Private Life in Ruins

[Ran Serys]

Mirial - Morning - The Force Temple of Ular Unill​

Foot after foot. Step after step. The crunch of frozen tundra sounded under Ran's platform boot as she hiked across the empty valley. She could barely see her next five steps through the early morning fog. It was difficult to discern direction but she followed the path the locals had put her on. Unless they were wrong, it wouldn't be long before she arrived at the Force Temple of Ular Unill.

Ran, embracing her cultures, thought the temple a great place to understand herself, and not just as a Mirialan but also as a Force Sensitive. The awareness of her force sensitivity was new but she already began to utilize it in different ways. From accidental telepathic conversation, to the training of mental shields. The temple was a good enough place as any to start her journey of self discovery. She learned that it had been built by the Mirialan Jedi Knight, Ular Unill, many generations ago. It was a place that had many histories. It had been a place of power, a center of learning, a meditative retreat, and a sanctuary for refugees. It had also been destroyed by military forces a few decades earlier. Since then the site had been sacked by treasure hunters, overrun by cultists, and visited as a stop on many a pilgrimage.

Ran had arrived at the temple ruins and found it empty. The skittering of a few rodents could be heard, but other than that there was an unusual silence. Ran moved quietly so as not to disturb it. Once she reached the entrance of the main hall the fog around the temple began to dissipate. She could see through the half crumbled roof. The sun reflected through the fog and provided the room a dull brightness. Ran ran her hand across the chipped paint and ancient carvings in the hall's walls, and then felt a unique presence. Someone or something watching her. She turned her head over her shoulder to keep an eye on the entrance of the main hall.

_______________________
Cale Gunderson​

 

[Cale Gunderson]

It'd taken time for him to even come around on the idea of looking for her, and even longer to find her once he did. But Cale had been on the run for decades before this, and with enough time, credits, and attention to detail, he could find just about anyone. Mirial should've been more obvious to him, from what he understood there was no 'before' for Ran, she'd been a slave her whole life until she'd freed herself, or if she hadn't, there was no information about who she'd been prior. She had no home to go back to, so returning to her race's homeworld was as close to a next best thing that she'd have had.

A whole culture to discover and meld with, the choice made perfect sense. Which was why Cale had kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. He still didn't know what he'd say to her, how he'd preface that he'd tracked her across the galaxy so they could...what, compare notes? He wasn't sure, but it felt like he had to do it, and Cale was as always, too tired to ignore the force.

But as he stood there at the mouth of the temple, jacket over his simple clothes, empty right sleeve, and lightsaber hidden across the small of his back, Cale almost wished he had, because he had no idea what to say. He opted to start simple.

"Don't shoot, not here to do you any harm." He called out across the temple, debating what exactly to follow with before all but turning his brain off and simply going at it.

"You Ran?" He questioned rhetorically, as if he didn't know for a fact that she was. "Valery Noble told me about you, we need to talk"

Ran Serys ​

 

[Ran Serys]

The one-armed man was in full view at the temple threshold, and his words were enough to assure her of her safety. So with her hand off her pistol, Ran listened to what the man had to say. His question was really a statement, and then his statement only brought questions.

"If she truly did, let us talk," Ran would have her questions answered. She eyed the man with her signature intense gaze. Her resting face. It was emotionless and still, and hard to betray her feelings. However, her eyes spoke volumes. The intensity they held often went unmatched, along with the current look of curiosity. "Starting with your name. Who are you? Why do we need to talk?"

She kept her distance, and a barrier of broken and worn temple benches between them, among other refuse. The sound of skittering sounded again as rodents moved away from hiding spots that intersected the path between Ran and the one-armed man. The sound quickly vanished and the unusual silence was back. Ran questioned what was responsible for it. Was it the weather, the temple, or maybe it was the man who came to do her no harm? Whatever it was, Ran felt almost determined to find it.

"Do you hear that?" She asked. "Or rather not hear that?" She rephrased. "There is an unusual aspect about this temple."

_______________________
Cale Gunderson​

 

[Cale Gunderson]

"Name's Cale Gunderson, I've been told we have a deal in common." He debated if it was worth laying out the specifics, or if now was the time for generalization and summary. When he sensed the same disturbance, he questioned if it was merely the product of years of paranoia, but when she called it out a chill ran up his spine. He hated it when it wasn't just his head. That made the threat real.

Cale's mind went to his padawan briefly, before drifting back to the woman before him. "We've been in the same hell, just under different devils so I'm told. Didn't believe it, wanted to see for myself."

He tried to get a read on her, to surmise what she was all about, and came up with nothing. He could sense the force in her, flowing as it did in all beings, but with a stronger current as it did only in those such as them. There was something else there, pain maybe, or guilt, but Cale couldn't be sure he wasn't merely projecting.

"Yeah, yeah I heard it."

Ran Serys ​

 

[Xeykard]

Ran Serys Cale Gunderson Venn Kolis ​

Xeykard stiffened slightly. He raised his head, sniffing the air. The silence was one thing, but the temple's cool air held a certain musk of death to it. The scent of life, of movement, of sweat, blood, and flesh -- unmistakable. It registered like the glaring light of the sun on his senses.

"Two- perhaps three," he said. He turned to Aryrene, his apprentice. "Do you have your-"

"Amulet. Yep, I got it." The Zabrak looped their thumb through the necklace chain.

