Private Edge of the Abyss

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral sat in the office as he was thinking about it... about all of it, the revelations settling like dust in the still air. The datapad felt a heavier than it should. The job had seemed so simple, easy credits just prove infidelity, But now it was something far more sinister. Human cargo. Nar Shaddaa credits. Dark Water Islands. Where no one went because it was bad and on a world like Spira that could mean a whole lot. He glanced at Ana, her calm presence a steadying force even in the tension of the room. She was right waiting was the move, but not idle waiting. "We have a location," Mistral said, his voice low but clear in the quiet office. "Dark Water Islands will be the place to go after."

He turned to the casino owner, whose expression was a mask of controlled fury and grim acceptance as Ana spoke. "Your wife may believe she's being rescued. But no one offers that many credits out of kindness. They're buying something leverage, access, silence." His mind was already turning over the next steps. They needed eyes on the islands without tipping their hand. They needed to know who else was moving around but that was part of it and only a small part of it. "We'll have to wait a little, once they realize who I was and make a move on the office we can move to the island and get as much information as we can and make a plan to get to the Dark Water Islands."

"Question is" Mistral said, turning to the quiet enforcer who'd just reentered the room. "You know the undercurrents here better than most. If someone's using your boss's name to move slaves, they won't be subtle for long. They'll get bold. And when they do, we need to be there before they realize they've made a mistake." The man looked at him and didn't make a scene of taking an order if that was what it sounded like. The man acknowledged the purpose of it. He looked back at Ana, then to Kono, whose usual cheerful demeanor had hardened into something more serious. "We split our focus," Mistral decided. "Ana and I will scout the island quietly. Kono, you keep ears to the ground here."

He paused, his gaze drifting to the window, where the paradise of Spira continued to sparkle in the twilight. "This started as a marital suspicion," he said quietly. "Now it is a lot more complicated." He just wanted one simple thing. The need to rub his temple with his hands was there. He waited for a moment though but there was a plan as the owner spoke. "Yeah, that is usually how things go, we'll keep in touch and if anyone comes here looking we'll be able to handle them." He had a look with a nod though but Kono and Ana were there as he debated with himself mentally. "ALright then lets go and see what we can do."

Meanwhile the backstage hallway was quiet after the commotion, the distant hum of the casino floor a muffled backdrop to the tense silence between them. Ghen'ni leaned against the wall, one lekku twitching slightly the only sign she wasn't as composed as she looked. Jackie stood half-turned toward the door, his posture rigid, as if any moment could demand his attention elsewhere. He didn't look at her, but he didn't walk away either. "You didn't have to intervene," Ghen'ni said, her voice softer than it was on stage. "I had him." He remained there. "It's not about whether you had him," Jackie replied, still not facing her. "It's about the rules."

"Rules." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Always the rules with you." There was a pause. She pushed off the wall and took a step closer. "You know, I hear things up there," she said, nodding toward the ceiling, where the luxury suites lay. "People talk when they think you're just part of the scenery." Jackie's head tilted slightly. Listening. "The bosses wife... complete shutta by the way but you're all looking for her." Ghen'ni continued. "She wasn't just steping out to meet someone. She had him meet her on the regular here as well. Met with offworld types. Quiet ones. The kind who wear expensive clothes but carry cheap blasters." Now he turned. His expression didn't change, but his focus did sharp, intent, fully on her. "When?"

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana had been quiet while Mistral spoke, not disengaged—never that—but listening in the way she always did when the shape of a problem finally showed itself. Not the noise. Not the emotion. The structure underneath.

When he finished, she didn't answer immediately. She set the datapad down on the desk with deliberate care, as if to ground the conversation in something tangible, then lifted her gaze to the casino owner first, acknowledging the weight he carried in this without softening it. "Your wife may think she's choosing freedom," she said evenly, voice calm but precise. "But someone framed that choice for her. People don't leave lives like this unless they're convinced the alternative is safer—or inevitable."

