A Dead Man's Remnants

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

Corruption. It was a concept that even he was well familiar with. Byss had been a different place of course, corrupted by years, centuries of seeping darkside power. He didn't know if the same thing could occur here, he didn't know if it was even possible to replicate it ever again, but he had faith within his wife. Whatever she wished to do, he would follow. It was that simple for him, it was the easiest mission. He shifted slightly as they ascended the staircase, glancing at the grand pillars.

We'll have to redecorate. He thought to himself, peering at the grand statues of his father.

Sven knew well enough that such things...well they couldn't last if him and his dear wife were to stay here. Taking the planet meant taking the fortress, and that meant that they had found their new home. The conversation about it had been brief, but Sven knew his wife well enough to guess what she intended.

They wandered up the spiral steps, until finally another door opened for them.

Ahead of them lay a grand balcony, situated at the very top of the spires of the fortress. Ahead of them lay the waterfalls, the river and forest stretching out far from where they were. He watched with fascination, eyes wandering across it all as he took in the beauty. The sight really was an amazing one, though of course Sable strode forward without a care in the world.

 

[Quietus]

At the edge of the balcony Sable stood with the wind in her ears and the sun on her face. She thought momentarily about how likely it was that Sven enjoyed these things. He'd never really complained about their nomadic lifestyle but it was easy to see in his change of demeanor and stride that he preferred to be planetside. She supposed there was something nostalgic about it, but how nostalgic could one get when they were born of sand and blood and darkness?

Pale blue eyes surveyed the landscape, careless towards the presented beauty of the high green mountain peaks and the jungles that isolated their location. They scanned across the open skies, seemingly searching for something, before following the progression of the same flock of black birds as they peaked over the waterfall edge before disappearing from view. Sable's gaze dropped downwards to the rushing waters hundreds of feet below them and seemed to find what they were looking for.

Her right hand moved to the hilt of her Truesword and slowly unsheathed the blade. It had not seen use in quite some time - not since the last artifact several months ago. Since then it had slumbered within the sheath, complacent like a loyal dog having done its job and returned to its home and master. Sable studied it briefly, stroking fingers along the engravings in a tender, almost loving manner. And then with a sudden jerk and pull grasped her entire hand over both edges and sliced into the flesh of digits and palm. The blade cut deep, through sinew and down to bone, willingly and without any effort at all.

Lips drawn thin against the pain, the Dreadlady remained stoic as she slathered the black ochre across the length of the weapon like a finishing glaze. She felt it awaken, felt the dawning siphoning of the Darkside through the very hilt. It practically purred in her grasp, lethal and ready for its next meal. Sable lifted it then and the blood-slicked metal flashed in the sunlight as she tossed it then, like a spear, out and over the edge of the balcony. The arch of its path peaked suddenly, following the will of her mind it turned tip-down and plunged itself towards the waters with fervent veracity.

The Truesword plunged through the rapids, cutting past the current to lodge itself with purpose into the riverbed deep below. There the blood of the Dreadlady seeped into the waters, carried away and over the falls to corrupt the lands beyond and the people that lived off them.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

He watches the sword sail through the air for a few moments, blinking in a rather confused manner but not asking a single question. He’d long ago stopped asking questions.

The force was beyond him in many ways.

The concept wasn't all that difficult to grasp of course. It was an energy field, one that loomed over the galaxy as a whole. Nearly everyone had a connection to it, some stronger than others. Jedi and Sith alike could manipulate that connection, use it to do remarkable and even unheard of things. Of course how those things were achieved took different paths with different people.

Some straightforward, some not so much.

”The ship will be here in two hours.” Sven said as he glanced at his chrono.

It was more than enough time to make it back to the shuttle.

 

[Quietus]

"I must remain here," Sable replied, eyes closed as her mind conducted the will of the Darkside through the weapon speared into the riverbed, "you will go and lead the takeover from the ship."

They would need converts and the corruption of the land and people would be the fastest route to attaining them. From there the path to claiming the entire population of Krant was as straight-forward as anything concerning a hostile takeover would be. She was expecting a fight and resistance, but as with all good villains ... resistance would ultimately be futile.

The Dreadlady turned to her husband, injured hand flexing as a black essence slowly sewed the flesh back together, "The local pirates may be of use. If they show up, offer them asylum and pay."

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

He would go of course, that was without question, but ti was important to note that Krant had no real regional government. There were a few cities, but things were mostly too detached for anything planet wide to currently exist. Thats why conquest would be relatively easy even without the few troops that they had.

Corruption would of course make it easier, but the people would need to know what they were being ruled by.

Sable.

”You’ll need to appear in the city before rhis is done.” He reminded her. Their plan didn’t truly work unless Sable was the one these people saw as their new ruler. Krant could be corrupted, it could be brought to heel, but his wife had to be the one to do it. He shifted slightly and gently touched the small of her back. ”I’ll contact you when everything is ready.”

