Private What Goes Bump in the Day

[Kal]

"If you do not think politics sufficient to stave off too intensive scrutiny, I could always plant a thought in a mind or two. Perhaps the bodies have been contaminated by foul sorcery - perhaps it is best to burn them, just to be safe." Fearful minds were so very easy to influence. It would have been sad if it was not immensely useful to one such as him.

A wave of his hand made it clear that he was not overly concerned at this time.

"I would imagine; I'm not exactly representative of the galactic populace."

Looking up towards the sky, he made some stars burn far brighter than others with but a gesture. Then, soft bands of light began to wind their way across the heavens as if to symbolise hyperlanes. A highly localised illusion, naturally.

"Different, but not as different as you might hope. Most worlds are far more peaceful and prosperous than yours, but wars are relatively commonplace - some burn bright enough that entire planets are consumed in the fire."

Kyriaki​

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

"Thank you for the offer, but I believe I can settle it with politics. From a certain point of view, 'xenos sorcery' did have a hand in things," Kyriaki responded evenly. She didn't want to run the risk of becoming indebted to the void being.

"I...see. Conflict and strife are inherent to sentient nature. I'm not sure what would be more depressing - Tephrike being the aberration in a peaceful galaxy, or it being the norm," she added cynically, but a look of wonder crossed her face as she beheld the Shadow's lightshow. She knew it was an illusion, but the sight of the stars burning brightly and of bands of light weaving paths across the heaven was still beautiful.

"It's beautiful. How many inhabited worlds are there?" she asked a bit naively. Sure it could not be that many. She'd heard of less than a dozen. "Years ago, a great warrior came here from the stars. Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori. Her time here was brief, but she brought storm and fury. Do you...know of her? Do you know where she's from?"

She had always imagined that her template had to be from Tatooine. It was, after all, a binary furnace that was hot like her fire. It didn't occur to Kyriaki that in a galaxy with a million worlds, few people would know or care about her template. But who knew, maybe Kal had watched a certain movie. There had been wilder coincidences.

 

[Kal]

"There are millions. Likely billions if you count planets in different galaxies, though travel across such distances is all but unheard of. Of course, not all worlds are equal - some hold untold trillions, others a single settlement of outcasts." As a general rule, most seemed to have plenty of room for more people, especially if building vertically.

It was almost impressive how easily organics seemed to run out of resources despite this.

"Elpsis Kerrigan-Alcori." There was a long pause as he perused the depths of his eidetic memory before nodding. "Indeed I have. A skilled Force User and potent warrior, one with a tendency to get involved in every other major war." The memories brought with them a face as well - and so he scrutinised the woman before him for another long moment.

"Interesting. You are related to her - or even a clone?"

Kyriaki​

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

Kyriaki's mouth opened, and she stared at the Shadow in wide-mouth shock, struggling to wrap her mind around this mind-boggling revelation. "Millions...millions of inhabited worlds," she murmured. It really put into perspective just how...minuscule the petty potentates who warred over Tephrike's corpse were. So much needless death and destruction, so much wanton cruelty, for one forgotten backwater world.

She took a breath, gradually composing herself. "I reckon only a fraction of them are truly developed, and the majority serve as resource pits feeding the metropole. I can only imagine how many resources a star empire has to consume to remain afloat," she commented cynically, yet perhaps realistically.

"Elpsis is...my template. I am her clone." Depending on Kal's research, he might have found out that the Vaderites...didn't like clones. "The...Dominion took her DNA while she was in their custody, before she smote them with baleful flame. She doesn't know about me...I think." Or perhaps you're unworthy of her, a treacherous part of her thought, no matter how hard she tried to clamp down on it. "Do you think...could you...maybe...send her a message?" she blurted out.

 

[Kal]

Smiling broadly, Kal revealed a flash of 'teeth' so bright they radiated light and the infinite blackness behind them.

