"Ah. Well, you might know some of my work, then. Are they still using the double-flanged modulation circuit design for 'sabers these days?"

"...Yeah. That was you?"

"Builds on my work; I was off working on fancy blade features while Lotszais was coming up with it. Clever, though, I'm not surprised nobody's improved on it yet."

"Neat."

"Mmhmm."

"So what's the holdup with your master problem? I assume it isn't just the Jedi."

"...I'm having trouble finding him. And he has defenses."

"Sounds like something I might be able to help with, if you'd like."

"That would be excellent."

Nod. "Do you have transportation? The nearest town to me is about a day and a half by speeder from here, you can set up shop there if you stay stealthed and don't mess with them."

Nod. "We do. Stealthed like they don't know we're there or stealthed like they don't know we're Force users?"

"Second thing. Doesn't have to be more than a few days, I can set up a guest room if it turns out you're going to be here a while. Makes more sense than going back and forth, it's a bit of a hike."

"We can do that."

Nod. "And you'll have to be polite to my droid. I expect she'll stay out of your way, though, she's nervous of strange Force users."

Puzzled blink.

"Of course."

The Jedi gets a brief amused grin, and then she continues. "Sounds like a plan, then. I have a couple more days of errands before I head back; where should I find you when I'm ready to go?"

She names a hotel.

And two days later, shortly after noon, they can sense her presence down in the lobby.

Karzel stiffens.

"Don't worry," she murmurs, and squeezes his shoulder.

The two of them pick up their meager belongings and come down to the lobby.

The aura retreats as soon as they start moving. When they get to the lobby, she's sitting on the couch with a datapad; she doesn't look up until they get close. "Ready to go?"

"Mhm."

"Good." And off they can go.

Her speeder is an older model, and middle-of-the-line even when it was new, but well taken care of. It seats two, or maybe three if the built-in storage area was empty; right now, though, it's full of miscellaneous packages, neatly arranged and held down with a net.

The two of them have a newer speeder built for two in back of the hotel.

And soon enough they're out of the city and into the desert.

There's a lot of desert.

She keeps an eye on them, metaphorically speaking, stopping for breaks when they need them without being asked.

Shortly before sunset, she pauses at the top of a ridge that'll offer a particularly nice view of it.