Sticks and Stones

[Kaili Talith]

The engine hummed as the lights by the viewport shimmered by and ripped at your sight like it always did in hyperspace. Kaili remained seated by the window, hugging her knees for comfort with as the tiniest sense of uneasiness or quite possibly fear ran through her veins. Ships were still something she didn’t see eye to eye with. Perhaps a bit ironic for someone who had decided to dedicate their life to become a Warden of the Sky, but there was a distinct difference between uneasiness and actual raw fear. The uneasiness was easy enough to control and contain, the initial panic anxiety and fear for ships had not been. Kaili hated to admit it, but this was the first time since a very long while back that she felt the tingling slither of fear throughout her body.

She was on her own. If something was to happen now, if the ship malfunctioned and crashed she wouldn’t have anything or anyone to ask for help. Well, nobody else but Henry, but he had never been created with the means to navigate ships properly. Espionage and sabotage, that was his forté. That and friendship.

Kaili looked at her little spider droid as it remained in hibernation. The little thing was still plugged into the socket. Charging his battery for the adventures that were sure to transpire once they landed on Kilia IV. A mysterious message had been sent to Kaili yet the sender remained anonymous. But, it had been through the brat pack’s frequency, the one she had reserved for messages that were for the group to send between another. There were only a dozen of people who had access to that, and a majority of them she knew to not be...

Well, she didn’t want to brag and say she was the best in the group at electronics and appliances, but she very much did consider herself as such. Whether it held merit or not was up for discussion, but even Kaili had to get herself a fancy title after all.

Even if said title made her seem like your average HoloMart appliances clerk.

Which, also, wasn’t too far from the truth. A girl had to make a living, right?

The ship cleared into realspace and Kaili wasted no time to approach the cockpit. A droid pilot, not made by her, had long since taken the controls around here.

“Set us down by these co-ordinates.” Kaili said and handed the datapad to the droid. “I have no idea where, what or why. Just do it.”

“Roger.” Came the stiff electronic sound of a droid’s voice. “Landing at: 59.025292, 18.210821.”

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Kilia IV was functionally a pre-technological world (post-technological in a technical sense). The coordinates led to a remote plateau, where Kaili's descent wouldn't have been noticed by the locals. Civilization on Kilia IV was largely confined to a single massive valley, surrounded by far-flung settlements in lesser valleys.

When Mara had first come here, her father had insisted she take his blockade runner, the Bullet Time. The microcorvette was hidden much closer to civilization, but its sensors had given enough forewarning that Mara could get to the plateau in fairly short order. She had not, however, taken a speeder. Transportation around here was by pulka. Mara's pulka was a spirited pale mare, a gift from Lord Adelar Tionc, whose tumbledown castle wasn't far off. She'd brought another pulka, a dun mare, saddlebags packed with the Jem Wyzen holocron and warm local clothes. Very warm. Most of Kilia IV was mountain range.

Mara got off her pulka at the top of the plateau and surveyed the ship with a grin. She reached out through the Force to touch Kaili's mind.

Brought your ride, Kai.

 

[Kaili Talith]

The loading ramp opened up and just like that the ship was flooded by something Kaili had almost forgotten about. Cold temperatures. Sullust was warm, Borleias was a tropical paradise and space was warm enough if you had the correct luxuries installed on your ship. A shiver ran down the girl’s spine and she quickly huddled up to keep her body warmth from sinking far too low. Arms crossed she took the second step down the ramp only to see she had landed on top of some sort of mesa, perhaps? Something big, something with a cliff. Something that would let her see mountains and even more mountains next to another pair of mountains next to another pair of...

Well, that one was about as repetitive as a data loop. A data loop that was broken by telepathy.

Brought your ride, Kai.

That voice.

That freaking voice.

In an instant the cold wasn’t as horrible anymore. It obviously still tugged and bit for each breeze that passed, but what did that matter when Kaili was about to meet Mara-freaking-Merrill? The hospitalized-and-please-to-the-force-say-she-got-my-messages [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"].

“No way.” Kaili would exclaim with uncontrollable excitement and joy. “NofreakingwayIthoughtyouweren’toutyetohmy-”

Deep breath.

