It'd have taken a moron to not have realized that the interconnected network of associates she had were interconnected with each other as well. She still wondered how much Ahn'akiir had actually heard, the Miralukan shifting her position while cradling her arm.
It's centered around Eron, isn't it? Shukla had been silent and non-committal but she'd sensed amusement from Jean at the question, for some reason. She wasn't stupid as much as she came off that way. Dorjan had her and Ahn'akiir investigating Eron's past, she'd found holocrons that the Sith had wanted on his ship - the ship he protected fiercely - the safehouse on Taris that had ended up being as large as a secret base. The elaborate plots, the history - it smacked of a conspiracy to rival a holoflick.
Either they were all in a holoflick or there really was some Big Bad Secret Club happening right under her nose. Her nose twitched. She was hoping for the holoflick, personally.
Her arm still hurt but she leaned against the crate. Her first job for a Sith had been easy. Find their mcguffin, magically lost. The Lord had been white-lipped at delivery but she'd still been able to deliver - a step above the previous mercs that he'd apparently hired. Vycus had been... helpful.
Disquietingly accurate. The encounter with the Sith Miralukan had put a rattle to her cage, making her shore up her 'smuggler' and 'cargo transporter' personas with more trips to the dingiest cantinas she could find. Miralukans were rare in the Empire - a fact which the two had briefly discussed. She also knew that her bluff had been called the moment he'd studied her - but then again, so had his own. Affable - a predator seeking prey. Insightful - wary study.
But when her crate - the mcguffin - had been impounded by the Cartel's presence on Fleet he had stepped in with the authority she couldn't muster in her disguise and given her aid. For being 'more interesting than most of the people' present. With any luck she would be able to avoid running into the Sith again, chaulking the encounter up to her usual luck: bad, with a slice of dangerous. She wasn't certain being considered interesting by someone from the Sphere of Mysteries was a good thing.
Of course, as she was finding out, being an ally to someone from what seemed to be the Sphere of Defense wasn't all that was cracked up to be either. She hadn't yet asked where Venrirr's slice of profits was going to go but she doubted he'd needed the credits for his steak dinners. With a tap she fired off the contract. She should make sure he signed it. And then she pulled his own information up. She had two payments to send him now, with a third on the way.
Allies. She wanted to find Dimmy's name now, to put one more card into the proverbial deck she had in her games with him. She really should let Sriia muck in her head to fix the associations she had but Dimmy had become something of a ..... friend. In her mind at least. If Dimmy needed or asked for her help, would she give it to him?
Nearby Sparks slept. She hadn't been willing to use any blood but her own but the work had been messier than she remembered. She was as tired as ever though, wishing fleetingly for a duel to pull Force from an opponent. But the Sith had been written flawlessly and the Force twisted under her hands with few hiccups, closing her ears to the short screeches before Sparks had adjusted.
Now the acklay slept, her brief work to augment his natural affinity for using the Force strengthened. She'd have to work with him to see what it was she'd really managed but it was needed. She felt safer knowing she'd done something to help him, making him at least a smidge better. With a grimace she pulled Force around her wounded arm, slowly knitting the flesh and tissue back, replacing blood lost all while biting back a grunt of pain.
She just had to survive long enough for Akkai to be able to help her, if he even still would.
Flexing her arm she leaned her head back as if staring up at the ceiling. Everything was slowly edging back towards hell. Wearily she climbed to her feet, half her attention on checking for the Pureblood visitor she sometimes had. If there as one thing she didn't want anyone to have seen it'd be her experimentation. How pitiful it'd been. That she'd done if in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment