Faction The Hunt for the Dark Empress [Part I]

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Trust me, Avalore , I share your frustrations. As for dying again to shake off the Drengir, it's a good idea. A very good one, but I doubt it would have a better than even shot at working. They aren't tracing my blood or my smell, they're after my mind. I took a metaphorical walk in the Root-Mind once too often and they got a taste for me. That likely won't go away if and when I move to my next body. And since I just got this one a few years ago and it's immensely useful..."

She shifted to look just like Avalore, albeit a couple of inches taller for conservation of mass reasons.

"... I'd like to keep it unless it's clear that abandoning it would solve my problem. The alchemists and the prophets have no clarity on that. We did kill and reincarnate someone who the Drengir were chasing, and so far it looks like they might still be after him. Nothing's certain. No, this isn't a threat I can scrape off by taking a new face."

 

[Avalore]

"That's a first for you," she sassed, double-taking twice before shaking off the mirror image of her.

If they couldn't evade, then they would have to face it all eventually. It was a lot like skipping around those boys back at home. Only... it was Ashin that had pulled her out of that. And she had handled it all so poorly.

Her cheeks filled with heat. The urge to prove herself better rose all over again.

"Well I say you shove them all into the Netherworld. I heard what it was like. I bet they wouldn't stand a chance against the Dreaming Dark." Or maybe they'd fit right in.

She ducked an elbow to face and slid back in.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Yes, it's a first for me," Ashin told her apprentice plainly, reverting to her own face and voice. "I learned how to abandon a body and take a new one around the time your parents were born. Inordinately useful tool. I've often taken advantage of it to appropriate a life, a face, a name — sometimes for years. I would do the same this time in a heartbeat if it would work, but I'm fairly sure it won't."

She lingered at a spice stall and haggled briefly in ur-Kittat with the qo'saarai tuk'ata proprietor. She pocketed a pouch of spices and moved on.

"As a wealthy woman, a known face," she explained to Avalore , "haggling too long would be poor form just as much as not haggling at all. One would be cruel, the other contemptuous. Best not to make unnecessary enemies by being sloppy. Cruelty and contempt should be deliberate, precise, and intentional if they're necessary at all.

"As for the Netherworld approach...using my last odyssey against this one...that's certainly worth exploring. A good thought."

 

[Avalore]

Avalore frowned and slowed in her chewing. "But why should I." Once again, she pushed to follow, always on the edge without truly intruding. "The world looks at me with contempt all the time, how else will they know not to push me around?" The words were as immature as she was spiteful. Neither would help her in the long run, it was a lesson she was still learning.

She was pretty good at breaking it behind Ashin's back, though.

"People don't treat me like you. She would have overcharged me on my own grave."

Which she might very likely need if her Netherworld idea didn't pan out. Ashin had liked it though, which was enough to put the wind in her sails and point her skewer out towards a shoulder about to run her over.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Of course. You're young and you carry yourself with a palpable resentment. You aren't as prone to whining or firebrand rage as you were, but your voice and posture still haven't settled into the kind of...how do I put this...confidence that has nothing to prove. You'll acquire that trait in a few years, if I've judged you right. Ironically, one of the critical elements is learning not to care, or learning to care only when you want to. It made no real difference to me whether I got what I wanted out of that trivial bargain, and she knew it. Everything else — haggling just enough to avoid showing disrespect — is just about class. Quality. Respect earns respect."

Ashin re-assumed Avalore's likeness as they turned a corner. As Avalore, but with her own demeanor, she chatted briefly with a heavily tattooed Zabrak who weighed twice as much as the pair of them put together. She emerged from the exchange with an ancient Sith mask, a black cloak, and a non-functional lightsaber.

"Here, a little jump-start. Nothing breeds confidence and reveals your most assertive self like a mask, a cloak, and a saber at your belt. Get the bravado stage over and done. Put these on, become Darth Whoever, and go buy something."

 

[Valik]

Near Avalore Warren Valik manned a stall selling alchemical product. An alchemist must continually test his skill after all. Sadly the markets of Nightport did not elicit the best quality of alchemist. It was to a large degree a journeyman's market. So instead of coming to the market with products he brought materials and a gambling spirit.