Mara! You’re here! You’re actually out, and you are here!

... Where is ‘here?’

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]'s surprise and excitement rolled over Mara's empathic nature like a chinook arch. Mara touched a gloved hand to her temple, concentrating. Telepathy, with large chunks of actual words, was tricky. Even between people with a Force bond; even at short range. At long range, it came down to moments of extremity and the will of the Force. She'd been working on short-range bonds to leverage the Wyzen holocron's teacings, but that was very short range.

Kilia Four. Forgotten colony world. It's been medieval for a few thousand years. After this place was rediscovered about eight centuries ago, people came here for tourism or as reenactors or just looking for a simpler life. When the Gulag Plague hit, all the offworlders had to get accustomed to local ways of living for real. Not all of them survived.

I've been here trying to centre myself. She led the pulkas into the lee of the ship, away from the driving snow, and they whuffled in appreciation she could feel. This place has a very old chivalric, defensive Force tradition, the Kilian Rangers. I've been... 'Learning from them' wasn't all of it. Local politics could be complex and brutal. As she came up to Kaili, Mara decided on words.

"...I've been living in their world. Looking to understand." She indicated the spear and round shield strapped to her saddle, then snagged Kaili in a hug.

 

[Kaili Talith]

Kilia Four. It wasn’t exactly the first place Kaili would imagine people go to find a center. Tourists really seemed to like Borleias and it’s tropical climate, others went to the true extremes like Hoth and Tattooine, but not Mara. Mara had instead chosen to go to the most pre-technological society she could find and make something out of it. Or well, that was what Kaili would assume. Her friend didn’t seem like the kind to go somewhere and just be, that was the stuff that normal people did and the people that Kaili tended to associate herself with was without a doubt anything but. They had Micah, the tree hugging alchemist. They had Laura whose father, and pretty soon Laura as well, was one of the best fighters in the galaxy.

No, Mara was here for more than one reason, probably, Kaili just didn’t know what it was yet. With time it would probably show itself, yet as much as Kaili would love to ponder it she simply couldn’t. The ensnarement of hugs prevented it and Kaili was not exactly going to resist the urge to squeeze the life out of Mara in return.

“I have missed you.” The ecstatic little Talith would openly admit as she let go of her friend. “Did you get my messages?”

“I mean, I sent a bunch of them, but I assume you got them?”

Status updates mainly. Who was doing what, where was something going on. It had come to a drastic slowdown for reasons Kaili hadn’t really shared, but it was clear enough to anyone who hung out with her that the events from the crash was still affecting her deeply. Only difference now was perhaps that she was starting to eat, talk and could sleep without constant nightmares.

But Kaili could talk about that later.

Or never, never was good too.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"] got released, and Mara rubbed at her face against the chill. She'd had to acquire some skill with the old Jedi ability called tapas -- regulating body temperature in extremis -- in order to spend time in the mountains. Wyzen's autobiography mentioned it at length. Even so, the climate was unforgiving, same went for the wind, and Kaili's ship was looking really good right about now. The pulkas were used to the chill, but they still nestled up against the warm ship, sheltering from the wind. She'd need to get them some food and see to their shelter if she was going to remain on the plateau for any length of time.

All that to say, it took Mara a while to realize that the general tenor of dark thoughts wasn't coming from her for once.

"I got'em," she said, "eventually. Comm relays go down a lot in this part of Wild Space, and where I've been, there's no tech. Kept a comm hidden for emergencies. I've got people, back at the castle and in the Bullet Time where it's hidden, and the folks in the ship didn't want to read your messages." She rubbed her face again and tucked her hands into her armpits. "You doing all right, Kai?"

 

[Kaili Talith]

A sigh of relief had the air around her steam up in the cold weather. A worried shot forth between the young Talith and the mounts that her friend had brought with her. Tall as her ship seemed to be there were doubts whether they would all fit within the confines of the vessel in which they all huddled up for small measures of warmth. The look strayed between Mara, the pulkas and the mountains at the horizon.

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for asking.” Kaili feigned the same smile as always. “How far away is this homestead of yours? I doubt we could stay here much longer.”

