I Was a Kiffar Once

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

He gave the girl a wry chuckle. He could teach, well perhaps he couldn't teach that particular skill. It was of course drawn from the most negative of emotions and was inherently a skill of Sith Magic, not something that everyone could learn, but he could try to teach. His apprentices in the past had never been interested in Sith Magic, mostly because their own nature meant they were more inclined towards the neutrality of the force, rather than the Darkside.

His smile disappeared slightly, an inquisitive look forming on his face. “Bound? How?”

It seemed there was an extreme interest in that, enough to ignore the rumbling that took place only a few hundred feet away.

He didn't respond to her other comments, perhaps she could learn, and perhaps he would teach her by the end of this little adventure. First he would find out more, and perhaps kill whatever it was that was stomping around.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

She halted in her wary advance of the doors and looked back at Soliael. Muddy-brown brows knit together in thought as she grasped for the right words in basic. "I tracked him. But each time I brush where he was, I wanted more and more to kill him. I found him and he stabbed me with his blood. See?"

She lifted the bottom of her coat to show Soliael the scar on her midriff from the nautolan's tainted knife. Odium's blood combined with the seed he had already planted with psychometry had created a warped and twisted bond between the two.

"I went to track him again and end him when he was weak. I couldn't. I am his and he,"she faltered, thoughts flashing to his memories that were so muddled and mixed with her own of Rosa and Isolda, "is." Jaw clenched at her own frustration and her warring obedience.

"Understand?" She tugged the coat to conceal her skin once more.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

Soliael stopped for a second, inspecting the scar.

It was very likely that he could break that link, albeit it might end in the girls death. He was one of the most powerful users of Sith Magic in the entire galaxy, he had learned from countless scrolls and the best teachers the field had to offer. If he knew the specifics, he very likely could break the bond, but then again why should he? He had no idea who Odium was, nor did he really care to find out.

Still, a sense of something pulled at him, loyalty to species? Perhaps. He was hardly Kiffar, hadn't followed the traditions or visited the world in nearly a century, yet there was something that called to him about this. In the end he simply shrugged.

“I will teach you.” Soliael said. “Three tricks, one condition.”

The Sith Lord looked over towards the doorway, the ground seemed to be rumbling now, shaking a tiny bit as whatever was near was coming close.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

She studied him closely as he thought, as if she could picture the mental kegs of his mind turning. Her attention was diverted to some heavy breathing on the other side of that door followed by a significant bulge and BANG. She dropped to her knee, peeled off her glove and pressed her palm flat against the floor.

"What condition?" Voice remained steady even as her eyes flashed.

The door bulged again and she stood quickly, sharp gaze turning to Soliael. "We must survive this first." In one fluid motion, the bow at her back was in her hands, an arrow locked on the string as a very large and hungry-looking rancor crashed through the doors before them.

She wasn't as worried about the rancor. She was more worried about the two giant-weavers behind it. They would control this fight.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

Soliael turned away from the girl for a moment, glancing towards the creatures for only a few seconds before regarding the girl again. “Survive?”

He sounded perplexed, as if the creatures were little more than a trio of fluffy bunnies. The Rancor in the middle roared, its screeching whale shook the very hall, dust lifting and stones quaking as pure unadulterated anger raged from the creature. The False God turned towards the creature, as if that should have been enough response to send it scurrying away.

“Kill the Rancor.” His voice firmed, taking a strong stance as once again the Darkside of the force began to reverberate around him.

Power filled him, and as if sensing it one of the spiders charged. It jumped and gated on its eight legs, skittering at impossible speeds, its poison mandibles snapping and jawing at the Sith Lord. He dashed to the side, his hand coming up and his fingers snapping. A wall of power razed from his hand, a dense thicket of the Darkside.

The Spider Lurched, trying to jump away, but as the wall grazed it its flesh instantly turned to dust. Hard carapace burning away and inner structure faltering into nothingness.

Six of its eight legs were sheared off in an instant, and like a lump the weaver fell to the ground, still alive. Its brother hissed, spitting thick webs towards Soliael.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Well, he did not seem worried.

