Private No Rest for the Wicked

[Dagon Kaze]

No rest for the wicked.

Even with the galaxy aflame with the war against the Sith, the evil at home did not sleep. In fact, it fed upon the numerous opportunities the war had opened to expand its reach. Thirty-three souls devoured by the gluttonous maw of that evil emerged on Coruscant in the cargo of an unsuspecting hauler from Empress Teta. Two things stood out - the unnaturally clean head decapitations and the symbolic mark engraved on each forehead. The latter was the reason Dagon was dragged into the mess; he didn't like it, with the war going in full force and all, and neither did the Marshalls.

But when did Marshalls like anything that wasn't cheap booze and a strip joint?

He picked up a few copies of the crime scene holography from the forensics department and began his own research. Locked up for days in his quarters in the Jedi Temple, refusing, out of embarrassment, to seek help from the person who would know best - Aeris Lashiec. The Archivist. After the disaster Viers Connory and he caused in the library, Dagon was evading the Jedi Library like the scourge. Rumors ran amok that Aeris had put on a restraining order on Viers and him from the library but he really did not want to find out if that was a joke or not.

Until that was the only option left.

The Jedi made like the shadows, ghosting through the hallways of the massive library, reluctantly asking assistants for the Archivist's location. After what felt like an hour, Dagon caught her organizing some holobooks on one of the hundreds of shelves. Of course, no smile evident on her face. He kept peaking from the corner of the shelf till he feigned siphoning the humiliation off his system and approached her from behind. Not shirtless this time, thankfully.

"Hey Aeris, got a, uh, minute?" he scratched the back of his head.

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

It was a hollow victory. While an undoubtedly good amount of damage had been avoided it was still something that had felt entirely avoidable. The primary concern of Aeris was and always had been the well-being of those who had ended up trapped within the archives with her, but if the whispers around the grounds were to be believed that wasn’t exactly how she had come across. Cold, uncaring, more concerned with a book than a life. In truth it was enough to make Aeris doubt herself, and even then she knew it was unfounded.

Knowledge was simply something she burned for, the pursuit of which — to her — was the greatest purpose for a Jedi. When a place — her place — dedicated to such a pursuit was threatened it was hard to not be worried about it. But, people liked to talk and much like talk always did when it came to such things, it would pass onto something new to bog down. Until then Aeris would gladly confine herself within the archive to help restructure the mess that the incident had left behind.

With her mind in a place of its own, arm stretched into one of the shelves to deposit a book in its carefully chosen blank spot, surrounded by tomes not too unlike it. While this was a fictitious work of art, it still held a place in these grounds. A story of a young knight who overestimated his opponent and died, a more brutal story written by Jedi from a more brutal age but with a moral worth pondering nonetheless. Overconfidence was, after all, an all too common affliction.

As she turned around to deposit another fictitious work next to it she was interrupted by the familiar voice of Dagon Kaze, one of the more common sights around the archive. A padawan who liked to read, much like Aeris herself once had been.

“Of course,” She said as she finished placing the book on the shelf. With a careful step down her small ladder she gave the man a lookover. Didn’t seem hurt, that was good. “What can I help you with, Padawan Kaze?”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

She wasn't mad. Good. A mental sigh of relief clearing the fog of embarrassment.

She did, however, look as distant as reserved as always. Dagon knew she was about his age but she did always come off as...rather older. Even Auteme , a renowned bookworm friend of his, did not seem anything like that. It was also one of Dagon's fears of becoming himself; sure, he loved the library, the holobooks, the holocron and diving into research but not to such an extent. Exploring through experience was his preference.

Aeris maybe needed a break.

The idea left his mind as soon as it arrived, driven out by the matter at hand.

"Great, hold on." Dagon reached for the inside of his leather jacket's pocket and produced a holopad. With a click, it stirred to shimmering blue life.

"I need help figuring out what this symbol is." he jerked his head at the holoimage - the severed head of one of the vics with the symbol scarred onto his forehead.

