Kashyyyk? Why would he run to Kashyyyk of all places? Erinyes winced and rubbed the back of her neck, trying to work out the kink she'd developed on the trip from Arx. She wasn't used to running other people's errands anymore, but this one had come from the Dark Council.
"I don't know what Aru was thinking, but he has terrible taste in old treatises," Ciara had said. "The Fantafly edition of the Qel-Droma Epics... If he was going to steal something that's practically fiction, he could at least bother to learn to read the original Tetan."
"I thought you liked poetry," Erinyes had teased the Headmistress from behind her flask.
"I do, when it hasn't been mangled by some poor excuse for a translator, but I don't mistake it for an instructional manual. On the other hand, it would look bad if anyone found out that a Magistrate had been stealing from the archives. Would you mind bringing Aru back to Arx so I can have a talk with him?"
"Can't we send Appius? I kind of have a Clan to run, and he's better at finding lost objects."
"I thought Appius was already running Taldryan for you," Ciara had said, with a smirk that would've been infuriating if it hadn't been so damn seductive. Working with the statuesque Headmistress had been murder on Erinyes' stubbornness. "Besides, we already know exactly where Aru is."
The bar that Ciara had accurately reported Aru would be in was the picture of a jungle resort cabana, and close enough to the spaceport that Erinyes wondered whether Aru had even tried to hide. Wrapping her hair into a loose bun to keep the humidity off her neck—how the kriff had Wookiees evolved on this planet?—she shouldered her way into the cantina. The place’s patrons were a mix of Humanoids, mostly Human, Duros, and Sullustan, nearly all of whom were wearing some sort of stereotypical spacer outfit. Then there was the one Human with the waist-length ponytail and the cybernetic arm, wearing a bandolier, belt, and… well, Erinyes couldn’t see anything below his waist, but she prayed to Krath it was more than just the bandolier and belt. As she approached, she saw the figure swaying from side to side on his high-legged bar chair, clearly more than a little inebriated.
Erinyes pulled her datapad from her belt and activated it, thinking to double-check the profile it contained out of some measure of caution, then shook her head and simply flung the device at the ponytailed man with a toss and a twirl of the Force. The ’pad sailed through the air like a throwing disc, then caromed upward as it bounced off its target’s head.
With a yelp, the ponytailed man spun around, nearly falling off his chair in the attempt—yep, it was Aru—and swore as the datapad zipped back into Erinyes’ hand. Much to her chagrin, Aru was not, in fact, wearing pants; the garment that covered his hips and thighs looked more like someone had butchered an Equite’s lower robes into a mini-kilt.“What the kriff was that for?!”
“Nothing personal, Slick.” Erinyes tucked the datapad away. “Ciara was all boo-hoo-Aru-stole-something-sad-hottie-noises and wanted someone to drag you back to Arx, and she wouldn’t let me send Appius instead. Come on, you can drink on the ship.” She reached out to grab Aru by the bandolier, but the Arconan swatted her hand away.
“No way! Kaka's always buggin’ me to drink lesh, and Ciara's always buggin' me to shtudy more, an’ I’m… doin’ one of those thingsh,” Aru protested. He slouched sideways against the bar and reached for his quarter-full glass, knocking a Brotherhood-issue datapad to the floor in the process. “After Kaka reshcued me on Naboo and we shtarted bein’ besht buddiesh, I… I figured I’d learn more about the Shith. I'm tryin', alright? Bein' shober is hard, and Kaka wouldn't give me a break!”
Erinyes' brow furrowed with sympathy for her fellow drunk's plight. “I won't argue that being sober sucks, but ‘Kaka’ is what we’ll both be in if we don’t get back to the Academy. She blames me for all these bar tabs you rack up, and I have enough trouble without the Headmistress’ elite squad of bean counters breathing down my neck. Ship. Now.” Erinyes grabbed Aru’s bandolier again. This time, her grip held despite the Arconan’s attempts to push her arm away, though Erinyes didn’t quite have the leverage to drag Aru off his chair against his will.
