the court both worshipped and feared him. As they should.

Violins strummed as the music went on. Hand in hand, Jin offered a thin smile. “Where did you learn to dance, Princess?”

@llamallove

 

[Reyna Vernize]

The champagne flute, still half full, was abandoned to the empty tray of a passing wine steward as Reyna's host conducted her by the hand toward the center of the ballroom floor. Other dancers parted on either side of them, allowing the Prince of Fondor and his dance partner to pass through their midst wholly unobstructed. They were the chaff on the threshing floor, driven away by the first strong gust of wind that blew, and Jin Vaisra was that wind.

Reyna's right hand remained in his, allowing him to take the lead while she assumed the role of the follower, letting her hand rest on his upper arm. It was a waltz with basic box steps, couples turning counterclockwise across the dance floor.

Only one other dancer did not give them a wide berth. A woman in a ginormous bustle which took up half the dance floor skipped across the marble, leading along a man half her height and twice her weight. His face was as red as an emergency light, his fat fingers tugging at the starched collar of his tuxedo whenever one of his hands happened to be free. He hadn't recovered from the last dance, and before he could keel over or embarrass his companion further, he was escorted to the punch table.

For the best, anyone watching would say. It was a fast-paced waltz, but Fondor's Senator has mastered every movement. Just as a conductor set the metrical rhythm for an orchestra, Jin Vaisra set the musical pulse of the dance. All eyes were on him, for better or worse.

"And do you always come out swinging?" she asked the senator, head tilted to one side, staring up at him with a focus that did not extend to anyone else present. Her lips lifted, a gradual smile building. He did not intimidate her. Not yet, anyway. "I had hoped that you would pull your punches, if only for tonight."
She wasn't holding her breath. Cassian never had, and Vaisra was cut from the same mold. @Song