Private A Matter of Chemistry

[Zesiro]

By now, Zesiro had settled comfortably enough into her position that the office no longer felt borrowed.

It remained unmistakably part of the Mahporeem Imperial Remnant. Black, white, and red carried through the room in restrained accents, with the Imperial emblem occupying its familiar place behind her desk. Secure terminals and communications equipment had been incorporated into the otherwise clean architecture, while broad windows overlooked Mahporeem beyond. A few personal touches softened the severity of the government furnishings, including the small reminder of Hannah that Zes kept where she could see it. Otherwise, the room was exactly what she needed it to be: professional without feeling sterile.

Zes herself had made a similar compromise with Imperial expectations. Dark fitted pants were paired with a red blouse and a tailored black jacket, enough of the Remnant's colors to acknowledge the position without resembling a uniform. She had never seen any particular reason authority required a woman to stop looking like herself, and taking over Internal Affairs hadn't changed her mind.

The name displayed on her terminal was Malek Synthos.

His surname was considerably easier to investigate than the man carrying it. House Synthos had accumulated wealth and influence through pharmaceuticals, an industry with the useful habit of remaining important regardless of which governments were fighting one another. Wars created casualties. Disease ignored borders. Worlds suffering either rarely cared very much about politics when medicine was needed.

Malek himself presented a much shorter story.

He was thirty-two, human, and a member of House Synthos. His professional background was in pharmacology, supported by enough education and experience that Zes had no reason to question his qualifications. Beyond that, there wasn't an extraordinary amount sitting in front of her. Certainly nothing that justified deciding what sort of man he was before she'd ever met him.

That suited Zesiro just fine.

She had spent enough of her life being reduced to whatever somebody could fit into a report to know how misleading one could be. There were undoubtedly files somewhere in the galaxy that described her as an assassin, a Sith, a High Lady, a security officer, or any number of other things she'd been over the years. Every description would be accurate, and none of them would tell someone very much about the woman sitting behind this desk now.

Still, a member of a wealthy and influential pharmaceutical family appearing on Mahporeem was worth knowing. That didn't make Malek a threat, nor did Zes consider him one simply because his surname carried weight. Internal Affairs wasn't merely about finding enemies hiding beneath the furniture. Sometimes knowing who had entered their sphere, what brought them there, and what they intended to do was enough.

Zes could have assigned someone to gather considerably more information before ever speaking to him. She preferred another approach. Records told her what other people knew about someone. A conversation gave her an opportunity to decide for herself.

So she'd asked Malek Synthos to come to her office.

Zes leaned back slightly and took a sip from the drink resting beside her terminal as she waited. Calling people into her office was becoming a surprisingly ordinary part of the job, though there were still moments when she found the reversal amusing. For years, she'd stood beside Darlyn while people approached the President, quietly watching them and deciding whether anything about their behavior warranted her attention. Now, understanding the person across the room wasn't secondary to protecting somebody else. It was part of why she was here.

A notification appeared on her terminal to announce the arrival of the man she'd been expecting.

Zes set her drink aside, leaving the basic information she'd gathered visible on the display. There was no reason to manufacture the atmosphere of an interrogation when she had nothing to accuse him of. She simply wanted to meet the man behind the Synthos name and find out what had brought him into Mahporeem's orbit.

When the door opened, Zesiro looked up and offered Malek a small smile before gesturing toward the chair opposite her.

"Mr. Synthos. Come in and have a seat."

Malek Sythos

 

[Malek Sythos]

Malek could appreciate the punctuality of the appointment the moment that he arrived, normally when it came to administration, he'd be waiting for abnormal amounts of time. The door opened for him once his name was called, and walked through. His eyes scanned the office, being as government issue as he'd expect it to be. He wasn't entirely sure what this meeting was about at all, so his mind went to several conclusions just to calm the nerves. The personal touches that he could identify, and that jacket... just enough to represent the faction, but also unique enough to not be.

His head kept circulating, analyzing until her voice broke that internal thinking of his. "Good day ma'am." He would say respectfully, inclining his head as a small formal gesture. He then raised his head back up, heading over to the seat. He only wore his dark-gray robes for this meeting, as he felt like the red cloak would be too much for a meeting of this kind.

