Success or Death.
Two there shall be, and only two:
A master and an apprentice; one to embody the power and one to crave it.
no less.
And yet, you seek to bring to knighthood a second one? Have you forsaken your apprentice? Or has he strayed from your path so that you require another?
The voices asked of her in ghostly choir. Yet Darth Ophidia did not balk at the accusation of the Court. In many ways
Darth Strosius
reminded her of her own master, with his impertinence, his red temper, and his zealous ideals. He would be a fine Sith."Jar'kai - It is needed for what is to come to pass. They will need each other when I am gone."
The court murmured in displeasure, but appeared to accept the claim.
"You will test them when the time comes and see why it must be so."
Malum of House Marr, an heir to a proud name.
She had never believed in the weight of names, only deeds. Names carried with them chains; they were a bondage to the ghosts of the past. This was exactly why she had to be the one to teach him. She had not pampered him. She had not spared his blood because it was noble. She had not allowed him to use his name as an excuse for weakness. She respected no name but the names that carved themselves into the universe by their own force and merit. Her apprentice had been tempted by trinkets said to be left from his ancestors once before.
He spoke of a legacy of duty.
The question of where his duties lie, and whether or not he would be strong enough to carry them out would be a question that hounded him for the rest of his career. So she would pound into his mind the only duty that mattered: A duty to the legacy of the Sith, to the Order, to the Code and their Creed.
Today, he would do his duty again.
She awaited her apprentice in this desolate place far from the comforts of home or the hallowed halls of their peers.
A red sun dawned behind the jagged peaks in the distance, colouring the fresh snow with a promise of what to come.
Darth Malum of House Marr