Vision Quest

[Nia Siroc]

She wasn't supposed to be doing this.

The cantina had a name, probably, but Nia hadn't noticed one on the way in. It had been selected because it was well away from the main streets. A place that respectable beings didn't choose to go, let alone Jedi. The Order didn't forbid the occasional tipple, but that wasn't her reason for being here.

Across from her sat [member="Triam Akovin"], she'd give her name as, a merchant and ship owner. Between them were two drinks, Nia's a cheap Corellian ale bought because of the bartender's glare. Admittedly, she stuck out, despite losing her typical robes and tunic. Her relatively small size did that on it's own.

But her eyes, they'd cut short any trouble some local tough sought to make. A drunken being trying to impress his friends didn't frighten her, but her expression, it frightened them. It frightened her too, when she looked into a mirror. That's why she had to do this, even if the Masters wouldn't approve.

To compound that, she'd taken a small number of focusing crystals from the training sabers. Valuable, but not impossible to replace. Nia didn't have nearly enough credits to cover the trip otherwise. She'd make it up however she could, later on.

The gems she'd drew from her jacket, she placed on the dented surface of the table. Meeting the blue eyes, she spoke. "These will more than cover passage to Illum and back." No hesitation as she spoke, it was simply fact.

Focusing crystals were a relatively rare commodity and would fetch a good price. Nia knew that and so did the merchant. The trouble was in the bartering, something she remembered from back home. Her gaze didn't falter but neither did the taller woman's across the table and she considered.

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Alcohol was good.

It could heal your cuts, burn bacteria, and other infections, cause searing pain when needed, give you a good time when called upon, or ruin your life if not careful.

But it was good. Some times you needed to forget something... other times you needed just enough to remember, and dwell on it. Toight, Triam had had just enough to dwell on quite a lot. Several years have gone by and Triam could hardly remember what she did in that time. Everything used to go by so much faster.

In her early twenty somethings, she joined the Republic military after her daddy's death to grow up and be just like him. Problem was she could handle authority, and busted out of there with as much equipment she could manage to carry out of there first chance she got. Next she was on Roche stealing Ultrachrome and blasting alien bug brains against the walls of a zero-g asteroid. She met a Mandalorian named Preliat, who had become important to her. He got her out of Republic custody before she was sent to the pit for her various crimes since going A.W.O.L. (at the time, the most recent being murder of a republic officer and evading the arrest of a Jedi who took her hand to take her in).

Next thing she knew she was building gadgets and hunting for rare materials, and selling them all across the galaxy to all sorts of shifty figures: a smuggler with no morals. Then she joined the Tournament of the Couldron, where her infamy was born. First round, Jedi Knight - Result: Unmatched Victory. Second round, infamous former Sith Empress and Conqueror of Ten Thousand Worlds, Jedi Master Ashin Varanin - Result: Victory out of nowhere. Third round, Jedi Master: Unmatched Victory.... but then the final round came and reality shook a bit. The last round she faced a Sith Master of Telekenisis... the Throne Breaker Mikhail Shorn. To this day, she never figured out how she survived, and she doubted he would ever forget the woman who made him empty his bowels and cry in rage as he went blind.

There was a lull after that, her first hermiting. Then she broke that as a soldier for fortune, and fought against the selectivists for the Techno Union on Geonosis. She had been a critical help for that faction, but even a single woman can't win a war for them. Though to be fair, it might have been because she discovered Preliat Mantis was assisting the other side. She met with him after the battle, some time after. They had not spoken in a long time since, after a falling out between the two. Twice actually. This time though, Triam knew she was in the wrong, as soon as Preliat accused her of serving a puppet of the Sith... and she realized her greed had gone to far. She made a vow to become the woman Preliat had once thought her to be. She joined the Covenant, a group of Jedi, and supported them in their militant light sided campaign to destroy the dark side. She gave them full access to her arsenal, and she even trained under them with a specialized lightfoil of her own making: The Relentless Blade. It had become her symbol, to the vow she had made.

However, once the Covenant joined the Galactic Alliance.... she had gone dark. Radio silent. "Missing in action". One could assume she became a hermit again. Fluctuating between infamy... and complete mystery.

Despite her rather illusterious exploits and skirmishes... somehow she managed to remain tge one thing she had been since the start: a smuggler looking for something valuable, and something to ferry. In one fell swoop she found both in the form of Nia. The small and frail Jedi girl looking rather alien in this cantina came to sit with her, as the old war dog sipped gently from her bottle of ale.

"You should hope so lass, Illum isn't some one stop ferry trip from one end of the galaxy to the other. One Sith territory damn near blockades the entire region of space you're talking about. Not to mention I don't want to cover squat... I need to profit sweetheart, or we don't do business." She goulped down some more ale, and looked away towards the cantina door.

