" -- what the hell is this," breathes the young woman seeing what was supposed to be a static 'make sure nothing explodes' test of a teleportation anchor turn out to be anything but static.

A - surely not a droid - and a seemingly-insensate woman, dressed in black robes, with a coppery cylinder clipped to her belt, appearing from nowhere?  Not in the parameters.

But then, there's a piece of Void in the works.  It clearly wasn't properly excluded from the parameters.  She should have known better, but there are only so many rules she can make.

...At least it's not exploding?

But first she is turning it off.  Before anyone else shows up.

She slams the emergency stop button, and runes around the edges of the room light up in ghostly blues and empty blackness, killing and dispersing the magic.  A singular brightness burns off the Voidstuff, as well - that, she had to install special.

...The people are still there.  Fuck.

The room that hosts this interaction is made of generic stonework - solid slabs, carved with various glyphs.  Some of them are still lit up, and probably causing the purplish flare of some sort of shield over an observation window.  Other notable features include the emergency console (behind the shield), and a glyph-etched pile of metal that has just fallen apart with a clatter for lack of its animating force.

Deskyl hasn't quite managed to topple forward onto her face in the commotion, and by the time Alicia looks back to her it's not even obvious that that's partly because DZ grabbed her from behind. Instead she's in a ready stance, tracking Alicia warily with her eyes and keeping herself firmly between her and the droid.

There is a moment, as Alicia prepares an analysis spell (a faint gleam in her eyes, easy to miss), and makes not-a-threat gestures (hands away from anything, not meeting her counterpart's eyes), where she thinks this might be, if not truly normal, at least a Villarosan-issue snafu.

The results (after some rather bemused prodding) showing baryonic matter - fuck, if it had been anyone but her they wouldn't have known - put a stop to that dream.

"...Well, isn't this just grand.  Excuse me, can you understand me?"

Deskyl's eyes narrow as Alicia gathers magic for the spell, and she tenses considerably when it's cast; she doesn't particularly relax afterward.

She gestures annoyedly at her ears in response to the question.

...She...

Reconsiders casting a spell to do glowy letters, and pulls out a sheet of paper, scribbling on it and holding it up to the window/shield briefly before realizing that she should probably pass it through the door because it's not like she has a very thick pencil even if she wrote large enough that technically it should be legible from a distance at the size she wrote it.

Once she's realized this, the problem of how to deliver it manifests.

She promptly (and exasperatedly) facepalms, and makes the glowy letters anyway.

Sorry!  Um.  Can you read this?

Deskyl glares at the letters for a moment before signing to DZ; the droid peeks out from behind her and then signs something into her hand. She doesn't otherwise answer.

Something occurs to the young woman, who promptly blanches, dread and worry filling the room.  The writing promptly vanishes, and Alicia casts a much more Visually Obvious spell than her prior work, with circles and shapes and graphs? that...presumably correspond to things.

When she lets go of it (and braces herself on the console with a sigh of relief,) she waves a hand at more glowy writing.

I still don't know if you can read this, but if you can: good news, you can breathe the magic not-your-air.  At least, I'm pretty sure that's what I'm seeing.  I'm kind of kludging things together, here, this is an unprecedented situation.  There's not exactly supposed to be - any matter like yours - around here, the physics doesn't really support it.

Deskyl signs to DZ again - stay close - and steps forward to try the door.

...Okay, she's a little bit nervous about that.  But.  If it comes to a fight for some horribly stupid reason, she's pretty sure she could win.

She opens the door.  Better to be helpful than not.

Deskyl comes through the door - Alicia might notice that it becomes considerably lighter in her hand as she does, as if someone else was helping hold it open - and pauses to let DZ come through and take a protected position on the other side before stepping back to get a more reasonable amount of space between herself and Alicia.

She has to mundanely check the sightlines and exit routes; her Force senses aren't completely nonfunctional but the local physics situation is disorienting.

It's a well-balanced door, ma'am.  But she does notice.

More importantly, that physics seems to be taking notice of her, and especially her Force use, entwining itself with her efforts like it was meant to work that way the whole time.

...It wasn't, but now that she's thinking about it, it's not like the relevant (pseudo)axis isn't kind of like the Force...

But picking that apart can come later.

What on earth was this woman fleeing?

...As it was undoubtedly partly my doing that you have ended up here of all places - there are surely ones better suited - I find that I cannot escape from assuming a duty of care.  To that end I would like to know what, or who, you were fleeing.  In case it tries to find you again and I need to blast it to smithereens.

Meanwhile, as far as Deskyl is able to determine the sightlines and exit routes are as follows:

She has arrived in a small outbuilding; there is simply nothing more to it than the door she just walked through (the person who keeps writing at her has let her maintain space by standing right next to it, though still on the 'outside' of the space Deskyl arrived in), a small 'console', marked with more glyphs, and a door that leads - out, somewhere.  It feels cold, outside, say her senses, before getting tangled up in something that gives them nonsense data.

She can get through that door if she needs to, she thinks. And nobody else is around.

She has no idea what to expect with the local magic, and she doesn't like that. In particular she has no idea whether Alicia will be able to detect her reading her mind to help DZ learn the language, or how she'll react if she does.

Well, there's one obvious solution to that problem, if it's a problem she has. At home this wouldn't work, Alicia is clearly not Force-sensitive, but who knows, here. Deskyl closes her eyes and reaches out telepathically. Can you hear me?

...Apparently, yes.  I've never really practiced -- her thoughts break off, as she notices just how frayed the spirit making contact with hers is -- and you shouldn't be pushing, right now!  You feel half dead!  And not like you're relevantly Force-null!

Pictograms it is!

"Fucking wish I knew aurebesh - but then, it's not going to be English either, is it -"

Alright.

She can make this work.  Especially if any other vocabulary made it across in the Spirit-mediated surprise telepathy.  At least she's used 'yes'...

One Generic Human Female Icon, with tiara, arrow pointing at Alicia.  One Generic Human Female Icon, with yellow eyes, pointing at Deskyl.  One ...C3PO face..., pointing at the droid.

Wipe the board, start anew.

This time set them in the workroom - the floor plan should be obvious enough.  Tiara Face shown leaving the workroom, from her current position in the corner, and coming back.  Yellow Eyes Face and Not C3PO, together, staying here.

Tiara Face giving - data slate / book - to Not C3PO.  Not C3PO 'scanning' data slate / book.  Tiara Face thinking Not C3PO happy, question mark.  Not C3PO thinking of data slate/book, then Tiara Face talking, question mark.

New line, Tiara Face speaking to Not C3PO speaking to Yellow Eyes Face, question mark.

Wait for input.

She does not like that her vulnerable state is that obvious, but the woman is right, she'll regret it even more later if she pushes now.

Not that that's going to stop her from answering. She can learn your language and translate, yeah. Two or three books or a dictionary, and she'll need to hear a few sentences to pick up the spoken part.

She nods, and heads off to go get some books before her unexpected guest can strain herself more.

This will take slightly longer than Alicia was expecting, because she is going to have to explain why there are now two additional lifesigns registering in the workroom she said was just a precaution because this was going to be a static test that wasn't going to test actually teleporting.

...The first rule of Void magic is to expect the unexpected and she clearly messed that up, so now she has involuntary dimensional travellers that probably count as refugees, given the state they were in when they showed up.  She'll handle it.  She needs to get books to the translator.

She will, of course, be kept informed of events as they continue.

...Yes, she knows.

Anyway.  Five minutes later, she's back with some books.

...Would it be appropriate to approach her unexpected guest's personal space, to hand them over?

Her unexpected guest has fallen asleep - still standing, leaning against the wall - in the five minutes she's been gone. The droid reaches for the books, though.

"...That can't be comfortable at all," she murmurs.  ...Best not to wake her, regardless.

She hands over the books.  "Your books."

"Thank you," DZ says in Basic, and starts going through the books, taking only a moment to absorb each page. It'll take her maybe half an hour to get through everything at the pace she's going.

That's fine.  She can work on a translator for her other guest in that half-hour; she's had a Thought.  Or three.

The books are something of an eclectic selection, but clearly made with some intent to make the translation not as difficult as it could have been if she had picked at random, notwithstanding that she doesn't seem to have a proper dictionary available.  The illustrated plant encyclopedia should help with the groundwork, at least.

And when she's done: "Thank you for the books, ma'am."

"Please, don't."  Augh, and here she does have household staff so she can't just dismiss a service dynamic entirely without being something of a hypocrite...  "...I'm not in charge of you, and this was necessary for you to continue to - be yourself, by some metrics.  That, and clear communication is important.  By many measures I should be thanking you for your efforts, and indeed I think I shall.  Thank you.  We don't have anyone who could learn Basic in nearly as quick a time as you've learned our common tongue."

"It's no trouble, ma'am. Are you already familiar with Sith?"

"I am, somewhat, though it's - secondhand knowledge that I can't truly trust in.  It was dramatized.

"...No-one else will be, though.  We don't have any around here."

"Yes ma'am. It will be safest if you avoid startling or provoking master Deskyl but she's unusually calm for a Sith. She's also fairly badly injured right now; is there somewhere nearby where she can sleep?"

"I believe there should be some guest rooms available.  ...I don't know if a sufficient specialist in the kind of damage that's been done to her exists, as far as healing goes - I'm not even a practitioner of the relevant magic and I could tell how drastically wrong something was when she telepathied at me - but we can at least get her somewhere private to recover.  I owe her that much, given I'm pretty sure you landed here because of me - I was running a test of a teleportation beacon, and, well, you teleported.

