Curiosity [D5 MA, Wild Ride]

[Shelzais Sek]

The upper deck of the hoverbarge was much emptier and less chaotic than the last time Shelzais's visitor had seen it. The groupings of furniture looked less haphazard, and nobody at all was lounging on them or milling around. A familiar shiny little droid greeted him at the boarding dock, beeping arrhythmically.

B9-D4 would guide him across the deck to the stern, to an open hatch with a ramp leading downward...

[Ilar'Shala]

Ilar managed to find his way to the barge without too much hassle, although he was barraged with dirty looks and covered whispers from xenophobes who seemed unusually bold today.

Arriving on board, he spotted B9 and pulled a carefully wrapped glass from behind his back that he had accidentally carried home with him after the last party. "Keep this one just between us buddy?"

[Shelzais Sek]

B9 turned back toward Ilar and extends a gripper clamp to take custody of the glass, making it disappear behind a polished black panel in its stubby body. The droid's whistle as the panel clicks shut was vaguely conspiratorial. A light near its optical sensor blinked off and on again, once.

Then it swiveled back around and led on...

Below decks, Ilar would find himself in a sort of parlor space. Viewports along one wall let in some of the bright, wintry sunlight from outside, though it was heavily filtered by curtains and polarizing of the panes themselves. The other walls were hung with a mixed assortment of art--some of it rather provocative, in various senses of the word--and lined with white couches.

The mistress of the barge stood with her back to the hatch, casually dressed in another of her figure-skimming jumpsuits. A holo projector sat on a table in front of her, and she was poking at some kind of visual composition that seemed to involve a lot of little bits of other pictures, many of them featuring bodies or parts thereof.

She turned around when B9 beeped, full lips turning up in a smooth smile. "Ah. Mr. Ilar'Shala, I presume."

[Ilar'Shala]

Ilar took in the view as he slowly followed B9 down the hall, even pausing to look at some of the art.
So that's what good art is supposed to look like. He thought to himself, reflecting on the piece he had commissioned for the party night.

Coming to the end of the hall, Ilar suddenly felt ubderdressed in simple pants and a buttoned shirt. "Yes, that would be me Ms Sek, to what do I owe the pleasure of this invitation?"

[Shelzais Sek]

"Oh, didn't I say in my note?" Shelzais made a thoughtful little moue for a moment. "You came the other night, but left early. People don't often leave my parties early." She reached back to click off the holoprojector, the half-assembled collage disappearing and leaving empty air behind.

"And then of course there's yesterday..." Her brow ridges arched ingenuously.

[Ilar'Shala]

"Ah, then the fault is certainly mine." Ilar answered with a bow of apology. "I had assumed that such a reason was surely just a smokescreen for some more nefarious Sith plot."

He reaches back and strokes his lekku soothingly. "Guess being here on Ziost for this assemblage has made me a little more paranoid than usual."

When Shelzais mentions yesterday though, his gaze hardens. "What about yesterday?"

[Shelzais Sek]

"My dear Mr. Ilar'Shala, if you knew me at all you'd know how absurd that idea is. Plotting bores me dreadfully, and so do most Sith." Shelzais's smile was disarming, or at least it was the right kind to be so. Sharp pureblood teeth might have detracted a bit from the effect, admittedly.

"I'm surprised you're still on the planet today, frankly." She flopped gracefully onto a couch and waved a manicured hand at Ilar in a vague indication that he should sit wherever he liked. "Especially since you're apparently a man who's not too bold to make a retreat. Is it your mistress who won't let you leave?" Her purring voice held a sympathetic note, curiously.

[Ilar'Shala]

"Well one could assume that I accepted your invitation out of curiosity and with a desire to rectify that lack of information Ms Sek, and please, just Ilar is fine." He replies with a not uncharming smile of his own before accepting a seat on a chair with a surprising recline.

"This time yesterday I would have agreed with you, about getting off system I mean. I don't fear retribution against House Ausar by the Emperor, if he'd wanted to he could've ended my Master tthen and there, but it's the toadies who may come looking to finish the job to curry his favour."

With a slight laugh he shook his head. "No, Lord Ausar offered to let me leave, but she insisted on staying so...." He shrugged as if his decision was never in doubt.

[Shelzais Sek]

"And if Lord Ausar jumped off a cliff, I guess you'd jump too?" A brow ridge arched doubtfully. "You've decided to be as crazy as she is, then. My condolences."

[Ilar'Shala]

Ilar's smile froze in place for a moment as Shelzais simplified his position a little inaccurately.

"Loyalty and insanity are hardly synonymous." He snapped, a little harder than he intended. "If I was that addle minded, then this would be a rather one sided conversation you'd be having with a smoking corpse. Besides, I doubt my life is in much danger, you are one of the few individuals who has regarded me as an individual, rather than just a possession."

[Shelzais Sek]

"In the Empire? Oh, sweetie. I would say they are... well. If not synonymous, then closer than you think." Shelzais sat up a bit straighter. "Ah. On that note, something to drink?" She nudged open the front of a small cabinet serving as a side table to the couch she'd settled down on, revealing a collection of bottles and glasses. Was there a bar in every deck and cabin of this thing? Yeah, probably.

"And, oh, on the contrary. You might be a possession, as far as most people who matter are concerned... but you're one Lord Ausar was willing to put her life on the line for. They won't forget that quickly."