"An accurate assessment, for the most part. I would not be so quick to forget about the possibility for self-sufficiency, however. With the exception of ecumenopolises and the like, most worlds are more than capable of providing for their populace if the inhabitants allocate resources in a fair, sensible manner." Alas, sensibility was often a scarce resource.

A clone among the Vaderites? In a reasonably high position, no less? Fascinating.

"That can be arranged. I assume you want it delivered to her directly, without third-party scrutiny?" That was somewhat harder, but not truly difficult. Elspsi was hardly a sheltered noblewoman hiding beneath layers of security.

"Your health conditions - a result of flawed cloning techniques?"

Kyriaki​

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

The clone was still wrapping her mind around the idea of millions upon millions of inhabited worlds being out there. It was one thing to know that there were some outsiders with more advanced technology. Millions, upon millions. "Few people are sensible," Kyriaki remarked cynically, and perhaps realistically. "And the powerful take what they want, wherever you go. The smarter ones just aren't overt about it and throw enough of the plebs a bone to make them accomplices." For all the destruction wrought upon it, Tephrike still has resources...and it is divided. How tempting, she thought.

She was about to respond to his query in regards to the message, then her eyes narrowed. She tensed slightly. "How do you...," she trailed off. "The process was faulty, the technology flawed. I overcame the Sith's trials all the same." For all the pain her weak, sickly body had caused her, there was a hint of pride in her words.

"Regardless, I would like the message to be delivered directly. Tell her that...her sister..her clone is waiting for her. I am doing what I can to sabotage Vaderite efforts....to mitigate their evil by protecting some people, but it's insufficient. It'll always be insufficient because the system itself is the enemy. I need her help. If for whatever reason, she cannot help me burn it down...there are people she can take to the stars."

 

[Kal]

He could hardly deny the truth in her statements - evolution seemed to favour greed for the self and for one's offspring.

"I perceive reality differently than most." Despite implying that he could 'see' some of her ailments with what passed for eyes, he apparently felt no need to go into detail. "I see." Nodding in appreciation, he seemed pleased. "In my experience, the mind is far more important than the body - not least because the latter is far easier to enhance or replace entirely."

As she clarified her request, Kal was silent for a long moment, his eyes seeming to glow brighter still.

"The message has been sent, though it will take time for her to receive it. She is not connected to my kind's networks." It would be bounced back and forth between the Netherworld and Realspace before ending with an emotionless bureaucrat of some sort. Said bureaucrat would then ensure it reached the destination.

Perhaps as an encrypted message, perhaps as a letter slipped into her pocket in a busy crowd.

If all else failed, the message might even reach Elpsis in the privacy of her dreams.

Kyriaki​

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

"Networks?" Kyriaki chuckled a bit. "My apologies, our history books are full of tales of 'xenos cabals' pulling strings everywhere. So many one wonders how humanity ever managed any of its 'great works'...and they clearly neglected to mention Nether beings in their long list. So you sent the message of telepathically and it will be transmitted across various nodes until it reaches her?" Kyriaki asked curiously, trying to understand how this strange alien entity worked.

It was odd. The Vaderites lumped everything that wasn't human as a xenos...how different was a Twi'lek from her compared to this void entity? It was truly alien...and yet closer to her line of thinking than the human 'master species'. "How will I know that she has received the message and what her response is? And what do you intend to do now?"

Even if her template decided to come to her aid on a mere message delivered by an elusive xenos being claiming to have been sent by a sister she'd never met, much time might pass. Kyriaki had no idea about the technicalities of spaceflight or the travel times involved. For all she knew it could be a perilous journey.

There were a million worlds. Perhaps Elpsis was far away from Tephrike, fighting on a distant battlefield to expand Firemane's empire. It was unrealistic to assume that Elpsis would suddenly show up. I may be dead by the time she does. But I can be brave...like her, and this Kal may be of use.

 

[Kal]

"That is correct. I transmit it telepathically to a telepathic entity whose sole person is information dispersal and it relays it to others of its kind." That she met him, of all people, was an amusing coincidence - Greystone Mercantile could be aptly described as a 'manipulative xenos cabal', unlike most gatherings of, say, Twi'leks.

