Empyrean

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For the moment, Cedric Grayson knew peace.

The 501st soldiers guarding the Graywall had been allowed a night's respite. The wall had not been attacked in four centuries; Cedric figured that one night of relaxation wasn't going to change that. The garrison was gathered around the ground, though most kept to themselves in private chambers and the underground facilities.The drunken merrymaking was obvious once you walked underground, but Cedric had made it clear that no revelry was to take place in the above grounds.

He wasn't going to spend the next ten days cleaning the immaculate facilities of the outside just because his men needed to cut loose. Thus it was that Cedric sat alone on the front lawn, his head tilted back to observe the stars. It was here in this solitude that he could truly center himself; the ethereal energies of the empyrean flowed through him as if he were a conduit. It brought a peace of mind to his soul, a warmth to his heart, and strength to his limbs. The effects of the Great Oak beneath the compound certainly didn't hurt with his attempts at relaxation.

With a quiet sigh, Cedric willed himself to lean back into his rocking chair. The lightsaber pike he'd used as a substitute for his shattered weapon lay at the side of the chair, though he'd absconded from his armor in favor of a simple black jacket and jeans.

For once, Cedric looked like a normal young adult. It was only fitting that he allow himself to look so normal only when he was truly alone. Not one of his warriors could ever see him as simply a man; they needed to revere him as much as they had his father.

For the greater galaxy, appearances were everything.

A bit miffed by this thought, Cedric resigned himself to his meditations, blissfully unaware of the celebration beneath his feet, and the threat looming over his family home.

 

[Brynn Lendix]

Running. It felt like it was all Brynn knew how to do- run, unable to stop for a moment for the fear they’d find her again. She could still see her mother, eyes wide and body limp on the ground, eyes staring without sight. That was the last day she could honestly remember being a child- the next day, she was told to forget them. The next day, she’d had a gun placed in her hand and a plastic target placed in front of her.

But she’d escaped- slipped out in the middle of the night using some of the magic stuff she didn’t like to think about, and had kept running, head down, profile low. But she’d let her hood slip, just a little, in one of the markets, and she was being chased- regardless of how well they hid it, they were coming for her. Years of honing her instincts, combined with… intuition, because it couldn’t be anything else, had taught her how to know when someone wanted her dead.

Many had tried. Many had also failed. Hide better, run quicker, shoot faster- that was how people survived in the harsh galaxy they lived in.

She’d caught glimpses of the castle, and had decided it was probably the best place to hide in. Such places often were, with large, cavernous mazes of basements, where she could hide until her former masters grew tired of the chase. She was the Huntress- she didn’t plan on being hunted. Getting up to the place was the first challenge, finding a side door was the second, but as soon as she was in she pressed herself close against the wall, breaths coming quickly. The corridor she’d entered looked abandoned, and a cursory examination of some of the other rooms showed nothing beyond cleaning droids. Good. That was what she’d wanted. She’d assumed, when she saw the empty walls, no guards in sight, but assumptions wouldn’t keep her alive.

She kept her footsteps quiet, anyway, soft leather barely making a sound on the floor. She just needed to find a way to get out of the main castle and get downstairs instead. Something flickered in her awareness, on the edge of the Force, but she pushed it away. It wasn’t the time.

 

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The Great Oak spoke to him. The words it whispered into the back of his skull were unintelligible, but their meaning was understood on a primal level. In the same way a human might understand the feelings of a beast, Cedric understood what the oak was trying to tell him. Something foreign had set foot upon the Graywall's grounds, and it was something the oak could not identify on its own. Fortunately that meant the intruder was no Sith Lord, but it also meant that the stranger could be quite literally anything.

Often anything could be even worse than a Sith.

It was for that very reason that Cedric rose from his particularly comfy seat and drew his cowl over his features. Though Cedric was not a small man, he found it a rather easy thing to stick close to the shadows of the castle. Clad in the dark jacket, the knight had very little trouble traversing the grounds of his ancestral home unseen.

