Private Dinner and Diatribes

[Cain Sevu]

Cain's fingers brushed against her sternum, pale skin flaking away a web of dried blood.

Lianna was cold tonight. Especially cold given the body at Cain's feet was already losing its heat signature. What used to be a living breathing man all of five minutes ago was now reduced to a corpse on the ground, ever so slowly giving into rigor mortis. If it had been any warmer Cain might've been able to help herself, but the exhaustion coiling through her limbs could hardly take the added bite of winter. Draining the rest of the energy his body had to give postmortem was her only option to stave off the frost.

Not that Cain felt any particular way about it. She didn't operate on a strong sense of rationale or decorum. She was just tired.

Tired and cold.

Continuing her tiny ritual, one bloodied hand scrubbed away larger chunks of viscera from her hair while she nursed the other close to her chest. The man had panicked, grabbed her wrist, and yanked once his legs gave out. It was a fear response -one Cain was usually able to sedate- but this had been her first "meal" in days. Her strength was nowhere near its peak, it was waning and had been for a while.

And now she had a broken wrist to deal with.

Silent as ever, Cain crouched next to the man, red eyes scraping over the wounds she'd left. He'd put up quite the fight that it'd hardly seemed worth it anymore. She'd expended too much energy. Way, way too much energy.

Lingering a moment longer, the girl reached out with her good hand and used two fingers to close the man's eyes. He didn't look like he was resting, he looked like he'd been gutted by an industrial machine and then left out for a pack of hungry tuk'atas to pick at. The girl simply adjusted her cloak and stood back up; it wasn't wise to loiter around her prey for long, she needed to find some warm building to hole up in.

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: Cain Sevu

There was a serial killer on the loose in Lianna City. The local authorities had contacted the New Imperial Security Bureau for assistance in finding and stopping the person responsible for all this death. It was the task of the NISB to keep track and stop external and internal threats to the safety, security and prosperity of the Empire. Thus, when it became clear that there was a murderer out there in the nether, immersed in the dark underbelly of an ecumenopolis, they had assigned one of their top agents on the case.

Alicia Drey was Darth Ayra: a Dark Lord of the Sith who had migrated to Lianna in the hopes of recovering lost assets. Instead, she had been recruited into the NISB and Ayra had taken the opportunity to infiltrate the organisation for nights such as tonight. As the paradigm of the Grand Scheme begun to take shape in the heart of the Empire, Ayra had use for killers if they were able to be controlled. At worse the investigation that she was now heading to find and apprehend this killer was just another notch on the belt of her alter identity which served to continue her infiltration of the NISB. To them, when she found this murderer, Ayra was merely forming her duty as a patriot to the Empire and it's peace keeping efforts.

At best, however, Ayra would discover someone that she could use as a tool to further her own agenda. There are so many targets out there in the Galaxy that would need to supplanted and displaced through the means of murder. When Ayra came across someone that could not be brought, manipulated, corrupted, coerced or forced into doing her bidding then the last resort was to extinguish their life as punishment for daring to defy her. As Ayra built the Grand Scheme to destroy the Sith and reconstitute the Sith Order into following the new way, as Bane had done before her, Ayra also knew that she would not always be the one capable of doing this.

In pursuit of the Work Ayra would need to construct a considerable network of spies, informants, politicians, slicers, and other such criminal enterprises that far too complex or complicated to even consider at this point. These people would never fully know who she was, or how they fit into her plans. Most would never be aware of the other nor would they know what it was that they were contributing too. When Ayra found these people and recruited them into her schemes to topple the old and replace it with the new they would only exist so long as they continued to work for her. Perhaps this killer that had come to the attention of the NISB was such a person?

On a cold, dark night in the slums of Lianna City Darth Ayra wore the disguise of a Bureau operative sent to begin their preliminary investigation. The victim had been attacked viciously, and initial post mortem indicated that the attacker had taken to eating some of the victims corpse after death. They were long gone now. Their victim had only been discovered by chance from someone passing through the alleyway where the murder had happened. Ayra noted that they had taken the time to close the victims eyes revealing a little insight into how they worked.

