Ethan seemed to be a lot quieter in the week that followed. Yerbol returned from tinkering with his saber, claiming the pair had had a productive discussion though he would not elaborate as to what that discussion entailed. Aria didn't mind too much, what happened between the other Champion and his own apprentice was none of her business unless he chose to share it with her. She was just glad they were getting along. She hoped she could build a similar rapport with Kytra, it wasn't that the Selonian was DIFFICULT to get along with in the slightest, but that the pair were so fundamentally different that Aria felt lost when it came to finding common ground between them. Kytra was quiet, logical and resourceful,while Aria preferred to react on the fly, not limiting her actions to those which had a clear explanation and (by her own admission) not always getting herself OUT of said situations. 
Perhaps that was why the Council had paired them together. 

To keep her own mind occupied, Aria had taken up a position in a clear part of the Commodore’s storage room to go through some saber drills. When Kytra had asked if she could watch, the Champion had thought nothing of it and jovially agreed. When she had suggested that Kytra join her for some of the drills, the Selonian had looked rather flustered and quickly declined, insisting that she was happy to just watch. Aria frowned, finding this rather strange, but chose for the moment not to comment on it and returned to her Jar’Kai drills - she had a feeling she would need to sharpen up her form mixing in the fights to come. When the Champion found that her apprentice’s rapt fascination had not disappeared even after she came to a brief rest at the end of the first series of movements, Aria frowned at the Selonian and extinguished the saber, tilting her head in confusion. 
“What is it, Kytra? You’re looking like you’ve never seen a saber before in your life.” 
“O-Oh.” Kytra squeaked, her back straightening. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise...I was just, y’know, watching your technique.” her fur prickled slightly in what Aria suspected was her species’ equivalent of an embarrassed flush to the cheeks. “I-I’ve never really...used a lightsaber before. That is to say, I mean, I have on Zinuthra, at the academy. But before that I...I’d never even SEEN one, nevermind HELD it or used it, and I still haven’t quite got the hang of it.” she admitted, grimacing as she looked at her mentor. “Nowhere near as good as you. It’s so different from a combat knife, or even a vibroblade.”
Aria couldn’t help but chuckle softly, shaking her head as she beckoned the younger Qyaari to join her. “Well, there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?” when Kytra looked a little nervous, she clarified: “Practise, Kytra. Come on, get up here.” 
“Is that...safe?” the Selonian asked warily, but nonetheless got to her feet and inched towards the training mat, weapon in hand. 
“With the safety on, of course it is.” the Champion tried not to roll her eyes or smile too broadly, indicating the small switch just above the activation button. Kytra followed the gesture, coughed awkwardly, and mumbled. 
“....O-Oh. I didn’t know they could do that…” 

Aria moved back to give her apprentice some room to establish herself, taking note of Kytra’s chosen stance and grip as the yellow blade sprang to life. She clearly showed the knowledgeable stance of a sword-fighter; her feet far enough apart to avoid being tripped over, but which might have actually impeded her in saber combat - but it was a good start. 
“Your feet are a LITTLE too far apart. And your hands are too close together.” Aria instructed, dropping into her own combat stance as an example. “As you’ve already, rightly, said, a lightsaber is not a sword, even if they are similar and most of your techniques CAN be transferred. Saber duelling, generally speaking, requires a lot more finesse and quicker footwork, which is much more difficult to do if you’re standing so wide. And if you’re fighting with a single blade, then you don’t want to keep your hands too close - you might need the other one for Force attacks, especially if you’re facing off with a dual-wielding or saberstaff opponent.” with a nod of confirmation from her apprentice, and a brief moment to allow Kytra to adjust her stance, they began. It was clear that the Selonian had been entirely honest about her bladework skills...she wasn’t awful by any stretch, but it certainly required improvements. No wonder she had struggled fighting the Hssiss. Her reflexes themselves were sharp, and her ability to backpedal at an alarming speed, or jerk her blade up in time to block strikes for her jugular, were exceptional. But whenever Kytra attempted to go on the offensive, it became painfully obvious that she lacked the finer motor skills that came from many years of practise with a saber. Aria found it all too easy to trap Kytra’s blade between both of hers, or to hook her foot around the Selonian’s ankles and send her crashing down onto the mat.
“Watch your FEET!” became a sentence Aria had to repeat all too often for the two week duration of their next slipspace jump. She just hoped her attempts to be as gentle as possible had paid off and hadn’t left her apprentice TOO bruised up. Kytra didn’t seem to mind, if anything she relished the sparring time and she certainly had improved by their last session a few days earlier. She wasn’t quite skilled enough to put her mentor on the ground, but she had managed to give the Champion a rather nasty blow to the shoulder that would have severed one of her saber arms had they been in a proper duel. 

The Qyaari now gathered in the CIC, frowning in bewilderment at the odd flaming rings that orbited the planet before them and debated as to whether it was safe to go any closer. 
“But what if Revan and Meetra left us some sort of clue down there?” Aria pointed out. “We have to at least go and check, don't you think?”
Ethan made an uneasy noise in the back of his throat, tapping his foot against the floor as he looked between the two Champions. 
“If it IS like Quensu,” Kytra mused out loud, “then wouldn't it be fair to assume that there must be variations in the air currents to create those storms? So there'd be a safe zone, in the middle there, that should be easy-ER for us to get through to the ground level?”
“What do you think, Neta?” Yerbol called to the pilot. 
“Sounds like a fair shot, and a fair argument, what about you two?”
Neither of the boys looked particularly pleased with the idea, but made no protests against their descent. 

