Depths of Silence

[Elensa Jari]

[member="Ignus"]​

​

Her thoughts indeed echoed his: such a line of reasoning was radical at best. Among the Sith, failure was not something to be met with sympathy or understanding, because it indicated, at best, a lack of competency. One's inability to do a task they had been set invariably pointed to a lack of resourcefulness, of the absence mental fortitude, or the simple inability to prove oneself equal to what lay before them. True, everyone suffered setbacks from time-to-time, that was normal, but it was never something to be complacent about. The one who pauses to consider failure as a stopping point is one who will invariably be stopped, permanently.

This reformation he spoke of...there were whispers of heresy in that statement, a sense of opposing the accepted creed of the Sith in order to change it into something different. Would that be so wrong? Truth be told, she didn't know for certain, and that scared her more thoroughly than anything this one could do to her. Is he then outcast from the others, hiding here because of the consequences that might be visited upon him were he to encounter other Sith? Was she endangering herself merely by listening to him?

"Changes are dangerous, if you're not sure what you're changing into," she uttered telepathically, not entirely sure if she was speaking of herself or of this dangerous reformation he was referring to. The Sith ever endeavoured to embrace change: to them, it was fundamental that they do so, for otherwise one became stagnant, lost. And yet too much change is dangerous. Where would the line be drawn? "You must be confident that you can mould those changes into something useful."

There was some irony, in one part of her mind, that this was the longest conversation she'd had in years: they tended to be far more one-sided, in her experience. Others would talk, she would listen, they would move on when met by her silence. Does make awkward conversations simpler, to let them talk themselves out and then go. As much as she hated ever being unable to express herself the way she had once taken for granted, there was a simplicity in this. The more they talked...well, she was struggling with that much. He's quite demanding in that regard.

"I don't know what you need to know," her mind responded softly, projecting her words outwards along that crude, intrusive connection that the other Sith had formed between them. "My training has always been a little rough around the edges, so perhaps you would judge it crude or lacking." She offered a slightly shrug of her shoulders to indicate what she thought of that, continuing to kneel before the two pets her fellow Sith had with him, though she had withdrawn her hand and replaced her veil appropriately. "And you evidently find fault with the ways of the Sith, if you wish to change them, so what I know might not suit your vision."

That much, she was sure, he could at least correct - though it would be a delicate thing, to be wary of heresy.

 

[Figure In White]

"That's why changes are calculated. Hence why I haven't exactly gone public with the Reformation."

She was doubting. Not that he expected anything less under the circumstances. He hadn't made any major plays within the Sith as of yet, except for the few times he challenged the authority of the Lord's as a Knight. Those had been calculated risks based on the facts at the time, and how much smarter it was to do what he suggested than it was to keep doing what the Lord's were doing. Suffice to say, his efforts had been successful. And since that time? Well, he'd risen to become a Lord himself, further grown his company to the point where he can now produce vessels of substantial warring capacity, and he'd established a Reformation base on the planet of Surron.

"I'm confident that if changes aren't made, the Jedi will eventually band together and wipe us out like they did in ages past. The current breed of Sith are aimless, pompous beings who strive more for personal glory and conquest of the opposite sex than they do for conquest of the Force itself. They'll be their own undoing, just as was seen when the One Sith disbanded."

Of course she was a bit loathe to tell him what she knew. Naturally if she knew little then he was going to judge her training as lacking. That was the case for anyone though. It mattered little to him what she'd already been taught. What mattered to him was that she had been at least taught to feel the Force. If she hadn't been taught that then he was going to have to start at the beginning with her which was going to exacerbate things extensively. Given her response, however, he was of a mind to believe that she had already learned to touch the Force, she just hadn't gotten very far into that learning so as to develop beyond the beginning realm of knowledge. That wasn't uncommon among Sith apprentices who'd had previous master's. Especially of late. Another shortcoming of theirs.

The reason he was asking what she knew, however, lay more in the fact that he wanted to see what she'd strove to learn. If it was just the basics then he would have nothing to go on. But if she'd learned things outside of the norm, then he would know the right direction to point her in. But that may be hard to do given her answer. Still, there were other ways to get the knowledge that he needed in order to push her in the right direction. There was never only one answer to a problem; he refused to accept otherwise. He knew of another way to get to where he needed to be with her.

"Well, that being the case, why don't you tell me more about yourself. Your upbringing, your dreams, what you wanted to be as a child, what you wanted to be as you grew older. Spare no details. I will listen intently."

[member="Elensa Jari"]

 

[Elensa Jari]

| [member="Ignus"] |​

​

Listen intently? No, you won't, Elensa thought flatly, though careful not to project that thought along the lines of communication that the other Sith had opened up between them. Once, when she had been able to speak, verbalise her thoughts in that carefully-elocuted Hapan accent that had been lost along with the rest of her speech, then it would have been possible for him to listen. Now? What he asked required elocution of a different sort, a more eloquent means of conveying information which bypassed the lies that might be offered by the spoken word.

The blonde stood, taking a step to close the gap between them, bypassing the two creatures that she had now introduced herself to. Another step brought him into close proximity, a place ever uncomfortable for her, for she had rarely liked others to be in contact, but what he had asked now demanded it. Reaching out, her hand crossing the gap between them, she slid pale skin to touch that olive-green face that had earlier been concealed by a helmet. His skin felt cool to the touch, oddly contrasting with the fiery-orange of his eyes, but that moment of contact was all she needed to send her thoughts sliding into his.

