Private Sithly Secrets

[Naestra]

“I suppose you have a point there.” She said in concession. Not all races had hundreds of years of life to spare. Sephi such as herself lived an average of 200 years, with the upper limit being around 400. She had time to spend, time that she could use to more deeply understand things. She supposed if he only had a century at best, she could hardly blame him for using those shortcuts that she found to make things incomplete.

They would go around the building itself for a little while, checking each obelisk and documenting the runes it had on his datapad and her notebook. Each one had unique arrangements of the same runes. Some recognized as words when strung together, but still not decipherable yet.

“Okay. So. We’ve seen a few repeating patterns in the writing. What does that tell us about the language?” She quizzed, wondering if he would know.

 

[Anen]

He nodded again, "I've probably only got a hundred and seventy if I'm lucky. Probably ways to extend that for me, but I don't plan on falling into that trap." He was nearly certain something like that was how his father fell. He had always been growing in power, but those who truly knew him, knew it was about more than just craving power. He did crave power. But Anen believed it was about fear.

Their continued progress was harboring relatively minimal results, but something, "Could be a title, or ritualistic reason. Like a blessing or curse." he offered frowning at the datapad and messing with the information a bit, "Written language decryption just...really isn't my area of expertise." Everyone had to have flaws, this was just one of his. There were only two things he could truly be called a master of, medical/biological sciences, and shapeshifting. The skill in the latter of which was strongly related to his skill in the former.

Naestra

 

[Naestra]

She nodded, and let the subject go. She still believed that it was best to take one’s time. But his point that not everyone had that kind of time was one she couldn’t contest, and acknowledged as true.

“Could be. But I’m aiming for something more related to the language itself. What I was going to say is that it indicates an alphabetical structure, so these aren’t hieroglyphs. So a string of letters forms a word and that word represents an idea, rather than an ideogram depicting a concept that is then given a word associated with it.” She explained with a smile. She loved this kind of study. It was always fascinating to learn new things, languages or facts. She was a student to the core and her excitement about learning more was palpable.

Perhaps not shared by him. But she hoped that this was at least stimulating. She didn’t want to bore the poor Padawan.

---

Anen

 

[Anen]

He frowned listening and looking back at the datapad. "Why can't it be that these are forming phrases, rather than words?" Anen questioned uncertainly looking them over in more detail. He wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to tell the difference regardless. He supposed it could be that there were repeating words, rather than repeating phrases. That was probably a lot easier to explain.

 

[Naestra]

“Because repeating phrases aren’t as common as repeating words. Easiest way to spot them is the use of conjunctions.” She explained, pointing out A grouping of four runes that always appeared in the same order, and appeared numerous times throughout each obelisk, sometimes within only one word of each other. “I’d bet you anything this here is a conjuction. Like “and”, “or”, or “but”. If it was a repeated phrase it wouldn’t appear so frequently.”

 

[Anen]

Anen tilted his head looking them over then nodding, humming an acknowledgement, "That's something at least. Though I'm not sure what we can do with that." he admitted frowning, "I still don't understand what any of this could really mean. Even if we could narrow down which conjunction it was. It's still not much to work with unless we know the nouns or verbs."

Naestra

 

[Naestra]

“It’s not much on its own, but every piece to the puzzle counts. And an important piece this is. Because this will help us get a grasp of their sentence structure. And if we can figure out how their sentences are structured by comparing it to similar languages, preferably direct descendant languages in a similar geographical location, then we can identify which words are nouns and verbs more easily. And then we work from there.” She told him with glee, excitement in her eyes at having made even this small amount of progress. “But ultimately this is something that will take a long time to do. I’m not sure we’re going to find many other things in the writing just by looking. So we’ve done just about everything we can with what we have so far. This is something I will have to come back to later. So… now I think we should head in. If only to alleviate your boredom and relieve you of the agony of hearing me talk about the intricacies of deciphering language.”

---

Anen

 

[Anen]

He nodded thoughtfully, it was a start. But it was a start of an extensive investigation. He already was calculating the time it would take to go find a protocol droid he could buy or rent compared to how long it would take to do it himself. The conclusion, it was probably faster to get the droid. And more reliable. Though Naestra clearly had experience in this manner. Maybe she'd speed up the process...still...he imagined the droid would be faster. He'd prefer his own time be spent on learning things he could use more than once.

Anen grunted in agreement at going in now. Though he chuckled at the suggestion she was causing boredom, "Well, it is a bit of a lengthy process for something that's liable to be a one-time use." he admitted, "Gime a second. Just in case." In short order, his human skin had shifted into something more blatantly resembling red scales, as he took on attributes similar to the Osorae, though only for his skin, rather than doing what he sometimes did and fully shifting. Then gave a thumbsup, "There, now we both have armor. Should be good to go."

