Chapter II. 4323. 273 to 4331.721 CRC
Chapter II. 4323.273 to 4331.721 CRC
“I hope you realize I can’t stay on Dromund Kaas.” Arya warned Cipher Eleven a few hours later
“We’re not heading there.” he reassured her immediately, before asking, “Why?”
“Why do you think I was captured?”
“Because you were four-year-old and Darth Arkous is a renowned warrior?” the man dead-panned
“Because he could feel me.” Arya corrected, “Warrior or not, it wouldn’t have mattered if he didn’t see me.” a wince, “But he could feel me. Korriban hid my presence well enough, but on Dromund Kaas?” a shrug, “I’ll hold maybe ten minutes, then you’ll have curious Siths sniffing around.”
“We’ll have to find a way to work around that.” he eyes her face, “And that too,” he adds toward the marks on her cheeks and on her brow, “They’re rather recognizable.”
But right now, he soon explained – it didn’t really matter, since they were heading in the opposite direction to Dromund Kaas.
Nar Shaddaa.
There was an ongoing attack on Coruscant, the imperial agent explained, and by the time it would be over, the Galactic Republic should be weakened enough to be forced to sign a cease-fire. Arya was rather impressed – she knew enough about the Siths by now, to know that cease-fires weren’t really something they did.
Maybe Cipher Eleven’s recruiting speech hadn’t been that embellished – the Imperial intelligence did seem to work to mitigate their savagery.
“I’ve been sent to infiltrate the Republic.” he explained, “I’ll be a smuggler ferrying Imperial slaves out of the Empire.” a shrug, “It should help me build a network of freedom-fighters that will have interesting news about the area they’re operating in.”
“And the Empire is going to just go along with you stealing their slaves?” she couldn’t help but ask dubiously
“I’ve already sorted this out with my Minder.” a smirk, and she didn’t even need her senses, godly or not, to feel his smugness, “Of course we’re only giving away defectiveproducts.” there was some biting irony in the man’s voice, “Slaves too old to work, sick or disabled. Pregnant women, young children.” he enumerated
Those who needed the most to get out of Imperial hands, Arya realized, eyes widening, and somehow he’d managed to convince the Empire to part with them – already she felt her respect for the man rise.
It would only continue when a few hours later, he’d come out of the shower looking thoroughly different – the rather imposing silhouette of a military man replaced by a thin frame and wiry muscles, a sharper face, brown hair and light blue eyes.
If she couldn't feel him in the Force and via her SoulArt, she’d be certain this was an entirely different man.
There were visible scars on his bare arms too, telling the story of a harsh life. It was a mark of trust, she mused, showing her his true appearance – and this was the real one, the faint uncertainty he felt all but assuring her of it.
He also had a small carrying case in hands, “I’ve got some make-up, we should try to conceal some of your more visible marks.” he explained
She wasn’t too surprised by the affirmation – he’d already told her he was going undercover, and apparently, so was she.
“How are you going to justify having a child around as a smuggler?” she asked
“You can be my kid.” a smirk, “Given up by their mother from a shady Nar Shaddaan cabaret.”
Mirialan weren’t quite the most common specie found dancing – or doing more – but it wasn’t unheard of either, Arya mused. Touch by touch, they started to build a cover-story for their relationship, while the Imperial agent rummaged through the carrying case full of make-up he owned, and clearly knew how to use very well.
He didn’t have that many colors to go with her skin-tone – but managed to make do with what he had, stating they would grab a kit that catered more to her coloring once on Nar Shaddaa. Soon enough, her green skin was devoid of any marking – but for the silver and golden Sith symbol on the back of her neck.
For now, it was hidden by her hair – but the plan was to cut said hair and dress her as a boy, something that would go well with her cover as the child of a slave prostitute.
Scarves – were going to have to be her new favorite accessory.
Over the few days of travel toward the Hutt planet – the PhantomEleven, she noted with unhidden awe, was even faster than the Fury-Class the Sith favored – they perfected their cover-story, and got to know each other.
Cipher Eleven, Arya quickly came to understand, appeared detached at nearly cold and analytic – in truth, it was more of a cover than anything else. He was smart and analytic, and could keep his feelings separate from his actions, there was no denying it – but it didn’t mean he didn’t have said feeling.
And with how cunning he was, he did manage to make things go the best way for him more often than not, just like with the cover-story he’d been assigned by his Minder, freeing slaves clearly being something he’d wanted to do, and had just been looking for a pretext to make happen.
They’d been met with a team of Imperial agents in the hangar bay on Nar Shaddaa, who gave them the last of what they needed to make their cover convincing – a few outfits each, a convincing trail of paper work for each of them and Arya’s mother, identification documents and even an old, heavily modified cargo that would fit with their smuggling cover.
Rather impressively, despite its decrepit looks, the starship in truth embarked top-of-the-line technologies, not to mention all the encryption material needed to safely send reports to the Empire – and receive information about the slaves they would free to develop their network.
It took Arya all she had not to stare at the Imperial agent as he told her that the ship was called the UnfetteredMooka – even more when she noticed the lime-green line running all around the round hull.
This man, she mused – she could get used to play the daughter of.
¤.¤.¤
They ended spending five years, posing as Davin Ellan and his daughter Dasha – though she mostly got by Dash, as she pretended to be a boy most of the time.
In those five years, they had built a rather respectable freedom-run between the Empire and the Republic, transiting by Nar Shaddaa and several other neutral planets, Rishi and Tatooine, but also Naboo among them. All those planets were dangerous, each for different reasons — which made them ideal dens for the smugglers, dealers, and all other underworld scums.
And that underworld life – made those planets ideals to hide their slave-freeing traffic from the regular forces of the Empire.
It also meant that Arya had grown quickly, learning more things about life in the galaxy in her first year than she had in all her previous ones combined.
City and underworldsurvivalskills, but also negotiation and bluff were among the first things that she unlocked, but were quickly followed by piloting and exploration, and, of course, gunship and rangefighting. She learned more unexpected things – like naturesurvival and swimming in the lakes of Naboo, or hunting and trapping in the wilds of Rishi.
Not too surprisingly, as a smuggler, she’d also quickly unlocked both negotiation and bluff. More surprisingly, she also unlocked artknowledge – as Davin was an unexpectedly attentive father, who ensured his daughter got an all-rounded education.
Of course, with all the traveling around they were doing, Arya had also started to get a hold of all sorts of languages, and while she didn’t unlock a proficiency in all of them, she still did unlock a fair few and their corresponding CulturalKnowledgeproficiency - Ryl, which had already started learning with Lyn’Me, but also Huttese and even Mirialan as Davin had ensured they spent some time on the planet, wanting his daughter to learn more about her culture. He had been rather regretful when he’d explained that there really wasn’t any way to justify dropping by any of the Miraluka worlds – since she wasn’t supposed to have any ties with them.
Given their lives as smugglers, the father and daughter duo had their fair share of close encounters, sometime, rather amusingly, against imperial forces, given their line of work – which meant Arya had also progressed far more quickly in her fighting prowess than most children did.
She unlocked the Back-Stab ability, without much surprise, in a cantina fight, while the QuickDraw and PreciseShot were both perfected in fights when freeing the slaves.
