A dark deal

[King Iedolas Solidor]

Built with tall towers, a palace that has its inner walls in colors that varies from black and red metal and stones. The building is built with a pale look. Huge, with great banners of the noble houses of old that ruled the planet for many years, the palace has huge black doors that take to a gran courtyard, where practice of weapons is often seen. The great stairs in the yard lead directly to the Great Hall where lies the Sun Throne, made of crystal, both fragile and royal. The palace glows with the light of its own shield that guards the seat of power in all the capital, deep within the palace lies the Sun Throne, where the Kings of Kaikielius of old, and now the Primarchs of the Interstellar Protectorate stay.

 

[King Iedolas Solidor]

Audiences with the other Nine Houses was always a boring thing. Although they never came out their castles in the ring cities, Iedolas had a disliking about having to discuss every single matter with them first. They respected his authority, but money was always a horrible thought among the Dukes of Houses Juoni and Tyrell, always greedy elzeris thinking about their own pockets instead of the long term profits.

He had but one more meeting that day. A woman to be interviewed and see if it would be hired to do a perilous task, one that he could not expect from someone else. Would have to be a ruthless woman, that knew how to attack instead of just defending herself, someone with the ability to break people, to bend their wills like a beast, capable of devouring his prey if she hears a no.

In his personal opinion, he had no problem with the current man he had for this job. But these soldiers were lazy, were comfortable thinking the palace of Enfer was invincible. And reality proved otherwise, like his allies in CSA, attacked by Sith, Iedolas knew better than this, he knew he needed to think outside his bubble in Kaikielius to achieve victory.

“Send her in.”, Iedolas said in a harsh tone of voice to his personal intendant.

 

[VashtiVeridian]

The IM-005 came to a slow hover over the landing pad, accompanied by sudden shake by impact of the landing gear. "Landing complete.". Vashti had been contacted by a branch of the Interstellar Protectorate. Out of all the years she had been hopping from planet to planet, she had never had any encounters with them. The Sith databases had archives of information on them, as it was clear to her back then that they were viewed as a threat. But, nonetheless, they had sought her out, looking to negotiate a contract for an unnamed service.

Vashti slowly walked down the walk-way from IM-005, inspecting the two guards and a single diplomat awaiting her arrival. Her cybernetic eyes had already picked up that all three of them were Force sensitives, but her gut knew they were all well trained users. As she reached the end of the ramp, the diplomat took a single step forward, "Welcome to Great Hall of the Sun Throne, I highly suggest you respect your grounds."

Vashti's nose crimped up underneath the Vulpe shaped helmet, luckily it concealed the rare slip of reaction. "Understood.", rang through the helmet speakers. As quickly as Vashti uttered the singular word, the three escorts turned their backs on her and began to make their way into the Great Hall. Not far behind, Vashti kept a "respective" pace, letting the sensors of her cybernetic body take in as much data as possible. The walk from her ship to the Throne room seemed to take an age and a half. Once they had reached the door of the Throne Room, she was requested to wait alone until indicated she would be seen.

Vashti stood in silence for what seemed like a century. But that was of no concern for her, her Force sense was alive with activity. This planet seemed to be a collective of Force users, but it was difficult to determine whether they were light or dark. There seemed to be an ambiguity here that was rarely seen across the galaxy, as sides are rarely decided evenly. Black or white. Light or Dark. The general "greyness" of the Force that surrounded her in this place was intriguing, to say the least. The fact she did not know why exactly she was here, only added to the mystery of what seemed to be a grey shroud cloaking this planet.

"You may enter.", spoke a hushed voice, from an opening in the Throne Room door that could only accommodate a small head. Vashti hadn't even noticed the door opening, she was that caught up in thought. She turned and started to make her way to the door, with a little hesitation. There was a very large power waiting behind those doors. Powerful not only politically, but she could feel her Force resonating through what little bone she had left. The tertiary lobe of her AI exo-brain kicked in, and a calming blankness washed over her. She took a few steps into a room that seemed so vast, it was almost if it belonged outdoors. At the end of it stood a large throne, with a fittingly grey man occupying it. Vashti continued toward the throne at a slow pace, concealed under her armour. Time to find out what this is all about, the haziness of the situation was starting to activate her early warning systems.


