Months after 'Consequences'...

Coruscant.

The Imperial Palace.

“Again.”

Sanya Tagge’s voice was a whip crack.

The young guardsman laying before her spoke between ragged breaths. “Baroness, if I may-“

“You may not,” the Baroness cut him off.

Her voice was steady, in spite of the rise and fall of her chest. Errant strands of hair clung to hair forehead and temples, damp with sweat. They had been going for over an hour now, and Tagge was showing no sign of letting up.

“We’re not done until I say we’re done, captain.”

With a glance towards the guards who were watching on from the side of the room, the guardsman pulled himself to his feet, barely suppressing a grimace. He stepped back on the training mat, putting some distance between himself and his opponent. When he lifted his fists into a boxing guard, his muscles burned.

It wasn’t normal for a member of the Imperial family to spend so much time training in self-defense but… these weren’t normal times. Nothing had been entirely normal since the Children’s Gala, the night Gallus Tagge had been assassinated. That night had changed life in the Imperial Palace in many ways, and these daily lessons with Baroness Tagge were only a small part of those changes.

Opposite the guard captain, clad only in a bodyglove, Sanya set her stance in a mirror of the guard captains. There was a cold fire in her eyes.

“Again.”