Private Homesteading

[Velok Brokentusk]

JAIBREK, NAGAI TERRITORY
FIREFIST


Every morning, Velok fed the fowl and cast the bones just before sunrise. It worked better that way: for all the distance he'd come, the dark still favoured him in little ways like that. The bones had been suggesting that a doom was coming, maybe not to Jaibrek, maybe broader. He'd tried meshing his foresight with the maps that showed the Sith expanding, and saw nothing. Casting bones and holomaps were speaking different languages. He'd found springs, ore, neighbours, megafauna in need of taming or cooking, but no quantifiable future.

This morning, the bones said Lily Rhodes was coming home. He put his unsettlement aside and started cooking. The homestead had grown since they built the first of it together. A landing field of cleared bedrock; earthen walls and windbreaks; well-traveled dirt roads and the signs of frequent company. He got on well with his neighbours. He had friends.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

It was a tug deep in her soul that drew her back to the Firefist galaxy. She hadn't even thought twice as she set aside the robes of red and black that marked her as a member of the House of Marr and slipped into old spacer gear, simple slacks and a jacket with it,s dozen hidden pockets. It was like stepping back into the shoes of a familiar friend. She opted to fly, to remind herself of where she had come from.

The Niathal-Class shuttle's hull glinted in the early morning sun, the faded paint on her nose marking her as the Pilgrim's Rest. A strange nervousness settled over her as the homestead came into view. She hadn't called ahead, she didn't need to. Yet maybe she should have? Chewing on the inside of her cheeks, the shuttle let out a hiss as the landing gears settled upon the duracrete, pistons whirring as the landing ramp descended.

Her boots stepped lightly on the metal as she stepped from within, eyes grazing over the changes that had been made since she left, though taking none of it in. How long had it been? A year? Two? It didn't matter. When her eyes settled on the giant lump of fur that complied Velok Brokentusk , the tension she'd felt washed away, a wide smile spread across her face as she closed the distance jumping to throw her arms around his neck in a tight hug.

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

And Velok crouched to make that possible. "Welcome back," he said to one of his great friends. "Welcome back, Lily."

When he straightened up, he wiped at an eye and gestured around the homestead's various upgrades and petty livestock. There was even a ship resting under one of Jaibrek's huge flat stone pinnacles: an old Nagai freighter modified with a large, large airlock door. The pilot chair inside was similarly scaled.

"You're looking well. Healthy. The bones told me you would be." He scratched his neck, thought about how to phrase this, and went with simple. "You smell like Sith - are you keeping safe?"

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily's eyes lingered on the new ship, modified to fit his enormous frame, something he had been long overdue, though she would forever cherish the memory of him settled on the cushion beside her in the space the copilot's chair should have been. She still hadn't replaced it. His question drew a bark of laughter from her, bringing her gaze back towards him.

"Well, that depends on your definition of safe." She paused, picking her words with care. "I have the protection of a member of the Dark Council within the Sith Order. Does that meet the definition of safe?"

Lily didn't think so. Just because you had the guardianship of one viper, it didn't mean sitting in the middle of their nest was safe.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"Sounds as safe as Sith territory can get," he admitted, "as long as you keep your head down. You know how I feel about being beholden to Sith Lords, and what they can do to others' minds. While you're here, would you be willing to sit down with the telepaths, make sure nobody's embedded any surprises?"

That was the enclave of Nagai telepaths closer to town, a place that had been transformative a couple of years ago. Since then, he and they had maintained a line of communication as two of the three most significant Force practitioner presences on Jaibrek. The third was a longer story.

"Are you staying long? Can you? I've made up your room and all the homesteads in twenty miles want to meet you."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Keep your head down...

"I'm not beholden to anyone." A truth, though her cousin Darth Malum of House Marr would have her glued to his side if he could. Safest where he could see her.

Self-preservation had been her natural state for so long. The longer the war went on, the more orphans were made and the harder it became to stick her head in the sand. Lily had access to resources and funds she never had before, she was in a position to help people, to truly make a difference. Raising her head above the parapets would come with a price.

