Private We Belong Way Down Below

[Malcoma Hesse]

"I... trust you," Malcoma said with a deal of effort. If absolutely nothing else, the women were allied against Judah's penchant for inappropriate jokes. The hapan couldn't help a little smile at the thought. "Guide me, Valery."

She had never asked that of anyone, but there was truly a first time for everything.

Approaching the sinkhole and sitting on the rim, dangling her lithe legs into the pit, she lowered herself onto the smooth basalt below.

---

Not further than a two minutes' walk into the lava tube, Mal had wrapped the scarf part of her top around herself once more. She had to brace herself on Val's back as she did since leaving the skylight behind had not only deprived the first woman of light but also her sense of balance—so much so that she kept hold of the Jedi after she was done adjusting the article of clothing.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Malcoma Hesse

Valery blinked and stopped for just a moment when she realized the weight behind Mal's words. They were both the type of women who wouldn't blindly follow after others. Valery — and she assumed the same for Malcoma — liked to be in control of her own life, decisions, and path forward. It's part of the reason why she was here. To help people who no longer were allowed to make decisions for themselves.

"I will," she said with a warmer smile, before jumping into the depths of the tunnels.

After dropping down and walking away from the open pit, Valery stopped to give Mal some time to adjust. There was nothing in the immediate area around them, luckily, but she remained alert while Mal found a grip on her back and adjusted her clothes. Once she was ready, Valery continued walking forward at a steady pace, while Mal held onto her.

"Watch your step," Valery whispered while she moved around a few rocks that they could otherwise trip over. It was still a tricky tunnel to navigate through, and even Valery almost had a few missteps herself. But after a moment, whilst still carefully maneuvring, she spoke up again, "I sense something up ahead."

 

[Malcoma Hesse]

"Could you Jedi be just a bit more specific what you go and say things like that?" Mal whispered back. Tongue in cheek banter was a coping mechanisms she had learned long, long ago when she herself was a young slave.

Of course not. Lending proactive clarity would irreparably wound their collective mystique.

There were more ripples in the Force 50 meters on, these ghastly figures rather than general but intense feelings, though viewing them could possibly come with dread. They, three hooded ghosts showing what was relatively soon to be, stood in front of a portion of wall. One held a burning torch, casting unreal light unperceivable to Malcoma over the rock. However, wheter Val picked up on the clairvoyant echoes or not, she surely could physically see the neatly carved Sith runes:

Tym dujikri mus kia sis vuts. Dabar mes buti won, kad kam wonosa buti sis? Tau sethi mus stai. Damsy Callat valia nesti re naneti kia jri qorit.​

When they stopped beside the wall, Mal spoke again. "Well?"


Valery Noble

Spoiler: translation

He condemned us to this fate. Now we are free, but what freedom is this? They hate us here. Damsy Callat will bring our wandering to an end.

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Malcoma Hesse

"It's more fun to be mysterious~" Valery teased back. She looked over her shoulder, her orange eyes glowing to the point that Mal would be able to see the wink Valery shot her way. Those same fiery eyes then turned back around to scan their surroundings, and for another minute or two, nothing seemed to peculiar. There were echoes from the past that lingered in the Force, likely dating back to when these tunnels had been used in the past.

But there was something else.

Valery stopped abruptly when she saw the three figures, and instinctively held a hand up behind her to protectively stop Malcoma as well. The silhouettes she saw were not truly there, but their presence in the Force came like a warning to the Jedi Master. There was trouble up ahead, or at least something much darker than she had hoped to find.

"I saw... people," Valery told her quietly. "People who aren't here yet, but might be soon." She let her hand trace over the wall with carvings, and as soon as her fingertips touched the rocks, her eyes went wide. She gasped for air and held it in, before quickly withdrawing her fingers again.

"He condemned us to this fate. Now we are free, but what freedom is this? They hate us here. Damsy Callat will bring our wandering to an end," Valery recited.

"Does that mean anything to you?"

