Archive of Our Own

"Would you — would you like some caf? I made enough for both of us," said Ben, standing in the doorway. It was her third day at Varykino Villa, and Rey had barely seen her host so far. "The terrace is lovely this time of day too, if you wanted to sit outside."

She looked up from the books and papers filling up the table in front of her. The library was a charming space, as all the rooms were in the villa, but it would be nice to get some fresh air.

"Sure, sounds nice," she said. She marked her place in one of the books and walked over to Ben. He handed her a steaming mug of caf.

When she had first come to Varykino, Rey hadn't been sure what to expect from Senator Ben Solo, the son and nephew of Rebellion war heroes and already a promising politician in his own right. Certainly not the tall man who looked at her shyly with his dark hair falling over one side of his face, gingerly holding a mug of caf in his huge hand.

She tried not to stare at him as they walked through opulent yet tasteful rooms and out onto the terrace.There were two chairs flanking a small table, both looking out onto the grounds of the estate, and the lake beyond them. The trees had begun to turn, and the yellow flagstones beneath their feet were accented with fallen orange leaves. The sky was a perfect blue and the slight chill in the air only made the warm caf more appealing. Rey wrapped her light jacket around herself as she sat down.

Ben sipped his caf, and there was silence for a moment. Then he said, "You know, you're not the first researcher from Yabol Opa to come out here recently."

Rey drank some of her own caf, and put the mug down carefully. "Let me guess. Was it Beaumont Kin?"

Ben laughed. "It was. You know him?"

"Unfortunately, yes. He reviewed my book very harshly on the holonet."

"Your book?"

"Yes. It's called Kerro . It's a biography of Kerrolyn Lam, previously most famous for being the poet Omar Berenko's lover during the High Republic era, but a talented author in her own right. That's the thesis of my book at least, which Beaumont took issue with, and got quite a lot of attention from other scholars for doing so."

"He had mentioned he was researching Berenko when he was here, yes. I showed him the library, just like I showed you. And all the boxes of garden books and other records too, although we've found even more since he was here."

"I saw a holo of his most recent Berenko Society presentation. His theory was that Berenko arranged his own kidnapping to get away from Varykino after he killed another poet in a duel."

"Well, did he?" asked Ben, leaning forward, like this was yesterday's news and not hundreds of years ago.

"It might have been possible," said Rey. "Except...today I found some evidence in one of the garden books that the other poet who allegedly took part in duel actually was killed by a jungle rancor on Felucia, after discovering a new species of dahlia. He sent cuttings back to Varykino before his untimely demise, and they were able to be propagated. I think I might have seen some in the conservatory."

"So are you going to inform Beaumont?" asked Ben.

"Oh, certainly. It will be all very politely expressed in the language of scholars, don't you know. Just like his review. Perhaps an editorial in the Society's journal would do it." Rey smiled viciously.

Ben raised his eyebrows. "Listening to you, I'm not sure which is more cutthroat - the artists' colony that used to be here with its duels and kidnapping, the Senate, or the illustrious scholars of Yabol Opa."

"I'd guess Yabol Opa, but then again I haven't exactly heard any Senate deliberations," said Rey.

"They're all broadcast on the Holonet, if you're curious," said Ben. "The tone might sound familiar. Very polite and very vicious. 'My esteemed colleague' used as an insult, that sort of thing."

"That sounds like Yabol Opa, all right," said Rey.

"Don't get me wrong, I do respect most of my colleagues. And we've been able to do some good, slowly but surely. I'm glad I can do that. But I'm also glad to get to come out here."

"You have a break now?" Rey asked.

"Yes, it's our quarterly recess." Ben looked at Rey. "So, I know what Beaumont was working on, but I don't know what you're working on, not really."

"I'm trying to research some other people who lived here when it was an artists' colony. I found a reference in the archives back home to some notes on mathematical theory from someone who was far ahead of their time, and found out that they were a tutor here. They were hired by the noble family who lived here and hosted Berenko and his friends. But what I'm finding from other papers here is that they may have actually been written by one of the tutor's students, a young woman named Tamsyna.

Ben looked startled. "Oh yes, Tamsyna Khoverlei. There's a memorial to her in the garden. The Naberries made sure to take care of it, and I do too."

"I read there was a fire here - that's how she died, right?"

"It is. If you look at the East Wing, you can see that one of the windows looks newer. It had to be replaced following the fire." He gestured behind them to where the red roofs and verdigris copper domes of the villa rose among the yellow and orange trees. "Can't quite see it from here, though. There've been rumors of the villa being haunted, but I've never sensed anything." He shrugged.

He said it like he would have expected to sense something, and something familiar prickled the back of Rey's neck.

It was like the feelings she got while growing up on Jakku that led her to the best parts for scavenging, or warned her when a handhold was about to give way. It was like the feeling she got when a woman had come to the Starship Graveyard, sometime after what Rey guessed was her 18th birthday. The woman was dressed for scavenging, but she took notes instead of pieces of metal. Rey asked what she was doing, and she said she was a scholar from Yabol Opa. Rey had a hard time imagining a school, let alone an entire planet that was one. She'd taught herself everything she knew, all by herself.

Rey paid attention to how the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and the sinking feeling in her gut that told her that if her parents were coming back, they would have done so by now. That if they really loved her and had been able to come back, they would have done so instead of leaving her with Plutt. So when the woman was getting ready to leave, Rey followed the thread of her intuition and asked to go to Yabol Opa with her. The woman had said yes, and that was how Rey had come to the University.

