Private In the land of the dead

[Okera Vekra]

It would heal soon enough, the perks of being a traveller in these lands. Her first aid kit always had what she needed, probably because it was as much a part of this place as her. A quick bandage to stem the bleeding and a patch over the eye.
"Personal is what I'd expect. These are your trials and sometimes they aren't quite tests but more... well changes of self. Though sometimes this place tries to get to you" Okera looked around as the pair found themselves at the crossroads of these worlds Okera recognised and had been through both worlds.
"Oh decisions decisions. Land of the spiral, or land of the stranger and spider." Of course this was just Okera giving her own reference to these lands. The dreamlands that of the twisting deceit where nothing made sense and everything could happen, or the bazaar where every deal was final, the master of puppets worked its web around the unsuspecting, and those hoods hid true intent.
"Well, the spiral and I don't get on, especially after the last time. At least with the Bazaar, we know what we're getting ourselves into. Besides we might be able to make a deal for directions. Oh and when I said early don't give your name, seriously if someone asks for your name respond with 'you may call me Ishani'" Okera was not in any way making a joke with that.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"I know about the name rule." Ishani looked into the distance at the shifting bazaar. "I've been to Masque before. I made a deal with a Shadow here." A deal that turned out to be useless, but at least the price wasn't too great. Even if it had been a humiliating ordeal...

She followed Okera into the city. Unlike her previous visit, it was crowded and bustling with spirits and living travelers. Given this heterogenous mixture, Ishani didn't stand out in the slightest.

"Who should we ask for directions?" Ishani asked Okera. Yet even as she spoke, her gaze was drawn toward a particularly run down storefront, which appeared to be an abandoned workshop.

Okera Vekra

 

[Okera Vekra]

"Oh good that makes things so much easier. Come on then market or whatever it's called"
Okera moved with confidence. The city was not one of the worst domains in this world and whatever was there, the two of them could deal with. Plus it would be nice to not get her face cut open should Ishani go through another trial. The stranger wasn't that bad after all. Sure occasionally she'd see glimpses of faces that were almost recognisable but there was a mutual parlay between her and The stranger. It would not touch Aayla.

Passing coin for some jerky, Okera ate more for the taste than the need. She didn't need to eat, drink, or sleep, but she enjoyed it. That last aspect of life that though it wasn't necessary she did enjoy.
"A sensible idea. After all, we do not wish to get lost here. well more accurately, you do not wish to get lost. In here is good. Reminds me of home." A workshop, was a workshop, was a workshop, and at heart, Okera was a tinkerer, in her peaceful retirement she worked on everything from classic speeders to elaborate spacecraft. So the togruta shows no hesitation in stepping through the door.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani followed Okera into the workshop. The feeling of this place being familiar to her grew stronger as she entered the building. It was filled with alchemy projects in varying levels of completion, along with some that appeared to be abandoned.

Realization came upon her suddenly. "This is Arcturus' place," she whispered.

He was written into every fiber of it. She was surprised she hadn't recognized it sooner. Looking around, Ishani's gaze was drawn toward a slightly ajar door leading to the back of the shop. She began to walk slowly toward it, her arm outstretched, until her hand came in contact with the worn wood of the door and pushed it open, disappearing inside...

Okera Vekra

 

[Okera Vekra]

For a moment Okera was distracted by the array of tools and projects scattered about, the organised chaos of a workshop. Ishani muttered something before moving through the back door.
"What was... oh she's gone..." A sigh and a shake of her head "I'll wait here then I guess" something told her that that might not be the best idea, so she followed after the woman she was supposed to be leading. Eh whatever, she'd be fine... Okera hoped

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani sensed a shift as soon as she stepped across the threshold, like a ripple in reality. Suddenly the workshop didn't seem so dingy. There were even signs that someone had been there recently. A mug sat on a table, steam still rising from the hot tea within, and there were fresh footprints on the wooden floor.

Bare footprints painted in blood.

Ishani turned a corner, and saw a figure hanging from the ceiling. Someone had taken a piece of rope and tied it around the person's wrists, then wrapped the other end around a rafter. Despite the darkness of the room, she knew instantly who it was. The friction burns on her palms told her the rest.

"Arcturus," she said. "What happened to you?"

He raised his head. His skin was ashen, and his veins were dark with corruption. He looked even more gaunt than usual, almost emaciated. The look in his eyes when they met hers was so intense, they seemed to almost glow.

"I fell," he replied, his voice low. "I lost control. Like we knew would happen."

She took a step toward him. "I fell too," she whispered. "It makes no difference to me." Reaching out, she touched his cheek... and felt his teeth snap less than an inch from her hand.

