The Avalan Crisis: Traitor-in-Waiting
Posted on Thu Sep 13th, 2018 @ 6:35pm by Thane & Bomoor Thort
Edited on on Wed Jun 8th, 2022 @ 2:00pm
2,868 words; about a 14 minute read
Chapter:
Additional Stories
Location: Outside the Drunken Drexl, Onderon
Timeline: Late Evening, after "Drunken Drexl"
OLD
Bomoor shifted slightly to one side as several more-timid patrons made for the exit, ignoring the pair of Jedi crouched down by the door. Across the room, the bald bounty hunter had pushed over a table and began using it to push back the group of Beast Riders that were still intent on finishing the job started by Thane’s light mental suggestion. It was a testament to how fragile the peace was between the groups here.
“I am glad to see you are well, but is it too much to hope that you witnessed anything useful before all this erupted?”
Thane jutted a finger upwards quickly, deflecting a flying piece of cutlery away from spiking into his pale forehead before answering. "Oh, I dunno," he said, his cheerful voice just about audible over the din of the cantina brawl as he gestured to the clamouring patrons. "Fine Jedi diplomacy at work!"
NEW
Another instalment of The Avalan Crisis posts, chronicling the young Padawans, Thane and Bomoor Thort.
Leaning with his sweat-slicked back against the sandstone wall, Thane let out several long breaths, pleased to be out of the chaos of the Drunken Drexl cantina and out in the open space of Iziz's streets. Onderon's primary, Prael, had now set, and the sky had surrendered to a deep indigo colour. Far above, the almost-alarming globe of Dxun loomed large and close, blocking out much more of the night sky than moons he had seen during his various adventures through the galaxy as a Jedi padawan.
A cool breeze swept along the cobbled pavement, a refreshing and pleasant sensation after the thick and heady atmosphere of the cantina. Apparently, based on the number of people now running out of the nearby establishment, either escaping the conflict or trying to carry it on over into the streets, many others agreed with the teenage Human Jedi.
"That went pretty well," Thane said, smiling as he looked across to his Ithorian friend beside him.
“Perhaps,” he echoed back, while ushering Thane to follow him as he moved away from the site of incident, “I sensed that you discovered the target but I could not make it to you before the fighting started.”
It was significantly darker outside than when Thane had entered the Drexl and, aside from the brawl now spilling out from the tavern behind them, the streets were clear of people. Bomoor weaved into another road, generally plotting a route back towards Unifar Temple, which he assumed was their next destination to report back to the Queen.
“So then, was it just the bounty hunters or were they with anyone else?” Bomoor questioned as he continued moving.
"The bounty hunters who took Masters Sotah and Thurius were there meeting with the woman who had apparently hired them," Thane explained simply. "A direct traitor to the crown of Onderon, I'd say; one of the ladies of Queen Omina's court. The problem is, is that she recognised me, too. That's why I had to cause the distraction. It was either that, or find myself chewing the business end of a Mandalorian giantess' blaster."
Thane shuddered at the mental image of the woman again, whom he was sure was winning whatever bout was continuing in the cantina. To further punctuate that fact, several loyalist soldiers were seen running past the two Jedi into the Drunken Drexl.
Before Bomoor could answer, however, a weak voice piped up from the side. "Spare some creds?" Came the rattling words of a weatherworn man resting against a wall to their side, his single remaining hand outstretched to the pair. Despite his obvious disfigurement, the most striking ailment that beleaguered the man was the injury to his eyes. As well as both being milk-white, very obvious scorch marks ringed their way around both sockets, being a deep burn scar that connected grotesquely above the bridge of his wonky, ill-healed nose.
Tattooed on the man's next was the remains of a Judicial Forces tattoo. What made Thane consider that the tattoo was in fact a remnant of one were the numerous scars raised up about it, suggesting someone had tried to scrape the mark off from the skin. Given the positioning and nature of the slices, it suggested the Outer Rim Conflict veteran had done it himself, and no doubt not finding many friends on the Alliance-supporting world of Onderon.
While it did not come as naturally to him as it did to Master Sotah, Bomoor did feel some inkling to oblige the man, even though doing so often left him wondering how helpful his gesture was to a total stranger, who likely had less-than-productive habits his money would go towards. However, an old outcast in a city of ruins so far from the Core may indeed struggle to find a legitimate income and the young Jedi knew he was not the judge of such things. Quickly reaching into his side pouch, he brought out some small credit chips and placed them in the man’s hand.
“Here you go and steer clear of The Drunken Drexl,” the young Ithorian added, imitating a friendly demeanour, “It’s a mess, this evening.”
