The first village on Lux's tour was already small by Onderonian standards, but the planet boasted only a billion inhabitants altogether. Further into the Core, it would be considered less than microscopic.

And the locals knew it. The adults not preoccupied with minding children all walked with a tired slump, hands hidden in the crooks of crossed arms or shoved deep into pockets. As they filed into the town square, herded by Imperial storm troopers and the complement of Noreino guards his father had sent for him, the only glances they spared Lux were wary ones.

No, it wasn't just wariness. There was resentment in their eyes, too. This far from the carefully executed urban planning and social services of Iziz and its sister cities, the only protection the miners had from greedy bosses was a minimum wage mandated by the Crown. House Noreino was just as guilty as the Empire of squeezing these villages for profits, and now Lux was here flying their oppressors' colors to preach their virtues.

On top of that, on his father's instruction, he'd scheduled his visit too late to bail the miners out of work; the status quo of iron production had to be maintained if the mine was to bring in a decent profit. Every minute Lux spoke would cut into what precious little free time these people had.

Lux looked out at all the grim faces before him, and felt himself wilting at his podium. What even was there that he could say to give them hope? Certainly not his speech – that was much too upbeat and out of touch for these people. He could make promises of supplies and better working conditions, but there was no telling if his father would keep them when he had his prized Kyzeron to think about.

"Strength now, my lord," Dakharen said, just loud enough to be audible from the position he'd taken up a few feet behind Lux. "The cam droid operators are already getting their first shots for the broadcast. Don't let them see your unease."

Lux exhaled a long breath, inclining his in Dakharen's direction to show he'd understood. Strength now. You can do this.

His fingers tightened around the lip of the podium, a construction of burnished mahogany that looked ridiculously out of place on the dusty, unswept terrace of the village's administrative building. Yes, he could do this. But he wouldn't make any headway with these people if he did it the way his father had told him to.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lux caught one of operators motioning to him. All the villagers that could be spared from their duties had arrived, and the droids were in position at the edges of the terrace; they were ready to start the broadcast on his mark. Lux cleared his throat to check his microphone. When it responded flawlessly, the sound echoing out into the square, he raised his little finger – the predetermined signal to narrow their focus on him – and began.

"The notes I was given said this town is called Naaveron, for 'heavenly home'. That's a very poetic choice on your patron Mr. Etrik Bonaga's part, but I find the local moniker more apt, so that's what I'll use this evening. Izadash, 'town of iron'. It's strong and straightforward. I quite like it."

The crowd wasn't smiling, but some of the more hostile looks had faded into guarded curiosity. This approach wasn't what they'd expected from him. If he could surprise them, that was a promising sign.

"I doubt my face is familiar to most of you when it's been two years since I've made any major public appearances, but my name might be. I'm Lux Bonteri, also known as Aluxsidrian Noreino."

Behind him, Dakharen hissed in warning. Lux ignored it. Even if his father had all but forbidden the use of his preferred name, Lux Bonteri had connections he could use here. "Once, I represented this world in the Separatist Parliament – as my mother did before me."

That got a better reaction. Lux hadn't stayed in office long enough to be well remembered, but even from the Republic and later Separatist assemblies far away from Onderon, Mina Bonteri had used her connections in the ruling council to push for legislation that benefited the working class. To this day, she was celebrated as the patron saint of any Onderonian not of noble blood – and remembering her this way didn't hurt Lux quite as much as it usually did.

Encouraged by the eager whispers, he went on. "My father has great plans for the future of Onderon – plans that will bring prosperity to everyone, not just your brothers and sisters in the cities. I was sent to win your respect while he does his part in Kyzeron, because he'll need your support to make it a reality."

Never mind that he didn't know what those plans even were beyond vague murmurs from his father's aides of a long-term scheme to depose King Dendup. It was something Lux tried to avoid thinking about. His father wouldn't make a very good head of state, but even if he did manage to grab power, Lux was still Heir-Designate and likely to succeed him one day. Then, with luck, he'd be able to undo all the bad decisions that were made in his father's time.

There was always the alternative, too, the other path that still nagged at him like a bad itch – never mind that he'd sworn off it years ago. Even from the deepest, sturdiest gears of the propaganda machine, a beloved poster boy could sway billions to a cause. If Lux were to eventually switch camps, there was a chance he could take some of that following with him. All it would take would be to make himself beloved, and Lux knew that was within his power.

