Private Shifting Sands

[Asha Sar'andor]

She gave him his time to speak, truthfully more focused on the child than him at any rate, and rolled his words around on the tip of her tongue. An honour bound slaver, seeped in the shadows of Bogan? That was a lot to unravel, wasn't it? So... At odds with one another.

"So, what, you'll release these into my custody and seek out yet more children to fill their vacancy?" Playing with fire? Perhaps a little. Her eyes lifted from the body to glance around the courtyard. There were a few different guardsmen in place, truthfully more of the bronze kind than the thugs. "You could always teach them new tricks" she remarked of his new charges. "Just because it is something they have always done doesn't mean it has to remain who they are."

That, or he could turn them in. Something told her suggesting that might be too testy, though.

She glanced across at him. "You could always make something more of this citystate. There's good money to be had in prosperity, too, not just strife."

The man asked for answers in turn, and she nodded her head once. Still trying to give most of her focus to the child. "I am Asha Hex, of the Je'daii Order," she stated, plainly. "And I am here because the families of those you saw fit to enslave requested my assistance in returning them. They have people waiting for them, homes, lives, and your enterprise seeks to smash all of that like waves against a coast. What if it was your son, or mother, or uncle? What if they were stolen up in the middle of the night? Homes ravaged, people beaten into submission... I doubt you'd stand by and let it happen."

Horrible business... Asha might even argue the worst. Of course, first hand experience likely clouded her judgement of such. She knew what it was to suffer at the whims of another.

Grundark

 

[Grundark]

He nodded almost absently as he mulled his problem over in his head. He didn't want to slave, and no matter how he rolled the problem around in his head he knew that. He knew where it would lead, and he knew the darkness inside wanted him to move in that direction. Therefore to fight it the answer was simple, he must not slave. The second question and by far the smaller he slowly admitted to himself was what to do with these slavers that were now under his command.

he could feel the fight within at all of that, many possibilities coming to mind and all of them fought down for one reason or another increasingly frustrating him. In times like this he didn't feel like his mind was his own, too much influence from the darkness he'd welcomed long ago. With a half trumpet he shook his mind and grunted at the woman and the started child.

"Je'daii? I'll have to admit to ignorance there but it by the sounds of it another fringe of the Jedi I take it? Well at least your attempting some good I suppose. As to this city the fool didn't rule it and likely wouldn't have wanted to. These people are sly tricksters and liars. Not really my type of people, and while they were his they'd never have trusted each other beyond a business arrangement. Their tribes are more honorable then the city folk, though I suppose that's true of every planet."

He ignored the jibe at the slavery of his people, it had happened before and it was deeply rooted in their memory and even their curse was a resounding result of it. Curse and a blessing he supposed, but it was a bitter pill for the young and old alike. "Well, Je'daii, I have much to attend to here. Feel free to use the compound to take care of the injured before you leave, but I warn you the locals aren't as friendly as you'd like. They profited greatly over the use of slaves for years now. If you've come to end that cycle that makes you their enemy."

Asha Vynea

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

"Not a fringe group, no" she stated, turning her head to watch as some of the more able Cathar among the group began to focus on tending to the remaining of them, cutting her work down by a significant amount in the process. "Predating, actually, both Jedi and Sith."​

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Asha turned back to him as she said that final word, looking at him rather pointedly. "Balance and moderation, those are our core principals." A slight frown, as she once again caught wind of his presence in the Force, that sickening corruption which had laid waste to much of him. Then came the honorable way in which he tried to conduct himself, how he sought to remain a man of his word, and how she could sense his displeasure at continuing on with this enterprise.​

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As he made to move, to leave her there with the soon-to-be-free slaves, Asha reached out a hand and touched his arm to try and calmly halt him. His warnings had been heeded, but for now they were not acted upon or responded to. No, the Force had other plans in mind and she felt it flow between them for a moment.​

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"It's never too late to change your path" she told him once more, though this time the words were directed toward him and not his slavers, "Your presence seems so at odds with your nature... It is not just the Cathar I can give my help to. I do not deal in extremes, I do not deal in prejudices... I can help you find your way out of the darkness. If you want it..."​

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Grundark ​

 

[Grundark]

He stopped as he felt the little hand on him his hand reaching quickly for a weapon before he stopped it. Half turning he regarded her for a moment, he had no doubt she meant it, but she also didn't understand. "Predate the Sith and Jedi eh? Next thing you'll tell me you predate the witches, though I doubt that. They're a primal lot, and as dredged into corruption as one can be, but it's ancient."

