Distance Makes the Force Grow Stronger

[Aryn Teth]

Aryn Teth

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The Valley of the Dark Lords, Korriban, Esstran Sector, The Outer Rim Territories​

Interacting With: [member='Luyioth Dakwin'], [member='Taeli Raaf']​

The red haze of dust gradually began to clear around the X-wing Aryn had taken for himself as it touched down gently within the Valley of the Dark Lords. Surrounded by crumbling towers and ancient ruins, the red haze gradually began to settle as the Jedi slowly lifted the cockpit and stood from within his ship. He glanced briefly back towards the astromech slot, briefly lamenting the fact that he had deliberately left BB-3 back on Coruscant, opting to visit the ancient Sith world alone. The world had returned into the grasp of the Sith Empire, but their focus had been elsewhere as of yet, and he had been able to find a period where the Valley itself was empty whilst Sith Restoration teams worked elsewhere on the ancient world. Still, he'd not wanted to risk any discovery, and so figured that arriving alone was his best option.

Climbing down from the cockpit of his ship, he scanned the area around him, eyes drifting from statue to statue as he stood at the nexus between the tombs of the ancient Sith Lords. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, his hand subconsciously drifting downward to the holocron which rested gently upon his belt. After Telos he had learned more, but no where near enough of the exile to make any major progress. Yet as he stood there he could feel the dark side, the force, echoing across the ancient surface of Korriban, he could feel it pouring from the tombs and he knew he was drawing from it.

The fact that it was from the darkness didn't matter to Aryn at that point, he knew there was no light here except for himself, and so long as he didn't focus upon it, he knew he could use whatever he drew without tapping into darkness. Sighing, Aryn opened his eyes and began to step through the ancient valley, silence filling the area aside form the crunch of his feet against hard red stone. The ancient Sith Academy was run down and in immense disrepair, but the simple path towards it from the valley was clear, and so Aryn made his way up, into the heart of the darkness...

 

[Luyioth Dakwin]

Luyioth Dakwin

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Upper spires, Coruscant, Corusca Sector, the Core Worlds.
Interacting with: [member="Aryn Teth"].​

For a planet that looked so bleak from almost everywhere else, it was surprisingly picturesque from above. It was almost as if the rest of the planet bowed before the spires, which reached so far into the sky that even some of the clouds submitted below their summits. The skyline made an ideal backdrop for the dinner party: a quiet blanket of "sophisticated" music set over luxurious coats and complicated dresses. Luyioth, standing quietly to one side in her dark robes, spared a moment to look to her glass - almost as full as it was when she got it - before looking back over the crowd. If she, somehow, wasn't aware of what exactly the party was, they might have very well fooled her: these men and women, dressed to the likeness of corporate executives and business moguls, were so much more; even just skimming the crowd, she found the man responsible for a lions share of the piracy along the hyperlanes between Hutt Space and the Core Worlds. While these men and women were rich, the money certainly weren't from companies and investments: it was from crime.

She wasn't meant to be here. She wasn't even meant to be anywhere beyond Masterra. While Luyioth was careful to cover her tracks, Imperial Intelligence would never leave such a high profile meeting of crime lords and corporate sharks alone; and as long as that was the case, she couldn't begin to make her move. She skims over the crowd, looking out for a familiar face, to find it absent. They hadn't found anything yet - yet without any word from the hosts, they were certainly on the right track. It was on that thought, right on queue, that the familiar face popped into vision: and with a cordial exchange of nods, she began her way towards the penthouse private art gallery.

The door to the gallery was pressed shut behind her, a series of clicks and clanks singing that the door had been well and truly locked. An artificial fire burned on the far side of the room, shadowed a man adorned in crisp formal attire. To the right, a human woman with smoky eyes smoking a cigarra through a slender tube critically glared over the newcomer, while a rodian with shoulders broader than the art piece behind him leaned with arms crossed to the left.
"We found the mole, as your intelligence suggested." began the man on the far side of the room, turning to face Luyioth now. His gaunt and wrinkled face carried a faint aura of authority and dread. "Although exactly what the damage is, is left to question... but I assure you, this room is safe. Do you care to sit?"
​"Not particularly." Luyioth answered as she continued her own way forward, choosing to lower into one of the leather seats anyway. ​From her robes, she produced a dataslate which she set on the table and slid over towards the man. Taking it in hand, he spun it around and flipped it open, to then begin flicking through the pages stored within.
"So you're serious about this, then?" he mused, a sinister smirk coming across his face. A quiet tapping rang across the room as he read over the forms, coming from his tapping foot. He let out a quiet chuckle as he continued.