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

This ‘older’ behaviour was a remnant of Orders that had since passed. When things constantly crashed around you there was not much time for a childhood. As good as some parts of her youngling years had been they had also come at a time when the Republic was well on its way into the Netherworld, and that wasn’t just metaphorically speaking. The Order found her as an infant, hungry and alone in a house left behind by a family that never came back for her.

With their casualties there was never a master around to take her under their wing, and when you have to teach yourself how to survive books became a natural escape. She had line after line of lore to devour and analyze, lessons to be taught by the long-dead authors of the Jedi from the past where the present couldn’t deliver.

So, when Dagon came asking for help with some form of symbolism her brain kicked into gear. The device in his hand was practically torn from his hand as he extended the pad towards her. Her finger ran along the surface of the screen to trace along the jagged edges of the circular shape.

“Three symmetrical dots in a circle, almost as if they are orbiting something together.” She muttered to herself mostly with a quick glance up at Dagon before she looked down at the pad again. “Unity, maybe? Continuation. Some sort of…”

The pad was pushed back into Dagon’s hands. Aeris waved for him to follow along with a quiet, “Come with me.”

Nearby was a computer. Aeris withdrew the card from the necklace around her neck to deposit it into its designated slot and stepped back to let the hologram machine thing project a whole array of little dots before her. Her hand reached for one of them to expand it.

“We,” She began as the dot turned into a wide selection of symbols. “Are talking about some form of iconography that has something to do with the continuation of something. Think along the lines of preservation, things that need to be kept safe so that it may live on. Something like a soul, a book, an idea.”

“Spirituality, tradition, beliefs and mantras…” She was really just rambling at this point trying to get Dagon to form some sort of conclusion of his own. “I want to say with the way that these ‘balls’ seem to rely on negative space to show not only themselves but the almost fang-like blades… We are dealing with someone who doesn't like to share, only take.”

“Or what do you reckon, Kaze?” Aeris asked as she finally seemed to turn and give the man the time of day. “Are you following my line of thought here?”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Her initial mumbling made little sense to him but Dagon had been used to it. Nearly every Jedi librarian he knew liked to ramble on their connected, or disconnected, thoughts; a librarian's monologue, some called it.

It all become much clearer when she brought him to a computer and the symbol lit from a holographic machine. As she explained, Dagon's features grew darker; a shadow falling on his brow that even the blue light could not illuminate.

“Are you following my line of thought here?”

"I am." he replied coarsely. His eyes glaring at the shimmering symbol. He bit his lip, then decided to divulge the whole information, "Thirty-three corpses arrived on a haul from Empress Teta to Coruscant, Aeris - all with their heads clean off their shoulders and that symbol carved on their foreheads -- and all I could think of was..."

"The Krath."

An idea that takes.

Everything.

He broke the veil of silence with a sigh, adding, "Do the archives find any...similarities with the cult?"

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

A knowing nod was all that Dagon got as he brought up the casualties as Aeris pondered the motive for such a thing. Such brutality was certainly in the Sith playbook and an effective means to spread fear and confusion amongst those who might seek to oppose them. A message in many ways, but ultimately little more than a calling card for someone to find, which meant that they in many regards wanted to be found.

Question was, had they counted on the finders to be Jedi? Gut feeling said yes.

“The Krath.” Aeris said and expanded a small picture within the projection to show a photo of Satal and Alema Keto, both degraded from the years it's storage had spent in transit between places, not to mention the recent attack on the library. “Well, it would certainly tie it all back to Empress Teta, though they have been silent for centuries at this point.”

“... Why would they show their hand now? What would have changed?” Aeris muttered and began to skim a few recent reports out of Empress Teta for keywords. Dark magics, sith sorcery, alchemy, anything that would be cause for alarm that the Order might have missed. “The system is under Alliance control, anything too overt would bring down a firestorm upon them.”

“Are you sure it’s the Krath?” Aeris asked and frowned at Dagon. “Maybe it’s another upstart One Sith cult?”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Eons had passed but the Keto eyes on the image still bore a haunting presence. Dagon scratched his chin thoughtfully with a perturbed look on his face as Aeris flipped the image away for recent reports about Teta. Nothing explicitly troubling in their content.