"...How long is your battery rated for?"

"I have a few days of charge available at my usual usage rate, assuming your days are a similar length to the galactic standard, and master Deskyl will be able to make a charger for me; I'll ask her what parts she'll need next time she's awake. I believe she'll be able to recover without assistance, she's been improving without it so far, but I estimate at least another month and possibly two or three."

"Ah - you might not have noticed, but we are not running on galactic standard physics around here; I don't know if the parts she would want will be available.  There isn't really the right sort of matter to make them.  ...I'll work something out.  Or get somebody to work something out; I normally just stick to forces, not elements, but then - at least I have some idea of what's going on to begin with, that most anyone else wouldn't.  Regardless.  We will see your needs met.  I owe you that."

"...I'm a droid, ma'am. But master Deskyl will be very upset if I'm not available to her."

"...You have the capacity of reason.  As far as I'm concerned, that's what makes a person, no matter their operational substrate.  As far as I'm aware the law of Villarosa, let alone the nature of magic, agrees with that definition, and we are on Villarosan soil right now.  But - speaking of magic -"

...Hm.  She doesn't have that much experience with Spirit magic, that's Lila's thing - but she knows what the telepathy felt like, and Spirit magic is all about connections...

She is clumsy, as most untested magic is.  But she successfully nudges Daisy in the Spirit - which a baryonic object simply couldn't have, if it did not support complex consciousness.

"...See?"

DZ startles when nudged, and grabs Deskyl's hand.

This wakes the Sith, who surges forward before she's even properly awake to put herself between Alicia and DZ with her lightsaber lit and ready.

"Don't move," DZ instructs, clearly worried.

She was going to Back Away Slowly, but now she is Not Moving, as instructed.  "...Right."  She could probably deflect a lightsaber.  She does not want to test that theory.  "...I expect an apology is...not really sufficient.  But you have mine anyway.  I should have known better."  What an utter fucking idiot, surprises are bad when you are from a Sith Empire, auuugh.

After a few moments of standoff, DZ circles around to get into Deskyl's line of sight and sign to her, but as soon as she comes into Deskyl's field of view the Sith gestures emphatically for her to get back behind her, and she complies.

After another moment, she takes a hand off her 'saber hilt and drops it to her side for DZ to sign into. Her glare intensifies at DZ's words, and the room fills with an oppressive sense of doom, but she lowers her blade and steps aside.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. Whatever that was I don't think you should do it again."

...Oppressive senses of doom are much more survivable.

She is...Okay apparently she's taking at least one nonthreatening step back from the Sith (and DZ) now.

"I am certainly not going to do any such thing without first getting explicit permission to do so as I should have done.  I am an utter fool, to forget that, merely because I was distracted by making a rhetorical point that my audience wouldn't be properly equipped to understand anyway."

"...You do not owe me an apology for this."

DZ signs along as Alicia speaks, and when she's done she adds "she thinks I'm a person, ma'am."

The sense of doom fades and Deskyl deactivates her 'saber so that she can sign without waving it around, though she doesn't holster it yet.

    "She says of course I'm a person," DZ reports, and signs back without further translation.

    "She doesn't expect to be able to figure out how to charge me until she's more recovered, if the emergency methods she knows don't work - she knows how to make a rotation-powered charger, using a waterwheel or something similar, and a solar charger." And in theory she can do it with Force lightning but no one wants that. "Do you expect those to work, or to be able to find an alternative method within the next few days, or should I start conserving power?"

Phew.  Disaster averted.

"I know of those methods; the problem would be sourcing the parts.  We don't have baryonic matter lying around to use for those.  ...Could probably rig something up for pure elements if we're trying it that way, though.  Even if I have to fumble my way through half the periodic table.  ...My gut instinct, though, is that while you two are here you will be better served by a local solution - especially if you do not wish to be dependent upon a single point of failure in myself.  ...If I can't work conversion out from a standard power tap, lightning usually falls under air magic for legacy reasons.  I should be able to get expert input, and elementally speaking it should cooperate with this use..."

Deskyl is starting to look unsteady again; DZ moves to a better position to catch her if she falls. "Do you have an idea of how long it will take to get a preliminary option, ma'am?"

"...I'd say I can definitely get us a bodge job in three days.  I'd give good odds on getting a proper working solution in that time as well.  It's mostly a matter of - can you tell me your charging specification?  Oh, hell, do I even have the right units for that...I'm pretty sure the kilogram is the same here, at least, but then - oh, I could just measure an electron -"

Leaving aside the out-there options like '[oh no she still doesn't know her name] learns how to do it herself', at least.  She could.  Alicia is pretty damn sure.

"...But that can wait five minutes while we get you somewhere better suited for rest and recovery, I should think," she directs to Deskyl.

"Thank you, ma'am," DZ says, signing charger in three days to Deskyl as she does. "I'm able to accept power in a wide range of strengths, I'm sure whatever you come up with will be fine. As to recovery I recommend giving master Deskyl a private room where she won't be disturbed." She's already seen how dangerous it is to startle her awake.

"Yes, I can see why.  Great-aunt Ophelia's staff are quite capable in their own right, and they pride themselves in being...  Unobtrusive..."  By which she means, motherfucking ninja maids(gender-inclusive), "but - better not to risk it."

"I wouldn't trust unobtrusiveness to be sufficient, master Deskyl is a sensory specialist with a focus in sustained effects and can usually notice someone in her room even if she's fully asleep." Assuming they're biological, of course, but that's implied by 'someone'. "But I'll be available for anything she needs."

"I don't intend to test it," and neither does she truly believe Great-aunt Ophelia will find it necessary that a test risking so much be made regardless, "and besides, you've staked your claim, as was.  ...I'm a bit more concerned about how her senses will react to the wards, though.  They're..."  How to explain this...

"I don't think she'll be cleared to see through them.  And if that's going to be a problem, maybe we'd better set up camp out here."

A signed conversation ensues.

"We should stay out here, yes ma'am." Deskyl might be fine with them right now - emphasis on 'might' - but the chance of her waking up disoriented and with half her memories gone and assuming they're a sign of hostile action is far too high.

"Right.  I'll be right back with some supplies for that, then.  I could dig up a tent if that would be preferable to," she gestures around her, "this."

"This is fine, ma'am."

"Probably better anyway, I can fit more amenities in here."

She'll just go do that, then, if there's nothing else?

Her guests don't object, at least.

Deskyl is asleep again when she gets back, curled up on the floor in the corner.

Right.  She has an actual mattress - magically maneuvered inside, after she clears out her teleport beacon - that she presumes that Deskyl would prefer to sleep on, in addition to basic necessities of life.  Food and water, even if they'll probably be bland, can't go amiss.

...Actually, given the way that she made the Breadbox™, that might be a problem and an opportunity.  It Contains Bread, but 'bread', in this case, has a specific definition that makes her think it might come out more like batteries if - oh, damn it, she doesn't have the droid's name - well, anyway.

"...Decanter of endless water, and a Breadbox, which Contains Bread, except that...ah...what it considers bread can rather depend on who opens it.  But it is - by definition - nourishing and sustaining, for said person.  And obviously there's also half a bed, I couldn't possibly leave Deskyl on a stone floor..."

"...To be clear, I'm not expecting that you'll live off this, you can get stuff from the kitchens like anyone - it's just - better safe than sorry about not letting anyone starve in my care, if I can help it.  Even if the magic is pretty spooky."

Deskyl stirs but doesn't wake when Alicia uses magic to get the bed through the door. 

"Thank you, ma'am," DZ says after the explanations. "I'd like to get master Deskyl off the floor but then I can answer any questions you have for me. It'll be safest if you're on the other side of the room or outside while I'm disturbing her."

That seems fine.  "By the way, I don't believe I know your name?  Should you have one."

"My designation is DZ-12Q, ma'am, or DZ for short."

She gets to work getting Deskyl onto the mattress; expert knowledge and plenty of experience let her complete the maneuver without waking her past the point of vague mumbling.

"To answer your earlier question, we shouldn't be followed; Sith can't usually teleport and Lord Pritruth's specialty isn't in that area even if they could. Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

"An order of magnitude for 'how much lightning would be Too Much'?  Er.  I don't really expect to run into that problem, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, there."

"I don't know your measuring system, but I'm designed to accept Force lightning in a true emergency."

"Yeah, I'm not sure I know yours either unless it's metric.

"...Okay, that is...more than I was expecting.  Even if Force Lightning is weird, for lightning.  I can work with that."

Thank you "Yes ma'am."

Alicia's face makes an Expression at that response, and she is clearly puzzling through something for a good minute before she says something new.

"...I didn't give you any sort of orders, and you shouldn't have listened to me if I had, short of there being - a bomb about to go off or something.  ...I should note that that's extremely unlikely here and now, or for the duration of Deskyl's recovery.  But regardless - please don't..." A wide hand gesture, as if to encompass something she can't quite put into words, "defer to me like that.  It's not in your duties."

Maintaining good relations with the person providing Deskyl with food and shelter is absolutely within her duties, and 'don't defer to me' is an order, but pointing that out wouldn't help anything. Fortunately she's discussed this issue with Deskyl and has some idea of what the woman might be asking for.

"Yes ma'am." Some idea, not necessarily much of one.

"...Thank you."

Yeah, she walked right into that one.

"I'm going to go get to work on that charger; I'll - oh, I should get you a messenger, too.  I'll be right back."  And she needs to brief Great-Aunt Ophelia on the situation, as well, but she's not exactly going to say that in so many words.

