Work It Out

[Jairdain]

She found his answer very interesting and was going to point out he should feel lucky to still have his mother. Hers had died when her home or the life on it was destroyed. For about the last 14 years, she had thought herself an orphan and the last of her people. That had changed what felt like overnight and now here she was talking to somebody of her own race.

Sage allowed her to look through his eyes for a moment before he curled back in his pocket on her shirt. The aura Carliah gave off made him want to hide and that is exactly what he did.

Blinking her eyes a few times as she listened to Vulps and his mother, she suddenly felt the full attention of the woman. Something in her mind clicked into place. His mother was broken. Just like what happened on her world, there was no way to fix or repair this. It would have been a mercy to put her down but that hadn't happened and she wondered why.

Not bothering her hide her own focus, Carliah might be able to pick up on her touch. It wasn't intrusive in any manner, but it was something curious.

"Your mother. Mine died with the rest of my world."

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Carliah's tail flicked behind her as she peered at the wolf, then to Jairdain's eyes. Dull and without the average glow of the normal Zorren optics, they immediately drew her attention. She could feel Jairdain's apprehension through the force. Normally, it was something she would have revelled in. Power like fine wine she could sip on. But something else tingled in her mind. Through the miasma of shadow within her mind, something else lurked in her thoughts. Curiosity. And something else. Something noticeably... divine. Hope. "Whats your name miss? Where do you come from?"

Vulpesen's head tilted to the side as he listened to his mother's questions. Something had changed. In an instant the predator was gone. He wasn't sure what to call this new side of her. Hopeful? Disbelieving? It wasn't dark or light in the force. It simply was. A question begging for an answer to decide its fate in the paradigm of good and evil. The way her tail flicked, and the scrutinizing look in her eyes. This wasn't her usual self, prying for answers for power. She was searching for answers because she needed them. "Is everything alright?"

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

If Jairdain had been in the right mind the last time she was on Veradune, she would have known she had been in the presence of Carliah before. That time, she had gotten herself quite drunk on the same drink Vulps had just given her. It was a point in her life she wanted to forget. Luckily she had moved past that and had recovered.

What Carliah picked up from Jairdain was not any fear or trepidation, that was from Sage. There was not much that scared her any longer and she was happy that way. Not remember having met her before, she did not pull away from the attention paid to her nor did she promote it either.

Vulps had not had the chance to introduce them and when she asked what her name was, it was given along with where she was from.

"Jairdain Ismet and my world was called Eraton. Nobody has heard of it though."

Switching her focus in the Force to Vulps when he asked if everything was alright, she shrugged. Not knowing who the question was directed at, she did not verbally reply to him. That attention moved back to Carliah after a moment and she waited to hear if her name or planet meant anything to the Valde's mother.

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Narrowed eyes seemed to become slits as the woman approached further, leaning in to inspect @Jairdain. "Ismet... Eraton..." Quickly, the woman shot up and started out the library, her voice raising so that there was no way her words might go unheard. "Come with me, both of you!" The steel in her voice left no room for argument, and it was with a force that even Vulpesen had rarely heard, at least, heard directed at himself. Almost without thinking, he rose to his feet and ooffered Jairdain a hand, a perplexed look crossing his features. "You should know this isn't really normal... even for her."

 

[Jairdain]

The attention Jairdain was getting was odd. Something about Vulp's mother felt off, but she still had a power she couldn't deny. When she told them both to follow her and her friend rose, she did the same and accepted his hand. Nodding when he said this wasn't normal for his mother, she looked at him with a question on her face.

"What is normal? She feels dark. On Eraton when somebody went dark, there was no coming back and they had to die. I know we are alike, what I grew up knowing is true isn't it? There is no recovery."

She had been told that was why these people needed to die. Because once they went dark, there was no return for them.

If Vulps had questions, there were far more for Jairdain, but she kept most of them to herself. The two she asked were the most important, if he could even answer them.

