Serpens is… a tad too on the nose, for politicians.
Beta'd by Sesparra
As much as Mara would have preferred to be able to set out to find Ferus Olin immediately, she was unfortunately subject to the whims of the Emperor in entirely too many ways to be comfortable.
In the most immediate sense, she had to train with his Red Guards so as to "avoid losing her edge," or so she'd always been told. In reality, she'd always been fairly sure it was at least as much training for them as for her, especially the newer recruits, but she found herself unwilling to complain, with how she was all but expected not to use a lightsaber in these sessions- she needed to solidify the habits of Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand, at least for long enough that she could create herself other options, which were unlikely to present themselves in the near future, since she had at least one gala on her schedule within the next few days and the potential for two others, depending on the dispositions of the attendees of the first.
In the here and now, though, she needed to focus herself- even riding the currents of the Force, as she'd learned to do on Coruscant and perfected against the Brotherhood of Darkness, couldn't guarantee success, not in a situation where she needed to avoid using her preferred Niman in favor of what the Emperor had taught her. As unlikely as it was that he would realize that something was different, she still needed to remain vigilant against the possibility in order to ensure that her position was not compromised so early.
Mara twisted in midair, managing to thread the needle between two different force pikes before rolling out of the way of a third trying to swipe at where she would have been had she not moved and then a fourth stab which could, if she had stopped after just one roll, have landed.
As she came up to her feet, she spun the curved-bladed sword in her hands out of habit before settling into a modified Soresu guard, all but daring the four Imperial Guardsmen to attack her.
They obliged, approaching her almost in lockstep in a broad arc and probing with cautious jabs of their pikes.
She allowed it for a moment, seeming to fall into a pattern to match them, but the instant that they broke their unity, attempting to catch her by surprise, she leapt, corkscrewing through the air before landing back-to-back with the one who had been the most aggressive with their stabs a moment before.
With the moment she had as the guard turned to face her, she plotted out the rest of the fight, finding a path that would suit her needs while not pushing her beyond what she could do in this younger body.
Before the guard could bring their pike to bear, Mara kicked their feet out from under them and then, while they were falling, neatly sliced one of the two straps keeping their hood on, sending it flopping up and ruining their vision.
Still using them as visual cover, Mara ducked into another roll, this time snatching the force pike right out of their hands and stunning them before lunging at the others.
They evidently hadn't expected her to remove one of their number so swiftly, pikes still halfway pointed at where she had been before. She took this opportunity and leveraged it to the hilt, nicking one of their wrists with her blade as she forced it down so that the blood flowing from the injury would cover the pike and foul their grip, before she shoved them away through the Force.
This time, Mara could feel the tugging of that distant galaxy echo through the Force before it arrived, and instead of trying to mitigate it, she threw herself into it, pushing off with the barest of effort and still managing to soar over the two other Red Guards, zapping them both with her appropriated pike before managing to touch down, turning her focus back to the one she'd caught with her sword.
That one was better than most of the others, having switched to their off hand before the handle became too slick, but both of them could tell, despite how sure the jabs were with this hand, that they couldn't stand up to her, and it took only the space of a moment for Mara to rest the tip of the stolen pike in the hollow of their collarbone, having slipped it under the hood.
"I yield," came the guard's voice, and Mara was surprised at how melodic it was- most of the Imperial Guardsmen were, as the name suggested, men, and while it wasn't unheard of to find a female Red Guard, they were… generally placed in a position where they could be more visible.
Mara fought down the reminder of the Empire's tendencies towards its female employees with tired resignation before she reached out with the Force and summoned a medkit to her, the abandoned weapons floating for a moment before she willed the sword to return to where it had been strapped to her back, letting the pike settle to the floor.
"Hold still," she said, opening the medkit and pulling out a bacta bandage and absorbent cloth before reaching out and taking the guard's snow-pale arm.
Mara could feel… something from the guard, for a moment, something that brought to mind a notion almost entirely gone from living memory, before it vanished like so many unattended Force-sensitive children on Nal Hutta, and it was just Mara bandaging a Force-null guard and not two members of the Army of Light letting the Force connect them.
