Interacting with:
Quinn Varanin
Items: x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x
Sibylla had learned, long ago, that people rarely said what they meant.
They showed it.
In the set of their shoulders. In how long their gaze lingered. In the way their fingers flexed before a decision. What they were trying to hide. What was their intent? As a politician, Sibylla had learned to read body language the way others read dossiers. She was no Force user, but she had survived long enough to understand that intent often lived in the space between words. Especially when her life was on the line, as it was now. She had nearly died on Corellia and she would not make the same mistake again.
And right now, standing in front of the Queen of Eshan, the Warden of Mandalore, the Sith Princess, Sibylla had only seconds to decide if she was about to be saved… or finished.
Yet as Quinn spoke and scoffed, something felt
familiar in the cadence and the mannerisms. As if she were once again in Court. It nagged at her, truly, for the almost dismissive implication that killing her would be a waste of time after already saving her. It was not the language of someone preparing to strike.
No, instead, they nagged at her, reminding her of someone. But before she could think of it further, Quinn continued. And in those few seconds Quinn spoke, Sibylla watched how Quinn watched her. How her emerald gaze moved over her face, pausing at the scar. Not that Sibylla wasn't aware how the scar now drew people's attention, but it was what flickered in Quinn's expression that made Sibylla study the blonde a little longer. It was neither approval nor mockery. It was an assessment, as well as something else...
Disappointment.
But why? But Quinn didn't give Sibylla time to consider.
"I'm not going to let you die....If I was, I wouldn't have wasted my time."
The way Quinn said it was logical and efficient, almost irritated, really.
But people who truly did not care did not justify themselves.
But there was little time to delve further as off in the distance, blasterfire grew louder, and truthfully, once Quinn said that
we will regroup with the Republic Forces, there was a sense of relief within Sibylla. Granted, there was still a sense of wariness, but Sibylla did her best to trust in her instincts and move forward from here.
Hadn't Aurelian and she tried to meet up with Quinn before this? Even made an agreement with Mauve DuVain, now Lady Tapalo, to broker that meeting?
Ironies of ironies that Sibylla would instead come face to face with the new Warden and Queen of Eshan on Moorjava during a diplomatic incident.
At least, until the clarification came:
Don't get the wrong idea. I thought you were someone else.
Someone else? Who? It didn't take long.
Bastilla. And it wasn't just that Quinn asked if her friend and Handmaiden was here, but that she was pleading to confirm that Bastilla
wasn't here.
Oh.
Understanding dawned then -- Quinn had saved her because she thought she was Bastila Sal-Soren.
Why? the thought rose instinctively to Sibylla's tongue, but then immediately swallowed it. This was not the moment. They had to escape and evacuate as many as they could.
"She is," Sibylla answered simply.
"She was assigned to my diplomatic security, but was sent with another group." Sibylla informed Quinn as her hazel eyes held Quinn's, searching as she had searched countless rivals, allies, and for years, Aurelian himself.
But then another blaster shot rang out, closer this time. That surge of adrenaline hit her again.
"Shiraya willing, we will see her among those being evacuated... but we need to move. Now. Do you know how to get to the diplomatic shuttle bays?"
Whatever bound a Sith Princess to a Republic Jedi could wait. Right now, Quinn Varanin wasn't her executioner.
She was her way out.
And then, just as if summoned by Shiraya herself, Sibylla's comm crackled and in came Bastilla's voice.
“This is Bastila, Send me coordinates.”
Sibylla picked up the comm, but for a second, she paused, watching Quinn as she sent the following message to her friend and Handmaiden.
[ This is Sibylla, Bast -- We are enroute to try to make it to the diplomatic shuttle bays... unless you have a different location to meet you? ]