New Beginnings

[Er'in Tenel]

Market District, Celanon City, Celanon​

​

Er'in wasn't sure what had brought her here - yes, she did have some luxury shopping to do and Celanon was as good a place as any, but that wasn't it. No. The Dark Side had brought her here, which sounded deeply ominious, but this wasn't the sort of precognition or feeling that lead to the doom of worlds.

No. There was just...

... something.

So she browsed the stalls of the market district, looking somewhat like the disaffected rich girl she was, her blade disguised by it's sheath - although not to any Force Sensitive, she just didn't want to cause alarm, and a single unassuming looking bodyguard droid to give her just enough of the 'this one is protected' vibe to prevent pickpockets. Although ironically, she didn't really have pockets to pick, per se.

Spice. Glitterstimm. Everything a girl could want. She bought moderate quanities of some of the more useful or safer recreational drugs, more out of a desire to see how the black market economy here worked than out of need. But really, she kept her eyes on the crowd for whatever it was that had brought her here.

She'd learned to listen to her instincts when they spoke to her.

@Fawn​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

With Fawn's most recent winnings from the dueling ring tucked into her makeshift purse, her eyes gently shifted from side to side as she purveyed the markets along the streets for spices she could afford. It was practically the only good thing about the city she lived in, and it was the only thing she had the more wealthy folks higher up had in common. She had a suspicion that even the law enforcement for Celanon City got in on the spices and their distribution.

As she stood by a vendor run by a fellow Dathomirian, she turned her head to watch as a woman in all violet, no doubt of some kind of importance, walked along the street in the opposite direction as she was headed. A single droid walked with her, as if it wasn't already clear enough that she was wealthy.

But there was something more. Even Fawn could make out the presence of a strong magic accompanying the woman, catching her interest if only for a moment.

@Er'in Tenel​

 

[Er'in Tenel]

It's not polite to stare, so Er'in did not double take at the Dathomirian Witch in the street. After all, they're not what you might call common.

Her?​

​

Really?​

Yes, she was certain. Her. That one. The Force called and Er'in... didn't always answer, that was hardly the way of the Sith, but she didn't ignore obvious visions or premonitions either. Because from what she could tell, that nonsense had killed a lot of Sith.

So she altered course to come to the stall, giving it a quick once over and deciding that, while she wasn't exactly a streetwise expert, this probably wasn't just tat masquerading as genuinely Dathomirian goods.

"Hello." Er'in could manage any accent from cut-glass Imperial to, well, Hapan noble. She did not, and probably never would, do street very well. But her tone and manner was casual and relaxed none the less, and she was using her 'normal' voice rather than putting on airs. "I wonder if either of you two could help me, I'm looking for half a kilo of na'vn moss," high hallucinogenic, improves empathic and farsight related gifts, used by lovers with a taste for the wild side or more commonly by grey-to-dark force users to enhance truthtelling trances or vision quests, also deeply illegal on account of being a lethal toxin in larger doses, half a kilo could kill a small village. "and I'd be willing to offer several sealed boxes of glitterstimm as a... trade."

She seriously doubted the Force had brought her to speak to an honest, upstanding individual. That hadn't been the course of her life of late.

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

Both Dathomirian women turned to Er'in, then to one another, and then back to Er'in.

Fawn chortled to herself, saying, "You're used to getting what you want, aren't you? I've never even heard of-"

"Half a kilo of na'vn moss," the Dathomirian vendor said, fiddling with small opaque jars until she had the perfect weight.

"Oh, of course," Fawn said, holding up her hands in a mock surrender. "Hold out on the poor folks, why don't you..."

The vendor continued to ignore her entirely, her eyes locked on the Hapan noble. "Where would you like to exchange goods, ma'am?"

@Er'in Tenel​

 

[Er'in Tenel]

"Here."

Er'in extends a credchit that makes an effort (but not much of one) to hide the card with a docking bay number written on it.

"I'll take whatever the blue glowing stuff is, does it retain lumenessance for long?"

She gives her fellow shopper a long glance, as if finally seeing her for the first time and despite the ascerbic commentary, liking what she sees. After all, you can stare in a conversation, it's less impolite.

"Yes, I am. And no, she's not. Besides, it's not my money. I'm shopping for my school."

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

"Your... school..." Fawn uttered, casting an odd glare at the noblewoman. "Did you get all of those fancy clothes for your school as well?" Fawn knew well enough that someone with apparently as much influence as this woman potentially had was the last person she should have been teasing, but that had never stopped her before.

"So long as it doesn't go dry, ma'am," the vendor continued. "It will glow however long you want it to... give or take several weeks."

