Private Your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

THE BEZHARL
EN ROUTE FROM SVOLTEN TO ELSEWHERE

Cuffs: tight. Ysalamir: alive. Bunk: uncomfortable. Carbonite freezing: potentially imminent.

Wife: free.

Priorities.

Ashin sat up on the bunk as the door hissed open. In came a Jedi, middle-aged and solid, not someone she knew.

"Welcome to my evil lair, Master Jedi."

Julius Sedaire

 

[Julius Sedaire]

He had dressed down for the occasion. Spacer's shirt, bloodstripe trousers, a singular lightsaber and the beskar pauldron from his wife's Mandalorian armor. And seeing as Ashin cracked a joke first, he decided to meet scorn with sarcasm.

"Very scary. The ambience is so utterly radiant of doom and power. Classic accomodations befitting a Sith Empress..."

Leaning against the wall, Julius eyed the woman. Wishing again the damned slugs weren't needed. But using street smarts over the Force to read the former Empress.

"Why on Earth did someone as powerful as yourself, with your reputation, give up so easy? Or give two damns about civilians... To be blunt, I'm not trusting it. So tell me why, so I don't shove a laser sword through your gut right now and stop what I suspect is a trap from being sprung on us."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Jumbled, faded memory refused to identify this Corellian Mandalorian Jedi.

"You're right," she said. She stood up from the bunk and ambled about a third of the way to Julius Sedaire . "It's absolutely a trap. Two traps. No, wait, three. If you do see value in applying the word 'trust,' trust this: I know exactly what I'm doing."

Her eyes flickered, revealing a silver inner part. These were her current body's true eyes: they let her examine Julius beyond the visible spectrum.

Just in case there was something to learn.

 

[Julius Sedaire]

His prosthetic arm would radiate the strangeness of the Aing-Tii carapace as it's makers, and the calypho compass would likely view as strange. But otherwise Julius was just an aging Jedi with nothing much special to him.

"Then humor me, since I can't for all the Nine Hells figure out why you're playing the di'kut."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Ashin shrugged easily.

"Ba'slan shev'la," she said. "That's the phrase, isn't it? Strategic disappearance? Retreat in all but name? I think you'll find my actions make more sense once you realize that the Drengir, not the Jedi, are my primary enemy. I have no particular interest in acting against you; you'd be amazed how rarely I think about the Jedi at all. This arrest, the extraction from Svolten — all useful serendipity."

She smiled without warmth.

"So thank you for the ride."


Julius Sedaire

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Introspective Theme

"And you think those of assembled can't hold you against your will, and your associates will for that matter if we desire?"

There was a thin smirk, and he ran a hand through his hair before sucking air in through his two front teeth. Clicking his tongue, he passed a considering and weighing glance over Ashin before beginning to think. Sith he knew, they were his specialty in many ways. Ashin was undoubtedly not very "good" or the like as the Jedi defined it. But, then again, neither was Julius for most of his life. Attachment came to him fiercely and deeply when it came, and along with it the complications any would-be Jedi would struggle with. But the Monks had brought him clarity in the Outback, teaching him the wisdom of the Aing-Tii race. Alignment, morality... They were more a fanned spectrum of color than an Either-Or type situation.

However, he found himself watching a Sith chastise a Jedi over innocent lives, and though the dogmatic defense of it sprang up that Ashin had been trying to demoralize and distract the Jedi with half-truths twisted to outright lies... Something in his instincts screamed she might actually in her own way care that Wyatt had jumped for her over the defense of the locals. When it had been apparent what was happening was as bad as it said on the tin, Julius had to remind himself of the mission to not stray to helping evacuate the innocent himself. Someone with his talents could save hundreds in that situation.

Focused he had stayed though, and who knows what might or could have been otherwise. But still... He might as well speak to the woman and get a feel for her.

"Well, if you had wanted to kill us, you would have by now. Or put up a fight during capture. So you passed that test and for now this..."

He patted the lightsaber at his hip.

"Will remain. For now. But you don't speak like a Sith. More like my wife, if I were honest"

A touch of the beskar to show the connection.

"Tell me then... Why worry over Civilians and innocents? I find most of you lot find them useful for little but cannon fodder and servants."

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"If you'd met a better class of Sith," Ashin said evenly, "one might have told you our fundamental doctrine. I suspect you'll find it sounds familiar: your strike team followed it perfectly today. To be a true Sith is to decide for yourself what you want most, and sacrifice whatever's necessary to get it. The Sith I admire were Dark Lords of focus, discipline, and intentionality: Lumiya and Vectivus, for example.

