XIV. SNOWGLOBE
word count: 5163

               Anakin sat slouched on the sofa. He watched Oberyn pace across his room, working on one of his datapads while also talking with his brother. It amused Anakin that his brother could not stay put in one place — perhaps it was a Skywalker thing: always on the move. Oberyn was trying to set Anakin on another task to follow Elia around. This time she had to go North to Aphelion's second largest city, Nolwenn, which lay protected in a carefully designed dome to protect all of the planet's history. If the thought of exploring did not intrigue him so much, Anakin would be putting up a far greater fight.

"Why aren't you going?" Anakin asked when Oberyn set his datapad down at last and collapsed into the armchair across from his brother.

"It's a wedding thing," Oberyn answered. "I'm not allowed to go. It's supposed to be a bad omen or something."

Suddenly, Anakin wanted to stick out his bottom lip and ask to stay with his brother. If he was to be in this wedding, he wanted to be by his brother's side. Especially not when he was trying to avoid the Princess after he confessed his fears about his mother to her. But equally, he also did not want to sound like a silly little kid.

"And besides, I would really appreciate it if you accompanied El and Lilith." Oberyn leaned forward as he spoke. "Nolwenn is very anti-war. And even though El opposes it too, I can't let her be caught in the middle of something."

Anakin gave a heavy sigh. "Fine. I'll go."

So now Anakin was stuck on a very long train journey with dozens of other passengers travelling North. The worst part of the journey was that the train could only travel underground. Elia had explained it to him as they boarded the isolated first class. The North was inhospitable and was constantly ravaged by violent snowstorms and freezing temperatures. It was the antithesis of Tatooine in Anakin's eyes, and he was intrigued to see it. Therefore, to keep Aphelion connected, underground tunnels had been dug out — stretching all the way around the planet, as well as from Alora to Nolwenn. Anakin knew that mining used to be one of Aphelion's main trades, but now he could see the degree to which they worked.

To pass the time, and to avoid the Princess and her friend, Anakin sat quietly by himself and meditated. (Obi-Wan would be proud.) Beneath the surface realigning his focus to the Force, Anakin could not explain it but the Force felt very strong here. Anakin realised he had not dwelled on it since they arrived, his head being preoccupied with a dozen other things that felt more important at the time.

Suddenly, Anakin felt a bumping against his knee. "Artoo!" He heard Elia scold as he opened his eyes to see that the Princess' astromech had come to inspect him.

Anakin knew this blue-and-white R2 unit. They had met on Tatooine nine years ago — R2-D2 had never been far from Fallon Uttara's heels. Anakin had met many astromechs and R-series droids, but never had he encountered a droid with Artoo's personality and modifications. The young Jedi enjoyed talking with fellow mechanics and wondered what he could learn from this droid's creator. Anakin thought of his own droid he had made as a boy — C-3PO, unfinished in Anakin's eagerness to run away to Coruscant with his brother and new friends, abandoned to the always unforgiving sands of Tatooine. (He thought about his mother again and almost wished he could stop.)

"Hey, buddy," Anakin said to the droid with a smile. He found himself chuckling as Artoo recounted his favourite — and least favourite — memories from Tatooine. (Most droids had their memories wiped often, especially those involved with politics or a Crown, so Anakin was quite surprised when Artoo beeped along about events like they were yesterday.)

Took hours to clean the sand out of all my gears. The droid ended with a trill, still not amused by the Tatooine climate.

Anakin laughed, truly. There were scarce beings who understood what Tatooine was like. While most of him wanted to forget his past, Anakin found it refreshing to confide in someone — or something — that had a slight understanding of what hardships he used to face. Even if it was only the weather. "You could pay me a million credits and I wouldn't go back there willingly. I still don't like sand."

Don't blame you. If droids could laugh, Artoo was doing it. Anakin grinned.

"Aphelion's beaches are far softer and prettier than desert sands," Lilith commented, peering over the top of her sketchbook. Anakin looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Lei, you should show him."

