For the first time in a long time, Lorash was the first awake. She slipped out of Seia's grasp as carefully as she dared, a few muscles twinging with wonderful soreness. The scratches on her back itched as she moved, fishing Seia's shirt from the night before off the floor and pulling it on, just to be covered. She buttoned it thoughtfully, shivering in the colder air beyond the blankets. She turned to look at Seia and felt her heart catch in her throat.
The sith rolled onto her side facing the jedi padawan, one arm looping around Lorash's hips. Seia was caught in some dream, but for once it seemed pleasant: eyelashes fluttering slightly and a tiny, secret smile on her lips. Lorash wanted to lean down and kiss her temple, but Seia's grip even in sleep remained iron. Instead, she threaded her fingers through the sith's hair, savoring the closeness of the touch. They'd been awake most of the night, so Lorash didn't begrudge the sith her sleep.
"Is it morning?" Seia mumbled, squeezing Lorash a little tighter for a moment.
"Mhm." Lorash smiled a little. "What were you dreaming about?"
"You." Seia opened her eyes and looked up, a smile ghosting across her lips. "You know, that shirt looks better on you than it did on me."
Lorash scoffed. "I find that hard to believe."
"Let me be the judge."
The jedi padawan squeaked in surprise when Seia pulled her down in the bed, back under the covers. "What about Corr?" she protested, half-hearted as it was.
"He can wait. You are far more important, asha." Seia's lips ghosted over various lovebites she'd left on Lorash's shoulders. As was her custom, the sith could be rough, but she'd tended to everything the night before. Lorash had only ever felt adored. "How is your back?"
Lorash blushed. "Fine. It reminds me of you."
Seia kissed her under the covers. "And some other things, I imagine," the sith drawled playfully once they'd broken apart to breathe.
"I could use a reminder."
The sith clucked her tongue, but her grin was anything but disapproving. "And to think you called me insatiable."
The jedi padawan crossed her arms. "Am I wrong?"
"No. I seem to recall someone asking for it, though. Rather…vocally."
Lorash huffed in embarrassment. "You are altogether too smug and I don't care to speak to you."
Seia's dextrous, if scarred, fingers toyed with the shirt buttons. "You love it."
"I'm not sure there's room in this bed for me and your ego."
A playful glint hit those golden eyes. "Well, if that's the case…" Seia slid neatly out of bed before Lorash could even react, stretching with catlike grace and the play of muscle under scars and tattoos. "...you can enjoy the view."
"Seia!"
The sith grinned impishly even as she picked up clothes stacked on the side of the dresser in the bedroom. "You sound so scandalized, Lorash. It's only the two of us here…and I'm quite confident you like what you see."
Lorash blushed furiously, unable to really argue with that logic. There was something wonderful about having Seia all to herself. They weren't likely to get times like this often on the ship with Eso and Yyrfh. She climbed out of bed all the same, walking up to Seia's back with all the confidence she could muster. The sith didn't react despite her normal awareness of things behind her, busy dressing with a deliberate gradual ease that was clearly meant as a challenge. "Are you really getting dressed already?"
"Someone seemed to be operating under the assumption my ego isn't earned," Seia said as she finished buttoning her pants. She turned around, a clean shirt in one hand as she caught Lorash's chin with the other. Her feline smile announced clearly how much she enjoyed the way her comment threw Lorash off-balance.
"I never said that," Lorash blurted out, eyes widening slightly. If Seia had proved anything over the course of the night, it was certainly that she had enough seductive skill to feel at least a little full of herself.
"Mhm." Seia pulled on her shirt, the gold in her eyes flashing orange for a moment. "Then again, perhaps a reminder would be instructive."
Even half-expecting Seia's pounce, Lorash locked her arms around the warrior's neck with a squeak, suddenly very aware that she still only had Seia's shirt on. It covered her down to about mid-thigh, but that was not about to pose a barrier to the amorous sith. Then again, Lorash didn't want it to.
Seia pinned her to the bed, lips wandering across her throat before settling in next to her ear. "Did I mention I love how you look out of this shirt?" she purred.
Lorash's blush deepened, but before she could formulate a response, they both sensed a shift in the environment. A rush of cool, ocean air hit the pair of them, followed by dangerous intent. The jedi padawan turned her head to see a speeder outside the balcony looking out over the ocean and a familiar man standing in the doorway, opened with the casino's code. There was no time to feel confused, not when she saw that blaster in Corr's hand. A robed figure was already moving to get out of the speeder.
