An Echoing Call

[Karliah]

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Karliah

---

Merian's Home for Unique and Special Children
Coruscant

The girl had spent three years in this god forsaken place. When many took their first look at Merian's Home for Unique and Special Children they would swear it was abandon. Though, little did they know, it was inhabited. Run by one of the cruelest women in the galaxy, at least in the minds of the children trapped there, the building crumbled without a care from any of the outside world. After all, everyone left there was unwanted, whether they had birth defects, physical disability, or even were just a burden on their families.

The halls ran with streams or water, the paint peeled from the walls, and the stench of the place was enough to send even swine running for the hills. The orphanage had a general feeling of despair and loss crawling about it. Until one traveled further in. That's when things became dark.

--

A feeling had driven Darth Imperia to this building, something pulled at her sensitivity in the force, drawing the powerful woman to something comparably as dark and twisted. The signature it gave was enough to drag her along, whatever it was had to be worth the small expedition to Coruscant.

With each step she took further and further down the halls, the feeling grew stronger, the despair fled and was replaced with an aura of restrained anger. Things shifted in the shadows, other children fled and avoided these depths, not even the ragged and barely alive cat would walk this far. All of this, was centered at the entrance to a closed room, and a black door.

 

[Darth Imperia]

Imperia glanced at the children skittering about as she walked through the halls, but didn't really pay attention to them - she wasn't here for them, and they posed no more threat than the old hag whom the Lady had left blank-eyed and staring at the wall. But these younglings had nothing to fear from her; unlike their caretaker, they had the good sense to stay out of her way and let her concentrate.

Slowly the woman made her way towards the source of the Calling, heels click-clacking in the silence that had overtaken this wing of the orphanage. Whatever was here was powerful (not as powerful as Imperia, of course, although the potential was there), but unrefined. It would need to be cultivated, trimmed, streamlined. Or, failing all of that, destroyed before it became more trouble than it was worth.

With one hand on her lightsaber, Imperia pushed open the Black Door.

Huh.

She'd been expecting something bigger. And with more spikes.

--

[member="Karliah"]

 

[Karliah]

The door opened to the sound of creaking, only to be stopped part way by some unknown force. Whatever was in here must have hated loud noise, because the world outside of this room was closed off entirely.

Laid out before Imperia was a huge room by comparison to the rest of the orphanage, high ceilings, a humongous yet destroyed bed, long draping curtains torn and ruined. This had likely been the mistress of the houses room before what ever it was took root here. The aura filling the room was twisted, dark, crushing, at least for anyone not attuned to the dark side of the force, and once that final step in had been taken, the door slammed behind Imperia, and locked.

"Why are you here." The voice echoed from a further door on the other side of the room. It was, childlike, yes, though the sound of it was distant, almost like it resonated, a deeper tone than it actually was.

"You aren't like the others."

[member="Darth Imperia"]

 

[Darth Imperia]

A child? Or something, at least, that could make itself sound like a child. Imperia had to admit, she was a bit disappointed; she'd been hoping for some deranged, semi-sapient sithspawn, something she could easily control. And while you could make the case that children were both deranged and semi-sapient, they were most certainly not easy to control.

But voice amplification? That was lazy, even for a child. Something this powerful should, at the very least, be practicing rudimentary telepathy.

You will find, Imperia began, broadcasting her mental message to the presence in the next room over, That I am unlike most people. As, I suspect, are you. The young Lady strolled across the room, seemingly unaffected by the growing darkness and the boiling, barely restrained hostility that grew closer with every step she took.

Now, come on out. I want to see what I traveled all this way to find.

--

[member="Karliah"]

 

[Karliah]

Why would you come to a place like this prison. The girl responded back with ease in an outreach, the presence growing angrier and darker as the word prison was mentioned.

The image of icy blue eyes peered into Imperia's for a moment before the door before her opened slightly to a cold room further on.

As she stepped in she would notice the curtain around another smaller yet equally extravagant bed was pulled to the side against the rails and posts, and sitting on top of the blankets was a girl. Flicking through a book of what seemed like non sense scribbles, or if one looked closely, a carefully written code, the lithe ghostly looking child studied the scripture intently.

As Imperia came to a stop the blue eyes adjusted their attention to her, a deep absorbing blue that shimmered darkly. The aura off the girl was definitely one of unloved foster child, though this was more, violent, twisted, malevolent. The abandonment, along with an ingrained ability, had changed this child.

Why would you come here to find me.

[member="Darth Imperia"]

 

[Darth Imperia]

Imperia smiled as she strolled into the chilly room, black eyes flecked with amber and fixed on the young girl - or, more specifically, on the swirling eddies and currents of darkness that surrounded her in the Force. Hatred. Anger. Fear. And there, in the center of the storm, beating like a withered and blackened heart, was loneliness. Not pitiful, sad loneliness - no, this girl was bitter beyond her years, and there was no room for sadness in her heart - but loneliness all the same.

"Because, child," Imperia began, her voice just as sweet in person as it was via telepathy, "like the name of this place suggests, you are special. Not quite unique, but close enough." The Lady continued her approach, crimson lightning crackling in her footsteps. It never hurt to show off, after all. "You have a gift. The minds of those around you are yours to shape. The very laws of reality bend to your will. You are divinity, and I could hear your soul call out to mine from the edge of the Galaxy."

Imperia stopped at the edge of the bed, her hand outstretched and upturned towards the girl.

"Come with me, child, and I will make you into a goddess."

--

[member="Karliah"]

 

[Karliah]

Karliah's eyes began to glow their bright blue for but a moment, as they did, Imperia felt the strong pull on the air around her. Several books, various notes and scribbles, writing utensils and anything else that seemed important to the girl quickly fly to the bed and into a bag. Along with these came a few clean robes, and while she stood to take Imperia's hand, the bag flew to her back.

"A goddess." The girl smiled ever so slightly. In her mind, she deserved this after everything they had all done to her. They would all pay.

Under her arm rested the book she had before her, the book itself even having some feel of power to it, whatever it may have been certainly shouldn't have been in the paws of a child.

[member="Darth Imperia"]

 

[Darth Imperia]

Imperia offered a smile to match the girl's, taking note of both the child's seemingly casual use of telekinesis - impressive for her age - and the book held against her body. She'd have to ask about that later, but for now, there was no reason to potentially upset the child by asking her to part with the tome.

"A Goddess, yes. Worshiped and adored - and feared, of course." Imperia's smile fell, then, and her expression turned serious. "It won't be easy, you realize. You have power, that much is clear, but I've seen far too many with our gift squander it before. I will not tolerate laziness or complacency, nor will I tolerate irreverence. I am taking you under my wing and teaching you to bend the very Galaxy to your whims. In return, I demand respect, obedience, and deference. Is that understood?"

--

[member="Karliah"]

 

[Karliah]

The girl nodded curtly, clutching her book to her chest.

"Yes Ma'am." Her blue eyes stared into Imperia's, the understanding clear on her face. Don't mess up.

The rest of the room finished closing itself off as the girl started walking to the door. Not much was left in the place she was imprisoned for so long, though while leaving would be one step towards her freedom, going with Imperia would be another form of it.

There was also the pull in the back of her mind, Grandfather won't be happy. With a shake of her head, she looked back and waited for the woman to follow, or to take the lead.

[member="Darth Imperia"]