Not waiting for an acknowledgement, he started to walk on, bringing his thoughts back to the larger picture as he spoke to Thane once again, “A Lady of the court? Why would she be conspiring against both the Loyalists and the Avalans?”
"Maybe she's not," Thane replied with a shrug, glancing back briefly to the veteran, who was inspecting Bomoor's chips with a critical eye. "Maybe she is trying to keep the fight going; maybe she thinks that's what's best for the Avalans, or even Onderon." He thought for a second, mulling over what they knew - and the fact the traitor knew of their awareness, too. "Should we tell the queen, or just, you know... do a 'Jedi' and go snooping in the palace?"
“I guess that depends on what you mean by ‘should’,” Bomoor hummed, looking over his shoulder at the younger man, “We probably ‘should’ tell the Queen, since we have been investigating at her pleasure. However, we ‘should’ attempt to minimise the chances of our traitor escaping and causing further harm; telling the Queen may alert any other conspirators to her situation.”
It was still in the back of their minds that a second explosive was likely in the hands of these individuals and Bomoor could not help but think of the tragedy at The Regal Hotel, which had claimed the lives of Rift Knight Sazar and former royal advisor Malin, as well as framing young Theon for the crime.
They could not allow that to happen again, which made it abundantly clear which path they ‘should’ take, even it was the less-proper option.
Omina’s Royal Guards were strong of mind, but the two Padawans’ previous uneventful visits plus a little Force suggestion at the right moments allowed the pair two slip back into the palace minus an escort. The old marble hallways seemed hollow and devoid of life as Bomoor and Thane paced swiftly onwards towards the quarters of the Ladies-in-Waiting, where they hoped to find some trace of the noblewoman spotted in the Drexl.
“We really must be swift here,” reminded Bomoor, “Let us identify this lady and hopefully get a sense of where she is headed next, Force willing.”
Unifar Temple, whilst perhaps not as well-kept or as majestic as it had once been, its passageways were still richly-decorated with surviving Onderonian art from throughout the millennia. Thane noted, however, that there appeared to be a strong fondness for clay pottery and tapestries within their royal hosts over other art forms.
As the Jedi pair passed some of the older pieces, some of which looked to have had various and often substantial cracks repaired, the young Human sensed certain pangs of familiarity within the Force, not unlike the manner of ripples he noticed flowing forth from the relics contained within the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Recalling a conversation with Master Ven Kel Farr, he had been told such ripples were echoes from Force users from years past; men, women and other individuals who had left their rare imprint on such things.
Even after just a short time on Onderon, facing the perils they had and were, Thane longed for a period of peace back within those homely halls. Few things gave him greater respite or a deep-set sense of pleasurable togetherness than a stroll within the Room of a Thousand Fountains with Master Sotah, or even Master Thurius or Bomoor. He hoped that innocent joy would never be taken from him.
Two regally-adorned ladies, chattering hurriedly, sidled past the odd Jedi couple as they left a side chamber, casting suspicious expressions at them under their thin veils.
Offering just an awkward smile, Thane waited for them to leave before he ducked into the chamber with Bomoor, which revealed a series of rooms coming off from either side. Some of the doors were open, showing lavishly-decorated, if somewhat undersized, quarters, each filled with a bed of remarkable size and fine examples of all of the other necessities.
Whilst the personal intrusion left both of them feeling uncomfortable, they knew of the importance of their quest. It took only a short time before they discerned which room belonged to the woman from the cantina, made obvious by a single holographic image that hovered above a bedside table, revealing that same attractive lady-in-waiting in the company of an young girl, her features a minimised interpretation of the woman's own, no doubt a close relative.
"This is it," Thane confirmed to Bomoor, already stepping over to start searching one side of the room. "Let's invade some privacy."
“I thought you would never ask,” Bomoor replied with a knowing smile.
The room was small but it was packed with antiques as well as trinkets of personal value. Perhaps nothing as lavish as the Queen herself displayed but this lesser noblewoman certainly could afford many luxuries in her daily life; a sharp contrast to the common folk barely scraping by on the city streets.
An encrypted personal data pad was laying in the open on her dressing table, but neither Thane or Bomoor had the skill to slice it in the time permitted. A small antique bureau in the corner of the room concealed a number of small hand-drawn illustrations; they had the look of a child’s artwork and were all signed ‘Maireen’.
After seeing the pictures, Bomoor was drawn back to the photograph of the noblewoman and the young child, thinking perhaps the little girl was the one who created these preciously-kept pictures. Pushing the button on the holographic image display brought up an annotation detailing the subjects in the picture: ‘Octavia and Maireen in the Royal Gardens’.
