It took either great gall or great stupidity to try to break into the apartments of a Force-sensitive, Eilan thought as he regarded the fresh corpse at his feet. He'd surprised the stranger in his private chambers upon his return from supper at the Thul court. Perhaps the fool had counted on his absence for longer; the native Alderaanians were still, in fact, carrying on in the parlor, but Eilan had had his fill of nervous courtesy tinged with resentment for the evening. Apparently, however, the night's entertainment was not yet over…
The intruder had clearly been rifling through his belongings. The room wasn't exactly "tossed", as the procedural holovids might put it, but various things seemed out of place, and Eilan had caught the man in the middle of rifling through the dresser. What he hoped to find, the Sith couldn't begin to guess.
A quick call brought Quinn and Vette to his room post-haste. Since Eilan had provided no explanation, they both gawked for a moment at the body on the floor, though more in surprise than any sense of dismay.
"Burglar?" Vette surmised—perhaps an unsurprising conclusion from a thief.
"Or a spy," was Quinn's more thoughtful comment. The irony was, perhaps, lost on him, but it brought a brief grin to Eilan's face.
"Let's find out which," he said briskly, kneeling down to search for a holocomm or the like. Luck—or something—was with him, and he withdrew the device from the man's belt pocket. "Captain, see if you can determine our friend's identity," he directed as he return-dialed the most recent frequency on the 'comm. It took a moment for someone at the other end to answer, but he recognized the voice immediately.
"Hello? Who is this, and how did you get this—Lord Eilan?" Gesselle Organa's tone went from exasperation to shock as she spoke… but her surprise seemed genuine, as far as he could tell in the Force.
"General." Eilan smiled into the holocomm's receiver. "I've just met a rather unpleasant fellow rummaging in my quarters… and this is the last contact on his 'comm."
"Rummaging—? Lord Eilan, I assure you, I have nothing to do with it." The woman sounded annoyed and concerned, but also truthful. "This is some manner of set-up."
The Sith was inclined to agree; he nodded in acknowledgement. "If so, I think we can both think of someone who'd want to set me against you, yes?"
"Duke Kendoh." Gesselle's voice was thick with contempt.
"Precisely."
"My lord," Quinn interposed, his tone apologetic. "Retinal scans show this man to be a convicted criminal, previously imprisoned by several houses a number of times for theft. His most recent imprisonment was with House Organa."
"A carefully planned little caper," Eilan mused. "But the planner seems to have forgotten that he's dealing with a Sith."
"How do you plan to respond?" the general asked bluntly. Of course, her honor was at stake here, with herself and her house at the center of this lie, but Eilan also suspected she was canny enough to take advantage of any punitive action he might take against House Thul, which would serve the Empire poorly.
"For now—not at all. Let him wonder what I made of this intrusion. I've other business to attend to, after all." He grinned as he felt a sense of chagrin from Gesselle. She'd aided his "business", and likely regretted it, but they'd both kept up their ends of that deal. "Rest assured, I am confident House Organa has nothing to do with this."
There was no reply for a moment. He imagined the woman was turning his words over in her head, trying to determine if he'd left himself any wiggle room to act against her and her house later. "Very well. … Farewell, then, Lord Eilan. With no offense meant, I hope we never have cause to speak again."
Eilan chuckled quietly. "None taken, General Organa. I bid you goodnight."
"Are you really gonna let this lie?" Vette asked dubiously as Eilan closed the comm connection. While the Sith apprentice wasn't one to kill for the sake of killing, he generally dealt with betrayal… firmly.
"For now," the Miraluka repeated. "I may still have use for the Duke in the days to come. After we've dealt with the Padawan, however…" He smiled, an expression that carried a promise of reckoning to come.
Author's Note: This was written in response to a general writing prompt, which was, "You find someone going through your drawers. What do you do?"
For those unfamiliar with the Sith Warrior story, this precise incident doesn't happen, but if it did, it would be mid-to-late in the Warrior's story on Alderaan. Before the real fun starts. ;)
Much love and fangirling to Sresla, who is an awesome writer and whose idea it was to do these prompts as an ongoing exercise. Yay, writing workouts?