Waist pivoted as she changed her aim away from the spider to the rancor, letting the steel-tip arrow fly for one of its eyes even as its roar flattened the material of the winter clothes against her muscled-form. She lunged out of the spider's path and released another arrow at the angry-rancor. Its footsteps shook the ground and it waved its head in anger as one of the arrows lodged in its eye. Weapons slid across the floor and wood splintered as shelves took the brunt of its off-kilter body.

Its clawed-hand lashed toward her. She had no time to check on Soliael even as she realized she didn't need to. She lunged forward, feeling the rancor's razor-claws slice down the back of her jacket. Her quiver and arrows scattered across the chamber. She ditched the bow and took out two Nagai-daggers, using the darkside to make her faster as she launched them for its other eye.

A second howl of pain shook the room.

With two bounds, she pushed off her booted-feet and went to jump for the rancor's back. A wrenching sensation in her gut let her know her timing was just off. The back of its clawed hand whacked her mid-flight, sending her body crashing against one of the walls.

CRACK-THUMP.

Bone snapped in her arm as she hit the wall and fell in a pile on the floor.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

Soliael had no time to register anything that was happening, the second Weaver had begun to move in on him, and it was smarter than its twin.

Thick lines of silk shot out from its thorax, pushing forward and catching Soliael unaware. The massive hunk of string struck his arm, catching it and knocking him off kilter. The webbing struck home against one of the pillars, pinning the Sith Lord in place with a sudden jarring strike. His eyes opened wide, and his muscles flexed against the silk. He tried to pull free, but failed. A loud hiss alerted him to the Weavers snapping jaws.

It's mandibles came down in a harsh bite, striking towards Soliael and only barely missing him as he rolled his body over his pinned arm.

It took the beast only a second to recover, its hissing mandibles backing up and moving for a second strike. With a groan, Soliael wrenched his arm. A loud pop could be heard, and the limb went limp, dislocated. The False god twisted himself in a way normally impossible, dodging the second strike of the mandibles.

A loud resounding finger snap rang out as Soliael brought himself up. Another wave of energy blasted from his palm, surging up and into the Weaves skull.

It penetrated through carapace and skin, once again disintegrating everything in its path. The Weaver fell to the floor, its brain essentially gone. With a sigh of relief, the False god relaxed a little, only to instantly pay for his crimes. The second Weaver had dragged itself over behind Soliael and just as he finished its twin, the huge spider stabbed its poison jaws directly into Soliaels shoulder.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

A glob a hot, drool landed on her hair, jarring her awake from her foggy-like state. The putrid, hot breath of the beast blasted her face. It was blind but it could still smell her out. Her weapons were gone. Head turned to the side of the floor and she saw the sith lord wasn't doing so well, either.

She stood, one arm limp and mangled at her side, back pressed against the semi-shattered wall. The rancor roared and reared its head back, teeth hitting the spot just above her head. Her own savage, growl met the beasts as she summoned a spear of midnight black with the force and jammed the invisible weapon upward, through its chin.

A gurgle of pain and possible surprise left its throat as it staggered backwards and slumped to the ground.

"Soliael," she yelled, hoping to get the spider's attention off its victim as she sprinted across the debris-strewn floor of the chamber. The darkside swirled at her palm as she created a second spear and hurled it at what was left of the giant-weaver at Soliael's back. It too, fell back. Picking up the alchemized-sword from earlier, she didn't hesitate to decapitate the eight-legged beast before appearing at Soliael's side, smaller frame dwarfed by his.

"You never game me your condition," she spoke surprisingly gently as she offered him her good arm.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

With a scowl, Soliael reached back and tore one of the mandibles that had stuck in his shoulder from his skin. A prickling feeling ran across his skin as he felt the poison rush through his veins, his body quickly trying to fight off the invading agent by its own means. He closed his eyes for a moment, focusing. He drew upon the darkside of the force, letting it course through him and eradicate the agent that had bitten into his flesh.

When his eyes opened black spots drifted across his iris, flecks that obscured his vision.

