Conflict of Interest (Asharad)

[Ellie Mors]

I'm Like a Bird

Cinnagar, Empress Teta

Diplomatic relations between the Galactic Alliance and the First Order were tense at best, and they were bitter enemies at their worst - fighting even over who would provide the "best" humanitarian aid to an ailing people on Kaeshana. She'd been enroute to assist with the efforts, charity work being a major part of Lily's life as a public figure in her system, but when the news of violence had erupted over the holonet she was forced to turn back, to watch reports of the devastation and carnage via the news.

Though she was the leader of her people, the empress of the Koros system, she did not have as extensive of knowledge of the First Order as she would have liked. She knew the stories of Eriadu, though that happened so long ago it was almost more of a memory for the Alliance than it was an open wound, and she heard stories of the inhumane acts that many of their more extreme groups and harbored Sith committed, but she didn't really trust the stories without firsthand knowledge. The free people of the galaxy had been told horror stories of her people, of her parents and other worlds that were in the Core during the One Sith regime, and while the Sith had been a horrible group, executing absolute rule and order over the millions of worlds they had conquered, Lily and others managed to keep their worlds relatively free of their direct influence.

She was certain that there was truth in some capacity to the rumors, that perhaps there were psychopaths in their ranks, maybe people as cruel as some of the former One Sith leadership, but she would judge that for herself.

Against the judgement of her aides, and with complete disregard of the likelihood of backlash from the Alliance when - if - they discovered this secret meeting, Lily had invited a member of that growing empire, the First Order, to attempt to show how diverse the people of the Alliance were. Not all of them were Jedi, not all of them sought conflict out of a self-righteous need to spread freedom, least of all the people of the Koros system.

That was how she found herself, sitting by herself in a small building that sat on the outskirts of the city of Cinnagar, a city that sprawled over half of the planet of Empress Teta, that had been built - and hidden - specifically for meetings such as these. None were made aware of this arrangement except for her closest friend, Nadja Keto, and whoever this ambassador of the First Order might have informed.

[member="Asharad Graush"]

 

[Asharad Graush]

The Daisya Infiltrator came out of hyperspace over Koros Major. The Sith Lord's starship immediately cloaking itself as it headed to the planet below. The First Order Ambassador in contact with [member="Lily Kuhn"] had given him the coordinates personally, back before he had left Imperial Space, and he had set out immediately. Although his identity was likely kept from the Empress of Empress Teta, on Vyrassu's part there was some skepticism as to whether he was actually meeting with [member="Lily Kuhn"] again. Regardless, he came.

A hand was pushed through the mess of hair atop his head. Rarely did he touch his hair beyond washing it.

His right hand, that reached up to just underneath his elbow was all metal. Cybernetics. It was a black forearm with gold tips on the edge of what would approximate to finger pads. When the arm dropped, he clenched his fist. Lightsabre on his belt, some part of him felt naked without his hulking mass of armour on, but the other felt freer without it, as if he wasn't constrained. His nose flared as he exhaled. The Infiltrator was descending to the planet below, and a stray thought surfaced to the forefront of his mind, specifically the short 'date' with the Empress back when he had been early in his tenure as a Sith Knight, and relatively early in his appointment as a Colonel in the First Order's Army.

Would she remember him? Would she remember every little detail? Shocked at the cybernetic? Feel bad for him?

Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

"Take this," Vyrassu said as he brushed the leather belt around his waist, as it uncoiled into his hand. Five heads reared up from the hydrastaff, but his cousin, a full blooded Sith Pureblood didn't react as he accepted the Hydrastaff and carried it back to his chambers. Darsaud and Arvengis were the names of his bodyguards, also twins, and also his cousins, on his father's side, naturally. "Keep the ship cloaked. We're far away from home."

There was a nod from Darsaud, the one that remained at his side as the ship touched down on the ground, the sound of repulsors potentially heard by the redhead within the nearby building as the ship uncloaked itself. When A'sharad was clear of it, the ship was lifting off from the ground, and cloaking itself once more. Chances were, A'sharad's pilot didn't wish to remain in one place, especially in such dangerous territory. Couldn't blame him.

