Private Beautiful Nightmare

[Srina Talon]

Tag: Valery Noble
Wearing: Red
Location: The Land of Nod
______________________________________________________
​

The transition was silent.

She looked up from an old tome that she had read a dozen times in the archives of the Malsheem and half expected to see Darth Carnifex looking over her shoulder. Her lips were parted as if to speak to her friend but the sound of water stilled her. The edges of the repository blurred and gilded eyes watched while reality seemed to shift until eventually…She found herself in a landscape divided. She could feel the cold floor of the World Ship beneath her. Hear the silken material of her clothing pull achingly across the morose obsidian and gold-threaded floor when she came to stand.

It was always so quiet here.

She stood at the edges of the library, a sanctuary, of her own making. Delicate fingers brushed the shelves that were lined with priceless artifacts and ancient volumes and she could feel the ambiance convalesce around her. Guiding. The fact that this was the mental construct where she felt the most at home was a testament to her constant quest for knowledge. Understanding. Her mind could have drawn the beauty of Eshan or even the gravitationally ravaged wreckage of Malachor V but in the moment, it chose this. Only, this. A library.

Eyes of burnished gold took in light that was soft and serene, filtering almost gently, through high transparisteel windows. Those same eyes held back a myriad of emotions while she followed the steady drip-drop of water falling somewhere in the distance. Snow-white hair flowed neatly in her wake like a silken banner, contrasting suddenly, sharply, with the very deep red of her attire. As she wandered through the labyrinth-like stacks the scene kept subtly altering.

Eventually, the Malsheem Archives faded into the background, and the seemingly young woman found herself standing on the edge of a dark ritual site. It was a place of power.

A place of pain.

The air was thick with the leftover miasma that had once burned through it and the ground was etched with ancient runes. Stained, by stale, wretched blood. In the center of the macabre dais stood a white-haired man with long ceremonial robes. It was from before. From…Moments before. It hurt her to see him this way. To see her husband. The man she loved, knowing, that he had transformed that evening into something unfathomable. Not living. Not quite dead. But by most standards…He was a monster.

Of course—The Sith Emperor had to be a monster. Only...The sentiment wasn't typically so literal.

Srina approached the still form of Maliphant, Rhysiôn Talon, with endless grace. As if it did not bother her. As if she did not care. His frozen features mirrored her own in a haunting beauty, but they were twisted by the corruption that had begun to consume him. She could hear the sepulchral chanting in the distance to bring about a transition that her beloved had been a fool to think he might be able to control. Destroying the Worm Emperor and ending his silent reign…Their goals had aligned completely.

But she had never imagined that it would be this way… That Maliphant would become the Corpse King.

Though her expression remained still as stone, emotionless, and empty of all things…Her heart ached at the sight of the man she loved so completely. The man who had been her partner, her confidant, the father of her children, who was now a creature of the night. This version of him, ever so handsome, so smug and ambitious was the embodiment of her deepest sorrow and regret. She could recall with crystalline clarity the moment he'd been taken from her. Not by true death, no, but an even crueler fate, transformed into something she could scarcely recognize during a ritual gone awry.

The Jedi in their attempt to thwart some great evil from rising had, in fact, only created a greater one. Where once there might have been calculation and control there was only chaos and uncertainty. They were akin to children in her eyes, ignorant, and meddling with affairs in which the cure was far worse than the disease. Darth Empyrean was endless. A state of being for which…There was no return. Her hand rose to rest over the heart of the statue of her beloved. Oh, how she missed…This. His every imperfection that made him so very flawless. "Wake me my love…", she breathed into the air, somehow, recognizing that none of this was real. "…I tire of this dream."

This nightmare.​

For which she seemed doomed and damned to relive her failure. She might have floated back to her library were it not for the fact that something new caught her attention. The fraying edges of a third world that didn't belong to Odavessa or the Malsheem. A light. It wasn't painful nor overwhelming for her to look at but it was far brighter than the rest of the ritual room. Srina sensed the second presence before she saw her. It was impossible not to feel something crashing in on her world.

The intrusion was an unwelcome reminder that she had yet to fulfill her duty to render the being responsible for Maliphant's fate unto dust. It lit a spark in her breast that she had thought time had long since quelled. Srina had thought herself beyond such things. Beyond anger. Beyond fury. But it was there burning star-bright whether she wanted it or not. She drew away from the former-form of her husband with deliberate movements that were a blend of exquisite grace and lethal precision. Not a breath, not a moment, was wasted. Everything in equal measure.

