Bankor

"Yeah. Been there." Ashla touches her sword absent-mindedly. "Did he give you the speech about how he can teach you to live 'almost' forever and offer you great power if you learn from him too?"

Ashla was genuinely happy to find someone else with a item haunted by a creepy old man.

"You? You were on Korriban? When was this?"

She seemed a little skeptical. And that was even before the living forever stuff.

Layne, of course, did not have an item haunted by an a creepy old man.

Ashla realized her error. But there was no reason to lie. She had planned to Master Maaka anyways.

"No. He contacted me through the Force at the beginning of the Campaign. Though it stopped after I mocked him." Of course, Ashla would find out later that night that Spindral hadn't given up. "Called be Child of Darkness and promised me great power and blah, blah, blah."

That explanation only made Layne more suspicious.

"He contacted you through the force. All the way from Korriban. How did he even know to contact you?"

Ashla shrugs. "That I truly don't know. He knew a lot about me which was more than a bit creepy. I thought you might had been similar. But don't worry. I plan on telling Master Zyl once I leave here, and he hasn't contacted me in a while. So, hopefully, I'm done with it. If not, Master Zyl will know the answer."

This is why Ashla hadn't told anyone. Getting worried over nothing. Ashla wasn't going jump to the Dark Side just because some creepy old guy made some promises. And she herself didn't know how they were connected. She should've just stayed silent until she could tell Master Maaka.

"It just seems a bit hard to believe. Even if Spindral has that kind of power, which I don't think he does, why would he single you out unless you have some kind of connection to him?"

"Maybe it's not Spindral then?" Ashla shrugs. "As for why me, maybe he assumed the serial killer's daughter would be easy to persuade?"

Ashla wondered. "Maybe it has to do with my dad? He hunted Force Sensitives even though he himself wasn't Force Sensitive and shouldn't have been able to know. When the Order learned that, they decided to not make it public or allow me to speak of it with anyone outside the Order. One of the first things he said to me was calling me like my father." Ashla hadn't considered that previously. The only connection she could think of was the sword, but she had gotten after Spindral had contacted her, so she had quickly dismissed that. Hey, talking to others is helpful.

"Perhaps he was tied to your father somehow. Even so, I'd think that to cross such vast distances through the force would require a connection more personal than that, or some sort of anchor."

"My dad sometimes strayed into Imperial space, but we never went to Korriban. And the only thing that could be an anchor would be the sword, but I got that after he began contacting me."

"Sword?" She looked down at it, almost rolling her eyes. "Have you considered that this sword could've been calling to you before you got your hands on it? Drawing you to it?"

"But then again? Why would it draw me?" Ashla was still considering her father's possible connection. Then, she shrugged still not convinced it is solely the sword. "Well, I turn it over to Master Zyl. If it is an anchor, I'm sure she can sever the link. And if it can't be, well, the Order will have another artifact to lock away."

Because you're the kind of person who'se susceptible to it, maybe?

Layne smiled. Awkwardly. Because Layne didn't really know how to smile.

"Right. That's probably a good thing."

Ashla found Layne's smile a little ominous, but chose to ignore it. "Well, thanks anyways for talking with me about the Sith. I owe you one."

She shrugged. "I guess. Wasn't really the kind of talk that usually follows when people ask me about the Sith."

"Eh. I don't care about all that. Like I said, the past is in the past. Unless you want to talk about it or I have legitimate need for knowledge, I'm going leave you alone about that."