"You should heal within the day, as long as you don't put too much stress on it. If you are forced to… well. I'll intervene myself, at that point," said Mara, sending the medkit back to where she had summoned it from. "You're dismissed, Guardswoman…"
"B-Ilkins. Enne Ilkins," she said, and Mara didn't have to be Force-sensitive to sense the lie there. Still… the currents of the Force flowed undisturbed despite the lie, so it was not something to call her upon.
"Is that so," Mara murmured. "Very well, Guardswoman Ilkins. You are dismissed. I will remain until your fellow guards awaken and… ensure they learn from this experience."
She bowed, then left the room like a whole horde of chrysalides were on her tail, leaving Mara to figure out what, exactly, she was going to do with three Red Guards that she'd promised to help learn from getting beat up by an assassin with more experience against deadlier threats than they could imagine.
Mara had known, on an abstract level, that everything she had was the Emperor's to use. She had also known, on a level somewhere between abstract and applied, that that was not a position that any sentient could very well afford to be, let alone one with even a middling talent with the Force.
Being paraded about on an imperial official's arm, a man named Tarkin whose aristocratic cheekbones and haughty sneer did not conceal the rot at the core of his being, made Mara feel very much like what she imagined a Hutt's favored dancer would.
Aside from feeling naked without a lightsaber or even a small vibroblade, the lecherous eyes of the other nobles and military officials made her very conscious of the reason she couldn't afford to conceal a weapon under the clothing (or lack thereof) that she was wearing, and she felt her patience severely tried at the thought that some of these men were old enough to be her grandfather, on top of having been making the same expressions since she'd made her debut in the Imperial court, well over a year ago.
Still, for as much as the situation was… bad, she could still use it for her benefit. Even aside from the potential for gathering information, here was a place rife for practicing her mental skills. She'd been… passable, during the war, but she'd not had a need to develop the kind of subtlety that the kind of espionage that she was engaging in now required, and some of the nobles seemed the type to attempt to move beyond just looking, as disrespectfully as their gazes seemed to all but rip the clothing from her body.
Indeed, that was what she spent much of her time after being liberated from Tarkin's arm doing. The first two or three officials were left standing against the sides of the ballroom, glassy-eyed, but she quickly managed to dial it in to an acceptable level, one that loosened their inhibitions while still preventing them from getting handsy.
Much of what she got was about vague discontent, resource shortages, or the like, but there were a few who knew… something else.
Tarkin was one of them, but she only realized that after he'd already departed the function, and despite how much of a blowhard he was, Orson Krennic also managed to keep his silence, although he had given some things away.
Mara was still mulling over the importance of kyber mining close to half an hour after she'd left Krennic to his own devices, although that had faded to a background thought as she focused on the navy member who'd been invited by dint of his latest accomplishment.
"I hear congratulations are in order, Captain Piett?" Mara asked.
"I wouldn't go quite so far," he replied, doing an admirable job at keeping his attention on her face rather than other parts of her anatomy. "Merely being in the right position at the right time to ensure the Conquest's success."
"Still, an admirable showing, no?" Mara felt the gravity of that distant galaxy, as the words left her mouth, but only for the briefest of instants as it locked onto… something, and a new system with one habitable planet, surrounded by almost ten moons, came into existence in that distant galaxy.
Mara became abruptly aware of every price she'd paid to be where she was as time seemed to stand still, from the smallest thing such as the half-second required to offer a kindness to a child to the loss of her life, among so many others, to see the destruction of Skere Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness. That was the weightiest cost, to her- the absolute understanding of what had been cut short to prevent the war from dragging on even longer and becoming bloodier.
It was a price she couldn't say she regretted paying, but she was glad that she had the chance to make more of herself than that-
And her world expanded, the weight of an understanding beyond what any mortal could be expected to bear pressing down, the understanding of price in all its aspects. How to ask it, how to offer it, how to slip out of it, and how to get the most out of it, being able to get thrice as much for a third the cost.
In comparison, the breadth and depth of her skill at interacting with the world around her through the Force expanding was a minor thing, as was the abrupt growth of part of her spirit into an animal shape, taking the form of a feline almost supernaturally large, built to roam in forests and with scars earned in doing so, and bringing with it the strength of will to become the apex predator on any planet as well as the discernment of when not to exert said will.
She had a sense that this feline shape could manifest itself physically, as well as a plain eyepatch and an old-fashioned book on flimsi, and that if she reclaimed the name that some of the Army had called her, if she called herself Vidrir, she would be able to bring the weight of her history to bear with her, all potentially useful but not here and not now.