Turning back towards Thane, who had picked up the datapad from the dresser, Bomoor suggested, “It would appear our courtly lady is named Octavia. Try entering the name ‘Maireen’ as her password. It’s the young girl in this picture.”
That sounded far too obvious and simple to Thane, who scrunched his face up in mock-bemusement, but he tried the code anyway. To his surprise, and now genuine bemusement, the lock screen dissipated to reveal a selection of programs and files within the small device. It was only now that it struck the young Jedi Guardian how the device seemed somewhat alien in comparison to the other objects owned and enjoyed by the natives of this world. Whether they be Avalans, Loyalists or members of the general public, there seemed to be an aesthetic to Onderonian devices and property that clashed with the device Thane now held. On nearly any other world, he would have thought little of it, but it was these sorts of details that both Masters Sotah and Thurius were quick to remind him to take heed of, especially with his fledgling interest in investigative pursuits.
"There are loads of images and letters relating to family and courtly things," he observed, a hint of embarrassment tinging his voice as he guiltily flicked through a selection of documents and files on the datapad, looking out for anything untoward or of interest. By the time Bomoor had brought himself to his side, he had finally accessed a piece of correspondence that caught his attention. Numerous figures appeared with credit symbols arrayed against them, and there were a variety of familiar words jumbled about that did not quite conceal the meaning of the message adequately.
Whoever had taken to formulating this communique was clearly not as skilled in the art of covert politics as they perhaps hoped - or they simply trusted in their deception not being uncovered by two prying Jedi padawans.
The revelation still made Thane pause, and he could not help the sinking feeling that gripped his gut, the gravity of their situation growing ever worse with each passing development. "An offworlder is funding her," he said, putting together the same pieces Bomoor inevitably had.
It was a bitter revelation, but in this world on the brink of civil war, it seemed that none of the major players were the true villains of the piece. Instead, there was an unknown offworld puppeteer that sought to manipulate the citizens of Iziz. What made it worse was that one of Omina's own court members was complicit in this scheme that would bring nothing but ruin to her world.
Bomoor looked back at the image of the Lady and the infant she held dear. He sensed something of love in the woman, whose privacy they were invading; perhaps she thought she was doing right by this child or perhaps she was swept up in a faulty ideal.
"Well then," the older padawan drew their thoughts together, "We have a name and we have evidence. Let us take this to the Queen and have her loyalists apprehend the Lady Octavia as soon as possible..."
"No, I don't think so," Thane replied, looking back with more than a hint of anger in his voice and in his face. "This woman is our best chance to find Sotah and Thurius and whoever her ally is! If we take this to the queen, she'll block us out of it and send her guardsmen, and probably get the masters killed in the process. Plus, she's already seen me! We need to act quickly - we need to find out where she's been going, and we need to grab her ourselves!"
Although it was out-of-character for him, Thane could hear his own voice rising in frustration, its shifting pitch making him sound the sixteen standard years' of age he actually was. He did not want to sound petulant or childish in front of his older friend, but it was time they did something more. Clearly, Queen Omina was not their true ally or a friend to the Third Republic. "One Jedi has already died over all this," he added, almost sullenly.
Initially irked by Thane’s seemingly-adolescent outburst, Bomoor creased his expression but quickly realised that Thane was speaking out of genuine concern. They had already gone behind the Queen’s back to uncover this traitor and had succeeded; was it really all that different to bring her in as well? They were here in Iziz at the Queen’s pleasure, but they had no duty to her majesty, only to restoring the peace. That was even truer now when, as Thane pointed out, there had already been a death and another could follow with another explosive still unaccounted for.
“The Queen is not our enemy,” Bomoor pointed out, still hoping to temper Thane’s aggression somewhat despite seeing his viewpoint, “But you may be right that there is a greater chance of success if we finish what we started and prove beyond all doubt that there is an outside influence on this conflict.”
Bomoor gestured to take the datapad from Thane and he flicked through, trying to find something else of use, “Where to begin though… if I were our not-so-noble Lady, where would I go if I were at risk of exposure?”
Flicking through a few communiques, which had no information as to the identity of her mysterious contact, there was one short message that stood out, “Here,” Bomoor pointed to the screen, “This is a reference to a public comstation: ‘C-STN SKY/027’. Perhaps where she has been receiving important details that cannot be relayed here? She may attempt to make contact again now you have seen her.”
A wicked smile threatened to play across Thane's features at hearing of his friend's agreement to help, although he tried to keep that controlled. He knew his outburst was childish and idealistic, and the not the image he wanted to show his older friend. Even so, the trepidation and enthusiasm had caused a buzz to stir within him, and he felt ready to face the threat directly.
"Then," he declared, "let's find this traitor, save the masters, and end a civil war. Simple!"
TBC
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