Home, A Strange Word In My Mouth

[Baska Tankreyd]

ooc: a collection of thoughts spanning across the 18ish months between The Reckoning and the present timeline of You're a Criminal as Long as You're Mine. They may not be in chronological order.

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Bellataine

So her mother was still alive. And she had a sister. House Tankreyd stood proud on recent Alliance territory.

Stepping onto the terrace at the west end of the guest apartments she had been provided with, Baska let the breeze invigorate her. The sunset was beautiful but her mood remained sour. She had followed the trace of her late mentor to Sillesk and then to the Tainar system, all the way to where her surviving relatives lived. The dead Sith had always been a fantastic and nefarious puppet master but this went above everything she had witnessed before.

She had not yet seen Heyrina, which would happen the next day; but she had already recognized the spark of her daughter, whatever she was now. She knew her in the most visceral certainty. Old memories from her pregnancy eons ago and the many visions she had had, all the way to that fated laboratory of horrors in the depth of imperial territory, had paved the way.

She still wasn't sure how she would explain the situation to her family. She would tell the truth, but only a fraction of it. Thirty plus years of silence from her mother and only a day of being introduced to her younger sibling did not bode well for heartfelt confessions and catching up on a past that had seen them embark on vastly different journeys.

Nobility.

This still was mind blowing to Baska and not necessarily in a great way. She didn't know how her parents had met; but she had grown up on a successful farm on Tanaab, before getting thrown onto the streets at thirteen years old. She had fought for her life and for who she had become. She had sensed the fleeting but definite concern of her younger sister, realizing that there was a claimant to whatever fancy title her family possessed on Bellataine.

The Sith had no interest in such things. She was here for her daughter. There had been a brief moment when the thought of reuniting with her mother had seemed like a gift. Having a sister could have been something; but the last hours had already proven that the rift was too great and she belonged in a different world. While she could sense strength in her sister, their mother was a whole other beast. Or at least she had once been.

Baska had been a loner for much of her life but she took loyalty very seriously when she gave it to someone, and her mother had shown none of it in her view.

Anger still flared beneath the surface; but above all, Baska felt more hollow than she had in many years. This place wasn't home and her family were strangers.

She might share blood and a name with the other women; but she didn't belong here.