Challenging Beliefs

[Zesiro]

Zesiro allowed the conversation between Edric and the slaves to happen and didn't interrupt it at all. Her previous job had been completed before they met, the fate of these guys were in his hands. One of them had been a free person and only captured recently, so knew how to live. The others, the freedom would probably cause more harm than good.

He said there were people on the way to pick them up and then they left the building. There was a conversation going between the people, but for now, Edric and Zesiro were as alone as they could be. He sat down in the shade and she sat down next to him.

"I trust your name is Edric as much as mine is Zesiro. And that man I killed was not a friend. You keep saying that. Why?"

Tilting her head to the side slightly, she was curious about that.

"Just because I have a darker alignment, that doesn't mean I approve of the slave trade, my dear. You I might consider a friend, but I'm not sure if you can."

He mentioned not getting her back to town and she shrugged.

"I walked out here originally, back to town when we met and back out here. A bit of exercise isn't going to hurt me."

While she didn't want to walk back again, she would if she needed to.

"What are you going to do with them?" Pointing in the direction of the slaves, she looked at Edric. He was keeping something from her about himself, but she didn't know what. There wasn't anything she could do to make him say, that would be up to him. Zesiro really did want to know what he was other than another Force user that didn't approve of slavery.

Almost without thought and in a fast move, she leaned in a lightly kissed him on the cheek, if he didn't pull away. It was just something small and quick. Pulling back, she leaned against the wall of the building. "Thank you for working with me and showing me something I never gave a thought to."

[member="Edric Vanyan"]

 

[Edric Vanyan]

[member="Zesiro"]

He watched and waited before hearing hearing the wondering again. The use of friend had been a joke, considering the state the woman had left the man in when Edric has seen him. It wasn't hard to see she was no friend of the man but he enjoyed to joke in the dry way that he knew. It was something he picked up from the guy who had taught him, the dry sense of humor being fun for Edric. He pulled his eyes back to Zesiro and grinned as she talked about considering him a friend.

"Now now Zes, why would you consider me a friend. I'm just a random man ya met on the street, bit quick of a friendship ehh?" He kept the smile and turned his eyes to look back at the desert, resting his chin on his far hand, leaving the right side of his face visible while the second became hidden by his hand.

He wondered if he could drop them off on Ryloth rather than on Kesh, it was far closer and easier to as there were many there who could rehabilitate the former slaves, knowing that leaving them to their own designs would be a troublesome thing. His fingers tapped on his cheek as she talked about a bit of exercise not hurting her. He knew that she was more than capable of getting back on her own but the offer was still there. It was only when she asked what he was gonna do with them that he was brought back to the present.

"Not sure, I got some friends on Ryloth that can help them have a simple life, the one that knows where she came from can be returned to there. They people there know well enough what its like to be in this situation." He tapped on his cheek again as he sat there and looked at the slaves now, biting on the inside of his cheek. "Sadly I cant help them in the same way, I have a bit more important things to handle personally and am not that quick enough to be in two places at once."

He thought on it before starting to answer, his head turning towards Zesiro to give her more focus. "They should be ok though, that m-" He blinked as his words were cut off, staring at Zesiro's face as she had leaned in and blinking again before backing up and nearly falling over. Her kiss had connected, but not on his cheek like she had intended. Instead the kiss had been a mutual one and Edric blinked as he stared at her and tried to form some response to the situation.

 

[Zesiro]

Zesiro knew he was joking about the dead slaver being a friend, but the thought was repugnant and she didn't like thinking about it. He asked why she would consider him a friend after having just met him randomly with a grin.

"Well, you didn't try to kill or use me."

It was quite a simple answer, but a true one. Most people she met had all tried to kill her, he was different. Even a different alignment within the Force and he still hadn't tried to kill her. What made him that way?"

What he said about the future of the slave caught her interest.

"It would be neat if I could learn of their fate. Maybe find out where they end up. The one woman I'm sure will be glad to return to her old life."

He turned his head as she reached his cheek to give him the kiss and it instead landed on his lips. Pulling away from her and almost falling over, Zesiro couldn't help but chuckle a little at the situation. Edric had kissed her back even if he hadn't known it.

"Now that the first kiss is out of the way..."

Really trying to not laugh as much as she wanted to, she shook her head at her friend before speaking again.

"It could have been better prepared for, but I'll take what I can get."

[member="Edric Vanyan"]

 

[Edric Vanyan]

Edric just sat there as she shook her head and tried not to laugh, his mouth still hanging open for a moment out of pure shock. It was more that he had been caught off guard completely, not expecting that in the wildest reaches of possibilities. Well for him at least, up until this second he had been completely naive and ignorant of that so he was trying to recover quickly, too the point where he laughed for a second and reached up to wipe his mouth with his cloak. Clearing his throat i glanced off to the side, looking at the ground as he tried to get his mind back on track.

"I... uh you... I... what..."

He quickly reached up to scratch at his head, picking apart bits of hair and messing with them as he tried to get his thoughts into a coherent order. Luckily for him a familiar sound helped him relax, the sound of a ship coming into view and making its way to land where they were. That rested him a bit, although he continued to pick at bits of hair he could reach as he thought.

"Well uh, it looks like my friends are coming in."

He started to stand, pushing himself up and wincing as his leg took on weight again. The pain definitely reverberated up his spine but at the moment his mind was still pretty distracted by Zesiro's action.

"We should probably let them know that is the ship that I mentioned before."

[member="Zesiro"]

 

[Zesiro]

Still doing her best not to laugh, Zesiro gave him an almost hurt look when he wiped his mouth with the cloak. He looked away from her, studdered a little in shock and played with his hair like he had when they first met and started this adventure. The laugh turned into a genuine and warm smile for him. Hoping it set him at a little bit of ease, she held her hand out to him to help him stand if he allowed it.

"Yes, it appears they are."

She would hope the others had enough brains to figure out what the approaching vehicles meant for them, but had the feeling Edric would go speak to them anyway.

"I hope we can met up again sometime, Edric. You have me quite curious."

What that was though, she kept silent on. Intuition, maybe the Force told her they would meet again. She offered her arm to help him walk over to the gathered slaves. No longer slaves, but free people. Zesiro would let him do the talking.

[member="Edric Vanyan"]