#master anakin skywalker | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

emmaofnormandy · 2 years

Text

~The salvation of the sinner: a queen and her knight [a world where there’s no Thomas Seymour]~ [part II]

Anakin appreciated the early hours in the morning as all the household had not awaken yet and he was found all by himself. The first thing he did was to make sure the Sudeley castle and it’s surroundings were deprived of an threats. After that, he broke his fast. By the time he was wide awake, sun began rising and he was meditating in the gardens.

Much to his dismay, Anakin found in himself sentiments that, though he always knew they were there somehow, he thought to have prevailed over them. But every now and then he dreamed about death, the sweet invitation of the dark side to prevent it. It could be anyone he dared to care for: his best friend and mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, his Padawan Ahsoka Tano, the former queen of England...

What?

Anakin opened his eyes, his heartbeat suddenly going faster than what usually was. Why’d he care for his mistress? It’s been only a few weeks ever since he came to her service and he was always apart of the household, knowing his place, despite Katheryn’s attempts in making him feel welcome and a part of it. Sometimes, he engaged in small talks to her and the lady Elizabeth, her stepdaughter, but Anakin preferred to be distant. Eventually, she ceased her attempts in being friendly. They were now just... formal to each other.

It was for the best.

He could see an attachment on her part, aware she felt attracted to him. But then... there were the nights she was scared, frightened and haunted by her nightmares. Anakin remembered how once he thought she was under attack or something similar.

I felt a disturbance in the Force.

He quickly dressed in his dark robes and, holding his lightsaber by his right hand, entered the queen’s privychambers only to see she was having a bad dream. But Anakin noticed her eyes filled with tears, her red-ish hair all loose and a complete mess... the nightgown so tight to her body, and he thought he could see her breasts.

A sight he now tried to sweep out of his mind. How could he desire her? Yes, she possessed a beauty that no lady Senator, Duchess or Queen Anakin ever came accross in the Galaxy could’ve been blessed to. Her laughters restaured anyone’s peace, and could he deny her a smile when she glanced at him with a gentleness that very few in her station was gifted?

But that night he held her tight against his chest, feeling the desperation as she clung onto him. As if she feared for her life. Anakin could see all of her life through a blink of an eye: her birth, her education, her roles as wife, stepmother, lady and... Queen of an entire realm. He could see the fear ignating in her bones as she was told the King desired her. He could see the moment she bursted into tears, wishing she’d never come to him.

He also saw the moment Katheryn Parr was greeted by Henry VIII, the king of England, the sovereign who held absolute power and who, Anakin could swear, might as well had been a Darth Sith in his lifetime. He was cruel, egoistic and had sent two wives to death for absolutely no reason other than his paranoias.

Anakin saw the conspiracy to remove Katheryn of her place as queen and the moment desperation came to her eyes, the possibility she might face death and how could she save herself by not risking her reputation. She bent her pride and went to the king, doing what he wanted her to do: to submit to his will. She was spared. The conspiracies had not the same luck.

But the Jedi Knight could also see other shades Katheryn did not permit people to see. His eyesight went far beyond the roles the former queen tied herself to. He saw the darkness that existed beneath all her suffering: her ambitions, her ideals of Protestantism, how she enjoyed having power in her hands when she was left regent of England.

In truth, was I any more different than she is?

However fast those minutes were when he held her close in the moments where trauma came uninvinted, Anakin realized they were so much alike than he thought.

***

“I thought I’d find you there”, Katheryn finally showed up at the depth of the gardens far from her household’s sight.

She was having her hair loose again in the manner of a Tudor lady, though. She thought she deserved that. But, because of her station, Katheryn was dressed in a silk purple gown with details embroidered in red. There were pearls in it too. Because it was cold, the sleeves of the gown were very warm in the inside.

So there she was, outdoors, looking for her knight. In truth, she felt she was in need of a companionship. There were moments that being around her ladies were not enough.

Or mayhaps I’d grown used to his presence.

Thirty days after their arrival at Sudeley Castle, and a week after the nightmare event--one of the kind she’d rather forget--, Katheryn knew she might be playing with fire as she came to find him in his favorite spot. Her heart race, but she ignored it. She convinced herself it was after his friendship she came for. Nothing else.

