Private I Roved Out: Ch 3 - What We've Become

[Loxa Visl]

Loxa lifted a hand and opened her mouth to comment that she did not think shaking the stick would work.

Or that it was wise. In her experience, shaking things that had a tendency to be unpredictable did not usually end well. Except in this instance, it seemed. The witch relented with a mild frown and a wary look at both the man and the staff, taking it back with care and gazing over it shortly once more. She had no answered to his wonderings and certainly she did not wish to throw the staff away. A part of her would not allow it - there was purpose here, still.

Her fingers lightly traipsed along the length of the staff and the symbols etched upon it, wondering if she maybe was not paranoid enough?

Maybe if she had been more leery of the unknown, she would not be caught in this tangled web of fate. Questions and mysteries and curiosities but so few answers. Loxa had been certain if she could just find the man in her dreams that the answers would arrive with him. No such luck. The witch looked up at the mention of the settlement and ... a ship and hunger. For a moment she had to think of when her last meal had been - long enough to be unsure.

<<A man is kind,>> she nodded to him with a grateful, solemn smile. Setting the staff end back to the ground, she pressed off to continue walking alongside him, <<This One is grateful, but how long until kindness fades to a man's purpose?>>

He had come here with a job that he'd made abundantly clear from the start: to kill her.

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

Kind?

"Dunno about that." He said uncomfortably as he refocused himself to the road ahead. "Jus' practical." Sure, a few ten thousand credits was nice, but it would not bring him any closer to the answers Khaleel craved.

Perhaps he could get his answers and then fulfill the contact at the end.

The issue was this however.

Khaleel was starting to understand the old adage. Don't get to know your targets. Because already it was starting to become difficult to imagine double-tapping Loxa through the head. Would he still do it if push came to shelf? Yes. Without a doubt. But he'd feel bad about it... and he was already making the cost-assessment if he skipped out on the contract.

"You kicked up a hornet's next, lady. If not me, someone else will." And they'd be less kind than him, he thought to himself. So in a way it would be a kindness.

Following the same mental process that most killers did when they self-rationalized.

"You got any family? Friends? People that would miss you?"

What the kriff was that? Why would he ASK that?

 

[Loxa Visl]

He'd lost her on the difference between practical and kind. The nature of generosity was a somewhat new thing to her as of the last decade of her life. Up until she'd attained the level of respect an elder among her people did, there was very little in the way of generosity to be had. Life as a Dathomiri witch was difficult and dangerous. Threats of death not uncommon.

Loxa nodded in understanding. He at least had the kindness to allow her some scope of her present threat. He was still a danger to her and, apparently, so were others from his ... clan?

<<This One has many sisters,>> she replied, giving him no sense of number or nature of relation. Loxa had no true blood sisters, but the other witches of her clan were sisters nonetheless.

<<Death does not tread easily by,>> Loxa had survived a great deal - though he could see only the few scars visible on her face and bare hands, there was quite a deal more that stood as the roadmap to her long and harrowing life, <<This One means to find her answers ... and a man's, too.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

Great.

A whole gaggle of sisters that would probably mourn and cry over her.

Wasn't that just great?

It would have been easier if she was just a lonesome lady with no buck nor love to her name. But then again, when had things ever been easy for good ol' Khaleel? Exactly. A little shrug there. "I ain't nothing if not a lover of challenge." He murmured absently. It would have been funny if not for the fact that 'challenge' here meant... well, to kill her.

"All depends on what's at the end of the road here, lady."

He finally said after a while.

"If those answers help me? Might let you go without a fight. Least I can do if it helps these visions outta my head." The rest was unvoiced but it was clear nonetheless. If they won't help him?

Well, then the contract was back on.

They arrived to the edge of the settlement. The noises of the center and the spaceport beyond it already looming loud. "Just sisters? No brothers?" All of a sudden Khal would ask. It surprised himself as well. Why would he keep digging this hole? It would only make things much more difficult if the end of the road turned out to be disappointing.