"Yes ma'am."

DZ will take some astronomical measurements while she's gone, which involves standing just outside the door to the building for ten minutes, watching the sun. She'll go back in if she notices anyone heading her way.

...That...is not even the same kind of sun she is used to.  But she can measure its progress just fine.

Alicia wasn't kidding about the physics being different, apparently. Well, she'll check her conclusions before she wakes Deskyl for the sunset, and take more measurements over the next few days (which she'd want to do anyway, ten minutes' observation at an unknown latitude isn't enough to conclude much about the season or the year).

She goes back in after the ten minutes and settles herself next to Deskyl to wait for something to happen.

Meanwhile:

"If you have time to enchant things, you have time to inform me of why you cannot simply move our uninvited guests behind the inner wardline, dear."

"One of them is a wide-area constant-on sensor, and - battle-shock is the least of her troubles.  If she can't see through the wards, better she be outside them so it doesn't register as as much of a threat.  And you're not going to key her to them."

"...Well-reasoned.  Tell me about them."

"One of them is - a constructed person told that she was an elemental, and not the kind that's powerful enough to talk - is my best guess at an analogue you'd understand.  She serves as personal attendant and, thankfully, translator, for our other guest.  Who agrees with me that she's a person, which is a good sign.

"Our other guest is the one with sensor troubles.  She's recovering from something that - positively flayed her Spirit, whatever it was - and she's twitchier than a sack of cats.  For good reason.  Her prior environment was...

"The most expected means of securing a promotion is 'killing your boss and taking their stuff'."

"...That seems a horrible way of doing things."

"And it was the point.

"How did it go -

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion;

Through passion I gain strength;

Through strength I gain power;

Through power I gain victory;

Through victory my chains are broken;

The Force shall free me.

"Except that the Force these people worshipped was -

"Well, if you look at the difference between Spirit and Decay, and map that to political positions...

"Some commentary reads that 'passion' as 'suffering'.  I'm not saying I believe they're right, and absolutely don't bring it up, but...there is a lot of suffering created for suffering's sake, in any given Sith Empire.

"Thank goodness they shouldn't be able to follow after our guest; I'm pretty sure that the way she got here requires work on both ends, and that beacon is not going to be reconstructed until I work out effective safeguards."

"I will look them over."

"Yes, please."

"...The Force isn't an evil force, I should note.  It's just that the people in charge of Sith Empires want to be assholes with their connection to the thing that binds the universe together.  The analogy is surprisingly apt, really."

"...You have more to say on this."

"The Force allows things like mind-to-mind communication between practitioners.  When she tried to reach out to me, there was active Spirit magic meeting her halfway."

"...Interesting.  Possibly advantageous.  Though, given how you have described her, I imagine that you do not plan to expose her to current events overmuch."

"...No.  No, I do not.  We don't need that, and she deserves better than being dragged into our intrigues just because she fell out of my portal."

"I will trust your judgement in this matter; you know more of her than I do."

"...I hope I'm right."

"I might need advice on one of these projects, while you're here; do you have anyone that's good with lightning?"

"I'm sure we could find someone, but why do you ask?"

"Well, the constructed person I mentioned kind of runs on lightning.  Except I don't actually know if our lightning and her lightning are remotely compatible, save for the somewhat positive evidence that our other guest can breathe the local air when it doesn't, actually, have the expected composition."

"...I see.  And these notes are for..."

"Trying to make the parts we'd need for something that definitely generates the right sort of electricity.  I - did I not mention they're not made of our sort of matter?"

"I don't believe you did say in as many words, but the implication was evident.  I'll trust you have some understanding of their physics, if you are planning to dredge parts of it from the Void?"

In this case, 'trust' is code for 'You had better know what you're doing, because no-one else will be able to follow your lead'.

"I have made enough study that, especially with a reference from our guests, my knowledge is sufficient to the task.  I know enough to make sure it won't explode, at least, and the rest is an engineering problem."

She is not going to introduce radioactive materials here.  There's already more analogues to them than she would like.

"If you are certain."

"I am, yes.  Is there anything else?"

No.  But she is yet concerned for her grand-niece's wellbeing, with this dropped on her head.

"...If you would benefit from my assistance, please ask for it.  This is more than has already been asked of you, and that was too much."

"...I'm good for it, though.  But...I'll ask."

"See that you do.  I will be available."

And then she is gone.

It's not all that long after DZ has gone back inside before someone knocks politely on the door to the workshop.

She answers the door promptly.

"Ah, hello there miss DZ - Her Highness is busy tinkering, but she sent me to deliver this for you."

The device - and it is clearly some sort of device, it's got glowy lights and everything - is handheld, and made of a silvery metal.  It has a keyboard in the Villarosan alphabet, as well as some sort of scroll wheel.

"She said to tell you 'think of this like a text-only point-to-point comm', and that she's already paired it to the household's services as well as to her personal device - do you need anything about how to operate it explained?  She seemed certain you'd know, but these devices are Her Highness's invention..."

"I'm familiar with the concept, yes, thank you. Could you please wait while I see if I have any questions about it? It should only take a few minutes."

"Of course."

She's done her best to make this easy to use, so hopefully someone from space who's actually used to computers will have no trouble whatsoever.

And indeed it doesn't take long at all for DZ to figure it out, and to send a message to the kitchen asking about their schedule in the process. "I don't have any questions, thank you."

"Oh, very good.  Any questions that aren't to do with the message device?"

The kitchen notes that it cleans during the midnight shift, and that there is therefore reduced service during those hours - pre-cooked foods only.

(The Duchess has not established a household meal schedule, being as she keeps odd hours herself.)

"If you aren't busy, Her Highness left before I could ask for an overview of your world, and I expect that master Deskyl will want to know where we are when she wakes up."

"Oh!  Well.  I can't speak to the whole wide world, there's a lot of it, but you're presently in the kingdom of Villarosa - and in the Ironspine Mountains.  I could show you a map?  Can't bring it out here, though."

"I shouldn't leave yet, but I appreciate the offer. Whatever you can tell me will be useful, we teleported here by accident a little while ago and haven't had a chance to speak to anyone else."

"Oh, goodness!  Where from?"

"A different universe. I don't think we're going to be secret, exactly, but I haven't had a chance to ask my companion what she's comfortable with sharing about it."

Well, that's that line of inquiry neatly stonewalled.

"Oh, well then.  What would you like to know about Villarosa, then?  I'm no expert, I just work here, but you do pick up a few things."

"Is Villarosa the country, or the geographical region, or something else?"

"It's a country, yes."

"What's it like? Compared to its neighbors, or in terms of how people usually spend their time?"

"Mm, well, that can get pretty complicated, 'cause there's questions of what our people are predisposed to compared to half our neighbors, being as they aren't the same sorts of people - and nevermind the sun-blasted crusaders and their patchwork theocracy next door.  Or rather, do mind them, they're human enough the comparison doesn't fall apart before you make it.  Even if they can barely be said to be an organized country - it's a mess of sectish infighting.  Utterly barbaric, killing people because they don't believe in your particular orthodoxy of Light worship.  Probably why we don't have more priests here, really, with that as an example of how badly it goes.  And really, a good arcanist can outdo them in effect.  You don't see priests building tram networks, and those've done rather a lot for us."

"It sounds like master Deskyl will appreciate that we came here instead of there, then. Your neighbors aren't human?"

"Some of them.  There's no one 'all of this territory's people are this thing', even for the xenophobes.  But you get more dwarves in dwarfholds than anything else, for example, and it's pretty rare for there to be anyone but elves in one of their covens, even if there's other people who live in their hunts.  And of course the ocean-dwellers don't mix with us airbreathers all that much."

"And what are those kinds of people like?"

"I mean, stereotypically, dwarves are good enchanters, if not really imaginative - it's a cultural thing, they don't want to be gnomes, who are if anything too imaginative - elves go all in on - nature red in tooth and claw - there's the mountainfolk, what was their name, the bird people, who're communal - the drow are a matriarchy, I don't really know how that works as a government but clearly it does..."

"But you'd want to ask someone who's been there, more than me, because I can only guess, really.  Maybe one of the off-shift watch.  A lot of them have travelled."

"Maybe later, thank you for the suggestion. What do you do?"

"Miscellany, really.  Run things around, do what needs doing.  Figure out what needs doing, too, sometimes."

"So things like the comm must be new? Are there any other new things like it?"

"Nothing really comes to mind...  I'm sure there's something somewhere, but besides the - comm - they don't seem to have gotten here yet, whatever they are.  The trams are new-ish, like, they were new a century ago, if I remember correctly."

'Invented a century ago but still considered new' and wireless comms coexisting is pretty weird, but then so is having exactly one person know what Sith are. "Are most people farmers, here?"

She was rather stretching for something that wasn't just Her Highness' work.  Villarosa hasn't needed anything worldshaking lately.  As far as she knows.  (And that's not even considering the complicating factor of gnomish technology.  Things might've been invented centuries before someone who doesn't believe randomness is a selling point makes one.)

"I couldn't say for sure; there's a census, but it's not like I read it.  And then you have the people who do stuff as-needed, or work on those gnomish machines that do harvesting, or have herb gardens.  I don't know how you'd count it.  Probably more than half the country's involved somehow.  ...The Duchess pays attention to that sort of thing; I'm just getting my job done, you know?"

So, basically pre-industrial, with the exception of their host, who... got here from elsewhere, somehow? With knowledge of Sith and more-advanced tech? While not being Force-sensitive herself, given how Deskyl didn't kill her on sight?

