Bending the Knees of Foreign Gods

[Sal Katarn]

[member="Darth Ayra"]

A figure in a tattered brown robe stood outside one of the many ziggurats upon Ziost and surveyed the icy tundra, interspersed by small clusters of dark forest. Another dead world, another legacy of the Sith's foolish ways. They carried such great power, such great knowledge, but sought only to use it for selfish gain. They thought themselves gods and in time they withered away, as all false gods do.

They continued to crop up, time and again. Always the same mistakes. Anaudius came here to teach the new generation a lesson in history. Fitting that he should do so upon the ice-covered, desiccated remains of their former empires. The New Order had aided the enemies of the Moross Crusade. The slight had not been forgotten, nor would it be forgiven. Anaudius came now for recompense, issuing a challenge to one of their number.

The frail, short man in a brown cloak looked to his right and headed in the direction of a grove of dark pines. Beneath the coniferous arbor little light shone. Good. Light held no place in this quarrel of the dark. The Sith looked at their shadows and thought them tall and strong, but they failed to remember the darkness from which they came. There's was only a causation of light, a reaction to the long ago split between Ashla and Bogan. They forgot the Void. They forgot the vast emptiness. They forgot the darker gods.

"Will we kill? Can I taste flesh? It has been so loooong," a voice whispered in his mind.

The masked, cloaked figure glanced at the obsidian cylinder in his hand. A bronze-hued dragon coiled around the hilt's length, its gaping jaws forming the emitter head. The eyes of the dragon seemed to glitter in the darkness of these tall trees.

"Yes," Anaudius replied to the Soulsaber. "We will kill."

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Anaudius"] |

Darth Ayra's presence on Ziost was simple in concept and hard in execution. The deceased Dark Lord of the Sith, [member="Darth Voracitos"], had made contact with her months ago, in an effort to gather her and several other surviving Sith, ranging from Knights to Masters, so that they could come together under the League of Red.

It would be on Ziost that the League's first scheme would begin and subsequently be executed. A plot in which the surviving Sith would pose as slaves to their new masters, the United Mandalorian Clans, who ruled the system currently. When the time was right, when the Mandalorians were deluded into a false sense of protection, the Sith would strike and Ziost would be usurped.

Currently, the Sith Lord was stood on a ridge overlooking an ancient Sith citadel. The cowl of her Sith robe was raised over the locks of blonde hair that was found there. Arms held within either sleeve across her lap, she was in search for signs of the League and if the scheme was still in the works. If not, then she would kill the Sith and Mandalorians who knew too much, so as to cover her tracks.

Then there was a sound and a disturbance...

 

[Sal Katarn]

Projected telepathy brushed against [member="Darth Ayra"]'s mind, sending an image of the dark pine grove, a slight tug in the Force, and a single word.

​

"Come." ​

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Anaudius"] |

The Sith Lord turned to the presence, closing her eyes to the voice. The Force told her danger was nearby. Her hand found the hilt of her Lightsaber, but not yet sending it into ignition. She walked forward and parted the brush of bushes and trees, towards the Sorcerer of Rhand. "Who are you?" she replied, through the Force towards he who called him Anaudius.

 

[Sal Katarn]

The short figure in his brown robes stood deep in the heart of the forest. Sparse light shone through the pines, leaving the needle-strewn floor in a hushed darkness. Whatever forest life still resided in this place fled at the coming of the Soulsaber's unnerving presence, a dark, sickly aura that induced headaches and nausea in any who came within reach of its fey presence.

A spell hung about him, obscuring his presence in the Force. He held no great power in the Force save a deep affinity for Sith Magic and mental arts, perhaps enhanced by Velok's anatomic meddlings.

Secure from the woman's searching eyes and hidden deep within the shadows of the trees, Anaudius titled his head to one side. "I?... I am He Who Listens. I am the hush before the Name. I am the servant and the tool; the shears which cut unraveling threads and bring yarns to an end. I am the scythe in the grip of a grim visage, robed by the bodies of tortured souls and wearing an unsmiling grin. I am the hand of time's decay, sent to balance the life of man. I am plague's blessed scourge, the boil and the sore. I am Ruiner of Flesh. I am Affliction."