He was the one skilled in illusions, of conveying a scene so that it might fool the eyes, but she had inadvertantly learned the ability to project memories into the mind of anyone she was in physical contact with, something she had learned in a moment of crisis, when Sage had pressed her closely and sought her life. At first it had been an uncontrolled jumble of emotions and recollections, but she had carefully refined the technique over time, and used it now.

At first her mind took her to a elegantly-appointed room with thick carpets, tapestries on the walls, expensive heavy wooden furniture carefully placed, warm and rigid in contrast to the plush Nerf-Hide chairs upon which the room's occupants sat. Their attire was similar to that which she now wore: somber dresses of elegant design, laced and comfortable, semi-translucent veils covering their heads, though pushed back to reveal their faces. One older woman, two younger relaxed within, working on a musical instrument of wood and strings, utterly ignoring the men who stood at several points in the room, wearing black-and-purple house uniforms, stun batons at their belts.

The scene shifted, and those same women now stood, the room the same as before but for a few small objects arrayed differently, and more guards in the room: two flanking the women, several more beside and behind the two visitors, who were dressed in homespun garb of far less impressive cut, standing tall and speaking animatedly, hands moving in expressive gestures in comparison to the stillness of the women they addressed. An agreement was evidently being struck between them, for the elder woman - the family matriarch, but Mother to Elensa's thoughts - was nodding in accord.

Later, Elensa herself walking behind the Jedi, a small suitcase floating beside her, conveyed by repulsorlift as she went with those brown-robed figures, heading away from her home. She remembered silent tears floating down her cheeks, felt the damp coldness of them, but her composure remained as was expected of her, those feelings carefully concealed by the veil that covered her face and left it a private experience. She remembered being aboard a cramped starship - a shuttle, as she later understood it - the Jedi talking softly with her, but her mind clearly being elsewhere, ignoring them, feeling the need for a silence she had never needed before.

Time jumped forward, and the next scene flowed in, seen from a different perspective than before, having gained several inches of height that made everything that little less imposing. She, too, was wearing those itchy homespun robes preferred by her brethren, a lightsaber resting heavily at her hip. She was having an argument with another student of her age - a male, blonde haired, blue haired, brows contracted in an angry scowl. Angry gestures exchanged between them, then blows, the male daring to lay hands on her, which made her hit all the harder. Then others intervening, separating the two of them. Not the first argument, nor the last. There had been many, flashes of them interrupting the memory flow as she offered it up to the Sith.

An imposing man - pale hair fading slowly to a more distinguished grey, robes of a cooler colour than the traditional Jedi - stepped into the picture next. He spoke gently, understanding, far less severe in tone than the reprimands of the other teachers that she had put up with. He spoke of the need to overcome her prejudices, of the way that mind and body were but distractions, something that she needed to learn to see past, to know what a person was at their core. He continued to appear in further scenes as they moved: teaching her to move an object without touching it; the two of them sitting in calm repose in Temple gardens; the strong agile motions he made when striking out at her with a brilliant green-white lightsaber.

Finally, him as she last remembered him: walking alongside her, both dressed in more formal attire than before, accompanying a group of tall women and their escorts, back home. They were talking calmly, drawing out her own recollections of being home. A sense of imminent danger caused them both to pause, one looking at the other for reassurance, the other having little to give. The suddenness with which the large orange-white explosion blossomed out of nowhere. Marble shattering, bodies blown around, the suddenness of sharp impact and pain that surged through her before vanishing altogether, consciousness lapsing. Then waking, finding a mangled corpse nearby, covered in blood, dead before she could reach him, feelings of loss, frustration and anger surging through her.

The young woman withdrew her hand, dropping it to her side, taking a step back that she might better gauge how the influx of memories had been accepted by her would-be teacher. Now he had met the one who had taught her before...this. The one that had abandoned her to her own fate, and left her among those that had been his enemies. Now you know, she thought simply. Whether it would answer his questions, she couldn't say, but it was the best she had to offer for now.

 

[Figure In White]

He hadn't been expecting it. To be fair, he thought she would just tell him. While technically it wasn't listening in the audible sense of the word, he would have listened as she related the events of her past to his mind via the link between them. By loose definitions that also counted as listening. Strictly speaking, hearing and listening weren't necessarily the same thing. But in the end it didn't matter because she apparently had a plan on her own to unfurl upon him. This was what he hadn't anticipated. There was no way he could have.

Her hand was surprisingly warm, but the sensation didn't last long as his mind was suddenly thrust into a whirlwind tour of her past. Not all of it, to be sure, but enough of it that his head was spinning rather quickly. A stop here, a stop there, and everywhere they went there was a new trial or tribulation for her. Never a dull moment in her life, it would seem. One unfortunate situation after another all culminating from what appeared to be her mother sending her off to be with the Jedi. Well, he knew what that was like. His youngest brother had been that way thanks to his own parents.

What he hadn't expected to learn from this was that she had been a Jedi. It wasn't uncommon for them to become disenfranchised with the order, especially given that they were always taught one thing, but saw their elders doing something else. To come to the Sith from the light had been a natural course for thousands of years. For her, though, at least from what he could tell, she hadn't slipped so far into the darkness as to lose her mental faculties. That was good.

When she withdrew her hand, he lifted his to touch his head for a moment. The connection had quickly become somewhat intoxicating. Not only had he seen what she had gone through, but he could feel how she felt when she was going through them. That was something he'd never experienced before.

"I don't understand why he hesitated. Clearly he knew something was going to happen. Why didn't he act?"