"I can have my associates relay confirmation to you on delivery - and provide her with the ability to reply. There may be a not insignificant delay between the former and the latter, depending on her actions."

Spreading his hands widely, Kal's 'face' produced something resembling a smile.

"Next? I will likely examine some of Tephrike's nexuses - I am finishing a work on the mystical arts and such phenomena may offer valuable insight. I doubt the lore of the Vaderites will be particularly insightful. No offence."

Kyriaki​

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

"I would appreciate that, thank you. And none taken. Much of it is filled with ideological clap trap. Or just plain...unoriginal." She and Sibylla had had her laugh about that once. Sibylla. Her ally, her rival. His apparent desire to go...on a tour of the nexi of this cursed world she called home for the purpose of...academic research caught her by surprise. Was that normal for Shadow beings?

"I see. Which sites do you intend to visit..other than the bone forest, I suppose? I may know of some." And if she did not, the information could still be useful for her. "They're spread across the planet though, and access to some is quite..difficult," she reflected, recalling what she'd heard of Palmyra's Wail, and those places the blasted Windians called holy sites. "It does make me wonder...can you manifest anywhere you want?"

 

[Kal]

"Is originality in one's atrocities too much to ask for?" Kal was only halfway joking; if someone insisted on carrying out crimes against civilisation, the least they could do is produce some worthwhile data for posterity.

"All of them, preferably. I am particularly interested in Palmyra's Wail on account of the lingering spirits. I wish to see if they differ from those that retain individuality in the Netherworld - and if so, in which ways." A subject close to his 'heart', so to speak. It was not unusual for him to be just as if not more concerned with the fates of the dead over the living.

After all, mortality was fleeting and death eternal.

"Yes and no. Travel across interstellar distances is far easier when the target burns brightly in the Force; Nexuses and worlds filled to bursting with life are easy destinations." Flashes of distant places accompanied his words; the jungles of Dxun and the vast masses of people that called Coruscant home. "Local travel is generally quite easy."

As if to illustrate the point, he sunk into the ground and then reemerged nearby.

"As a rule, Nexuses pose little threat to me. Even the hostile ones. Avoiding detrimental Force-derived effects is as basic as it is necessary for beings from the Netherworld." New images - a lake of boiling blood and a crystal monolith full of imprisoned souls, then an endless labyrinth and a golden gate filled with nothingness.

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

What was utterly banal to the Shadow, was surprising, shocking and nigh-unimaginable for Kyriaki. Her composure visibly slipped when he suddenly flooded her mind with flashes of distant places; places in the stars; places she had only heard of from stories.

"Those are...real places in the stars?" she asked, sounding incredulous. "And that is the Nether?" she continued, when he showed her images of woe and torment. Another person might have recoiled from the sight of boiling blood. But the clone did not. She had witnessed horrors since she took her first breath of air in a world full of evil.

Horror did not scare, but hope did. For as long as you accepted that the world was cruel and hurtful and that whatever light existed in the darkness would inevitably be extinguished, nothing could hurt you. But the moment you hoped, you had something to lose. "Where does Elpsis live? Can you show me?" Palmyra's Wail? She had heard of it. Every Sith knew the no doubt badly distorted tale of Malitia's grand 'crusade', of the cursed place full of demons and undead.

No doubt the Shadow was better equipped to face or evade the horrors than she was. If he can be anywhere and cloak himself in illusions...he would be a great intelligence asset, her mind was spinning. But what to offer such a being? No doubt he has little need for currency. Artefacts perhaps? she speculated silently. And what are his weaknesses? He is incorporeal, so doubtless a slugthrower is inefficient against him...but magics or an enchanted blade should be another matter.

 

[Kal]

"Yes to both; Dxun and Coruscant in Realspace and a collection of unpleasant locales in the Netherworld. Well, the Gate is not necessarily unpleasant, it is simply an end." A far more absolute one than death, at least from what he knew.

