Bab 75: ED : Chapter 73: Meetings and Revelations II
"I have the complete after-action report tendered by the leader of the Jedi strike-team who murdered your comrades. It contains the names of the six people responsible for your wife being burned."
The enigmatic figure's answer was simple and to the point. All the false geniality draining from his face like a switch being flipped as he said as much.
...
Tyris's reaction was immediate, his expression fierce as it was focused. The barely restrained fury could be heard in his voice when he hissed "I sent the anguish-wracked souls of a half-dozen murderers and rapists to the netherworld.
Focused through the lens of their helpless rage, and their collective hunger for vengeance as they died, my telepathic attack would have sent many senior Jedi Masters on a blood-soaked rampage through the streets of Coruscant."
Collecting himself enough for his voice to regain an icy calm, Nikko finished "My fury-filled shadow crashed over the Jedi deceiver like the breaking of a terrible black wave, and for a few moments, his flame wavered. In the end, though, it only made him blaze like a star in the dark of night.
If you're planning on asking me to try and break that one's will again, or attempt another piece of convoluted political theater involving him, the answer is an emphatic no. I can end the Senator, and her protector with her, but it would have to be on my terms."
For the first time, the look on that lined and craggy blue-white face seemed genuine, as the emissary replied with a driven determination that chilled the bounty-hunter looking on "Under the circumstances, I believe my employer could content themselves with such an outcome."
Nikko nodded shortly, answering in a terse manner "I think we have an accord, then. Unless I'm very much mistaken, however, Wesell wishes to conclude her part in this affair."
With both men looking her way now, the slender shapeshifter shrugged, then nodded her agreement. "It's one thing to ambush an unsuspecting Jedi, but quite another to press on after kicking the nest of fire-wasps as thoroughly as we just did.
You both know I'm a professional. One who understands a sense of discretion is part and parcel of a functioning instinct for self-preservation. That instinct is telling me spending the next few months in one of my hideaways would be an excellent idea, so pay me my money and I'm gone."
When another look passed between the two men, Zam pointed out dryly "If, on the other hand, you're thinking my unwillingness to proceed further is an excellent reason to have Tyris persuade me to jump head-first off the roof, I'd have to advise against such a course. Your choice of marks makes your employer one of three people, Intermediary.
All of whom I've prepared to cast a great deal of suspicion upon. Using means which will require significant memory, initiative, and complex acts of volition on my part to prevent that from happening."
Glancing at Nikko for a moment, Zam answered the unspoken question "You aren't the first mind-bender I've worked with. I learned a few things from that very farked up mess."
Intermediary looked meaningfully at the Dark Jedi for a moment. Once he'd nodded his confirmation that the bounty-hunter had spoken truthfully.
The burly holographic representation looked at something out of view for several moments, his scarred hands typing on something which didn't appear in the hologram, then returned his attention to the Clawdite.
"One hundred and seventy thousand credits, deposited in the account you designated. I believe that concludes our business, Mistress Wesell."
Backing out of the room so smoothly it was obviously a practiced maneuver, the Clawdite was gone in seconds without a reply. She paused to presumably check her account balance once beyond the signal jamming of the chamber, then her lightly running steps began fading into the distance almost immediately.
Behind her, a pair of men driven by very different things went back to plotting as if there had been no interruption.
...
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Waiting area outside the High Council's chamber (Three hours after the assassination attempts)
For one of the few times I could easily recall offhand, the Temple unquestionably felt like the haven for Jedi it was meant to be. It's tranquil environs, plus the simple presence of so many calm and peaceful minds helped me shed the lingering remnants of darker impulses still clinging to me as I meditated.
It hadn't been immediately obvious even in the aftermath of the attempt on Padme's life, but as I'd driven Qui Gon's rented airspeeder farther from the site of the assassination attempt, the truth concerning what had just happened to me grew more and more apparent.
I'd been the intended victim of a telepathic attack as insidious as it was powerful. It was embarrassing that I was more than halfway to the Temple, before I was able to piece that much together.
Even though my head had still felt muzzy, and continued to ache something fierce, that hadn't felt like sufficient excuse for failing to see what was right in front of me. For what I hadn't seen in it's entirety until I was back in the Temple.
It wasn't until I'd been given the opportunity to shower, change, then make my way to the waiting area outside the Council chamber, that I'd really begun to see the entirety of the scheme as I settled into my meditations.
