Revenge of the Jedi/Part 15

Baron Kaivalt consented to Narasi picking a few Revwien lettuce leaves from Inimă Eserzennae's garden, and she took them to the Second Chance to tempt Gizmo. He gummed the leaves a few times before he took them, and after he had chewed them up to paste, he promptly spat that mess back on the deck. Grumbling as she cleaned up after him, Narasi said, "Be that way, then. Just regular old greens for you, and no wires."

"Mmnnrrawhee!"

"Uh-uh, mister. Wires are only for good boys who don't spit up in the hold."

Gizmo gave her a reproachful croak, then hopped into his cabinet. Once she had wiped up the mess, Narasi stuck her hand in to pat his head; he gummed the base of her thumb for a minute, but then cooed in a content way. As he settled down for a nap, Narasi thought she had time to sit down and think—which was exactly what she wanted to avoid. Grabbing her gunbelt on the way out—once it became clear they would be staying a while, Baron Kaivalt had agreed to let her set up a target out in the estate's forest—she stepped down the ramp into the Pelagon sunset.

Sinking toward the horizon, the last rays of sunlight painted the waves red and orange. Narasi took a deep breath, enjoying the salt breeze that brushed her Padawan braid against her cheek. As she glanced around, she saw a familiar form down the length of the island's shore and set off past the Kaivalts' ships.

Zaella sat on the seawall at the grass's edge, bare feet hanging over the ocean, her boots and belt on the grass behind her. Her lekku draped down her chest instead of tied back, and she had her datapad in her hand. She kept glancing up at the sunset, then scribbling on the tablet, and Narasi realized she was sketching. Narasi lingered by the last ship in the Kaivalt collection, not wanting to disturb her, but after a few moments Zaella realized she was being observed and arched her back.

"Yeah, they're real, and they're spectacular," she called, "but you're making it awkward."

Though she envied the Twi'lek her busty, athletic body, Narasi rolled her eyes and strolled over while Zaella snickered. Narasi sat down at the seawall too and asked, "Can I see?"

"Hang on." Zaella turned back to her work, adding a few more lines, her hand flying on the datapad and her eyes darting up as the primary's disc reached the horizon line. With one final flourish, Zaella held the datapad up, comparing the screen and the view with a critical eye, then nodded and handed over the datapad. "Here."

"Wow, Zaella, this is great!" As with the works Narasi had seen before, Zaella had rendered the sunset in brilliant detail, but this time she had changed the colors of some of her lines too. It was not a color image—the slashes of gold, red, and blue only accented the black and white—but Narasi thought that made it all the more striking.

"Thanks." Zaella looked down at the water a couple meters below her toes. "I still can't believe it—a whole planet of water."

Having left Zygerria when she was five and spent the next year fleeing from one planet to the next, Narasi couldn't really empathize; of course, after Coruscant, no city ever seemed large to her, but anyone who visited the galactic capital felt the same way. She tried to imagine spending most of her life in a single biome and then coming upon its complete opposite. She was still struggling with that when she noticed the way damp spots on Zaella's tank top stuck to her torso. "Decided to go for another swim?"

Zaella grinned. "Well, once I figured out the island wasn't going anywhere…"

The drop was longer than Narasi was tall. "How'd you get back out?"

Zaella pointed, and Narasi saw a grappling hook with a line leading down to the waves; the rope bobbed on the surface, as if Zaella had been fishing. "You climbed up a slick seawall, barefoot, dripping wet yourself? That was your plan?  What if you hadn't gotten out?"

"Well then, it's a good thing you taught me to tread water, isn't it?" When Narasi glared, Zaella snickered again. "We don't come weak on Ryloth, thank you."

"Because the weak ones don't survive?"

"Exactly," Zaella said, but although she smirked, Narasi thought a shadow flitted through her amber eyes.

"So what've you been up to since, y'know…almost blinding Renata?"

Zaella rolled her eyes. "I would've stabbed her right between the eyes. Might've singed her poor little nose, but she'd've lived."

"It's just sparring."

"I'm sorry, who was it who kicked me so hard I went off the ground and then slashed me in the head today?"

