Within The Dark

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

"Oh, right right. Okay. So we'll just take the gauntlet, sell it, and then wait for the poor guy you pawn it off on to get shanked by Cultist number 3. Gotcha." He gave her a flat stare.

It was clear that he thought very low of her plan.

Whatever she wanted to do with the gauntlet it involved taking it somewhere, he just assumed that she would want to sell it. No matter what however Val knew that eventually the Cultists would come after it. They had been waiting hundreds of years to get into that tomb and clearly worshiper the thing as a part of their connection to the Former Dark Lord, that meant whoever got a hold of the thing would be the target of the cults ire. It didn't matter if it took a year, five, or twenty.

Eventually the cult would come knocking.

Val didn't think of himself as a hero, he wasn't one, but if he could prevent someone from getting hurt by killing a few sacrilegious murderers then he would do just that.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Rawr, well someone was in a little tissy. But for Ryssa, this was an entirely different gameplan. In her mind, one didn't just sit around waiting for someone to hunt you down and kill you. That was foolish. She had to live with surviving back in her homeworld, she wasn't going to linger any longer than she had to. No way, no how.

The Clawdite pursed her lips, giving a slightly narrowed look at the man. Honestly, she had nothing to prove to him nor did she owe him any reasoning beyond stating that it was silly to try and take on the cult. She knew all too well how things like that ended up; dead.

"It is a big galaxy. People disappear very easily. If it has taken them this long to even get a clue on where it is at after so long on their own planet, I doubt the Cultists are the sort to be so on point once i'm off world."

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

"Wow." He said flatly. "Good for you, you can disappear."

Val looked up at her, a fierce gaze in his eye.

"That can't." The Gauntlet was unquestioningly some sort of source of great power, he could feel it even now, an odd pit in his stomach that had permanently lodged itself there ever since they'd picked the thing up. He had no doubt in his mind that Ryssa would sell it eventually, and that meant someone would end up with it in their display case. He didn't particularly care about her disappearing, he cared that whomever had that gauntlet would turn it an eventual victim.

"They won't find you." He agreed. "But something like that doesn't stay hidden for long. Some idiot will announce that he has that thing, throw it out in public, and then said idiot will end up with a bolt in the back of his head."

People came and went, artifacts of power?

They drew attention like hot glow rods in cold water.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"So you think you'll just round up all the Cultists and take care of it as simple as that?" that was ridiculous. The logistics plus the magnitude of such a quest was well beyond her job skill and pay. Not to mention, this was just one guy wanting to play Knight errant. It was silly and it was suicidal.

"Maybe you hit your head a little bit harder there than I'd originally thought. Surely the concussion is making you delirious as well as mad." arms uncrossed and fell away from her chest, shaking her head. The woman turned towards the satchel, intending to pick it up.

"That's a losing battle. One man against a Cult which you don't even know the extent of their reach or what resources they have in hand."

A glance was cast over his shoulder.

"You're mad."

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

Val saw the movie, and slowly he readied himself to move. The wounds on his back hadn't healed all the way yet, but well enough that he could fight. She could shoot him of course, but...well it was a chance that he would have to take. His muscles flexed slightly.

"I didn't say I would fight them all at once." He knew he couldn't do that.
Val wasn't invincible.

He wasn't a force user, or anything like that, just a man that was a slight step above the rest. He could fight better than most, but he certainly wasn't a god. Yet there was a way to do this, it was slow, and would require patience, but it would work. Of course it would only work if he had the gauntlet, meaning that he couldn't allow Ryssa to take it. His eyes followed her, lips thinning slightly. Perhaps he was mad, perhaps he shouldn't have cared, but he did.

"I know what's right." Val said simply. "I won't sell someone's life just for a little money."

That was what selling this gauntlet meant after all. Whomever ended up with it would be dead as doornails.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

Ryssa took the bag in and slipped it around her shoulders. A few secured clips and it was done.

"You are putting too much stock on a gauntlet someone is very willing to pay a pretty penny to get it. " didn't matter if it was a person or an archeology department. The end results were the same.

"There's a reason why the bloke didn't tell me much about it, which is why I'm going to find out why." easy to start from there -- off world at that.

"I think he has a right to come out with it by himself." one way or another. She didn't appreciate going in blind in things. Turning back to Val, she saw him bracing himself as if spoiling for a fight.

The man was strange, and the roll of her eyes relayed that thought apparently.

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

He shifted within the water. Soaking himself within the healing bath was important, but if Ryssa had a mind to walk out with the gauntlet, that rather superseded his healing process. She was greedy, he could see it, the need for money and wealth in her eyes. Part of him couldn’t blame her, money after all did bring the galaxy around, and well, not everyone lived as long as he did.


”Stop.” He gave her one last warning.


What would he do if she didn’t comply? Well, that was a question that he didn’t really have an answer to. She could shoot him, but he was almost certain that he could reach her before she was able to pull the trigger, and if that happened it would be more than likely that she would need a few hours within the healing baths.


If not worse.


In truth though, Val didn’t want to hurt her.


