CH 93

Tonks interjected "The more magic used on the imprint, the stronger the tie is. Harry used… a lot of his magic, so our portraits are fairly accurate reflections. He even got his magic to allow my hair to change colors." She demonstrated by shifting colors rapidly in the painting.

Aayla was still examining the paintings closely, and had gone so far as to reach out to touch a corner, but a scowl from Daphne stopped her, "So you're… simulacroms? Of real people?"

Daphne regarded Aayla with a look bordering between curiosity and disdain, "Seems this one isn't entirely empty headed. That is correct." "Okay … why would Harry have portraits made of you?" Ahsoka asked.

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Both portraits had an eerily similar sad smile, "So that he might have remembrance of us after we passed on." Daphne replied.

"After you passed on?" Ahsoka echoed with a puzzled tone.

"Yeah, you know … kicked the bucket, croaked, on to the next great adventure… you know... died," Tonks added

"So… you're dead?" Aayla echoed.

Daphne sighed and rolled her eyes, "Perhaps I spoke too soon about your intelligence. Yes, she means dead."

"You misunderstood my question. I meant... why does he have portraits of you specifically?" Ahsoka asked, curiously.

Daphne tilted her head to regard Ahsoka thoughtfully before she responded, "So he would always have a memento of his wives."

"Someone married him?" Aayla blurted out before her eyes widened in surprise.

Ahsoka blinked in surprise, caused just as much by the portrait's statements as by Aayla's blunt declaration. There was soft laughter from both of the portraits.

"You know, you'd be surprised how many times we've heard that particular opinion expressed." She said with a low laugh of amusement.

"For a multitude of reasons," Daphne added dryly.

"The question that interests me, is how he met you, and decided he'd invite you to his home. That never happens," Tonks spoke up thoughtfully.

"I bet I can guess," Daphne said with an expression of fond amusement as she rolled her eyes.

When the two Jedi looked at her she raised an eyebrow, "His saving people thing?" Aayla and Ahsoka blinked together, before Ahsoka nodded a bit, "Yes … that's right. That's what he called it too."

"Figures." The two portraits said together.

"The latest damsels he's rescued," said Tonks

"You've joined an elite company of women who owe their lives to that man," said Daphne.

"You both as well?" Ahsoka inquired.

Tonks snorted, "More times than I can count."

"Very true," said Daphne, before she seemed to wilt, "Though it is the one time he couldn't… 'save us', if you can even call it that, which still haunts him."

"You both… died and he blames himself for it because he couldn't stop it?" asked Aayla, inferring what wasn't said from that statement.

Both portraits simply nodded, with Daphne adding, "From a certain point of view," before saying nothing more.

Aayla leaned forward suddenly with an eager look on her face. If these women knew about Harry then they could help her and Ahsoka gain some insight into the man, "Can you tell us more about Harry?"

The two portraits frowned as one and exchanged looks before Tonks replied, "Mm. No, not without his permission." Ahsoka hesitated and ventured, "You're both under oath like we are not to spread his secrets?"

Tonks laughed at that, "No, I just won't give the secrets of my husband and father of my children away to two women I just met, regardless of how good… or bizarre... both of them look."

"Children?" coughed Aayla in befuddlement,

A figure sat in his high backed chair and steepled his fingers for a moment. Long practice and a will of steel allowed him to contain his anger over the news he had just heard so that no one in the room was aware of his displeasure. Palpatine dismissed his aides and guards from his private office with a short and curt, "Leave me." They hadn't hesitated in obeying the command as they emptied the room immediately.

When the door sealed shut behind the last of his guests, he finally leaned back in his seat to consider what he had just been informed. Via a holocom conference, he had been given some news that had, moments earlier, been announced on the Senate floor. The representative from Kashyyyk had just informed the entire Senate of an attack by a large group of slavers on the Wookiee homeworld.

The attack which, at the very least, should have been partially successful, had apparently been stopped dead by the Wookiees. To say that it was an unequivocal failure was an understatement, and not something he was used to after years of almost unopposed success and numerous victories salvaged from defeats.

The Wookiees were quite pleased that they managed to prevent any of the ships from escaping and that casualties had been low. On the other hand they were very irritated by the situation as a whole, that slavers had attempted to farm their population. And, of course, when Wookiees were irritated, people tended to lose things like limbs … not to mention lives.

The Wookiee representative had made very pointed statements indicating that they were not going to just allow the situation to rest. They had made it clear that they were going to do everything in their power to hunt down the organizations that would dare attempt to perpetrate such an action. They would then exact their primitive brand of justice.

To say Palpatine was also irritated at the situation was an understatement. It had required quite a bit of manipulation of people through his apprentice to let the slave cartels know of an interest in a large crop of Wookiee slaves while simultaneously hiding their own involvement in the request.

Few of the cartels would have managed to get enough to fill a large request on their own, and none of the ones that could would have been so sloppy or accepted such a short timeline to do so. So several smaller organizations had needed to band together for quite the attempt on the Wookiee homeworld. Palpatine was pleased because it ultimately was his favorite sort of action; a strike that would have fulfilled multiple purposes.

The Wookiees would have made excellent slaves for any number of pet projects he had. They were immensely strong. They were very durable and could survive any number of harsh conditions from extreme heat to extreme cold. They were controllable through the judicious administration of pain and threats, like almost all sapient creatures.

It also helped that they were very long lived. Their prime was measured in centuries not a decade or two, so their lifetime expectancy as slaves before their 'expiration date' was nearly ten times that of other species in situations that required hard or dangerous levels of labor. One Wookiee over their lifetime, once strength, durability and lifespan were taken into account was probably worth 100 human slaves. It was only fitting that the beasts filled the role that the Force had so obviously chosen for them.

However, the benefit of slaves was almost incidental at the moment. The attack would have been a morale blow to the Wookiees, something not to be underestimated in the psyche of any species.

The attack would have caused the attention of the wookiees to turn homeward, so their support for the war would have diminished. As would their humanitarian support, as if the beasts were capable of such, for their allies as the wookiees were forced to use more resources on their home planet. They would also have focused on trying to track down the missing wookiees, much more effectively weakening the defense of the world.

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