It was during my morning meditations that I received the summons. Performing a divination with my sabacc deck, I had drawn five cards. Letting the heady smoke from the censer flow through my breather mask, I shut myself off from my spartan quarters, drawing my mind away from the moment and looking to the force to guide me through the cards and thus glimpse the future better. I contemplated the first two cards, The Queen of Air and Darkness, laid over the Mistress of Flasks. I began to see visions of a figure, undoubtedly female. Her form was in motion, purposeful, working towards something, but she was surrounded by a cloud of shadow, a pall of deceit. There were flashes of silver and red in the cloud, as lightning in the night, a certain indication of danger. I moved to the next card, the Four of Staves, symbolizing conflict. Darts of light flashed through the vision, and the figure danced and weaved through them, but the shadow cloud was pierced and rent, showing that a conflict would reveal some of what was hidden. The last two were the Master of Flasks and the Nine of Sabres. Betrayal, sorrow. A man swam into the vision, and he danced towards the female form, reaching his hand towards her. She reached out to him, and as their hands connected, the female figure was flooded with light from the touch, in hues of red and sickly green. I felt pain, fear, suffocation. I tried to gaze further, to try and discern faces or names, sounds or smells from the figures or the location of events. I discerned nothing before the rooms communicator let out a piercing chime, shattering the vision like shards of glass and bringing me heavily back to the room. I grunted in frustration as my senses returned fully to the present, the anger rising within me. I pushed it down as I stood and went to the wall panel that housed the communicator. I pressed the receive button.
“What?” I hissed, my whisper like voice amplified through my breath mask, leaving with a metallic tinge to it.
“Protector Kor Vaal, the Quaestor requests your presence in his office. Immediately.” The link cut off, the emphasis on the last word quite unmistakable. I was still new to Scholae Palatinae, and knew the Quaestor would look unkindly on one so lowly in rank defying his orders. Taking one last glance at my sabacc spread, I gathered up the cards, placing them on top of the deck and back into the wooden box I stored them in. Donning my robe, I made my way to the Quaestors office.
I entered the office to find Xen'Mordin sat in a high backed chair behind an ornate desk, his face concealed within the durasteel mask he wore, his expression unfathomable.
“Kor Vaal, thank you for coming,” the voice was slightly distorted through the Quaestors mask, but the sarcasm was unmistakable. “there is a task I would like you to perform.”
I had performed minor errands for the house so far, but none had been given to me by Xen personally, and there was almost a tangible sense of gravity in this meeting. I had been expecting this for a while. This was to be my trial by fire in service to the House.
“I will serve Scholae Palatinae in any way I can, my lord.” I kept my reply formal, trying not to give anything anyway. This conversation was as much a test as the coming task would be.
“There have been reports of an individual who has been asking...delicate questions regarding the activity's of the palace.” I could tell by the tone that these questions were also deemed too delicate for me. Xen indicated the datapad on his desk, and I took it and activated it. On the screen appeared a picture of a woman, with long black hair and in the ragged but practical attire of a space farer, “Her name is Carmana Tellnos, and we believe she's an operative for another house or clan, possibly from Naga Sadow. You shall eliminate her.”
I gazed at the datapad, and a flash of memory came to me, of the vision.
“The Mistress of Flasks,” I breathed, matter of factly. I felt Xen's questioning gaze on me, but I was not willing to divulge the events of the morning. “Are there any particulars of this assignment?” I knew there would be, just killing the target felt far too simple.
“We want this handled discreetly, we have no desire to cause a scene in the capital, nor do we want to provoke another clan. You will be provided with a vial of the poison known as creeping tears. You know its uses I trust?”
“If ingested it causes severe pain and death, though the effects won't be felt for at least an hour.”
“Excellent. Complete this task quietly and quickly, and return to me when it is done.”
I bowed and left the office. The datapad indicated Carmana Tellnos frequented an area in one of the upper tiers of Ohmen, and in particular a bar called the Emperors Rest, popular with the local security forces. I decided to start my search there.
In a long, tattered, hooded cloak I crouched in an alley that Carmana Tellnos had been seen in on more than one occasion. The ritual symbols I carved into the flesh of my left side make me less than forgettable, but a life as a slave had taught me that people rarely pay attention to the downtrodden, and disguising as a street beggar had kept me hidden on more than one occasion. A human male waited in a doorway of the alley, in the robes of some administrative office within the city. He had stood there glancing back and forth down the alley for the past few minutes. I reached out with the Force and felt a strong sense of fear and trepidation emanating from him, thoughts of betrayal racing through his mind. I wondered if this was the Master of Flasks from my reading, but the feeling was not quite right. Whilst I was probing I felt the sense of another approaching. I huddled down, casting my gaze downwards, relying on the force to follow the course of events, but not before I caught a glimpse of the approaching figure; Carmana Tellnos, my target.
“You're late Carmana!” his tone was hushed, his pulse racing.
“Relax Fonos, I'm here now aren't I? Do you have it?”
“Yes,” the man Fonos produced a datapad from his robes, “palace cargo records in an out for the past fortnight. This is the last one I can get you, it's getting too risky, they're asking questions, they're going to catch onto me, so hand over my credits and lets be done.” I felt Tellnos' choler rise at the comment.
“You're done when I tell you you're done, and you don't get anything until I properly check this information. You don't make the rules here Fonos, I do.” She turned to leave.
Fono's fear bubbled over.