"I don't know." he replied dropping his hand level to his hips. "Could be a fluke, could be just another underworld clean up with someone being thoughtful enough to use symbols as a method of fear."

But why did the vics wash up on Coruscant?

Dagon straightened his face, a glimpse of resolve cracking through the furrowed brow, "I will have to go to Teta and find out myself, Aeris. But I will need all the information I can get."

"Has there been anything from Teta - even rumors - mentioning the symbol, the Krath or anything dark side related at all?"

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

“Yes, you should.” Aeris nodded along to what Dagon said. “If someone is either part of a Krath revival or a copycat killer, these markings alone mean we should look into it before it gets out of hand.”

A surprised look set on Aeris for a moment as she looked at Dagon. Perhaps it was wrong to assume, but for the longest while she hadn’t exactly associated him with this work. He was a fighter, and he read a lot, but so did a great many Jedi before him. Not many felt the call of the Watchman, but it certainly seemed as if Dagon had.

“Empress Teta is one of the bigger planets, one that several cultures want to consider the ‘true pearl of the universe’. Reports stream from it by the second almost, but nothing that our filters have picked up on or that the Alliance has brought to our attention.” She said as her finger swiped between reports that seemed to pop in at a frustratingly frequent rate. “If you want I can try to dig through some of the reports and send you any information I come across as we launch this investigation of ours.”

Hopefully he noted the ‘we’ here. There was no way that Aeris would allow Dagon to go in on this alone. This entire job reeked of them both getting in over their head, but that was generally the price of doing the right thing. At least that was what the books she had read growing up had told her.

“And, you know, I didn’t take you for an investigator.” Aeris mused with a quick, almost uncharacteristic smile. “It’s not a bad thing, just unusual.”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"Sounds good to me." he nodded, a small smile crawling across his lips. Aeris' help would be invaluable. As much as he liked researching, he was not even close to her levels. She was a supercomputer on her own. "Thanks, Aeris." he said sincerely.

“And, you know, I didn’t take you for an investigator.” Aeris mused with a quick, almost uncharacteristic smile. “It’s not a bad thing, just unusual.”

Dagon's smile grew to that signature lopsided smile, "This might surprise you but Ryv taught me some good detective work but you know..." a hint of gloom slithered into his eyes as they lingered in the distance, "with the war and all--we really haven't really been able to set our own house in order."

The war that took healers, detectives, bookworms, monks, mechanics and forced them to be fighters.

He shook the thought away and locked eyes back with the librarian, the smile returning, "Anyway, you had caf yet? We can grab a cup and talk more. Viera mentioned you don't really leave the confines of the library."

The Jedi did not really wait for an answer and gestured to her to follow him, "Come on, we'll have some caf with a spice of good ol' Coruscanti tibanna fumes."

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

The great outdoors with open spaces of public areas and people. It had the hustle and bustle, the movement and noises of others in motion, but it was true that more often than not Aeris wasn’t one of said people. Not due to any particular discomfort or because she was afraid of them but more so because there were just so damn many of them.

“I mean,” Aeris began as her one raised brow turned the other way and sunk to question Dagon. “Why would we drink caf from tibanna fume-” She stopped once she had realized what he actually meant. “Oh.”

Her hand dragged at her neck as she began to look around them. There were more people than just them here. People that helped rebuild what had been damaged in the attacks on the archives. Enough people that Aeris wouldn’t fill any crucial part of reconstruction, at least not for the moment.

“I suppose I could do that.” She didn’t seem entirely comfortable with the idea, but she relented. “And Viera likes to talk a lot, I keep having to tell her to be quiet.” Aeris glared to her side. “Not to mention the booktabs she keeps amassing. Almost as bad as Viers.”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Viera talks a lot, come to think of it. For one who, to Dagon, outwardly seemed like an incredibly quite person, Viera never spared words when she talked. Especially to someone like the archivist who was used to the graveyard silence of the library.

Something else stood out though. Like a sore thumb.

