Private The Wrong Contact

[Lefwen Claskier]

“...and then there was that thing when you grabbed my wrist? What the feth was that? I would have been fine on my own if you’d just… if you just stayed out of my business! Now I’m here on some wet, humid ball out in the middle of the outer-rim being chased by a bunch of bounty hunters and stuck with a…” Lefwen looked up from her pacing and regarded Amilthi for a second. “Whatever the heck you are!”

It had been some time since they arrived and Lefwen had scuffed a perfect line on the bright, clean metal of the landing pad. Her voice was growing hoarse now but she continued to rant at the oblivious woman who was working about her ship, presumably looking for some kind of tracking device.

“My side still hurts, just so you know! Oh, what a brilliant escape plan that was: ‘Hey, I’m a disembodied voice that’s somehow in your fething head, would you like to climb out of a window and then jump out of a giant letter O onto my car?’ ‘Oh yes, that would be great. I’d love to crack my ribs on the engine-block, that’s exactly how I wanted to spend my evening after you’d already screwed up a deal I’d been planning for months.’”

Lefwen sat down heavily on a nearby fuel cylinder and swung her rucksack around in front of her, pulling out her helmet and studying the face of it once more. She fiddled with the dial on the hydro canister for a moment and then pushed the mask against her face, breathing in deeply and scowling from behind the visor at the obnoxious, infuriating woman who she somehow had found herself stuck with. Somewhere just away from the platform some winged creature let out a hideous screech, and the sound of the jungle seemed to close in around her.

“Lift me onto your lap like a fething youngling again and you’ll get a knife in your face,” she mumbled from behind the mask. “Where in the galaxy are we?”

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

“We’re on Eriadu”, said Amilthi neutrally, ignoring for the time being entirely the girl’s complaints. “A major trade hub at the intersection of the Hydian Way and the Rimma Trade Route. You should not find it too difficult to gain passage to just about anywhere you might want from here.”

She concluded her inspection of the ship’s exterior, which she had conducted thoroughly from all sides, as well as from below and above, adequately satisfied that no tracking beacon had been placed, and walked up to Lefwen to stand before her.

“You’re free to roam the galaxy by your own devices and your own questionable judgement. I’m sure you’ll be able to enjoy your freedom for... maybe another couple of weeks”, she said. This time, a smirk revealed that she was quite aware and deliberate in her own sarcasm, though it was more gentle teasing than biting derision.

“Just as you were free to ignore my warning and wait or walk through the door, maybe to put some blood on your hands - or end up with more pieces hurting than just your side.”

She shrugged, and smiled again.

"But before you make any such momentous decision", she suddenly continued in a very matter-of-fact, practical way, "let's get you a meal and a place to catch some sleep. You need it."

Amilthi returned to the ship and opened the latch of a small compartment behind the cockpit. Out of it she took a black bundle, which after a moment revealed itself to have been the neatly folded form of a heavy, roomy coat with a large hood.

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen sulkily followed Amilthi as they moved through the city streets, too tired and hungry to continue complaining. Every few minutes the mysterious older woman would suddenly turn off onto another street and Lefwen struggled to keep up. Soon, the streets had all merged into one in her mind, a continuous blur of workshops and esoteric metal piping and tubing. The sun had just set but the streets were still busy with people of all different species making their way to hab-blocks or entertainment districts. It was all Lefwen could do to keep up with Amilthi and not bump into any of the city’s citizens.

After some time the unlikely pair arrived at a motel which seemed to be to Amilthi’s liking. Lefwen had given up complaining about the many other establishments they had already passed, but apparently Amilthi was being rather particular about where they stayed. Her final choice was an entirely plain looking motel with an exhausted looking Britarro standing at the front desk. Lefwen allowed Amilthi to sort out whatever arrangements were necessary before allowing herself to be lead into the canteen.

***​

Lefwen greedily finished off another Eriduan rat satay and leaned back. Her anger had cleared slightly now that she had eaten, although she still regarded Amilthi with a cold stare. Whatever this woman’s plan was it was certainly elaborate and well-hidden. Indeed, it was almost possible to believe she was making it all up as she went along. That could well just be a clever disguise though, hustling was common enough in the… well it was common enough in every walk of life.