Long legs brought him to the front door of the building, and then he pushed it open.

He could've reached out into the Force to find his host, but since Kaeshana he was reluctant on using the Force outside of combat. Besides, it could've been a trap, any Light sider cloaking themselves in the outskirts, waiting to strike at the lone Sith Lord. His only defense was his lightsabre.

"Empress," he said, doubly announcing his presence and greeting the woman.

 

[Ellie Mors]

True to her word, Lily had kept to herself - she hadn't brought anyone with her, and last she knew Nadja had not breathed a word of this affair to anyone else. Although she trusted her best friend, she couldn't say the same for the Alliance that had so coolly sought domination of the western galactic hemisphere. True, they'd stopped just at the center of the galactic disc, ending their core-ward push at Coruscant. That warpath through the center of the One Sith, however, had led them right through the Koros system, and Empress Teta was all but their plush toy in the core, the stable sister-world to the injured Coruscant. Lily had been uneasy with their presence from the beginning, when she'd been forced to watch the invasion of Coruscant streamed live by both the Alliance and Sith forces, and she was not fond of having a new governing body watch over her shoulder at every step.

But she had fallen in line - all of them had, anyone that was left from the "old" empire, the One Sith, would have to have been insane if they thought they could have held onto their old ways of governing. Sure, she'd had a very progressive rule from even before her official coronation, and it might have appealed in some way to the Alliance that she was more of a just ruler than they ever could have been - persecuting someone for their use of the force was absolutely reprehensible to her - but her line of thought and the way of the Jedi and their military simply did not mesh together. Teta was a planet - and a system - that had historically aligned with larger empires, and even Sith, because of their ideological similarities. She would never be able to bring herself to put her planet at the mercy of another entity as twisted and cruel as the One Sith, but they were still far more in line with the structure of the Tetan society.

Where the Atrisians had so foolishly rebelled, Lily adapted to her new circumstances and dodged a bullet that most certainly would have been to kill if she had been a publicly pro-Sith leader. Just a few months before the Galactic Alliance had pushed into the core she'd confronted her father with her fears - though she had anticipated a paranoia-driven inquisition at the hands of the Sith, not the successful "liberation" of her worlds by the Alliance. And today, after Kaeshana, could she truly say that the Alliance was as right, as just, as they had claimed to have been when they conquered Coruscant and sent her a letter of good will?

Meeting with [member="Asharad Graush"] was the very answer to that question - though she never showed her concerns over the Alliance in public, never in front of anyone but her most closest and trusted friends and family. And as loathe as the Alliance might have been willing to admit it, she knew there were spies even in her own halls in the Imperial Palace - those that had begun to ask questions that never would have been posed by any citizen of Teta that knew their royal family as well as they should have.

"Empress."

She'd been so lost in her thoughts that she had forgotten the time, glancing up to a face she recognized rather quickly - something that had been drilled into her head, having been taught to memorize the faces of those she met or spoke with due to the sheer volume of nobility that lived on the planet and its sibling worlds. He appeared a slight bit more rugged than she recalled, maybe on his guard, and the glint of light reflecting from his prosthetic immediately stole her attention. Although her eyes widened slightly in concern, she didn't speak or draw any more attention than the level of her gaze and slight change in expression might have attracted. Her own mother had worn a similar prosthetic, having lost her left arm long before she was born, but it was always a shock to have known someone prior to obtaining a new limb.

"A'sharad?" She asked, her voice soft, as her expression morphed more into confusion than shock. She had surmised that he'd been a part of the First Order when they'd met and she'd been told of where he'd lived, but she hadn't expected him to be the liaison between the First Order and herself. "How are you? Please, come sit down." Lily said, recovering quickly from being knocked off guard at the sight of him. Aside from the mild caution he displayed, perhaps on edge after the battle over Kaeshana - she had no way of knowing if he was involved, though she expected that he would have been if he was chosen to come meet her in order to appeal to her emotional vulnerabilities - she couldn't exactly decipher what it was that made him seem off to her, as though he was expecting someone beside her to have been waiting for him. She'd known that expression well, it'd been worn by those that didn't know who the royalty of Empress Teta was.