 

[Aryn Teth]

Aryn Teth

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Sith Academy, The Valley of the Dark Lords, Korriban, Esstran Sector, The Outer Rim Territories​

Interacting With: [member='Luyioth Dakwin'], [member='Taeli Raaf']​

The path up to the temple entrance was eerily quiet, and as he moved further towards the pyramid structure Aryn could feel the strength of the dark side echoing from the ancient place. The academy had been decimated and turned to rubble a thousand times since its creation, and yet it persisted. It was an abomination of the dark side, the force would not let the academy die, would not let it fade into obscurity, no matter how many times the Jedi pushed the Sith from this place or how many times they were purged from the galaxy, the Sith and this place would always persist. Stepping up to the door into the academy, Aryn ran a hand briefly over the sealed door. The entrance he'd found was ancient, the academy itself had been renovated some time after The Exile had been there, but this ancient part of the academy had been mostly untouched. Reaching forward, Aryn set his hand in the center of the door, pushing against the small stone plate as the creaking and grinding of stone echoed through the valley, the door slowly opening into the dark interior of the academy.

The dark side rushed out like a wave, as if it had been locked away in this ancient place for thousands of years and only now had gained its release. Stepping forward, Aryn's gaze flicked over the interior. It was dark, but enough light filtered through the ancient skylights to keep the rooms and hallways relatively safe to traverse. Each step of Aryn's echoed as he moved into the academy, walking through the long hallway up to the central chamber itself. Aryn fought back the urge to pull his lightsaber from his belt in caution, and even harder to fight the temptation to just turn around and leave. No Jedi alive that he knew would have been willing to accept or support Aryn's mission to Korriban, he knew well enough that most if not all Jedi would rather see the world lost to time before any force user set foot on its surface.

As he moved into the central chamber, Aryn could see the light growing dimmer, as if a shadow had come over the academy. It dimmed and dimmed, and before long Aryn stood in complete darkness. It lasted for only a moment, and as the light returned, Aryn could see clearly the outline of a comfortable leather seat in the center of the room, lavish and rich in a way that only a few people could afford it. And he saw the female figure sitting within it. He watched her closely, eyes lingering upon her face as it dawned upon him who he saw before him. A flash of anger ran through Aryn for a moment, but it was fought down much faster by curiosity which crossed his expression. What he had learned form the holocron on Telos had told him of bonds that worked in this way, but it was the last thing he had come to expect.

"Have you done this?" He asked plainly and clearly, his voice echoing through the empty and ancient halls. Best to get the obvious questions over with.

 

[Luyioth Dakwin]

Luyioth Dakwin

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Upper spires, Coruscant, Corusca Sector, the Core Worlds.
Interacting with: [member="Aryn Teth"].​

"Have you done this?"
The voice lingered in her ears, like a distant wisp. It was there, yet it was not; and as Luyioth looked over towards her right, she saw past the concerns of her own room and into the concerns of another. In that room, she saw a man - one that she might not have recognized, if it wasn't for his political stature. She could not see what was around him: only darkness, with the light too dim to make sense of his room. She remained silent as she looked towards the others in her own room, seeing that they could not see. With that, she stood:
"Keep the dataslate. Please excuse me for a moment: matters of mystics. I'll be back before you've finished reading through it." she parted as she turned towards the door, idly lifting one hand to throw the various locks open with a twirl of her fingers. The others in the room stiffened up, one even half-reaching for their weapon, before the elderly man reading through the dataslate simply rolled his hand with a 'hmph' - seemingly, enough of an action to permit it.

"To answer your question," Luyioth began as she pressed the door shut behind her, speaking quietly - as if to herself, "this is not of my doing. That begs the question - what have you done, Supreme Commander Teth?" Looking away from the door, Luyioth instead moved to look straight at her old foe. "It is difficult not to sense the dark from where you may be. Surely, the charismatic and suave, Jedi General Luke Teth, poster boy of the Galactic Alliance, has not fallen to the dark?" Admittedly, she took some amusement from taunting her old foe, but her tone took a much different resonance from their last encounter: it was more mature, more serious. Had she grown, or were the stakes higher now - or was it a mix of both?

