Private Buried Truth

[Persephone Dashiell]

BELAZURA

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Persephone was surprised to be on a planet well regarded as a tourist destination. Very temperate, very wealthy, and a glittering jewel in the reaches of space. It looked somewhere where her family would go on vacation rather than a place of scholarly learning. Yet here she was, visiting the closed-off dig site of Doctor Anet Raine .Persephone was vaguely familiar with her work - a woman who had studied Sith and Dark Jedi early in her historical career. A woman from a wealthy and high-status family. Persephone definitely saw some of herself in the woman. Someone to look up to.

As far as Persie knew, the Doctor didn't take on private students. She only got here due to her adoptive parents spending a large sum of credits to fund Doctor Raine's next project. There had even been a sizable 'donation' to the woman's alma mater, where there may now be enough funds for a new wing of the Raine Library.

Unlike others, Persie grew from nothing and was thankful her family even had the means to grease the wheels. Even if it meant she was getting an 'unfair advantage' it didn't affect her entry to the University of Agamar, given the woman wasn't faculty.

By her side, her security guard/personal assistant droid scanned the area. Always looking for threats. Not that Persephone was concerned, it didn't seem many were interested in the site. According to all her reports there was unseen security ensuring nothing left the site and fell into the wrong hands. Squaring her shoulders, Persie squared her shoulders and began walking up the hill.

 

[Anet Raine]

Persephone Dashiell

Oh, Belazura...

Love-hate barely described the toxic relationship she had with her homeworld. Beautiful, idyllic in every sense of the world, and a rotoscope of hellish memories no matter where she looked.

It felt like divine punishment - even she could believe in such a thing - that the universe would deign to place her obsession back home, at the site of an ancient ruin, where a dark side cult once gathered, long before the era of the Sith. If that alone wasn't a burden enough, then it was the fact that she had to sacrifice peace of mind just this once.

Apparently, the senior faculty at Shey Tapani decided she just had to take a little girl under her wing.

Brilliant, one called her. A prodigy, said another. Our hands are tied... admitted the most pragmatic of the three.

Anet was no stranger to the meddling of wealth and academic politics, but that didn't mean she had to abandon her hypocrisy. She didn't like it one bit. But... she accepted it.

The half-pantoran arrived in a march to intercept the girl's approach; a woman on a mission. Back straight, footwork proper, and jaw tight. Disdain seethed through the fakest of smiles. She didn't even try to sell it, but her tone did. Anet was a master at sounding pretty when she felt dreadful.

"You must be Miss Dashiell, yes?" She confirmed.

Her eye drifted to the girl's companion. Anet disliked droids, but that was mostly because she had come to rely on them for all her digsites. A necessary evil, as far as she believed, but tediously flawed when you spent enough time around them.

They walked together up the hill, where at the top they could both see down into the site below. Much of it had already been excavated, and it was in surprisingly good shape for its age. Often was the case where the Force was concerned. Time was ever reluctant to grow deaf to its echoes.

She looked sidelong at Persephone. "Do you even know what we're looking at?" A hint of accusation lurked inside her words.

Anet didn't believe in the teenager's prospects one bit. Such a cynic.