Anakin watched a smile grow across the Princess' face, light spilling into her soft brown eyes. The glow faltered when Elia looked at him. Whatever she was trying to hide, she did it well. (Anakin wasn't sure why he noticed the way her expression changed.) "Neptune is wonderful," she told him. "The villages are really pretty and the ocean is especially beautiful on a clear day."

Anakin nodded without more of a reply. He trusted Elia's opinion far more than Lilith's. He didn't think Athena had ever mentioned her planet's beaches before — perhaps that was because Rhea was from Hemera and their beaches were famous galaxy-wide for being near perfect, or perhaps it was because Athena had always preferred Naboo to her homeworld. Anakin realised that Athena's distance from the location was likely rather to do with her accident taking place there (Anakin still did not entirely know what happened that day — besides knowing that Elia was at the centre of why Queen Ianthe had made the decision to take her daughter out of the Jedi Order with Chancellor Palpatine's support.) Elia caught his eye and the same dots connected in her head. She looked away from him and did not look back at him for the rest of the journey.

✶

Despite knowing that Nolwenn was a city enclosed in a protective dome, Anakin still expected the city to merge into the surrounding landscape and be covered in a pretty layer of snow. Instead, the city was dominated by tall and sleek skyscrapers, reaching towards the sun, and many smaller districts that felt more familiar to the rest of Aphelion's infrastructure that Anakin had seen. It was an interesting mix of metal and brick across the city, but Anakin didn't think they clashed uncomfortably. The core of the city contained the highest concentration of high rise buildings — Anakin assumed the massive data vaults were either stored in them, or underneath. When he looked up, Anakin could see the raging snowstorm through the clear bubble. Its howls were muted by the gentle hum of the bustling city, but Anakin could imagine what it sounded like.

"We're going to my Mum's first," Lilith informed Anakin as she and Elia linked arms and began walking down one of the neat cobbled streets outside the train station. Artoo gave the young Jedi a nudge to follow close behind the girls.

Lilith's mother lived in a modest building. A small, two-storey home, tucked away in the artist's corner of the city. Caught between two identical houses on a street of sameness, all that made each house stand apart was their painted exterior walls: some were one shade of pastel, others had intricate forest landscapes or constellations. Lilith's mother's house was on the simpler side: the brick wall was painted in a pale pink with delicate white and blue flowers drawn on vines looping around the windows.

Verena Stark looked just like her daughter: the same dark curls and snowy complexion. They even shared paint splatters across their fingers. Anakin's mother was desert-warm, roughened by sand and hard work. Verena had the same maternal warmth that Anakin recognised in other women, but she bore more resemblance to a soft, crackling fire, her hands marked by splinters from old paintbrushes and her eyes tired from staring at colourful canvases. If Anakin looked at Lilith, he would have seen a similar fire — only burning more fitfully; weakened by snowstorms but bright against the sun's glow.

Verena welcomed her daughter and Elia with tight hugs and admittance to soft prayers that they would arrive safely. When her gaze fell to Anakin, she gave him a pleasant smile — a flicker of silent remarks passed between her and the girls. Years of knowing and quiet secrets that Anakin was not privy to. But he did not care — especially when Verena brought them into her kitchen, bags abandoned at the door, and offered them a plate of warm cookies. Anakin wondered where Lilith's loyalty had been led astray for her to leave Elia alone the other night when the young Jedi got the impression that Verena would not have imparted cheap abandon to her only daughter. It wasn't really Anakin's business (but it felt like it).

"How long are you guys staying for?" Verena asked as she and her visitors took seats in her living room.

"Not as long as I would like," Elia admitted. "We're here on 'official business'," she added with a roll of her eyes.

Anakin's attention was caught by the number of paintings that adorned the walls — most were incredible, but there were a number of crude illustrations made by a child. Every piece was dated and named. Anakin noticed that while most of the works were obviously Lilith's, there were some with Elia's name attached. He knew nothing about what good artwork technically was, but he thought Elia's was very good — he recognised the lakes of Naboo and the city of Theed, as well as purple Apheli moorland and mountain ranges.