"Let us begin," Ayra said to the officers who had brought her to the scene of the crime. "I want local surveillance feeds checked. Let's find out where the victim has been tonight, where he came from, why he was passing through here and see if he was being followed. We might see who we are looking for on the feeds."

 

[Cain Sevu]

The girl hadn't managed to slink very far before a herd of NISB officers flushed the alleyway. The response time was honestly admirable, and proved it was well past time for Cain to find new turf. Still, she took a moment to assess, eyes raking across the congregation with an unreadable expression from her vantage point a couple stories above.

A flight off Lianna would be too much of a risk. She would need to feed at least one more time if she were to find the strength to do so, and clearly the NSIB's patience was running a little too thin for that. Besides, who would take her? There wasn't a single document in circulation that proved she existed, and it wasn't like she had the bribe money to soothe that over.

She let her indecision keep her paralyzed for a moment. From her spot on the balcony, she could see a figure emerge from the fold, wielding a clear and definite authority over the rest of the crowd. The woman was like a floodlight against a backdrop of dim candles. Even from this distance she reeked of the same insidious energy Cain hadn't been able to shake since...

The girl shook her head faintly, some unidentifiable emotion stirring in her mind for the first time since the Sith had stripped her of all thought. It was like a hot ember being blown over dead ashes.

Cain was awake. Cain was scared.

Squashing any remaining curiosity, the girl turned back into the street. All that mattered was putting distance between herself and the woman the monster who was orchestrating her arrest just a handful of levels below. Cain wasn't strong enough to face another one of them. Hell, she was barely strong enough to take down her last victim. Even now she could feel her muscles wane, a darker impulse begging for another soul to stumble across her path.

The hunger wouldn't abate.

Nonetheless Cain fought to keep herself upright, leaning against a lamp post as her vision spotted. She just needed to wrap her hand. She just needed to wrap her hand and find some place warm. She just needed to wrap her hand, find some place warm, and get the feth away from that Bureau operative.

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: Cain Sevu

As Darth Ayra waited for the officers to return with the results of their preliminary sweep of nearby surveillance footage she allowed herself to be immersed in the dark side to granted her further insight into the kill that other investigators were not able to feel. There she found herself being washed over the feeling of hunger. Ravenous, unsated bites that had torn into sinew, and flesh. Ayra found her mouth watering at the exhilaration of the murder. The taste of sanguine blood filled her mouth as she could almost taste it. Her mouth watered at the prospect of the kill, and Ayra found herself on the precipice of her own frenzy.

Then her eyes lifted up from the body to the buildings above. Ayra found herself starring at the ledge of one of them and for a brief moment she had felt as if she had been watched. Clicking her fingers at one of the officers Ayra said: "Get me surveillance of that roof." The officer obliged and found a camera that was overlooking the rooftop that Cain had just vacated. As part of it's peace keeping efforts the NISB regularly surveyed and watched the city at all levels and angles that you could think of. Pulling up the recording of Cain, as she had stood there overlooking the crime scene, Ayra watched the feed as the woman turned and disappeared.

They could have been anyone. Someone who had been in the building at the time of the murder, who had merely come outside to see for themselves what was going now that a contingent of peacekeepers and a Bureau operative- clad in the white uniform of the NISB- gathered in the alleyway to cordon off the crime scene. But Ayra's instincts told her that they were the person that she should be looking for. Averting her gaze from the surveillance footage back to the officer that had been holding it up for her to watch, Ayra said to him: "I want this entire block cordoned off. Nobody gets in or out. The Bureau is now placing a media blackout on this incident. If anyone from the media pulls up you are to detain them, confiscate their equipment and arrest anyone who threatens this investigation."

"Yes ma'am," replied the officer. He then turned to repeat Ayra's orders to the rest. Meanwhile, Ayra herself had turned to look back up at the roof and decided to begin retracing the steps of the killer with aide of the Force. A few minutes later Ayra found herself standing on that same ledge which overlooked the alleyway below and turned to feel with the Force where that woman would have gone too next.

