Cedric Grayson
Ashlan Kaiser
Location: Outside New Adasta
Task: Outrage
Music: Burgundian Lullaby
Tag:
Ingrid L'lerim
The rejection of more casual conversation was met with a lofted brow and a briefly dying smile, though Cedric quickly recounted his initial reaction. If she wished to play things from the angle of hierarchy, then he would acquiese. The Jedi exile listened in silence as Ingrid spoke her piece, his gaze jumping from the red-haired woman to the city and back again as the conversation continued further. He understood her position, to a certain degree. Honor was a matter of importance to some, and while he was not familiar with the general reputation of the Eternal Empire, wanting to salvage it was something he sympathized with.
Even still, for all Ingrid's reasoning, she was wrong, and if he could not show her why then it was likely her empire would be doomed to the same fate the Sith were destined for.
"Mister Grayson it is then," Cedric mumbled as he turned to face her once more, the fires of New Adasta momentarily forgotten as he met her gaze. How she had risen to her position he had no idea, but he understood the current Sith Emperor's apparent captivation well enough. For his part, Cedric had always made a point to ignore the aesthetics of his equals. Far too many great man had been dragged down by their desires for women that were well out of their reach, and the exile had worked to kill whatever wants might have lingered in his heart. Anything otherwise would have been a disservice to the Ashla and his people, and yet the very fact that he'd noticed her in such a sense was a sign of weakness.
Something to be purged further in his private meditations. There was no room for sentiment or animalistic tendencies on the path he currently walked.
"I will speak to you candidly empress," his smile faded, his arms locking behind the small of his back as he looked up at the empress, his voice dropping in such a way as to be akin to a waterfall crashing upon a mass of rocks in its grave portent. "You are not responsible for this conflict whatsoever. The Sith have slaughtered millions in their conquests. This war was inevitable, you were just an excuse. The imperial separatists hate their former overlords, and they won't stop until the empire has been extinguished. For my part, the Sith murdered my entire world. I have no living family save for a nephew because of them. My wife, my parents, my siblings, uncles and aunts, cousins, friends, coworkers - butchered at the hands of tyrants in the name of Sith supremacy."
Whatever façade of calm he might have worn melted away as he spoke further. It was not hatred that drove Cedric Grayson, but revulsion, disgust, intolerance. Pity. "I sympathize with those suffering at the hands of the Bryn'adul and the Maw, and when I have killed every last Sith in the Tingel Arm, when I have crucified their officers, when I have shown the galaxy the inadequacies of their leaders, when the title of Sith becomes little more than a token of mockery for the lame and the idiotic, when Korriban is just a memory, then I will turn my armies to extinguish the fires of every other power that dares to call itself a conqueror."
Cedric's expression might have been confused for one of anger, but in truth its source was an unwavering sense of purpose. He had been born to remove the Sith from the galaxy forever. Every bit of history would be expunged, every hint of culture removed, every holocron, emblem, even the markings upon silverware forged in Sith factories melted away. That was his sole purpose. The only reason he still lived. "The idea that we could EVER have peace with the Sith is naïve at the least, and dangerously ignorant at the least. If you court them, Empress, they will betray you in time. I promise you, I swear upon the Ashla herself, that they will betray you, and when they do, you will remember this moment and wonder why you rejected my offer."
The hand lingered there despite her inaction.
"End it with diplomacy then. The Sith Empire is dying. Every Sith power is dying. If you stand with them, I can't promise your safety or that of your empire. So long as your soldiers do not raise arms against us, the Crusade will not come for you, but I cannot promise the NIO will be so merciful, or the Galactic Alliance. More importantly, if you stand with the enemy as they expire, I can't guarantee anyone will come to help when the Maw inevitably comes for you either."
Honor he understood to a degree. The Ashlans held it as a virtue, but Cedric personally found it to be an antiquated idea that had long since lost its use. The empress' further words gave him pause. "War crimes?" He blinked. "You refer to the bombing of the Sith academy, full of combatants? You think that a Sith is not dangerous just because he is young?" Disbelief played across Cedric's face. "I am tired. I am so, so tired, of people clinging to singular moments of weakness to paint the entirety of the Jedi Order as murderers. What war crimes Ingrid? A few students, with no guidance, bombed an academy and were put on trial for it? What about the millions of people in slave camps?! What about the worlds quite literally obliterated at Sith hands?! Entire species driven to near extinction by imperial conquest?! Yet you bring up isolated incidents by individuals punished wholly for their crimes and claim that we are just as bad as the enemy?"
Cedric shook his head, whatever good will he had reserved for the empress evaporating entirely. "If you believe that this makes us equal to the Sith, then you are a fool, and you will lead your nation into ashes. What would you have us do? Lay on our backs and ask the Sith to be gentle? Perhaps provide the lubricant ourselves so that they might think us considerate? This is war empress. People die in war, sometimes innocents, it is unfortunate and we prevent it when we can, the Sith do not. They embrace the slaughter. That is what makes us different than them," he pointed toward the burning city. "That is what makes us better than them. When people cross the line, we put them on trial, we hold them accountable, the Sith give them MEDALS!"
The words were shouted despite Cedric's better intentions. His outrage was not so much with the Empress, but the opinions she represented. So often had he heard that the Jedi had lost their way by people who had no dog in the fight, nothing to lose and a high horse from which they could cast their criticisms freely, and it had grown to be unbearably exhausting.
His body shook slightly from the bitterness that occupied his every breath. The empyrean moved to his words similarly, the creeping presence of the Bogan creeping upon the edges of his perceptions. Cedric drew in a deep breath, mumbled his mantra under his words, and addressed the Empress far more serenely.
"I will make this plain for you, Empress. Publicly renounce the Eternal Empire's connection the Sith. Announce your intentions to join the community of the free world. Make it very clear that you do not associate with the Sith, so that we can welcome you as an equal power to our table. If you continue down this course, when the Sith fall, our allies will come for you, I promise, and it won't be the Maw or the Bryn'adul you need to worry about. If you want to avoid war, truly, then you need to make it very clear that you will work with the allied powers. The only alternative you have is war. You don't need to do it here, we can continue our evacuation as we are, but it needs to be done soon. Your only other option is to prepare for a conflict so total and all encompassing that the entirety your empire will forget what peace even means. I do not tell you this as a threat, my people will not harm yours, but to inform you of the reality of your situation. Stand with the monsters for honor, whatever the hell that even means anymore, or join us in ushering in an age where the Sith are nothing more than a memory. Walk with us into the future, or become part of that memory."
His hand withdrew, but the matter was made clear. "The choice is your Ingrid. Don't damn your people over an idea."
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