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It was late afternoon. The setting sun was casting long, low shadows across her desk and it seemed as if the entire room was on fire. Qi’ra fiddled with the heavy signet ring on her left hand and allowed herself these few moments to muse on matters of a whole personally nature, before she had to return her attention to the more mundane administrative tasks that plagued heads of respected legitimate corporations and crime syndicates alike, of which she was both.
This was the time of day when she felt Maul’s absence most keenly. When they were living on Dathomir it was around now that they’d retire to the library to read for a while before indulging slightly less intellectual pursuits.
Darth Sidious might have cast him aside in favour of other, 'whole' apprentices, but his festering influence over Maul had lingered and over time he had become obsessed with processing certain Jedi and Sith artefacts and she had eventually lost him first in mind and then in body.
There were moments when she was certain he was was still with her in spirit, or perhaps it was just her own mind comforting herself with fondly remembered whispers and touches, echoes of that rich, heady laugh that never failed to hit her like the oldest of cask-aged whiskey. She missed that the most, her memories could never do it justice.
And the only other person she had ever cared for… Well there was just no telling…
Qi’ra still had her eyes and ears on him of course. For purely professional reasons, she claimed. She was certain some of her informants were baffled as why she had never put a bounty on him like she had so many others in whom she had shown similar levels of interest.
When she’d heard about Han’s run in with Imperials; how he’d had to dump his cargo - much to that vile Hutt’s displeasure - she had considered contacting him again before deciding against it, any thing that might lead to meeting again in person would not be advisable. Their paths had diverged along time ago; they might even had ran in parallel for a while but would never intersect again.
Qi'ra briefly wondered how she might help clear his debt with Jabba without his knowledge and then all hell had broken loose. He’d taken up with the Rebels, just as she suspected he might, thought it had taken him far longer than she had expected.
She was rather glad she had not bet on that time frame. ‘Solo’ may have been the name assigned to him but it was not his nature, no matter how much he tried to make it seem otherwise. Of course in the end it was for a girl, a pair of pretty dark eyes. He was consistent at least and she hope she treated him better than she had, not matter how much it had been for his own good.
But in the end where had that gotten him? Now he was a little more than a slightly tacky wall ornament according to her source. She was a little miffed at Boba, she thought she had made her feelings regarding Han quite clear.
She wondered how she might be able to somehow extricate him from his current predicament. Perhaps a game of Sabacc, that would be amusing. Lando might even be willing to let bygones be bygones and help; but now that he had his ship back maybe he didn’t care any more.
Her thoughts were interrupted by her assistant, holding out a data pad to her.
‘An urgent communique from Tatooine, Madam.’
‘Thank you.’ She responded smoothly masking her worry and excitement, taking the pad and pressing one thumb to it to display the message.
Qi’ra read with increasing satisfaction. Han’s erstwhile compatriots had not only saved him - Lando included, she noted with a wry smile - but they had also dealt a devastating blow to the very heart of Jabba’s operation. And that princess of his, well Qi'ra no longer had any worries on that head. Any woman who could and would strangle Jabba to death with her own chains was more than ok in her book. She wished them well.
She gave a sharp laugh as she imagined how that over-grown slug must have looked in his death throes.
‘Madam?’
‘Recall the guards, and prepare the ship for immediate departure. We’ve just been presented with a very exciting opportunity.’