 

[Cain Sevu]

Cain gathered the folds of her cloak, tugging them closer to her body. It didn't offer much in the way of protection- or warmth for that matter- but the girl clutched at the fabric anyway. The cold had started to bite. It gnawed until it broke skin- until it seeped into her blood stream- until it replaced all the air in her lungs.

And worse of all it had nothing to do with the temperature. This feeling, it spawned from her very core. And with every step Ayra took it only intensified.

Cain shut her eyes a moment then pushed into the streets. Like any ecumenopolis it was reliably crowded, offering just enough cover for the teenager to skirt surveillance. The amount of self-restraint it took not to sink her teeth and drain the life from some unsuspecting face in the crowd could not be understated. The hunger seemed bent on driving her insane. It made no sense. She'd just sapped the entire life force from a grown man, why was she starving.

The girl blinked as the momentum of the crowd seemed to stop, a series of disgruntled murmurs trailing down the lane. It didn't take long to discover the source. She was blocked in, they all were. For the first time in weeks Cain felt fear, and she felt it in droves.

She was being hunted. Again.

Turning away from the dead end she was approaching, Cain carded through her options, her expression robotic as always. There was no hiding, no slim pickings to get her through the night, no sand to bury her head in. At this rate she'd die of starvation by morning. A sudden calmness settled in her limbs, attaching itself like a lead weight.

With slow measured steps she branched off from the surge of bodies trying to squeeze their way through a line of NISB agents and stood at the mouth of a nearby alley. Simply waiting.

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: Cain Sevu

Between the Force guiding her after the murderer, combined with the assistance of the NISB, Darth Ayra had navigated the way that Cain had taken from the roof top and into the streets below. As Stormtroopers lined at the end of the streets that branched off in different directions, and the klaxon sirens of Peacekeeper vehicles flashed their strobing lights on the corners, Ayra passed through the crowds until she came across another alleyway. By now the NISB had found Cain's face on the surveillance feeds that she had passed through on this particular, fateful night and it was now being distributed to the authorities as they searched for her.

But that had all been in vain because Darth Ayra had been the first to find her, and as she entered the alleyway, Ayra found a woman staring back at her in the hem of a dark cloak. As part of her disguise as an NISB operative Ayra hadn't brought with her the curved Lightsaber she had since smuggled onto Lianna for the weapon would have drawn unwanted attention and scrutiny from the Imperials. The remnants that had reformed the Empire here on Lianna had adopted anti-Sith rhetoric as part of it's propaganda, politics and agenda. If Ayra were ever discovered to be Sith it would signal the end of her time in the Empire, and of course, the same was true for the murderer that was standing in front of her.

Lifting her hand to the comm on her belt, Ayra took it out and spoke into it: "I have a suspect cornered. Move in on my position. Surround and await further instruction." Putting away the device Ayra then averted her attention from it back to Cain. "Welcome to Lianna City. You are trapped and surrounded. Your only way out of here is with my help."

 

[Cain Sevu]

Cain was still, eyes fixed on the woman as the glacial feeling around her finally crescendoed. Her eyes dropped a moment to the commlink as Ayra sealed her fate. The whole weight of the NISB was about to come down on her head with just a few simple words.

The woman appeared to be a simple operative, clad in white and without any obvious means to defend herself. As much as Cain realized that probably wasn't true, her pupils couldn't help but dilate ever so slightly. Strength and power orbited the woman before her. She was someone to be feared., avoided. But she was also a well spring of energy. A famished sense of hunger goaded the teenager on, begging Cain to devour what she could. The girl was barely standing as it was, she was in no condition to fight her most base instincts. Not when they raged inside her, thrashing against her ribcage with the threat of splintering bones. The frenzy ebbed her mind, promising to make the cold- the exhaustion- the pain all just go away.

Cain let Ayra's words wash over her with zero recognition. She hated when they talked.

