Private Not of Any World

[Efret Farr]

Engine combustion may have propelled the starship that had brought the former Jedi master to Kaas City, but it was whispers—unheard but still heeded—that had led her into the Thandon Nebula.

Something had happened on Brosi not too long ago, something that could have cost the Sith Order their control of all of Thandon. The defense of a keystone in the Order's resistance at the Treptel spaceport, the Rainmaker cannon battery, had temporarily slipped as infighting broke out on one of the platforms. Those stationed there were lucky that the lapse, albeit short, hadn't been consequential to the whole effort. It could have been devastating for all Sith, but instead the brunt of that affect had come down on three apprentices and a handful of other souls that had been unfortunate enough to witness the confusing carnage.

Force Empathy panged dully against her chest. More than the rain and wind kept her natural ability to feel others' emotions numbed; selective apathy still coursed through her veins, leftover from the Gungan Sacred Place where she succumbed to Shadows. Her fall had shifted her focus from a majority being spent caring for others and whatever was left being devoted to her own wellbeing vice versa. Even still, her Empathy clawed at her like a dying animal desperate to survive for all those involved, but especially for one Aerik Lechner.

He was the one she was here to find.

If the rumors were to be believed, and intuition told Efret that they were, Lord Lechner's cub had transformed amidst the battle and likewise turned against his allies. The reason was yet undetermined, at least publicly, but Efret strongly suspected that consequences for the incident would be harsh regardless of its truth. So she needed to get to him before the Order's Inquisitors or whoever they sent to do the job did.

Other words rippling uneasily through the Sith Order enough to reach the Covenant were that the younger Lechner hadn't become a simple Lupo like his father, but something else entirely. Some described whatever it was as demonic.

Sith of any variety didn't use that epithet lightly. They feared nothing but death, dreaded nothing but the beings that dwelt beyond the pale, were truly terrorized by nothing by the promise that their horrific legacies would not follow them into the Netherworld.

If any of Sith said that Aerik was a demon, then he was a demon. That was all the proof she needed.

A faint ache had settled behind her eyes as she reached a large square in the southwestern district of the cite. She drew underneath an apartment building's wide awning to claim a reprieve from the ever-present drizzle. Heat radiated off her skin, raising goosebumps in its wake. A small, relieving sigh left her. Her eyes were drawn to the three stone obelisks reaching towards the gloomy sky out of a landscaped mound of earth like the hand of a rising dead man.

Force Sight was not nearly the same as the physical sight that Nirrah had shared with Efret. It was monochromatic, for one; for two, fine detail was lost entirely; and, for three, depth perception was difficult to infer; but this monument was already known to her. She didn't need Nirrah to lend her sharp eyes to know what the base's inscription read from here. This was the Monument to Lord Ergast, the discoverer of the Force Walk technique and first Sith Lord to be buried on this planet.

The Efret of months ago, years ago, decades ago, wouldn't have cowered away from the memorial. She would have been honored to see it, in fact, a piece of Sith history—but there wasn't a drop of that sentiment in her now. Instead, it was somewhat dissociated acknowledgement. It was here and so too she happened to be.

Aerik Lechner​

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Efret Farr​

The storm over Kaas City never broke. It hung low over the skyline, steady rain falling without pause and turning the durasteel walkways slick beneath passing traffic. Lightning moved behind the clouds in slow, measured pulses. It was constant and unchanging, part of the world rather than something that demanded attention.

Aerik had not intended to come this far into the city. He had not chosen a direction, and there had been no moment where he decided to leave the main thoroughfares behind. He had walked, and the city changed around him without resistance. Familiar districts gave way to quieter ones, and the movement itself lost importance somewhere along the way.

He stopped at the edge of the square without thinking about it. There was no reason to pause that he could point to, and no shift in the environment that required it. The decision did not feel like one he made. It simply happened, and he accepted it without examining it further.

Three obelisks stood at the center of the plaza, their dark stone rising straight through the rain. At a distance, there was nothing remarkable about them. They were solid, fixed, and unadorned in any way that would draw attention from the rest of the city. What stood out was the space around them. The square did not feel like an extension of Kaas. It felt set apart, as if the rest of the city had been built around it instead of through it.

Aerik stepped forward and crossed into the square at a steady pace. His boots moved across the wet stone without hesitation until he came to a stop within the open space. Rain gathered along his cloak and traced down the fabric in thin, steady lines, but he did not react to it or adjust his stance.

Nothing changed when he stopped. There was no visible shift in the air, no movement from the monument, and no surge of power that marked the moment. If anything had altered, it was not something that could be seen.

The change came from within. It began along his spine, faint enough that it could have been mistaken for the cold. The sensation moved inward and settled without building into anything sharper. It did not press or demand attention. It corrected. Something in him that had been slightly out of place aligned itself without effort and without instruction.

