Ask Burning Palms

[Shaw Amaris]

"Something juicy I hope," Shaw wiggled his eyebrows playfully, but he seriously doubted the satrap even knew how to have fun. Mortez was the scholastic type, and not the fun scholastic type. He seemed like he would be the kind of professor that everyone hated, from the students forced to sit through his lectures to his coworkers who couldn't shake him because he was tenured. Something he always had to bring up too. The only reason the Jedi were here was because Lorrd's king, on good terms with the Jedi, had called in a favor on the satrap's behalf.

Theia was the first one to approach the portrait, three pairs of eyes following her every moment as she reached out and touched the red lettering before drawing her hand back. Shaw grimaced when she licked it, getting a visible case of the heebie-jeebies. The satrap seemed more interested than surprised when Theia informed the rest of the group that it wasn't blood but just dye. "How relieving," came his dry voice, "To know that substance has not rendered your brain completely useless." Mortez might have been amused by Theia the night before, but his patience had worn thin with all of them. "I leave you to it," he announced, robes sweeping toward the library's double doors.

"To it?" Devek repeated, glancing between Theia and the retreating satrap.

"Yes," Mortez replied, as if it was obvious. He gestured a gray hand around the room. "To do whatever it is you Jedi... do. Have you forgotten? That I did not invite you here out of the kindness of my heart, to fill your bellies on my food—" there he glanced to Shaw, "—and my wine?" There he glanced at Theia. Then he was gone, and the Jedi were left alone in the library.

"Huh," Shaw spoke up, still caught up on the letters and oblivious of the dirty look the satrap had thrown his way. "I didn't know ghosts could write." It was meant to be a joke, but it sort of fell flat. Then, clearing his throat and whispering to Theia while Devek began to mill about the room, "Uhhh what does sacrilege mean?" @GABA

 

[Theia Durand]

It was like the satrap was a completely different person and Theia was beginning to wonder if maybe he was using spice as his daughter had suspected him of retrieving from the desert. He sure seemed like he needed some in order to chill out. Regardless, the young jedi was not amused by the entitlement of the satrap and his comments toward her. She pursed her lips, ready to blurt something just as nasty back to him when he turned his attention back to the others, commanding them all to get to work. Theia wiped her fingers on the top of a cushioned high-back chair, leaving a red streak that she knew would never get out before walking back over to the others.

"Ghosts...don't typically write and definitely not in tattoo dye." Theia said in seriousness, "Sacrilege means to soil or destroy some place sacred." She told Shaw (and she guessed Devek) as she sat down in a nearby chair, thoughts churning and connecting from the pervious day and from what the kid told her that morning. "Okay, think about it... remember how he said last night that he felt like he was being watched, and then Shaw, that fortune teller, she said things about our exit and being watched. No doubt things are being noticed and if the satrap has made enemies, of course there are going to be spies out and about." Theia started.

"Things being noticed by those in the palace too, like this morning a ghost visited me," she was careful not to reveal her sources, "They spoke about the satrap and maybe spice out in the desert, but then remember yesterday that look he had when you mentioned the Crypt of Martyrs." she looked at Knight Devek, "And how he was very nonchalant about slaves, maybe he is still using them for spice mining or trade, got mixed up in something, and now wants us to clean up his mess." Theia suggested and shrugged.

"I think we should check out that crypt." she told them.

@throwitintothefire

 

[Shaw Amaris]

To spoil or destroy some place sacred. Shaw nodded to himself, considering Theia's explanation and running a hand over one of the tables that had been turned over. No, he didn't bother to pick it up, just ran his hand over its intricate, hand carved design and stared at the lettering on the wall with a blank expression. Mortez certainly had spoiled the vibe, that was for sure. Devek looked like he was ready to yeet the first padawan that said something stupid out the window. So Shaw kept his mouth shut because he had a habit of saying stupid stuff on the regular.

"A fortune teller?" Devek echoed, mouth slack and free hand carving through his hair to hold it back and away from his eyes as he picked up a book at random from the library floor. "Is that what they're calling pushers these days?"

Shaw was more interested in the part about the ghost. "A ghost?" he asked, lips splitting into a playful grin that very clearly said he didn't believe her for a second. Shaw still hadn't seen anything convincing on that front. The conclusions Theia was coming to made sense to Shaw, but that didn't count for much. He didn't think there was a chance that Devek would go for it. So far all he had done was kiss up to the satrap, ousting him as a slaver was probably not gonna fly.