He stared into Quinn's eyes, the black specs obscuring her face to him. His scowl slowly dissipated into a tight line, his face drained of color slightly as the Darkside ate away the last of the poison. Around the wound on his back goosebumps began to appear, and a slight purple ooze dampened his shirts.

“You use it to kill.” Soliael said. “Your Master, the Jedi, I don't care who. You do not waste it. Whatever I teach you, you will kill with it.”

There was something to that statement, a bite, a challenge. Not everyone wanted to kill, but those who learned Sith Magic should. That had always been his thoughts. Those that learned Sith Magic were doomed to wallow within the deepest pits of the Darkside. They above all gave into despair and death, they above all grasped the truest extent of the Darkside, and it was they that were destined to kill, conquer, and rise.

Anyone who learned it, had to use it.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

She gave the purple-ooze a wide-berth. She flinched tightly when he mentioned killing her master but let it pass. "I am Kiffar warrior. Killing is part of survival."

Pain lanced across her features as the muscles in her broken-arm tightened. She didn't cry out.

"You...will not die?" Discomfort tinged her tone of curiosity as her eyes drifted from the purple ooze and back to his paled-face.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

“No.” Soliael said as he reached back and touched the open wound. His fingers came back slathered in the poison, and his frown told him annoyance. A sudden bright red flash lanced from the arm that was still stuck against the wall, the tight webbing burning away in an instant. He pressed his shoulder back into his arm, pushing the socket back into place, and then finally took Quinns hand to help himself up.

The False god looked down at the two Weavers.

He had been overconfident once again. Ever since the TehcnoVirus he had been too sure of himself, had become complacent. He had thought nothing could harm him, and anything that did would die shortly thereafter. It was a dangerous attitude to have, and it was one that he needed to rid himself of, lest he find himself dead on some random planet.

“There are few poisons in the galaxy that a Sith would succumb to.” He dropped the mandible onto the ground as the last of the venom dripped form his wound. “Weaver venom is not one of them.”

Soliael knew this thanks to his mother, she had made sure his edification in the world of poisons and venoms went far. Such a thing was normal when you were the son of a Beast Tamer. His eyes flashed down at the girl. “Your arm?”

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Black-spots began to creep into her vision as fatigue and the growing ache in her arm set in. Mocha-flesh was already swollen beneath the sleeve of her winter-coat from broken bone and internal bleeding. She stubbornly blinked the spots away as she tried to focus on Soliael.

"The bone is shattered," she twisted her torso gingerly to show him. "But there is no poison to draw out." It was clear she did not understand what his goal was or that it was possible to heal with the darkside. The black spots speckled her vision once more and she swayed slightly on her feet.

"What poisons fatal?" Her voice sounded far away, almost disembodied. Gravity suddenly felt like too much as she began to sink to her knees on the chamber floor, next to the discarded mandible.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

Soliael watched the girl fall for a moment, observing her.

He wasn't a master of healing, not even really a journeymen in the skill. His sister had been one of the greatest Healers in the galaxy, she could have knit back together a dead body and brought it back to life. Soliael was not so well taught in the technique, but a broken arm, fatigue? Such things were not beyond him. He reached down, touching one of the spiders as he did so.

The remaining life from the Weaver began to drain, it hissed and screeched and its life began to pour into Quinn. Life ran through him, a conduit of energy that fell into Quinn.

Her wound would heal...albeit painfully.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Bones grew and snapped back into place beneath flesh. Tattered muscled re-knit. A sharp inhale through clenched teeth was the only outward signal made of her pain. Pain was not a foreign concept to the tattooed girl.

Palm pressed flat against the chamber floor as she steadied herself. The pain collected in her senses and she channeled it through the darkside into raw power. With one last snap in her arm that righted its odd angle, she released the pain in the form of earth-bending. The chamber floor rumbled beneath them as the foundation hissed. Spidery cracks erupted from Quinn as the epicenter and traveled outwards, beneath Soliael's booted feet to the base of the farthest walls.

