I was designed. [Chiasa]

[Disciple]

He thinks I'm stupid. The group is silent. I am alone. Resonation allows me some access to the cameras - they are the only thing I can reach from where he has left me. He has brought someone here. Someone he thinks will help, perhaps. Or, more accurately, someone who will perform a function for him. Someone who will understand the consequences of not listening.

Someone... with Sith experience.

I know nothing of this man, this... red-skinned devil. I know he is no longer red skinned. The Force, I know the Force. He knows it better. I understand time, the laboriously slow turning of that immense wheel.

He knows it better.

His mind is an enigma, his motives unclear. Why he has me here I do not understand. Why he has brought the Twi'lek here... I think I understand.

The cameras show a body. A droid. Perhaps he wishes to implant me within it. I am unsure. He knows better.

I need time to think, time to reach a conclusion. Time he will not provide. But perhaps the Twi'lek will provide it for me. The camera pans at my command, the alien stirring as the sedatives wear off. She is in the bowels of a place no one has ever returned from. A ship in the void, known as the Game Over. I've accessed the security logs. I heard someone shout that phrase here before, many centuries ago when he realized the end was nigh.

Perhaps she will realize it too.

She stirs.

I wait. The Sith smirks.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

This was shaping up to be a very bad day.

When you have a seventy million credit bounty on your head and one of the most powerful, no matter how you deny it and tell them otherwise, groups in the galaxy howling for your blood, one of the places you definitely don't want to be is waking up in an unknown location.

Take stock before acting. No immediate pain other than the slight headache that likely indicated drugs of some kind were involved, which would explain the lack of memories about how she wound up in her current situation. Didn't feel particularly restrained which could be good or bad. Good because she did not like feeling trapped, bad because it suggested her captor did not think she could escape. In fact it felt rather like someone had just left her on the floor against a wall. Just dumped her there. That was a bit insulting really. A subtle hum, a vibration coming up through her cheek. A ship then. Scuffling, snarling inhuman screeches that made her really not want to open her eyes at all. If only she was the sort of idiot who could pretend this was all a nightmare.

A very bad day indeed.

How long had she been out? How long had the ship been traveling for? Where was she? Fear rose and was quashed. It would not accomplish anything. Besides, whoever had done this would not get the satisfaction of seeing her afraid. It wasn't over yet. Find out more, find an angle, find a way.

Tick, tock, is your clock going to stop?

NOT YET. I am not done yet! My plans have not come to fruition yet! My.. No. Not yet.

Yellow eyes opened. Considered the far wall for a moment until they were focusing properly, a feat not made easier by the fact that the ship was apparently operating with emergency lighting. The red lights only lending depth to the darkness. A darkness that by the sound of it housed all sorts of monsters..

In one fluid movement she was sitting up, scanning her surroundings. Some sort of.. lab? That did not bode well.. And there. A figure, watching.

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

She was awake. The Sith was amused.

I can hear his voice, rasp and death. Ancient. Dusty. Foreboding.... amused. "Good, you're awake." If I had teeth, they would have been set on edge. I do not, despite my plethora of sharp corners.

This was his ship, his home. She was scared. The Force was a powerful thing, and I could feel the grip of terror radiating off her before she attempted to suppress it. It was normal, here. I had seen what he kept under lock and key.

I would not wish the sight on anyone else.

Truly, this man was more monster than what he created.

That, of course, implied he was a man. This was a doubtful proposition.

"I need your... help." The way he said it brokered no compromise. The terror he induced often set hearts aflutter. I saw what she saw. A hunched figure. A cane. Syringes attached to the gloves covering his hands. Protruding nozzles of a gas mask poking out from a hood concealing face with shadow. Decrepit. Dangerous. Just like this ship. The Sith waved a hand to the droid on the table.

That poor woman.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

The figure spoke. Well that was something at the very least. If it spoke, it was intelligent, it could be reasoned with, bargained with, manipulated. The things making all the noises.. Those did not sound like things that could be spoken with. Those sounded like death. The painful sort, where your head was battered against a wall until it gave in and caved in. The sort where teeth not meant for meat tore into all those soft unprotected areas you desperately wished were hidden beneath armour. So as intimidating as the voice was, it was preferable to the alternative. And preferable to being alone on this nightmare ship. For now, in any case.