Narasi flushed. "I'm sorry about that—"

"Why? It was fine, I just didn't expect it.  But that's my point—that's sparring."

"It's not fine, because Jedi don't spar to hurt each other," Narasi insisted, though part of her thought Zaella had the right of it. The Sith would show her no mercy in a real duel; she had reached an age where she needed to train as close to full intensity as she could. But either way, Renata wasn't there yet.

"Then sparring is nothing more than a game of tag with a stick." Zaella snorted. "Besides, I'm not a Jedi. Did you forget?  I'm sure Raina Kaivalt would be happy to remind you…"

Zaella glared out at the ocean, and Narasi sighed, scooting a few centimeters closer and trying to frame her response in a way that wouldn't cause Zaella to shut down. "I think she's just protective of Renata; she knows Renata's not on our level. I don't think she meant it personally."

"No? She let Renata fight you, and you're at least as good as me."

Narasi gave Zaella a thin, lopsided smirk. "Better. The word in Basic is bet-ter."

Zaella answered with a look somewhere between loathing and grudging affection. "Point stands."

"Maybe she just needs a while to warm up to you."

"Or maybe this is all she'll ever see," Zaella retorted, brushing the tattoos at the roots of her lekku—Sith designs, Narasi understood. Zaella shook her head. "You know, on Guudria you were nagging me about joining the Jedi—yeah, settle down, I'm not gonna—but even you have to admit, would there be a point? I'd probably just be 'the Jedi who used to be a Sith'.  Or just 'the Sith', if they're anything like Raina."

Narasi, who had brightened at the concept, tried to keep her sabacc face. "I don't see you that way."

"Yeah, well, we're friends. And you're a Zygerrian, nobody trusts you either; we're kindred spirits."

Once, Narasi reflected, that would have cut her; now she just gave Zaella a look before adding, "Tirien doesn't see you that way either."

A contemplative look Narasi didn't fully understand passed over Zaella's face. "No. No, he doesn't.  But you two are probably the exceptions that prove the rule."

"You don't know that. Right now you're still between worlds; they can probably sense it.  But if you did decide to become a Jedi, and committed to the light side…"

She trailed off as Zaella stuck out her tongue. "Gag me. Gallivanting around the galaxy nosing into other people's business, except when I took a few hours off to stare at a tree and contemplate the seed that produced it or something?"

Narasi cocked her head. "Did Tirien talk to you about seed meditation?"

"…I was kidding."

"Oh. Er…"  Seeing Zaella's incredulous dismay, Narasi hurried to add, "Tirien only had me do that once, and that's probably just because he's a big Unifying Force kind of guy.  Although it was kind of interesting when I got into it…"

Zaella shook her head, and Narasi bumped her with her shoulder. "Just keep an open mind, okay?"

"I don't know, that doesn't sound like a very Jedi trait…"

Narasi flicked Zaella's lek with one finger, careful not to do it too hard. Zaella's hand snapped up and caught Narasi by the wrist, but Narasi twisted out of the grab and feinted toward her friend's face. They exchanged a flurry of swats, slaps, and blocks with one hand each before Zaella grabbed Narasi's sleeve. Grinning, she planted her feet against the seawall, pushed off, and dragged Narasi with her into the waiting sea.

Narasi spluttered in shock; she heard Zaella cackling from somewhere nearby. Though a capable swimmer, Narasi felt her boots tugging at her legs as she kicked up to tread water, and the equipment on her belt dragging her core. But once upon a time, toward the end of her Initiate years, she had gotten the basics of swimming with gear, and once she surfaced and could clear her head, she shifted into a side stroke and swam a few lengths, letting muscle memory kick back in.

"Show-off," Zaella called.

She climbed up her rope first; her feet slipped on the wall once or twice, but eventually she got high enough to haul herself over. Narasi considered following her example, but she knew her soaked boots wouldn't gain much traction on the wet seawall…and since Zaella thought she was showing off already…

Grabbing the rope, she pulled herself up hand-over-hand, letting her legs hang out. Zaella had dampened the rope on her way up, but Narasi's natural strength allowed her a death grip on the cord and the ability to lift her entire, waterlogged body weight with nothing but her arms. Her biceps trembled a little just at the end, but Zaella's wide eyes as Narasi pulled herself back onto the grass made it all worthwhile.