"I would have killed that town for what's most important to me. Since it wasn't necessary, it was just a town to me, one that didn't deserve a Drengir incursion.

"Then along came your strike team, much more interested in me than in saving what remained of Nighthunter Port." She snapped her fingers. "Little old me who hasn't conquered a planet in thirty years. In a heartbeat I understood that your leaders chose me as a symbolic potential victory because they're afraid to go after the real targets, the genocideers. Putting that symbolic victory above dozens, maybe hundreds of lives that Jedi are sworn to protect? Explicitly holding their defense hostage for my surrender? Contempt, Master Jedi. I spoke from a place of contempt."

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Julius took the words in, his eyes thoughtful. She wasn't rabid and holovid evil like most. Intellect, character. That made her all the more insidious and dangerous he supposed. With a shake of his head, he eyed her with suspicion but also respect. Opposed they might be, but the conversation was refreshing and informing.

To know thy enemy is to know thyself, or so said Marasun when Julius had been but a padawan under the old Atrisian's teachings.

"And there we differ, and perhaps the divide is the definition... I would have given anything to save them. But I didn't. I followed orders. And it tastes foul. So I came to see if the prize was worth the dishonor."

Silence fell as he let the words hang and just eyed her with an obviously weighted glance.

"Well go on. Turn into a cloud of bats or at least cackle."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

A slow and unexpected smile crept over Ashin's face. Sedaire did in fact get a laugh out of her — not a genuine cackle, but a little something.

"If it helps you feel better about this particular target, pick a worthier one. Any Darksider in the galaxy. I'll tell you everything I know about them, if I know anything. The where, the who, the what, the how. Go on, give it a try. I've got nothing better to do and most of those people are worthless."

Julius Sedaire

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"I have killed most of those who matter. Unless you know how to take down Isley Verd. My wife was a kinswoman, and his lax leadership led the House to disarray... Near as I can tell, she tried to fill the void and died doing so. The one bit of hate I harbor is to that man, but even then... He's not worth it... I suppose Taeli Raaf is the current fixation. She got away from us... And I dislike unfinished business"

Reaching behind him, he uncapped a silver flask that had an odd blue glow to it and drank deep, and then held it out to Ashin, near enough her hands she could grasp it even in cuffs.

"Absinthe Aing-Tii, if you wish. They taught me to make it while I stayed with them. A wise old teacher of mine said knowing your enemy was knowing yourself... Let you and I talk, Empress. A washed-up Sith who once led an Empire to make people quake, and a washed-up Jedi who once led the Corellian Order which toppled Empires that dominated. I would know myself."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Ashin hefted the flask, then shrugged and drank. The Aing-Tii liquor burned in strange ways. She set aside the goal of watching her mouth.

"Isley Verd. I'm going to need to disappoint you there: we weren't close. In fact we were close to enemies for a while after some Confederate forces killed a Vagrant Fleet ship a good forty years back. He's got a reputation as a skilled bladesmith, though I don't think I've ever used one of his swords. Close with the Rekalis once upon a time, if you remember the Rekali clan.

"If you'd after Verd, Darth Metus, I'll tell you this much: the Confederacy always comes back and he's always close to the core of it. The Mandalorian Enclave may be stomping through the traditional CIS heartland now, but give them a few years to collapse and I'm certain you could find Verd on Naboo or Kamino or even Tatooine."

Julius Sedaire

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Taking the flask back, he tipped it and let a puddle form on the floor in a gesture that was at once flippant and ritualistic. His beloved had loved the Absinthe, but not his love for it. So it had been a treat for the two of them.

"To the fallen, and those yet to fall"

For a moment, he let the silence linger. And then he stared at Ashin. His face was blank almost, but his eyes burned with a hawk-like intensity and he cracked a grin that wasn't cold, but was far from warm.

"Your question, to be fair. I'll answer anything but how to find the Monks in the Rift. I suspect you could if you wanted to anyway."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Your Monks are safe from me. The Aing-Tii are one power I won't cross if I can avoid it. I've never gone past Demonsgate and never will."

The one drink of absinthe sank deeper than she'd expected.

"Someone invited me to go raid them once. Terrible idea. Let's see, a question for you."

She repositioned herself on the bunk.