_____________

Landing on the planet didn’t provide very much further in the ways of answers regarding the rings of fire. They were so bright that they were visible from the surface, even if they were several hundred clicks away on the other side of the atmosphere. Kytra theorised that the planet gave off some sort of gas naturally, that reacted once it left the atmosphere and entered the vacuum of outside space. They would never know. 

In fact, what was more interesting was what they found after navigating through the brittle, parched landscape. Being surrounded by rings of flame, it was no surprise of course that the planet’s climate was EXTREMELY hot, Aria even vouched it might be as hot as Korriban had been. Only, unlike Korriban, this planet appeared to have species of flora that could survive the harsh climates. It wasn’t much, probably mostly cacti and other grasses which could store or didn’t need much water, but indeed no less impressive than the nocturnal planet they had previously visited. 

Interesting as the local vista was, however, the Qyaari scouting party (including Kira, this time) was currently gathered around a large dais like structure, with some sort of lens or emitter at its base. They had puzzled over it from a distance as they approached, and only once they had reached it did they realise that it was, in fact, another Star Map….of sorts, anyways. 

That is to say, it projected an image of the planet which Vano and the others had found, confirming that it was in fact called Odessen, as well as displaying a set of “normal” map coordinates, presumably of a location which they should head to once they reached Odessen, and a voice read out a message in another language, which was also displayed as illuminated written script on the pedestal of the dais: 

[i]Tzisona, j'us shiyi timink tsosûtaiyi ki. Nu waria warmursi j'us dzu ri kûrmarsa nuka ant Odessen. Nu irwasa j'us tuti drasi dzis kam j'us waria tsosûtaiyi diyij j'us itik dzi tsiu. - Revan[/i]

[hider=Translation]
Because while Roan would have probably been fluent in High Sith and would have taught Ari some things, her Sith is VERY rusty by now lol 

Full/un-jumbled translation being: Congratulations, you've almost found me. I will meet you at the safe house on Odessen. I hope you're ready for what you will find when you get here. - Revan
[/hider]


“Uuuuhh….what?” Kira muttered, bemused. Her companions seemed equally confused by the message, Kytra snorting something unintelligible, while Ethan chewed his lip and Yerbol scratched his chin in the usual way that he did when he was thinking too hard. Aria’s brow knitted into a frown, as she too, tried to decipher it. There was something familiar about that language...JUST vaguely. 
“That’s not very helpful.” Kytra huffed sulkily, crossing her arms over her chest. “How are we supposed to find him if we can’t understand what in Force he’s saying about where he is?” 
“Who cares?” Ethan pointed out, throwing his arm out to indicate the coordinates. “We have the coordinates, why does it matter what it says?” 
“'What if it says “watch out for the big pit of snakes by the front door”?!” Kytra hissed back at him. “I’m not walking into a trap because you’re too impatient to figure it out, Ethan!” 
“Oh stop it, both of you. It can’t be that dramatic.” Kira cut in, stepping between the apprentices. “But she IS right, it could be important…”

Aria admittedly didn’t hear the rest of the back and forth arguments between them, for she had been so deep in thought trying to crack the meaning of the words that she had tuned their voices out completely, and almost forgot she even HAD company had Yerbol not reached out to her through their bond and prodded her gently for her input. 
“Are you alright, love? You’re very quiet, that’s unusual, especially for you.” 
Aria jerked herself back into awareness, nodding mutely, before a piece in her brain seemed to click into place and she blurted out suddenly:
“SITH! It’s High Sith!” 
“Well, that doesn’t help us very much.” Ethan grumbled, raising an eyebrow. “Anybody here read ancient Sith? Cause I sure don’t.” 

And now everyone was staring at her, for obvious (but no less annoying!) reasons. 

“What?” Aria snorted, tapping her foot and raising an eyebrow at them. “JUST because I grew up on a Sith planet means I could read ancient Sith script? Seriously, guys!” 
“Well, none of us can…” Kytra squeaked timidly. 
“We’re wasting time!” Ethan complained in the background. “I bet Revan’s sitting there LAUGHING at us right now, what a jerk.”
Kira arched a brow back at the Champion, and demanded impatiently: 
“Well, can you read it or not, shortie?”

“SHUT IT, I’M TRYING!!”  the Champion huffed out a long breath through her teeth, leaning forward to squint at the lettering more closely. “Thank you….” another long pause, which was so quiet she could have sworn they were all holding their breaths too (jeez, no pressure), before Aria warily began to try and translate the message into Basic. 

“Erm…. ‘Congratulations, you’ve almost….caught? Could be caught, could be...maybe, ‘found’?” she shook her head quickly to clear her thoughts and continued: “Almost caught slash found me.I will meet you at - I don’t know, but whatever it is, it MUST be those co-ordinates - on Odessen. I hope you are ready… and that’s all I’ve got, okay. My dad was way better at it than me.” Aria scowled. 
“Close enough.” Kira shrugged. “So, I guess we just find this place when we get to Odessen.” 
“Sure SOUNDS like he’s messing with us.” Kytra mumbled uneasily. “What if it’s a trap?” 
“One way to find out, kid.”