Aerik did not question it. He kept his gaze on the obelisks, not because they explained the feeling, but because there was nothing else that did. They were stone, set into the ground long before he arrived, and yet the space they occupied carried weight that did not come from their construction.

This place had been chosen for something. He did not know what that purpose had been, and the absence of that knowledge did not bother him. Whatever had been done here had not faded. Whatever remained did not resist him.

The rest of the city felt distant by comparison. The usual pressure of Kaas, the presence of people, movement, and intent, dropped away at the edges of the square. It did not disappear, but it no longer pressed in on him. The separation was too clean to be natural, leaving space where there should not have been any.

Aerik stood within that space without shifting his stance or adjusting for the rain. The stillness did not require effort, and it did not demand focus. It existed on its own, and he remained in it because there was no reason to leave.

Time passed without being measured. There was no clear point where the moment changed, only a gradual shift in awareness as something new entered the edge of his perception. It did not break the stillness or disrupt the space. It moved through it, distinct enough to separate itself from the rest of the city.

Aerik did not turn immediately. He recognized that someone had stepped into the square, close enough to register but not close enough to challenge him. That alone made them stand apart from everything else beyond the perimeter.

He remained facing forward for a moment longer. There was no urgency in the decision to acknowledge it. Whatever had drawn him to the square had not changed, and it did not weaken with the presence of another.

Then he turned his head.

His gaze moved from the obelisks to the edge of the square and settled on the figure beneath the awning. There was no tension in his posture and no outward sign of curiosity or concern. He took in what he needed to see without expression.

She was a stranger.

The distance between them remained, stretched across rain-slick stone with the monument at his back. Aerik did not move toward her, and he did not step away. He held his position without hesitation, as if there had never been another option.

Whatever had brought him there remained.

 

[Efret Farr]

Efret knew who she was looking for by name and by reputation, but not by face. She had looked at holopicture of him before leaving the Core, but it hadn't been very helpful. Miraluka had an unbelievably strong command of Force Sight, so much so that the quality of the power could be very similar to ocular sight, or so Efret had learned over time. Very few individuals of other species could match the natural affinity of the Miraluka, for they had evolved with and adapted to using the Force in this matter over countless generations.

Efret was emphatically not one of those very few. Force Sight functioned for her like it did for a majority of non-Miraluka users: it wasn't real sight, but it was far better than nothing.

Everything was a shade of tan in degrees of opacity. It could be hard to tell what, or who, was in a room with the viewer or behind the far wall. Making out facial features was almost impossible but, luckily for Efret, she could still understand people when they spoke. Most of her ability to understand language came from the Force rather than lipreading. Still, she had to be looking at someone, and reading lips was a habit from before mastering Comprehend Speech that she hadn't left behind.

So she had no idea that the man she sought was standing across the empty square, looking at her.

She stepped back into the Dromund Kaas welcome and began moving across the slippery cobbles. Just before she set down each of her feet, warmth radiated out of the heels of her boots onto the stone. The water evaporated away, allow her to traverse safely. As she walked on, she slipped a hand out of her robe.

"Hello."

Her hand waved in a single and small movement. Sound came too, but not out of her mouth. It was tinny and monotoned like a feminine-programmed protocol droid's voice, plus slightly muffled.

"Are you a local?"

Her second hand joined in making more movements with the first. The mysterious voice came again with another question. It sounded like it was coming from her neck area. Perhaps she had a vocabulator underneath her robe.

She drew closer to him all the while.

"Do you ever get used to the weather?"

Aerik Lechner​

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Efret Farr​

Aerik watched as the stranger moved in his direction. For some reason, he could not pull his eyes from her. The Force was drawing his attention to the woman for a reason he had not yet been able to understand. There had been another moment like this when the pup was younger, when he had followed Leven into a place on Jutrand few knew existed, pulled onward by something he had not been able to name. This obelisk was different. It stood in the open for any citizen of Kaas to pass beneath, visible and familiar to the city around it, yet the pull carried something of that same quiet insistence.

Rain moved over stone and durasteel in steady sheets, running from rooftops and ledges before gathering in dark channels along the streets. Traffic continued in distant currents beyond the square, muted by weather and the weight of the city itself. Above them, the storm pressed low over the towers of Kaas, and lightning rolled behind the clouds often enough to cast pale flashes over the skyline. The obelisks cut through it all without movement.

He let the woman come to him.

Her dark hair lay flat where the rain weighed it down, strands clinging to her face and shoulders. A smile almost betrayed that he found her question humorous. She clearly had not spent much time on Dromund Kaas before, and the inquiry had given her away.

“Eventually,” he answered.

The word carried a dry irony the world often inspired.

What struck him next was the mechanical quality of her voice. It was unusual enough to hold his attention until realization followed. It was not truly her voice at all, but a device giving sound to what she could not speak herself. Her signing made that plain.

