Chapter Text
A long time ago, beyond a galaxy far far away...…
All beings begin their lives with hopes and aspirations. Among these aspirations is the desire that there will be a straight path for those goals.
It is seldom so. Perhaps never.
Sometimes the turns are of one’s own volition, as one’s thoughts and goals change over time. But more often the turns are mandated by outside forces.
It was so with me. The memory is vivid, unsullied by age: the five admirals rising from their chairs as I am escorted into the chamber. The decision of the ascendancy has made and they are here to deliver it.
None of them is happy with this decision. I can read that in their faces. But there are officers and servants of the Chiss, and they will carry out their orders. Protocol alone demands that.
But the word is not as I had expected. Confinement.
Locked away on the capital planet with a view into the outside world, but no contact from it, and no ability to sway any of the events that exist outside of my containment.
Solitude.
I am led away. Once again my path has turned.
Where it will lead, I truly cannot say.
But from where I sit now, it seems to go nowhere.
Thurfian had pushed strongly against the exile. At first, it had seemed like a great idea to him. His problem would be gone, out of sight, out of mind. However, when he got to thinking a little harder about it he realized that he could do better. It was not enough for Thrawn to simply be away from the Ascendancy. Thurfian wanted him to know exactly what he had lost. How his recklessness and inability to follow basic standing orders caused him to lose any hand he had in the Expansionary Defense Fleet.
Yes, that would be punishment enough. It wasn’t necessarily out of a malicious desire to see suffering, but justice. The exile seemed like it would be adequate justice on paper, but when he found out that it was Ba’kif who had suggested it, he realized there must be something else going on.
And, as patriarch of the great Eighth ruling family, he couldn’t let that happen. No, Thrawn had to be locked up to where Thurfian himself could monitor exactly what he was doing.
There was another political gain that he got from detaining Thrawn on Csilla instead of having him sent off to some uninhabited world. Public perception. On the outside, an exile would’ve looked worse. The idea of kicking a successful, mostly well respected warrior completely out of the Chiss Ascendancy? It would’ve been preposterous, it would’ve been considered an injustice. And, while he didn’t necessarily think any sort of revolution would come from it, he did worry that it might damage the already fragile relations.
This way, to the general public and certainly to most of the Expansionary Defense Fleet, It would simply look like Thrawn has been relieved of duty and sent to the capital to retire. There would still be unrest and frustration, but not so much is the embarrassment and righteous anger that would come from exile.
All around far better to keep him in sight. And, after some pushing, the Aristocra agreed. The defense council ultimately bowed to their wishes as well. After all, at the end of the day, it was just one small detail of the sentencing they’d already come up with. Thurfian’s brilliant idea even made Thrawn technically still being a part of his family an advantage too. This way, he would still have jurisdiction over him.
He could still keep his watchful eye over the locked up beast, that was Mitth’raw’nuruodo.
~
They’d lost. Ba’kif feared the entire Ascendancy would too.
The one goal of sparing the other senior officers, at least, still came to pass. But Thrawn would no longer have any chance of offering aid. For as long as Thurfian was Patriarch, Ba’kif knew this arrangement would stay the same. Losing him, losing his service would be of great cost. Ba’kif only hoped it wouldn’t mean the destruction of the Ascendancy.
What Thurfian had in store for Thrawn, was psychological torture. All of the fronts of comfort were just that, a front. Ba’kif wanted no part of it.
~
Ar’alani was angry. She had every right to be. Thrawn was a hero, he was the savior of the Ascendancy. For him to be locked up for life like a common prisoner was an unthinkable injustice. Unfortunately, that’s what was happening.
No visitors. At least, none of his friends were allowed to visit, with the exception of Ba’kif and herself. But even then, it would be only once a year under the watchful eye of a Mitth guard.
Thalias hadn’t taken it well, she hadn’t bothered to hide her crying in front of anyone except Che’ri and Thrawn himself. It broke Ar’alani’s heart to see her break down in Samakro’s arms. No one blamed her. Samakro himself had a haunted look in his eyes as he held the woman in his arms. It was obvious that he, like everyone else, expected Thrawn to miraculously come out on top. Maybe he still didn’t fully believe what had really come to pass.
As for the others, Wutroow seemed very close to starting a revolution before Ar’alani had firmly talked her out of doing anything rash. Ar’alani had seen Ziinda and Apros talking to each other several times in a clearly very distressed and heated manner. Several officers from the Springhawk, Greystrike , and Viliglant had been making their displeasure with the sentencing known, some even submitted formal complaints. Even Roscu was up and arms over the whole thing.
No one was pleased about this.
No one, except those bastards in the Aristocra. Ar’alani believed one day at least some of them would regret this. Unfortunately, she feared the reason for that regret would spell doom for everyone.