"You're more of a predator than I thought, Zadar," Corr said coldly. "Let her go."
Lorash grabbed for Seia the moment she felt the sith release her, but there was no physically halting the protective fury about to come crashing down on the arms dealer. Seia was far too strong and fast: she moved before even Corr could react, one hand flicking out to call her lightsaber while she surged into the man's space. By the time he managed to fire, Seia's bind had already seized his arm and wrenched it up, directing the shot into the ceiling. "Seia, stop! This is a misunderstanding!" Lorash shouted.
Corr was here to protect her. She could feel the instinct in him along with a deadly determination even as he struggled against Seia's bind.
The only thing that stopped Seia from crushing him into paste was the sudden ignition of another lightsaber, humming to brilliant green life in the hand of the robed figure now fully on the balcony behind Corr. Seia took a step back, placing herself between Lorash and the two men. "Leave. Now. You have been warned," the sith said harshly, one hand clenched around her lightsaber.
Lorash almost collided with her back, catching hold of Seia's arms. The sith could easily shake her off and likely would if things escalated, but for now she had her chance to try and make peace. Corr's companion pulled back his hood, revealing the hardened expression of her own master.
Suddenly, all the nightmares came into very clear focus for Lorash.
"Master Vori, I presume," Seia said. The sharpness of her tone sounded blunted to Lorash, but it was still not welcoming.
He looked past Seia, straight at Lorash, and concern flashed across his features for a moment. "When Merga said there was a Dark Side force user holding you, I could not remain distant. Are you alright?"
"Seia isn't holding me against my will," Lorash said quickly.
Instead of relieving his worry, that comment seemed to exacerbate it. "The Sith are dangerous, Lorash."
"She's influencing your padawan, Vori, just as Szorda Zul does his own apprentices," Corr ground out, struggling to free himself from Seia's bind.
Apprentices. Lorash felt a chill as a thought crossed her mind: they'd seen Dren in the casino last night. What was it Vori had said about Zul before? His are nets so tightly woven not even minnows may slip them. Here was her master and an arms dealer with rebel sympathies, tied up in a neat bow with Lorash herself. Surely that was no accident.
"You are both fools," Seia spat, arrogance practically crystallizing off the sith as her anger started to spread. Lorash was confident the sith's sense would have caught her own horrified realization. "This display only shows you were more concerned with the threat of her corruption than the threat of her death. Zul seeks only to play us off, one against the other. We are both his enemies, after all."
Corr scowled. "You can lie to her, but not to us."
In the other room of the suite, a door slid open and Seia's rage hit incandescent levels. Her lightsaber burst into furious life, drenching Lorash's world in crimson heat. A blistering invective in Sith spilled off her tongue and she looked to Lorash, eyes glowing like hot coals. "We are out of time, asha."
A single blow from another crimson lightsaber absolutely demolished the bedroom door, revealing Dren's savage smile of triumph. Right on his heels came his master, looking pleased as could be. "Well, well, Lord Zadar, you do deliver rather quickly," Inquisitor Zul said, brushing a few flecks of door off his shirt. "Kill the jedi and you may keep the padawan." Behind him came an elite troop of stormtroopers.
Lorash turned to face the two Sith and their contingent of guards, one hand on Seia's wrist as the sith glared down Corr and Vori. She was defenseless, Corr was liable to shoot Seia, and Vori had always been more of a scholar than a fighter.
The conflict roiling in the Force around Seia seemed to envelop Lorash in a fierce embrace, raging with heartache and wrath. I will love you until the galaxy burns cold, my asha. Not even death will keep me from you. Seia released the bind on Corr in the same instant she moved her arm, hurling Lorash directly into the cyborg's arms.
It forced Corr to drop his blaster, but he wrapped arms around Lorash and retreated onto the balcony. "Vori, we have to go! We cannot fight three of them and a commando squad!"
Lorash's eyes flooded with tears, knowing full well what was about to happen. She struggled against Corr as hard as she could, trying to get back to the sith's side. "Seia!"
Seia pivoted, coming face to face with Dren and Zul, but she didn't stop to bandy words. Her situation was far too dire for that. Instead, she smashed her lightsaber into Dren's parry so hard she knocked him back into the stack of stormtroopers, preventing them from getting their rifles up. Go!
