Ask Meeting with Royals

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

According to Annfyn tradition, no outsider could set foot on the surface of Annwfyn, unless they were bestowed the title of Children of Nature. Due to that, all diplomatic meetings were held in one of the several space stations that floated around the planet's orbit. In these cases, the monarch and the parliament would travel outside of the world to participate in talks with foreign representatives.

It was what is going to happen now. Queen Gwendolyn, her prime-minister and other nobles had gathered in the throne hall of Space Station Number 09 to meet with the representative of Apex. Caerllion had proposed to the parliament the idea of hiring them to help against their growing problems with pirates. However, they wanted to meet with the company leadership first, which made the Prince to contact Arla and request her presence.

He and his father, who had helped convince the parliament of wanting to meet with members of Apex, were now waiting for Arla’s arrival at one of the station's spaceports. From there, they would escort her to meet the court. Caerllion discreetly hide his happiness in seeing her again.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla wasn't sure what to make of this. When she had offered to assist Caerllion, she hadn't been expecting an "audition" and while she had no qualms with it as long as she was being paid, the implications of it were not thrilling to her.

She knew that the Annfyn could be racist and pretentious by nature, and she had no doubt that their nobles were the worst of that group. She was half expecting that she would have to simply stand up and walk out of the meeting altogether depending on how things went. She wasn't desperate and had no need to be demeaned or spoken down to by anyone. Sometimes - not often - but sometimes she asked herself what Raze would do. Or more specifically if he would put up with something that she was faced with. While she seldom ever directly took after his actions of just murdering people, she also didn't put up with being demeaned by anyone.

She set the Explorer down in one of the hangar bays of the space station, several people bustling around the area as she disembarked, bidding Fenris to remain where he was and guard the ship while Teecee and 3PO kept things on lockdown.

She made her way down, leaving behind her weapons and wearing a set of clothes that were nice enough to not draw too many scowls, but practical enough to not be intolerable to her pragmatic sensibilities.

She saw Caerllion in the hangar bay waiting for her and she gave him a small smile.

Hi Caer. What should I be expecting from these... royals? she asked.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

A smile appeared at Caerllion’s lips when he saw the half-Sephi leave her ship. “Hello, Arla. They’ll want to talk with you about the Apex’s capacities, but we need to be careful. The opposition from the prime-minister is going to be annoying.” a fake cough attracted his attention back to the older Annfyn that was there with them. “Oh, I forgot. Arla, this is my father, Rhydian. He is going to be the one that presented the motion of hiring the Apex in the parliament.”

Rhydian approached the half-Sephi, before respectfully bowing to her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My son used to talk a lot about you some years ago.”he turned back to the young Annfyn. "She is indeed beautiful. You should ask to go out with her." Caerllion felt his face become red when his father said it. He turned back to Arla.“I support the job that you and my son used to have, with others in the parliament sharing these thoughts. However, as Caerllion said, the prime-minister and his supporters will be difficult. They seem to hate the Cyfnos family and anything that we present in the meetings. Even if it’s for the good of our own people.”

“The prime-minister is the uncle that I told you about.” he whispered to Arla. “Dalyor of Ileuad, married to my mother's younger sister.” after this introduction to the situation, the two Annfyn would guide Arla through a hall that would end in a large door. There was a guard on each side of the door.

Rhydian entered first, to open the meeting. After some minutes, Caerllion and Arla were allowed to enter. The room was large, with several Annfyns seated in rolls of chairs on each side. His father was seated among those on the left, where the supporters of the House of Cyfnos were located. In the center of the room was the throne, where Queen Gwendolyn was seated in all her splendor. Next to her was the prime-minister, with an obnoxious look on his face.

Caerllion immediately kneeled in front of the throne. “My Queen, I present to you Arla, representative of Apex.” he gestured for the half-Sephi to approach. “She’ll explain to your majesty the benefits of hiring her company.”

“Is she a hybrid of an Annfyn? Or is she a Sephi? Did you dare to bring such races before your Queen in her radiant throne?” the prime-minister said, making Caerllion ball his fists. He hoped that Arla would maintain the calm, because his uncle was doing it to induce her to act against him. Around them, the nobles started to whisper about Arla's heritage.

"Don't offend our guest, Daylor. Let she speak first." the Queen voice silenced the entire room. "Can you tell to us more about your company? I heard that you are very competent in doing planetary defense."

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla was more than a little surprised as Caer's father began talking about him asking Arla out, and she was surprised that he had spoken of her to his parents. More than that, she was surprised her father was endorsing it. And now of all times.