False alarm on the intentions of the question, hopefully. Part of Kaili had already seen Mrs. Wali in her seat. Legs crossed, notebook in hand and with the eternally gracious blazer-and-skirt combination that wouldn’t be disassociated with the somewhat stiff upper-class people of Borleias. As much as Kaili didn’t really consider her to be part of it, there was no denying that her parents had spared no expenses at helping their daughter get better. In the end it all boiled down to whether the daughter co-operated with her therapist or not.

Now that was a whole different matter.

Unwilling to forgive herself, a bit more of a cynic compared to before. Kaili had changed much like everyone else in the Brat Pack since Mara had last met Kaili. Though, of course, not all had changed. The youngest Talith had merely wrapped a shroud around herself to deject everyone around her. Deep down she was still very curious, very obedient when it came to authority, but she kept to herself. Her therapist encouraged her to break that pattern, of course, but what did a pencil pusher know about the kind of losses Kaili had suffered?

Not much.

“I should get changed.” Kaili was still faking her smile. “Mother once told me hypothermia and frostbite is one of those things I should try to avoid.”

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Mara was a Zeltron's daughter by blood and a Lorrdian's daughter by choice, and there'd been a time when she and Kaili's Force bond had been fairly strong. Those bonds didn't vanish, even if forgotten or rejected. And though Kaili was a Lorrdian's child herself, capable of hiding pain well, Mara got the distinct feeling there was more going on than the surface revealed. She'd press Kaili again, sometime later. In the meantime, if Mara's own tragedies had taught her one thing, it was that some forms of healing required action, not just speech. And Kilia IV offered the former in quantity. That, in the end, was why Mara had lingered so long.

"Here we go," she said, opening a saddlebag and pulling out a few bundles. "Very warm, good-wicking clothes in local fabric and cut. Between these and some decent tapas -- you know tapas, right? I forget -- we'll get to the castle safe enough without being taken for outlanders. I've kept to clothes like these, me and my people, since we got here. Learned the language, learned to use the Force to fill in the gaps, made enough connections to get the lay of the land, and now I can pass for a local. There's a knife and a sword, if you want either one; I don't carry my lightsabre on this planet. So far as most of Kilia Four is concerned, the outside galaxy is either a myth or a tired old bit of history. I prefer to keep it that way."

 

[Kaili Talith]

“Of course I do.” Kaili feigned a well-rehearsed chuckle and accepted the clothes for change. “Give me a few to put this on. Enjoy the warmth while you can, am I right?”

Kaili turned on her heel and marched for the small living quarters of the ship. In passing motion she turned on Henry whose photoreceptors began blinking, much like a newly awoken kid. Stretching her legs he gave off a hazy stare in the direction in Kaili’s before noticing she was in the middle of getting dressed. Rapid clangs called out within the compact apartment. The droid had turned away in shame. Kaili chuckled once more -- albeit an actual chuckle -- as she straightened the rather unusual tunic around her waist in the hopes of making it flatten out and make it just a little bit more comfortable .

“That’s okay, Henry.” She chuckled again. “It’s not the first time.”

< “You really ought to give me more of a warning the next time.” > There was no mistaking the irritation in Henry’s voice modulator.

“Yeah, yeah. Activate protocol A3-13, you prude.” Kaili snickered and patted the droid on top of it’s chassis.

A few seconds passed before Henry deadpanned. < “It would have been far easier to just say guard duty, you know.” >

Kaili grinned. “Yeah, yeah. I am heading out for a bit. It is of vital importance that you don’t let anyone into the ship and keep it concealed, okay?”

The robot blinked. < “Of course, where are you going?” >

“Don’t know. We’ll see.” The owner shrugged.

With the final piece of clothing finally clinging to her body Kaili withdrew the saber from her belt. She wasn’t sure if she truly wanted to leave it behind, but considering what Mara had said about the primitive nature of the entire planet there was good reason for her to leave it behind. She looked to Henry before extending her arm in great hesitation to place the saber underneath the droid’s stomach to allow it to grapple onto it.

“I am going to leave this with you.” She gave him a most serious staredown. “Guard it with your life.”