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Following after his more erratic family member, Vulpesen spared [member="Jairdain"] a glance as she asked her questions about his mother. "I'm sure by now you've felt it. The instinct. My mother is what happens when one refuses and denies the instinct. If a Zorren cannot protect, then by many's standards, they are not zorren at all. You're right, there is no coming back. And most would be put down. Most need to. But shes adjusted to this way of life. And given that shes my father's wife and has been around as long as she has, noone has been insane enough to do so."

Following his mother's path, Vulpesen would find himself walking into a small medical fascility kept within the estate where his mother was waiting, a small vial in hand and a needle in her hand. Beckoning for Jairdain to walk forward, she held an expectant look in her eyes as she stood behind some sort of computer. "You'll have to forgive me my dear, but I must insist on this... Theres a certain, theory that may answer questions that both of us have had for some time."

 

[Jairdain]

She wasn't sure exactly what he meant by the instinct and her question would have to wait. Vulps did confirm what she expected and she nodded. There weren't many that had to die when she growing up, but enough for her to know it was bad when it happened. As they walked he did clarify and she had no need to ask her question. There was a desire to protect, but that did not apply to everybody. Only those she was close to and considered her friends and family.

"Why would it be insane to try? Who's your father to stop these people from doing what is needed?"

Sage poked his nose out and ducked back into his pocket when they approached Vulps' mother. Patting him slightly, she tried to offer what comfort she could to the upset wolf.

"What is that for?"

He had given her a glimpse of what she held before ducking away and hiding.

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

"Its not my father that worries them. He's the nice one." Vulpesen made a small motion towards his mother with his comment. While his father was certainly powerful in his own right, his was an aura worth respecting. Carliah however, demanded fear.

As Jairdain questioned the purpose of the needle, Carliah rolled her eyes and stepped forward. "I need a blood sample, dear. Now hold still, this won't take long." Her son simply stood by as she moved to sink the needle into a vein. Dangerous as she might have been, he trusted her to avoid any obvious malevolence towards a guest in his presence. Whatever she was doing, there was a reason to it.
[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

About the only thing Jairdain could think of as a way to react was to blink. Sage also blinked and only the tip of his nose could be seen poking out of the pocket made for him. The small comfort she tried to give him bolstered him slightly and that nose rose to the touch she gave.

"What do you think, Vulps?"

Almost without any choice of her own, her arm was being held out so the blood could be drawn by the other woman. Giving her a bit of a dirty look but allowing the process to be done, she rubbed her arm when it was done.

"What is all of this about?"

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

"She won't try anything while I'm here. You're safe." Despsite his words, there was a somewhat skeptical gaze from the younger Torrevaso aimed at his mother. He knew that he would always be safe around her, but that didn't mean that he was blind to her reputation, nor the fact that such a reputation had been earned. As the blood was drawn, Carliah then took some of her own, wincing a bit at the pain. Placing the vials into thee machine, she watched the screen as her fingers tapped across the keys.

"Call it a mother's intuition, dear." The words flowed out of her mouth with a sense of curiosity as she continued to read the screen, her eyes following the bar that tracked the process of what appeared to be wsome sort of analysis. One by one the secinds ticked by until finally, the bar loaded and a window opened up before Carliah's eyes, the top bar of which held an embolded green word: Positive.

Carliah's eyes widened and she turned to Jairdain, golden eyes for once, uncalculating but stunned by disbeleif. "Jera..." Tears brimmed at the woman's eyes and her expression softened in a way that til that moment, even Vulpesen might have thought impossible. Then, turning on her heel, Crliah dashed from the room, a name tearing its way from her voice as she heralded the patriarch of the family. "GAAARREENNN!"

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

Jairdain accepted the word given by her friend when he said she was safe while he was present. She could somewhat feel that he had some doubts, but she didn't know why. When the other woman also winced at the pain, it was something the two of them shared for a moment before it faded away.

