Princess Leia Organa

Leia goes to the library, hoping for some peace and quiet amidst the chaos of the start of the new semester, old friends greeting each other and new enemies sizing each other up. She knows she’s doomed to be an outsider, being both a new student and younger than the average age at the Academy.

She has her nose in a stack of books about diplomacy when someone with an entourage arrives loudly, flinging the door open with a carelessness that makes her cringe. She peeks around a corner and sees an overly tall, not at all attractive, scruffy looking…nerfherder holding court with his subjects, and her eyes practically roll out of her head.

My father has finally, finally agreed to let me take piloting lessons. I feel like I’ve been waiting ages for him to vet the candidates and I’m certain he’ll have picked the oldest, most boring teacher he could, but still. I can’t wait to fly my own ship into the stars, someday soon.

I’m cold. I mean, of course I’m cold, this planet is literally frozen, but it’s more than that. I’m cold from the inside out, and numb to absolutely anything and everything. The only emotion it seems I can feel is fear, constant fear. Well, and maybe anger, whenever Han does something to piss me off.

Every day I wake up in my palatial bed with a renewed sense of regret, wishing that there had been any other way to save Alderaan other than agreeing to marry Isolder, my now husband, the Prince of Hapan. There’s nothing wrong with him, exactly, he’s polite and proper and beautiful, of course, with his long blonde hair and blue-gray eyes. He’s kind, and patient with me and never fails to forgive my temper, but somehow that oboe makes it worse, makes me feel like an unruly child instead of his wife, his equal.

He tells me that he’s selected a new pilot for my flagship, that this stranger will be my bodyguard as well due to the ongoing threats in my life and I do my best not to sulk, knowing I’m capable of taking care of myself, but instead nodding and accepting his unassuming kiss on my cheek.

The last few days (has it been days? Weeks? Who’s to say?) have truly, truly been the worst of my life. Sure l, most people would consider my life easy, but it hasn’t been, at least not like people think. I’ve had intense schooling, and even more intense scrutiny, and oh so many expectations. Everything is entirely blown to bits, in a very literal sense, when a farm boy runs into my cell in hell and announces that he’s here to rescue me.

Of course, that was the end of his plan.