Never Too Late (To Pay Your Fees)

[Hal Terrano]

Unfortunately the state of the library had fairly impeded the pace of their research. How could one find what they needed when nothing was in its assigned place? Even now, as they searched for the relevant texts and volumes Hal was still trying to rearrange everything. Shifting from shelf to shelf, back and forth, over and over.

She spoke, and he grimaced. A regular reaction but in this case, completely warranted. Even Terrano considered some things a complete waste of time to write about.

“Too many.”

A pause, his brain processing through limitless information until it reached the section reserved for the romantic sagas of the Hinatas.

“The family tree of the Hinata family is quite interesting,” Hal stated, inflection even coming through on his cold tones in that sentence, “you hail from a terribly incestuous period of history, Master Kismet.”

There were a few large family dynasties in that era, hard enough to keep up with, never mind when they started breeding with each other.

“To my knowledge there was no large lull in population at the time. I cannot fathom their behaviours.”

Beat.

“Have you found any relevant texts?”

---

[member="Bethany Kismet"]

 

[Bethany Kismet]

It took Bethany a moment to realize that he had changed the subject. At first, she thought he meant 'texts relevant to the Hinata's behaviors' and she just gave him a surprised blink before-

"Oh! Um, I think so. I'm pulling them out as I find them. Not a lot of people writing about Sith Poisons and publishing anything about it. Which isn't surprising really. I'll - I'll just finish looking through this section if you want to start flipping through those?"

There had been a pause, a beat in the middle there as a slim volume on the shelf had caught her eye. She'd wait until he was gone before reaching out and sliding it from it's place with a single finger.

Hearts on Ilum, a Kismet and Ventraas story.

"You have got to be kidding me."

About to put it back, she paused, glancing around for a moment before slipping it into a pocket instead.

"I think that's it for this section, Hal!" She called a moment later. A little self consciously, she headed back through the stacks to where they had taken over a table for their work. She would have had tea waiting, but Hal was adamant that tea belonged in the back room, not here with the books.

[member="Hal Terrano"]

 

[Hal Terrano]

It was quite frustrating. Perhaps not as frustrating as reading through a historically inaccurate and horrifically romanticised account of your own love life, but Hal didn't know anything about that particular issue. No, his frustration stemmed from the complete lack of source material regarding Sith Poison. Perhaps the problem lay in the basic general knowledge that was to be found in a public library. A very likely case. His archives upon Byss and Cato Neimoidia would have been much more likely to bear the answers they sought.

Frown deepened.

There was also a small amount of ire directed towards himself. Why didn't he know? Knowledge was his speciality, and having spent time amongst both the Jedi and the Sith he would have thought it might have come up. Assumption upon his part? Assumption that as a Jedi Healer...

...Avalore would have known?

He was no longer reading the text laid out before him at the table but instead was found furiously staring at the page, as if he was trying to set the book alight with his eyes.

She was the Healer, he was the Archivist. His faith in her abilities had left him content to peruse other endless areas of knowledge. Had he never considered the chance that she wouldn't be there one day? Or rather, that he wouldn't. Why not? What if she needed his help? Prepared for every eventuality, hm? Sorry, I thought you could heal yourself, I was too busy reading upon on dragon slugs. It seemed illogical upon his part, careless even and only fuelled his self-inflicted irritation.

It left Terrano sitting there, thinking about her.

Would you know what to do, Avalore?

It stirred. Jawline visibly stiffening. Frown lines deepening. He was taut. Exasperation becoming aggravation, exuding forth from his very being. Hal could feel it there sitting upon his chest, pounding harder with each beat. He balled his right hand into a tight fist, clutching his thumb so hard that there was a rather unpleasant pop.

“What if we can't find anything?!” Hal suddenly exclaimed, staring straight ahead with an intense ire that was beyond his own character.

There were small dots of crimson within his eyes.

---

[member="Bethany Kismet"]