That doesn't happen very often at all. 

...Fascinating. 

Hey, Beryllia...

She appears with a crack in the centre of the circle, which bursts into flames. 

She's already glaring all around her with True Sight - nobody should be able to fake that Presence even if she were subject to that kind of magic, but still. And in any case, this is obviously important. 

...A summoning circle, and a freshly-dead body. That does not bode well. 

"Who summons me?"

"Mostly him, but I did shift the targeting parameters, so it's probably my fault it's you."  The masked woman points at the corpse with her still-lit lightsaber.  What little exposed skin she has - she's already slapping a bandage on it - is noticeably a vivid orange, and Beryllia might be able to pick out the fine scales.  "Sorry about that, but I couldn't afford to take the backlash from trying to ground it, I need to get out of here before an army tries to kill me.  ...I presume you do not want to be shot to death either so wherever you go from here - whether or not it's with me - do it quickly.  Also, kriffing hells, could you turn that down, I half expect the Emperor will notice how bright you are and I can't kill him yet.  Let alone make him stay dead."

She's never met anyone bright orange and scaly before, but it seems humanoid at least. 

Normally someone standing over a summoning circle before a headless corpse is Not A Friend, but she does not perceive Necromancy about this woman - that's not necessarily dispositive but still. And she seems concerned for her... Killing a Conjurer before they can complete their awful rite is usually a sign of good character...

"Shift the targeting parameters to what. - Never mind, later. Tell me where we are going and we will be there."

What do you mean 'we will be there' the only way she can think of that working is through risking discorporation if not outright dissipation in the Force --

"Ultimately, Fulcrum, the planet Azure, Anaxes sector, but I will gladly settle for 'about a kilometer that way where I had to leave my hoverbike because my cloaking's not quite there yet' if interplanetary transport's too much."

"It is not. Distance makes no difference before Heaven." She doesn't see signs of an approaching army but that isn't entirely reassuring. 

Well. Contact with other known worlds within the same plane. Many such, by the sounds of it. They don't have that, not any more. 

"Is your business in 'Fulcrum' urgent? If not, we need not leave your - flying device? - behind."

And in either case -

Gate.

A shining portal in space. The sudden presence of Heaven in all its transcendent and extremely bright glory.

(Beryllia does not understand what "turn that down" could possibly mean and is not stopping to interrogate her, under the circumstances. Beryllia is wearing the Regalia and categorically immune to divinations by anything up to the better sort of god; what Darth Mourne felt was in fact the ambient divinity of the Hand. This is, um, a lot more direct.)

"I'd rather leave no trace, so.  Let's just get my bike."

...Ah, fuck.

She darts through at speed.

"...That is so loud I have no doubt the Emperor did notice.  As well as any remotely Sensitive person in-system.  Force's sake, I'm so glad we did not put the other end of that on my planet."

She has no idea what's going on but she is not an idiot. She steps smartly through and the Gate snaps shut. 

(Beryllia herself has no presence in the Force at all. Yes, technically it's the Force presence you'd expect of standard atmosphere in that spot, they had some grasp of security, in those higher days long ago.)

"I do not know who the Emperor is, but he does not sound like happy news. Being able to sense a miracle remotely like that is worrying."

She has no idea how this flying device is supposed to work, incidentally. 

...What the kriff.  How.  This is, like, ancient-myths-tier stealth.

Alright, maybe the Emperor won't be able to find her.  She has no idea how this is going to be explained, Jedi with this level of power don't just happen and even more don't just vanish, and she's so glad that this idiot was close enough to the front that it could be a Jedi who killed him.  There's not one here.  But there could have been.  And there's already a Republic strike happening.

"Yeah, he's really karking scary.  Alright, you sit behind me and hold on."

And as she revs the motor and skirts the speed of sound to get out of there, she says something into her mask.

> "Ace, found a hole card, but it's red suit on the table, at least for now.  Adjust the betting odds accordingly.  Wouldn't want to be accused of unfair bookkeeping."

She found a what that looked like what in the Force where?  The rumormongering only makes sense, given all that, but - why is she thinking about needing a forged identity?

She swiftly stows her shield and spear and climbs on and wraps her arms around her waist tightly. 

She still isn't prepared for that, wow, this thing is impossibly fast, dragons would be hard-pressed to keep up. 

It is not quite like anything she's ever experienced but yes, yes she does like this a lot. 

She isn't going to try talking over the noise, for now, just shield her face and hold on. 

All right. Sirenna could not tell her much but this world clearly needs help, smart money is on fighting the Emperor, and it already has incredible promise.

She's definitely being shielded/held to the bike if that doesn't just completely miss her because how the kriff is she that invisible to the Force, actually, but yeah, that's a good plan, keep doing it.

