Trouble in the Jungle

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Maiev"], [member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]


Elpsis instinctively moved forward when the Sith pounced Taryc. Her lover was more than capable of defending herself, but it was an instinctive reaction. After all, she'd almost lost her just a few moments ago. She felt a stab of pride when the Paladin took control over the situation and cracked a slight smile at the small ball of light in her palm.


The Sith recoiled. There was fear in her eyes, but also defiance. She reminded the empath of a caged, frightened animal that was ready to lash out. Then finally, the scarlet skinned woman uttered something other than venon and contempt, telling them her name.


"Nyssa," Elpsis repeated, putting a name to the face. "For the record, Taryc's not bluffing. Wouldn't be the first room she lit up."


"I remember you. You blew up my hand, witch."


"I did. You tried to kill me. Tried to hurt someone very important to me. Spared you though," Elpsis held her gaze. "Gotta hurt like hell, right? If you tell us what we wanna know, I can patch you up. I'm a healer, y'know. And you can get something to eat. Taryc led you on a merry chase, so it must've been a long time since you ate anything."


The Sith was quiet for a moment, as she'd been caught off-guard, but her expression hardened. "Spare me your lies, human. I am no fool who can be bought. You'll kill me the moment you don't need me."

 

[H3xle]

"Nyssa," Elpsis repeated, putting a name to the face. "For the record, Taryc's not bluffing. Wouldn't be the first room she lit up."

Taryc couldn't help but smile at that. Siobhan was still upset at Taryc for tainting the workout room on her favorite ship.

Taryc's eyes remained on the Sith, Nyssa, as she spoke with Elpsis briefly. As expected, she turned down any charity. Dealing with low level Sith always seemed the same, they never believed anyone would treat a prisoner with respect.

"Nyssa..." She spoke the name slowly, letting the sibilance of the name roll from her tongue languidly. Her eyes remained locked on Nyssa's, and there was no malice in Taryc's features. "You are used to doing things a certain way. You get captured, pain and torment follow. You escape and return to your master, pain and torment follow. Life is pain, to you, and anyone who says differently is trying to sell you something. Do I have it about right?"

The defiance hadn't left Nyssa's eyes, in fact it seemed to have redoubled.

"Life is pain. My master brings me pain to strengthen me against that which the Jedi will unleash on us in battle." She seemed definitively proud. "What would you know about it, Tash Siqsa! Coddled by the light, you know nothing of pain."

A slow, deep inhale of breath answered the defiant Nyssa. Taryc's eyes narrowed at the young Sith.

"Eyah seh maat, shu kor huaan." She spoke, her accent was a bit off, Sith not being her primary language, nor one she practiced over much. "I apologize, my conjugation was never very good." Her eyes bored into Nyssa's, who looked a little less defiant, taken aback that someone of the Light would know her language. "I understand many Mothers use that phrase when dark times befall them. It's something soothing, no? Soothing was never very important in my lessons as a child. You see, the Primeval took weakness about as well as the Sith do. We forged it if possible, or discarded it if it ran too deeply. To become an Inquisitor of the Three and the One, any dross at all was worked out, with violence if necessary, but through subtler means more often. You think I do not know pain, but I think you are a newborn cub speaking to a scarred lioness about things you do not understand."

As she spoke, Taryc slightly increased pressure and heat on the Sithling. A bead of sweat ran down the back of her neck as she concentrated, splitting her focus between talking and shaping the force. She wasn't anywhere near making it fatal, just adding emphasis to her words.

"If we were going to kill you, Woyunoks, you would already be dead. We three ended your hunting party, and we three will end the presence of the Sith on this planet. You can help us, and we can show you a better way, or you can remain reticent, defiant, and I will strip the darkside from you and leave you to your own devices. It may eventually come back, but you wouldn't know how to deal with the withdrawal, with the absence of the feeling of power the dark side brings." She upped the pressure and heat slowly, beads of sweat running down the tendrils on Nyssa's face. Then, all of a sudden, Taryc released the working. "Either way, you will live. You have my vow on my power that you will not die by any hand on this ship. You are no longer a danger to us..." Taryc stood up, looking down upon Nyssa. "...and we do not view that as weakness."