Cipher Eleven – was a perfect mentor, and as the years went by, his role as a father became less and less of a cover, and more of a true familial bond. Two years after she escaped Korriban, Arya had learned much about the man hidden behind the Imperial agent persona – about the boy who’d escaped slavery, hidden away his name, and risen thought the ranks of the Empire, yet had never forgotten his origins.
By sharing his true name, the one the Amavikkan had chosen for himself after freeing himself – Deaknal Raheth had formally adopted her.
The tattoos both of them got in celebration would have to be hidden once they were back in the Empire – neither cared, they knew their way around a make-up kit. And when the slaves saw the circle broken in seven pieces on each’s left hand, they knew they could trust them – recognized fellow Amavikkan, freed and ready to help.
Of course – this tattoo was the first, but far from the last, for Arya – Deaknal had all but ensured it when he’d made them spend some time on Mirial, given that they were a very big part of their culture.
The people there had been very approving of the father for ensuring his daughter knew about her roots, and soon, her face and arms were ornate with a myriad of geometric symbols, each having their unique meaning – a line of diamond-shapes for her growing fighting prowess, some triangular patterns for the parents she had lost, and the family she had gained, a more intricate symbol to indicate her ties to the Force, though that one she kept hidden; and so on…
She hadn’t expected the MirialanTattooperk, and the social boost it gave her with them – but appreciated it nonetheless. She was less surprised, thought rather amused, to unlock not too long after both the Smuggler and the Makeup Artistproficiency, given that hiding her SoulImprints was something she had to do daily, and smuggling… was currently Deaknal and her main occupation.
While Arya hadn’t left her studies of the Force fell to the side, it was still rather complicated for her to improve in that area, given that all that she had was the resources of her Repository – and teaching herself was far less effective than having a dedicated teacher would have been. Which meant this was where she spent the most skills and proficiencies points, since it was far more difficult to progress with her own hard work on those things.
Which wasn’t to say she didn’t progress at all – she’d unlocked the Tutaminisproficiency a year after her escape, and had made good progress with it, and unlocked the ForceDeflection ability which stemmed from it a few months later.
It took a few more years before she made another breakthrough with the knowledge she had available – and unlocked the FallanassiIllusionsability. It wasn’t anything near the large-scale illusions she’d seen some of the matriarchs weave, back on Lucazec, but it was still helpful, as her illusions could play on any of the senses – and someone hearing a sound, or seeing a movement, in a direction where there wasn’t anything could often make the difference between a peaceful escape and a messy one for a smuggler.
She didn’t bother with trying to learn to fight with a lightsaber – the only ones available were her parents’, and she really didn’t have the level for them as both were only usable for people level 20 and over, which she was far from reaching, though she did learn, rather accidentally, how to enhance her body with the Force while fighting – thus unlocking the corresponding ability.
¤.¤.¤
But the one topic that took Arya the most time to breakthrough – was the Sith alchemy and sorcery. After all, she had no intention of doing human sacrifices, or anything similar, but she really did need it.
Because, even with how her ForceReservestat and FallanassiInvisibility and PresenceInvisibilityabilities had improved, she still could only go for four hours using one or the other before depleting her ForceReserve, and only two hours if she had to be both invisible and hiding her Force presence.
Which wouldn’t cut it if she had to spend any time in an area where there were Siths around – like, let’s say, Dromund Kaas, where her father took his orders.
Rather logically, for a girl who’d been a witch in two life-times already – she came to the conclusion that what she needed was an amulet. And since the Jedi didn’t do those – and even if they did, she only had the basic training courses downloaded on her Repository – she had to look for a way to craft one among what Sith and Fallanassi knowledge she had. The Fallanassi – had already helped tremendously by letting her learn the techniques that helped her hide temporarily.
But more lasting methods seemed to be something the Sith gave more attention to, probably because of their thirst for eternal life.
It took her all of the five years Deaknal and her spent acting as smugglers, and unlocking both SithAlchemy and SithSorceryproficiencies to finally manage to put together a method that should work – by making her tap into an aspect of the Force she hadn’t encountered yet – the Wild Force.
She had been rather curious, since the proficiency had been sitting on the MoonInterface since her birth, yet she hadn’t encountered any mention of it yet.
Turns out, the Wild Force dealt with both change and stability – and because its effects could be rather drastic and permanent, she wasn’t surprised the Jedi didn’t deal with it. As for why the Sith didn’t – well, they were too obsessed with being in power, while using the Wild Force implied surrendering to its whims to a certain degree.
Among the Force users she’d encountered, the Fallanassi were probably the closest to apprehend the nature of Wild Force – but given the size of the galaxy, Arya didn’t doubt that there were some other Force sects out there that knew more about it.
Still, she’d unlocked the Imbuing ability, and soon made her first attempts.
The first few tries were… Strange.
She managed to imbue a roll of fabric with the property of glowing in the dark – the problem was that it wasn’t possible to decide when the fabric was glowing or not. Worse, the fabric slightly but consistently drained the user’s Force when worn – not by much thought, but if a Force user had the strange idea of wearing this fabric for a few days non-stop, they would end up with Force exhaustion.
The next attempt had been a bit better, as it gave a boost to the user’s own ability – but it became useless after a few hours.
Deaknal found the process rather amusing, as he always enjoyed the way the Force seemed to reinterpret as it willed what she was trying to do.
It took some time, and quite a few hours of meditation to realize that rather than helping her make something she needed here and now, the Force was using her to make things someone was needing somewhere and sometime else.
It was Wild after all, and the Wild couldn’t be tamed, she knew it better than anyone given that it was one of her strongest secondary aspects as a goddess.
Finally, and nearly accidentally, she stumbled on the way to channel the Wild Force into making something for her, rather than someone random – when she cut herself on a strangely sharp skeleton pass-card her latest attempt had resulted in, that she was pretty sure was for a technology that didn’t even exist.
So intent had she been on getting away from the Sith practices, she hadn’t thought to use something she was quite familiar with – blood. Her own, instead of a sacrifice.
It took her a few more attempts, but by the time Cipher Eleven had been officially called back to Dromund Kaas, and her with him, Arya had managed to create three of bangles that would each hide her SoulImprints, her regular tattoos and her Force presence as long as she wore them.
The bracelets were far from perfect – simply checking them via the Moon’sInterface already telling her they would become useless as soon as she reached level 10.
Still – that level was far away right now, and she already could predict that eventually, she’d be able to make more powerful items, or items whose effects could be triggered on and off, or even items who could offer several effects.
This would be enough for now.
¤.¤.¤
Dromund Kaas was a gloomy jungle planet, full of dangerous creatures, perpetually overcast and which radiated darkness – though not on the same level as Korriban, thankfully. Before they landed, Deaknal had redone his Cipher Eleven appearance, Arya herself checking that her three bangles were on her wrists – which he was thankful for as soon as she landed, as she could faintly feel a rather familiar presence.
Taking a second to wonder why she could so easily sense the annoying Sith’s presence – then pushing the question to the side, as she didn’t have any answer to it – she followed her father toward Kaas city, and the Imperial Intelligence headquarters, where they were to meet with his Minder.
The planet was rather strange, the cities few and far between large, wild stretches of jungle where she could see – or sometime merely feel – old and newer temples built to the glory of Siths and their dark knowledge.