 

[Malcoma Hesse]

“He?” repeated Mal, not bothering to look over Val’s shoulder because she couldn't see anything if she tried besides the vague shapes that her own eyes were imagining to fill in the darkness. “A pronoun isn't exactly concrete evidence, gendered or not, but the general story could fit into the Knights Obsidian narrative...” She paused to curse the galaxy silently. She hated it when men were right, but specifically when those men were slavers.

Then she continued, “Damsy Callat means nothing to me. Nor does wandering at an end. If they're stuck down here, how much are they wandering? Maybe it's a metaphor?”

There were a few quiet moments for Valery to respond and then a small stone clinked in the distance. Unintelligible conversation echoed softly behind. Soon enough, the people from Valery's mind's eye neared their location, only two walking while the last slithered with a large tail.

Fortunately, there was a nearby small alcove in the lava tube big enough for two people to hide in.

"Don't you remember," a familiar voice began, "when I first had the vision, Tantin?" Light, real light, came to illuminate the carving. Mal instinctively drew back, here eyes burning ever so slightly with the intrusion. It was certain that the torchbearer was the woman from the bar when she lowered her hood to a pool around her shoulders.

"You don't let us forget, Cyone," a male, presumably Tantin, figure replied. "But how do you know that she's coming for us this time?"

"I actually saw her this time," the woman answered as she put a blue hand to the rock face, her palm situated over the word Damsy.

"Yes, Tan," the last figure agreed. "She'll come. You just must put your faith in the Dar—"

Tantin scoffed. "The Dark side got us into this mess to begin with!"

Mal couldn't help but knit her brow. Wrinkles be damned, what was going on? She knew precious little about the Force, more so about the Sith, but she thought she knew that they were all a nasty folk. These three though—if they were in fact the slaves about whom this whole mystery rotated, it seemed misguided for them to revere the Sith.

Did that mean that this Damsy Callat was a Sith?

Malcoma looked over at Val though something in her didn't expect the Jedi had any better idea at the moment.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Malcoma Hesse

Valery furrowed her brows in thought and dipped her head, "If someone condemned them to this place, then I do think it's a metaphor that they view themselves as wandering." She paused and shrugged her shoulders. "Wandering of the mind or soul, perhaps? Feeling a sense of movement but with no end in sight?" She was just spit-balling at this point, but perhaps it could help them understand eventually.

She wasn't given much more time to think, however, as quiet voices and the movement of little stones caught her attention. She turned her gaze around, spotted the alcove, and grabbed Malcoma's hand without explaining anything. They had no time to gently walk there, so she pulled the blonde along and helped her get settled first, before putting her own body up against the rocky wall to listen in.

They were much closer now.

Once the flame of the torchbearer appeared, Valery closed her eyes and focused on her hearing instead. The sudden brightness could otherwise blind her, and she didn't want to be troubled while they were piecing things together. But what she heard... none of it really made things click just yet.

Why were they putting any of their trust in the Dark Side to set them free? If anything was corrupting and capable of enslaving someone's will...

<It just doesn't make sense to me,> Valery tried telepathically, her voice calm and soothing like a soft melody in Mal's mind. <We should see about meeting this Damsy. Perhaps she'll have answers, hm?>

 

[Damsy Callat]

Those seemed to be magic words, though the timing was just coincidence.

Val would notice first that the ambient sounds of the cave had disappeared. Not as much as a drip of water off a far-off stalactite or a soft rustle of bat wings as the creature adjusted in its sleep echoed down the countless kilometers of tunnels anymore. Next, she might have felt something missing behind her, a bundle of aural energy she had gotten used to over the last hour or so. When she decided to open her eyes, and perhaps even check behind herself, she would see that Malcoma was in fact no longer there, but before the Jedi a new figure stood. It's back was turned to Val. Like the three figures from the tunnel, this one wore a cape too—but one of white and gold, reaching two thirds of the way down its back, and tattered at the hem; instead of dark purple almost black and freely flowing.

A strangely tame Darkness swirled invisibly around the newcomer.

The cave dwellers stood before this figure. Val hadn't noticed it before, but she would be able to now: Cyone was the woman from the cantina.