He shook the thought away. He'd already lost one parent. He wasn't foolish enough to cast the other aside just because their views clashed. Besides, he'd been silent a few seconds too long, now, and he had to focus or he'd lose his momentum.

"I ask for your patience, and for you to give us a second chance to prove ourselves. One side of my family has treated you well, but the other has done little to defend you from those who would mistreat you," he continued. He wisely left the Empire out of it. A proxy like House Noreino was relatively safe to criticize, but he didn't want his broadcast to get cut off at the next relay station while Dooku's lackeys came to arrest him for treason. (Again.)

Lux's eyes coasted up past the expectant faces in the square below to the Arrowhead Mountains beyond. The hills at the foot of the spindly, jagged peaks were the source of these people's livelihood and their torment. Lux couldn't make promises on behalf of his father, but he wasn't without agency. He could do his part to prevent another uprising like those poor slaves at the auction house. If it gave him leave to snoop into Etrik Bonaga's affairs, that was just an added bonus.

"I intend to thoroughly investigate working conditions in the mines and the availability of essential services in Izadash and its sister towns, and report back on my findings to my father personally. I will happily receive any person with information on either point at Bonteri Villa."

There was some tentative applause at that. The crowd was still withdrawn and cautious, Lux could feel their mood shifting. He was a nobleman, something to be regarded with suspicion, but he'd given them some hope. That was enough to earn him the benefit of the doubt.

Dakharen stepped closer, mindless for once of the breach of protocol. "Lord Bonteri, please," he whispered urgently, "think of the security risks!"

Lux smiled, tapping an icon on the datapad before him to temporarily mute his microphone. "Thank you for reminding me, Dakharen. It's important that we always present alternatives." Then, unmuting himself again, he said, "I also know you lead busy lives, and I've infringed upon your free time enough as it is. With that in mind, I invite those unable to call on me there to reach out with this comm code."

He selected another icon, and a small holo-projector beamed a holographic banner into the air above him – one the cam droids had been programmed to filter out for privacy's sake. The code had been intended as a depository for feedback and questions, if Lux's audiences wished to leave them. Now it had a better use.

"I hope this can be the start of a new partnership. It was the intent with which my father sent me here, and the spirit of collaboration for the benefit of all was one of the things my mother valued most in life. It would have been her wish, and to uphold her legacy, I have made it mine as well. Thank you for your time."

Lux bowed to crowd, smiling through their respectful applause, and covertly motioned to the operators to end the broadcast. Then he walked off the stage and headed back to his airspeeder.

"Dakharen," he said once the old manservant had caught up to him, "please get a message to Alynna and tell her I'll be back at the villa late. She was happy to stay home, this time, but we had... plans."

Lux cringed at the choice of words. Well, it was better Dakharen made his own assumptions and didn't go looking when his young lord went missing. Gods only knew what the guards already had to think of his... appetite, with all the time he spent off on the grounds with his comm off while Alynna taught him how to fight.

"But, my lord, you were meant to host a question and answer session–"

Lux cut him off with a look. A dozen fragments of possible courses of action were flitting around his mind, and he was quickly stitching them into one. But first he needed more data. He could afford to skip the question and answer session; at this stage in the game, his listeners wouldn't have many they'd dare pose with so many guards keeping watch.

Dakharen smiled fondly at Lux through his nerves. "Shall I reach out to Mr. Bonaga as well? He would so regret missing the arrival of such an important guest to one of his mining installations."

"No. If I arrive unexpectedly, it won't give whoever's supervising the time to conceal anything they don't want me to see. I'm not likely to get another opportunity like this. Besides, I've made my intentions known on live broadcast. If I don't go, they'll call me a liar."

"A cynical stance to take, if may say so."

"You may say it," Lux said, and humored Dakharen with a half-apologetic shrug as he hopped into the speeder. Dakharen followed him, shaking his head faintly. Then, with a few last directions to the pilot, they were off.

It took Lux the better part of half an hour to ditch his honor guard, Dakharen, and the flustered overseer who ran the mine in Etrik Bonaga's absence. Even if she was the most qualified person to act as a hostess for someone of Lux's station, the overseer clearly spent less time in the actual mine than the office complex outside. They'd passed the same group of miners at the same junction three times already.

Perhaps that was the idea, he mused as he stole down a side passage, keeping me occupied while they clean the place up and hoping I won't know any better.