His obvious distraction caused a shift in conversation as the women around him slipped into whispered conversation. Anakin tried not to eavesdrop, even though he was in the same room as them. He only paid attention when Elia offered to help Verena bring their empty cookie plates into the kitchen. Lilith did not look sideways at him, and Anakin didn't particularly care. He didn't mean to listen in to Elia and Verena's conversation in the next room, but he was intrigued when they mentioned him. They spoke in hushed whispers, all too aware of their company, but Anakin caught snippets.

"Is he the one you used to talk about all the time?" Anakin overheard Verena ask. He did not catch Elia's response, but she tumbled back into the living room a moment later. Anakin wasn't sure why he cared, but he wanted to know what Elia said about him. Her cheeks were tinged pink. For all Anakin's power in the Force, the Princess was still a mystery to him. He didn't know how to read her.

"We should get going," Elia told Anakin as she lingered in the doorway. There was a distance kept between them with Lilith in between. "We have another short journey to go."

✶

R2-D2 stayed behind at the house with Verena while Elia and Anakin set off for the caves. Elia could not wait to get this over with. Lilith had an art show on the other side of the artist's district and Elia was bitter that she could not also attend. Their art-related hobbies were what bound Elia and Lilith together at fourteen years old, and Elia still wished she was free to create whatever she wanted like Lilith could.

The route to the mineral caves was simple. Nolwenn was a well-connected city with most of its traffic sitting at ground level to keep the sky clear. Three streets away from Lilith's house was a taxi hub, where Elia hailed a droid-driven speeder for her and Anakin. The speeder took them to the other side of the city. Like the royal palace and Alora, Nolwenn was built close to a mountain range — the second biggest on the planet. Another mile-long tunnel ran deep below the city into one of the mountains. There laid the caves.

Elia explained the ritual to Anakin on the walk into the mountain. It was a silly old thing that came about before Aphelion became a matriarchy, all about female purity. Oberyn also thought it was a stupid thing as he did not have to undergo any such ritual. There was a silver lining that Elia found worthwhile was that the caves were laced with minerals that had a dozen healing properties that she could not name. Her scientific knowledge was limited to her school education; Zara Palpatine, Elia's sister on a few technicalities, had tried teaching her some things, but Elia had less interest in learning why the galaxy worked in the way it did. Elia did not share the vast majority of Aphelion's superstitions and she was hardly religious, so all she really cared for was the caves being pretty.

And the mineral caves were pretty. Even deep underground, the caverns were lit brightly by light beams bouncing off crystals lodged in the walls of stone, and the air still felt fresh with the calming scent of petrichor and not of damp, like she had been expecting. Elia walked towards the water and crouched down, dipping her fingers beneath the surface. Supposedly, the mineral pools were still warmed by dragonfire. She set down her bag of dry clothes next to the pool and slipped out of her shoes. Anakin stood somewhere behind her. When Elia stepped into the water, the fabric of her dress rose to float and stuck to her legs when she submerged up to her waist. She took a few more steps to see where the water deepened before reaching out and letting the water pull her under.

She felt weightless, floating in the water, and dove deeper. There were gaps of light in the bottom of the pool that poured water into the deeper ponds. The mineral pools all fed each other, using the melting snow as their birth point and fell through crevices through the mined out insides of the mountains. The water would eventually feed into Nolwenn's water filtration system and be used by everyone in the city. The water cleansing reduced many of the mountain's minerals, which was why girls travelled into the high points of the caves where the water was most healing.

When she came back up for air, she pushed her hair out of her face so it was slicked back against her head. Elia found her gaze reaching towards Anakin. "You can come in too," she said. "It's only husbands that aren't supposed to come in with their future wives. The water is quite nice actually."

"Do I need to wear a white dress as well?" Elia liked the way he laughed.

Elia rolled her eyes, her cheeks flushed pink from the warm water, and rose to stand where the water only met her waist. The bodice and skirt of her dress had transformed and was now stained lilac. "It represents a transformation: leaving an old life behind. Traditionally men visit Neptune to bathe in the salt water to shed layers of their past. But I know Oberyn wanted to follow more Naboo traditions, so I don't know what he'll be getting up to."