Stripping off her boots and tunic, Narasi said, "Sith—and former Sith—aren't the only ones full of surprises."

As they lay back on the grass, Narasi wishing water would flow off her hair as quickly as it did Zaella's lekku, Zaella asked, "So is it 'later' now?"

Narasi closed her eyes; apparently she couldn't escape it after all. Maybe it was better, to tell Zaella now rather than suffer her friend hounding her for days. "Yeah, I guess…"

Either passive-aggression wasn't something they taught on Ryloth—probably just aggressive aggression, Narasi thought—or Zaella ignored her tone entirely. "So what's going on?"

"…you remember I told you about Aldayr Nikodon?"

"Your cute Human sort-of boyfriend who you haven't slept with for some reason?"

Under other circumstances, Narasi might have swatted Zaella, but now… "Yeah.  He was in a battle at a planet called Garqi.  His ship went down, and he's missing in action.  They think Valin Aresh captured him."

Even the words made the sea breeze a little colder on her damp skin. She had envisioned the fall of the Guardian half a hundred ways since Tirien had told her, wondering what had actually transpired and what could have been done differently—how she might have helped had she been there. She had reread Aldayr's last message to her so many times she had memorized it.

Zaella thought for a moment, then said, "Better him than either of us."

For a second Narasi was stunned that Zaella would say something so hurtful and selfish, and then anger kicked in. She rolled to look at the Twi'lek and felt the fire in her eyes. Zaella held up her hands. "Whoa, not like that! I meant because he's Human!  That's Aresh's thing, right—Humanocentrism, 'only Humans deserve to live', that crap?  So if he's going to go easier on a prisoner, it'd be the Human, wouldn't it?"

Narasi hadn't thought about it that way, and her anger abated, but her concern didn't go with it. "He's still a Sith Lord. And we can't go help Mali find him until we deal with Gasald."

"Yeah," Zaella said. "Yeah, it still sucks. I'm sorry.  I…sort of know how you feel?  Nykan's not a prisoner on Ryloth…except they all kind of are, you know what I mean?  And we weren't officially together either…"

She was meandering, but she was trying to empathize, and that gesture alone helped. Narasi squeezed her hand; clearly uncomfortable, Zaella said, "Sooo…you've met the Kaivalts before?"

Narasi appreciated the change of subject too. "I met Raven on Anaxes. I hadn't met Raina before."

"Raven seems a little more down to ground."

Narasi thought that was an interesting way of saying Raven seems more likely to defy the Jedi Council, but she said, "He's a nice guy. He can be a little formal sometimes, I guess, but I don't notice it unless it's really over the top because, y'know…"

"Tirien?"

Narasi chuckled. "Yeah."

"He's cute, too."

Narasi started to understand where the conversation was really going, and she rolled onto her side to give Zaella a look. "He's gotta be close to Tirien's age."

"So? An older man, a little more experienced, knows how to treat a lady…"

"Yeah, I wouldn't bet on that—he's still a Jedi, remember?"

"Ah, but he's a Tapani Jedi; seems like they're playing by different rules. Baron Kaivalt didn't just conjure the twins out of thin air." She smirked. "Do you need me to explain how all that works? I know this isn't your area of expertise…"

Narasi glowered and clicked one claw against her lightsaber hilt. "I will stab you."

Zaella glanced at it. "Not with that, you won't."

Frowning, Narasi took the weapon from her belt, shook off the water droplets, pointed it upward, and pressed the ignition stud. The emitter spat sparks and a little coil of steam, but the blade did not ignite. "Awww."

Zaella snickered as they laid back down. While the breeze would never dry them by itself, Narasi found it comfortable to just lie on the grass, gazing up at the indigo sky and waiting for the stars to appear. Was it the color of night or the conversation that reminded her of Aldayr's deep, dark eyes? She wondered if she would see them again…

To distract herself, she asked, "So, you didn't tell me this morning—are you coming with us to Allanteen?"

Zaella did not respond at once. "Are you sure you're going?"