Probably not the first thing she would have e,petted him to say. Focusing on her Master had become something of an easy thing towards the end of what she'd shown him. Instead of just viewing what had befallen her, his mind was trying to analyze the situation and determine what went wrong. The logical conclusion was that since he was a Jedi he was likely an idiot deep down, but the logical conclusion was only logical because he was a Sith. Therefore he rejected that conclusion entirely. Regardless, he turned his gaze up to her again and pondered for a moment before speaking.

"That capability is reminiscent of an empathy. More to the point it's transference. I've never known anyone capable of doing that. I suspect that your skill set will lend itself more towards the realm of the mind. Not in the way mine does, but similar. When did you first learn you could do this?

[member="Elensa Jari"]

 

[Elensa Jari]

| [member="Ignus"] |​

​

He was right, of course: her Master had sensed something, and yet done nothing. Several times, she had asked herself why this should be so, why someone so carefully trained in the sensitive nature of sensory abilities should miss so obvious a threat, but in truth, that spoke little to the chaos that had followed. To know that there is a threat does little to tell you what that threat might be. Such rationality did not mean that she could forgive him that failure, though: ultimately, in his weakness, he had deprived her both of a teacher and of her ability to communicate with one. Such lapses were alone sufficient to prove that the Jedi had never had what it took to do what needed to be done.

As to his second question...truth be told, Elensa didn't know how it was she could do what she did in transferring memories. It was obviously a telepathic ability of a sort, but it had ever required physical contact, breaking the natural barrier between minds that existed at the level of the skin, and was not simply a connection of minds in the way that the Mirialan had established between them. It was something more primal, or so she felt, the product of emotional tension and the underlying rage which lay beneath the outward sorrow at her default.

Her shoulders slumped, and she reached for him once more, pale skin brushing his cheek with all the affection of a carress against cold stone, but sufficient for her mind to reach out and share the memory that flashed before her eyes, a recollection that carried remembered pain and anguish, less than that of the moment when she had been robbed of her voice and her identity, but enough to make the sharpness of it clear between the both of them.

A murky alley appeared, thick with dark smog and the dirty light provided by badly-lit glowglobes. Adrenaline flowed, her breath released quickly, anxiety striking at her mind. Her blue lightsaber was held before her, moving rapidly in counterpart to the blood-red weapon of her opponent. A male, young with long brown hair that framed a face that might have even been gentle, but for the grimace of concentration and released fury that he was directing her way. The taunting of his voice as they struck at each other, each exchange, the way he threatened to drink her blood, intimidating in the sadistic lethality he offered.

Her perspective changed suddenly as her legs went out from under her, tangled up in her skirts as the young man kicked out, sweeping her legs with a powerful strike, knocking her to the floor, all breath exhaled from her lungs as she struck the hard duracrete beneath her, pain firing up her spine and dazing her. Snarled words demanding her surrender - her submission. The simple threat of death if she disappointed him in this. He wanted her pain, wanted her agony, wanted to know that he was the cause of the hurt that assailed her.

And so she offered it to him.

They'd had no way to communicate during their battle: his telepathic taunts had established no bond between them, and the flickering of her fingers that served as her sign language had meant nothing to him. Flat on the floor, winded, vulnerable, her lightsaber having clattered away from her as she had struck the hard ground, she was at his mercy. He straddled her, hands at her throat, ready to squeeze the life from her if she did not give him what he wanted. And so she had: the firm grasp of his fingers at her throat had given her all the contact she needed to bypass his mental barriers and make him see.

The blonde had shared memories not dissimilar to the ones she had projected into the mind of the Mirialan, but these weighted more towards the pain she felt, the simple agony of being trapped inside her own body with little ability to express herself, robbed of what had been her destiny, her life stolen from her in one moment. If she was to die, she wanted him to understand what it was he was destroying: a broken thing, damaged further by his assault. And then darkness, as he squeezed consciousness away from her, his fingers clamping down on her to suffocate her, render her inert. The darkness closed in and robbed her of memory from that point forward.

That was all the Sith needed to see of that moment, Elensa felt, lowering her hand once more, staring at him with a curious expression, though knowing it would be mostly concealed behind the veil she wore. To share like that was an intimate experience, one learned from a time of need, when it was all that stood between her and the death that had been so casually offered. Sith treat crisis and opportunity as one and the same, she thought inwardly, and thus it had been that she had inadvertantly recognised a strength of her own, even if she had but the last few moments of her life in which to marvel at it. Sage had not murdered her, for all that, and so she had been left with something to puzzle over.

"A weapon of necessity," her voice intoned in Ignus' mind, speaking into the silence that had extended between them as she shared her memory. "He demanded my surrender, but I gave him more than he asked for. And he gave me something in turn." She shrugged at that. They'd left their scars on each other, but she had made sure that Sage had shared hers thereafter.

 

[Figure In White]

In answer to his question she did it again. How was he supposed to recover from all of this so quickly? He didn't really have a chance to think about it right then and there as she pushed her memories of the past, facing a young a man he didn't know in combat, deep into his mind again. He could feel her emotion as if it were his own. Everything about it screamed at him that he should push her away and reject what she was doing to him for the simple purpose of preserving his own mind from the ravages of what she was doing. But he rejected that notion because it would ultimately serve to strengthen his bond with her if he knew what she had gone through in her past better than anyone else could.

So he saw everything and he understood. Her ability had manifested when she was defending herself. Often this was how people found out they could even use the Force in the first place. But to find this out in such a dire circumstance had to be traumatizing. Why the boy she'd been fighting had allowed her to live he wasn't certain, but clearly he'd either seen what she was to become, or he'd had so much of what she'd shown him that he couldn't bring himself to go through with killing her. Regardless, she was not dead, and she was thoroughly wrapping his brain in a case of barbed wire that was slowly constricting.