Anakin huffed a little. "He was always better at looking to the future and letting go of the past than me."

Elia nodded. She had gotten that impression from Oberyn early on. She waded back, deeper into the water. "It's never too late to try, if you want to."

She watched as Anakin stared at the ripples in the water before he confessed shyly, "I don't know how to swim."

For a moment, Elia wondered if she had forgotten that the Skywalker boys grew up on a desert planet, but Oberyn loved to swim with her in the lakes on Naboo. Was a Jedi's life simply that restricted? She gave him an honest smile. "Don't worry. I can show you."

Anakin looked very uncertain, but he complied and shrugged off the outer layers of his Jedi robes and let them pool next to Elia's bag. He moved tentatively, unsure. Elia offered a hand to guide him but he did not take it. She half-expected him to panic when in the water, but he watched and copied her instructions calmly. Elia showed him the way to float and move his arms to cut through the water. But she kept distance between them — they were already in close quarters, he wouldn't want her any closer (not when the last time she was alone and secluded with a Jedi, Athena almost died). Anakin was a quick learner, a natural. She was ready to teach him another stroke when they were interrupted by a great tremble in the ground.

The shallow water in the pool sloshed over the edge and ripples broke the previously undisturbed surfaces of the other smaller pools in their room of the cavern.

Anakin turned to look at her. His short curls stuck to his forehead. "You guys have earthquakes and you brought us to a cave."

Elia felt her stomach sink, like she was being pulled to the drain. "We aren't supposed to... Aphelion only has quakes far out to sea where they can't hurt anyone."

Anakin dove towards Elia, pulling her under the water by her waist as the ceiling began to crumble and drop rock on top of them. Elia reached back to the surface, snatching back their discarded belongings. Anakin also surfaced for breath. They watched as the cracks in the ceiling grew bigger, water from the pools above them started leaking inside. The tunnels that led in and out of each room were much smaller and likely to be cut off quickly.

"Do you see the cracks of light where the water pulls you to?" Elia watched as Anakin followed where she was pointing and she nodded. "Dive for them, we can escape through the tunnels down there."

They both took a deep breath and dove again. The water was clear enough for them both to see where they were going. Elia dove first as she was more experienced. But she had not yet gone this deep. All the pools fed into each other through tiny streams between rocks and drains that took away water so the highest pools would not overfill. But when Elia reached the bottom, the gap was not big enough for either of them to squeeze through. She tried to point it out to Anakin without inhaling any water before she began trying to break the rocks surrounding the drain. There were already cracks in the surface, they just needed to be bigger.

Anakin pushed her out of the way and reached out with the Force. The cracks in the rock grew bigger but did not fall away until Anakin was able to break them away with his hands. Like a plug being pulled, Elia and Anakin fell through the ceiling. The water cushioned their fall and they were lucky that the rocks fell around them and did not hit them. Elia was grateful to breathe again when she surfaced in the next pool and gasped for air. She dragged herself out of the new pool. This room was darker, the floor flooded by the overspill of the other rooms. But the walls were sturdier and the tremors were gone.

"Do you know what way to go?" Anakin asked, gaining his footing next to her.

"Not exactly, but all paths lead the same way."

He motioned for her to lead and they took off running before another earthquake, or aftershock, appeared.

They reached the mouth of the cave quickly and slowed to a staggered walk. Dripping wet and breathless, Elia promised herself, I am never doing that again.

Elia noticed a small number of visitors approaching the cave with a guide. They all stared at Elia and Anakin. "You shouldn't go in there right now. The earthquake made the ground unstable, it isn't safe."

Every one of the newcomers stared at her and glanced at their companions like she was crazy.

"What earthquake?" the tour guide asked.

Elia turned to Anakin. Perhaps she was crazy. But he was giving her the same expression of disbelief. The tour guide quickly rallied the group and they set off into the caves, all of them looking back at Elia and Anakin. The Elia noticed blood staining his hands.

"Sweet gods, are you okay?"