The girl went from statue to a projectile object within a matter of moments, moving with an inhuman amount of speed and agility. From her boot she plucked a dagger, aiming to spear it into Ayra's jugular as she zeroed in on the woman. They went down easier that way, Cain wasn't one to draw things out.

If Cain was in anyway successful at getting her hands on the woman, Ayra would immediately feel a dip in her energy, a leak in a dam that would soon break into a geyser as Cain clawed on her aura in the force.

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tag: Cain Sevu

As the NISB, Stormtoopers and Peacekeepers made their way to take positions to box in and surround both women, Ayra felt an immediate danger to her with the Force. She saw it happen in a flash: the drawing of the dagger and the swift, sudden attack to take her out before Cain was trapped. As Cain moved in to attack her Ayra had already reached to her belt and produced a blaster from her hip into her air. Aided by the Force, and her precognitive abilities that had allowed her to see a few seconds in the future- which allowed her to anticipate Cain's attack- Ayra aimed the blaster and fired.

It had been set on the stun setting, and Ayra's aim had been true for it had been guided by her abilities in the Force. When the Police and officers around them saw Ayra draw her weapon and fire they too rained stun bolts into the alleyway designed to incapacitate the murderer as she went in for another kill.

 

[Cain Sevu]

Cain was, of course, unsuccessful.

Her motivation for attacking a vetted operative wasn't exactly grounded in anything other than blood lust. Ayra was a danger to her, and Cain didn't particularly respond well to threats. Once upon a time she might've dropped her weapon and groveled from mercy the first chance she got, but the rational part of her brain had long been killed and rewired. No amount of fear was about to divert her from her self-destructive tendencies.

Unsurprisingly Ayra's bolt landed square in her chest.

Cain's body, already frail and diminished from weeks of malnutrition, dropped to the duracrete with little resistance. Her vision narrowed to a pinprick of light before tendrils of exhaustion lured her down. The following hailstorm of bullets only served to add insult to injury.

Point being she was out cold, and completely at the mercy of Ayra.

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: Cain Sevu

Ayra lifted her hand into the air and yelled out: "Ceasefire. CEASEFIRE!"

A chorus of 'ceasefire' rung through the alleyway followed by the lowering of blasters, and pistols. Darth Ayra lowered her thumb down to the safety switch on the pistol, turned it on and then holstered the weapon back on her hip. That had been close. Naturally, Ayra would not have allowed herself to be hit by any form of attack, even if it meant putting her identity in jeopardy. As far as the New Imperial Security Bureau were concerned Alicia Drey was not Force-sensitive. She was a former entrepreneur, and patriot to the Empire, who had agreed to enter service after they had approached her to join. But there was nothing about her to suggest that she was in fact Darth Ayra: the Sith Lord who had served the One Sith over sixty years ago.

As Cain had gone in for the kill Ayra had risked catastrophe. What if this murderer had been too fast for her aim and landed the blow? What if she had been forced to use her abilities to defend herself in front of an entourage of Bureau Officers, Stormtroopers and Peacekeepers that had gathered in the alleyway to apprehend their suspect? Then there were the surveillance feeds that the NISB had planted all over Lianna City: forever and always the watchful guardians that were there to bring security to the Empire. A recording of one of their own utilizing the Force to telekinetically grab hold of Cain, or a multitude of other ways to stop her attack with the Force would have revealed her true identity to them.

Somewhere in the nether, where followers of the dark side walked the line between safety and self-destruction, Ayra knew that for all her abilities the Force itself had a will of it's own, and on this fateful night it had decided that it's anointed chosen daughter would not be exposed to the Imperials because her aim had been true, and the stun had met it's target. Now all that was left to do was choose what would happen next.

It was clear to Darth Ayra that this girl that was laying before her in this cold, dark Lianna alleyway was Force-sensitive and strong in the dark side. As she sensed her powers and saw her potential, but these crimes would not be ignored by the Empire. Incarceration was inevitable, as too was the summary execution that the Empire would dispense with as justice for the murders that this girl had dealt. This was Cain Sevu's future unless Ayra intervened on her behalf.