Her eyes shifted back to Mistral. "You're right about waiting," Ana continued. "But not passively. If they believe they're operating under your name, they'll test boundaries. That means pressure. Pressure creates patterns."

She stepped closer to the window, looking out at Spira's flawless twilight—the kind of beauty that made people forget how much rot could exist beneath it. "The Dark Water Islands aren't just avoided because they're dangerous," she added. "They're avoided because they don't answer cleanly to anyone. That makes them ideal for handoffs. Transfers. Things that don't want witnesses."

Her attention returned to the room, settling briefly on Kono, then the enforcer, then back to Mistral. "I agree with the split," she said. "You and I move quietly. No official inquiries. No visible preparation. If we look like we're hunting, they'll go dark. If we look like we're ignorant, they'll get comfortable."

A pause—then, softer, more human. "And if she believes she's being rescued," Ana added, "we may be able to reach her before she realizes what she's actually being sold into." She inclined her head slightly toward the owner. "That window won't stay open long."

As the decision settled and the room began to shift toward motion again, Ana didn't miss the undercurrent—Jackie's return, the tension threading back into the building like a held breath. She glanced once toward the hallway when the voices filtered faintly through the walls, then back to Mistral. "Whatever they're doing," she said quietly, "they're already too confident. That's the mistake we're waiting for."

And when the plan finally moved forward, Ana was ready—focused, composed, and already several steps ahead of the trouble that she thought was still hidden.

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

It seemed more and more that they were all in agreement on that as he moved. Mistral going with Kono who was nodding and seemed prepared for anything.. he had a job. "I'll have to tell grandma and she might not be happy about the Dark Water islands being involved but if there is anyone who can tell you what to expect or who to avoid it would be her." he said it while walking and Mistral gave him a look. "It will be okay, if you reveal all of this that helps her, better it makes you look like the hero. You are stepping up to protect your people before there is a danger and a threat." He said it while patting the big mans shoulder when they walked.

"Plus you can show her your fancy suit." That seemed to get a grin from him as they were walking out the door and Ghen'ni was at the end of the hall as Kono breathed into his hands and spoke. "How do I look?" He was asking both Ana and Mistral as the man spoke with a grin. "You look good, just be yourself and say hi. Worse she can do is say nothing while best case scenario you learn her name." He said it while they were walking and the twi'lek offered a smile as Mistral passed. "Hello." He said it and walked while Kono spoke with a nod. "Hi... hi. I'm Kono and loved your performance." He said it offering a big smile as the twi'lek looked at him for a moment.

"It is always nice to meet a fan Kono thank you." She said it and it came off a mixture of rehearsed and genuine, the mechanical beginning but she was seeing he wasn't being like others... nor his size being a factor as he just smiled at that. THe handshake was there and he backed up a little to go around her towards the door. "If you ever get a chance, I run a food speeder. Make the best skewers and fish on the island." He said it and was proud rubbing at his shirt like it was a suit jacket to be fancy. Ghen'ni gave a grin. "Perhaps I will if they ever let me out." She moved towards the offices and private rooms while Mistral looked at him. "See just be yourself and people like that."

He said it while moving towards the doors on the casino floor with a look.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana walked with them at an easy pace, listening more than speaking as the plan settled into something solid. Agreement didn't need ceremony; it showed itself in movement, in how no one argued the next steps anymore.

When Kono mentioned his grandmother, Ana glanced toward him, her expression thoughtful rather than wary.

"If she knows the Dark Water Islands, then telling her is the right call," she said calmly. "People who survive places like that do so because they understand patterns others ignore. Warnings. Customs. Lines you don't cross twice."

She looked to Mistral briefly, acknowledging his reassurance to Kono with a faint nod.

"Protecting your people before the danger reaches them is exactly what a leader does," Ana added, her tone steady but warm. "If she sees it that way, you won't need to convince her."

As the joking shifted to Kono's suit, Ana's mouth curved slightly—not quite a smile, but close enough to count.

