Miona nodded. "
Right. That makes sense," she said, seeing now how her new ability to operate independently had gotten the better of her. There'd be plenty of missions to spread her new wings and fly on her own, but this one wasn't it. They'd have to do this right, all of them, together, to find Master Farr, let alone return her to the Order. "
Thanks." She offered Connel a warm, and slightly sheepish, smile.
"
Alright. Agreed," Rix spoke up from across the table. "
She communed with an unknown Sith somewhere out in the Gungan swamps." He knew that much from the setting of Nirrah's projection, though he did not recognized the exact location. "
Nirrah." His gaze found the poor little avian's.
Her yellow-green eyes .
"
It'll be hard to go back there, but do you think you can guide us to the place you left Master Farr?"
Nirrah's thin, striped tail swiped nervously, draped over Miona's back. Her brown and tan feathers bristled somewhat. The Force moved through her like a weak current, the only remnant of her usually strong, grounded presence in the empyrean sea. Finally, a soft trill rolled through her, rippling down from her larynx, until her whole body was shaking with it. The sound sung of sorrow and hesitance but also dedication.
Mixed relief and gratitude crossed Rix's face. He leaned over the tabletop to smooth down the feathers on Nirrah's head. "
Thank you so much, my friend."
"
We'll be right there with you," Miona promised the bird.
The prodigal knight transitioned to stand. "
Let's see if we can't find some speeders bikes."
They did. On them, they followed Nirrah halfway across the continent, tracking her flight path with the Force. She never flew more than part of a kilometer at once, mindful of how dampened her auric presence had become, patiently waiting for them to catch up on a rock or tree branch.
This pattern lead them slowly through a landscape transitioning from watermeadows into swampland. By the time they had reached the clearing where Efret had fallen, the sun was preparing to set. The pastels clawing across the sky were completely visible above them as the trees here were sparse, and the few that did stand were bare.
Nirrah circled here, refusing to land on either tree or rock, anything that had been silent witness to the terrible tragedy of last night.
The Force hung more than heavy over this place.
Rix was first to power down and dismount his bike. As soon as he stood straight on the spongy peat soil, Nirrah alighted on his shoulder. She gave a small hoot.
Miona followed suit, eyes drawn above. Though they normally struck her as beautiful, the orange and red cast in anticipation of sunset and clinging to the silhouettes of clouds didn't seem lovely at all tonight. They seemed instead like wounds, like gathering blood, through the sky and through the very Force.
Her words to Rix upon hearing the news during her Knighting celebration came back to her.
"If the Sith can take one of the best of us, what hope does anyone else have?"
Rix slowly scanned the clearing, looking for a physical clue of what the Force told him had happened here. A fern-like shrub, once-frilly fronds now wilted down and riddled with burned holes, caught his attention. This was from Nirrah's memory. Smoke had rolled from behind this bush, and from that the image of a Sith had coalesced.
He closed his eyes and willed his own memory to recall her form.
Only the torso had been visible to him. Its ripping muscles seemed barely contained by burnished copper skin. The hair was long and red, too, but he couldn't be sure if those two hues were true or tricks of the embers flicking from the fire smoldering below.
As this occurred to him, Miona's gaze drifted left. There was something there, an uncanny feeling, like the sky had been sewn together. She pointed up to where she felt the seam. "
Vanagor?" she asked. "
Does that not feel right to you, too, or is it just me?"