As for Lefwen, she was out of plans. The data-trade had taken her months to prepare and that had all come crashing down, somehow. She couldn’t head back to Eiattu any time soon, Fraux’s men would nab her the moment her feet hit the planet, and that’s if Goros’ goons didn’t black-bag her first. She could try one of her few contacts within the Confederacy: she’d done a few jobs for the CIS and they tended to pay well enough, although she doubted she’d even hit the citizenry register yet and that made things difficult. For the moment, it seemed the only lifeline she had was Amilthi, and given how distant and preoccupied she seemed that was a worrying thought.

She leaned forward and snatched her drink, swilling it around and staring into it for any discolouration or particulate. Old habits died hard. After a gulp, she finally deigned to break the silence that had hung between them while they had eaten. “When I was a kid, I was really into starships, speederbikes, all that kind of stuff. Used to drive dad mad that I’d sneak out of elocution and fencing lessons to go ship-watching at the starport. Never saw one like yours though…” she let the not-quite-question hang in the air.

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi waited patiently as Lefwen ate, sitting upright, her hands resting in her lap, almost a picture of propriety - and yet it did not look in the least forced or effortful.

“Oh, I bought it a while ago on Svivren. The dealer said it had been part of Commenor’s fleet in the time of the System Alliance”, explained the Jedi conversationally. “I guess much of their stuff ended stuff strewn over the southern Outer Rim. The part that wasn’t destroyed in the war, that is. It was quite a bargain, I don’t know why he had such trouble selling it. I think it’s rather nice, and I’ve managed not to get it shot at too often, so it’s holding up”, she said with a wry smile. In truth, she knew exactly why it had been difficult to sell - the thing required the equivalent of an elite military pilot’s fine motor skills to handle, and it had come without a communications system. For her, however, it was a great bit of luck to find a ship of the model she had become very familiar with during her time with the Jedi Order on Deneba - now, like the Commenor System Alliance, nothing but an increasingly distant memory.
“Would you close your eyes for a moment?”, Amilthi suddenly asked out of the blue. Lefwen raised her eyebrows at Amilthi’s request, but was too tired to start arguing again. She slowly closed her eyes and then immediately reached out with her feelings, trying to keep a close eye on Amilthi’s mood. Just as at the fundraiser, Amilthi was difficult to read: her emotions felt different to those of other people. As far as Lefwen could tell, though, there was nothing sinister or ill-willed about her current state of mind.

Amilthi produced from a pocket in her coat a small ball of shiny, polished metal, maybe three centimetres in diameter. She almost playfully tossed it at the girl, her eyes, however, paying close attention to Lefwen’s face to ensure that her eye-lids were indeed shut. Judging by its trajectory, the ball was going to softly hit Lefwen’s chest…

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen watched in her head as Amilthi’s mood shifted slightly. She’d never been able to explain how she experienced other people’s feelings, but it was almost like she could ‘see’ wispy shadows of the people around her, and by closely ‘watching’ the movements of the wisps she could generally determine how people felt. Happiness, for example, made the wisps flow in tight curls; anger made for jagged, erratic lines that struck out at each other and tangled together. Amilthi’s aura was different though, subtly more calm and yet giving the impression of being very powerful, almost like the slow, forceful roll of the tide against a harbour. As best as Lefwen could tell, Amilthi was curious about something.

Lefwen felt a sudden urge to rub her chest and quickly moved her hand over. Almost immediately she felt something collide with the back of her hand. Her eyes opened and before her she saw a small, metal ball bouncing rolling along the table. “What was that?” she demanded.

Amilthi looked at Lefwen for a second as if she was pondering something. Then she snatched the metal ball off the table with a quick movement of her hand, like a chamaeleon striking out at prey with its tongue and retracting it. She looked at her own knees, still pensive while she put the object away again.

“Nothing”, she said absent-mindedly. Some would have caught the ball right away. Still, what she had observed was not nothing…

“You know,” continued Amilthi suddenly, leaning forward with her elbows and underarms resting on her thighs, “You’re a very unhappy person. Why is that? What is it that you crave and are deprived of? That makes you do such silly things as to turn up at an event by your father’s company whom you don’t want to know you’re alive?”

Lefwen was by now thoroughly perplexed. However, a full belly had lifted her mood. She meant back in her chair and raised her glass. "You haven't bought me anywhere near enough drinks to get an answer to that one," she said, avoiding the question out of habit . She smirked as she spoke and then her face suddenly fell. "Besides, everyone's unhappy about something, if you just wanted some lost girl to rescue there are thousands of them on every world from here to Coruscant. Why did you pick me?"