<They can't see you, Jedi.> A voice that hadn't been among the Spawn in the cave sounded in Val's mind, a soft Southern Systems drawl as calm and gent as she had been with Mal a few moments before. <But I...>

After a long moment of battling surprise, Cyone threw herself on the ground and unwittingly interrupted a telepathic conversation. "My Lady!"

This voice simply continued unabashed. <...can. I su...>

Even as it did, the voice's matching physical component flowed from the unknown figure. "Don't do that." There was no difference in the manner with which she spoke either. Though her words were commanding and firm, her tone was somehow kind in its own way.

<...ggest you listen quietly.>

"Get off the floor."

Cyone did so at once, her unnamed friend helping her up.

"I am only My Lady to other Sith. You an' your friends are not Sith, but their forced progeny." She paused to hold her head higher. "Do you undastand? You owe me nothin'." Though her words were commanding and firm, her tone was somehow kind in its own way.

One after the other, the Spawn nodded. Even if they didn't understand fully, they would come to.

"I'm on my way to Saleucami. Think of a place I can land a shuttle." She held up a hand gloved with fingerless, black leather. "Don't say. Think of it. I shall hear. An' I shall see you each 'gain soon."

A smile came across Cyone's face just before the trio's shapes faded into background of wherever they had come to.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Damsy Callat

A small gasp for air drew Valery out of her own mind, and despite not having moved an inch, she no longer had any idea where she was. The cave around her looked much the same, though quieter, and somehow it felt colder as well. A warm presence had been ripped away and instead, she felt a shiver of darkness creeping up her spine, forcing her to turn around. Mal was no longer there, but in her place stood another.

Dressed in light robes that contrasted her pulse in the Force ever so lightly.

Valery's lips parted to speak, but she shut them again when she saw someone else familiar. The woman from before — the one who had felt strangely dark when they had touched. An exchange followed between her and Damsy that left Valery with many of the same questions she had before, when she had found those runes on the wall.

Why?

<Who are they? Why do you help them?> Valery asked once the figures faded into the background. Had they been slaves to the Sith but corrupted themselves? If so, why was a woman with connections to the Sith helping them?

She needed to understand.

 

[Damsy Callat]

“What a gatekeepy question.”

With fingers inside the hood slid past her neck, she pushed the cloth off her head to reveal the back of her thin braids, which she then pulled out from under her cape. She turned around to face Valery.

To her, the most striking feature on the Sith Lady's face might well have been the small, subrounded shard of a blue Jedi healing crystal marking the location of her third eye.

“Why do you help people?” She sounded genuinely curious.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Damsy Callat

"What an assumption to make," Valery countered. "I came here looking to help people after hearing rumors of slavery. But they don't seem to be enslaved. At least not anymore." She paused and reconsidered her words. "Perhaps I can better word my question - why do they need help?" It had essentially been the question she and Mal had before. The riddle on the wall, carved in runes.

They were free, yet wandering, and Damsy would bring that to an end.

"I read what was written on the wall. Are you Damsy?"

Still, Damsy had asked her a question as well, and it would be rude not to answer, "I help people because I care about them. About their future, and it's important to me that nobody suffers the way so many have, and still are." A flash of pain burned in her eyes when she thought of her own experience with slavery in particular.

She wouldn't wish that on her worst enemies.

 

[Damsy Callat]

"I am Damsy," she affirmed with an even nod. She, too, endeavored not to be rude.

"I 'preciate your care fo' semantics." She crossed her arms, her cape moving to revel the long hilt of a crossguard lightsaber with its quillons angled at 45 degrees from the main blade emitter instead of 90, giving it more of the impression of a traditional trident. It's black base and silver designs matched her ensemble, but Val might be able to imagine that the crystals' red hues surely would not. "They're Sithspawn, citizens o' Taleucema who where corrupted by a now-dead former Knight Obsidian. They need help 'cause they on they own an' feel as if they can't make it. People who usta be their friends don't recognize 'em no more."