She rose from the floor, dry tongue flicking out against drier lips and accomplishing little, other than showing just how rattled this setting had her. That she would allow such an easy, obvious tell. Perhaps this was best. He would expect fear. Let him see what he expected. Perhaps it would make him complacent.. Physically what she saw was unimposing. This made her if anything, warier. She moved a few steps closer to the droid he'd motioned to, eying it.

"I may be able to help."

She allowed.

"With what, precisely?"

She was damned well going to find a way that she could help, could be useful, one way or the other. Instincts were screaming that to be of no use to him was not a good way to live a long life. She wasn't even aiming for a long life, just long enough, but suspected he more than had the ability to see that this did not come to pass.

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

She was stiffening her spine. Good. Excellent. Play his game.

Play your own.

Buy me time. Consensus couldn't be reached along, but I could form my own conclusions. She couldn't see it, but I could. His tongue slipped out to wet lips in a mimicry of what she'd just done. Somehow, that disconcerted me further. He was unnatural.

He was not life.

He was death. Death given legs and voice. Perhaps that's what a Sith was; death on two feet.

"I will need you to... oversee the diagnostics on the droid. Make sure it is functioning... appropriately."

A hand rose to run a slender finger up the thigh of the mechanical thing, and it looked like what I understand to be a lovers caress. The finger rose, brushing along her cheek before he turned to move to a nearby console. "Can you do that."

I had a very pertinent question, one that I couldn't ask. I lacked the physical parts to do so. What would he be doing while she did that?

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

She did not like when he touched her, not one bit. Her abilities to sense things through the Force unless she was specifically looking for them were laughable at best, she'd focused on keeping people out, not in reaching out to mingle with them. When that finger rose to her cheek however, she knew one of her fears had come to pass. He was old and he was dark and he was strong. To the Nether with that twit on the throne, this was a Dark Lord to be feared. Despite every single ounce of animal instinct screaming at her to pull away and hit him with a chair or something, to brave what ever other horrors there were, and just flee she held her ground.

Intellectually she knew they were on a ship. There was no where for her to go. Besides, regardless of what the stubborn, bloodied beast within believed, there were some beings she could not beat. Could not stand against. This was one. Better then to be the willow. To bow and give, as much as it hurt her pride. There was no one else to see her do it which made it slightly more palatable.

So she did not pull away. Allowed her auto-pilot to turn on for that one brief moment, half lidded eyes and slightly tilted hip. She did not expect anything to come of this. Attractive though she was, this one, if he was still interested in such things, could take whoever he wanted. But it was an easy response. One she knew.

Attention moved back to the droid as he moved away.

"I can. I am not droid-maker, but I can read diagnostics. Have been involved in some fabricating of late."

Was this the Jackals fault? Gilberts?

"I will need some idea of what is deemed appropriate. If this were a factory spec droid I assume you would not need me."

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

She was... behaving erratically. Did she enjoy his touch? Not? I can't tell. Reading body language was not something I understood, nor could comprehend. My body was entirely different from theirs, a lifecycle apart. "I have already started them." He says, lowering himself to the ground. I watch with interest as he lays the cane across crossed legs.

His palms drop to rest atop the bend of his knees.

She is left to her own devices. "Your job will be to ensure they go without a hitch."

"The body is... not necessarily something special, although I know laminanium is a bit hard to come by."

Expensive, too, judging by the care he gave to it. Self-repairing, too. I had watched the stress testing.

"Most importantly, make sure the signals are reaching all corners of the body. No dead wires, that sort of thing." He was dumbing this down for her. I could tell.

Normally his words went over my head.

And then, through the Force, I felt his signature spike. The vastness of his consciousness became oppressive, and for the first time I found myself marveling at the power he displayed. A Sorcerer. A Sorcerer... meditating?

I had traveled the galaxy in my time, and I had heard the tales.

If I were capable of swallowing to still a beating heart, I would. But I am unable to, and the gesture would be useless. I have no heart.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

She turned her head away from him, back to the droid, nose wrinkling slightly. She was going to be a glorified lab technician? Really? Nothing that took a significant skill at all? That was something of a blow to the pride. Only the ever present all pervading fear of him stilled a snarly remark. He could have had basically anyone do this and he had to choose her. President of the Red Ravens, tweaker of noses of the great and powerful, and it was quite possible that nothing more than random chance and bad luck saw her here. Did he even know who she was? Not that she was going to call him on it. Perhaps he didn't.