"I think that answers my question, thank you."

"Anytime.  Goodness, I don't know what I'd do if I was dropped somewhere I wasn't intending to be teleported to.  My best, I suppose."

She'll throw the rumor mill a bone, sure. "We might not be doing very much for the next while; Xaari Deskyl is injured and I expect she'll need at least a month to recover enough to participate in anything that isn't vital."

"Oh, Light preserve.  My best wishes for her swift recovery."  And she will now go elsewhere.

She sets the comm unit aside; with how unsettled Deskyl is and the magic being the obvious guess of why, she's going to be sparing with how she interacts with it until she has an opportunity to talk to her about it. It's fine, it's not like droids get bored. She goes back to sitting.

Several hours later...

Alicia Thorn Vaudelle

I don't suppose you have any data in your memory banks that would help me figure out what I need to specify when I'm trying to reify baryonic matter from nothing?  I've got the proton-electron correspondence worked out, but at the moment I find myself coming up a bit short of sufficiently constraining the possibilities so I don't summon something bizarre, or worse, antimatter.  Either that or I'd need to scan yourself or Deskyl for a template.

The lightning thing seems to be working, at least, but we don't know if it'll work for you.  I can bring it down for testing if you'd like?

DZ-12Q

Would an article of master Deskyl's clothing work for the scan? I expect she'll be more comfortable with that than with one of us being scanned.

Alicia Thorn Vaudelle

It should suffice, I think. Would you prefer that I get the data where you can see me, or should I keep magic away from you?

DZ-12Q

I'll wake her up and ask, about that and the lightning test; I expect the conversation to take a while.

Given she's most likely going to have to explain things starting with 'so you teleported us', that is.

It's close enough to sunset that she leads with that when she wakes her; they sit outside to have the conversation. Forty-some minutes later DZ sends another message to Alicia: Deskyl wants to see the scan and the test.

Right.  Oh, does DZ need the power source to take a specific adapter, or?

It takes her about five minutes to get from wherever she's been working to where DZ and Deskyl are, once those forty minutes and the conversation have passed.

DZ's charging port was designed with emergency situations in mind, it's straightforward to rig two wires into a workable connection.

They're still outside when Alicia gets there; Deskyl has cleaned herself up but it's still fairly obvious that she was crying not all that long ago.

She is Not Going To Mention That.

"Hi," she says, from what's hopefully a non-startling distance.

Deskyl isn't startled at all; she's been tracking Alicia's location since she came out from behind the wards. She looks over when DZ signs, though, and signs back.

    "She says 'hi, you're here for the tests?'"

"Yes, that's what I'm here to do."

She has a small lightningy thing in her pocket.  She pulls it out before she gets closer.  "This is so DZ can test if the sort of lightning we get here will suffice for charging.  I'm also hoping I can get enough data from running a scan that I can provide something that works like the charging you're used to - probably a rotary generator, I don't really know what solar charging would produce but given that stars are not balls of nuclear fusion and, uh, DZ is not magically inert, I wouldn't risk it."

Deskyl signs, and then pulls her shoes off to pass over to Alicia while DZ conveys the translation; it's too cold for going barefoot to be a reasonable choice, but then it's really too cold for her current outfit to be a reasonable choice for outdoor wear, either, and she doesn't seem bothered by that.

    "She wants to see the lightning generator working before you use it on me, she expects to be able to get an idea of whether it'll be safe. The rotary generator will be fine; she'll need a magnet and some wire for it."

"Yeah, I have a low-power one right here, which we should be able to scale up if it works."

She proffers a small circular band, about the size of a bracelet, with arcane symbols on it.

The wires are clearly a last-minute addition, but: behold, pocket lightning.  Not a lot of it, but nonetheless enough to test with.

"As far as the generator goes, we're waiting on 'will I in fact be able to produce copper'.  And iron.  Especially magnetic iron.  That's going to be slightly harder than just letting things randomize, although it should be easy enough to just...run the generator in reverse, once we have it, to make a magnet.  Magic solves many problems.  ...Hm, and we'll need some sort of cladding, for safety's sake, but that can just be something generic...  ...Ah, sorry, my brain runs off with me sometimes.  Let me just...scan your shoes."

    "She says she has some copper, if you need that in particular to scan."

"That would save a lot of trouble, if you wouldn't mind."

Deskyl signs briefly and heads inside.

    "She wants privacy for this part, but it won't take long."

"...Oh.  Oh, I wasn't meaning to ask --" anything to do with a Sith's lightsaber, which, come to think of it, is the only coppery object she's seen on Deskyl's person, "I can make this work with what we have, it's just going to be annoyingly iterative because I don't really remember the periodic table off the top of my head -"

She scans the shoes.

The shoes have plenty of futuristic materials in them but none of them are metals.

"The table of the atomic elements? I can write that out for you."

"That would be appreciated.  Really, I just need copper and iron, since that's what I'm going to need to conjure, but - well, I wouldn't mind the whole thing."

"Yes ma'am." She doesn't exactly have paper but she can put something together in the comm gadget; she gets to work.

And Deskyl comes back in a couple minutes with a short piece of wire, about two inches long, and hands it over. (Her lightsaber is in its holster, exactly as before, and she doesn't seem stressed about it or anything.)

...Regardless, the scan is completed with all due haste, and the copper wire repatriated.

"...Oh, goodness, no, don't try to fit an entire periodic table through that, it'll take forever - here, I've gotten my scans down, you can use this -"

    "Yes ma'am?"

(Deskyl takes the wire back, but sticks around to get her shoes on and watch the interaction rather than immediately going back inside.)

"...Actually, on second thought what I'm mostly thinking about is pretty-printing it and that can just be my problem, type away if you think it's faster.  You probably know better than I do on that front."

(She doesn't stop proffering the clipboard with her various atom structure notes on it, just in case DZ does figure hand-writing the periodic table will be faster.)

    "Yes ma'am." DZ goes back to her typing. Deskyl goes inside, for a little longer this time, and around the time she comes back DZ sends Alicia a typed list of the elements with their atomic numbers and weights and some notes on their types and basic electron shell information.

"Thank you, so much, this will save me a lot of potential trouble.  Uh, we were going to test the lightning?  Before I go off and conjure up a generator."

    "If you're ready, I think so, yes ma'am." She signs to Deskyl, who sits and closes her eyes before signing back. "She's ready, yes."

And lo, there is (air-elemental) lightning.  Very tiny lightning, earnestly Jacob's-laddering its way up some not-baryonic-metal wire clearly somewhat hastily stuck to a backplate.

Deskyl sits quietly for a long moment, and then signs for DZ to come and give her her hand. After another long moment she opens her eyes and nods.

    "She says it'll work."

"That's good.  I can leave this with you while I work on something that will hopefully charge faster than you discharge, then, if you'd like?"

    "Thank you, ma'am." DZ takes it and passes it over to Deskyl, who pockets it. "Is this a good time to ask questions?"

"Sure."

"What should we know about this world, if we're going to be living here?"

That...  Seems like it will be rather complicated.

"Probably more than I can remember I need to convey over the course of a single conversation.  It's...This world is different from yours down to the subatomic physics.  There's gnomes over thataway who'd blow the whole idea of technological development off the charts if they weren't also culturally utterly bemused to the idea of replicability."  She would compare them to Sparks, but these two wouldn't get the reference.  "The planet's kind of alive, in the way the local analogue to the Force would count.  I don't know if anyone's checked for a proper soul, but come to think of it I probably should when I have the time -- oh, no, that would just get confused by the rocks.  ...There are multiple things trying to bind the universe together, for that matter.  Most of the non-aspected Force techniques seem to analogize to Spirit magic, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the specifically Dark stuff - lightning aside, depending on how that works - comes out as its equal-and-opposite counterpart in Decay magic - which, despite the name, does things that aren't related to the physical process of entropy.  ...I would be very careful if you reach for the Light Side for any reason, because you might get our very own Light-flavored cognitohazard instead - one that, ironically enough, requires a Sithlike strength of will to use without losing yourself."

"I'm sure there's more I'll think of five seconds after I decide I'm done, but that should be more than enough to start.

"...I have no idea why the Force is working except that you brought it with you?"

"...Oh.  And the politics.  Villarosa, which you landed in, is an elective monarchy - albeit one that sprouted a tangle of unequal votes when I wasn't looking, so it's got a sizeable power bloc in its mages.  Our chief exports are food and adventurers, in that order, because there's enough random bullshit that pops up in this world that even if we had a unified planet we'd still need to keep people around to hit things, and we have a disproportionate throw weight of big names in the field of Solving Adventurer Problems, despite not being nearly as militarized as our closest comparison gets.  I would say we also export enchanted goods except that a) that's mostly the alchemical market, which doesn't count because it's exploiting pre-existing magical properties, and b) we do not outcompete the dwarfholds by any stretch when it comes to industry.  Our enchanters mostly do custom work, or maintenance.  Kind of like the difference between operating a blaster factory and knowing how to make a lightsaber."

Deskyl makes a rather impressively incredulous face when DZ translates the part about the cognitohazard.

    "She says she can tell that your physics are different, and it affects how she uses the Force, but it's not hard to compensate for. She'd like to know more about the cognitohazard."

"You know how the Jedi are all... oneness-with-the-Force-y?  The Light is a bit more - pushy - about wanting that, when someone tries to channel it."

Yeah okay she shouldn't touch that even a little bit anytime soon, good to know.

What else, what else...

    "Do you have any thoughts on what master Deskyl might want to do with herself once she's recovered?"

