Private My Shadow Runs With Me

[Skeevi Merrill]

Skeevi was a dab hand with a holo tattoo gun. They got to work cheerfully. The pattern emerging was a Frangawl glyph from a fallen Dagoyan they'd known in Seven Corners. It was the mimic of one in Skeevi's right shoulder, invisible under their coat. The Frangawl were known for, among other things, stealth. The glyph would instill Lily with supernatural sneakiness.

Velok came over to watch with half-lidded eyes. Skeevi watched him warily. They got along decently well now but hadn't broached the topic of the Force.

"There's power in that mark," said Velok.

Skeevi waved the tattoo gun with a flourish. "Sneaky power, friend."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily inspected the mark, wondering what it was that Velok saw. Her eyes moved to flick between them, trying to ascertain whether she should be concerned. Her understanding of the force was minimal, at best, so how a glyph could contain any sort of power was utterly lost on her but, Velok was not showing any signs of concerns so she relaxed the tension that had crept up into her shoulders.

Sneaky, meant passing unnoticed. She smiled. "Thank you, Skeevi. Do I..." she trailed off, worried about sounding stupid, "do I have to do anything for it to work?"

Skeevi Merrill

 

[Skeevi Merrill]

"Nyeta. It's Frangawl magic. Frangawl prep and prep. No throwing 'lectricity or moving, I dunno, boxes. They prep so when they need their magic it's all already done. Kidnap powder, soul balls, allovit."

"Frangawl," said Velok nearby. "From Phu?"

"Yeah, they like soup. Bardotta." Skeevi kept layering in holocircuit ink and Force shavvit alike. "Bardottan glitbiter swapped it for soup when I was a kid. All kinda magic in Seven Corners. Folks there been kids for fitty years. Time warp ship crash I think. Rest of the galaxy keeps moving fast, fast, fast."

Skeevi evaluated their handiwork and pronounced it good.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"Bardottan glitbiter, huh? I'll remember that if we ever find ourselves in the Seven Corners." Lily was inspecting Skeevi's handiwork, a small smile on her face. There was so much more to Skeevi than Lily could ever imagine. Had the itch not been burning the soles of her feet, Lily might have stayed, pressed a little just to see if she could get beyond the proverbial hood and maybe make a close friend, instead of a friend that might steal from her...or vice versa.

Such was the curse of a street kid. You could never give yourself wholly, something always had to be held back, if not to make it easier to dip into each others packet, but to make the betrayals less painful to manage. Lily gave Velok a look, like a kid who wanted to take a puppy home but knew full well the answer would be no. She put a hand on Skeevi's arm, turning her attention back to them. "Eat well, Skeevi, fly straight." She cast glance at the half completed ship. "You'll be at the next big scav site, nyeta?"

Lily made her way back to the Pilgrim's Rest, a bizarre mix of sad and happy twisting in her chest. They needed to go onto the next place, to pick up whatever trail they could towards breaking a curse and that thrilled her, but there was something comforting in being among your own. Once Velok was on board, Lily took them into the stars, the focus of flying drawing her thoughts away from the odd friend she may have made. In the quiet of hyperspace, her fingers trailed the tattoo and she asked, breaking the comfortable quiet between them, "Velok, what the feth is a bardottan glitbiter?"

Skeevi Merrill

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

On his copilot cushion, which smelled suspiciously of Jawa, Velok chuckled.

"A glitbiter is slang for someone addicted to low-grade glitterstim. Bardottans are reptilian, wiry, somewhat ducklike with a head crest. The Dagoyan Order advises their rulers. The Dagoyan are peaceful Force-sensitives who don't use the Force; they focus on insight. The average Force-sensitive is like the average ship: guns, tractor beams, comms, sensors, engines, all the usual options. A Dagoyan is like a ship that has very few options but a very large commscan antenna. The Frangawl...they're a spinoff or a predecessor, depending who you ask. Darksiders. Kidnappers. Life-stealers. A secretive cult based on a group that used to rule Bardotta openly. Both the Dagoyan and Frangawl are serious traditions and not ones I've encountered often. Not easy to find off Bardotta."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily had always been a smart kid, she picked skills up quickly and always had a keen ear absorbing information like a sponge and she knew people, could read them well enough, knew quickly who was trustworthy and who was not. A good skill to have. Yet, the more time she spent in Veloks company, the nore she felt like a child, so utterly empty of knowledge and understanding of the galaxy beyond.

