Private The Dagger Pit

[Darth Ophidia]

Darth Strosius​

FIVIUNE

The crags of Fiviune were like a cracked sheet of dull iron, its shape and hue reminiscent only of ruin. Dull clouds gathered above, obscuring the sun behind a cover of grey, while a dark horizon rumbled with distant thunder. Many would say they found the world depressing, but somehow it fit with the minimalistic stylings of Darth Ophidia. The Dark Lady of the Sith stood in stoic, silent meditation. She was so still as to resemble a part of the stone itself, were int not for the movement of the silken robes that draped her slender form. Her eyes were closed - Lightning flashed and thunder roared - Ophidia breathed in deeply and her visage appeared stronger.

It was as if she was breathing in the storm itself.

Beneath her was a canyon particularly deep and treacherous, they had started calling it the Dagger Pit.

The Pale Assassin waited there for her apprentice, Alisteri Haxim, to arrive. The young knight had grown much in the Force, but he had much to learn still. She feared time was growing short, and the proverbial storm would soon trespass beyond its prison in the horizon. Once the war was loose, they would all need to be stronger, better, and much more careful. There was so much more he needed to know if he were to lead one day.

There was so much more she needed to teach.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Being called upon at odd and seemingly random hours to do his master's bidding had become far more common as of late. Perhaps it was a sign, some measure of calm or preparation for a great struggle. The Knight himself was unsure what it meant in that regard, but that did little to dissuade him from answering such summons. Even if they all seemed to lead to strange and ominous worlds.

Fiviune was one of many such worlds that his master commanded him to visit.

His gaze idly wandered over the jutting crags as his shuttle passed over them, soon shifting ahead to watch out for the approaching landing zone. The storm made traveling too far above the planet's surface difficult so keeping a steady distance above the ground was the way to go. Soon though his senses would catch the unmistakable yet subtle aura that his master typically exuded. It always put him on edge, like a dagger poised at his side, no matter how familiar it became.

As such he hardly wasted time landing and making his way out onto the surface of the world. Alisteri, as usual, had come as quickly as he could and yet a part of him still worried at being tardy. Some things never changed, he supposed.

The Knight made his way to his master and bowed as his gaze finally landed upon her, keeping a respectful distance away. "I have arrived my master. How may I be of service?"

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

"Knighthood suits you, Darth Strosius."

She did not change her position immediately, but remained like a dark slash through the background.

"But there is still much left for you to learn." "These grounds will serve us well for the next lesson; they are harsh, unwelcoming, dangerous."

A flash of gold glinted between her fingers, starkly contrasting the monochromatic hues of black and grey. It would be a familiar sight, if not only from a distant memory of their earliest encounters. The singular gold coin that she turned from one finger to the next had been a frequent image in their training. One face had two serpents biting each other's tails, the other featured a gaping skull encrusted with bones, like a sun. This coin, however, looked older, worn and scuffed. The highest points were polished from touch, but the deep crevices were darkened with old filth.

"You have never shown much of an interest in the finer arts of my craft, but I shall teach you some none the less."

Now she finally turned to face him. Lightning flashed in the background, contrasting the view of near and far. When the contrast cast her face in darkness one could almost swear her jaw turned to dry bones, her skin taut like the ancient mummified corpses on the grave worlds of the Sith, but her eyes still aglow like molten iron.

"Your life may well depend on it."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Where his master remained still, the Knight shifted as she spoke. His new name and title were still very fresh and unfamiliar. To hear it spoken aloud and addressing him felt odd.

Something that he would have to adjust to in time.

His masked gaze flickered to the coin and widened slightly but he quickly realized that it was not the same one he had been given so long ago. This one was far older despite clear maintenance and care. The significance was unclear but not lost on him. "I have and shall always be open to your teachings and lessons master."

There was a noticeable pause, almost a flinch, as she turned and faced him. It was not the lightning making him so briefly unsettled however. He wisely chose to focus his gaze on her eyes and quickly straightened back up as he nodded. "I have little doubt that it will. What is the nature of this new lesson then? Is there something for me to slay? To survive?" Alisteri wasn't expected a clear answer to his questions, he hardly ever got one from his master even at the most casual of moments.

"Perhaps something for me to recover?"

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Her apprentice seemed eager, if not also uncomfortable.

He made his guesses as to what he would be doing, gathering experience from the previous lessons she had imparted in him. This time, she was taking a page out of her own master's book.

"All of the above."

She turned her body and paced around him slowly.

"I will teach you to go unnoticed, to hide your presence until such time when you are poised to strike." "We are surrounded by enemies. We are few, and they are many."

A deep breath escaped her as she passed his left side, her eyes closed in thought.

"You will not be invisible, but you will be hidden in the Force. In most cases, that will be sufficient."