She blinks.

"...No?  I don't - know her, as a person, well enough to have recommendations."

    "Yes ma'am."

    "Master Deskyl would like to get something to eat before she goes back to sleep, do you have a dining hall we can use or should I ask the kitchen to have something brought here?"

"There's places she could eat, but they're behind the wards, if that might be a problem."

"I don't expect it to be, ma'am, we're mostly worried about her waking disoriented and not understanding what they are."

"Ah.  In that case, we should be fine."

She pulls out her comm and starts tapping away at it at speed.

"Any dietary restrictions?"

"I'd prefer you not serve her anything that's poisonous to humans, please."

"...Well, yes, obviously, she's a guest - I meant, allergies or preferences and suchlike."

"Sith don't get allergies, as a rule, but she doesn't like spicy food and does like things that combine sweet and savory flavors."

"Should be fine, spicy isn't much a thing here - yet another reason to not go to the Phoenix Kingdom, though, they love their unbearably spicy foods.  And they're full of Light-wielding zealots, which is rather a bigger issue.  ...Can't necessarily promise anything on behalf of the kitchens as far as actively getting something that works well with those two flavor profiles; I don't know all they stock or who knows what recipes - I've passed it on, though."

"...If you would follow me, then?"  She stands, and intends to walk them to the kitchens should they follow her.

They follow, with DZ staying a step behind Deskyl.

She very carefully doesn't think about the implications of DZ following Deskyl.  Any meddling would not be appreciated, and she'd just as likely miss.

"The kitchens are just this way."

It's a short walk.

"And you have the option of eating in the staff's cafeteria, or in the receiving room.  The receiving room gets less traffic.  ...I mean you could take the food back out, but it'd be...  I don't think it would be wise?"

I'm working on autonomy with her, Deskyl sends as they walk. She's young by any metric, we can't judge too harshly. And she drops the connection with just as little fanfare as she established it. (She's still so frayed. She doesn't seem to be getting worse, at least, though it's also fairly obvious that she's pushing herself right now in a way that isn't actually sustainable.)

   "Unwise how, ma'am?" DZ translates.

...Clearly she wasn't not thinking about that well enough; Aunt Ophelia would be disappointed in her performance.  She's not going to have much luck freehand Void-casting - which has advantages in speed or finesse sometimes, for all its inherent risks - if she can't not think about things better than that.  ...On the other hand, the Force is bullshit.  She'll have to ask, she supposes, if the Force actually detected not thinking about pink elephants somehow - or if that it came to her conscious awareness that she wasn't thinking about it, meant it was already too late.  Much, much later, when it's at all possible that the Sith might not take immediate and lethal offense to inquiry about her capabilities.

"...Now that I'm actually thinking about it for more than five seconds, I'm not even sure I'm right.  My brain spat out 'but it'll get cold, and walking back and forth on the same snow a lot produces slip hazards which I don't necessarily understand you to be equipped for'.  Both of which aren't difficult to moot."

    Ah. "I'll ask your kitchen staff what they have for travel containers before I plan to bring master Deskyl anything that needs to be delivered hot, yes ma'am. And I'm not designed for extended operation in temperatures much colder than this but I'm fine in icy conditions."

"Yeah.  Okay.  For this one, though, I don't know if they would have thought of travel-prepping it since the order came from my account."

    "That's fine, ma'am, master Deskyl was planning on eating in your compound this time anyway. She says she'd prefer the receiving room."

"Great.  Good.  Okay.  We can do that, then."

The room she leads them to is much fancier than the stone halls - lit by glowing crystals, not torches - that they pass through in getting to, and receiving their meals from, the kitchen.  It seems like it's meant for banquets, more than anything, but it presently hosts a scattering of round tables, and a few staff members that Alicia waves to.

"...Where would you like to sit?"

Deskyl leads the group to a table that's far enough from the other people in the room to avoid inviting interaction while not being tucked antisocially into a corner, and seats herself oriented sideways to the door, so that it's not to her back but the table isn't between herself and it, either. DZ takes the seat next to Deskyl on the far side of her from the door.

...Huh.  She wasn't expecting that.  (She recovers admirably from her momentary turn towards the corner, where she usually sits, and settles herself with her back to the wall at Deskyl's chosen table.)

"Let's see what they have for us today, then...  Ah, and I can go sit somewhere else if you'd like.  Though I'd recommend keeping me around to ward off Great-Aunt Ophelia.  She's a bit too nosy sometimes."

    "She assumes she'll have to meet her eventually but she'd rather not do it today, yes ma'am."

Deskyl takes the lid off her own tray, too; what does the kitchen have for her?

The kitchen seems to have taken the cue of Alicia having a guest (however that happened) as their cue to do fancy things for the young princess, who usually gets her food from the staff meals.  (From the leftovers, often enough, which is commonly held to be a bit too much humility.)  Which is to say that for this meal, they have brought out the fancy pasta - and not just because that's what they were already making; most of the staff seem to have sandwiches.

The vegetables seem varied, and more importantly, fresh, and the dishes are not overspiced.

Isn't pasta a high-effort food at this tech level? The presentation certainly suggests so. And it's tasty; the sauce is clearly fresh made and she's pretty sure they've added a subtle spice to the pasta dough itself to complement the rest of the dish.

    "She says it's very good," DZ relays, as Deskyl works on clearing her plate.

"It is; I really don't know what I've done that the kitchens seem so invested in making food at me all the time."  She just...

"...Okay, I mean I guess, well, first I'm myself and as much as I want to I really can't discount that, and secondly I've made them a couple things, but - They weren't hard to do, I don't think?  It was just - I think it was a matter of not having anyone available with the right skills?  And what's the point of magic, if not to make people's lives easier.

"...I mean, beyond self-defense, I guess.  That's important.  But what you do after you've secured your security."

Deskyl signs, shrugs, and signs some more.

   "She says people do all kinds of things with power. And that people like helping people who have helped them."

"...That does make sense."

She doesn't say 'I don't really feel like I should be this special' but the absence of her saying that still hangs heavily, somehow.

Deskyl can see the insecurity, but doesn't have much idea of what to do with it.

    "What do you do around here, ma'am, just magic?" she settles on.

She waves a hand in a so-so sort of motion.  "I'm learning some from Great-Aunt Ophelia and that's why I'm up here to begin with, so...  Pretty much, but...simultaneously also no.

"I'm," and here she takes on an obviously dry tone, "Destined For Greatness, or something, despite just wanting to sequester myself in a lab rather than deal with...  Adventuring... - and that's just asking for someone to shove me into a leadership position that - well, I don't want one, but I couldn't possibly betray the trust thusly offered to me.  Plus who knows what the other guy would do, y'know?  So there's lessons in dealing with that on my schedule."

    "There'll be a lot to learn, she says, yes ma'am. Sith get that too - or, well-educated ones do, she says; everyone thinks it's as easy as threatening people until you get what you want but it's not that simple at all."

"Mm.  Machiavelli was writing a satire, when he said it was better for a ruler to be feared than loved."

"...That said, I am most definitely not part of that everybody, and I'd wager most of Villarosa knows better.  Our monarchy is at least elective.  My condolences," that you had to work around so many utter dipshits, she barely keeps herself from saying aloud, "that your...erstwhile coworkers...were so consistently that bad at understanding that being part of something bigger than oneself requires being...  ...even minimally prosocial."

Even if you're going to turn that around and be evil to everyone else afterwards because your Something Bigger is an empire made of suffering, you have to be a better option to whoever your people are.  Or they'll - well.  Promote themselves over your corpse, often enough, if we're talking about Sith politics.

"...I find myself surprisingly driven to inquire as to the state of current events, galactically speaking, but I don't imagine that's a subject I have any right to."

Deskyl makes a variety of faces from incredulous to distant as DZ translates, and takes a moment to think before replying.

    "She says she doubts you'll make anything worse in a way she cares about, ma'am, even if you can project force there. The Empire and the Republic are at war, and as of a year ago when she last saw an update the Empire was winning; the Emperor is rumored to be immortal, with all that that implies, and he and the Dark Council are running the Empire as you'd expect from Sith."

"Thank you for indulging my curiosity; I don't really expect that I'll be able to mess with any of that, no, but - well, who knows."

....She's really tempted to play 'guess the immortal Sith Emperor', but...well.  That's a bit too much.  (...It's probably Vitiate.)

    "She says you can expect her to stay out of your way if you do, ma'am."

That draws something that might almost be a laugh, despite the subject matter.  "I'll keep that in mind.  Or if there's anyone you want dibs on frontstabbing."

Deskyl nods and takes another bite of pasta.

She's managed to put quite a dent in hers, too.

"There anything either of you," by which she explicitly includes Deskyl and DZ, "are particularly curious about?"

Deskyl gives DZ an expectant look, and waits.

For a while.

    "Do you have a library here, ma'am?"

"We do have a library.  If you'd like to see it, I'm sure we can work something out - in the sense of 'enabling you to read while you work', I mean, not, like...I'm not charging you.  I just - guess, expect, figure - that your present priorities are heavily leaning towards 'stay glued to Deskyl's side in case I'm needed', and...well.  Far be it from me to get in the way of that, especially given that I don't expect substitutions will end well.  Even if the household staff miraculously picked up Basic as a prerequisite."

    "I'll want to be available to master Deskyl when she's awake, yes ma'am, but I can generally tell when it'll be safe to leave for a few hours."

"Okay, but I'll work on other options anyway.  It'll probably come in handy somehow if I do make functional telepresence - I mean, beyond just basic holoprojections, we already have enough of those."