"Apprehend the suspect and place her in stasis. I want all surveillance footage of the attacks scrubbed from the record, and all traces destroyed. The Bureau is now classifying this incident as top secret, and everyone involved in this investigation are hereby placed under a gag order." Ayra turned to her men as she addressed them with her orders. "In fifteen minutes I want this street re-opened and a statement to media outlets that these attacks are not to be reported on. In fact, as of now, these attacks did not happen whatsoever."

"As for the suspect..." Darth Ayra turned to look down at Cain. "Have her transported to Stygeon Prime and placed on a maximum security ward. The Bureau will deal with her from here."

It was as Ayra said. Cain was summarily loaded into a transport, and taken to detention where she would later be escort to Stygeon Prime: a snowy tundra filled with mountains where the Empire had several prison colonies. The NISB would proceed with the cover-up: scrubbing all recordings and surveillance of the incident. The murder victims were disposed of, and their families silenced through coercion or threats. Meanwhile, local media- all under the influence, and in some cases, outright controlled by the Bureau- issued a media blackout on the incident.

 

[Cain Sevu]

Cain's return to the waking world was a slow one, accompanied by a cold, pooling nausea. One sharp inhale of cold air was enough to stir both beady eyes open, blood red accenting a face that had grown exceptionally gaunt in the past couple of hours.

Her first coherent thought was of overwhelming hunger.

The girl quickly came to realize she'd been rendered immobile, boxed up and left staring at the sterile walls of some transport. Forming a thought felt akin to dragging bare skin against gravel, and the girl couldn't help but wince at the effort it took to ground herself. Some deep, inhuman growl reverberated in her chest, culminating in a snarl which broke apart her typically sealed lips. This was a very, very bad situation to be in.

As flawed as her memory typically proved to be, bits and pieces stitched themselves back together as Cain numbly looked ahead. A woman in a white uniform, reeking of the same filth as her previous handlers, had levied a blaster her way. Almost as if in confirmation Cain sucked in an unsteady breath, her chest still stinging from the impact.

From the corner of her eye, Cain was able to spot the agents stationed on either side of her, armor clad and hugging weapons to their chests. If she had a choice in the matter, they'd already be torn limb from limb.

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Rule of Two
​

Tag: Cain Sevu
Location: Stygeon Prime, Prison Colony

"Right now I am weak. Powerless. You inflict suffering on me because you are strong enough to do so. Your actions prove the truth of what I believe."
-- Darth Bane.

It had been weeks since Cain's arrest and incarceration on Stygeon Prime. A system located on the edges of the Empire of the Lost, Stygeon's only use for the Empire were the several colonies which spanned a variety of continents on the world where criminals were serving long, harsh sentences out of scrutiny of the public, media and foreign opinion. It was where the NISB sent most of their captives for interrogation or detention when longer, more punitive measures were necessary to extract intelligence, confession or in this particular case: recruitment.

The maximum security ward that Darth Ayra had imprisoned Cain in was off the books. Only the senior heads of the NISB knew about the ward and yet Ayra had obfuscated that Cain was currently being kept prisoner on it. For now, Ayra did not want the NISB to know about this particular prisoner. Using her position as an operative, combined with Force Persuasion with the colony warden, Cain had been kept prisoner for some weeks between her transport from Lianna to Stygeon Prime.

Perhaps now it was time for that to change?

Opening the door that led into the interrogation room Ayra had arranged for Cain to be taken too, Ayra turned and closed it behind her. The sleek white uniform of the NISB was in stark contrast to the black walls of the room. This particular colony served as a relic of a bygone time when the Sith Empire had ruled this quadrant of the Galaxy. Although her connection to the Sith had yet to be exposed, Ayra enjoyed the subtly behind using a place that had been used by them for an assortment of means far too extreme, or absurd to even think about.