She had to hide her amusement, as she felt the clinical approval of the man in charge of evaluating Deaknal’s performances – and her own – and give approval for him to keep on training her. Not that they’d ever doubted it, her father hadn’t lied when he’d told her he was the best at his job, and that also meant knowing how to manipulate the department to give him exactly what he wanted.
Whether it was to free some slaves, or keep an escaped Sith-in-training as his daughter.
Still, she could feel even her competent father’s surprise when a messenger dropped into the office where hey were being debriefed, hurriedly whispering to the Minder, who frowned, then sighed, “You are our best field agent, Cipher Eleven. But the headaches you give me…” he complained, “What did you do to catch a Darth’s attention?”
It was only then that Arya realized the familiar presence of Arkous had been growing steadily closer to them. She rubbed the back of her neck, making Deaknal understand what was going on – a slight widening of his eyes was the only sign he gave that he’d understood.
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.” her father answered blandly
“Right.” the Minder deadpanned dryly, which was perhaps the most emotions he’d displayed since they’d arrived, “Anyway, he’s waiting for you in the conference room Leth-32.” there was an imperceptible softening in his eyes as he all but whispered, “Good luck.”
How ironic, Arya mused as they headed toward the conference room – that among the Siths, who reveled in the power of emotions, she never saw any sign of them, or at least not in any positive form, while in the headquarters of the military service reputed to be the coldest and most unfeeling of the Empire, she saw the subtle hints of solidarity and sympathy.
She wondered just how good Arkous’ personal spying network must be, to have known they were back from their mission so quickly – she’d learned enough about the way secret services worked over her years with Deaknal, to know it was rather impressive for him to have been alerted to their presence so fast.
She felt the blaze of his aura long before she saw him.
It was…
Familiar, she realized, once more.
It was the first time she realized it was familiar – from beyond this realm.
She wasn’t given the time to wonder more about it, they were in the room, the pureblood Sith languidly sprawled in a throne-like armchair, like some sort of large, feline, predator.
“Nuya Jen’Nwit.” he purred in her mind as she approached, before greeting loudly, “Cipher Eleven.” a smirk, “The man of the hour.” he drawled, “Your freedom-trail has given the Empire the best network of informants in the Republic in years.” he said, amusement echoing in his voice
“You honor me with such praise.”
“I’m sure.”
An image flashed in Arya’s mind, as the two men played with their words – a powerful, gigantic Hrosma tiger and a lean, agile Vulptex circling each other.
She could feel some amusement that didn’t come from her– apparently, Darth Arkous had somehow caught her vision, once more. The way the Sith kept managing to slip into her mind was rather startling, she couldn’t help but notice.
The two men were talking, yet not a single concrete thing had been said – and to Arkous it was rather clear that the Sith was still bristling like an angry cat at having been played by the agent, who in truth was quite protective of his daughter, but couldn’t show it.
“And your… little protégé has been a great help too, I heard.”
The Force shuddered around them, and it took an instant for Arya to realized what had just happened – a discreet sizzling sound, the only sign that all the recording equipment in the room had just been destroyed.
Arya didn’t understand how he’d managed to get up and prowl toward her yet still look so laid back – but he somehow did it, and his hand was on the back of her neck, where the silver and gold Sith symbol was hidden by her talisman.
Was.
She winced as she felt her bracelet straining under the brute strength of the Sith. Slipping her bangle off her wrist, she felt her SoulImprints become visible again.
“Ah,” a smug drawl, “much better.”
She bristled angrily, making him laugh loudly – this time she was the one to catch his mental image. She didn’t look like a wet loth-cat, dammit! Apparently — she’d said as much loudly, as even her father was laughing now, making her send him a betrayed glare.
“So, I see the academy wasn’t to your liking?”
The question was more or less rhetorical.
Arya answered, nonetheless, rather bitingly.
“I have very little interest in mentally unstable psychos.”
¤.¤.¤
She felt her father’s wince at the answer – but like always, she only seemed to entertain more the Sith, whose hand squeezed lightly against her neck as he contained his amusement “A surprisingly accurate description of the place.” he agreed, “Still, what made you stay in the Empire?”
This – was perhaps the most genuinely curious question he’d ever ask her. She found herself answering honestly.
“There are already enough people willing to help in the Republic.” she gave a small shrug, somewhat hampered by the large hand still resting on her neck, “Not here.”
“Help, uh?” he mused, “I guess it wasn’t a lack of ambition that prevented you from following the path of the Siths.”
“Ah, but I’ve already broken my chains, haven’t I?” Arya pointed out with some amusement, proving she had leaned about the Siths teaching while on Korriban, even if she didn't ascribe to them, “And I never shied from my emotions.” a shrug, “I just have no interest in wallowing in hatred and anger when there’s no need for it.”
“Some would call you a heretic for saying something like that…” he corrected himself, “Or they would call you that, once they’d killed you.”
“Ah, but you know better.” she turned slightly toward him, managing to move her head just enough to catch his gleaming golden eyes, “After all, you’re not a permanently boiling pot of rage and hate like most of those Siths I saw on Korriban.”
“To think you’d realize it so quickly…” Arkous whispered, truly surprised for the first time since she met him
She was surprised herself – given the Siths teaching, she hadn’t expected for this to be something he did knowingly. She watched him glance at her father, and she knew he was wondering whether it was worth it to kill him or not – and decide against it.
“If you actually spend some time in the Empire, you’ll come to realize that not all the Siths who survive Korriban ascribe to such… an unproductive state of mind as those…” a smirk, “How did you put it? Ah yes, mentally unstable psychos.”
She shuddered, at once more, he demonstrated perfectly that the truly dangerous people weren’t the mad dogs she’d seen in the lower levels of the academy – but the smart ones who’d managed to climb through the ranks while keeping their sanity.
“You still need training.” Arkous told her, seemingly completely changing the direction of their talk, “What you’ve managed alone is rather impressive, but it won’t save you against someone correctly trained.”
He wasn’t – entirely wrong, Arya had to agree. While with some training, she didn’t doubt she’d become able to face even Siths or Jedi eventually – it wasn’t going to be easy, and probably would take years.
Years – she wasn’t quite sure she had.
Her guts were telling her as much – or rather, the Force.
“You’re up for a promotion.” the Sith told Deaknal, once more seemingly abruptly changing the topic, “It just so happens a position has just opened here on Dromund Kaas…”
The imperial agent immediately understood what Arkous was talking about, his daughter noticed – and clearly he hadn’t expected it.
“And I’m sure you won’t see any problem in letting your protégé gain some valuable experience by doing some low-level mission in the system.” the Sith added pointedly – oh so that’s where he was going
Arya could see her father was about to do something rather unwise – and flatly refuse the Sith.
She sent him a sharp glare, preventing him from answering.
Of course, it had been enough for Arkous to catch their exchange.
“Ah… Not merely protégé, then.” he mused, “My apologies, I know it can be hard for parents to watch their children grow up.”
With that, it seemed, their talk was done.
“Oh, I nearly forgot.”
The fingers curled around her neck, gripping slightly – but that wasn’t what made her blanch – it was the scorching feeling of the Force surging against her neck. She knew – that something was happening to the brand on the back of her neck.
She wasn’t as young as she’d been the first time – she also had three years on Korriban, and five as a smuggler.
Arya wasn’t a stranger to pain anymore.
Which is why this time, she felt that pain – wasn’t the point of this, not in Arkous’ mind – not even the branding. Or rather – he may call her ‘his’, this wasn’t a mark of ownership but something that had a deeper meaning, at least in his mind.
“I don’t know what he is.” she whispered to her father once the Darth had left the room, taking advantage of the fact all recorders were fried to hug her tightly, letting the worry he’d felt for her, and the anger burning against the Sith, roil freely
“But…” she couldn’t believe what she was about to say, “He’s no depur.”
“He’s the one who enslaved you!”
“He took me to Korriban.” she corrected, “The overseers were my owners.” she eyed the closed door, “But him. He knew from the start those chains wouldn’t be enough to hold me.” she took a hand-pocket mirror from her Inventory, tilting it to see what the man had done
Where there had once been a large Dark Side Symbol instead of her Chaos wheel, there were now two symbols.
“Both Dark and Light Side.” she recognized in a stunned whisper
Once more – she was left with more questions than answers.
[Soul Imprint updated!
Son’s Symbol turned to Sibling’s Symbol]
¤.¤.¤
Just like Darth Arkous had told them – Deaknal had been promoted, leaving behind the Cipher Eleven title to take over that of Keeper. There had been some whispers about the man keeping Arya by his side, but since no official relationship was known between them, most only though she was merely a promising recruit he was personally training.
Which wasn’t false – merely not the whole truth.
More annoying, was the familiar apprentice – now a warrior by his own right, yet still ordered around by his former master, proving once more to Arya that becoming a Sith really wasn’t the same thing as becoming free.
Xenloth Nor, as she had finally learned was his name — it had only taken seven years! — would drop once every few months, dragging her along on one mission or another, mostly sabotage missions against Siths conspiring against his master, as Arya soon realized that even more perhaps than on Korriban, back-stabbing still was the Dark Siders' main hobby.
Those missions were oddly appropriate for an agent in training – from tracking the conspirators, to hacking into their databases to unveil their plot, finding holo-recording leading to deeper machination or interrogating prisoners, which incidentally unlocked her coercionskill, thought she did try to use more finesse than force, contrarily to the Sith…
And more often than not, taking care of the loose ends with her blaster.
Amusingly enough, she was still using the weapon she’d stolen from the Exchange years ago – it turned out, once she finally got to show it to her adoptive father, that it was a Blastech prototype, and a rather good one at that. So, the T-181 had become her go-to weapon, one that excelled just as much in medium range fights as in long-range executions.
Xenloth had become far more in control of his emotions over the years – and while there was always an undercurrent of simmering anger boiling deep inside him, he knew how to use it now, instead of getting used by it.
Which meant he was far less standoffish, amusingly enough, and was even starting to understand his master’s fascination with her – which… well good for him, at least one of them understood…
He was highly amused by the fact that she didn’t mind killing or violence, yet could also be a ‘bleeding heart’ – his words, not hers – for the weaker beings.
Strangely enough, the pair of them were making a rather good team, and, over the next three years, she grew tremendously in skills, soon becoming more than skilled enough to become an independent agent of her own.
As she grew more skilled, she’d naturally reached the maximum level in some of her skills, proficiencies, and abilities – which led her, among other things, to learn that some abilities unlocked a stronger version of themselves once maxed out.
Those versions were potentially far stronger – but also took four times as much ability points to improve, and were quite harder to improve with regular training too.
While the FallanassiInvisibility and Presence Invisibility didn’t have an advanced version – not that they really needed to, as the first ability’s Force Reserve drain was now negligible, and the other was small enough not to be a problem outside a fight.
Of course, while it meant she could sustain both abilities all day long without a problem, something rather useful in her line of work, it didn’t mean she stopped working on her talismans – she couldn’t hide her force presence while unconscious, for example, and while she could do it while sleeping, it wasn’t really restful since a part of her mind stayed alert.
Which meant – continuing experimenting with her Imbuing ability, something Xenloth Nor, annoyingly, seemed to find just as funny as her father – though he’d also easily understood the useful applications, and had more or less bullied her into making him a talisman that would let him hide his own Force presence. She did make him the talisman – though she noticed that it was far less effective than her own, which made her wonder if it was because she already knew how the ability worked, and only used the talisman as a help, while he relied completely on it.
It also let her learn that her talismans couldn’t be used against her – not that he tried, surprisingly, but because she realized when he used it that she could still feel the talisman itself, even though his own presence was hidden by it.
It was with the QuickDrawability that Arya realized the fact that some abilities evolved – as once she hit the max level with it, it changed to AdvancedQuickDraw – an ability that multiplied the damages when using it, rather than simply giving them a bonus.
Her Backstab ability too had an advanced form, that on top of upping its damage multiplier – also considerably reduced its cool-down time, something she greatly enjoyed. She had also unlocked a new ability, with all the fights she’d been involved in – the BurstFire, which let her hit everyone in range of her weapon, at the cost of reduced damage.
Even if she wasn’t a Sith – nor a Jedi – it didn’t mean that she hadn’t incorporated the Force in her fighting style with time, BodyEnhancement becoming second nature, and with her improving understanding of the basis of the Jedi training, but also of the Sith one, since Xenloth Nor would sometime drop datapads on her laps – tough he never did quiz her about them as he had back on Korriban, he somehow always seemed to guess what could be useful to her.
So, Arya unlocked the SithOffense, Body and Mindproficiencies, which she naturally learned to apply in less showy ways than the Sith did. She also unlocked the Jedi proficiencyMundusMovere, and the following basic ForcePush and Pull were rather clearly abilities that worked just the same among both Jedi and Siths.
Learning more about the SithBody teachings helped her unlock the PhysicalForceproficiency too, as her understanding of it had rather naturally made her compare it to the own Jedi Control, and more importantly, the BodyEnhancement that came with it, making her see once more the similarities between both the philosophies.
She thought the Sith was going to burst something when he finally caught on to another, far more discreet ability she’d unlocked, so hard was he laughing.
While it was an ability most Sith kept away from, for how dangerous it was – Arya wasn’t really afraid of the LifeDrain, as she was more than subtle enough to merely skim the surface with it, sapping the enemy’s energy with each hit that landed, but never dipping enough to lose control over it and hurt herself in the process. It was greed, in the end, and a rather usual inability to hold back, that made this particular talent so dangerous to most Siths.
After that, Xenloth had taken to calling her ‘little sorceress’ and absolutely refused to believe she wasn’t a Sith.
¤.¤.¤
Of course, Arya wasn’t staying in the Empire just to help Darth Arkous get rid of his opponents – and the man, far from being stupid, knew it well enough – but it just so happened that, strangely enough, their interests did align more often than not.
Back when she’d first met him, Deaknal had been right when he told her that the Sith was smart. She knew it too – it was what made him so dangerous after all. It also meant he was one of the more progressive voices among the Dark Siders leading the Empire – which of course explained the number of people intriguing against him.
Arkous and Deaknal working on the same objectives – made things happen.
Things like a new luxury tax on all slaves, that, along with a series of new fines, encouraged quite a few owners to at least treat them betters. Funny how basic decency didn’t work, but threats and public opinion did.