"I didn't realize you would be coming, they never gave me a name," She said hurriedly, realizing perhaps that he might have expected a different sort of reception than what she'd given him, "Nobody on my side knows about our meeting, so I'm putting a lot of .. faith.. in you and your government to not leak this to the Alliance, they already keep an eye on me and others in the Core enough as it is." Lily added. She'd used the word faith, opting to use a word that offered something more than simple trust in order to help her case.

 

[Asharad Graush]

Evidently, when he laid eyes upon the redheaded Empress his levels of caution had dropped, significantly. He knew her, albeit, slightly, but he imagined she wouldn't betray him and whatever relations they had. With his guard up however, he noted much more than he would've had he been entering a regular room to meet a beautiful woman. He took note of the widened gaze she had, amber orbs dropping to the part of his body that he assumed she was looking at, and he clenched his fist, though not in anger, but rather, in a demonstration of sorts. Almost as if to say, 'it was all fine.' Though deep down, he knew that having an actual, organic arm, came with benefits.

Force wise anyway.

Her voice was soft when she said his name. He nodded once as he aimed to maintain eye contact with her, followed by a step. Then she gave him an invitation to sit at the table with her. He rolled his shoulders back, and then he walked the rest of the way and wrestled himself out of his jacket before placing it over the back of his chair.

"I'm well..." He paused for a moment. They were familiar with each other, no? "...Lily." He said it slowly. How would she react? He assumed positively, he was unsure why his own confidence felt undermined in these moments, but he continued on the same. "You're as beautiful as the last time we met, however brief," he said, his normally neutral features cracking into what would approximate as a warm smile.

"It's better that way," he said in regards to her not knowing as to who the First Order was sending to meet. After all, he was Darth Vyrassu, the Sith lord who had impaled one of the Alliance's Jedi Warriors, and although he wasn't within his armour, nor had he proclaimed himself as such on the battlefield, intelligence agents could be anywhere and everywhere. There was a nod of his head at her final words. "This meeting is a secret. Tis why I came," he explained. "I was... Born into the One Sith, on Prakith," he said, offering further explanation soon after. "Koros Major was held by the Sith for a long time. The First Order is no One Sith, but our leadership is similar..."

There was a pause.

He didn't want to get too deep into his thinking, into plans that had yet to be put forwards. He had to figure out which side she stood on.

"What was the purpose behind this meeting?"

[member="Lily Kuhn"]

 

[Ellie Mors]

The slight hesitation in his voice to speak her name told her he wasn't quite as prepared to consider themselves friendly as she'd thought, though she hadn't had too high of expectations when she saw him walk through the door. His compliment brought some color to her cheeks, however, and added to the slight confusion as to whether or not she could be more open with him or not. She'd thought about asking him about his arm, but quickly decided against it when she realized how personal probably was, though it stilled nagged at the back of her mind as he spoke. When they had first met, it was more or less in passing - a coffee shop setting, some caf and a bit of introductions, but nothing too serious - and she hadn't known much about him aside from his name, his home, and a suspicion of his allegiance. He hadn't hinted, at least not heavily, at his being a member of the Sith - not as heavily as he more or less stated just then.

