"Depends if she's going to make every meeting an Incident, I guess."

"Not the off the clock ones, at least."

"That should buy a little time."

"You've already done the leg work of establishing her as a contact, too, which will help with some of them. The hardest to explain would likely be the archeological sites themselves..."

"We can figure that out later."

She isn't sure Elesse is thinking through all of the consequences of associating with Sith, but... "Alright."

They've gotten a bit off their original topic, haven't they...?

Avoid thinking about one hard thing by thinking about a different, more theoretical hard thing. Works every time, no problems ever guaranteed.

Elesse will spin into some off-the-cuff line-to-line comparisons between the Jedi and Sith Codes, and see if in the negative space between she can derive some of the various Sith heresies from first principles.

More than a few, actually, and she can get most of the ones resting centrally on the Code proper. (Vader can obviously suggest further reading on the heresies, though she doesn't think the Jedi have most of it - so corroboration might require access to an archive site, or just Fidela giving her some digital copies next time they meet... (Some of the heresies also eventually ascended to canon - one of the most entertaining in her view was a heretical text from the later phase of the Old Republic, which was denounced as heretical in its time but saw resurgence during the Brotherhood of Darkness and is currently considered a core part of the Baneite canon - 'There is No Canon' by Lord Gant.))

Heresies in general of course also flourished in the early and late days of each formulation of the Sith Order, and resurgences caused by Jedi Great Schisms such as the one prior to the rise of the New Sith saw the greatest popularity of heresies related to the Code...

It's like a hobby for them.

It's something Sith philosophy innately encourages, honestly - even with the repressive efforts of the various regimes. Add that on top of the Sith Order frequently waning and then being reinvigorated by a new generation of darksiders, several times already heretical Dark Jedi... 

There's something to be said for the flux of ideas, making sure you're not missing out on good ones... But it's not exactly conducive to stability, as the history of the Sith equally proves.

The lack of stability also means good ideas rarely survive long, feeding into the overall philosophy that the loudest voices - the strongest Sith - get their way. 

Elesse doesn't think she's a fan, on balance.

It's been a dysfunctional system - one she's hoping to address, though it'll take extensive work... Fortunately, Vader herself is immortal, but it'd be impractical to centrally involve her, especially since it's likely she'll return to her lonely existence after Fidela and Elesse pass...

Doesn't really sound fortunate, then.

She... She's existed an incredibly long time like this. But... She'd rather not... Return to that existence, true. Even if she could continue to influence things, it...

True eternity is one of those things that seems far nicer than it actually is.

Maybe... Maybe they can figure something out. So she doesn't have to be alone.

That'd be... Nice. But other than someone joining her - Vader suspects knows she'll out-exist mortal civilization - she's not sure what can be done. She's part of the Force, now.

Oh.

"...It won't be a concern for a while yet." And she'd really rather not think about how even if she saves Elesse, she only has the lifespan of a human to look forward to. How even if she extends Elesse's life to the greatest extent possible, that still isn't long.

"Yeah." Uhhh topic change topic change topic change she had a few questions about Vader's perspective on some of the Jedi schisms?

She goes along with the topic change readily, relaxing a little. (Her main overarching opinion is that the initial spark for the schism often had a point, but the actual movements went off the rails - some of the lesser schisms weren't quite so dramatic, but all of the ones labeled as Great Schisms led to violent conflict between the sides; in her opinion the reaction of the Jedi as a whole was actually a major though obviously not sole driving factor in whether a difference in philosophies fizzled out, led to spirited debate but no actual full splits, led to a minor schism, or resulted in full blown war, as the orthodox and heretical factions fed into one another... In some cases this was fully justified, as the initial seed clearly contradicted the Jedi's moral codes, but in some cases it was an overreaction, and even when it was justified, a more even toned response could potentially have limited the scope...) She also has philosophical perspectives, too, including on some of the enduring themes of the various debates...

 She can go on about this fairly easily until the end of their time together, with more material left over for future discussions.