The oak spoke further, but Cedric ignored it. He did not need help to find this intruder; a creature that he knew was sentient, but little else. A brief ascent up a flight of stairs brought hm closer to this disturbance. A door creaked open. then another, and another...

Cedric drew back his cowl as he stepped into the dimly lit hallway. "You'd be wise to reveal yourself. There is nowhere you can hide from me in this place."

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

A voice down the hall made Brynn freeze, and her hands automatically went for her blaster, drawing it out. She stepped into a slightly lighter area, eyes adjusting and focusing on the man in front of her, eyebrows drawn down low over her eyes. He hadn’t attacked her, though the part of her she tried so very hard to ignore suggested he could, if he wanted to. Her hands didn’t tremble on the gun, and she focused on slowing down her heartbeat- despite the fear that he was one of her masters, back to take her to make an example of. She kept her muscles lax, ready to run if she had to. She’d shoot if she had to as well- but she’d vowed to leave that life behind. She didn’t want to kill anyone.

Not any more.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she told him, her accent lilting over the vowels of the words. Her voice was steady, she was as unflinching as always, despite the turmoil in her mind. “So long as you aren’t here to kill me, I am not here to kill you. But if you threaten me, I will not hesitate to shoot. Force user or not, if I’m fast enough, you’ll go down.”

First mistake- she’d revealed her cards on that front. Revealed what she knew, and she mentally slapped herself- how could she be so foolish? She was no girl on her first mission, she knew to keep her knowledge close to her chest. And she knew how to hide her… unwanted intuition. But fear, fear found its’ ways to become known. No matter how hard she tried to fight it, it would find some way to show itself.

Regardless, she kept her face impassive, eyes unmoving, not showing that she’d even noticed her slip-up.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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Quite the threat. Something behind the confidence with which she spoke made Cedric believe her too. There was very few in the galaxy that could match the reflexes of a force user, but he knew that they were certainly out there. He'd fought against and alongside a number of them. It was for that very reason that he decided to keep his lightsaber doused at his belt. Instead, he walked out into the light very slowly, arms raised in a non-confrontational gesture.

"Well that's good, I don't want to hurt you either," Cedric replied, the sound of an amused smile on the edge of his words. The force flowed through him like a conduit, warning him as to the slightest twitch of a muscle in his would be attacker, but he hid his readiness well. To the outside looker, Cedric looked to be surrendering.

"Clearly you know what I am," Cedric approached ever-so-slowly, each step measured, each word spoken in time with a footfall. "But I don't know what you are. I think that's a little unfair, seeing as you're in my home."

He came to a halt two meters away from her. From this distance, she could see him well enough. He was a young man in his early twenties with a shaven head and brooding blue eyes. Deep furrows had been carved into the pale flesh of his skull, marking him forever with the scars of conflict.

The smile he wore was friendly.

"Now, let's put down the gun and talk like adults instead of shooting each other."

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

His home?

A soft curse left Brynn’s lips before she even noticed it. She noticed the weapon at his belt, but he’d have to get close to use that. He could have easily tried to get to her already. The fact that he hadn’t suggested that he was, perhaps, being honest. Slowly, she brought her blaster down, holstering it but not turning the safety on. If she had to, she’d need to be ready to shoot, and she was careful enough that she wouldn’t accidentally shoot her own leg with it.

Her eyes flickered over his face. He was smiling, but some of the lines across his face suggested it wasn’t an expression that was frequently used. Her eyes locked on his, careful and suspicious, but she decided to be honest about her identity.

There was no point in lying, anyway. No simple intruder would have greeted him as she did, with a blaster raised and without so much as flinching.

“My name is Brynn Lendix. I am an assassin. Was an assassin. My former employers aren’t awfully happy about the present tense becoming the past,” she replied, standing up taller. She couldn’t quite decide what he was. A force user, yes. A Jedi, perhaps, judging by the lightsaber on his belt- but then, he could just as easily be a Sith. She didn’t really care- both were dangerous.

He was probably about the same age as her- there was likely only a few years at most, between her twenty-four years and however old he was. Perhaps he’d stolen this castle- taken it from its’ former masters? Or was he a pampered rich boy, who’d inherited it from a parent?