< “Oh yes, because if they take the ship at least you can live knowing you still have your lightsaber, miss.” >

Kaili tilted her head ever so slightly towards the droid. He knew what that meant. More frequent maintenance, which in turn meant more time spent shut down. What a nightmare!

< “You got it, boss! Anything for you!” >

“Glad to hear it.”

With that Kaili gave her droid a casual salute and went back out to Mara again. New clothes garnering her back -- as well as front, arms, legs and head -- she patted her friend on the shoulder.

“I’ll take that knife.” She pointed her index finger at her hip which was protruding crudely towards her friend. No saber in sight there. “Keeping it local, just like you wanted.”

“Anyway,” Kaili straightened her back and turned towards the pulka. “You were saying something about riding one of these to your...”

“Wait a minute.” Kaili paused and turned back towards Mara as if she’d had the most wonderful revelation. “Castle? You have a freaking castle, Mara?”

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Mara handed over the knife and tucked the spare sword through her belt. Once she warmed up and they took the pulkas back outside, she'd put it with the shield and spear on her saddle. "I wouldn't say I have a castle -- there's an arrangement, and I almost got burned as a witch, and there's a whole lot of local politics and inheritance issues... But yeah. I have a castle."

It was a wreck, huge and frigid, located down through the mountains by a lake shore. Pointed turrets, high parapets, far more than her small retinue could handle. Still, their claim was decent, they'd set up shop, and people were turning to them and their allies for protection and so forth. She hadn't meant to get tied down here.

Then again, maybe she had.

"Castle Miriamele, down by the lake. Weather's better there. I've got...a lot of people for you to meet. People I brought with me, and locals -- allies and friends and family."

Between tapas and the ship's internal temperature, Mara was feeling pretty good heat-wise. "Shall we?"

 

[Kaili Talith]

Burned as a witch. Kaili didn’t need to read too deep between the lines to understand what that one could have been all about. The force had a way with the unprepared. It scared some, delighted others -- though mainly kids -- yet overall the galaxy as a whole seemed to have fallen into an uncomfortable kind of apathy towards it all. Kaili could only dream what it was like a thousand years ago when they walked around in robes and did Jedi stuff, to meet Jedi back in those days must have been a special kind of terror. Or at least so Kaili could muse for herself, the fact was most likely that just like anything else related to Jedi and Sith, not much had changed since forever and nothing probably ever would either.

“Certainly,” Kaili grinned before mocking a bow. Hand rolling in front of her, back arching forward. “My Lady Merrill.”

Even the most depressed amongst people could crack the wackiest of jokes. It helped sometimes.

“So, just to be clear, when you say ‘medieval’ do you mean ancient-ancient-medieval or Anakin Skywalker-medieval?” Kaili got on her mount. “I am guessing ancient-ancient here, right?”

A slightly worried look went for the back of her mount’s head. All things considered Kaili was the black sheep of the family when it came to the affinity for these things. Micah loved animals, Maleah certainly loved animals and Aela had her animals too. Meanwhile Kaili had her droid, her hydrospanner and a billion scrap parts plus electronics at her disposal. Needless to say she was hesitant to get going.

“Please don’t make me fall off.” A solemn promise for the pulka to keep. Hopefully.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

A grin played around Mara's face. "Decent curtsey. I'll be sure to teach you the local version before you meet anyone too important. As for what kind of medieval we're talking...well, let's put it this way: that knife's not a vibroblade. Matter of fact, it was smelted and hammered out of bog iron. My sword's better -- a strip of starship hull a millennium old, ground down to size. All the old electronics are dead, everything's been buried by time or scavenged to pieces, but bits of metal stick around. I think my shield's desh-terenthium, another piece of something old turned into something else over and over again.

"So yeah, this place is the genuine article. Hand-dug latrines, no indoor plumbing, no water purifiers. I've got full-spectrum antibiotic regimens for you, both to keep you from getting the local bugs and from killing the entire planet with a common Corulag cold." An exaggeration, but not by much. First Contact 101: isolated populations had their own immunities and lack thereof." She got on her pulka as the hatch closed, patting the pale mare's neck. "Don't worry. I figured you might be a first-time rider, so yours is a good steady mare. She knows the mountain trails pretty well. Just don't get too nervous at the second cliff and she won't smell your fear."