"Oh, well i wasn't too far off, i thought it might be a weird lizard that... actually, never mind." She felt her cheeks burning, making a mental bite to pick up some more books at the bazaar, she changed the subject.

"Do you think we'll find anyone in the Firefist that can help with your curse? Or will we head back home?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

He wasn't sure what to say to Lily's obvious embarrassment and feelings about all the things she didn't know. When she shifted the subject, he went with it.

"I don't know anything about Force traditions in Firefist. There's five main known species and I'm sure their cultures have all manner of relationships to the Force. A Jedi Master or a Sith Lord could probably set me free in their own ways. Maybe there are others. A diverse crossroads port like Jaibrek might thin the fog of war. As for home...what worlds are home to you? Would you go back to Coruscant?"

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"No, never." The answer to Coruscant came out of her mouth so fast she surprised herself. "Coruscant was never home, it was...hell." she smiled. " I worked hard to get away, and I'll work harder to stay away."

Lily pondered a moment on the question. "This is home." She gestured at the ship "There aren't really planets that are home. There's planets I'd like to go back to, like Arda and places I know I want to see that way. Hell, I'll see all of it if I can. And there's a few people too i wouldn't mind meeting again."

She cocked her head. "What about you? You have people, and a home?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"My people aren't numerous. For centuries we've had villages and ritual sites in the Temorzhai Ridge on the quiet little world world we call Akrugh. They're small places, our homes in the high Temorzhai. Cold enough that some of us go through rituals — the Pelt of Gruuta — to fortify us against the cold. That place and those people were home to me as much as Toola itself. My crew had a stronghold called Agnekye farther south, but I don't miss that so much as the Ridge."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily wasn't sure how she felt about the idea of being so cold a ritual was necessary to keep warm. She'd known cold to a degree, like when you couldn't find anywhere to get dry in the rain, but she'd never seen snow.

"Well, once we get rid of this curse, maybe you can show me your home."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

---

JAIBREK

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The Nagai colony world had a thriving bazaar. These days it constituted a major waypoint on the Nagai Trade Spine. Walking the market with Lily Rhodes , Velok smelled a hundred kinds of local food and many unfamiliar species, both sapient and not. Nagai were predominant, and theirs was a blade culture; even non-Nagai wore knives. Velok bartered some of his trade goods for a Whiphid-sized knife; what species it had been made for was anyone's guess.

Being here put his curse on a timer, a day or two most likely.

"More often than not," he told Lily around a mouthful of street meat, "those that use the Force at a high level are addicted to their own importance. They need people to recognize them in whatever way feels good to them. Fear, respect, admiration, gratitude - it's all the same. A place this busy is the best chance of finding someone with the power to impact my curse."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily adjusted the loaded rucksack on her back with one hand, licking the sweet spicy sauce from her other as she walked. The bazaar was ripe with possibilities, had she been alone, she probably would have spent several days here, absorbing what she could from the locals and exploring every inch. As it was, she settled for more books, some on the local area, others on history in the firefist galaxy and even a couple of fiction too. Plenty of reading material to keep her busy in hyperspace, but the bag was heavy.

She'd eyed a knife or two while Velok bartered for his own but with no real skill, it seemed like a waste. Lily could trust her limited skill with a blaster and that, for now, was all she needed.

"Look out for people with an air of self importance," Lily replied, between sucking grease off her fingers, the sauce leaving a gentle heat on her tongue. "Got it. Should be easy enough to spot. We can split up? Cover more ground, meet back at the ship in an hour?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok whuffled in grim amusement. "Sounds as if you know just what to look for. I'll see you soon."

There were people his size around — a Houk, a Herglic, a young Hutt, a few Maccabrees in power tanks. He didn't stand out as much as he'd feared, even though the Nagai and Sharuka and others were human-sized little things.

He paused at a crossroads square and drew a deep breath. As often as not, his sense of the Force overlapped with his sense of smell. He caught an unfamiliar scent, a strong one, and ran with it.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily and her heavy backpack disappeared into the crowd, an innate skill amplified by Skeevi's parting gift. She did her best not to get distracted by the brightly coloured stalls, knowing she wouldn't find the answers they needed. She didn't want a repeat of Drakeport, so time was of the essence. She let herself be carried with the ebb and flow of people, looking for anything that drew more attention than normal.

