An Offer

“You’ve grown,” Duvek noted as he strode around his daughter.

Autumnal light spilled through ceiling-to-floor windows, glinting on metallic sculptures and the marble floor with hints of gold vein in them.  His daughter regarded him with a tilt of the chin, her hands hidden in her Jedi robes that she held clasped in front of her.  The both of them were close in appearance for people to pick up on them being related: tanned skin with darker markings decorating their faces, same brunette hair and similar enough horn patterns.  His daughter’s face was more youthful when compared to the sharp edges of his own, something that seemed to enhance her naivete in Duvek’s eyes.  She carried herself like a woman ten years her senior instead of someone who had just barely reached her twentieth year.  He thought it had to do with the title she wore and how she thought appearing older would make her more worthy of it.  She needed to wear it with grace, something he would have taught her if she hadn’t been raised by those wizards.

“I imagine I would have,” Knight Kasteele replied drily.

The last time he had seen her had been when she was just a month or two old, whisked away by a pair of Jedi who claimed she had those unnatural Force abilities that made her eligible for their training.  Duvek hadn’t thought much of it at the time.  He wasn’t one to have close ties to his children.  Still, he made sure to keep tabs on her as she grew, curious to see if she would progress to a high position or wind up on one of those AgriCorps worlds, encouraging plants to grow.  

It would have been a shame if she was the latter, casting a bad light on the Kasteele family name.  Fortunately, she exhibited strong traits and had worked her way up to the rank of Knight.

“I’m assuming that you sought me out on your own,” he remarked with an amused quirk of the brow as he drew to a halt in front of her, folding his hands behind him. “The Jedi at the Temple don’t seem like the sort who would be eager for you to reconnect with a parent in the sort of business I’m steeped in.”

Knight Kasteele’s lips twisted.

“Yes, I found you out myself.  Very few Jedi have the chance to reconnect with their birth parents, and you were fairly easy to track…”

Her eyes moved to the side as one of the guards in the room shifted weight on his feet in the columnar shadows.  His posture and garb read “bounty hunter” right away.  Experienced bounty hunter.  He flashed a toothy grin at Knight Kasteele, who quickly returned her gaze to her father to express her disinterest.

“Not fond of the family business, are we?” Duvek inquired, smirking.

“Not exactly.”

“So.  Why did you come here then?  To try to talk me out of my criminal ways as your duty to the Republic and the Jedi?  Or was it something more base: morbid curiosity.”

Knight Kasteele’s brows puckered slightly.

“I wanted to meet you in person to see if all that’s said about Duvek Kasteele is true.”

“And?”

“I wanted to be proven wrong.”

Duvek snorted.

“Sorry, Dear.  I’m afraid all those rumors are indeed sadly true”—he gestured at the windows that showed off his expansive, exotic estate—“And all that they entail: Your grandfather died under suspicious circumstances, and I won’t deny that I had a hand in his demise.  Some of your siblings that lacked intelligence and thought they could do the same to me are now dry bones on backwater worlds.  I deal in lies, countermoves, and crime.  Will you be trying to change my mind now?”

The question was posed in a way to sound like an insult, as was his smug look.  Knight Kasteele’s odd-colored eyes narrowed ever so slightly.  A server droid ambled into the room, beckoned by a silent request from Duvek’s personal comm.  It stopped in between the two of them, holding a tray of fluted glasses containing a sickly green substance.  Duvek took one, gesturing for his daughter to take the other.  She did, but it didn’t look as though she would divulge in a sip.

“That might take years,” she said.

“Centuries even,” Duvek replied with a sigh. “I’m a lost cause, really.  Wouldn’t put too much effort into changing me for the better.  Your people have already tried that on several occasions.”

“Was the only reason you allowed me to come was so that you could insult me?”

“Not just that,” Duvek chuckled, swirling the drink in his glass with a slight tilt of the wrist. “I wanted to meet you too, yes, but also make you an offer.”

“Leave the Order.”

“No, I’d rather you stay put where you are.  Friends in high places and all that.  This is something of a, shall we say, undisclosed side activity to what you already do.  You’ve seen that I hire people to help out with the business, and that they are employed because of their unique skillsets--”

Knight Kasteele’s body language drew up tightly.

“I’m not acting as muscle for your organization,” she said frostily.

Duvek waved a hand the way one would flick away a bad smell.

“No, no.  Nothing like that.  I meant more as someone who is able to determine what my rivals are about to do before they do it.  Get into their minds and weed out information I could use, or sway them in certain ways.  No one would suspect someone of your standing, and it would be in your benefit as well.”

“Oh?”

She didn’t sound convinced.  Duvek sipped at his drink before launching into the heart of his plan:

“You would be free to execute those criminals once you have what information I need from them--they are breaking the law, after all--or, if that is too extreme for your Jedi tastes, then you can simply arrest them and let the Republic’s courts deal with them.  I must warn you, though, that the people I am in direct rivalry with would most likely have very influential and clever lawyers, so it is probably best if you do away with them.  Not only are you helping to break up criminal organizations, but you are making the Republic a better, safer place, and I would provide you with whatever resources you need.”

“And you’ll be there to absorb what they leave behind.”

“Well…”

Duvek merely shrugged.  Knight Kasteele set her drink back on the silver serving platter the faithful droid held, her expression one of revulsion.

“I’m going to have to turn down that offer, Father.  I can’t be complicit with aiding a criminal empire by removing its competition.  The only logical outcome would be you monopolizing the Spice trade, and that’s worse than having organizations fighting for dominance.”

He regarded her coolly.

“Is that your final say on the offer?”

“Yes,” Knight Kasteele snapped, drawing back. “Please, do not try to contact me again.  I have important work to do and I can’t be dragged away from it to have crime lords waste my time and beg for my help.  It was...it was an interesting experience meeting you, Father.  If you happen to cross my path though, and I find that you are breaking the law, then I will not hesitate to turn my back on my bloodlines and take you out.”

Duvek’s geniality had disappeared altogether.  His gold eyes looked really for murder while he still smiled at her.

“Likewise, Lizvett.”