Private Homesteading

[Velok Brokentusk]

"Ah. Him. I wasn't aware smuggling was punishable by disability."

Velok considered his plate of peppered meat. His stomach growled.

"Would you like me to eat this Dark Council member for you? Do you inherit anything of he gets eaten?"

Such were the old ways.

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily snorted eyes on her food. "No, I'm not even in the running for line of inheritance of anything."

The lack of movement on his part made her look up. "Velok," she said seriously. "It was an accident. His intent was to bring me down, not break me."

She reached across the table and patted his bucket sized hands.

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok relaxed and tucked into the food with a Whiphid-sized fork he'd forged himself out back. "Difficult thing to remember," he said. "Thank you for reminding me."

He chewed in contemplation.

"You do sound unfulfilled in the Sith hierarchy. It's hard not for me to project from my own youth. What do you want out of life that they aren't giving you? You can step between worlds. What's next?"

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily sighed, pausing in her eating.

"I don't know." she began. "I almost had a plan. I...met someone. But it all went sideways and when I tried to fix it, I got my ass handed to me and a path was offered that I'm not sure I want to take, but I'm not sure I can see any other."

She set her knife and fork down. "I'm in a position I couldn't have even dreamed of as a kid. I have vast amounts of wealth at my fingertips, a name with weight, if I choose to actually accept it, but I'm utterly powerless. I've seen them burn their worlds to stop the Alliance from getting their hands on them. I've seen the dead flood entire planets, thousands of people made refugees, children made orphans, and I can't stop any of it. I had some orphanages built, but it's a tiny drop in a lake so vast, you can't see the shoreline."

She took a breath. "I want to make a difference, a real difference. And I'm not joining the Alliance, hell, I lived under their banners my whole life and suffered for it. So I can only see one path, which is damage from within...but to do that I have to commit... to become one of them."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

There were certain precautions around the house to allow them to speak free from fear of visionaries. Even so, Velok got up and lit particular candles with token blood sacrifices to hide this whole conversation more thoroughly, retroactively.

"You know my feelings on Sith and their institutions. The laws I broke — I breached the Blackwall because a Jedi, a boy, got trapped inside and I was the one to tell him he was doomed. He asked for my help. I have no use for the Jedi but he asked, and I'm not in the habit of piling on regrets. So I got him out. Treason. Resistance. Call it what you will. I hear what you're saying. I don't know what to do about it. It's...no small thing, to consider what you're considering. What I think we're considering."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily's brow arched with surprise. "To be honest, I thought you'd try and talk me out of it."

She rubbed her eyes and sighed. "There are others who want change, but they do nothing. The last person to try to speak up and fight against the higher powers wound up being killed in a Kaggath. It was publicly broadcast."

She chewed the inside of her cheek. "If I do this, I'm afraid that I will lose myself and my path."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"It's horrifically dangerous, so yes." Velok set aside his empty plate. "I want to talk you out of it. But people who've seen what you've seen and aren't worthless would take a lot of talking to convince, and my heart wouldn't be in it. So I'm left wondering if the way I can keep you safest is helping you explore this as safely as possible.

"Leave aside what you think your path is. Your path is what you want it to be and what circumstances allow and a mess of random chance. Tell me more about this dissident and this kaggath."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily told him all she knew. Of Darth Malum of House Marr 's desire to change things, but his belief that he was powerless to do so, that those who ruled above and before him were unstoppable by him. She spoke of Darth Strosius , of their conversation regarding the sources of eveil within the Order...though she conveniently left out the part where she broke into his station and he kicked the crap out of her. The man was dead, there was little point in exposing such details.

But there was more than this. There were the remnants of the Rimward Trade League that acted as a nuisance before they were believed to be crushed at D'qar. Pockets of Rebellion in Seswenna, Echnos, and Sluis Van. All minor, all civilians who had suffered at the Sith's hands or simply feared their ruling and fought back where they could.

She cleaned up the kitchen as she spoke, the simplicity of it helping calm her mind and preventing the anger from bubbling up as she recalled the aftermath of Sluis Van.

"Maybe I'm making these little pockets into something they're not, but there has to be more. With the Blackwall, the war against the alliance and the constant stretching of their borders, there's bound to be more resistance. I can't believe that those people in their right mind would be content to live under something so hateful and cruel." She inclined her head, "Although the audience at the Kaggath was barbaric." She set aside the sponge and dried her hands, coming back to settle on the chair, once again chewing the inside of her cheek.

"I'm still not sure I understand the why of the kaggath or even the rules behind it, but it was Malum who declared it against Strosius after he'd tried to use the kidnapped grandkids of Taeli Raaf as a bargaining chip. I wasn't there when it was declared, got swept out when things started to heat up, but Strosius was killed...like obliterated into ash, not even a finger left, killed."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

He'd cooked so he let her clean, other than scrubbing the grill.

"Kaggath rules can vary. Some modern versions of the Empire have tried to ban the kaggath. There was a time, as a Sith warrior, when I advocated for more kaggaths. It's a useful mechanism. One Sith Lord declares it against another, a defined region of contest is picked - an arena, a planet, a sector - and they bring to bear all their resources within that area. The winner takes the loser's resources and erases his name, at least classically. In theory it's a great leveler to ensure the strong are the strongest. If I thought I could beat the Emperor, for example, I could challenge him to a kaggath, and if I somehow won, there we go, the empire has a stronger Emperor. It's also the closest thing the Sith tradition has to an accountability mechanism and code of conduct for Sith. Kidnap someone's grandchildren, get a kaggath claim, stand or fall. The stakes of a kaggath can be so severe that it's really only suitable for extreme situations like that, for overriding personal motives. Because a stronger Sith would never lower himself by declaring it against a weaker one, and a weaker one would never take on the risk of declaring it against someone much stronger, and peers would be too close a contest to chance it too, not without a reason."

He put the grill up to dry and returned to his comfortable seat.

"Rules and norms of behaviour apply even to Sith Lords. So we get...dissidents staying respectable rather than speaking up."