And since Deaknal took his daughter’s education seriously – him working on laws and politics meant Arya did too, unlocking the Politicalskill along the way. Something she really hadn’t missed, but knew to be unavoidable nonetheless – which made her all the more thankful that contrarily to her father, she wasn’t about to be stuck behind a desk anytime soon, given that she was being trained as a field agent.
Still, despite the Darth and Keeper work, they weren’t anywhere near getting rid of slavery all-together, of course – but in three years, strides had been made toward ensuring most slaves were at least correctly fed and clothed. The next step was discouraging punishment – but that one, even the brilliant minds of Arkous and Deaknal together, hadn’t yet been able to frame in a way that would be palatable for the Siths and the Empire.
While these new laws didn’t really have any impact on the students of the academy on Korriban, it did contribute to improving the conditions for the kitchen staff, Arya learned from Lyn’Me in one of the far and few letters they managed to exchange.
And more importantly – her Twi’lek sister had now progressed enough that she was contemplating taking the plunge, and trying to run away in a manner similar to Arya’s own. After all, the red-skinned girl had teased – she wasn’t on anyone’s radar but Arya’s own.
She had been ready for a few months already – but had stayed longer to ensure the new GarIpa knew enough to teach about the yanariya – the shadow path, as they had taken to call the stealth techniques taught by Arya to her sister.
Hearing about it – had unlocked a new perk for Arya, the Lavyanariyaperk, or ‘Maker of the Shadow Path perk’, which gave her a permanent boost to all her stealth related proficiencies and abilities.
Arya had given her sister the coordinates to the freedom-trail she’d established with her father, and that was still growing strong – and not too long before her fifteenth lifeday, she got a mail from Lyn’Me – who was now free, and already planning to stay in the network of the freedom-trail.
It was dangerous work – but Arya understood all too well why the Twi’lek wanted to do it.
On Arya’s fifteenth lifeday, Deaknal and her started the day by enjoying the family tzai, the warm spicy milk-tea something they couldn’t often enjoy on Dromund Kaas given that its ingredients weren’t common on the planet – then, once they were at the imposing building where they worked, her father had announced her that she was heading out of her first solo mission. Back aboard the UnfetteredMooka, and on her way toward Rishi – and her sister.
The three weeks of travel she was about to spend alone – didn’t mean much compared to the idea of seeing Lyn’Me again, and it had taken all her self-control not to act like an over-hyped teenage-girl when she’d been given her mission order.
She was pretty sure she had failed – at least on the Force side – but thankfully, there weren’t Force users handing out in the operation room of the Intelligence headquarters all that often.
The half-Mirialan didn’t let her good mood fall as she arrived at the spaceport – and felt that her starship wasn’t empty.
“A starship and a holiday trip, your father has really gone all out for your lifeday.” the Sith mused with clear amusement in his voice, “To think most people are persuaded he’s secretly a droid and incapable of having feelings.” he rolled his eyes at that, making obvious what he thought of that opinion, “Anyway, since you’re going on a trip, I doubt you’ll mind taking a few side-trips.”
“Somehow, I doubt that anything that interests you can qualify as a mere side-trip.” Arya couldn’t help but point out
Arkous smirked smugly in answer, then pointed negligently toward the starship’s computer, “I’ve recorded the coordinates of a few planets. There are supposed to be old ruins around. Jedi, Sith, older cults. Be a dear and take a look, would you, nuya Jen’Nwit?” he concluded sweetly, liberating the captain’s chair he’d been lounging on, “Oh and one last thing…”
Arya felt dread at the innocuous sentence – which the other must have somehow guessed, as he smiled thinly, “Not all surprises are bad, nuya Jen’Nwit. I’d check the main cargo hold if I were you!”
With that, he was gone.
Feeling wary yet still quite curious, she went through the take-off procedures, worked the numbers for her first jump – and went to the hold, where she’d started to feel a presence as soon as she’d left the planet’s atmosphere.
There was a pup in a spacious cage, several times too large for it, hidden under a large drop-cloth.
A tuk’ata pup.
Arya couldn’t help but laugh – only a Sith would think the deadly creature a good lifeday present. The pup woke up at the sound, blearily opening his eyes before letting out a doleful whine, which she didn’t need her BeastTongueproficiency to realize was a call for both food and attention.
She tilted her head.
There was something strange going on with both the Force and her soul, she noticed.
No – not her soul.
¤.¤.¤
One of the three souls residing in it, and currently stuck there. The pup was instinctively trying to Force-bond with her, and in doing so, he’d opened a path.
The Force surged.
The little pup still had the stubble of three pairs of horns, and spikes on his spine and tail – but he now had very familiar silver eyes, and black fur. More importantly – there were only two souls hidden in her own now.
Arya smiled.
“Welcome back, Padfoot.”
The tuk’ata put gave her a tired doggy grin, and fell back asleep, while several notifications popped all at once on her MoonInterface.
[Familiar System unlocked!
PADFOOT – LV 7
Familiar Main Stats
(familiar stats are out of 10)
(gain: 1 per lifeday, 1 per 10 levels)
Body: 3
Mind: 3
Heart: 4
Familiar Skills
(familiar skills are out of 10)
(gain: 1 per lifeday and every 5 levels for each categories except the Unique one)
Body Skills
Fight: 2
Defend:1
Mind Skills
Force: 2
Heart Skills
Survival: 1
Charm: 2
Synergy: 1
UniqueSkills
Shadow Affinity: 8
Light Affinity: 6
Holy Affinity: 6
Familiar Abilities
(familiar abilities are out of 10)
(gain: 1 per lifeday and every 5 levels)
Back Stab(Fight): 2
Body Enhancement(Force): 1
Invisibility(Force): 1
Shadow Walk(Force): 2
Familiar Perks
Puppy Eyes: +10 to all social interactions
Light and Shadow: adds light affinity score to all Defense and shadow affinity score to all Damages]
[System log update!
There are several kinds of Force bonds, each granting different effects.
A Familiarforce-bond ties a familiar to a sentient partner, with each member always knowing where the other is and giving them the ability to communicate.
A Trainingforce-bond ties a teacher to their student, given a basic understanding between both, a better ability to mind-speak and making it easier for the student to learn from the teacher.
There are also Familyforce-bonds, Marriageforce-bond, or even Friendshipforce-bond, and so on. They are usually established between twoForceusers who share a close relationship and can grant several related perks.
Familiars are provided with a simplified version of the Moon Interface.
Their Scores and Ratings are calculated out of 25.
Their level is indexed to that of their partner.]
[Achievements unlocked!
New Force Bond(Padfoot): +40 XP
New Familiar(Padfoot): +20 XP
Familiar New Skill(9): +90 XP
Familiar New Ability(4): +80 XP
Familiar New Perk(2): +40 XP]
[Level up! Arya Lunika is now LV 8!
+1 SP]
It was perhaps the first time, Arya would reflect much later – that she felt something truly positive for the Sith, that typically kept her off-kilter and with far too many questions to really know what to think about him.
It wouldn’t be until the next day that she would notice that on top of ensuring there was food for the pup in the mess, her own fare had been clearly improved from the regular stocking made by the intelligence technical teams,
He’d also added quite a few things on the starship’s computer – and not merely coordinated to some planets like he’d told her. And what he’d added wasn’t only Siths texts, contrarily to what she’d expected. Though how and why he had some Jedi training datapads saved up, she could only guess…
[Repository updated!
