Half A Heart

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Isley Verd"]

Blood.

Some said that it was the greatest bond in the galaxy, that above all and everything else, blood beget loyalty. Aellin would have argued with that, in fact, he would have spat in the man that claimed it was so. To him blood meant less than water, less than piss really. To him blood was nothing more than a chain forged beyond ones control. Yet to others it was important, to others family, clan, tribe, was everything.

Perhaps he would never understand that, perhaps he was never meant to.

Aellin didn't particularly care to try though, all it was to him was pandering, thought mired by the idea that there was something special about a brother, a sister. All he knew was his own truth in the matter, all he knew was what he had experienced and learned. He supposed that's why he stood here now, why he watched as the child begged for her mother and her father simply stood in the corner and watched.

He had not meant for it to go this way.

Truly.

The woman had however attempted to kill him, or rather, had attempted to trap him. Their inn was located here in the outer rim, on a world whose name nobody remembered and in a place that time itself had forgotten. They rarely received visitors, and when they did...they did not earn their wages through simple bartering. Instead they trapped those who came to the inn, attempted to slay them and take their possessions. A part of him admired them for that, for the cunning and guile they showed, but as the woman lay half pinned to the wall with his lightsaber driven through her he couldn't help but feel disgust.

It was karma, he supposed, the way of the galaxy. Eventually evil always met a greater force than itself. Most expected that force to be good, but in his experience more often than not it just turned out to be another evil.

Slowly Aellin withdrew his lightsaber, letting the woman crumple to the floor lifeless.

 

[Darth Metus]

Isley did not care.

Yes, he recognized that the act was deplorable. Murder in plain sight was the sort of thing that got, typically, aroused a response from its viewers. Those of the lighter side of the spectrum would leap out of their seats, brandish a saber, and demand justice. Those on the opposing side would pat the man on the back; or do something...Sith-y. Yet the Dar'manda seated across from the spectacle simply blinked. This was not the first time that he had witnessed a life being stolen...in fact, it was that very concept that had brought him to the seedy establishment.

The place was a festering wart on the backside of the Galaxy. Yet he was here because it was close and they had drink.

Now, the one with the lightsaber had learned something that Isley did not. He was aware of the business model used by the folks running the place. They liked to shake down their patrons and leave them bereft. Or dead. Well, now they received a little something many called "instant karma". That manifested itself in the mother of the business being introduced to a saber to the gut. Now, personally, Isley wasn't a fan of killing in front of children. Being a parent himself, it just wasn't his style to do that sort of thing in front of the younglings.

But even that "preference" wasn't enough to rouse much of a response from him. In fact, the sole thing that roused him from his seat was the sudden absence of caf in his cup. So, the beskar-clad man got up, walked just a few paces shy of the pleading child, and stopped by the counter. Oh, the kid begged him to get involved. The father even gave Isley a pleading look. But, the Dar'manda simply refreshed his cup and took a sip. It was bad caf. But it did the job.

"Don't stop on my account." he said.

Sip.

[member="Aellin Tedronai"]​

 

[Aellin Tedronai]

[member="Isley Verd"]

Aellin watched the man for a moment more.

Would he have to kill him too?

That option seemed likely, most didn't take kindly to seemingly random acts of murder. Of course, Aellin had motivation here, proper cause, and on a world this far into the outer rim he had cause enough to slaughter these two without much of a thought or even a second guess. Most of the authorities on these worlds were corrupt and broken enough that they wouldn't care if Aellin burned down this entire inn. He was more than willing to bet that they would thank him.

"I won't." The Sith Acolyte simply stated as he turned to regard the last two members of the innkeepers family.

The man could be dispatched later, for now he had to end the cause of the affront that he had suffered. The man's wife had been the one to orchestrate the events, but her husband and child had been complicit in the act, and no doubt they would not reform even after Aellin left. It was better to end them now, to put their suffering to a close and not allow them to continue on, of course, that was only the Acolytes rationalization of the situation.

As his lightsaber bit into flesh, Aellin found himself wondering just who that other man was.