What's left after a revelation like that?

[Amethyst Atreides]

Location: The Fortress of Solitude
Soundtrack: 2Cellos “Shape of My Heart”
Attention: [member="Darth Tacitus"]

She deals the cards to find the answer,​

the sacred geometry of chance.​

The hidden law of a probable outcome,​

the numbers lead a dance.​

Lips parted as if to speak, but no words emerged. She had none, and could find nothing within herself that would allow them to be uttered even if she did. His wordless assurance and the gentle warmth of his hand on her shoulder were comforting for a short while, pushing back the doubts that slipped through her veins like so many sharp knives through her flesh.

Doubt. That vicious, insidious thing. Kainan had never given her reason to doubt him, but in light of Adron’s revelations and the agreement they made to set aside their differences once and for all, doubt oozed into every corner of her senses and no amount of effort could staunch the flow. It was akin to trying to stop the tide from rising in the ocean; a fruitless endeavor she knew all too well from the years she spent living in almost complete isolation on Lorrd.

Amethyst drew in a ragged breath after the great doors closed behind Adron’s retreating form, and the stone tumbled from her suddenly nerveless fingers. She watched as Kainan fell silent, having stepped forward once more as his brother had taken his leave. Her dark eyes traced along his strong profile before she forced herself to turn away. With what little ability she could command with her mind and heart in such turmoil, she walled herself away from him mentally as best she could, the strain visible in her features.

“I…” her voice faltered, doubt bringing fear hard on it’s heels. “…there are…things I need to…”

She reached the door and opened it with a flick of her wrist and a tendril of telekinesis that trembled as her fingers did. There were things she wanted to say but had no idea how to give them voice. One more thing to lay blame for at her mother’s feet.

Another deep, ragged breath, and Ame somehow managed to walk out of the room in spite of leaving her heart at the foot of the throne.

But those who speak know nothing,​

and find out to their cost.​

Like those who curse their luck in too many places,​

and those who fear are lost.​

​

​

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

[-SOUNDTRACK: RAINS OF CASTAMERE-]​

Attn: [member="Amethyst Atreides"]​

​

• Fortress of Solitude
  Nelvaan, Confederacy of Independent Systems

The Sith Lord silently stood as his brother left the throne room, hands unconsciously clenching into fists before unclenching again, sharp talons digging into the flesh of his palms, talons that he gained as a consequence of Adron's lightsaber piercing his chest.

Although his breathing was calm and seemingly normal, the set of his shoulders betrayed the exhaustion he felt after everything that had unfolded during what seemed to be a neverending, nightmarish day which stretched out forever. In a single, fateful moment, Adron's revelations threw Kainan's entire world upside down, shattering the neatly ordered beliefs that he held and laying bare the true extent of the cruelty of those who destroyed his childhood. Seething hatred still burned like acid through his veins and the normally self-contained Sith Lord found himself fighting back a powerful desire to take his fleet to Bastion and reduce the planet to a ball of molten magma and dead things.

There had been only one thing which had given him the strength to remain centered through the whole ordeal. It was something that he could not deny and could no longer doubt. He had been a lone wolf for most of his life and there were only two people which he had ever truly loved. One of them was standing here, in the same room with him.

There were so many words that had been left unspoken until now, so many things he wanted to say to her, things in his soul that he had struggled to understand, having been isolated in his hatred and sorrow for so long, that he forgot what they were and could not, for a time, recognize.

He was bound to her in ways he could not describe in words. Even in his exhausted and tormented state, he was keenly aware of the turmoil that she struggled with in her own heart. He could not explain how or why, it was just something that he felt. That he knew.

"Amethyst," the Sith Lord called out to her even as she turned to leave, each step that took her away from him tearing a ragged hole in his soul. He could not lose her, too.

Every fiber of his being, every part of his scarred soul urged him to go after her, to take her in his arms and hold her tight. Every part of his mind screamed at him to stop whatever ghosts haunted her, to give her comfort and warmth. With quick steps, Kainan stormed out of the throne room, much to the bewilderment of the silent Wolfguards who stood immobile as statues within the cavernous chamber.

Halfway between running and walking, the Sith Lord chased after the young woman through the darkened corridors of his keep, a mixture of emotions conjuring up a storm within his soul. Somehow, he knew exactly where she was. Somehow, he caught up with her and when he did, his hand firmly gripped her shoulder, turning her around and drawing her into a tight embrace, ragged, tired breaths escaping his body and causing him to shudder from head to toe.

He did not know what caused her turmoil, or what drove her to leave the room. He just knew that if he did not go after her, he would lose her forever. He just wanted to make her pain stop.

"There are... so many things that I've been struggling to find the words for," he spoke to her, slowly finding his voice amidst his ragged, painful breaths. Despite her walls, he was so connected to her that he could read her like a book, aware of everything that she felt, aware of the doubts that wreaked havoc through her soul.

He gently pressed his lips against the top of her head. "Stay with me," he somehow managed to whisper to her.

