She sits across from Satele. "More or less. Different worlds have different magic systems; some have more than one, or none at all. Most of them are not very much like the force, or like each other. Mine, for example, is mostly based on making magic items, and doesn't have an emotional component to it at all; I personally am best at teleportation spells, which I understand your system doesn't do." She trances for a moment, then gestures to the chair to her right before teleporting to it.

Satele Shan is Grandmaster of the Jedi Order and is perfectly in control of her flinch reaction.

"No, it certainly doesn't," she murmurs. Louder, "You said something about the Sith?"

Nod. "I met someone from your world a few days ago; it's kind of a complicated story," flare of worry, "but they mentioned the Sith and the Jedi, and I was curious, so I read up on you a little, and it sounds like you have a real problem here. I'm not sure I can help, and I'm not actually sure we're going to agree on what me helping might look like, but I wanted to at least come and check."

"Why don't you tell me a little more about the person you met?"

The kobold pauses, briefly, in a you-have-made-a-misstep sort of way. "They're not likely to be involved in this."

She's trying not to let this come to the fore, but it's still there, if muted: She cares, fiercely, about this person. Not because she's getting something from them, not because it's someone she trusts, or finds likable, or enjoys being around; actually, almost because she's not, and doesn't. Because everyone needs to be cared for; because the people it's hardest to care about are often the ones who need it most. Because you don't just give up on people. Because you can only get to the point of everyone being okay if you care about everyone being okay.

And she doesn't trust the Jedi to be on board with that: Here's the warriness of someone who knows on a very personal level what it's like not to be on others' priority list at all, in terms of being okay; she's not concerned for her own self, here, now, with that, but it's still a very personally important issue; not the most important one, but not something she'll be budged on easily. At the same time, there's a sort of detachment: It is correct to care about people and want good things for them, and she wants the Jedi to do that, but in something like the sense that one might want good weather; there's nothing she can actually do about it, and she fully accepts that she's going to have to work with whatever reaction they have; the unwanted reaction will limit her options, perhaps sharply, compared to the wanted one, but she's fully ready to accept that if it happens. And from another angle: Even with all the resources she and the Jedi can bring to bear in the best case, and no matter how much she wants it, it might not be possible to arrange for that person to be okay, or it might not be possible without harming other people; she's not ready to give up yet, but she knows that she might come to a point where she needs to, and she won't hesitate to if she finds herself there.

And then she tucks that whole knot of emotion away, neatly; it's clearly a practiced shift, from that to focused productive diplomacy. "But I can tell you a bit about how we met, if you'd like; that'll also give you a better idea of some of the resources I might be willing to offer."

"All right," says Satele. Perhaps a fuller story will emerge in time. "Let's start with that, then."

Nod. "So, one of the places I can get to with my magic is called Milliways. It's magical itself, with several interesting properties; one of them is that anyone, even people with no magic at all, can get there. Nobody quite knows how the magic works, but sometimes when someone opens a door, instead of it leading to the place they wanted to go, it leads to Milliways instead. Some people find it once and never again; some people find it regularly; there's really no way to tell how it's going to act for any particular person. While they're there, they can meet people from other worlds - that's how I met the person from yours - or do a number of other things, including borrowing or buying books and other things from Bar, renting a room, traveling to other worlds - though there's no guarantee that they'll be able to get back, without some other way of doing it. While someone is in Milliways, or if they go through Milliways to another world like I've done here, time doesn't pass in their world; when they go home, they'll find everything just as they left it. I've been going there regularly for three years of my home world's time, trading magical items made with my world's magic for things made with other worlds' magic, or selling them, or sometimes giving them away when I meet someone who would be especially helped by that."

"How enterprising of you. So you met a person from this galaxy in that bar?"

"Enterprising..." she considers, for a moment. "Sorry, this translation spell is strange sometimes for unfamiliar concepts. It is, I suppose - I'm not planning on asking for anything from you, though, I'd consider it unethical to."

"What are you offering, then?"

"Well, it depends on what we can agree about, mostly." Grin. "Anything from casting a few spells for you to teaching you my kind of magic and giving you permanent access to Milliways."

"That is certainly a potentially generous offer. What are the issues on which we would have to agree?"

"I don't have a complete list; remember I've only known you exist for a few days, I haven't had time to learn very much about you or your world's situation. One thing I do suspect might be an issue is that I'd rather the Sith not actually be harmed - I haven't tried it yet but it may be as little as a few hours' work for me to find a completely uninhabited universe to move them to, instead."

"That would be impressive, if you could manage it. But one unfortunate truth I've had to realize over my life is that the lure of the dark side is strong. So long as there are Force-users, there will be those who turn that power to evil ends. Removing all Sith from the galaxy now will not solve our underlying problem."