    "Thank you, ma'am."

    "Master Deskyl is curious what you meant about being destined for greatness."

"...Mm.  Things have gotten...  Prophetic, lately, and, well.  I'm involved.  I hardly want to be.  But, well, needs must, I guess.  And it needs doing."

    "She says that that sort of thing happens, yes. She knows how to do precognition, would it help if she focused on being able to do that as she recovers?"

"No, and I wouldn't ask that of you, anyway.  It's my problem to deal with; you have enough on your plate.  Besides, it's not close."  Except for the things she's busy preempting.

"...I am serious about the timeframe, there shouldn't be anything climactic for years, if things haven't been entirely derailed already.  I'd rather your own wellbeing be your priority, if I am to have a say."

    "It's not wise to treat a Sith like an invalid, ma'am. Even one in master Deskyl's condition."

"...Hm.

"How to say this."

She pauses, trying to formulate an accurate response.

"I did not intend to do so, and yet, I can certainly see how that came across as such regardless.  For that, I apologize.  I should have been more careful with my words.  But - hm.  I meant what I said to encompass - reconstructing a livable life on this planet you've been marooned upon, as much as recovering from your injuries, before going to borrow trouble?"

"If that makes sense."

"It would probably be wise for you to know the local language, for example.  And to understand more about the local physics in general.  It's...Well, it's really something."

    "She's going to work on those things as well, ma'am, yes. But Sith don't generally have the option of retreating from the world when they're injured and she has no interest in doing it now."

"Ah.  That makes sense."  And stabs her right in the feels, but.  That can...wait.

"Right now I'm doing - a training arc, if that makes sense.  In which I seclude myself and practice skills I need to learn.

"You'd have to ask Great-Aunt Ophelia, if there was something happening elsewise."

That gets Alicia a satisfied nod.

    "She'd like to know what your great-aunt's role is, here."

"Well, it's her manor, and she's training me.  But as far as the kingdom goes, the Duchy of Thorn is...

"Historically speaking, the role of the Duchy of Thorn is to ensure that anyone who thinks they can get away with plucking the metaphorical rose of Villarosa's hard-won prosperity, comes away bleeding for their presumption."

    "She says it sounds like she might've appeared in the right place, then, ma'am."

"Maybe so."  She grins, too.  "I have to say, if I had to choose anyone but me for you to have accidentally been teleported on top of, she's certainly near the top of the list."

    "She'd like to know more about her, ma'am."

"Well, she's a very private person, I'm not sure how much she'd like me to say, but...  --"

"What sort of things would you like to know?", says the Duchess herself, pulling out a chair at the table.

Deskyl doesn't miss a beat; she hadn't identified the Duchess as such from across the room but she had noticed her coming.

    "She says she might be interested in contributing to your defenses when she's more recovered - or sooner, if there's an urgent need - and she'd like to know more about who she'd be working for in that case."

"Well.  As I said, what would you like to know?  And, in that vein, what should I know about you?  Though there are no pressing threats, of that I would assure you."

    "Tactically, Sith are generally considered to be individually a match for a moderately sized unpowered army, though she expects the local magic situation to affect that and she's not sure in which direction yet. In melee range she uses a high-tech sword-analogue called a lightsaber that can cut through nearly anything including most weapons and armor; at range she's used to being able to produce directed lightning bolts, though it's personally costly at home and she's not sure whether that will be an issue here too. For defense she has a number of tricks, including a precognition-based danger sense and the ability to telekinetically block physical projectiles, and she's a sensory specialist, so she's difficult to surprise and has a strong advantage at stealth. In terms of why she's offering - Sith are lucky, so she's inclined to assume that she's appeared somewhere she'd approve of being, and your grand-niece's hospitality hasn't hurt that impression. And, she says, she's bored, to be honest, she hasn't had a good fight in nearly a year."

"My, that was well done."

"...Lightsabers, for further context, cut through all but a very specific few materials where they're from, and generally deflect energy projectiles, which...Hmm, should probably hold, albeit I expect more destructive/subsumptive interactions than deflections, and there's enough magic-backed physical projectiles around that that could be troublesome.  ...They're like... making a blade out of fire and lightning, and then turning the intensity up to 'sun' levels."

...Deskyl can probably tell that Alicia thinks lightsabers are the coolest thing since sliced bread.

    "She says that if you think you can come up with a way to handle one safely she has no objection to making a lightsaber for you. They generally require telekinesis and the danger sense to handle but very good telekinesis might be sufficient."

...!!!!!!!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I - wouldn't we need kyber or do you have a substitution in mind - I have ideas - I might need those notes back, Aunt Ophelia, because I can make them work for this - It would be an honor -"

She's just going to run off and squee for a second.

"And to think all it took to get her to commit to undertaking regular exercise without grudging the time was the prospect of a sufficiently shiny sword.  I'm sure my people will be able to work something out, if you do not wish to be responsible for her training."

"While she's processing that, and probably coming up with three dozen different ways to make it happen, I do believe you're due an explanation of my own capabilities?"

"I am known for my practice of Void magic - the art of reifying the irreal, of taking the shadow of the sword that flickers on the walls of Plato's cave^[1] and stabbing someone with it.  I am also known to practice arcane magic, though it is less favored of my disciplines.  I would not wish to face an army in pitched battle, but I can certainly stop one."

_{([1]: This is translated into the equivalent Earthly philosopher, for reader convenience.)}

"I'm sorry but I don't understand that reference well enough to translate it, ma'am."

"My apologies.  It is...

"An ancient philosopher's thought experiment, that - disregarding the logistics of keeping people alive if they're chained to rocks or equivalent, that people who only saw the shadows cast by a fire behind them, in a cave, would think the shadows real.

"...I'll admit, I was being perhaps more dramatic than strictly necessary."

    "It's all right, ma'am." She translates it as well as she can to Deskyl, who tenses up a bit.

    "The least pleasant of her master's other apprentices specialized in hallucinations, so she suspects she's familiar with some of what you can do."

"Some, yes.  Though if you stab someone with a...mm, default, sort of λ-sword, they still bleed, because it is in the nature of a λ-sword to cut.  Alicia describes primordial Void as... unfettered possibility, and the Principle of Explosion - and she is not wrong."

That's not less terrifying than Mind Trick based hallucinations, though those were never really the bulk of her issue with Grauzatis. She'll have to get herself sorted out about it later. And in the meantime...

    "She says it might be interesting to see how your magic interacts with her sensory powers, when she's a little more recovered."

"I look forward to it."

Alicia, meanwhile, has spent the past few minutes hyperventilating in excitement, and letting her various Ideas^TM tumble together in her brain.

The sight of Great-Aunt Ophelia smiling at a Sith with what almost seems a distinctly conspiratorial air, when she opens the door she left through, is almost enough to send her back inside for another minute - but it's surely better she knows what's being plotted around her!

"Sorry about that, I, um, needed a minute!  Um... ...Did I miss something...?"

"Oh, nothing important.  Just an agreement to test some things."

"Though," she turns to Deskyl, "in truth, you already have tested some of the interactions of your powers with my magic - the wards here are my own work."

    "They're reasonably obvious to her Force senses, yes ma'am, and she can't see through them." Yet, most likely, but she doesn't trust her luck enough to share everything she can do. "She expects that whether you'd be able to mimic a specific thing with the technique well enough to fool her would be a matter of finesse on your part." And not an easy task, especially given that Ophelia doesn't know what all of Deskyl's senses are.

Nor does she care to correct the slight misapprehension of how the Void behaves when observed, in that same vein of not revealing her fullest capabilities - though should it come to a spar, she will be more open about it.  Best not to risk ...setbacks, if the Sith's senses expect to see something dangerous - because, well.  Then they will.  "I look forward to testing my skills against yours...

"...hmm.  My goodness.  Have I truly been so remiss as to not ask if there is an appropriate honorific for yourself until it came time to use one?  My apologies.  I am sure that there are matters of translation to be had, but in Villarosan society, you would surely be entitled to receive a knight's respect, given your skills - albeit one so titled by an unknown foreign government.  You could also present yourself as an independent adventurer, if you so wished."

Go ahead.

    "Master Deskyl's untranslated title is Xaari; the closest translation would be 'apprentice', with the understanding that even apprentice Sith are considered to outrank any non-Sith."

    "By skill she could have a lordship by now, she says, if she'd wanted one, but she preferred to avoid the attention it would've drawn."

"I can understand not wishing to draw attention."

Deskyl nods at the translation.

    "She's curious as well, but says that it won't be a reasonable test until she's more recovered; we're expecting that to take at least a month or two. Did you have any questions about us in the meantime, or are there any aspects of the local magic you'd suggest she explore?"

"I'm sure Alicia and I both have thoughts about magic - I've a passing acquaintance with all of it in practice, and she knows her way around the theory - but what I'd recommend you explore depends on what you wish to get out of exploring it."

    "Utility is always her primary interest, she says, and she's happy with her sensory specialization and will want to expand that here if possible. If her Force background translates the way it seems to she'll also have an advantage at anything to do with emotions, and possibly at developing new effects."

"...If it's utility you're looking for, you want Order.  Or arcane magic, as many call it.  Sensory specialization..."

"Hm.  Spirit and Decay, Life, Order again, an offshoot of Void that I would not recommend but mention for completeness' sake...  I hazard someone could do sensory enhancement with Light but I've never met the type.  Alicia?"

