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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3460301" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 450: Another Planet, Another Seedy Tavern“You’re kidding,” Marix shook her head, not able to believe what she’d just heard.    Jyren, standing next to the window he seemed to enjoy looking out of in their rather large room inside the Palace, managed a weak shrug, “I spent most of my time in the Core.”    The look that Marix was directing at him was the same one that she would use if he had told her that he was, in fact, a bantha. It took her a moment to gather her thoughts, but the best she could manage was, “Jedi boy’s never been to Ryloth...”    Catching that tone, Jyren rolled his eyes, “I’m sorry if I wasn’t involved in the seedier aspects of the galaxy.”    “Ansion is seedier and you know it,” she raised a finger at him to stifle any objections on that end. It was odd, she’d been telling him about a planet in the Alraxian Empire that was close to the galactic rim, almost beyond it, in fact. Off hand, she’d just mentioned that it was very similar to Ryloth, and then he’d ruined the moment by actually saying that he’d never been there before.    Marix sighed and looked out the viewport to the dull, brown planet beyond. It only filled a part of the viewport, but it was growing slowly.    [We’ve been cleared to land in Sarazine City.] Loki announced in a rather bored tone. Obviously, he liked it when they had to break in, as it were, rather than being allowed in.    “Lets hope this Hutt isn’t far away from there...” she said idly. The odds weren’t great, as all the underground cities were connected by various tunnel networks that were seemingly endless. It wasn’t hard to hide on Ryloth, honestly.    She closed her eyes again as Loki took them to their destination. Once they were down it was back to business. But until then...until then Marix found herself doing what she always yelled at Jyren for doing. Gripping to the past. After that conversation with Jyren about Ryloth, Marix had told him that the next time they were in the rest of the galaxy she would make sure to drag him to Ryloth and show him just how seedy it was...and maybe try to sell him off...    Marix sighed and opened her eyes again, glaring idly at a black clump of hair that was obstructing her vision for the moment. The Alraxian ideal of celebrating the dead was so much easier when it didn’t feel real...when it was believed. But, despite everything, Marix still couldn’t accept it. That very fact scared her a little, as she knew that was the thought pattern that had driven Jyren crazy for so many years.    But she wasn’t Jyren. There was still a great deal of control within Marix that he never had, and she was able to clamp down on stray thoughts and emotions with relative ease...it was just...sometimes...she just didn’t want to. That was the new element. A wanting. Before it was just done, but after the merge between Shadow and Marix, and after becoming an adult...and then...falling in love...she started to find that it really did cloud her judgement. And now, even without him, it was affecting her strongly...perhaps even more so than before.    With a great deal of work, Marix pushed the stray, distracting thoughts away yet again. She had more important things to deal with now, and getting distracted like she was would likely also get her killed. Or worse.    By now, Loki was skimming the rocky surface of Ryloth’s night side, where it was cold enough to kill an Alraxian in a matter of seconds. Of course, the other side of the planet, which was always facing the system’s star, wasn’t much more habitable, with heats high enough to be dangerous even to an Alraxian that would usually consider a tropical climate ‘a bit chilly’.    Because of these conditions on the surface of the planet, and the heat storms that had a way of scorching the day side, most of the settlements and cities were underground and near the slim temperate zone of Ryloth’s equator. The various mountain ranges of the planet provided adequate space for underground cities, and thousands of years of tunneling by the native Twi’leks also helped out a great deal.    Sarazine was nearer to the surface that some of the cities that were scattered across the planet, and it was situated towards the middle point between the night and day sides. Marix had been there once before, trying to pick up a shipment of spice with Max to sell somewhere else...though she never found out where, as, with most deals on the black market, it went bad fairly quickly when the sellers tried to kill them. Marix and Max had escaped without trouble, but they’d also left without the spice, so it was pretty much a failure.    Loki approached a large, open cavern that had its interior lined with durasteel, an obvious way to announce that there was a settlement below...but Serazine didn’t try to hide, anyway. The cavern’s entrance was huge, enough to fit four Lokis with relative ease. A series of blue lights guided Loki to the docking bay they’d been assigned, and in a matter of moments, he was down within the confines of the rather space hangar.    [We have this birth for two days before they will request another payment.] Loki commented as Marix got to her feet and started towards the hatch. She wasn’t planning on morphing here. Certain parts of Ryloth were rather cosmopolitan due to the amount of smugglers that came in and out of the planet, and Serazine was one of them. A large, feline Alraxian wouldn’t be questioned...especially when she had that blank, deadly stare that she always adopted in places like these.    “If I’m not back in two days something’s wrong...” she paused, then stopped and patted Loki’s interior bulkhead in the corridor she was walking down, “...and considering how demanding the city’s council here is, I’d suggest getting out of here before they try to scrap you,” she grinned, then added, “Not that they’d find much useful.”    [Love you, too.] grumbled Loki as Marix patted him again before opening the hatch and heading out.    As she headed for the closed door that would lead to the rest of the city, Marix began plotting together her next moves. She needed to find the Hutt...who was definitely hiding as the local Twi’leks wouldn’t be happy with competition right under their noses. That also meant that any information on the Hutt wouldn’t be easy to find...and that it was going to mean she was heading to yet another dive in yet another city on yet another planet. Not that she had a problem with run down, dark, muggy, bad-smelling taverns but...well...    As she stepped into the mess that was the underground city of Serazine, with its walkways and buildings coming out of the cave walls in all directions, Marix made a decision. She was going to find Jyren. One way or another. And then, after severely beating him to within an inch of their lives, Marix would demand a vacation and make sure he did all the work.    And if he was really dead...well...she’d just find a way to do all of that anyway.</blockquote>

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