 

[Loxa Visl]

Loxa took a moment during their pause as they reached the outskirts of the town to gaze upon it with a distant wonder and quiet marvel. So different, these worlds she visited, from everything she was accustomed to. The landscape, the buildings, the skyline. There was so little green - and nearly no sense of spirit. When first she'd begun her travels and discovered these new worlds, the absence of such things had made her sad.

Like a creature from the great oceans dropped into a small pond. These places felt constrictive and so little seemed left to mystery.

But worlds like Kal'shebbol had their own oceans and mysteries to find, she'd come to learn. They just looked a lot different from what she knew.

Such as the mystery of what awaited them at the end of their journey. Answers? Or perhaps simply more questions. The witch made a pensive sound and nodded in understanding. She could accept such terms and meet them as they came. At the question of brothers however, Loxa laughed - a rasspish sound compared to her softer words, <<Dathomiri witches have slaves or mates,>> he clearly was not familiar with the culture of the witches and their matriarchal society, <<there are no brothers.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

A blink over his shoulder, because that was rather... interesting.

"Really? That's a pretty karked-up dynamic between men and women on Dathomir then." Every man was either a slave or a mate? That was pretty damn surprising and especially hearing it from someone who was as...

Hm.

Gentle was presumably not the right word. The softest souls could carry the biggest sticks and Loxa's stick was pretty damn long at that. "How about your fathers? Are they also just slaves then?" Which really sounded weird to him. At least from an objective perspective. He was an orphan after all, but he had always wondered what it would be like to have parents.

The kind that worried about you, took care of you.

"Probably for the best if you cover your face a bit by the way. It wouldn't shock me if the Prism had more than one agent after you."

Just him?

Nah, they'd have every angle covered.

 

[Loxa Visl]

Loxa gave a slight facial shrug. To her it was always this way and not unusual at all. The men served the women and that was how it had been for as long as she knew it, and longer still for countless generations. She'd never been given a reason why and she'd never thought to ask.

<<Fathers are mates of the Mothers,>> she replied, <<This One does not have these. This One was born a slave.>>

She picked up her pace again, matching his own as he continued into the settlement. The warning of covering her face did garner a short glance and a nod of understanding. The witch carefully pulled the hood of her jacket over her head and tucked the shorter locks of brown away from her saffron eyes.

<<May This One use a man's communicator on his ship?>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

"Wait, if you are a woman, how were you also a slave then?"

Confused now.

It seemed the practice wasn't a straightforward genderized thing, but then again... when was culture ever predictable? There would always be some sort of tweaks and shifts that would make an outsider confused. Perhaps that was part of the reason why.

"Don't see why not. What for?"

If he gave her permission, it wasn't like he would be hanging over her shoulder to listen in.

She could say one thing now and do something else entirely.

Maybe this was a honey pot to- but maybe Khaleel was a bit too paranoid. That one he had to admit to himself. There was a lot of chit below the surface here, but somehow Khal doubted that this woman was anything like a master schemer or outlaw just waiting to get him. No, she seemed earnest enough as it was.

 

[Loxa Visl]

<<This One was not born on Dathomir, was not of the sisters' blood.>>

Definitely not as straightforward as it seemed at all. In fact Loxa knew there were clans that had given up these old ways and allowed men to serve equally to women, aside from allowing them to rule. But she'd never met any of those clans personally. Dathomir was a large planet and travel through its treacherous jungles was difficult enough without having a good reason to do so.

<<This One was a child of slaves, and served as they served.>>

As for why she needed the comm...

A small, somber smile shifted over her face, <<To thank an old Jedi on a cold planet for his help.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

He wrinkled his nose.

Both at the slavery angle as well as the Jedi mention.

"Ah, I see..." He wondered how Loxa ended up getting herself free as a slave. It must have been quite the ordeal. But something told Khal that this would be a bit of a... sensitive subject. Even if it wasn't? It certainly would open up himself to questioning about his past. Something he wasn't particularly interested in.