[member="Primarch Iedolas"]

 

[King Iedolas Solidor]

Many things could be said about Iedolas Solidor, but no one could say he was a fool. He hide himself in there Force, so that others could not know what he was or who he was, how he felt, what was going to be his next move or how to read his mind. His intentions belonged only to him and to no other, Iedolas believed in power, true power that could be conquered, learned and achieved by many ways. This meeting was a demonstration of such power, for he wanted to achieve something and for this he could not use his current pawns to do that for that would attract too much attention from the members of the Noble Houses, or worse… his children. To spawn seventeen children was a deed he should never be proud of, for he knew how much those damn children brought him problems to worry about and they were always close, in ways that if he used his Sentinels or his own servants for that, but he could feel something inside of him telling him not to go that path.

He could feel his instincts telling him to hire someone with little morals for that. He could use Sir Tiali, but the man was already busy and had no time to do his dirty work, having to turn to Queen Popara, he asked the Hutt for advice to set a meeting with a bounty hunter capable of impossible tasks. One that was not mandalorian, not affiliated to any of the factions that ruled the large pieces of the galaxy, it took her a week to find one, but there she was, a woman. Another cyborg in his great hall in Enfer, just like when Tiali came, except that this woman in front of him had more respect and seemed to once be the bearer of great beauty.

“Greetings, miss Vashti am I correct?”, he said while sitting in his throne, looking at the woman with his vivid purple eyes. Always analysing, always watching and always aware of the many possibilites that could never happen, for him, the Force was but means to a end, it was with the intellect that one would achieve his goals, not by enslaving the minds of others. “Come forward, child… I would like to see you a little better and see what you are made of.” , and so he did watching her entire body from toes to the hair on her head, she was interesting, at least for the eyes, the only problem was to know how far her morals would go to do a job. He needed someone that had no problem with what he had in his mind, someone that would shoot a child first before putting the mother out of her misery. Things he could never do on his own.

[member="VashtiVeridian"]​

 

[VashtiVeridian]

"Correct.", she answered while taking a singular step forward. These meetings were ever hardly any different from the last. It was always some power hungry, revenge seeking coward who couldn't get the job done. For whatever reason, feebleness or otherwise. The elderly gentlemen clearly had an ego among him, a little devil sitting on his shoulder. Informing his moves and words. Ego was a necessary ally in order to achieve what this man had, the gaudy palace was a sign of it. Decorated in lavish tapestries and intricate architecture. It was a blatant show of power, and she didn't much care for it.

Vashti stood eerily still, with no emotion on her face. As was her default expression. She never crumbled to the presence of anyone, being a hardened former Sith and mostly Cybernetic. In wasn't in her capacity to feel emotion, the only time it reared it's ugly head is when she spilled blood. She wouldn't even have replied to the invite from the Primarch, if it wasn't accompanied by a lucrative offer. The timing couldn't of been better, she recently had stumbled upon some lost knowledge with her recent encounters on Yavin 4 and Tatooine. But this had a prize that was a little more promising than what had come before. This.. man, had access to a Sith Holocron of a long dead King of Korrbian. Something that could greatly benefit her, that should would not normally have access to otherwise. Her days of Sith were long over. Vashti's cybernetic blue eyes stared forward at the elderly man, waiting for further tales of grandeur until the point was finally to be made.

[member="Primarch Iedolas"]

 

[King Iedolas Solidor]

“Fascinating.”, he said in a weak tone of his voice, looking the woman as she was. With all those ‘improvements’ in her body, she resembled a little more droid than a human, if she was human, or anything near to that. “Why all the improvements to your body?”, he asked still looking at her, it was a question he probably already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear that from her own lips instead of guessing what she had to say about it.

Much good and evil could be said about Iedolas, the people of his planet would say beautiful things about the King and Primarch they had. The nobles would say good and respectable things about him as well, some would talk about the harm he has done to them in the past, but no one truly knew the evil deeds behind the face of that man, those belonged only to him and the gods. Like his rakghoul experiment in Stampa, that gave him the opportunity to study his new subjects they could be of service to him in the path ahead to achieve his goals. Deep he drowned his hands in blood to stay for staying in this path.

“Why does a bounty hunter seek the Undying Holocron?”, he talked about the Holocron of Dathka Graush. The Undying King of Korriban, a ruthless Sith sorcerer that commanded legions of dead soldiers, immortal that replaced his own living heart by a ruby that had the souls of his own subjects, a real monster that lived thousands of years ago. He learned about sorcery and magic under the eyes of the spirit of Dathka and his holocron, betraying the long deceased king with the promise of finding his heart to resurrect him and his army. He had no desire to be possessed by Dathka and become his vessel, his holocron was treasure enough to him.

[member="VashtiVeridian"]​