Private Ashes of Tion

[Aurelian of Vandemar]

T I O N
Surface
Teckla Tane ​

Beneath his sabaton a piece of debris cracked. He made another step and gazed around what once had been a sprawling industrial complex, devoted to supplying an Empire that was gone like all the others that had come beforehand. Time healed all wounds some say. Yet the Sith do their utmost to prove that wrong. The scorching from firestorms, the glassing from turbolasers, craters from missiles, it was still visible and would be for a long time. Scars like this were not healing swiftly.

Aurelian walked further. Why did he come here? Did he need the reaffirmation that a war with Sith was inevitable? Did he need to convince himself that the crusade he was on was just? He did not believe so and yet he was here. Driven by the knowledge that this battle had meant the end for another Imperial successor, but worse, it was another triumph of evil. To Aurelian, this was another victory for the tyranny of the Sith and their senseless destruction.

He would make them feel the true meaning of victory. Tion was a reminder, it was a leftover. When Aurelian would be done with the Sith, there would be no remnants, no memories, nothing to return to.

His steps carried him further until he noticed that he was not alone. In the ruins ahead someone else dwelled, the presence immediately known to him, even if they had only met once. He remembered.

 

[Teckla Tane]

​

Quasesitorum Operational Record

Objective: Investigate an intrusion on Tion
Location: Devastated landscape of Tion
Equipment: Robes, Lightsaber
Tags: Aurelian of Vandemar
Dialogue Key: ”Galactic Basic” | <<Telepathic Communication>>

​

Tion had been watched for years. Not closely enough to invite questions, and certainly not with enough presence to suggest a claim. The Quasesitorum had learned patience long ago. Lianna and Tion had both warranted attention after the collapse of the Imperial Confederation, but attention did not require intervention. Sometimes it was more useful to simply watch what crawled from the wreckage.

Aurelian of Vandemar was enough to change that calculation. Teckla's personal shuttle descended well away from the ruins where his presence had been detected. She came alone. No escort. No soldiers waiting aboard for a signal. The shuttle settled amid a stretch of broken terrain, its engines briefly disturbing ash and dust that had been resting there for years.

The Archon-Prime emerged and regarded the horizon. Twice. Twice the Sith had ruined Tion. There was a bitter irony in that. Empires rose and fell. Worlds changed hands. War demanded destruction, and Teckla was hardly sentimental enough to pretend otherwise. She had ordered cities attacked and enemies annihilated when necessity demanded it. But this?

Her eyes moved over the shattered landscape as she began walking. This was waste. The distance gave her time to consider the man she had come to meet. Their previous encounter meant Aurelian was not entirely an unknown quantity, though Teckla doubted either of them would claim to truly know the other. His arrival on Tion had nevertheless been interesting enough to draw her personally.

She approached cautiously, boots crunching through debris as she crossed the remains of what had once been an industrial complex. There was no attempt to hide her presence in the Force. Once she was near enough, deception would accomplish little anyway. And Aurelian had already noticed her.

"Lord Aurelian." Teckla's greeting carried across the ruins before she closed the final distance, her gaze briefly settling upon him before drifting back toward the devastation surrounding them. "I wondered what would bring you to Tion."

There was no accusation in the words. Curiosity, perhaps, though tempered by the wariness appropriate to two people whose interests were not necessarily aligned. She stopped several paces away. "Twice ruined by the Sith." Her expression tightened as she surveyed the scars left upon the planet. "And for what?"

Teckla nudged a fragment of twisted metal with the toe of her boot. "Conquest is supposed to leave you with something worth ruling." Her gaze returned to Aurelian. "This is pointless destruction. Indulgence dressed as strength." A faint note of disgust entered her voice. "The Sith have spent far too long confusing the freedom to exercise power with the wisdom to know when it should be exercised." She allowed a brief silence to settle between them. "Perhaps it is time someone brought the Sith to true order."

 

[Aurelian of Vandemar]

T I O N
Surface
Teckla Tane ​

"Archon-Prime."

His voice effortlessly carried the greeting towards her, measured, heavy, bearing an equal amount of respect and restraint. He remembered her as a fierce individual, strong in ideology, firm in enforcement and valiant, perhaps the ancient even saw something of himself in her. Aurelian has always been a zealous follower of a system and principles that he considered one, even when they were ripped out of his life, he never ceased to believe.

Sith. Destruction. Waste. Phrases the Hegemon had contemplated too often in his own head in the past years, always together. It was no mere idea or view anymore, it was a fact that where they went, they left the Galaxy scarred, ripped of life, starved of civilisation. Around them were the twice-desolated wastes of Tion. Recently the Sith forces defiled Abgredao-Rae and Thyferra. It was just an immediate accounting.