Save the storm, the inferno, that was slowly crawling out of her throat like the fingers of some vengeful deity that had no other way to pass through this realm. The water stopped dripping.

Her eyes dipped to her hands, coated, in the life-blood of the one being that lived eternally within her. She watched the still-warm liquid fall to the floor.

The sound…It had never been water at all.

Dreams were such fickle things.

"Show yourself."

The command filled the ritual chamber with a cold snap while her fury focused into a blade that cut through the surreal nature of the vision-walk like a saber through rock. They had no weapons. Certainly, nothing could bring the retribution she craved—But her fury, so potent that it was almost touchable, was incapable of being denied. The little queen would accept it.

Embrace it.

Lest the presence of this Jedi begin the crusade of all bloody crusades.

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Tag: Srina Talon

Several nights had passed with little to no sleep. Visions, dreams and nightmares had kept her eyes open late at night, during a time she most needed her rest. Each one had revolved around the child growing in her womb — her son, whose future was already starting to worry his mother, long before he took his first steps. Some of these pathways suggested a bright future, of the kind that any good parent hoped to see for their children, but some were darker in nature as well. With his raven-black hair, incredible height and green eyes, he reminded her of family ties she wished would have never existed.

It reminded her of Him, the man who had caused her family so much trouble.

Her beloved husband, and even her young daughter on the path of a Jedi Seer, had reminded her that no future was set in stone. They had offered their comfort, and started a journey with her to connect with her unborn son. To feel the bond between Mother and son that was already so potent, so early on.

Still, it would take time for her to adapt to it.

"Your Dad and I will protect you," Valery whispered, as her hand drifted over her stomach and her eyes glanced up at the stars. She wasn't very far into her first trimester yet, so she tried to keep herself active, and went for her usual walk to tire herself out a little more. But this time, as she walked down the forest's path near her home, something felt different. The Force shifted around her, and the world began to warp.

Where was she?

The lush green forest of Niv Hani was no more. It was replaced by a darkness that felt cold and repelling, yet oddly familiar. She had been here before, she remembered, together with Kahlil Noble and others to stop a great evil from spreading. But why was she here now? Valery looked around for answers, but found her focus drifting to the faint sounds she heard echoing through the chasm.

She wasn't alone, and the presence she felt immediately sparked tension in her chest. Only years after what happened here, Valery had learned what this woman's pain must have been like, when her own husband had been taken from her, even if only for a couple of years. Perhaps, in some ways, this woman's situation was far worse. To lose a loved one caused tremendous pain, but to be powerless while they deformed into something much worse than death was far beyond that.

"Show yourself."

The words snapped Valery's focus back to where she was, and like that day all those years ago, she appeared from where once the elevator shaft had been. This time, without a weapon or that same intent burning in her eyes.

"Why are we here?"

 

[Srina Talon]

Tag: Valery Noble
Wearing: Red
Location: The Land of Nod
______________________________________________________
​

Srina stood at the threshold of understanding and inevitable confrontation, her eyes narrowing, as the ethereal realm of her dream finished shifting. She could almost hear stone blocks shifting into place as it melded with the presence of another world. A warm forest was just barely visible in the distance through windows that had never been. The tall trees whispered of distance, safety, whilst the ritual chamber spoke only of death. She glanced down at blood coated hands. It was still warm. She had the sensation of desperately trying to hold the two halves of Maliphant together while what was left of him tried to console her. He should have saved his strength…

But as always…He thought only of the pain in her eyes. Of the agony she was incapable of expressing because she had never learned how. Of the promise broken, that he would never leave her. Dry lips parted and her tongue moved to assuage the feeling. Even the musty air seemed determined to remind her of what had been lost. Bringing back every scent, every sound, while the Sepulcher worked their wicked will. Around the Jedi, around her shields, and into his body…Into him. Into and unto her only, her reason, her heart.

They took him from her.

She took him from her.

