Private A Place To Rest

[Matsu Xiangu]

The black sands stretched in front of and behind them, their heat oppressive and legendary. The silks they wore - Maenan in design and necessity - would protect their skin from the sunlight both from above and reflected off the earth’s surface. They had planned this carefully so as to avoid traveling in the height of the day, moving at night and setting up shelter as the sun rose. Travel over the Obsidian Sands was notoriously deadly, as there was a particular breed of wyvern that had learned ships were full of tasty sentient creatures to pull out and dine on. They worked in nasty groups to bring down ships regularly, so much so it had been deemed easier to risk speeders and a few days of travel than fly anywhere near the black desert.

She hadn’t braved this place since Belphaegor had died. Looking out at the sands he had loved more than anything brought her nothing but pain.

Tearing the bread in her hands apart, she popped a piece in her mouth and chewed slowly. She and Heca sat beneath the shade of a tent they’d erected in the early morning just as the sun was rising too high to bear. The shade itself was only mildly less dangerous, but it would prevent them dying of heat stroke and truly that was all that could be asked for in this place.

She knew she’d been absent in her mind since that day on Nal Hutta, only slowly coming back to herself and still so conflicted about what grew within her. She wasn’t sure what it had done to her relationship with her only apprentice, an already complex thing made thorny by a shared personal horror.

“I’m sorry,” she said suddenly as the shriek of desert crickets cascaded over the dune behind them. If she wasn’t so force-damn hot it might even have been peaceful. “For being preoccupied. I haven’t been myself,” she finished, stating the obvious in her discomfort.
​

Heca Foliou​

 

[Heca Foliou]

If there was anything she was right about, it was that there was much to learn under her wing.

With those lessons? Pain and hardships, countless tribulations that tested her constitution. Whatever broke within her was glued back together like a vase or a porcelain doll. Depreciated from its original value, but she still performed up to standards. She strayed away from the woman she was before meeting the Spider, turning more and more into that new persona she adopted when the Dark Side influenced her now deviant mind; however, it didn’t twist her and loosen every screw.

Though she wasn’t the only one that faced unforgiving hardships.

“It’s been too long ever since...well, you know,” following with a piece of bread chewed and swallowed. One thing to be grateful was there was just heat and not a sign of humidity. Even shade couldn’t resist against water vapors in the air.

“Nothing has been the same since that time. I didn’t think it would be possible to see you like that,” she held her in high regards, thinking that an entity like Matsu was immune to loss and breakdowns. A woman of her height, yet her name commanded respect and fear from others.

“Master? Why are we out here?” she was still a mess after the death in the family. Distraught and acted out in compulsion. Was this another one of those?

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Her metal fingers tapped against the container of water as she thought about Heca’s words. She knew to some she most likely appeared unhinged, though Maenans seemed to universally expect grand expressions of emotion both positive or negative to any event in life. Here, she was home. But to the galaxy at large of course she would seem incapable of controlling herself.

“Don’t the Sith believe in the power of anger? I think that’s reductive and small-minded - all emotions have power. To hide my suffering isn’t strength,” Matsu asserted. She talked about the Sith as if she wasn’t one, and maybe she wasn’t. It was certainly the closest thing, in a world that needed labels. But she wasn’t even 50 and she’d lived so many lifetimes. It all just seemed so small.

Two wyvern circled high overhead, their reptilian calls indicating some level of intelligence as they seemed to coordinate watching the surrounding skies for prey.

That she was pregnant was hardly a secret. The planet had known about it seemingly almost as soon as she had, rumors spreading like wildfire that Belphaegor would be Reborn, she like some mother to a god. Maenans so loved their wild religion. So of course, everyone in her circle knew almost immediately as well. Her feelings on it were complicated, hoping against hope that whatever she delivered might answer all the pain of the last months. But she knew she would deliver them an abomination, a great gout of her failure.

Still...she was driven to nest.

“When I give birth, it must be out here in the desert. Where Belphaegor was born the first time on this planet. We need to find somewhere safe, most likely within the mountains surrounding the northeastern portion of the sands. We should reach them tomorrow. On our way back, there is a stone in the center of the city of Kr’ylland. It has enormous power. Every civilization to develop on this planet has feared it greatly. It twists the mind, drives anyone who touches it mad - the weak-minded merely need to get close to it to feel its effects. Testing yourself against it would prove beneficial to resisting other mentalists.”