Fawn ignored the woman behind the stall just as she was ignoring her, instead leaning up against it to face the noblewoman properly. "What even brings you to this part of the galaxy? Are there no better spices from wherever it was you came from?"

@Er'in Tenel​

 

[Er'in Tenel]

"Excellent, thank you."

Er'in ignored the jibe long enough to pay the vendor, then returned her attention to Fawn.

"No, these fancy clothes are all mine. And yes, actually Ryloth does a pretty good spice trade, but not in ones useful for Danthomri witchcraft - or much other than getting high, really. Ryll is pretty poor." Er'in shrugged. "Why, don't you have anything better to do than to quiz random travellers? This is a pretty strange place for you to be as well."

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

"I can think of a few things I'd rather be doing, sure," Fawn replied. "And yet here I am, instead stuck with nothing to do because I wasn't born with a silver spoon up my ass." She glanced over her again, this time taking into account what she said. She looked nothing like a Dathomiri witch, and Fawn would know. Many of them were dirty and had that familiar stench that gave away their witchy background. This one was different, and not just because she was pretty.

"I know a thing or two about witches, you know," she went on. "Witches and Sith... It's practically all I know, other than drugs, violence, and..." She let her voice trail off as one of her brows raised along with one corner of her lips.

 

[Er'in Tenel]

"... violent insane madness, followed by an untimely death due to their mad grasp for power?"

Er'in replies with a smile on her lips, intriging. This one wasn't like Kat or the old Nightmother at all, but Kat was a certified cheerful lunatic and Tmoxin... would always be Tmoxin. Why not send a Mandragora to recruit a witch, though? Well, because your Sithness, you're better than anyone bound to a spirit, right? Also... Kat might just be too cheerful for this woman.

"Or were you thinking of something else? Because I'm pretty sure history is clear on the former, but I think the bit you're talking about was written by men." Although Er'in doesn't actually break eye contact during that statement. "But if you're at a loose end, then the Force has truly blessed you." There is no irony in that statement, at all, as ironic as it might sound. "Because as it happens, my school - I don't own it, they don't trust me with string - is a school for witches... and quite a lot of other people, but definitely witches, the Mandragora were quite insistant on that fact, as I was I. Once we get the place cleaned up."

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

"I pray no men have ever had any influence on my sex drive..." Fawn muttered to herself. "All the way out in Ryloth, you say? And for witches... If I had a starship or any money, I may be inclined to pay it a visit myself. This place has gotten..." she glanced around herself, seeing the same exact scenery she had seen for over a year, "...old."

 

[Er'in Tenel]

"Well, I often prayed the same thing myself, but unfortunately on Hapes there were..."

Er'in cuts herself off abruptly as she works out where her brain was going.

"Sorry, that was probably more information than you wanted to know." She grins wickedly. "Or maybe it wasn't. But seriously, if you're interested it'll take a few hours to get the 'Dragon loaded. Let's find a tapcaff and I can explain about the... local religion of the Confederacy. Probably best not to do it standing in a market place, I already look like enough of a mark."

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

Fawn took one step closer to the Hapan noble, minding the droid as a smile spread across her cheeks.

"Then I suppose we should get out of here, shouldn't we?" She pressed her hand against the staff she had left lying against the stall and raised it to her side, preparing herself for the walk ahead while her eyes never once left Er'in's.

 

[Er'in Tenel]

Two certifable crazy people don't have too much trouble crossing the market - at least not from pick pockets, although cat-calls may be another matter, and it takes Er'in at least considerable strength of will not to respond with anything at her command. Except for the one individual who stood too close to collapsable stand, that had an unfortunate and sudden mechanism failure.

The tapcaff Er'in ends up taking them too is picked entirely at random, with the only criteria being that it's salubrious enough they're not going to end up jumped, so they end up in a rather odd little place with a lot of brightly coloured cloths, waiters and waitresses from some planet no one has ever heard of, but who apparently specialise in exceptionally sensitive sight as a species and a clientele that consists of off-world merchant types.

They don't look all that out of place, really. The only real issue is that it's dim enough Er'in develops a tiny frown as her eyes try to compensate.

"So, I don't believe we've been properly introduced." Er'in ordered a tea that can only be described as 'firey' from the menu. "I'm Er'in Tenel." The lack of titles still felt weird, and the odd pause after she said that showed it a little.

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

Fawn tried finding the riskiest drink on the menu, but ended up going with whatever 'The Hallowed' was and hoping it wasn't too toxic to her kind. She had never heard of the name 'Tenel,' but she doubted that Er'in would have known of a name like 'Alzi' either. Some minor clan in a sea of minor clans.