With the statue-like figure of Maliphant behind her, frozen in time, golden eyes fixated on the goodly woman that was at least partially responsible. Unblemished, unscathed, and the picture of life and health in a perfected state. The mere sight of Valery Noble turned the embers of her sorrow into a roaring flame. It was a violent resurgence of emotion that she swore, swore, time had dulled. Fury, pain, and an unquenchable desire for retribution surged from the ice she was known for. The whole of the Sith Order would describe their Empress as cold, precise, and almost patient with their innumerable sins. This newfound ferocity would have startled them. It would have pleased the Dark Council beyond measure…But the rest? It would have brought sheer terror.

It bent the dream. Her, nightmare.

The cracks in the stone floor filled with malevolent light that caused it to grind while invisible waves of heat wafted into the air. The red liquid on her hands…Maliphants blood…only served to intensify her emotions, anchoring her, in the memories and anguish of that fateful night. There hadn't been time to mourn. There hadn't been time to weep while his body was committed to the stars. She had been placed on the immediate defensive while his resurrected form tried to kill her. The voices of the Sepulchral chanting in the distance were that of a secret siren. Inflaming her rage. Encouraging.

She bid the Dark Side to fill her, to come to her, to bend for her so that she might break the confines of this dreamscape and finally have what she most desired. She could not have her beloved.

Srina could have revenge.

The plain question that the Jedi asked, signaled a change. It hung in the air like a cloud that had gone grey from holding too much rain. The presence of Jedi Noble in her world was a heretical anomaly. What were the odds of crossing paths in a realm beyond the physical? Why had they been lured to this convergence when they'd not done so in years? There were literal star-systems separating them and yet—It felt as if Noble were right there. So close, that a few swift strides would let them breathe the same air. Srina, her eyes a mirror of the storm raging within, regarded the Jedi with a mixture of absolute contempt and perverse curiosity. Here was the fool white-hat who had, perhaps unwittingly, played a role in creating Darth Empyrean …Standing in the midst of a nightmare that represented her deepest fears and desires. Was it chance?

Srina thought not.

"Why are we here?"

She echoed the question back to the Jedi but her voice was ravaged from the black angst that filled it. From the power she drew on, from unseen, and unspeakable places. Regardless of the nigh-demonic tone she responded with a blend of icy calm and underlying fury. "Perhaps…The Force seeks to remind us of our sins or maybe… It's a cruel jest to make us relive our darkest moments. To see what tragedy, we have reaped and sewn in the name of our beliefs."

"You, Jedi—", the word "Jedi" might as well have been a hell bound curse when it left the Echani's mouth. "Have wrought chaos in your ignorance and now you stand in the heart of the storm you helped create."

Srina's stance was unyielding, her gaze unwavering while she faced Valery Noble . This was much more than a simple confrontation; it was a collision of two paths, two destinies, that had been irrevocably altered by a single moment in time.

"…Speak.", the pale creature demanded, her multi-toned voice cutting through the heavy air. There was no regard for station or propriety. No thought toward what others might say that they hadn't immediately broke into fighting form and tried to rip one another apart. Though, admittedly, Srina wasn't far from that point. Dreamscape or not…The Force carried echoes. Pain, could echo. "You do not belong, here. What brings you to the depths of my sorrow? Could it be guilt…Curiosity? Or perhaps a belated attempt at understanding the consequences of your actions? To see beyond good and evil…If a Jedi can be capable of that."

A ghost-pale smile settled on her features at that. It was not kind. There was no humor to be found in the diminutive woman, nor, was there any room for compassion. She would not spare this woman. The tunnel-vision of a Jedi was not up for debate. They drew hard lines between good and evil, right and wrong, to support any action taken, regardless, the true horror it left behind. One only needed to take a look at the still recovering Mirial. It was not the Sith that had set the planet on fire so many years ago—But the cleansing light of the Jedi.

They forgave the most heinous of acts when it suited and damned in equal measure. Judge, Jury, and Executioners…With their righteous thumb seated heavily on the scale.

"Though…I do wonder how you felt."

Her gaze seemed to bore holes into Noble with the pure intensity of her presence. It was unsettling. The taste of metal and cream, the sight, of the sun and moon hanging brightly in the same dark sky. She was commanding because it was her nature, but there was a certain tinge of vulnerability that could only come from profound loss. Srina hid it well from the Order. From Empyrean. It wasn't so simple in a dream. "Perhaps, you never dwell on it. Perhaps…Maliphant was only one more evil thing to put in the ground. Forgotten."

"But if you do, feel it, then tell me…How do you reconcile with what you have done? When you cut down my husband, did you consider the aftermath, the ripples your actions might cause? What did you feel in that decisive moment when your blade ended what once was, and birthed, what now is?"