Damsy allowed that to hang in the air for a few moments.

"You don't wanna hear it, but you an' me have that in common, Jedi. Carin'. Helpin'. Protectin'."

Before Val could dispute that, for now, Damsy jutted out her chin.

"Aight, that's me. Who you? An' why you in those caves?"

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Damsy Callat

Sithspawn?

Everything else she said faded into the background for a moment while Valery thought about it. These people being sithspawn explained a lot. From the darkness she had felt from Cyone, to their desire to be helped by Damsy. The woman had darkness around her as well, but her intent was clear and pure.

Valery wasn't going to dispute that.

"Are you trying to revert what was done to them? Or are you trying to help them find a place to call home?" It was a genuine question for several reasons. Her ultimate goal for these people — what these people wanted themselves — was obviously important. But if they were trying to revert anything that was done to them, Valery had research to share. Back on New Cov, they had a facility dedicated to healing corrupted beings.

Valery snapped from those internal thoughts again when Damsy asked her a question in return.

Chit - she wanted her name?

"...Malcoma," Valery answered quickly, so it didn't seem like she thought about it suspiciously long. "I'm Malcoma. I was here because I learned something about the planet and potential slave trade. As... someone who endured the wrong end of a slaver's whip once, I try to answer these calls for help when I can."

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy shifted her weight from one hip to the other. Part of her wanted to verbalize her empathy with Valery but the other kept such emotion to herself. Slavery of all lifeforms was tragic but enough people focused on uncorrupted, humanoid victims.

"Then you can 'magine their plight: fallin' prey to someone with seemin'ly infinite power, then survivin' long 'nough to be hated by their own for the misfortune o' it."

She paused to take a breath, almost a sigh. She was always stuck in the middle of wanting to explain herself and being secretive for the sake of keeping her people save. She didn't expect this sentiment to be understood but it weighted heavy on her tongue as it always did and demanded its own freedom. So, out of a never-satiated desperation to be heard and accepted shared by her people, she answered the Jedi's next question.

"Reversion is not what they want. They want a home. I may be a Sith Lady, but I'm a spawn myself. I ain't takin' 'vantage. You have my word. That prolly don't go far, but you got it."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Damsy Callat

"I understand," Valery said with furrowed brows. No matter how hard she tried to hide the way she felt, it was a hopeless attempt. Throughout her years as a Jedi, she had seen the absolute worst this Galaxy has to offer. Still, despite it being so long ago, that time in captivity had been the most haunting.

Together with her capture and torture by Danton.

"Your word there means a lot more than you might think," Valery quickly pointed out with a softer, appreciative tone. "You're clearly helping them. I just..." She still couldn't quite understand why these people weren't looking to be healed. The Dark Side typically caused so much pain and suffering.

"Do you have an idea about where their home could be? Do you already have a place for them?" She didn't need to tell Valery where it was — she just wanted to know if there was something.

 

[Damsy Callat]

At first, it didn't seem like Damsy was willing to answer that one, between her slight squint and prolonged silence. But then, she spoke.

"I have a safe place for us, Jedi. You'll forgive me if I don't tell you where."

It wasn't a question, for she had learned not to ask for as much, especially if she so craved it.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Damsy Callat

Valery nodded, "I don't need to know where it is. I... trust you." A strange thing to say to someone she only just met, and in some kind of vision or alternate reality of all places, too. But Valery could tell these people looked up to her, and that her intentions for them were genuine. She wasn't going to cause them anymore harm.

That's all that mattered.

"...you wouldn't know how to get back, by any chance?" If these people had been taken care of, it seemed that her own job on the planet was over. Unless there were others being threatened into slavery, that is.

She also couldn't help but wonder how Mal was feeling right now. Worried? Annoyed that Valery zoned out on her? There was only one way to find out.

 

[Malcoma Hesse]

"The way ya came's a good bet," Damsy replied. "Close yo eyes." After Val did, Damsy spoke again, her voice already far off and echoing. "'Force be wit' you, Malcoma."