 

[Amethyst Atreides]

Location: The Fortress of Solitude
Soundtrack: 2Cellos “Shape of My Heart”


[SIZE=10.5pt]"Amethyst,"[/SIZE]

She heard him, and her heart stopped to hear the tone of his voice roll through the syllables of her name. A name she’d once despised, until the first time she’d heard it fall past his lips. The sound now akin to a sharpened dagger needling at her unprotected flesh.

But he knew. Since the night they’d met on Ascension, there’d been a Force-borne bond between them that even her fledgling senses could not ignore. No matter the walls she raised, no matter her mental barriers, he knew where she was and could follow her without erring in his path. Ame had no doubt he’d search her thoughts if he needed to, but she did not feel such an intrusion, and it only served to make her adore him a sliver more, and for her heart to fracture further.

The young woman heard his rushed steps behind her but misjudged her own and stumbled. His strong grip found her shoulder and he quickly turned her slender form and pulled her into his embrace. His form was wracked with ragged breaths, and her fingers found purchase in the fabric of his uniform as his arms tightened around her.

This close, with her mind and heart scraped raw, she knew Kainan could see her every doubt and read every sliver of pain as if it were a page in a book. She buried her face against his chest, a shuddering breath of her own taken in as he gently kissed the top of her head. His voice echoed softly around her, the words falling past his lips echoing in her mind over and over.

Her own voice was slow to emerge, but after a few slow, warm moments she savored, her head tilted back and her dark gaze met his.

“You should have someone at your side who suits your station in life. An unacknowledged Lorrdian bastard isn’t proper…you don’t need that kind of scandal as you rebuild the Empire.”

Amethyst swallowed hard and dropped her gaze to her hands, clutching the fabric of his uniform as she stood there, unwilling and unable to move though her doubts tried to force her to. Her finger trembled as she freed them from the fabric, gently smoothing it back out as she tried to remember how to breathe.

//There’s so much I want to say but I don’t know how to tell you what you mean to me. But you can do so much better…you deserve better.//

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

[-SOUNDTRACK: RAINS OF CASTAMERE-]​

Attn: [member="Amethyst Atreides"]​

​

• Fortress of Solitude
  Nelvaan, Confederacy of Independent Systems

Kainan slowly drew air into his lungs, breathing in the lovely scent of the young woman's hair as he held her in his arms, wishing for time to freeze so he could hold her in his embrace for all eternity. He found that he could feel her every doubt and fear as clearly as he could know his own, some part of his soul unconsciously reaching for hers, seeking to envelop her in a warm, comforting blanket made of all the things he felt for her.

She tilted her head up and his eyes found hers even as her lovely voice tore a fresh, jagged cut into his soul. She spoke of station and scandal, of upbringing and pedigrees, such inconsequential things which, to the Sith Lord, did not matter. A ragged sigh escaped from him as her words pierced his heart like daggers.

Somehow, through the unexplainable bond they shared, he heard everything she wanted to say, but couldn't. Even now, she cared for him, more than anyone else. Now she sought to distance herself from him, believing that he deserved better. It only made him angry, yet in that moment, he knew that this was the woman he wanted to spend eternity with.

"You think I care about what your parents did, or where they came from?" he somehow found the words to ask her. "I may have been born in a palace, but I wasn't raised in one," Kainan said, his voice pained and ragged as his soul bled. "Everything I have, I built from nothing. Before this, I was a mercenary, roaming the galaxy from battlefield to battlefield! And before that, I was a lowly pirate! I did not spend my childhood surrounded by posh tutors and aristocratic friends! Damn it, Amethyst, I was a slave!" he shouted the word at her, the painful memories of his broken youth rushing back to the surface.

"My tutors were the whip and cane and my childhood home was the arena, where I lived if I fought and I knew nothing else for the first ten years of my life! Yet, somehow, I clawed my way out of that and here I am! Ruler of a nation and leader of armies," he spoke, his voice drifting off into silence.

"I've seen many things in the three decades I walked this galaxy. I've seen the highest of the mighty be brought down low and the lowest of the low claw their way to the top," Kainan said, pausing for breath. "I've seen nations rise and fall, I've seen worlds burn and more battles than most people know how to count. I took my first life when I was a child and when I was a little older than you are now, I was rotting away in a Galactic Alliance jail."

"After all of that, do you think I care whether or not your parents deem you a legitimate heir or not? That I care about what scandals our relationship would cause? None of that matters to me, Amethyst. If people want to stir up controversy, let them try! If others want to interfere, let them try! I will end all their little schemes when I plunge a sword through their chests and burn their conspiracies to the ground!" Kainan said, his words determined and passionate, pouring out one after the other like a torrent rushing through a broken dam.

"You taught me that there are things in life to be cherished. You showed me what it means to live for more than work and war. I have built so many walls around myself, isolated myself from everyone else, yet somehow, you found your way past these barriers and into my heart and for the first time in more than a decade, I found something that gave my life meaning," he said, his eyes fixed upon hers as he laid his soul bare before her.