What had Valery Noble felt as she stole her life? Victory, for saving the galaxy? Satisfaction? Regret? Sadness? Nothing?

What was it that let the galaxy keep going, keep spinning, when the heroes brought such misery by somehow...

Doing the right thing?

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Tag: Srina Talon

She seemed just as confused about this convergence, and unpleasantly surprised as well. She had her theories about why all of this happened, and Valery had her own — all of them problematic, save for perhaps one. What if the Force had brought them together to gain an understanding? In some ways, Valery believed their differences would always be far too great, but even the fiercest enemies could learn to understand each other's perspectives and motives.

Whether they agreed with them or not.

"Perhaps we're here to understand each other," Valery finally said, as her eyes drifted around to study the environment. Or rather, the change she felt in it under the emotional response of a woman who had lost something so terribly close to her heart. It was a painfully familiar feeling now, having lost her own husband for years, and having to endure so many close calls. But for her, there was no way for things to return to what they had been, nor would there be close calls to worry about.

She likely felt that same endless void.

"I do not regret the decision I made all those years ago," Valery began, having felt both her intensity and vulnerability, "The ritual he subjected himself to would have turned him into what he is now, whether or not I had interfered." In a way, she had been too late, but that wasn't worth mentioning now. "But I never forget the people I strike down or harm. Not Kyrel Ren, not the soldiers who have lost their lives in battle, and not Maliphant either."

"I'm aware of the ripples spark from these decisions. I've lost many I care about myself, both friends and family, so I know your pain. But in that moment, I had to choose to try and stop him from becoming a monster bringing that same pain to countless more people." She paused for a moment and frowned.

"I failed."

 

[Srina Talon]

Tag: Valery Noble
Wearing: Red
Location: The Land of Nod
______________________________________________________​

The air between the two women seemed to freeze while it slowly became charged with palpable tension. It was as if static electricity was slowly condensing around them in nano-fissures that threatened the stability of the dream sequence. Already, it was stressed by an intensity of emotion that caused the landscape to shift and adapt. Srina gave it no quarter. No moment of peace. No moment to breathe or find a point of equilibrium. "…Understanding…?"

The idea that the Force had connected them through space and time to have a mental spot of tea while chit-chatting about dead loved ones was absolutely preposterous. Regardless, she remained silent while the Jedi spoke. For all her distaste of the Light, the seemingly young Echani had rather strict principles when it came to etiquette. She had been the one to ask the dark-haired female a question, acquaintance, or antagonist, and with that in mind—She would allow time for a full response.

That didn't mean she agreed with it. But…Srina did hear it.

Her fury danced seamlessly along the edge of an invisible blade. There would be a rather pregnant pause while the information was thoroughly digested. From the admission of failure to an insistence on the inevitability of Maliphant's transformation, each point, left her with some new complex emotion and theory that didn't add up. Raw honesty was all that Srina knew. It was just one more of her many, many quirks that saw much of the Sith Order think of their Empress as mysteriously...

Odd. She did not play Sith politics, nor care to.

Srina's voice, when she spoke again, carried a depth of sentiment that resonated in the ever-shifting environment. Her icy mask of composure was slowly twisting into a visage of barely contained violence. It was the moment before the storm. The scent of rain, of ozone, and the feeling of shadows running along the spine. It was an abandonment of hope...But she tried. Srina tried. She tried to accept the Jedi's words for what they could be…An attempt for common ground? Perhaps, reconciliation?

An explanation?

Or was it only a "positive" outlook, justification for the hero of the story, for an unforgivable act?

"You speak as if you knew him, Maliphant. My husband."

It was an almost casual statement, polite, all things considered. Her voice wrapped around his name with something that bordered reverence. "…Can you tell me of his atrocities while he was an inventor? Of his misdeeds while he was an investor? A banker? Of his transgressions as a nameless slave beneath the boot of anyone powerful enough to keep him there? Can you tell me of his designs before the ritual? His goals? Do you truly know whom it was that you put to death, Jedi?"