Lorash flinched at the command and all the pain she could feel behind it, the hatred that flowed through Seia like a mountain's explosive heart. The padawan knew that if she stayed, Seia would never forgive her. She looked over at Vori. "Help her!"
"Vori, if we stay, we die!" Corr said emphatically, shoving Lorash into the back of the speeder. "Let the Sith quarrel amongst themselves!"
Calm yourself, Lorash. You cannot think if you are panicking. Nabeila's words rose to the surface of her mind, trying to soothe the worst of Lorash's waking nightmare.
Tears poured down the padawan's face, but she pulled in a shaking breath. She felt helpless from her position. If she'd had her lightsaber or staff, she could have fought alongside Seia, but against such an enemy, even the two of them could easily die. She looked over when the door opened and Vori tossed his robe in to cover her before sliding in beside her. It both meant they were leaving and that her exit back to Seia was blocked. Corr was next, hopping into the driver's seat as Seia held off both Dren and Zul with a ferocious assault. They were powerful Dark Side users to be certain, but her lover was a raging hurricane right now.
Lorash closed her weeping eyes, letting her sense of the Force expand. Nabeila was right: panic was not helpful. She pushed everything down, forcing herself back into a state of focus. Grief, pain, and anger were all things that she could feel later. She focused on what she could sense of Dren's mind, frustrated and angry that he was being flung around by Seia like a ragdoll.
This time, her misdirection was in his own voice, appearing in his head like his own thoughts. The hatred she could feel burning in the pit of her own stomach fueled his own, blending into the sith apprentice so naturally even Lorash was surprised. This is your chance. Zul is distracted. Let the apprentice become the master and the troopers will shoot Zadar down.
As the speeder shuddered upwards, rocked by blaster fire, Lorash felt Dren's attention flick towards Zul, a combatant far more capable of defeating Seia than he was.
His flank is unguarded. He relies on you. A foolish mistake.
Distantly, she knew Nabeila was pleading with her to stop, but the damage was already done. Raging and inflamed by ambition, Dren swung for his master's left side just as Seia's lightsaber smashed down against Zul's guard.
Lorash snapped back to herself as the speeder veered evasively, the familiar scratching of Vori's warm brown outer robe across her legs. Vori was shaking her, not aware of what she'd just done. "Lorash, are you alright?" he said softly, expression lined with worry. There was no way for her to hide Seia's marks, so no doubt he assumed the worst.
The padawan felt fresh tears welling as the speeder zipped away, pulling her out of range of her sense of Seia. Now she had no way of knowing that her love was even alive. She'd reached out once through the Force successfully, but she didn't dare risk it now with Seia embroiled in battle. Only one mistake might be enough for the forces of the Empire to crush her. "You left her to die!"
"We came here to save you," Corr said from the front of the speeder, his knuckles white on the steering apparatus. "Not her."
"Lorash, she is Sith, and an agent of the Empire. Look what she's done to you."
The padawan felt a dam break inside herself, her heart shattering into pieces under the weight of the emotions. "You don't understand! She loves me! She loves me enough to die so I can live, so you can live!"
Vori seemed taken aback, not sure how to respond to the burning anger. Corr's expression hardened. "That's what she told you, Lorash," the mercenary said bluntly. "She would have said anything she needed to, just to get you dancing to her tune. The Sith lie."
"You're wrong about her," Lorash said bitterly. "About everything."
Her master put a hand on her shoulder, but Lorash jerked away from the touch. "You need time to recover, Lorash," Vori said gently, calm in his acceptance of her rejection. "This area is too dangerous for us to remain."
"Where are we going?"
"To Tython," Vori said softly. "It is an old stronghold of the jedi and in its temple, you will find peace." He placed Nabeila's lightsaber gently on her covered lap. "I was led to believe that this was given to you."
"Did you hurt Eso or Yyrfh?" Lorash demanded.
"Of course not." Her master spoke with the open candor he always had. "I persuaded them to entrust your belongings to my care after I explained my connection to you to them." He gestured towards the bag sitting next to her. "That contains your clothing. The armor wouldn't fit and we had to move swiftly."
Lorash nodded, a certain numbness seeping into her body as the tears of grief started to run their course. She couldn't find it in herself to believe she would ever feel at peace again.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion…