It had taken time to adjust to the sight of the clouds above her instead of below, but Tepasi was a far sweeter sight than Bespin had ever been.

The dusk sky was an amateurs watercolour, smeared blues muddied with grey. If there were stars, Sanya Tagge could not see them, but the lights of the mega-city sprawled before her were a galaxy in themselves, each cluster of buildings a constellation. In her childhood, her father had brought her to this very same rooftop terrace and gestured out across the cityscape with pride. You are part of a family so crucial to the prosperity of this planet, that they named this city after your ancestor, Unlos. The corner of her mouth wrinkled at that thought, the pride in her father's voice as he picked out the shapes of factories, foundries, research centres and more besides - all the property of TaggeCo. Even the roof they were standing on was the roof of a restaurant that was part of the Tagge Restaurants Association.

What he didn't mention - what none of them talked about - was where it had all stared. With the smuggler who had come to Tepasi under the pretense of charity, offering to help re-build a city torn apart by earthquakes - at a small cost, of course. Tarzen Tagge had built a name for himself on Tepasi and the name had stuck so firmly that the Republic had welcomed the Tagge family as leaders. That was the family shame, the topic of conversation that her grandparents, as proud servants of the Galactic Empire, had buried so deep in their subconscious that they had convinced even themselves that it had never happened. After all, how could you be shamed by something that had never happened?

Her eyes fixed on the horizon, Sanya took a long sip from a glass tumbler of something strong, dark and flavoured with bitter herbs. As she lowered the glass, Sanya pressed her lips into a tight line. She didn't feel ashamed. Not even now, in the knowledge that the Galactic Empire had bowed to the Republic and now crawled along with it in the filth and dirt.

"Lady Tagge," came a quiet voice from behind her, punctuated by a throat being cleared. Sanya turned her head a fraction and out of the corner of her eye she could see a pair of young men dressed in dark body armour, the yellow emblem of TaggeCo on their breastplates. A small detail of bodyguards, drawn from the House of Tagge's private military. The force wasn't anywhere near as large as it had been, but it was nothing to sneer at - and large enough for Tepasi. Large enough that the planet had not been dragged down into the Republic, like some other Imperial worlds. Tepasi was an island of sanity in an ocean of madness and no amount of grovelling diplomats and ambassadors would convince her otherwise. She would rather her family throne-world stand-alone, than stoop so low.

"Your... guests are here," the soldier went on, lowering a hand from his ear-piece commlink. Guests, Sanya thought, with a humourless smile. As if she was hosting a dinner party. Her smile soured at memories of decades gone by - of the young woman she had once been, and the woman she had loved. No, this was no social call. The men and women she had invited to the rooftop of the Tagge Restaurant Association were the kind she would have sooner poisoned than proffered a glass of wine, but she had need of them nonetheless.


Without turning to face the men, Sanya gestured in irritation with her glass, ice-cubes clattering. "Well, what are you waiting for? Bring them up here."