They reach the spaceport in about ten minutes, which much of is due to Mourne having to slow way back down so she doesn't catch attention for speeding.  She'd be able to get out of it if necessary, but she can't draw that kind of notice, and they need to get out of here before the Republic hits orbit.

The ship is nondescript, on the outside.  Workmanlike, a bit scuffed up, but still in good repair.  It has perhaps an unusual amount of holocomm bandwidth, and unusual amounts of automation, but it's Perfectly Normal!

It starts preparations for takeoff the moment its two passengers are aboard.

"...What have you found now, Mistress?", comes a somewhat metallic-sounding voice that is deliberately affecting long-sufferingness, as she rounds the corner.

"That's not a Jedi, I can tell that.  So who and what are you and why are you here?"

"Weird summoning ritual; I managed to alter the thing it was trying to summon before it tried to kill me and she fell out."

"But I have gone quite remiss in not asking what I might call you yet, haven't I?  I am most often called Darth Mourne - which is, because you do not look like anything I've ever seen before, 'Darth' as a title, Mourne to specifically identify myself as the holder thereof."

She wants one of those magic flying devices. They're not as fast as Gates but they are enormous fun. 

...This is absolutely not what she expected when she heard "ship", what. Making whole rooms of metal is the preserve of ancient ruins and unwise wizards. It's not near water - how does one sail the Astral Sea... 

The - metal person - is a surprise. She knows of golems, but those do not speak or act that way - interesting. This truly is a Far Realm. 

Well. Whatever the metal person is, it is speaking, let's say refreshingly directly, to the Most High. 

Styles and titles are extremely serious business. She hates them. Her case was actually very unusual, that hour all those years ago when she was created Most High by Sirenna Herself. They need to play courtly games and conduct diplomacy and she utterly lacks the talent and had also never dreamed of needing it. She was not born within holy lands, she had no understanding at all of what any of it meant for most of her life. Almost uniquely, she still does not really understand it. But people will in fact fight over them and take cues from them and covet them. Styles and titles are deeply, fundamentally serious in that way, they encode political realities.

Except hers. Her position is inherent and the Hand is the fount of honours where kingly crowns and royal titles come from and without them you are just a chump in a shiny hat. Her using a title like a mere king is a form of politeness.

 So she can in fact refer to herself by her bare name, if she wants to make a point of that, and does, when she feels like it.

"I see. Thank you. I am Her Deliverance Beryllia the Most High Priestess of Sirenna - 'Her Deliverance', style of address, the thing you call me, 'Most High Priestess', ecclesiastical title, 'Beryllia', name, 'Sirenna', goddess. It's good to meet you, Darth Mourne. So why was there an entire army after you."

"Oh, no, they're not after me.  They'd just try to kill me anyway if they found me, because I'm a Force-Sensitive from the Empire, and usually they'd be more than right to.  Most Sith are...

"Well.  You saw what that one was up to and he was barely competent."

"...Things get much worse.  This was practically a milk run."

...Hm.  To tell her, or not to tell her.

...Telling her will give her more information on how this person reacts to things.  She didn't seem particularly taken aback by Ace's regrettably-exceptional volition - in that the exceptionality of it is regrettable, obviously.

"In truth, knowing that I was going to kill this man, because he was going to try and kill me, I actually arranged for the Republic to invade.  They wouldn't do that if they hadn't believed there were no Sith, not without a Jedi - the, hm, other side of the philosophical coin - that they didn't have spare.  I had to cut this rather closer than I'd like, because, well, this sort of thing happens every other month, nearly, and there were more pressing problems, but the Empire's garrison is understrength enough, and leaderless enough, that hopefully it will fold without too much fuss and this planet will go on being rather unimportant, but under a government that has to at least pretend it cares about its people."

She is really beginning to suspect she knows why she was sent through to land on top of this woman. It could be a lie, but outside the holy lands nobody knows to tell that kind of lie. It's not a sure thing, but...

Taking it at face value, she single-handedly arranged to destroy an imperial garrison, and apparently does this regularly. 

Is it remotely possible to believe that somewhere out in the Far Realms they have allies.

"That sounds both noble and wise of you, and both those traits are rarer than I wish they were. I am afraid I have no idea who the Sith or Jedi are, or which Empire or which Republic you refer to. Do you know the word of God, in this realm?"

"There are occasional rumors of powerful Force entities, but I've certainly never heard of Sirenna.  Do we have any records...?"

"No, not to the best of my current access."

"...Well, there's only one Empire, and one Republic, in this galaxy, at the moment, as far as I am aware.  The Sith Empire, and the Galactic Republic.