Fortunately, things proceeded on to business moments later, though Arla's mind was still caught up in what was very much not business.

If she were being honest, all the political intrigue was... not really her strong suit. Caer was telling her names that there was virtually no chance she would remember, and talking about political intrigue that she just didn't do. She'd founded Apex without political alignment for precisely that reason. She had neither the taste for nor inclination toward politicking. She was good at killing people, and it was what she'd made a living out of.

Granted, she had asked, she supposed.

Things didn't get much better as they made it into the court. Arla gave a courteous bow to the Queen, although she didn't kneel. She had sworn off such acts when she left the Sith, determined to carve her own way. She wanted this contract, but not so much so that she would sacrifice her dignity for it. Nor suffer through insults from this likes of the snot who spoke up next.

Arla's silvery gaze fell on the man, and she was fully intent on retorting before the Queen spoke up. And perhaps it was good thing that she did. Arla had yet to decide if she was simply playing good cop or if she actually commanded the respect and dignity she at least gave the impression of.

Anyone can do planetary defense for you, she said. After all, she was all business most of the time, and as she reminded herself that the cockroach that had insulted her wasn't even worth her notice, she instead slipped back into the facts. Apex sold services that were difficult to come by, and people paid a premium for it.

If you want someone to hold territory for you and fill borderline-useless uniforms, Apex isn't it, she said honestly. They didn't do occupation contracts or long term anything. They sold to the highest bidder the skills of special forces, and they sold it well.

Precision strikes, raids, sabotage, reconnaissance, target protection and elimination, among other things. Apex sells special operations capabilities that match or exceed those of any government military in the galaxy, she said. It was a bold claim, but one that had proven to be true. In other words, they were the perfect group to find and kill pirates or any other pesky adversaries. The best part of it was that it wasn't even a sales pitch. Well, okay, it was a sales pitch, but it wasn't inflated at all. It was based on simple facts.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Caerllion, the Queen and the rest of the nobles paid close attention to Arla's explanation of how Apex operated. The Champion felt relieved that she maintained composure even when his uncle tried to offend her. Daylor was particularly more insufferable today, which wasn’t uncommon. He had some deep grudge with the Cyfnos family that the young Annfyn never understood.

Once Arla finished, the Queen took the word. “Indeed, we have a local army that is capable of protecting Annwfyn. However, groups of pirates had been doing annoying raids against our trading vessels and they evaded us. We desire to hire Apex to discover their hiding place and strike them down with a precision strike. Would it be possible?”

Before Arla could answer, the Prime-minister opened his mouth to say his opinion. “Your Majesty, before hiring them, I believe that a test of their capacities would be good.” he turned to look at the half-Sephi with a smug look on his face. “Our intelligence had located that a small pirate group known as Uryon Riders that had a base in Bunduki.” the mention of this group made Caerllion briefly wide his eyes. He had hunted them for some years, due to their possible relation with the death of his mother.

“Since we can't do an official strike due to the local government of Bunduki seeing it as a war declaration, a covert operation by Apex would be perfect. If your company succeeds on this simple task, we are not only going to pay for this mission, but also sign a contract for more secret strikes against piracy and perhaps even for other things. Don’t you think that it's a good idea, my Queen?” Gwendolyn nodded, but Caerllion could feel that there was something wrong in this so-called simple mission. His uncle would never offer to supporters of House of Cyfnos something that was easy.

He didn’t try to warn Arla about it. After all the time that they worked together, he knew very well that few things passed unnoticed by her.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

To her credit, Arla remained stone faced as the discussions unfolded. Even so, she let the Shadow creep up around her, letting it settle over the mind of the Prime Minister. He would feel unnerved as he spoke, an unsettling crawling in his skin that, of course, couldn't be proven. There was no actual evidence that she was behind it, but she simply wanted him to feel unsettled.

Particularly given the fact that this was obviously a trap of some kind. She didn't even need the Force to see through the rather obvious attempt to lure her into a trap. It was literally so simple a child could have come up with it.

She already knew how it was going to go: Apex goes in to hunt the pirates, the Bunduki government has been tipped off, Apex gets led into a slaughter. And then Arla comes back and kills the Prime Minister. That was how this kind of business went, right?

And as her anger at this knowledge grew, so, too, would the Prime Minister's inexplicable discomfort. After all, Nightsisters were not to be trifled with.

As long as Apex is being paid, she said coldly. Audition or not, she didn't work for free.