“I didn’t pick you”, replied Amilthi enigmatically. At a gesture from her, the waiter turned his attention to them and approached, even though he hadn’t been paying attention. Amilthi told him to bring Lefwen the same drink again. “I really want to know”, she said with a twinkle in her eye, a mischievous grin flashing on her face, while she looked at Lefwen somewhat from the side, her head tilted.

Lwefwen cocked her head to match Amilthi. So now she’s flirting with me… Not what I expected… She took the renewed drink gladly and sighed slightly. 'You can't trust her, sis. They'll always betray you in the end.'

"Me and my sister ran away from home." That bit was true. "I can't really remember why." That bit wasn't. She knew why, or at least the 'why' they'd used at the time, but she'd never really understood it. What they'd done in order to escape, though… "And I can't just go back because…" She stopped and took a gulp of her drink. She couldn't remember the last time she'd told anyone about what had happened. Why was she sharing this with a woman she barely knew? "Why am I telling you this anyway? Why do you care?" She asked defensively.

Amilthi ignored her last question. “And yet you linger. Interact with your father’s business under a false name. Surely you can see how that must look a bit silly from my perspective?”, she remarked with a wry smile.

“I can’t say I’m too concerned about your perspective. When I left home a lot of things that belong to me were taken away. I want them back. It’s that simple.”

“Ah, there we have it. Yes, I can see how that must be making you quite, quite miserable”, said Amilthi very seriously. “Sadly, in the unlikely event that you succeed, you will continue to be just as miserable.”

Lefwen leant forward and stared at Amilthi, still no closer to working out what she was all about. “Like I said, everyone’s miserable. I’d just rather be miserable in luxury.” She reclined again and took a slow sip from her glass. “Why would you care about me being miserable anyway? Given the vacant look that’s plastered on your face half the time I’d say you should clean out your own starship before you start criticising mine.”

Amilthi chuckled. “If you’re miserable anyway, why care about the luxury? Stop caring about it. And then you’ll discover the second point where you’re mistaken. No, not everyone is miserable.”

“Yeah, because you’re a fountain of joy,” Lefwen retorted. She reached forward and picked up another satay. “Why is this all about me anyway? All I know about you is your name, allegedly.” She nibbled the edge of the satay and then used it to point at Amilthi. “You got in my head, and you somehow stopped me from falling out off of the car, and you talk in constant, infuriating riddles. You’re some kind of monk? Mystic? Witch?” she concluded, taking another bite.

“Something like that,” said Amilthi with an indulgent smile. “Let’s say it’s something people who aren’t miserable can do. Also some who are, but it’s still nicer not to be.” She paused for a moment, and turned her head to look down on the table in front of her. “As for joy… I can experience as much of that as I want. If that’s what you crave, and if it will make you listen to me, I’ll show you how to. But ultimately it’s a distraction. Joy is not the opposite of misery. Peace is.” She spoke very seriously, and while her words might have been taken for some kind of innuendo, such an interpretation would have been wholly incongruent with her demeanour.

“Hmm. Yeah, I’m going to put that down to mystic, witchy nonsense,” Lefwen mused. “Although you being confused about basic emotions would explain why you’re so hard to read.” She put down her drink and leaned forward, a smile forming at the edge of her lips. “So that’s why you saved me? You want to be my teacher? Didn’t you hear the bit about how annoyed my teachers always got about me running away from lessons?”

Amilthi turned her head again and smiled wryly. “That mystic, witchy nonsense is why I can do this...” She raised her hand, her relaxed fingers loosely pointing at the plate, and at a very understated upwards flick of her wrist, one of the satays floated into the air. She turned her hand slightly and coiled her fingers, and it began to move towards her. “... and you can’t.” She plucked the satay out of the air with her other hand and began to eat it. “I didn’t help you because I want to teach you this. But I can”, she remarked with a shrug and continued eating.

Lefwen kept her eyes on the satay, her mouth slightly ajar. “You just…” she trailed off, sitting bolt upright.

“... stole your food, I know.”

“But…” she finally pulled her eyes away from the food and met Amilthi’s eyes, which smiled back at her with childlike enthusiasm. Lefwen was biting her lip and thinking. “That’s how you stopped me falling off the hover-car… how you made me drop the glass at the fundraiser…” she stated flatly. “I don’t get it, how?”