"Viers reads?" Dagon arched an eyebrow in surprise. She never seemed like a person to visit the library often, except...his face slightly reddened reminding him of the recent, uh, situation at the library. "Erm, here we are - one of my, erm, favorite tap-cafs on Coruscant." he tried diverting the topic, most likely failing, as he gestured at the corner caf shop. Starbux. A fancy, mid-sized shop on one of the busy and wealthy streets of Coruscant's higher levels.

It most definitely wasn't his favorite.

Strappa's Diner's where it's at. Extra greasy food and extra burnt caf. A New Jedi classic.

"My treat today - what're you having?"

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

“She does. Soundbytes count, even if it’s debatable.” Aeris calmly nodded and followed Dagon through the winding corridors of the temple grounds. As they traversed the rest of the stretch before they reached the small Mom’s and Pop’s diner, Aeris had pulled her hair up into a neat bun. “Cozy.” She stated with a meagre smile. “Jedi discount, or…?”

“My treat today - what’re you having?”

“Oh.” Aeris nodded and looked at the menu overhead. There were a plethora of choices and they all sounded just about the same to her. As she glanced at each of the options she pondered the nutritional values of each item with a deeper and deeper sense of dread kicking her in the shins. “It’s all… Sugar and soy.” She frowned and shook her head. “I’ll take a decaf fra- framp- frappu-seeno?”

Frappuccino. Cold ice and sugar with a trace amount of caffeine thrown in for good measure. She looked at Dagon and then the menu. She liked to live clean, enjoyed the control she felt from it. Exercise, a good diet, and a healthy sleep schedule. It was all part of what ticked the good boxes, so to speak.

“I forget not everyone takes a vow of poverty these days.” She mused and grabbed at the cup offered to her over the disk. The condensation from the cold drink as it reached for the warmth of the diner caused beads of water to trickle down her hands. “Though I suppose it’s more because these days we have enough resources that we don’t need to.”

“... Did you ever meet any of the old Jedi?” Aeris asked Dagon as they found somewhere to relax and just talk.

 

[Dagon Kaze]

"Frappuccino." he corrected her, slightly unsure if his pronunciation was right, too. He'd sworn he'd heard someone call it like that before. His mind wondered to recall with who he had last visited this tap-caf before but the memory eluded him. "I'll have black caf. Large." the cashier faintly raised an eyebrow at the order but carried on. It cost Dagon a full-course meal at Strappa's Diner.

The two Jedi shuffled away to a spot with two armchairs; those that were unnecessarily large that were too wide for one but too small for two. Masterpiece of aesthetic, zero usefulness in practice. The complete opposite of the rather spartan quarters of the Temple and the ships Jedi were provided on their missions.

"The...old Jedi?" he asked leaning back comfortably on the chair and taking a sip of the hot beverage, "Some, yeah. Hmm. Let's see - my own Master Zoryu, Master Quill and I guess Master Jade, if she counts." a thoughtful flicker in his eyes flashed at the mention of the last two. The recent controversies among the Jedi still brought a sour taste in his mouth. "Why?"

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

A slow laugh bubbled at her throat with a low hum. “Yeah, the old Jedi.” She said and took a sip from the sugary cocktail in her hand. “The Raafs and the Karrs. Starchasers and… Well, you get it.”

“I was first brought into the order when the Republic was around, yet I can’t seem to find any of the people that I remember from my childhood.” Aeris shook her head. “Grandmaster Raaf has been missing for years now. Master Karr has been spotted but disappears not long after.”

“Though, really my question was to make the same point one of the other Masters I grew up with once made.” Aeris said and glanced back at Dagon. “We as Jedi are too talkative for our own good. What you and I are about to do is an easy fix to a difficult problem, but we are more than enough to at the very least form an understanding for it. Once we have that, we can talk to others about it. Cut out all the unnecessary parts.”

“In essence, preparing for a debate instead of going in blindly.”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

A smile grew on his face as she chuckled. Her soft laugh surprised him, it was the first time he'd seen her exhibit anything more than a thoughtful frown or a blank stare; and, well, boiling irritation.

He took a sip from his coffee, glanced at the busy streets then back at her as she talked. Grandmaster Raaf, Master Kaar - names he had only heard about. By the time Dagon had arrived on Coruscant, these Jedi were gone and as he grew up in the Jedi Temple, he hardly ever met a lot of Masters, or even Knights. It made him wonder how different it would've been had that not been the case.