"The Jedi Order is somewhat an entity independent of the Republic, and there's the blasted Hutt Cartels, who frankly only survive by being less existential a threat to either side of the Republic-Empire and Jedi-Sith wars if you ignore them but nonetheless have space they lay claim to, and the Chiss Ascendancy is recognized as an independent entity by the Empire but they're fairly firmly a client state on the outside even as their internal affairs remain opaque...  There's the Mandalorian clans, but that's more of an each to their own situation, last I've heard - but I've been running around putting out fires and starting others and haven't had time to keep up on that.  They're notable on the galactic scale nonetheless for reliably producing some of the very few people without overwhelming physiological advantages who can actually win a straight fight with the median Force-Sensitive without overwhelming numbers or extensive preparation.  Some of that is in their particular access to lightsaber-resistant materials, but armor can only do so much to win a fight if you don't know how to fight in it."

"Sirenna is the goddess of liberty. Freedom from oppression, freedom to act, to live. If She is unknown here... hmm."

"One Republic and one Empire across a - galaxy does mean a... large group of entire worlds in the same continuous physical plane, doesn't it? That's incredible. How can they hold it all together. You mentioned the Republic pretends to care, that sounds about right - what of the Emperor? I for my part have never heard of the 'Force'."

"The Emperor is...

"Anathema to Sirenna," she says, after quite some consideration.  "A believer in the philosophy of his freedom to do whatever he wants, to everyone else.

"And, yes, that is what a galaxy is.

"As for how it's held together...

"Well, there is the holonet.  Communication between stars fast enough for real-time conversation.  But if you ask how the Empire is held together, the answer is that it isn't.  It's the Sith that are held together by the Emperor, and the Dark Council, and their individual fiefs are held together mostly by threat of those planets' resident Sith.

"Some are smart enough to realize that making people want you to rule works better in the long term.  Many simply do not care.

"Imperial politics is such a fractious mess it's a wonder the war hasn't collapsed from it.  Assassinating your rivals is commonplace.  I hold my position because I killed the person who held it - I will ask you to believe me that he will not be missed, because I do not have it in me to speak on the matter - and promotion-by-murder is not unknown to happen in the conventional forces, albeit with much greater rarity than the frequency at which the average Sith tries.  Not to mention the state of the Academy itself, where new Sith are trained amongst the haunted tombs of Sith older than the Empire.  It boasts something like a 33% survival rate."

"...The Republic is led by their Chancellor, who is elected by their Senate, whose Senators are mostly appointed with all the avenues for corruption that come from that, not to mention the mess that legacy has made of the apportionment of Senators.  Individual planets have their own governments, generally, no matter who's sitting atop them.

"As for the Force...

"You should probably ask a Jedi.  As much as I am prone to thinking - not an entirely desirable trait, here, you can imagine - they have had far more time to spend, and far more peace and quiet," a hint of ingrained distaste at 'peace' that is pushed back against, but only somewhat, as if she's not entirely sure of her feelings on this subject, "to contemplate its nature in.

"That said, I did, once, pass myself for a Jedi Knight.  It was a pleasant vacation, in all honesty.  So I can tell you some of what I've heard.

"The Force is said to permeate everything, to tie the universe together.  I'm not entirely sure of the truth of this, given some of the ancient myths, and, lately, your existence, because you look to me as if you are but air to my sense of the Force, but it's true enough that I feel comfortable saying it.

"The Force allows one to do wondrous things, if one has the mind and skill to accomplish them - but also terrible ones.  It is shaped by Jedi and Sith alike.

"The most common uses are for war, because of course they are," a weariness she does not hide, "though the Jedi are known to have capable healers.  The Sith...  Alchemy could be used to heal.  It isn't, outside of what little I dare practice lest I be asked to make monsters, but it could be.

"A competent Force-Sensitive is capable of using the Force to react to threats before they materialize, exerting telekinetic, ha, force, reading the emotions of others to some degree as well as getting some amount of - feedback as to their underlying nature, given time - and, I must unfortunately mention, using that same receptivity to project - both communicatively, though that usually to only people they have a Force bond with, and to influence.  Even the Jedi will use the Mind Trick, though I personally find it abhorrent enough that I refuse to use it unless I would be equally willing to kill.  Or, of course, with consent, though the need for that is quite rare.  It's one of those dreadful ironies that apparently I'm quite good at it."

"I see."

Well, that makes the question of what exactly she was supposed to do here, what clear possibility Sirenna Saw before, possibly quite obvious. 

She is actually confused by the notion of communication between stars here - but that is not the most pressing issue for now. To be clear, she comes from a very long way away, and things may be far stranger than they seem. 

But some things always hold, apparently.

People may be bright orange and scaly or shaped out of metal - that's their right; the stars themselves may be alien stars - so be it; but all across the vistas of eternity - you can approximately never trust the fucking government.

She would legitimately not have expected it to be possible to extend one Emperor's fiefdom across one world, if worlds are the size of hers. They are desperately hard-pressed to hold what she, as Most High who has actually seen some of the world from above, knows to be only a moderate fraction of all the lands.

The Force... sounds like possibly a kind of wizardry, though she would like to know exactly what these ancient myths indicate. 

