Irajah leaned forward, listening carefully to [member="Ashin Karrde"]'s recitation. Her fingers played on the warm mug absently- the sensation, as always, ever so slightly different between what she could feel with her own three remaining fingers and the cybernetic replacements.
In a way, [member="Darth Carnifex"] had been a figure that was larger than life. Not merely his physical stature, but as a force of nature. Where [member="Darth Prazutis"] had been insidious, manipulative, Carnifex was the one she had feared.
In truth, she still did, but the fear was drowned out by the smoldering fury.
Though some of the details were scant, Ashin's words painted a picture around the man as she had experienced him, fitting him more manageably into the scale of a world that he hadn't built up around himself. Despite her desire to see the both of them utterly brought to heel, she hadn't, in truth, put much thought into how that could possibly be accomplished. A certain cluster of cells growing in her labs at Maena had been undertaken with little thought beyond 'how very dare', but beyond that?
Gideon, finding a way to survive the virus, had encompassed so much of her attention. And the very idea that she faced not two men, but a Maelstrom.
Ashin's words clarified and solidified the fact that, no, she did not face a force of nature. Monsters, yes. But not gods.
When she gestured in Irajah's direction, she sat back, hand moving reflexively to her forehead. She arrested the motion halfway up, returning her hand to the warm ceramic in her hand. Self consciously, she finally brought the mulled wine to her lips, taking a deep drink of it. In part to calm her nerves. In part to give her a moment to think.
"So attempting to cut him off from the First Order would simply start the cycle over," she said finally. It wasn't really a question, more an observation.
"I had put..... certain contingencies in place that would potentially upset that balance. Should something happen to me. It would be small consolation, in truth, but better than nothing."
Irajah frowned, looking across at Ashin thoughtfully.
"Why come to me? I am..... despite the empty title..... literally no one. I have no armies, no strength in arms myself. I am a doctor that has been drawn into events that, frankly, I shouldn't have even survived." It wasn't self deprecation, merely accurate assessment. Irajah found herself surrounded by important and powerful people. But she was nothing of the sort.