Academic Research [OPEN]

[Shae'an Vai Li]

For once, Shae had not bothered with her usual precautions. The amulet of concealment was tucked away in a pouch, more to keep it hidden from would-be thieves than anything. Her lightsaber was hung on a loop from her belt, proudly proclaiming her legacy. Only the crystal still remained hidden, though she still couldn't really say why, only that it felt as if it should still not be seen. There were no lies to customs officials, nor even many words exchanged at all. She was simply as Sith returning to Ziost, a process apparently as natural as the passing of the sun (on planets that had regularly solar cycles).

There were perks to working within the system after all. Had not her time spent serving the One Sith proven that? And yet she still felt little need to align formally with the Resurgent Empire, as they called themselves, and their castes and order and structure. But the artifacts and fragments of lore she had collected had led her here nonetheless, even as the presence had fallen silent. Fragmented sentences written in kittât hinted of a ritual, but what exactly it was, or what it did, and what the exact steps were?

All that remained a mystery. A mystery that could be unlocked if one could only find the right information.

Rather than risk drawing undue attention to herself by heading straight to the main temple complex and trying to get access to the archives there, Shae had found a third-rate facility outside the capital. A former ancient Imperial Reclamation Service storage center, it had been converted into a library and research center after Ziost was rediscovered. With a lightsaber and obvious connection the force to establish her as Sith, it was simple enough to gain access.

Unfortunately a lack security and structure meant it was also largely unsorted, just masses of records, data slates, artifacts, even old books stashed together based on loose categorization. Had Shae been an actual academic she would not doubt have been furious at the shameful state of the archives, but as it was it suited her purposes just fine. All the more likely nobody would take notice.

It did mean she was likely to be here a while, though.

 

[Shae'an Vai Li]

Though she could put on a fairly credible front and act the part with ease, Shae had very little formal education. Most of what she knew had been learned the hard way, by failure, repetition, or rote memorization. Then there was a small amount of proper schooling on Wayland and later with the One Sith on Coruscant. This was backed up by a rather significant amount of reading, which really could take you pretty far, all things considered. Lastly there were the memories and knowledge she had managed to rip from the heads of other, more educated individuals.

Her biggest catch by far had been a Naboo-sponsored scholar doing research on old Sith in some backwater planet she'd forgotten the name of. She had flensed his mind quite thoroughly, a process that had taken several weeks and was exhausting for her and ultimately fatal for the subject. But ultimately it had been a rewarding and eye-opening experience, and she'd adopted the trappings of a Naboo student as her normal disguise.

The biggest revelation was that access to the force was both a very variable factor, and one that could be changed given sufficient training, power, or by utilizing some other more unusual method. It was the precisely this last option that Shae now pursued, digging through old records in search of a clue in the right direction.

She had uncovered on one expedition a bibliography of sorts. It wasn't a book of rituals itself, but rather a listing of volumes of lore. Most she had never heard of, more than likely they were lost to time, but a few were relatively well-known (among the Sith) and allowed her to figure out which Sith Lords were featured in the list. From there she had been able to figure out roughly how the list was organized, and eventually by working backwards and sideways through various bits of connected information she was able to narrow things down to a small list of volumes that were probably what she was looking for.

And now on Ziost she was doing basically the same thing, but this time with physical (and digital) copies rather than simply a list of titles. It was tiresome and frustrating, but you never got anywhere without effort, that the Sith knew more than most.