Intruder

[Darth Prazutis]

​Vain Hollow, Panatha
Throne Room...

​​Black storm clouds hung over the Iron Mountains choking out the light of the day. These dark clouds perpetually hung over the largest spire in all of Panatha while the dark side rolled over the landscape like a choking fog hanging heavy in the air bringing out the worst in people . Vain Hollow was like nothing ever seen on Panatha or potentially in the galaxy that most mortals would lay eyes on. Wall after wall, battlement after battlement. Legions of elite soldiers walked these walls and guarded the massive mountain while roaming bands of Graug and Guzijeij actively patrolled in hunting parties, the perfect predators at night to hunt and sniff out prey. Screens of Starfighters flew in the sky around the restricted air space of Blacktalon Peak.

​It was among these hunting parties that a lone individual was caught trying to sneak past the perimeter. A woman who thought she could slip past the perimeter, thought she could evade the scent catching graug and the great war beasts who tore after them. The elite graug of Vain Hollow were the best chosen to protect the most valuable citadel in all of the Pacanth Reach. They were appointed to protect House Zambrano and all of its family. This lone intruder was persistent, illusive, she was smart and ingenious in her attempts to elude them putting on quite the chase through the harsh mountains. But just like any other daring, or just plain insane person trying to breach the perimeter they were caught and thrown deep in the dungeons. It would be days without food, water, or even light and sleep before [member="Shae'an Vai Li"] was hauled from her cell in shackles.

The woman was dragged through the maze of winding halls and corridors in what felt like an eternity before she was at long last brought through a pair of double doors. Rows of columns flanked either side of this large chamber while large banners bearing the cerulean phoenix while busts, paintings, etc and murals of various Dark Lords of the Sith covered the walls of this shadowy chamber, with only high hanging braziers to cast light. Far in the center of the back wall sat a great wicked throne of black-iron. Crownguard lined the edges of this chamber keeping a watchful eye on the new arrival while a pair of Imperial Sentinels flanked either side of the raised throne. But it was atop this structure that caught her eye, it was the giant sitting atop the throne that dominated the room with his presence.

​The Destroyer.

​This man, this Dark Lord sat clad in his most ghastly apparel of midnight black robes a hood pulled over his head. The darkside swirled around him like a radiating storm while his eyes burned like molten coals. The mans voice boomed through the chamber as Shae was thrown down ten feet from the sentinels. "Many have knelt where you do. They never saw the light of day again. Give me a reason to let you live intruder, why have you come to my domain."

 

[Shae'an Vai Li]

It had been a fool thing to try in the first place.

She had done the research. Made all the preparations. She'd studied every resource she could on the wretched planet, and even as the rational side of her mind had yelled out time and time again that sneaking onto Panatha was impossible, she felt the comfort and certainty of the dark side, and pushed on with it. Oh she had given them a good run of it too, even if the epicanthix were largely immune to those abilities and spells she possessed the most talent in. The graug on the other hand, had been easy enough to scatter with fear, once. Then harder the second time. And the third. Relentless and practically machine-like, though why she could not say, they had pursued her past the limits of normal physiology. Her success up to that point had been meaningless. In the end, she had failed.

Half-led, half-dragged through poorly lit halls and corridors that resembled something out of a horrific fever dream one might have of a palace, Shae had time observe her surroundings. Panatha was ruled by the Sith, she knew, by one of the more infamous ones in the galaxy in particular. In this hall it was clear he venerated the legendary past of the dark side faith, but it was also equally obvious that he did not tolerate intruders. Nor did he have a reputation for mercy.

Like any good Sith.

Had not all the signs led her here? Had she not followed the bidding of the dark side? And yet all her efforts were for naught, all her tricks and skill had come up short, here at last. Now faced with the finality of her failure, when the presence would have been the most reassuring thing in all the galaxy, she felt nothing at all. They had not found the crystal in their searches, somehow. Or perhaps they had, but did not care, seeing nothing but a useless trinket. In the scant seconds when she wasn't being watched she had looked at it as it lay dull and plain, the pulse of its power gone, spent or fled or broken.

She had been helpless before, in the clutches of the One Sith. There she found that acting meek and and malleable was her best defense. At times she made a show of defiance, but it was always carefully measured, the inevitable consequence weighed against the likely approval of her masters. But in spite of it all she had never felt hopeless, as if there was no other options available. She'd always left a backdoor open, always had an escape plan. That was why she was still alive, not a howling force ghost caught in rage and anguish amidst the ruins of Castameer.

The journey stopped abruptly, and Shae was thrown the ground without any inkling of concern. She mustered what spirit of defiance she could, and looked up to see the creature that had apprehended her. His voice boomed, amplified by the room or the force or both. A visage of terror gazed back, that seemed to cross between the corporeal reality and the reality of the force.

All her courage failed and fled before the inevitability of her doom.

She bowed her head, and her voice was a whisper.

"I sought... knowledge, of the dark. I find only death."



[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​Mortals were liars.

​There were few times in their lives when they were stripped of everything they ever possessed and were only left with one: the truth. One of these few and fleeting moments was when they stared down death itself. When [member="Shae'an Vai Li"] stared up at the Dark Titan on his throne she stared at her judge, jury, and executioner. She peered at death given true form her death. It was in this moment when all else fell away all goals, egos, thoughts, concerns, when hope was stripped away. The feeling of utter hopelessness and fear slipping in were familiar to the monster sitting on the throne. It was a feeling instilled into countless people every day whether directly in her case or indirectly. He knew just how to exploit it to his own ends to see a person's truth just before he took everything away.

So when Shae spoke he remained silent.

No words were spoken during her explanation or even after for a short period as if the Dark Lord was waiting for her to elaborate, as if her explanation wasn't over or he might've needed more of convincing to stay his hand from snapping her neck. The only response to her words was a casual upward sweeping motion from his left hand, as quick as it rose so did the force follow his command ensnaring her form in an iron grip of telekinetic energy lifting her off the ground and into the air. Slowly the woman was brought closer as if the Dark Lord was inspecting her form, his face clouded in shadow with the exception of those molten eyes. The eyes felt like they pierced flesh, bone, blood, and the mind, the intense stare as if he was staring into her soul or perhaps peering into her future.

​The force around her screamed with potential the dark side clinging to her side, while his senses spoke of something different. It was an inherent ability from his hidden anzati heritage that gifted him with a unique sense to feel a mortal's life essence. A natural ability to pick out the strong from the weak, the biggest meals from the small snacks. "You do not beg for your life. Perhaps I shall toss your body from the cliffs and keep you alive long enough to know what true agony feels like when your body tumbles its way down." ​Darth Prazutis said calmly, his voice cold as ice. "The dark side betrays you Acolyte. You command a paltry degree of control over minor tricks of the dark and you think yourself strong enough to intrude upon death's domain and live." ​Prazutis added.

"Ambitious, but foolish."