Private Through the Ripples

[Onrai]

Ashin Cardé Varanin

Demonsgate, Kathol Rift

The Kathol Rift was one of the harshest locations in the galaxy, a place where the boundaries of time and space had been rent apart thanks to the activities of a long forgotten Dark Jedi whose destruction of the Precursors' launch gates had altered the system in a perfidious way. But it was the world of Demonsgate, buried within the rift, that was the goddess Onrai's chosen target. Why such a location was of importance to the woman in question would become apparent in due time - the ship was empty sans Onrai herself as it landed upon the world.

Yet she was somehow certain another would join them.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Demonsgate was extraordinarily remote even by the standards of the Kathol Outback; Ashin was very, very much elsewhere. But she'd long admired the philosophy of Darth Vectivus, and his signature technique too.

A specter unfaded into visibility near Onrai 's ship. The phantom's form was intangible, a suggestion built of the volcanic plain's dusty wind and bitter fumes.

I've decided to give you what you asked, Onrai. A place in my work.

She referred to Spencer's resurrection.

But understand that, like virtually all involved, your participation may not be what you expect. Is this acceptable?

 

[Onrai]

"Of course, Ashin." She said. "Though do understand there are some limitations to my assistance - namely the current affiliation with the Sith Empire. I do not know who it is you've affiliated yourself with now, but I would hope they are not an organization that would encourage me to engage in some sort of treason."

Onrai began to walk through the barren hellscape of the world, a deliberate option as she searched for precisely what it was that she had come here to find.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Nothing like that. As for true allegiance, you know I have only one. I've cultivated allies of convenience, made dangerous bargains with Darth Voyance and the Worm Emperor. They're rivals of each other and of the Empire.

But my request will not benefit them or otherwise infringe on your ties to the Empire.

The tenuous phantom projection drifted alongside Onrai .

You've traveled beyond death. What do you know of the Great Bone Orchard and the River of the Dead?

 

[Onrai]

"Ah yes... more times than I would care to consider." She said, a disappointed look growing on her face. She did however showcase appreciation that this would not in any way assist the enemies of the Sith Empire. "The Bone Orchard. A charnel cacophony of calcium spreading across the core of the Netherworld. A place where accordingly immortal beings can be destroyed into nihilistic nothingness. And the River of the Dead - I have not been there, but I know of the tales of it, spread across many of the civilizations who worshipped the original Onrai. A place at the entrance of the afterlife, with guardians judging you on your life and damning you to an eternal fate."

How the spirit of Spencer in question would be found was unsure - but Onrai would certainly assist. Spencer was delightful, if so tenuous on the belief of the many-faced woman's allegiance to the duo as a friend.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

The phantom nodded thoughtfully.

Much of that is new to me. The Orchard as a place of annihilation, and its position near the heart of the Netherworld. And the River as a matter of judgment. Tell me, since the River borders other regions, can it be used for transportation? Will the ferrymen take passengers? Living ones?

 

[Onrai]

"It is possible for them to do such." She said. "Though my recollections of them are slim, the Ferrymen do from my understanding have the power to move living beings through the netherworld - though a sufficiently powerful entity may also be able to provide such a level of safety." She pondered for a bit before sensing the location in question - the area where the portal had been opened before. A wraithlike hand stretched out as the ground itself began to tear, forming into a mound with a hole in it.

"Yes... the portal can still be opened. The hypothesis was correct." She said softly, please at the revelation as she placed the Sunstar into the hole.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Far away, Ashin chewed on that as she watched Onrai manipulate the earth of Demonsgate. She vaguely remembered that this obscure world might have seen a Netherworld rift during the Second Akala Crisis. Several had. Whether Demonsgate was one of them, she couldn't say for sure.

The stone you have there, she said at last. It's nothing I've ever seen or felt before. What is it, and why bring it to this world?

