ADAS KALLIG
"So...this is fun, right?" I said, trying to somehow break the uncomfortable silence.
Right now my group and Selleana were in a restaurant called "Balmorra's treasure". Originally I was supposed to go there with Lana, as she was the one who found that place. This however changed after I met Selleana. She was quite mad at me, so I decided that a restaurant with a name like that would be great. After all we both had fun adventures on Balmorra, with me conquering it and her later liberating it. It was such a pleasant memory. I hoped that taking her to the restaurant would make her remember all the fun she had on Balmorra, improving her mood.
My brilliant plan however needed some changes, as it failed spectacularly.
We were all seated at the table, with me, Lana and Maul on one side and Selleana, Satine and Leila on the other. Raksh wasn't with us, as he was too big. We decided to put him in the restaurant's playground for now. It was a great place to relax and have fun. It should have been perfect.
However, despite my best efforts, it was extremely awkward, with no one willing to start the conversation. Selleana, my guest, was just glaring at me with obvious anger in her eyes. Apparently she was still pissed about the whole Veil thing. But I already apologized! What else did she expect me to do?! My only consolation was that the table was too big for her to attempt another nut shot. It really hurt and I didn't want to repeat that.
Lana was sitting calmly on my side, looking at Selleana silently . She had a gentle smile on her face, but for some reason I had a feeling she wasn't exactly happy to see Selleana. I didn't know why though, as they were friends during the time Selleana was in alliance. Maul, who was sitting on my other side, was also looking at Selleana though he looked almost...afraid? He gave her the same look that he was giving Lana whenever she was in the room with him. Weird.
Satine was with us only in body, not in spirit, as she was holding her head in her hands, mumbling something quietly, visibly ashamed of something. I could only hear some of the words muttered by her, but it didn't tell me much. There were words like "senator", "assassination" and "why?", but I wasn't able to her much else. I didn't exacly what she was ashamed of, but I assumed one of girls' group night activities consisted of assassinating or preventing the assassination of some senator? This or something similar. Well, I won't pry. The most important thing was that they had fun. Details were unimportant.
Leila, the good cultist she was, tried to say something once a while, but whenever she opened her mouth, the rest of us would look at her, making her go silent. I knew how she felt. This dinner was awkward as fuck.
Time was flying by, with everyone uncomfortable, but not brave or willing enough to start a conversation. After ten minutes of this torture, I had enough.
"Come on, guys!" I shouted, making everyone look at me. I had to do something, or the whole dinner would look like this "Can't we just relax and have some fun? Is it really too much to ask?" I asked, looking at everyone pleadingly, practically begging them to do something. Lana sighed, which I knew was a good sign. She was about to say something!
"Well, I guess we started off on the wrong foot. Let's try again. It's nice to see you again, Selleana. " Lana said with a small smile. It had some edge, but it was still better than nothing, so I was satisfied. I looked at Selleana, hoping she would carry the conversation. The fate of the entire dinner depends on you, Selleana!
"It's nice to see you too, Lana" Good, good, nice start. "The fact that you sit here means that the extremely risky ritual conducted by Adas worked. I am sure you must be quite happy" Selleana said. Well, that wasn't exactly a good topic to discuss, but at least they were talking, so…progress?
"I can't complain, thank you" replied Lana to Selleana's irritation. Aaaand the conversation was over. Seriously? Why can't they just get along? Is the fact that Selleana would surely try to kill us all in the future such a dealbreaker? That was just how our relationship worked. I turned to Selleana, not wanting the conversation to stop.
"So, any plans for the future? I am sure you have something planned, now that you have a body again"
"I don't know" She replied and I was quite happy her voice didn't carry as much hostility as before. Good, holding grudges was Sith's job. She was supposed to just be condescending and self-righteous. "Maybe I will find some ancient evil to fight? It shouldn't be too hard to find one" She said, giving me a look. She was talking about me, wasn't she?
I was so glad! It would be so sad if she were to cut ties with me and find herself another rival! I knew she wouldn't stay mad for long!
"I can't wait!" I said. That would be great. We would duel like we used to, throwing at each other everything we had, while our forces would die fighting each other in our names. It wouldn't be sad, because only nameless mooks would die, not our followers, so we wouldn't have to worry about anything besides our fight. Just like old times.
"And what of you? Do you plan to do anything interesting, or are you too busy gathering your evil armies" She asked with a smile on her face. Oh, so she knew about my hidden forces. I didn't expect it. But wait, can brutish abominations, cultists, mandalorians, necromancers and military traitors be considered evil? They were all quite lovely people, so calling them evil would be quite rude.
"I am impressed you know about my forces" I said, ignoring Lana, who tried to stop me from talking. I didn't let her, as I didn't want to return to that awkward silence from before, as it was too horrible to repeat. "How did you even know?"
"I didn't" Selleana replied with a small smile. Wait, what? "You just told me right now. As now I know you have some people working under you, all I have to do is to find them. Let's see who you have as your companions. Flesh raider, twi'lek, Mandalorian and zabrak. Something to think about, don't you agree?" She tricked me! Again! She…
Really was worthy of being my rival!
"I must admit, you got me" I said, admitting my loss. I could try to lie, but I wasn't a sore loser, I knew when to admit my defeat. Lana was glaring at me though. She really didn't like that I admitted something like that so casually.
Not good, not good. I took a bite of the dish in front of me. It was some kind of stew, though I didn't know the animal it was made of. It tasted quite familiar though.
"That's quite good" I exclaimed. I even recalled where I ate something similar "It tastes a little like that dish you made on Odessen once" I said, looking at Selleana. She was quite a good cook, so she often prepared meals for us during alliance times. Hearing my words, Lana stopped glaring at me and tried it herself.
"Yes, it's quite similar. Though Selleana's dish was a little spicer" She replied. Selleana tried it as well, judging the taste. We awaited the verdict.
"It's because of the seasonings. I used the ones growing on Odessen, which gave meals a different taste compared to this one. It's still good though" She said, swallowing a piece. Then she thought about something for a second "I think I even remember when I made it. Wasn't it for the party where Theron tried to steal CD-D4 from Jakarro without him noticing as a bet?"
"Yeah, I remember that. Theron had to run from Jakarro for hours…" Lana said. Grievances forgotten, we started to talk about the more pleasant topics. I was glad to see that my favourite rival was back to her own self again, able to relax and have fun with us.
Knowing that things between us returned back to normal, I relaxed and joined the conversation. I was sure we would be able to fight against each other just like in the old days in no time.