Anakin shook his head. "It's nothing."

Elia made him sit down on one of the nicely placed rocks outside the cave. She pulled him around by the wrist and found some damp but clean fabric to clean the deep, but not threatening, cut across Anakin's hand. He winced but complied as she fashioned him a makeshift bandage.

"I've seen people use the Force to heal," she commented. "Sometimes I wish I could connect to it."

"The Force is very strange here," Anakin said. "It feels different on other planets, but Aphelion is something else. Every time I try and meditate or try to use it, I feel some resistance. I have never had trouble using the Force before."

Elia was curious. Her experiences with the Jedi, and the Force, were very limited but they fascinated her. "Just here, or in thr capital too?"

"Everywhere. It's this planet. It clouds things."

Elia chuckled. "Aphelion is just a planet. Maybe the Chosen One just needs to give it a better chance."

Anakin gave a disapproving huff. "I have given it plenty of chances."

"The people, yes. The planet less so."

Anakin raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "I'd rather have the people like me."

"Because they named you their hero?"

"Yes." The Jedi frowned and pulled his hand out of her grasp to finish tying the bandage himself. Elia sat back and watched him to it wrong but she did not want to correct him.

Elia gave a half hearted laugh. "Is one title not enough for you? The Chosen One and the Hero."

"I didn't want to be the Chosen One." Anakin bit back. "At least here, they gave me the title because I did something. I know I'm going to be the best at what I do. It's written in the stars that I will bring balance to the Force but..."

"It's a lot of pressure. I understand."

He shook his head. "No you don't. No one does. You're a princess. You breathe and everyone loves you."

Elia frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Like you do? Everyone pities me, same as you. You were born great. I was born nothing, the same as everyone else. It was chance and horrid, rotten luck that I stand here now. You have a lot, you should not take that for granted." She stood and bundled up her stuff. "Let us please get back to the city so we can get my wedding done with and then we can leave each other alone." Anakin stared at her and gave a small nod and they moved to Bevin their journey back into the city.

✶

They were almost dry when they walked back through the city. They had walked in silence the whole way. Elia was quite tired of Anakin's ego and his distaste that he could barely hide for a moment. She wanted to make a brief stop at one of her favourite bookshops to pick up a gift for Eden, and then she could go home.

The wedding was close now and Elia would not need to leave the palace again. Anakin would have no need to stay near her any longer. And yet it still weighed heavily on her heart that he refused to give her anything. She understood his reasons to feel protective over Athena — they were best friends; Elia felt the same way towards Lilith and Oberyn. She was mostly frustrated at herself that she still hung onto the hopeless, wretched feelings that had followed her since she was fourteen on Naboo, racing around Theed with Anakin. (Every part of Elia that was still Alana clung to the past with a steel grip.) She would just have to force herself to move on, push Alana further away.

The city centre was busier than Elia normally saw it in the times she had visited before. Nolwenn had a large population, but people did not often come together in vast groups unless there was a celebration or the market was fully stocked. But when Elia looked closer at the crowd as she and Anakin found themselves unwillingly brought into it, she saw dozens of signs being waved in their air.

"Look," Elia said with a smile, "they don't want this Bill to pass either. I just wish the Senate would see it too."

"I wouldn't celebrate these people's decisions too soon — look." Anakin pointed beyond the peace signs. Elia's chest tightened as she saw dozens of posters of the Apheli crown or throne wreathed in flames. "You need to get out of here. Now."

Elia shook her head. "They're protesting. I should see what their complaints are so we can fix them–"

The crowd came closer together, trapping the Jedi and the Princess in the masses. Chants were being thrown around, graffiti strewn across buildings. Panic seized in Elia's chest. These people hated her family. They hated this wedding. She heard a voice ring out — shaming each member of the royal family. Including Elia. They thought her plea for peace was a disguise for her 'Separatist sympathies'? It was completely untrue, but they believed it. They hated her too.