When she pulled back he breathed a sigh of relief, lifting a hand to massage his temples as she spoke within her mind, allowing him to hear again. After a moment, he looked at her again and nodded his head.

"Certainly a way to learn of something that won't allow you to forget it."

As he thought about this, he realized that she hadn't exactly shared their names. He could probe into her mind and find it without her telling him, but he was trying to maintain as little contact with her cerebral functions as was necessary. Delve too deep and he'd be blocked to the outside world, opening himself up for someone, or something, to come and devour him while he was diving. Arus and Milan would protect him but there were dangers that the two of them couldn't face alone. Instead, he lowered his hand and looked her square in the eyes and studied her for a moment. She had strength and she had drive. Most of all, he believed he knew how he could help her, but it was going to require that she become more of a student than anything else.

"We haven't exchanged names yet so allow me to introduce myself. My name is Leos Palle but I go by the name Ignus."

He offered her his hand, intending to shake it. He was a businessman, after all. Hand shaking was fairly commonplace for him.

"I believe I can help you grow."

[member="Elensa Jari"]

 

[Elensa Jari]

| [member="Ignus"] |​

​

Two names? That was an interesting thing: this was one who was Sith with a persona, a second layer of onion that enabled him to keep his true self concealed from others. To present one face that only serves to mask your real one... That was an intriguing idea, but also a faintly amusing one: this Ignus did not strike her as the type to be easily hidden. His choice of pets alone would identify him, she thought in amusement, though of course he might travel without them, or simply have them hide the way one of them had done, disappearing from sight but there nonetheless. She couldn't quite reconcile the thought of him in this armour to the image of a man in ordinary clothing, going about mundane business. It didn't seem right.

He'd extended a hand, presumably offering it in some odd gesture that she assumed was something she was supposed to reciprocate. Strange mannerism. Elensa had bumped into more than a few of those since broadening her horizons in leaving Hapan space, but she didn't know this one. The Jedi bow was proper and appropriate as greeting, and the Sith used similar methods, though theirs demanded more overt subservience from those of a lesser social status. In Hapan society, the same applied, though a nod would be exchanged between equals, perhaps a slightly deeper one applied, with bows or kneeling for those of a different social caste. What is the purpose of this, then?

Reaching up with both hands, the young woman gripped the edges of her veil and pulled it up and over her head so that her face might be fully revealed. The collar of her dress pulled tight to her neck, covering the wound that might otherwise be openly displayed, but beyond that, her face remained open and unconcealed. Deep blue eyes stared out calmly at the male Sith, blonde hair braided and pulled close to her head rather than streaming around her face. Her lips were thinned in a fashion that kept her feelings under tight control, eyes narrowed slightly in a manner that might have been disapproving or analytical. To be unveiled was a concession she rarely offered to others, but appropriate under the circumstances.

"Elensa," she said in response, a telepathic response to his verbal words, her words curtly uttered, cut off in a fashion that suggested she'd intended to add more. It was a hard thing for her to decide how best to introduce herself now: what was she, beyond her name? Not Jedi, barely Sith, Hapan by birth, nobility by station, but all these things were a matter of past tense. "If you're prepared to try, I'll allow it," she added, knowing she was surrendering much with that admission, but also suspecting that the consequences of not doing so might be profound. For all his politeness, he might be more volatile.

After all, she might not be speaking to the man, but to the mask. Two names she had for him, and with that knowledge, an awareness that there was a mask above his true face. But which one am I speaking to? The face she saw beneath the helmet that he had removed might simply be another mask, one placed over his true face. Ignus, Palle, others? How many men might be standing before her? Makes you wonder what it is that he has to hide. That was something she might have to carefully tease out over time, if they were to continue down this path.

 

[Figure In White]

He was confused when she didn't accept the handshake. Most often it was the sign of a sealed deal, as it were. But he surmised that it was perhaps not a custom that she was familiar with, and so she didn't know how to respond to the gesture. Logical conclusions were sometimes the best ones. Either way he was pleased with the fact that she lifted her hands and pulled her veil back to truly reveal her face. If nothing else, the act of revelation was a gesture of good will. She accepted his offer, as well, which meant that they would have much work to do ahead of them. Mostly she would. His method of teaching was such that the student did far more work than their master.

"Good. First things first, then, have you ever been to Krayiss II?"

It was unlikely that she had. The only Jedi he'd ever seen there was Teynara and the woman was not much like other Jedi. Regardless, he had it on good authority that the temple there had been unearthed, which meant that they could explore its wealth of knowledge. From what he could gather of who and what she was, it seemed to him that she would benefit most from learning about mental aspects of the Force. Not the same ones he typically sought out, but ones that revolved around the passing of information, and also the gaining of it. She had a great mental ability for transference, but he wondered if she could also learn to use that ability to draw information out of people, and not just put things in.

He stood, tucking his helm beneath one arm, and snapped his fingers at the felines. They stood and started walking, knowing exactly where it was that the two of them were going. He glanced at Elensa and nodded his head towards the wood before heading in that direction. He wouldn't give her a direct command on the matter because it wasn't likely to be necessary. Leos believed that a stronger bond was formed between master and apprentice when both were willing parties and hatred wasn't induced for no reason. She would be more beneficial to him, and he her, if neither of them hated one another for a stupid reason.

"Not a long walk to my ship, if you're coming. We can transfer to my command ship then head to Krayiss. If you have questions, feel free to ask them."

