The idea is to be able to see that they aren't bringing him somewhere they shouldn't be, and with a complicated route he can't check that by watching the horizon. He'll have to see if he can get ahold of a map at some point, so he doesn't have this problem again as easily, but he doesn't trust them not to give him a doctored one. He is really starting to regret not going back to Tython, as unclear as it is that that would have saved him from this mess. "The equartiers are fine. Tomas, Mirana, do you need anything for the trip?"

"I'm ready."

"No, sir."

"All right. Where do we go for the equartiers?"

Down a hole, along the hallway, past an opportunity to use a chamberpot (recommended), into an elevator which clunks and whooshes its way down seven storeys, and here are three cheerful equartiers. They look fairly human except for their wide nostrils, manes, and hooves the size of their thighs. They're wearing the typical Lei uniform; their sashes have small bags at the shoulder.

Would the distinguished passengers prefer bridal carry, piggy-back, or sack-of-potatoes-over-the-shoulder?

"If there's a problem, pull on my mane. Hard. Don't worry about hurting me. And remember, I won't be able to see or hear you when we're going fast, and it takes time to slow down. Don't try to jump off before I put you down."

The journey starts with a few minutes of jogging through hallways like those above, just more cramped and sporadically lit. Then, one by one, several minutes apart, they go down a ramp into utter darkness and pick up the pace. 

clomp clomp clomp CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP

Rafiik keeps close track of his heading through the journey, to make sure they're headed north. He'll take piggyback and warns his equartier that he might, in fact, jump; it's safe for him to do so. (Or at least if it isn't he'll recognize that before making the mistake.)

They are indeed heading north. 

Each minute or so, the equartier grabs a small object from the side and puts it into the sash bag, and sometimes adjusts the pace afterwards. 

After about six hours, they slow down and emerge into a lit area. A butler offers them refreshments and shows them a view of a landscape below them. The ground is in shadow; a line of towers cuts across, their tops lit by the sun in sharp contrast to the ground.

(Mirana and Tomas are quiet, other than a brief conversation between Mirana and the local butler. Tomas stares out the window the whole time he eats.)

Rafiik is glad for the opportunity to stretch his legs, moreso than hungry, though he'll take a light meal and eat it while pacing. He's spent most of the last six hours in meditation after planning his approach at the border; he's not sure whether he's going to want Mirana or Tomas to do the initial translation, but it shouldn't matter much, so he'll wait and gauge their mood when he gets there and leave them to their own thoughts for now.

When everyone is ready to continue, a new trio of equartiers lead them to an elevator that goes a long way down, and start rushing through the darkness again.

An hour in, they pass below some people who are distressed and angry. A moment later, that's all far behind them.

That's pretty unpleasant, especially while meditating. He doesn't get enough of a look to pick up any details, but his impression in the Force is that it's not an especially urgent problem; he won't disrupt the equartier over it.

Five more hours to the next rest stop. Not much to see there. 

A third set of equartiers take them the last three hours.

Then, up an elevator and into a room filled with bunk beds, mostly empty. More food? Sleep? "We don't ring the shifts here, but if you care, the local time is 14 hours. Food is available 30/30. The border is two klicks north."

It's definitely getting to be evening according to Rafiik's sense of time, and it's a good idea to be fresh for the border crossing attempt. "Do either of you have any objections to getting some sleep before we continue?" he asks Mirana and Tomas.

They both look like they're ready to drop but are trying to hide it, and do not object to sleep.

Time for bed, then. Rafiik usually takes his lightsaber off to sleep, the holster belt is bulky and uncomfortable, but for tonight it seems wiser to keep it. He takes the closest bunk to the door that he can get.

Mirana picks a bed twenty feet away. Tomas goes to the opposite wall.

Rafiik has no particular objection to this; Tomas' choice is maybe not the best sign, but it's clear enough that the man finds him intimidating.

Zzzzz.

There are no emotional disturbances while he sleeps.

When he wakes, Tomas is elsewhere, and Mirana is sitting up in bed, holding a rock and looking away, but with a posture that suggests she could have been watching him a moment ago.

That's a little disconcerting to wake up to but he's not going to confront her about it, or at least not right away. He heads for the bathroom, keeping an eye out for Tomas on the way, and then finds a butler to ask if there's a private room he can have use of for half an hour or an hour.

There's a meeting room he's welcome to use; just close the door and no one will come in unless there's an emergency.

Tomas is parked halfway up the nearest ladder with just his head above the surface.

Would Rafiik like breakfast? It's his old missed connection, green latke!

Tomas is super legit. Rafiik stops in the dorm for a moment to let Mirana know he wants to talk to her in the meeting room after breakfast and goes and gets some latkes.

She goes and waits for him and fiddles with her rock...

"Do you have questions? I think that no one here other than us three should know about the thing you can do with the Force to get the truth."

"I wasn't going to share that, no. I want to know if there's anything else you lied to me about, or anything you didn't tell me because you were lying to me."

"We didn't tell you about a lot of species, because we thought that if you knew about more species, you would be more upset about what the Sith did.

The most important of those is the elves, because the elves are what we have instead of the Force. When we were talking about the Force, and how it was kind of like a person who has seen everything, I was thinking of the Lei elves. Elves can write their memories in places - that's what a 'shrine' is, what makes it more than just a town. There are shrines that don't have towns, even. So it's not the elves that are important, it's the elves and the shrines that we hold for them. All of that is Lei.

In connection with that... the particular bad thing that FD did, er, one particular bad thing that they did that I dodged describing, is that they used species magic to hurt people. Or, you know, they hurt people weaker than them - 'disiniuria'. Like how if a Sith used Sith magic to kill someone, that would be worse than just killing someone with a knife? Mostly just they burned people with catfire, which you already knew about, but we didn't want you thinking about species at all.

Also, the story that FD told about apples was different; they said that there were two species involved, species that don't actually exist, but... the FD created a lot of species recently and I guess they were hoping that two more would sound fine, sound like it could be true. The first are the 'undines', who can tell what people are thinking, which is not really how magic works - your thoughts matter, but it doesn't reach into other people's thoughts. Except Jedi magic, I guess. But not us. Anyway, the other species is the apple trees themselves. Which is not how species work; there are species that come from plants, but they move around and talk - stuff that people do. But supposedly, the 'undines' can read the thoughts of the 'apple trees', and they say that they're people and that's why everyone has to stop growing apples.

It's true that they hurt people who were growing apples, but that's not even the worst thing. They broke the shrines and they killed the elves who remembered anything from them. That's the reason they want to hurt us, because we follow our elves, our Lei, and the story about the apples is there to make other people, who don't want to hurt the elves, okay with the FD hurting us.

Oh, I didn't tell the you full name of the FD; it's a long explanation. And there's probably more, but, uh, any questions?"

"Why do you think the Sith were here?"

"Well someone made us, probably someone who looks like a breeder or a 'human'. Someone very powerful. Not a Jedi, because Jedi get stronger over time and creating breeders seems like the opposite of that, so probably the Sith?"