Others said that the professors could be harsh and they worked the students hard, and Rey supposed that was true. But she had a safe place to sleep and always had enough to eat, and she thrived. She learned the history of Jakku, the terrible context she had been born or abandoned into. It didn't exactly make her feel better, but it made her feel a bit less alone. Once again, she was scavenging something valuable that had been left behind, but this time it was in books and archives, not the cavernous wrecks of Star Destroyers.

She liked looking for the stories of beings who had been forgotten, or who had been pushed to the edges of histories focusing on more famous figures. That was what had drawn her to Kerrolyn Lam, and her story had led Rey to learn more about the writers and artists who had made Varykino Villa their refuge. And that was why she was here now.

She realized she had gone quiet, starting out across the grounds and sipping her caf. Ben seemed lost in thought himself and didn't say anything.

She finished her caf and set the mug down. She made up her mind. "Would you show me the memorial?" she asked. "If you have time?"

"Sure," said Ben. "I can show the rest of the gardens too. They've changed a bit since the artist colony days. There's a neat book in the library that the landscape architect made, showing what the grounds used to look like, and his ideas on how to change them. There used to be a gazebo, and then it was an ornamental hermitage. Now it's in ruins but the ruins are still there."

"That would be great," said Rey. "Someone referred to that tutor I initially was studying as the hermit of Varykino. It seems he may have lived in the hermitage, possibly after Tamsyna's death."

It was a somber inspiration for taking a walk, but the walk was lovely. They passed through formal garden beds where the flowers had been planted in patterns, many still blooming in the early autumn. Ben pointed out a new dahlia cultivar that had been bred from the plants that had come from Felucia. Naboo had a mild climate, but it was certainly no jungle.

"Careful — watch out for the ha-ha!" said Ben, as they walked further out into the grounds.

"The what?" asked Rey.

Ben pointed to a ditch to her left. "The ha-ha, or maybe more of a ha- hah! if you fell in. At some point the Naberries decided they wanted to have ornamental sheep, but they didn't want them getting into the garden, and a wall would ruin the view."

Rey looked out at the lake again. It was a truly lovely view.

"The memorial is over here," said Ben, pointing to a stone marker in the garden, also facing the lake, like the person it commemorated could be forever gazing at the landscape. It was simple, listing Tamsyna Khoverlei's name and dates of birth and death. She had been seventeen.

After they looked at the stone in silence for a bit, Ben said quietly, "The hermitage is over here."

Only the foundation and part of the walls were left. It looked like it had been quite sturdy in its day. "The hermitage was built during a time when there was a fashion for the picturesque in landscapes. Ruins were popular, so this was never torn down. Maybe the previous owners liked it even better this way," said Ben.

Rey looked at the hermitage, nestled among the white trunks and yellow leaves of a birch grove. "I guess I never asked you — is it weird having researchers come out here?"

"Not terribly," said Ben. When he looked at her directly, the sunlight warmed up his eyes to a dark honey color. " You haven't been a difficult guest, and I think the caretakers are happy to have more people appreciate their work. Even the droids seem happier."

"Your droids are charming, I'll say," said Rey. She noticed the way that Ben emphasized "you", and wondered if Beaumont Kin had been a difficult guest. It was a petty thought, but it amused her.

Ben smiled. "Before you and Beaumont, most of the inquiries I got have been interested in more recent histories."

"You mean about — about your grandparents."

Ben nodded. "About my grandfather specifically. Not as many about Padme and her family, which is unfortunate for many reasons. One of which is, there are simply more materials here about them."

"I have to admit I've often wondered about the sort of family that would end up with such impressive archives in paper, when so many others are electronic or holographic."

"I've wondered too," said Ben. "Maybe that's why I took up calligraphy, after seeing the library here on holiday growing up. And I was glad to hear you were interested in the older history of Varykino."

"Force Studies is an overly crowded field, for sure."

"Not as crowded as my uncle wishes it was, perhaps. But he's not looking for theoretical students, I should say."

Something had been humming at the back of her mind throughout their whole walk — no, it had been in the background since he had come into the library with caf. It was important, but she didn't understand it.

"Did you ever study with him?" she asked.

"A little," Ben said. "But I didn't want to be a Jedi. I still don't. I used to want to be a pilot like my dad, but then I got interested in politics as I got older. I suppose if something goes wrong in the Senate, I can always try my hand at smuggling." He laughed.

"Do you still sense the Force?" she asked. She wasn't sure why she felt so determined to ask about this.

"Of course," he said. "It's the energy of all life. Everything is connected to it. Everything is connected , period, even across the past and future if the philosophers are to be believed."

A breeze came up, and blew leaves across the garden walk and into the broken walls of the hermitage. She took a deep breath. Everything is connected. It wasn't just a philosophical platitude, but a visceral truth as her awareness opened, and the humming in the back of her mind grew louder. Not humming...it was life, and breath, and heartbeats, and the heat left over from the beginning of the Universe.

She realized Ben was staring at her. "Rey. Rey, are you okay?"

He reached out a hand to her. She must have looked like she was going to faint, but her feet felt steady.

"I'm fine," she said. "I'm great, in fact." She took his hand, and the Force sang a crescendo around them.