Private Where Is He

[Ishani Dinn]

“We don’t have any other leads, do we?” Ishani replied with a shrug. “Might as well scope this one out some more…”

Copying Professor Nimdok’s contact information, she typed out a quick message to him, pretending to be Thesh. Within minutes, the computer screen went black.

“Huh—?” She gasped as it suddenly turned back on, only now a window had opened to what looked like webcam footage of a man sitting at a desk. She recognized him from his photos.

“Professor?” she blurted, then realized the speaker and microphone were off. She turned up the volume.

“—actly is all this about?” Nimdok was saying. He sounded annoyed.

“I… uh…” Ishani fumbled. “I’m… looking for Thesh.”

“Of course you are.” His eyes narrowed. “Before you start making threats, I don’t know where he is. Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“But—we’re his friends!” Ishani protested. “We’re worried about him. We don’t want to hurt him. We just want to know what happened, and—”

“What happened is your friend revealed his true colors,” Nimdok sneered. “Not only did he save Jedi younglings, he captured a Jedi Padawan—only to let him go. There’s no way Thesh can go back now. If you’re really his friend, you’ll leave him alone.”

Alina Tremiru | Melydia Gold​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

What. Alina's eyes narrowed immediately as the screen went black. This wasn't good. No, not at all. How secure was this conversation? Was Maliphant already aware? The last thing any of them needed was the Worm's spy master thinking they were traitors of some kind. Alina raised a hand, covering Ishani Dinn 's mouth to stop her from speaking any further before bringing a finger up to her own lips, then pointed up.

Conversation with a Jedi within the Sith Academy was too dangerous.

"Is he.. Safe." Alina's gaze turned back to the screen. There was much more she wanted to say, even demand. But they couldn't. Not where they were. Even if they weren't marked as enemies, trying to learn where Thesh was would only put him in danger. Not when anyone could be listening.

"That's all we want to know."

Melydia Gold

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Maybe,” Nimdok replied. “Maybe not. Like I said, I don’t know where he is.”

Annoyed, Ishani pried Alina’s cold fingers away from her mouth long enough to spit out, “Why did you offer to help him? You think you can convert him into a Jedi?”

“It doesn’t matter whether he converts or not,” Nimdok replied, reaching for something outside the frame of the webcam. “Only that he is no longer with the Sith.”

With that, the feed was cut and the screen returned to normal. Ishani pushed the computer away in disgust. “What a… slimy… bastard!” she muttered. But she didn’t really care about the professor so much as she was angry that nothing had come from contacting him, except a worsening outlook on the situation. They had found out why Thesh was missing, but they still had no idea where he was.

“What now?”

Alina Tremiru | Melydia Gold​

 

[Melydia Gold]

Melydia followed the other two with an honest curiosity guiding her path. Thesh was a friend, or at least she'd like to think of him as such. If the various trips they'd been a part of had meant anything, anyway. He was right up there with Kal in terms of favored friends (along with the small creature in her bag and the beetle perched on her left ear).

While the other two poked and prodded among Thesh's things, she instead moved to stand in the middle of the room. Eyes stared unblinkingly ahead of her as her senses dipped into the space, somewhere between conscious and unconscious, letting the force guide her. A hand drifted in the direction of the bed, as if to rest on the frame, if not for being several feet away. Yet where her hand stopped, a beetle crawled along her finger before taking off in that direction, landing on the bed.

As its appendages hit the surface, she drew in a quick breath, using the beetle's body as a focal point for a distant usage of psychometry, as if the bug itself was an extension of her. She got a flash of an image, Thesh, in the room, but only for a moment. It wasn't much, but it was a start. Perhaps she could have other beetles land on other areas of the room -

The professor's last words managed to reach her ears enough to snap her out of this trance. "What did he mean Thesh's no longer with the Sith?" She questioned with furrowed brow. "We can still bring him back, yes?"

Alina Tremiru | Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"I.. Don't know if we can bring him back. Not easily. The Sith are cruel people." That confirmed a lot of what Alina feared. How well known it was. It wouldn't be hard to imagine these three were indeed being watched to find where Thesh was, if only to make an example out of the acolyte. Her gaze shifted to both Melydia Gold and Ishani Dinn . They didn't care about that, though. They wanted to find him, make sure he was safe. That's what Alina wanted.

"We have to find him before we can figure it out. We gotta make sure he's alright, at least."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani turned to the other two, a look of shock on her face at how quickly they seemed to stumble. Perhaps she was being naïve, but she couldn’t imagine abandoning Thesh simply because he had turned his back on the Sith. She didn’t voice this opinion, however—she was prudent enough to realize it might not be wise to announce that her loyalties belonged to her friends first, faction second.

“He could be lying, or mistaken,” she said, trying to restore their spirits. Above all, she was afraid that Alina and Melydia would give up, leaving her alone in her search once more. “We don’t know what Thesh has decided. Erm, just because he saved some kids and… let somebody go doesn’t mean he isn’t still a Sith.” She turned to Alina. “I agree. We need to find him. Then everything will make sense.”

Hopefully, at least. But Ishani didn’t know where to go from here. She glanced at Melydia, then the chattering of the beetle on Thesh’s bed drew her attention. “Have you had any luck with your friend over there?” she asked.

