A Conversation

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela wasn't too worried about cost, her parents wouldn't be too mad about...well any money she spent if she told them why. Aela having fun was so rare that her mother would likely encourage her to do it more, while her father...well he just wouldn't care to begin with. Money had never been a concern in their family, and one night of splendor would most definitely not break the bank. As Jamie moved over towards one side of the store Aela meandered over to the other.

"Ohh." She said as she spotted a rather large, almost scaly fruit sitting behind one of the glass cases.

"Krayt Dragon Fruit, Miss. It appears...horrid on the outside, but tastes sweeter than one could ever imagine."

Aela smiled slightly at the elderly shopkeeper that had appeared from seemingly nowhere. "I'll take two."

In hindsight she realized that they probably wouldn't be able to eat all of this fruit, mostly because they still had an entire night ahead of them. She frowned for a moment as the Shopkeeper pulled the Dragon Fruit from it's place, poking her head back so she could address Jamie.

"Maybe not everything..." They still had to carry whatever they took after all.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Maybe not." She agreed, calling back to Aela.

She did however find the Farrberries. Their sweet aroma drew her almost immediately towards them. Locked away she simply observed them for a few moments, before calling for the shopkeeper after she had finished with Aela. These were some of the most delicious things Jamie could remember from her childhood. "Is this all you have?" There was about enough there to fill a small container full. The woman nodded with a smile. "I'll take all of them."

For a moment she thought the lady might have a heart attack. Clearly she hadn't quite expected Jamie to ask for them all. The woman started to question if Jamie realized how expensive they were, but Jamie simply nodded and interrupted her politely. "I know, Ma'am. I would still like all of them."

The elderly woman shrugged, filling a container of the berries before holding them hostage behind the counter. "Seven thousand two hundred and sixty eight is the total, dear." Judging by the tone in the woman's voice she expected Jamie to recoil and cancel the transaction, however much to her surprise the blonde simply nodded and handed her the credits without a second thought.

She then turned and waited for Aela

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela's price wasn't quite so high as Jamie's, though if only because she hadn't bought out the entire store. Krayt Dragon Fruit was rare, but apparently two of them cost a whole lot less than the berries. She paid the shopkeeper with a smile, then stepped in behind Jamie.

The two girls once again hit the streets, Aela peering inside the bag. "I'm going to be honest...I have no idea how to open these."

The fruits didn't look too dissimilar from coconuts, though their shell seemed much harder and even less palatable some how. She frowned for a second and peered back towards the shop, considering going back inside to check on whether or not the Shopkeeper could give the answer to her question. Eventually however she decided it wasn't necessary, falling into step behind Jamie who was already moving on to the next thing, likely some clothing store or something.

"Where to next?" She would let Jamie pick the first few times, mostly because this...well it was foreign to her.

Aela wasn't exactly a shopping expert.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie looked at Aela, then to the large, oddly shaped fruit, then back to Aela.

Then she laughed.

"You have to break them open." She pointed to the shell-like exterior. "They have a very hard outer layer, but inside," the girl wagged her tongue between her lips. "Is yum-my!" Reaching into the small bag she was given Jamie pulled the top off the container, taking out two of the small but incredibly succulent berries, handing one to Aela. "Here, try one of these for now." She nodded, putting the other in her mouth, but waiting to actually chew. "They're heavenly."

Walking alongside the other Jedi she gestured towards a two tiered glass building. The first tier looked to be a brightly lit, high end gizmo and gadget boutique, full of some of the galaxy's most expensive devices sold by a congregation of different manufacturers. The very aesthetic of the store screamed expensive, but not just that, quality. This was a store for people that wanted the best. The second level looked oddly dim, with minimal lighting, but an occasional burst of white light flickered through the paned glass above. A single word was displayed in a neon light fashion. Alkahest.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela popped one of the berries into her mouth, enjoying the taste and smiling slightly as Jamie pointed out how to open the fruit. "I can just use my lightsaber."

She pointed out, though that likely wouldn't be the best idea. She had no idea how the fruit would taste once it was cooked, and a Lightsaber would cook pretty much anything almost instantly. Perhaps she would just take a hammer, or a more liberal application of the force. A frown set on her lips and she shrugged, eyes passing over the building that Jamie had pointed out. She gave it a dubious look, considering what could be inside. In truth it looked like a haunted house.

Aela read a lot of books, but in truth she had no idea what Alkahest was.

Micah probably would have sprung at it in an instant, but it simply wasn't Aela's area of expertise.

"Okay." She said as she tucked the fruit away. "Better not let that spill everywhere. They'll make us buy the whole store."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I guess that would make me a shop keeper then, huh?"

She laughed, knowing what Aela had actually meant. Still, it was funny to think about owning a store despite her complete lack of knowledge in the subject entirely. Jamie hadn't exactly had a job prior to the Nabooian council, and that was only because of her immense exposure to politics through her schooling, social status, and family. Her only other job had actually been as a youth mentor. That hardly qualified someone to own and operate a store of any relative size.