Already he had dug too much. Still... it was like an itch.

"Jedi, huh? I used to be a Jedi once upon a time..." Almost said idly before he blinked and cringed. Why the kark had he said that?

"Well, anyway. Here we are."

And the Starport suddenly loomed up in front of them.

It wasn't anything to write home about. But it was still the largest trade hub of the world. So many sentients moving in and out. It would probably be... a bit overwhelming.

 

[Loxa Visl]

That line about being a Jedi certainly got a raise of her brow.

<<A man was once a Jedi?>> she echoed curiously, <<Now a man kills for his clan.>>

It was not a story that made any sense to her and one she surely would have liked to hear more of. For what were witches without their stories? But she did not press ... not yet at least. Some day, when the threads of this fate were not quite so entangled. Instead, she came to a stop one last time, the look of concerning consideration for this next chapter of her story.

<<This One has ...concerns, and would like to form a pact with a man.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

<<A man was once a Jedi?>> she echoed curiously, <<Now a man kills for his clan.>>

Yes. That was exactly right and it didn't look like Khaleel was in any mood to elaborate.

It didn't help that it was rather hazy.

He could remember himself as a Jedi, but it felt like watching another man. Someone he did not understand. At all. But perhaps that was the way with everyone looking back at their youth. So in thought about himself it took several steps to realize Loxa Visl had come to a stop again. Khal sighed and turned around, but before he could say anything-

"Uh. We all got concerns, lady." His concerns were currently fixated around going on a wild goose chase with a strange witch. "But sure, what sort of pact are you thinking about?"

 

[Loxa Visl]

<<This One has concerns about a man,>> Loxa replied, leveling him with a stoic seriousness in her gaze. It traveled the height of him once in consideration of who she was about to willingly travel in close quarters with and what purpose he'd originally arrived on Kal'shebbol for.

<<A blood pact,>> the witch began at length, <<where a man and This One agree not to bring harm upon the other while taking this journey to find answers.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

"A man being me, I suppose." Khal responded with amusement while accepting her searching gaze without any hint of anxiety.

He was who he was.

Shame was foreign to him.

"If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." Certainly pointing that out wouldn't be helpful, because this wasn't about facts. It was about simple things like vibes and feelings. She didn't like his vibe. Which was understandable, since he had come out and told her he had been planning on killing her and presumably still would if this didn't pan out.

Either way Khal shrugged.

"Blood pact, sure. Whatever lets you sleep at night. What do we do?"

Loxa Visl

 

[Loxa Visl]

She'd been expecting some pushback - a blood pact was a natural, if serious thing to partake in for the witches. To a stranger of their culture? Most usually were not keen. Loxa held her staff off to the side and gave it one single stamp to the ground. The action was not enough to drive the bottom into earth, but it had some curious effect that seemed to stick the metal pole in place. Her hand withdrew from holding it and the pole stood there on its own, a venerable guardian of ancient stories and secrets, and reached beneath her jacket to withdraw a smallish carving dagger from a hidden sheath at her waist.

Holding out her other arm, Loxa drew back on the sleeve to reveal a tanned limb peppered by whitened scars. Just behind the joint of her wrist, along the soft underside of her forearm lay the bare, straight marks of other blood pacts - but these marks were black, not white like scars.

<<A man must draw his own blood,>> she said as she lightly pressed the blade against the flesh of her arm just aside the last pact mark, <<take This One's hand and focus on the words spoken.>>

With blood lightly welling on the small cut, Loxa held out that same hand for him to take.

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

Eyebrows rose at the staff resting on its own. Suspended and upright as could be.

A touch theatrical, but Khal presumed this was the way of Witches.

If they didn't try to intimidate you at least a little bit you weren't worth the effort.

"I see you got arms similar to my own." Khal murmured bemused as he watched her do the work. At days the man wondered why his arms were the way they were. He couldn't remember. But as Loxa drew blood he took his jacket off for the moment, before rolling up his sleeves. Jagged edge tattoos painting his skin from every angle. Some were figures, incantations too and geometrical shapes that seemed to shift depending on which angle you looked at them from.