"Shield amulet, thirty seconds." A passing Devaronian challenged. Valik looked at the creature for four seconds before speaking.

"Your left horn and the svolten rhyolite in your back right pocket." Valik replied. The Devaronian nodded, accepting the bet. If Valik took over thirty seconds he got the amulet for free. If not Valik would take his prize.

"Now." The Devaronian hit the timer at Valik's stall. The alchemist put a crystal and circular disc in his hand, and began working. Twenty four seconds later he stopped, tossed the amulet to the Devaronian, and fired a blaster. An almost imperceptible energy field manifested around the Devaronian, protecting him from harm.

"Not today chump." The Devaronian screamed and ran right towards Ashin Cardé Varanin and Avalore. Perhaps Ashin or Avalore would stop him. He would if they didn't, but he was curious. He had not seen the former Empress in some time. Not in this form, not before she had taken this apprentice, and not before Valik decided to stop using alchemy to hide his age and corruption. What would she do?

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Yeah, maybe for him, it was harder than for others to hide who he was. Coren probably should have spent any time prepping an alter ego. And when your face was plastered on old Alliance propaganda, leading the way… It was hard. Apparently the galaxy hadn't forgotten the active, and by most accounts, loud Jedi Master. Didn't help that his smuggling days were far enough behind him that he wasn't taken for anything more than a Jedi, but he was, actually, a Wayseeker, and that opened a lot of unknowns for the others.

"Outer Rim Talons or credits?" He had both, but would prefer to use the latter. He tapped his chest pocket where he kept a small purse of coin. "And yeah, the holo, sure." He nodded, noting that Wyatt made himself busy, perhaps not a bad call?

But… did he hear that right? The Mon Cal thought he was Cotan? Well… that running gag was working like a charm. Still there was the interference from Romi Jade Drengir? Evil plants? He knew a bit, he was a Warden. Back to the Mon Cal. Coren grinned slightly and held a finger up to his lips.

"You know that name carries weight, don't want everyone knowing the Marshall of the Rim is here…" Was that his title? Something like that. He took a second to toss Wyatt Morga and Valery Noble a quick look, and in the Force a bit of a go with it. "But I always have time for a fan."

It was lucky he was carrying talons still...

Muk Moadda Cotan Sar'andor

 

[Muk Moadda]

Coren Starchaser Wyatt Morga Valery Noble

"Talons will do fine. Just make the autograph out to Muk Moadda. That's M-U-K..."

Once the necessities were dealt with, Muk glanced around (without moving his head, a Mon Cal trick) and leaned in to talk quietly.

"Twenty hours ago the Pomojema was grounded outside Nighthunter Port on the planet Svoltan. Groundside to groundside with a good pilot, it's minutes away. They're scrambling to repair before someone catches up, I don't know what, Drengir or Sith or your team maybe. They've set up a crazy security perimeter you can see across town. Energy fence, scorched earth for half a klick, and a whole lot of Sith. And a couple times I saw the queen Bisht herself prowling the black market — in town, outside the perimeter. Enjoy."

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Somewhere in the intergalactic void between Firefist and Companion Cresh, Cotan looked up from the book he was reading, a confused expression on his face. He glanced around a bit, before shrugging and returning to his page.

"Weird," he muttered to himself, trying to find the right paragraph again. "Thought I heard somebody talking about me, or something."

 

[Wyatt Morga]

Wyatt scratched at his beard for a moment in confusion - but let Coren Starchaser talk his way through the situation. As soon as they were done talking, he'd push his way aside to stand and draw his hood back up. His jaw set, he glanced back to his compatriots;​

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"If the Pomojema is trying to escape, we need to move quick."​

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A glance back to Muk Moadda and he smiled -​

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"You've done us a great favor."​

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With that, he'd motion the others to follow him. As soon as they were outside, free of the confines of the bar he would begin to speak;​

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"I doubt she's aware we are here - likely she's trying to escape whatever damaged her ship. What worries me more is what he mentioned about the parameter. We're good - but we aren't 'cross a half kilometer of leveled earth' good; our best bet might be to ambush her in the market. Worst case, we have to deal with civilians in the area - and that it might be too late if we aren't careful.", he said with a glance towards the space port.​

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"Anyone have contact with the other team? We should inform them to meet us back on the ship ASAP."​

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Coren Starchaser // Valery Noble // Julius Sedaire // Romi Jade // Allyson Locke​

 

[Avalore]

Avalore stood in place, struck by the directness of Ashin's words. The woman wasn't wrong, but it took more maturity than Avalore had to understand or appreciate it.