She set off into the dim evening light, down the side of the plateau.

 

[Kaili Talith]

Kaili had to just not get scared of heights. She could do that, hopefully. The pulka pulled unexpectedly towards Mara as she set off and Kaili tried her best to not fall down from her mount after being caught completely off-guard. She stabilized herself on the creature’s back as it slowly jumped up and down rather ungracefully if they had to be put in comparison to the rather sudden yet newfound elegance and appreciation for regular land speeders.

A wary look went for the ship. She wasn’t leaving just her home, she was leaving her saber as well. It was doubly terrifying in it’s own kind of way, but Kaili was certainly willing to put her complete faith and trust in Mara.

She turned back around to look at Mara’s back. The wind bit at Kaili’s cheeks but the clothing worn provided her with some comfort. The rest she was able to afford herself with the force. She wasn’t a master by any means when it came to ‘tapas’ but she knew how to do it. The goal was to keep it balanced, or so she told herself. There was no telling how close this castle of Mara’s was.

Besides, the view wasn’t all that terrible from up here.

Still, Kaili wanted to get indoors as fast as possible.

“I have to say, judging by the description of this place, I already miss technology.” She looked over her shoulder. The ship had long since crawled out of sight from either of them. “My ship is fine up here, right? Worst case, they just strip it for parts?”

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

"No, they don't come up here. This plateau's cursed."

Such was the reputation, anyway, though Mara had been over it and found no serious Force resonance or hint of lurking menace -- corporeal or incorporeal. Digging deeper, she'd learned from Lord Adelar Tionc -- the closest thing to a mentor she'd found here -- that a great betrayal had taken place here. So the term curse was something of a misnomer, an inexact application of a Basic word. More like the opposite of hallowed ground.

She explained this, telling the story to Kaili as they left the plateau behind via cliffside trails. Even after months on Kilia IV, Mara felt her gut clench and her breath snag as the pulkas took them along the edge of a thousand-foot precipice. The light was growing dim, but the surefooted pulkas never set a foot wrong. She put her focus on controlling her fear, calming her own body's reactions, and listening to the Force. The Force offered peace, and a sense of the future.

"It's the same as instinctive astrogation," she called back over her shoulder. "Feel which what you're supposed to go, and you'll know the pulkas are taking the right route. It'll help with the height."

 

[Kaili Talith]

“Okay, good.” Kaili took a deep breath before the air was knocked out of her lungs once more. “Good.”

Kaili still wasn’t getting along with her pulka as she kept on popping up and down upon the saddle’s surface. For each repeated hit of the saddle Kaili grew more and more irritated. Each hit made it feel all the more obvious that animal husbandry was a soon-to-be extinct art form to be replaced by the nice and cold speeders and-

No, that wasn’t really fair. One look at the side of the pulkas head brought a smile to Kaili's lips. They were kind of cute though, weren’t they? Yes, maybe it was simply the saddles that had to be fixed. Gyroscopic functions to be calculated for. For a second the young Talith’s mind began wandering off, much like her attention. From the side of the mount’s head to the actual side of the mount and what she saw wasn’t what she had expected. A gasp sounded off for a moment as right in front of Kaili’s eyes were a descent far steeper than she had imagined.

She centered herself, or at least tried to. Instinctive astrogation, go with your gut. Calm down, Kaili.

The girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. With a sharp exhale she opened up once more to let her gut handle the thinking part, for now.

Here was just hoping that they would be getting away from the steep cliffs very soon. Surely, there had to be safer climates and terrains to venture forth on, right?

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

In due time, late evening came around and the trail descended through a narrow pass. It turned sharply, slipping down a mountainside to meander through foothills. From here, you could see the firelights of villages all across the near side of the great valley. The valley was the size of a small continent, the core of Kilian civilization, home to multiple kingdoms. Moonlight glinted on the nearest lake. Mara drew up her pulka on a promontory with a clear view out to the east. The shadows of the mountains stretched out before them, reaching a dozen klicks or more.