 

[Aryn Teth]

Aryn Teth

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Sith Academy, The Valley of the Dark Lords, Korriban, Esstran Sector, The Outer Rim Territories​

Interacting With: [member='Luyioth Dakwin'], [member='Taeli Raaf']​

Aryn watched the figure of Luyioth curiously as she moved and spoke. He could not see or feel her surroundings, whoever she was talking to was lost on the Jedi as he watched her move, the Jedi simply moving as if to follow along with her image. There was no fear in Aryn as he watched Luyitoh, any fear the Jedi had once held for the dark-sider who had taunted and tortured him during his time captive among the Empire was long gone, he had shunned it and hidden it away behind his long training. Training which Luyioth had inadvertently sparked in the first place. Curiosity was all that he openly expressed, curiosity as to how the two of them had managed to appear to one another so suddenly, he had theorized that his location had something to do with it, yet Luyioth was of the Empire, not the Sith, as far as he knew, she had no connections to the place, though perhaps he had been wrong.

"Is taunting all you Inquisitors do, these days?" Aryn scoffed idly as he listened to the woman. At least he had learned that it was not her doing, he figured that had it been so, she would have likely not connected them in the middle of whatever meeting she had been involved in. No, whatever had come to bridge their minds was something else entirely. "I would love to stay and chat, but I do have something I need to go to finding, so I hope you don't mind." Aryn shrugged his shoulders, beginning to continue past the illusion and further into the depths of the academy in search of any sign for what he was looking for, all while he was forever aware of the constant presence of his old foe nearby. Whenever his gaze shifted over his shoulder, he could see her only a short distance away, as if she were following, the image of her perpetually cast behind him at all moments, as if the very force were fighting to keep the two of them within eachother's view.

 

[Luyioth Dakwin]

Luyioth Dakwin

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Upper spires, Coruscant, Corusca Sector, the Core Worlds.
Interacting with: [member="Aryn Teth"].​

"That was surprisingly humorless for you, Supreme Commander. Did you grow when I wasn't looking?" Luyioth mused, rocking her weight from the balls of her feet to her heels as she folded her arms. "...ah, well, I guess that's what politics does to you." she added with a vague whirl of her hand, before she shrugged and waved him off. "Carry on then." She crossed her arms as she leaned back against the wall, simply watching the familiar face press on through the wispy vision; and on, and on, and further on.

After giving it a time, she resigned with a sigh, unfolding her arms as she spoke again.
"You didn't answer my question: you didn't do this, or at least intentionally?" she pressed, now standing up as she continued: "We should not share a bond, as I am sure your masters have taught you. Although..." she lingered off there, half-lifting a hand towards her chin as she glanced awry, before lifting her head back up as a thought came to mind. "I can sense the dark is strong where you are - overwhelming, even. If the force is willing, then once you finish whatever duty calls a Jedi to a dark nexus, this will be over; so for the sake of both of us, be hasteful."

With that, she folded her arms once more: simply watching, waiting for reply - if any ever came.

 

[Aryn Teth]

Aryn Teth

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Sith Academy, The Valley of the Dark Lords, Korriban, Esstran Sector, The Outer Rim Territories​

Interacting With: [member='Luyioth Dakwin'], [member='Taeli Raaf']​

For the most part, Aryn continued to ignore the words of his old enemy, instead choosing to continue through the halls of the ancient temple for what he had come for. The presence of the Inquisitor, even by proxy, was distracting Aryn considerably regardless, and though he could feel the faintest hint of another presence somewhere within the temple, locating it, or narrowing down exactly what it was, was impossible for the Jedi as he moved along. Glancing over his shoulder then as he heard the Inquisitor speak up, Aryn offered only the most simple shrug of his shoulders as he continues along.

"Believe me, the last thing I have is any intention to see you again, I definitely did not do this." He explained rather plainly, not making any particular effort to hide the considerable venom in his voice. Still, she did have a point, he imagined the sooner he was done with what he was there for and could get offworld, the sooner that he would no longer have to deal with the overall irritating presence of the Inquisitor in the back of his mind. And so Aryn continued into the depths of the Academy, searching intently for any sign of the master who had come before as he moved through ancient and crumbling halls.

 

[Luyioth Dakwin]

Luyioth Dakwin

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Upper spires, Coruscant, Corusca Sector, the Core Worlds.
Interacting with: [member="Aryn Teth"].​

"Marvelous," she crisply replied, her tone abruptly shifting to something more hostile: "then stay quiet as long as you're going to stay there."