Power roared from the Prophet as he utilized the ability of Force Affliction. Ayra's body would feel as though a fast-acting poison ran through her, not a physical poison that could be detoxified, but one brought on by the Force. The first stage would cloud her mind and slow her movements, the second would begin to shut down her organs until she finally expired.

At least, such was the intent of Anaudius.

[member="Darth Ayra"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Anaudius"] |

She lifted her hooded gaze to the sound of the voice. Her eyes focused on it's sound... and found nothing. The Force heightened her senses to the fact that she was in danger. There was murder in the air.

Snap-hiss.

A crimson light protruded into the dark expanse, illuminating it in a bath of red light. Sulfuric eyes moved around, looking for he who would challenge her power. A hand rose to lower the cowl of her Sith robe, revealing the locks of blonde hair; ivory, pale skin; and dark, predatory eyes. Then it hit her...

...She fell onto one knee as the affliction took her. Death was taking over her body. The fall would be next, into a bottomless expanse; the void itself claiming her...

The Force took over her body, to perform a Force Shield against the Force Affliction that was plaguing her. Her eyes closed and focused on the technique that the shield was now protecting her from; sensing out the Sorcerer who sought to end her.

 

[Sal Katarn]

The frail man's attacks were rebuffed. A Force Shield, interesting. Until now he'd thought the power a speciality among Jedi and other lightsiders only, not a tool for the Sith. Apparently, it could also stop non-manifested abilities as well. Strange. He'd always thought of the Plague-like abilities as being more of a mental effect, convincing the body it was sick. No matter. He ceased the Affliction as it no longer proved useful, focusing instead on continuing to conceal his presence.

He'd gained knowledge this day, praise Neth, but knowledge was not what he sought.

A lightsaber hummed in the darkness of the forest. Ayra's blade. Should it come to a contest of strength she would undoubtedly win out. Still feeding a trickle of energy into the concealment spell, the servant of Liad, Plague god of Moross, moved his fingers in an intricate pattern and cast an ancient Sith Magic upon Ayra's mind, summoning her fears. The nightmares which haunted her sleep would arise in seconds, manifesting themselves and seeming entirely real to her. No doubt enhanced by the eerie blackness of the forest.

No Force Shield could block them out, nor would any strength or rage avail her against the worst of her fears. If it acted as intended she would go into a seizure-like state and become progressively more insane as she battled apparitions that did not exist save in her mind. The longer the spell held the more hysteric she would become as her mind tore itself apart. If it lasted long enough she would enter a comatose.

One could be a master of the Force, but one could not master all aspects. For every strength there was a weakness. Anaudius knew his own failings... physical strength... open combat. His attacks at [member="Darth Ayra"] were like the prodding of a medical examiner, searching her out for a sign of sickness. Only no medical examiner would ever seek to do such horrifying harm.

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Anaudius"] |

The next attack: torment. First it had begun with disease. He was exploiting the weakness of the body; the fragility of it all. She sunk to both her knees, as the images came to life. Her eyes followed as her Sith Master, Darth Mendacium, came in for another beating; the death of her newest love, Pandeima; and death being brought onto her by an unknown, obscured Jedi.

Her Lightsaber fell out of her hand as the torment reached it's pitch. Before Anaudius, Ayra fell to her side, limp and still; sulfuric, predatory eyes contained by the slits of skin that were her eyelids, apparently dead to all of Ziost and the unknown foe that had forced such an event to occur.

 

[Sal Katarn]

Eyes narrowed to slits behind the mask. He had not thought defeating this woman would be such an easy task. The intelligence reports indicated the Sith to be powerful, full of strength and violence. No, he decided. He would not be fooled by a trick from the first page in a very old book.

Still concealing his presence in the Force, he continued to apply the spell of Summon Fear against the woman's mind. Even unconscious the mind could still suffer. The longer the spell lasted, the surer he would be of sending her into a true comatose. He would keep it up yet for another several minutes. No doubt the seizures would start to wrack her body soon as true insanity gripped her. In the throes of hysteria all rational thought would fade, leaving her devoid of strategic thinking and thereby unable to counter his actions.