She tilted her head to the side, as though pondering on what he was saying. "Is that so..?" She muttered to herself, referring to his comparisons between the One Sith and First Order. She'd nearly been ready to broach the subject of their meeting when he cut through the silence with such a blunt question - a question which almost sounded accusatory, had she not understood the reason behind his straightforward asking. "Ideally, I'd like to try to work to ease the tensions between the Alliance and the First Order, but.." She began, breaking off mid-sentence to try to put her thoughts into words - and think hard over whether or not she should say what she was thinking. "Well, realistically, I don't see it happening. I don't see the First Order being anything less than a target for the Alliance, and I don't see the Alliance letting up on its war efforts without a Sith target lying above it. They put off striking at the First Order when it was in its infancy because it wasn't as big a threat as the One Sith, but now that they've been wiped away from the galactic disc and the First Order has taken something that is their's, it is only a matter of time before even my people, so far from the conflict, are sucked into it." Lily explained. She hoped he wouldn't push her into making the dangerous decision that was looming overhead if she wanted to divorce herself, and the rest of the core, from the rather radically anti-dark sider sentiment of the capital of the Alliance.

"My mother was a Sith Lord, and my father supplied the weapons, starships, and armor for the One Sith. I've been tolerated because my people support me, and I, them, but if they see me as a potential threat then I'm not sure if even the help of my father and step-mother could save me from the full weight of their inquisition against those who are dark siders or harbor them." She said, looking away at first, perhaps because of the reference to her deceased mother, or perhaps because it made her more similar to him than she supposed he suspected. "I have no love for imperial tyranny, so you will have to understand I am being very cautious contacting.. you.. because I only know of the First Order from hearsay - I don't know if my people will be better without the current oversight that looms behind me, or if I'm just playing with fire."

"I guess, A'sharad, I am asking for help, but I don't know how."

[member="Asharad Graush"]

 

[Asharad Graush]

Is that so?

He repeated in his head. If the supposed existence of a shadow leader in the form of Supreme Leader Sieger Ren, only seen by a handful of people at a time, or, ever really, then the Epicant-Hybrid Sith Lord assumed that it was so. The late One Sith and the First Order did share some similarities, though more along the lines in comparison to the Dark Lord of the One Sith and Sieger Ren potentially having been a Sith before disappearing into the edge of the galactic disc to begin marshaling his imperial forces. However long that had taken.

But before she continued on to say, he managed to slip in a, "At least, before the One Sith started destroying civilizations." As it happened, there had never been a Massacre of Coruscant, and even with all of the battles that Koros Major had suffered over the last decade, there had never been a cleansing of the population. The One Sith in the beginning, when headed by its Dark Lord had been lawful in most instances, reigning in all these rogue and chaotic Sith Lords. For a time anyway.

Ease the tensions... No.

"In truth," A'sharad said to Lily's explanation of the Galactic Alliance not letting up their assault upon the First Order, "The First Order had no intention of going deeper into the Core - I suspect that is the reason they attacked us at Kaeshana," he said, even offering a slight twinge of sadness in his voice, though he was anything but. "I don't want to bring your people into the conflict," the Sith Lord claimed, unsure as to whether or not he was lying. The First Order's policy of being against slavery had instilled itself into him, and although he personally didn't take any slaves, his inherited company upon Tantorus in the Unknown Regions certainly did. "But it'll be expected of me to protect the First Order's people - even if I..." He paused for a moment, "Enjoy, your company," he decided to say, figuring it was much better than truly admitting anything on the emotional level.

There was some knowledge of the Kuhn Legacy. In fact, A'sharad's very own company, in his name of course, owned a 5% stake in the companies holds. Funny how things shaped up? He smiled for a moment at the circumstance, one that had only been brought to his attention in those moments as he said, "There is little Imperial 'tyranny,'" he explained. He stopped again, glancing down to his cybernetic hand underneath the table, before he lifted it up and in plain view as he listened to her. "Of course as in any place, there is preference and better treatment based upon what you look like," he said, "your species for instance," he further explained, "But aliens are welcome in the First Order and do have positions of authority." Though, none happened to be on the Moff Council. There was however, the public head of the First Order Security Bureau who happened to be a Chiss. However, looking into Imperial backgrounds, should Chiss even be classified as 'non-human' with how many had been integrated into the Imperial way of life so long ago?

"I understand," he said, extending his cybernetic arm to her from across the table, ever so slowly, and opening his hand to her.

His mind wandered for a moment.

"I can make you understand if you came back with me."