Lux supposed he had his father to thank for that on two fronts. King Dendup and his forbears had kept the Great Houses honest and hardworking by encouraging noble-born debutants to prove they deserved their rank with good deeds. Zakhan's leadership – and his new laws allowing lower-ranking bourgeoisie to buy titles rather than earn them – had seen to the resurgence of the old ways of decadence at the expense of others. And, more directly, since his father had made Lux stay out of the limelight so long, he hadn't had the chance to remind people he was different.

He wasn't here to win a popularity contest, but his old lessons held firm. His opposition had made an assumption he was only there for show, and for now, their ignorance was to his benefit. He'd take all the slack they would cut him.

But just how much he could do with this one was the real question. The wrist comm and datapad he had on his person weren't powerful enough to jam the security cam system remotely, and programming each one into a feedback loop was too long and traceable a process to repeat at every junction. He didn't have long before someone glanced at the monitor for the right cam and sent his guards after–

The thuds of boots on rock and rumble of conversation separated themselves from the echoes that lent the tunnels such an eerie quality. Or some workers stumble across me on accident, Lux thought, flattening himself to the wall behind a damp, rocky outcropping. He was careful to do it casually for the sake of the cams.

He wished he'd gone into this whole thing – the speech, the investigation, and now this incursion – with a better backup plan than 'make it up as you go along'. His strengths lay in researching facts and presenting them; he wasn't nearly as good as Alynna was at improvising. What would she have done, were she here with him?

Lux set his jaw. No. He couldn't afford to start thinking like that. He was out in the field, now – he had to stay focused on the present moment like she'd taught him, and use all his senses to their fullest potential.

The sounds of the miners and the antigrav flatbed loaded with iron ore they were pushing ahead of them faded away. Lux checked his wrist comm and set out again. Despite its other failings, the device had still had the range to generate a crude map of the closest tunnels, and that was coming in handy now. While Lux made it his practice to notice the little things, his sense of direction wasn't infallible.

According to the holographic red lines and irregular shapes floating above the comm, he was near a large cavern – the type left behind when a particularly rich vein of iron had been exhausted. If he was right, it was the same one he'd glimpsed through an open door on that wild tooka chase earlier – and it was full of crates and spare equipment just like the ones Etrik Bonaga had claimed were stolen from him.

Lux smiled. "This might be interesting," he murmured, and hurried down the tunnel towards it on silent feet.

He didn't have far to go. Two junctions later, he stood behind a few empty crates stacked haphazardly outside the door – hopefully far enough into their shadow for the cams to miss him. There was no space for him to move closer to the wall unless he wanted to elbow a long metal pipe directly out into the open.

Lux stood on tiptoe to glance through a gap in the uppermost crates on the pile. The door was old but sturdy enough to stop thieves from helping themselves. Craning his neck a little further, he spotted a heavy-duty lock on the control panel that would open it.

Well, this has been a waste, he thought, biting back a sigh. The guards will probably track me down any minute now, and–

The door slid open, and Lux nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Damnation, he was meant to be a smokescreen, a distraction while the Emperor's man is here – not another encumbrance for us to contend with!"

Lux watched, hardly daring to breathe, as a group of four people, the speaker in the lead, began filing out of the cavern. Based on their shape and clothing choice Lux guessed that person was a woman, but they was past him too quickly to glimpse more than a flash of pinkish skin and the rich scarf tied around their head.

"Be still, my girl," a red Twi'lek man far more simply dressed than she broke in gently. His voice was lightly accented, and his countenance demure but grave. "What would your mother say if she head you speak thus?"

"You don't get to tell me about Mother. It's thanks to her union with you that I'm in danger of being disinherited. Focus on the task at hand."

"Of course, you're right. But I believe she'll be pleased with the equipment we've managed to secure today. The work will proceed on schedule."

The last two people were wearing coveralls and laden with datapads; Lux guessed they were aides or servants of some kind. They kept a respectful distance away from the Twi'lek and the woman with the scarf, but now they too were clear of the doorframe. It would shut in a matter of seconds, locking whatever it was that these people were so interested in away for good.

Lux had to make a choice. He could follow at the risk of getting caught but the possible reward of more information, or he could make a break for the door and hope no one else was inside the cavern. He opted for the latter, dashing around the crates as quietly as he could. He made it through just before the door slid shut.

