Private Darkness Entwined

[Darth Virelia]

"A new contract."

Tags - Revna Marr

The Spire had moods of its own, and tonight it was restless.

Darth Virelia walked its violet-lit halls with the ease of one who had long since mastered both the structure and the silence between its walls. Each step came soft and deliberate, a whisper of boots over obsidian stone, the slow rhythm of a predator's heartbeat. Shadows stretched before her like courtiers at attention. The faint hum of the life-support systems harmonized with the low sigh of the violet braziers that lined the corridor, every flame bending ever so slightly toward her as she passed—drawn to their maker.

Her hand brushed the polished basalt of the wall, feeling the pulse that ran through it. The Spire was alive, in its own way. It listened. It remembered. It obeyed. That was why the change struck her so keenly.

At first, it was a breath too shallow, a silence too measured. Then, the faintest echo—out of sync with her own steps. Barely audible. A presence that didn't belong.

She didn't stop.

Instead, her pace slowed just enough to look natural, her head tilting slightly as though admiring the mural etched into the wall beside her—a depiction of Malachor's ancient wars, illuminated by threads of crimson light. The gesture was elegant, unthreatening, almost languid. Yet her senses sharpened to a blade's edge. Through the Force she reached, not outward but inward, drawing the dark into herself until her aura thinned to a whisper. Her presence folded upon itself like silk being drawn through a ring.

The intruder would not sense her coming.

Her lips curved faintly, a private smile, equal parts amusement and promise. How quaint, to imagine someone trespassing here. Did they know whose shadow they had entered? Did they understand what it meant to stand within her dominion—this temple of black glass and nerve-veined steel, where every light, every echo, every breath was tuned to her will?

A flicker of movement ahead. Subtle. Almost artful. Someone was careful. That alone earned a measure of her interest.

Her hand lifted, tracing idle circles in the air, each motion a cipher of control. The shadows around her thickened, pooling like ink across the floor, stretching into the patterns of her thought. She moved among them as if gliding through warm water, her figure half-lit by the Spire's violet glow—every step a choreography of poise and patience. The faint scent of ozone and myrrh followed her, the scent of the storm and the altar both.

She could end this now. A single command through the Spire's systems would flood the corridor with defense drones, or worse. But there was pleasure in the hunt, and curiosity had always been her ruinous vice.

So she stalked, unseen, each motion smooth as liquid sin.

Whoever had dared breach her sanctum would learn soon enough that the Dark Queen did not rush. She savored. She studied. And when the time came to strike, she did so not with haste—but with certainty, with elegance, and with the kind of intimacy that made death feel like a kiss.

 

[Revna Marr]

Darth Virelia ​

Revna had always been one for adventure…for sneaking off and out of the ever watchful gaze of her Master, who had now become her adopted Father. Though the young woman had grown and matured much over the last couple of years from her first days as an acolyte, she still harbored that spirit of curiosity that drove her to seek knowledge and to unravel mysteries. She was highly attuned to the Force and its cosmic web, having spent much of her days as a maturing Sith tapped into it, to interweave it with her own soul. It was a form of worship to Revna - a way for her to be close to the presence and power of her god.

It was this desire to follow the Force and its whispers, that led her to a planet she’d never been before, one that was just beyond the Blackwall that surrounded the Holy Worlds.

Malachor V.

How and why she’d never come to the place, she wasn’t sure. But she was determined to rectify that, especially in light of what she had become after the death of Darth Strosius.

Malachor was the place of creation for perhaps one of the most infamous Sith Lords of her Order, a being so feared and in possession of enough power to utterly destroy an entire planet - one who was, unfortunately, bound to his hunger: Darth Nihilus.

Revna wondered if there was perhaps something she could glean from Malachor, that would further help her master her own Void-Hunger. It was a constant uphill battle to subdue it enough to live her day to day life - but the more she fed the Void, the more powerful its presence became within her. She silently feared that, one day, she would lose her fight against it…and become another Nihilus for the galaxy - feasting upon the very pulse of cosmic life itself.

It was an ever present temptation.

The Dark Side moved and swirled upon Malachor, a heady concoction that permeated every part of Revna’s being when her ship slipped through the atmosphere and she landed upon its surface, not too far from a blackened spire that rose to pierce the skies above. Wrapped in her sorceress robes, her lightsaber tucked away, Revna stepped from her ship to take in her surroundings. She expanded her senses, taking in everything she could, but it was nearly overwhelming even for her. The echo of death, so much death, still lingered in the shadows, in the air itself. Eyes like twin hot coals touched everything she could see, before they settled upon the spire that jutted so arrogantly into the darkened sky.