He would meet their destroyer at the edge of the system and then jump into place over the planet. The threat of a Star Destroyer was enough to make most planets stop functioning, he doubted Krant would be any different. This wasn’t Byss or Anaxes, it was an agri-world. Sven smiled at his wife, and then began to depart.

There was still quite a bit to do.

 

[Quietus]

La'Roche
Island City

An afternoon sun sat high above La'Roche, baking the tops of clustered buildings and the shoulders of its inhabitants. Quiet, much like the other cities of Krant and much like the system within the planet of Krant existed, an economy based on agriculture was not often want for excitement. Beyond that of power struggles claiming and diminishing over the years, it was the weather that fed the greatest drama of all. For what was a planet of agriculture if not for its lush greens? Famine was a terrifying prospect, perhaps the most terrifying next to pestilence.

A wind picked up the east, following the body of the river, bringing with it a distant echo of strange sound. A sudden pulse of energy followed, hitting the sternum like the shockwave of an explosion. The people certainly felt it. In the town square several even paused, looking around for the source of the sensation and the curious noise accompaniment. In the distance, upstream from the island city, the horizon grew dark.

Then they heard the birds. Distant first, their cries and caws climbing to a coarse ruckus, a cacophony so intense it could be heard across the lands.

Then they saw the cloud rising, shifting and moving and growing. Murmuring around a central dark mass.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

Sven now stood on the bridge of the Star Destroyer he and his wife had called their home for the past several years. His eyes set on the planet below them, his stance denoting one of command. He frowned slightly and half turned to face those on the bridge. "Are we ready?"

There was a slight pause, then one of the ensigns responded.

"Yes your Majesty."

He nodded. The Star Destroyer had long since stopped functioning at full capacity. Ordinarily a ship like this was crewed by sixty thousand crewmembers and carried an additional twenty thousand soldiers, Sable and Sven had about half of that. That didn't necessarily mean much, considering that the crew-members and the troopers could fill in for one another, but it did mean that they weren't at full strength. Ordinarily Sven wouldn't be worried about the conquest of a single world, not with a Star Destroyer, but age had made him somewhat...paranoid.

Everything had to go right here if this was to become their new home.

"Send the message." It would be a simple one, a demand of capitulation.

Sable would be doing her own work on the world below, a subtle, or perhaps not so subtle display of her own power. Hopefully, the Destroyers arrival along with whatever his wife had planned would be enough to convince the people of Krant that their time of self rule was at an end.

"Ready the troops." He told them. "We'll depart soon after."

 

[Quietus]

She arrived at LaRoche with a frenzied flurry of black wings. The miasma of birds murmured in along the treeline, their cries splitting the quiet city as a thousand thousand nails across a ceaseless chalkboard. A massive cloud reared skyward before plummeting down upon the city limits and filling the skyways with obsidian chaos.

Sable stepped in through the bedlam, black cloak trailing at her heels, avian rapture heralding her coming. Forward, decisive steps carried the Dreadlady into the city square with people fleeing the pestilence of her arrival. It was here that she came to a pause at the center of an otherwise lovely fountain garden. Blue eyes strayed across the scenery, pausing on the nearest pool of water and it's many fountain arches coming from various stone statues. She glanced upwards to the writhing cloud of birds and watched as several dozen dove out of the mass and straight into the water. The instant their bodies hit the surface they turned to a black, poisonous cloud that slowly saturated the waters and seeped into the stone.

A strange expression briefly took the Dreadlady's face. A smirk reminiscent of a young Knight Moridin in the throes of mischief. He had loved to uproot the system of balance and recreate his own. Sable turned from the fountain and stalked off towards the city hall.

The blackened skies filled with falling feathers which turned to a thick, poisonous rain. It drenched the city in an unrelenting corruptive storm.

[member="Sven Talith"]

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

The message had been sent, both by him and what now seemed like his wife.

Sven had never really been bothered by the force, by design he had been created that way. A powerful push of the force was a slight nudge. The touches of corruption were nothing, the tendrils of darknerss were as light veins. The force could not abide by him, as such when he saw the footage from the streets of the city he was unphased, eyes locked upon the screen.

Sable was getting what she wanted.

Krant would fall.

The outcome had been inevitable since the moment they found a use for this planet. Thousands would die, he knew that, but others would live, they would serve, and they would learn. He frowned slightly and stepped onto the troop carrier. Things were moving fast. By days end they would have this world, by weeks end they would be able to secure the entire system.

From there...from there they would decide upon their nexr step.

He had no idea what she would wish to do first, but in the long run such things truly didn't matter. They both knew where this would all end, and as their conquest of Krant began he couldnt help but think of it as just another small stepping stone.

 

[Quietus]

Hours turned to days turned to weeks. A shift slowly overtook Krant - dark waters seeping into the lands. Creatures grew more anxious, more aggressive. The inhabitants grew overcome with a strange malaise. Even the flora seemed to turn, to shift into something ungainly. Not spoilt, but simply of a lecherous variety.

The first of the followers arrived in the depths of the evening when the moon was high. Sable watched from the ramparts of the citadel walls as they walked along the banks of the river, torches and lumi-lamps in hand respectively. Some were smaller men, others were the hulking giants of Wookies and Bothans. At her whim the island awakened, it's cloak falling in reveal under the moonlight. Below she watched the waters churn as the bridge slowly reformed and then as the first of them moved for the crossing.

They didn't get far.

It became clear, after the last of them fell to virulent spurts of red darkside lightning bolts, that this location was not going to provide the base that she needed. None but herself and Sven had yet to step foot here and live.

Sable took to the main foyer, standing before the fountain and its statue simply staring in silence.

When Sven arrived she did briefly glance his direction before turning blue eyes back up to the carved woman of stone.

"The likeness is striking," Sable remarked quietly, "almost as if he really cared."

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

"Perhaps he did once." Sven said as he wandered down the corridor.

The bridge had claimed more of his men, something that annoyed him a great deal. They would have to find somewhere else to take up residence, at least sometimes, if they intended on staying here. It was all well and good to have this place to themselves, but if they could never have guests or see anyone...well it would make ruling from here rather difficult.

He moved up the grand hall, his eyes cast only towards his wife. There was no questions that a part of her was enthralled by the statues, and he understood why. Moridin had never been simple. His father had been complexity after complexity. Difficult to read and impossible to predict. Many had thought him mad, and by the end he very probably had been. Sven had never really tried to figure out the mans motivation, not the least because the one in this galaxy had not been the one to create him.

"Perhaps he always did." He finally stepped up alongside her. "There's no telling with him."

It was true.

Neither his Holocron nor his journals really ever recorded Moridin's feelings. Just rantings and ravings of his power, a look into his strengths and his crafts, but never truly into his mind.

 

[Quietus]

"Even now she watches me with disdain."

Sable blinked up at the statue. It had not crossed her mind that, perhaps, the look of disdain was simply the emotion chosen to carve by Moridin himself. Perhaps the woman had looking upon his care ... maybe even love, with the very same disdain. Sable knew so very little about her mother and perhaps that was part of her confusion, frustration, curiosity. As much as she wanted to destroy the statue and be rid of what it signified within her life - she also found herself wanting to keep it.

So still. So calm.

Quietus had been feverish with fury when last Sable had looked upon her. Here she was quiet, tranquil even. She felt as though she were getting to meet a side of the woman she was never allowed to see.

The Dreadlady released a long, slow breath and allowed her gaze to fall, "There is a temple in the mountains to the west. I have seen it in my visions. We must find it," she turned then to Sven and moved to casually straighten his tunic, "before we lose any more of your men."

A brow lofted at this and Sable met her husband's gaze, "This place does not wish to be found."

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

"Clearly." He said as he watched her with a slight smile. "I'll have the destroyer do a scan."

Sven doubted the other fortress was as hidden as this one.

"I doubt it's another one of his. Probably a remnant from when the Sith held Krant." Different Sith of course, not his father. Krant had at one time been a point of contention several times in its history. Why that was he didn't really know, as far as he could tell this planet was utterly devoid of anything at all that was interesting, besides a few Temples here and there. He frowned and let his hands slide onto his wifes hips, his lips pressing against her forehead.

The gesture would likely not be appreciated, but he did it anyway.

"We'll find it." He told her. "Then get a construction crew."

The latter was a bit of a joke, but he doubted that whatever Temple was within the mountain held the same prestige that this fortress did. More than likely they would find a ruin, something that would have to be rebuilt to their own stringent standards.

 

[Quietus]

"In the morning," Sable drew a hand along the side of Sven's face, brushing strands of dark black from his eyes. She studied him quietly, absent of prejudice or judgement. Sven was, so far as she could recall, the only other being she knew that she had ever felt equal to. Ever since His passing in the other realm, Sven was the only one capable to take his place. Even despite his condition within the Force - perhaps in spite of it.

He was so strong and able, yet at the same time so very vulnerable.

"You have worked tirelessly these past few weeks," and his skin had grown darker, golden like before, but still missing some hint of vibrancy. Something was indeed different about him though Sable could not quite figure out what.

"You should rest."

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

He considered the suggestion for a moment. Sleep did indeed sound good. Unlike Sable he could not draw energy from the force, and even though his physiology and training allowed him to push himself further than most, there was still a limit to what he could accomplish before he simply collapsed.

"Tell you what." Sven began. "I'll rest..."

They had been together for so long now, through good and bad, before and after the passing of his father. They both knew one another's limits. Sable likely could have lasted days more without a wink of sleep, but he knew that very soon things would become more and more chaotic. Opportunities for her to rest would be rare, and opportunities for them to do so together even more. He had to take advantage while he could, and now while they were here...

It seemed the time. "If you come with me."

The hands on her hips squeezed just slightly, his lips turning up into a smile.

 

[Quietus]

"As you wish," no moment of hesitation. Sable canted her head faintly to one side as she watched the man's smile form, her own lips showing the ghost of a twitch towards emotional expression. There was a smile on her face, too, somewhere within the stony facade that only Sven would be able to see. For only Sven saw the softer side of the Dreadlady. The human side, if there was one at all to see. She leaned up and pressed her lips to his while her hands slipped down to those resting on his hips, gauntlet metal pieces lacing in through his fingers.

Anything for him, anything at all.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Sable"]

He smiled at his wife, his fingers wrapping around hers.

Sven had absolutely no idea if this fortress had any bedrooms, nor did he know where any of them were, but it seemed rather counter-productive to go all the way back to the shuttle and then head up to the Star Destroyer just to get a bit of rest.

"Come on." He told her quietly. "Let's see if we can't find a bed in this damned place."

Tomorrow would see more exploration. The Temple in the hills was waiting for them somewhere, and Sable would have to strengthen her hold upon this world. The path was not an easy one, but at least, for once it was clear. They didn't have to lay in bed at night wondering when she would get her next vision, they didn't have to venture to world after world just to hope for a clue. They now knew where to go, they had their next step, and that...that was more comforting than anything they could have hoped for.

With a gentle squeeze of her palm Sven lead Sable away from the effigy of her mother, heading towards the one door they had yet to go through.

 

[Blackthorne]

The next day.

Late morning.

High up in the mountain slopes a shadowed figure passed through the greenery as slick and sleek as could be. It moved with purpose and silence, stalking the form of a local faun. After some time as the quarry moved out into the open, the shadowed figure paused within the bough of a mighty jungle tree. Arrow knocked and bow pulled, a slow released of breath and-

Ssssft.

Missed.

The faun skipped off through the underbrush, disappearing into the greenery with its tails flagging. Something had spooked it and it certainly had not been the shadowed figure, so skillfully hidden and quiet.

Dahl gave an impatient snort as she pulled her bow back over her head and cinched it across her chest. Livid green eyes peered down into the forest, following the sounds of footfalls and voices. Men were coming and they were getting dangerously close to her new hideout. With a scowl she dropped from the tree and scurried off back up the hillside. Best to hide their things and maybe, just maybe, they'll go away when all they discover are some old ruins.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Blackthorne"]

Sven never particularly liked Jungles very much. He could handle heat, he could handle foliage, but the two combined? Well they made for more than just an unpleasant afternoon. He frowned slightly as they moved through the jungle, another half dozen men having been taken from the Destroyer in order to aid him in this little expedition.

The ruins that Sable had seen were found in the mountains, a quick scanning showing their exact location.

He had wanted to take a ship up to them, but the dense jungle and the mountain winds had made it impossible to get any sort of craft close enough. Thus he’d taken a squad of men and begun the trek up towards the ruins. The idea was to clear a large enough landing space for a shuttle, and from there they could set themselves to the real work.

”Come on, lads.” Sven motioned to the men. ”Only a mile or so to go.”

One of the men laughed.

“You said that three miles ago.”

Sven grinned. ”Yeah but I mean it this time.”

 

[Blackthorne]

Her things were easily enough stowed away in a hollow of roots but the traces of having lived here for the last few weeks were not. Her makeshift lean-to would be the most difficult of all and, Dahl swore under her breath as she looked around for the best means of doing so, she was certain that the pelts and furs hanging out to dry were a dead giveaway as well.

Krant had become a cozy little haven for herself and her brother, [member="Greyhide"] when they needed an out of the way place to go to hunt and get their hands dirty. Neither of them were used to living in space - frankly, neither of them liked it. Yet the necessity of travel was undeniable given their current state of affairs.

After several minutes of staring at her home amidst the rubble and stone skeleton of the temple ruins Dahl found herself with a certain lack of means to accomplish this thing. This hiding thing. They'd never considered someone would come looking for the temple and yet, she looked back over her shoulder, here they were. Trudging up the hill in sweat-stained uniform.

So she did the next best thing that came to mind.

Dahl moved to high ground, drew her bow and nocked an arrow, pointing it straight at the first man to tromp into sight.

"Stop!" the girl snarled, green eyes flashing vehemently, "You're not welcome here! Leave or I'll skin you where you stand!"

Somehow she didn't think this was quite how her mother would have handled this, but you know - with age comes experience and ... tact.