Choosing to lean herself up against the wall Ayra lowered her gaze to Cain and said: "I am told that you have not been eating normal food. You look like you are dying. Why are you refusing food? Does your particular species require you to eat what you kill?"

 

[Cain Sevu]

Cain couldn't understand how she was still alive.

Outside of the fact her execution seemed like an inevitability, weeks without a proper "meal" had turned her from starved to skeletal. The hot meals shoveled into her cell with more and more frequency did nothing to subdue the real hunger threaded into her skin. Eventually she'd stop grazing altogether, only offering a disinterested sniff before letting the food rot in the corner of whatever cell they happened to be keeping her in.

Apparently that was enough to get to the attention of someone.

Brought to a sterile black room, Cain sat in total silence, chained and alone. It wasn't until a new face entered the room that she had anything other than the walls to look at. Her eyes struggled to focus on the woman, dilating and constricting like some broken camera lens. Cain only needed to see that blur of white to understand who she was dealing with.

Staring up at the woman from her position on the floor, her lips twitched after a prolonged moment of no response, almost as if she was struggling to form words.

"Yes." She eventually rasped, her voice uniquely raw and grating. Technically she didn't need to kill, but she certainly needed something alive with a sizable enough force signature to feed off of. That, however, proved rather difficult to communicate.

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: Cain Sevu

Darth Ayra pondered on the prisoner that was chained before her. What is she? Ayra had heard of a number of species that traversed the Galaxy that were so alien it was difficult to comprehend exactly where they came from. Before her incarceration on Coruscant the rumours from the darkest corners of space had whispered about the Bryn'adul and the horrors that had come for star systems on the furthest reaches of the Outer Rim Territories that often blurred and crossed over into Wild Space.

Was this person a relic of their invasion? Or, perhaps, she was some abomination? Ayra had also heard of varying fields of Science that could produce such a person. Pandeima had often experimented in the science of the dark side on herself producing forms and identities that Ayra had difficulty keeping up with. The more Ayra thought about it the more it became clear that perhaps this murderer was not some form of new species in of itself but merely the outcome of some genetic modification that had produced a new life form. The implications of this were both fascinating, and intriguing.

Lifting her hand to her wrist Ayra spoke into the intercom that hung there. "Bring in the prisoner." The doors of the interrogation room opened, and two Stormtroopers entered dragging with them an old man in his later years. He had been scheduled for a summary execution tomorrow, so upon the hypothesis that her captive required sustenance in the form of a live specimen, Ayra had made arrangements with the colony warden and persuaded him to help her test her theory.

The old man was unconscious and bond but still very much alive. Ayra walked around him to the back of the chair that Cain was tied up too and spoke as she released her. "Let's see how hungry you are, stranger. But I must warn you. If you try to attack me I will kill you. I will make it slow, and painful. You will rot in this prison for many years if I see fit. Only through me will you find salvation." The chains dropped from Cain's body and the victim laying before her laid prone for an assault.

 

[Cain Sevu]

Clearly having anticipated her response, Ayra was quick to bring in bait,

Cain watched as two stormtroopers towed in his limp body, still dressed in prison garb. He was unconscious from what she could tell, possibly drugged in order to be so. Faintly aware of Ayra walking behind her, she felt the restraints loosen from her wrist a moment later, finally allowing the full range of movement she'd been deprived of for so long.

Her hands flexed as Ayra delivered her stipulations.

The girl blinked, not seeming to feel any particular way about it. She had long accepted her place at the yoke of forces she wasn't capable of understanding. What was one more? If this woman could cater to her needs, she saw no reason to jeopardize that.

Instead of a verbal response Cain simply stood, her prison garment hanging loosely from her body as she regarded the situation before her. Measured steps took her to where the man laid and she kneeled at his side. With surprisingly little fanfare or blood, Cain simply rested a hand of his forehead, black veins snaking up her arm in response. The man startled awake with a gasp, but was quickly silenced as all color was bleached from his skin.

His eyes rolled back into his head and that seemed to be the end of it. A hilarious juxtaposition to carnage she'd thus far proved to be capable of. It was much, much easier when her prey didn't couldn't fight back.