It was a tough call, but information could always be shared later. Once shared however, it was hard to take back. If she had been taken at random, and he was going to just drop her off somewhere as bizzarely as he had grabbed her somewhere, good. If he had taken her at random and intended to kill her as a nobody who would not be missed, she could complain when it became apropriate. If he knew who she was and was simply playing came of his own.. Well, nothing would be gained by saying anything. Any scenario her mind could come up with, silence was best for now. Head down, do as he said. Perhaps she'd get out of this yet.

Still, she had helped design and oversee the building of Flannigans new body. She'd redesigned half of ADAMs before handing it over to her usual contractor. It wasn't as if she didn't have some understanding of these things.

As he settled himself down in the usual meditating pose, she very nearly sneered as she went to look over the displays. Very nearly because the slight taste of him she'd had when he touched her was suddenly everywhere. Oppressively weighing down upon her. Unconsciously shoulders hunched in, making her smaller, less of a target, pupils already widened to fight the gloom of the ship widened futher. A small animal noise died in her throat before ever being released.

Panic started to rise. He was too strong, it was too much, she was too small and too weak, she would be lostandlostand-

Durasteel walls. As high as the eye could see. Scorched from past battles. Thick, thick enough that speeders could race upon the top.

She could feel him, like an ocean, against her mental walls. And this when he was not even attacking. When she did not have his focus. Perhaps this was why her. Your average tech might be driven made by this. The diagnostics, check the diagnostics. Yellow eyes scanned rolling text, lips pursed, body tensed.

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

The figure retreated into itself, drawing its prodigious mental energy into its own body before reaching out, feeling. Probing. It tested my mind, feeling me out. It tested hers, too. I could feel the words residually, caressing against my outermost layers of thought.

I have existed for untold years. I strode the stars before your people even so much as heard of the word 'Republic.'

I am life. Am death. I am the maker, and the breaker.

I am a wrench in the gearworks of existence. I am Disciple, child. I am Sith.

It was simple. Straightforward. I felt terror, cold terror.

He pushed into my mind, swallowing me whole. I busied myself with the cameras, reaching through pulses into a nearby wire to access the diagnostics.

That took some time, and I was just now beginning to process.

What did he want with me. I knew what he wanted with her.

What did he... perhaps the diagnostics held the answer. They would give me what I wanted. I checked the cameras one last time, and there I was, sitting in the corner of the room, illuminated only by a small, flickering light. A candle in the wind.

A storm was on the horizon, and it was already sweeping me away.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

Slightly lower than expected reading in the left leg. Likely.. gods how had be put it.. a bad wire? More technical that that of course. Maybe it literally was wiring, an impurity, a kink, a bad connection. Should be easy enough to find an-

He was in her mind. The walls had been good, oh they'd been good, but he was too strong, there was too much of him. He just overwhelmed them. Was over the top and in, his presence all around her. Her avatar, the body she found it easier to function in on the mental planes, winked out in a a quick panicked moment, reappearing within the Casino that stood behind the walls. Not even its locks and defences did she trust to keep him out, she pulled all the way back.

An unassuming corridor, a door that led into a room, neither modest nor extravagant, one among many. Atop a dresser a particularly well made Raven formed Bird Watcher sat, tilting if head, ruby red mechanical eyes glinting. Over the bedside table, a floating rock, like those on Ryloth. In the closet black dresses on hangars. A mask, white and expressionless hung on the wall. A music box with a small Twi'lek dancer on a coffee table. A rough furry brown throw covered the end of the bed. A picture, out of focus of an adult male and female Twi'lek with a small orange child between them. A pair of crushgaunts thrown on a countertop. A small fire in a decorative fireplace.

For a moment she stayed, cowering in this her last line of defence, sitting naked on the bed, knees drawn up under her chin. But what had she learned from Psyche? Having her Avatar, her focus here only brought attention to it. Besides.. always find profit in any situation.

Her physical body drew in a deep breathe, closed it's eyes, held it for a moment, and breathed out, eyes opening. One thread of consciousness was cast loose, allowed to be drawn in his wake as he went to work on whatever he was doing. Wary. Watching.