Carliah said something about a mother's intuition and she couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. Not totally understanding the whole implication of what she meant...then a name came out from her mouth, along with a softening of the aura around the mad Zorren.

She ran out of the room and called out for another person. Turning to look at Vulps, her face displayed total confusion along with her emotion. Repeating her question from before, she hoped he had at least a little better of an answer.

"What is all of this about, Vulps?"

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

Confused eyes followed Carliah as she ran out of the room, Jairdain's question just barely registering in his mind as he pondered what had gotten into his mother. "I have no idea," he mumbled as his eyes turned to the screen before him. In truth, he couldn't remember a time she had acted this way. The closest she had ever been to being this manic in front of him was... His eyes scanned across the text on the terminal.

Genetic Match: Carliah Torrevaso, Unknown Person: Positive.
Likelyhood of Progeny: 78%
Likelyhood of Relation: 99%

Vulpesen's eyes now widened just as his mother's had and he turned to face the woman behind him. If not for the sheer ammount of absurdity of statistical anomalies within his life, he'd have certainly waved this off as an impossibility. The chance that he had met an unawakened Zorren was already rare enough. But what was being suggested to him was quite frankly, nigh impossible. "I umm... I think we might have more in common than our species, Jairdain."

There was a burst in his senses, something he was certain the woman infront of him would sense as well. Garen spent much time in his office handling the affairs of state that his son was honestly too weary to deal with, and handling the diplomacy between the Veran Lords. But now, as the beacon of light raced towards them, accompanied by Carliah's familiar dark presence, there was certainly a sense of urgency within him.


[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

There was no shortage of confusion in the room and the writing on the screen meant nothing to Jairdain. Sight might have been granted to her, but the ability to read was still not there. A sense of shock and surprise quite similar to the woman that had just left filled her friends and she focused on him as he spoke.

He started, then studered over his words. Eventually an answer came out and she looked just as confused as she felt.

"How is that possible? I grew up beyond the outer rim and nowhere near you."

Turning at the joint approach of Carliah and somebody else, maybe they would have the answer to the questions filling her mind.

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

"It says we're-"

"You're right... it is rather noticeable now." The interloper in Vulpesen's explanation was none other than his father, dressed in a light blue set of robes as he looked over [member="Jairdain"] with a friendly smile, his hands clasped infront of him. Having been speaking to his wife, he now turned to the confused pair before him. "Miss Jairdain, you'll have to forgie my wife for her rather abrupt nature. Its simpy that we've found out some rather... interesting information."

"Bit of an understatement, Dad. First your holocron neglected to tell me about all of this," Vulpesen's arms waved around to indicate their surroundings before he continued. "Now I find out that I'm not the only heir of the house!?"

"Technically you are still the heir as you are older, but it was quite a long time ago and we lost contact so early as opposed to your life with Zarro. You see-" Garen turned back to Jair, recovering from his interuption, "Miss Jairdain, my wife suspected, and as it seems to have been proven by a blood test, that you are our daughter. Honestly, we'd thought that maybe your sect had been found by the hunters, but thankfully, we appear to have been mistaken."

 

[Jairdain]

Vulps wasn't allowed to finish what he was saying, but the message soon became clear. She had accepted her change of race with the normal calm attitude she tooks things life threw at her. This was something a little different though. Instead of her being the orphan she thought she had been since the age of 15, she had a biological family.

"I don't know who you are, sir, but there must be some mistake. I'll admit I am Zorren as things have changed with me, but my family and all the people I grew up with are dead. On the bright side of things, they weren't found and killed by hunters. Something in the Force caused the sun of my system to explode and everybody left on my planet were killed."

The talk of heir and who was elder wasn't lost on her. Having worked with Lady Kay, helped guide her son and worked with the nor former royal family, this was something she understood.

"I am not royalty. No way."

As much as Jairdain tried to deny it, she felt what they said to be true. She and Vulps looked too much alike for it to be anything else.

[member="Vulpesen"]