 

[Onrai]

"The stone is known by many names." She said. "I suppose most would know of it as the Sunstar-Shadowstone, the relic once possessed by the Ewok tribes and sacrificed to destroy Griagh, firstborn of the Night Spirit. The remains were left by the corpse of the beast whose bones still moulder, and the stone was reformed by me. I had used it to open the gate leading to the world in Otherspace the Wizards of the Night Spirit were locked behind, allowing them access to Endor once more. Here on Demonsgate there was another portal to that plane - a portal I intend to reopen."

As she rotated the stone, a distortion began to form before their eyes.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

The spectre shifted back, almost flinched, a reflection of its distant master's sudden trepidation.

And what or whom do you hope to release this time?

 

[Onrai]

"Nothing." She said as the ripple in reality grew more pronounced. "The Darkstryder, the only leftover of the precursors that existed in the Kathol Rift, has been long destroyed. Demonsgate is a dead place with little to otherwise offer, even in the realm of chthonic abominations locked away within the traverses of Otherspace never to be allowed access to our material universe." Soon the ripples gave way into a true tear, a gap between the desolate world she stood on and an unknown world in the fluidic rift beyond.

"It is, however, a place to study the means by which such an alternative dimension was crafted."

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

The specter took clearer form as Ashin pushed more of her distance presence into it. General curiosity was one thing, but this could have a bearing on her search for Spencer. Imprisonment in a pocket universe or plane was a possibility she'd considered.

She watched in silence as Onrai kept applying her strength to the old rift. Where exactly the rift led - Otherspace itself, or some greater or lesser alternative plane, be it mortal or Nether or somewhere in between - wasn't yet clear to her. She wasn't sure it was fully clear to Onrai.

Most creations and discoveries worth the name, in Ashin's experience, had a powerful element of the unexpected. For good or for ill.

 

[Onrai]

At least, the rift open, Onrai removed the stone from the dirt facsimile of the altar, which crumbled into dust before the shimmering tear in the boundaries of reality. "Beautiful. A whole new world awaits to be brought under heel, just as the original Onrai intended." It was the death of the Soulworm that had lead to the dissolution of her children's unity, their perfidious tinkering with the species crafted in the Dark Illathurion leading to conflict between them and their ultimate destruction. Typhojem had been shattered tens of thousands of years ago. The Night Spirit's last vestiges had been annihilated and melded with Ingrid L'lerim . Onrai herself had devour the life of Ooradryl and his brood. That left but one offspring, the unnamed and all-consuming horror in the Unknown Regions whose insidiousness continued to profane the world on which it had been once stuck.

"I suppose there is one thing I hope to find on the other side of the rift. Do you wish to join me? Not even my herald Dea would be ready to see what it is I seek."

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

What you've done here may have direct relevance to finding and unlocking whatever state or plane has trapped my wife. You know my goal; you can predict my priorities, and my choices. You know I would step through with you no matter what lay on the other side, Onrai . And though I'm present only as a Vectivus phantom, we both know this could lead to a threat or betrayal too alien for me to easily escape. Something that could impede my search for Spencer, or trap or destroy me.

So I ask myself: can I trust you? And the answer comes - of course not. We're Sith.

And then I ask: can I trust myself? My power, my skills? Are they enough to handle whatever lies on the other side? And the answer comes - of course not, because any number of history's greatest Dark Lords have said yes and paid the price. Plagueis. Sadow. Kun. Sidious. Vitiate. All of them.

Because I ask myself, am I greater than them? And the answer comes - yes. Because I won't step through the gate.

 

[Onrai]

"I could understand the risk when I was a Sith." She replied. "That said, I'm much more than that now. I am a goddess restrained, still in many ways boxed into the limited thinking of the mortal lifeform I once was despite having understanding of how this universe and others were molded in ways unparalleled. I gain nothing through seeking to betray you except another enemy - and I've had enough of those."

She pondered on the second statement the former Empress Desmius had stated. "No. Your powers and skills aren't enough to handle whatever may or may not lie on the other side of this. However you're fortunate enough to have me as an ally." Onrai was rather frank about what she perceived her usefulness was to Ashin. "Come now, you're not Rave Merrill. You aren't going to end up living in a pocket dimension."