"...Yeah, that seems about right.  Including the theoretical use of Light that way, but that's...contraindicated.  Spirit - and its negative-axis counterpart, presumably - seem to react to Force techniques in a way that suggests you might be able to translate, yes - and more importantly, that you will have a good base for learning things that the Force doesn't have an edge on.  Elementalists can do some utter bullshit.  But yes, Order magic is absolutely high on the utility scale, albeit that there is significant study involved in getting to that point."

She's absolutely going to at least look into Light, but that's not a conversation she wants to have right now; she's not going to do it anytime soon, at any rate.

    "If the library has books on those I can translate them for her, if you think that's a good way to start."

Yeah, it's just now that Light magic is a bad idea.  If anyone's going to have the right mindset out of the gate, it would be Sith.

"Hm.  Do we have any -?  I know there's spellbooks..."

"...There are a few texts, though I do not imagine many of the household would be able to speak to their quality.  They aren't often called for."

"...Yeah.  It's hard to tie down a primordial force in words.  But then, I imagine you'd know that well enough."

"...Though in the case of Arcane practitioners trying anyway, the trend is more towards coining very specific usages of existing language, than inventing new ones." 

"There's not enough convergent - ideography - too many casting paradigms, some mutually incomprehensible - to support much beyond mnemonic techniques, linguistically."

"...You'd likely be suited to picking it up, DZ.  If you wished to."

"I'm not sure what you mean, ma'am."

    "Master Deskyl says you might mean that I could learn your local magic?"

"That is what I meant, with the additional implication that you are most likely particularly suited to learning Order magic."

"There are a variety of...flavors, to go around."

It sounds like I'm going to need a tutor anyway, you could get started and teach me what you've picked up when I'm awake.

    Ma'am, I'm not...

Not what?

I don't care what your programmers thought you shouldn't do. If you don't want to, that's fine, nobody is going to make you. But I don't see any reason for you not to if you do want to. Do you?

    ...it would be useful?

That's not what I asked, but yes. If you want to do it because it's useful that's a good enough reason for me.

    "Could you arrange for a tutor, please, ma'am?"

Alicia favors this exchange - or rather, the resulting decision to learn - with a small, and sincere, smile.

"...Do you...", she then asks of the Duchess.

"...I daresay I could find someone, but of the various choices, I believe your cultural knowledge may make you best suited.  You are a competent arcanist, dear."

"But not particularly orthodox.  ...I'd appreciate the help, if you wouldn't be put out by it."

"So long as you understand that you, too, have something worth teaching."

"I.  Well.  I suppose I must, then.  If you're saying so."

"Besides.  Do you truly think our guests best suited to the orthodox paradigms?"

"...DZ is a translator.  Though I'll admit, I do think that my own work is something she might already have enough familiarity with to follow."

Like you, Deskyl signs to DZ, delighted, when the duchess asserts that her great-niece has things to teach.

    "Master Deskyl says she'll be happy to have you working with me - she'll recover more quickly if she doesn't need to be awake on a set schedule, so her plan is to let me start now and teach her what I've learned on whatever schedule she's available until she's ready to change that."

"I would be glad to.  Though I do have your charger to finish - but that shouldn't stop me from talking as I work, if you're interested in artificing.  It could be useful."

"And I will see who can be spared for a more traditional perspective.  ...There's not anyone else in training right now, so that should be readily done."

    "Yes ma'am. Master Deskyl says thank you."

She yawns, then, and signs again.

    "And that she should be getting back now."

"Of course.  I sha'n't keep you, then.  Though, before you go, I'm sure the staff would like to know if you enjoyed your meal?"

That's the kind of question a Sith only asks if it's been poisoned, and Deskyl narrows her eyes at Her Grace momentarily in response. She's fairly sure even on closer examination that it wasn't, though, and also that her anti-poison effect is still working in the new physics.

    "She says it was tasty, yes ma'am, and she appreciates the work your kitchen staff put into it."

Oh dear.  There was a part of her that hadn't quite believed what Alicia mentioned about how horrible Sith culture was.  ...She will experience emotions about that later.

"I'll pass along your thoughts.  Thank you for, mm, humoring me on that.  I do not usually keep so firm a hand on my staff that I could otherwise entirely rule out someone with more nerve than sense interrupting your rest with their curiosity - but given the circumstances, I rather think I shall this time."

"...As much as there are intrigues here, as there may be anywhere, Villarosa is a surprisingly peaceful place."

    "That would be wise, yes ma'am."

   "Master Deskyl says that she appreciates your hospitality and will try not to frighten any of your staff unnecessarily even if their curiosity gets the better of them."

There is an emotional note of - a fierce, protective command - as the woman who is in this moment undoubtedly Her Grace Ophelia Ferrule-Vaudelle, Duchess of Thorn, responds. "The assurance is appreciated, but they should know better.  I would not disturb you so, and an action of my hands is as much mine as theirs.  I will remind them.  Your rest shall not be disturbed."

Deskyl tenses at Ophelia's emotional response, preparing for a fight or worse, but she deflates and rubs between her eyes when DZ translates her words. I don't have the reserves for this right now, just get us back, please.

    "May I get master Deskyl back to the workroom now, ma'am, and I can come back and answer any questions you might have about Sith culture?"

"...That seems like it might be wise.   Please, do."

She'll do that, then, and take a few minutes to get Deskyl settled before she returns. It should be safe for her to be gone for a few hours, most likely until the duchess and her great-niece themselves want to go to bed.

"...Are there any other - no.  No, best be pessimistic.  Is there any topic of discussion that is not implicitly a threat, when a ...prototypical... Sith, and worse, a Sith in some position of power, raises it?

"Given how badly that went, I'm not sure the weather is safe."

"...That last was intended to be an instance of humorous rhetorical hyperbole, but now that I've said it aloud, I find that I am no longer sure I was actually speaking in jest."

"You could encounter a problem commenting on sunsets in particular, actually, but I'd expect most weather-related conversations to be fine. The main problem you're seeing is that master Deskyl isn't sure which of you would win in a fight, and when that happens between Sith they generally try to resolve the question as quickly as they can, so her instinct is to be on watch for signs of you instigating that. It's also not done, in the Empire, to treat a Sith as needing protection, except in the case of an explicit master/apprentice relationship, so that was surprising to her."

"I see.  ...I do not think I like this 'Empire' you are from."

"...I'm going to ask an impertinent question, so - don't answer, if it's something we don't need to know - but - were you fleeing Deskyl's..."

"...I feel like if I said the word 'master' here, that I might be giving whoever it was far too much credit."

"We were, yes ma'am. Unfortunately I don't have a detailed explanation of the situation but I don't think master Deskyl will mind me telling you what we do know, if you'd like. The man's name is Lord Pritruth."

"...He's no lord of mine," she mutters perhaps a bit louder than she should have.  "...Sorry, don't mind me, just - snap response.  He's no worthy lord by Villarosan standards, to treat his subjects so."  To say nothing of her standards, which...well, she was raised in a democracy.  While she is in some sense complicit in this feudal system, she at least tried to temper it.

"...Am I meant to understand that he is in some sense responsible for the - damage?"

"...I would also like to know about what could have caused such a catastrophic spiritual injury."

"That's precisely what we don't know, unfortunately, ma'am; master Deskyl's memory was also affected by whatever it was and we had no other way of finding out. Lord Pritruth was responsible - until about a year ago they'd had as good a relationship as any Sith and their apprentice, and then he had her taken away for whatever it was; we can infer that he expected it to kill her from the fact that I wasn't assigned as her caretaker until she'd been back for two days and from the general principle that it's incredibly unwise to try to keep even a badly injured Sith captive. He's repeated the injury every few months since then while master Deskyl has been pretending to be more injured than she is and waiting for an opening to kill him - the teleportation that brought us here was in response to him and a pair of underlings attempting to take her away again."

"...If I've any say in the matter, he will not have another chance."

"...It almost - I am reminded of backlash.  Alicia, do you think -?"

"...I can't necessarily figure how, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the what."

"The effects of misuse of the Force don't look anything like this and I'm not aware of anything else that would be reasonable to describe as backlash in terms of Force use."

"...What do the consequences of being forced too deep into the Force look like, then?  Using it 'appropriately', but using more than you safely can?"

"That's not possible, under normal circumstances; a Sith is simply limited by the amount of power they can handle. I don't know what it would look like if someone did find a way."

"...Well.  The circumstances hardly seem normal.

"...Still.  If it's not backlash, and it's not overchanneling strain, then -

"Hm.

"Alicia, do you think it's your sort of complex problem, with other options eliminated?"

"...I mean, if you're seriously eliminating the other options, wouldn't it have to be?  That's how eliminating the impossible works.

"But I'm still not sure what they could have been doing.  And what that would have been to be causing those sorts of special circumstances, particularly.

"It's a mystery," she says, with rather some disgruntlement.  "And probably not so easily solved as waving our hands in that general direction, because it's not like any of that wouldn't have first hit Pritruth.

"...Although, if we're trying to narrow down the conditions -

"...DZ, do you know if whatever this was happened - somewhere off-site?  Or in conjunction with anything Pritruth was involved with, perhaps?"

"We're confident that it was happening off-site, yes ma'am." Either that or Lord Pritruth was taking pains to give DZ the impression that it was, and there would be no reason for him to bother when he could just order her to keep the secret. "He wasn't himself involved in the process; she was gone for two or three days each time and he was at the compound as usual during those times."

"...It's a long shot, but was there any sort of - big thing, that kept happening when Deskyl was taken offsite?  Did - hm - do you have enough data to speculate on Pritruth's...emotional state, I suppose - before and after these incidents?  His motives?"

