Private I Roved Out: Ch. 4 - A Pearl of Memory

[Loxa Visl]

He had known her?

Force Bond?

Loxa's brow tightened in deepening confusion. These revelations of his made little sense on their own, but in her current state they made even less sense. Much like everything that had seemingly brought them together - the visions provided by the staff and the memories they shared of a foreign past - it was just one more piece to puzzle together.

"A Man is brave," that much she felt quite certain of, "This One is grateful."

Truth be told, Loxa had believed he'd either left her or lost her for good. It would not be the first time this had happened and she had been prepared to make an effort of escape on her own. Were it not for Sana, she may have already achieved it, but taking the girl with her had proven a greater challenge than she'd expected. Now she knew escape had never been Sana's fate.

"Where to go now..." her voice drifted as she looked away with a slow shake of her head, "This One does not know. There are no more visions."

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

"Jedi are supposed to be brave." He said quietly. This version nor the other one had never known he was a Jedi. By the time they first met he had been long gone. The Netherworld swallowing up the virtuous parts of him. He hadn't been a monster. Khal didn't think Loxa could have fallen in love with a monster, but there was a lot of space between being a monster and being a good person.

A lot of space that Khal had occupied for a long time.

"I couldn't leave you. Not once I realized who you were to me."

He glanced towards her.

"Maybe we don't have to go anywhere. You need rest. Even before this ordeal you needed rest. I can't imagine what you have been through under the thumb of that Hutt."

 

[Loxa Visl]

A Jedi?

Had she known he was a Jedi? Had she even known he was capable of using the powers the Jedi did? Loxa's brow furrowed as she tried to think on this and her time spent traveling in his company. Despite all the many things they had encountered, she could not once recall him ever employing the use of the Force.

Secrets.

As for what he meant when he said what she was to him, even more muddlesome. Their entire collision within the galaxy, starting from their first meeting on Kalshebbol never made a lick of sense.

"Mm," the witch did nod in agreement to the need for rest, "This One is tired..." her shoulders lifted in a contained shiver, "and cold."

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

Loxa Visl

Khal nodded lightly as he watched her process things. After everything she went through and the exhaustion, he wouldn't be surprised if it wouldn't all fit in there right away.

But it had been important to him to just... get out ahead about it.

Secrets.

He wondered if that is what had ruined them the first time around. That time was still fuzzy, clear in some ways, but chaotic in others. Like watching a movie of yourself. You knew all the storybeats, but you couldn't quite remember how your legs felt when you were walking in that scene. "I... understand, yes, of course."

He stood up and put a hand gently on Loxa's shoulder.

"Let's get you situated in your nest, I will add some blankets." Offering a hand so she could climb to her feet with his assistance.

 

[Loxa Visl]

She did not remember leaving the seat or walking, painstakingly slow as life finally caught up to her, to the cargo hold of his ship where her hammock remained intact, just as she had left it. Strange how it was now the only thing still left of her that she'd had in her possession the first time they met. Her clothes had been stripped and replaced with linen coverings of a slave. Her staff was gone. Her satchel with her few useful things lost in distant galaxy she'd traversed with Tilon Quill and Kairon Rees .

Just herself, her scars, her spirits and memories, all bundled into a hammock and covered with a blanket of chibi bantha.

Before her eyes closed she gave Khal one single ask: to go somewhere with green.

Days passed. Loxa did not dream for the first time in a long time.

 

[Khaleel Malvern]

In the end somewhere with green meant Rishi.

Khaleel remembered that world best of all, because it had been one of the first planets he visited after he escaped Nar Shaddaa. To a young Jedi Knight, who wanted to do good, Rishi had been a grand place.

Beautiful but full of corruption.

And later on when he himself became corrupted it became even better.

Beaches, alcohol, great views. In every life that Khal lived, Rishi was a favorite to him and it would remain so.

He tried to busy himself with other things but more often than not his path took him back to Loxa in her hammock. He realized early on that she shouldn't be disturbed. Her body gave out, Loxa needed rest now more than anything else.

But it meant he was sitting in a chair near her when they reversed out of hyperspace.

If she didn't wake up? He'd gently get up and touch her shoulder, or try to.

"Hey, sleepyhead? We are there..."

Loxa Visl

 

[Loxa Visl]

Wakefulness did not greet her as they fell out of hyperspace. The deep, soundless, fathomless abyss of exhaustive sleep had taken her fully over the spring of several days. She had not woken for any reason, not even during a mild disturbance of an asteroid field in their path. She might've fallen straight out of her hammock and remained sound asleep were it not so well designed to keep its occupant within.

The touch, however, gave an immediate response.

A spark.

An inkling of something come before.

Though it didn't cause a dream, a vision filled Loxa's mind as awareness slowly crept back in. Of Kahl some years ago, his hair golden in the sunlight of some distant planet. Behind him the all-encompassing silhouette of a massive tree.

A name came to her then: Eogorath.

Loxa took a sharp, rattling breath as her eyes fluttered open, briefly gleaming pale gold. There was no panic or alarm, despite her months spent under the heel of another unwitting Master, she for the first time sensed Khal and knew instant calm and a strange comfort.

The witch made a sound that croaked from her throat like a dehydrated toad, "where-" she said, though the word was hoarse, "green?"