Façades

[Nick Dragovalor]

It wasn't long before the red blade was ignited again, ironically bringing light to the darkness. His expression was emotionless still as he would walk, step after step, though he did spare a few curious glances at the ruins around him... Looking to see if any artifacts would be easy to find. No... He decided, if they would be easy to find, they'd likely be worth very little. He would have to use his senses to find them, and to find this girl's artifact she seemed to want so bad that she was willing to pay to find help for.

Though, he did end up stopping, not caring if she actually stopped or she bumped into him.

"You should run as soon as we find your artifact."

He turned to look back at her, knowing this was likely his only chance to tell her this without her lover or whatever catching on. He did not fear retribution to himself, he had likely already invoked the wrath of her lover by destroying the droid. But it would be useless and he would be wasting his breath, if he told her when the droid was here. And he did not want to work with someone who was as she was now... It was better to cut her loose. Less of a problem later. He did not wish to be paired with a liability should the Sith place him in a pair for a mission later.

"I don't know what this Krest is to you, but clearly he is the one holding you to the dark side. All I can sense from you is fear, deep down. Fear of his coming. Fear of what he will do, merely for someone breaking your droid."

He shook his head in turn.

"There is no place in the Sith for fear. Fear... Is weakness. Fear makes you weak, unable to embrace your hatred and unleash the true potential of what we do.

All this Krest is doing, is tying you to fear and making you weak. Once we find your artifact, get out" He spoke bluntly with a low growl. "You are no use to the Sith ideal as you are. You are no use to me right now if we get into combat. Your senses betray fear and conflict, you are not fit for this task. If that is how you live your life, under his thumb, then you will always be unfit... And a liability.

And one day, if this Krest is even half the Sith he should be... He will realize that.

And when he does, you will die."

Was that an attempt at a rare act of kindness from the Sith Knight? Or merely deciding to go the practical route and cut a loose end without violence? It was true, he could kill Jair here. But what was the point? He held no ill will toward her. She had given him no reason to kill her, killing her was impractical. She could have use down the road, when she was not plagued by her weaknesses. And if not... Well, at the least, her death would leave no loose ends.

"Let's hurry this, then. While I don't care about your marital spat, his appearance here would be very inconvenient for our mission" He spoke coldly as he would continue on, unconsciously expecting her to try to attack him from behind after what he'd said. He didn't really care if her feelings were hurt, to him, it was the truth. To be fair, he did not directly refer to "her" as weak, only that Krest's hold on her made her weak. She could take that as she would.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain Ismet-Thio]

Jairdain stopped when he did and his words were a shock and surprise to her. Him destroying the robot may have been done with the purpose of saying them with him knowing it was a spy. What he said struck the woman full and to the core. It did not rile in any anger in her and they were totally true. They had a totally sobering effect and she saw him with a different vision.

"You're right, Nicholas."

If she could look away from him, she would have broken eye contact, as it was all she could was turn her sight to another location within the tunnels. That wasn't right though and he had her attention. It was almost drawn to him like a moth to the flame, he forced her to pay attention. These words she needed to hear and not hide from or ignore them.

They stood less than a pace apart and it felt like he towered over her right now. In reality it was more of a mental picture than physical fact. While he was indeed taller than she was, Jairdain still came to his shoulders. Right now though, he made her almost feel like a child that was getting rightfully scolded for misbehaving. However, that child she felt like knew he was right.

"He made me this way."

Under his thumb and control. Not allowing her full freedom. Now she was free of him and in time she would deal with him. It wasn't time for that though.

Nodding, "let us hurry then and get this done before he does come."

[member="Nicholas Dragmire"]

 

[Nick Dragovalor]

For the first time, Nick felt emotions he didn't know if he understand properly what they were. They were emotions that had been expunged from him so long ago... Taught not to feel them. Only pain, only anger. What he felt now as he heard her, heard the tone behind her voice, caused him to look back at her. He didn't know what to say. Part of him wanted to say something comforting, somehow. But he didn't know how. Even he knew whatever he would say would just come off as... Well, yeah.

So he said nothing, just merely nodded his head and tried to push these new emotions from his mind. Emotions that he was told made him weak.

"What exactly is it you are looking for?" He finally spoke after a good 20 minutes.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain Ismet-Thio]

Jairdain was a natural empath and actually used other's emotions in her sight. There were other factors as well, but when viewing people, their emotions guided her the most. She saw and felt within him something he didn't understand. The blind woman knew what they were, but kept silent. If she pointed out his own weakness, however momentary, it might fester and grow.

What he felt helped enlighten her as much as his previous words had. Emotions made people both weak and strong. What some saw as weak, other saw as strong. Maybe there was a middle ground. A form of balance to be had. His question brought her back from her thoughts and she looked around to notice they had actually been moving forward in silence.

"A mask."

Reaching out with the Force since they had moved deeper inside, she felt through the area for any nexus where the mask might be. A part of a Dread Master should be here and give off power by itself.

[member="Nicholas Dragmire"]

 

[Nick Dragovalor]

He pushed the thought from his mind quickly enough, deciding these emotions and feelings weren't worth his time and had nothing to do with the mission at hand. The only thing he needed to feel was anger, as he had been taught... He was a weapon of destruction, and he had come to accept this over the time of his torture and then his re-training.

He would take a breath as he would try to sense for something of worth... A mask, she said? He would nod his head slowly, but still didn't seem to sense anything as of yet. He would growl low, noting in his head this was going to be nothing but a wild goose chase most likely.

How the hell did this girl even know where a mask would be anyway?

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain Ismet-Thio]

Silence ruled between the two of them again. Anything Nicholas may have felt he buried. In way very much like she had done in the past. Boxed away her emotions and brought them out later. Jairdain had the feeling he would keep these buried there inside of him. Like he didn't know how to release anything but anger.

Following behind him, she took reached out with her senses to feel for that source of power she felt from earlier. While they were growing closer, they weren't there just yet. The dark may disrupt him, it didn't her. Hearing the hum of his lightsaber indicated he was using it for light.

"Is there anything on the cave walls?"

If there was perhaps clues could be gained as to whose mask laid here and if there was anything else to find.

[member="Nicholas Dragmire"]

 

[Nick Dragovalor]

Silence ruled once again. He was fine with that. Silence gave him more room to think and the two had nothing practical to speak of. At least for the time being. He had already forgotten about his prior slip up in emotion like it was nothing. His Master had taught him not to pay attention to these sorts of things... All he should feel is anger... And feel what needed to be done to get the job done. It was as simple as that.

He perked up at her question, and moved his lightsaber to see if there was anything of note attached to the cave walls. As of yet, nothing. But hopefully soon...

"No."

He didn't know what to look for. How the hell did someone find some kind of ancient mask in a cave?

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain Ismet-Thio]

Jairdain found it a little odd there were not paintings on the walls. If this site had been dedicated to who she thought it was then there should be something for her. Shaking her head, she continued to follow her senses that lead further in. The air had become stale and still. Chilled and almost oppressive. Darkness of the mind filled the two of them and surrounded them. Now the only light would be his lightsaber.

Coming to a branch, Jairdain stopped and tilted her head as she reached out to feel which direction to go. Turning to the right, she did point to the left.

"There are items down each path, but I feel the one I want is this way."

If he followed her that would be fine. On the other hand, he may have better luck finding something down that other path. Though he had implied there was nothing here of interest to him.

[member="Nicholas Dragmire"]