[member="Elensa Jari"]

 

[Elensa Jari]

| [member="Ignus"] |​

​

Krayiss II? No, in truth, Elensa couldn't recall having ever heard of it, but that was hardly surprising: though her time among both Jedi and Sith had acquainted her with a larger portion of the Galaxy than she might have done otherwise, most of her experiential knowledge remained focused upon the Consortium, and the worlds under the rule of the Queen Mother. For Ignus to mention it suggested that it might have been one of those obscure worlds under Sith rule - they ever tended towards choosing planets that were laced with Dark Side energies, barren wastelands that had perhaps once been lush and verdant, but had their life energies stripped by the ever-hungry darkness.

It had often struck her as a morbidity to give way to such, but the Sith had taught her a single truth that she respected above all others: everything dies. Hopes, aspirations, morals, ideals, all were nothing against that. Nothing persisted, nothing was sacred, all would die in time. People, constructs, civilisations - it was in the nature of things to end. She had often wondered if the Sith chose their homes with a view to recognising such: dangerous worlds where few things survived, and those that did were always on their guard for that moment in which lethality might emerge from the shadows. And so that tentative balance always remains foremost in our thoughts.

This was her moment of truth, though: if she agreed to go with him now, that was the seal on their partnership, him in the dominant driving seat, her agreeing to become a subservient apprentice. The Sith demanded nothing less of their students: obedience was the first law, and an Acolyte learned it from the first day of training. It sometimes struck her as a contradiction, that a Sith must be both powerful and yet subservient, but she had come to recognise that it was another means by which they might be hurt, humiliated, slowly crushed into nothing: even pride was not something truly permissable. If you survive that, then you might survive greater challenges later. That was the only reasoning she could perceive.

What alternative was there, though? If she refused now, he might kill her, or simply leave her to her own devices here. She might wander the world, attempt to explore the Temple, find her death or worse, but ultimately she would walk away (or not) with little having changed. Ignus offered her something, the opportunity to learn from him, gain something she would not otherwise have achieved here. That was a tempting thing, something she knew she could not simply reject out of hand.

The blonde woman nodded her acquiescence, taking a moment to stare at the Sith Lord, then replacing her veil over her face as he turned away from her, noting that he took opportunity to summon his pets to heel. Much as he is doing with me, perhaps. True, there had been no spoken directive, but she knew well enough that the choice he offered was as much of a compulsion as would be needed. Truth be told, if I passed up such an opportunity, he would be within his rights to kill me now. None that could call themselves Sith would ever ignore the chance for personal growth, no matter how painful it might be.

The pain would undoubtedly come soon enough. It always did. Such was an eternal constant, a simple transition between life and death. This was only natural.

 

[Figure In White]

So much of her mind had been brainwashed by her time spent with the Jedi. Regardless of what he told her, she would take a long time to truly come to understand the Sith as Leos saw them, and even still to understand her place within their world. If she had said no he wouldn't have killed her. What purpose would that have served? Another dead body, forgotten on some nearly oblivious world. Her corpse would have been desecrated by the local wildlife before it could ever have the chance to decompose. To what end, though? Her dead wouldn't strengthen him. He wasn't a soul devourer. All it would have done is left a body behind and another blemish upon his being. Useless.

But she had chosen to follow him, and so he'd set off through the woods and approached a small clearing where a single RAL waited with four men clad in crimson armor guarding it. They all noted his appearance through the helm of the one who saw him, but the other three retained their posts with gaze cast outwards. The technology that had gone into the armor of the Vermillion Guard was certainly something to see. Regardless, he approached the ship, the Maalraas bounding in ahead of him. When Elensa was spotted behind him, the guard that was watching slightly raised his weapon, but Leos waved away the action and the gun was lowered once again. There was no need for shooting her.

Once aboard, the guard would follow. Each would take a seat, just as Leos himself did. He waited for Elensa to seat herself before instructing the pilot to proceed. The shuttle lifted and swiftly moved through the atmosphere and into space beyond. Here, a large ship came into view, a dreadnought of considerable power. The Lambent Shadow had sat waiting for his return, and now he made it with more than what he'd left with. The RAL approached the ship and flew into the hangar before descending. Leos waited for the guard to leave and then stood himself, making his way out of the shuttle, where he paused to glance back at the girl.

"Welcome to The Lambent Shadow, my command ship. You'll find a minimal crew here, but don't worry. The ship is quite well staffed."

He started walking again and called out seemingly to no one.

"Captain?"

"Here, sir," the voice responded, echoing through the hangar.

"Plot a course for Krayiss II and take us there. Utilize the alternate entrance to the Caldera, please."

"Yes, sir."

The ship began to move as he led Elensa in further. He wanted to take her to the bridge so she could watch them pass through and into the Caldera on a path that he and his people had charted back when they had defeated the Silver Jedi incursion into the Caldera itself. It was a sight to see.

|[member="Elensa Jari"]|​

 

[Elensa Jari]

| [member="Ignus"] |​

The shuttle ride off the surface had been uncomfortable, surrounded as she was by men who meant nothing to her, but also that had no ties to her in any fashion. To be surrounded by male guards and servants: this was the life of any Hapan woman of breeding, but this was not the case here. These men would gun her down in a moment if given the command - by another man, no less. The thought had sent a shiver down her spine, though she'd have rather eaten molten rock than confessed as much to it.

