What Darkness Remembers

[Kay-Larr]

((Gorgeous melody. So soothing. Reminds me of music from Chrono Cross and the Myst series))


Kay didn't awaken with a start. Instead she slowly came to. The first sense to come back to her was her sense of hearing. Then came touch, which started from the top of her head and down to her feet in a wave. Then came sight, which had started out as tunnel vision before returning to normal. Her head still hurt and she was thirsty. The air was so dry.

She rolled over to her side and then slowly sat up. At least she could move. One hand went up to feel around her neck. No collar. That was a good sign. But where was she now? How long was she out for? The cave's walls were a different colour than the stones found on Commenor.

Kay stood up from the bed and quickly spotted the weapons. She walked over to the cabinet, tracing her finger along it's door, but she wasn't attempting to open it. She just was checking how her sense of touch was. Next to it was the double-edged sword and...clothing. Not for her certainly...

The words that [member="Darth Lykos"] said to her started to come back. 'Don't panic' he said. Yet she had been kidnapped. It was a capital offence. And after all of his talk of honour and an alliance, he has taken away her against her will.

But....there was probably more to this than a simple kidnapping. For starters, she wasn't chained or locked up. So it didn't appear as though she was slated for torture or death. So what was it then? He already got the alliance that he wanted.

Kay heard the music then, and it brought her attention to the doorway. She walked to it and stepped through, moving silently as she did so. The music was soothing, almost in the way that drinking Sapir tea makes her feel.

As she entered the room that Lykos was in, she didn't attempt to interrupt. She noted that he was half naked, but chose to look at the desert beyond him instead.

It wasn't until after the song was over that she spoke. "You play really well....Is that what you brought me here for? A private concert?" Of course it wasn't, but she didn't want to insult him right away. Part of her wished that she had grabbed one of the robes for him to wear, but it was too late for that now.

 

[Xevek Nekonis]

After a few seconds of silence, the last echoes of the final note drawn from the strings fading away into the void, a low chuckle would serve as Lykos' response as he lowered the violin from where it was resting against his shoulder; leaving it to hand from his hand at his waist. "No. A beautiful and enchanting as music may well be, as much as it can transcend, while perfectly capturing, that which we label as emotion, I did not bring you here for a private concert. Although, should you maybe ask politely enough later on in our alliance, then I may well do just so." The final sentence would be delivered with a teasing lit to his words, a slightly lift to the otherwise stoic voice.

It was not that Lykos turned around to stare directly at Kay, pulling his gaze away from the sight of the deserts that had served as the cradle in which he had been born and the catalyst of his growth. A slightly twitch of his eye would be all that would reveal the quick scan that he made of Kay's person. 'No weapon, despite my purposeful disarming and display of one. None confrontational; currently emotionally controlled, yet, anger is present. Averted gaze, slight flicker of the pulse; surprised at my state and a sense of modesty. Perfect of keeping her off guard.'

The stare he held would run long, silence resuming, broken only by the howl of winds. Stepping one stride closer, Lykos' head would tip to the side. Another step and his head would straighten. A third step, now just under two meters away from Kay and his arms would come up to cross across his sternum; bow and violin hanging loosely from his grip.

"Purpose and responsibility oft serve as a source of stress for many. A weakening of the mind and resolve, the burned serving to bend their spines beneath it weight. Yet, just because it is often the case, that does not mean that this is the only description allowed for these burdens. For some, the weight these assumed aspects is not a curse, it is not something that weakens them, but, instead, it is the very thing that may help to focus the mind, prevent it from breaking further, from retreating into the abyss further. I do believe that the latter is true for you."

His words would be delivered slow and steady, his voice echoing slightly within the large room. "I remember knives splitting about flesh and muscles. Whips tearing at skin and bringing forth streams of blood in their wake. I remember flame against my side, searing at my body as the smell of burnt flesh would assault my nose. I remember the many attempts to break me, to make me shatter beneath the will of the one that even dared to call themselves my Master, my Owner. And I remember the time after my freedom, in which the allure of the Darkness was not in power so much as it was in forgetting, where the abyss, not the Dark, almost ruled me. I remember sinking in an illusion of duty for I had none that was true so as to burden my mind, so as to stop it from wandering and dreaming of nothingness."