Without a word, Revna moved towards the towering structure, drawn to it like a moth to flame. Why…she wasn’t sure, but she aimed to figure that out. Her journey took some time, though she was unhurried. Eventually she reached the spire, and found her way inside. The Dark Side felt different here…alive, in a way. Restless. It made her cautiously wary but piqued her curiosity further.

Someone was here, for sure - though she couldn’t quite sense them yet. That raised a red flag in the back of her mind; her instincts told her that if someone was here, and she couldn’t sense them - then they were hiding their presence purposefully, and had the knowledge and power to do so. Still, she continued to press into the spire, alert but eager to explore - though she wrapped the shadows around her as a form of partial concealment, just in case.

Eventually, she became convinced that she wasn’t alone in this place. She couldn’t see nor truly feel the presence of whoever called these shadowed halls home…but she couldn’t shake the uncanny sensation that she was being watched.

No…not watched.

Hunted.

A faint smile curled on Revna's kohl-kissed lips at the notion. What would her dear Father say when He learned that she had slipped away and found herself in yet another dangerous situation? She could almost hear His irate ranting already, even as she slipped deeper and deeper into the darkened halls of the spire.

 

[Darth Virelia]

"A new contract."

Tags - Revna Marr

A change in the air. A rhythm out of place. The kind of tremor that only came when someone uninvited set foot where they should not. Darth Virelia followed it like a scent on the wind—soft, deliberate steps gliding through the violet gloom, each motion slow enough to be mistaken for grace rather than the calculated patience of a predator.

And then she felt it.

A pulse — not of fear, but curiosity. Desire. Hunger. It shimmered faintly at the edge of her senses, restrained yet vast. Someone had tried to bury it beneath shadows, to hide themselves from her Spire. Admirable. Futile.

Her smile bloomed like a wound.

"Such a lovely pulse you have," she murmured to no one in particular, her voice low and silken, drifting through the corridors. "Be careful, little one. Malachor listens. It remembers what it devours."

She let her presence spill outward, slow and intoxicating, like smoke unfurling from a censer. The air thickened with her will. The violet light dimmed until it became a shade of bruised twilight. A faint fragrance—myrrh, lightning, and copper—rose from the walls themselves, her calling card.

When she finally spoke again, the sound came from everywhere and nowhere, a soft, amused echo.
"You wear the Dark like perfume. Poorly hidden, but exquisite in intent. What are you doing in my house, dear girl?"

She emerged from the gloom as though stepping from a dream—tall, radiant in her own darkness. Her armor caught the glow of the braziers and returned it in muted amethyst; her mask was absent, her face unshadowed. The faintest curl of golden hair fell across one cheek, framing a mouth that smiled too knowingly.

Virelia tilted her head, studying Revna as if inspecting a piece of art that had wandered into her private collection. "You walk well for a trespasser." She circled the younger woman with lazy precision, her boots whispering over obsidian tile. "Most who stray here beg to submit by now. You… intrigue me."

A fingertip traced the air near Revna's shoulder, close enough for the charge of the Force between them to hum like static. "Did you come chasing ghosts? Or are you one?"

Her tone dripped with teasing reverence—an almost purring fascination. "This world sings to hunger. You must feel it. How it winds through bone and memory. You could drown in it, if you wished."

She stopped in front of Revna again, violet eyes bright with mischief and something deeper. "Tell me, little wanderer… are you here to feed, or to be fed upon?"

For a heartbeat, silence. Then a smile that was both invitation and threat.

"Either way," Virelia murmured, voice a dark caress, "you've already stepped inside the serpent's mouth. And I do so love when the prey comes willingly."

 

[Revna Marr]

Darth Virelia ​

Revna sensed the shift in the space around her, just a heartbeat before a feminine voice seemed to drift through the shadowy halls she traversed, bringing her to a complete standstill.

“Such a lovely pulse you have. Be careful, little one. Malachor listens. It remembers what it devours.”

Revna’s eyes narrowed slightly as their fiery depths flickered over her surroundings. Where…was it coming from? Wariness and tension bloomed within her small frame, one hand drifting inside of her robes to rest against the cool and familiar surface of her saber hilt. The tension only grew when the presence of another could finally be felt - powerful and encompassing. The air around Revna took on the notes of ozone, copper, and an incense she had scented before in temples: myrrh.

"You wear the Dark like perfume. Poorly hidden, but exquisite in intent. What are you doing in my house, dear girl?"

“Had I known someone lived here, then you would never have noticed I was here.” Revna replied softly, confident in her answer. She knew very well how to hide her presence, methods that could foil even the Dark Lords. “I would have been a breath of wind…here one moment and gone the next.”

