The arrival of the Blind Luck had the militia all abuzz with news of the arrival of the Jedi, disembarking the blind man slowly stepping the heavy metal he carried clicking along the ground. Codari volunteered to stay with the ship and get Goldie settled in while met with the research staff to go over their most recent findings. Varina had already vanished no doubt off with Mor’gann to work on her new weapon. Airus however, finally could get back to his passion... Research and archival, the Blind Luck had become a miniature library of sorts in the lower levels. Training, combat, and meditation were things he did well, better than most many of peers yet... To turn the pages of a book or dig through hundreds of different symbols to decipher a language was truly invigorating. 

Striding across the landing sight towards the temple, whispers and discussion from the locals filled the air. Jedi were a myth since the Empire had come and gone... Now they saw a blind man in robes clutching a metal walking stick, how was he supposed to be some galaxy saving Knight fighting for peace?

A couple of small freighters sat around as Airus tilted his head, expanding his sight to encompass more of the building. Feeling the strength of the energy. “...It has been too long since I walked through the halls of a great place like this.” 

Raskta was still in the ventilation ducts, wracking her brain about what to do about the unexpected arrival. Her most suspicious equipment had been left in a corner of the ventilation shaft, save for her force pike. She didn’t want to be unarmed, but also knew how suspicious it would look to be carrying one, so she set to work reattaching the casing that concealed it as a walking stick along with the rest of her hiking gear. That was much easier to explain than a force pike. She tried not to make much noise while she did so.

Airus slowly came to a stop underneath the ducts turning his head upwards slowly, cocking his head quizzically. A lazy smile formed as he lifted the staff, striking it softly as if to gauge her reaction. “Hello there young lady.” He spoke lowering the staff to rest his hands upon the top of the beskar item. His blindfold covered eyes staring right up towards her hiding place. “I’d love to know how you got yourself in there... On purpose or an accident?” He asked unmoving as the smile remained. “Then again perhaps you chose a life beyond most Echani... Repair technician.” Joked the Jedi as he waited to see if she would emerge.

Once she saw the jedi logo on his robes she knew who it was instantly, there weren’t many Miraluka jedi even before the purge. Airus, cunning enough to survive the purge, dangerous enough to kill three inquisitors. He was never top of the list of most-wanted Jedi but he was on there radar long enough that Raskta had read his name several times during her ritual of reviewing intel in the downtime between missions. She had never met him nor anyone who knew him, but she placed enough faith in the authors of the intel reports that their assessment of him was accurate. It was a bad idea trying to hide from a Miraluka, and an even worse idea to try and fight when you had only a narrow window to actually attack from. Satisfied that she had done enough to hide anything suspicious, she decided to try diplomacy. Shifting naturally into a casual, joking style of speech, she said

“Ehhh, I guess you could call it happy accident? I was just looking around the area and like, decided to do some urban exploration y’know. I got good vibes. People on HoloNet keep sharing “aesthetic” holo-images of this temple, so I got interested.  Then I got here and saw that there’s whole nutso network of tunnels and no one ever shows this. Could be a gold mine of content for my followers on InstaHolo.”
Then Raskta began to climb out of the tunnel, pushing away the piece of the vent she cut, while she  remember the details of one of her most reliable cover identities, one that hadn’t been completely blown yet.

“My name’s Raskta. Anyway, I’d be a bad repair technician anyway, sometimes clients come to me with questions about maintenance and I just have to bluff until I can pass them off to someone else. I tell them why they should buy their weapons from us, not what to do with them afterwards. Kinda wish I could go back to my sport dueling days, but that’s a young person’s game.

Luckily for her cover story, there were literally millions of Echani women named Raskta in the galaxy, many of which had been involved in dueling also. She remembered one tournament she won where everyone that made the podium had been named Raskta. That was an awkward moment.

“Interesting... Well Miss Raskta, I am Airus Vel Aath, here to assist the New Republic in their research. These old temples are dangerous, plenty of traps and dangerous creatures live around them.” He paused for a moment the tall and well muscled Miraluka smile slowly moving away. “I suppose we could take you to the proper authorities... But then again it would hardly mean anything.” He spoke, twirling the beskar staff as he stepped back from her. Taking a moment to soak in her aura.

The shifting layers of her soul blended then distorted in an array Varina had told him reminded her of colors.As she spoke layers of it shifted yet again affecting his perceptions of her emotions, she was lying and doing it well... Her mind was well taught and sheltered so no striking there to reach out for her thoughts. What he could tell was that there was an anger and passion at her core that troubled her. He decided to play along for now. 

“Well if you are looking for things to get you fame across the holonet. A Sith battle hydra might be a place to start; they are known to live on the planet.”

“Or maybe you could show how the folks who took down the cruel and destructive Empire have tried to remember the fate of the Alderaanians who had no protection from the battle station the Empire unleashed?” He spoke, trying to rile her up to sense out what she was hiding certainly though he’d have to push her buttons... Even selling the bit he sat down his staff against the crates left nearby. “After all this is the place where the Empire was humiliated and the Tarkin doctrine was dealt the mortal blow. You could even say it was the place where hope for a better galaxy was born.”