She nods, and considers this for a few moments. "I have at least most of an idea, for that. It definitely requires teaching you - not necessarily Jedi, but at least a closely allied group - my magic, though, so I'll want to be very sure I'm not going to end up giving you a bigger problem than the one we're trying to solve - my magic isn't corruptive, but it can still be very harmful if misused."

"What are your magic's capabilities?"

"In general, casting a spell creates a magical object; spells can also be cast on people or animals, and the term for people with spells cast on them is spellbearers. A spell cast on an object lasts until that object breaks - I'm using a kind of specialized definition of 'object' and 'break', there, but your first impression should be close enough - but a spell on a living thing is permanent until they die. Every spell has an effect, and one or more triggers that start or stop or modify that effect. Anything that physically affects the enspelled object can be used as a trigger, and in the case of spells on living things, mental states can also be used. In addition to that, I'm able to cast spells that detect the presence of magic and some basic things about it; I can definitely cast a spell that differentiates between your kind of magic and mine; I might be able to cast spells that detect certain uses of your magic, or between someone using it in a Sithlike way and someone using it in a Jedlilke way, but I'll have to actually see those things in action first, in order to know what the spell should look for."

"For effects, teleportation is my main one; the main limitation on that is that in order to aim at a specific destination, I have to have already been close enough to it to see its magical signature, but I can also cast spells that look for places with certain qualities - usually physical things, but I can also aim for the presence or absence of people; I found you by looking for places with large crowds - and give a random destination that fits the criteria. Aside from that, it's pretty versatile; I can do portals and teleportation traps and jewelry that teleports its wearer and so on. I also know how to generate very faint light, which can be used with the magic detection trigger to enspell someone to be able to see nearby magic."

"I see. That is a unique skillset."

Satele considers for a moment.

The kobold considers, too.

"Hmm..."

"I hadn't known, before, that your magic has a risk of corruption - am I right about that? - and now that I think about it, I wonder if it might not be safer for me to take a more active decision-making role than I was planning to, in light of that. Not - it's still your world, I'm not going to be deciding anything on my own, but... it's a cultural thing, for me, it's already fairly taboo for someone to have as much power as I do even without being in a position to make big decisions that affect others. I'll have to think about that."

"I would have to know more about you before I could agree to that. You seem to genuinely care about the welfare of this galaxy, but with so much at stake I cannot base my decision on a few minutes' impression. Tell me some things about the world you're from," she invites.

"Of course." She's pleased at this. "I'm not in a hurry."

"I'm a kobold; we're one of... I don't know the exact number, but probably twenty or thirty species of people on my world. We're very low-tech - the whole world, the state of the art is steel and crossbows and I don't think anyone has printing presses yet, but also kobolds in particular aren't as advanced as some of the other species; I've been trying to introduce the idea of farming, without a lot of success. We do all right, though," a fond grin spreads across her face, "our real advantage, compared to the other kinds of people I've met, is how good we are at looking out for each other, having a society where it's hard for anyone to make too much trouble or get too hurt. We live in tribes of about a hundred people, which is small enough that everyone knows everyone else pretty well - and we have to know our tribemates; very few of us can speak, so we have to know each other well enough to understand each other by body language."

"The Republic would be happy to export whatever technology we can provide you. Maintaing a functional society through only nonverbal language sounds difficult, most advanced species I know of have sound-based communication."

She grins and bows, insofar as that's possible while sitting. "I appreciate the offer. It's... not really worth trying, though. Kobolds as a rule won't interact with non-kobolds; many won't even interact with other kobolds outside their tribe. I'm kind of strange." Amused grin, then seriousness again. "Relations between the kobolds I know and the other species in our area aren't very good, especially in the last few decades, which is our fault as much as theirs, kobolds aren't the best of neighbors - there's a cultural issue; kobold tribes hold all their resources in common, and consider keeping personal property to be antisocial; hiding things from each other to be found is a game, and so is stealing from other species, with a genuine lack of understanding that that might be upsetting apart from the need to replace things. Again, I'm not your average kobold with this, but it's a fundamental enough part of the culture that I can't really do much about it even though I understand what the problem is. And fault aside, we've had a really rough time in those conflicts, so even though things have been fairly calm recently - and getting better; my teleportation magic is a new thing, and I've been applying it in ways that steer us away from those problems - the first reaction to anything new is still definitely suspicion, from almost everyone."

"Inter-species diplomacy is something Jedi train for. I understand how it can be a difficult problem at the best of times."

She nods. "I considered it a bit of a calling, actually, before I got my magic, working with the tigerfolk. The main problem there is that they don't believe that we're people - the lack of talking is usually the issue. I was making some pretty good progress on convincing them otherwise, I think - they travel in family groups and it wasn't very common for me to see the same ones more than once, but I was starting to sometimes meet ones that had heard about me from others, and already believed or were at least curious."