She nodded in agreement to visiting the Nagai temple. It would be good to shed the stench of the sith and remember her roots where the force was concerned. Maybe she'd find some clarity. "I'll stay as long as I can."

"Twenty miles?" She grinned, darker thoughts falling away. "What have you been saying about me to make so many people eager to meet?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"Oh, all the stories. Maybe we came off a little better than stowaways and looters. You've walked on Gadma Station! Fought a Tof destroyer! What's not to brag about?"

Not all those times had been pleasant, and the homesteaders around here — Nagai mostly, Maccabree, even some fringe Sharuka — understood times like that as well as anyone.

"You'll have to watch yourself around some of the grandmothers, though, the real hardscrabble matrons, or you'll be set up with a Nagai husband before you can blink."

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily couldn't help the grin that spread over her features. Stowaways and thieves made into desired adventurers. She chuckled.

"They'll have to pin me down for that." A brief look of worry crossed her face though "Don't leave me with them though, please?"

She slid a hand into his, fingers curling around one giant clawed finger as they walked towards the main building. She felt the tension she'd been holding roll awau from her shoulders.

"I've so much to tell you."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Affection, pride, protectiveness — these had not been the most familiar instincts; he'd come to them late in life and recently. Lily was, he figured, the closest he'd come to a next generation, a Velok the Fourth if that legacy and name were worth passing on.

"Velok the Fourth, off on adventure," he mumbled, and laughed a bit as he led her inside.

The house had improved since she'd left — lots of features suitable for Whiphids and humanoids alike, either made or bought at the bazaar. He sank into his massive armchair.

"So here's the great question to kick it off: what can you do now and how'd you learn it?"

 

[Lily Rhodes]

She felt like a child ready to show off her newest trick to a parent, the emotion caught in her throat, swallowed hard, looking down at her feet for a moment. All this time she'd spent among her blood relatives, yet she still felt a more familial connection with the whipid she'd found sleeping between storage boxes. The relationship she'd built with Malum was close to that of a brother, not a cousin, and yet even so, there was still a void between them that didn't exist here.

"I can travel without a ship," she announced, bouncing briefly onto the balls of her feet, "I don't often, because it hurts like hell, but I can if the need arises. And I can teleport short distances too. Malum- The Dark Councillor, also my cousin, taught me. Been wanting to teach me more still, but I'm having a hard time accepting my lineage, so I've been avoiding it...mostly." She flopped into the chair opposite Velok, far smaller than his and perfect for her frame. She tucked her legs up underneath her.

"Kinda hard to forgive a family for leaving you to rot."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"Bah, nobody's owed forgiveness," Velok said, thinking of old family wrongs given and taken. "There's a school of thought that calls it all fuel and a school of thought that calls it an obstacle to detachment, and the Sith and the Jedi are both far off the mark. Feel how you choose to feel, act how you choose to act, know the consequences, don't do things you would despise. What else is there?"

He was thinking, too, about the powers Lily had claimed, and how she might be fueling them.

"To travel like that is a rare skill. My great-grandfather, Velok the Elder, had a reputation for knowing every technique under the suns to one degree or another - but he never knew that one, and my grandfather doesn't either. Or didn't, the last time we spoke. How does it...feel?"

 

[Lily Rhodes]

He made it all sound so simple. She supposed in truth it was just that simple, when you peeled away the opinions of everyone else, at the end of the day, the most important thing was how you felt about yourself. He'd come a long way from when they had first met. She pirsed her lips in thought, trying to find words to answer his question.

"When it starts, it's like being hot and cold all at once...like a bad fever. Then, like being crushed in a garbage compactor. But the bit I don't like is when you land," she went quiet for a moment. "That's when I can feel the darkness most, like...something cold and hard gripping my heart." She shivered, shaking it off before smiling, like it was nothing. "And then there's the nose bleeds, but that depends on how far."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"Well, how far?" Velok asked, feeling both interest and concern. "Place to place on a world? Planetside to a ship in orbit? System to system? Sector to sector? Farther? Do the risks scale with distance? Can you cross the Blackwall?"