"I see you got a couple of crystals out now, so I already know you're holding back on a few good ones... unless you take me for a fool?" She raised a brow ans shifted her eyes towards Nia without moving her head.

[member="Nia Siroc"]

 

[Nia Siroc]

[member="Triam Akovin"]

When their eyes met, Nia could see a certain incredulity in the blues. She didn't exactly cut the figure of a typical Jedi, short and slightly built as she was. Those who hadn't thought of her as much on certain occassions, they'd been sorely mistaken. She could still recall each being whose life she ended, even in the dreams.

"I'm aware of these borders," she said without taking her brown eyes off of the pilot's. Her voice didn't betray any more than the other woman's expression. Nia could sense a certain predatory intensity in the bartering, an awareness of the the cantina and a knot of other emotions well concealed beneath iron self-control. "Focusing crystals are rare and even two will turn you a profit."

Her voice became soft, monotone with the last sentence. Her left hand moved at the same time, the most subtle wave of her left hand at the very bottom of sight. At the same time, she reached out through the Force, gently pushing the suggestion into Triam's mind. Not too hard, not enough to hurt her, just enough to sway her.

Mind Tricks were a grey area for a Jedi, she'd been told. Some didn't like them, viewing them as a necessary evil. Others used them much more freely. Nia wasn't certain where she stood but she needed for this transaction to end favourably very much.

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Mind tricks only work on the weak minded, and Triam was several standard deviations higher than that, considering the amount of science and engineering she pulls out of her ass on a daily basis to become the most well equipped tech junkie in the galaxy.

Though sometimes when a mind is impaired by slight intoxication, it may find itself more open to suggestion than before. If ever so slightly.

"They - are rare and..." Her face turned towards the young Jedi pupil, eyebrows scrunched in thought, "... could turn a profit, yes." There was a period of silent contemplation inside of Akovin's steel trap calculating mind, as it processed and reprocessed what just happened. A bit slower than usual thanks to the alcohol.

"However," Suddenly, there was a snap, and it was like the woman had broken out of a hypnotic trance; back to business. "They are no Corusca Gems, and I know a Jedi Mind trick when I see one. First and only hint: try doing it without waving your hand around where I can see it." With a spunky grin on her face she leaned in towards the younger girl. There was no menace in her eyes, merely intesity.

"That took guts kid. You took a risk and gambled. You may have lost, but hey, I'll cut ya some slack." She reshifted her sitting position to face directly in front of Nia, elbows on the table and her hands speaking with her as she outlined the next couple of phrases out of her mouth.

"Illum some sort a ancient Jedi world, right? And you're headed there for some spiritual kark or whatever, around some artifacts, probably. Tell you what: give me one of those crystals now, and I'll take you home once you bring me something from Illum, in addition to that second crystal you've got there. That's my only offer, we got a deal Ms. Siroc?"

She stuck out a hand to be shook, to finalize the transaction.

[member="Nia Siroc"]

 

[Nia Siroc]

[member="Triam Akovin"]

She felt the suggestion working in it's subtle way, and then, the door seemed to slam shut. Nia blinked several times in surprise, having never witnessed someone fight off telepathic suggestion in such a way. They either could resist it entirely or it worked and that was it. But this one, even through the impairment of alcohol, had been sharp enough.

When Triam leaned forward, Nia didn't move visibly, but her muscles coiled in readiness of violence. When the blue-eyed woman looked amused instead of angry, the apprentice let herself relax. There was no malice, just humour, and that surprised Nia too. This pilot, merchant and presumably smuggler was full of surprises.

Triam laid out her offer when the pilot leaned back, wheels turning in her mind, calculating prices and profits. "Yes, Illum is a Jedi world," she answered without liking the thought of removing something from it for sale. There seemed to be no choice, the other pilots simply shaking their head, unwilling to go so close to One Sith space. "We have a deal," she said as she squeezed Triam's outstretched hand.

 

[Cassus Akovin]

"Excellent. Meet me at docking bay eleven tomorrow morning. I'm a little, uh, intoxicated right now, heh." She shook the hand and smiled at the younger woman.

"Care for the devil's drink?" She offered the padawan her bottle of booze, seeming as business was settled and a bit of relaxation could resume.

It was going to be a long trek across the galaxy after all. Luckily she had just the ship for the job. It's a shame she hadn't made it herself, but at least it was exactly her kind of luxury.

They be one screwed pooch however, if they ever needed to use the damn thing for an offensive strike, not that smuggling often called for such an action. The ship in her possession though had more than enough stealthy tricks to "nope"-out of nearly any situation, and quickly too.

Triam leaned back in her seat, and awaited for the trip to begin.

[member="Nia Siroc"]