STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Brothers

"Pivane, good to see you." -Melkor smiles, surprised. But then his expression become stern and he leans back.

"You wouldn`t come uninvited like this. Something happened."

Pivane looks uncomfortable.

"I am afraid so," Pivane says. "Melkor, I am sorry, but...your mother...she is dead."

Silence follows his words like an unwelcome shadow.

Melkor is speachless for a moment, than sits heavily. He feels dizzy, like not fully comprehending the words.

"What happened?"

Janus looks to the Headmaster, then back at you.

"I do not think this should be discussed with company," he says. "Headmaster, the Castellan of Erengard seeks a reprieve for Melkor, so that he may return home for the funeral and postpone schooling."

The Headmaster nods, slowly. "Considering the circumstances, I will grant this reprieve. My condolences, Esgabath. Good day to you both."

"Come on," Janus says.

Melkor barely nods to the Headmaster and leaves without speaking. His Mother was the closest person to him.

Janus sets the lift to the bottom floor.

"Your mother was found in her room," Janus says. "As is tradition for the Castellan's family, no autopsy was performed. But...from the looks of it...they found a goblet of Charnelian wine in her room, with...erm...a vial of arrow poison..."

Arrow poison is unpleasant. The Royal Guard of the Castellan still use crossbows, and arrow poison is used to make the arrows completely lethal.

"A poison?! Who could do it?!" -Melkor clenches his fists furiously.

He thinks who could do it. His mother was woman of formidable mind and ambition, she had enemies.

"I'm afraid, considering the circumstances...it appeared to be a suicide," Janus says, struggling to get the words out. "The Castellan has declared it as such, and is in mourning."

The lift arrives on the bottom floor, where Janus leads you towards the waiting airspeeder.

"Suicide?! Impossible!"- He responds, supporting himself over the frame of airspeeder as they reach the entrance, feeling overwhelming numbness.

"Not impossible," Janus replies. "Just improbable. And unfortunate."

"Were there any signs that this would happen?" -Esgabath tries to calm down.

"No," Janus replies, simply.

Melkor doesn`t speak as the ship leaves Coruscant and enters hyperspace. He watches the stars, remembering the person who told him about wonders and possibilities of the endless worlds.

"How did my brother react?" -He speaks finally.

"How else would your brother react? He's an emotionless git."

The airspeeder will take you to the ship that will be entering hyperspace, which is actually one of the many foreign starships that the Pivane family owns. This one was actually a gift from the Torvuelle family on Naboo, before they passed away. It is a silver torpedo, which lifts off fluidly and jumps into hyperspace the moment it leaves Coruscant's gravity well.

"We'll be home soon," Janus says, allowing the navcomp to guide the ship.

"Well, it is good that my father sent you, Janus. You have always been loyal to me. You know of some of mine ambitions and my mother shared many of them." -He looks at him for a moment.

"So you say that my father declared it a suicide? There will be no investigation, despite the tragic death of a royal?"

"Melkor, your father did not send me. He did not want you to be informed. At all. I felt that this was adverse to your mother's last wishes, and have come of my own accord."

It is tradition on Erengard that autopsies do not occur unless the person was killed in combat. Then, and only then, do they receive autopsies, to determine what killed them and what sort of post-mortem medal they should receive.

Needless to say, you find it ridiculous.

"Did not want me to be informed!? What right he had to do it?!" -Melkor raises, furious.

"He will be surprised to see me, then."- He adds after several minutes of silence in which he considers the possible terrible implications, as the graceful ship descends towards mostly white surface of his homeworld.

"He is the Castellan..."

The starship screams silently through hyperspace, covering lightyears with almost no effort. Janus allows the navcomputer to take control. Hyperspace is fast, but lightspeed travel does not take mere minutes to jump from one system to the next. You arrive in Tasker's Crown within an hour or so, and soon you are above the golden globe of Erengard.

Janus' ship descends into the atmosphere, racing over the bronze forests and the fields of golden wheat. A majority of the Erengardian plantlife has a golden or bronze hue to its color. There are few buildings out on the fields of Erengard, but for small farms and privately owned chateaus.

However, you are headed for the mountains, looming like jagged rotting teeth of the planet ahead of you. The Erengardians, noble though they are, did not feel that the golden fields were harsh enough an environment to breed the finest soldiers of their world. So, they settled for the once inhospitable mountains. The rock that makes them is dark and jagged, sometimes even sharp. For whatever reason, it rains far more often over the mountains than the fields; an environmental anomaly. It is not uncommon for hail and snow to beat down on the capitol.

Young Esbabath cannot help but enjoy the sight of his homeworld after a long period of absence. Still, it isn`t the place he planned to spend his life in, especially with his brother as future ruler.

"I think I will talk with my father immediately, catch him off-guard." -He speaks to Pivane firmly as they land.

"Of course. We are going to Maurengard, after all."

The Pivane family does not own anything but a small penthouse in Maurengard. Their actual estate is further down the mountain, closing to the fields.