 

[Naestra]

“You might never use this again. But me? This is my specialty. I will most definitely be using this quite a bit after we have parted ways. And I am in no rush.” She told him with a content smile.

She watched him shift his body into something more serpentine, and far heavier. She observed with curiosity as he morphed, immediately her brain sorting through the information she had on shapeshifting sapients. And then it clicked, he had two presences in the force. That should have been a dead giveaway from the start!

“You’re a Vo!” She proclaimed, before stopping to think again. “Ven? No, Vran! I read about your species a while ago but I’ve never met anyone belonging to it! Fascinating! How does it feel to transform like that? Does it hurt?”

---

Anen

 

[Anen]

He gave a shrug of acknowledgement as she explained he may use it once, but she'd definitely get more out of it. However after he'd shifted, surprise was a reasonable possibility, but recognition was wholly unexpected. Anen raised both brows in surprise at the thread of words she started with, then clarified that she'd heard of them before and asked about the process.

The padawan smiled, glad they were at least on a subject he did understand, "Well that's not common to know." he admitted cheerfully, "I'll blame the Eternal Empire for that, they got us out more. But yeah, I'm a Vran. But Ven specifically. And not unless I do it wrong, which...has happened." he explained, "Though I'm sure if you'd felt it for the first time, it would still be incredibly strange. I'm still surprised you've heard of us, let alone the Vo in particular."

Anen chuckled shaking his head. Well, it was nice to be heard of. His homeworld may have preferred isolation. But there was some part of him that was glad they could only be so isolated, even without the eternal empire over their heads anymore.
Naestra

 

[Naestra]

She giggled at seeing him so pleased to be known about. “I get my grubby mitts on all the knowledge I can find. I can’t say I’m an expert in your species’ history or anything, but I know about you at least! My time spent in the archives has well and truly paid off I would say.”

“The thing that really stood out to me was the existence of a force-sensitive organ possessed by your people that gives you dual force presences. It didn’t occur to me until you shifted, but I’d remember a peculiarity like that!”

---

Anen

 

[Anen]

He shook his head still smiling and chuckling, "Clearly you are far more of an academic than I am." he admitted, "If I'd been raised under more standard circumstances I'm not sure I would have come across that. But then, a lot of my skills are things that I first learned growing up, then simply expanded on later."

He hummed and nodded an agreement, "It definitely seems to be an outlier. I'm not sure I really know of a species that has it ingrained like that. I imagine similar feelings could be attained via the right measures of alchemy though, or with some kind of force spirit presence. But none of that is genetic. It's really convenient in what it does, though it does also tend to stand out in the force. Makes it harder to hide."

Naestra


Inventory:
Standard blue lightsaber
Datapad with extended range and storage
Standard equipment like comms.
Simple green and white garments.
centennial-osprey-class-jedi-transport

[/spoiler]

 

[Naestra]

“It only makes it harder when people are actually paying attention.” She said sheepishly, referring to her own distractedness when he first approached her. “But anyway, that can wait. Let’s go in and see what we can find!”

With that she donned her helmet, and hefted her halberd. Then she began marching happily along the trail straight to this Sith temple. Whatever it was, she was about to discover the heck out of it. And she had a friend with her to share it with! She wasn’t usually a social woman, but academic discovery was always more fun with more people.

---

Anen

 

[Anen]

He hummed again at the comment, fair enough. Plus, it wasn't like there was a force sensitive on every place he visited, let alone one interested enough to actually do something about it if they did realize there was something off.

Regardless, off the went to the sith temple. This part, he was not so cheerful about. He wasn't entirely certain how someone could be about strolling into an area of darkness without yet knowing what they were facing. But he followed. Feeling out with the force and his senses for dangers while keep his mind carefully guarded, "I don't understand why someone would...want this." he admitted as they went. "The dark side alone is one thing but...at some point the loss has to mean something."

Naestra

 

[Naestra]

The two Jedi would approach the dark Monument, and finally Anen spoke up and asked the question that many Jedi had asked before. What made the Dark Side so attractive? How could anyone bring themselves to want it? What made it worth it to so many people?

Naestra sighed, she’d studied this too. And while she could never bring herself to touch the dark side herself, she had learned enough to know a few things. Especially since she’d been around a few nexuses more in tune to the dark than the light, and she’d handled an artifact or two of dark origin. That had given her some insight. But then there was the history that she’d read, the amount that she had learned from all her studies was unmatched.