"Strength for the sake of strength, power for the sake of power. The Sith have become ever more mindless, self-indulgent and cataclysmic with every world they conquered, with every triumph their arrogance was reinforced." Aurelian stared at the wasteland, his eyeless gaze taking in the now cold ruins, scorched earth and even broken ground, before he looked towards the woman.

"I believe I came here to remind myself of it." His words, firm and measured seemed to let slip some of the restrained fury. The air resonated around him, almost vibrated, with a cold, unyielding wrath. "The Sith require final correction, not a reminder or a lesson, but an absolute end to their bestial path."

"You have fought the Sith here and elsewhere as well. You too advocate Order. How should those of similar mind make this a reality?"

 

[Teckla Tane]

​

Quasesitorum Operational Record

Objective: Investigate an intrusion on Tion
Location: Devastated landscape of Tion
Equipment: Robes, Lightsaber
Tags: Aurelian of Vandemar
Dialogue Key: ”Galactic Basic” |
<<Telepathic Communication>>

​

"Strength without purpose is merely destruction." Teckla's answer came readily, though her attention had drifted from Aurelian toward the devastation around them. There was little here that could be called conquest. Conquest implied possession. Administration. The imposition of one will upon another so that something stronger might emerge from the struggle. Tion had simply been broken.

"And destruction is remarkably easy." There was no admiration in the observation. Teckla had never been afraid to use violence. The Quasesitorum was not built upon pacifism, nor did its Archon-Prime pretend that order could always be achieved through pleasant words and willing cooperation. Sometimes chaos needed to be crushed before anything worthwhile could replace it. But the crushing was not the point.

She turned her attention back to Aurelian as he spoke of final correction. There was much in his anger that Teckla understood. Perhaps more than she would have admitted when they first met. His question, however, drew a moment of consideration. "By refusing to become them." A simple answer to something that was anything but simple. "If our answer to every obstacle is annihilation, then whatever banners we carry become irrelevant. We would simply be another collection of powerful beings deciding that our strength entitles us to indulge every impulse." Her lips tightened slightly. "Order requires restraint. Structure. Purpose. It requires knowing what should be preserved as surely as knowing what must be destroyed."

Teckla stepped past him, climbing onto a slab of broken ferrocrete that gave her a slightly better view across the ruined industrial district. "The Sith understand hierarchy when it benefits them. They understand obedience when they are the ones demanding it. But ask them to subordinate themselves to something greater than their own ambition?" A quiet scoff escaped her. "They tear each other apart." It was precisely why Teckla had never considered herself Sith despite the darkness she wielded. The Force was a tool, power a necessity. Neither constituted a philosophy worthy of obedience.

"The Quasesitorum exists because I believe there must be another answer. Not Jedi complacency. Not Sith indulgence. Order strong enough to endure the ambitions of the people entrusted to maintain it." Her eyes settled upon Aurelian again. "But that is the answer an Archon-Prime gives to a Hegemon."

The distinction was deliberate. Teckla stepped down from the rubble. "I suspect that is part of our problem." There was the faintest suggestion of amusement in her expression now, an unusual departure from the severity with which she had regarded Tion. "We have met. We have fought toward similar ends. We apparently share enough convictions to find ourselves standing together on a dead world complaining about the Sith." She glanced around them. "And yet I know Aurelian of Vandemar almost entirely as a title, an army, and a collection of principles."

Teckla folded her hands loosely behind her back. "Perhaps those of similar mind begin by doing something considerably less ambitious than reorganizing the galaxy." A slight smile finally appeared. "Walk with me."

She gestured toward the ruins ahead. "Tell me why you really came here. Not the Hegemon's answer. You have already given me that one." Her expression softened, though her gaze remained characteristically direct. "I would rather know the man who intends to stand beside me when we finally put all these grand declarations into practice."

 

[Aurelian of Vandemar]

T I O N
Surface
Teckla Tane ​

He listened to her, intently. Her convictions, her mind were so clear, not existing as singular truths but as experiences made and lessons learned. They existed as a passion that burnt hot but was moderated by the same cold measure and calculation Aurelian himself applied to his actions and thoughts. He saw a past self in that, a fire that still occupied his mind but was almost gone from his heart.

The smile and amusement Teckla showed were unexpected. Was there something he missed, some circumstance or detail, an intonation perhaps? If his form could squint, it would have done so but he relented and followed her lead. She wanted to walk with him and so his form moved, easily outpacing her, Aurelian chose a slow stride, slightly behind her. Not merely to not interfere in her path with his wings, but also to watch her, a curiosity risen based on her commanding attitude.