Her attitude on influencing the minds of others is admirable. Startlingly so. 

...All right, that's twice in a row, no, three times with the comment on alchemy - not just a virtuous heathen, a virtuous heathen wizard, that's not just rare that might be unique - that she's indicated at least knowing what righteousness is.

She will take the small risk of giving her actionable intelligence and specify that she is specifically immune to all forms of divination, the serious kind of immunity. 

But most importantly-

"Hold. You are one of the Sith, a part of the Empire? ...Trying to... minimise damage from within and help the Republic win?" She smiles a tiny little bit. "I am very pleased to meet you."

She suspected as much.  It's really quite well done.

"That is, indeed, the case.  And - you are a breaker of chains, in truth, aren't you?  Someone who would actually understand."

...Kriff, she's choking up.

"The most orthodox form of the Code of the Sith is as follows: Peace is a lie, there is only passion / Through passion I gain strength / Through strength I gain power / Through power I gain victory / In victory my chains are broken / The Force shall free me.

"It was first spoken by a slave.

"And while I cannot entirely blame the ancient Tsis who wrote this for what they did with their broken chains, enslaved as they were first to their own petty kings and then by ancient Fallen Jedi, exiled to what was then unknown space, for not learning when no-one could really have taught them...

"I can blame everyone who lives in this galaxy, where slaves are not only pointlessly cruel but counterproductive, not that they ever were all that productive to begin with, and still enslaves someone anyway!"

"I suppose that's what the Dark Side does, though.  I have always thought of it as the choice to be cruel for cruelty's own sake."

She grips her arm suddenly. "Darth Mourne. I represent the higher truths of the Lady of Liberty, I do understand. It sounds as if - you have been fighting this war almost alone, from the inside, without guidance. Not very much is clear to me. I don't know what you mean by the dark side, and I don't have enough context on the galaxy yet. But I do know that yours is an enormously dangerous and difficult position to be in, and a worthy cause. I will help you."

"...I was taken for a slave once, too."

"Not entirely alone, for - well.  I have my people, these days.  But certainly I am the only Sith I've dared trust, though I might have hope for a few."

"The Dark side is...  To a first approximation, what your goddess is not.  The feeling of your Gate in the Force was overwhelmingly Light.

"As a rule of thumb, Jedi are taught to use the Light Side, and Sith are taught to use the Dark Side.  There are other Force sects, who may have their own beliefs about the shape of the Force - I'm fairly confident that what is called Mandalorian iron, or beskar in its native tongue, is Force-wrought somehow, for example, and they've belief in a Mandalorian oversoul as their primary lens upon the Force, though I haven't asked them what else they believe and they surely wouldn't tell me, for all that they actually consider education one of the six actions that makes someone Mando'ade.  ...Regardless, the distinction between Light and Dark is particularly pervasive, popping up in otherwise seemingly unrelated sects.  I suppose it could be the Rakata's fault, as the ultimate predecessor - quite literally - of the galaxy, but I don't know if I believe it.  What we know of their time is quite sure they were uniformly so Dark that the Force rejected them, somehow.  That makes no sense, but they suddenly collapsed anyway, and the peoples they'd enslaved inherited the galaxy.

"...I say that the Jedi and Sith are taught this because, as you may have gathered, it is more than possible for a Jedi to Fall to the Dark Side...  Or for a Sith to learn of and wield the Light Side.  I am one of the very few Sith who has done that, and truthfully, the other one I'm sure of seems to have reinvented being a Jedi from first principles instead.  And he's long since dead, besides."

"That is... strangely impersonal, by my own world's reckoning. Wizardry is perhaps closest, but that is not light-and-dark," that is bordering on a lie, it's all dark, but you can't possibly give any hint of that, "and... as far as we have ever known, things that grant power like that are all abominations lesser or greater that should never be acknowledged, but... Entities, not abstracts."

If she were inclined to hope - could the "light side of the Force" be the presence of God, Darth Mourne is an argument that way...

Deep breath. Priorities. 

"All right. What's the current state of the Empire? Would executing the Emperor help, and if so why is that difficult? I... admit I have not personally given thought to expanding the Church that far, I would not have expected kings to be able to hold so much land, but now sounds like an excellent time to start. If the Republic can do it at all - that was the part I thought impossible. We can do this."

There's a sudden sort of light in her eyes. 

"Do you have a long-term plan?"

...Does she have a long-term plan?  She...  Honestly hadn't thought she'd get to win.

"Firstly: There are rumors of legends of entities that shape the Force in their image, or are shaped by the Force in its image.  I do not necessarily believe them, but it does bear mention.

