Private To Reunite Amidst The Storm

[Darth Carnifex]

"Darth Vitium? Very intriguing."​

​

The Emperor had known Vitium for a long time, dating back to those waning years of the One Sith. It had been Vitium who had confronted him on Panatha after the fall of the One Sith, spurring him to eventually reform the Sith into the Sith Empire that he now ruled. It had also been Vitium who had suffered from his actions involving Irina Volkov, and his uncle Prazutis had taken her daughter's life. Their story converged again on the red sands of Korriban, where the Emperor had fought Vitium in the ruins of an ancient mausoleum.​

​

And killed her.​

​

"I had known Vitium for a time, she was always thinking towards the future. She was fundamental in the formation of this Empire, and for that, she will always be cherished as one of the great founding leaders." He paused before continuing, "How did you acquire your current body, Vanessa?"​

​

Onrai ​

 

[Onrai]

“Vitium.” She chuckled. “I was there, you know. When I performed the necessary rituals to change her from a monstrous Sith Battlelord into something less... unappealing to the eyes and more suited to their vanity. That was when Silara ceased being just another Sith and truly became something special. Someone I loved dearly and hated to lose.” A tear came to her eye as memories of her time with the woman she had considered so incredibly close rushed through her.

“If you recall when Ayra stabbed me in the back after I publicly doubted the Dark Lord, or Underlord, or whatever the hell we called him - the right decision in the end - I was reduced to ethereal form once again. Silara, my dear Silara, essentially Used the techniques I had taught her to craft a body for me. A body made from the remains of that which she had once miscarried.” Such was the truth, and even now Vanessa still worked to abide by her promise to Silara - the promise that her old life was ended and her life as Vanessa was who she was now.

“I promised her that in exchange for her giving me this vessel, who I once was had died and would remain dead. I am Vanessa Vantai because of her and Vanessa I shall remain out of respect for what she did. My only regret is that I never got the opportunity to speak with her and thank her before... what exactly happened to her? Is her soul sitting on your or Prazutis’ shelf? Was it annihilated? Is she still out there?” Vanessa was not entirely sure. All she knew was that Silara was no longer a part of the Sith, or even associated with Alric Kuhn for that matter.

Perhaps she really was the only piece of her old partner still alive. Such a sobering thought.

“If she is dead, did she leave behind any personal effects?”

Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Nothing that I am aware of."​

Of course, the Emperor had ordered an extensive search of any domiciles that were even vaguely connected to Silara after he took her life on the red sands of Korriban. Anything they had found was confiscated, though it was all rather benign items, and either stored away or discarded entirely.​

​

"As to what happened to Silara, it is best left unsaid. She served her purpose." ​

​

He moved, walked out of the room they had shared and into the adjacent hallway. From there, the Emperor moved into athenaeum which contained a bountiful wealth of knowledge accumulated over the years. Many open tomes and inert datapads littered the tables which constituted various reading spaces in the library. At a glance, most of them involved the history of the Jedi, particularly that of Lothal, and various references to the Mortis Gods. The Emperor had scribbled some notes down, but they were written in a language utterly foreign to anyone living. The only two known living speakers of the language were the Emperor himself and the Shadow Hand, who kept the language a closely guarded secret.​

​

"While you spend your time here, you may familiarize yourself with the literary contents of my sanctum. Perhaps you will find something of use in the task I set for you."​

​

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa frowned at the response of Silara having served her purpose. Perhaps it was old feelings being stirred, but the loss of the woman's life was a wound to Vanessa's heart. Her regrets of not being able to say goodbye to the woman whose essence had coalesced with that of Kaine's uncle to create his cousin still occasionally bothered her, though not so much given an artifact of her still remained in the form of Aristeia Zambrano.

"Thank you." Vanessa thanked Kaine and immediately got to work digging through the various resources. With intense focus she began scanning through books, mentally recording the contents of their pages and storing them within the confines of her mind. It was once she had completed several bookshelves worth of reading materials that she began to consider exactly what allowed access to the portals in question. It was consistent studying, examination and consideration of all factors relating to such a portal in question.