"Most of the serious modern Force practitioners have some heritage from a variety of traditions. Starchaser for one — Warden of the Sky as much as Jedi, unless I miss my guess. You, you're part Corellian Jedi and part Aing-Tii. But in terms of principles and priorities and skills all in one...what percent Jedi do you think you are?"

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"Depends on the day. I'm too old for labels, for names. I don't do what I do for a grand banner or Order anymore I suppose. I try to look after the little folk the best I can. I fail sometimes. But we all do. Learning from failure, and not being shamed by it, is probably my core. To more answer you though, I'd say maybe ten percent. I obey no Council and worry over no creed. I just do my best to do good where I am."

Another drink, flask offered again to her with a whistle as the brew hit him, colors swirling in surrealistic and impressionist ways.

"What sent you down the road you travel, rather than one like mine? What made Ashin dark? I don't count you as a Sith as we in this age know them. But you are definitely dark."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Oh, there's no one answer," Ashin said breezily, then coughed as the absinthe kicked again. "Today I am what I've chosen to be, but it wasn't always like that. Sith poison, a handful of strains. Addiction — Force Drain and glitterstim. Failure. Betrayal. Helplessness and helpless rage.

"I think so, anyway. This is my fifth or sixth body, and so much of memory is bound up in neurochemistry. I'm afraid I don't remember the details as much as I'd like to, no matter how I try. The name of my first love, my first Jedi academy, my first ship, my first enemy — none of it. Not consistently. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow.

"My turn. Tell me, Ten Percent of a Master Jedi: if you were to split each of your teammates into their Jedi and non-Jedi parts, and then add up the Jedi bits...how many complete Jedi could you make?"

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Here his face froze for a moment. For a fraction of a second the smarm slipped, and he looked almost crestfallen. His response was quick, easy, almost regretful and tinged with sadness.

"Maybe one"

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Now that's not the answer I expected. Starchaser's at least half Jedi these days, yes? Throw in your ten percent and that's almost a supermajority."

If that was a joke, it didn't land. Ashin grimaced as the absinthe brought up more serious thoughts, the shadow of genuine fear behind the conversation.

"Your commander though, Morga, he's an enigma. He keeps on preaching redemption, but if any of you were actually going to kill me before a trial — no offense — he'd be the one I'd guess.

"Let's see. Ten percent Jedi... surely you're not nine-tenths Aing-Tii? What else features in the mix? Who else is in there?"


Julius Sedaire

 

[Julius Sedaire]

A genuine smirk and a slight curl of the lip like the old Corellian rockstar El'vis, a Chiss by race but famed on Corellia.

"Rebel 100%. More than one man should be. I've never thought the labels through. I was shipped off to the Order as a child and never given a choice. So I've always clung to the label of Jedi in some way despite the fact I'm shit at following the rules. It's more important what you do, not who you say you are."

This time the sip was longer, painful. He touched the beskar at his shoulder.

"You had someone special down there. That's another reason your great pride was smothered. Protecting them. Wyatt said you had a wife, right?"

Less of a direct question, but a definite bit of wry surprise.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Spencer. She was my apprentice, and I became hers. She's from the Je'daii heritage, not a Sith, not even a Darksider — not someone who would be on your team's radar. Yes: she was on the Pomojema. And yes, her being on that ship was the primary reason I took a different position, drew the Drengir away, surrendered and bought time when I did.

"Remember, being a true Sith is about deciding what matters most to you and doing anything for it. A few years ago, she wound up trapped in the strangest, most tenacious part of the Netherworld. I gave up what you might call immortality and mustered every resource to get her back safely. I crossed serious moral lines to do it, and set the stage for my current problem — the Drengir curse.

"All of it comes back to her. All my choices that baffle your commander and his people — well, how could they understand?"

Ashin gestured like scissors roughly at waist height.

"Snip snip. Eunuchs."

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"Two sons. A daughter. A wife that I breached the galaxy to save with a raid that taxed Jorus Merrill's piloting skills to pull off. I understand better than most. People call me a Jedi. I don't fight it. But any Council worth it's salt will ask instead of commanding me."

This time he didn't drink, and a fire was slowly kindling in his eyes.

"A Sith as I see it, the ones needing put down without hesitation, can't see anything beyond their attachment. Nothing else matters. Or else i'd be a Sith. I loved K. I left the Galaxy at large to burn to raise a family with her on Socorro and Corellia. But I keep coming back to it, saving it. And it keeps forgetting me when the bloodshed is done. Just like it will forget you when it needs a more effective boogeyman"