“That… is a tough question to answer. The oversimplified answer is simply power. The people who follow the dark path want power, for various reasons. Sometimes it begins altruistically. The infamous Darth Vader was set down the dark path because he wanted the power to save his wife from death. Other times it’s borne from desperation. The amount of Twi-lek who have followed the Sith way is indicative of this. Their race is enslaved the galaxy over and they are often looked down upon. Twi-lek desperation has lead many of their people into the darkness, including the Sith Lord Kas’im who trained Darth Bane, the architect of the Rule of Two era of the Sith. Na’daz had been rescued from slavery by his master, a fellow Twi-Lek named Na’daz. There are many more like them. There is no one answer, but ultimately all dark siders pursue strength and power above all, believing it to be their surest route to ultimate freedom.”

 

[Anen]

He listened as she answered, though began to furrow his brow. Some of what she said did make sense. He wasn't disagreeing with the idea that power was what drew some. Or even that some were from an origin of altruism. Or desperation. Anen breathed in thoughtfully, as they continued, scrunching his face slightly trying to think of the words again, "It's not even that. It's not just the origins. It's the choice to stay. I'm...not really the best historian you know. But I do know that, quite often, even the elite of the sith, often has a conterpart in the light. Or, are wildly outnumbered simply because of the way they gained their power. Where I'm from, the powers are roughly equal. Not balanced, but equal. Sure, those who follow the dark are more commonly warriors. But there's almost always a light sider to match." he considered how to continue for another moment, "But then, if they acted as the sith did, they'd probably get killed. So they may not be reaching their full potential in the dark side. Regardless though, from the perspective of someone who uses them. The dark side brings only suffering, yet is no stronger than the light. It may offer temporary feeling of immortality, but many who claim to be so, often can't even outlive a hutt. Whether in one body or in spirit even. Instead of being freed, they become locked to places or flesh. While jedi get equal power, yet suffer none of the consequences. It just seems...impractical I guess."

Naestra



[/spoiler]

 

[Naestra]

“You would be correct. The answer there is ease. It is so much easier to use the dark than the light. And it’s particularly attractive to those people who are already suffering because the Dark Side turns suffering into greater power.” She explained. “Once you set down the dark path forever will it dominate your destiny. It is easy to fall, difficult to climb. The light requires greater effort, greater time to use properly. While equal power can indeed be achieved, a Sith can reach those heights far sooner than any Jedi would. Though in recent years this has come to be less the case, because the Jedi during the time of the Clone war, from the High Republic until Luke Skywalker rebuilt the Jedi order, the Jedi thought that strength in the force came from focus. While the Sith relied on passion. Emotion is a very powerful thing, and that is the source of strength in the force. Force used with emotion, negative or positive, will always be stronger than the force used without. And emotions like anger, hate or fear come readily and easily. And they are hard to conquer.”

 

[Anen]

He groaned in thought as he listened and considered. Naturally, he understood parts here or there. The light was not easy, that was, naturally a problem for him too. However, the idea of embracing the risk of this putridity that he felt around him just because it was the easiest option, that seemed abominable intellectually. Then again, perhaps that was a flaw the dark side encouraged too. His world only skidded by without tearing itself apart, and it had constant measures in place. The sith seemed to be at each others throats non-stop. If his world was one true disaster away from self destruction, the sith were already mid-strike at every moment.

"I suppose." He admitted, "But to stay within it after gaining it, yet gaining nothing. They're either mad from the dark side, or were already."

Naestra

 

[Naestra]

“Sometimes it is all they know.” She told him as they went into the temple, the forbidding halls gaping as if to swallow them whole. “And the Dark Side lends itself to conflict more readily. Electric Judgement or Emerald Lightning are light side equivalents to the infamous Force Lightning used extensively by the Sith. All the Sith need to do to master theirs is be angry, which isn’t hard for them. The Sith are often consisted of those who grew up in a harsh way. You may feel disgusted by it. But try to understand that those who fall to it are most often themselves victims of great tragedy that pushed them there. When I see one of them, all I feel is pity. And remorse that they didn’t have anything better.”

She took a step into the dark entryway of the pyramid, certain that they would find more inscriptions to decrypt, and likely either a body, or artifacts. She couldn’t deny that she was excited. The prospect of discovering something forgotten always got her blood rushing.

 

[Anen]

All they know...yes. Maybe so to that too. A depressing thought really. That said, he felt a spur at the thought of seeing them as the victims. He nearly scowled involuntarily. "Maybe you can see that. Maybe there's some truth in it. But I see people willing to make others and themselves suffer recklessly." he answered honestly. As far as he was concerned, whatever the justification someone may claim for why they initially joined. The dark side was dangerous, and selfish. It didn't care why you chose it at first. It was pain, and it sought the spread of that pain. Whether it had any will or not, that was the consequence.

He followed to the pyramid, the dark sided aura around them causing him to shroud himself tighter with the force like a small barrier of protection. And his muscles to tense and untense, his sense physical and incorporeal waiting for whatever the next threat may be. He was rather regretting this decision.

Naestra