Every word that he spoke was true, a brief and short retelling of what he had suffered within slavery - even if some aspects were dropped - and the time afterwards. Such knowledge was knowledge that Lykos did not mind anyone knowing, he just did not see much use in revealing it often. As such, he had no qualms about speaking of it to Kay, no worries that it may come back to haunt him for no true details about his could be discerned; especially his words carefully chose to appeal to the emotional side of the mind that the side obsessed with facts.

"I see the shadows that now lurk within my eye from such a time in your own eyes. However, with you, they are closer to the surface. Always lurking and ready to strike. Part of our agreement was that I would teach. And, in the end, I never did say that I would be solely teaching to fight. So, my dear," his arms would stretched wide, a smirk spreading on his lips that was not reflected in his voice, "consider this your first lesson."


[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay smirked a little bit as [member="Darth Lykos"] teased her when it came for her asking him for a private concert later on. She might very well do that. The sound would travel well in the throne room. It could be something else to bide her time during his visits.

She shifted her weight on her feet while he stared at her. She kept silent as she held his gaze. Then he began to approach. Kay straightened herself, so that in a way she'd almost look taller than before. And then he would stop and speak, talking about purpose and responsibility. It wasn't a burden to her, no. It gave her focus, a goal. Otherwise she might truly be lost, just as he had said.

Then his words driften to his own suffering. And with each little detail, she clenched her jaw, furrowing her brows, averting her eyes as she tried to push the memories of her torture back down. Kay didn't want to think about it. Not now. There were times when it made her really angry, hating her Master for all of the things that he had done. Other times she cried tears of anguish as phantom pain returned to haunt her. She was usually sure to be alone during those vulnerable moments. And then there were times when her Master was around that she buried her feelings deep within herself so that she was almost as emotionless as a droid.

It wasn't until Lykos spoke of her eyes that she would meet his own again. What did he see? Some shadow? She knew what he meant, but she just didn't want to admit it to herself right now. There was far more important things to do.

As he spread out his arms, Kay folded hers across her chest, not in defiance, but more so out of protection. She hadn't exactly planned on being an open book. Though her reactions to what he had said probably spoke more than what her words would.

"And what lesson is that? That I have inner demons? I know that. I keep everything more or less under control. I can't afford not to. "

Kay switched tactics, or rather changed the subject. It was a ploy that she had used often when she was uncomfortable. "Where are we, anyways? And please, don't be too vague. I can already tell that we aren't on Commenor and that this...is your home."

 

[Xevek Nekonis]

The obvious attempt at a change of topic did not go unnoticed, mainly because it was not exactly a subtle attempt to redirect his attention anyway, but, Lykos decided to bow to Kay's will for the moment, letting the conversation steer away from the theme that she was obviously so uncomfortable to discuss. The sight of her crossed arm, an action that did not require a trained psychologist to decipher, proved this more than enough. As such, Lykos' head would hang for but a second, his stare being pulled away from Kay's eyes, as a rumbling sigh would escape from his lips.

Ignoring Kay's question for the moment, he strode over to what had once been a stone table, perhaps one on which bowls of incense had once sat considering that Lykos knew that the structure he now inhabited had once been a place of worship. There, he gently lay down the bow and violin atop the cracked surface before turning to stare out over the desert once more, his low, audible hum being the only sound he would make during the time it took his hearts to beat twice each.

"In a way, I suppose that you could call this my home. But, not this place. This is not my home, but a place in which I have made my own for but a time before I move on. Before its beauty was lost to the desert sands, this was once a temple dedicated to Slayemith; the Goddess of Healing and Healing Arts. You will find we are on Iridonia and that is my home, not this temple." A small, nostalgic smile would pull at his lips. "I am, after all, a Son of Iridonia, a child of Her sands and a man forged through Her trials."

Falling silent again, Lykos would push off from where he leant against the table to stride back over to Kay, stopping only a meter away this time; half the previous distance. And again, his silent stare would resume, his amber eye almost glaring at the Commenorian. Over the next few seconds a low, rumbling growl would begin to be heard by Kay, a growl emitting from the back of the Zabrak's throat. "Now, might I ask a question in return?"

No effort to wait for an answer was made before a snarl would rush across Lykos' features. Lips would curl back to reveal pointed and even blood-stained teeth - the result of him eating raw and blue meat as a main staple of his diet, not that he ever revealed this fact, after all, he much preferred to let others draw more darker conclusions. His eye would seem to flare with an inner fire, the dark colour of his iris only being broken by the slitted pupil that contributed to Lykos' feral features. With the addition of the growl, animalistic was a perfect way to describe the Assassin.

