Out of Time [Star Wars Story]

19. Forgiving without Forgetting

Seia wasn't in her room in the morning when Lorash went to check. The sith's bed was neatly made, her clothes folded, and her armored robes laid out. Then again, she'd never known Seia to sleep late. Lorash padded down the open balcony that overlooked the cargo bay, glancing off to her left. The lights were on inside the ship, but someone had intentionally dimmed the bay. The sound of impacts, fists or maybe knees against canvas and sand, told her where the sith was. Apparently Seia was either feeling recovered enough to finally put herself through her paces or her anger from the night before burned hotly enough that her exhaustion didn't matter.

The thought of the second left a pit in Lorash's stomach. She almost collided with Eso as she walked, head still turned towards the bay.

The pilot flashed her a quick, if distracted, smile. "Oh, uh, you're up. Good. We're leaving."

"Already?"

He shrugged. "Seia said we should head for, uh, Cantonica. We have that dossier from Zul still." Eso looked more resigned than eager to do Imperial bidding.

"Do we have to leave so soon?" Lorash asked softly.

Eso sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "The longer we're here, the more risk we put the locals at. I think we, uh, owe the nautolans enough courtesy not to bring Imperial eyes onto their hiding place."

"Haven't we done that already?"

"Yyrfh spoofed the transmitter, making it look like we're a few worlds over. It won't last, though," Eso explained. "Given we're in poorly charted space to begin with, uh, I doubt they'll have visitors if we head out now."

Lorash lowered her voice slightly. "What about Seia?"

Eso shrugged awkwardly, eyeing Lorash with some trepidation. "I mean, she's, uh, awake and moody. That's about the best we can, uh, expect. Given the glare I got this morning when I asked if she was feeling, uh, well enough...I'd say she's back to form."

Even dreading it, Lorash knew she needed to talk to Seia about the night before. "I'll go check in with her."

"Uh, well, uh, good luck. We're lifting off in a few minutes, so if you're gonna get yourself tossed out an airlock, do it now." Eso scurried off towards the bridge, no doubt for a last systems check before lifting. She heard him open the channel to Engineering where Yyrfh was probably working through his hangover as he hit the cockpit, just past the kitchen from the stairs down into the cargo bay.

Lorash wasn't exactly full of confidence after that comment, but she headed down into the bay anyway, making her way towards the heavy bag that she could hear swinging on its chain from Seia's blows.

Even just flowing around an essentially stationary target without her lightsaber, Seia moved like a force of nature, every inch of motion designed to generate power and speed. Each punch or kick that landed rocked the bag. There was no accident or misstep to her movements. The sith was clearly connected to her body with a reality that even most trained combatants could never achieve and Lorash wasn't certain if that was the relentlessness of her personality or her connection to the Force. Conflict raged around the sith this morning, flashes of aggression and anger felt like flashes of lightning in a boiling thunderhead. Seia's expression was no less savage, teeth bared as she battered at the bag in a merciless offensive, muscles rippling and flexing like a springing panther's.

It was hard not to shrink back from the violence, even with Lorash's training to stay calm and her experience with Seia so far, especially given the malevolent satisfaction she could feel behind every blow that slammed into the bag. Seia was never still, always in motion, always attacking. It reminded Lorash of the battle with Dren, where Seia hadn't allowed him even a second to breathe or formulate a counterattack.