I assume you can provide my team with everything you have intelligence-wise on these pirates, she said. After all, going in blind was idiotic at best and negligent at worst.

Though I will ask: if you're looking at a contract to hunt pirates, then is this even really an audition? You're just sending me to do what you already want me to do, she asked, looking directly at the Prime Minister. She was confident he'd pick up on the fact that she knew what he was doing. It was all shadows and shell games, but Arla wasn't fooled. It didn't matter either way, but if things went badly, clearly she knew who to come for.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

In a matter of fact, Caerllion easily identified the source of the darkness that suddenly was surrounding his uncle. He had felt Arla use the Force many times to be capable of identifying her signature. When he looked at Daylor, the Prime-minister was feeling uncomfortable. The Champion wanted to smirk, but it would be suspicious. He only maintained the thought that the Politician deserved it.

The Prime-minister struggled to maintain composure. He didn’t expect that Arla would have been capable of seeing through what he planned. Caerllion was sure that the thought of himself being smarter than he really was. “This group of pirates is the lesser of our troubles. There are some worse than them raiding our trade ships. Dealing with this group will be a test.”

“Of course we are going to give you information.” the Prime-minister forced a smile. “We would not send you there without any knowledge of the situation.” Caerllion would also ask his father for this data before the Apex departed. He didn’t trust that the information coming from his uncle would be correct.

“I believe that everything is settled.” the Queen said, before rising from her throne. “You two are free to leave, the parliament still needs to discuss other matters. Ms. Arla, since you are a guest of my nephew, there will be a banquet in your homage tonight. I believe that your mission can wait until tomorrow.”

Caerllion would bow to his aunt one last time, before leaving the room with Arla. Once they were alone, the Annfyn would turn at his friend. “This group of pirates, I already faced them in the past.” he stared at her eyes, pleading. “I need to go with you, please.” he needed to understand their participation in the death of his mother, but was unsure about revealing it to her.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla was sure whatever information the Prime Minister was giving would be either next to worthless or outright counterproductive. Still, anything could be scoured through before executing the actual attack.

She gave a polite half-bow to the Queen as the woman said they could leave, but the truth was that Arla was feeling irritable. She was feeling irritable at this whole situation and that piece of filth who wasn't fit to lick her boots. She spent a few moments fantasizing about crushing his neck, but got herself under control a few moments later. All in due time. Don't lose your head, she reminded herself.

She turned to leave and found herself wishing she didn't have to go to some dumb banquet, but whatever. This place was a brood of vipers and she had no interest in playing their petty games. She could barely tolerate remaining in their presence.

As they exited the room, Caer made quick work of telling her that he had to go with her. To be honest, she had been more or less expecting that, so it didn't bother her, though now that she was confronted directly with the question, it occurred to her that there was more going on here. He practically reeked of desperation to travel along with her on the trip, and that was... weird.

What aren't you telling me? she asked. She wasn't sure if it was something about these political games or something else, but she could tell there was something he was keeping from her.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Caerllion wasn't even a bit surprised that Arla was asking his reasons for asking to go with her. She was clever and was always attentive to her surroundings, being more than anyone else that he had ever met. It made her look like a huntress. It was obvious that she would easily see through his attempts to hide the truth.

He took a deep breath, mustering forces to talk about this part of his past. “My mother was killed by a predator of Annwfyn when it attacked us. We are walking together in the forest after a picnic. I was a child at the time.” he tried to not think about that day, but the memories were coming. The sound of the birds, the laugh, then the silence that soon became screams, the eight red eyes of the monster. He could even remember the smells.

A lonely tear rolled through his cheek. It wasn’t sadness.

It was full of hate.

“She gave her life for me to escape and find my father. However, the attack shouldn’t have happened because these animals were nocturnal and a guard was scorting us. But he disappeared and was never found. We thought that he was killed and eaten by the animal.” his face became a scowl and he bailed his fists. “Until I found him leading a group of pirates called Uryon Riders during a mission some years ago. He slipped from my hands at the time, but I can catch him again.”

In a matter of fact, Caerllion never talked about his past to Arla because he thought that she would call him weak for still pursuing answers about his mother's death. However, he believed that there was more behind the events of that day and that pirate had the answers. And once everything was stracted, the young Annfyn wanted to have the pleasure of killing him. Because he was alive while his mother was dead. This would be revenge.

And revenge never was a weakness for a Sith.