They had been through much together, but neither could he allow her to simply put someone’s life in danger for what amounted to a paltry amount of credits. His own morals wouldn’t allow that, no matter how much he wished they did.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

At his abrupt statement to 'halt,' Ryssa flicked her head over to him and gave him a questioning arch of her brow. It was followed by an expression that said, huh? Stop what? She had been standing still simply putting on her backpack. If anyone was looking like the loon, it was Val then.

"Stop what?" the quizzingly twist of her lips told more about how the manbun had jumped to conclusions. A few more blinks and she shook her head at him. The guy was ridiculous.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

Val had no idea what she intended, but the snaps of her backpack, standing there...it all didn’t look too good to him. Perhaps She was simply making sure that it was secure, perhaps she was completely innocent, but a part of him simply found that impossible to believe. He knew next to nothing about her save that she hunted treasures, and that...that wasn’t enough.

“Tell me.” Val began slowly. “Exactly what you want to do with the gauntlet.”

He had a general sense, one off comments, but details would clear this up quickly. His muscles were still flexed, fingers hovering in half a fast. He looked ready to leap up and out of the pool, though not attack her quite yet.

Instead he watched her.

He had told her his plan, or at the very least the basics of it. She could do the same for him, and if she didn’t...well then he had his answer.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

That tone prompted Ryssa to give a slight double take. Turning towards him anew, the Clawdite gave him a slight quizzing look. What she saw there now made her a bit uncomfortable; wary. Wouldn't be hard to discern a measure of uneasiness running along the shorter woman's body at how ... well, predatory Val was at the time.

His shoulders flexed, torso just inclined a bit forward, hands at his sides and just from his position, she could tell that his knees were slightly bent as if ready to pounce.

... bad juju there. A small cry of warning bloomed in her mind. The one that was currently cursing herself for even coming back to help the guy.

Ryssa took a hesitant step back. Now she was the one that seemed to be ready to bolt.

"I told you already." how far was the entrance? Not too far. Sun was out, and her speeder wasn't but a few meters from there. Let's be honest, she didn't know much about the big lug, and now the danger whistles that had kept her alive on her home planet were beginning to wail in her head. She carefully brought down her her right hand near her hip. WESTAR 34 was right there. He might be fast, but she could draw faster if he made any move.

"Contact the archeological nut that sent me here to begin with to find out why he held out information." One more easy step towards the door.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

He vaguely remembered her saying it before, though his mind was oddly foggy about it. For a moment Val simply frowned, watching as her steps took her closer and closer towards the entrance.

She could have been lying of course, and she also hadn’t said that she ultimately wouldn’t sell the gauntlet, but at the very least it wasn’t outright throwing the thing into an auction. He frowned for a moment more, considering the implications. Why had the archaeologist wanted it in the first place? Why had he left out details? Was he part of the cult as well? The underlying questions were there, and it made sense that she would want answers.

”I.” He began slowly, taking a breath. ”Won’t try to kill them.”

It was a step towards a middle-ground at the very least. Though he was confident he could take on the cult, he was also pretty sure that doing so on his own and without the gauntlet as bait would lead to his death. ”But they’ll come after the gauntlet.”

His voice became more calm.

Like Ryssa, Val doubted that this cult had many off-world resources, but it didn’t take a genius to reach out and find whomever had hired Ryssa. Dark objects had a way of building reputation, and he was sure that anything connected to Moridin was scrutinized closely by certain...parts of the galactic community.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Well, that was pretty evident. Ryssa had already figured out that the cultists would still be scouring the place for them and the gauntlet. She also knew that if she went offworld back to the Tion Hegemony, then the chances of them tracking her were low.

His calm tone didn't soothe the Clawdite by much. Val was a big guy and she was, well Ryssa couldn't do much about the mass she was given with. At the very least she didn't take another step back.

"Wise choice." she told him flatly, one eye still on the entrance. The archeologist still had nothing on the guy other than his name and his apparent fascination with artifacts.

"You need to get to a medic." more pointed emphasis. Afterall, this had been her contract to begin with.

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

He didn’t need a medic, he needed a surgeon.

There wasn’t much more than a simple medic could do for him at this point. He could feel that his wounds were practically fully healed and that meant there were really only the tiny bits of metal left. That in it of itself would need a specialist, not someone who had only been trained in the vaguest sense.

He knew that.

”It can wait.” He said quietly. ”I would like to go with you to see this archaeologist.”

It was a request that he in all honesty, he expected her to deny, but at the very least he thought he would ask before forcing himself into the situation. At a certain point, she couldn’t tell him to buzz-off, if only because the cultists would still be after her and two were better than one.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

"Yeaahh... You can't see your back. I did." Ryssa said with measured emphasis. Was he for real? Didn't he realize that his own health was far more important than some gauntlet? It was amusing because for Ryssa knowing the who, what, where, when was pretty damn high on her list of information to get.

"Surgeon or not, the village will have someone you can go to." a hand gestured at that. Now when he made his next request, the arms once again went crossing under her breasts. The sign language of a woman saying 'no.'

