Private What Is Shown

[Anet Raine]

PROCOPIA
Alaphoe Gardens

Capital Season was in full swing, where the nobility of the Tapani Sector met to celebrate... and hide bloodied daggers beneath warm smiles.

The Gardens were a beautiful sight on Lalos Island, filled with fine architecture that looked like they were pulled straight out of a romantic painting. At its heart was the Glass Palace, a remarkable transparent dome, and inside - among the numerous casinos and bars - was a temporary exhibition hall where antiquities from the various noble houses were displayed. Many were to be admired, some to be sold at auction.

Anet Raine, despite the controversy that surrounded her in academic circles as of late, had the pleasure of being selected as Guide. It would be her word, her wisdom, her eye that mattered to guests tonight... at least as far as the historical details were concerned. She had no swoop in this race as it were, but hushed rumors suggested her father pulled strings to give her the honors.

The near-human found herself, drink in hand, explaining an array of precious objects to a small party of nobles and other delegates of import.

"This necklace is made of songsteel with a pristine corusca at its center. The surrounding small stones are sapphires... Its exact origins are unknown, but it was given as an engagement necklace..."

She went on and on about its particular historical details. The highlights mostly involved many theft attempts, a supposed curse, and a since-resolved blood feud sparked over claims over the object. So, nothing uncommon among the Tapani nobility.

As the evening faded into the night and the party began to disperse across the Garden grounds, Anet took a moment to disappear into the flower gardens just outside the Palace.

Auteme

 

[Auteme]

"Ah," she greeted, "evening. Anet, was it?"

Auteme, like and unlike her apparent companion to the gardens, had no horses in Tapani's many races, so it felt in poor taste that she knew anything about the other woman. Her prior companion -- a professor of history at Shey Tapani, briefly run off to chase an old (academic) flame -- had enlightened her to the Raine family and its influence, and spoken of his own mild distaste for Anet's work. Strange, how university politics were no less complex than the politics surrounding them.

Auteme had done her best to avoid the latter, however; she'd arrived as an unnamed guest to the Palace, and avoided those she knew by reputation or prior meetings with Tapani nobility. She was here to meet old friends, and did not especially want to be derailed by explaining to many a noble that her influence in the Alliance was, by all accounts, spent and withered.

The Core had always moved fast; her first return in years reminded her that it was easy to be forgotten here. Thankfully, the only ones who recognized her were among those old friends -- a house fostering one of the many Tagge cousins she'd grown fond of in her time in Emmen's employ.

Still, the pace inside reminded her of worse days. She found herself searching for fresh air. She found it, and the pale woman who'd guided them expertly through an impressive series of artifacts, in the palace's exterior gardens.

It came to her then -- a paper she'd read a couple years ago, on early Sith history, and a feeling she'd have enjoyed it more when she was younger and still learning. Now it was only half-remembered.

She wandered over to one of the benches by the semi-secluded fountain, wanting to sit for a while. "That, ah, necklace- I remember when it was found, actually, and there was this whole drama playing out where the two who'd found it were deeply divided on its origin, and one of them, Polte, old friend of mine, had me proofreading papers that were half takedown of his partner and half serious scholarship about Tapani -- and then they were both wrong, as I'm sure you know."

Anet Raine ​

 

[Anet Raine]

Auteme caught the historian in the middle of a cigarra break, as it were. Anet blew smoke off to the side and cleared her throat, holding the slow-burning vice between two pale blue fingers.

"It is..."

This woman's name escaped her. Somehow, her face was familiar, a vague memory... a celebrity?

She tilted her gaze down to make polite eye contact. Listened as the stranger shared a little tale of the necklace's history. Either the woman was quite knowledgeable or well-connected, perhaps both.

Anet chuckled. "Actually, I wasn't there, so it's possible what I know is wrong, too." A half-smile lingered.

"And you are...?"

Her question lingered in the air, a perfect excuse to take another drag, and so she did. Slow and deliberate. Anet hardly exhaled, merely content to let the haze trickle past her lips as if her mouth were filled with fire.

 

[Auteme]

Ah, whatever.

"Auteme. Denko-Durren -- PhD, GCU, among others. Though- better known for other work, I'd suspect." A smile. Pleasant as she was, she found something about Anet off-putting; the flow of the Force was prickled in her presence.

"I fear my last contribution to any journals- as a writer, at least- was... fifteen years ago, perhaps. Haven't kept up, either. I apologize, I'm not familiar with your work beyond your name and subject, I think. Sith history, is that right?"

Anet Raine ​