Instead of answering her other questions right away, Aerik lifted a hand and pointed toward the palace from which he had come. The dark tower loomed over the city even through rain and distance, rising above the skyline as if the storm itself had formed around it. It was less a palace than a monument to the Dark Lord who occupied it, vast in scale and impossible to ignore from nearly any quarter of the city. For the moment, it was Aerik’s home as well.

His thoughts lingered there only briefly. For a moment he wondered whether the woman had come seeking an audience with his master. If that were her purpose, though, would she not have already gone there rather than standing in a public square questioning strangers in the rain?

A different question came to mind.

If she could not speak, could she hear?

Aerik did not know. He knew no sign language beyond fragments. Universal translators could bridge spoken tongues, but they did not teach the language of hands. What little movement he understood had come from Quinn Varanin when she instructed him in the Echani arts and in the silent communication woven through them. He doubted he would ever be fluent, but he had learned enough to observe how small motions carried meaning and how hesitation could reveal as much as speech.

Hers were interesting.

Whatever she was on Dromund Kaas for, it was not his master. The thought settled easily, supported less by what she had asked than by the way she carried herself.

“Are you on a pilgrimage of some kind?” he asked, allowing the more inquisitive part of his mind to take hold.

The question came easier than he expected.

There was no reason to hide behind stoicism here, not in the middle of a storm that concealed as much as it revealed. Rain obscured expression, softened edges, and turned every glance more difficult to read. It gave cover in its own way. Anything withheld could be blamed on distraction, on weather, or on the constant pull of a city that never seemed fully at rest.

That suited him well enough.

And still, despite the rain falling between them and the storm gathering overhead, his attention remained fixed on the stranger before him. Something had drawn him to this square. He was beginning to suspect it had not been the monument alone.

 

[Efret Farr]

It became evident soon enough that it wasn't a problem that he wasn't fluent in Galactic Basic Sign Language. The whole time he spoke she looked on, or at least tried to. Her gaze was not quite connected to his. Instead, it hovered at his lips.

Behind her eyes, she seemed distant, but not cold like the downpour they stood together in. "Depending on your definition," she replied. It was a pilgrimage of sorts, though more of a cultural introduction than a religious devotional. She didn't know if the Dark side was for her, not entirely. She was open to it now that she realized how unsupported the Light's embrace had made her feel. How unfulfilled.

She also somehow felt less alone on Sith worlds, even when conversing with a stranger, than she ever had in recent memory in Republic or Alliance territory with friends.

"I'm also looking for someone."

She busied her hand before she could say anything more, rearranging her cloak. If she was still a Jedi, talking with another, she would have been direct in sharing her purpose, but she had to be cautious here. One misstep might cost her more than she was willing to pay.

Aerik Lechner​

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Efret Farr​

Her pilgrimage was not the one he thought it was. That was an interesting answer. Aerik supposed she was correct, and it made the young pup wonder what other sorts of reasons one could find to journey to Dromund Kaas. The planet itself was not a tourist destination by any stretch of the imagination. Rain, lightning, and wind, ensured the conditions were not the kinds most looked for when traveling for leisure. If she was on the planet, the dark haired woman had a reason to be.

The answer came shortly after. She was looking for someone. That would explain the sort of pilgrimage she was on. Was this person lost? Did she seek revenge? Was she owed a sum of credits that needed to be repaid?

Aerik allowed his mind to wander about the myriad of reasons she could be looking for someone. The fact she seemed to be looking for someone at the obelisk, however, that left him coming up short once more. It was an object of power and mystery to be sure, but there were even fewer reasons to approach it than he could name for searching out an individual.

“Who are you looking for? Maybe I might know them.”

The pup did not suppose to know everyone on the planet, but if they passed through the palace of his master there was a good chance he could help. Aerik made it his business to be familiar with those who sought an audience with Darth Prazutis. Not all of them came with well intentions. Many wanted him dead, but lacked the skill or strength necessary to see the job done. Others wanted favors from him, or a blessing of some sort.

He watched the woman’s eyes for a moment, noticing that she watched his lips. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as he started to put those pieces of the puzzle together. She was not only mute, but deaf as well. At least she was good at reading lips. Aerik would not be able to communicate with her otherwise, not without pressing his mind past whatever mental barriers she may have in place.

“I’m Aerik Lechner. Darth Prazutis is my master. I am certain we can help you find whoever it is you are looking for.”

 

[Efret Farr]

She was about to answer him until he introduced himself.

"You already have," she said. Water continued to fall on and flow over her hand, dripping off her fingers and the side of her palms. Splotches matching the reddish brown of the henna drawn over the backs of her bloomed over her skin. The movement of signing was staving it off in short bursts, but the cold was overtaking her appendages. "I was looking for you."

Her hands tucked between the front folds of her cloak as she watched his reply, as well as any reaction on his face, however small.

Lorrdians were the best readers of body language in the galaxy. For that, she didn't even need Force Empathy to be able to tell what someone was feeling, though her understanding would be more superficial.

Aerik Lechner​