This was not normal. Nothing about dealing with a force user was. Her mind didn’t feel right, like someone was trying to pull things out of her, and emotions that were normall suppressed were running free. It was useless to try total concealment, but if you could not hide from the enemy, the best thing to do was to confuse them. So Raskta channeled her real anger, her real emotion and launched into a careful rant.
“I guess this is your idea of an enlightening chat, trying to get me riled up to “know thyself” or whatever. Guess you missed the feeling of this from those empire years so you’re trying to make up for lost time? There was a time when I would’ve had more to say about all this, about the events that happened here, a time when I believed any of that stuff I had a point. But that ain’t me anymore, and I’m not going to give you the dignity of an answer or an explanation.”

She was standing at her full height now, face to face with him, glaring up at eyes he did not have with one hand gripping her walking stick tight. There was real emotion behind what she was saying, but careful hiding of the actual core of it all, what she actually cared about.
“I’m sure you’re still dying to hear me talk, so I’ll go out and say it, Fuck Alderaan. Fuck Tarkin, Fuck the rebels, fuck the empire, fuck all of that shit. I don’t care any more. You can’t get me to care any more. Who the fuck knows how many are dead and all of the average person cares about is that they’ve got a new flag, a new boss, a new overlord to ask for handouts from. Until anyone in the galaxy shows me a reason I should give a shit about them, until someone shows that they actually give a shit about accomplishing something other than living life on autopilot, I don’t see why I need to bear the burden of caring about them. So I’m going to go on my life  and doing all this stuff you call vapid shit and just working on scrounging up more credits and enjoying my life until I see an actual reason I should wake up and give something my respect. Betcha’ don’t get much of that wisdom hiding out on your mountain for thirty years, eh force toucher or whatever you call yourselves?”

Airus spoke, recoiling slowly at first then changing his own tune. “Ah yes. The ‘nothing has changed crowd’ perhaps for the folks who lived on worlds that were always productive and willing to ignore the pain of others.” He circled around here. “Miraluka, my people. Were forbidden to leave our homeworld and colonies under penalty of death. Mandalorians are a strongly independent people forcibly made to serve the Empire. Twi’leks, Wookies, and more are forced into labor camps.” He never raised his voice as he stepped in circles around her. 

“When people who spent ten thousand years defending this galaxy from terrors and horrors needed them. They all abandoned the Jedi in the name of a man who took power for himself.” Airus' voice never took on venom. “Sidious was a cancer upon the galaxy, like all Sith are when they build their empires.” He stopped as his hand rested on her own staff a moment. “And as for your outburst... There is some truth. But... This staff? Is not what it appears. So... Why don’t you be more honest. The war is over, the Jedi live. The Sith have perished.” He spoke, stepping back and pulling his beskar staff to himself.

She turned away, fiddling with her datapad, just in her messages app, pretending she didn’t care. After he finished speaking, she put it away and said  

“How about you worry about your stuff and I’ll worry about mine. I don’t even know what a sith is and I don’t think I’m interested in what you have to say about them. I’m leaving now.”

Raskta was standing close to him now, daring him to block her way.

“Well you're free to leave whenever... I’ll be here at the dig site when you want to tell where you got an Imperial Guard pike from... Sure it’s a lovely tale.” The Jedi answered slowly, walking away from her. Letting her know his own suspicions now, figuring it would be a good way to warn her. Echani, Mandalorians, Iridonians, and Jedi had all been called the greatest warriors in the galaxy many times. Yet when the Mandalorians waned after centuries of defeat, the Irdonian’s fell out of favor, and the Jedi had collapsed the Echani had finally taken that illustrious position for their own within the Empire.

Now of course, the Mandalorians were rebuilding and so were the Jedi... That title would leave them again. Airus knew it well, the Jedi had gained that reputation by defeating every single armed force over thousands of years and only the trickery of their long thought dead foe had finally brought them low. He kept walking thinking that this could be part of that born mentality to defeat opponents to prove strength... Though Echani did everything by fighting, even marriage if it was to be believed... Even Mandalorians had a more civilized system than that.

Raskta was relieved but didn’t want to show, keep up an air of annoyance as she walked off, shouting as she walked away.

“I’ll give you the story for free, since you haven’t been able to pick it out of my mind evidently. The pike is a prize for making the podium in short spear dueling at the Byss Invitational, 14 odd years ago. As for why I have it, same reason you have that staff that you keep clutching the center of, very specific grip, perfect width for a lightsaber, a lightsaber you don’t seem to have on you based on how every movement you make isn’t worried about drawing it from any of the usual places. Jedi stuff is deep in a bunch of weapon training manuals, mystical woo woo isn’t the only way to learn what someone is hiding. You are awfully paranoid for a man that’s got senses way beyond any of us average people.”

The fact about it being a prize was correct, and it was even another tournament with three Rasktas on the podium, though none of them were her. She had been busy that year.