"I am curious about this meeting. I have to assume you already looked into me as a pharmacologist, but considering the nature of my work and my house, you want to reaffirm my loyalty to Mahporeem?" due to how flexible his particular industry is, loyalties were often shifted. It wasn't uncommon nor his first time to deal with an internal inquiry to fish out any ulterior motives that he had. In truth, he had no intentions of leaving the Mahporeem Imperial Remnants for the forseeable future, but he'd wait for her to say more first before jumping to any conclusions like that.

"However, I am happy to answer any and all queries about my personal interest. As I'm sure you understand, we normally stay behind contracts and don't get personally involved, so I understand there might be some queries around that, too." He folded one leg over the other, and leaned back into his chair comfortably. He didn't seem nervous at all, just constantly guessing and calculating what this might be. This would either just be a formal meeting with no substance to it, or she might be fishing for something.

Zesiro

 

[Zesiro]

Zesiro listened without interrupting as Malek settled into the chair and immediately began working through his own explanation for the summons. A small smile touched her lips when he arrived at loyalty as the most likely reason. It was a perfectly reasonable conclusion given her position, though the fact that he'd come prepared to address the subject before she'd asked a single question told her something about what he expected from Internal Affairs.

"You've saved me the trouble of an awkward introduction, at least," she said, reaching for her drink. "And yes, I've looked into you, but probably not as thoroughly as you're imagining. I know who you are, what you do, and enough about House Synthos to understand why the name carries weight. I prefer meeting someone before I start deciding what the gaps in a file mean."

She took a sip before setting the glass down again, studying him with quiet interest. He certainly didn't appear bothered by being called into her office. If anything, he seemed comfortable enough to begin anticipating her questions. Zes had spent years around politicians who did much the same thing, although usually with considerably more words and considerably less substance.

"As for your loyalty, I'm not particularly interested in asking you to swear that you're loyal to Mahporeem. You'd tell me that you are, I'd make a note of it, and neither of us would have learned anything useful." Her smile grew slightly. "Besides, I've found loyalty is something people demonstrate much better than they explain."

His willingness to answer questions was considerably more useful.

Zes leaned back comfortably in her chair. "What actually interested me was that there isn't very much about you once I get past your profession and your family. That's not an accusation. I don't expect everyone who comes through Mahporeem to hand Internal Affairs their life story, and I'm certainly not going to pretend my own would fit neatly into a government file."

She regarded him for another moment before continuing. "So let's forget the formal inquiry you were expecting. I'm not looking for a confession, and as far as I'm concerned, you haven't done anything that requires one." There was a touch of amusement in her expression before she gestured lightly toward him. "You said you're happy to answer questions about your personal interests. Let's start there."

"What brings Malek Synthos to Mahporeem when he could presumably be almost anywhere else?"

Malek Sythos

 

[Malek Sythos]

He did appreciate the light tone of this meeting. He didn't feel like it was an interrogation, but it's good to know she made an effort to make it feel light. He chuckled a bit at the mention of not having much past him aside from his family and profession. That's good, it meant he wasn't easy to dig up in terms of what actual interests him. "Well... on paper, I like to leave it as commercial purposes. A partnership with Mahporeem where I can study under their protection, and my organization gives back in return." but perhaps revealing this next bit might help him. It could shake some trees as one would say.

"To learn more about the Force." he said simply, as honest as it can be. "As to why... well, you didn't want a life story, but you'll get mine if you want to understand. My father was diagnosed with a neurological, incurable disease. I refused to accept that, and spent years trying to find a cure. Every experimental drug, every tested procedure, we tried it all... and he still passed away. I wasn't happy with the limits of medicine and decided to look further. I was... noted to have a connection to the force at a young age, but due to the influences of my family, I was never dragged to Jedi nor Sith."

He would give it a few seconds for what he's saying to sink in, and finally continue. "I've read events about force users healing wounds with a touch, no medical training, no equipment, no understanding of the tissue involved. And everytime I try to understand it through public resources, it just devolves into philosophy. It is honestly, single-handedly, the most frustrating body of knowledge I've ever researched in the galaxy, and I've researched a lot in my life."

He gave out a sigh. It was almost cathartic to let out his frustrations like this. "I understand that pursuit of this knowledge is better with the Mahporeem. As far as I know, this kind of knowledge seeking isn't forbidden or frowned upon in the remnant. I have no interest in becoming a sith, or a lust for power. I merely just want to learn more." and that was it. He sat back comfortably on his chair, once again giving her some time to process everything he just said.