Sith Acolyte Repository updated to Sith Apprentice Repository
Jedi Youngling Training Repository updated to Jedi Padawan Training Repository]
Needless to say, Arya’s fifteen days of travel weren’t boring, between the piles of new material to go through – and of course, puppy Padfoot, who with his young mind, and far too dangerous body, was happily wreaking havoc all around the ship.
And finally – she landed on Rishi.
The pirate hideout was still the same den of slums, smugglers and other outlaws of every and all species one could imagine – and a fair few more.
It didn’t matter to the half-Mirialan – because there was a young, red-skinned beauty waiting for her just out of her landing pad.
“Ikkalli.” Lyn’Me greeted her happily
“Ikkalda.” she echoed with just as much joy
They fell in each other’s arms.
¤.¤.¤
Arya stayed several weeks on Rishi, taking advantage of being ‘on-site’ as Dash Ellan to check that the freedom-trail was still working properly as an information network – in the end, it was in the trail’s own interest not to catch too much interest from the Republic, since most of them weren’t quite on the legal side of the law.
It was thanks to this network, for example, that the Empire had learned that the Jedi hadn’t re-settled in Coruscant since the sack of their temple, but instead on Tython, the mythical home planet of the Jedi, which had been found by their newest Grand Master, Satele Shan. It had made Arya’s heart twinge, as she’d mused about how happy her father would have been about such a momentous discovery.
Of course, it didn’t mean that they had found the planet’s precise coordinates, since access to it was restricted to Jedi only – all people knew was that it was somewhere in the arduous to navigate Deep Core. No matter how curious the incarnate goddess felt, it really wasn’t an area she could go and nose around that easily, so instead, she knew it was time to end her vacations, and get to the job Arkous had given to her.
“I’m coming with you.”
Arya was torn – on one side, having her sister and best friend travel with her was something she’d love. On the other, taking the former slave back to the empire felt like a terribly bad idea. Not needing to be a mind-reader to guess at what she was thinking, the Twi'lek smirked, “Any good agent has a network of useful pawns to draw on.” she pointed out, “I’ll be your number one!” she winked
Lyn’Me – wasn’t wrong, she realized, it was just her worry that had made her hesitate, but truth be told, now that she was doing solo missions, especially under the orders of a Sith, wrangling the Twi’lek as a crew-member wouldn’t be too hard. Especially given that her father was the official number two of the intelligence services.
“So, where are we going?”
“Thape and Leritor first, then Lothal and Ossus.” Arya enumerated, pointing out in which sector each planet was – or astronomical object, in the case of Thape
“Talk about a trip. What are we doing?”
“Looking for anything Force related, apparently.” Arya answered with a shrug
“This… Is going to take a while, isn’t it?”
Arya nodded along, “I’d say at least a year.” she sighed, “And of course, we’re to maintain our cover as smugglers.”
Their first stop, Thape, didn’t help much.
It was a rather small celestial object, too small to be called a planet, and though there had once been an atmosphere around it, it had long since disappeared. They did find some ruins eventually – of what appeared to have been a temple, with remnants of old engraved murals from which the colors had long since faded.
One symbol appeared several times here and there – a circle with eight branches regularly arranged around it, inscribed in a second circle, this one broken in eight parts, each over one of the branches. The symbol, it took Arya a moment to realize, was rather reminiscent of the Galactic Republic’s own – which, from what she knew, originated from the Jedi.
This, apparently, had been the home of the mythical Dai Bendu – long before they founded the Je’daii that would one day lead to the current Jedi.
They dutifully took holo-recordings and scanners of the ruins, and left after barely a week spent on the rock, and the following days, Arya spent studying the scans, laboriously putting together the basis of the Dai Bendu of old philosophy’s, which seemed to mainly revolve around the ability to learn more about the future thanks to the Force – in a way not too dissimilar from the Mirialans own beliefs, she noticed.
With that, she unlocked the Dai Bendu Lost Lore perk, and improved her CosmicForceproficiency. The very basic knowledge she pieced together, along with the holo-recordings and scans, were registered as Basic Dai Bendu Repository by her flower pendant.
Their next stop was barely a few hours away – Leritor, a planet that had been conquered by the Krath Dark Siders' sect during the Great Sith Wars, several centuries ago.
There were far more things to find on the planet, that was a lush garden world with high mountains, large oceans, but also fertile plains, crisscrossed by numerous rivers. There was a rather hostile native specie – but since the large six-legged crustaceans lived in the oceans, they weren’t too much of a problem for the two girls and the tuk’ata scouring through the remnants of old Krath temples.
They stayed on the planet for several months, even finding some artifacts among the ruins – some sets of Krath holy battle armor, which had been the standard equipment of the temple guard. It consisted of a pair of pauldrons and a breast-plate, all clearly created with some sort of Dark Side alchemy.
Most of the armors were old and broken, which was probably why they hadn’t been looted – but in the depths of the old temple, beyond collapsed tunnels, they stumbled on the remnants of a full armory, and had soon filled a few crates with Dark Side armor pieces, leaving behind only old-fashioned short sword and pulse-wave bows – though Lyn’Me insisted they took a couple of each for decoration purpose.
All in all, while they did find much on the planet, and Arya gained a Krath Sect Repository section in her pendant, much of their knowledge was mere adaptation of the Siths’ own – though she did unlock the Krath Lore perk, which granted a rank in both her FallanassiIllusions and ForceImbuingabilities.
By now, Arya had been gone from Dromund Kaas for nearly half a year — they took the next two weeks to head toward Nar Shaddaa, where they would refuel, restock, and for Arya, send in a first report.
¤.¤.¤
Xenloth Nor was waiting for them on Nar Shaddaa.
“The Outer Rim is far too dangerous for two little girls to travel alone.”
Lyn’Me managed not to bristle at the perceived insult – she had years of practice not showing her emotions to a Sith, after all. Arya knew better, and rolled her eyes.
“You were bored.”
“I was bored.” the other agreed immediately, making Arya roll her eyes, “So, little sorceress, what interesting toys have you found?” then, finally catching sight of her familiar, “What the Void is this thing?!” he exclaimed, eyeing the mutated tuk’ata dubiously
“Hey! That’s Padfoot, and he’s not a thing!” the half-Mirialan protested, the holy familiar growling in own protest – which, truth be told, was starting to be rather impressive, given that he’d already grown enough that his head was as high as her waist, “Besides,” she added with a smirk, “I’ll have you know that he was my last lifeday present from your master.”
With that – Padfoot was eagerly begging for scratches, and shamelessly using his Puppy Eyes ability to gain them – having known him as a puppy, Lyn’Me hadn’t managed to gain any fear of the Sith dog.
“Who’s the cutest? Yes, you are!”
Xenloth sighed, “Alright little sorceress, I won’t say anything about your Sith-spawn.” he eyed the Twi’lek who’d managed to forget all about him to pet the monster, “But clearly, you do need supervision, or you’ll end up bringing home a tamed terentatek.”
The UnfetteredMooka had gained a new crew-member – and while Xenloth had grumbled a bit about it at first, he’d also quickly settled into his cover as a mercenary, proving that the Sith really had improved over the years. His yellow eyes were taken care of with a pair of contacts – his breather was tinkered with by Lyn’Me, who proved that she knew her way around a workshop – making the apparatus look less Sith-like and more regular cyborg-like.