Sometimes she wondered how other people seemingly did it with such ease and made billions of credits like it was as simple as breathing.

Not that she wasn't painfully rich.

"Want to go look? Or did you have something in mind?"

She didn't necessarily have much of a plan. Just getting out and doing something was more than great to take her mind off things.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"We can look." Aela checked her chrono. "We have....nineteen hours."

There was absolutely no rush to do anything at all, the other team would be handling The Governor, and thus there was no real urgency to anything. Even if there was an emergency the city wasn't all that large, they'd be able to cross all of Vinetta in a few minutes in a taxi. No problem at all. "Come on."

The two girls quickly stepped inside.

The bell across the door let out a loud ring as they stepped inside, an odd sort of musty smell stinging her nose as she moved inside. Jamie followed right behind her, the two girls moving into what appeared to be a large...well antique shop for the lack of a better word. There were dozens, if not hundreds of items displayed all over the place. Rings, necklaces, statues, even a few swords. She frowned slightly and quietly moved further into the store. "My brother would love this."

Her tone was quiet, respectful.

"I'll have to tell him about it." They were only a few hours from home after all.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The smell seemed to catch Jamie at almost the same time. Breathe through the mouth time. She told herself, slowly walking along the rather narrow aisles. Long tables were setup in near endless rows. The store itself was incredibly open, lacking any real walls, save for the four surrounding them. There were devices and objects and things that looked to be ancient in this store. Things that belonged in museums, even.

The girl was partially confused by what she was seeing. It was odd that such old looking antiques would be found in a city like this.

She could sense the Force in objects around her, though how that were possible or why were two very different subjects. If Jamie felt it, surely Aela did as well. Her expression changed to one of curiosity, as she gently lifted up a small, almost glass looking orb. Within it looked like an astral layout of the galaxy, shifting ever so slightly through means that Jamie had no idea possible.

She held it up towards Aela, "This is peculiar."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She came up behind Jamie, having just looked at a small statue of a fat bald man seemingly riding a horse. "Interesting."

Aela said quietly.

"These must all be force artifacts." The Marshall inspected the tiny orb, looking into the galaxy within it. If what she presumed was true...then this place was truly amazing. Some of the objects were likely just trinkets, rarities that had been collected from an age long ago, but among all that junk there was surely...something more. She frowned for a second and leaned closer towards the orb, almost touching it. "Or most of it at least."

Her voice sounded absent, as though she weren't even listening to herself, then she tapped the orb.

In an instant the galactic display within changed. There was a certain...rush within the orb, and inside of a heartbeat she and Jamie were staring at Borleias, the planet perfectly represented down to every canyon, river, and lake.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The surprise of the sudden change cause Jamie to fumble with the device, nearly dropping it. Thankfully in her lack of grace she managed to catch it before it presumably shattered on the floor. Taking a look around to address whether or not the shop owner had seen her near accident she noticed that there in fact, was no shop attendant. For a place that sold such uncommon, yet likely priceless items, one would assume some measure of oversight.

"Is that this planet?" She asked, moving the orb closer to her face to inspect the item further. "How'd you get it to do that?"

She glanced around again, "And why is there nobody in here?"

Perhaps the person working rarely found themselves in the company of customers, given the look of the shop and what it sold, most people would simply find this to be a strange antique shop hardly worth the time to visit when there was so much more to see elsewhere. That was at least what Jamie assumed to be the likely truth. The shop didn't exactly exude glamor, at least, not this level.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"It's a force artifact." Aela explained.

Micah would have been much better at telling Jamie all that she needed to know, he was...well he was way smarter when it came to this stuff. She would never admit it to him of course, that would only give him fuel for the fire, but it was true. He was the one that had made her necklace, the bracers she wore into combat...heck half of the artifacts that she used had been created by him. He really was quite clever in all of it, though again she'd never admit it to his face.

"My brother makes them." She explained. "I think this is a map...or something."

All he had done when touching it was use the force, just a slight nudge and a thought of Borleias.

Her head perked up when Jamie mentioned that no one was in this place, her eye narrowing as she looked about. "I dunno."

It was creepy though.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Huh." She said, staring into the orb. "Interesting."

She took another peek around the store, just to be certain she wasn't just ignoring a short stature alien of some sort. But there was in fact, nobody in the store aside from Aela and Jame. "I guess maybe they're in the back room?" Did the store have a back room? She shrugged.

"You said your brother makes these? How?" She rolled the orb around in her hand, trying to observe if there was some kind of illusory trick going on, but there was nothing. It looked entirely real. "I don't really understand how this thing works, but I want it." She had already committed to buying it. That is, if she could find someone to actually sell it to her.

"Hello!?" She called out, ensuring she was loud enough for anyone else in the area to hear her. "Anyone here!?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She shrugged, in truth she had never actually asked Micah how he managed to do it. There was a technique in the force obviously, but what it entailed Aela had no idea. It was a talent she did not have, and thus she'd never studied.