Of course she had things to prove, of course she was resentful. And gravity pulled you down, the force was life, and Ashin looked weird in heels. You can't change the universe.

But she wanted to.

She look down at the mask, the unpolished insides staring back, before letting out a heavy breath and putting it on. She was about midway to securing her cloak when the stranger charged.

It was at that precise moment, feet away from the two being tackled, that she leaned the saber was a dud. She flicked her wrist once... twice... to no effect.

If she was shocked you wouldn't know it.

Ashin Cardé Varanin Valik

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

BLACK MARKET
NIGHTHUNTER PORT
SVOLTAN

Avalore Valik

And then from nowhere, a screaming Devaronian! He appeared to be running from a dark-riddled old vendor with a blaster. Between one blink and the next, Ashin unlimbered Khovesk, That Which Frees From Consciousness. The alchemical mace smacked the Devaronian with intent to adjust his collision course or just plain end it.

He flew, sure enough, but the mace never actually made contact with him. Instead it crashed into a sorcerous haze, the kind that sprang from a serious protection talisman. Ashin looked from the frantically retreating Devaronian to the mace to the vendor in question.

"...Warren?"

She shifted her face back to the original, the one she'd worn in the Sith Empire, the Vagrant Fleet, and the Lords of the Fringe. A nearby Gotal decided to go elsewhere, fast.

"Warren Valik? You're alive!?"

 

[Valik]

The Devaronian flew like a pinball recently hit by a flipper until Valik held out a hand and stopped the Devaronian in place. Telekinesis held him in the air and sliced at one of his horns, pulling that and the rhyolite promised from his pocket to the alchemists stand.

"Indeed." Valik replied to Ashin Cardé Varanin 's exclamation. In times past he might have been offended at such shock, but there were so few of the old sith left Anaya, Mikhail, Samanthe, Velok, Merrill and numerous others hadn't been heard from in probably a decade. He suspected Tyrin Ardik and Jared Ovmar were still around somewhere with an arm on the financial course of the Galaxy, but he hadn't heard from them either.

"I've been writing textbooks, trying to show an academic view of alchemy." He volunteered some details on his last few years. "I had hoped to find an interesting pupil, but everything here is fairly derivative." Valik let out a sigh

"You seem to have had more success than I " Valik continued, gesturing to the masked Avalore . "What excitement are you two getting into?" He asked, knowing this port was but a temporary stop for them.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

BLACK MARKET
NIGHTHUNTER PORT
SVOLTAN

Avalore would have heard the name Valik among the Pomojema's alchemists and in its records. If she didn't know who Valik was, Ashin hoped she at least had the good sense to keep her mouth shut for once.

"Come teach on the Pomojema — we're landed just outside town, making repairs and hunkering down for an anticipated Drengir attack. Avalore here is my current apprentice. Other than her, every student on the Pomojema is a Knight or Master who's passed an...entrance examination. They're students I find worth my time. Visiting specialist instructors you might have heard of: Taeli Raaf on occasion; Cato Fett , a Mandalorian vigilante from Denon. And the library may not have all or most of your textbooks, but your work is certainly represented on the shelves.

"I'd offer you the leadership of our alchemy wing, but I don't want to spook you. A visiting professorship, though: you could certainly do that at your own speed."

 

[Valik]

Ashin Cardé Varanin went straight to the pitch, giving a little background but focusing her words on the sale. The mention of Drengir was noticed by some of the nearby patrons, with a few making furtive glances.

"I accept." Valik replied. Ashin had taken a direct path, so the alchemist would follow suit. "Drengir are an interesting problem. I'll need to craft a deterrent at the very least." The alchemist looked around his shop a moment. He carried nothing exotic, just durasteel and crystals. The Pomojema should have a much better selection. Still, it seemed a waste.

" Avalore would you like to make a wager?" He asked, involving the apprentice. "Give me an item and a time limit. I'll return a price. If I beat the time limit you pay the price for the item. If not you get it for free."