She had taken opportunity to examine what she knew of this Ignus, now that there was a moment where she did not feel physically nor mentally assailed by their interactions. He sat in silent repose, only offered instruction to the pilot, a being who evidently waited on the Sith's pleasure. The need for so many around him - the veneer of safety in numbers, perhaps? He had his pets, his servants, his soldiers. Elensa had been able to glean much simply from that observation, but were they there to help him feel safe, to feel secure? Or were they merely the trappings of power, that which he was expected to hold simply by virtue of being Sith? It was a question she might, eventually, seek to ask him.

The mental connection between them had faded, and her thoughts were once again her own - that much provided immense relief, in a fashion she had not expected. To have another invade her thoughts as casually as Ignus had...that was unwelcome, to say the least, but now the absence of it left her entirely alone within her own mind. The simple truth of it was that she was not sure which feeling left her more uncomfortable, now that she had time to reflect upon it.

The command ship that Ignus indicated was no less impressive than she expected: a monstrous vessel of unusual design, one she'd never seen before. Evidently Ignus had more in his possession than just a few pets, troops and...well, whatever she was supposed to be now. That much became more evident as he led her through the belly of this vessel: the clean corridors, the uniformed crew, professional, curt and clinical in their approach, sparing little time from their work for gawking. He acts like a merchant prince aboard a military vessel. It was an odd combination.

As for their destination...the thought of it left her feeling a touch of trepidation. She'd not heard of the planet he had mentioned, but the fact that he had suggested that it might be one of those places where you did not leave the same as you arrived - if indeed you left at all. Typical Sith planet. Something told her it would be anything other than typical, though - her new teacher did not, so why would his choice of destination prove any different?

 

[Figure In White]

While she was silent, naturally, he did take measure of her persona in the Force. Inquisitive, but also disliking of the men around her. They weren't all men, of course. Even some of his Vermillion Guard were women. Leos didn't particularly care about gender. He only cared about results. Results were everything to him. Yes, he was a businessman, but he was also a military commander. He was a visionary, and a theologian as well. He was a man of many facets and faces, and what you saw in him all depended on who you were and the nature of the situation. Even he, the Sith who reviled fighting, was not above ripping someone apart with his bare hands if it was warranted.

He'd rather make you kill yourself, though.

She would find the bridge remarkably empty. In fact, there was only one crewman within, and that was the Captain, who was situated within the Command Throne, fully in tune with the entire vessel. Truthfully, the bridge of a Reformation-class was a place of near solitude. He rather enjoyed it by comparison to the usual hustle and bustle of a warships bridge. This was especially true when engaged in a combat situation. Though he usually spent such times within the Orrery or his Sphere. Further solitude was found in either. The guard didn't enter the bridge, there was no need, and so he and Elensa were able to watch as the ship jumped into hyperspace.

"Krayiss II used to house an ancient temple of the Sith. It's located within the Stygian Caldera, the center of the old Sith Empires. The temple was buried, but has since been uncovered. It's a repository of information. Within it, you will find something to guide you further in your journey."

No hesitation on his part. He knew she would find something there that would help to put her on the correct path. But he also knew she was utterly uncomfortable at the moment, so he didn't invade her mind, though he certainly could have. On his ship, he could do anything he wished, and you'd be hard pressed to stop him.

"If you wish to speak to me project your thoughts through the Force. I don't know sign language and I'm not going to enter your head again. You'll have to figure this one out on your own."

A challenge. It would help her pass the time.

| [member="Elensa Jari"] |​

 

[Elensa Jari]

| [member="Ignus"] |​

​

Challenges were ever something she had found herself receptive to. Several of her teachers when she had been younger had been men, and they had all offered her trials to overcome in order to improve: whether to play a particularly difficult chord on the lute, or execute an elegant movement during her dance lessons, or perhaps even knock her sparring partner flat on their back during hand-to-hand training, there had always been that innate need to succeed. That it had been a man instructing her had simply instilled the need to do better than they hoped: to simply meet those expectations was never enough. And now, to be faced with more of the same...

Elensa knew exactly how she would have to respond to that.

Striding away towards the front of the bridge, her eyes stared past her veil, looking through the gauzy fabric to watch the transition of the ship as the soft motes of light stretched out into bright lines, the darkness suddenly replaced by a whirl of colour, blue-white swirls that enveloped the vessel in a vortex of energy. Her sense of the Force changed as it did so, ever-present, but also somehow elusive, as though it were muted somehow, just a little beyond her reach. It was a strange sensation, but one she was accustomed to - the natural feeling that accompanied transitioning from normal space into the alternate dimension that allowed for FTL speeds to be reached.

Adjusting her skirts so as not to trip over them, the young woman sat down on the deck in front of the Command Throne that appeared to be the only source of ship control on this 'bridge', ignoring the being that occupied it. Now that she knew it was possible to remotely touch the mind of another, she had to reflect on the possibilities such an avenue of study offered. True, she knew how to reach out and daze another's mind, using the simplistic Mind Tricks that the Jedi studied, but this sustained technique was new to her.

When she made physical contact with another, it had been possible for her to project her memories into their minds, which she had taken to be a bypassing of their natural mental defenses: the sort that existed to protect the mind from that of another. How could that be achieved without contact? It was something that would simply have to be tested, trial and error examined, to see what she might learn.

The one in the control chair made an obvious target: while the ship was in hyperspace, he would have little need of his conscious mind for control of the vessel, since it was on autopilot. Let's see what your mind looks like, shall we? Reaching for it would be the part she did not yet understand, but she reasoned it couldn't be as difficult as she thought: Ignus had done it without any visible effort. Could she allow for her skills to be any less than his? Unthinkable.

