"Nearby, or does it not matter?"

"Nearby is better, unless it is too hostile."

The kobold shakes her head. "Not hostile, just evening." She offers her hand.

Occlus takes it.

And they're on the surface. It's flat and barren, and a bit windy, and the twilight that was showing through the portals when they arrived is a few minutes deeper.

Occlus pulls out her hoop.

"I am going to retrieve something that will confirm your claims about the emptiness of this universe. It has no use other than as a tool for scrying."

The kobold makes an... interesting, face, and then exhales carefully and intentionally relaxes. "There is one other person. A Sith. Not on this planet; probably not even slightly close to it, but I don't have a way of checking."

Interesting.

Occlus takes that as consent, and activates the hoop. She sticks her hand through and pulls out a mirror. Turning the hoop off, she holds the mirror in both hands and concentrates on the the meeting room. It swims into view. Occlus exerts her will, and the viewpoint moves, sliding through layers of earth and stone until it show Occlus and the kobold standing on the surface. A twitch of her thoughts blanks the mirror, and she focuses on another search. She wants to see the closest person that is not either her or the kobold. The mirror remains empty. She adds more power to her command, then still more. Slowly, very slowly, a ghostly image of a man with a lightsaber appears. He's wandering aimlessly through an abandoned town.

Occlus lowers the mirror. The kobold's story appears true enough. The meeting place is likely to be safe. The question remaining then, is what that Sith is doing here. He clearly could not have arrived on his own, the kobold must have brought him. It did not seem as though it thought of him as a friend, so the transferal was likely hostile or at least against his will. With no other people in the universe, the odds of the empty city simply appearing are low. The kobold does not possess the resources to construct such a thing on its own. It had help. The Jedi, of course. The town was appropriately scaled for at least several thousand occupants. Little reason to build on that scale for one man, he must have been a test. They are planning to deport the Sith en masse. She has no intention of letting that happen to her.

Her expression does not flicker throughout her exploration. She calmly returns the mirror through the hoop.

"I am satisfied as to the emptiness of this universe. Before we depart, I wish to test the defensive spells on the room."

The kobold nods and offers her hand. "The spells are set to send you - and only you, of course - back to the hallway we left from."

Occlus takes it.

"And the others go back to their own points of origin?"

And they're back in the meeting room.

"To Milliways' infirmary, actually. I think I have it set up well enough, but there's no point in skipping something that easy to add."

"No infirmary for me? Should I be flattered or insulted?"

This actually gets a chuckle. "I was expecting that you'd be insulted if I offered."

"Reasonable precautions are not insulting. It is something I would like to have done."

"All right. I won't be able to change the spells in time for the meeting, but I can probably have that done for next time, and I can give you a single-use spell in the meantime - it'll detect when you go from here to the current spells' destination and teleport you to Milliways automatically." While she speaks, she retrieves a handful of rings from a twineportal and offers them to Occlus. "Do any of these fit you?"

"Make it two-use. I will be triggering a spell momentarily." Occlus selects a thin, matte black band.

"Sure. Let's go back to the surface for a moment, this is a more complicated spell and I'll be distracted while I cast it." She offers her hand, once she has the extra rings put away.

"Why does that make a difference?"

"I'd like to be able to assure Satele that you haven't been here unsupervised, either."

"Very well." She takes the kobold's hand.

And they're back on the surface, in the same spot as before. The kobold keeps a tendril of mage-sense on Occlus while she casts, hoping to be alerted to any strong intentions or unusual emotions, but most of her focus is on the ring. Enspelling it takes several seconds.

Occlus does not exhibit anything worrisome.

She is thinking that if this works she might still be able to tag Shan with the dart as she walks out of Milliways, but contemplating murder is not something that evokes a strong reaction from Occlus.

The kobold is, of course, oblivious.

When she's done casting, she offers the ring back, and also her hand.

Occlus takes both.

"What does the ring do now?"

And back to the meeting room again.

"The triggers are mostly location-based, and it'll only work for you and only within the next day and a half. Coming here primes it; if you go anywhere else besides your hallway from here, it goes dormant again. If you do go to your hallway from here, and it hasn't already been trigered twice, it immediately brings you to Milliways' infirmary; it'll be fast enough that you won't see the hallway at all, similar to my defensive spells."