It took them a little over a week to reach Lothal – or rather it would have, had they not made a stop along the way, when both stronger Force users aboard had suddenly felt the same surge in the Force, and decided to drop out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere.
Or more precisely, in the middle of the Orixon Nebula, where their ship soon picked up on a very old distress signal.
They stumbled on the ruins of an old starship, with a design so primitive it had to be over twenty thousand years old, and from an era where hyperspace travel was barely mastered.
Rather surprisingly, for a man who always teased Arya for spending far too much time her nose stuck in datapads, it was Xenloth who recognized the derelict vessel.
“Kashi Mer.” he waved around them, “This starship is twenty-thousand-year-old, and its port of origin is floating all around us.”
Turns out – the Orixon Nebula had been a planet, once upon a time, inhabited by a rather isolationist people. Which is why nobody really knew what happened, when their planet suddenly disintegrated, taking with it most of the Kashi Mer people.
“Uh guys…” Lyn’Me was the one to call as the Sith had just finished telling his story, looking at what had the shop’s computer beeping, “There’s a life signal on the twenty thousands year old ruin!”
There was a glint in Xenloth’s eyes – the Sith clearly quite curious about what they were about to find on the old vessel. Arya, she had to admit, was just as curious.
Lyn’Me was already taking the recorder and the scanner out of their storage box, while the three crew-members of the UnfetteredMooka were suiting up for a space walk.
Most of the embedded technologies of the antiquated spaceship were long dead – but soon, they happened on an area of the ship that was still space tight.
This was where the life-signal was coming from.
“So… How do we open the door without potentially killing whoever is inside?” Lyn’Me asked, turning toward the two Force users
“Open the door.” Xenloth immediately instructed Arya, “I’ll keep the air and pressure inside intact.” he affirmed, knowing it was a bit too advanced of a manipulation of the world around them for the girl
Focusing on their task, both went to work – and soon enough, they were inside what looked like a meditation chamber, full of plants that had long over grown the area.
“This… shouldn’t be possible.” the Twi’lek couldn’t help but protest, a tinge of wonder in her voice
“Everything is possible with the Force.” Xenloth contradicted her – for once, it didn’t sound like a boast, but a simple affirmation, which even himself found confirmed once more
Arya was too busy watching around in awe, both with her eyes and her Force sigh – this was the work of the Force, sure enough, but used in a way she’d never seen before! And merely witnessing this miracle – made her understand.
[Achievement unlocked!
New proficiency(Living Force): +10 XP]
Like always, the goddess of death felt awed by the power Life could hold – and naturally, she followed the pull of the soul in deep sleep, hidden in the heart of the improbable oasis. There was a tall woman, sat with cross-legged, looking for all intent and purpose like a statue.
A living statue, with a heartbeat so slow it hadn’t even echoed yet since they’d entered the room.
The incarnate goddess marveled, as she realized what the Kashi Mer had done – using the Living Force to slow herself to such a degree that she was all but left out of time.
She hadn’t even really cheated death – as by slowing her own time, she still had the rest of her natural life-span to live. Be it in slow-motion, like she currently was – or once more in tune with the rest of the galaxy.
One way or another – the living remnant of a people long gone had no intent of escaping death indeterminably, she was merely waiting…
Waiting for someone to answer her distress signal.
For over twenty millennia.
¤.¤.¤
Arya stepped forward, the tips of her fingers softly brushing against the back of the woman’s left hand. The Force shuddered.
Violet, ageless eyes opened in a dark-skinned face.
“How long has it been?”
“Over twenty thousand years.”
The grief in the woman’s eyes was mind-shattering, and all three crew-members of the UnfetteredMooka clearly felt it through the Force. Yet, after a few moments, she reigned herself in, simply giving a small nod of thanks.
“I see.” she whispered sadly, “My people?” she asked, somewhat hesitantly
Arya dithered, not knowing the answer – it was Xenloth who answered.
“Dead for the most part. A manufacturing company was around until a few centuries ago. There are some whispers of Force users helping heal dead planets, and plants grow, here and there, around the galaxy.”
“The Guardians of the Breath.” the woman realized with wide eyes, a hint of relief showing in them
Nyla, as the Kashi Mer woman eventually introduced herself, was one of the mystics of her people, a Guardian of the Breath Elder, far older than she looked – that affirmation didn’t surprise Arya much, given that she could feel the woman’s soul – and she’d followed the Breath’s will by waiting for all this time for rescue.
With her, she brought the whole Kashi Mer Mystic Repository, and the Unfettered Mooka jumped back toward Lothal – Arya spending hours nose deep in the new knowledge, or in talk with the mystic, which led her to unlock the KashiMerForceproficiency surprisingly quickly – and annoyed greatly Xenloth, who looked nearly ready to drag her toward the cargo bay that had been repurposed as a training room… Which he probably would have done, if they hadn’t reached Lothal before.
“I really don’t know why your master sent us there…” Lyn’Me couldn’t help but tell Xenloth, proving she’d somehow grown rather comfortable with the Sith, as antinomic as it seemed, “There’s nothing!”
She wasn’t fundamentally wrong – in that there was no sentient species living on the tempered-climate planet. But the truth was, all four Force users, even the barely Force sensitive Lyn’Me, could feel that there was something on the planet.
“The Breath guided us here for a reason.” Nyla was the one to summarize their feeling
The quartet – plus a tuk’ata – took a few rations and survival packs, and followed the Force. Days soon melded into weeks, as they followed the Force from one old stone circle to another. It was rather strange, how they never ever found any other trace of a civilization – even a very primitive one – but for the circles.
It was over a month after they’d arrived on the planet, that Arya finally put the finger on what was nagging at her mind – likening the feeling in the Force to one she was more familiar with magic.
“A nexus.” she corrected herself after a heartbeat, as it wasn’t the word most commonly used for the phenomena in this galaxy, “A vergeance.”
It took them a few more weeks to reach the heart of the natural concentration of the Force – in the heart of a valley, surrounded by high plateau, a river running not too far away.
Even Xenloth’s constant simmering anger seemed quiet here, all four basking in the perfect feeling of balance they so rarely felt.
This, Arya mused – this was perfection, a state of balance not only between Dark and Light side, but also between all the different aspects of the Force: Living, Physical or Cosmic, everything was in harmony there.
The four Force users didn’t need to talk, merely basking in the feeling of the Force – and even if Arya was the only one feeling how keenly the experience was affecting them, she knew the others didn’t need her godly senses, nor the MoonInterface to apprehend what a life-changing event they were going through.
[Achievement unlocked!
Balanced Vergeance(Lothal): +10 FR, +100 XP]
After that, she mused, Lyn’Me wouldn’t be considered a weak Force user anymore – and she may well have to retrain her sister to help her cope with her deepened link to the Force, and ensure she still was able to hide her Force presence if necessary.
Her attention was taken off from her musings by an insistent whine from Padfoot, the tuk’ata pulling on her belt to catch her attention. There was a pack of creatures not too far, she realized – wolves, just as firmly rooted in the Light side as the grimm himself was in the Dark one, given his status as a Sith dog in his current life.
Yet, no matter the natural weariness they should be feeling toward their group because of both her familiar and Xenloth, then were watching from a not so long distance, waiting.