Except for one curious thing.

As Khal turned his arm, one block, covering most of the centerfold of his left arm was devoid of ink. Instead it was covered with line after line, the tell-tale sign of ritualistic cuts.

A chuckle there.

"Well, not entirely, but... I was apparently not a stranger to cutting myself." As he took the knife and gauged it in the air for a moment. His other one casually reached out to take Loxa's hand as requested.

"No time like the present, gorgeous, go on then."

 

[Loxa Visl]

It was in that instant of contact that a deluge of images burst through Khal's metaphysical barrier, surging like static up his arm and into his mind. Short flashes of scenes that played out the days of his life he no longer remembered. A jungle planet, a giant tree, a temple made of roots and branches and vine, a woman in a grey cloak with golden eyes. There were scenes of sacrifice and blood, images of the mysterious and arcane, a young girl covered in tribal markings, a great tome of knowledge laid open on a desk, war and battle, a dead babe in his hands.

Then it stopped just as suddenly as it began.

Loxa had withdrawn her hand from his own, her murmurings hushing to a faint breeze on the wind.

<<It is done,>> she said, glancing to the new black line now fresh and crisply marked on her arm, then to the matching line on his own.

<<Has a man never witness a witch's power before? You looked ... afraid.>> Perhaps it was not fear she'd seen, but she couldn't quite place what.

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

The images were overwhelming and for a moment he had to steady himself by gripping tighter on Loxa's arm.

"What..." The kriff Khal gasped as the memories faded away. He could still feel them... pressing from a distance... but for now they ceased their relentless surge and left him alone. Fear? Accurate, because the feelings experienced in those memories were entirely foreign to him. Joy, adoration, love... alien qualities the old man hadn't felt before.

Ever.

That's how he knew they had to be fake. It couldn't be anything of his.

"Can't say that I have, lady..." He shook his head and to obfuscate his shaking hands he moved to light a cigarette. "Anyway, so what happens if I try to kill you now?" Bemused just a bit as he resumed the trajectory through the starport. Like they hadn't just performed an impromptu occult ritual out of nowhere.

It should have shocked him more.

Somehow... it had felt as natural as breathing to him.

 

[Loxa Visl]

She watched him closely, concern filtering into her gaze and pressing a line into her brow. Though it was hard to say just what his reaction had been to, Loxa couldn't be sure it had only encompassed the ritual of a blood pact. It was not in her power to read minds, but the witch held a certain suspicion that he was not being forthright.

Such was the nature of strangers, she reminded herself, and chose not to dwell.

The blade she wiped on the cloth of her thigh before returning it to the sheath at her waist. Loxa grasped the staff and with some slight visible resistance, unstuck it from the ground. At his question she turned a a curious look to him and gave herself a moment to ponder how to answer.

<<The fates will intervene,>> she replied and gave no further explanation. She had only encountered one such instance where another had attempted to break a blood pact with her and did not believe that what had happened then would be the same as it would between herself and Khal. These arcane powers and spells were ... unpredictable in nature, much like the weather.

<<This One does not believe it wise to test how.>>

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

"If I was wise we wouldn't be here at all..." Khal drawled lazily as they entered the half circle of parked ships. This wasn't one of the larger spaceports of the city. More clandestine, quiet, it was the way he preferred to do business. Most likely few if any would have cared if he put a bullet in the lady's skull, but...

Always better to have a clear getaway if that theory spelled wrong.

"That's mine." Gesturing with his head towards the one in the back. Small, shabby, it didn't exactly radiate 'luxury liner' or anything like that. But then again... neither did Khal.

"Don't expect five star treatment though, you gonna have to pull yar weight, while we travel together."

A glance up and down to the woman.

"Maybe twice yar weight." Since she was a scrawny little thing. Which... just seemed wrong for some reason. Those eyes didn't belong in this one.