"Are you a foolish child, Kay?" The roar that was his voice echoed loudly within the large room. This was Lykos' voice when he imbued the Dark itself into his every word, an oppressive sound that signified his position of Alpha, of Patriarch. "A naive idiot stumbling around blindly, desperately searching for someone to take their hand, to guide them? Or someone who survived torture, who survived what many others would not? I do not need to know details, do not desire to. I can see it written so very clearly in your eyes." For the last two sentences, his voice had softened, but when he spoke again, it was back to being an enraged shout. "You have demons within you. Demons that whisper and creep into dreams and thoughts and yet you can not see fault in that? I will espouse the cause of embracing emotion and the Dark but what you seek to do by letting these demons control you is submit, is to allow yourself to be weak and crippled by fear."

A harsh bark of laughter would be let out as the Zabrak began to pace, his face still twisted into a snarl. "You do not have your demons under control. You lie to yourself. You lie and fool yourself to cling to an illusion of comfort, to reassure yourself that you are fine. That you are well. By doing so, you make yourself weak." A slash of his hand through the air would serve to point towards Kay's crossed arms. "You hide from confrontation on this matter because you cannot bring yourself to step away from this warm comfort. And, in doing so, you do not recognise the risks."

Over the course of his final sentence, his voice had softened once more and when he spoke again, his voice stayed soft. "These demons will remain at the back of your mind should you not confront them. And while now you may hold some degree of control, that control will slip and they will rush forward to consume you Kay. They almost did for me. Do not lie to yourself, do not lie to me. You need to fight back against them, Kay, lest you lose yourself. Lest you not embrace the Dark but become a puppet, nothing more than Id personified. Nothing more than a mindless beast. Listen to someone who suffered these same demons and shadows within eyes. Learn from me."

Lykos' motives were not pure, of that he would easily admit. If he served to help relieve Kay of those demons, that it would create a reason for Kay to feel gratitude to him, be more likely to help him in the future. However, he was honest enough with himself to recognise that a part of his drive in this was to ensure that someone else, particularity an ally, did not suffer as he did. Did not come as close to the void as he had. And in the end, no matter which reason was the main driving factor, it would not do to allow someone of potential fall.


[member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay raised a brow as he described where they were. A healing temple? She looked around the place from where she stood with new eyes, taking it in an envisioning what it must have been like in centuries past. No doubt it was quite different than what it was now, probably filled with many Iridonians and perhaps others, sitting in various levels of meditation, while others healed the sick, injured and dying. She could use a bit of that herself.

She turned her attention back to [member="Darth Lykos"] as he approached, moving closer this time and requested to ask her a question. She merely nodded in response, it was all that she could get out before he suddenly shifted. The predatory look and action gave her goosebumps, his voice bellowing and almost hitting her like a wave. Kay clenched her jaw, both glad for the wall behind her, and yet not at the same time. It gave her stability, yet trapped her as well. Tears began to swell while he berated her, but she did not allow them to fall. He thought her weak enough as it was and he didn't want to reveal any more.

Lykos spoke of her demons and it was almost as though he had seen them too. She knew what they looked like, the two of them manifesting to canine like beasts that kept out others including herself, from working on healing the damage that they had caused. Her eyes tracked Lykos while he paced. Now was not the time to look away, no matter how much she wanted to run out of the situation.

Soon he began to imply that she might lose her sanity. He wasn't the first to do so. Others were concerned for her mental well being and the only thing that she had done about it was to push them away and try to look after it herself whenever she could find the time. But for one in her position, time for herself was very little. So she just hadn't gotten around to it yet.

"I am a survivor. I always have been..." Her voice began quietly, almost as though the sound was trying to come out from hiding. But it was due to Kay trying to control herself. She wanted to yell back at him, to knock him to the ground and then leave. But that wouldn't exactly be helpful. And more than likely he'd turn the tables on her faster than she could blink. ​"I don't want to lose any more than I already have. It's a horrible thing to not only have enemies all around me, but to have them within me too. If you have overcome them as you say, then help me to overcome them as well. I will learn from you and be a better person for it."