"It suits you," she said simply. "Confidence helps. Even when you pretend you don't have it."

She slowed near the end of the hall when Ghen'ni came into view, letting the moment belong to Kono without stepping into it. Ana watched the exchange with quiet interest, reading posture and tone the way she always did. When Kono asked how he looked, she answered without teasing, without embellishment.

"You look sincere," Ana said. "That's rarer here than style."

As Kono spoke to the Twi'lek singer and then moved past her, Ana inclined her head politely to Ghen'ni—acknowledgment without intrusion—before continuing with Mistral toward the casino floor.

When Mistral remarked that being himself worked, Ana gave a quiet agreement.

"It usually does," she said. "People notice when someone isn't trying to take something from them."

The doors ahead opened back onto the glow and hum of the casino, and Ana let her attention sharpen again, the warmth of the moment folding neatly back into focus as they stepped forward.

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

"Well hopefully, we'll see what grandma knows." he spoke with a nod of his head though... she would have information or better. Mistral was looking at more of it as going through and out of the casino was better. the three of them at least hadn't had problems. Kono seemed happy on the walk back towards the restaurants and his food was better. Giving a better bounce to the large mans step where he was going. He had a few ideas and as the building came up there was a few others there. THe men who had taken the selkath directed him around the back as Mistral was looking and took in the scene.

The smells of the spices was there from the food being cooked. The selkath suspended upside down as there was the man from earlier sitting behind him. A plasma torch in hand and the old woman stood there as Kono stopped and held his hand out for them to stop. Staying there but motioning with his fingers to stay silent. THe old woman still walking around sweetly for a moment while she looked at the fish man upside down. "Now, you understand what I am saying yes?" She said it and there was a protocol droid there in case but the selkath nodded as it spoke. "Yes, I understand you." THe droid spoke as she clapped once.

"Good, then listen when I say this, you are going to speak on way or another. I paid for your release for a reason and so you owe me and information can be as valuable as credits." She paused a moment while tapping the man on the shoulder. "So I am going to hurt you until you talk, you can stop it whenever you want just tell me where your boss is or whoever you answer to. I'll be fair, street level people don't always know the big bosses." She had a small nod of understanding to that as she came around. "My grandson is going to use a torch on you, a real good one too made by those mandalorians for their metal... whatever it is called."

She said it and Mistral raised an eyebrow at Kono who was there and he hadn't signed up for torture. He didn't want to get on their bad side but this was... Kono placed a hand on his shoulder looking at him and Ana. "Trust." He whispered it as the old lady was speaking. "SOmething interesting about these torches though, twenty thousand degrees, impressive huh. Enough to turn beskar steel into melted butter." She said it and there was a moment as Mistral was listening.. she showed she knew the name, the word for beskar but played feeble. "It won't hurt at first. It's too hot, you see? The flame sears the nerve endings quickly, killing them. You'll go into shock... and all you'll feel is... cold."

She said it and patted the selkaths shoulder as the droid spoke but when the selkath refused to speak she sighed almost disappointed. Then the sound of the torch igniting came and the first sizzle as the man pointed the torch at a table. The sound of sizzling... the smell of meat and a scream when the selkath winced and convulsed.... Mistral confused for a moment but then he saw the man holding an ice pop to the selkaths back as he pulled it away with the torch and the woman looked at the fish man again. "SOmething to say..." She asked it and he seemed to be holding back for a moment when she did it again a few more times.

"Good eats." Kono said it pointing towards a table while he was leading them to be able to sit and the meats were being switched out. On the table they were nicely cooked while being served with some drinks to the others at the table to were getting some and it was clear as Kono sat down this was theater to many of them and for them. A private joke when they were not in view of their grandmother or the selkaths line of sight. Just tough and able to resist the convulsions while he is being tortured in front of them practically. The old woman looked for a moment and she was disappointed when the selkath passed out. "He is strong or more afraid, guess after lunch we'll have to do something more." She said it and came to the table with the last of the meats being served. Offering smiles while the others were sharing the food.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana stopped when Kono signaled, her body going still without hesitation. She did not need the gesture explained; the shift in the air was enough. The smells reached her first—spice, oil, cooked meat—layered over something sharper that her mind filed away without naming. She watched.