"Good." Xeykard took a deep breath, settling his presence to nothing at all -- like the decay, the aged place that was Ular Unill's temple, he became nothing but another ghost roaming these halls.

They hadn't been there long. Navigating Ashlan space quietly was difficult enough, especially given his affiliations; finding the temple was no easy feat either. To Xeykard, the difficulty could only mean good things. No one would keep their temple in such a remote location if they didn't have something to hide. Something here would give him an edge in the coming battles.

Better yet, something with which to reward Aryrene -- their researching had paid off, surprisingly.

Silent steps took the Sith back towards the main hall. They'd only gotten through a few looted rooms, but Xeykard's senses pulled him back, compelling him to seek out their new arrivals. The two of them settled in the shadows of one of the hallways leading off from the main hall, observing the two people who'd just arrived.

Xeykard sniffed the air. Jedi.

"Find your hate," Xeykard whispered, and Aryrene began to gather their anger.

 

[Venn Kolis]

LIFE IN RUINS

Mirial, The Force Temple of Ular Unill: early morning
​

It certainly wasn't a treasure trove, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

When you were apprenticed to one of the most powerful men in the galaxy, your master's time could be hard to come by. Those moments he did spend teaching you were vastly more precious than hours spent with trite imitators... but the moments were rare all the same. To bolster his knowledge, and make himself more useful to his master, Venn often found himself delving into the past to learn. Or in this case, delving into knick-knacks, pottery, and old bones.

This musty hidden chamber underneath Ular Unill's crumbling shrine was nothing compared to the storied halls of Korriban. Oh, to walk where Pall had walked, to view beasts whose bloodlines had been twisted by Ragnos himself! But alas, the Crusade's vigil against Sith visitors to Korriban was much stricter than that of other holy sites... especially since Venn's one brief visit there had ended so poorly. But Mirial, on the other hand, was a different story.

A familiar hissing crash sent a thrill through Venn's mind, and he turned expecting to see Targeth holding a glowing blade of red light. Instead, he managed to glimpse the hilt combusting with a harsh pop in the hunter's hand, and cursing aloud, Targeth dropped the busted lightsaber he'd found to the floor. "Fething... ow. Sorry boss, I just wanted to see if it'd work."

Venn shook his head. "If you'd been smart, you would've let me look like the fool; I wouldn't have been able to resist turning it on either. Strange that the blade looks so old... Well, gather up the pieces and we'll take them with us." Turning away from his disgruntled bodyguard, Venn went back to examining the strange stone case he'd found. Or maybe it was a door? Grateful for his rudimentary knowledge of the Olde Sith Tongue, he finally struggled through translating the inscription on the weathered surface. "the... only? No, first! 'I open for the First.' Oh yeah, that helps- I'm definitely the first person to ever come in here."

Still kneeling to gather little pieces of lightsaber, Malak chuckled. "Doesn't help there's been so fethin' many of us..."

Venn almost laughed along, then he whirled around suddenly to lock eyes on Targeth. "What did you say?"

Targeth mistook his teacher's concentration for anger. "Apologies, I meant no disrespect. I was commenting on how... storied and vast our Order's history is. Not easy to be the first to do... much of anything."

Intensely focused, Venn turned back to the tall stone box. The Sith were Eternal, and so they would have no end. But they did have a beginning. One man. "This place wasn't hidden underneath the temple.... Ular must've built his temple atop this storeroom." And that meant Venn no longer had any idea how old this room might be.

There was an epic foreboding in Venn's throat; the feeling that he was walking where legends had walked. Fire blazed in his eyes, orange and crackling. Grabbing that thrilling emotion with everything he had, the apprentice placed his hand against the time-worn words, and spoke aloud to the stone. "Ajunta."

Quietly, unassumingly, the stone opened. Venn grinned. Perhaps this was something of a treasure trove after all.

Light. Harsh light assaulted Venn's senses; a dim light perhaps, but it burned cold just the same. He clutched his head in pain. Targeth cried out "Kolis! What is it?!"

Venn growled the answer, equal parts excitement and rage brimming in his throat. "Upstairs. Jedi."

 

[Ran Serys]

Same hell but a different devil. The idea sent a shiver down her spine, because it wasn't just an idea, it was the truth. It confirmed her suspicions but clouded her vision of the future. It seemed Ran's crusade to free her fellow experiments wouldn't end with just the Children of Jagos. The practice of Sith science and sorcery went far beyond the thirty years that she'd lived, both into the past and very likely into the future, and it seemed that, like Ran, Cale Gunderson was also a product of it. She looked at his face and focused on his eyes. Ran recognized a heaviness in them that few beings carried. In that way they mirrored hers.

She opened her mouth to speak. She was going to tell him that she believed him, and that she would very much like to talk about their experiences. However, it seemed fate had a different plan. The sound of stone shifting and grinding interrupted her and the unusual silence that seemed to linger. The earthen cacophony was accompanied by a rumbling of the ground under their feet. They were not alone in this temple, not by a long shot.

"Well, Cale Gunderson, you have seen," She called out as the unusual silence returned. "And now I have to see what is happening down there. Join me, if you would like, and maybe we can talk more about our hells and devils, before we spot any new ones." She said alluding to the ominous stoney sound that came from beneath them. With the invitation extended she pulled her blaster from her thigh holster and started for one of the downward leading stairways of the main hall, leaving it and the adjacent hallways behind.

_______________________
Cale Gunderson Xeykard Venn Kolis​