How good you are

“Your Empire is corrupt, Commander. Corrupt, dangerous, and ultimately self-defeating. It’s going to fall anyway. I’m just helping it along.”

“I’d go easy on the overconfidence if I were you,” Eli offered. “As long as there are commanders like Admiral Thrawn, you’re going to have an uphill job of it.”

“Ah, but there *are* no commanders like Admiral Thrawn,” Nightswan said with a tight smile. “Not anymore.”

~

“I started hearing rumors. Stories about something nasty the Empire was up to out in the middle of nowhere. The project that was sucking up all the doonium, iridium, and other metals that they were yanking out of the markets. [] I started getting curious.” His lips compress. His expression holds regret. “Sometimes it’s a very bad thing to be curious.”

“It is never wrong to be curious. But it can sometimes be dangerous. This project you seek. Do you wish to stop it?”

Nightswan frowns, his expression and body stance holding suspicion. His facial heat again rises. “Why? Are you in charge of protecting it?”

“No.”

“You probably should be.” His suspicion is fading. “If they really want to protect it, that is. Would I stop it? I don’t know. I suppose I’d first need to know what it is, so I could judge whether or not it’s worth all the chaos it’s causing. Why do you ask?”

“Because I, too, am interested in the project. I would like to hear what you have learned.”

“Sure.” Nightswan waves a hand toward Creekpath. His expression holds sardonic humor. “Take off that uniform, come join us, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“You know I cannot do that.”

“And I can’t give up information that someday might be vital to these people,” Nightswan said. “Obligations, you know.”

“Yet you also have a higher obligation to greater ideals,” Thrawn said. “Tell me about Cyphar.” []

Nightswan shakes his head. His expression holds both resignation and admiration. []

“Sometimes I forget how good you are,” he said. “Other times, I’m glad of it."

~

Week after week, just in adoration for what a perfect Thrawn fangirl Nightswan is.

And while sometimes I think I should discuss all the emotions I am feeling, everything is so deeply already there.

[Photo: custom Funko pop by me this time]