“I do not think I’d go somewhere else, Your Majesty”, Anakin did not open his eyes. But he thought wise to keep his mind focused in the present. He’d hate to think that the fact she was on his mind sort of brought her to him.

“Majesty”, she repeated the title to which he addressed her; and a snort came out of her lips. “I am not a queen for a few months now. How many times should I tell to address me by the name I was given at birth?”

Anakin chuckled softly.

“As many as possible, my lady. I must not forget my position.” He opened his eyes at last and saw her walking around him before finding a seat beneath a pomerade.

“What position? If anything I’ll tell you whether you are being appropriated or not”, she said maliciously. “But do not fret. I assure you I’d never send you to the block. Looks like we are in peace for the moment.”

The Jedi could not help a smirk himself.

“Peace? I hear your country is at war against the Scots again.”

Katheryn waved her hand in a dismissively gesture.

“They are /always/ at war, Master Skywalker. Every now and then. I do not think there was a monarch who did not try to subdue our neighbours.” She sighed. “But peace will come eventually. Edward is not of warlike type like his father was.”

Anakin was not a judge of boy kings characters so he silenced himself.

“Well, I can tell you are not very fond of politics, are you?”

“These are not my expertise field, no, I’m afraid.” And he added: “I am a man of actions.”

“Does the quietude bore you, my lord?”

Their eyes met and this time Anakin felt weakened by how those red-ish lips twirled a smirk.

“I will reserve my right to be silent”, said he.

She laughed. Oh how long had it been since she was brought to genuine laughters?

“Why’s that?”

“Because, ma’am, I fear I’d sound too bold for your ears.” Anakin left his meditation position and moved to where she was sitting. “You are a queen, after all. I must behave accordingly.”

Katheryn rolled her eyes, but gave in to a smile. They were closer now than before, and she found out how much she was enjoying it.

“Is it my obligation to remind you constantly I am no longer a queen, Master Skywalker?” Before he had the chance to respond, she changed topics. “I would like to know about you. Where’d you come from? How did you end up being a well trained knight? Does the knighthood you are tied to oblige you to make vows? So many questions I know, but you should be aware by now I am always inquiring...”

Anakin felt the lingering of her gaze upon him as he looked away, rather unsure how to tell the story. But he decided he’d tell partially the truth. The Jedi Order was a secretive order, though it was often mistaken by an Order of Knights that came from the Templars. Barely people knew how, in fact, it was the other way around. Or so told him Obi-Wan.

So that way, Anakin told her how, as an orphan, he was found in the sands of a realm close to Spain by his master Obi-Wan Kenobi and how deeply connected he was to the Order of Knights. In this conversation, inevitable scars came out and Katheryn could tell there were dark parts of him beneath all the kindness and light-chuckles as he shared bits of his stories with his superior here and there.

She could see he saw himself as a sort of sinner who, each time he went to fight other people’s battles, thought to deserve to suffer any physical punishment. The scar he earned after fighting for the Emperor was a clear sign of that. Finally, as he finished talking, Katheryn took his hand to hers and said:

“By what you told me, I can tell that the order of knighthood you are bound to is mistaken to one thing.”

Anakin never thought to hear such a thing and the confusion in his face made it clear. But Katheryn smiled before continuing:

“We are all made of dark and light within. When darkness overcomes the light, however, is the moment our Lord is asking us to examine our conscience. That is the precise time where we should ask ourselves: is this the true path I should follow? Does this speak truth to my heart and reason to my mind? Otherwise, how else are we expected to find this balance your order praises? You cannot reach light without finding darkness in the way. It is not by defeating it that you’ll become a better master, but by embracing it and accepting it is part of who you are. So that is how you’ll master yourself and faith will speak it by itself.”

They fell quiet after a few moments and stared deeply into each other’s eyes. It was when, in a subtle and soft gesture, Anakin took her hand into his. Somehow he felt listened. Believed. Trusted. He felt seen. And as Katheryn held his hand in return, intertwining their fingers, she blushed under his gaze.

She felt loved for the very first time in her lifetime...

(to be continue)

12 notes · View notes