Perhaps it was harsh, but she was beyond worrying about that. All she’d inherited from her parents were mental scars and nightmares of their unblinking eyes staring at her, bloodstained lips open in soundless screams.

She sighed, “And you are? A thief, or a rich boy? I’m trying to decide.”

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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"A bit of both," Cedric replied honestly. He watched the intruder curiously, though he allowed himself a modicum of relief once she lowered her weapon. Whether he considered himself in control of a situation or not, the knight tended to prefer that others did not point weapons in his general direction. His relief could be seen in the way that his shoulders slackened, though his smile did not waved. "I am a thief, but I'm also rich. The castle is a family home. though I've only recently just discovered the place. It's quite interesting."

He ran a calloused hand over the stone wall fondly. "You're lucky my men are below right now. I sent them all off duty early so that they could enjoy themselves. Force knows now would be the time I would have an intruder, but you don't seem the burgling sort." His smile wavered, "I assume those former employers are the reason you've chosen to hide all the way out on Ruusan? There's nothing here but a few Jedi relics and this place." That much was a lie, but he didn't expect her to be any wiser.

"You knew I was force sensitive before you could have ever seen my lightsaber. Were you watching me prior, or can you sense things too?" He asked, a brow raised. Now that they stood in the light, he could get a better look at her. She was a stunning woman, which rather fit the role she claimed to have fulfilled. Most female assassins tended to be looker for rather obvious reasons, but then how did she come to find the Graywall? Was it possible she'd been sent to hunt him at some point before defecting?

The knight's brow furrowed. "My name is Cedric Grayson, I'm a Jedi Knight. This is the Graywall; my family built it centuries ago. Who were your employers?"

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

“Of course it’s why I’m here. I’ve been planet-hopping for months,” came Brynn’s reply, eyes still sharp on him. She’d been hitching rides on every single ship she could, keeping on the move, always a couple of steps ahead of those hunting her. She felt a slight curl of… confusion, that a man with men, with soldiers, would choose to give them the night off. It seemed illogical, given that anyone with the slightest bit of skill could get inside.

She glanced around herself, eyes only returning to him when he questioned her knowledge of his connection to the Force. She tensed just slightly, but kept her eyes steady on him, shifting only slightly- the only sign of her discomfort with the question.

She shrugged, “Slightly, I suppose. I’ve noticed it on missions before, but I tend to ignore it. A Huntress doesn’t need support from some… magic energy.”

Her voice twisted in bitterness slightly over her former title. She hoped it didn’t show.

A Jedi Knight. Slightly better than the alternative, she supposed. Sith were more brutal, as far as she was aware, than their Light counterparts. While she was fairly confident she could beat anyone, by drawing her weapon, she didn’t really want to test it. She was quite content to continue breathing, thank you very much, and she knew in some distant part of her mind that the Sith had a tendency to disallow that, using their… power to strangle them. Or electrocute them. Neither was particularly appealing.

“My former employers are an assassin’s guild, working mostly in secret. They killed my mother for defecting. And now they want to kill me,” her lips twitched upwards. “I am not my mother. I’m not stupid enough to settle down and use hope to try and stop them from finding me.”

She didn’t hate her parents, really. To the contrary. But she hated how she’d ended up, where she’d ended up, because the two of them had gotten cocky and believed they could elude assassins forever. She wasn’t sure what they’d thought would happen if they’d gotten found. Perhaps they’d been hoping that they’d just kill all three of them.

Or perhaps, they were just weren’t as clever as she’d given them credit for.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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She was a very talkative assassin. Cedric didn't have a problem with that; folks tended to spill their guts to him rather frequently. He attributed it to his presence within the force, a simple instance of birth, but part of him knew all his decisions were entirely conscious. His movements were calculated, his words measured, all to create the greatest possible reaction he can muster in others. Doing so opened far more doors than striding through life with one's pains on their sleeve.

Perhaps that was why she spoke now.

