Gospel

[Arage Bao]

[member="Liya"]

He had been observing calmly without interjecting.

When Liya said she wanted to sell the gemstone his instinctive reaction was to refuse. It wasn't fair in his eyes to ask that of her, but then Gideon stopped himself. The tale the alien spun told him that the gem was a connection to her old violent past. She might not remember it now, but it was there. Three or four people had died to make that gem or suffered at the very least.

That wasn't something to be cherished.

And if it was enough to pay for the fuel? Nether, it might even be enough to pay for some of the repairs they needed. Especially because of the hungry look the Chadra had implied it was worth quite a bit indeed.

"How much are you offering then?" The Jedi finally asked, leaning in himself and making his presence difficult to ignore. It wouldn't surprise him if the little one would try to scam them. Offer something substantially less than it was worth. But luckily Gideon wasn't too shabby when it came to weeding out the truth from the lies, it was a skill he was starting to question with Liya, yes.

But it was enough to figure out if the Chadra was trying to pull a fast one with them.

 

[Rory Naasade]

Of course the initial offer was painfully low. The look in the creature's eyes said it all. Liya was about to open her mouth to agree when Gideon spoke up, and the conversation very quickly moved to the two of them, much to her secret relief. She kept the stone in her hand, palm flat and holding it more like a particularly icky bug she wasn't sure was going to bite her or not while they haggled.

She frowned down at it, closing her eyes for a minute. But it didn't matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember. Surely she ought to? Some of them? Any of them. The people she had killed. No. The people she had murdered. The guilt was there, ever present, weighing and weighted. There was no doubt in her mind that she had done it. There couldn't be, not feeling the way she did.

It seemed unfair..... not to *her*, she deserved all of it. But that these people's memories had been lost as surely as their lives. She should remember them, their faces, their voices, something to speak inside of her and remind her every day of what she was.

​Sith.

Murderer.

"Liya, the stone?"

She blinked, looking up at Gideon. She'd gotten lost in her own thoughts, a not terribly uncommon thing. Was he annoyed? Sometimes it was hard to tell. She nodded, handing it over before standing up. A credit chip exchanged hands and they were off. She waited until they were out of ear shot before asking.

"Was..... was it enough?"

[member="Gideon Blackford"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Liya"]

Gideon nodded.

"Barely, but yeah, we got what we needed." He thought about that for a moment, before realizing how it might have sounded or be taken. It wasn't Liya's fault and in fact her gem was worth a fortune. Not that he knew its worth from experience, but the way the alien had stared at it? There was little else that would have made him react in the way he had. The gleam of hunger in the eyes. It was pure greed and that was an universal sign no matter the species. "Bastard was stingy, realized we were desperate and wanted to squeeze as much out of us as possible."

A shrug.

"We got enough for the repairs, refuel and some extra food supplies, we are better off than we started." It wasn't enough. Gideon had been tempted, so tempted, to draw his lightsaber on the greedy alien and force him to give him all his money.

It would have been just, wouldn't it be?

He had been peddling and profiting from misery, who knew what else he tried to pull with those even less fortunate? Draya wouldn't have approved. Starting on that path... you would never really stop- you'd start with the worst, then work your way up and by the end it would be difficult to determine where their evil ended and yours started. It wasn't worth it, not even to see his smug expression wiped away and his fortune in the moment wiped out.

"If I get you some of it for food, can you handle yourself with it? We can rendezvous at the ship again."

There was a measure of concern there.

But not enough to not extend her this trust. She only would have a small portion of the money- so if Liya overpayed a bit, it wouldn't be the end of the world. But Gideon knew he'd have to teach her something about bartering soon enough.

 

[Rory Naasade]

Not for the first time, his words made her feel a little smaller. She nodded, chewing on her lower lip and wondering if she could only remember, if it would have gone better- if they could have gotten more. Probably. It was frustrating beyond measure, especially when it was so clear that it was making everything worse.

It was a slight balm, to know that they'd be able to get what they needed, but it didn't take away the first statement. At least she wasn't entirely useless.

Liya blinked, confused for a moment.

"Wait what?"

He repeated himself and she just nodded, accepting the credit chit.

"I'll.... I'll try," she said, nodding again, a little more firmly.

She could do this. At least, she hoped she could.

****

They met back up a little while later. He returned to the ship before her, despite having a longer list, so there might have been a moment of something.... but she showed up not long later, hurrying with a box under one arm and a bag thrown over the other.

[member="Gideon Blackford"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Liya"]

He had been checking the ship while waiting on her.

This system, that, replacing the parts and in the end the Jedi Knight settled himself down on the ramp. Legs crossed and eyes closed in meditation. It might have looked strange, but Gideon did not truly care about how it might have been perceived. There was concern within him and also small voices creeping up, crawling over his brain like little weasels and pushing, prodding him about his decisions. Every decision he had made since this started and every decision that he would make.

Then she came.

It was her presence that tipped him off.

Eyes slowly opened and Gideon saw her hurrying, trying to get there in time with bags and a box. An eyebrow rose slightly at that, that was... more than he had expected her to bring. "You are..." Late, he wanted to say, but that was already obvious, was it not?

From the way her face was flushed and the hurry in her stride.

What was the point in putting attention on it. "...okay?" That was when the concern made itself known, because it had been there. For her well-being. "Got a good haul by the looks of it."

 

[Rory Naasade]

For a moment it seemed like he was going to say something else. But ultimately 'okay' was what came out and she nodded, flushed and a little out of breath but appearing almost cheerful, which was new.

"I did!" She said, clearly proud of herself. Not childlike, but a certain grim pride in a job well done. The box was full of the expected ration bars and packs, but it was the contents of the sack that had been what held her up. It was full of perishables (some more perishable than others). A loaf of hard crusted bread. A waxed paper package of some kind of hard cheese. An assortment of fruit. Meager in truth, but they had been eating packages rations for days and that changed the narrative on food.

"A rodian boy fell, running in the marketplace," she explained, "I carried him home, wrapped his ankle. Just a sprain I think but...." She was actually very confident of that. She just didn't know how she was so confident of it. "His parents insisted. I tried to tell them it was okay, but it was what they had and I think it.... I think they needed to do something, you know?"

She paused, looking slightly uncomfortable for a moment.

"I looked for someone who looked like maybe they needed it more than we did, on the way. But I didn't see anyone. It's... it's okay, right?"

Gideon looked at her for a long minute, appraising, weighing- but what, Liya couldn't tell. Just as she was starting to get nervous he finally nodded. Handing the crate and then the sack up to him, she left it at that. It was good enough, she thought.

At least..... it wasn't bad.

Ahead of them stretched time and distance. But for a moment at least, the two settled on the same page. And that was something.

[member="Gideon Blackford"]