She was right. They knew something about each other, but they did not know each other. Titles, ranks and allegiances could be held above and around a deeper personality, character and being. It was an irony to him that two individuals could fight and die side by side, in honour and mutual respect and brotherhood without actually knowing each other. Goals and survival rarely demanded a deeper understanding of the people involved and yet here she looked for it, among the ruins of Sith devastation.

"My answer was genuine. I am not sure, though I believe it narrows down to reaffirmation of my set goals and purpose." He paused in a moment of contemplation which were actually several heartbeats. "A potential rekindling of that passion with which you speak. I do not forget facts, but I can forget emotions. Seeing this - it allows a short time of enlightenment and feeling the why, instead of knowing."

His voice was no less authoritative or measured, but his presence had a thoughtful layer to it, a consideration at the beginning and end of every action which gave his thoughts shape and a resonance that felt almost welcoming, subtle.

"What do you feel walking among these ruins? What part of yourself do you recognise dominating, heart or mind?"

 

[Teckla Tane]

​

Quasesitorum Operational Record

Objective: Investigate an intrusion on Tion
Location: Devastated landscape of Tion
Equipment: Robes, Lightsaber
Tags: Aurelian of Vandemar
Dialogue Key: ”Galactic Basic” | <<Telepathic Communication>>

​

Teckla noticed the adjustment in Aurelian's stride. He could have easily moved ahead of her, yet instead he settled into a pace that allowed them to walk together. It was a small thing, but perhaps that was precisely why she noticed it. There were no formations to maintain here. No strategy to discuss. No subordinates watching them for direction. Just two people walking through the remains of something that had once mattered.

His answer drew a thoughtful glance from her. "You forget emotions?" There was no judgment in the question. If anything, Aurelian had managed to surprise her. Teckla looked ahead again, stepping carefully around a fractured section of duracrete. "I suppose I have the opposite problem. I remember them too well."

A quiet laugh followed, almost self-deprecating. "I remember anger long after it has ceased to be useful. Slights that should have been forgotten. Victories that felt better than they deserved to." She paused. "People, certainly." That last word lingered.

Perhaps that was why she had never been able to view order solely as an exercise in administration. Systems mattered. Laws mattered. Hierarchies mattered. But they were structures built around living beings, and Teckla had never quite managed to separate the two. Aurelian's question made her slow. Heart or mind?

Her first instinct was to give him an answer worthy of the Archon-Prime. Something balanced and deliberate about studying the consequences of failure. He had specifically allowed her to dispense with such answers, however. It would have been rather hypocritical to demand honesty from him and then retreat behind her own title. "My heart," she finally admitted. She stopped.

Teckla's gaze traveled across the ruined industrial landscape. "My mind tells me what happened here. It identifies mistakes. It considers what might have prevented them and what should have followed." She shook her head. "Useful questions. Necessary ones." Her expression hardened slightly. "But they are not what I feel."

She crouched beside a piece of debris and brushed ash from its surface with her fingertips. There was nothing remarkable beneath it. Just another fragment of a civilization that had once assumed tomorrow would come much as yesterday had. "I feel angry." Teckla rose again. "Not the satisfying sort of anger one carries into battle. There is nothing here to strike. No enemy to defeat. Whoever did this has long since moved on." Her eyes found Aurelian. "So all that remains is the knowledge that someone decided this was necessary."

She resumed walking, though her pace was slower now. "Perhaps that is where you and I differ. You came here hoping to remember the emotion behind what you already know. I look at this and wish I could quiet the emotion long enough to understand it without wanting to throttle someone." A small smile betrayed the humor beneath the admission. "Between us, perhaps we constitute one properly balanced person." She gave Aurelian a sidelong glance, curious whether the ancient Hegemon would appreciate the joke.

For a while, Teckla simply walked. It felt strange to allow silence without treating it as something that needed to be filled. Stranger still to walk beside someone like Aurelian without discussing fleets, enemies, borders or the next crisis demanding their attention. Eventually she spoke again. "You said you can forget emotions. Is that simply what time does after you've lived as long as you have?"

The question was quieter than those that had preceded it. "Or is it something you have always done?" She considered him for a moment before adding, "You have lived far longer than I have. I imagine carrying every feeling from all those years would become... crowded." There was genuine curiosity now rather than an attempt to pry information from a potential ally.

Her attention returned to Tion. "These places make history sound too clean. We say Tion was destroyed. An empire fell. The Sith won. The Sith lost." She gestured toward the ruins. "Convenient little sentences…But people lived here." Teckla's steps slowed once more. "And people died here. Empress Kanni was among them. Emperor Velran Kilran 's daughter." She stared out across the broken landscape, her expression becoming distant.

"It would be nice if the girl had a better resting place than this." For several moments Teckla said nothing more. Then she looked toward Aurelian. "Come. We have already walked this far." A faint smile returned. "Perhaps we could find her."