Speed of Sound

[Moonfire]

"Richie, what do you mean we're moving? Robin just started school and--"

"I've already made the all the arrangements. Robin will be attending one of the finest institutions on Muunilist, his classmates will be young aristocrats. The house is very nice, I picked it out myself. I thought you'd like the weather better than Mygeeto." His tone was even as the wavering image of his older sister glared defiantly through the holo-comm. Spindly fingers tapped across the datapad in his hand as snow continued its ever spiraling descent on the Rhen Var landscape behind him. The woman's sharp expression did not change with his quiet assurances.

Lorelei Kast was and always had been a force to reckon with and while she may be systems upon systems away Richter still dreaded having to oppose his older sister.

"But we're not aristocrats, Richie. All of Robin's friends are here, my job, mom and dad, we've already packed up and moved across planet once and I will not uproot my son again because you're in the Navy and have some delusions of grandeur you want us to play out to impress your officer friends."

Richter's hand twitched for a long moment as he looked up into the holo-comm again, putting down the datapad to give the woman his full attention. The pain of his expression was obvious as his hand began to shake. Blasted tremor again. Balling the trembling hand up he tucked it behind his back, trying to not let Lorelei see fully how much her words struck him.

"Be fair, Lori. I'm not doing this to upset you. You know that right? Do you really think I'd make you all move out of selfishness?" He asked, looking the flickering silvery image as he struggled to explain without giving too many details. Was what he was doing anything but selfish? What about all the others on Taris? Every childhood friend and struggling refugee that didn't have the chance to leave Novus had so kindly granted his own family. The hand behind his back shook more as he took another long, deep breathe to steel himself, feeling control return to the limb.

"I'm trying to protect you. I-I... Lor, you guys need to get off Taris. Please. I need you to stop fighting me and start packing." His tone was serious as the crisp Imperial accent wavered, showing through the rough accent of home as he pulled himself back together, interrupting her stunned silence. "Lori, you're going to pack up for you and Robin, make sure Mom and Dad are ready and in two weeks time I will be on a transport ship taking you from Taris to Muunilist. I will spend the following few weeks settling you guys in personally. I think you'll rather like it if you give it a chance, I've found a few job opportunities for you. Please, think of this less as an inconvenience and a chance to start over."

Richter's eyes flicked to the door as the knob began to turn, Lorelei starting to babble out some sort of protest before finally conceding. "Lori--Lori, I have some other things I need to attend to, I'll speak to you again soon. Give Robin a hug from me, I love you." His hand, now free of that damnable tremor moved forward to turn off the holo-comm just as the office door swung open, revealing the young new apprentice he'd been itching to speak with

"Vance! How are you? Can I get you anything? Tea?" Richter clipped out smoothly, straightening up the piled datapads that was his work. It could wait a bit. "The kitchens made some great scones earlier, I can see if they have a couple more left over. The orange cream ones were particularly tasty."

[Fromikeable]

Vance had never had much confidence in the idea of prophecies. Even those famous Force-users who had, throughout history, predicted the future with uncanny accuracy had tended to toward a lie here or a mistake there. It wasn’t that he flat out denied the validity of some forecasts, but rather that he’d never taken a single one without a grain of salt.

Except for today.

Something atrocious was brewing, and with every creeping second, it made his face more and more grim. When Novus had told him that in a few mere days, they’d be at Taris, he had immediately refused, protested, and flat-out denied having any part. He would have thrashed, would have fought, would have even ran if any of it could have done any good.

Even when Novus had convinced him that his protests would do no good, she finally agreed to simply stick him in the back of the lines running messages. He would never tell her, but it still terrified him that she could convince him of anything at all.

But thus his silence these past few days, mostly spent eating and sleeping and finding little distractions and (when assuredly alone) meditating. He’d practiced his katas. He’d practiced his Force affinities. He’d even dived into the Archives again, trying to lose his mind in a familiar practice.

Nothing had really worked. Thus he had taken to wandering, and his next spot was Novus’ office. He’d left a holopad there earlier; a book about his newest, smallest companion that the Sith Lady had leant him.

As if on cue, the small creature interrupted his thinking with a nip at his skull, causing him to grunt and pat a hand through his hair. The head of the tailring popped out of his fro inquisitively, looking at the hand and sniffing it, unaware of the damage it had done. Scrunching his face, Vance carefully plucked the creature from his head and held it in his hands, shaking his head at it as they entered the office. “No biting.”

To his surprise, he found Richter quickly organizing his desk and chirping what sounded to him as an almost too-cheerful hello. Placing the small reptile on his shoulder, Vance could feel the waves of anxiety rolling off the assistant at a glance. Pushing aside his own thoughts, he returned the kind smile with a warm one of his own, trying not to seem just as stressed.

“Hey Richter. I’m good, thanks. Not much of a tea-drinker.” The dragon cooed at him in a slight tone of annoyance at the refusal of food, in response to which he stroked the creature’s spine and added, “Maybe just some milk in a saucer though.”

With the immediate question out of the way, one of Vance’s own quickly came rumbling down the belt. “I, uh, didn’t interrupt anything, did I?”