“I want to make him tell me why he disappeared before the attack. Even if I need to pull it from his mind by myself.” he finished the story, once again looking at her eyes. “Perhaps you'll think that it’s the stupid desire of a child to cling to the memory of his dead mother, but I need to know what happened that day.”

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla was silent, silvery eyes locked on his face as he spoke. She could see the emotions written on his face and in his voice. In the way his eyes glistened. She knew about losing your mother, but her face remained stony and difficult to read.

At first she didn't know where this was going: a story about a beast that killed his mother didn't seem to be at all relevant to the pirates, but she remained silent and the story unfolded. It began to make more sense as he spoke, and she put the pieces together. He wanted revenge, and she couldn't blame him. She had hunted and killed the ISC Governor who was behind her mother's death. A part of her still blamed the Empire no matter how much she tried to quash the feeling, but she also knew that trying to rip apart an entire government - and one that was currently wavering anyway - was all but pointless.

I won't deny you coming with us, but only so long as you remember that this is a contract, and the contract will come first, she said. There was more at stake for both of them - him included - than just revenge. This was a foot in the door to his coup of the planet.

She couldn't guarantee that they would be able to interrogate rather than kill the man or even that they would get to him. And yet, it was clear he was emotionally invested in hunting these pirates. That had its cons, but also had its pros.

You have done your own recon of this group? she guessed. Perhaps he hadn't, but she could at least conjecture as much.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

”I understand. I’ll not do anything to harm your mission.” Caerllion knew very well that Apex’s contract with Annwfyn was at stake here and with it the reputation of House of Cyfnos in front of the parliament. If they failed, all his political plans would be ruined. And his uncle would be ecstatic. He couldn’t allow it to happen. “I'll focus on stopping the pirates.” he quenched his revenge.

Sometimes being an Annfyn with strong emotions could be so annoying.

A side smile appeared on his lips when Arla asked if he had done his search about the pirates. “Of course! I had been tracking the past of the Uryon Riders since I discovered that their leader was Varitan Paxisys. I'll send all the information for your datapad, together with the official ones that my father will find after the meeting.” whatever the Prime-minister gave to them would be garbage.

“To begin with, they own a modified CR90 corvette and the band has 100 members.” they were indeed a small group. This only made him more intrigued about what his uncle was planning with sending Apex to attack them. “They attack trade ships, usually small ones, and extort money from governments from distant Outer Rim planets. The official report will have information about their hiding place.”

Now that it was solved, the two Force sensitives had some free time. It gave him an idea. “We have some time before the banquet. The station has a promenade with bars and shops. Maybe we could go there to pass time?” after saying it, he immediately remembered what his father had said early that day and his ears twitched.

Was he finally inviting her to go out?

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla was a bit surprised to hear how large the pirate force was as many such groups were only a dozen or two, but she supposed it made sense why outside help would be required for a job like this. Of course, all the more because it was apparently in a zone that was off limits for the local government to intervene.

Her mind was all business and she had all but forgotten about the banquet when he mentioned it again followed by a proposal to go to the promenade.

Shouldn't we be preparing for the mission? she asked, somewhat surprised by his question. It's obviously a trap and I'd like to lose as few of my people as possible, she said.

Or even reconing... she paused, remembering where they were and deciding that not openly stating that she wanted to investigate assassinating the Prime Minister was probably a good thing.

I think we have work to do, she finally settled on, head tilting to the side to see if he agreed.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

No, he wasn’t inviting her out.

“Yes! We should be preparing for the mission.” Caerllion said, split between a mix of relief and a bit of disappointment. Relief because he had no idea of what he would do if she had accepted. He could have acted like an idiot in front of her and then the friendship that they had would be destroyed. Apex support for his plans would also have gone down the drain. And disappointment because he had really wanted the chance of simply talking with Arla like normal people, without needing to think about pirates and plots to assassinate politicians.

There had been a long time since the two had a proper conversation. He would try another time.

“I have an apartment in the habitational sector. If you want, we can talk here.” the Annfyn said, offering her to follow him. It was dangerous for them to plot anything in an open place like this one. The Prime-Minister had eyes in many places and would use their plans against them if he had the opportunity.

“Or perhaps do you want to talk on your ship?” it was another possibility. No one would disturb them here. A sound coming from his EZPhone made the Annfyn pick it immediately. “My father sent the information about the pirates. It has the details of the area where they are hiding. It’s a mountain close to Bunduki’s capital.”