The man's body went fully limp, while Cain on the other hand stood a bit straighter, her pale skin assuming a shade of color for the first time. She withdrew her hand, simply staring down at the husk she'd left behind

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: Cain Sevu

Ayra watched on, perplexed by what she was seeing, as Cain stood up and approached her victim. She watched as Cain drained the life out of the man and observed through the lens of the Force as Cain was brought back from the brink of death, and out of the hollowed husk that she had been mere moments ago, to a position of strength, and vibrancy. In this Ayra learned that through mere touch this person could kill another and essentially feed on their life force to strengthen her own. Simultaneously this woman was dependant on feeding upon victims to sustain her life. Usual forms of sustenance were not enough to neither satiate her hunger, nor sustain her in the usual way.

Both these strengths, and weaknesses were noted.

"You are Force-strong. Others live and breathe only say that you can use them to stay alive. What a fascinating person. Do you have a name, girl?"

 

[Cain Sevu]

The woman seemed unfazed by Cain’s little demonstration, leveling with her in a way no one had before. Where others had extended utter disgust and vitriol, Ayra extended only validation. She wasn’t an abomination, not a freak of nature- she was fascinating.

That was enough to get the girl to tilt her head over her shoulder, regarding the woman with miraculously clear eyes. Cain’s abilities were of some interest to her, that much was obvious.

She then asked after her name, to which the girl parted her lips and rasped out, “Cain.”

She couldn’t remember who exactly gave it to her, but nonetheless she carried the moniker like a pallbearer. From the murky depths of her memory, it was the only thing to shine through with relative clarity.

With renewed strength the girl rose to her feet and turned towards Ayra, her voice painfully scrapping through a demand of her own, “The chains… I don’t want them on me again.”

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: Cain Sevu

"That isn't entirely up to me," Darth Ayra lied. She could, of course, have Cain on a ship taking off from Stygeon Prime within the hour if she wanted too. But to achieve that Ayra would have to either use her abilities to persuade the colony warden to free the prisoner, or if he could not be persuaded, they would have to fight their way out. Then there was covering up the records of Cain ever being taken here to the prison colony. Although powerful in the Force Ayra was aware that she existed in an ethereal realm, where no matter how strong she was in the dark side, the unforeseen could occur. What if someone else in the NISB looked into these events? It would draw questions, scrutiny and attention Ayra did not want.

Yet this person before her was of use to her cause. Ayra would need killers in the network she was building in the efforts of the Work. As a follower of the dark side Ayra knew that a true, devout believer was to always risk catastrophe, and self-destruction in pursuit of one's goal. Although aware of the risks of helping and abetting a criminal, Ayra wasn't phased of the possible consequences.

"You have been found guilty of a series of murders in Lianna City. We are on a new planet called Stygeon Prime. This is where people are taken to die, Cain. You are being held here until the day comes for the Empire to execute you for your crimes."

 

[Cain Sevu]

Cain seemed to regard the news of her execution as unspectacular. She’d long since come to the conclusion her days here were numbered. Maybe mercifully so.

But then why had Ayra bothered to toy with her? The woman must’ve jumped through some measure of bureaucratic hoops in order to plate up a meal for Cain. There had to be a deeper motive besides morbid curiosity.

Cain stared blankly at the woman a moment as if nothing she’d said prompted a reply. Ayra agitated her senses, harboring the same miasma Cain felt within herself. She had zero reason or want to trust this woman. And yet she had in all likelihood saved her from the brink. Certainly not out of the kindness of her heart, but Cain would take whatever she could get.

“I will die before you can kill me if I don’t eat.” Cain ultimately answered, blunt as ever. Her gaze flitted down to the corpse at her feet in emphasis.

“Should I be expecting more of this?”

Alicia Drey

 

[Alicia Drey]

Tags: Cain Sevu

"Possibly. A lot of things can be arranged for you, Cain. Freedom. A meal. A ship. A life."

"What do you want?"