''Gasald has to be stopped, no matter the cost. If that cost means my life, so be it.''

Mine too, then.

"Yeah," Narasi said softly. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Zaella thought a moment more, but before she could speak, Narasi held up a hand, closing her eyes as her ears twitched naturally toward a faint sound. After a few seconds she was sure, and sat up to see the running lights of a ship angling their way above the waves. Zaella followed her gaze, and when she spotted the ship the casual look slid off her face as easily as the water. They pulled on their clothes quickly and crept into the shadow of a Kaivalt freighter to watch.

The ship swung a lap over the nearest edge of the island, then came down to dock beside the Second Chance. Flitting from one craft to the next, Narasi and Zaella reached the Second Chance just as the new ship's ramp lowered with a hydraulic hiss. Narasi started forward, but Zaella caught her shoulder. "How about me first?"

"Why?"

"Well, if my natural disarming charm isn't reason enough, how about that my lightsaber still works?"

"Oh. Right." Wondering if her blaster would fare any better after its trip beneath the waves, she nodded, and Zaella stepped into sight.

"Who are you?" a female voice asked from within the ship.

"Hey, we were here first," Zaella answered. "Who are you?"

Narasi bit her tongue; at least Zaella hadn't thrown in a profanity or two. Not that it seemed to mollify whoever was aboard. "Watch your tongue, young lady."

Zaella glanced at Narasi and grinned. "That was nice of her. 'Lady'—I don't get called that a lot.  Maybe she's not a pushy bitch after all."

There it is, Narasi thought. Suspecting their chances of getting into a fight were growing every second, she cleared her throat for her best attempt at Tirien-style diplomacy, but before she could speak, a male voice said from inside, "Come now, Kae, there's no need for that. It's too lovely an evening for unpleasantness.  Especially with such a lovely lady as this."

He led the way down the ramp, and Narasi beheld a man around Raven and Raina's age, though much fairer, with a tousled mane of collar-length, light brown hair, and a mustache with flared tips. Like Raven, he wore a goatee between shaven cheeks, though his was fuller and came to a point just below his chin. He wore the same well-cut clothes Narasi had come to associated with Tapani nobles, with a frilled collar and epaulettes on his jacket, but he was the first Tapani she had seen wearing a hat—a feathered cavalier hat, angled on his forehead to drape just above his right eyebrow, which exposed the earring in his left ear. At his left hip he wore the strangest lightsaber hilt Narasi had ever seen—the ends of the curved grip were linked by gold latticework. Narasi thought it would make an admirable shield for his knuckles if he wanted to bash somebody's face in.

"Two lovely ladies," the man exclaimed as he caught sight of her. "So much the better."

"Down, Gaeb," a third voice said from the ship—another woman's.

Gaeb laughed while Narasi and Zaella traded looks. Narasi wasn't sure what to make of this development, although the man was almost certainly one of the Pelagia Jedi. Zaella, on the other hand, seemed barely able to contain a grin; she wrapped her longer lek across her collarbone and over her opposite shoulder while Gaeb's back was turned.

Before Narasi could chide her, she heard Raven's voice call, "Gaeb!"

"Raven!" Gaeb boomed, and as Raven jogged up, Gaeb embraced him and kissed his cheek.

"Ooooh I'm developing a fantasy," Zaella whispered. Narasi kicked her shin.

"And Raina!" Gaeb added as Raina approached, Renata in tow. Gaeb kissed Raina's hand and smiled. "How is my loveliest cousin?"

"Ooooh my fantasy just became a lot unlikelier," Zaella whispered.

"Glad to be home," Raina said. "Gaebrean, this is my Padawan, Renata Cul'Caritas."

Renata curtsied. "It's very nice to meet you, sir."

"And you, darling Renata," Gaebrean said; he caught Renata's hand and gave it a kiss too before Raina pushed him away. Sighing in a wounded way, he turned back and said, "Shey's soul in glory! Manners flee from me; I implore your pardon on bended knee, my dear ladies."

He swept off his hat and bowed to Narasi and Zaella as Raven said, "Narasi Rican, Zaella Sabir, meet my cousin, Gaebrean Kaivalt."