"So, I am glad for this meeting. I was hoping that with someone of your station, you may know something... or perhaps someone who can point in the right direction?"

Zesiro

 

[Zesiro]

Zesiro had expected any number of answers. An interest in the Force had not been particularly high among them.

That surprise registered briefly in her expression before giving way to genuine interest. She remained quiet as Malek explained, allowing him to reach the end without interruption. What began as a relatively simple admission became considerably more personal than anything she'd expected him to offer during their first meeting. His father's illness, the years spent trying to overcome something medicine insisted couldn't be overcome, and eventually the realization that an entire avenue of possibility existed beyond the science he'd spent his life studying.

His frustration with the Force drew a quiet laugh from her.

"That part isn't going to get any less frustrating," Zes told him. "If you're looking for someone to explain the Force entirely in terms of biology, chemistry, and predictable physical laws, you're probably going to spend a very long time disappointed."

There was sympathy rather than dismissal in the observation. Malek had spent his life working within a discipline where understanding mattered. A drug produced an effect because something within it interacted with the body in a particular way. Even when the answer wasn't known yet, there was an assumption that an answer existed and could eventually be measured, reproduced, and understood. The Force didn't always cooperate with that expectation.

What interested her was that he wanted to try anyway.

"You're right about one thing, though. I've seen people accomplish things through the Force that medicine alone couldn't explain. Healing is one of them." Zes considered him for a moment. "That doesn't mean medical knowledge becomes irrelevant. Personally, I'd trust a healer who understands what's beneath their hands considerably more than one who thinks the Force excuses them from knowing."

His assurance that he didn't want to become Sith earned a faint smile, although Zes left the reason for it unexplained. There had been a time when the distinction between Jedi and Sith had seemed considerably more important to her than it did now. Life had carried her through enough identities, allegiances, and worlds that she had little interest in insisting that everyone capable of touching the Force choose one of two ancient philosophies and arrange the rest of their existence around it.

"You don't need to become Sith to learn about the Force, Malek. You don't need to become a Jedi either." She settled back into her chair. "They're traditions. Very old and very knowledgeable traditions, certainly, but neither one owns the Force."

For the first time since he'd entered, the reason for his presence on Mahporeem seemed considerably clearer. His family and profession explained what he could offer the Remnant. This explained what he hoped the Remnant might offer him in return.

"As for whether I know something..." Zes's smile grew slightly. "Yes. I do."

She allowed that answer to settle for a moment without immediately explaining where the knowledge had come from. There were parts of her life Malek didn't need simply because he'd trusted her with part of his own, and she wasn't particularly interested in reducing several decades of complicated history into a convenient label.

"I've been using the Force for most of my life. Enough to tell you that what you're looking for exists, even if I can't promise you'll ever get the neat scientific explanation you want." Her blue eyes remained on him with renewed curiosity. "But before I point you toward anyone, I'd want to understand what you're actually hoping to learn. Healing is what started this, but your father is gone. You can't cure him now."

There was no cruelty in the statement, only the unavoidable reality Malek himself had already described.

"So what are you trying to accomplish now?" Zes asked. "Do you want to understand how Force healing works because you believe you can incorporate it into medicine? Are you trying to understand your own connection to the Force? Or is it simply that you found something science couldn't explain and you can't stand leaving the question unanswered?"

A trace of amusement returned to her expression at the last possibility.

"Because those are three very different reasons to go looking for a teacher."

Malek Sythos

 

[Malek Sythos]

He stood up briefly in his seat when she mentioned trusting someone who knows what's underneath their hands than someone with the force. There was a slight pride in him from that alone, but more so, he felt like he finally met someone who understood where he was coming from. That he isn't trying to get locked into some philosophy, but he just wants to learn the force for what it is.

"All three, truth be told." was his response when she asked about what he's looking for in particular. "I am very much someone who learns as much as he can, if you're going to teach me how to heal or use any aspect of the force, I'd rather learn it all. I don't want anything left untouched." he did avoid that direct question however about his father, which was a sore spot for him in more ways than one.

"The passing of my father was sad, but what broke me more was that I felt like there's a wall to what I can do. I learned everything I could in medicine, stims, adrenals, you name it, I can make it with the right tools and ingredients. But nothing helped. The only thing that offered any possible chance was the force itself, but as you noted in my frustration, there's no direct answer to finding out in how it can actually be used."

