Private Necromatic Tendencies

[Aliris Tremiru]

There were so many secrets in that holocron.

Aliris frowned as she worked on the corpse she'd obtained. Once human, it hardly resembled such anymore. Runic carvings littered the skin, which seemed to char everything black the more she drew. It didn't matter how much the body would deteriorate though. She wasn't trying to raise the body, just the soul. The more souls she could get, the better. The more power, the more strength. She could feel herself getting stronger with every soul her dagger consumed.

Who knew her family had such power tucked away?

One last rune and then the blade was sunk deep into the chest. Right in the heart. The runes flashed, and all at once she could feel the anguish and pain of the soul that was absorbed into the jeweled blade. The acolyte let out a relieved sigh as she pulled the dagger free, glanced it over.

"Finally done."

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

There were various reasons to steal corpses. Most of them were wildly unethical or at the very least somewhat disturbing.

At least as far as the man in the street was concerned.

The recent series of corpse-related crimes had been enough to make even Zelannia raise an eyebrow, however. Not because of its macabre nature, mind you, but because of the otherness - she was hardly a scholar of the arcane, but there was something distinctly unnatural about the injuries inflicted on the dead. Whims only went so far, of course.

That was why she had looked up the runes - and lo and behold, several were demonstrably of a Sith origin.

It was all very fascinating. Fascinating enough to make her investigate personally - without involving law enforcement.

---

Pragmatic as ever, Zelannia had made a bulk purchase of cheap trackers, embedded them into every corpse she could get her hands on, and waited. The results were not immediate, but eventually, the bait was taken.

Unfortunately, bargain-bin trackers were not exactly famed for their precision.

Loitering outside yet another abandoned location while her Spiderbot scouted ahead, Zelannia could only hope that the tracker hadn't been found and extracted. This little venture was starting to reach the pain threshold as far as expenditures of time and credits were concerned.

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

Soul magic. Or something like it. She wasn't too sure what the term was for the ability she'd started to piece together. Every artifact she reclaimed, the more she learned from the Holocron, but it was pretty stingy thus far. Infuse the blade, utilize their souls as power. What power, voodoo? She was stronger for sure, just, there was nothing extrodinary about it. A heavy sigh as she tucked the blade away, stood, stretched.

Well, whatever. It was done. Now it was time to move on and find the next body to use. She needed more souls.

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Click-clack click-clack went the spiderbot, the sound muted on account of its size.

Steadily making its way through the vents, the bot picked up a signal - a tracer and this time it was close. Close enough for short-range localisation. That made Zelannia perk up, an eagre look hidden beneath her hood. At her urging it proceeded along, only stopping when it encountered an obstruction. After a brief pause, it began unscrewing the metallic net - a net meant to keep bugs out, perhaps? Zel doubted the owners had been worried about spy-droids.

Through the net, a body was faintly visible.

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

The clack of metal pulled her gaze to the nearby vent. Movement, sound, something was there. She frowned deeply as she pulled up the dagger in her hand. Exhaustion was still there after finishing the ritual, but right now all of her senses were on edge. Who was it? What were they doing in the vent?

Did they see what she did?

They weren't running. So did she need to run? She slipped to the side, finding some place to watch from cover. Whatever was going to come out, she'd at least see it with her own eyes and decide then what she'd do next.

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

The net was unscrewed and carefully placed to the side; the bot did not yet know it had been spotted.

As its sensors got a good look at the body, Zelannia hummed thoughtfully. Similar markings as the other defaced bodies, but fresher. There were some odd readings to match. Readings that would likely fade fairly quickly, but which might prove invaluable in decoding exactly what was going on - truly fascinating stuff, in other words.

She wanted more, naturally.

At her command, the bot would crawl out of the vent, stopping to take a look around once it had exited fully. If it didn't spot anything unusual it would proceed towards the body for a closer examination.

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

Aliris was hiding.

But not nearly as well as she should've been. She was, ultimately, a child. The droid's scanner popped out, and Aliris's face would be in clear view, glaring and watching from where she assumed she was hidden. What was a droid doing here? The realization that it was that thing she'd heard in here had her on all kinds of edge. Droids weren't cheap. It's why she didn't have one. If that was the case, was this person actually someone important?

Crap. That wasn't good. She slinked back, turning to leave. She needed to get out before she got caught.

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

The bot spotted a living target - humanoid female, young.

After a moment's consideration, Zelannia had it emit a loud BEEP before dropping to the ground and swivelling to face her. Better to face the suspect remotely at first - she did not seem too threatening, but appearances could be deceptive.

Her lack of a gas mask or the equivalent was good, seeing as Zel's primary self-defence tool was nerve gas.

Assuming the girl didn't immediately bolt or destroy the droid in some fashion, it would crawl a bit closer before stopping and emitting a holographic depiction of a face. Specifically, the forgettable human face Zel was currently using.

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

".. Okay that's weird."

