The attachment comes through not long after. It's quite professionally put together, neatly listing educational attainment (undergraduate studies at a smaller but prestigious university on Kuat, graduate degree from Coruscant Central, pivoting from engineering and art history to business and law, but keeping the art), work experience (the museum, of course, as well as short stays at several Fortune 5,000 conglomerates in the type of administrative assistant position that is code for either nepotistic sinecures or apprenticeships... and a summer at a caf-shop before starting tertiary schooling), and extracurricular activities (president or vice president of several student activist groups, varsity swimmer, amateur theater troupes).

A very broad spread... Useful for a handmaiden, though it suggests someone who's had trouble figuring out what she wants in life. (...Lily might just be projecting, there.) Theater especially will come in handy for any 'pretend to be Lily' steps, though since Plagueis is dead and Seu won't be casting votes on her behalf that's probably not strictly necessary. 

She messages back:

Looks good. When are you available to talk more in depth?

She can be free pretty soon, at Lily's convenience.

She'll set a time later that evening – would Seu prefer to meet at Lily's apartment, or in a tea shop near the museum (Lily's treat, of course) – ?

She has fond memories of the tea shop. It would be nice to visit again.

See you there.

(She decides to get some of her catch-up work at the museum – and some of her socializing with her coworkers, she's really close to getting invited on a dig – done while she's waiting for the interview time.) She arrives early, still, her outfit a plain cut though made of fine cloth, her only open nod to vanity a few sparkling barrettes in her hair and an understated necklace. (Gold, of course, with a lily-cut aquamarine for a pendant.) She reserves a semi-private booth for their talk.

Seu shows up only a few minutes early, in smart, neat business wear. She slides into the seat opposite.

"Good to see you again, Lily."

"Good to see you as well, Seu – it's been a while. How have you been?"

"I've been well. Taking a bit of time off from gainful employment to consider my options, so your offer comes at an opportune time."

"That's good to hear – and the position has a lot of flexibility, if you decide you'd rather focus on a different element." (She's honestly going to need bonus handmaidens sooner or later, at least one more even if she drops the Senate.)

"What all are the different areas I could have responsibilities in?"

"There's basic 'running the estate' – the physical properties and passive investments. Managing rental income, arranging upkeep of properties, paying staff, hiring at the non-core properties, supervision and management... There's several vacant properties I want to prepare to rent out, too. I've been letting a lot of that slide, and a lot of the existing staff departed after my parents' deaths, so a lot also needs to be restructured from the ground up."

"There's also my political activities – my position as a Senatorial aide can be filled entirely by a handmaiden, plus handmaidens would traditionally handle meetings with the government or other clans about the clan's political and business interests, which is essentially a lobbyist position and not something I'm doing as much of as I'd like."

"I'm also currently expanding and reorganizing my house's active business interests – I'm trying to expand into more philanthropic and academic directions, and those would probably be bifurcated as they'd have different considerations and structures. A handmaiden would be responsible for managing those particular businesses, with high level decision making done by me." She's also planning to use both philanthropy (like, say, assisting Tatooine with its sudden power vacuum) and academic investigation (like funding excavations or establishing a journal) as covers for her Sith activities, the first more subtly than the later. "I'm also going to maintain and possibly expand some of the more lucrative current businesses, in order to self-fund all my other activities, but those have been running without much extra management for a while – still, I could use someone to at least audit them."  

"There's also my personal academic career – I have to do any studying and test-taking myself, and if I'm doing experiments or publishing papers I need to do the design, decision-making, and final writing myself, but a handmaiden could assist with research and early writing, even take my place on some excavations and in running some experiments."

"If I had an actual seemly number of handmaidens for my station – especially if I go further into politics – which I'm nowhere near given I have 'zero,' on top of all the previously listed tasks, each residential property would have its own steward, I'd have at least one chamberlain, at least two body-doubles slash guards, a head medic, someday possibly a governess... I can also hire people directly into most of these roles, but that's... Not what I'd prefer."

Seu nods. "Most of that seems fairly normal for a personal staff, and I've held similar roles before." Small smile. "Well, maybe aside from the bodyguarding. You should probably look elsewhere for that."

"The unique bit is the- sort of corporatization of identity? Sorry if that's disrespectful. But that's kind of the sense I get, and it sounds like what you're more looking for here. Like you said, you could hire directly to the roles, but you are looking specifically for handmaidens."

She nods. "Some of that's legal structure – handmaidens can sign on my behalf, liability's a bit more straightforward, favorable tax system, flexibility on who does what, etcetera. Some of it's social – if I'm working on Naboo, I should have handmaidens, or I risk looking like I'm new money – obviously I'm not, my name's known, but there's an entire thing with nobility acting like new money, and I don't want to align myself with that movement."

"But... Yeah." She shrugs. "I live in a society, and... Everyone has to be from somewhere." She'd hated that before, hated acknowledging she has cultural hang-ups, but... Elesse's been helpful. "Handmaidens are... More comfortable and easier to trust, and I can't really wear my own mask unless I have them, not without just looking like a kid playing dress-up."

"So the mask would be compulsory."

"It's the core part of a handmaiden's uniform, yes. It's traditional – and it's that or heavy makeup, which is honestly more of a pain than the mask." She has no idea why makeup's gaining traction with the neo-traditionalist youth. 

"If that was a dealbreaker, I wouldn't be here. So, I guess I have some questions about your properties and interests..." Which she can go into detail about, displaying a good depth of economic knowledge and a solid understanding of the principles of management.

Lily likes everything she hears. 

She goes over the job expectations a bit more in detail, too – as well as compensation, which is significantly more generous than most comparable positions, including benefits even after her handmaidens leave her service, and implicit legal support. (There's some benefits to working for a noble family.)

She knows how that goes, yep. Her mother would be so proud of her making this connection. No, brain, that's not a reason not to do it.

That does sound good, though she would be remiss in her diligence to not politely probe the sustainability of such a package.

She already has a large trust fund set aside for staff pensions. She – or an heir – can't withdraw from it for anything else. She's the last scion of a noble house, too, so there's little concern about relatives wasting the house's fortune. A lot of the benefits are traditional, too, and there'd be social backlash if she or an heir reneged on it. (She is stupidly wealthy – nowhere near exceptional wealth on a galactic scale, but she's certainly one of the richest people on Naboo – her money's smartly invested, very little of it left sitting around as cash to hand, and most of the businesses are consistently profitable. It would take either a really boneheadedly stupid heir or a galaxy-wide economic disaster to strip her of her wealth.)

If she dies prematurely – the trust fund's in her will, so that should be good. Everything else is being left either to the Jedi Temple or a specific friend she has there – benefits like 'legal support' wouldn't survive her house, but she suspects her Jedi friend would still be willing to assist her handmaidens. 

Jedi connections, even more reasons her mother would be pleased.

Very reasonable. She's always preferred companies that care about the workers.

"Naboo takes aphorisms about workers being part of the family a bit more literally than most."

"Hopefully only in the good ways."

"That's what I strive for."

"Yeah."

"Well, on my end, I think I can say that if you'd have me, I'd love to work for you. It sounds like you've got exciting plans that I'd like to be part of."