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"When i first started, plave tp place on a world was enough to kick off a nosebleed. Now?"

She couldn't help the little bit of pride that crept into her expression. She knew what it cost, she knew about the corruption using such a power came with. But she balanced it with minimal use.

"Sector to sector, is enough. The greater the distance, the greater the corruption. Or at least thats been my experience. I think experience plays into it too, and the level of dark corruption that already exists in a person."

She tilted her head. "What's the blackwall? Is that the space between galaxies?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"Sector to sector...that's wonderful. I remember reading in one of my grandfather's books about one of Palpatine's envoys, a pilot and a specialist within the Force, who could do the same."

With appropriate seriousness, as he cooked dinner, he explained the Blackwall, the terrible new barrier that now locked off Sith territory. The casting-bones and entrails had predicted it and been proven right.

"Since you're part of a Sith Council member's entourage," he said in conclusion, pausing over his massive skillets, "I'd imagine there are good official ways across for you - but I wouldn't risk jumping as you do, not through it. I made it through at a terrible risk, by latching onto powers older and stronger than the Emperor, and I don't plan to do it again. Still like Nagai yellow pepper on your cutlets or no?"

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily listened intently as she always did, absorbing knowledge like a sponge. She was unsure why Malum had never mentioned it, but then there was a lot he didn't mention. Much like Velok, in his way, he wanted to protect her, to shelter her. A drive to make up for what she had already suffered. She wrinkled her nose at the word entourage. "Ew, don't say that, you make it sound like I'm one of his groupies." She shuddered.

She was kneeling up on the chair, leaning on its back and watching Velok cook.

"Yes please." she answered, her mouth watering, followed by "Wait! When were you in Sith space?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok paused mid-shake of yellow pepper, embarrassed.

"I was telling fortunes on Jutrand a few weeks ago. Enormous success, rapid unscheduled exit by ritual.

"I didn't feel you anywhere nearby, but that planet's a morass of misery. It's hard for me to feel detail in places like that since I left the Sith path. There's some foundation to the old Jedi histrionics about the Dark Side clouding everything. Have you been on Jutrand much?"

 

[Lily Rhodes]

A soft and sad "Oh." Follwed his confession, disappointment etched in her features. It was momentary, she knew if he needed to find her he would, he hadn't avoided her, he simply couldn't find her.

She shook her head. "Most of sith space is like that in my experience. I'm only on Jutrand if Malum drags me to an event. Though I think the last one rattled him a little after some corpse eater tried to recruit me and sucked the life out of someone who interrupted his pitch."

She seemed utterly umphased by the event, sliding off the chair to help him plate up.

"Otherwise I'm based out of Alvaria, which is actually outside of sith space since the galaxy did its weird...reshuffle. How's it been here?"

@Velok

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"It's been good, a good life. I'm sorry I didn't reach out to see if you were nearby," he said, dishing up the food on plates of disparate size. "The best way I can describe it is I didn't want to tie you to whatever I got up to. I can manage my own risk profile — my name and size and unserious demeanor on the road give me insulation — but make no mistake: I did things your Council friend would kill me for if he knew it. I broke high laws. I plan to keep breaking them. Connecting with you there instead of here could've made you seem complicit."

He brought the meat and veg to the split-plank table.

"Speaking of, if you could not mention to anyone that I'd found a way through the Blackwall, not even think about it too loudly, it'd be...much better for both of us."

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily shook her head. "Relax, I'm mostly ignored as just another spoilt Marr, no one pokes at my head or notices me poking in theirs. I'm the perfect little wallflower." She sounded almost bitter about it.

She dug into the serving dishes, piling her plate high like she didn't know when her next meal might be. Old habits died hard.

"He's my cousin, the Council member. The one who uhh, broke my back on Faldos couple years ago when you last reached out." She chewed happily before continuing. "In his defence, he didn’t know i was family, and i was smuggling so..."

Velok Brokentusk