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For the 10th time in as many minutes Suki wondered how she’d ended up here, in a small safe room alone with the Queen as others fought outside.
It’d been less than 3 Nubian months since she’d taken on the spot of Head Handmaiden to Queen Yue. To the people of the planet the story was that she’d been chosen because of her skills in diplomacy.
To those who knew better, she’d been chosen due to her skills training with the Kyoshi Warriors all of her life. Diplomacy was something she had to study during her off hours, learning as rapidly as she could so that when the time came to put her so called knowledge to the test it wouldn’t be found lacking.
Now, when her actual set of skills could be of use, she was hiding away.
The logic was that she was to be the last line of defense for the Queen, to be there if no one else could succeed in keeping the assailants away from her.
If Suki was out there fighting off the assailants they wouldn’t get close enough for it to be a problem.
She’d been out voted and ordered to be the personal guard to the Queen instead.
“You know, glaring at the door will not cause it to open,” Queen Yue spoke up, her voice low and measured in the way it always was. Her face gave away nothing either, painted as an additional concealment and reminder of her position. “Unless of course, you have a connection to the Force you’ve neglected to mention.”
Suki turned to face the monarch, who was seated in the proper way that never let anyone forget who they were dealing with.
As if they could with the impressive display the Queen always made. A large part of her presence was the grandeur of her appearance. Today was no different.
She wore a rich purple gown with long flowing skirts and intricate patterns of the constellations of Naboo stitched into the bodice. The sleeves reached to her fingertips and Suki knew that the whole dress provided some minor protection against small caliber blaster bolts from a distance. The golden headpiece set atop Yue’s white headscarf looked much heavier than it was and held a hidden comm link in case of emergencies. Although her boots were hidden under her skirts, Suki knew that there was a vibroknife tucked into the right one because she had reminded Her Majesty to put it there just this morning.
“You know I would never keep something so valuable from you, Your Majesty,” Suki answered stiffly.
“Suki, the two of us are alone. I believe you can forgo the formalities.”
“But you are The Queen, Your Majesty,” she answered back stubbornly. “I must show your station the due respect.”
Of course Suki had argued with Queen Yue more than once and she was sure that she would again someday. However, there were times and places for all of the handmaidens to address Queen Yue as an equal and those places and times were never when she was The Queen.
It was a distinction they all made, between the young woman who might even be a friend to some of them and the ruler that they were all beholden toward. One of the chief ways to keep that line sharp was the separation between the title and the person. The title was represented in the facade, the clothes, the face paint, the posture and even the voice were all carefully constructed so that whoever was in the role was The Queen.
Right now it was impossible for Suki to look at Queen Yue and not see her as the monarch that she’d sworn to serve. That was the whole point.
Queen Yue let out a soft sigh and then reached to her head to remove the elaborate headpiece, leaving only the headscarf visible. She also relaxed her posture and her face from the stiff mask it was before. "I apologize, it's hard to turn it off when I'm all done up."
Although not fully away from the markers of her status, there was enough of Yue the person shining through that Suki felt comfortable answering without formality. "I thought that was the point."
Yue let out a soft, musical laugh that was at odds with her painted face. "Quite right."
"I would do more good out there. I could stop them before they even got close to here," Suki pointed out with a huff.
"Do you not trust the rest of the girls to put your teachings to use?" Yue asked, raising a single eyebrow.
"They haven't had near enough training to be at my level," Suki shot back, not arrogant but matter of fact.
"Truthfully, we believe this threat is entirely within their skill set," Yue countered. "If I believed otherwise I would not have allowed them to fight."
"You couldn't have stopped them all. The only reason you managed to stop me is because I'm only one person and everyone else ganged up on me."
They'd all signed up to protect the Queen with their lives. Sometimes Suki thought that Yue didn't fully appreciate that fact, or register how deep that devotion went. All of them would gladly die before allowing harm to befall her.
"Maybe not," Yue acknowledged with a heavy sigh. "But we cannot dwell on the possibilities for the moment. We should, instead, use this time for something else."
"And what do you have in mind?" Suki only wanted to use this time to break out and go to fight through the intruders.