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla seldom found herself away from work. There was always the next target, the next mission, the next job. She loved her work, and it had made getting to know her extraordinarily difficult. Even she and Nakoa often spent their time talking about work rather than their personal lives. Arla, CEO of Apex, was on a job and that meant her professional face didn't break.

Arla felt her EZphone buzz and pulled it out to look through the copy of the contract that had been sent over. It would require further review by their more business-minded people, but from a cursory look it looked good. She forwarded it on.

Your apartment sounds good, she agreed. He still seemed apprehensive as if he were hiding something, but it was continually there. She wondered if it had to do with what his father had said earlier. Occasionally, Arla had a tendency to play the ostrich, and that seemed to be the case here and now.

She let him lead the way out of the building and toward wherever he lived as they spoke, only bringing up important topics in a hushed tone once she was free of any prying ears.

How do you envision this coup of yours going? she asked, now having faces to put to names, her mind had already turned to the killing of Caer's uncle. Because really, why wouldn't her mind turn to that?

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Caerllion nodded. “Then, we go there.” he would guide her through the halls until they arrived in an elevator. He pressed the number of the level, making it move. Inside it, the Annfyn was able to explain to her his plan for the coup. Like her, he was also talking in a rushed tone. “My mother was the Queen’s heir, with her death, I would be the heir to the throne. However, my uncle and his supporters are pushing it in favor of his wife, my mom’s sister. They preach that a Cyfnos should never have the throne, only a Ileaud.” he was starting to hate the traditions of his homeworld.

Caerllion spend so much time in other planets that it made him think that the traditions of his homeworld were stupid and limited their development.

“If my uncle and his family suffer an ‘accident’, his supporters will have no choice but accept me as the heir. I also want to blackmail them to vote for my father as Prime-minister, this way he’ll be able to influence my grandaunt to abdicate.” he didn’t want to kill Gwendolyn, with her abdication being enough. However, if it ended up being necessary, Caerllion would arrange it.

Once the elevator stopped and the door opened, the Annfyn would guide Arla through another hall. This was different from the parts of the space station that they had seen so far, having decorations in gold and silver. “This level is reserved to my family and their guests. If you want, you can choose one of the other apartments. Our most faithful servants always search the place for spy devices, so it’s safe.”

He opened the door, revealing his apartment. It was worthy of a noble, with a large bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a diner room. The decoration was mostly black with silver details, the colors of his house. Even the large rectangular table in the diner room was black like onyx. Caerllion would move a chair for Arla to sit on it.

It was his apartment and he was a gentleman.

With the two seated, Caerllion would continue explaining his plans. “I’ll need help to arrange the accident and the blackmail of the nobles in the opposition. Would Apex gather information that I can use for it? Or perhaps plant information that could leave to their disgrace? I like to have more than one option.”

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla almost rolled her eyes at the petty squabbling of politics, but this was how the galaxy operated. Maybe if it operated a bit more directly they would have fewer weaklings in power.

That's a lot of steps, she said. The accidents and the killings were one thing, but when you added blackmail on top of it, it left more people alive who could provide testimony of your wrong doing. And how many people would they have to kill? A Prime Minster was hard enough, but add a Queen? An entire family? The guards? It was a tall order and Arla was already mulling over in her head how to see it done.

His apartment as they made their way inside was extravagant and luxurious. In truth, it was pretty wonderful in its own way, and Arla certainly understood the appeal. Lodgings fit for a noble.

I would suggest not trying to blackmail anyone. It leaves more fingers alive to point at you, she said. Plus Apex didn't really... do blackmailing. Sure, Arla, personally, had tried her fingers in similar pies before, but Apex was ultimately a military organization as much as anything. They killed people, and they were very good at it.

The killing we can do, she said honestly. That was the part of the job that they were quite well suited for. Some of the Anzati and the Wandering Stars could even make it look like accidents, but that was a whole different ask.

As for these pirates, she said, moving back to their current threat. I'd prefer not to fight 100 people because there will be casualties, and while we do have flight wings, I'm almost useless for that, she said. But if we could find a way to set detonators on the engine of the ship or otherwise sabotage it, we could wipe them out all at once, she said.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Caerllion listened to Arla's advice. It made sense. Even if he could blackmail the opposition, they could still try to outmaneuver him. They remaining alive or in influential positions could be dangerous for his plans in the long term. He would need to deal with them in another way. “You are right. I can find ways of removing them from my path.” he would need to think about it with his allies. “I'm curious, what you would do if you was in my place?”