[member="Elpsis Elaris"] | [member="maiev"]​

 

[Maiev]

With it looking as though Taryc and Elpsis had this all in order, Maiev stepped aside and leaned against one of the walls. She said nothing, and merely listened and observed. The witch raised a curious eyebrow at the mention of 'lighting up the room', as from the sounds of it there was certainly a story behind that.

Perhaps another time, right now they had more pressing matters to focus on.

Maiev watched as the two women spoke, and the Sith spat venomous words back.

She hadn't spoken to many talkative Sith over the years, most ended up on the falling against her blades. But the ones she did; and could count them all on one hand, always tended to just spit their stubborn back at her.

Until they ended up joining their comrades.

But this one; Nyssa, she could see the conflict in the woman's eyes. It definitely wasn't as deep as switching sides, but Maiev could see her debating on what to say. She hadn't expected Taryc of all people to suddenly speak her language, and while that didn't completely sway her, it did place some lingering doubt beneath the surface.

Nyssa looked around, eyes landing on the three witches that were present in the room. Combined, they had taken down the party she had been in and that didn't bode well for any attempts of trying to break out. The pale-skinned woman; Taryc, as the blind one had revealed, alone had demonstrated her power - enough that Nyssa could feel the sweat dripping down her tendrils. But on the flipside of things, she also saw an opportunity.

Lead the trio to her 'friends', and let them be wiped out. Why not? Have her rivals taken out, while she remains within the ironic safety of those that would otherwise kill or strip her of what made her powerful.

"There's power here, on Anderahl. Our leader had heard rumours that there was an artifact, or a place of power that could be tapped into. We joined him in the belief that he could lead us to it. Until well..." She looked at Taryc. "You killed him, and threw out operation into a mess. Force knows how chaotic that is now, with our leader dead."

[member="Taryc Ap'Irae"] | [member="Elpsis Elaris"]​

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Maiev"], [member="Taryc Ap'Irae"]


Taryc would suddenly feel a telepathic brush against her mind. It would feel a bit like an invisible caress, accompanied by a warm tingle. "So proud of you," Elpsis broadcast to the Paladin. She looked towards Maiev, then her milky-white eyes fell upon the Sithling. The scarlet skinned woman appeared to be wavering. In alignment, Elpsis was broadly light sided, though orthodox Jedi would probably dispute that. She wanted to see the good in people and believe that redemption was possible for some...within reason.


She furrowed her brow when their prisoner started talking about artefacts. "That's good. We're making progress." Through her empathy, she could see that the woman was conflicted...but also that it would be naive to assume she was suddenly doing a 180. Stepping towards the woman, she bent down and knelt before her, so that they were face to face.


"I told you what wanted to know. You promised to heal me, witch," the Sithling spoke. It sounded like a demand. Her eyes were a blazing, sulfuric yellow, showing the results of years of immersion in the power of the Dark Side.


"I did," Elpsis spoke gently, reaching out with her hand. "So I figure now that the dark lord of the week is dead, the underlords will fight it out, right? Whoever is left standing gains the artefact. 'Unlimited power' and all that jazz. Shame it never works out," she said softly, intently. And, yes, she actually made air quotes. Those lifeless eyes bore into the Sith. The crimson woman refused to flinch.


"That's the thing with Sithies. They go on a merry conquest spree, then eventually the whole thing comes crashing down and they kill each other. Often over toys that aren't even half as grand as the brochure says."


"And the people of this planet will be caught in the crossfire. There's going to be complete chaos, unless you stop them all. I suppose you never thought of tha when you started your merry crusade. What do you even know about the Sith?" there was a challenge in Nyssa's tone.


"If that's supposed to be guilt-tripping, it would work a tad better if I didn't know you don't care about the people either," Elpsis pointed out. She placed her hand on Nyssa's bandaged stump. The Sith tensed, as if anticipating an attack, then she felt warmth spread across her arm when the healing energies of the Force flowed through it. "What do I know about the Sith? Oh, not much...except that Daddy Dearest was one." Reaching out with her power, she touchd Nyssa's mind.


Alarm bells went off inside Nyssa. "Get out of my head," she snarled like an animal and tried to summon her power to push her captor away, drawing upon her anger. But she felt her resistance ebbing away as her body slackened.


"I'm not gonna hurt you, Nyssa. Just broaden your horizons a bit." Then the empath lowered her mental walls. Rather than trying to tear information from the Sith's mind or manipulate her thoughts, she broadcast snap shots from her past. Tales of woe, suffering and pain.