"I don't know of anything happening, but that's not surprising to me; off-site most likely means off-planet in this case. The other servant droids did note that he seemed anxious before the first time master Deskyl was taken and showed mixed signs of relief and anxiety afterward, with the anxiety being consistent with being unexpectedly engaged in keeping a captive Sith. We have no significant guesses about his motives; he works with a number of other Sith formally and informally and there are plenty of opportunities for one of them to have made some sort of demand of him but I don't know of any specific evidence of that happening."

"Yes, well, I mean 'things so big you'd notice them happening off-planet'.  ...Though, now that I think about that, it's not like the Empire is going to be in favor of free flow of information, exactly."

"I'd expect most events that significant to be at the warfront, which we were well back from - the travel time is consistent with it, though, in a fast ship."

"...Well, that's interesting."

"...Don't know what they could have been doing, at the warfront, that...

"...most likely requires a Force-sensitive, has a lot of cognitive load - causing fucking memory loss afterwards, or maybe it just never gave a chance for memories to form to begin with from some kind of overload...  Worth enough to make Pritruth pay the costs of keeping his apprentice captive, which - implies strategic advantage, especially given that it kept happening...

"...the hell were they doing, extra-Sithy battle meditation?  Can you even do that with the Dark Side?"

"...Ah, my apologies for the language."

"...But that does hang together, I think.  If it was the warfront.  I don't know why it would cause that, but assuming that whatever...", she refrains from letting out another expletive by main effort, "they were doing did make battle meditation fry someone's brain...and, now that I'm thinking of the damage I saw, having to encompass who-knows-how-much of a battlefield with nothing but yourself really seems like it would fray one's Spirit...

"I could see that sort of thing being ordered, by some very big and scary fish should it come to their attention."

"...Was there anything you know Pritruth to have been involved in, that could be related to that sort of thing?"

"One of his apprentices is stationed there and presumably some of his business contacts are as well but I don't know anything about what any of them do there."

"...Well.  I guess we have a hypothesis, at least.  Even if it's rather still a mystery."

"There could be any number of other reasons, yes.  Just because this one doesn't seem wrong doesn't mean it's right.

"...I can say that if Alicia's information about the technique she mentioned is accurate in what she has implied of it - do remind me, what is battle meditation, exactly? - that that guess seems, at least, coherent."

"...Our actual Force expert isn't here, but - my understanding is that it's a massive telempathic coordination.

"Which...

"Oh, hell, that really does make just a bit too much sense.  That, especially the Sith version of the technique, would..."

She gestures, widely, inchoately, hoping that words will come to her by the time she's finished.

She doesn't have any, by the time she finishes gesturing.

"...Attempt to compress everything into one person's skull?", comes a guess.

"...Yes, that, exactly.  I don't know if that's - actually plausible - but it really does hang together."

"Master Deskyl is trained in Sith battle meditation, I can ask her next time she's awake if you'd like."

"...I would like to leave the question of whether, when, and how to broach the subject to your best judgement, if you wouldn't mind.  You know her better.  But if that is - genuinely what you'd recommend, given the totality of the circumstances - then, yes, if you wouldn't mind I'd like to know what she thinks."

"I can ask about battle meditation without telling her what exactly we've been talking about. If you want her input on the topic more broadly I'll want to broach that carefully, yes - are you expecting to be able to do anything with the information or is this just out of curiosity?"

"...I am - concerned for her, and I know that if I had been in a position like hers, I would rather desperately want to know what had happened to me.  That, and - should there be battle-shock lurking, best to have some idea where - though my gut instinct is that merely living in the Empire could provide sufficient cause.  Perhaps not for someone who lives beneath the government's notice, but - what was it you said, Alicia?  The accepted way to be promoted was to kill whoever held the position above yours?  ...The Phoenix Kingdom parallels really grow more stark and concerning with everything I learn of this Empire, come to think of it.  Or perhaps I should say that the Phoenix Kingdom parallels the Empire, because in truth I'm starting to expect that the Phoenix Kingdom manages to be the less awful theocracy.  Which is something of an achievement.

"...On the other hand, judging by the look on her face, Alicia has let her tendency to try to solve things that look like they could be puzzles get ahead of her tact."

...Yeah, that's kind of true.  "...I will admit that I don't know what I'd do with the information if I had it.  Besides, well, make sure that Deskyl knew if she wanted to.  Attempt to figure out something that could protect against something like that in the future?  But I can do that without knowing anything."

"We've discussed master Deskyl's preferences and expectations extensively and she's been expecting that she would most likely never learn what happened; even if she had managed to kill Lord Pritruth she wasn't expecting to have time to go through his records before she had to flee his other apprentices. As to trauma reactions, most of the things you'll want to be careful of should be relatively common sense, especially since she is quite calm for a Sith even now - don't try to restrain her or touch her without her consent or startle her, don't threaten her or me, don't try to touch or separate her from her lightsaber, things like that. Also, it's not a trauma-related issue, but if you see her eyes change color to red and yellow, that's extremely dangerous and you should assume she can't be reasoned with in that state; she'll most likely have an unsettling aura up as well in that case but she also sometimes uses the aura communicatively."

...Ah.  So that is canon.

"...What one expects to happen is not always what one really wants to happen.  Though..."

"...Mm.  Nevermind that.  A pointless thought."

That it's not always safe, in the middle of things, to admit that you want something better than what you can expect, is true, and equally useless to mention.

"She would prefer to know what happened if that's possible, but I don't think it's wise to get her hopes up if you aren't confident that you'll be able to find it out."

"...I don't think we're going to hit that confidence interval unless the Force is a truth detector, or I pull something impossible out of my - ahem.  Or if something comes back to her during her recovery."

"...While I wouldn't bet against Alicia's ability to produce a bizzarely useful problem-solving device in a pinch, I wouldn't want to say that it's the right kind of possible to recover the data we would need to investigate this properly."

"Yes ma'am. The Force is useful for determining the truth in some cases but not this one, for what I suspect are similar reasons."

"...Sorry, which reasons do you mean?  I'm not sure that I have the right reference."

"Master Deskyl would need to have access to someone who knew what happened to her to use the Force to get that information directly, or be in the same universe to get enough information to go and investigate, if that was a viable option."

"Ah.  Right.  ...Hang on, couldn't we use the Force as a multiversal signature --"

"Second-order infinities."

"-- but only one is here --"

"...Do go on..."

"Rubberbanding?  And we know that the beacon design I made, worked, even if it technically worked a bit too well..."

"Leaving aside the question of whether there will be such a snapback as you posit, I am not letting you out of the universe.  Your parents will have my hide."

"But somebody would need to - are you suggesting you would?"

That is an unfortunately valid point.

Though -

"That's Deskyl's choice to make regardless, is the thing."

"...Come to think of it, I don't know how the translation would work going the other way - or if our magic would work over there."  She seems almost more annoyed by that than anything else.

"Then you are definitely not going, and I am definitely not going, and I might be convinced that a probe could be a wise choice.  But right now you have other projects."

"...Right.  DZ. do you want to watch me work on your chargers?  Or the materials for them, given we will probably want more metals later.

"That sounds good, yes ma'am. First, though - on master Deskyl's behalf I suggest in the strongest possible terms that you not do anything that would risk you appearing in Lord Pritruth's compound, especially if you might have access to magic unfamiliar to him. Most possible outcomes of that - or of interacting with most Sith, but Lord Pritruth's household is especially bad in this regard - would be substantially worse than your death."

"...I really do appreciate your concern.  I want to make that clear.  That you warned us off of this speaks well of your character.

"Having said that, I think you're underestimating our throw weight.  I'd be worried about running into the Emperor for sure, having some idea of just what he's done, and nervous about any given Darth - but while I'm nothing to write home about when it comes to melee combat, I don't need melee combat to cause some Sith to regret their choice of death.

"That said, I'm apparently not going.  Which is probably a better choice, really.  Which means that it would be one - or more - of Great-Aunt Ophelia's veterans.  And when it comes to Great-Aunt Ophelia's veterans..."

"Yes ma'am." The duchess mentioned getting Deskyl's go-ahead, presumably she'll get a report on Pritruth and his apprentices' capabilities too before she does anything. And continuing the conversation now seems like it will increase rather than decrease the possibility of Alicia doing something regrettable.

"...I would like to hear more about our likely opponents, before I can consider whether I truly agree with Alicia on this matter - but she does have a point.  One of Villarosa's 'exports', as was, is 'the sort of people who win impossible fights', and - if we openly entered that compound, it would be as belligerents.  Intending not to talk but to inflict a consequence for harms done and harms these people would do if left unchecked.  That said, Alicia...  You're getting ahead of yourself."

...

Yeah.  As much as Sith being near-axiomatically evil brings an urge to smite to the fore, she...doesn't want to know if she can kill a thinking being.

"...Yeah.  I...  Yeah.  I haven't exactly faced live combat like that before.  Certainly not for that sort of kill-or-wish-you-were-dead stakes.  And I don't think I want to.

"But knowing what I do about how much bullshit adventurers survive having thrown at them, I'd still give them good odds - on combat and infiltration both - unless the Sith in question have some really bullshit tricks up their sleeve.  I'd give an adventurer who knows what they're doing good odds on surviving the Emperor for long enough to escape the metaphorical instant death radius.  Though I think that assessment didn't involve additional combatants, which is probably stupid, because the Emperor picking a fight definitely comes with additional combatants built in."