She paused. Briefly, closing her eyes. Flashes of the life she had known before Odavessa were beyond gut-wrenching to recall. Srina knew Maliphant. She knew her husband more than any adversary could ever claim to. She knew who had been—Just as she knew who Empyrean was, here, and now. If red-clad woman reached through the glom she was sure that he could pull her from this waking nightmare. Whenever she extended her hand…He was there. Dead or alive. "Maliphant had his ambitions of course…"

That shouldn't come as any sort of surprise. Those that catered to the Dark Side and unbridled ambition went hand in hand—Even some Jedi fell prey to it. Merely, called it something less offensive.

"But...The ritual would not have yielded the same result without your blind interference. You act as an authority on the subject—But you understand so very, very little. It may seem to a Jedi that exists within a tower of ivory that the galaxy turns in a safer direction, but the reality is that chaos encroaches. You removed the possibility of stability and instead secured an unintended consequence of barely contained mayhem…Do you not understand that what you have done threatens us both?"

The Eternalists who looked toward an Imperial State favored order. Not, mindless destruction. It was something that could have likely been avoided before…But would now undoubtedly come to pass. It was only a matter of time. The gentleness of her words seemed to end there. Eyes of burnished and gilded yellow-gold bore holes that were unforgiving, hawkish, to the point of cruelty. "I do, however, find that we agree on some things…"

"You're right. You failed."

The repeated words sliced through the thick atmosphere with a venom that made even shadows recoil. "Your failure…", she continued, her voice rising in a crescendo of anger, "was not just your inability to prevent what came to be. It was your audacity to think that you had the right to make the ultimate choice for him. And in this failure—"

"—In this ignorance, in the sheer absence of the morality that your kind purvey you have burdened the galaxy with a new darkness that it was not prepared to face. My husband has become an alpha and omega to which even I cannot fully temper."

The Sith Empress stepped forward, the ethereal landscape of their shared dream warping under the intensity of her wrath. The blood on her hands, Maliphant's blood, seemed to glow with a sinister light, each drop a testament to the price of what could not be undone. Her heart ached from the loss of him. It was something…She had never gotten through. Was incapable of getting over. Instead, she let her hatred and rage burn evergreen and bloom into unsurpassed passion. "You speak of understanding, of shared pain, as if it absolves you of the consequences of your decisions. As if this can somehow mend the fabric of my reality that you tore apart."

Unexpectedly…Valery's admission of remembering those she struck down, of acknowledging the ripples caused by her decisions, did nothing to quell Srina's anger. The slender Warrior-Queen had thought that knowledge would satiate some aberrant need to know that her beloved hadn't been taken from her to notch the belt of some crusading Light-Sider. It hadn't. Instead, it fanned the flames, a bitter reminder of the irreparable loss inflicted upon her. A deeply, deeply bitter reminder that Srina had also failed in her capacity as a wife. She had failed to keep her sun, her moon, alive. "And your memory…Your memory is little more than a cold comfort to those left in the wake of your righteousness. It does nothing for the living embodiment of your mistakes."

The Sith's words were harsh, a reflection of the depths of her grief and the intensity of her scorn. There was a time when she would have welcomed a conversation like this. A time when Srina believed that the Sith and Jedi could learn to work alongside one another, productively, and without the damaging effects of religion sending them at each other's throats. She would have befriended, Valery Noble, just as she had protected the Silver Jedi for the better part of a decade. She could not find that here. That altruism. The strength to fight the good versus evil narrative…To offer small mercies.

She was incapable of finding any sort of closure amongst actions borne of arrogance and misguided conviction. Actions, that hadn't only ruined her life, but that of countless, blissfully unaware millions. Empyrean was a force of nature now. Srina was often the only thing standing between him and the destruction of his own people. And once he was through with that? How long until his gaze turned to the Galactic Alliance?

It might have already turned, truth be told.

The dreamscape, once a place of introspection and memory, was slowly escalating into a mournful battlefield, a visual representation of turmoil. As furious as Srina was…As impassioned as her words were…She had yet to lift a hand toward the Jedi. Perhaps, because it was neither of them were present in the corporeal. Perhaps, it was something else. Her eyes kept shifting. Lingering on the Jedi. Something definitely held her back. "...We may never understand one another…But we are similar.", Srina said, her gaze piercing Valery with a chilling intensity. "You kill for your beliefs…You kill for what you think is right. You slay, murder, and destroy those who threaten what you perceive to be the greater good without regret."

Her head inclined.

"So do I. I bid you to understand that we are both willing to do terrible things for those we love. For those we feel responsible for. We are all monsters here, Jedi."