She knew where he was physically: the young woman could sense his location in the Force, knowing the energies that constituted him were present there because they appeared as such in her thoughts. It was like sitting in a dark room and knowing that there was a light behind you: you didn't need to be looking at the light to see the way it influenced the darkness. There were ripples in the energies of the Force that she could detect, nothing of the dark tumultuous waves that Ignus had projected, but there even so. There's a mind connected to that presence.

How to reach it, though?

The first key, she felt, was to isolate him from the others: there were plenty of presences aboard, certainly more than the mere handful she had sensed back on Iliabeth. Imagining herself drawing a box around his presence, the Hapan concentrated her own thoughts upon the box, forcing them within, ignorant of that which was around her. Her eyes closed, concealing the pale-blue irises that were otherwise oft hidden by her veil. No distractions for this. The energy within the box fluctuated, flowed: no simple static trace for her to pick up, but something that moved constantly. Perhaps it's best to go with the flow, and follow it.

The light confined within the box was not a chaotic energy: the closer she examined it, the more she could see trace elements of structure there. Something controlled, might like our consciousness, she reflected. Perhaps adjusting my own to make contact with that might help. It was a hard thing, to envision even the simplest of techniques within the Force: sometimes, she had learned, you simply had to think about what you wanted and will it to happen. But such does little to inform us of the complexities involved, and thus keeps mastery from our grasp. That wasn't how she wanted to learn.

Tendrils of the energy contained within her shot out of her body, invisible, not even truly there: a simple visualisation of what she was aiming to do. Hopefully connecting them with those of the other being would bring the result she wanted. And Ignus will not help me with it. Even if it took her months, she knew she was on her own. That's so often how the Sith want it to be.

​

"Hello there," she projected, focusing her thoughts along that tendril of energy, pushing the message along as if whispering it to someone beside her, though such a thing would never again be possible for her to do. Perhaps he might hear her, perhaps not. Either result will tell me something.

 

[Figure In White]

Leos, for the most part, paid little attention to her. He'd given her a task that he knew she was capable of undertaking based on her already demonstrated skills, and he wasn't going to give her guidance on the matter. It was entirely up to her whether or not she succeeded in the endeavor. This was the way of the Sith. Receive direction, seek to obtain the end goal of that direction. Whether one failed or not, one would learn something from it. He would not accept failure from her in this particular task. Either she succeeded and was able to make contact mentally with him and others, or she would fail and he'd make her try again.

In the meantime, he settled himself into a seat and allowed his own mind to drift away into the void of nothingness where he often went to contemplate the future and how his goals could be achieved. It was a place where next to nothing could reach him. If he'd gone down to the sphere then literally nothing would have been able to bother him. That, however, was far too much effort for what he was doing. All he wanted was to allow his body to rest while his mind continued to churn.

Meanwhile, as she worked in weasling her way into the Captain's Mind, he soon found himself feeling slightly uncomfortable. After all, he was used to the people on the ship speaking to him in an audible tone rather than having words mysteriously appear in his mind. He'd not been sure what to make of the weird wiggling feeling he'd found poking around his head at first, having all but dismissed it as a mental flight of fancy. The fact that it wasn't such was news to him. He frowned a bit, but went back to the task of running through checklists. That lasted until her words actually became coherent in his mind, and then he couldn't help himself.

"Who is doing that? I can't concentrate on my checklists."

He was both exasperated and a little afraid that he might be hearing things at the same time.

"Hello?"

[member="Elensa Jari"]

 

[Elensa Jari]

| [member="Ignus"] |​

​

Confusion. That was her first initial impression, but of the kind that did not stem from her. It was the sort that would emerge when confronted with the unexpected, something a little out of place, something that was simply not meant to be. It started like an itch in the back of the mind: you might scratch at it, if you so wished, but it otherwise felt like a soft buzzing in your head, one that soon faded. The impression grew stronger suddenly, as her projected words made contact, a sudden realisation that the gentle confusion was something more intense: gateway to a feeling not encountered before.

The young woman smiled beneath her veil, realising that the other had at least gained a semblance of what she had intended to say. Whether he had caught the totality of it or merely the gist remained something she lacked confirmation for, but it was a start. She let go of a breath that she hadn't realised she had been holding, evidence of the effort she had put into the technique. A wave of fatigue washed over her suddenly, and she reached back with one hand to steady herself against the deck plate.

It was easy to forget your own limitations sometimes - it was something Elensa frequently needed to remind herself of. The Force had no limits, of course, and when tapping into it, when visualising the sheer volume of energy that existed around you, it was easy to forget that you were an expendable conduit, a piece that had the power to channel some of that energy, but finite in that regard. Channelling the Force was not something she was familiar enough with to have expended as much as she had over the past few hours. Evidently it was catching up to her.

Pushing herself to her feet, she turned in a swift motion, her eyes catching the expression of the officer she had tried to communicate with, though undoubtedly he would see little enough of them from beneath the veil she wore. The confusion remained evident on his face, and that was sufficiently amusing for her. True, she hadn't established a proper connection to his mind, the way Ignus had done with her, but it was a start, and Elensa wasn't going to dismiss such a gain, small though it was.

Ignus was resting in a nearby seat, his eyes closed, evidently sleeping, or perhaps simply meditating, recouping some of his own energies after the expenditure down on the planet, a disbursement that was far more powerful than anything the young Hapan woman had been able to generate. He might be more accustomed to the use of such powers, but it will take a toll on him far moreso than on me. In that respect, she had an advantage: she did not need so long to recuperate.

She would wait, exercise a little of the patience she had oft been encouraged towards, and pause until he decided to resurface. Perhaps then he might tell her more about why they were heading towards their dark destination.