Alina Tremiru | Melydia Gold​

 

[Melydia Gold]

"But he can be brought back regardless of Sith or no, yes?" He should be, anyway. Melydia so desperately wanted that to be so. "A friend is a friend. We don't want to leave a friend behind, either, he might be lost." Lost, injured, any other number of things. He could also be a-okay, too, just living life to the fullest with a postcard on the way. Which that was fine, too, she (and she assumed the others) just needed to know what.

At Ishani's question, Melydia pursed her lips, squirming as if she wished to draw into herself, out of sight from scrutiny. "We've gotten a more complete idea of his scent," she started. "We're uncertain where exactly he went - but we don't want to pry too much, we've been told people don't like being pried into. It's possible he didn't know either when last he was here We certainly don't know where we're going until we've done so."

Alina Tremiru | Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Then we're in agreement. We'll find him, and we'll make sure he's safe." At least they all seemed to agree. Ishani Dinn and Melydia Gold were the type of Sith Alina was hoping to make the order like. If they weren't where they were, she might of smiled. But she couldn't do that here. "We'll take my ship and find him. Easy enough, right?" She couldn't say more. Not while they were in the academy. She nodded once to the door.

"We should go."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

While Melydia seemed reluctant to pry any further into Thesh's affairs, Alina was eager to get on a ship and go looking for him. What their destination would be was still up in the air, but Ishani was glad the vampiress was at least willing.

"Okay," she said, standing up. She had shut down Thesh's computer, erasing all trace that she had ever hacked into it. If Thesh found out, hopefully he wouldn't be upset, but if he never knew... he didn't need to know. "Let's go."

Alina Tremiru Melydia Gold​

 

[Melydia Gold]

Another nod of enthusiasm agreed with the others' interest in moving to the next step of their journey. There wasn't too much to find here, not without really digging into Thesh's space and belongings. And that would be quite rude of them.

She extended a hand once more, this time palm up, letting the beetle fly back into her palm. That little guy wasn't the only bug to have crawled from her person into the room, though. And while most returned, a couple of them remained, making themselves scarce among the furnishings. They were a curious sort, very much enjoying chances to roam when they were available. Additionally, their wanderlust would do well to spread the Hive's collection of knowledge. A win-win for all involved.

"Yes, yes, we are also ready to go, we think. Where are we planning to take this investigation first?" Alina had mentioned something about Warlord space, if she remembered correctly. Where specifically, however, she had no clue.

Alina Tremiru | Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

"Somewhere." Was she really the only one worried about the Eternals spies hearing them and chasing after any lead they might say aloud? Then again, she was only worried because of the conversation she had with Maliphant. Maybe it was just paranoia, but she wasn't going to let either of these two acolytes get caught up in a mess that they didn't deserve.

"My ships close by. We'll discuss our next move there."

Ishani Dinn Melydia Gold

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani finally caught on to the tone of Alina's voice. It wasn't safe for them to talk here within the Academy's walls, where there could be listening devices, spies, etcetera. Not to mention they had probably seen the computer transmission from the professor. Oh.

"Uh, yeah," Ishani said, following Alina out of the room. "We can talk on your ship... figure out our next move." She hoped Melydia understood, although knowing how dense Ishani could be, the bug girl had probably already figured it out a long time ago.

Ishani didn't speak again until the trio were safely out of the Academy's bounds. The delay gave her some time to think of possible routes they could follow.

"We could hire an information broker," she suggested. "Or maybe even a private detective. Someone with connections, or somebody who's good at finding people." They might even be able to use a bounty puck, though the idea of tracking Thesh as if he were a wanted criminal was... hilarious, actually.

Er, no, it wasn't funny at all. The Sith likely considered Thesh a criminal now, based on what the professor claimed he had done. She wouldn't put it past them to put a real bounty on his head. That is, assuming they even cared.

Alina Tremiru Melydia Gold​

 

[Melydia Gold]

The creases in her brow deepened, unsettled by the non-answer her question was met with. The idea that not even Alina knew the next step was unsettling, with any notions of avoiding the topic for fear of wandering ears lost on the insectoid. She'd found a place among the Frumentarii and an admiration for the lady of webs. If her place there had allotted her more freedom or more scrutiny, Melydia would not know. She didn't pay much mind to such things.

Separated from the Academy, pulled from her thoughts by Ishani's suggestions, her head tilted to the side, contemplating those ideas. "We could, yes, but what if that hurts Thesh? What if he wants not to be found?" If the three of them were able to find him, that seemed fine and dandy. But drawing even more attention to his absence? That, Melydia was hesitant to do, especially with the others' concerns of whether or not he could return if he had strayed from the Sith path.

"Where was he last seen? Perhaps we might catch a trail there?"

Alina Tremiru | Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Alina Tremiru]

There. Finally outside. Alina let out a sigh of relief before glancing back to Ishani Dinn and Melydia Gold . Both had solid points. "We know he doesn't want to be found, or we would of by now. Would of been as simple as reaching out and talking to him. He's likely in hiding. And, the last place I knew where he was was on Ossus. Which he left with a Jedi, who he let go."

She was leading them directly to her ship. They needed to get off world if they wanted to ever find Thesh. "But we're still going to find him. A hunter to at least report his location isn't a bad idea. I can cover whatever cost it might take." Alina paused before glancing once again to the winged woman.

"A friends a friend. We'll figure out what's going on and save him if he's in trouble."