"Noble or lowborn, legitimate or bastard, there is no one else I want by my side," he spoke, his arms drawing her firmly against him, as if meaning to never let her go.

Raising a taloned hand, he let his fingers gently, yet shakily slide across her hair in a gentle caress. "I love you, Amethyst," he spoke to her, the words carried both by his voice and through the bond they shared. "There is nothing else that matters more to me than you."

 

[Amethyst Atreides]

Location: The Fortress of Solitude
Attention: [member="Darth Tacitus"]
Soundtrack: Seether ft. Amy Lee "Broken"


In that one, inexplicable moment, she knew.

He had heard every word she’d said as if she’d enunciated them clearly aloud.

Every word, every doubt, every emotion, and every last ounce of want in her being had been read like an open book. There was nothing she felt or thought that he could not see for himself, and even her barely trained senses could feel the way his own aura wrapped around her, protective and adoring, even as his arms still held her tight. It was the kind of embrace one read about only in stories, the kind read by young girls that fueled those dreams for a lifetime.

Amethyst had read those stories but put no stock in them, given her situation in life. The unacknowledged bastard of a Lorrdian noble doesn’t bother having dreams. Reality was enough for her to deal with, without trying to escape it through useless thoughts. She was forced to reevaluate that stance just then, ensconced the warmth and embrace of someone who’s mind and soul was as open to her as her own was to him.

His words came slowly at first, but then as a torrent. There were things she had known, but so many others she’d had no notion of. There was a level of pain laid bare to her vision that was more than akin to her own, and it bound her breath tightly in her throat for several moments. In so many ways he’d endured more than she had in her short years, and it took her what seemed like an eternity to absorb the words that fell past his lips.

Ame could barely breathe, but his declaration made even the thought of it impossible, and the broken bits of her heart flared sharply back into her awareness. One obviously trembling hand rose, plucking the pins from her hair and tossing them aside, letting his hand caress through the silken chestnut locks. Her resolve to leave crumbled, and had he not been holding her so tightly, she had no doubt she’d have crumpled to the floor at his feet.

She sighed softly, the sound hitched and broken, as she finally raised her dark eyes to meet his own. With one hand still clutching at the fabric of his uniform, the other rose to gently cup his cheek, the touch of her unsteady fingers light. There was a measure of wonder in her expression as she searched his gaze the same moment her mind slipped across the threshold of his own. It was enough to drive the breath out of her again.

She had no doubt he meant the words he’d uttered, but to feel the strength of their veracity was something else entirely. Amethyst was desperate to respond as he had, but could not make her voice work past the emotion that seemed lodged tightly in her throat. Instead, she used their bond and took down the last of the barriers she’d erected earlier, linking her mind to his own as best she could.

//And I love you, Kainan. More than anything…please forgive me for trying to leave.// she blinked and freed her other hand, soon cupping his face with both as she tried to remember how to breathe. Amethyst kissed him soundly as she let the words become a litany in her mind-voice.

 

[Kainan Wolfe]

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Attn: [member="Amethyst Atreides"]​

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• Fortress of Solitude
  Nelvaan, Confederacy of Independent Systems

Such simple words, yet so loaded with meaning. "There is nothing to forgive," he whispered the words to her, gently, as if hesitant to desecrate the profound silence that surrounded them. His feline eyes found hers and a thousand thoughts raced through his mind, thoughts of passion, thoughts of love, bound together by a terrible, fierce determination.

He was a Lord of the Sith, absolute ruler of one of the most effective military forces in the galaxy, a man who had changed the course of history and who had defied even death itself. He would be damned if he let anything come between him and his love.

Ever so slowly, as if it pained him to do so, he withdrew from her embrace, untangling himself from her arms with a sigh. "I have something for you," he said to her, his voice as gentle as his grip on her hand, as he led her down the corridor and to his private study, one of several which he had throughout the massive fortress.

Upon the mahogany desk, sat a single item, a small, painstakingly carved box which radiated with terrible, dark power. Beneath the lid, waited a pair of wickedly curved daggers, fashioned from some sort of meteoric iron that had been hammered into the shape of a pair of deadly claws.

As his eyes found the box, a dark look clouded his features, one which hinted at a more dangerous side hidden behind them. Nestled deep within his soul, there was a powerful, oppressive darkness which had reshaped him into the man he had become and manifested itself in all his actions and emotions, even love. For he would go to any lengths to protect this love and he already had.

The daggers within the box oozed with the unmistakable aura of death, which tainted their presence in the Force. Kainan had ordered these weapons to be made, so that they may protect the woman he loved. And they had come with a price which could only be exacted from the flesh and souls of living beings, who's sacrifices had corrupted the fundamental fabric of these blades, giving them their unique properties.

He was a man who walked the path of the Sith. And to the Sith, even love took on a deadly form.