“Th’only Mishtresh I care about is my Mishtresh, Alaishy Tir’eivra. You know, the Herald. She’sh pretty–” Aru cut himself off when he swayed backward and, for a split-second, his eyes drifted above Erinyes’ chest. “Hey, you’re Air… Hair… Hairy…” He drained the rest of his glass as though it would help him jog his memory, even as he kept trying to brush the Taldryanite’s hand away with his free hand.
Erinyes rolled her eyes and kicked one leg back, pulling with her body weight to lever Aru out of his chair. Aru lurched forward, nearly knocking Erinyes off her feet as he went face-first into her chest. Blinking in surprise and exasperation, the Taldryanite looked down at the top of Aru’s head. “I swear to Krath, if you repulsorboat me, I’ll break your neck and pay Vasano the life insurance… look, I don’t have the patience for this and you don’t want to see me angry, so I’ll make you a deal. You and me, right now, bare knuckles, and when your face hits the deck you come along quietly.”
“You’re on!” Aru grinned, and somehow swayed himself upright. “And if I win, I take you out on a date!”
“Not unless you want to be Alaisy’s sloppy seconds.” Erinyes matched the Arconan’s grin one of her own, just as brash and entirely too knowing for Aru’s comfort.
“What?!” Aru stood bolt upright, as if the comment had sent a shock of adrenaline through him. “You’re one of thoshe?! You’re not shupposhed to– I mean, you’re way too girly– My Mishtresh would never do that with a booby no-clothes like you!”
Erinyes blinked again, slowly, and opted to focus on the Arconan’s most recent offensive sputtering. “Okay, first of all, ‘booby no-clothes’? What are you, four? Second, anyone who doesn’t wear as little as possible on this kriffing sauna of a planet is just– you know what, never mind. Come on, let’s get this over with.” She slid one leg back into a semi-traditional martial arts stance, shifting on the balls of her feet, arms up to protect her face.
“What, you’d beat up on a drunk? That’sh not a fair fight!” Aru beamed with pride at the retort. To be fair, his smile probably would’ve been charming with half as much alcohol behind it.
“You know, you’re right. Let’s make this more fun.” Erinyes extended a hand towards the bar, and with some help from the Force, a bottle of Grakkyn nectar—she didn’t speak Wookiee, but she knew that label, at least—flew into her palm. Aru’s eyes widened as the Taldryanite yanked the cork out the half-full bottle of Wookiee spirits and tipped it upward, and he stood mesmerised, watching as Erinyes gulped the amber liquid down without stopping.
When the Grakkyn nectar was gone, Erinyes nearly doubled over in a fit of coughing and wheezing. Breathing out felt like fire. Breathing in felt worse. When she straightened up, the room kept moving after her body stopped, and her eyes watered like she’d been watching old Corellian romance holos. “Holy frak, that was worse than I remember.”
A full ten seconds passed in silence before Aru spoke again. “How did you do that?”
“Two livers and a lot of practice.” Erinyes swayed on her feet and wiped her mouth with her wrist, then squinted at Aru–both of him—then raised her hands with thumbs and first two fingers half-extended like claws. “Okay. Let’s—hic—get started.”
Aru felt an uncharacteristic knot in his chest, and his shoulders sagged as he raised his open hands in an alcohol-soaked rendition of a traditional Echani guard. Hairyness might be his enemy, but he had to respect a woman who could drink and make lecherous comments as well as he could. Fighting her seemed like a waste when they could've just gone on a date instead. Sure, she said she was interested in other women, but that was just because she hadn't met him yet. Such a missed opportunity…
The Arconan shook his head and straightened himself up as he realised what the twinge in his chest was. It felt something like sadness. Maybe it was reg– no, rag– … that thing where you wish things were different. It was a new feeling for Aru, one he'd only really begun to experience after Kaka saved his life on Naboo, and he still hated it.
A red streak brought Aru's attention back to the battle at hand. Hairyness was lunging toward him, and the Arconan began shifting to one side to avoid the blow, only to see Hairyness trip over her own feet and stumble forward. Aru smirked at the sight. She can't hold her liquor like she—
Aru felt a warning ripple through his mind a split-second before Hairyness' shoulder slammed into the middle of his chest. The weight of the impact sent him reeling, and he fell against something warm and solid that smelled like a furry animal—only to find himself launched forward as the Wookiee whose lap he'd fallen into shoved him back in the opposite direction. The push gave him extra momentum as he extended one hand outward in a palm strike, aiming for Hairyness' chest but lurching towards her shoulder. The Zeltron swayed, but not enough, and Aru's palm smacked into her collarbone and. Hairyness whirled like a top and began to fall forward, and Aru twisted to deliver another blow, but was forced to shrug behind his own shoulder to avoid Hairyness' spinning backfist strike.
