Part 10: Vette
A few minutes later, and Caressa had received the instructions for her next trial and was on her way to the academy jails, the rest of her party trailing her. She was supposed to find the lightsaber inside a secret cavern within the tomb of Naga Sadow. Apparently, no one knew how to enter it, except a Twi'lek who was caught breaking into it. She was on her way to meet this Twi'lek.
When she entered the jail, she walked past the cell where she first met Quorian, to a cell on the far end of the room. Inside was a bright blue Twi'lek, her color making her look quite out of place in the dark and gray jail.
"One more chirp from you, little bird, and you'll regret it," the jailor, an old, balding man, said to her from where he was standing in front of the Twi'lek's cell.
"Chirp. Chirp, chirp," the Twi'lek answered, smiling.
The jailor pushed a button on a device in his hand. Electricity sparked out from around the shock collar the Twi'lek wore, and she let out a cry of pain.
"Ow! Jerk. If you don't like that, just say so. I can do other animals, too. Dire-cat, frog-dog, Kowakian monkey lizard, you name it."
"Shut up. I'm getting my fill of fun while I still can, slave," said the jailor.
"Heh. She amuses me," Caressa said to the jailor as she strode up to him. And I'm not sure I like the idea of a jailor who tortures his prisoners for fun.
"Ah, as if on cue. You shouldn't encourage her, kid," said the jailor, turning to Caressa. "I'm Jailor Knash. Word is you might become Baras' apprentice. Hrmph. Nice work, if you can get it."
"That it is," Caressa answered, smiling at the jailor.
"Anyway, I hear you'll be relieving me of this Twi'lek. She's a pain in the neck."
The Twi'lek scoffed at that. "Ha! Who's a pain in the neck? I'm the one wearing the shock collar." She pointed at the device as she spoke.
"Heh. Consider it a going away present, Twi'lek," answered the jailor.
"Right, anyway," Caressa decided to interject. "I need her to show me the way into the secret cavern, where she was trying to enter before we caught her."
"None of you can figure it out, huh?" asked the Twi'lek in an almost mocking tone. "You got some kind of business in that secret Sith chamber, do you?"
I'm amazed she still has that much willfulness after so much torture, thought Caressa. She decided to reach out to her with the Force, and what she found surprised her. Though it was clear the Twi'lek was no Force sensitive, the aura of power she radiated was greater than that of any other acolyte save herself and Vemrin. No threat to Caressa, but she could probably take even Phyne one-on-one. Caressa debated briefly how to approach her, in light of this revelation. Keep treating her like a slave? Befriend her? Or maybe a path between dark and light…
"Indeed I do, blue one," Caressa said, smiling and matching her mocking tone. "It is an epic quest, I assure you. Care to join me? I call dibs on the treasure, though."
The jailor looked confused.
The Twi'lek made a show of scratching her chin thoughtfully. "Well, I don't know, orange one. The treasure was the whole reason I tried breaking in in the first place. But since it is such an epic quest… I suppose I can play tomb tour guide."
"Don't get cute," the jailor ordered her. "Here," he said to Caressa, giving her the device he'd held. "It's the control to the shock collar. If you set it to a higher setting and zap her enough, she'll show you the back door to her mother's house."
"Would you, now?" Caressa addressed the Twi'lek. "And does your mother have anything I might want?"
"My mother's dead, so not unless you're a fan of dirt and rock," the Twi'lek shrugged. "Though, the way you Sith build your tombs, I can't say it would surprise me if you were."
"Hah," Caressa laughed, and pocketed the device. "Well, I'm not at the moment. But perhaps we'll find some really interesting dirt in this secret cavern, and it'll change my mind."
The Twi'lek smiled. Jailor Knash muttered something unintelligible as he took out his keys and unlocked the cell to her door. As the Twi'lek stepped out of her cell, she said, "Just so we're clear, I'm officially on strike when it comes to domestic duties."
"Darn," Caressa feigned disappointment. "And I was so looking forward to finally having my own personal maid."
"So sorry to disappoint you," the Twi'lek smiled more broadly. "I'll follow you to the tomb. Just lead the way."
. . .
Caressa's party had grown quite large, and this wasn't even including those in the caves, nor the extra initiates Phyne controlled. Though her followers had kept respectfully quiet while Caressa had been having her conversations, whenever they were in transit the party erupted into multiple dialogues. The trip to the tomb was no different, as Phyne and Teeno conversed in quiet tones in the back, while Dolgis and Klemral were carrying on about some sort of sport they were both interested in from their place in the center of the pack, and Caressa, leading the group, took the opportunity to get to know the Twi'lek that walked by her side better.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Vette," the Twi'lek answered in a friendly tone. Caressa could feel that she was pleased to be out of her cell. She wondered how long it'd been since Vette had seen the sun. "Yours?
"Caressa," she answered. She remembered fondly when she'd first seen the Korriban sun upon arriving at the academy. She got the sense that Vette might be her only current ally who understood the sentiment. She had a more pressing question to ask, however.
"Tell me, Vette. Why did you travel so far, to such a hostile world, just to enter that tomb? What were you hoping to find?"
"Well, things I could sell, of course," Vette responded. "I work as a scavenger of sorts, right now. And lots of people will pay good money for Sith artifacts."
She sounded confident, but something felt off to Caressa. She trusted her instinct.
"Don't lie to me, Vette," Caressa said quietly. "I enjoy you, and I believe you will find that if you work for me, your life will run much better for you than it did even before you were captured, let alone than it did during your captivity. But the one thing I will not tolerate is a liar. I must be able to trust the allies I rely on."
Vette was silent for a moment. "You… see me an ally, then?" she asked finally. "Not as a slave? Then… maybe you could take this shock collar off?" She paused, then added quickly, "Not that I don't enjoy the perpetual fear of electrocution."
Caressa smiled, then reached out with the Force and wiggled her fingers. The collar unlocked and slid off Vette's neck, dropping into the sand, to be left behind and trampled upon by the party as they continued onward. "If I'm going to trust you, I need to be sure you're working for me willingly," she said.
"Woah." Vette's eyes widened, and her hands felt all around her neck where the collar had been. "You really just… I'll try not to give you reason to slap on another one of those things."
"Glad to hear it," Caressa answered, smiling. "In that case, how about you answer my original question again? Why did you try to break into the secret cavern?"
"Well… I didn't lie to you. But I didn't tell you everything. I met someone who told me it connected to a whole network of caves that one of their great grandfathers had hidden in during the time of Revan and Malak. They were failed students, evading the punishment of death, and Revan killed a creature guarding a secret exit so that they could escape. But Revan also decided the cave made for an ideal place to stash several items of great power, and let the students watch him as he hid crystals, holocrons, and other artifacts. I've even heard rumors the famous Jedi Exile stumbled upon the cache, and decided to add to it herself, but I don't see how anyone could know that to be true."
That sounds a lot like the caves the other are hiding in, Caressa thought. Interesting! I'll have to ask them to look for this hidden cache when I see them again. Unless I manage to find it myself on this particular journey… oh man, now that I think about it, I wonder just how connected the tomb of Naga Sadow is to the network. What if Vemrin follows me in, and finds Tremel? I'll have to be careful.
"Thank you, Vette," Caressa replied. "We'll have to look for that cache while we're inside."
Vette smiled. "Well, you did call dibs on the treasure. Guess I'll have to be the one figuring out how to become a fan of rocks."
Caressa laughed, and the party continued their march to the tomb of Naga Sadow, and to the destiny of the galaxy.