Mara forced her focus back into the present moment just in time for Piett to respond. "If you say so, ma'am," he said, perhaps a hint of a smile slipping through his façade.
"Oh, I do," said Mara. "I've heard about that scuffle over Bandomeer, nasty business, that. My sources tell me that you're the one who broke the Rebel encryption and allowed you to locate their base?"
"I merely directed the communications unit," he demurred. "The credit for restoring security to Imperial supply lines through the Hydian Way belongs with others."
"That may be so," Mara tried, "but without your intuition and codebreaking staff, the rest of Death Squadron-" She managed to hold back a whole-body shiver at the name. Really, who named a supposed police fleet so ominously but the Sith? "-couldn't have tracked down their primary operations center in the sector, especially since the ionite mines were so effective at disrupting large-scale scanning efforts."
Piett looked at Mara warily. "You are better informed than most of the Imperial Court, ma'am."
She chuckled and waved her hand airily, grounding out his suspicion as naturally as she could afford. "Oh, it's a matter of trade. I'm… not officially affiliated with Director Isard, but we have been known to have similar missions, from time to time."
He nodded crisply. "That would explain it, ma'am."
His wariness had mostly abated, but through the rest of the time that she was on his arm, his answers were clipped and often monosyllabic. For a moment, she considered what she could have had if she had come up with some other excuse for her knowledge, one that didn't tie her to the ISB and Isard, but deep down, she knew that that was the smartest choice.
The rest of the night passed too slowly and yet all at once, a blur of increasingly drunken officials and snippets of disconnected information, of rising durasteel prices and mining in the Unknown Regions, and by the time that she made it back to her quarters in the Imperial Palace, she could tell that she was on to something, but she wasn't sure what it was- she just didn't have enough information to be sure.
Hopefully the next time the Emperor sent her out on a mission she'd be able to put some idea of what was going on together.
And that's that!
Perks earned:
Afarkaup Avarkostir (Germanic/Norse Mythology, 600 CP): "Everything has a price in Norse mythology, and there is no means around that, but the price is sometimes negotiable or able to be paid by others, and you have already paid a great price it seems and in return this gift. The cost for you will be reduced by an order of 3 and your gains will be increased by an order of 3. The cost of what? Anything within reason really. If you went to purchase a cow for 50 gold, you'd hand over 17 gold and get 3 cows instead or one cow that was 3 times better. How does that work; like, where do the extra cows come from? Seriously, just roll with it. If you were crafting a sword it would take up a third of the material and you might get three copies of it; it would take a third of the time to craft and be of three times higher quality. You can not cycle items this way by repurchasing something that has been acquired, enhanced, multiplied, or made through this, but god help the money markets as it's still fairly exploitable. Working out for an hour will take 20 minutes and only a third of the stamina and provide growth as if you worked out for three hours and received 3 times the gains per hour. While it can never reduce your cp cost, purchasing things like levels in an rpg setting with exp, items, or cp will grant you 3 times the amount, it functions as you please either in a gestalt fashion or increasing your capacity for hard limits and levels by an order of 3. You will receive 3 of any item purchased with cp. The costs you pay are now indifferent to the specifications, if you make a contract with a demon for your soul, you can substitute in anyone else's unless there are other stipulations like a powerful or good soul, if the specifications are for unique items or things so rare they might as well be, you may all but ignore such specificities with even a glancing notion of an attempt for equivalency ( a deal for the strongest soul in the universe, you could just go grab the soul of a random guy just getting into bodybuilding or a gym rat.) A deal for your life, ok I have this slave here you can use as you wish for 1/3rd of each day or here is 1% of the life force from 100 people under my rule or power. The ability to substitute is in direct proportion to how specific the deal is meant to be, how rare the thing being paid is, and how personal it is to you; something like gold you may MAY be able to switch out for jewels gemstones and other currencies if the dealer isn't a stickler but you could not switch out for fool's gold and receive the benefits of this perk, an heirloom magic necklace thats been in your family for generations could be switched out for a necklace of similar craft and make containing some magic blessings. This will not stop people from noticing a substitution has been made or getting miffed about it, but the deal will be considered valid if you try to stay within reason.