Heca Foliou ​

 

[Heca Foliou]

The night had come, the unforgiving heat subtly vanished as cool air greeted the two women. Walking on darkness with the only colors standing out was the dark blue sky with stars filling the in the void skies. Fascinating to her as she had yet to see all that her homeworld had to offer. Her world was more broadened ever since taking her vows as a Sith at Matsu's side, looking back on those memories was indeed strange to even think about. Whether it was destiny or fate, life sure had an interesting way in leading people paths they would never expect to trek on.

"Master...are you sure that I am ready to touch the stone when we come to it?"

Doubt was in her mind when she remembered the details Matsu gave about the stone. Heca could only mimic a fraction of Matsu's power, even after years dedicating her time to her teachings and refining her skills. She was yet far from being recognized as Matsu's equal with the Sith Knight believing herself to be her prodigy. Whether that was true or not would be seen, but her loyalty to the Spider? Unquestionable. Their ilk believed in betrayal and scheming against each other for power, yet that betrayed stability and order. A murderer she was, but a traitor? Far from it.

"Do you fear the stone?"

A question apprentices feared to ask to avoid punishment from their mentors, then again they weren't like their peers.

Whatever Matsu's question was, the pair arrived within sighting of the mountains they spoke of earlier in the day.

"Any natives we should know of?"

Matsu Xiangu​

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

“No one is ready to touch it,” she answered honestly. Despite her several decades of experience in controlling her own mind and those of others, the Stone that sat in the center of Kr’ylland was more ancient than almost anything in the galaxy besides the actual planets themselves. It had seen the beginning of time, more than likely. The power that flowed through it was unfathomable, perhaps chaos itself - beyond any of their ability to control it. “That being said, I consider you ready to handle the repercussions of doing so. Of pulling yourself out of its grip.”

The answer to Heca’s second question was more complicated, more rooted in the things Matsu did not like talking about.

“I’m not scared of the Stone, but I do…” She paused, preoccupying herself for a moment with looking back at where they had stashed the speeders as if that were necessary. Gathering her thoughts. “I do fear losing control of my mind because of it. What it will make me relive, what it will show me, what it will...learn about me. So much of my life has been about cultivating the power to make a fortress around my own thoughts and in a moment it destroys that. I haven’t met a being living or dead that can do the same. It is frightening. But also invaluable practice. We can’t assume someone that powerful doesn’t exist.”

And that was how she truly saw it...research. Horrible, painful research.

The mountains yawned over them in the darkness, jagged as if to cut the riotous blanket of stars above them. There were thousands of tunnels cutting in to these beasts, man-made and otherwise, over the millennia they had stood. Wyverns lived in some, cave-worms slithered in others, and surely creatures yet known to the outside world. And of course one could never underestimate a Maenan hellbent on exploring.

“You tell me,” Matsu said as they approached the mouth of a pitch-black tunnel. “Do you feel anything, anyone, nearby?”
​

Heca Foliou ​

 

[Heca Foliou]

Her spirits in her raised up at Matsu's words. How she thought Heca was capable of handling the repercussions from the stone. A Jedi would always receive praise from their mentor, even if they fell short from what was expected from them. To her as a Sith and as an individual craved for recognition from her mentor and peers that were equal to Matsu. It was a foundation of her pride, knowing that her progress pleased her Master. Akin to a child being rewarded by their parent.

"I find it hard to believe someone can overpower you, Master," she said frankly to her mentor. Matsu was the one that showed her what real power is. It wasn't based on how much money one has or the thousands of soldiers one is able to command, but the ability to compromise and influence one's mind. She felt it before, personally. To Heca, hell would finally freeze if there was someone more powerful than Matsu. Those of the defunct Sith Empire were leagues below the Spider, no matter how much power they claimed to be.

"I feel different lifeforms and...a conflict of auras. It is strange, it's all foreign to me."

To Heca, her mind immediately came to a mindset anything and anyone unfamiliar to her was a threat to her and Matsu. This wasn't as "civil" as the modern world of Maena that she was accustomed to. Traditions and cultures she could not sympathize with, either too primitive or radical to her style.

"I don't think whatever ounce of sentience there is will be too welcoming to us."

Already to assumptions based on her experience out in these wildlands, perhaps making her ignorant to what was beyond of them.

Matsu Xiangu​