Waving a hand he made a grunt at his own comment and attempt to side step the true point of her words. "Darkness is our nature, it's our curse. I merely am fool enough, and perhaps proud enough to fall to it more then others. It's a powerful offer, and I really hate losing. I drank gladly from this cup, and I have before. You'd think I'd have grown wise enough off the first time to not do it a second, but I tried to be something I wasn't, for the right reasons even, is what's worse. Bah, listen to me ramble. I've been trying to escape this for years now, perhaps all of your life little one. I will listen to what you have to say, but this is no simple choice, my people we are truly cursed. The males at least."

Asha Vynea

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

"The original Jedi and Sith were formed of a schism," she added, "Well, they weren't called Sith back then of course... That was named for the species." She was getting off track, she knew, this wasn't the time for a full history lesson. "They broke away from the Je'daii Order, each believing that their extreme was the correct way." A dark time indeed, one which had almost torn Tython apart entirely.​

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As he spoke his piece about his clan and his predisposition toward darkness, Asha finished tending to the child who lay before her. "Tell me about this curse" she requested, and as she did so she helped the young Cathar back to her feet and then turned her head some to glance at the others. They would be ready to leave soon, she knew, they were already itching to leave.​

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Idle hands moved for the comlink she kept on her person, and before Grundark could get into the thick of it she connected back with the ship she'd borrowed to get here, or more specifically the droid aboard it. "Bring the ship toward these coordinates, Matey. Set it down on the outskirts." If what the cragmoloid had said was true, they'd need an easy out should the townsfolk prove less than willing to let them leave.​

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Then she turned her attention back to him, and waited to hear more about the difficulties he faced when it came to contending with the Darkside.​

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Grundark ​

 

[Grundark]

He listened to the short history lesson blaming himself internally for it. He didn't really care how it all happened, that didn't matter any longer in his mind, the now was the important part. Of course then he had to admittedly rethink that as she asked him for a history lesson. Perhaps some things did have to be examined in the past in order to see it in the now. The curse wasn't something discussed outside of the herd, but if Grandfather said this was the path to follow, so be it.

His foot unconsciously tapped out a beat as he started to speak a story many generations old now. It was told many times in his youth, by song, dance and even images. One time an ancestor had even blessed them with the telling. "Long ago when our planet's spirit was strong and healthy we were visited by a great evil an ancient empire of self righteous order. It descended upon our world like a vulture, digging at the planet and enslaving our people. We fought but our hides were no match for their weapons of light. The dug so deep they wounded the very planet injuring her spirit. That was too much for our people and we rebelled again casting the Empire off our home. In time the greatmother may have recovered, but another came too soon after. They poisoned her wounded spirit with darkness, and took our tribe away deep under the ground as slaves. It was there that the curse was given to us. Experiments in the deep poisoned our herd's very soul and blood, rage unending became our burden. So it is that every male leaves the herd once they've reached adulthood. To travel the stars and find peace in our souls so that we may go back home one day, and rejoin the herd. Most are lost though, but still we hope and dream they will return again one day."

Almost like a trance he stopped as he felt an old would deep in his spirit remembered. His great ears wilted before he shuddered and pushed it away. "That is our curse little Je'daii."

Asha Vynea

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

As he spoke of his curse, Asha listened without interruption.​

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Her mind began to piece it all together, an inherent draw toward the darkside and corruption paired with an odyssey out among the stars, away from the tribe, in order to find some semblance of peace. It seemed as though he had fallen to the trappings of his clan, and that like many others he could not see a way out of the darkness. How many other lost Cragmoloids belonging to his clan had there been? Was there, even, among the stars?​

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"All is not lost for you" she finally deduced, head tilting slowly to one side as she regarded him. Despite all that had happened to bring them to this point, the Force flowed between them now and a sense of duty arose within her. "There is a way out of the darkness, a path to lead you back home, should you will it. But it will not be easy, and it will not be immediate. If you're willing to put in the time, however... I offer you my assistance. As I say, my people walk a path of balance and moderation. You do not have to align yourself with the Jedi in order to find redemption and peace. You do not have to align yourself with any sect..."​

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Pushing herself up from the ground with a small huff of effort, having exhausted herself healing the wounded, she peered up at him. "You may seek me out, should you will it, in the Kathol Rift. A place known as Tribunal Station. It will take you some time to reach it, however. Would you prefer somewhere more remote, I can offer you my com details. I'm sure you can understand that my priority right now is returning these people to their home, and thus I cannot stay to begin."​

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Her head turned, and she observed the slaves. Most were back on their feet, with any luck the ship would arrive soon.​

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"But if you call for me, or if you approach the Station, I will do all I can to set you on the path you require."​

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Grundark ​