Arla's idea to wipe out the pirates was efficient, unfortunately it would mean that he would never be able to interrogate their leader. However, Caerllion had agreed that he wasn’t going to jeopardize the mission with his quest for answers. “It's a good idea. We could deal with the pirates with the minimum of losses. I can even use telepathy to manipulate one of them to do it for us, perhaps their leader. He would have access to the other parts of the ship without being questioned.” and the Annfyn would be able to seek answers directly from his mind.

It would be a mutual win.

“What are your plan to avoid the government of Bunduki questioning our presence? We need to think about it too.” while he don’t doubt Apex’s abilities in covering their traces, it was always good to be prepared for the worst scenario. It was even more necessary because they don’t know what the Prime-minister had planned for them. “The local population have Epicanthix as its members. Telepathic powers will not useless against them.”

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla considered a moment what the answer to his question was. If she were in his place? She never wanted to be was the answer. Arla had no inclination for politics and its maneuvering, and it was why rather than try to conquer and rule worlds, she had simply formed an organization without political affiliation so that she could focus her energy on what she was good at.

I don't know. I don't do politics, ruling, and manipulation. I'm not good at them, so my advice is unlikely to be helpful, she said honestly. Even as a Sith she had confronted her problems directly rather than scheming.

And then they arrived at the real question: what to do about the local government if they were caught. Because a trap was at the core of this, he was completely correct that she couldn't simply ignore it, which was what she really wanted to do.

You're better at playing politics than I am. Do you have a suggestion? she asked.

Where exactly are these pirates stationed? she asked. There was always the possibility of just taking unmarked ships and playing off themselves as pirates, but she really didn't like that idea. Fighting another local government was just asking for trouble she didn't need.

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

The Annfyn wasn’t surprised when Arla admitted that she wasn’t good with politics. He had learned it when they had ended in the dungeons of a Hutt many years ago. “It’s fine.” he smiled at her, brushing off the lack of answer to his question. “I’m not good with military operations and this type of thing. One time, I had all the troops under my command end up marching in a swamp because I thought that it was a good strategy.” obviously, he omitted the part where he fell fifteen times in the swamp.

He considered the two questions that the half-Sephi made, believing that the answer of the second could help solving the problem of the first. Caerllion grabbed his EZPhone, rereading the information that his father had given to them. “The pirates are hiding their ship in a hermitage of the Followers of Palawa. Do you know them? They are responsible for developing Tëras Käsi.” after giving this small piece of trivia, he turned his attention back to the text. “According to the intelligence, the monks are pissed.” the gears inside the Annfyn’s mind started to turn, establishing a new course of action.

“Maybe we could reach these monks, offering them Apex’s services to remove the pirates from their hermitage. Apex would receive another payment for this service and if a member of the government appears from nowhere asking why we are here, we point to the monks as your contractors.” this would give more money to Apex, while removing the interference of the local government.

Then another message arrived in Caerllion’s EZPhone. He immediately laughed after reading it and passed it to her. “The Prime-minister sent the information. There is nothing useful here! It only says that they are located on a mountain. This makes our intelligence look like a bunch of morons.” his uncle was really desperate to ruin this operation that he didn't even think that it would damage the government’s image.

A new message arrived, this time alerting them that the banquet would soon start. Caerllion took a deep breath, before rising from his seat. “Now you are going to meet the rest of Annwfyn nobility. I hope that it'll brief.”

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

No one's good at everything, she said as consolation to them both. Though even as she said the words, she thought of her parents. They, in fact, did seem good at everything. She wondered if she had tried harder at ruling and politics if she could have learned it. She thought so, but why. She didn't do that because she didn't want to. Or at least, that was what she told herself.

She listened as he talked about the monks, and though she had never heard of them, she had heard of their martial art. Although not a practitioner herself, it seemed these days that most Force-users had heard of - and by extension feared - that art. She was impressed.

Do you think they would hire us? she asked. Monks were an odd bunch. Some were completely averse to violence, and some were willing to open the door for the right circumstances.

I suppose we could always go to parlay with the monks and claim we were attacked, she added with a shrug. She supposed they would have to see.

I suppose I'll need to go get a dress from my ship, she said. Although she didn't care for dressing up, she had occasions that required it, and she kept a number of dresses aboard that ranged from going to a club to going to a formal ball.

How long... am I going to be obligated to stay? she said, not being able to hide the twisting of her face that said "yeah, I really don't want to go to this." Veiled insults, fake platitudes, and people who thought to highly of themselves were not her idea of a good evening.

@LouJoVi