"Secondly, the thing about the Emperor is that even if you kill him, he doesn't stay dead.  You can...  Persist, in the Force, if the Force lets you or if you're too stubborn or if you've done something like bind yourself to an object; that one's rather common, actually, it seems like every time I turn a corner I find a holocron whose template decided they'd use it to stick around, sometimes, to say nothing of certain ancient artifacts that are much worse - fucking rakghouls - anyway, he's undoubtedly the second, the Force would not welcome him, and he can then...  Press himself back into a new vessel.

"To say nothing of his power before that point and also his ability to warp minds.  'Breaking' Jedi is, as I understand it, something of a favored hobby of his.

"Thirdly: I...  honestly hadn't thought I'd get that far.  I have some thoughts, at least, but not anything remotely resembling actionable planning.

"At least there's more than enough precedent for ascension by right of conquest that we would be listened to if we got that far, instead of outright shattering what government there is, but that does probably come with a lot of Sith trying to kill us in turn."

"A lich. Of course. Fucking fantastic. ...If you're right and he doesn't have a phylactery to destroy then that is a concern. We're a long way from - anything I'd use to stop something like that. Possibly we could petrify him and store the statue somewhere, I have a scroll, though I don't know if that would work... Has anyone ever managed this before, that you know of? How were they killed?"

She scowls. 

In a way it's good news, a problem she might be well-placed to fix. But the horrors of this world are obvious from the first person she met. Not a coincidence, almost certainly, but even so. 

What makes a ruler right and true, and not only a tyrant and bully? The true answer is at once a beautiful and thoughtful matter of divine philosophy, and terribly simple. But the practical answer in these days is "the Church said so". 

And even so, normally it's done in consultation. She is immediately considering the idea of taking over personally and she's probably going to have to do it. Being indisputable leader of the clergy of Sirenna is bad enough, and they are at least in theory more likely than average to tell her to piss off if she goes too far. She tries to make sure they would. But obviously she would not hesitate to take over the galaxy for its own good just because she'd hate the job. 

Putting Darth Mourne there is better. But only a little better. 

"All right. Taking down the Emperor is our highest priority, then. And then it becomes a question of what sort of Empress you would be."

She hesitates, taking the moment to think it through. This is potentially an important moment, a pivotal one. Sirenna showed her this place, showed that someone nearby was high in Her esteem, and advised her to help - but Her vision cannot be good, this far out, beyond the veil, in the Far Realms. And Sirenna does not directly See rightful kings, that's what Pelor does. 

On the other hand... it's not disastrous for her, if this goes wrong, she has a plan. 

And it probably won't. 

She reaches into a bag of holding and draws out a dull grey ring, chipped and worn with great age, engraved with an unfamiliar symbol. 

"...This is a Ring of Mind Blank. Not as good as my own protections, but - it should still make it flatly impossible to detect you by magic, or warp your mind. I carry it in case anyone I meet learns anything truly dangerous. I do not actually know it to be replaceable at all, but even if it could be, it would be a grave cost. If we are to oppose the Emperor, you should wear it. And you may think what you please."

She holds it out to her. 

...She puts on the ring, and takes off her mask; it unseals with a puff-hiss.

"If you're trusting me with potentially irreplaceable Force artifacts, then it only seems fair that I should trust you with something in return.  My name is Ophelia Vaudelle, and it is a pleasure to meet you."

"As for the question of what kind of Empress I'd be...

"I assume it's rather obvious that I would like to abolish the position as soon as I can be sure the Empire won't explode for the trying.  I have to hope this won't be another Azure situation....  Ah, which is to say, the one time I did try to step away from holding direct authority over Azure except as needed to shield it from other Sith, they apparently wanted me back.  I've no idea what I did for that to happen, really."

"Well, let's see, you killed the previous Sith Lord, didn't hold some self-aggrandizing festival about having done that, built up self-sustainability such that Azure's people are no longer dependent upon Czerka and its ilk, spent liberally on improving the commons, personally rooted out much of the corruption and graft and have been coming down on anything resembling it like an orbital strike ever since, and you've instituted strong anti-discrimination policies.  Azure is a planet with a majority nonhuman government, and excluding those planets where the Tsis dynasties still reign because they're Sith and should not be counted, and cradle worlds, that almost never happens unless the planet is inhospitable to humans."

She smiles slightly. The odds of this being fake in some way after all are still going down by the moment, they'd have to... have extensive experience with the Church or something like it and be used to deceiving it and still doing that instead of converting like sane people, not impossible but unlikely.

"The feeling is mutual, Ophelia. You did something right, is what you did. It... does sometimes happen. I do wonder what you would replace it with." 

The Grand Council of the Free City of Greymarch once restored the rightful heir of its murdered king in a fit of nostalgia, discovered that he actually was righteous and incorruptible, and promptly killed him in a battle that levelled half the city.

"I'm sorry, I still lack context. I was not even sure there were humans here. Why... is it unusual for them not to rule."

"Well, humans are often the majority demographic of a lot of planets, so on some level it's statistically inevitable...  But they are disproportionately so prevalent in the halls of power because racism is hard to kill."