She passed behind him now. Her presence, so oppressive and all encompassing, simply vanished. There was no sound or sight of her, and any memory of her in the past minutes was put in a shade of doubt. Were she a mere illusion? Then a voice whispered into his right ear.

"Let us begin."

She stepped away from him, in view on his left again.

"Close your eyes, find your breath and follow it to the centre of your being."

These were typical instructions for meditation, a common practice for force users.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

The answer caused him to cock his head to the side in confusion, but he quickly straightened up as she began to pace around him. He knew better than to ask for clarification just yet.

Better to listen until comments were warranted.

"Hidden in the Force? Like the effect that those Taozin amulets have?"

The mere mention of a new skill was intriguing to say the least, especially in an area that he was very lacking in. For all his experience with infiltration, most of which involved crawling through vents and quietly killing witnesses, masking himself in the Force was a foreign concept.

He could count on one hand the amount of times he had even used one of the amulets. Hiding from other Force Users wasn't a high priority before to be fair, his role in the war had been mainly against the average soldiers. Now though, it would be invaluable to do.

Especially given the...hostility within the Sith Order.

The Knight blinked in surprise as the presence of his master suddenly vanished from his senses, about to turn around in search of her right before she whispered and made him jump back in surprise.

He took a moment to recompose himself and adopt a relaxed yet upright pose as he nodded. Alisteri closed his eyes and breathed out in order to focus his breathing. Meditation was a familiar and easy enough state for him to slip into.

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

"Yes, but if you rely solely on such tools then you will stunt your own growth."

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. With her breath, she seemed to swell with power as though it was kept concealed under a mask of vulnerability.

"You have too many thoughts, shed them." "Find your centre."

She focused on him, surrounding him with her attention like a wind, flowing past without pressuring him.

"You feel it? Good." "Feel the essence, the ether that is you." "See how far it reaches."

Her own presence melted away to allow him to search, but her voice remained on the wind.

"Find the edges, the limits of your presence."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

She wasn't wrong about that. Alisteri, particularly in his earlier years, had always been so reliant on technology and equipment to try and even the playing field between himself and his enemies. Even his lightsaber was a crutch given his relative lack of Force techniques and powers.

A lack that he intended to make up for, but still.

He pushed his thoughts away as he focused, letting them dissipate and leave his mind clear and open. Her command was unclear to him, confusing even, but he would attempt it nonetheless. Sensing the Force in others had never been his strong suit aside from the powerful or familiar. Finding himself was just another challenge to overcome.

It took him more time than he would like to admit but he did find his essence eventually, and followed it to find the limits. Given his armor and his lack of subtlety within the Force it was easy to feel when he knew what to look for.

"I have found...it...myself...I have done as you commanded master."

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

She observed him, not only his posture and breathing in the physical realm, but how he moved in the metaphysical sense. She could see how he stretched out his presence through the Force and grasped the edges of his own influence.

What he had done was perhaps rudimentary, but it was also key to numerous powers.

With a quiet step, she approached him again.

"Imagine it is a fabric."

From her sleeve, she pulled a fabric and laid it on his lap. It was a teaching tool to help him imagine and enforce his imagination. Imagination gave the Force shape and form, and willpower gave it power.

"And you grasp the edge with your will." She placed his hand gently on the fabric. "Then tuck it into your hand, make it small."

She stepped back again.

"Make it vanish."

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

He did his best not to jolt slightly as he heard the voice of his master just a bit closer before, too focused on keeping the edges of himself in his mind's eye. Alisteri didn't want to lose track of all the progress that he'd already made after all, no matter how little it was.

The Knight's hand was receptive as his master moved it and set it atop the fabric in his lap, eager to understand how it would help in his training. "I...see..." He wrapped his fingers around the edge of the fabric as his focus latched onto the edges of his aura and presence within the Force. The fabric would be a bit of an aid he supposed.

Alisteri's hand closed around the fabric and clenched it into his palm while he did his best to do something similar with his presence. It took a few tries before he managed to grasp with his mind but persistence was far from a foreign concept.

As the fabric slid into his clenched fist he dragged his aura back to his physical form slowly.

Gradually his presence in the Force shrank as he pulled it inward and followed the instructions of his master. It was slow and sloppy of course but he had eventually managed it.

With the fabric now tucked into his fist and his presence finally masked from the Force, he looked back up at his master and cracked open his eyes. It took a lot of focus and concentration to keep himself hidden but it was done.

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

It was a struggle, but he accomplished it.

This struggle was a familiar one. What was now as easy as breathing had once been a task so monumental it required every ounce of concentration she could muster. Perhaps, in time, he would feel the same.

"In time, you will not require aid."

She referenced the cloth in his hand, but also the taozin amulets that he had mentioned before.