"What you're telling me is that you've lured a group of assassins to my home while the majority of my men are too drunk to stand up." Cedric asked with about as much amusement as an executioner. His arms folded behind the small of his back as he began to pace, brow furrowing as he delved into his own thoughts. She might have thought he was ignoring her, were it not for the occasional look her cast her way. "If you move on from here, they'll still pay us a visit. Better you're here to help put up the defense before they do."

He gestured toward her sidearm with a nod. "I hope you're as good with that as you make yourself out to be. You'll need to come with me down to the lower levels, and you're going to have to give me your name. I'm not getting shot for a stranger." Cedric muttered with no lack of annoyance.

The knight turned his back on the woman, something of an invitation for treachery, and gestured toward one of the nearby stairwells. "Follow me.

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

It was unsurprising that he wasn’t happy with her, but really- it was his own fault for making the place look abandoned. It wasn’t as though she was going out of her way to put anyone in danger- quite the opposite, really. She’d done more blending in with the crowds than usual since she’d started running, finding that it caused less collateral damage than the alternative.

Automatically, Brynn’s hand went to her weapon when he glanced at it, and she was almost offended that he doubted her skills. “They didn’t call me the Huntress for going after little animals. And I certainly wasn’t trained from the age of ten for nothing,” she retorted. She’d been one of the younger trainees, and more headstrong than many of them- but she’d decided it was better to take the skills they were offering and use them, at some point, than to ignore her lessons and end up dead.

Falling into step next to him- not liking being behind him because she couldn’t see his face, but also not wanting to walk in front of him lest he stab her in the back- she matched his strides.

“My name is Brynn,” she said eventually. No surnames. Nothing personal that could give her away. A first name, one that others shared, was better than divulging any more information than she’d already offered. Her eyes continued to flicker across the hallways as they walked, taking in as much information as possible- and helping her keep a mental log of the route he was taking, so that she could use it to get back out, if required. She also catalogued other possible exits, just in case. So far, he hadn’t tried to kill her, but people were as fluid and changeable as the ocean, and she didn’t trust anyone before they gave her reason to.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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"You like sharing," Cedric replied with obvious amusement. It didn't take much coaxing to get the woman talking, though he wasn't sure if she was truly telling the truth. Something in his gut told him that she was, though he did not cast aside the possibility that she might have been feeding him a load of garbage. It was quite possible everything she'd told him so far of these assassins was fabricated with the purpose of setting him against those that would not normally be his enemy.

The doors parted before Cedric with a simple gesture of his hand. The walls of the compound grew tighter, the air damp with cold wet air. The rock beneath them grew porous and monstrous in its form, revealing their destination to be a shadowy cave rather than the compound Cedric had hinted at.

"If we go to my men, they'll know we're on alert. They won't make their move then." Cedric keyed off a message on his datapad. "And my commander knows we're here. He'll get a small team organized, but they'll have to remain back until your friends take the bait."

He gestured all around him. "This is the entrance to the crystal cave, the place where my ancestors have claimed their lightsaber blade for generations. A lovely place for an ambush, I would think."

He looked to Brynn for her opinion.

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

Glancing over, eyebrow raised, Brynn shook her head.

“No, I don’t,” she replied. “I simply know that being forthcoming in this situation is less likely to end with one, or both of us, dead.”

He spoke some more, but she was too distracted. She moved to touch the walls, fascination in every movement. She rarely saw places like this- she stuck to jobs in cities, crowded places, where she wouldn’t be noticed. Her ability to blend in helped in those situations, and avoided any real contact with the targets. She despised having to talk to them, to lure them away. She’d never been like some of the other women, who would seduce them to their rooms and then kill them. Hearing someone talk made her remember they were just people, just like anyone else.

It made her feel like more of a monster when she had to kill them. On those occasions, her own survival had seemed… unimportant. Normally, she was quite happy to continue living, but the blood on her hands felt like too much to ever truly be clean.

She realized too slowly that she’d turned her back, and she was quick on her heels to spin back around and face the man. He gave the impression he wasn't planning to kill her, but she preferred to err on the side of caution. She shrugged.

“It’s beautiful down here.”