The droid had moved towards her. She was caught. Part of her prepared for a cruel fate as she turned and brandished her dagger, but rather than strike out, she watched it. It wasn't trying to harm her yet, so.. A friend? She doubted that, but not a threat. The face, though, that she didn't expect in the slightest.

"What do you want..?"

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

The child cultist (?) seemed frightened of the droid, which amused Zel to no end.

It was a civilian variant, after all, though she supposed the plasma torch might look intimidating.

"You've got quite the interesting hobby, girl," The holographic face said, its tone cold. "A noticeable hobby. I imagine the police would like to have a chat with you about that. Perhaps the Jedi too?" Her response - verbal or nonverbal - to the latter either strengthen or weaken Zelannia's current hypothesis. Namely that the runes were of Sith origins.

She would have liked to inspect the freshly-mutilated body in person, but it seemed wise to keep her distance. You never knew what Sith cultists had up their sleeve; besides, it seemed unlikely that this one was acting alone.

If it hadn't been for the dagger in her hand, Zel might have taken her for a vagrant.

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

".. If your intent was to have me arrested, you would've already contacted the authorities." Stay calm. Don't let them think they have the upper hand, or at least complete control. She kept her dagger up, pulled and ready just in case this was just a precursor for a fight.

"So, what do you want?"

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

The face grinned at her veneer of confidence, though there was no warmth in the expression.

Instead of answering the girl's question, she asked one of her own. "Do you even know what you are doing, girl - or are you dabbling in things beyond your comprehension?" Zelannia hadn't the foggiest what the girl was doing, of course, but feigning condescending awareness seemed like a decent way of provoking a defensive response.

A defensive response that might well be enlightening.

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

"I know enough."

Or not enough. She was here getting resources for the ritual she was just shown, but that didn't mean she had a full understanding. Souls were needed, and the runes focused them into the blade, but was that enough?

"I have enough souls now."

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

For a moment it seemed as if the girl had realised what she was doing, but no.

A moment later the truth was revealed - souls. Again. Just her luck. At least it was interesting.

Still, the lack of peer-reviewed studies on the subject matter was enough to make her purse her lips in annoyance. The girl could be a potential information source - assuming she wasn't lying even now - but Zel doubted she knew much.

"Oh, do you now?" The voice was dry. "You seem more likely to hurt yourself than finish what you started."

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

"Oh yeah? Why's that, cause I'm so young?"

She glared at the holodisplay, her grip on her dagger tightening. She was used to people assuming that because of her age she wasn't much of a threat, or competent, but it didn't mean she liked dealing with people who thought as much.

"Would you tell me what you want already? Or I'm leaving."

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

The girl seemed insecure. That could potentially be exploited.

"I have a vested interest in keeping things tidy. You have become an issue, in that regard." A half-truth, more due to the lack of specificity than anything else - she did want to keep things 'tidy', mainly to cover up her own crimes. It was harder to get away with experimenting on corpses when people like this girl ran around defacing them and drawing attention.

"I am willing to overlook your indiscretions if you prove valuable. I have no objections to you continuing this endeavour... if and only if I am there to measure the results." The girl would likely agree. Because of the implication.

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

"You.. What?"

Aliris blinked slowly, more in surprise than anything else. Way more surprise. They wanted to.. Measure the results? That was probably the weirdest thing she'd ever heard, and she was the one carving runes in corpses. She let out a sigh, but tried to still her expression so she'd stay unreadable. She was, however, very readable. This droid, it's master that she was speaking to, it had to mean they had resources. And resources were something she needed.

So..

"Fine, whatever, but where?"

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

The face eyed her unblinkingly for a moment, then smiled coldly.

"A wise choice. What do you need?"

It was very intentionally not a promise to provide anything, though it certainly could be read that way - and Zel was not above arranging things if it got her valuable data with less risk of discovery. The last thing she needed was Jedi or their ilk sniffing around her business. They were unlikely to approve of some of her more ambitious projects.

Aliris Tremiru​

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

What did she need.

It was a simple question, but Aliris couldn't help but stare in disbelief. This was an opportunity. Not a minor at that either. It was very suspicious, but thus far the droid hadn't done anything hostile.

".. A lab. A place to study. A place to conduct these rituals in a clean, sterile place. I've been raiding places like this because the corpses don't smell here. There's no extra disease, or infestation. I'll get real specifications soon."

Zelannia Arcrin

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Zelannia's resources were far from infinite, but the lab was doable. Largely because she needed such things herself.

While much of her work could be done in official facilities, some of it would not fare well in the light of day.

Attempts at converting the dead into cybernetic zombies, splicing stem cells to create bizarre hybrids she sadly lacked the facilities to gestate, and developing concoctions prohibited by Alliance law... all were best kept on the down low.

"That can be arranged, but you will not be bringing your own bodies."

Zel had been given no reason to trust the girl with operational security.

Aliris Tremiru​