-From the perspective of Mady-

I was rooted to my position for a few more minutes even after the jedi left. Needless to say, I didn't expect an encounter with them at all. I even managed to accidentally eavesdrop on them. What a mess... However, at least I know that Lily is okay and also where she is. Those people ain't gonna hurt her based on this conversation, so I can think of a way to get her back later, but for now, let's sneak into this damn building. I can still sense the presence of that other girl. She will surely give me a place to sleep, especially if I ask her nicely. 

I couldn't help but smirk devilishly, as the memory of her trying to sell me off to some shady slave trader as if I wasn't even there... Not even blinking an eye… hehe… She is a bad girl, alright.

I smirked, almost proud of the cheeky dwarf.

I have already confirmed that these jedi can't sense me while I am under the effect of invisibility. I know as a fact that she couldn't sense me either, as she was clearly surprised when I was here last time. 

I was about to restart my attempt at invading the building when I heard the sound of the automatic door opening once again. I turned my face towards the familiar presence that came out of the building, and my eyes widened a bit, seeing that it was the girl I was looking for. 

She was wearing a simple uniform, clearly belonging to the restaurant she was working for. 

I could sense that the psionic energies around her were slightly shifting from time to time, an icy shiver running up my back warning me that the girl was much more than you would normally think her to be. I have long learned to listen to my instincts in such cases. It was a necessary tool for survival to be able to differentiate between weak, average, and powerful psionic presences. To measure them more specifically is far beyond me, but to categorize the power level of a being among those three possibilities is something I could do. 

Based on my understanding, this kid was upper average, which was pretty rare in the Koprulu sector... However, in this place, it was not that outstanding. For example, all of those three jedi masters from earlier had a powerful psionic presence, especially Windu and Yoda, but the other guy was also considerably stronger in raw power than this girl here. 

What confused me was the difference in their presence’s nature. The Jedi had this calming presence. If I needed to describe it with a color, it would be white... not a blinding white aura, mind you, but it felt pristine and straightforward enough for me.

This girl was completely different. She had a murky and heavy gray aura, much like a swirling fog with black and white streaks jumbled between one another, never to be separated ever again. It was not calm, but it wasn’t anxious either. More like a heavy veil pushing down on you constantly, a calmness with a sense of possible danger. Like when you camp out in the wilds of an unfamiliar planet. The fire is burning, and there is a comfortable warmth, a sense of safety and familiarity, but it only reaches until the fire’s light. Beyond that is a deep darkness surrounding you in every direction, and you can only imagine the dangers that are lurking within, waiting for you to make a mistake..

I let myself absorb her strange presence, hoping to gain some measure of understanding from her personality, her general characteristics. I did it with utmost care, naturally. Such attempts could backfire and reveal my presence to her. Just like I did with Lily back on the ship, after she tried to connect to my psionic avatar. 

I watched this girl with a strange fascination, trying to see any sign of surprise appearing on her face. I did realize almost dejectedly that there were none. She couldn’t sense me.

She was not standing around anymore, instead she began walking towards a nearby dark alleyway. I looked after the girl in confusion. Why would she go out of the building at this hour? It was already late, and the streets were going to become completely dark in barely an hour to spare energy and let the engineers work peacefully on the energy production fields. That is what the new regulations stated, as some of the fires are still burning while other units need to be repaired and to do that, they needed to turn off the entire system. The main systems of the planet, the ones that fueled the military stations and surface defense systems, had no problem with the energy, because the core that supplied them were buried deep under the planet’s surface and were not damaged.

The civilian sectors were not that lucky. Turning off their energy supply completely for days was out of the question, so the teams were working on it under the shadow of the night. At least that was what the news shared with us. 

Anyway, I decided to follow the kid, while a small frown slowly began to form on my face. Interesting, I thought. It seems I was unable to leech any more information from her. I was unable to connect to her presence in any way... This was strange, as if I was chasing another ghost. The kid went into the dark alleyway just in front of me... and the moment I lost my vision of her body; I had also completely lost her presence.

What the fuck? 

I cursed in my mind. As I gazed into the thick darkness of the alleyway, my right hand was tightly clutching the handle of the blaster gun. There was an ominous feeling coming out of that alleyway, and I didn't like that. While standing on the edge of the suspicious side street, I reached up with my left hand and pulled down the night vision device that was hidden under my cloak. It took a few seconds to activate and when it did, I finally peered into the darkness again.

In the greenish light of the vision enhancer, I saw the kid standing but a few meters from me. She was turned in my direction and glaring right at me. I felt a strong shiver shook my body when our eyes met...

She could see me? I was shocked... and in my confusion; I looked down to check if I could see my body, but to my further bafflement, I was still properly invisible. Could it be? With a sudden idea, I whipped around, expecting that someone would be standing behind my back, but there wasn't such a person. 

However, I heard a cracking sound appearing under my foot. I looked down, only to realize that I accidentally stepped on some broken glass pieces that now have managed to reveal my presence with absolute certainty.

I felt a psionic warning of incoming danger, looked up and turned back towards the girl with a slowly forming grimace on my face.

My jaw dropped when I saw that about six mostly full trashcans were levitated off the ground and about to be thrown in my general direction.

-Fuck...