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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The caves were both benevolent and foreboding. They were a place were the force met in such a way that both its aspects not only survived, but thrived. "This used to be a holy place for the Jedi Order many centuries ago. That was before a Sith Lord by the name of Darth Bane threw Ruusan into chaos," Cedric's fingers trailed along the cavern walls, his attentions stolen by the majesty of this hallowed place. "My family found their crystals here in times past. Eventually it was deemed too dangerous for our children to seek out their crystals here - the caves tempt young minds."

Perhaps he had underestimated her. A few moments of silenced passed as they pressed onward, Cedric's internal thoughts taking him to places far beyond where they were now. "I appreciate the honesty," he relented, his tone apologetic. "And it is very beautiful. I wish my parents had been able to see it."

Dim light shone up ahead. As they stepped further, crystal formations ranging from deep crimson to bright blue flickered down at them. Sharp violets and calming greens served to lessen the harshness of the red, though its shade clearly dominated the chamber.

"How far behind do you think your old friends are?"

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

The crystals were all over the place when they moved further into the chamber, and the colours flickered over Brynn’s face, her eyes reflecting the colours back. She turned when he asked about the location of those who might be following them, sighing.

“Not far. I’ve been two steps ahead thus far, but one… less-than-subtle fellow passenger is all it takes. My face will have been distributed to any outlaw they think might be able to help the search,” her voice lowered. “That was all it took for them to find my mother.”

She sighed, and pulled out her blaster, checking it was ready to shoot whenever someone appeared, though her hairs were standing up on the back of her neck. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, closing one eye in annoyance.

“I can feel the Force in here. As disruptive as ever,” she muttered, shifting uncomfortably.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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Her words set him at ease.

"If the Force is disruptive to you, then you clearly feel it far more acutely than most. Perhaps it brought you here."

The Graywall was a large structure, but one few actually knew of. Its location was never telegraphed over any source of information, and the only people that ever came or went were his people. There would be the occasional intruder, like Brynn, but it was rare for anyone to actually fins the place.

Perhaps the assassins wouldn't find them after all.

"You say you're two steps ahead of them - do you think it's possible they might have followed you to this place? It's difficult to find unless you know where to look." Cedric murmured as they strode deeper into the cave. He made a point to guide them down one of the better lit paths, the majority of the crystals here shining a golden yellow.

"Should I expect an attack tonight, or are they more than a day behind?" He asked as he turned toward the woman. His features were cast in the golden glow of the crystals, and the light seemed to ebb and flow with his breathing.

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

The thought that the Force might have brought her there was a scary one. Brynn could feel it thrumming around her stronger than before, and whether that was the caves, the presence of a Force user, or perhaps a little bit of both. The glow of the caves was gorgeous, and she was still somewhat awestruck as they made their way through them, though she made a point to listen to his words.

“I’m unsure if they’ll be able to find it. They’re fast, but I can’t tell you who they sent. I was one of their best, so chances are they’ve sent their best trackers after me,” she shivered slightly, barely noticeable. She only knew of a few of them- the twins, one of the younger boys, who was quiet and good at catching people by surprise. And the man who’d killed her parents, who’d dragged her away, kicking and screaming, from their bodies.

She turned to face Cedric when he stopped, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. It was the only outward sign of her distress beyond the slightly tense set of her shoulders, and she had to shrug at his question. “I don’t know. They deliberately pick people who blend in. People whose faces are difficult to notice, even by those who know them. I’ve been on high alert, but they could have slipped past me, if they’re good. They could be here today, tomorrow, a week from now, or never.”

She paused a moment, “I’m sorry,” she murmured, the words foreign on her lips. “I know it’s not much help.”

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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Perhaps they'd absconded into the caves for no reason then. Cedric listened to her intently, though his mind was in other places. His senses extended far beyond the limits of the cave, to the hills that rolled beyond it above. He felt the jovial spirits of his people enjoying themselves in the compound beneath the Graywall, but nothing out of the ordinary. The only soul present that he did not recognize was Brynn's own, and hers was becoming more familiar to him with each passing moment.

