Grief was something Leia felt she’d foolishly opened herself up to again, when more than once she’d told herself not to. It had begun when she lost Kier at sixteen - and she’d said to herself that in a time of war, it didn’t do well to form close relationships with anyone, it’d make her vulnerable to more loss, more unnecessary pain. It didn’t mean she’d ever be devoid of care, or compassion or a will to see the individuals and their worth among the ranks of the Rebellion. She would have allies, and friends - but nothing too much deeper. Loss in war was inevitable, and whilst she was determined not to avoid the front line, deeming her worth no greater than the soldier next to her, she simply didn’t want to suffer heartbreak any greater than she had to.
Even so. Nothing could have prepared her for Alderaan and how much she, and the Galaxy still had to lose. It only cemented her resolve, she’d made the right decision in maintaining her distance and trying not to invest emotionally. And then, she’d met Luke, and Han and the two of them had become all she had - she cared for them both, and had let them in. Only to discover she’d found a piece of her life that she’d always been missing, her twin brother. She and Han had made the impulsive decision to be married.
And then she’d come here; pulled from everything that was her focus and her passion, her purpose, for so many years:
Leia had never gotten to meet Obi-Wan until she’d arrived and though the Jedi had been closer to her biological parents; the reverence and respect Bail had for him, made if feel as though she had a connection to her father through this man - the Jedi Master who had fought in the Clone Wars and who’d featured in so many of her childhood bedtime stories. He’d begun to train her. Then Luke had arrived, she’d been so pleased to see him - without battles, or missions to contend with and keep them on opposite sides of the galaxy, she’d actually had the time to better get to know her brother and living with him, seeing him every day had become almost a way in which to reclaim all the years that between them that had been lost.
Now the both of them had disappeared. A lot of people had disappeared, and many were left in shock, left with heartache, left angry that this place had the ability to disrupt lives in so many ways - as if it knew, when it’s residents had felt secure, had made themselves a semblance of something just in time for it to be torn apart. In this moment, Leia was making some effort to implement what she’d been taught, meditation, to clear her head, perhaps search for a way to accept what had happened sooner, extinguish what she felt and search for calm.. Instead, she sensed something - Leia wasn’t yet skilled enough to know what it was, exactly she’d found, or who in this case, but it prompted her to move, to go seek from where the energy had come - Luke, before he’d gone had mentioned another Jedi had arrived, a female master; Leia could only wonder if it was her. When she found Siri - Leia could only watch her fluid, practiced motions for a moment before the woman turned to her immediately, and Leia greeted with a small sort of nod.
“Master Siri Tachi isn’t it? I apologise for interrupting you.” She really hadn’t meant to, she’d just sort of started wandering. She wasn’t nervous, more felt she’d intruded. “My brother Luke spoke of you-” The Princess had spoken to her over the network, but very briefly so. “I’m Leia.”