Fiery eyes landed on a figure that appeared from the gloom beyond her, a woman draped in black and soft violet, slipping from the shadows as she approached. Revna eyed her with curious caution, though there was no fear to be found in her. Of course, she didn’t trust this figure in the slightest; she was, according to this strange woman, in her home. Revna was a trespasser here and she was preparing herself to make a hasty exit, should it be required.

The stranger tilted her head in a manner that Revna recognized, for she too was a huntress, a predator. Her gaze narrowed as the strange woman spoke further while circling her, and Revna turned with her silently, never allowing the other woman to be at her back.

“I only submit to those who have earned the right.” the smaller Vahla woman said with a mild edge to her voice, even as the other woman seemed to trace something in the air near Revna’s shoulder. Immediately, Revna wrapped an invisible wall around herself, her ember eyes hardened slightly as she listened to the stranger spill her words.

Was Revna a ghost or was she hunting them? Had she come to feed or be fed upon? Did she hear the song of hunger that echoed through the planet? Did she wish to drown herself in it?

The woman came to a halt directly in front of Revna - and eyes of fire locked onto a gaze of violet that glimmered with intent, and a smile that echoed the same.

"Either way, you've already stepped inside the serpent's mouth. And I do so love when the prey comes willingly."

For several long moments, Revna did not respond to the woman in front of her. She simply took the stranger in, memorizing everything she could see, sense, and hear.

“You sure do like to talk, don’t you?” the little woman asked after her pause, a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. “It appears that I have stepped into the serpent’s den, haven’t I? Oh, whatever will I do…?” Revna replied to the woman in front of her, seemingly unbothered by her predicament. Was it arrogance? Was it confidence? Or something else? “But I suppose, to answer your questions…No, I didn’t come to chase ghosts. Just knowledge. Can I feel the song of hunger that echoes throughout this place? Of course I can, it thrums in my veins too. It is why I came in the first place. I could drown in that hunger, oh yes, but the galaxy would come undone before me if I chose to do so.”

Revna stepped slowly then, choosing to circling around one side of the stranger - just like she had been circled only moments prior. “...As for the feeding or being fed upon part…well, usually I am the one doing the feeding...though perhaps, in the right circumstances, I might allow being fed upon. Hmm…you like to play with your prey first, don’t you?”​

 

[Darth Virelia]

"A new contract."

Tags - Revna Marr

The dynamics of predator and prey fascinated Virelia. Somewhere deep in that dark, twisted heart, lay a girl who was once curious as to the natural reaction one unfurls when first confronted with the unknown. Whether it be the tombs of ancient, decadent Sith, or their Rakatan forbearers, young Serina was ever the prey to ancient mechanics and dark sciences of ages past. But now—

Gods, how good it felt to be the predator.

To watch her freeze, to see those ember eyes flicker between threat and uncertainty — exquisite. Virelia drank in the tension, let it seep into her armor like heat through metal. The Dark did not wait; it fed. And so would she. The perfume of myrrh and copper thickened around her as she began to weave her web, one silken thread at a time.

But first, the light that bled through the chamber must learn to scream. The girl would boast of confidence and skill — rightly so, for Revna Marr was a creature of rare potential, her talents echoing the ghosts of the Sith of old. In her own brilliance she sought mastery of the Dark, never realizing she wielded a light all her own, for how else could she see?

Yet, all light breaks, in time, before the Corruptor.

Six eyes, dominus and imperial, fixed their gaze upon the poor young girl. Had she truly strayed so far beyond the Blackwall only to meet her end here? Malachor was a dangerous world — dangerous indeed. Many had died for such foolishness; many more lay broken and forgotten, undone by the same spark of ambition that carried them to their doom.

All beneath the same foreboding, six-eyed gaze.

As if to entice the Dark Queen further, the stranger spoke of submission — that she granted it only to those who had earned the right. A door opened. A key was laid bare. The game began.

Many who had entered Virelia's service had learned that such defiance was merely the first step toward ruin. To offer her the promise of resistance was to invite her pleasure in breaking it. The Corruptor played such games with glee, hoping that all life would, in time, bear out the same prophecy already spoken.

She felt the pause — the hesitation — before the words came. Then arrogance, warm and bright and begging to be dimmed. Did doubt already whisper in her marrow, so that the carrion bird might feed upon her light? Or did she truly believe herself safe behind that borrowed certainty?

Confidence, then. Lovely.

It always made the breaking so much sweeter.

Then, finally, she aimed to circle — as had once been done to her — seeking to reclaim a fragment of control. To speak of permission. To suggest that she 'allowed.'

Such words earned a sharp smile. The lower portion of the Dark Queen's mask retracted, freeing the blood-red curve of her lips. Oh, she did so love to play with her prey. For the stranger to acknowledge the balance between them amused her deeply; there were few in this galaxy bold enough to let their own words betray them so easily.