He is a man of science, so he knows that the philosophy behind the force is very spiritual, he has tried to keep an open mind about it, but everytime he tried to delve into topics about it in terms of reading material, his mind shuts off and goes back to his foundation of logic. He knows enough that with this wall of his, he needs something to properly introduce him to the force, whether that be something, or someone.

Zesiro

 

[Zesiro]

"All three," Zes repeated, and a smile slowly spread across her face. "Of course it's all three."

She was beginning to understand Malek a little better. Apparently, asking him to leave some corner unexplored was about as useful as asking water not to be wet. His father's death might have been what first drove him toward the Force, but this had grown beyond that. He had discovered something he couldn't explain, couldn't neatly categorize, and couldn't master through everything he'd already spent his life learning. Zes suspected that alone would have been enough to keep him chasing answers.

The funny part was that she couldn't have approached the Force differently if she'd tried.

"I think you're going to hate the way I learned," she admitted, amusement warming her voice. "Nobody explained much of anything to me first. I was shown what to do and expected to do it. If I succeeded, we moved on. If I didn't..." She gave a small shrug rather than finishing the thought. "Eventually I figured out what it felt like, and that was enough."

There was considerably more behind those words than she intended to share during a conversation that had begun as an Internal Affairs meeting. Zes couldn't remember anything before she was twelve, and what came afterward had hardly resembled an education by Malek's standards. She had awakened knowing nothing about herself, not even her own name, and the man responsible for what followed hadn't cared whether she understood the Force. He cared whether she could use it.

Zes had learned considerably more since then, from several people and eventually on her own, but the foundation remained. She wasn't a scholar. She couldn't quote ancient texts or explain the Force through some elaborate philosophy. What she knew, she knew because she'd lived with it for most of the life she could actually remember.

She regarded Malek for a moment and laughed softly. "You'd probably have driven most of my teachers insane asking why every five minutes."

The thought was amusing precisely because Malek seemed incapable of simply accepting that something worked. Zes could imagine telling him to reach into the Force and immediately being asked what he was reaching into, why it responded, and what precisely was happening when it did.

"Maybe that's part of what's getting in your way. You've spent all this time reading what other people think the Force is, but you haven't really had the chance to find out what it feels like for yourself." Zes shifted comfortably in her chair. "You already know you're connected to it. So forget about understanding it for a little while. Learn how to touch it first. Then you can spend many years, however you like, trying to figure out what happened."

Her smile made it clear she was teasing him, though there was a serious thought beneath it. Malek wanted an answer he could understand, and Zes wasn't convinced that another book or lecture would provide it. Perhaps he needed to experience the thing he was trying so hard to study before any of the explanations could begin making sense.

His desire to leave nothing untouched concerned her a little more.

"I wouldn't promise you everything, though." Her expression softened without losing its warmth. "Not because I'm going to decide what you're allowed to know. I've had enough people make choices for me to have very little interest in doing that to somebody else. But there are things in the Force that cost more than you expect when you reach for them. If you ever get that far, I'd rather make sure you understand the price before you decide whether you're willing to pay it."

That was a lesson Zes understood far better than anything Malek might find in a laboratory.

"And healing?" She gave a small shrug. "I know enough to know I'm probably not the person you want teaching you that. You'd start asking me about nerves and tissue, and I'd probably have to remind you that you're the pharmacologist in the room."

A laugh escaped her at the thought before she looked at him again.

"But getting you started with the Force itself? That I can do." Zes considered him for another moment, already wondering whether teaching someone whose mind worked so differently from hers would prove interesting or simply drive both of them insane.

Her smile grew.

"I should probably warn you now, though. Eventually, I'm going to tell you something works because that's what it feels like, and you're going to have to resist the urge to argue with me."

Malek Sythos

 

[Malek Sythos]

He should have hated that, when she said nobody explained anything to her. He waited for the reflex and it came, right on schedule, the familiar tightening around his neck that arrived whenever someone told him a thing worked without telling him why. But what followed it was less predictable, and considerably less comfortable, because he had heard the shrug she gave rather than finish the sentence and had understood exactly what was in it.

He didn't ask. He wanted to. He had the question ready, and he let it stay there, which took a small amount of effort he chose not to be proud of. He had to start doing this if it meant studying into the force. If someone as logical and pragmatic as her was this vague with the topic of the force, then maybe there's a reason why every subject into the force is full of philosophy...