There was a shift in the crowd as she walked, like a river parting around a rock. Lily moved to the centre too see what its was. A nagai dressed in long robes, head covered with a habit, a polearm in her hand. If Lily had to guess she was middle aged, the crowd parted to let her through out of respect and she carried herself with her head held high. Not so high she was above everybody else, but high enough to be dancing on the edge of self importance. Lily passed her with a small smile of triumph, doubling back in the crowd to follow her at a safe distance.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

There was more than one scent, so far as the Force was concerned, and Velok lingered at the crossroads. Two strong scents were close together but distinct; he went that way.

The scents brought him to a knot of market stalls in a busy area. One of the two contacts, some distance away and receiving adoration and wariness from the crowd, was a Nagai woman with a regal attitude. Velok thought for a moment he glimpsed Lily in the crowd. For the moment, Velok kept his attention on the nearer of the two scents: a scarified Sharuka. The man was lurking - no other word for it - in between a pair of stalls, and watching the Nagai woman from a distance. Watching closely.

Velok might not have been the stealthiest being around, but taking advantage of others' tunnel vision could counterbalance that. He moved quickly behind the stalls and gripped the Sharuka's arm inexorably.

The blue-gray humanoid didn't fight it. In fact, as he took in Velok's presence, his face shifted to something...hungry. "Greetings, Lord," he said in heavily accented Basic. "I would serve you."

Something tugged at the back of Velok's mind, a whisper of a familiar feeling: a Force drain. In a minimal, passive way, this being was feeding off Velok's Force energies. He released the Sharuka's arm and wiped his hand on his pants. "You're a Slaine," he said. "A parasite."

"Exactly, Lord. The Force is rare among my species, and I have wasted it, turned it to a despicable way, without ambition or significance. I am called the Disappointment."

"You serve the Nagai over there?"

"I meant to but, worm that I am, I pivoted immediately to you. I would be your most devoted, if untrustworthy-"

"Right." Velok wiped his hand again. The Slaine - a Dark Side tradition peculiar to the Unknown Regions - drew their strength from internal conflict, abnegation, humiliation, servile misery. And that strength could be...considerable. Just complicated.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

While Lily made sure to keep track of where she was in relation to where they were docked, she paid little attention to anything else beyond the Nagai woman. She was graceful without effort, something Lily couldn't help but admire. They paused at a few stalls, tucking purchased trinkets away in the folds of her robes, keeping her conversation with each vendor short, but warm.

Lily edged a little too close when conversation with a Herglic dropped to tones so low she couldn't hear. The Nagai's eyes found hers and Lily sucked in a sharp breath. It was like she was seeing everything, all of Lily in that one moment, unveiling things Lily was not comfortable with. She had two choices, hold her ground, or retreat. Oh, how she wanted to retreat, to turn tail and bolt back to a place where she was not so visible.

The split second seemed to last an age, before the Nagai eyes slipped back to the herglic and Lily started breathing again. She shifted back into the crowd letting it carry her past before slipping between two stalls further down, wiping sweaty palms on her trousers and fighting with a nervous nausea. She realised that even if she did get to speak to this woman, what was she to say? Hey, can you help, my friend did a terrible thing but he's sorry and his curse should be removed.

Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had come completely unravelled, she needed to pull herself back together and carry on, all she needed to do was find out where the woman stayed and then she could show Velok. She didn't have to talk to her.

"How long do you intend to follow me for young one?" accented but clearly spoken basic from behind her. Lily let out a shout of surprise.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok straightened to his full height and looked out over both the stalls and the crowd. The Nagai and Lily were nowhere in sight. He refocused on the Slaine who called himself the Disappointment. The blue-gray Sharukan male was scarified and ragged, the picture of a minor fringe Darksider. But Velok's fortunetelling senses suggested there was a great deal of hazard under the surface. Insofar as strength in the Force could be condensed into a sliding scale, the Disappointment probably outclassed Velok by at least a weight category or two.

Velok found himself laughing.

"My lord?" said the Disappointment, perhaps warily.

"It occurred to me how much better and more interesting the galaxy would be if all its strongest Forcers became Slaine."

They laughed, a moment of odd connection. Velok's good mood soured as he realized he couldn't be sure whether the Disappointment shared the joke or was simply aping him subserviently.

"I have a curse," said Velok, and to his disquiet found that a quarter century of stewing reservations just failed to interject. "An elder of my people put it on me almost thirty years ago. Can you feel it?"

The Disappointment's lean face went tight. "I feel something, Lord, like a shackle."