"A true Sith does not require tools. He does not require weapons or servants" "When you become power, all other powers will yield to you."

It was not a goal made in one step. One was not born sith, rather, a sith was forged by their will and fortitude in the fires of tribulation. Strife lead to growth. Passion lead to strength, and so the saying goes: my chains are broken.

"The first step is to seize control of your self."

It was no longer simply a question of concealing oneself from others, but a matter of controlling how others perceived one. The same technique used to conceal one's presence could restrict it, or send it far and wide.

"It's time."

A sphere of complete darkness enveloped the two of them, and a mighty pull gathered toward its centre as though a black hole had suddenly manifested itself between them.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri couldn't help but wonder how deep that comment was meant to reach. The cloth and amulets were obvious but perhaps his master had another meaning behind her words. Perhaps not.

Although he listened silently as his master spoke, a part of him was amused for a moment. There were many that would claim that having servants or lessers of some variety was integral to being a Sith. In his mind they were very wrong, even if many of them were far more powerful than he was. But since when did he agree with those far above him anyway?

That did beg the question of what precisely she meant by power as well, but that was another and far more challenging matter to decipher. Power was what separated Sith from Jedi, what separated the strong from the weak, no matter the form.

"Seizing control of myself? I do not understand master..."

Was he not already in full control of himself? Especially now with the knowledge on how to limit his presence? Alisteri hadn't a clue what it was that he was meant to do.

Thankfully though, any further nagging questions were cast aside as he saw the darkness shroud them and the pull of something that clutched him all the way to his core.

His eyes widened and he muttered a curse as he tried to dig his fingers or heels into the ground in an effort to fight against the pull, regardless of how futile such efforts were.

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Darth Strosius

Softness first, then light. It was not harsh. Rather, his eyes would have to strive to catch any of it at all. The softness gave way to cold, and a jabbing sensation of hard and sharp points announcing their presence. The softness was the sticky flesh of a long dead cadaver, with bones pried open to provide access to its bowels. The pungent scent of offal and blood soon arrived in tow.

Walls of sheer rock rose up on either side, with blades of knife-sharp rock jutting out of the ground like a hundred swords planted hilt down in what was once a riverbed.

«This is the dagger pit.»

Her voice cut from above.

«Do as I have taught you, or it will be your tomb.»

Iron shifted as chains were pulled, and the air filled with a deep growl, then another, and another. The heavy feet of the terentateks stomped out from their prison lair, lured closer by the scent of the cadaver. Terentateks, famously, hunted force users with a passion.

 

[Darth Strosius]

The disorienting sensation stole away any attempts that his eyes or other senses made to try and figure out what was happening to him, but when he finally came back to his senses he found himself laying down next to a corpse and surrounded by tall, spiked walls. Not the most comfortable place that he had ever been in.

Alisteri was quick to sit up and swivel his head around to examine his surroundings before he heard the voice of his master, his head then inclining to try and glimpse at where she was speaking from.

The dagger pit was a very appropriate name for this strange place that he now stood in. Before he could respond or question what his master meant though the sound of chains moving followed by growls and stomps filled the air. His hand reactively shot down to his side to wrap around his lightsaber's hilt but he paused.

If these creatures were so easy to kill with a blade or fists alone then they wouldn't be a test. The masked man let out a tense breath and pulled his hand back, clasping his hands together in front of his chest much like one would for a prayer as he focused.

Rather than ready himself for battle, he instead focused on his presence in the Force and hurried to try and rein it in before whatever beasts had been unleashed could find him unarmed.

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Darth Strosius

As Alisteri reached down to find his sabre, he would find nothing but empty space. It would seem that his sabre had been whisked away in the transportation. Perhaps she had assumed he might have chosen to fight, or perhaps she was saving it as further incentive down the road.

Who knew what challenges she had in store for him.

As Alisteri begun tucking away his presence, however, he would hear the terentateks sniffing closer and closer as if they were searching for him within the overpowering scent of blood and fresh meat. The scent was buying him time, but only a limited amount as the massive sithspawn edged closer to his hiding place.

But as he closed his metaphorical hand around his presence, the sniffing subsided.

Instead there was a violent shift as one of the terentateks bit down on and pulled open the open gizzard of the bait. With claws the size of vibroswords, it pried the corpse open and tucked its entire snout inside. Fierce bites, pulls and stomps rent flesh from bone as the foremost terentatek tore into the corpse.

Two others moved further down, flanking Alisteri’s position, but not looking directly at him. Instead, they were sniffing his surroundings in search of a trace.

 

[Darth Strosius]

The lack of his weapon did little to calm his nerves but he knew that he couldn't focus on how and why it was lost for long, not with something stalking towards him. Instead he poured all of his focus into masking his presence like his master had instructed, shrouding himself within the Force as quickly as he could manage despite his inexperienced with the technique. He knew well enough that if he failed he'd be ripped apart by whatever was hunting for him.