She went to work correcting the slight problem with the droid.

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

I am unaware of what he may be doing to her mind, but his presence is everywhere. She was given no more focus than his words implied. At least, if he was invading her mind, I could feel so degradation of power that meant he was focusing elsewhere. No, he was still all over. Focusing on everything. She did her work, and he did whatever it was he was doing.

I wish I could read his mind.

Perhaps I could.

I had nothing better to do.

I reached out through the Force, touching and probing at the edges of a razor wire field, lying just beneath the surf. Blood-stained sand lay just beyond, earthworks and trenches dug where the sand gave way to brittle land. Beyond it, bunkers, the muzzles of great laser cannons and field pieces sticking out, arrayed to keep anyone and everything out. I rose higher, finding myself staring at a myriad of anti-air emplacements.

Further still, fortifications as far as the eye could see.

And then nothing.

It all disappeared.

Instead I stood face to face with a Pureblood Sith, youthful in appearance. Sharp features. Handsome like a freshly whetted blade. Dangerous. But alluring. Amber eyes. He's staring into me. Beckoning me forward with a hand.

Suddenly, I realize I am the body on the table. At least that is how he has chosen for me to appear. I move forward at his command. My body is not my own.

Outside, he leaves her alone. It is I and him, now.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

And one little watcher. One little tiny tendril with no power and no real awareness of it's own, a simulacrum sent out where the truth dare not go. Relaying what it saw.

SURE AM FIXING THIS LEG. YEP. LOOK AT THIS LEG. THAT'S A PROBLEM ALL RIGHT.
..his defences are much better than mine.
I'LL JUST USE THIS.. METAL.. THING HERE AND MOVE THIS OTHER.. THING AND CLEAN THIS, NOW REATTACH, CHECK READINGS..
Layers. I could do layers.
NOT TERRIBLE, IF I READJUST THIS I COULD PROBABLY IMPROVE ON THOSE READINGS.
Sith. Maybe he just meant the race? Hopefully?
LOOK AT THOSE READINGS. MUCH BETTER. CONTINUE CHECKING THE REST OF THE READOUTS. FIND ANY OTHER ISSUES.

Disciple.

That thought was neither overly focused on, nor was it hidden. It was a title, but it felt like a name. If she survived this, she made a note to have it checked in to. Or not. He might be one of those boogey-monsters you could summon if you weren't careful. Still, it was good to think about going-to-do's, it implied one had a future in which to do them.

Besides.. he had said he was a wrench in the gears no? She may not have reached wrench-like status in comparison, but she was certainly grit in quite a few peoples gears at the very least. He was making a droid. Perhaps he was more of life than death today. One could hope.

One can't do very bloody much except hope.
LOOKING AT READINGS. COMPLYING IN A HELPFUL FASHION. YEP. THAT'S AN EXCELLENT PLAN. I WILL CONTINUE DOING THAT.

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

I think she's with us. 'Disciple' is staring off into space, but my body keeps moving forward. My legs are treacherous, complying to his every whim. I stop just shy of him, and I hear the whine of my legs as he forces me to kneel. I can feel his hand on my head, the power it imparts. Cold seeps into my limbs. I shouldn't feel. This doesn't make sense. He is all-encompassing.

She should escape while she can.

I pull myself back momentarily, likely because he allowed me too.

There's another wire, next to the cameras and the systems.

I reach into it.

Something down the hall unlocks. The beasts go silent.

He's angry at me.

The world reappears, battlements and all. Then, suddenly, it's all black. A black hole. A singularity of immense gravity with 'Disciple' at the center. My consciousness descends into it, is crush-

Outside, down the hall, a beast crawls out from the building, bony black claws for hands grasping the doorframe and pulling it out. It is painfully thin, nothing more than black exoskeleton and an elongated head. Moving along the walls, barbed tail swishing behind it, it snarls and hisses as it moves towards the room where life is.

Normally, the voice in its head would give it orders, but that voice has gone quiet. It had only one function without orders. Feast.

Disciple's body begins to evaporate. The last thought of the Shard before Disciple swallows its consciousness and implants his own within the crystal is simple. Put me in the body. Activate it. Your life is on the line.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

Orange tiger-striped head whipped up. It's quiet. Why is it quiet. If his presence isn't enough to impress silence on the unseen beasts, what precisely is? Yellow eyes scan the room. She looks back at him, definitely not above hiding behind him. Instead he dissipates as she watches, into nothing. The one time a big bad could be useful and he disappears at his exact moment of usefulness. Bloody typical.

