"Man, these frontal approaches keep working perfectly for me. No wonder the Empire keeps using them."
Not long after being given the results of a DNA test that I had most certainly not taken which linked me to a recently exterminated noble house of Alderaan, the Little Jedi and I were on our way to Mount Sendoth to crash a peace summit. King Bouris had even consented to give us a speeder that wasn't carrying a bomb to get us there.
Very kind of the man.
If I could get the rest of the houses to lend me their fleets, I was going to make an effort to ensure the Ulgo fleet didn't get completely annihilated. But first, I had to get all those other houses to lend me their fleets.
And more importantly, not get myself killed prematurely since Lord Nefarid was still at large and the Kill-Sat in geosynchronous orbit was, to the best of my knowledge, still operational.
Once the Panteer Palace had shrunk so far into the distance that it became indistinguishable from the terrain, my commlink began to chime for the first time in a very long time. Even to my sleep-deprived mind, the tone was recognizable as the one I had assigned to Natia. Silently praising the fortuitous timing, I accepted the call.
"This is Nestor," I said, my voice having returned to the familiar, if obviously non-native, imperial accent that had become my default. "Good to hear from you again, Natia."
"Oh?" My ally's voice emerged from the small speaker with its usual tinny nature. Despite that distortion, I thought I could hear the telltale mark of amusement in that single syllable. After spending extensive time with the Little Jedi, that scared me more than it should have. "Is the honeymoon going a bit less smoothly than anticipated?"
Yeah, I was right to be afraid.
Why was the commlink on speaker-phone, anyway?
"Just a brief diplomatic trip," I corrected her, trying very hard to ignore the Little Jedi who was listening in. Was I imagining things, or did I hear the leather of the control yoke groan as the Little Jedi's grip intensified? "I might be bringing a fleet or eight to our side in the next few hours."
"... so you didn't elope with the Jedi after all?" she asked, officially upgrading the vague fear to concrete dread. There was no reason to bring up weddings or the aftermath thereof twice in a row unless marriages were on her mind. "That'll simplify matters, if nothing else."
I did not like the sound of that.
"... Natia, could you give me a status update?" I asked, opting not to dwell too much on whatever had inspired my ally to ask such questions. Maybe she just wanted to annoy the Little Jedi. I could appreciate that kind of thing, but a quick glance to the side revealed her to simply be a bit more tense than usual.
Yeah, not going to waste more of my precious, and highly limited, brainpower on that question.
"Fine," she said. "Our talks with Lady Thul have been reasonably productive. House Thul will be pledging its aid within a week, though they want you back here before then."
"That makes two noble houses whose support we have earned," I mused before moving into business mode. "I've secured House Ulgo's support. There is a peace summit about to start that I have the legal right and moral obligation to crash. If all goes well, we will have the support of the other houses."
"And their fleets?"
"And their fleets," I confirmed. On the horizon, a mountain was growing a lot larger. Contrasting heavily with the snow that covered the peaks and slopes of every single mountain around me, I could see a cluster of dark buildings glittering on the slopes of the one ahead of me. A glance at the navigation system set into the center console revealed a string of characters in the infernal tongue that the people of this galaxy called a language. A second later, I knew what it said: Mount Sendoth. "Anything to report regarding Lord Nefarid?"
"Nothing yet," she reported. "Lady Thul mentioned that Lord Praven was trying to get her to grant him control of one of the ships of the Thul fleet and some starfighters, but we don't have any solid leads. What happened to Lord Praven, anyhow?"
"Turned him over to Bouris Ulgo," I revealed. "Part of the cost of participating in politics. Any news from the Jedi Knight?"
"Aside from the one who disappeared with you for totally innocuous reasons?" she asked with a voice that implied an eyebrow was being raised. "He hasn't complained yet, but he's been coordinating things with the orbital team. It appears that the Death Mark has been disabled. Apparently, the doctor had the Jedi's factotum droid do a little bit of extravehicular work on the satellite's transmitter. It won't fire, but it will tell us where the order to fire came from."
"That's progress," I said. "I'll check in with him after I finish at the summit and see what our next steps will be."
"Make sure you do so in person," the Sith Apprentice said. Funny, it almost sounded like she was telling me what to do. Then again, it was probably a good idea. "Lady Thul wants to meet the man she is giving her fleet."
"Please tell me you didn't fill her head with false expectations of me," I said.
"I make no promises," she said, her voice teasing, before the link cut off. Right. No doubt she had done exactly that.
"What do you think?" I asked, turning slightly to face the Little Jedi. "How did she manage to secure the aid of House Thul?"
"Given that we're on a world run by a feudal aristocracy?" she asked, glancing my way. There was no amusement to be found in her face. "And given her comments on what we did? It sounded like she was making sure of something."
Oh Hell no.
"No. Not possible. It's been three days, and I'm a relatively minor Sith Lord," I said, vigorously shaking my head. The movement sent lances of pain jabbing through the length of my head, so I aborted the gesture after a moment. "There's no reason for her to consent to a marriage alliance."
"You're thinking too small," she said. "The Force has a tendency to flow through family lines, though there are exceptions."
"So either I'm being married off against my will or put out to stud," I commented. "Not a fan of either option, if I'm being honest."
"That moral compass of yours points in the oddest directions, Little Sith," she muttered.
"What?" I asked, affront creeping into my voice. "I'm a romantic. I'm allowed to be annoyed by this."
"Really? You? A romantic?" she asked, either unable or unwilling to suppress a chuckle. "That's what you're calling it?"
"It is not my fault the tabloids keep spreading their filth," I protested. "I do not control what rumors get published."
"But you do control whom you ask to kill you," she pointed out.
"Killing Sith is your job, Little Jedi," I pointed out.
"And you never considered the fact that maybe I don't want you dead?" she asked, glaring at me. Those cold blue eyes bored into my swampy green ones, and I could not help but feel like I was missing something.
"And I don't want to die," I said. "But given the slippery slope of the Dark Side, I don't have anyone else I can trust to pull me back. And even if you are prepared to save me, I won't always have you at my side to do that. More importantly, if I fall, there is no reason to believe I would want to be saved."
"I think you're underestimating exactly what I am capable of," she warned.
"Most likely," I agreed. "But why would you want to redeem me? You're a Jedi Shadow."
"Like I said, I don't want you dead," she said, returning her attention to the flight path ahead of us. By then, the peaks of Mount Sendoth and the ruins dotting it had grown in size and become far more easily identifiable.
I wanted to ask why.
I wanted to ask why she didn't want me dead.
But then I thought better of it. That was a mystery that could wait. For now, I had to save my strength for one of the biggest sales pitches of my life.
And I had once promised myself that I would never work in sales.
...
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