New memories

[Lina Ovmar]

Garn
Outer Rim

The desolate landscape that was Garn's surface stretched out before them, grey and lifeless its surface was broken only by great boulders and the skeletons of trees long dead. Calina checked their trajectory and adjusted the controls accordingly, acutely aware of the memories dancing at the edge of her mind as she did saw. The was his eyes had crinkled up when he laughed, the slight panic on his face when she'd pushed their shuttle just a little too hard.

Cerbera had allowed her to come, on thee ground that she brought something of interest back to her. In all honesty Calina was lucky that such a trip had been allowed seeing as she'd never returned from the last one, but then having an assassin tagging a long with her seemed to lower the risk of Cerbera's apprentice going wayward again.

She glanced sidewards at [member="Skai"], a slight smile tugging the corners of her lips. She didn't mind the escort much, Skai was attractive and incredibly intriguing to the teenager. Her skill set fascinated the girl, and she had already expressed her desire to learn a little of it at least. Thus far, Skai had refused. But it didn't diminish Calina's liking for the woman. She turned her attention back to the viewport,a great line of cliffs looming on the horizon.

"I really hate this place." She said quietly.

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

Skai wanted to be annoyed about this assignment.

It was beneath her.

Now she was a glorified baby-sitter, making sure that Cerbera's playthings didn't run away the moment she let them out of her sight? Didn't she have more important missions to handle instead of this? Assassinations to execute? Artifacts to steal? The subtle dynamics of galactic politics to upend with a single push?

That is what Skai wanted to feel.

But instead there was just mild peeve at the situation that was mostly smoothed over by two things. The fact that this planet fascinated her and that Calina was a relatively pleasant companion.

"It smells of challenge, pushing those standing there to survive and become stronger." Skai commented as she looked out of the viewport and took the sight of Garn in. It smelled like death and within the Force the Dathomiri Witch could sense much anguish and pain. Things had happened down there.

Unpleasant things.

"Why do you hate it?"

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Calina pursed her lips at the question, scowling at the cliffs as she began their descent. Trust was not something that should be given so easily, but this was hardly a thing that could be used against her.

"When I was sixteen, my mother cut off the head of the only friend I had, and made me dig his grave by hand. He rests, just outside of the entrance to the the temple we're entering."

Her words seemed detached, emotionless. But her anger and hatred for her mother was palpable in the force. It wan't uncontrolled, quite the contrary. She knew how she was going to get her own back on Anaya, it was simply a matter of time and patience. Both of which she had. the ship shuddered slightly as the landing struts made contact with the hard earth beneath. She flipped the switches, powering the ship down in silence, her expression unreadable.

To show weakness, was unforgivable, she'd been taught to hide it and she did so well.

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

She listened and then nodded.

Love was weakness, it was the first thing the village elders had taught her and the other apprentices of their tribe. "When I was old enough to walk I was given a... friend. She was captured from one of the surrounding tribes, taken in battle, made to serve as is right. We played together, talked together, shared much with each other." Their first dance, their first kiss, much of their firsts. "We grew close, against the advice of my mothers." A shrug of the shoulders as she finally made to push herself off the seat.

"On my eighteenth birthday I was made to send my first offering to the Spirits."

A smile, bloody red, still sad after all these years. "It was her throat I had to cut, if I wished to complete my training and take my place with them."

Before Skai walked out of the cabin, she turned and saw the question in Calina's eyes. "I cut her throat, watched the life flow out of her and then burned her body, scattering her ashes on our favorite hill." Shaped brow rose in punctuation. "I learned my lesson then, Lina, love is weakness. As is friendship." With that she left the cockpit. She was satisfied with her tale, still proud with how she had broken her own weakness and finished the trials in perfection.

But why did her eyes burn?

Why was her heart heavy?

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Calina's bit her tongue at those words, digging her fingers into the arms of the pilots chair and watching Skai walk away. Fury rose in her, and angry spike that threatened to engulf. She closed her eyes, and exhale slowly, bringing herself down a few notches. Handling things in a blind fury never ended well, and her anger in truth, was not at Skai. But at those words that had been echoed so often by her mother.

Lies.

She pushed herself from the chair and followed after Skai, palm slapping the controls for the landing ramp as she drew level with her."I don't believe that." Her eyes were blazing with passion and anger. "A unarmed mother can become a deadly weapon to protect her child. A brother will become a powerful sheild to protect his siblings. A father would tear up cities to see that his children are safe. A lover?" She paused stepping a little closer. "A lover would burn entire worlds, just because a lover asked. The only people who see love and friendship as a weakness, are those who are too afraid to lose it."

She swept away down the ramp, heading towards the cliff face that towered above them and the pile of too neatly placed rocks that marked Luke's grave. She paused next to it, a twang of pain cutting across her heart. Dead simply for taking pity on a friendless girl. She blinked and looked towards the dark opening on the cliff front. A gaping hole with worn steps that led down into its depths.

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

Skai looked on with amusement as the girl brushed past her and left her behind.

