Private Ghosts Of The Past

[Aliris Tremiru]

She tested her leg, briefly. The burning pain that came with it was enough to dissuade any attempt at running. Aliris frowned, turning her gaze back up towards the masked man. He at least stopped trying to cut her down, but the threat wasn't something she wanted to test. So rather than bite back, she just grimaced and nodded.

"Aliris Tremiru."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

For a moment the man stood still and seemed to merely be processing the information, his posture straightening slightly. Then, without warning or hesitation, his clenched fist punched a sizable dent into the nearby wall as he took a deep breath. "Aliris Tremiru." His tone was strange, resigned and perhaps slightly exasperated.

Alisteri rolled his shoulders and took a step back to steady himself and regain his composure before nodding. "Yes. I do know your family. Or, one member of it at any rate. I was under the impression, given your estate, that all of you had perished in one form or another." One might call the response cordial if it didn't sound so guarded. "So what is an apparently living member of a supposedly dead Sith noble family doing with a bunch of two-bit cultists with drab robes and awful interior decorating skills?"

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

He knew them. Someone actually knew them. If not for the current pain she might've actually smiled. She wasn't just chasing shadows and rumors, there was actually information on them. They were nobility on Dromund Kaas. But she didn't smile. No, she kept her expression as still as she could.

"I came to steal the holocron back. They didn't think twice about who I was when I put on the cloak."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri scoffed at the remark, finding it very unsurprising given what he had seen of the cult so far. They didn't exactly seem to have the best recruitment and initiation methods from what he could tell, he doubted that they even knew of Aliris's apparent Force Sensitivity. "Steal it back is an interesting choice of words." He noted as his gaze drifted back to the holocron in her grasp. "Is that artifact one from your family then? If so then you may need to be more cautious than usual with it, I know of another that could be potentially disastrous if used incorrectly."

The legacy of the Tremiru family, at least from what he knew, seemed to be one of danger and precarious relics indeed. If the First had found a way to continue on her life beyond her original body then he had little doubt that others in the family may have done something similar with the holocron.

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

"That's what the trail led to. I don't actually know if it is for certain or not. But you do know, don't you? What else do you know? Who's Alina? What happened to our home, our family?"

Pain was an afterthought now. Fear, too. This was the first time in all her life she actually found someone with real information.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Before Alisteri could begin to answer what he could of the questions, truthfully he wasn't even sure how to approach such a subject at the moment, his commlink clicked to life and interrupted his thoughts. :"Knight Inquisitor, the last of the cultists have been cleared out. A handful of them saw reason and have surrendered, and another few have been captured with some injuries. Shall we execute them?":

The masked man clicked his tongue and glanced back at Aliris for a moment before tapping on his helmet's commlink. :"Take them into our custody and give the wounded enough care to live. Interrogations are in order, just in case this isn't their only hideout.": He didn't bother waiting for the confirmation, instead turning his attention to the wound in her leg. "Hm, well that's problematic. How well do you handle pain young Tremiru? Cauterization may be for the best at the moment, until I can get you some proper supplies."

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

He didn't answer, and that brought quite the frown to her face. The whole reason Aliris was here with this cult was to find answers about who her family was. Grant it, as he spoke up and reminded her that she was still bleeding pretty badly, she grimaced. Right.

".. Well enough. The Ashlan's wanted to make sure their cadets would be ready to fight Sith. .. Just make it quick, I guess."

To her credit she put on a hard expression and spoke with a mostly level voice. Mostly. There was a tremble in her hands, hidden in her voice. Pain wasn't something she was afraid of, but she wasn't impervious to it.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Although the comment about the Ashlans certainly caught his interest, Alisteri chose to save such a topic for a later time when neither of them had the possibility of bleeding out on the floor. He knelt down next to the young Tremiru and grabbed her ankle with one hand to keep her leg still while the other brought his lightsaber near the wound. "Please do your best to keep still, it's been awhile since I've had to do this." He was hardly ever in the back lines with the wounded these days after all, too busy in the front instead.