[member="Lily Kuhn"]

 

[Ellie Mors]

Lily wasn't someone she'd consider old-fashioned, especially not in the political sense. She had been rather conservative with how intrusive the government - the sovereign government of Empress Teta, at any rate, she couldn't speak on the Alliance's potential spying habits - could be in the lives of its citizens, and also very liberal in her social reforms. The day of her coronation, technically a week into her official reign as the Empress of Teta, had not only been a day of celebration. Food had been prepared in many major city centers per her request and was given to those that were in need and were less fortunate. Old fashioned in the core meant you were a cutthroat politician and wanted to topple your rivals - Lily had become best friends with Nadja and was starting to gain influence with the very Krath that had many times threatened to overthrow her through force. But Lily still felt it was not her place to make a request for aid from a foreign power that could have been considered an enemy state considering her system's participation in the Galactic Alliance.

She wanted out of it, whether the Alliance and the rest of the member worlds did or not. This war that they were waging, now over an asteroid-riddled hellhole, was childish at best and wasted the lives of hundreds upon thousands only to thumb their noses at an opposing government out of principle. If the principle had meant doing the right thing, perhaps she could have seen purpose in this war - but the principle was that because they thought he First Order was an evil, or perhaps even malicious, entity that it required them to intervene whenever the First Order attempted to push out beyond its current borders. It did not take much intelligence to understand that she would inevitably be pulled into the conflict if she sat by idly and ignored it - her planet had been the site of more large-scale invasions than many other planets in the core, aside from perhaps Coruscant.

But what A'sharad was asking her was treason, simply put. What she had asked for - help, however vague it might have been - could certainly be construed that way, but what he was offering was a slightly more dangerous proposition. She never would have came up with what he was offering on her own, or at the very least she never could have requested such a thing from him unless he was the one who asked the question first.

"I need you to understand that what you are asking me is a very dangerous question to answer." She explained, thinking over her own answer to his suggestion while she spoke. "If I go with you - accompany you to First Order space - then I will need a great deal more than just a hand to hold, A'sharad." Lily said. Her voice was a little bitter, perhaps with the situation she had found herself in, and perhaps for the offer he'd made that put her on the spot. The answer was yes, of course - it was the only answer left. If she said no, at this point, he could simply cut his ties with her and use their meeting as blackmail - not something, she hoped, that he would do to her, but then she'd always been a bit more naive in expecting more out of people than they'd given her. "If I leave the Alliance, so does Teta." She emphasized, pausing to think over her answer one last time.

A slender hand, her right, reached out for the Sith's prosthetic.

"Show me that I am right for doing this."

[member="Asharad Graush"]

 

[Asharad Graush]

Perhaps Lily truly did like A'sharad, or rather, preferred the thought of not having the Galactic Alliance lording over the people of Koros Major. Did she think that he would be able to help her with that? In words, he may vocalize such, but in truth, he wasn't certain that he could pay up, so to speak. Even if the First Order had won the first battle against their neighbours, that was within the Outer Rim. Empress Teta was far away. Even if he had travelled here without entering Alliance Space once, it still took time. The Imperials wouldn't follow their Sith High Marshal all the way to the Inner Rim for one world. No.

A'sharad's orbs hardened for a moment as he looked into her eyes.

For the people of Koros Major, and for the Empress, it'd be best for the entire system to remain neutral, claimed by none.

The Epicant-Hybrid took hold of her hand, leaning in over the table as he spoke in an even tone, though appeared to be doing little more than whispering.

"We can't let it be known that you've come with me, not yet..." She was royalty, obviously. There were some situations that were deemed too dangerous for some monarchs and rulers in the past. There were options A'sharad saw, going forward. "A body double," he suggested. Even if she didn't have one, it wouldn't be difficult to find one, especially with both their ties to such vast wealths of credits and technology.

"... I also promise to keep the fighting as far away from Teta as possible," he said, lifting her hand up and pressing his lips softly against her knuckles. "Request it of me, Empress, and I will do it. Personally."

[member="Lily Kuhn"]