"As for how to replace the Empire...

"The Republic's Senate is too flat.  You go directly from sector government, which can sometimes be one system, to the Senate of the entire galaxy, when the entire galaxy does not actually need to be involved in your trade dispute with the government next sector over.  Usually.  Not to mention that often enough sector Senators are appointed by a single planet, and not even necessarily all of the government of a single planet though that's really quite rare, which is just absolutely absurd when there are multiple inhabited worlds in most any sector.

"Also there's just too blasted many sectors, so that impinges upon the reliable function of government.

"The Empire is obviously far too autocratic, and its choices of where to delineate its spheres of power are...  Rather influenced by the fact that the people that sit on the Dark Council are all Sith...  But I think they're on to something with formalizing the idea that the executive power should have advisors.  I borrowed from that for Azure; it's worked well so far."

She pinches the bridge of her nose and pinches her eyes shut. 

"I really would not have expected them to be able to pull that off at all, in the first place. Right. Putting you in charge of the Empire might help a little, assuming you're not human, you don't look it. I am still... trying to understand how this works. Suppose the Emperor gives an order - only he may wear red, say, on pain of flogging" (she is picking a real example of something a certain temporal prince tried a while ago, she had to convince them they couldn't afford to dump a thousand paladins directly into his throne room about it even though she would have really liked to, it took some time for him to abdicate in mysterious circumstances) " - how is that enforced across a whole galaxy? How does he know? Is there as much room to avoid notice here as I am hoping there might be?"

"...He propagates that to the ISB, most likely, and they start...  making examples of people.

"Ah.  The ISB is the spies.

"There is, however, despite the pervasiveness of ISB agents, let alone their data taps and associated army of droids that process it all, much more room to maneuver than you might think, because the intelligence bureau is as fractious as the Sith it's required to give attachés to."

"I presume that you don't know what a droid is.  I'm an artificially constructed intelligence, and I think much, much faster than you do.  The ISB uses...  Close cousins, though aggressively non-sapient ones, is I suppose the best analogy, as well as my distant ancestors in large database systems - which could store an average hardcopy library in much less space than I take up - to process and store the massive amount of data they receive."

"...Excuse me, you're a constructed intelligence?" A frisson of horror. "That sounds... extraordinary. I-" words, in fact, fail her. "To shape something in the likeness of a soul would be - unbelievably dangerous and evil magic, probably - that is a dreadful sort of power to have..."

"...Most of the time actual sapience - the capacity to self-reflect, rather than merely react in a very fast process of if-this-then-that to incoming data - is an unintended side effect of having to deal with chaos or contradiction, long after a droid is first turned on."

"It's the natural language processing.  You have to be able to do that to make a droid, but language is just...  Awful, from a technological perspective where, at the smallest level, everything is a single flag that is either 'ON' or 'OFF'.  And worse, language evolves over time."

"...And when I ask how anyone could possibly know which 'droids' are people and need to be treated as such, and which are just - unnerving golems - you'll tell me... the three of us are the only people you know who've ever thought of that, or, the Emperor murders anyone who sets a living droid free - I don't suppose whoever came up with this idea is still alive to stab?"

Fucking Necromancers. 

"...It's not anywhere near that bad, though I would be lying if I said I thought the recognition-of-droid-sapience situation was good.  There are ways to test for it.  But generally the default is to interact with droids as though they are people to begin with, that's the whole point - albeit that droids are usually presumed to exist to provide some kind of service, though not necessarily to just anyone, and this rather unavoidably colors most interactions."

"Unfortunately, droids have been a fact of life for many millennia, and while there's probably somebody still alive from then, I don't think it's likely they're the same people who invented this."

"Someone... built a sort of servant golem, just humanlike enough to get people used to treating it like a slave, and then arranged for it to... sometimes come to life and be stuck there."

See, this is why they burn anything that even mentions the name 'Asmodeus'.

"That's an impressively creative kind of evil, I have to say."

"All right. That goes on the list. What's your power base like?"

"...Theoretically, as long as a droid's associative networks are kept within a certain distance from a verified pattern, it's impossible for them to - spark.  That's a requirement even in Hutt space, and they've never met a rule they wouldn't break if they could stroke their egos with the pieces.  The sort of people that would treat a sapient droid like a slave are well aware that their droids are 'better behaved' when 'maintained properly'.  This fails when maintenance is outright unavailable, or when it's deliberately avoided.

"Everything else about droids, including how they make sure that there isn't drift, is very much a disaster area, though, yes.  Restraining bolts."  She says it like a curse.  "There are so many reasons it's official policy of Azure - and quite a few adjoining territories - to actively prefer 'dumbly' automated systems, and the ethics are just as important to us as the security implications."

Sigh. "That's reassuring. Thank you."