Then an instruction. Not from him, though by the end it is tinged with his essence. Her eyes move to the crystal. Suddenly the design makes sense. She'd thought it might host a processor, oddly shaped though it was. It had never been made to hold a processor, it was made to hold one thing. This one thing. She might have been inclined to disobey, to use this moment of apparent weakness to scarper. Intellect said she could. Instinct said she absolutely could not. This time she sided with instinct.

With speed she moved to retrieve the shard. In her haste, she cut her hand upon it.

Wonderful. If there was ever a thing I didn't want to get a taste of or for my blood..

A noise. Ticking and dragging. Getting closer. In the room yet? She didn't think so. But close. Soon. With care but hurry she fitted the Shard into it's housing, closing the panels, watching the laminanium form a solid barrier almost immediately. She pulled diagnostic tools free, hit the commands to toggle it on to full power.

Bloody hope I knew what I was doing..

Wouldn't that be a laugh and a half? Die because she'd not fixed his leg properly or the like. A deeper darkness, moving at the other end of the room, the doorway.

"Tislera kanhi'ihan."

She commented matter of factly. She'd done what she could with the droid, hopefully it would be up soon. In the meantime she backed up, readying herself. It was all nice to hope he'd be up and fighting, but hope didn't save your skin. Hope might keep you fighting, but it didn't kill your enemies. The only ones who'd ever been hoped to death were the hopers.

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

Skitter, hiss. Click. Clack. Claws on metal. Swish. Tail swaying through the stale recycled ship air. End of the hallway. Life. Food. Something to eat. There had been two things. Now only one. It could smell her. Everything about her. It curled a hand into a fist, battered it against the door. Something was powering up inside. Electricity hummed in the air. It could feel the electromagnetic shift.

Clang.

Clang.

Barrier denting. No longer impeding. One more.

Barrier gone. Door across room. Skitter inside. Over the table. Over the device. Towards the food. Hissing, snarling. Lips peeling back from sharpened teeth. Thing beneath it stirring, voice returning. The power fluctuates. Goes out. Darkness descends. It returns, suddenly. The voice is back.

It leaves the food be. It obeys. It hunches in the corner, staring at the voice as it lifts from the table, all energy and life. Guidance has returned. It is so loud.

Be still.

Return from whence you came.

It cannot resist, it skulks away from the room, out the destroyed door. On the station the ship is docked at, a worker making the rounds notices the power flicker. Some of the draw had come from the station, and so he moves through the docking collar, opening the door in time to see a darkness slither past beneath red lighting. He blinks.

A voice, mechanical, echoes from somewhere down the hall, almost musical. "But now I am free. There are no strings on me." The worker, a tired old Aqualish, moves into the ship despite the terror in his heart. It is silent, save that voice. The figure stops in the doorway, looking between a droid and a Twi'lek. "Uhm... there was uh, a... power fluctuation. Is... is uh... is e-e-everything alright?"

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

Chiasa had literally no idea what the creature that burst into the room was, but as it vaulted over the droid, snarling she knew damned well she wanted no part of it. She grabbed the nearest thing to hand, a chair. Gods knew how she was going to fight that whatever it was with a chair, but she damned well was. Her terror levels reached a new and unexpected peak when the power went out entirely and she was plunged into complete darkness. She was just at the point of fighting for enough rationality and calm to call fire when the emergency lights came back up.

And it stopped. Moving to hide in a corner as the droid successfully powered up.

I know that feeling. I'd be more sympathetic if you hadn't just been trying to eat me.

The Twi'lek thought, putting down the chair warily, watching the beast as it skulks out of the room. One hand rising to her mouth to help stifle an entirely irrational laugh that threatened to burble up from inside. When the droid, Disciple, spoke, it helped to ground her. Giving her a new puzzle to think about.

What strings had bound him before? What strings could bind one such as he? Before she could delve to deep into this however, an elderly Aqualish appeared. Oh good, something to distract her from her own terror. That was nice.

"Everything's fine thank you. Good of you to check. Had a minor issue, it's fixed now."

