“Saru asked you to collect your belongings.” A masked legionnaire gestures at Devika. “Is she... that?”

"Yes, Ma'am. Sith customs are different."

“Has she pledged?”

"Sith don't have that custom, Ma'am. She might, Deskyl has been thinking about allowing for it, but this is something else."

(Saru whispers in that legionnaire's ear.)

"If she states a wish to stay with you, she may do so for the time being."

"That is my wish."

And off they go.

They aren't kept waiting outside the cloister long.

Within a couple of minutes, a figure descends from the city and approaches the gates.

"I've been assigned to escort you out of the habitat. Please follow me."

    "Yes, Ma'am."

They very nearly retrace the exact path that led them to the cloister in the first place.

This time, though, they see no vassals. Saru's subjects have been moved out of the way, leaving empty walkways and empty stairs all the way up to the docking terminal.

"We'll be taking my SLAYER. I don't anticipate any high-speed maneuvering, but if either of you want a whiplash bodysuit Saru has made such equipment available?"

(Dheto addresses DZ and Deskyl specifically with that query, Devika is still wearing colonial-issue protective attire.)

    "We'll be all right, Ma'am. Have you been told about Deskyl's magic?"

"I could stand to be told more."

She approaches the airlock platform where her SLAYER's docked.

DZ explains while they follow, still signing so that Deskyl can follow the conversation. "Yes, Ma'am. There are several different things that Deskyl can do, but the simplest ones are telekinesis, which is moving things or holding them still without touching them, and various sensory abilities; detecting peoples' locations and emotions by magic is the easiest, but she can also magically diagnose illness or injury and use a more general sense that works like vision but doesn't require line of sight. She also has a precognitive sense of immediate danger - the magic looks a few seconds into the future and alerts her if she's about to be harmed, and what she should do to avoid it. With more effort she can read minds, sense a wider variety of things at a greater distance, and reduce her need for things like air or food or sleep."

"Thank you. That's good to know."

She enters the airlock.

They follow.

    "Did you have any other questions, Ma'am?"

"Do you want me to ask other questions?"

The interior of Dheto's SLAYER is like any other.

As the hatchway behind them closes, the Thousand Fingers Knight begins clipping herself into her piloting harness.

"If you'd like, Ma'am? This will be more comfortable for everyone if you're more comfortable with us."

Deskyl and DZ settle into a corner.

She thinks it over as she carefully slides the cybernetic uplink cable into the port in her back. A soft click sounds in the quiet enclosure. She lowers her hands back to her sides. The wall in front of her comes alive with a projection of the jagged landscape outside the SLAYER.

“What do you think of the way things are, here?”

    "She finds it a little disturbing, Ma'am, not that that excuses what happened. But she values freedom and personal strength, and wants them for everyone, and it's very obvious that the Legionnaires don't want them."

The docking clamp disengages and the SLAYER slumps forward. Dheto takes a tentative first step, checking her synchronization with the massive biomechanical organism.

“What does ‘freedom’ mean to you?”