 

[Avalore]

The stranger received the same intense look as the last one, the mask leveled their way. Like before, she said nothing, her interest waning as Ashin broke into her usual talk of business. Avalore recognized the name, it was just... she recognized many names. Avalore's attention turned down to her hands.

Click click click.

Nothing she did brought the saber to life. Her frown was interrupted by a question. Her head snap up.

" Avalore Avalore would you like to make a wager?" He asked, involving the apprentice. "Give me an item and a time limit. I'll return a price. If I beat the time limit you pay the price for the item. If not you get it for free."

Beat the time doing ... what? Was her initial question, but she didn't voice it. Instead she paused to consider the implications. It was only after she deemed herself clear of a trick that she looked up at Ashin for approval.

The action was flickering, but it spoke volumes.

Avalore called a rounded crystal to her. It was smooth in her fingertips, a fact she enjoyed as offered around a smile, "Ten seconds."

An impossible feat, she was sure. She handed it to him.

Valik Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Ashin clapped gently, hiding her glee that Valik had agreed to a visiting instructorship on the Pomojema. "Giving him a starting point but not an end point? Brave move, Avalore . This should be instructive."

Her comm buzzed. She stepped aside, shifting back to her current face. The original one brought back too many memories and this black market had too many reflective surfaces.

"Captain Varanin?"

"Talk to me."

"The prophets are unhappy. Something has shifted. We anticipate violence in the short term. Personal violence, not cataclysm. Some are claiming to see Jedi lightsabers, others anticipate Drengir. The near future—"

"How near?"

"Within the day."

 

[Valery Noble]

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Location: Uhl Valaviteco​

Valery: Appearance​

Outfit: Factory Link​

Lightsabers: Link!​

Tag: Wyatt Morga Coren Starchaser Muk Moadda ​

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Valery had remained completely silent during the conversation with Muk. While she would have been fine lying her way through it all, the figure seemed interested in Coren, so she let him handle it. Instead, her eyes wandered around, taking note of others inside to make sure nobody was trying to listen in or potentially cause trouble.​

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But for once, everything seemed to be going smoothly enough.​

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"I agree, the market will be our safest bet," Valery said after stepping out of the bar and turning her gaze to Wyatt. "If we can get the others to join us, we can set up a few of us around the perimeter of the market while the rest moves through to keep an eye out from inside."​

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The brunette then tapped the secured communications device on her wrist and tried to break through to the others on a secured channel. "We got some useful info to share, as well as a plan to hopefully catch our target. We need you all on the ship as soon as possible."​

​

 

[Valik]

Valik smiled at the apprentice Avalore 's request, or lack thereof. She was clever. Lack of specific requirements decidedly shifted the power structure of the wager. He would have to be careful of his words with her in the future.

"Very well." Valik replied, examining the crystal as he spoke. "My price is one favor, to be claimed at a time of my choosing no later than twelve standard months from today." He kept his price similarly vague, and readied his timer. If Avalore agreed to the price he would allow her to begin the timer at her leisure. Upon the first tick Valik would cradle the crystal in his left palm. A red light would escape between his knuckles, growing until it was nearly blinding. The light would cease and the timer stop at 9.87 seconds, just under her time.

"A functioning lightsaber crystal, and a little more. This crystal will pull the Force from the environment around it and give you up to half a minute of strength beyond your training." Valik said and returned the crystal to the young girl. Avalore and Ashin Cardé Varanin , if she had finished her call by this point, would notice that the act had significantly taxed Valik.

"Does this align with any of your desires, or have I missed the mark?" Valik asked, legitimately curious. The ball was in Avalore's court.

 

[Avalore]

Greedy fingers grabbed at the crystal and turned it end over end. "...Yes," she whispered, her awe unconcealed. Her flickering smile would be missed behind the mask, but it was shot up at him nonetheless.

His appearance did not disturb her. Ashin had undergone something similar in her quest to retrieve her wife from the Netherworld. Back then Avalore was so fresh, she just thought the woman was dying. It was embarrassing, really.

She raised her chin at him as gestured towards his stall.

"Do you have a chain?"

She would wear it around her neck until lessons on saber construction could be arranged. She glanced up at Ashin, none the wise to the news.

Ashin Cardé Varanin Valik