Was the only thing I managed to splutter out before I needed to duck down. One of the trash cans whistled over my head, creating an incredibly loud crashing sound somewhere behind me. Unfortunately, I didn't have the free time to marvel over the girl's psionic strength as another trashcan headed in my direction.

I sidestepped agilely, and repeated the process a few more times, as the kid seemed to miraculously follow my movements, as if she was really able to see me just fine. This made my frown deepen, which was quite a statement at this point. I kicked off the wall, and managed to twirl out of the way of another incoming projectile, but the damn thing burst against the wall, and a shower of trash and quite the amount of dust fell over me. 

I coughed a few times, smelling the inhuman stench of the broken piles of trash around me. 

I looked up, quite annoyed, seeing another bag of fresh trash heading towards my face. I reached out with my psiocinetic abilities grabbed a hold on the incoming bag, softly moved it in a half circle around my body to keep some of its momentum and sent it back towards the little gnome, feeling a sense of achievement in my poor level of retaliation. To my absolute shock and surprise, I saw the bag fly narrowly between the other incoming pieces of trash and miraculously score against the face of the kid, who was standing in the middle of the trashstorm.  

I smirked victoriously when I heard the surprised and evidently disgusted squeal of the girl toppling over on the other side of the alley.

The bag of trash I threw back was particularly large, and it managed to topple over the evidently surprised kid. This caused her to lose control over the flying garbage in mid-flight, and for a few seconds, everything was flying everywhere in an even more chaotic manner. 

After the chaos, a heavy silence fell over the alleyway and the nearby streets. 

I peered towards the kid, buried under the trash and simply couldn't hold back my giggling anymore.

I decided to ask her if she was alright. 

-He...hehe... hey, kid? Chuckling... you alright there? 

 I saw some movement. The pile of trash was pushed aside, as the girl sat up on the ground, deliberately slowly. There was an instant change in the air, however... I felt as if the temperature just did a deep dive, or something like that... was it always this cold here? No... I observed the girl, as the ominous presence seemed to cover everything. 

Our eyes finally met, but she quickly looked aside then again… I realized that it was an accident this time, she didn’t see me now... but I still felt a deep chill seeping into my bones, as a series of sharp warnings were ringing through my skull. The burning golden eyes jumped around aimlessly, circling my actual position. Her eyes were changed, that was sure... and she was unable to see me now... I could clearly remember that her eyes were a grayish mess before... Are these some sort of eye implantations? She is able to see me, with the other one, but probably can't see other things as well? Since the trash hit her as if she was a puppet on a bowling field. How curious. 

I smiled as a mad curiosity flushed over me. I was intrigued. What will she do now? Since she was unable to see me anymore? I was excited. However, the ominous coldness in her aura was not something I could simply disregard in exchange for some cheap amusement.

I decided to test the waters.

I used my psionic abilities, and slightly pushed a trashcan about five meters from me. The thing made a dull noise just as I intended, then I heard a loud crackling sound as my night vision turned completely white for a second, momentarily blinding me in the process. I hissed silently, not understanding what had just happened, when my eyesight cleared. After a few more seconds, I saw the wall and the trashcan, scorched in the middle of burning, as pieces of burned paper were filling the surrounding air. I turned towards the kid with a new slightly possessive glint in my eyes. 

I watched as blue streaks of lightning were dancing between the fingers on her outstretched left arm. Her face was covered in blackened veins that were definitely not there before, giving her a pretty dangerous outlook. Those glowing eyes of her seemed to burn with discomforting hunger in them.

I heard a low mumble coming from her direction. I saw that her lips were moving silently, so I decided to listen with intense focus.

-...over four thousand years... in all that time... I was never humiliated to this degree... not even when I was a slave... you will pay... you will pay for this... you will pay... whoever you are... you will pay...

Okay... I gulped, feeling quite disturbed by this outcome... I don't know what she was saying, but it was pretty obvious that I managed to break her. Well done, Mady... Now you only have to survive the encounter.

I heard the sound of an incoming patrol ship as a searching light passed over our heads. Someone must have called the police because of the noise we were making. I looked at the girl again, realizing with a bit of sadness that playtime was over. She looked up at the ship, which was searching for the troublemakers with a disgusted frown, then glanced around the alley one more time. Then turned around and ran off in the other direction. 

My smile only grew larger, watching her escape as she climbed up on an at least three meter high wall as if it was nothing, doing all that with catlike agility and grace.

After I was sure that she disappeared, I finally relaxed my shoulders and said to myself the first words that came to my mind.

-Wow... 

I mean, I saw her choking a few thugs earlier, with her power… but lightning burst? That was pretty awesome. And cool!

The searching light had run over my position multiple times. Since I was invisible, I didn't care. I eventually turned around and walked out of the alleyway. My eyes wondered towards a familiar four armed alien speaking with some authority figures.

I shook my head silently, then as I was passing by, I accidentally saw an open window on the second floor on the shadowy side of the restaurant. I could swear that I also saw a pair of boots disappear behind it, and a funny idea popped into my mind. Maybe... Heh... I will take out a room here after all. Let's see if the guest is always right is a familiar concept here as well.

It is definitely worth the risk. This kid is interesting. Hehe... 

I waited until the police were done with their search, obviously not finding any perpetrators. Then after things seemed to calm down, I walked towards the restaurant without a stealth this time. The next few days are bound to be interesting.