"Stay away!" he hissed. "Why did you even come back, Rhi? After what I did to the children..."

Ishani felt cold. "Not the children," she murmured in disbelief. No, he would never harm them. "This is just a bad dream."

"I wish it was," Arc groaned, straining against his restraints. "I wish I was dead."

"No, don't talk like that," she pleaded. "If the children are... gone, then you're all I have left..."

"You wanted them dead, didn't you?" he growled. "You wouldn't admit it to me, but I knew. You dreamed of killing them, but could never bring yourself to do it. So you were hoping I would kill them by accident. That I would lose control... and you'd still love me for it."

"NO!" she roared. Items in the room rattled or fell off their shelves in her fury. "If you lost control, it's not your fault!"

"There is no 'losing control'. I made the choice. I gave in, I submitted to the beast within." Arcturus held her gaze. "That's what the Dark Side is, love. It's not some predator out to get you. It's inside you already. It's your urges, your hunger, your lust. It's good intentions and bad methods. It's love and hate and apathy. You choose to feed it, or starve it, or indulge it every now and then. But it can't be ignored, and you can't escape it..."

He was right. She hadn't succumbed to the Dark Side. She had chosen it. Chosen it at last, after years of hiding from her true nature, afraid of what would happen if she did indulge in it. But now, after knowing how good it felt, she wasn't playing games anymore. She embraced it.

Yet the elements of this scenario didn't quite add up.

"You wouldn't do this!" she insisted. "I know you. You would never hurt the children. You would never make that choice! This is all a lie!"

"Is it?" He looked at her with glassy eyes. "You know that if we both fall, they'll be the ones who suffer the most."

"Then we'll send them away," she said, though her voice and her heart broke as she uttered the words. "Oh Arc. It's not fair. It's just not fair..."

"It's a sacrifice," he said, as she began to sob. "You have to give up something to gain something else..."

A scream tore itself from Ishani's throat. The wail pierced even over the sounds of falling objects. The contents of the workshop were upended, tossed about in a swirling maelstrom. Ishani fell to her knees in the center of the storm, her scarred visage ravaged by grief.

Okera Vekra​

 

[Okera Vekra]

A hand extended to help you up, and standing there, defiant against the storm, was Okera without a mark on her. The storm swirled around her, the crackling energy of her storm.
"Well, it's not my business to get involved in the martial affairs of others. In this instance, your fiance is wrong, entirely wrong to be fair." Tilting her head and listening to the echoes of the lost outside the storm.
"The dark side does not love, it is power and control. The ability to bend the world and others to what you want, sure it is there and it is a part of us mortals. Though it is a question of why do you want it." The storm began to wane as the traveller tried to bring clarity and peace to the anguish and loss of the woman in front of her.
"When we met I was sat by a fire. The force is almost like that in a way, the light is the warmth the protection and what fire can do to fight back the corruption. Fire can also destroy and kill, the desolation destroys without care for whom it consumes. The force is neither good nor evil, the intent of the user though... well. It can burn."
She kneels in front of Ishani hoping to help the woman through this challenge and ultimately this decision. Okera had made this journey thousands of times and had seen what some would become, and she had been the one to stop them. Ishani though, Okera hoped they could help.
"Take my hand and come with me. Let us eat and rest. I have seen one consumed by the power to save, to set reality in stone. In the end, though he killed the one he loved his unborn children and ultimately the peace of the galaxy. Destroying billions of lives in his pursuit of power, the master of puppets had a hand in it, though the apocalypse was his own decision. Let me help you through this. The corruption of the dark is great, and it isn't as simply black and white as most would say, for the light can blind to the truth. Let me help you" An offer, clarity, and time to choose. Okera was a port in this storm and Ishani could make a safe harbour and save her children and not become a rotten husk of herself. Okera had seen what the corruption could do, she'd seen herself in another reality after all.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Okera entered and tried to convince Ishani not to give in to the Dark Side. But she misunderstood the situation Ishani was in. She had already succumbed. The question now was whether she would be able to keep her children, or if they would have to be sent away for their own safety... or if Ishani was willing and able to go back, giving up the power and glory the Dark Side promised for the sake of her children.

But Okera's interruption did accomplish one thing. It sobered Ishani enough to realize she was being presented with an overly simple decision. She was expected to make a choice between being saintly or selfish, with no in-between. This presumed that a compromise or middle ground was impossible.

Why couldn't she be a Sith and a mother at the same time? Others had done it. She was so sick of the black and white simplicity so many people tried to force upon her... To her, being a Sith was all about forging your own path. She could make it work.