So when Devek not only listened to Theia's advice but considered it, Shaw was shook. The knight thumbed the book he held, gaze boring a hole through the vermillion haired teenager as his brow developed a deep and noticeable contemplative crease. What Mortez had said last night about the Crypt of Martyrs—it hadn't set well with him either. It was one of Qatamer's—Lorrd's, even—most famous landmarks, visited daily by hundreds of locals to pay homage to the dead. To see the satrap, who knew the history of Lorrd better than most, act as if he were ashamed of it... it was odd to say the least. Theia had managed to convince him.

"Very well, Padawan Durand. We will follow this hunch. Let's just hope your little ghost isn't a mere poltergeist." He stalked toward the doors and then instructed the padawans, "I will secure us a way into the desert... discreetly." Definitely implying that he didn't trust either of them to get out of the house sight unseen. "You two stay here and clean up this mess." Then it would at least look like they had done something, right? "Meet me out back in half an hour."

Then he was gone, and Shaw looked over at Theia and grinned, impressed. "Alright. Alright. I see you over there, Daphne." Velma was usually the one that solved the mystery, but Daphne was the one with the red hair. Shaw made a half hearted attempt to pick up the room, but really just moved things around more than he did pick them up and organize. He really wasn't good at cleaning up. @GABA

convince devek 16/20

 

[Theia Durand]

Theia's gazed shifted from Shaw to Devek and then back to Shaw, hoping he would find some value in her evalution of the facts that have been given to them. He started walking to the doors and Theia stood up, reading to follow him to the crypts, but paused when he emphasized they were going to do this his way. A frown and pout came as quickly as it left when the girl didn't agree with Devek leaving the two of them here. However, they were already in enough trouble as it was, so, she didn't think it would be worth pushing it right now.

The redhead returned to the chair she was sitting in, keeping in the huff about cleaning up this mess. Didn't the satrap have servents to do this? She had maid droid at home that would clean her family home and so the idea of having to do this on her own was agonizing. She will certainly cross the line there.

Theia grinned though when he called her Daphne, she at least knew that reference rather than the chunks of cheddar he was talking about last night. She gave a cheeky two fingered salute, "All in a days work, now to just demask our true villain." she said focusing on some over turned chairs and a table, trying to use the Force to lift it back up and set it down gently. It was amazing to how much control it took over herself to focus still, almost wondering if some of the pain drugs were still lingering. "I hope our answer is in the crypt." she said eventually standing up and gathering some books to lay on the table.

"That wine...I must have broken it in my fall." she giggled, remembering the satraps accusations, "I opened my pack and it was just a bunch of shattered glass and everything was coated in it."

@throwitintothefire

 

[Shaw Amaris]

Like a child cleaning their room only because their mother told them to, Shaw was easily distracted. He was sitting on one of the upright tables, flipping through a book with pictures of all sorts of monsters and mythological beasts once said to roam the dunes of Lorrd and had forgotten all about cleaning up this mess like Devek had said. It wasn't until Theia's voice broke the silence that he looked up and tossed the book aside. A big grin spread across his face. "Sure you didn't gulp it down last night after Devek locked us in our rooms?" Pain medication and wine. That had to be a bad combo. "It wouuuuld explain that 'ghost' you saw this morning."

Shaw slid off the table and kept an eye out for falling books, not putting it past Theia to chuck something at him for that. He didn't know where she had gotten that information, but he still didn't believe it was a ghost. "Think it's been thirty minutes?" he asked, looking around for a clock in a halfhearted search. He didn't find one but yeah. Yeah, definitely. It had definitely been thirty minutes.

The pair of padawans would leave the library looking almost as bad as they had found it to meet up with Devek at the stables around the back of the great house. He was leading two spamels out the back gate, already saddled and bridled and ready to go. "I was hoping we would take a speeder or something," Shaw frowned, unable to hide his disappointment. He wasn't too eager to ride one of those things again.

Devek rolled his eyes and growled, "We're trying to be discreet, remember? Now come on," he gestured for Shaw to join him as he mounted, "You're riding with me."

Shaw stared. He did not want to ride with Devek. "Couldn't I just walk or—"

But Devek didn't want to waste anymore time and didn't want to take any unnecessary chances. He didn't want to ride with Shaw any more than Shaw wanted to ride with him. "On."

Shaw scurried up the ladder and squeezed in behind Devek, throwing Theia a look over his shoulder. Side by side, the three Jedi would ride the spamels out the back gate, away from the great house and the city of Qatamer that lie beneath it without ever being spotted by the satrap or any of his servants. @GABA

sneak 14/20