“Well, I'm changing the rules!” He produced a blaster from his robes and aimed square at Carmana's back. Before he could pull the trigger his head snapped violently backwards and he crumbled to the floor. Carmana hadn't moved. Sniper. She had back up. She glanced behind her and sighed, then turned towards me, and I felt her eyes regard me. She started walking slowly towards me. I pretended to shuffle uncomfortably, like a scared animal. My whip was no good in this confined space, and I would have limited time before her unseen friend but a blaster round through me. I prepared myself as she stopped in front of me. She smiled and tossed a handful of coins into my lap.
“For your silence friend,” she tipped her head to the fallen form of Fonos, “he won't be needing them any more.”
“Me thank you lady, me thank you,” I mumbled, “no-one hear no thing from me, me thank you lady, no-one here a thing.” I continued to babble incoherently as she left, satisfied she had bought the co-operation of a beggar in the wrong place at the right time. This was the conflict which I had foreseen in my vision, where the veil of secrecy began to fall. I held the coins in my hands and felt the Force flow through them, showing me glimpses of their recent owner. Flashes of a bar, the Emperors Rest, the taste of a popular local spirit, but most importantly of all the glimmer of affection, and a face to put to it. A bartender at the Emperors Rest. The Master of Flasks. The fractured vision once more crystallized in my mind, and a plan began to formulate as I headed to the bar.
I arrived just before dusk, still clad in my beggars robe, and slunk to the back of the building, where the staff would enter and leave. I huddled in a doorway and scanned the minds of those who passed, waiting for the man to come. After a few minutes of waiting I felt him approaching from the right, heading towards the staff door. The cowl pulled about my face, I prepared myself.
“You! Man!” he turned, “You man, come!” I put a touch of the Force behind it, and he turned against his own will and came walking towards me.
“What do you want?” He regarded me with disgust.
“I see a message for you! A message in the bones!” I strained my voice for added effect.
“Oh, yeah sure, well why don't you tell me after my shift, ok great Jedi master?” The irony of his sarcasm almost made me chuckle. He turned to leave.
“The bones tell me of Carmana,” he stopped dead at hearing the name, “they tell me of desire and broken hearts.”
He turned to me, a quizzical expression on his face.
“Carmana? How do you...”
I shook my hands and threw a few small bones on the floor in front of me.
“There is passion, yes! But only from one, from you. You wish more, but no, no, see this,” I indicated one of the bones, “this says, she resits, she cannot see the opportunity in front of her, how happy you both can be.”
His emotions began to flicker from confusion, to hope, through disappointment, and I knew I had him.
“So, what can I do? How do I help her see?”
“I can help, I help you, and if I help, you bring me food? Food from you job if I wait here?”
He nodded eagerly, the passion almost overwhelming him. I took the vial of poison from my robe.
“This is special serum, made from rare plants only found on Kashyyyk. Mix in lady's drink, and great love it will bring to you. Remember,” I focussed on the Force, “pour in Carmana's drink.” His eyes glazed over, and he took the vial from me almost dreamily.
“I'll pour it in her drink,” he said without realising, and then he snapped back to reality, “If this works, I'll bring you out more left overs than you can handle.”
He turned and headed for the staff door. I stood, gathering the bones from the ground and tossing them back into the trash from where I had taken them before my meeting. Now, I simply had to wait. The Nine of Sabre's was approaching.
Having checked the datapad, I set myself halfway along the crowded route between the Emperor's Rest and the lodge house that Carmana Tellnos had been staying in, and kept my mind focused on sensing her. I felt her approach, and could feel the poison working through her system. She was about to succumb. I needed to be quick. My cloak wrapping me, I set forth into the crowd of people. Carmana was just a few yards ahead, coughing, her pace quick. I wormed my way through the crowd towards her. Our shoulders connected, and as we spun I used the force to quickly snatch the datapad she received from Fonos to my hand, and tucked it into my coat. I apologized, and hurried past her, she took a step, and turned, realising the theft. She tried to call after me, but the words turned to a cough, and the cough turned quickly to retching. I continued walking, confident that her sniper friend would have missed my pickpocketing trick in the crowd. From behind me I heard Carmana collapse in pain, a crowd rushing to the fallen woman's side.
In his office, Xen'Mordin regarded me through his expressionless mask. “But surely Kor Vaal, we now have a witness to worry about? Will the bartender not realise his folly and suspect what you gave him was poison?”
“I had considered the event, my lord, so I returned to the Emperors Rest to pay him a visit. However,” and I allowed a hint of satisfaction to creep into my voice, “when I arrived there, he was already dead. Apparently, whatever drink he poured the poison into, he had shared with Carmana Tellnos.” luckily for me.
“And the datapad you stole,” Xen picked up the pad from his desk, dismissing my other comment. “you didn't attempt to read its contents, did you?” I could tell by the tone of his voice there was only one answer that would allow me to leave the room alive.
“I did not my lord. I assumed the information was...not appropriate for one of my station.”
I felt the Quaestor's mind reach out into the Force, trying to discern whether I was lying.
“Good, thank you Kor Vaal. You are dismissed. Go back to the little sabacc game you were playing this morning, by all means.”
I ignored the sarcastic quip and, giving a small bow, left the office and headed back to my quarters. Once there, I took out the datapad Xen had given me that morning, and that I had secretly copied the data from Carmana's pad to. I knew the Quaestor would probe me for the truth, so I made sure I could be honest with him, I had not read a single line yet. Back in the sanctity of my quarters, I lit my censer again, feeling the fragrant smoke begin to pour through my breathing mask, and began to read.
GRD Kor Vaal (Krath) / Battle Team Acclivis Draco of House Scholae Palatinae [SA: IV] [ACC: Q]
ID: 1340