“It's no good, Ethan.” Aria muttered to the apprentice as he attempted to crack the coordinates. “There's too much information there, your brain would explode before you got anywhere.” She turned back to her partner as Yerbol beckoned her to stand beside him, frowning in bewilderment at first.
“How is that going to help, Kytra and I already tried-” her protest died down, however, once he mentioned the bond and she slowly began to grasp what it was that he was suggesting. “OHH!” Aria nodded in understanding and extended her hands out alongside Yerbol’s, closing her eyes. “I see. Alright.” focusing in on the thread between them, Aria poured her own energy into it, held her attention on nothing else but the steady flow of power between them. When she opened her eyes, the door had vanished and the Champion couldn't help the triumphant grin that spread through her features.
I don't know. She admitted in answer to his query, I felt SOMETHING there but whatever it was, I think you got a clearer picture than I did.
Yet another one to add to the pile, she thought wryly as they entered the temple.
Stairs. So many stairs.
In fact, by the time they reached the top, Aria was reasonably certain that she NEVER wanted to see another staircase for the rest of her life. Ethan’s discovery of the information terminal cut through the Champion’s attempts to catch her breath back.
She chuckled at his remark, patting the boy on the back as she too, nodded.
“This is a regular day at the office for a Champion, I'm sorry to tell you both.”
As Ethan tapped away at the keys, Kytra offered a chuckle of her own, and, jokingly queried:
“Is it too late for me to say I've changed my mind and I want to go home?”
“ ‘Fraid so, kid.”
____________________
The Qyaari returned to the Commodore after it became clear that the temple would offer them no further clues (all the doors were shut tight and refused to open no matter how they were approached). Ethan and Kytra delivered the map data to Neta so that she could upload the trajectories to their navcomputer, then left it with Aria so she could contact the Elders once they had broken through Lehon’s atmosphere and disappeared to their quarters to decompress in their own way.
Presently, Aria was lounging on a backwards-facing chair at the holoterminal in the Commodore’s CIC, leaning forward to perch her chin on the backrest as she conversed with the half-sized hologram of Vano that was projecting from the device. The Mirialan looked less than amused by her adopted sister’s latest request as she tapped away at the streams of data that the group had sent through to her.
“...Do you want me to pick a needle out of a haystack for you while I'm at it, Ari?” she groused. “Karkin’ hell, what did you find up there, a bloody NAVCOMPUTER?”
“I know, I know… Somehow they fit this all into one holocron.” the Champion winced sympathetically. “So, can you crack it and find out where they went, or not?”
The Qyaari Lorekeeper whistled through her teeth, falling silent for a moment as she glanced over her terminal screens once more.
“I COULD decipher it, but it's not gonna happen overnight. I'm going to need a few days.”
“That's fair.” Aria nodded, informing Vano that Neta and Ethan had plotted a course for Alderaan and the Qyaari could wait it out there until she could send them the data they needed.
“This is almost like old times, isn't it?” the Mirialan grinned, shaking her head in amusement. “You charging off into certain death and me sitting here trying to save your reckless ass from being turned into space dust. Only thing missing is the batshit crazy Sith Lord breathing down my neck every ten minutes.”
Aria quirked a brow, retorting with.
“That's not a nice thing to say about my dad, is it?”
Both shared a laugh for a moment before the Lorekeeper disconnected the line so as to focus better on her task. The humour dissipated from the Champion’s thoughts as quickly as the hologram did, her attention returning to Yerbol and the conversations they had both been putting off since Malachor.
Where did she start?
She hesitated outside the door of their designated quarters, sensing her partner’s presence on the other side, not because she deliberately wanted to hide from him but rather she wanted to try and collect her thoughts better before opening her mouth. When she was confident enough, she tapped the access panel and stepped through the door and crossed the room to settle on the edge of the bed. She didn't want to seem like she was trying to jump down his throat by immediately flinging a barrage of questions at him, so instead chose to remain silent for the moment. Taral lifted his head, settled down on the floor beside the bed, and the Champion stooped down to pat him on the head before removing her shoes as Yerbol glanced sideways at her from whatever it was he had been doing.
Part of her hoped Yerbol might speak to fill the silence first.
But they had promised to talk about things, she reminded herself, and worked up the courage to clear her throat and smile faintly back at him, mumbling.
“Do you…want to talk about what happened out there, or…?” she trailed off, giving him a moment to collect his thoughts and direct the conversation in a way he'd be most comfortable with first.
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