The black spots cleared from her vision and she hunched over for a moment longer, breathing hard. Flexing her fingers, she looked up to the sith master. "You warn me next time." She pushed herself to stand and tipped her chin to the doors leading deeper into the fortress. "You can claim what you have come for."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

“I intend to.” Soliael said quietly.

He hadn't even received a thank you, how rude. Smiling Soliael made it to the doors the monster had come from first, though he watched the girl with a careful eye. The thing that Soliael had come here for wasn't well known, in fact it was likely one of the rarest and most overlooked treasures one could actually find. Compared to other things in this fortress, it may pale in comparison, but to Soliael, it was important.

“Your earlier questions. The poisons.” Soliael said as he walked through the doorway into a massive set of stairs. “Synox Venom is deadly to even the most powerful Sith. Quell Toxin, and a few others. Of course some are unknown even to me, but generally most are harmless.”

That wasn't exactly true, but he wasn't the most focused right now. The stairs they were headed down were ornate as could be and large tapestries hung on the wall depicting the slaying of Jedi and the killing of innocents.

It was all very...Sith.

The room at the bottom of the stairs was not a treasure room, or anything of the sort. It was instead completely bare. Four walls, and nothing else.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

She regarded him just as carefully as he regarded her. She rolled her shoulder tentatively as she tread down the stairs, mentally filing away the poison names for later. Tattooed-face skimmed over the sith-like decorations, more concerned with what would be ahead. She thought ornate things were a waste of purpose and resources.

She knew she would find another piece of what she needed for Odium here, something that would curb his hunger.

She had to find it.

Dagger slipped into her palm as they entered the seemingly empty room. Slender-fingers ran along the outer wall as she checked the perimeter, though she was careful not to put Soliael at her back. "What are you here for?"

She faced him from the opposite side of the small room.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

“A trinket.” Soliael said with a smile.

That was all the answer she would receive. There was sure to be a wealth of treasure within in this fortress, Sith Alchemy wrought amulets, swords, daggers, and other things. This place had remained untouched for thousands of years, he was sure that what he sought was still here, and whatever the girl was here for was likely similarly still here.

“And you?” He said closing his eyes and reaching out with his senses. “What is it that you seek?”

Quickly the False God found what he was looking for, the feint sense of darkness that marked artifacts of the damned. He smiled, and then turned away from the girl and towards one of the far walls. His hand moved up, and he snapped his fingers. The air shimmered and changed again, warping and bending in an instant.

A rolling wave of red moved forward from his palm, clashing with the wall and instantly turning it to dust.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

She blinked when the wall disappeared. It opened up into a rounded-tunnel that curved beyond what she could see into the darkness. She pulled a lighter from her pocket, thumb cocking the flame open. She paused next to Soliael before stepping forward.

"A piece of a bigger puzzle."

Eyes met his in challenge. He knew she would call him out on his cryptic answer if he called her out on hers.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Quinn Vos"]

He didn't ask.

Though so far he had rather enjoyed Quinn's company, he didn't need to hear her life story. Stretching his senses far out into the tunnel before them he could feel what he was looking for, he could sense the other treasures calling to him. He smiled slightly, then looked down at his companion.

“It's at the end of this tunnel.” His voice was sure, but he knew that something was off.

They wouldn't make it that easy, they wouldn't just put a long tunnel at the end of a secret room. That made absolutely no sense to him. The Sith were more clever than that, at least he really liked to think so. The frown on his face quickly disappeared and he shrugged, taking a few steps into the darkness of the tunnel.

He didn't seem worried by the lack of light.

 

[Quinn Vos]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

She moved with the sure-footing of someone who was used to moving in the dark. Feet splashed as they found the floor suddenly wet. Through the flickering fire-light, she could see another twist in the tunnel.

She took another step and staggered as the tunnel turned into a thick, muddy-marsh. She was sinking in a bog. Soliael was no longer at her side or anywhere to be seen.

"Soliael!" She grunted and tried to twist free. But it wasn't a physical challenge. She and Soliael had walked into a powerful sith illusion that would keep them trapped within their own worst nightmare.