Following the nudge of the Force, Arya got up – wondering when she’d ended up on sprawled on the ground, just like her three partners were – and went toward the waiting pack.
Loth-wolves the Force whispered, guardian of the planet.
The creatures, she realized once she drew nearer, were just as tall as her – just as tall, she didn’t doubt, as Padfoot himself would eventually grow.
But hidden behind the legs of its mother, a pup had been hiding.
It stepped forward as she approached, stumbling toward her with a happy yip.
¤.¤.¤
The sensation, she realized, was familiar. And really – there was no doubt to what – who – was coming.
[Familiar unlocked!
BLANCHE – LV 8
Familiar Main Stats
(familiar stats are out of 10)
(gain: 1 per lifeday, 1 per 10 levels)
Body: 3
Mind: 4
Heart: 3
Familiar Skills
(familiar skills are out of 10)
(gain: 1 per lifeday and every 5 levels for each category except the Unique one)
Body Skills
Fight: 1
Defend:2
Mind Skills
Force: 2
Heart Skills
Survival: 1
Synergy: 2
UniqueSkills
Shadow Affinity: 2
Light Affinity: 5
Holy Affinity: 5
Familiar Abilities
(familiar abilities are out of 10)
(gain: 1 per lifeday and every 5 levels)
Powerful Strike(Fight): 1
Body Enhancement(Force): 1
Circle of Shelter(Force): 2
Light Walk(Force): 1
Familiar Perks
Protective Mother: +10 to the partner’s shield
Light and Shadow: adds light affinity score to all Defense and shadow affinity score to all Damages]
[Achievements unlocked!
New Force Bond(Blanche): +40 XP
New Familiar(Blanche): +20 XP
Familiar New Skill(8): +80 XP
Familiar New Ability(4): +80 XP
Familiar New Perk(2): +40 XP]
[Level up! Arya Lunika is now LV 9!
+1 SP]
She smiled in soft welcome as the young wolf pup shook itself, a familiar blue crescent moon softly materializing on her brow. She didn’t look afraid, as Padfoot nuzzled her on his back – and the wolf-pack, with a last glance, left them behind.
a small point about the calendar:
The main one in use is the CRC (Coruscant Reckoning Calendar)
In the Star Wars universe, a year last 10 months, each month seven weeks, and each week five days.
On top of those regular days, there are five days of New Year Fete at the beginning of the year, five days of Festival of Life between the sitxh and seventh month, five days of Festival of Stars between the ninth and tenth month, and three other public holidays that differ from planet to planet
4316.165.9 CRC – birth of Arya Lunika on Benduday (5th day of the week) of the 6th week of the 1st month of the year 4316 while in Hyperspace (3661 BBY / -7 ATC)
4320.412.0 CRC – Fluffy Mooka boarded, death of Sayah and Leelai Lunika, Arya Lunika registered to the Korriban Academy as “Jen’Nwit” (Little Shadow) by Darth Arkous (3657 BBY / -3 ATC)
4322.742 CRC –Arya saves Lyn’Me, they become sisters (3655 BBY / -1 ATC)
4323.273 CRC – Arya Lunika escapes the Korriban Academy and is recruited by Cipher Eleven (3654 BBY / 0 ATC)
4325.323.0 CRC – Deaknal (Born from the Wind) Raheth (Sandwalker) adopts Arya Lunika (3652 BBY / 2 ATC)
4328.444 CRC – Return to the Empire, Deaknal promoted (3649 BBY / 5 ATC)
4330.974 CRC – Lyn’Me escapes Korriban (3647 BBY / 7 ATC)
4331.165.0 CRC – re-birth of Padfoot, Arya leaves Dromund Kaas on her first solo mission
4331.721 CRC – finding of the vergeance and re-birth of Blanche on Lothal
Fluffy Mooka – Defender Class light corvette, lime green paint job (Sayah and Leelai Lunika’s starship)
? – Praetor Class frigate (Exchange slave cargo)
Ember – Fury Class light corvette (Darth Arkous’ starship)
? –X-70B-Phatom (Cipher 11’ starship)
Unfettered Mooka – XS Stock Class light freighter, lime line around the hull (Davin and Dash.a Ellan’s starship)
- Repository (enhancement): unlocks the Repository System
Kitsune Weave(clothe, leveling, LV5):+5 Physical Defense
FuurinKiba (weapon, leveling, LV5): +1 AG, +7 Cutting Damages
- Saya(enhancement): +10 Force Reservoir
KageShin (weapon, leveling, LV5): +1 WIS, +9 Shadow Damages
ShiroInu Tessen (weapon, leveling, LV5): +1 LUCK, +5 Cutting Damages
Trill-181 prototype (weapon, leveling, LV5, adaptable: blaster gun/carbine/rifle): +5/7/9 Energy Damages
Hiding Bangles (LV5): hides the Soul Imprints / Tattoos / Force Presence – will only work for someone LV10 and under
(XP)New Skill: city / underworld / piloting / exploration / gunship / range / survival / swimming / hunting / trap / art / negotiation / bluff / politics / coercion
(bXP)New Proficiency: Ryl / Huttese / Mirialan / Makeup Artist / Tutaminis / Sith Alchemy / Sith Sorcery / Sith Offense / Sith Body / Sith Mind / Mundus Movere / Amavikka Culture / Twi’Lek Culture / Mirialan Culture / Sith Culture / Smuggler / Living Force / Physical Force / Kashi Mer Force
(XP)New Ability: Backstab / Quick Draw / Precise Shot / Force Deflection / Fallanassi Illusion / Body Enhancement / Imbuing / Advanced Quick Draw / Advanced Backstab / Burst Fire / Life Drain / Force Push / Force Pull
(bXP)New Perk: Mirialan Tattoo /Lavyanariyak / Dai Bendu Lost Lore / Krath Lore
4XP)New Familiar: Padfoot / Blanche
(2XP)New Familiar Skill: Fight(P) / Defend(P) / Force(P) / Survival(P) / Charm(P) / Synergy(P) / Shadow(P) / Light(P) / Holy(P) / Fight(B) / Defend(B) / Force(B) / Survival(B) / Synergy(B) / Shadow(B) / Light(B) / Holy(B)
(2bXP)New Familiar Ability: Backstab(P) / Body Enhancement(P) / Invisibility(P) / Shadow Walk(P) / Powerful Strike(B) / Body Enhancement(B) / Circle of Shield(B)/ Might Walk(B)
(2bXP)New Familiar Perk: Puppy Eyes(P) / Light and Shadows(P) / Protective Mother(B) / Light and Shadow(B)
(4bXP)New Force Bond: Padfoot / Blanche
(2XP)LV MAX Ability: Fallanassi Invisibility /Fallanassi Force Presence Invisibility / Quick Draw / Backstab
(bXP FR, 10bXP)Vergeance: Balanced(Lothal)
current XP: 1615
current LV: 9
XP to next level: 135
ARYA LUNIKA AGE 16 LV 8
BODY: Agility (11/1:12) / Strength (5/1:6) / Endurance (5/1:6)
MIND: Intelligence (8/2:10) / Willpower (9/1:10) / Wisdom (7/3/10)
Heart: Presence (5/2:7) / Instinct (10/2:12)
UNIQUE: Luck (3) / Element (17) / Godly (26)