Not the torch at first, not the Selkath's suspension or the old woman's performance. She watched the structure of it: the spacing, the droid's placement, the way the threat was delivered with sweetness instead of rage. Theater, yes—but disciplined theater. Controlled. Designed to extract, not to indulge.

When the torch ignited, Ana did not flinch. Her eyes narrowed slightly, focus sharpening as the truth revealed itself: ice, timing, shock without damage. Fear curated. Pain implied, not yet spent.

Only when Kono leaned in and whispered trust did she finally breathe out, slow and measured.

She followed when he guided them to the table, her movements composed, unhurried. Sitting did not mean disengaging. If anything, it gave her distance—the kind that made patterns clearer.

When the Selkath finally lost consciousness, and the old woman declared her disappointment, Ana lifted her glass but did not drink. Her gaze stayed on the matriarch as she approached, offering smiles and food with the same hands that had orchestrated terror.

When Ana spoke, it was quiet, pitched only for Mistral and Kono beside her. "This isn't cruelty," she said softly. "It's leverage wrapped in ritual. She's teaching him what power looks like here—and reminding everyone else who owns the consequences."

Her eyes flicked briefly toward the Selkath, then back to the old woman. "Notice she stopped when he passed out. She wants him alive. A message can't travel if the messenger breaks."

She finally set her glass down, fingers resting lightly against the rim. "After lunch," Ana continued, "she'll change tactics. Fear loses effectiveness once it peaks. She'll offer mercy next—or certainty. That's when people talk."

A pause. Not judgment. Not approval. Just clarity.

"Your grandmother understands something most don't," she added, glancing briefly at Kono. "Violence is expensive. Belief is cheaper. And it lasts longer."

Ana leaned back slightly, accepting the plate placed before her without comment. The scene continued around them—smiles, food, quiet dread—and she remained exactly what she had been all night: Present. Observant. Unmoved—but not untouched.

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Kono looked at her. "You scary like her sometimes but there is always more to it." He said it as there was all the food being served with a look over many parts of the table. The different foods and the different ones were there with Kono. Mistral knew a few of them mostly from brief interactions, less from their distance as some worked in the outer areas of what they had or even the interior sections of the island where it was jungle preserve to give a feeling of nature for a price. Kono spoke. "It all looks great." he said it and only stopped to get up when their heads turned. Mistral paused for a moment and rose from his seat with a nod of his head.

"Thank you." The voice was softer, firm but still softer when it came and he turned around to see what a zeltron had called a tragic masterpiece of ruined beauty. On her left side, she remained angelically beautiful, possessing the flawlessly smooth, classical features which her mother and son had. Her hair was the color of aged metallic gold with it darker the deeper you looked at it and her eyes were a pale, striking amber. However, her right side was hideously scarred, the result of an old torture where the hutts used acids to burn the strength out of her. The acid melting her exotic flesh into a mottled pinkish, white mass of puckered and bunched tissue.

The scarring is dense and extensive, covering much of her torso, chest, and back. Notably, the hutts flinched at the total destruction of her exotic looks; they avoided her face mostly, leaving her facial features mostly intact with her eye untouched, her nose unblemished and her lips. Even her hairr wasn't ruined by it but her cheeks, her forehead, her eyebrow and jaw. The rest of the side of her form was ravaged. She stood there as along her arm was the same going to her hands where the nails hadn't grown back they were just blunted from being torn out and she offered a smile while Kono was helping her to the table. "Mother says you and Mistral have been working?"