"Your people - their way is servitude, isn't it? Control, abuse?" Velok eyed the Disappointment's shifting expression and was unable to determine what it meant. "Disappointment, would you be able to remove my curse?"

"That would put me in a position of power over you, Lord, which would be unseemly. It would weaken me - which would be pleasurable, but counter to your goal and thus make me..."

"...unable to fully end the curse. Which would make you a disappointment and thus more able to do it. A paradox."

The Disappointment bowed deeply, as if the space behind the stalls was a formal theatre on some human world. One of the pretentious ones. "All things considered, I can do it."

"No, you believe you can raise my expectations and then disappoint them."

"If you're going to use me, Lord, I find a veil is best. Keep me in the dark. Choke out my limited awareness. Rip the ground out from under my feet."

Velok grimaced. "If you're enjoying this, I'm not. Enough. You can drain energy: take a bite out of my curse if you can. Even if it means taking a bite out of me."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"What, I-I'm not...Well I am but..." Lily trailed off, those eyes boring into her own again. Lily shook herself and closed her eyes. "Please stop looking at me like that."

"You do not like to be seen." It was a statement, not a question.

"Being seen is one thing, having a spotlight shone on you and everything exposed under close inspection..." She was absently rubbing the tattoo beneath her sleeve, like it would help.

"There is no spotlight, young one. Open your eyes."

Lily did so, slowly, on eye at a time. The Nagai was still looking at her but the intensity in her gaze was gone, she was no longer boring into her very soul. Lily let out a breath, though she was till tense, ready to bolt at the first sign of being inspected again. "Are you afraid I might see something?"

"Isn't everyone?"

The woman laughed. "Perhaps. Why are you following me, young one?"

"Oh, um...I...my friend..." Lily couldn't find the words. She hadn't been this nervous when Velok had jumped awake with a lightsabre thicker than legs, but this woman had no agenda she could pin. She was immediately threatening, in fact she was completely calm, not the reaction you except when confronting a stalker. She was staring at the nagai, trying to suss her out.

"Now who is shining a spotlight?" she said with a chuckle.

Lily blushed and cast her eye downward. "Sorry. My friend needs help. I was hoping to find somewhere he can get it." There, that wasn't so hard.

"Is he injured?"

"Not physically." Lily looked up "His pain is deeper than his skin."

The nagai nodded slowly "Bring him to the temple, ask for Sonere, that is me. I will see your friend and his pain." She gestured with the polearm to the edge of the bazaar "South from here, just a few clicks, you can't miss it."

"Just like that?" Lily asked. Sonere merely smiled and gave a small shrug in response before moving away, leaving Lily alone. She wrapped her arms about herself a cold running through her, replaying it all in her head trying to uncover the hidden agenda. Maybe Velok would have better luck. She slipped back into the crowd, worming her way back towards the ship, alert this time, to the smallest of details.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok tried not to visibly limp or slouch as he rejoined Lily Rhodes at the ship. After this many days together she knew his moods and how he moved, but maybe he could still deceive her. He felt terrible, head to toe. The Disappointment had latched onto his feet with an unusually firm grip for a Sharuka. The Force had done...something. The whole affair left Velok deeply uncomfortable, not because of the Slaine's ideological peculiarities but because he simply didn't have the aptitude or finesse to understand what had been done to his life energy.

He could hope that the Slaine had taken his curse, or attenuated it. He found that deciding on hope was within his power to do, in defiance of the variables and the weight of what he deserved. And, frankly, in defiance of how normal it was for things to go wrong. How normal it was to be, well, disappointed.

That got a shiver.

"I found something and tried it," he said to Lily by way of greeting. "I don't know if it worked. How was your afternoon in the markets of Jaibrek? The Nagai - was she anything?"

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily was laying on the landing ramp an arm draped over her eyes trying to convince herself that not everyone could see her the way Sonere had. She didn't look up straight away, snorting in repsonse to his question. "Oh she was definitely something, I feel like shes peeled layers off me just by looking." A visible shudder ran through her. She'd been fighting the urge to trun tail and find a different planet to hide on.

"That's not even the worst bit " she sat up finally looking at him and her face instantly filled with concern. Something was wrong but she couldn't pinpoint what Her eyes were searching as she continued to speak looking for an injury."I couldn't get a read on her, something I'm normally pretty good at, so I dont know her game and that makes me nervous." She shrugged unable to find anything obvious and instead settling her eyes back on Veloks "But there's a temple south of here we've been invited to visit... What happened?"

Velok Brokentusk