“Its barely noticeable, honey.” she promised, joining him beside the mirror to fix her own hair. “By the time we’ve walked from here to there you should be fine…” a playful smirk flitted across her features as she added: “That is, presuming you stop fussing over your cheeks long enough to straighten your collar properly.” shaking her head good-naturedly, Aria gave the offending garment a gentle tug to straighten it once more, grinning back at him. “There. What would you do without me, huh? You’d have no socks left and you'd be waltzing into meetings looking like you'd been dragged through a bush backwards...although, then again if I wasn't here you wouldn't have a reason to be late either since we wouldn't have been-” the train of thought was interrupted by the chirping of their holoterminal, prompting a groan of frustration from the Champion.
“You know, I can't take ANYTHING seriously when it's read in that voice...even if I'm picturing Dan-Ardou glaring at us through the walls while she was writing that.”
The comment earned an amused snort from her partner, who rolled his eyes and suggested .
“Sounds like a deal...I've got a feeling that after this, we're going to need it.”
That was assuming that something else didn't require their attention immediately after the meeting. They could hope for the best.
_____________
One could have cut through the tension in that room with a knife, when the two Champions entered to find Kartan situated in the center of the circle of Elders. The Champions glanced between each person in the room, as if assessing what was about to be said. Before either could ask any questions, however, Matthew spoke up again and sparked off another torrent of back and forth quarrelling between Kartan and the Council members. Aria stifled an exasperated sigh of her own, exchanging a glance with Yerbol as they waited for a chance to get in a word of their own.
Oh boy...this is going to be fun, huh?
Cheriss had remained silent throughout the entire ordeal thus far, but shifted her weight and sat forward as Voldon directed the conversation back to her. The Dathomirian’s gaze scrutinised Kartan closely, as if she could have pulled the very thoughts in question from the Twi’lek’s mind and lay them out in the open as proof for all to see. Aria had little doubt that the former Sith Lord had the strength to perform such a feat should she deem it fit, for a moment the Champion was concerned Cheriss would suggest it. Thankfully, however, the Dathomirian simply offered her own supplementing points to the officiating Elder’s concerns:
“I agree with Voldon. How can we guarantee that these other Force users aren't dangerous? It's a risk we can't be taking on a whim.”
Kartan snorted incredulously.
“They're CHILDREN. Hardly what I would consider ‘dangerous’.”
“It would appear we have very different definitions of the word.” Voldon muttered sourly, his glare very briefly shifting across to Malu.
“We have far more at stake here, more to consider, than simply a promise to protect any Force user we can….we have students of our own to protect. Are you willing to compromise their safety to keep Kartan happy?”
“With all due respect, we're not entirely unprepared are we?” Kira put in, “Can we not put other measures into place, an early warning system? We’ve used Zinuthra’s natural defences to catch attackers off guard before.”
“You'll forgive us for not being overly eager to trust your word at face value.” Cheriss continued as if the redheaded Knight had not spoken at all. “But I find it more than slightly suspicious, that the Qyaari’s doors have remained open to any and all Force users, regardless of former alignment, since Bracknell was dealt with...and yet Kartan, you and your people chose to hide yourselves away from us in the shadows instead of come forward, without a substantial reason to see us as a threat?”
This is not good. At all. Aria’s features contorted into an almost pained grimace. She could not remember the Elders being THIS divided since...well, the first time they had gathered them all together on Zinuthra. Perhaps it was appropriate for them to interject and steer the older Masters back on course...they had done it before, albeit in a less....calm, fashion, back then.
“I made the best decision for my people!” Kartan protested indignantly, his lekku quivering in agitation.
“You swapped one doctrine for another.” Voldon growled.
“And YOURS is any better?! How many lives is your damn pride worth?!” at Kartan’s comment, Cheriss sat so far forward in her seat that Aria thought the Elder might have lost her composure and was preparing to lunge for the outsider. This is like that first summit all over again, though if this keeps up it's going to end a LOT worse than that one did….wait a minute, I've got an idea. Back me up?
Thanks to their bond, Yerbol was able to catch on to his wife’s train of thought and offer a nod of encouragement as the Champions quickly stepped between Kartan and the Elders.
“I think everyone needs to just CALM DOWN.” Aria huffed out a breath as no protests were made immediately to Yerbol’s shushing of the room, allowing her to continue without raising her voice further.
“Do I need to remind the Elders that every Qyaari in this room had once seen the others as an enemy, and that more than one of us had tried to kill one another in the past. Now, we’re a team, because we could put that aside to join together and face a common enemy. How is this ANY different?”
“We cannot ask them to place their trust in us and not offer some to Kartan in return.” Malu agreed sagely.
“And while we are sat here bickering between ourselves like housewives, Manus and Soto are sweeping through systems in every Rim and indoctrinating younglings into living suicide weapons. Don't you think this is EXACTLY what he wants?! Keep us so occupied with our differences that we're blind to the REAL threat while he creeps up on us from behind and then he DOES catch us unprepared?” the stroke of genius had seemed so obvious to Aria, but from the look of pensive epiphany that crossed Cheriss’ face it had not dawned on the Elder until that precise moment. The Dathomirian sat back heavily in her chair, grumbling some form of expletive under her breath in her native tongue, followed by:
“I'm getting too old for this crap!”
“We know Manus isn't too intimidated to destroy places as important as the Shadowlands on Kashyykk, so it's only a matter of time before he comes here.” Malu continued. “We have more resources, better defences here now than we did when Bracknell attacked us, why shouldn't we take the risk to invite them to join us? We survived with far less at our disposal before.”
“Every neutral Force user like Kartan and his group that we turn away and refuse to help, gives Manus more power and more of the advantage.” Yerbol frowned. “So with all due respect: if it's risk we want to discuss, which one is worse, Voldon?”
“....Very well.” The Qyaari Elder gave a terse nod of agreement, his mouth pressed into a thin line. “Malu, I will leave the logistics of contacting these other groups to you...these people trust you more than me. Meanwhile, we will have to re work our class schedules to include Kartan’s younglings in the teachings.”
Aria heaved a sigh, catching Yerbol's eye again.
I'd bet our next chance of a vacation that we're going to be asked to help with that.
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