The doors to the hall pressed open once more. Lifting both of her hands as she strode through, Luyioth took the door and pushed it shut behind her, the locks snapping back into place as she stayed astride.
"Done reading the stars?" came the other woman in the room, a less-than-impressed scowl sitting on her face.
"Enough." scolded the older man, glancing over the last of whatever drew his attention in the datapad before he casually shoved it away. He looked up to Luyioth as he leaned back, folding his hands over one another as he sat the side of one foot atop the other knee. As she sat once again, her lips contoured as she suppressed the dread kneading on her stomach; just as soon as she had regained her secrecy, whatever power-that-be had decided to throw it away at the most dire- "You know nobody has got away with a stunt like this? Swiping the Galactic Emperor's goodies out from right under his nose?"

Just like that, the secret was out. Taking a breath in, Luyioth forced the vision of Aryn in the corner of her eye further away.
"Nobody who has attempted it was an Inquisitor with an invitation." she rebutted, crossing her arms over as she leaned back. Silence briefly sat between the two, before the older man spoke up once again:
"So what do you need from us? And what can you pay for it?" he asked. Leaning forward, Luyioth reached out to the dataslate before swiping a few pages askew and then pushing it back towards him.
"You probably saw this? There's a number of problems that comes between me and what we both are after..."

 

[Aryn Teth]

Aryn Teth

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Sith Academy, The Valley of the Dark Lords, Korriban, Esstran Sector, The Outer Rim Territories​

Interacting With: [member='Luyioth Dakwin'], [member="Taeli Raaf"]​

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Merely rolling his eyes at the woman's comment, Aryn seemed particularly content to continue in his search of the academy himself. The other voices around Luyioth echoed in his mind, though he couldn't see who or where they came from when he glanced over his shoulder towards her figure. He paused for a moment, watching her as he heard the voices speak, what was the woman up to? Questions ran through his mind, unsure of her intentions or goals now as the other voice progressively faded from his mind. Even Luyioth's own image and voice began to fade into the distance, as if whatever connection had been built up between the two of them was progressively shunned and forced away to nothing.

Narrowing his gaze to where Luyioth had previously stood, Aryn eventually sighed and forced the memories of her presence from his mind. He instead needed to focus on the reason he had come here, without the distraction of Luyioth's presence, the darkness that had filled the academy for so long seeped back into his recognition, pulling and gnawing at him as he shifted his gaze around and continued further into the belly of the beast.

It wasn't so long until he could not something, a faint light deeper within in one of the deepest chambers of the academy. There were no bodies as he entered the chamber, but when he reached out he felt it. By now he had grown familiar to the echo of the Exile, she had been here, yet nothing remained, and for a few long moments he waited in silence, the holocron on his belt refusing to activate for some reason unknown to the Jedi.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli Raaf​

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Private Study, Horizon Station, Unknown System, Wild Space​

Interacting With: [member="Aryn Teth"]​

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A dangerous world to travel to, Korriban was. Fully controlled by the Sith, an academy teaching the next generation of acolytes daily, beasts all designed to kill those hapless enough to wander into their territory. It would be hazardous for anyone to travel to, but a Jedi... it was even more so. When Aryn had informed her that Korriban was his next destination, well arrangements had been made in advance. It was she that had diverted the archaeological teams to a site elsewhere on the world, she who had ordered the students of the academy to undertake tests, claiming the Lady of Secrets was searching for a new apprentice. All of it designed for one purpose: to lure the new Supreme Commander to a first test of sorts.

Meditating in her private study, the dark side whispering to her of the intruder within the lower levels of the academy. His search for Lonna Vash, his use of the Exile's holocron... it was all a beacon for her, experiences for her to draw upon.

Yellow eyes blinked, a cruel smile dancing on her lips... and she began her spell.

Iurzni ri tizota iw ri Ari iw Nuniji, rirmi jiso nikisosuti, rirmi jiso nuniji. Iurzni ri tizota iw ri Ari iw Nuniji mazo aniyia kiha zinoti jiso azuria.

On Korriban, the holocron of the Exile on Aryn's belt would start to glow... but not the normal blue. A blood red shine arose around it, the dark side starting to writhe around him. It would almost be tangible, the shifting shadows, the crackling of raw power in the air, voices whispering from both everywhere and nowhere.

The shadows would twine together a few feet away from the Jedi, coalescing into a humanoid shape... if one could call it that. There would be the snap hiss of a red lightsaber, revealing the figure before him now. Cracked and blistered skin, a stitched together caricature of a man.

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I... am Darth Sion... the Lord of Pain. Many Jedi have tried to kill me, but none have succeeded. I have killed and been killed, and still I fight. Experience the true power of the dark side.​