This of course would be her last urging. If another manifestation was necessary to handle the business on the unknown world, it would be formed. Perhaps another presence could adequately assist the other means by which the goddess could spread her influence.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Much of what you say tracks clean, Onrai . But a repeated appeal to my notorious pride? Give me credit for a little more self-knowledge than that. The only thing I know for certain is that you very much want me to step through this portal.

Among the many things I don't know is why. Perhaps you've picked an opportunity - a ravening lotek'k, a Rakata mind prison. Perhaps in your heart of hearts you just want a friend, whatever that means to people like us. Or maybe it's somewhere in between.

But you understand: by sharing my mission with you I've revealed a vulnerability. A measure of trust. Now a moment comes when that known vulnerability makes my behavior predictable, and the situation requires a greater measure. The answer is no, Onrai. But when you emerge, I'll be here to listen to what wonders you've created.

 

[Onrai]

"Why not simply do so now?"

So it was that the tables of Ashin's presence being extant on the surface of Demonsgate would be counterbalanced by a presence suddenly coalescing next to her on board the Pomojema. Were she to break from her use of the Force Phantom and take a look, she would find what looked and sensed very plainly to be Onrai. This was no illusion or use of Force abilities - this for all intents and purposes seemed to be Onrai. Yet examination of the surface of Demonsgate would reveal Onrai there as well.

Denying the linearity of time was such fun.

"I can talk to you here." Said Onrai next to Ashin.

"Or you can stay here and wait for me." Onrai said on the surface of Demonsgate, though such words would still sound to Ashin whether her phantom had been sustained by the sudden startling or not.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"Burn salt."

Ashin bit out the curse. The phantom faded, leaving her in her qabbrat meditation room aboard the Pomojema. Sweating from the effort of Vectivus' art, she stood and looked Onrai up and down.

"Now that's a trick I've never seen before, which is rare. You're actually here in some sense, aren't you." She barked an incredulous laugh and shrugged on a black robe over her plain clothes. "Well, if this isn't distracting from your other work, welcome to the Pomojema. A mobile Sith academy for turning knights into lords and lords into, you know, people worth respect. Right now we're above Korriban - the Lords of the Sith have renovated the great academy down there."

 

[Onrai]

Onrai's presence on Demonsgate smiled as Ashin's phantom disappeared. Soon she had entered into the rift. This world would perhaps bring forth the artifact she so desperately sought.

-

"I am. It's the most useful ability I've learned since becoming a god." She replied, her shadowed form returning to the fair hair and very much human-skinned appearance she once had as Vanessa Vantai. "To be in multiple places at once, one must understand that the linear existence of time as sequence is capable of being ignored. When you have the power to act on such, you can exist simultaneously across worlds, systems, and even dimensions." Onrai smiled. "I am still there, doing as I intended, while also being here."

She looked around a bit within the meditation chamber. "The Pomojema... Named after the god whose primordial existence provided the Kaiburr Crystal to Mimban. A god the Sith know well, considering what the Kaiburr Crystal was." She said. "I'd say your aligning yourself with the Lords of the Sith is surprising given their explicit opposition to the Empire - but then again, you versus the Zambranos has been the galactic standard for decades now."

How much Onrai regretted not being able to do more to guide Empress Vornskr.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

"I wouldn't say explicit opposition. More like...a rivalry that can recombine once one of them fails. A pride fight, not to the death. The Lords of the Sith aren't my only associates by any means, but they have their value. Perhaps I should introduce you to the Worm Emperor. I can't decide whether you'd love him or hate him, but you two are alike in all kinds of ways."

She buckled on her sword belt and opened the qabbrat with a wave of her hand. The meditation chamber cracked open vertically as interlocking crenelated jaws hissed apart. The whole thing was solid phrik.

Outside, the Pomojema's halls drew as much from Sith architecture as shipbuilding. It had the feel of a Sith temple. Various darksiders went about their business.

"In the modern era, it's the galaxy's first and only dark side academy whose students are knights and masters."