"I still am not as well acquainted with you as I am with the others."
"I did join in almost a month later," Suki reminded. "And my role doesn't require the same level of closeness."
She may have been the Head Handmaiden but even that was a bit of misdirection on their part. Suki was the only one of the Handmaidens allowed to stand out, the one people came to associate with Queen Yue. All of the others faded into the background, with their similar features and similar names, always coming and going and impossible for people to keep track of.
It made them very good at going under the radar. But also allowed Yue to slip seamlessly into the role of Handmaiden and any of the others to take on the mantle of Queen Yue. A number of decoys as added security when the situation would call for it.
Together they'd all had to learn to become the Queen and that had brought them all much closer than Suki had been allowed in. It was a strange barrier, one that Suki didn't dwell on too often, because she didn't need another reason to feel othered in the group.
Besides she had her own role, she was part of what sold the ruse when any of the others was Queen Yue. Everyone else looked to her, convinced that she would be the most loyal to their monarch.
"We should change that," Yue said.
"I'm very sure that you already know more about me than anyone could be expected to,” Suki replied, thinking of the amount of information that must have been presented before she was even considered to be allowed near the royal.
A smile twitched at Yue’s lips. “Perhaps I do have an advantage.”
Suki fixed her with a look that caused the smile to overtake Yue’s features, looking genuine but almost wrong against the formal makeup.
“Fine, you can ask me a question instead.”
The truth was though that Suki had learned much about the woman she served, from her meal preferences to how she took her tea, to the meaning behind the headscarf she always wore and the reasons why she’d gotten involved in politics. Being around her all this time and hearing the answers that needed to be rehearsed and memorized by those that would take their turn at being Queen meant that there was little about Yue that Suki didn’t already know.
“I’ve learned much about you already too.” It just hadn’t been direct from the source.
“Oh come on, there must be something that you want to know. I’m giving you a free pass to ask anything you want, no matter how improper it might be normally.”
That made Suki pause, trying to comb her mind if there was anything that she’d wanted to know. It took a couple of minutes, before she finally had it. “Why use Yue?”
The confusion that was spelled out so clearly across Yue’s face almost made Suki laugh. “Why what?”
“Usually when a Queen takes the throne she takes a new name.” It was a way to protect the family and friends of the leader, giving them no links to be exploited. “But you used your own name. Why?”
At this the confusion melted away, replaced with a quiet amusement. “Yue isn’t my given name.”
Now Suki’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Then you do not trust us with your name?” She refused to examine the pang of hurt that went through her at the idea.
No matter how close they were growing, they were not friends of the Queen.
The Queen’s blue eyes widened in alarm at the idea. “No, no, that’s not what I’m saying,” she rushed out. “Yue is my name.”
Suki had no clue what her face was doing but she was sure that it wasn’t flattering.
“I’m transgender,” Yue explained. “I just hadn’t- I was still going by my birth name before I entered politics. I wanted to change my name but I kept putting it off. Didn’t want to have to go through the notion of correcting everyone all the time or what have you. When I decided I wanted to become Queen, it seemed like the perfect time to make the change. A new start without any of the corrections needed.”
Suki gave a nod, turning over this new information in her mind. “That makes sense.”
She hadn’t considered that Yue might not be cis, which was ridiculous now that she thought about it.
“It’s not like I want to hide it either,” Yue continued. “It’s just, you know how politics are here. As Queen no one should know anything personal about me.” That was an understatement. The Queen was practically a shell of a person to those who elected her, only there to be the head of the world. It was most unbecoming of her to have an identity past her politics. “But I think, maybe when my term is over, I’ll tell people.”
“Your terms, you mean,” Suki corrected.
“Hm?”
“Terms. You’ll get a second one, I’m sure of it.” Already she was popular and Suki had a feeling that she was only going to continue to be so with the policies that she was looking to put in place.
Yue’s face showed a pleasant surprise at the correction and she shot a warm smile to Suki, kind and beautiful. “After my terms then, I’ll let everyone know.”
Suki couldn’t help the smile that spread across her own face. “I look forward to the announcement.”
Her Queen was full of surprises, but Suki was happy to stand by her side, to serve her.