"Uhh, sorry, Aeris -- talk to others about what exactly?" Dagon asked, his confusion stemming from his brief distraction on the past.

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

“The case.” She said and took a sip of the drink before the frown returned again. “We are not about to send you off to run an investigation in a potentially dangerous area without notifying anyone.”

“Be it the Knight Karis, Knight Denko-Durren…” She shrugged. “It’s not that I expect you to die, but more that we need to have things in place in case you do.”

“It’s a very serious order of business.”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Aeris' matter-of-factly theorizing over a scenario in which Dagon dies, as if she was simply making an observation from a holobook, dropped a veil of gloom over the padawan's face for a moment; then, a brief laugh lifted the veil back up.

"I'm sorry, Aeris - it's just the way you said it like you're reading the news." Dagon grinned then leaned forward closer to the Archivist. "I know what you mean...and I agree." he looked sideways, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully before he locked eyes with Aeris. "Just keep it on the down-low--for now." he specifically referred to the four other Jedi he had called on to the war only to almost see them all dead.

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

For a second she seemed perturbed at the laugh. This was quite far from what Aeris would have considered to be a laughing matter. Dagon was about to head just about alone into something that could blow up into something far bigger than anticipated. The fact that they were just sending a single person was already something that bothered her, but with recent events it wasn’t exactly as if they had a choice. It was do or don’t, and the way things looked right now they were heading for a ‘do.’

“I do not reveal details on missions unless I have to, Dagon.” Aeris nodded along to his insinuation that she would keep everything on the ‘down-low.’ “This is between you, me, and the Circle. Anyone else will have to go through them.”

Dagon knew who she was, he knew that Aeris wasn’t one to joke about it. For as much as she wanted to lighten up in these social settings, this was not the time and place for it. It was hard not to drop the idea that she represented her faith no matter where she went, even if they were admittedly not even on Jedi grounds in that very moment.

Aeris leaned back in her seat. “We are already low on resources with the so-called purge of our faith. Many people were lost, good people who had barely gotten out of the crib or explored their limits in the force.”

“Not one for vengeance, but we have more than just a bad image to repair. While you are on Teta I will oversee measures to re-establish our numbers. We need more people willing to help spread our ideals.”

 

[Dagon Kaze]

And here she goes back to herself again.

The somber undertones drew out a deep sigh off his chest. He chewed his underlip, thinking over her words. The war resurfacing back on his mind siphoning away the appetite for his caf. Its burden weighing on his heart and on his mind, pulling him down into the depths of anguish.

He pushed aside his cup, then, "Good." a flicker of a smile; there were only a few who could match Aeris in this undertaking. For a moment a flash of regret crossed his mind - his invitation for war to Viers, Viera and Violet. He had opened a door and set pieces into motion with an unpredictable outcome. No Force vision to alleviate his concerns. Only the great unknown. "Just don't get tempted to send anyone after me. Even if things start to look grim on Teta."

you will always leave a trail of blood in your wake.
it is your destiny.

"Not yet, at least."

Dagon shuffled in his chair and leaned back.

"See? A breath of fresh air does you good, doesn't it?"

Aeris Lashiec

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Dagon Kaze

“We are too short on people not to send someone to check up on a valuable asset.” Aeris tried to make it a compliment. “We’re not about to leave you to your fate, Kaze.”

And then, there it was again. That turmoil within him that made the entire operation seem like a bad idea despite the evidence to the contrary. Aeris let in a deep breath and listened to what the man said.

“Yes.” She said plainly. “Because I always forget my fix of recycled air.”

It was a joke, hopefully he got that. Though for as much as she tried to keep out of work there just was no stopping it. The vague smile, the only thing indicating that she had made an attempt to be funny just then, quickly faded into a frown as a sharp question slipped from her tongue.

“Why do you doubt the force?” Her question lingered for a second before she followed it up. “I sensed the turmoil in you when I stepped into that recovery ward, same as I am now.”

“What makes you doubt it?”