She said it while looking over at Ana and there was wonder but nothing more when she could take a seat. Mistral offering his while she patted him. "No for my savior, sit, enjoy." He looked at her while she looked at Kono who was in a seat at the head cause it was the largest and he wasn't looking up at her gaze... his grandma coming over to the other side as he slipped out quietly to some laughs and smiles so she could sit down. "Hana, it is good you are coming outside at least... and yes me and Kono are making progress. He is a natural when it comes to investigating and gathering information." He was it as the large man got a seat but also a hug sitting down.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana rose as the woman approached—not abruptly, not out of surprise, but out of respect.

Her gaze did not flinch when it traced the scars. It did not linger either. She took in the whole of her as she stood: the bearing, the presence, the way she held herself despite what had been done to her. What registered first was not damage, but endurance.

When she spoke, it was calm and even, pitched for the table rather than the room.

"It's good to meet you finally," Ana said, offering a slight, genuine inclination of her head. "Your mother speaks of you with pride. And with concern—the kind that never really leaves, even when it learns to be quiet."

She waited until Hana was seated before taking her own seat, hands resting lightly near her plate, posture composed yet open.

"We've been following threads that don't always want to be seen," she continued, her tone thoughtful rather than clinical. "Nothing finished yet. But enough to know where not to rush."

Her eyes flicked briefly to Kono—the affection in the room unmistakable—before returning to Hana.

"Your son has instincts people spend lifetimes trying to learn," Ana added. "He notices what others dismiss. And he listens. That matters more than force, most days." There was no flattery in it. Just truth, offered plainly.

She let the moment breathe, then softened slightly, the edges of her formality easing. "I'm glad you're here with us tonight," she said. "Places like this can feel…smaller when you don't face them alone."

It wasn't pity. It wasn't admiration framed as spectacle. Just acknowledgment—of survival, of family, and of a woman who had earned her seat at the table as much as anyone else present.

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral had a small nod of agreement with Ana while he was looking at the others who all seemed to acknowledge but weren't not going to say anything. Kono breaking some of it. "So we learned a few things, those weird fish guys are called selkath and Ana thinks they are doing a lot more. The owner at the Lux, his wife is involved with something happening therebut he seemed shocked and resolved when he learned about it." He said it and his grandmother was looking at him for a moment but offered a nod of her head to continue. "THey are coming from some place called Nar Shadda off world and going to the Dark Waters." He said the last mostly ready for reproach at the moment as his grandmother seemed to be thinking about something.

"If an offworlder group wants to operate in the Dark Waters, they are going to be in for a surprise but it is not enjoyable to hear they are doing such things." She seemed to be thinking about it and looked at the others. "When you get done here make sure your people know we are stopping more of it. Step up the interruptions if you have to but I want as much information as you can get. see where these street thugs go to, who they talk with and map it. WHen you find someone who looks important well you know what to do." She tapped a finger for a moment. "But anyone trying to go there is never a good thing. I wouldn't recommend it even with an army." She laughed to herself though while looking at Mistral. "Is that where you are planning to go next?"

She said it and he looked at her. "Eventually, we'll likely have to but we are going to have Kono watch my office, when whoever is doing it sends their people. me and Ana are going to go back to the island where they were and investigate there. Get as much information as we can and then we'll make a plan to go there. We don't have nearly enough information to survive a place where Kono says we shouldn't go." He said it as the truth and she looked at it. "Well Kono knows what he has been told, the truth is in centuries past it was a place of war where we would lure offworlders trying to overtake the planet. Eventually some did but the real nasty ones we could lure there. Tsunami's, electrical storms go around between the island chain and all of that open sea makes for something interesting."

She said it as Mistral was thinking about it, usually storms grew until the struck land but if they went through the island chains on a directed path it could in theiry keep growing and growing to a certain point which would be the islands... which would contain them. "We would see people invade and let the storms drown many of their ships even the fancy ones. Enough so that the people on the islands are some of the more brutal living in the constant storms and adapting what washes on their shores. Sometimes trading weapons and armor and sometimes people if they had managed to survive." She said it and looked at Kono with a smile. "Your grandfather used to say he loved it there but loved when he was able to leave and come here with the sunshine."