 

[Figure In White]

Meditation was deep and dark, but not completely unconscious of the world around. Though he knew she was watching him, he didn't come out of his meditation. His body needed the rest, and she could wait for a bit to see him speaking again. Despite this, he was aware that she had succeeded to a certain degree. The words of the captain had reached his ears. The confusion of his voice was enough to tell him the truth. Leos never spoke to the man through the Force. There was little need for it when the man was the ship and could hear through it regardless of where he was in the space of the vessel.

After a time, he withdrew from the realm of darkness, and his orange eyes slowly opened to look upon her.

"You succeeded," he said immediately. "Good."

She was looking for answers. Her success was good enough for her to receive something for her trouble. For a while he just sat and watched her. A test of her patience? Perhaps. Or it could be that he was just thinking about the questions that he knew she had deep inside. Questions always have complicated answers. Some questions inherently complicated the answers. For her, it was a bit of both. She was looking for a destiny, and he'd offered to help her find it. Already she was learning to communicate in a way that she hadn't known to do before. That was a good start, but it was nothing compared to what she could find down the road.

"The world we're going to had a temple that was a library of Sith knowledge. Ages past it was buried, but it has since been uncovered. This place is a repository of knowledge of the deepest and darkest secrets of the Sith. You are an empath. You have great ability, but you are limited by your knowledge. First and foremost you need to understand that power is not defined by physical strength or strength of the Force. It is defined by the knowledge you have of yourself, the galaxy, and the Force. With knowledge you can react to any situation appropriately.

"I'm taking you there, so you can find more to expand on what you know. With that, you can become stronger than you've ever believed."

[member="Elensa Jari"]

 

[Elensa Jari]

| [member="Ignus"] |​

​

An Empath? That was not a term she had heard directed towards her before, though obviously she had a sense of what they were. Empaths among the Jedi were known to be extremely sensitive towards the feelings of others, and thus were often directed to serve among their Healers, dealing with those that had suffered from trauma or other psychological issues. And though there's plenty of psychosis among the Sith, it is not something their kind ever think to correct. Not without resorting to the use of a lightsaber, anyway. Those with mental instabilities were animals to be put down, not beings to be cultivated.

What would such mean for her? Is it something he wishes to exploit, and turn to his own ends? Perhaps it would be something her lessons would teach her to conceal: a being that was sensitive to the emotions of others could be twisted and manipulated by them, if they lacked the self-control to be otherwise. She'd never heard of an Empath amongst the Sith, and perhaps for exactly that reason: no doubt they were the type to be culled quickly, or simply left to suffer their inevitable failure as their sensitivity left them unable to do what was necessary. And there is no greater weakness than this.

She wasn't entirely convinced by Ignus' claims, but he was stronger in the Force than she, though she felt reluctant to admit as much to herself, and the way he had neatly dealt with her on the surface had shown well enough the truth of his words: with knowledge would come the power that she needed to bring them to a more level playing field. Perhaps, when that finally happens, we'll revisit your conduct on the planet, she thought, though knowing he might read her thoughts once more left her keeping them firmly closed off, at least as much as she knew how to. Another thing I'll need to work on developing.

Stepping closer to the Mirialan, the young woman lowered herself to the floor, sitting directly opposite. A slight pause, a moment of hesitation, then she leaned forward and reached out to press her hand against his knee, not an intimate gesture, but a purely pragmatic one designed to bridge the gap between them so she could once again touch his mind. Whatever she had realised working with the unknowing officer aboard the Bridge, now was not the time to test it upon the one she was probably supposed to call 'Master', though she knew well that the word would have stuck in her throat if she had been capable of uttering it outloud.

"Expanding on what I know won't be difficult," she said, her words conveyed telepathically as a consequence of their physical contact. The blonde withdrew her hand, resting it now in her lap, staring at Ignus through her veil. It galled her to admit as much, but she knew her understanding of Sith technique and methodology to be lacking, and acknowledging it with him might at least help him to know where her starting point was. Where we go from here is up to you, isn't it?

In truth, that part was perhaps the most galling of all.

 

[Figure In White]

"True enough. But I can tell you that your skills are potent and dangerous. You can destroy minds with it just as you can learn from them."

She was vastly dangerous if she wasn't kept in check. He was keenly aware of that fact, though he didn't let his body posture show it, just the same as he didn't flinch when she reached to make direct contact with him. Knowing that she was dangerous was enough to get him to steel his mind to her a bit. If she should lash out through that connection again and flood him with feelings and emotions, he would be ready to slap her down and teach her a rich lesson in control. She didn't seem keen to do that, however, which was better for the both of them, really. Lifting his own hand against her was just going to cause him issues.

Outside of the ship, the light whirl of hyperspace turned into a smooth fluctuation until it became pinpricks of light and a dusty world loomed up before them. They'd arrived at their destination, which meant that her lesson in mental communication wouldn't continue until later. She'd made progress, and he had no doubt that if she practiced it would come to her naturally.

"We've arrived."

He stood and stretched his muscles briefly before he glanced at her and inclined his head to indicate she should follow. Back through the ship they would go, reaching the hangar where they would once again board a shuttle. This time, with the Guard in tow, they flew down to a dust ball of a planet, and settled in front of a large spire that marked the entrance to the vast library, most of which was still sunken though access had been made to it. He departed the shuttle and looked around them briefly before turning towards the library and moving to enter it. A hand gesture indicated that his Guard should wait at the entrance while they descended.

"Here you will find what you're looking for. I suggest starting at the database and using a generic search of mentalism. Read up on it before delving directly into empathy."

[member="Elensa Jari"]