Private When Causes Align

[Kryos]

This isn’t how it happened. Kryos recognized his memories were being manipulated. The Force fought against him as he sought to wrestle control, to take it for his own rather than give into it. I remember! I know what happened! It did not matter. He had been fighting this battle for years now. His anger and frustration grew as he searched for clarity that may never be found. NO!

The Fallen’s eyes shot open, glowing red hot. That is enough for now. His legs unfolded and feet touched the ground, dropping from a levitated state of meditation. Could he even call it that? There was no peace in this exercise. Not anymore. Realizing he was drenched in sweat, Kryos walked to the nearby stream and washed himself off. It was time to go.

Later . . .

Intelligence was always available to those with the right resources. Sometimes it required payment, be it in credits, favors, or some less scrupulous currency. Sometimes it required pressures of another sort. But this informant had strung him along now for weeks, and Kryos was becoming impatient.

The Jedi Knight and his Padawan will land at the spaceport after dawn. They will travel via speeder to the temple ruins outside of town. They have been tasked with searching for a holocron suspected of being lost below the rubble. It will not take them long to realize the holocron does not exist. Your window will be short.

How could they possibly know this? Of course it could be a trap. The caution with which he should — and would have, in another life — approached this situation was secondary to the insatiable urge to hunt down every last Jedi and Sith and wipe them off the map. His crusade would ultimately prove to be his undoing. He was not blind to that fact. But he simply no longer cared.

Now Kryos stood at the edge of the treeline, watching for any sign of activity. The speeder was there, but no pair of Jedi. Were they already inside the dilapidated structure? There was no way to be sure without investigating himself. He made no effort to hide his presence as he approached the ruins, having no fear of his prey. He welcomed a challenge. The Jedi were weak. He would take two heads today.

But he could not shake the feeling. Something else was at play.

——
Ingrid L'lerim

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Empress of the Eternal Empire and Terraris

Information

Objective: To speak with the former Jedi
Location: Unknown location
Equipment: The Soulsabers | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | The Last Gift || Empyrean gland | OPBC-01m
Tags: K Kyros

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

Ingrid was informed through Nite about a Jedi who is supposedly frustrated with the Jedi Order and has strange ideas about the Force. She knew very well that there were very few people in the Galaxy who thought like the Wardens of the Shroud, so when she heard something like this, she usually went to investigate the matter personally. The number of Wardens was never very large, of course in the Eternal Empire Force Sensitive children who could also use the Force were raised to serve the cause of the Wardens and grow up in it, but the number of Force Users from outside was minimal. After all, officially the Empire had no Force User group.

The Galaxy wouldn't even understand that the Eternal Imperials think of the Force as corrupting its users and that the Light side and the Dark side are corrupt. And no one would still accept that the Wardens' ultimate goal is to destroy the Force and rid the galaxy of the Force's influence and chains. For they believed that the Jedi and the Sith were puppets of the Force, slaves to the will of the Force, and had given up their own independent will. Hence, it is only the Wardens who recognize this and only they can fight it. The ultimate goal is to destroy the Force and break the eternal struggle between Light and Dark. To break every cycle that now exists.

Many might think that the Empire wants to achieve this by killing everything and everyone in the Galaxy. But no; Ingrid did not want species to disappear or the Galaxy to die out. She and the Wardens only wanted to give the people of the Galaxy freedom and to give back the free will that the Force had taken from them. But the redheaded woman had no illusions and knew that no one would accept those views. That was why it was the Empire's greatest secret, known only to a handful of Wardens; yes, even there, not everyone knew...

... but that wasn't so important now, the point was that she was going to go to where this former Jedi was to talk, and then find out if he could join the Wardens or not. She arrived through the Netherworld to where he was at the moment. A ruined place, a speeder and there was the man. The woman, as always, was hiding her presence in the Force. Ingrid was still an excellent agent, spy and assassin, the Red Witch, so she approached the place with ease and without a sound. Ingrid moved deliberately to step out of the ruins, preferably in the same direction as the man.

"I've been looking for you for a long time... today you can find something more valuable than those two Jedi." she told him; of course she could feel the presence of the two Lightsiders. "Sure, if you're interested..."

 

[Kryos]

Tags: Ingrid L'lerim

Her sudden appearance caught Kryos by surprise. How had he not sensed her? How had she so easily appeared, seemingly from nowhere? His anger and frustration quickly grew, and his lightsaber was in his hand without a thought. The red blade sprung to life. But he did not attack. Perhaps this exact rage had been what blinded him, what prevented him from seeing this coming. So he waited, listened, pondered her words, attempting to fully assess this situation.

The female’s striking red hair stood in stark contrast to her pale features. The blue eyes were piercing, but not threatening. Then, what she said . . . That intrigued him the most. How did she know about him? What could she possibly have that would be more valuable to him, in this moment, than eliminating the two Jedi? Were the Knight and Padawan even here, or had this all be a trick to bring him out into the open? He felt their presence, but he now recognized this could all be a trick.