"I'm not sure." Aela said honestly. Lying to make herself seem more knowledgeable wouldn't have really worked out here. "Micah is...well he always has been very interested in all of this stuff. My dad can make artifacts too, so can my Uncle for that matter."

Uncle Dissero was actually quite famed for the forging of artifacts. "We can call him and ask if you want. Later I mean."

This was hardly the appropriate setting.

"I did not make these."

A voice suddenly rang out from behind Aela and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"No. No need to bother him. It was just a curiosity I had." Jamie had enough learning on her plate. There was no need to try and study another subject. Especially since this was likely not something to be learned over a simple HoloCall. Not if Aela couldn't do it herself. Jamie would have assumed if that were the case that the Jedi Master would have been able to learn it as she was already quite gifted on her own.

Though when the blonde heard that voice, the low rasp and almost hiss, it made Jamie nearly shriek, fumbling with the orb once again before setting it back down as gently as possible on the table where she'd found it and turning around to face the person. The voice had snuck up on both Aela and Jamie somehow. And where this old woman appeared from she hadn't the slightest idea.

"W--Where did you come from? There was nobody here a moment ago."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I have gathered them over the last few years, trinkets mostly, there are some things that...well I'm sure you know for yourself. "

The man did not answer Jamie's question, but instead seemed to move around the room towards a counter top. Aela watched him for a moment, instantly closing her eyes to reach out and see if she could sense a trace of the darkside. When she found nothing, no trace of evil or destruction or...well even the slightest hint of rage, she opened her eyes and looked at the shop keeper again. She frowned for a moment and then glanced towards Jamie. "I see."

"They are fascinating are they not?"

"They are." She really had to get Micah here. "Where did you get them from?'

The woman smiled.

"Everywhere"

Creeeeeeepy.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie looked around at the rows of tables.

"There's a lot here." She presumed the majority were all in some way touched by the Force. "You must travel quite a bit to have accumulated all of this."

Her eyes glossed over a number of other, seemingly less interesting items, at least in comparison to the orb she continued holding, as she wandered along, looking at the items on display. Some things were just quirky and odd, others were entirely useless looking, perhaps intended to be nothing more than a child's toy, or perhaps a parlor trick for magicians or the sort. Surely there were others that Jamie couldn't identify that had other properties, but this orb held her interest.

"How much for this?" The girl asked, lifting up the orb, as if the woman wouldn't have known what she was asking about.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Others travel for me...bring me trinkets."

It was a good enough explanation, and Aela sensed no darkside of the force within this place. A wonder considering that most of the artifacts in the galaxy were one way or another Sith. She frowned for a moment still though, not quite sure if they could trust this woman. The Marshall felt uncomfortable, extremely so, but she decided it was best not to throw around any accusations, not when they had no real idea who this woman even was or what she did besides running a shop.

"That?"

The woman asked quietly.

"That little trinket is five thousand credits."

Well, they had been wondering how exactly this woman managed to keep the shop open, and the price tag on the orb Jamie was holding certainly explained that much at the very least. Aela didn't say anything though, letting Jamie make her own decision regarding that, mostly because she'd just paid more for a bunch of berries.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Others? Does she mean employees?

The girl scratched at the back of her head in contemplation. Or at least, appearing to be contemplating. She was hardly a shrewd negotiator when it came to purchasing unidentifiable relics from a shop, but where the berries were more of a grown and harvested rarity, she wasn't sure whether or not these trinkets had such a definitive price tag, or whether they were simply derived based on perceived value.

"Would you take four thousand?"

It was more of a question than an offer.

Truthfully Jamie didn't even know quite what the trinket did, aside from the brief moment where Aela had changed the galaxy to Borleias.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Four and a Half."

Aela had never haggled for anything in her entire life, probably because she was too ignorant to realize that she could. Most of the time she didn't actually pay for things, either the New Jedi Order or her parents did. When she did pay for things she took whatever the price was at face value and simply walked away. It was part of being ludicrously wealthy. Why try to spend less money when you had more than enough to where it didn't matter?

Perhaps she would have to visit a financial planner in the future. Someone who could explain all of these concepts to her so that when her parents weren't...there anymore she didn't run everything they had into the ground out of sheer ignorance.

That would have been embarrassing.

As Jamie and the old woman haggled Aela began to slowly look around the rest of the store. She was curious, and the woman seemed safe enough. The place was practically filled to the brim with all manner of different artifacts, some of them far more odd and interesting than the orb that Jamie held.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Five hundred less was still five hundred less.

"Okay." She said, extending her free hand to shake the much older woman's hand. "Deal."

The price really didn't matter that much, but if she could get it a bit less, there was hardly any harm in it. Jamie handed the orb off to the woman who took it behind the counter, carefully wrapping the item in a series of protective wraps before placing it into a tightly fitted, ornate wood framed box. That had been quite unexpected. The girl would have taken the orb simply the way it was, in her hand. This was a nice surprise.

"Wow! Thank you!"

Fishing around for a moment she found the credit chit and passed it over to the shop keeper who deducted the credits with a pleased smile.

[member="Aela Talith"]