"Down there," she said, perhaps unnecessarily, as Kaili pulled up beside her. She pointed at a jagged shape at the lake's edge. "That's Miriamele. My people are there -- my public relations manager, an Underground squad with expertise in pre-technological civilizations and combat techniques, and some local allies."

She chewed her lip for a while, then shrugged. If she couldn't trust Kaili, who could she trust? "And, uh, my aunt."

 

[Kaili Talith]

Eyes traced along the gloved hand that pointed down towards the valley and for the first time in a long time Kaili allowed herself to look down at the landscape below. She caught sight of the jagged castle below and the shimmering moonlight at the surface of the lake. A spontaneous sigh of relief forced Kaili’s lips to part. It was a momentary spot of bliss, but in that very short moment of spontaneous relief it was easy to see why Mara had decided to stay here.

“Your... Aunt?” Kaili asked in surprise as she arched her brow.

The two women continued along their way down the mountain ridge. The road offered a moment for it, and Kaili seized it. The two pulkas aligned side by side and Kaili turned towards her friend. For a second she pondered what to do, or rather what to ask.

Only one thing came to mind.

“I don’t think you’ve mentioned her before.” Kaili paused for a second as she scrunched her nose for a quick scratch. “What’s she like?”

“Is she as eccentric as that other Merrill I know?”

Which was just Mara, come to think of it. Kaili had never met Mara’s parents. Not once.

Huh.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

"Oh, I thought you knew. My aunt's Rave Merrill, the alchemist, the Nightsister. She's been presumed dead since I was a girl, but she was off...well, I'm not totally sure what she was doing that whole time, but she came back about thirty years older than she should be, and is trying to be a Lightsider. So far, I'd say she's..."

Mara flinched as a purple fireball roared out of a castle turret and dissipated in the air above the lake.

"...making progress." Mara chuckled, eyes still wide. "Eccentric is definitely the word. She made a few quadrillion credits by skinning terentateks and making them into haute couture. And between you and me...I'm reliably informed her inclinations aren't in the direction of men or women. Her thing is jawas."

The pulkas came down a gentle slope to the base of the castle, where the road looped around to the front gate. Anyone attacking the castle would need to walk a narrow road over breakers and rocks. Mara raised her hand and stilled her soul, and a gentle glow surrounded it. The portcullis rumbled upward.

 

[Kaili Talith]

“I mean, I might have.” Kaili shrugged. “My memory is... Not the best.”

It was the lack of sleep still. There was no telling how many times Kaili had awoken in the middle of the night with cold sweats and panic shifting through her entire body. Not that it mattered at the moment, Mara was giving the low-down on who Mara’s aunt was again. Kaili nodded along to the brief version of what would without a doubt be a far longer story than was being shared at the moment.

“Of course.” Kaili scratched at the back of her hood. “Rave Merrill, Mara Merrill. It makes sense.”

The duo finally came to a halt by the grand gate to the castle. The two pulkas were aligned again and Mara raised her hand to do what Kaili could only imagine was the local equivalent of a special handshake.

The ports opened and the two girls entered.

“Do all doors work like that around here?” Kaili chuckled. “Biometric Scanners make that a lot easier, you know.”

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

"Hm? Oh -- it's not alchemized or anything. Just making light so the people in the gatehouse can recognize us." Mara frowned as she steered the pulka through the gate. "At least, I don't think it's alchemized. Seems odd to take people out of the decision loop, but then again, I suppose she doesn't need to do that if it's alchemized, could just be a query/response..."

She trailed off with a shrug as they entered the courtyard of Castle Miriamele. Dull, decrepit walls surrounded them, but the stone was solid, the drafts were minimal, and the firelight warmed her well. Out came Styr, one of her retainers, a half-Valkyri Underground commando in local attire. He set his torch in a bracket and helped her off her pulka.

"Styr, this is Kaili Talith."

Styr paused with the saddlebags half off Mara's mount, and gave Kaili an inscrutable look. From him, Mara felt a touch of wariness, possibly even suspicion. "Talith, says you..."