[A diminutive Sith Pureblood steps forwards towards Vedriat’s cell. Niarra accompanies him, but she steps to the side, not totally hidden from view, but not close either.
Vedriat’s cell is a bedraggled mess. A broken bed is pushed against one wall beside a haphazardly placed table. The sofa looks musty. Vedriat lies on the sofa, back to the door, her long, red hair loose about her. Niarra lets her hands drift together into a loose clasp and closes her eyes, as Taelios taps on the security field.]
Vedriat: Go. Away.
Tae: Vedriat, get up.
[Vedriat pushes herself up into a half sit. She turns to the door.]
Vedriat: What are you doing here?
[Vedriat twists her hair over her shoulder, combing out the tangles.]
Tae: Visiting? Why, not happy to see me?
Vedriat: It is more the questions of how you are able that concerns me.
Tae: I asked nicely. You know me well enough to know there’s not a lot stopping me from doing anything.
[Vedriat rises and steps up to the field.]
Vedriat: Then release me from this cell. [A pause] Are you loyal to me or not?
Tae: You didn’t want me to be, did you?
Vedriat: Are you playing a game?
Tae: I’m always playing a game. But no, I came here to see if I could help you… I could, you know. I could touch this force field and collapse it, I could fly you on my back back to your home… But that’s not much of a lesson for you, is it? And it puts my HOLDINGS in danger, which… we can’t have that, can we? Can’t have our alliances misconstrued?
Vedriat: Will you do it, or not?”
Tae: Your husband bids me inform you he intends to speak with the Imperial Diplomatic Service in order to become a Protectorate of the Empire. They reclaim the Belsmuth Sector, you retain your sovereignty.
[Vedriat's posture shifts to surprise. She touches a hand to her forehead and gives a small shake of her head.]
Vedriat: He— ...what?
[Niarra laces her fingers as she listens.]
Tae: Malagant and his wolves are at the door, and he seems to think you need the protection.
Vedriat: So this Empire cares nothing that— [A pause] ...will you not even do us the courtesy of pretending to give us privacy?
Niarra: If it is pretense only, then it is also purposeless. And I am not authorized to give you more than pretense.
Tae: Is that what you want? Do you want me to break the cage and rescue you?
Vedriat: Do you think I enjoy being here?
Tae: Do you want me to RESCUE you?
Vedriat: You have entirely abandoned it, haven't you. I am the only tie left.
Tae: Vedriat. Answer the question. Do you want me to rescue you and put that 'shame' on your name? 'She couldn't escape, so she turned to the traitor. The one she exiled and stripped of his title'."
[Vedriat takes another half step close to the security field, but she retreats to her former position with a wearier slump to her shoulders.]
Vedriat: What is one more shame, Taelios?
[She presses her palms against the table and leans on it.]
Vedriat: My whole life has been lived in shame. I have never escaped it.
Tael: [Sighs audibly] I... [He looks to Niarra] I...
Vedriat: [Tiredly] Go. I will not ask you to divide your loyalties.
Tae: I’m going to… do this the diplomatic way. I promise to get you back home to your children.
[The force field flickers a bit. Taelios, distracted, turns to leave and pauses by Niarra.]
Tae: Please continue to afford her every comfort available.
[Niarra opens her eyes and looks to Taelios. She turns and moves to walk with him as he leaves the cell. Vedriat does not move from her position at the table. There is a long period of time with no motion or words, after which the door opens again, and Niarra returns to the cell. She lowers herself into a seat on her side of the force field. Vedriat is preoccupied with a holo-image.]
Niarra: Did he allow you a moment to see them?
Vedriat: [A pause] No. He gave me a lewdly dancing Sith woman.
[Niarra nods.]
Niarra: I hope that you will be reunited with them in peace.
Vedriat: Why do you care?
Niarra: Because, above all else, my greatest desire in resolving this situation is to find a resolution in which no one suffers.
Vedriat: There is no ‘no one suffers,' Jedi. We are enemies. If you return me to mine, you give them greater strength to defy you. And if you withhold me, you weaken them. That is the situation.
Niarra: The situation, like the crystals we both know, has facets. I withhold you, and I anger them to action I do not want. I return you, and you may act to prevent needless slaughter. The suffering will have been yours alone, in what you are enduring now. I would wish for none at all, but I cannot change what has already happened.”
Vedriat: Is that all you came here for? To discuss my ‘suffering?'
Niarra: I came to discuss, I hope, a way in which we might ease it. I came because I wonder what messages Taelios delivered to you with his choice of words. I came because I need to understand you better. In all that I do, I am seeking only that hope that the solution of least pain might be found. I may not succeed. But I will not accept that defeat without trying.
Vedriat: [Huffs audibly] How very Jedi of you.
Niarra: In a refusal to accept defeat, Jedi and Sith are not that different. It is in our definitions of defeat where we most often differ. But I do not think that must be the case here.
[Vedriat turns to face Niarra. Her hands drop to her sides.]
Vedriat: Am I your latest project, Jedi? Would you see me ‘come into the Light’ and abandon my evil ways?
Niarra: No. That is a fantasy far beyond my aims here. I would also not so demean your predicament. What concerns me is greater by far than you, or me, or this room. But I do believe that it is in this room that a solution might be found.
Vedriat: And what would you have me do?
[Vedriat turns to Niarra further, raises her arms and gestures at the room around her.]
Vedriat: As you can see, I am brimming with the ability to affect my surroundings.