Do they possibly have the resources to outlaw golemancy completely. Is that the best place to spend their now slightly less sharply limited currency with the Academy, no it probably is not. 

"...Forgive me if this is an impertinent question - you are more than welcome to ignore me - but how did this happen to you?"

Force things are different anyway.

"I'm something of a special case, actually, because I am not a mass-manufacture product - I was custom-built and, insofar as it is possible for a human* to do so, hand-raised.  I was intended to spark from the very moment of my conception.  It was much more like what I am given to understand human* childhood is like, than a conventional experience of how droids spark."

*non-droid person (species/gender neutral); a loanword.

She nods. There was something like that obvious between the two of them. 

"I see. ...I should not have to specify this but I suspect I do: the Church holds you and other sapient droids - and Ophelia, come to think of it - to be a Person in your own right like any other, holds you accountable just the same, does not recognise any other claim over you, and holds identifying you as part of your ancestry - ah, your species, I suppose, in this case, if you do not have ancestors - and not your own self to be a form of idolatry."

"Well. That aside, Azure sounds like a comparatively nice place. What's your position in the Empire? What are your current major problems? What would your current major problems be, if hypothetically tomorrow the Emperor turned up dead and you claimed his position?"

She nods in acknowledgement.  "I'm sure I could be said to have ancestors if you tied the word into knots, but, no, I do not have ancestors in any particularly geneaological sense.  Some droids effectively do, though, with manufacturers often releasing incremental improvements because they're a corporation and they want more credits in their executives' bank accounts."

She's actually quite curious why it's idolatry specifically, she has guesses, but now's not the time, they're doing a war.

Well.  This is definitely a star system of its similarly named sector that she has here!  It's self-sufficient, well-armed, and able to maintain itself!  It's actually fairly close to Mandalorian space, which could be good or horrible depending on which way Manda'yaim hypothetically jumps.  (They're cautiously inclined towards 'might support a revolt, if it's framed the right way/if the right people get the right support'.  The utter mess that Intelligence's meddling with the acclamation of a Mand'alor is, is...  Something.)

It definitely does not have a galaxy-renowned war college in it, though.

...So.  Killing the Emperor.

She puts her mask back on.  It...  helps.

Azure is, generally speaking, in as good a state it can be in for a sector under the Empire's control.  The problem becomes when it's a sector under the Emperor's - or Empress's - direct control.  Dromund Kaas is over there.  People are going to try and move in, and moving the seat of government out of Kaas City itself is not a problem she needs to add to the pile.  So she needs someone she can trust to handle it.

...That's really her biggest problem.  Trust in any other Sith Lord.  Because she's going to need more than herself and Beryllia.  She honestly thinks Beryllia ought to go see the Republic, too.  And then there's Hutt Space.  The first blasted thing she's going to do is make peace with the Republic and pivot the army there.  There are few worse slavers in the galaxy, and none at the Hutts' sheer scale.

That is an extremely impressive thing to have accomplished. Well done. She has sometimes worked with sympathetic and righteous lords working under a tyrannical liege, and it is no easy task. 

...Trust is a problem, arguably the problem, when you get down to it. At home she has things to make it easier. Common knowledge, common culture, the whole vast ancient structure of the Church. Out here she has none of that. ...There is a kind of magic, a Quest, that is used sometimes, offered as an alternative to condemned criminals. It can forbid certain actions, enforce a future course. It is not so reliable as to be risk-free, but it enables a second chance, of a sort. She would not want to trust anyone solely on that basis, but if there were someone willing, it would be another layer of security. Since they are being honest, she finds it distasteful, but in opposition to the Emperor...

"I can see exactly why Sirenna sent me to you." The warmth radiates in her voice. "I am almost minded to crown you Empress on the spot." Slightly teasing, but only slightly. "I do have some experience with rulers like that. I don't suppose they would be the sort to surrender in good order and end slavery immediately and rule better in exchange for their lives, if they found themselves mysteriously summoned before us? And I will happily take us to the Republic, if you wish. I admit I am curious."

"They would say the words, but they would not mean them - use of this, binding, aside -" she finds that rather distasteful as well - "and they would not have particular ability to corral the sort of people they tend to hire, who are likely to just go find new masters with the same lack of morals."

"...Have you no - sense, of people, then?  Force only knows I've had to put up a very, very solid mask, and I've no doubt that any other Sith we're hoping exist would have a mask of similar resilience to my senses, they would have had to, to have survived this long - but...  If - I do not mean this to disparage - if you truly have a god's - guidance...  If you could see them...  And surely, if your goddess sent you here...  ...I cannot imagine she would not have examined me."

"...Perhaps we should save going to the Republic your way until after we have worked out how to shield your workings from this side of the galaxy.  Once is bad enough; twice, and coming now from my space...  I don't think we're ready for that kind of attention just yet."