The actual Malcoma had gotten tired of trying to get the attention of a zoned out Valery, opting to side down the rock wall into a crouch. After the sithspawn had finished whatever they had come to the carving to do and moved back down the tunnel in the direction from which they had come, and it became clear that Valery was not going to move first, Mal squeezed past her out of the alcove. She had whispered the Jedi's name a few times over, shaking her shoulders equally as gently.

The headmistress' last effort had been almost four minutes ago. She had kept track on the clock on her datapad, which she had taken out before moving away from the alcove to rest and powered on for the dim, blue light its screen provided.

A silent notification came across the screen. It was Damris.

<< Anything you want to bounce off me? >>

Mal sighed. She didn't have any idea how to respond for once. How could she explain the last hour or so to him in a way that didn't make him worry more than he surely already was? She could almost hear him say it: she really had to stop running into Jedi.

Like she could choose.

But she could—

She glanced to a small pebble beside her boot.

No.

She turned her handheld around, casting the light onto only part of Val's face. Sighing again, she pushed back against the rock and rose, then crossed over to the Jedi. Lowering the datapad, she put her ear close to Val's cheek, listening intently for breath.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Malcoma Hesse

Valery did as Damsy said and closed her eyes. The Force immediately began to swirl, drawing her mind inwards and allowing her a short moment of introspection. The day thus far had proven interesting. She had met a remarkable woman to work with, and had now found herself in agreement with someone touched by the Dark.

That alone had once been the impossible.

When her eyes opened once more, she was still within the cave but where she had been before. Her head ached and her vision was somewhat blurry, but as it settled, she saw-

"...you weren't trying to kiss me awake, were you?" The rather forward question surprised Valery herself and forced some heat into her cheekbones, before she blinked and took a step back. She cleared her throat, looked at the blonde and did her best to offer a smile that hid her embarrassment. A pointless endeavor. "I uh, am sorry about that. For disappearing for a moment-" she parted her lips but paused and blinked again.

"How long was I out for?" It had to be a few minutes, at the very least.

"But I met this Damsy the runes spoke of, and those people we saw... they're going to be okay." Best way to avoid an awkward situation was to focus on a different subject. An important one, for that matter.

 

[Malcoma Hesse]

Mal could count on one hand the times she had yelped in a new acquaintance's company. From now one, she would have to add one finger.

She made the high, undignified sound—which some might even have called cute—and pulled back. She didn't even realize her had slapped Val with her free hand until it had repositioned itself above her heart, in the same way that she hadn't understood her teasing comment. At first, she rocked her weight forward, ready to take a step back towards Val, but when her mind caught up with the rest of her body, all apology drained out of her figure.

But offense did not replace it. Instead, smugness did. She took note of Valery's possibly disappointment but did not comment on it.

"Six or so minutes in total," she answered, though it was hard to say exactly. She hadn't been timing the whole episode, since she didn't know when exactly Val had left, as it were.

She then crossed her arms. "So? She's in all likelihood a Sith, Valery. Are you sure your mind came back with you from wherever you went?"

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Taleucema

​

Outfit: Undercover Smuggler
Weapons: Blasters
Tag: Malcoma Hesse

There was little time to focus on the cute little squeal that escaped Malcoma's lips when she got startled. Within a split-second after Valery's rather flattering 'joke', she felt a sudden sharp sting against her cheek and saw her world spinning again. This time, she hadn't been drawn into another vision, but quickly realized she had gotten slapped. Not for her comment, at least.

That made it a lot less painful.

"Ow..." she muttered while she rubbed her cheek, eyes focused on the blonde and her lips curling up just a smidge.

"I'm sure, though you rocked it around a little." Both with the slap and- Valery blinked and forced herself to focus. The situation with these people was important to them both, "Look, I'm the last person to trust a Sith, but these people are Sithspawn. They were altered and she provides them with a new home. I could feel that her intentions for them were genuine." Valery's demeanor had changed to match the more serious tone of what she was trying to explain.

"I trust her and I know those people will be safe. But... I did make one mistake."

A sheepish smiled touched her lips now.