"You're right. I do hate it." he agreed, adding humor to the situation... but regardless, he's thinking of how to proceed from here. He was ready to argue back that it's hard to learn without data, but... he's trying to accept that's just how the force is, seriously holding back his mouth to challenge her on it.

"At this point, I'll take anything you can offer me. Anything, or anybody, including yourself. I'll do my best to be open-minded about all this state of mind. I will make my frustrations clear however." in truth, he had been thinking that deep down that's how the force really is, that it's not something that can be explained in great detail to simply learn, but to just roll with and discover. He sighed... he had hoped to find a good answer somewhere in the galaxy but at this stage with what she's offering, it's the best offer he's going to get.

Zesiro

 

[Zesiro]

Zesiro laughed at the admission, entirely unsurprised by it. "I thought you might."

She had expected an argument to follow. Malek had made it abundantly clear that simply accepting something without understanding why it worked went against nearly everything about the way he thought. Yet the argument never came. Instead, he seemed to be making an effort to accept that whatever he found here might not fit neatly within the framework he was accustomed to using. That caught her interest more than immediate agreement ever would have. He wasn't simply telling her what she wanted to hear. He was uncomfortable with the answer and willing to try anyway.

"You don't have to try quite so hard not to argue with me, you know." There was warmth in her voice alongside the amusement. "If you're frustrated, tell me. If something I say makes absolutely no sense to you, tell me that too. I'd rather know what you're struggling with than have you sit there pretending you understand because you think that's what a student is supposed to do."

Zesiro knew all too well what it was like to learn without the luxury of asking questions. Her own beginning with the Force had been about results rather than understanding, and she had no intention of recreating that experience simply because it was how she'd learned. Malek was offering her trust, however cautiously, when he said he was willing to accept whatever help she could give him. She could at least offer him patience in return.

"And you don't have to stop thinking the way you do to make this work." She considered him for a moment, her expression thoughtful. "You're used to having something you can observe. Cause and effect. You do something, something happens, and then you figure out why. I may not be able to give you the last part every time, but we can at least give you something real to work from."

Her smile returned as she settled more comfortably into her chair.

"Before I start asking you to move things around my office, though, we should probably find out whether you can actually reach the Force when you want to. Knowing you're connected to it and knowing how to consciously use that connection aren't the same thing."

That was where her curiosity was beginning to take over. Malek had apparently spent years looking for answers about something that might already have touched his life without him recognizing it.

"So forget about moving anything for now. Think back instead." Zesiro leaned forward slightly, genuinely interested in what his answer might reveal. "Have you ever known something you shouldn't have known? Reacted before you actually understood what you were reacting to? Had a feeling that was too strong or too specific to dismiss as ordinary instinct, only to find out later that you were right?"

She paused before adding with a small smile, "And if the answer is no, that's fine. I'm not going to decide you've failed your first lesson before we've even figured out where to start."

Whatever Malek's connection to the Force looked like, Zesiro wanted to find his way into it rather than force him through hers.

"We'll figure it out. You can ask questions, complain when my answers are terrible, and tell me exactly how much you hate being told to feel something you can't measure." Her eyes warmed with quiet amusement. "Just try to give me a chance before you decide I'm completely hopeless as a teacher."

Malek Sythos

 

[Malek Sythos]

He sat with that first question for just a moment, really thinking it through. His first immediate answer was no, but he tried to dig through his own memories and timelines to see if there's anything relating to what she asked, any knowledge he shouldn't be privy to, any sixth senses... He thought hard, and there was one event in his life that he could consider "lucky", or if those of more religious beliefs were to say, guided by the force.

"My father, early stages of his illness where he could still walk, talk, and do normal things. He was a bit slow at times, but nothing that couldn't be tolerated or him having to be excused from his duties. I was hundreds of meters away from him in my own lab, and I felt an urge to check on him... like something was wrong. I abruptly ended the day and told my assistant to lock up. I had never felt like that before or felt... anxious? I don't know how else to really explain the feeling. It bothered me enough that I couldn't focus on my work, so I called the day off for myself and my employees." he then placed a hand upon his chin, as if still thinking, recounting the events in his head.