"I tend to spend much of my time in more pleasant locales - the Nether is hardly all doom and gloom."

Perhaps there were paradises unknown even to Kal in its distant corners, though in his experience most tended to meld with the greater Force; the exceptions usually had a very firm sense of self - and Darksiders were overrepresented. Quite a few seemed willing bordering on eagre to embrace an eternity of suffering over losing their sense of self.

"I do not actually know, as I have not directed much personal attention towards her." It was possible she lived on the Arx, but he had never read her file in such detail and so could not say for sure.

Kyriaki​

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

"Of course, I understand," Kyriaki responded softly, frowning slightly. Perhaps it was ego talking, but she had always liked to think of her template as a being of great significance out there in the stars. When she was assailed by fear and doubt, it gave her courage when she exhorted herself to be brave and strong like her template. And that one day the phoenix would come for her.

"You speak of the Nether as if it were...just another dimension. One where the laws of this reality don't hold sway and permeated by all manners of mystical hazards...but with its own societies, its own people...and," her lips curled into an approximation of a smile, "dastardly xenos conspiracies."

It did make her wonder how the hierarchy of these...Shadows worked. It was hard to imagine one that didn't consist of a dictator and a scheming court. Vaderite dogma proclaimed that the Great Vader held dominion over Chaos just as his vicar the Supreme Leader ruled the earth, but this Kal didn't seem like the sort to bow and scrape or be filled with religious fervour for a despot. Indeed he seemed politicaly indifferent, save for his evident, but rather detached, distaste for the Vaderites' rampant cruelty.

Autocracy requires the autocrat to monopolise resources for himself and his clique, control movement and the flow of information. But...spirit beings would not require nourishment and probably have no practical use for currency in their own realm and, if this one's abilities are not the exception, indoctrinating them is difficult if they can shift between realspace and the Nether, Kyriaki thought. "I believe there is a basis for us to work together. What would you want from me?" she asked carefully.

 

[Kal]

"It is that - and more. A final destination for the dead and a place where other entities and phenomena can spring from the Force itself. My kind have carved out pockets of our own where reality itself bows to our every whim, but we no less rule the Netherworld than your kind rule Realspace." Another image - the endless expanse of deep space.

The scale of human-majority civilisation was far larger than that of his kind, but next to infinity they were both grains of sand in a desert that stretched beyond the furthest horizon. Who could really know what lurked beyond the observable?

"There is much that is unknown in this Galaxy and orders of magnitudes more beyond it. The Netherworld is... not so different, all things considered." Especially since it was a reflection of Realspace, in many ways.

"How very transactional of you." Drifting somewhat off the ground, he partly abandoned his pseudocorporality. "I would not be opposed to viewing my assistance as an investment, but if you prefer the predictable... memories, perhaps? The rights to them, so to speak, you would not need to forget. Unless you prefer forgetting one to sharing many."

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

The dead spirits, the Shadows...and manifold other entities, she thought. Do the dead watch us from the void? Do they make bargains with the Nether entities, too? The Rodian from the forest, Tara, Firith...were they watching here now from the bizarro world that was the Nether? Or had its horrors swallowed them before they could send furies after her? She hoped they'd ended up in one of its more pleasant localities. Somewhere they could find rest. She had no illusions about where her soul would end up. But not yet.

Her thoughts shifted to the here and now rather than the hereafter. A life spent in the company of fascist butchers had taught Kyriaki some skills. Such as maintaining poise and keeping her features neutral and taciturn. That was helpful when she was presented with some unorthodox and potentially suspicious options. "Interesting options," she commented thoughtfully, tone neutral. "For what purpose would you want my memories for? And what return do you want on your investment?"

Knowledge was power, after all. It would not be the first or the last devil's bargain she made, but she generally made those with beings whose drives and desires she could understand because they were human rather than truly alien. Could I give memories up...just like that? Would I still..feel the way I do about the world, my cause? And what would I sacrifice? The bad...or the good, she thought.