Niarra: Someone who once observed you, in different circumstances, told me they perceived you as one who kept her own counsel and acted independently even of her allies. I think it likely you did the same here, in coming to Iridonia. I believe your agenda was motivated by the personal, even if it would have had consequences beyond you. I believe a great many things. But it is the beliefs of others, who suspect your motives here to have been broader, that are keeping us at this impasse. You do have the ability to change things, by what you are willing to say.
Vedriat: And lose all my cards, Jedi? If what you say is true, that would be a very poor play of my hand, indeed.
Niarra: So you believe that you hold your words close in an effort to buy time, in which your allies might become aware of trouble, and move to free you, cutting through us in the process?
Vedriat: Believe what you wish. I am not playing your game.
[Vedriat turns away from Niarra, taking on a frustrated tension.]
Niarra: Mm. But I am not convinced that that is what you wish, even if it may be what you expect will happen. I suspect that our fears may not be that different, in at least one respect—that what might happen in an effort to free you should bring consequences outside the scope of what you intended in first coming here.
Vedriat: [A long pause] There are other ways in which the Jedi and Sith are similar. [She looks over her shoulder] We both manipulate. You, for your righteous cause or whatever bright word you use to describe it, and I for power. But, in the end, both our words are poisoned, and I will not listen to them.
Niarra: We may both manipulate. But the aim of all manipulation is to achieve of greater advantage than that in which we currently find ourselves. It does not necessarily follow that one side must lose and the other win for that to happen. We may yet find a way to use each other to reach a better outcome. Consider that our aims may not be entirely misaligned.
[Niarra stands, obviously preparing to leave. Vedriat turns to face her again, one hand clenched at her side while the other raises to point accusingly at the Jedi.]
Vedriat: That is it. That is it exactly. Your words are all wrapped up in a paper of calm and rationality, as if they did not hide the viper’s sting as much as mine. How do you not choke on your own righteousness?
Niarra: Righteousness is not a claim I have made. Every word I have spoken is truth. Above all else, I said, I wish to find a solution in which no one else suffers, and in which your suffering ends. You may think of me whatever you wish, and it may be that your opinion of me is not unfounded. That does not change that we must contend with one another, or that we might yet find a way to end this that meets at least some of what we each desire.
Vedriat: You can give me nothing of what I desire, Jedi—I will never be like you.
Niarra: I did not say that you would be. And freedom is not something I can give. But it may be that we might be able to help each other in such a way that you might achieve it for yourself.
Vedriat: And now you sound like a Sith. ‘Help me so that I might help you.’ ‘My victories are your victories.
[Vedriat shakes her head.]
Niarra: Think of my motives whatever you wish. But even if I am as self-righteous and quick to martyrdom as the most scornful of opinions of Jedi make me out to be, surely you can easily imagine the things which I might fear to see happen here. And I believe you should be able to see, thereby, the points of leverage you already have. We both know there is no way out of this situation that does not involve us compromising more than we might wish. Think on what you wish, Vedriat. Find a way to make me help you.
[Niarra shrug, and Vedriat steps forward.]
Vedriat: Open my cell. I obtain my freedom, and you obtain your lack of bloodshed. Is that not a compromise in and of itself?
Niarra: It is. It is not a compromise I have dismissed. But I am not the only one who needs to be convinced. For we both know the obvious question that follows. What does Queen Azeara do once she has returned to the Hegemony?
Vedriat: Is it not clear that I will be contending with too much of a mess to be bothered with revenge?
Niarra: That may be true. That thought is part of why I have not dismissed the possibility of recommending that you be allowed to go free. How to decide if I should trust that thought, and your assurances, is another part of the concern, however. Should I believe you? And even if I do, should I gamble on the hope that you can control what your husband or your Imperial allies do?
Vedriat: If you return me, my husband will have no cause to attack you.
Niarra: 'If we return you'… Your choice of words is… striking. And what of your own aims? Vedriat’s aims. If you leave here without the man you sought, do you find another way? Or do you seek to punish those who blocked your path?
[Vedriat turns away. She rests a hand against the table.]
Vedriat: I have resigned myself to the fact that… that the opportunity has passed.
Niarra: [A pause] But perhaps this is an opportunity. There may be those who would be more convinced that you would not seek revenge, were you to be released, if there were some condition you requested in return. Call it cynicism or wisdom, or perhaps equal measures of both, but most are likely to suspect that a Sith would not extend such a promise unless there were something to be gained in exchange. Or is your freedom truly enough?
Vedriat: By all means give me Lord Kaeron, then. I will not argue if I must exact a condition. ‘Freedom’ is never without a price, after all.
Niarra: That concession is beyond my power to make. But if you think of others, I will listen.
[Niarra gives her a nod and seems about to leave again.]
Vedriat: Do you have children, Jedi? A foolish question, I know, but I have heard of exceptions to your established rule.
[Niarra pauses, arrested in the act of turning to leave.]
Niarra: I do not.
Vedriat: Then perhaps you are the wiser of us.
[Vedriat turns from the table and away from Niarra.]
Niarra: [A pause] Seek the opportunities. With the Jedi involved… and the knowledge we may bring… perhaps there is the unexpected to be found.
[Casually, as if hardly aware of what she does, Vedriat lifts a hand and crushes the cameras in her room for the third time, one by one, with nonchalant ease. Her eyes never move from where they stare at the ground before her.]