Part of her wanted to bring up the fact that that was exactly the weakness she had been speaking of. To become complacent, relying on others to do your work for you, to become weak and fragile without the help of others to support you.

It was not a fate that Skai wanted for herself and hopefully one day Lina would learn it herself as well.

"Who came before," The witch wondered out loud as she stepped next to the girl, as she looked at the gaping cavernous hole that led downwards. "What is it that you have found here anyway?" If Cerbera knew what they were taking here, then she hadn't seen it fit to notify Skai about it. Annoying, but she was Sith and Sith loved their little dirty secrets. They believed that the more secrets they held tightly against their chest, the stronger they would be.

Foolish.

"It must be quite the treasure for Cerbera to be interested."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Grasping at the opportunity to talk about something that instilled excitement rather than anger, Calina beamed and led the way down the worn steps. "If my research is correct, which I'm certain it is, then this is the last resting place of Rur, High Shaman of the Order of the Terrible Glare." She pulled a flashlight from her belt and flicked it on as they descended away from the scorching sun.

"From what I can peice together, the Order of the Terrible Glare had been at war with the Jedi Order and Rur used to lure Jedi here and kill them, trapping their souls. I believe remnants of what he used to trap them might still be here. Cerbera has access to leviathan blister traps, she doesn't really need this research." The last note came with a touch of bitterness. She sighed.

"We're all slaves to the bigger fish." She murmured, as the steps came to an abrupt end, a huge ornate stone door rising above them. "The story goes that Rur destroyed it in a fit of rage and despair so what condition it's in beyond this door could be interesting."

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

Indeed they were.

Everyone served a higher power, even if they didn't strictly realize it themselves. There was purpose in serving, there was power, respect, dignity, there was the sense of accomplishment and there was the opportunity to learn. That did not prevent Skai from scowling every time Cerbera send her on an errand she thought was beneath her, no, but she did it regardless. It was her duty, after all, her Mothers had given her to her Master to serve and that is what Skai would do.

"Shaman? Tell me of this Order." She had never heard of it before. "Do they know of the Spirits? Talk to them, maybe?" If so, there was wisdom to be had here.

Few groups in the Galaxy knew of the spirits, talked with them, worshiped them.

It was why the Galaxy seemed so lost sometimes, in Skai's opinion. Without their guidance nobody truly knew what to do, what not to do and what to completely avoid.

The door before them was large.

Heavy.

Skai stepped forward, carefully. Eyes already looking for traps, stones that were set just a fraction differently, holes where things could descend upon them and kill. "You have been inside before?"

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Calina gave a snort of derision, not at Skai perosnally, but at the idea that the Order of the Terrble Glare could commune with the spirits. "They were a splinter group from the Jedi Order, believed that a human supremacist cult that once ruled the republic were correct in their unrelenting crusades against anything outside of their Core Worlds. Pius Dea. To them, the Outer Rim was chaos, and they had a divine order to defeat it in return for its treasures. Narrow minded fools." She rain her hands over the door, searching it both with touch and in the force.

"I never made it inside. Never had the chance before..." she trailed off and shoved the door with the force at its centre point. Stone grounded and shifted slightly, showering them in dust. Calina cast wary eyes above them. The last thing she wanted was to be trapped. "They existed over ten thousand years ago, the planet annihilated by the Republic of the time and all were believed to be dead. Rur, however, managed to preserve himself inside on the computers, but for him, time passed as mere months, so when he learned about the destruction of the Jedi Order he had known and the passing of ten thousand years, his lost his head a little and blew everything up."

She grinned at Skai. "So they say, anyway."

Calina was of the belief that not everything had been destroyed. If she could prove that there was more to be found here, then perhaps Cerbera would grant her more resources to uncover what remained. How much of it she could keep to herself and how much she would need to give to keep Cerbera's interest sated were things she would have to conquer at a later date. Her fingers found a part of the door that seemed to protrude just a millimetre or so more than the rest. She ran her fingers around it, noting the tiny gap that surrounded it. Biting her lower lips she pushed the stone.

A great grinding and clunking echoedfrom behind the door and Calina took a step back.

[member="Skai"]

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

For a while Skai remained silent.

Not because she didn't have anything to say, but rather because the witch wanted to mull over what she had been told. She loved to learn, find things out and figure them out. Which wasn't as hard as one might expect. After all, for the majority of her life Skai had lived in a village on Dathomir, away from all the technological 'splendor' and development of Core society.

Hadn't even known about the HoloNet, until the Green One showed up.

Now Skai suspected that her Mothers had known about all of this and that their surprise had been mock. Just another way to keep power, ensure that people stayed where they were.

"It sounds to me like they were ignorant." Skai offered after a moment of thought, while following Calina close-by as the door rose up with the groan of a giant waking. She wondered what else they would wake with their entry into this ancient tomb. She wondered if it would raise itself up and kill them for their insolence.

It was dark at first.

Until she flicked her fingers and a torch materialized out of acid green smoke. Handy for more than just weapons, in fact, there was little in the way of limitation when it came to summoning.

"I am happy they lost. Ignorance should not be rewarded."