Without too much delay he carefully raised the red blade until it just barely touched the wound, pulling it back quickly before any jerking or other movements caused it to go deeper into her skin than the surface level. The masked man briefly inspected the quick work before deactivating his lightsaber and clipping it onto his belt as he stood. "I suppose for the moment you had better act like a prisoner, wouldn't want the troops getting suspicious now would we?"

Not that it mattered really, the Inquisition troopers would hardly speak up over one prisoner. "Now, can you walk on your own or will you require assistance?"

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

Keep still.

That she could d- Nope. As much as she tried to keep a straight expression and not cry out, she absolutely did. A short yelp, thankfully for a short moment. Any longer and she probably would've broken down into sobs. Aliris blinked back the tears shortly after, cleared her throat. Stood as best she could. At least she wasn't bleeding, but it wasn't going to help her walk. Which meant she was going to have to follow his lead.

Damn.

"Do prisoners often get help walking?"

She flashed a grimaced smile. Trying to put on a brave face at least.

"I'll be fine, I think."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri said nothing of the yelp nor the brief struggle as Aliris hauled herself to her feet, his gaze shifting from her wounded leg to her expression. Even her smiled reminded him of her, a sight that he had to quickly turn away from before he stared for too long. He plucked the discarded robe from the floor and draped it over her shoulders before grabbing ahold of one of her arms, giving a secured grip to outside viewers and offering a slight bit of support for walking at the same time.

It would have to do for now, until they were away from possible prying eyes. "Come now, we'll take it easy until we reach the soldiers."

The masked man began a gradual and hesitant pace, hoping to limit any discomfort that his 'prisoner' would be in as much as possible. No sense in causing any further damage after all. "We won't know who or what that holocron belonged to until we crack it open I'm afraid, and parley with whatever is keeping its secrets. Easier said then done but if the both of you are of Tremiru make then it may be lenient." The Tremiru family itself was a much longer story and one that he only knew so much of.

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

"Easy is easy to say." She muttered angrily under her breath. Pain always made her plenty angry. And a burn was probably one of the worse ways to feel pain. She let out an annoyed huff as she pulled on the cloak and sort of leaned against him as they walked. Well, she more limped than anything, with every step leading to a wince. That wasn't fun at all. She still had the holocron at least, so worth it, right?

"What do you mean? I thought holocrons just had information in them, but you're talking like it's alive?"

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Well, yes and no. It's...complicated." The Sith Knight was reminded of his own holocron as he tried to explain what he meant, a holocron that oddly enough another Tremiru had helped him retrieve. "Often times a holocron has a sort of personality to it, a guardian meant to safeguard the secrets within. These can tend to be more or less apparent depending on the nature of the holocron itself and its creator. The more personal the holocron the more personality that the guardian will usually have."

There were always exceptions of course, but admittedly he lacked a diverse experience in such artifacts. Much to his chagrin. "They tend to have a sort of...will regardless. The Force itself is often synonymous with life, so it only makes sense that something keeping the secrets of it is somewhat alive itself."

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

"Oh."

Did that mean..? Aliris felt herself smile, even through the pain. If this was a Tremiru artifact, then there would be someone she could talk to. Someone who knew everything. Family, even. If only a copy, but still. It was closer than she'd ever gotten so far. The smile didn't last of course, especially as another limping step sent pain once more up through her leg. Brought back a deeper frown to her face.

"When do we find out?"

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"You'll have to get it open first, which depending on the holocron could be as easy as shooting lightning at it or by undertaking some sort of trial. The only way to know is to try really." There were numerous possible ways to go about unlocking a holocron but to his knowledge they all required the consent of the guardian regardless. "Sometimes a holocron will even unlock itself. I've heard tales of Jedi being tempted by such artifacts in order to try and twist them into a suitable student of them. We'll know more about this one in particular once we can access it without fear of someone coming along to discover us."

