Zindalya and Ke`syn

Zindalya and Ke`syn was a Qua opera, written approximately four hundred years before the. It was composed by the Qua expatriate Bellerophon Whireaux.

Synopsis
The opera was about two female Qua, Zindalya and Ke`syn, and their lifelong friendship. The first act detailed their childhood and adolescence ("There they go again" and two reprises), including Ke`syn's broken engagement to her long-term fiancé ("The stars are still shining"), and their growing interest in the broader galaxy ("Out there"). Zindalya fell in love with a Qua named Arius at the end of the first act ("The stars are still shining, Reprise").

In the second act, slavers first arrived on Quadia ("Unthinkable"). Zindalya and Ke`syn were active in the resistance movement, but were ultimately captured and sent to different farms ("Our parting will not last"). Eventually Ke`syn managed to arrange her transfer to the farm on which Zindalya was held captive, despite its more severe conditions, in order to remain at her friend's side. At the end of the second act, news was smuggled into the farm that Arius had been captured and executed in an attempt to rescue Zindalya.

The opera's final act saw Zindalya and Ke`syn escape the slave camp ("A gasp of freedom's not a breath") and join the resistance themselves. Ke`syn considered fleeing Quadia, but Zindalya was intent on continuing to fight to honor Arius's memory ("The vendetta"). Unwilling to leave her friend alone, Ke`syn remains with the resistance movement, and in a violent clash with slavers, she is killed. Zindalya mourns the loss of her best friend ("We have reached our final parting").

In the final scene, it is revealed Zindalya has been telling Ke`syn's life story to her grandchildren, set in a restored Quadia when the slavers have been expelled ("If you knew, my darlings").

History
Bellerophon Whireaux lived on Quadia in the centuries before the slavers first landed, and was himself enslaved for several decades. Rescued by a resistance group led by the Ye`keb Millennium, he opted to flee Quadia rather than fight. In exile, he continued his study of musical theory and wrote the libretto and the score of Zindalya and Ke`syn, basing most of the major characters on composites of numerous Qua he had known on Quadia.

At some point, Whireaux found Qua to record a version of the opera, and had it smuggled back to Quadia. The slavers proscribed it when they learned of it, but it remained immensely popular in the underground; even some enslaved Qua would hum or whistle the tunes of songs from the opera. Many expatriate Qua knew the opera as well; Ye`keb often sang its songs to her daughter, Rin.

In 88 ABY, Rin and her nascent Golden Empire found Quadia and liberated the planet, killing off the slavers in the process. The resistance network got word to Whireaux, who returned to his homeworld. Zindalya and Ke`syn was first performed publicly on Quadia itself in 90 ABY, in a performance attended by Rin herself and most of the surviving Qua.

In popular culture
The aria "We have reached our final parting" was the most famous piece from the opera; many Qua identified with the emotions of loss of lifelong friends and loved ones. Rin Sakaros quoted lyrics from the aria at the funeral of her apprentice, Keltrayu, and Jira Zaffrod sang the aria at her concert at the Samayus Palace of Opera.