Ignoring Okera's offered hand, Ishani rose to her feet on her own. She approached Arcturus, seizing his head in his hands so that he couldn't snap at her.

"I'm not just the steel in your spine," she said, echoing words she had uttered long ago. "I am my own person, my own strength and power. Arcturus... I understand it now. I was the one who wanted to rule a kingdom of my own. I wanted you at my side. But if you don't want it, I won't force you... You'll always have my love and protection, and our children will be heirs to all that I build. I promise you that."

She sealed her declaration with a kiss, and felt the vision of Arcturus fade away. They were alone in the deserted workshop again.

Ishani turned to face Okera. "I won't lie to you. I've fallen to the Dark Side, and I have no intention of going back. If you don't want to travel with me anymore because of that, then leave me now. Otherwise, I'm going to be reborn as a true Sith."

There was even a possibility Okera might try to stop her. Ishani had to be prepared for anything, as she didn't know how the Togruta would react.

Ishani Dinn​

 

[Okera Vekra]

A guardian of the balance, with love as her light and her shield against the destruction. She tilted her head as this woman proudly declared herself firstly as one of the Darkside and then a sith, challenging the togruta to leave her. They shrugged and smiled almost.
"There is no light without dark. Chaos, yet harmony. Not yet. Take this" Gesturing to the form of her partner "As your second and then me as your third. Now I don't think you have fallen to the dark side, you have welcomed the darkness and worked with it rather than have it forced or coerced into you. I will say there is a difference between dark sider and sith." Okera moved around as she explained, taking her time to explain her philosophy and, with hope, prevent this woman from becoming out of control.
"Sith seek destruction and power for the sake of it. No drive, no reason, or control. Sith is arson, destruction without reason, the corruption that rots and eats away at you. That said, corruption is a thing that life needs in moderation. Like I said the force isn't an entity of morality, it just exists.
So I question you Ishani, do you wish to be a sith? Seeking power at any cost, letting your emotion control you and wielding the force in a way that quickly destroys your body and everything around you. The alternative is to seek that power, understand your limits and yes become a wielder of the dark but not in a way that destroys you and everyone else. Morality is complicated, I would know I'm a soldier I've done things I regret in the war because of necessity. I took down groups that wanted to commit genocide. Both of us are killers, both of us for very different reasons.
Yes, you are a dark sider but are you a soldier like me, or a being driven by the lust of the kill."
Okera had positioned herself in front of the entrance, blocking you from leaving and shifting her cloak slightly ready to remove it. Just in the gap between her glove and the sleeve of her right arm, the skin was slightly odd.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Okera was right about one thing: the phrase "fallen to the Dark Side" didn't accurately portray what had happened. Ishani hadn't "fallen" into this. She had actively chosen to use the Dark Side. It hadn't claimed her against her will, like demonic possession or predatory ensnarement. She wanted it, and she had taken it.

As for the rest of Okera's speech, Ishani more or less agreed. "The Sith are a cult of power. Their philosophy is centered around individual freedoms. Some take it to an extreme... I have no interest in extremes anymore."

Her expression grew stern, the scars that lined half her face making it look all the more severe. "But I want what I want, and I intend to get it. I'm not a soldier. I'm a queen with a kingdom to build, not conquer or destroy."

Part of her was surprised to hear herself talking this way, and yet it felt so... right. As if she'd always had these dreams, but had never spoken of them aloud before.

Okera Vekra

 

[Okera Vekra]

"Good. Come now we still have quite a journey to make, and you have a family to get back to. All going well they won't even notice your trip into this domain" Reality was not black and white, the confirmation that whilst, yes this woman had taken in the dark, she was not a sith. Her intent to not to destroy but to build a kingdom and as long as she did not seek to do harm or follow the extremes Okera did not have a problem with this. Besides the republic had done worse.
So the togruta held the door open and gestured for Ishani to leave with her.
"This place sucks. Let's go find somewhere nicer and get some for, how about that?"

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani watched Okera closely, waiting for the Togruta to strike. But the blow never came. Instead, Okera seemed to relax as she held open the door and gestured for Ishani to leave with her.

"Sure," she replied, stepping across the threshold.

... and suddenly, Ishani vanished from sight, disappearing into thin air. The Nether had transported her somewhere else, sending her on a journey to destinations unknown.

Okera Vekra

 

[Okera Vekra]

​

Okera blinked, looked around the room and then outside realising that her ward had managed to vanish.
"Crap"

Love is our strength, love is our shield and blade
Ishani Dinn​