As the beasts finally appeared before him Alisteri kept his gaze on them, watching for any signs that they were aware of him standing there. His breathing, which by then had been calmed in order to focused, grew slow and silent in order to further mask himself as they began poking around the bait that littered the floor.

Two of them still seemed to be looking for him but given that they had yet to pounce it seemed like his cloaking was working thus far. Still he did not allow his focus to slip or his hold on his presence to loosen.

Especially not with the beasts so close to him, close enough that they could lash out and rob him of a limb before he could attack in return.

Whatever these creatures were they were clearly dedicated predators and hunters, evidently with a heavy reliance on the Force in some way or form. He was curious how that worked for them but he doubted that he could glean and answers just by observing their stalking and feasting. Perhaps his master could shed some light when the test was over.

If he survived.

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

The terentateks sniffed closer and closer to Alisteri's position until one was within reach. However, they did not seem to look at or acknowledge him. Instead, the closest stepped right over his prone form as it pressed itself into the line for the cadaver. The third, not wanting to miss the free meal, quit its search to join in as well.

For the time being, it would seem his concealment was effective and he was left alone.

But now what?

Would he climb out of the dagger pit's sharp cliff sides? Or would he perhaps search for another path? Certainly there was more for him to explore in this desolate landscape than the prospect of imminent ingestion. She had much more in store for him, as he would have to learn to exert himself while maintaining the concealment.

It was then that a glint from high up on one of the cliff sides might catch his eye, a familiar shine of metal precariously placed among the jagged rocks.

Darth Strosius

 

[Darth Strosius]

He had to stifle a sigh of relief as the beasts turned their attention to the corpse nearby instead of focusing on turning him a similar state. One of the creatures seemed like it would be a challenge to handle even with a lightsaber, let alone three at once. With them occupied by their meal Alisteri's gaze wandered around the pit that he had found himself in, searching for some hidden path or escape through the spikes. Staying and waiting for the Terentateks to finish their meal was not an option.

He doubted that he could keep up his concealment forever after all, not with the technique still being so new in his mind. If or when his focus slipped the beasts would be alerted and he needed to be as far away from them as possible if he intended to get out of the pit alive.

Then his gaze caught a glint of metal, a shine amidst the rock walls that surrounded him. And of course it was high up on a cliff, far out of his reach.

He pulled himself to his feet slowly in an attempt to keep his rise quiet, his gaze fixed on the glint for a moment. However Alisteri knew his master, to some extent anyway, and he knew that such a path was too obvious. And a straight climb up was just as likely to knock it off its perch before he reached it anyway. So instead of making his way to the cliff wall, he started to move through the sharp spikes that sprouted from the ground. There was another way out, of that he was sure.

Darth Ophidia

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Darth Strosius

The winding path he chose was labyrinthine.

Switchback paths appeared and disappeared quickly, some falling away to short but deadly drops into the maw of sharp rocks below. Still, the path did yield some favours. As he climbed up the steep hillside, Alisteri would be afforded a greater and greater view of the valley below. He would see that it stretched far, with a narrow path at its bottom that occasionally dipped under the jagged rocks in what one could only guess were subterranean tunnels.

Both sides appeared to have these switchback paths, but both were equally treacherous as the ledges quickly slimmed down to less than the width of his foot and the sparce hand-holds were liable to cut the skin if one placed their hand carelessly.

In ways, the path resembled a parable of the dark side of the Force: One always walked a knife's edge.

The glint of metal grew steadily more clear as he progressed.

The object would be familiar to him, as he had reached for it and found it stolen not long before. Yet, as he came ever closer, he would also mark the scent of rotting flesh upon the air, and hear the low, rhythmic hum of a large creature sleeping.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Of course what he thought to be the correct path was hardly an easy trek, nothing was ever so simple with a task from his master after all. The Dagger Pit was evidently far more than some mere pit or crater like he had initially thought, instead presenting a much larger and more mysterious feature now that he had gotten a better view of the area.

Alisteri would not be deterred by the valley of rocks and cliffs however. Dangerous terrain was hardly a new test from his master and he was not about to start failing a test now.

By the time that the familiar shine of his lightsaber was within sight he caught wind of something nearby and most certainly not dead or feasting like the earlier creatures. The Knight stopped as he heard the slumbering breaths of some beast and his head swiveled around in search of it as the unmistakable odor of decay filtered in through his mask.

With his focus now split on both keeping his presence in the Force shrouded and on ensuring that his movement didn't cause much noise, he crept forward towards his weapon slowly.

He doubted that he would be able to easily fight his way out, but it was better to be armed regardless.

Darth Ophidia