"If they're smart they won't come down here. These caves are dangerous if you don't know the way - they still are even if you do." He admitted. The chamber they had come to a halt in was a rather large one, with a low dip in the floor that stretched many meters each way. Cedric did not hesitate to hop down the rocky outcroppings until he stood in the center of the dip. He drew in a deep breath, and the crystal's light shimmered with his exhalation.

"You're alright," Cedric replied reassuredly, but distractedly. "A Jedi helps those in need, even assassins." His eyes drifted shut. The empyrean touched his mind; its energies flowed through his limbs. His presence stretched even further outward, and for a moment, Cedric wondered if this was the sort of omniscience attributed to gods.

Possibly.

"They're here. I sense a different mind. Its thoughts are dark," blue eyes drifted open to peer up at Brynn. "Three actually. They're in the woods outside the compound."

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

Lips thinning, Brynn turned her head away.

“Both the twins’ll be here. They don’t go anywhere alone. With them, it’ll either be a young boy- sullen, full of hatred- or…” her voice cracked slightly and she turned away, facing one of the walls, working to clear herself of that emotion, deep breaths to calm and centre herself. She felt sick to her stomach, but soon enough she was clear enough that she felt she could at least finish her sentence. Could let him see her face. “There is an older man. He would be… fifty, perhaps, at most. They’ll see it as poetic, to send him. He killed my parents.”

She’d folded her hands behind her back, shoulders back, stance just a little wide. It was the position she’d adopted delivering reports of her missions, and was perhaps just automatic when giving information. After a few moments, she looked off to the side.

“Former assassins,” she corrected softly, after a few moments. “I might still be trained, but I don’t want to do that any more. I never wanted to. Now that I have the chance to do something different? I’m going to take full advantage of it. If these three end up dead… they’ll assume I am too. Especially in a place like this. I won’t stop running, I can’t, but I can at least let my guard down.”

[member="Cedric Grayson"]

 

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Getting the legion involved would only scare them away. The assassins needed to think that they still had the element of surprise; it wouldn't do to go charging into the woods after them, only form them to show up and cause trouble at a later date. Cedric's mind was already rolling over a dozen different possible plans when Brynn spoke. Her words brought his mind to a halt, her emotions overtly palpable. Cedric's connection to the Graywall was paramount, and in this location there was very little that escaped his notice.

He felt the dagger of anxiety twisting in Brynn's stomach. He felt the spike of sadness that enveloped her heart like a cancerous cloud of smoke. There was nothing she could hide from him here, and part of him wished that were not the case. Her emotions were raw things that threatened to drag him into the abyss with them. It was supremely difficult not to feel her pain as if it were his own, for the Ashla was an empathetic thing, and he had chosen to immerse himself in it.

"It hurts you more than you care to admit," he murmured as he closed himself to such feelings. Like a light switch, the flow of emotions that ebbed off of Brynn were tuned out for the sake of Cedric's own sanity. "We need to deal with them before you go about doing anything. Do you have any idea how we might bait them into the caves?"

[member="Brynn Lendix"]

 

[Brynn Lendix]

Head snapping up when he spoke, Brynn’s eyes widened just a little, a spike of shame going through her. Her fingers clenched, and she looked away. She wasn’t supposed to show emotion, and there she was, with a relative stranger, her carefully contructed walls showing cracks. Swallowing back that shame, choosing to immerse herself in a cooler headspace- though she knew her eyes never hid anything, the one part of her she’d never managed to turn off- before turning her attention to his plans.

She gnawed on her thumb, “The twins are easy enough. Get one of them to investigate something, the other will turn up. They’re never far away from one another. But they’re slippery, know how to run circles around people in order to confuse them. The man is… more difficult. He’s not easily tricked. Good at biding his time. I was ten before he caught my parents, and he’d been looking for them that whole time. They’ve sent all three of them to increase their chances, but it’s also a good way to root us out. They’ll know that I know how to capture the twins, and they’ll be counting on me to make a mistake.”

She sighed, and paced a little, trying to think of something- anything- that could draw him out. Something that wouldn’t end up with them in body bags.

[member="Cedric Grayson"]