TKR: The Lost

[Lyanna Drast]

Lyanna was not a woman who was overly emotional when it public and, while more open in private, she was still not the kind of woman to give herself over to sentiment. She was the Empress of the Imperial Republica and the Galaxy expected her to be strong. And unlike her predecessor, Lyanna was determined not to be found wanting.

Sometimes things got a little bit under her skin though.

She liked her family - maybe that was a weakness? She didn't know. All she knew was that there were actually some members of her family that she liked. Some cousins (including those who were so far from her on the family tree that it was just easier to say "cousins") she actually liked and some she didn't.

Elix had been an example of a cousin she had tolerated and then grown to dislike rather intensely over time.

Eddard had been... well she had spent a little bit of time with Eddard and she had liked the man well enough. He had been nice when she'd met him and he had been driven. She would admit she had had something of a soft spot for him when she was younger...

And now he was dead.

One Sith came back from that particular mission in good enough shape to report and she had had him called to the Imperial Palace directly to give her his report in person. She would receive him in her study, where only two guards were stationed as she sat behind her desk, staring out a side window while she waited.

@Arclight

 

[Jarek Ysirath]

To say Jarek was nervous was an understatement. Having only just returned from that dreadful patrol on Nar Shadda, he was still an agitated mess. His sister had been down for surgery when he had received the call from the capitol to report directly to the Empress herself, which had confused him at first. It seemed that sometime between his departure for Imperial Hutta and the fight with the Mandalorian's on the Smuggler Moon's undercity there had been a coup. A "bloodless" coup as the media was calling it, in which the entire upper echelon of the Imperial elite had backed a new claimant to the throne over the idle Emperor Elix.

Either way, it didn't really matter to Jarek. While his father loved to play politics and try to wiggle his toes into whatever advantageous door he could, Jarek could care less for politics. If he was being honest, they gave him a headache. Taking a deep breath as he stopped at the entrance to the Empress' private study, he exhaled, trying to calm his nerves. Taking a last moment to smooth down the collar of his dress uniform, Jarek opened the door and entered. The Empress was sitting at her desk, flanked by two royal guards that made Jarek especially aware of the double-bladed lightsaber on his back. Should he have turned it in to someone? Was he allowed a weapon in the Empress presence? Wouldn't a guard have taken it from him if so? His mind whirled as he approached the Empress and kneeled before her, head bowed.

"Acolyte Jarek, reporting as ordered your Majesty." He swallowed nervously and held the pose, waiting for a command to rise. Or perhaps a swift lightsaber stroke across the back of his neck. Perhaps she had called him to the capitol to give out some Imperial discipline, his life for the royal blood that he failed to protect. It was almost funny, that he felt no fear when facing down three Mandalorian warriors, but when faced with royalty he turned into a mental mess.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lyanna Drast]

Her appointment was here and he was allowed to enter the study. Lyanna remained seated behind her desk in her study but she followed Jarek with her gaze as the man presented himself to her. She gestured for him to approach her desk and one of the guards stepped out of line menacingly... to begin preparing two cups of tea for them.

The poor guard did everything menacingly in that armour of his.

"Acolyte Ysirath." She greeted him with a nod, gesturing for him to be seated opposite to her, "I have been reading your report on the... confrontation... in Imperial Hutta with the Mandalorians."

Confrontation was what she was calling it and it was politeness and they both knew it. She thanked her guard for the tea and took a sip from her own cup before setting it back down on her saucer.

There was a pregnant pause where she said nothing before she pushed onward.

"My relative, Eddard Thul-Drast, died during the confrontation." she tapped a copy of his mission report with a finger, "Tell me Acolyte Ysirath... how fairs your own blood? I understand she was rather badly injured as well."

@Arclight

 

[Jarek Ysirath]

Looking up at the Empress as she mentioned his name, she bade him to rise. Standing from his kneeling position, he proceeded to sit in the chair she offered him, his peripheral vision watching the Royal guard move suddenly... to prepare tea.

Confrontation was a rather conservative word to describe the patrol gone horribly wrong in the underbelly of Nar Shaddaa. Bloodbath would be a better word in Jarek's opinion.

