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Basic was, in many ways, an apt name for the language. The whole party, including Rosso, who had self admitted to having no head for language, was learning it quickly. It seemed long hours aboard a starcraft as it moves through hyperspace is a perfect time for learning and research. In fact, the individual who seemed to be having the most trouble with the language was, surprisingly enough, Tolmerin. Even now, the wizard was sitting in the corner of the main lounge, in front of the floor to ceiling window at the front of the ship, worrying the tips of his horns and muttering under his breath. It sounded to her like it was primarily obscenities.
Zuriel adjusted her long tunic and stood. Contrary to what their first spaceship flight would imply, the frequency of being attacked while shipboard was turning out to be extremely low, and as a result, she had begun forgoing her armor in favor of softer fabrics during these long periods of travel.
It was odd, after having spent so much of the previous year constantly on guard and in armor, to suddenly be going without, but it was becoming... comfortable. She didn't think she would ever be able to face battle without it, but they had picked up some intriguing fabric on the last planet they stopped on, something called armorweave. It was supposed to be able to protect against most types of blaster fire. Zuriel hoped that Sorrel would be able to craft each of the others some type of protective outfits from it. They all seemed determined to charge into battle with nothing but ordinary fabrics between them and the enemies' weapons. Sorrel at least had some sense, with her sturdy leathers, but the rest. She sighed under her breath. Why the various schools of magic decline to teach their students to fight in armor, she'd never understand. What good is summoning a massive fireball if you can't withstand a single one in return? And Nova ! She was the worst of the bunch! Her clan had trained her in armor, and she was capable of fighting in all but the heaviest of it, but she still refused! Spending the majority of a battle in an animal form was no excuse!
“Uh, Zuriel?”
She blinked and glanced down at Tolmerin , realizing now that she had been looming over him for several moments already, lost in her thoughts. “Apologies,” she said, sinking gracefully into a beanbag chair beside him. The pirates had stocked their lounge area with the bizarre things, with low tables to match, all encircling the central hologram console. For 'holofilm nights', so Sunny had informed them. “It seemed like you were having some trouble with your lessons?”
Merin let out a low groan and slumped a bit in his chair. “Its fine. I’ll figure it out eventually.”
“It seems surprising to me that you are the one struggling the most.”
He frowned down at his pad. “…I… suppose I’ve never had to learn a language truly from scratch like this. I’ve always had masters of the languages around to show me where I’ve gone wrong, or to assist with complicated translations… And my fluency with Celestial and Sylvan came more as a byproduct of my research than as the intended outcome. Learning a language for communication’s sake only is… surprisingly difficult.”
“It doesn’t help that there are no translation guides between Basic and Common that are accessible without using magic. Which, of course, makes the learning part of the process irrelevant.”
“Even so, these lessons were designed for the entirely illiterate, which is, essentially, what we are. I don’t understand why it isn’t clicking for me.” Tolmerin shoved the pad away from him and sighed. “I suppose it doesn’t help that I have so much other research to do. I just don’t have time to learn the language first. We need to understand the politics and the science and even, apparently, the religion of this universe if we want to have any way of helping, the way Nova wants.”
“If it is what Nova wants, perhaps it is Nova who should be doing the research.”
He scowled. “I love her, Zu, and no offense to her at all, but politics is not exactly her strong suit.” He tapped his fingers along the edge of the table. “And I don’t… disagree with her. After what she described of her visions, what she could remember of them, at least…”
“Slavery, war… I know, Merin. Nova is right. There is work to be done here. And Nova is less the brain than the brawn to get it done. Is there anything else you’ve discovered?”
He pulled his pad toward him and opened a new application, which appeared to be filled with notes. “The Hutts are deeply entrenched into their conquered worlds. Removing one, or even all of them, would only lead to a power vacuum that I am still unable to find a stopper for. But if the Hutts are bad, the Clone Wars are worse. Several thousand different systems attempting to form a cohesive government is already nearly incomprehensible to me, but clearly it hasn’t worked, and now they're all fighting about it.”
“…We’ve had little to do with politics in general, even back on our single world.”
“Even so, it feels like there is something here we should be doing. If not the politics, then something else. Something better suited to our unique magical talents. I need Nova to walk me through her… communion with the Weave again. My spellcasting has been settling, which I’m grateful for, but I still have yet to feel the presence she did.”
“I haven’t felt it either. It’s possible its just a druid thing.”
Merin didn’t quite look at her. “…Poe felt it as well.”
Zuriel sat back, surprised. “They did? When?”
“Last night. They’ve been feeling more in tune with the magic around here ever since their magical surge. Last night they finally managed to reach out to the Weave. She watched his face patiently, waiting for him to continue. “There’s a planet, between here and Zygerria. Poe thinks we should stop there.”
“The Weave told them so?”
Merin nodded. “Something like that. It seemed like it was some sort of vision.”
“Poe is not usually prone to visions. I’d have expected that more from Nova.”
“No they aren’t. But Jedi seem to be. Some Jedi, at least.”
Zuriel caught on quickly to his train of thought. “And Nova said force sensitives are most similar to what we would understand as sorcerers.”
Merin shrugged, agreeing, but unwilling to make other assertions based on what little information they had collected.
She put a hand on his shoulder. “Well. We are here. If there is some good we can do in this place, we should do it. And perhaps if there is some greater purpose for us here, we will find it by doing what we have always done.”
“Sticking our noses in places they don't belong?” Merin asked, with a sheepish grin.
She tilted her head in acknowledgement, but corrected him. “Helping people.”
Tolmerin was silent for a long time. Zuriel waited, knees pressed close to his. Finally, he found his words. “That didn't really help us back in our world, though, did it?”
Zuriel let out a long, slow breath. It was not surprising that his mind had gone there. “We did everything we could. And we did save people, Merin. Even though that world is now barred from us, Selune has shown me that our actions were successful. The time loop was ended and our people were saved.”
“Yeah. I know.” Merin slumped in his seat and picked at the edge of the table. Finally he whispered, “But I miss them. My parents, my little brother, everyone at the archive, I just-” His voice cracked. “I just miss them.” He took a breath that was distressingly shaky.
Zuriel squeezed her eyes shut and took a calming breath of her own, shoving her own tears down into a place deep within her and locking the door. Time for that later, when she could sit by herself in her own room. Instead, she placed a hand on Merin's back and pulled him into her chest. He clung to her side, shaking, soaking her shoulder, and she just held him, for a long while, as they watched the stars stream by.