 

[Kal]

"Entertainment and studies into the cognition of organics, for the sharing of the many. A singular, extracted memory, on the other hands? The use depends entirely on what it contains." If you knew what you were doing, it was possible to use such a thing for strange and wondrous things - one could even create a spirit 'around' it, so to speak.

"As for the investment... based on an assessment of your abilities, I anticipate that you will be able to move into a position more useful to me at some point in the future. Therefore, an outstanding debt can be mutually beneficial."

Of course, she might not be eagre to agree to an ill-defined debt to a mysterious stranger.

If so, she was not the first to harbour such compunctions. As a result, he had learned to offer concrete bargains with a definite end, at least as an option. It was less satisfying, but also less alarming to potential associates.

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

A pensive expression crossed Kyriaki's face. A sacrifice now...or an unspecified, vague favour in the future. No matter how benign they may seem, someone who holds a debt over me still has leverage, she thought. So memories then. A traitorous part of her thought back to an innocent Togruta woman dangling from a lamppost. Dead because she had trusted her. And a crying Twi'lek infant, dead before his time. Murdered by her hand to...spare him from worse. For a moment, she was wracked with indecision.

Would giving away a memory like this make their sacrifice worthless since no one would care...just to ease my own guilt? She tensed. It would matter to me. I must look at the suffering I caused, or I am...no different than the other Vaderites. Would I even oppose them if I felt no guilt?

A new thought came to her. She had bad memories in abundance, of herself experiencing suffering or inflicting it. But good memories were sparse. I don't need them. I must be hard. And so she thought back.

It had been just after Eisen, Lord of the Sith and Supreme Leader of the Imperium, saved her from the Vaderite usurper's torment and took her to his grandiose residence Sophiahall. It was late but the corpulent Dark Lord, dressed in a coat and a gaudy uniform bedecked with medals, took her out into the garden on a clear night to see the sky. "Do not be too long, my dove, you will catch your death of cold."
And then he left her. Kyriaki sat on a bench and stared up into the sky, anxious of the future. For all she knew, she had exchanged one cage and one jailer for another. Eisen had been all smiles and bonhomie...but a smile just made it easier to hide a dagger. Yet she felt happier than she'd been in her short life. She lost track of how long she stared into the sky, eyes full of wonder. The pattern of stars and the cool breeze lulled her to sleep.

She was very tired, so it was when dawn was coming and Eisen came out again to see her leaning back against the bench. Gently, the Leader roused her from her slumber. "Watching the stars all night? My dear, if you wished to use my telescope you'll find it provides a better view. Come inside when you are ready...we have much to do." Her one night of contented peace before it all started again. Her one night where she could forget.

And in the here and now, she made her decision. "I can sacrifice a single memory. I have many dark and grim memories, this is one of the few that I cherish. But because it's a rare memory it will cost a bit. There are a few things I want in return."

 

[Kal]

She would sooner part with the good than the bad? A rare choice, but he could see hints of her logic through her impressive mental shields - hints of self-loathing poking their way through, to the careful observer.

"If that is your preference." When it came to copying memories, its rarity to the sharer was irrelevant except insofar as it tinged the emotions and thoughts involved in the memory. When it came to extracting, however? The more personally significant, the better - and Force Sensitives were especially valuable as donors. "That is reasonable."

Drifting sideways sedately, he eyed her curiously. "Name your price and I will decide if it is reasonable."

 

[Kyriaki]

Kal

"If you can traverse realspace and the Nether, you can procure all manners of rare items within reason, yes? I wish to procure an artefact. A...lightsabre, perhaps. Few Tephriki wield one. Something impressive and arcane that could plausibly be a relic from the Sith of old." Little did she know that lightsabres were so commonplace in the galaxy that a certain megacorp had designed generic Corposabres for the free market. The revelation would be a bit depressing to her.

"You're right that I will move into a more useful position, and you can help me with that. If I were to claim such an item while seemingly thwarting the malevolent xenos sorcery harming all the poor, innocent Imperials and appear blessed by the Dark Father, it would enhance my status."