[member="Joza Perl"]
Siobhan listened, then took Joza's hand, stroking softly when it seemed the woman trailed off a bit after what must have been a painful memory. "It's a noble cause. And I sure approve of burning slavers to bits." Or suffocating them in ash. That was very unpleasant!
She nodded when Joza spoke about the Silvers. Personally Siobhan was not a fan of them, but that was another story. "We all make mistakes. Do stupid things, stuff we've got cause to regret or feel ashamed of. I sure have. What matters is what you do afterwards...and that you genuinely change through your actions." It all came down to choices, actions and consequences. Jedi had a tendency of blaming wrongdoing on the Dark Side as if it were some sort of demon that pounced on naughty Jedi if they misbehaved.
"You're certainly a cute dancing fool with Force powers," she joked. One that Siobhan would not mind enjoying again before the day was over. "As for myself, well, my history with the Eldorai goes way back. Adril Tythorin, the woman who saved me on Nar Shaddaa when I was almost killed by gangsters, was an Eldorai. And one of the very few who became a Jedi. See, she was abducted from the Eldorai's homeworld, Kaeshana, and enslaved, but she broke free. Few Jedi are like her. She was fierce, knew what she wanted and never compromised. She fought evil instead of sitting in a temple and meditating. Today, there's too much talk about 'understanding Sith' and second chances without reason."
In all fairness, Siobhan's memories of Adril were very rose-tinted. It was true that Adril had been brave and spirited...but also a codependent, whiny narcissist who probably cared more about how Siobhan made her feel than actually about Siobhan herself. Their relationship had been very unhealthy for both.
"I owe so much to her. She taught me how to use the Force, how to be strong. We were in love...then she sacrificed herself to kill an eldritch abomination, and I was alone. I drifted for a while, fell into depression, till Tegaea, my eventual wife, recruited me for Omega Pyre. It was just a paramilitary organisation then, but we made it great, and it become a galactic power. The Omega Protectorate."
Well, there had been other people as well. While Tegaea eventually became Omega's ruler and had been a founding member who drove it, she'd been preceded by Cira as leader. "One of our aides was Anya Venari, an exiled Eldorai princess. We helped her return to Kaeshana after her mother's death caused a power struggle. It was all very game of thrones. The Eldorai are inherently isolationist, especially since their main contact with outsiders had been pirates attacking them. There's a religious angle because zealots think outsiders are demonspawn. Anyway, we helped her sister Silaqui secure the throne. I know Sila well," she smirked at that.
"After Tegs had to step down as Omega's leader following an...attempt on her life," there was a flicker of something on her face and trailed off. Attempt on her life was an euphemism. In reality, Tegaea had been tortured by Siobhan's nemesis, Kaelin Isandros.
"I made the Sith who hurt her pay. Anyway, we left Protectorate service and settled on Kaeshana. Anya became queen after reactionaries tried to stage a coup, and from then on we helped the Eldorai develop and catch up with the rest of the galaxy. When we learned an asteroid would destroy Kaeshana, we helped them evacuate as many of their people as we could. So we ended up on Tygara."