Off.

The vigil that Vader holds each year is - quiet meditation, indeed.

(More like quiet depression, on Vader's part, though there's a keen interest directed at Leia, hovering just under the surface.)

It's not in the core of the Imperial Palatial Complex where Dalia's party was - rather, a short distance away, in an enormous auxiliary building with a nearly palpable cloud of misery around it. It was the Jedi Temple, once, though renovations have changed much of its iconic outline. It's now a military barracks for Vader's Fist, the 501st Battallion, and an academy for the Inquisitors. It's a prison, too, and an execution ground. 

Vader lands them on a small platform, and leads them to an apparently unused hall, and into a suite of rooms that looks - softer, almost. The air's still strangled by grief, but it's a different grief than the fear and hatred permeating everything else. 

Vader says nothing, merely kneels in the main room, head bowed.

"Mama used to live here," she whispers to Leia. "She comes here to remember the past."

(Vader must have been a Jedi, then.)

She nods, slightly. "Did she - lose someone?" she whispers back, even more quietly.

(She feels like an intruder, amid all this grief.)

"Her teacher."

"...Oh."

(Definitely a Jedi, then.)

Dalia gives Vader a hug, then kneels down next to her.

Leia kneels beside Dalia.

She knows how to meditate at least, so she's not just standing around awkwardly.

Dalia drops into the groove slowly, but she does manage it.

It feels like a long while before Vader seems done.

She reaches out to take Dalia's hand, then, and says, quietly, "Thank you."

She grips her hand tightly.

"You're welcome."

She squeezes Dalia's hand and rises. 

Leia stands, too, body only a little stiff.

Vader turns her head slightly. 

Then, into the heavy air: "Will you be - around Dalia, more?"

Slow nod. "Yeah." A pause, then: "I really like her."

"Good." 

"I like you more than - her usual type."

(There is so much to unpack there.)

Leia just lets herself blush a smidge, and says, tone dry but almost amused: "High praise."

"Leia's very good," Dalia says.

She blushes more.

Vader inclines her head, then, almost reluctantly: "It's time to leave."

Sigh.

"Another birthday over."

"Another year."

"They just keep stacking up, don't they."

"They do." She seems sad, almost, and she falls quiet again as she leads them out and then back to the part of the Palace complex that had housed Dalia's party (after confirming with Leia she'd left some of her things there).

She leaves them both, but not before drawing Dalia aside to say, "I'll see you tomorrow. And I would like it if you brought your - girlfriend - to meditate again some night."

"I'll try to make it happen."

She nods.

"Thank you." Then: "I'm - glad you like her."