"Your Majesty, I wish there was more that I could have done to save your relative. Everything happened so fast. Before I knew what had happened I was the last one standing..." A paltry excuse for his failures and he knew it. Bowing his head, unwilling to meet the Empress' eyes, he continued. "She is hospitalized, being fitted with cybernetics to replace the broken limbs I had to remove to save her life."

The mission report lay in front of the Empress, meaning she knew everything about how her cousin had died. Jarek hadn't seen how he died, but he had read the after action report. Maimed and then executed by Mandalorian terrorists. Jarek should have stayed and fought, rather than saving his own skin and that of his maimed sister. There was little else to say. "I have failed you your majesty."

@Nefieslab

 

[Lyanna Drast]

Lyanna took a sip of the tea and she tried to steady her mind and her hand. Thinking back to her cousin was a painful thing - especially since he had died badly. There was no duel or a last stand. There was nothing noble in the way that her cousin had died but then, she supposed, there was nothing noble about war.

"War is foreign to me in many ways." She spoke quietly, "But I know of it. I know it is messy, it is often so very brief in battle and I know that the Galaxy seems to shrink down to just you, your opponent and how best to kill them. How best to defend yourself. Acolyte Ysirath you have nothing to apologise for and have failed in no way."

She swallowed thickly.

"I would ask if my cousin died well... but I know he did not. And I know that in battle, seldom is the case where a death is 'good'." she admitted, "I had hoped against the report. Had hoped that you might be able to dispute it, to tell me that it hadn't been that bad, but I see now I was merely attempting to hide from the truth of the matter. No matter... to other business."

Lyanna cleared her throat.

"Acolyte Ysirath, you have conducted yourself capably, ably, in this confrontation and in other areas. Others have praise for you as well." She looked at him across the desk, "Tell me... what would you do if I were to send you away from the palace today as not a Sith Acolyte but rather, a Sith Crusader?"

@Arclight

 

[Jarek Ysirath]

Once more raising his head as the Empress absolved him of guilt, Jarek couldnt help but feel a moment of relief. He wasn't going to die today. There was however little Jarek could do to help the Empress with her grief, so he remained silent. And besides, it was not the place of a mere acolyte to console the Empress.

Jarek hoped the surprise was not evident on his face when, on top of clearing his guilt of failure, the Empress praised him, and for all intents and purposes offered him a promotion. One that he did not deserve.

"It is not my place to question the Empresses." He risked, the only way he knew to express his unease with the idea. "But if that were to leave this room a Crusader, I would not rest until I was certain I had earned it." There was little else to say, Jarek was nothing if not tenacious, and he would not allow himself to sit idly holding a rank he did not feel he had earned.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lyanna Drast]

Ah.

It seemed that Jarek seemed to think that him leaving the Palace today as a Sith Crusader was some kind of reward. In fact, she supposed a lot of people would think that way. To a lot of people, status was all that mattered and gaining a higher rank was seen as something to be desired beyond much else.

She could see why.

It was not so in this case however.

"Jarek..." she smiled sweetly, "You act as though I mean to reward you, while unknowingly hitting the target with a blaster bolt with precision."

She tapped her desk.

"You will leave the palace today a Sith Crusader and you will carry the burdens of this rank with you from this day onwards." she told him bluntly, "Namely this; I charge you with creating a group for fast response to attacks made by Mandalorian and traitor forces. Make no mistake about this... I am giving you a new rank with new responsibilities."

Lyanna paused before adding.

"Of course... you may refuse if you so wish."

It was an option but she didn't really feel as though she needed to explain to the man why taking the chance to refuse might very well be a bad move.

He wasn't a fool after all.

@Arclight

 

[Jarek Ysirath]

So he was being punished. It was the only conclusion that Jarek could come up with at the revelation as to why the Empress was promoting him. But it was a punishment that he could take with dignity. Nodding as the Empress finished, a small smile crept onto his face.

"I have been told I am dense your Majesty, but I am not so dense as to refuse an appointment by the Empress herself." Eyes thoughtful as he considered what exactly the Empress was asking of him. "I accept this charge, gladly." A fire lit in his eyes as he spoke. He was a man of action and if the Empress wanted him on the front lines, he would happily obey.

"If that is all, then by your leave, it appears I have work to do."

@Nefieslab