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At the moment, though, Aayla frankly couldn't see it. Not with this one, anyway. He was fat, overweight, and looked almost sallow faced on top of it. "So one of Zule's parents was a Falleen Like this… If you're an example of what the men look like, I hope it was her mother."
With that she reached down and grabbed his foot, then looked over at the bodies of the two Night Sisters. With a brief moment of concentration both the Night Sisters and the lightsabers rose into the air. She tied off the Force powering the technique, and they floated, following behind her as she made her way back down to the hidden passageway.
She was met at the entrance not by Master Quinlan as she thought she would be, but by Harry, with Lily hovering in the air above him. Though she had, of course, felt Harry's presence long before she came within sight of him.
Lily leaned down to buss Aayla on the cheek while Aayla gratefully allowed Harry to take over levitating the two dead bodies behind her. After he had, she crossed her arms over her chest, looking at him mock-accusingly. "Were you trying to run to my rescue again?"
"Not at all," Harry said with aplomb. "I never doubted you for a moment."
Aayla suddenly giggled, her brief flicker of irritation leaving her at Harry's acting, and she leaned up slightly to kiss him lovingly on the lips, delighting in the feel of them against her own and his arms around her even as she sent the thought through their link, "liar."
Harry could only nod agreement to that, knowing that she had felt the truth through their bond. In return Harry felt Aayla's determination to never need rescuing again, which he acknowledged, but refuted by saying he would always be there if she ever did need it.
Rolling her eyes, Aayla acknowledged that point but fired back with, "Just make sure I need rescuing in the first place, okay?" Then her mental self put Harry's in a headlock until he acquiesced, and the two of them returned their concentration to the physical plane.
Walking with Harry down the corridors of the base, Aayla noticed the looks Harry was getting from the various Wookies, who would stop and raise their fists to him. He occasionally stopped to talk to a few of them before moving on, slapping backs and basically getting along with all of them. "So, I take it you've made friends?"
"Definitely a mutual respect sort of thing, at the very least," Harry said with a chuckle through their link while exchanging hand clasps with one of the larger, older Wookies.
Master Dooku and Master Fay then appeared around a bend in the corridor, walking towards them. The two padawans bowed formally, and Master Dooku acknowledged them with a nod while Master Fay stepped forward, enfolding them in a gentle hug and kissing them lightly on the foreheads. Aayla shivered a little at that. She'd not gotten used to the fact that Master Fay was so much more touchy-feely than she had been while on the Explorer. Aayla loved it, but it was just unusual for a Jedi to be so effusive, though of course any other individual would have scoffed at the very idea that such gentle touches could be called effusive at all.
"And what have you discovered for us here, Padawan Secura?" Master Dooku asked, looking at the two bodies, or rather four pieces of two bodies hovering behind Harry and Aayla.
"I…" Aayla paused, then shrugged her shoulders. "I honestly don't know, Master Dooku. These two were Dark Side users. They didn't use any real Force powers other than telekinesis and precognition, so I don't know if they're half trained or what, but I felt their hate and anger around them in the Force, and it definitely gave them power…"
Dooku held up a hand, forestalling further discussion there as he moved forward to look at the two bodies, which Harry obligingly floated forward. After a moment he nodded thoughtfully. "Night Sisters."
"That's they called themselves, yes. But I've never heard the name before," Aayla replied just as Quinlan and Komari came within sight down the corridor. He was followed by several other Wookies, who immediately began to bark orders to the surrounding Wookies as they passed them, organizing them.
"They are a sect of Force users from a planet named Dathomir. The planet itself has hundreds of Force users broken into a dozen or so clans, and only the Night Sisters, a single clan among many, have fallen to the Dark Side," Fay said thoughtfully.
Harry frowned. "Um, don't take this the wrong way, Master, but why hasn't the Jedi Order moved against them? Given the way the High Council reacted to the revelations about my mother and I and the lengths we've had to go to in order to keep my abilities a secret, it doesn't seem as if the Order is all that open to other Force users operating outside their purview."
The deadpan manner in which Harry delivered this line caused Lily to snort in laughter. "Mastered the technique of understatement, you have, hrhrhrm…." Lily said, imitating Yoda's speech patterns, which caused both padawans to grin.
"Because the rest of the planet is not willing to join the Order, and there are, as I said, hundreds of Force users there, possibly as many as two thousand. Bringing the entire planet to heel would mean war, and what would be the point? Most of the Dathomiri witches follow the Light, it is only a single clan that does not, as Master Dooku said," Master Fay replied with a smile at her friend's antics, while Dooku merely rolled his eyes. "I actually have been there in my travels. They are not exactly gentle, but they are a learned and ancient people."
Harry nodded but looked over at his mother quizzically. "Witches?"
"Master Fay and I talked about them, but their 'magic' isn't anything like ours Harry. Don't worry. If it had been we would have mentioned it to you before this," Lily replied, before chuckling. "Actually, we would've mentioned it to you anyway if their entire society wasn't so matriarchal. Men there are second-class citizens, and I know you well enough to know you wouldn't put up with that kind of thing even for a short visit."
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