A series of sharp, metallic snaps made Lux jump, one hand shooting under his jacket for the blaster tucked into at the back of his belt. He stood still for a long time, listening, before he was able to match it to some equipment nearby. There didn't appear to be any other sentient beings nearby, but the dim light and piles of crates were misleading. He had to be on alert in case someone was concealing themself in the darkened corners.

Alynna's words floated from the back of his mind in the phrase he'd repeated to himself countless times since the incident at the auction house: Then maybe, Lux, you need to learn how to be brave.

Now, though, it was wonderfully soft, just the way her voice had been after his nightmare two days before – even if he was still half-convinced that had been a dream. If someone capable of so much steel also had it in her to be so gentle, Lux could surely find the same strength within himself.

(Gods, he really hoped he wasn't getting in too deep with her after a single kiss under less-than-ideal circumstances. He'd only met her a week and a half ago, and for all they'd been through since then, she was still practically a stranger – and someone who'd explicitly told him he couldn't afford to trust. Already he was almost as eager to do right by her as he was his father.)

He slipped into the cavern, keeping his back to the wall where he could and looking over his shoulder where he couldn't. The quiet ticks and clanks of settling machinery were the only sounds to fill the space around him for a long moment before the ping of a datapad receiving a message joined them.

Lux went still, ears straining for a sign of someone moving to answer it. None came, and he crept forward again. Now, what I could really use is a manifest – something to compare to the cargo and equipment here, he thought. Fortune favors the bold, and I'm in for it the second this gets back to my father. Maybe the universe will give me a lucky break.

He started when he heard a louder ping, but kept on through the maze of crates; he had to be nearing the datapad it came from. Another sounded as he was about to round a corner created by another heap three times his height, guiding him in the opposite direction.

As he wove around an enormous digger, he came to a break in the crates. And there, atop one that had been wiped clean of dust and grit from the mines, was the device whose call he'd been following. A second one lay beside it, its screen dark and sides decorated with the logo of the Naaveron mine. That had to be his manifest.

Lux hurried forward, pulling a hacked code cylinder out of his breast pocket and touching it to the lit datapad. The cylinder would use his command subroutines as Lord Noreino's Heir-Designate to bypass the device's security protocols without leaving a record of his identity. He didn't want the datapad's owner to return and find concrete proof in its access logs that Lux had been snooping.

With a bright chirp, the uniform white glow of the datapad faded to reveal its contents: a statement authorizing a surprise Taevarion inspection of the mine with his father's family crest emblazoned across the top. Lux couldn't believe his luck. Heart pounding in his chest, he tapped the crest with the tip of one finger.

It was another fake.

There wasn't time to waste scrolling through the rest of the files. Sending a prayer out into the universe that the crates and digger would shield him from any cams on the ceiling, he pulled his own datapad out of his pant pocket and readied it to receive a data transfer. Then, using the code cylinder to bridge the two datapads together, he began downloading its contents.

A low swish that sounded an awful lot like the door opening broke through the quiet echoes in the cavern. Distantly, Lux heard a higher voice reminiscent of the woman from before. His first thought was of Etrik Bonaga's missing merchandise, and how the Twi'lek man had spoken of equipment to be secured for some 'work'. The people he'd seen before were almost certainly from House Taevarion, or working with them.

The second was what that could mean if a House famed for its history of public brutality and secret dealings – which, thanks to Lux's father's meddling, now ran the Crown's intelligence network almost singlehandedly – found him here.

"Oh, kriff," he hissed, and checked the data transfer. It would be another few minutes before it was complete. He could forget about grabbing anything off the second datapad; he'd be lucky if the first was finished before he was found.

Lux waited in terse silence, his eyes glued to the loading bar on his screen, and listened to the sounds of someone approaching – or perhaps several someones, but the echoes were too deceptive to identify numbers. Then, blessedly, his datapad chirped, and he whipped it back down into his pocket.

"I think it's over there," the woman said. She was jarringly close – but not too close yet. Maybe he had a little more time. If he didn't, at least he was being brave.

Lux didn't waste it. In a flash, he unlocked the second datapad and plugged his code cylinder into the reader. The cylinder itself had minimal storage space with all his extra tinkering, but it was enough for a few documents. If his luck held...