"The guardsmen being compelled to act as distractions. The shooter with the sniper rifle. The follow-up attack by the guards. Simultaneously a feint, within a feint, within a feint, the intended pyre upon which that darksider tried to cremate my sanity, and multiple redundant methods with which to seek Padme's death. It's the kind of plan one would expect a quasi-immortal vampire to come up with."
Despite the soothing strain of the Force's serene song here in the heart of Jedi power, I felt uneasy as my silent reflecting upon recent events bore fruit.
Knowing it was only my "paranoid" habit of maintaining mental shielding I constantly worked to strengthen which had stopped that plan from succeeding? Uneasiness was simply what remained after I'd run the emotional gamut. Beginning with my being outraged someone had attempted to warp my will to their own ends.
On through to embarrassment and frustration I hadn't perceived and put a stop to their attempt immediately. Before finally ending up seething with an icy resolve to see this mind-rapist stopped.
It revolved me to my core, how they'd used their power to murder innocent people. How they'd tried to make me just like them. Unlike during my days as an apprentice, I didn't try to deny these feelings by using the Force as a crutch to immediately release them.
Here and now, where I had the time to handle my feelings properly, I let the ugly emotions run their course naturally, then called on the Force's peace as I sought to rebuild and regain my emotional equilibrium.
Calmed by the soothing strains of the Force, I found myself finally slipping into a deeper, sharper state of meditative focus. I was just finishing the process of setting my thoughts in order for my now significantly overdue audience with the Council, when I found my awareness drawn gently yet inexorably elsewhere.
It had been so long since my Farsight decided to make a genuine appearance, as opposed to my continually lying about it having done so behind the safety of mental fortifications which made challenging my accurate assertions problematic, that I found my thought-processes wrenched from thoughts of pointed Council questioning and the threat posed to Padme by an as yet nameless darksider assassin.
This was the very first time my spirit had decided to actually leave my body and travel elsewhere, so it was challenging to remain detached enough that my essence didn't snap back to my corporeal form. I had to give up any pretense of control, and simply allow the Force to carry me where it would.
Important as whatever sight it wished me to see undoubtedly was, I also knew that fortuitous manifestations like this one were the initial key required before one could learn how to do this at will. Spirit projection had been one of the more devastating tools in Sidious's hands during the Imperial Era, so I found myself understandably keen to see if I could master the capability myself.
Given the fact we Jedi seemed set to become spooks and special forces rather than commanding officers in the coming war, the acquisition of controlled clairvoyance could potentially save an incalculable number of innocent lives down the line.
I soon recognized the Force wasn't taking me far, as I was tugged through a number of the Temple's walls and ceilings to drift into one of the Initiate dormitories.
Where I glimpsed a pair of older female Initiates sitting on one bed, and a third teen with a distinctive apprentice braid in her black hair seated upon the other, I prepared to pull my consciousness away by main force if any of them were in a state of undress.
Fortunately, and despite the fact it was at least an hour after lights out, all three were fully clothed in fresh tunics and leggings.
Likely having just finished cleaning up after the evening training segment, if the damp brown hair of the human girl, the subtle gleam of the blue-white lekku belonging to the Togruta, and the freshly polished horns of the reddish orange-skinned Zabrak Padawan facing the other two girls was anything to go by.
Drifting closer, I noticed a table that normally functioned as a joint nightstand had been pushed down into a position between both beds.
Currently covered in pieces of flimsi and a couple of active data-pads, all three teens were leaning forward to scrutinize the table's contents, but it was the Padawan whose name I felt I should know who was obviously leading this endeavor that Ahsoka and Bene were defying curfew to take part in.
My curiosity as to what was occurring seemed to act as a magnet. Pulling me near enough, I could see one data-pad was highlighting the academic marks and showings of both Initiates in the Apprentice Tournament.
The page-counter at the bottom of the data-pad indicated it was currently displaying page two of twelve. Telling me this was a fairly in-depth assessment of the two teens, if the remainder of the pages also dealt with them, as seemed quite likely.
The other data-pad proved even more illuminating. It was presently listing a number of Jedi Knights and Masters, with brief bios and general areas of interest itemized beneath each name.
Taken together with the contents of the previous pad, it was enough to answer the riddle of what I was being shown.
My nonexistent lips wanted to twitch into a smile, because why wouldn't some of the bolder and more driven individuals from the current crop of Initiates scout their prospective Masters, as those potential Masters themselves scouted potential apprentices?
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