Strong hands fell onto Elia's waist, pulling her free from the crowd. She stumbled, trying to hide her face. Anakin was in front of her, steadying her when they broke free. Elia curled her hands into fists and ignored the stab of her nails cutting into her palms. What had she done wrong? She did not agree with her mother all the time, but Elia did not doubt that (besides the wedding), Ianthe Valarys had her planet's best interests at heart. That was why she had Alerie join Padmé's opposition. The people did not truly hate them, did they? Elia had never sat in on one of her mother's meetings with her advisors and staff. Did the Queen know what her people thought? Elia wished she could talk to all of these protestors, these people — hear their grievances and tell the people that Aphelion was strong, that her adoptive family cared. But she did not even like speaking up in her lessons at university. What help could she truly give? She did not know how to fight, how to convince. She only stood as a shield when trouble came. Trouble she could not predict in any way that was helpful. (Not like little Eden's vast and spiralling dreams, or Aerrik's precise and rare glimpses of the future.) She was just there. Always just there. She was nothing. She did not even know why Ianthe had taken her in. She was just Alana. Alana the scared girl. Alana who froze when the fire came. She would never stop the flames. She would never run into them.

Elia scarcely noticed when the crowd noticed she was there. All she saw between her gasping breaths and stinging blurred vision was the shouts and the flash of Anakin's lightsaber. He took her hand, begging her to come with him. Elia could imagine the crowd chasing them with torches and pitchforks.

They stopped running four streets away when no protestors were anywhere behind them. Anakin tugged Elia into an alleyway. He was saying things — telling her to breathe, helping her to do so, telling her they were safe. Worry creased his features, and then Anakin started talking. She didn't hear him fully at first but whatever place Elia had found herself stuck in, Anakin was helping her come back.

Elia braced herself against the wall, dropping her head into her hands and muttered out a string of apologies. She had never seen so many people angry at her family before. Even if she seldom felt like one, Elia was still a Valarys in almost every way.

"It's fine. Don't apologise," Anakin said. His hands caught around her wrists. "Just let me get you back to somewhere safe, okay?"

✶

The walk back to Verena's house was thankfully short. No one was in when they arrived, but Elia knew where the spare key was kept and she let herself and Anakin in. Despite all that had happened, Elia still found a way to feel glad for the experience in the caves. The minerals still gave her a numbing calmness.

Damp hair coiled back and pinned behind her head, Elia nibbled chocolate biscuits in the kitchen. The house was quiet, peaceful. At least it was until Anakin found her.

He lingered in the doorway, leaving space between them. "I wanted to thank you, properly, for the caves," he said. "Not just showing me how to swim, but you were quick thinking and you saved us both."

Elia shrugged and licked crumbs off her fingers as she turned to face him. "You would have done the same."

Anakin gave a short laugh. "I probably wouldn't have taken us through a safer route." He paused and began to move closer to her. "I, um, also wanted to apologise for what I said after. I don't pity you."

"It makes no difference. You still don't like me."

"No. That's not true. It's–"

"Complicated," Elia mused. Isn't everything. "It's fine. You're Athena's friend. I understand."

Anakin shook his head. He was stood in front of her now, catching her between him and the kitchen counter. "No. It isn't just about Thena. It's more than that. I..."

He was looking at her like he often did. Elia did not like the way he confused her — sometimes he would not look at her. Then he couldn't stop (like he was doing now). But he wasn't looking at her with distaste. Maybe half of the looks he gave her weren't of dislike. But she could not explain how he was looking at her now. There was an odd light in his eye that she had not seen before. She liked when he looked at her, it made her feel fluttery and girlish — but this was different.

"Anakin..." His name was heavy and left her lips softly. He was gazing down at her — his eyes mapping her face. Elia's breath caught in her throat, they were inches apart and she could feel the warmth of his body quell the goosebumps across her skin. "Please stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

Before Elia had to define his expression and question the heat that was rising across her body, the front door unlocked and swung open. Her heart raced. Elia broke free from their eye contact and fled the kitchen. She hated this, hated him. And she wanted to go home.

✶

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

lol so i changed the name for jupiter — it's now called nolwenn! i'll edit the previous chapters at some point 🤍