Atgørvi (Germanic/Norse Mythology, Free): Everyone has a skill, don't they, something they become known for; this is a single mundane skill of your choice. [The free version of] this skill is simply beyond peer by the standards of your kind, able to be counted within the realm of supernatural talent yet still within mortal grasp of understanding, as a swordsmith able to forge weapons that are too light and too sharp that could easily weather the ages environment or wear and tear even with sub par tools. As a runner being able to run upon the water or leap amongst the tree tops.
Viðurnafni (Germanic/Norse Mythology, Free): A nickname or title that you have earned. You can choose to be known by this and all who hear this title or nickname will know of your deeds and the truth that these deeds hold; they form a web of stories and events within your past that can be known. Every jump you may change the actual nickname and the details of the story that granted you this nickname and how widespread each nickname is. Beware if you do not possess the skills of such a title for should you be found out, doubt can spread to all the tales and titles for which you are known. This perk can write events or fake events into your backstory as needed in each jump, or simply carry the weight of the intent behind the title. Each title, whether true or false, whether believed or distrusted, carries weight and as such grows your hamingja.
Hreysti Vægher (Germanic/Norse Mythology, Free): You possess two qualities that separate a hero from the common warrior. The first is a fire in your chest. It burns through the greatest of fears and bodily pains and can drive you into eagerly achieving feats you would not have believed yourself capable of before. Where before you could have held off three men you would now have the ferocity to defeat them. It would take strong unnatural influences to make your spirit waver.
But valor alone can lead to an early grave and so you also possess the discipline to accurately assess your surroundings and your own limits while keeping a cool head despite your burning heart, without either diminishing the other. This also allows you to always be aware of your true feelings and desires beneath the flaring emotions of the moment.
An Epic Soundtrack (Germanic/Norse Mythology, Free): At any time you may have an epic soundtrack of old and new original music, just for you and your adventures, by the likes of Richard Wagner, Patrick Doyle, Brian Tyler, and Mark Mothersbaugh. It plays in your head or accompanies you in the world for all or selected people to hear wherever your power and presence may be, it is always appropriate to events or just your mood and whims as needed and you can always recall previous songs and put them on record if you like.
Multimedia (Germanic/Norse Mythology, Free): You will gain copies of all the poetic eddas, lost or known, both in original stone and well translated book copies, along with a couple of really cool National Geographic videos on norse mythology and the ancient germanic peoples. Also included will be any media, like books or movies or comic books, even remotely related, such as Marvel's Avengers or the TV Show Vikings or American Gods.
Eyepatch (Germanic/Norse Mythology, Free): A well crafted eyepatch that makes you look at least slightly more impressive and intimidating.
Fylgja (Germanic/Norse Mythology, Free): Much like Odin's two crows, you've now picked yourself up a familiar. These spirits take the form of an animal and are intrinsically part of your being. Normally, if harm came to one's Fylgja, harm would come directly to one's own self, but you will be exempt from this and any Fylgja will just disappear and be able to be re-summoned by you if harmed. Intrinsically they are part of your soul expressed into the physical world; able to freely enter dreams, realms of the dead, thoughts, or other esoteric conceptual spaces carrying messages and acting as heralds. It takes a great being to even have one, and each one represents a very slight growth in your luck and power. They are able to function and benefit in any way a familiar should and you can express your power through them. They are spirits and as such do not have mortal needs. You will gain one free for each hamr you possess, corresponding to that hamr, including your starting one, so everyone gets one free. Those purchased here can only be mundane animals. They can do anything a normal animal of its kind can do, they love you and are loyal because they are part of you but they are still animals. If someone tried to read your mind or soul they would find a menagerie of beasts, having a Fylgja allows you to think as that animal and grows your hamingja.
Mannvirðing (Germanic/Norse Mythology, Free): Honour. Titles can be granted for many things. This is not a separate name, or being known as a different person, this is simply something you are known for. Choose a title for yourself, you will be known for this or as a moniker. Invoking this claim to fame will have sway in certain circles, but be wary, your titles will become connected to each other. You will become known for all your deeds and where one title may have brought allies before, the attachment of another may harm your reputation with the same people, may be best to go with neutral titles, "giant slayer" may be a problem down the line. Each title represents a growth in your power, luck, fame, and your hamingja.
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