"I rushed over to the estate and it turns out, he had his first seizure. It had happened thirty minutes prior to me arriving there, and I wasn't told anything yet because they were still stabilizing him, and reporting everything from the symptoms, damage and so on and didn't want to worry me until they knew what was going on."

He thought more about that event now that Zesiro asked her question in a specific way, did he somehow feel his father in a way? He could never explain how he could tell something was wrong. "I just waved it off as timing, a coincidence." but with the tone of his voice, even he didn't fully believe that.

He did appreciate her assurance that he can ask questions and argue as he needs to, though he still planned to restrain himself to an extent, as it's clear that his method of learning was very science-based, and it doesn't work with learning something spiritual like this.

Zesiro

 

[Zesiro]

Zesiro listened without interrupting, and by the time Malek finished, the amusement that had been lingering in her expression had faded into something more thoughtful. She didn't immediately seize on the story as proof. That would have been too easy, and after everything he'd told her about himself, she suspected declaring the Force did it without considering anything else would be a good way to lose whatever patience he'd managed to gather. Still, there was something about what he'd described that caught her attention, enough that she leaned forward slightly and rested her forearms against the desk. "That is a lot more interesting than you might think."

There were several pieces of the story she could have focused on, but Zesiro found herself returning to what had happened before Malek ever learned about his father's seizure. "You were hundreds of meters away. Nobody had contacted you. As far as you knew, there wasn't any reason to leave your lab at all, and the feeling was strong enough that you stopped working, sent everyone home, and went straight to him." Her curiosity showed more openly as she spoke. The timing afterward was certainly interesting, but it wasn't what mattered most to her. Malek had responded to something before he possessed any information that should have prompted the response.

"Now, could that have been a coincidence? Of course." Zesiro gave a small shrug, a faint smile touching her lips. "People get strange feelings all the time, and I'm not going to tell you every instinct you've ever had was secretly the Force because that would be ridiculous. I imagine you'd appreciate at least a little more evidence than that before I start rewriting your entire life for you."

The smile lingered, but her attention remained on what he'd actually told her. "You didn't describe a passing thought, though. You became anxious enough that you couldn't concentrate, and it happened when something was actually wrong with someone you cared about. What interests me is that you didn't know what was wrong. You didn't suddenly know he'd had a seizure or what was happening to his body. You just knew enough to pay attention."

That felt considerably more familiar to Zesiro. The Force rarely arrived with conveniently written instructions attached. Sometimes it was little more than pressure at the edge of awareness, an instinct that didn't quite feel like an instinct, or the certainty that something was wrong without any understanding of why. Experience made those sensations easier to recognize, but that didn't mean someone couldn't feel them long before they understood what they were.

"I wouldn't ask you to call it the Force yet. You'd probably spend the rest of the evening finding ten perfectly reasonable explanations for why it wasn't, and honestly, I wouldn't blame you." Her smile warmed as she teased him, but there was no dismissal in it. If anything, his reluctance to accept an easy answer made her more interested in helping him find one he could actually believe. "But I also wouldn't dismiss what happened as timing just because timing is easier to explain. We don't have to decide what it was yet."

Zesiro settled back again, considering what his story gave them. It was more useful than she'd expected because she didn't need to manufacture some unfamiliar sensation and tell Malek that he ought to recognize it as the Force. There was already something in his own experience they could return to, even if neither of them could yet prove what had caused it. More importantly, it belonged to him. He wouldn't have to take her word for what he was supposed to feel.

"If that was the Force, then you may already know something about what touching it feels like. You just didn't have a reason to recognize it at the time." Her expression softened slightly. "So maybe that's where we begin. Not with making something float across my office or expecting you to suddenly understand something you've never consciously used. We start with what you've already experienced and see whether you can recognize that same sort of awareness again."

There was something unexpectedly satisfying about finally having a place to start. Zesiro had entered the conversation knowing she couldn't give Malek the explanations he'd spent years looking for, and she still couldn't. What she could do was help him explore the question without asking him to abandon the way his mind worked simply because the Force refused to behave according to familiar rules. His curiosity had brought him this far, and hers had become thoroughly engaged somewhere along the way.

A warmer smile returned as she regarded him. "I think that's something we can work with, Malek. You wanted something more than somebody else's philosophy to start from, and now you've given me something that actually happened to you." She paused, her smile growing slightly. "I can't promise where it leads yet, but finding out should be interesting."

Malek Sythos