Its screen lit up, revealing the manifest Lux had been hoping for. Smiling wanly, he programmed the datapad to transfer it onto his cylinder, then shut off the screen and sound. And that was the exact moment when the woman found him.

She was young – fifteen or sixteen, perhaps – with a charming heart-shaped face, straight features, and eyes with tapered lids. Her skin was a soft tan in color, and if not for the large pink splotches that Lux could only assume were burn marks of some kind, she would've been quite beautiful.

Lux turned around, careful to keep the hand clutching the code cylinder out of sight behind his back, and flashed her an uneasy smile. "Oh, thank goodness. I was hoping someone would come for me. My escort is next to useless, letting me get lost so easily, and I thought I could cut through here to get to the office complex outside."

The young woman smiled, a sharp, frigid gesture that was startlingly familiar – but the way she spoke now was much softer than how she'd addressed the Twi'lek man in the mining tunnel before. "Unfortunately, I'm not here to rescue you. My aide misplaced my datapad somewhere nearby, and I came to recover it."

"Datapad?" Lux kept his expression carefully inquisitive as the code cylinder buzzed in his hand. The transfer of the manifest was complete, but how to get the cylinder away without her seeing it? "Oh, yes. There's an unmarked one behind me. I was wondering whose it was..."

She smiled again, no more warmly than before, and took a step closer. No doubt she expected him to move.

"I'm Lux Bonteri," Lux said, stalling for time.

Her eyes widened. "Forgive me, Lord Aluxsidrian. I didn't recognize you. I'm... Lady Noronessa Taevarion. I am at your service."

She bowed quickly, the scarf around her hair fluttering. It was the chance Lux had been waiting for. Folding his arms in front of him, he used his free hand to push the code cylinder up his sleeve and out of sight. The cuffs were tight enough to stop it from falling out later at an inopportune moment.

Lux inclined his head in turn when Lady Noronessa straightened up again. "And I am at yours. If you have no further business here, would you be so kind as to show me the way out of this cavern? It's quite a labyrinth in here, really."

"Of course," she said. Clearly fed up with waiting for him to move, she wove around him and snapped up her datapad, secreting it into a fold of her loose tunic. Then, tucking her scarf tighter around her head, she motioned for him to follow her.

Lux studied the girl as they walked. If she was a Taevarion, was it possible she was related to Lady Arahlee? Their House wasn't marked by any specific genetic traits, but Noronessa's dark eyes, cool glances and round face were so like hers...

He could puzzle that out later. Right now, it was time to enjoy today's victory by combing the contents of the datapad for everything they were worth. Lux was back on the trail, and he wasn't going to let up now, no matter what his father said.

Lux has decided to improvise and do what he felt was right, and this time, it paid off: he's hot on the trail of the conspiracy he uncovered a small part of while mediating a dispute between the House Bonaga and House Taevarion. But what does it all mean? Who can he believe, now that he's overheard such a compromising conversation between Lady Noronessa Taevarion and the Twi'lek man? How do Lux's as of yet unconfirmed feelings for Ahsoka fit into all this? Only time will tell...

Sorry for the (doubly) late chapter! I'm on a crazy early sleep schedule nowadays, and I actually fell asleep before I could edit this chapter and post it last night... Next time, I won't work in bed.

This chapter we got a bit more of Shan mucking around with Star Wars linguistics – again. Yall thought I was done after I made a whole grammatical structure for Togruti, but nope! I'll include some translations for things in Onde'er, my version of the Onderonian language, that I gave in this chapter here to make sure it's clear.

Dash: iron

Er: language/tongue

Iz: city

Iza: town

Izadash: town of iron

Iziz: city of cities

Onde'er: the people's language

Onderon: the people's home

Naave: heaven, heavenly

Naaveron: heavenly home

Ron: home

Kyzeron, specifically, I derived from the German title Kaiser and its origin, Caesar. In my version of the language, kyze means 'person of noble blood', and you can probably infer what Kyzeron means from there.

It was also my pleasure this chapter to include a not often featured but important OC: Lady Noronessa! I can't say much about her now, but her path and Lux's are intertwined, so you'll be learning more about her shortly...

Talk to you in the next chapter! If all goes well, it'll be out Monday or Sunday next week, as per usual.

PS: WHAT DID YALL THINK OF THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2 TRAILER???? I, for one, *Darth Vader voice* find their lack of Ahsoka disturbing, but I'm still HYPED.