Thia rubbed her fingers together as if snapping them, a spark igniting
around the digits. Fire and flames floated over her skin - an
impressive parlor trick, to be certain, but nothing really noteworthy.
The gesture itself was unnecessary but served the purpose of visually
cluing in to what, exactly the woman was doing.
Rolling back the cuffs of her jacket she sighed, letting the fire
dissipate. She really should find herself an apprentice or two so she
had someone to order to find her research 'plas and tablets but that was
too much of a risk. Better to stick to her own two hands and feet than
have some up-and-coming uppity little snot decide to take her out in
her prime or while studying simply because she hadn't given them that
extra slice of chocolate cake on their naming day. Apprentices were
like roaches, to - never loyal, always underfoot, and they came out of
the woodwork the moment you sneezed as if your death would somehow
reward them with titles, land, power, and authority. If it did, the
woman thought with a sniff, you had ordered your people incorrectly.
Don't reward treachery, punish it. Or just avoid it altogether, as she
had, by being a self-sufficient and eccentric little Sith. No one
seemed to really want to off her because she was quite willing to part
with her secrets because she researched them for others. Want a new way
to flay your Apprentice's mind open? Ask Thialithra to find it. Want a
new combat skill to boil blood? Ask Thia- well it was pretty obvious.
You paid her to do your research and wowed the more impressive and
illustrious Sith with new 'arcane studies that came to me in my sleep'
as one client had put it.
Discretion about where they got their parlor tricks was also part of the bargain.
But the best skills, oh those she studied and meticulously documented
for herself. Some she relegated to the sad pile of 'outside her skills'
such as the exceptionally intricate Alchemy she had stumbled on while
looking for another way to 'heal' for a client. Some she incorporated
into her own style of fighting. Some she passed on to allies. And then
some - as the flame trick she was repeatedly demonstrating to the manka
on the mantle place - she just kept around.
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