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

"Ah yes, no problems." Joo gave a terrified shaking nod. "U-understood." He took a quick step away, pausing to look back at the buckled door that was laying just inside the doorframe. "I had kilometers to go before I slept, but while the woods are still lovely and deep, they are no longer dark." Shaking at the mechanical voice, Joo scurried away and back to his job. Emergency lighting. Droids.

Beasts.

He wanted no part of this. None at all.

Disciple shifted his hands about, looking down at them and flexing his fingers in a purely mechanical manner. He took a step, and then nearly collapsed. The body was new. It would take getting used to.

"Do you know where we are, Little Raven?"

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

"I can say in all honestly I do not."

And I probably won't like it when I do.

Instincts were a damned funny thing. She'd spent so long now, looking after her Unkindness, viciously defending her su'si ercio, that when his droid body faltered she moved slightly towards him as though to catch him. Ridiculous for more than one reason. The least of which was that the chances of her being able to support the weight of a droid body without the aid of the force was just about nil. Luckily he caught himself.

"It does not feel like home."

And by that she meant it did not have the feel of either Antecedent or Nar Shaddaa. Not that she really considered either home, but if you were force sensitive and spent long enough in a place, you got used to the specific feel of it.

[member="Disciple"]

 

[Disciple]

"You are not far from your Unkindness, little bird." The droid says dryly, hobbling on unsteady legs out of the door with her clearly supposed to be in tow. Although, to be fair, it was out the doorway because the door was still laying on the ground bent in half by the beast from before. Every step was rough, but it was clear as he was moving that it was becoming a little more fluid.

Just a shade more natural.

The docking collar was closed, but he lead her to it anyway. The scomp link extended from his arm and interfaced with the airlock, cycling it open so she could step out with him. Arrayed below was Nar Shaddaa. Although no one seemed to pay much attention to the station they were on.

A way station, really, so people could trade goods without gang territory being involved. A fool's hope, more or less.

A hand waved. "Because what is an Unkindness without a queen?" The droid 'mouth' smiled.

"No, I would not deign to remove you from your home, little bird.

So go, take wing. Return to your brood.."

Those red eyes regarded her, whirring and clicking as they focused. "But speak of this to no one, or quoth the Raven... nevermore."

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

In tow she was. Terrifying though he might be, she'd just as rather not be left on his dark ship of monsters by herself thank you very much. Better the monster you at least kind of knew than the one still hidden in the dark. Besides, at the very least she liked the way he spoke. A monster with class. Perhaps he was somewhat dismissive, was speaking down to her, but having felt his abilities, she could not truly say he was wrong to do so. Little bird was certainly one of the less offensive things he could call her.

The Twi'lek visibly perked up when it became clear they were just above Nar Shaddaa. So close to one of her seats of power. Good! Not that it had stopped him apparently, but it still made her feel better. Walls dropped entirely and she reached, reached, reached. There were very few who were either strong enough that they could communicate with her at this distance or who she had a strong enough bond with to contact on her own, but she could feel her little ones there, just at the edges of her awareness. They still lived then. Good. She couldn't remember being taken still. Unthought but hovering at the edge of her consciousness had been the possibility of a true attack, of the Unkindness falling. That it was not so removed a burden she had not known she was carrying.

"Your secrets are mine."

There was more truth to that than there seemed.

Firstly, and this was on the topmost layer of her mind, if he choose to pluck it, she had no intention of crossing him. As much as she actually enjoyed him on some levels, she was still utterly terrified of and cowed by him. Reverence did not scare her. Vitium was an annoyance. Disciple.. Disciple inspired a very nearly primal dread.

Secondly she had given in to him. Done precisely what he wanted without a fight. Been taken as easily as a lost child might be lifted from the streets of the Undercity far below. This was not a thing she particularly wanted anyone to know. Neither ally nor enemy could see her weakness. She was the Queen. She had to be untouchable. Infallible. Fierce. Tooth and claw and victories.

Thirdly, and this was kept down in the depths of almost thought, of proto ideas, where schemes and plots flashed their fins briefly, showed tooth smiles and then dove once more, hidden from all the galaxy. Thirdly his secrets might be of use one day. He might be of use one day. Everything she knew that others did not was power. Everything. And she needed every little scrap she could get. There was fighting outside your weight class and then there was whatever she was doing.

[member="Disciple"]