He wanted to do more?
For the second time, Cora had been caught off guard by Malum's earnestness. He never quite fit the picture of the other Sith she'd fought; the majority had been bloodthirsty, cruel, and violent. That wasn't to say that he couldn't be capable of the very same, but why-
Why did he care at all?
There had been no shared trials, nothing to link them personally that she'd been aware of. They'd first met on the battlefield, both apprentices in the respective disciplines. Now they found themselves here - Jedi Knight and Sith Lord, respectively - locked in a battle that seemed to be more about their sour, confusing feelings than a galactic conflict that was bigger than them both. Which begged the question again;
why did either of them care at all?
It seemed that Malum didn't know, either.
Maybe they saw themselves in eachother. Both scions of noble houses, both living under weighty expectations that they were hesitant to embrace fully.
The next clash left her face, grim as it was, bathed in oscillating flickers of blue and crimson. Her eyes lidded, her voice somber, almost
gentle.
"You don't need to carry the weight of the galaxy on your shoulders, Malum. Who told you that you needed to?"
She couldn't yet tell if it was arrogance or his version
nobelisse oblige. That thought collapsed as he broke her guard, forcing her several, stumbling paces back. A sheared blonde lock floated between them, alight in flame from Malum's Sith sword. It drifted to the ground moments later, a crinkled, blackened husk.
Inferior. A coward.
He'd finally hit a true sore spot - not necessarily the insults to her character, but
Ukatis. Her jaw clenched, teeth gritting together behind sealed lips.
"All my life, noblemen have insisted on what I was meant to be."
The Force shifted around Cora as she drew in a heavy breath and steadied herself. A practiced serenity neutralized her features. Ukatis had simultaneously been what drove her forward and what held her back. Like a cruel lover, she couldn't leave. It was an
obsession.
Her free hand rose, palm outward, cradling a ray of light. A sunbeam in the dark, tortured atmosphere of the hall.
"What gives you the right, Malum of House Marr?"
A wash of concentrated Light burst towards the noble Sith, unrelenting, seeking to burn away the Dark.
Darth Malum of House Marr