Suddenly, the Zeltron seemed to disappear—no, she'd just crouched, Aru realised when he looked down and saw the top of her head at waist level. His mind flitted in a different direction just long enough that he once again didn't sense Hairyness' intentions before her shin smacked the backs of his knees. The world spun, and pain exploded through Aru's back when he hit the cantina's steel-plate floor. To add insult to injury, Hairyness landed elbow-first on his gut a heartbeat later, and all the cheap liquor that Aru had consumed nearly made a second appearance.
The Arconan groaned and clutched his stomach, and he saw Hairyness kip up and stagger backward away from him as he slowly pushed himself to a stand. The bar’s patrons had formed a wall around them at a safe distance away, turning the cantina into a makeshift arena, and a few of them started to applaud the display. "What the kriff was that?" At least the shock of the blows had cleared his head somewhat. If he was going to have a chance against Erinyes, he needed to be at his best.
Erinyes grinned. "What, you've never he—hic—ard of Bacch'nal?" She was still wobbling on her feet, still holding her hands in that weird half-fist—one that perfectly accommodated holding a bottle, Aru realised as the Zeltron downed a drink left behind by a patron fleeing the outbreak of violence.
"Of course I've heard of it," Aru snorted. "Every drunk karkhead who likes to start fights says they're a 'master of Bacch'nal'. It's not like it's a real martial art–" Aru stopped short as the pieces came together in his mind. Suddenly, this bar brawl was a lot less appealing. He couldn't just surrender, though; his pride wouldn't allow it, and despite his earlier bluster, he had no desire to face the Headmistress' wrath on top of whatever Kaka would do to him. No, the only sensible option was to get back to his ship and leg it before Erinyes could catch up to him. She wasn't going to just stand there and let him leave, though…
With certainty born from desperation, Aru whipped his Syndicate-issue blaster pistol from its holster—dammit, the grip felt so wrong in his hand—and fired a trio of quick shots from the hip. His drunkenness and the unfamiliar weapon weren't going to win any marksmanship contests, but the shots were still accurate enough that Erinyes was forced to bob and weave out of the way.
His goal accomplished, Aru allowed himself a satisfied smirk as he drew upon the Force.
Where'd he go?
Erinyes squinted at the empty space where Aru had been standing when he fired at her. She’d definitely drunk enough to see two of him, but she didn’t think she’d drank enough to see none of him, which made his sudden disappearance a little puzzling. “Slick? Come on, you don’t need to hide, she called as she looked around the bar.
A moment later, the Zeltron’s alcohol-fogged brain helpfully pointed out that according to the Shadow Academy file on the datapad she’d chucked at him, Aru was fond of using misdirection in battle. If she couldn’t see him, it was probably because he’d decided to turn himself invisible. The question was, was he doing it to run, or to get the drop on her? Erinyes kind of hoped it was the latter; the challenge of fighting an invisible opponent would’ve been fun.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. Out of the corner of her eye, Erinyes saw the wall of bar patrons part as though they were being pushed aside by something, and the channel of open space was headed directly for the cantina door. Reaching out with the Force, she grasped the empty Grakkyn-nectar bottle that laid nearby and flung it down the middle of the escape route. The bottle shot down the corridor like a slugthrower shot, until it abruptly bounced off nothing.
“Augh!” A squawk of pain rang through the bar as Aru popped back into sight—but the impact didn’t stop him. Instead, he simply barrelled through the last few onlookers between him and the exit, angling to disappear down the ramp into the spaceport promenade.
Erinyes vaulted a nearby table and took off after her quarry, using the Force to steady her steps as she ran; actually purging the alcohol from her system would’ve taken more concentration than she could spare. When the Twi’lek and Wookiee bartenders shouted after her, she called back over her shoulder. “Charge it to Lucine Vasano!”