"Usually." "Perhaps." "Allow." "Like." Words without conviction. Without command. She was either weighing her options — or far, far out of her depth.

The Corruptor could work with either.

"Tell me, interloper — do you enjoy being played with?" Virelia mused, tugging the first threads of her web as she raised a hand to block the stranger's encirclement, all while continuing her own slow orbit.

It was only the carcass that allowed the vultures to circle.

"You realise," the Corruptor murmured, "knocking would have been a very polite way to enter — dignified, even."

She moved in a slow arc to the interloper's side, her outstretched hand coming to rest lightly on the girl's shoulder. Three violet eyes fixed upon her soul; the other three watched the chamber, unblinking.

Nothing escaped the notice of the Tyrant Queen.

Then, with her hand still resting on the girl's shoulder — firm, possessive — Virelia pressed gently through the Force, keeping her still as she slipped around behind her. Six eyes of violet wrath surveyed their prey.

The Dark Queen leaned in until her breath caressed the shell of an ear — that fragile gateway through which corruption always whispered first. Her presence was a gravity, a pit that did not threaten death, but surrender.

"But to barge in, to intrude?" she breathed, the words a silken mockery. "Tell me, little light — what knowledge is so precious that you would offer yourself to a place this profane?"

 

[Revna Marr]

Darth Virelia ​

Tensions shifted and coiled between the black and purple hued stranger and Revna, and a faint pulse of danger trickled its way up and down Revna’s spine. A rather delicate and equally lethal game was playing out between the two women, and the young Vahla woman was acutely aware of the peril she now found herself in.

She’d been in this position before, too. Staring death in the eyes, the certainty of ruin - of undoing. Her Master had come in at the very last moment to save her life that time, but she wouldn’t expect Him to show up here. She’d been but an acolyte at the time, in need of guidance and sharp lessons. She still needed her lessons - but she couldn’t rely on someone coming to save her now. She was on her own here.

Revna rather liked the challenge it presented.

"Tell me, interloper — do you enjoy being played with?"

The denizen of this obsidian citadel blocked Revna and began to circle her once more, and Revna once more returned to following the movements of the other woman, ensuring she stayed within line of sight at all times.

"You realise, knocking would have been a very polite way to enter — dignified, even."

“Hmm. I enjoy many things…” the Vahla woman replied, her fiery eyes glimmering with both inner mirth and danger. “And yes, knocking would have been more polite. And perhaps I would have done so, had I known someone was here. Too late now, isn’t it?”

A hand lifted to slowly rest upon Revna’s shoulder, its hold firm and possessive as she tried to slip in behind her. The other woman would be met with a powerful barrier that was around Revna when she tried to press in with the touch of the Force. Revna was no acolyte, no weakling, and she had spent years training hard to bring herself to the level of strength of power she maintained now. And she would only grow stronger with time - especially as she gave more and more of herself to the ever present Darkness.

A whisper danced across Revna’s ear and she shifted her eyes to watch the other woman for a moment before responding.

"Tell me, little light — what knowledge is so precious that you would offer yourself to a place this profane?"

One of Revna’s delicately arched black and silver eyebrows lifted slightly. “‘Little light’? Hmm, that's a new one. Don’t think I’ve ever been called that before…how intriguing. As for the rest of your question, well…” Revna paused for a moment and pursed her lips, weighing on if telling this woman her reason for coming was wise or not. In the end, however, she decided that there was no real reason for her to hide why she'd come.

“This was the…birthplace…of an ancient being whose hunger terrified the galaxy. And, due to circumstances, one could say I carry that same Spirit of Hunger and the utter annihilation it brings to all living beings.” Revna said in a low and neutral tone of voice. “I was drawn here, and I came seeking to commune with the echoes of that hunger, in an attempt to understand my own…affliction better. But the Dark Side does not give up its secrets easily…and certainly not without a price.”

With a firm movement on her part, she pulled herself out of the other woman’s grasp and turned to face her directly, fearlessly. Revna had been one to stare death in the eyes numerous times, and she had learned not to blink.

“I did not intrude to pick a fight with you…whoever the feth you are. If my presence is offensive then I will take my leave. However…I have a feeling you won’t let me simply walk away…will you? I have no interest in a confrontation, but I will defend myself if I am pushed to do so, and mercilessly so.” Eyes of fire glimmered with the threat - but if her host paid attention, she would notice inky darkness swirl within those fiery depths - a warning that something else existed within Revna, something she was willing to unleash should she need to.

Predator would become prey, and in the blink of an eye Revna could become the only living entity upon this Force forsaken planet. But she held the Void back, choosing to see what the other woman would say or do in response to what Revna had revealed to her.