"Fawn Alzi," she replied. "Born and raised on Dathomir, now I scrounge for anything that pays here in Celanon. I've come to know it all too well... Better than the higher class nobles that come to visit the lavish parts and leave without ever having a proper introduction to how fun it can truly be. Speaking of which..."

She rested her head on her raised, crossed hands as her elbows sat against the table. "You're a noble, right? You seem more than a little wealthy, at the very least. Be careful not to flaunt that kind of wealth. People like me enjoy taking advantage of that."

Fawn knew very well that what she said might scare the woman away, but it was intentional. She didn't want to waste her time with a lady who would only come to find out too late that she didn't want business with the likes of a street rat.

 

[Er'in Tenel]

Er'in laughs. "Who said I don't enjoy being taken advantage of?" Which is perhaps the boldest lie this planet has ever seen, but delivered with panache and eye contact none the less.

"Yes, I'm a noble. My full name is Pelin’a Er'in Tenel of Hapes, Acolyte to Darth Metus of Ryloth, if we're being formal."

She shrugs slightly, it's doubtful anyone but a Hapan would recognise the term 'Princess', but 'Acolyte' should translate fairly well and set the tone.

"I assure you, I'm more than capable of taking care of myself." A brief pause. "That's probably not entirely true, but anyone going for advantage might find they'd made an error."

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

With a gentle shrug, Fawn added, "I certainly wouldn't want to make any errors..." Her tone lowered then, becoming more taunting than intimidating. She didn't seem to despise this noble, which more than likely meant good things for her. A lack of loathing was, at the very least, a temporary sign that she could lower her defenses ever so slightly; just enough to gain a peak into Fawn's inner workings for those observant enough.

"And I've never heard of any Darth Metus, but then again, I've rarely ever heard of Hapes. Being raised as a witch didn't give me the greatest insight into the rest of the galaxy, I'm afraid."

 

[Er'in Tenel]

"I was about to say you hadn't missed much with Hapes, but then I remembered that was spite, revelled in it, then dismissed it."

Er'in comments honestly, which is a reasonably remarkable display for her.

"And if I were the sort to chastise errors... well, I'm sure someone would know about it."

She smiles slightly, letting her eyes flick down almost demurely, rather than following a dominant sentence with a locked gaze, then sips her tea.

"Starting from the beginning, then. Darth Metus is the Vicelord of the Confederacy of Independant Systems, a... collective of planets that chose not to be ruled by anyone else. I suppose you might call us one of the last bastions of democracy, I like to think of it as a slightly ordered anarchy. But I would. Our capital is Ryloth, but more relevant to you personally - a group of Dathomiri Witches have... established a pact with the spirits of Ryloth and created a... I don't know, an off-shoot branch of the witches? They call themselves the Mandragora. I'm... not really a member. It's a rather complex story with me refusing to have a spirit change me due to my personal beliefs, then the spirits exiling me and thus my taking on the role of the Trickster - they give me nothing for free, and ask for nothing in return. But we have a school - for Force Users, not just Mandragora, or Sith - we'd accept Jedi or anyone else who wanted to study. The only thing we really stand against is those who give themselves over to one side or another - dark side corruption may be obvious, but paragons of the light are just as unbending. No sex, I hear."

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

As Fawn was taking a sip of her blackened, warm drink, she did her best not to spit any out after hearing Er'in's closing statement. Instead of the more predictable reaction to a crude comment, Fawn was much more upset at the implications of said comment.

"No sex?" she barked. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

It might have come across as simple-minded to focus only on the one bit of information she had gleamed out of a host of more important details, but she didn't care. A deal-breaker would need to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

 

[Er'in Tenel]

Er'in almost chokes on her tea, which is... rather painful, given the spices involved.

"Uh. What?" She says with both grace and class. "Oh. Jedi. Real, pure light, old school Jedi don't allow themselves romantic or sexual relationships. Come to the dark side, we've got sex."

Her tone is half didatic, half teasing.

"Truthfully there's probably a logic to it - I'm not someone who dismisses my opposite number as not having some truths in their beliefs. But I wouldn't worry about it, I've never heard of a witch cult without sex."

[member="Fawn Alzi"]​

 

[Fawn Alzi]

She held her palm over her heart, taking a deep breath. "Right... The Jedi... Of course they would have such a policy..." She continued to sip from her cup as if she hadn't made a big deal just seconds ago. "I truly despise the Jedi, you know. Self-righteous glorified battle droids, all of them. No thinking for themselves, no feelings, no aspirations, no dreams... And they tainted so many of the Dathomirian witches, my sisters, leading them to believe that the dark magicks we were meant to use were against Allya's teachings."

Fawn crossed her arms and scowled at the thought for a moment longer, clearly letting this get to her, as if she hadn't already spent years letting it stew within her mind.