Won't catch me chasing that. It's the worst part, the way it happens for me. She shakes her head and lets the built-up Dark dissipate. "Anyway, I doubt that's what a Jedi looks like either, but it's far enough from Sith that I bet it'll give them pause. Not that I've met one."

"I've utilized more traditional Force stealth to get a closer look at them in the past, and I can confirm that they don't look like this whatsoever.  I mean, aside from the..."

"They do also have calm surfaces, if that makes sense as a sensory metaphor.  It's just that they also have calm everything else - they don't dig out hidden depths so much as spread themselves across more shallows."

"That tracks," she nods. "I expect that's what I look like, when -" yeah she's not going to say it.

"Mm.  When, if.  If the Force is really trying this hard, and it's not something you want to be involved in...

"It will probably be a very pointed headache if I try to get it to cough up what I'd need to do what was asked of you, but blast it all, this is not what it's supposed to be doing.  The Force shall free me.

"...What kind of Darth would I be if I didn't occasionally twist its arm, anyway?"

...wait, she actually meant that she wasn't going to force the issue?

"It's more complicated than that," she settles on, after a slightly-too-long pause, and winces internally at the vulnerability.

She's going to Force at the issue, not force the issue.

"Well, I rather imagine you don't want to talk about it with me.  But if that changes, you have my comm."

"I do, yes."

She's halfway back to her quarters before it occurs to her that just because the Darth is acting very strange doesn't mean she's being truthful; it's still entirely possible that she's lying, just in a more complex way - the Force effect would be hard to fake, but it doesn't necessarily mean what she implied it does. And she's definitely been away from Sith society for too long if it took her this long to realize that.

She summons Daisy and Nine back to the privacy of the Nightfall Spectrum and lays it out for them, and for the new astromech as well on principle. In many ways the simplest explanation would be that Kalbetis is what she's presenting herself as, some sort of vigilante half-Jedi operating under the banner of the Sith. In other ways that doesn't actually make sense - who does she answer to in the Sith hierarchy, and if she doesn't, how has noone noticed that yet? where does her funding come from? - and none of that answers the real question, which is how dangerous it is to be here, doing this.

Daisy points out that whatever else Kalbetis is she is a Darth, and they discuss the implications of that for a few minutes before Pradnakt observes that the whole topic is a red herring. She wasn't lying - or, not really - when she said that the question of whether to go along and contribute her skills here is more complicated than just a question of whether she's able to leave. Coming back to the Dark afterward may be unpleasant, but there's something about healing that speaks to her soul, and if she could do it safely - she wouldn't want to be coerced, of course, but she'd take the freedom to do it, if it was offered. And it may be being offered; leaving aside what Kalbetis is or what her motives may be, she does seem to have figured out how to do something along the lines of that. (Unless this is some kind of trap for heterodox Sith, but that truly doesn't make sense as a theory, there's no reason to go to this length when they could have killed her before even writing the first letter.)

She's not going to ask about this over the comm, but she can find Kalbetis in person.

Kalbetis is, in fact, findable rather easily, for a sensor of Pradnakt's caliber.  Well, when she's within the same planetary orbit.

Is Pradnakt actually willing to approach her in her office?

If she doesn't seem especially busy and doesn't have another visitor, yep.

She doesn't seem to be radiating an aura of busyness or anything, no.  The protocol droid at the door looks her up and down, presses a button, and directs her inside after the door opens, silently.

She may be bold enough to come but she's less inclined to directly interrupt a Darth; she'll wait to be acknowledged, at least to the degree of being looked at, before saying anything or moving away from the door.

"Thank goodness you're here; you've offered me a reprieve from getting buried in yet more flimsiwork.  Please, do come in."

"Anytime," she chuckles. "I had some questions I didn't think you'd appreciate getting over the comm."

"Right.  I imagined you might.  One moment..."

Lord Pradnakt can probably almost feel the process of Darth Kalbetis mustering her full attention - and certainly see the sequestration of any physical distractions.

"Alright, whenever you're ready, then."

'Almost'? lol.

"I'm mostly wondering how you're keeping yourself - us - safe, from other Sith. With the" - she gestures vaguely - "dangerous secrets."

"...Very carefully.  Some of my measures I cannot discuss.  But part of it is carefully constructed and entirely misleading truths.  For instance, that any right-thinking Sith would not stoop to being anything less than their whole self at all times, or that the 'false Light' technique is utterly beneath me.  I give the impression that I am a person who should hate to be tasked to dealing with Jedi, and most do not look beyond those preconceptions."

"I see how something like that could work but I'm hesitant to trust my safety to it, not knowing the details." She sighs, and continues apologetically: "This was much easier when I thought I didn't actually have a choice."

"Unfortunately so many things are easier when the choice to do them is taken from us, but I refuse to be a hypocrite and bind another thinking being.  As best as I'm aware, the very Code the Sith follow to this day was made by slaves who wanted to be freed from tyrannically apostate Dark 'Jedi', no matter how absurdly the situation turned around after the revolution hit."  There's a twist of wry self-deprecation to the humor in her Force presence.

"...I would not wish to trust that my methods would suffice to cover for you, regardless, in my professional opinion.  They weren't planned for hiding others under.  It requires far more constant public scrutiny than you'd like, in any case."

"Which is to say, it works because I draw attention, but shape it in very specific ways.  Whereas for yourself...

"I don't purport to know you, but my instinct is that we would be better off hiding you behind a different role if your presence is even to become known."

"Absolutely," she nods.

"My droids have manumission papers, by the way, if something does happen to me. I don't know what they'll want to do in that case but I intend them to be able to make their own choice about it."

"Of course.  Ideally it won't get to that point, for a good long while or perhaps ever, but it's good that you've prepared for it."

"...As best you can, at least.  There's no good structure for protecting a specific droid's independent choice short of putting them in armor and calling them Mandalorian - very few people will call that bluff, at least.  ...If it even is one; I'm fairly sure I've met someone using that strategy that sincerely practices their Resol'nare, though how sure I can be of that is 'not, without first, myself, converting'."

"An interesting strategy, but I don't think it would work for either of mine."

"...Unfortunate.  If you do die in my service, it's the least I could do for their loss to protect them, but even my power has limits.  ...And of course while they're nominally serving here our repair shops are open to them.  Maybe speak with Elsie about security measures; I rather intentionally keep myself sequestered from that information so I can't give it up."