"It would not be all that long, I think, if we turned from here to a different route, even taking into account having to run under the - ah, there's a way of discovering where things are from a distance by bouncing an invisible kind of light off of it, called radar, that we'd need to be metaphorically slipping under - but I think you also may need time to acclimate."

"That indeed makes sense. It is ever thus. War it will have to be, then."

(She has plans for liberating the rest of her world, but they so incredibly cannot afford another gigantic project right now.)

"That's an excellent question, and I am certainly not feeling disparaged. Exactly how the Sight of the gods works is an exceptionally difficult mystery, as are most things surrounding Them. The best way to explain it is that They can perceive... things within their domain. People who would be suited to be Their clerics, things that concern Their sphere, possibilities related to them, things conceptually close to Them. But Sirenna is extremely far away, I have no idea how She interacts with this plane. ...A cleric is never distant from their god at all no matter how far away They may be, it is part of what we are, Sirenna can probably See a little better now. ...I can also speak a Name that will slay most things except the righteous, that which is favoured in Her Sight, but not being a righteous person is not a capital offence. And if we had a willing candidate before us, I could ask the Goddess directly, that would work."

"And - that was a foolish mistake I made, I am not used to miracles being perceptible like that. Thank you for catching it, and well done. I think acclimatisation is an excellent idea. Any suggestions?"

Annnd here is the Galactic Technology For People Who've Probably Never Seen It Before guidebook!  And a clean datapad with limited user permissions, with that book loaded on it, with an explanation of how to use a datapad open.

"It wasn't a foolish mistake, you genuinely did not have enough information to correct it and it was worth the risk."

"...I have to admit, I'm curious what Sirenna thinks of me."

"Thank you." She can speak and understand but not read, though she'll get it quickly enough if someone can teach her the glyphs.

"Ah." She smiles. "Actually She contacted me, and said there was a rare opportunity, and a world that needed my help, and someone there who was high in Her esteem. I am fairly sure that was you. I think I need not say She does not say that about very many people, still less one She must have barely been able to See at all from that distance. You must shine rather brightly in the Sight of Heaven, I think."

"...Oh."

She hadn't thought she'd ever receive the approval of a greater power than herself.  The Light Side is not vocal in the right way, the Jedi Council...  She's fairly sure they wouldn't approve of her devotion to the Sith Code no matter how much she works for the Light...  The Republic, likewise, but probably with much more urge to kill.  And obviously, the Emperor would sooner kill her than remotely condone what she does.

"...I'm glad."

(Yes, of course, here are the glyphs -)

She will read enough to ensure she can activate the Device again, for study. 

"You aren't alone. We'll put this galaxy right. And everywhere else, too, in time."

"...You know, when you say that, I actually believe you."

"Good." A small smile. "I believe me too."

So.  Beryllia has been acquainted with the facts of galactic life, it's been at least a few days, she's dealt with everything that needed her and there doesn't appear to be another idiot on the horizon.

Does she still want to go see the Republic?  And the Jedi Order, for that matter; she absolutely ought to meet some of them.  Because in that case they probably have experiments to do, to see if they can do anything to keep such a miracle as instantaneous interplanetary transport from being that loud.

Living on a ship in close quarters with other people where she can't go outside is not sitting well with her at all, it turns out. This is not objectively severe but it's still not one of the kinds of hardship she has ever had to face before and for some reason it's more than a trivial effort to keep on going. 

Apparently she got too used to being essentially impossible to ever imprison again. 

She isn't hiding it. This is war, not politics, she has allies here. But she tries to keep the strain out of her voice, it isn't Ophelia's fault. 

"That is probably wise. Do they know about you at all?"

"They've heard of me, I'm sure.  Do they know anything about me?  I really don't think they do, except for my having successfully passed for a Jedi, on occasions where it was needful, presumably leaving records."

"Mm. Can you do so again."

"Yes."

"And..."

She fiddles with the ring of Mind Blank for a moment, to test whether it gets in the way of the Force perceiving her when she's asking...

"...It looks like I've margin yet to go vanishing off somewhere, especially if we can figure out how to hide your miracles."

It works like a barrier; it does not stop her from sensing herself, as that starts and ends within her. 

"...I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you mean?" She has extraordinary strength of will and the kind of limpid inner clarity it takes to see the divine. She is able to sound normal for Ophelia's sake.

Her limpid inner clarity is telling her that she is not coping brilliantly. Thank you, limpid inner clarity, that's very helpful. 

...Sure, she won't argue with the favorable interpretation.

"If there's a big beacon of a portal going off again, either I'm going to need to do some impressive amounts of confabulation, or a way to veil it as you have veiled me.

"Thankfully, there's precedent to be able to do that with the Force, even if it requires such artifice as was seen with some of the ancient Dark Jedi exiles and never quite repeated."

"...I've been meaning to ask, actually, what is your spear made of?"