While Alisteri did trust the forces of the Inquisition and Tsis'Kaar the most out of the many that comprised the ranks of the Sith Order, there were simply some things better kept hidden. The last thing he needed was someone prying into why he had not only spared a 'prisoner' but had also 'lost' the holocron that they were searching for in the process. "What do you know of your family and yourself Aliris? You mentioned those wretched crusaders earlier."

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

"That sounds.. Complicated." And dangerous, if there was a problem with the guardian itself. Or whatever this holocron held. Then, her expression turned bitter. Resentful. Talking about the Ashlan's was the last thing she wanted to do, but lying wasn't going to get her anywhere good. Not with this person.

"Just that our estate was burned. And the vault was looted. The Ashlan's didn't want me to know who I was. Tried to raise me as one of their Knights or whatever. .. All I knew was I was an orphan until I found where my family used to live. Then they tried to put me in a mind flayer."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"It can be yes." Alisteri had little else to say about such things, artifacts in general tended to be fickle things and holocrons were the most complex of them all. At least of the ones that he had encountered anyway. If the bitter expression was caught by the masked man then he said nothing of it, focusing instead on keeping the pair of them moving down the hall.

"Typical Jedi defilers. My condolences and apologies that you were subjugated to such heresy, had I known that a Tremiru still drew breath at the time then I would have offered you passage off of Dromund Kaas when I fled it myself. Truthfully I am unsure what exactly happened to your estate, things were blurry and chaotic in the waning hours of the war. If I had to guess, Alina must have gotten herself into some trouble." A trait that he seemed to share with her.

"Alina was...a good friend of mine. She was a Sith, stronger and more determined than most of us Acolytes in those days. She ascended to the head of the Tremiru manor after killing her mother, but then...well the next thing I knew your estate was ruined and I believed that she was dead at the time."

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

Aliris was quiet then, for some time, as they walked. The way he spoke, she was already drawing conclusions from it. A reality she didn't want to have to face on her own. Which was the reality that she was, in fact, on her own.

"She's dead now, isn't she. All of them?"

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

There was no response from the masked man, if one ignored the slight dip of his head anyway. Yet the remark didn't stop him in his tracks like it would have some time ago when the wound was still fresh, instead he simply kept trudging forward down the hallway without much else to say for the moment. It didn't take long for the hall to open up and reveal a squad of soldiers investigating and searching rooms in what appeared to be a form of dormitory, although they were quick to snap to attention as the Sith passed them.

Alisteri didn't hesitate or pause as he walked past them with Aliris at his side. "I have a prisoner I wish to interrogate personally, I trust that you all can handle confiscation and prisoner transport duties on your own." That was enough for the soldiers it seemed, as their attention quickly returned to the rooms around them.

He waited until they were out of sight from the squad to finally stop for a moment and regard the other Sith once more. "How is your leg holding up?"

Aliris Tremiru

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

Her gaze fell to the floor as she limped alongside him. So there was no family to look forward to finding. Just her. And the relics. .. No, no. Maybe the relics could lead her to some hidden hold out for her family. They must be in hiding. They still had to be alive. She didn't even notice they were passing through his guards as she staved off the loneliness that she was adamantly denying existed. She would not be the last.

"It hurts. But not as much as before. .. Do I have to keep walking?"

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Unless you want to be carried then yes, we should be near the exit now so it's not that much farther to walk." Alisteri normally wasn't one to bother taking prisoners but with his orders he knew that at least one of the transports would have moved closer to the entrance in order to receive the surviving cultists. He still had to figure out exactly what to do with the actual prisoners from today, but that was a matter that he could handle when he didn't have an injured Tremiru at his side.

"My apologies for lacking medical aid, I don't carry such things myself." He didn't need them after all, better to leave that to the medics.

Aliris Tremiru