Anaudius come out from the heart of the forest, nor did he move. He stood in the deepest, most concealing shadows, and behind the protecting bark of solid pines. Safe in the dark.

No, he did not think he would be fooled by this ruse.

[member="Darth Ayra"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Anaudius"] |

Her hands wanted to move to her head. The finger tips, gripping down onto the cranium to produce a physical pain that would divert her feeling away from the suffering that was currently tormenting her. But she was still, quiet. Anaudius's analysis of her fall was on the mark. It had been a ruse, one he had not fallen for. The Dark side was with him, to the facade of the Sith.

But perhaps, not it's power.

She found him. He was nearby, tucked in the shadows. Establishing a mentalists link with another mind formed a temporary bond between tormentor and victim. This way, the tormentor felt the pain and subsequently fed off it, whilst the victim had a continuous assault established on their mind. Through the torments of seeing Mendacium beat; Pandeima's death; and her own brought about by the people she hated most, Ayra had established a Force Sense, which had now found Anaudius.

The Force was with her as she launched herself up from the ground. Here, Anaudius would see the violence and strength behind the Sith Lord that he had been sent to destroy. Her Lightsaber flew to her hand, just as she crashed through the vision of Mendacium. As the images began to swarm in, thus bringing her to the brink of the torment established, the Lightsaber span into ignition and was thus vaulted at her hand with a precise and yet powerful, Force aided throw towards the Sorcerer.

Perhaps he would dodge, perhaps he would erect some form of protection to defend the attack. Alas, the reason behind the throw would be established. Concentration would be broken and the link between tormentor and victim would be broken. Ayra was onto this man now, whoever he was. He didn't want to fight up close. She knew how to defeat this man.

All that she had to do was stop him using the darkness to conceal himself from her...

...and then they would find themselves in a role reversal.​

 

[Sal Katarn]

Or perhaps he would merely stand behind the tree he had originally stated to have been hiding behind and watch as the length of plasma shore through the trunk and spun off into the distance. The pine fell with a tremendous groan that rattled through the forest.

Interesting.

Sith Magic, unfortunately, did not operate according to the principles previously described. There was no bond between the two. He did not relish in her suffering or gain any strength from it. It was a spell, conjured and cast. Even if she was correct and some semblance of a bond connected the two of them, it would not matter. His second spell of conceal presence, which had been in use for some time now, served to hide his location in the Force and would do so regardless of the spells he threw at her, much like a Taozin amulet.

In any case, somehow she had managed to not only fight through the manifestations that assaulted her mind, but ignore them, locate his own presence, trace it back to the origin, and semi-accurately hurl a lightsaber at him. Impressive, albeit a phenomenon.

No matter.

The follower or Liad ceased his attack on her mind, instead electing to cast a different spell. He utilized Tund Illusion sorcery to disguise himself from sight and sound, capable of fooling both organic and mechanical eyes. Coupled with the spell of conceal presence he was now invisible in both the Force and in the physical realm.

Anaudius relocated himself, moving with swift, purposeful steps further into the forest and away from his original location.

[member="Darth Ayra"]

 

[Darth Ayra]

| [member="Anaudius"] |

Ayra's hand swung out and caught the Lightsaber as it flew itself back around towards her outstretched hand. Perhaps it was the understanding of this writer, but he thought that to maintain a Sith spell, one needed utmost concentration on the technique to keep it alive. As someone who writes a character who performs similar techniques, maybe it was just different standards between one site or the other. No matter, they would continue their 'duel' or to be more accurate, a one sided affair.

She too concealed her presence through a Force Cloak and forced her body to move, until she found her own position in the trees to slump down and find a moment to clear her thoughts and compose herself.

 

[Sal Katarn]

The simple servant of Liad tilted his head to one side as he felt [member="Darth Ayra"]'s presence vanish. Interesting. He seated himself, cross-legged, on the forest floor and concentrated on maintaining the spells of conceal presence and the illusion of invisibility.

Then he waited.