“Stopping your fall, yes. Making you drop the glass, no. That’s different”, Amilthi pointed out, quite neutrally and objectively. “There is no meaningful answer I can give you now. You have not had the necessary experiences for anything I could say to make much sense to you. But perhaps this will help you. I am less… separate from the rest of the universe than you feel yourself as being. You can have an intention to move your finger, and then it moves. You cannot have an intention to move an object and have it move accordingly. I can. And before you point out that I was moving my hand - I was, but I don’t need to. The hand movement is a crutch that makes it easier to process for our embodied minds. The same can be done without it, it just takes slightly more focus.”

The blank look on Lefwen’s face betrayed the fact that nothing Amilthi was saying was going in. “If people can be taught stuff like that then why doesn’t everyone use it?”

“Sadly, not everyone can”, said Amilthi, and her gaze fell to the floor. It seemed that she was genuinely regretful about the fact she had just stated. “And even if they could, the path is long, and not all would have the will and patience to undertake it.” She turned her head again and looked at Lefwen and smiled again, now with a tinge of sadness. “One of the many tragedies this universe is riddled with. Maybe we’ll get there, in some hundred-thousand years”, she added with a wry, somehow self-ironic smile. Oddly enough, it seemed that she really did care.

“I don’t think I’ll be around ‘til then.” Lefwen’s voice was quiet now. Tiredness seemed to be descending over her like a curtain, but she was too intrigued to relent just yet. She leant in conspiratorially, “So, you’re saying I can be taught?”

“I have two answers for you. First, yes, I’m almost certain, and if it turns out I’m wrong and end up wasting your time, you’re allowed to yell at me and I’ll be suitably contrite”, replied Amilthi with a wry smile. She continued with an encouraging note in her voice: “Second, even if I’m wrong, it won’t be a waste of time. You will learn other things that are worth learning. Things that can be taught to anyone. Less flashy than the ability to steal someone’s food, but more useful, only people don’t realise that.” After a short pause, she thought to add: “And you’ll have been out of sight of whoever will be looking for you now for a while.”

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen lay awake in bed, her head filled with possibilities and questions. Outside it had begun to rain heavily, and the pattering on the window filled the small room. She swung her legs around and sat up with her head in her hands. She’d thought over what Amilthi had said a hundred times and none of it made sense, but she’d seen what Amilthi had done. It could all just be part of some long-con, but then why would Amilthi bother? Lefwen had nothing worth stealing, and if Amilthi was just a high-grade bounty hunter then she’d had plenty of chances to take Lefwen in without resorting to all this mystic stuff.

Lefwen found herself staring at the kettle on the table across from her. ‘...have the intention of moving the object,’ that’s what Amilthi had said. She sat herself up, straightened her back and reached out toward the kettle with her hand. ‘Less separate from the universe than you.’ She tried to focus as best as she could, staring at the kettle and trying to feel less ‘separate’ from it, whatever that meant. Nothing. She pushed harder, straining out her arm and willing the kettle to move… Nothing.

Lefwen span herself back around in frustration and lay down again. Amilthi had said she could be taught, taught whatever it was. Although, she’d also said that Lefwen was miserable, and that wasn’t true, was it? She was happy when she… Well it had been a while certainly, but miserable was a strong word. She was just… present. Just there, moving from place to place, working where she could, stealing where she couldn’t. Surviving. She turned over and sighed. Maybe Amilthi had a point, what with that whole thing about being at peace.

***

The next morning Lefwen left the motel. It took her some time to navigate through the twisted streets, but eventually she emerged back at the landing pad they had arrived at. The starfighter caught the light of the morning sun and shone brightly, and Lefwen picked up the pace as she saw a figure working on one of the ship’s wings.

As she got closer she slowed and cocked her head. Amilthi was moving busily around the ship, clearly preparing it to leave. She had changed, no longer wearing the smart dress she had been but now garbed in a rosé-coloured shirt and a blue-grey skirt, a grey hood framing her face. She looked far less stern and intimidating now, and as Lefwen approached she looked up from her work, a small smile forming at the edge of her mouth.

“Yeah yeah, I don’t need to hear it,” Lefwen smiled before stowing her bag in one of the ship’s storage compartments. She came to a stop just in front of Amilthi and pointed her finger at her, “And nobody needs to know that I sat on your lap twice, okay?”