Curiously, he found himself deactivating his weapon and returning it to his belt. He stepped closer, exercising no caution, until he was standing only a few feet in front of her. “Tell me, witch, what is it that you think you can offer me? Why should I not take your head and the heads of the Jedi enslavers that I came for?” In such close proximity, Kryos felt the power emanating from the unknown woman. Had he been in his right mind, in a normal state, he would have known to fear her.

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Empress of the Eternal Empire and Terraris

Information

Objective: To speak with the former Jedi
Location: Unknown location
Equipment: The Soulsabers | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | The Last Gift || Empyrean gland | OPBC-01m
Tags: K Kyros

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

The redheaded woman could see the anger in him and could even feel it in Force. Despite the fact that the woman was completely neutral in the Force, she was still hungry for Darkside energy. It was the only thing that could satisfy her hunger. Although she was still able to eat and drink the same food as others, it did not satisfy her hunger. She could not have survived on food alone. Ingrid was now close to four hundred years old, but she still seemed to be in her late twenties. Four hundred years is relative, having been born here in Realspace barely seventy years ago, and the rest, nearly three hundred, spent in the Netherworld studying and trying to save her dead husband's soul. But being a Shadow-born...

She pushed the thought away, now was not the time to be thinking about this. She was about to tell him to get more control of his emotions and not let the Force play with them, but it wasn't time yet. She stood still and unmoving as he deactivated his weapon and stepped closer. Witch; it had been a long time since the redhead had heard anyone call her that. According to this, the young man was not well-versed in the history of the galaxy, especially as it pertained to the Unknown Region. Most people were used to knowing the woman, even though she was now the leader of a region not nearly as large.

She thought back for a moment to when she had been called that. Perhaps it was Rurik Fel, or Lord Geiseric, who was now her son-in-law and father of her grandchildren. In any case, it was a long time ago. At the threat, she nodded her head slightly to the side and raised her eyebrows for a moment, but no other emotion or reaction was evident on her face or in her eyes to his words.

"You can try... but I'm not sure you stand a chance against anyone in your condition." she said, her voice infinitely cold and emotionless, yet without threat. "What can I offer you? To explain and show you the way, to give you a new meaning to your life, for all the reasons that you now want to kill those two Jedi."

 

[Kryos]

Tags: Ingrid L'lerim

The mysterious woman’s energy was unfamiliar. She was no Jedi, nor was she a Sith. She was dissimilar to any Dothomiri he had ever encountered, a group of Force users for which he held no particular hostility but would never let hinder his ultimate agenda. Perhaps she dwelled between realms. He had little understanding of the Netherworld and the powers of those who walked the unknown, but he was at least aware of their existence from his teachings at the Order.

But one thought prevailed above all: she stood before Kryos with no fear of him. That unnerved the Fallen. He was a hunter, a predator, and even his most skilled prey nevertheless expressed hesitation, if not outright horror, when confronted by his imposing figure, electric eyes, crimson blade.

“You confuse my condition with my ambition,” he finally responded, still perplexed by her words. “I have meaning, and right now, you are standing in my way.” He lifted his hands, palms facing the fair redhead, and attempted to push her aside with the Force.

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Empress of the Eternal Empire and Terraris

Information

Objective: To speak with the former Jedi
Location: Unknown location
Equipment: The Soulsabers | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | The Last Gift || Empyrean gland | OPBC-01m
Tags: K Kyros

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

"I didn't confuse the two, you did." she said, her voice still cold and emotionless.

Ingrid has met many of them in her long life. It was the easiest thing to do, to let one's intellect influence and guide one. She never accepted this behaviour, for it was the way of the Sith. A way where the Force only toyed with its user. She only sighed in thought when he was unconvinced by her words, but thought that driven by emotion and adrenaline, she was better than everyone. Not everyone had learned to remain calm in any situation; she was glad that she had had to learn that as a young child.

However, the time for talking seemed to be over, because the man immediately wanted to prove that he was right, and was already preparing to attack. True, not with a lightsaber for the moment, but with the Force. The moment he raised his arm, she focused briefly on the Force. Since he was faster, the redhead felt the telekinetic force hit her, but the next moment she simply disappeared from his view, thanks to her teleportation, and thus appeared behind him.

What hasn't changed over the years is that she didn't like to demonstrate her power in the Force; it was better if no one knew about it. However, sometimes minor tricks were necessary even for Ingrid to use. She reached into the Force and tried to turn off the man's lightsaber with her telekinetic powers by trying to press the on button. This, of course, would not work if the man was using a Force Saber. As she was doing this, she immediately turned to look at the man's back and tried to hit him on the back of the head with a well-aimed punch to bring him to the ground.

If she succeeded in knocking him down, she would remove her necklace from around her neck and place it in her pocket, so that her presence was no longer hidden in the Force and all the power she possessed could be felt. In the Force, and even here in reality, the shadows shifted and gathered around her, as if she were now a living being, or part of her. True, this was not the Wardens' doctrine, but Ingrid's being, the curse she owed to Onrai. When she reached him, she crouched down so he wouldn't have to look up. In the meantime, the shadows moved back a little, both in reality and in the Force.

"If you fight with your emotions like a Sith and let the Force play with you, or let the Force impose its will on you as it does with the Jedi, you will lose before the fight even begins. Will you be your own master, or will you remain a puppet?" she asked him.