"Mmm... no." she confirmed Val's assumption that she'd not want him along.

"I can do this by myself." he had already dragged himself along for too long. "It was the reason I came here anyways. You just came along for the ride."

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

”Then I can’t let you leave.” He said simply, there was no hostility in his tone, just a simple implication.


”I don’t know you’re telling the truth.” Val reasoned outloud. ”For all I know you intend to sell the Gauntlet, perhaps even to the Cult that has been chasing us. I don’t know what it does, but I know that the people that want it are willing to kill for it.”


That in it of itself would have been reason enough.


”The only other way I’ll let you go is if you destroy the gauntlet.” That really was the most preferable option anyway.


The gauntlet being destroyed would mean the Cult couldn’t have it, Ryss couldn’t sell it, and the entire story would end there. Val would have proposed it earlier, but it had been a part of his plan to dispose of the cult. Now of course that plan was defunct, so really the only other thing to do was to propose it to Ryssa.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Was he for real? Blinkyity blink blink. Yup, there was the stubborn set of his jaw. The way his deep set eyes locked onto her own with the most hard but calm stare.

Ugh.

And her hip cocked to the right. Let the battle begin.

"And for all I know you're behind all this as well." Ryssa managed with no small amount of sarcasm dripping from her lips. She did not uncross her arms, simply and quite boldly gave him a flat stare in turn.

"You were here all too conveniently. And your little story of being a farmer and suddenly appearing here of all places where a Sith artifact by one of the most powerful Sith Lords ever to have existed managed to pop up out of now where?" yeah, point Ryssa there manbun.

"And do you even know anything about Darth Moridin!" arms uncrossed and she made an exasperated gesture. As if that concussion had really giving Val a knocking.

"Things are no so easily destroyed when made by him. It's not like you call your local DarkSide artifact Salvage lot that can take care of it."

Another irritated grumble.

"And besides, we don't even know what it does yet anyways."

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

”I know enough to say that everything he’s made is dangerous.” A child would know that. The Dark Lord of the Sith, first Emperor after the Gulag Plague? Yeah, an idiot could figure out that anything associated with the man was a barrel and a half full of trouble. Didn’t take a genius to figure that one out.

”I don’t propose to take it to anyone.” He didn’t even know any Sith, or Jedi either, which probably would have been better. ”But I’m pretty sure that if we throw the thing into a pit of lava it’s not going to last long.”

Or if it did, anyone else would be hard pressed to get it out.

The solution was simple, inelegant, much like Val himself. There was no doubt that he wanted the thing destroyed, which all around was a whole lot suspicious than Miss ‘I want to talk to an archeologist’.

If this story had a villain and a hero it was obvious who was who.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

"Yeah, like you are going to find a convenient volcano around here." A bit of irritation edged her words, shaking her head as her pony tail swayed at her back and shoulders. This guy, seriously.

"And who knows if THAT isn't going to cause something to go wrong." some methods had been used to protect such items. Ryssa identified more than a dozen forms of bad juju that might come back to haunt them one way or another. Even the Jedi had trouble with working with any of these items.

"I'm more interested in making sure that we know what we are dealing with; rather than trying to go out and wipe a whole cult off the face of the 'verse or find the nearest friendly volcano."

They were at an impasse because they were both coming from vastly different perspectives and worldviews. For Ryssa, it was about knowing more on what they were dealing with. To have all the facts. She was every much a scientist as she was an archeologist and an adventurer. She didn't get into this gig just because she enjoyed the risk and for the credits -- although the credits for a job well done was nice too.

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

 

[Valkyrien Aurelios]

[member="Ryssa Rourke"]

She had a point of course, they weren’t likely to run across any volcanos just sitting around here, but that didn’t really mean much to him. There was always a way to destroy things, Val had learned that lesson well enough over the years. Nothing was indestructible, and in all honesty the gauntlet looked rather...flimsy.


He wasn’t saying he could do it with a hammer, but it was probably possible.


”Okay.” Val said simply. ”Then let me go with you.”


It really was a rather simple solution.


All he wanted was to make sure the gauntlet didn’t fall into the wrong hands, as long as that didn’t happen, he was perfectly okay with not destroying the thing. Of course, once they got it looked at they would likely have this conversation all over again, but Val didn’t particularly care to think that far into the future.


Not yet anyway.

 

[Ryssa Rourke]

[member="Valkyrien Aurelios"]

Ryssa made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. For one so tiny, she certainly was a force to be reckoned with when she got it into her head to stick to her guns.

"Why should I?" pretty upfront and straightforward.

"It neither concerns you nor were you part of the contract that brought me here with what little information I had, to begin with. Plus you aren't really the kind of guy who gives off subtle." her hips swung from right to left in a reposition. Typical female stubbornness.

"And you still need to go to a surgeon for all the damage to your back."

She was concerned enough to realize that the guy was silly when it came to his own welfare. Really, there was no need for him to come with her. She'd done just fine on her own right now and could easily figure things out on her own.