Her studies soon focused on the knowledge of how the Ones came into existence in the first place. As someone with direct recollections of how Akala became a god-like being, and with information about Abeloth and the others, Vanessa's gears began to churn within her mind as she began to artifice a potential scheme. The gateways had to be created by someone - there was no way they had existed for an indeterminate period of time. Only a being with power similar to that of the Ones themselves would have been able to do such.

Perhaps such an entity was what was necessary in order to alter the laws of reality enough with the Force to create such.

Darth Carnifex

 

[Darth Carnifex]

The Emperor left Vanessa to her research, moving a more secluded portion of the athenaeum. Here was his repository of notes and research involving the other projects he was currently embroiled in, as well as several pictorials of the Silver Jedi temple on Kashyyyk. They had been taken by covert probe droids dispatched to the Wookie homeworld several rotations ago, to gauge the temple's defenses and layout. Though the more comprehensive sub-surface scans had not yet been fully analyzed, a plan was formulating on how to best infiltrate the temple.​

​

To acquire the artifact they sought.​

​

Carnifex quietly collected the information and placed it inside a sealed packet, which he would give to one of his personal couriers to take to Taeli Raaf, his co-conspirator. Their conspiracy was Plan A, their first course of action, while the task that he had given Vanessa would suffice as Plan B, their backup in the event that Plan A failed. The Emperor was fairly confident in his plan, the excavations at Remnicore had proven fruitful and had given him the insight he did not possess previously. He was certain that once the artifact was in his grasp, all of the pieces would fall directly into place.​

​

And control over the fabric of space and time would belong to him.​

​

And him alone.​

​

He rejoined Vanessa after a lengthy amount of time had passed, seeming to materialize out of the shadows nearby.​

​

"Anything of interest?"​

Onrai ​

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa had done a great deal of research, reading at a nearly inhuman rate as she pored through the Emperor's collected literature. The link of the Maw to the Mortis Gods was rather plain according to the information she had gathered: the Ones had incarnated on a planet in the Maw, where they grew more and more unstable without the Father's guiding precepts. The enigmatic arrival of the Mother was what had allowed for stability, stability that was lost as she aged and eventually transmogrified into the creature known as Abeloth. The documents detailed that the Ones traveled to Mortis from that planet - which could not have been easily possible were there no means of transporting between the worlds, or perhaps pocket dimensions, that had been created.

A theorem began to coagulate in Vanessa's mind, one that had enmeshed with past thoughts of things she had discovered in the Unknown Regions. Remnants of ancient wars long forgotten and documentation that spoke of the darkest of deities that once ruled the domain, the Architects who were in conflict with those Celestials that once lived. Her understanding now of what the World Between Worlds was, combined with that forbidden knowledge gained and long locked away, made her understand.

"The portal on Lothal... It was what I can best describe as an interdimensional gate. The "World Between Worlds" is a sort of primary universe, through which innumerable other dimensions have been crafted. Whoever has access to this world through an interdimensional gate - or alternatively through having raw power - may be able to access it directly." She pointed as an illusion of multiple bubbles would form before him, each connected through a thin strand to another with a much larger bubble in the middle, a visualization.

"The tales tell that after Abeloth became what she became, the Ones - the Mortis Gods - transported themselves to Mortis." She said, as the hologram-like illusion would focus on two bubbles. "This is the pocket dimension Mortis is in." She pointed to a smaller bubble connected to a larger one. "And this is our universe." She continued to speak as the illusion seemingly 'zoomed out.' "We already know of others like it - otherspace, for one." Another linked bubble formed.

"I will go to the Maw, should you wish, and determine whether the gateway to the World Between Worlds still exists there. It may merely be a gateway to Mortis, which in itself would be a valuable find, but understanding the principles of how it was made should also be beneficial. It may also be a determinant as to whether or not certain levels of power are necessary in order to access such a gate, or whether a gate is truly necessary in order to breach dimensions."

Darth Carnifex