Shadows of Bankor

Vaya wasn't exactly sure what the structure would look like. She knew that Neela and Delia had been living out here, but as she approached she realize she'd never asked in what way. Had they borrowed some sort of prefab from the Resistance? Had there already been something here? (That didn't seem likely). On the way over, she tried to make Sinnya laugh by verbally imagining a dark-robed figure making an elaborate and impossibly technologically sophisticated mansion out of tropical trees, palm fronds, and coconuts.

She fell silent as the two of them approached the place.

Some of Vaya's coconut-based sallies landed better than others, on account of a) the woman formerly known as the Thirteenth Sister still wasn't really a laughing subject; b) some of Sinnya's best friends lived in tropical trees as a matter of course; but also c) coconuts are still inherently hilarious.

In any case, Sinnya was more quiet and introspective on the short hike, and silence therefore reigned as they approached chez Neela.

It was a simple and modest wooden cabin with some metal in places but quite primitive. Neela was outside chopping wood. The modest structure was built on a hill in the shadow of some trees, a simple water pump and a generator outback for power.

Vaya raised her voice to call out. "Neela Takee?" She had been trying not to surprise the woman (don't startle a Sith), but had erred on the side of too quiet. The wind across the beach carried it away. She tried again, louder.

"Neela Takee?" She held up a hand to her eyes. "We'd like to talk."

She stooped and rested the ax on her shoulder and looked at them waiting for her to continue.

Vaya looked at her, trying to square the actual flesh-and-blood person in front of her with the frightening, masked figure she had met. Still at shouting distance, she called, "We wanted to ask you about what you had planned in the Sky-Tree Forest." She glanced at Sinnya, wondering how that phrasing would go over. And how the kid was holding up in general. Sinnya had gotten more up close and personal with the woman than Vaya had, and with more cause.

Sinn crossed her arms and held her chin up, mostly unreadable except for a quiver at the end of one lek. "Nobody seems to know exactly what you killed all those people for except you. But I bet that other Inquisitor does, the one still in Rygor. So the forest people need to know, too."

"The Calm hides Force Users, we wanted them dead," she said flatly.

This is going... okay.

"We'll want a little more than that," said Vaya. "Listen, you don't have to talk to us." That was definitely true, they were entirely self-appointed. "But you might help the people you aimed to harm." That sounded like something Qareme would say. "What do you say we have this conversation at least one of sitting down, inside, and without anyone holding anything sharp?"

"It isn't complex, that was our mandate, we only lacked the location... of course they could just utilize orbital bombardment," she said with a heavy sigh.

"Why did you care?"

Sinnya was just as happy not to go into Neela's house, truthfully. Outside was fine. Among other reasons, outside meant she had a variety of escape routes at her disposal if the... former? Sith unexpectedly reverted to type.

"The Hidden Ones almost never leave the Calm. That's why they're called that. They would have gone on like always if y--if the Empire hadn't attacked."

"Lord Vader cares," she said sadly.

Vaya’s atennapalps stiffened, a very Balosar sort of flinch. The name had come up once or twice, in her years-long following of a Padawan in hiding. “Lord Vader cares about that sort of thing in general, or he’s specifically aware and cares about The Calm?” She shook off her momentary spooking, difficult to maintain on a white-sand beach. “This is the sort of thing we want to know, and make sure the Anzuri know. Of the people still working for the Imperials, who still knows, or cares, or is likely to do something about it? And what are they likely to do?” She had a brief and self-centered urge to quiz the ex-13th-Sister on her impressions about what had happened with the Chaldi, but quickly quashed it.

“When Lord Vader speaks, we do not question it, if the word is said then it is his will. He knows the Calm exists, he knows they have force users, and he will kill them and exploit it for the good of the Empire,” she said calmly.

“The High Inquisitor doubtless knows as well and will find a way to expose it. He cannot be trusted or underestimated.”

"So that's it? You just around murdering people for this Vader without asking why? Hundreds of people..." Sinnya's voice caught in her throat.

Sinnya wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:44 pm

"So that's it? You just around murdering people for this Vader without asking why? Hundreds of people..." Sinnya's voice caught in her throat.

"if you knew Darth Vader as I did, you would not ask such a question," she said grimly.

"So tell us about him," said Vaya smoothly. She hadn't come here to learn about that particular mystery, but she'd take it. It might be useful, someday, to her or maybe to Petrus and his fellows.

"Well, I don't." Sinnya crossed her arms, jerking her chin up. "So, yeah. Why don't you tell us."

“Darth Vader is a Jedi Hunter, he must have been Jedi trained I suspect but maybe that is just my own ignorance speaking. He is an excellent warrior, and he is Fear manifest, he has no mercy and is powerful in the Force. Second only to the Emperor from what I have seen and been told. I have never seen what lies beneath but it must be… horrid and painful as he is never seen without it,” she replied.

“I have seen Lord Vader only twice, in passing and when he took my leg,” she said gesturing to the limb.

“Both times are etched into my mind and I fear a third for I doubt I will survive it.”

Sinnya felt her lekku tremble. She pulled herself up taller, bracing against the fear in Neela's words. "He's scary, and he hurt you, so you did what he wanted." Her voice was low and tight. "You hurt so many other people. Has anything really changed now? You're still afraid of him. Those people are still dead, or hurting. The Calm is still in danger, and all you can tell us is there's no good reason why, nothing that can help anybody protect it. We can't hide the whole forest in a hole someplace."

"The difference is that even if I am afraid I will face my fear, because it is the right thing to do, I don't have the answers you wanted though," she replied.

Vaya fell silent, too busy struggling with her own uncomfortable memories to try and intercede between Sinnya and Neela, even if she had wanted to. She was keenly aware that she and Neela had this common: being driven by fear to do evil. She wondered if it was just luck that she hadn’t been leaned on hard enough at the right time to do something as destructive to so many. Then she wondered, as she did increasingly, where the line was between luck and the Force.

She shook herself out of her dark thoughts.

“Thank you, Neela,” she managed. “I appreciate you talking with us.” She didn’t presume to say we. “If you think of anything that would help, you can contact us at the base. I can give you my comm code…” she trailed off, suddenly realizing she’d never introduced herself. “I’m Vaya. We, uh, met once.”

Neela said, "Hello, once again."

Vaya touched the commlink attached to the outside of her vest. "So, uh, do you want... my commcode, or do you think you can just... find us..." she trailed off uncomfortably. She found herself thinking of the fairy tale, common enough among species who didn't personally go through metamorphosis, of an ugly creature transforming in to a beautiful and noble being when granted love by someone virtuous. She thought about the rumors about Mahon and the 13th Disciple. This is not what I thought this particular monster would turn in to.

"Only if you insist," she said honestly.