[Ilar'Shala]

"Maybe us backwater types need to get an updated thesaurus then." He jokes lightly and nods at the offer of a drink. "I'll have whatever you're having."

When Shelzais mentioned Raela's potential sacrifice, he nodded. "And that is why I stand behind her and her play for the Dark Council. If she's willing to make such a gesture to save me, what won't she do to save this Empire?"

[Shelzais Sek]

"Maybe you do." She shifted on the couch to pull out two glasses and poured a generous couple of fingers of amber liquid into each, then leaned across--the deep neckline of her top becoming a bit more, well, obvious for a few moments--to hand one to Ilar. "I'm not sure you follow me, Ilar sweetie. Those maniacs know you're a weak spot for her now. What else will she give up for you? Don't answer, just think about it. You know somebody out there is. It won't end if she gets on the Council, either."

Shelzais leaned back and sipped her drink, smiling slightly to herself as she did so despite the subject matter of their conversation. It was a very nice Corellian whisky, after all. One couldn't remain entirely dour.

"Save the Empire, though? From what, for what?" She held her glass away again, the smile smoothing back into neutrality. "What the hell do you care about the Empire, anyway?"

[Ilar'Shala]

"Maybe you do." She shifted on the couch to pull out two glasses and poured a generous couple of fingers of amber liquid into each, then leaned across--the deep neckline of her top becoming a bit more, well, obvious for a few moments--to hand one to Ilar. "I'm not sure you follow me, Ilar sweetie. Those maniacs know you're a weak spot for her now. What else will she give up for you? Don't answer, just think about it. You know somebody out there is. It won't end if she gets on the Council, either."

Ilar's lekku twitched subconsciously at the calculated lean in from Shelzais, after all his blood ran as blue as any other twi'lek's. As he accepted the drink, his gaze flicked from her face for just a brief moment, but probably long enough for her to notice. With a nod, he took her advice on board, not that he hadn't considered what Raela's display meant already, but it did raise a few additional questions in his mind.

Shelzais leaned back and sipped her drink, smiling slightly to herself as she did so despite the subject matter of their conversation. It was a very nice Corellian whisky, after all. One couldn't remain entirely dour.

"Save the Empire, though? From what, for what?" She held her glass away again, the smile smoothing back into neutrality. "What the hell do you care about the Empire, anyway?"

Sipping thoughtfully from his glass, and some of the thoughts were even about their topics of conversation, Ilar replied slowly. "Well even I have to live in this Empire, and may even need to cut out my own small section of it for myself soon. So the stronger it is, to oppose these Rebel forces, the better." He admitted a little more freely than he might have to others. "As you say the currently perceived dynamic of our relationship is dangerous to both of us."

[Shelzais Sek]

"Do you really have to, though?" Shelzais swirled her glass gently, her voice light and casual. "You could just get out. Grab a ship, head out to the rim, and kick around the independent worlds, where nobody would know you're anyone's possession. Or an unregistered sensitive, for that matter." She sipped her drink.

"Imperial civilization and order are dreadfully overrated. I mean, really, what have they ever done for you?"

[Ilar'Shala]

Ilar just lifts his glass, toasting Shelzais. "To killing two birds with one stone. Lord Ausar has agreed to register her newest apprentice to attend the Korriban Academy after this matter of the Dark Council is resolved."

Perhaps it was the stronger drink loosening his tongue, maybe he just needed to confide in someone, either way he hoped that Shelzais wouldn't consider this worthy gossip to circulate.

[Shelzais Sek]

For the shortest of moments Shelzais looked genuinely stricken, almost as if she'd just taken a physical blow.The reaction passed very quickly, though; if Ilar didn't happen to be watching her in that instant (or, er, happened to be looking elsewhere than at her face) he might have missed it.

"Well, congratulations." She returned the toast-gesture, her voice absolutely arid, and took a slightly larger drink.

"A very prestigious academy. I once walked those hallowed halls myself." The sarcasm is... dry, but unmistakable.

[Ilar'Shala]

Shelzais's tone had danced from polite to almost flirtatious, from exasperated at Ilar's stupidity, and now to this. This almost emotionless deadpan, and Ilar suspected there was something behind those few simple words she spoke.

Sitting a little more upright in his chair, he leaned forward towards her and looked into her eyes sympathetically. "Your time there was...unpleasant?" He gently questioned her, trying to coax out her story.

[Shelzais Sek]

Shelzais's laugh at that was a bloodless shadow of her earlier purr. "Darling, if anyone truly enjoys her time at Korriban, she's too crazy to survive till graduation." She twirled her glass between sharply manicured fingertips. "Lord Ausar... she trusts you?"

The question was a seeming non-sequitur, though from the way she watched Ilar's face Shelzais presumably thought it was anything but.

[Ilar'Shala]

The moment of weakness had passed, and Ilar suspected that Shelzais was too much of a master of social nuances to let it resurface, so he let it go, but filed it away for later.

"She does," he answered simply and unhesitatingly, before he tipped back the last sip of his glass and rose smoothly to his feet. Glancing down to Shel's....glass, he raised an eyebrow in unspoken question about a refill for his hostess.

"I have never given her reason not to. Although from the nature of your question, I assume that my attending the Academy will irrevocably destroy that trust?"