Private In Opposition

[Shade of Decay]

It was rare that he found his attentions drawn in such a way to the outer reaches of galactic space.

Sure, that was where his ship travelled, but the galaxy's southern reaches had lain empty and forgotten for years now, with the falling of the Confederacy. His ship darted from system to system, or even to various places in empty space. Never staying too long, making of itself a target. He travelled the galaxy in mind, whether observing the real world or the tenuous, nebulous realms attached to it. At times, he could see those he knew travelling in places they should not, like Arcturus Dinn exploring the Nether with naught but a shadow for company and protection.

Other times...

Something new.

His spirit rushed to the place, coalescing within moments. Wherever it was, the Force was strong; as he gazed around, at the greenery, the trees, the birds, he realized it was a garden, but...not on a planet. In space. In a moment, he considered tearing it to shreds, rotting everything around him, until he found that which drew his attention, which called to his senses; and even then, he still had some small appreciation for aesthetics, and was disinclined to destroy a piece of art on a whim.

No doubt it would anger the one nearby, anyways.

In a shadowy form unburdened by detail of face or much beyond a sillhouette, he strode silently up to the one who sat meditating in the garden, his face—such as it was—trained upon her. Undoubtedly, she could feel the intent and curiosity evident in his gaze.

"You are troubled," he stated plainly. "Enough that even I could sense it."

He would not beat around the bush. He would satisfy his curiosity, see if there was any use to the girl, and likely be off again within minutes.

Asha Hex

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

Meditation had always been a favoured past time of Asha's, more so while she was in this particular space-wrought garden, but as of late it had become less of a hobby and more of a necessity.

So many things had converged into her one being, and she truly felt as though she was breaking at the seams. Trying her hardest to keep it all together, to keep others from noticing.

She had to remain the center of calm, of peace, of serenity. That was who she was, and if she could not provide such a stability for others then what could she do?

Asha was no great fighter, no great leader, not even really a great healer. Something of a prophet if you asked the correct people, sure, but even that had its limits. No, what she could do was be steady, an anchor for those around her.

But the chains were rusting, threatening to snap.

Threatening to take her down with it.

Suddenly her meditations were not so helpful at all, and she felt as though she were suffocating, drowning beneath the weight of even that which she held most sacred.

She was pulled from her thoughts, from the throws of the Force, all at once, in tandem with a specterous voice which lingered nearby. Not one she was familiar with. Nobody there for her to see.

Regardless she sensed them. Looked toward them. The empty void where they ought to have been.

She inhaled and exhaled, then wondered for a moment if she hadn't gone quite mad. Still, far be it for Asha to deny acknowledgement of one's existence purely in that they were not wholly visible. She had Kal for a student, after all, and had spoken with many a Force Ghost in her time.

"Troubled?" she retorted, still slightly breathless. A thin sheen had formed over her brow. There was no hiding it, no way to lie her way out of it. "Sometimes, yes... But aren't we all?"

Shade of Decay

 

[Shade of Decay]

She did not lie, but she was not forthcoming with information. He could respect that. His visage lifted from her, glancing over the garden. Trees, flowers, and plants from all different parts of the galaxy, brought together in this singular location, a facsimile of an actual ecosystem. No doubt many could find their balance in such place, or at least attempt to. "Perhaps," he replied. There were many troubled beings within the galaxy, indeed.

He focused somewhat, and void became shadow, shadow took on the appearance of flesh. Mottled green and grey, sickly, frail; black eyes gazing out. Tendrils hanging loosely from the face. To a primitive, one with no experience among the multitudinous species of the galaxy, it might have appeared a visage of horror, a specter of some cosmic doom come to pass. Doubtless this one would not be the same.

But even beyond her troubles, she seemed to be experiencing the weight of his particular presence.

"But few have troubles that reverberate so powerfully in the Force," he said after having taken form, still standing over the girl. "Death lies heavy on your soul, child, don't think to hide something so distinctive from me." His voice was cold, piercing, but not accusatory; he spoke simply as if he was stating a fact. "You stand between those slain by your doing and your commitment to the Living Force."

Asha Hex

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

He had her figured out so quickly, this shapeless form that soon became a shade, then a shadow, then a man, mottled green and tendrilled as he was. To see him form in such a fashion before her very eyes was unnerving to say the least, and yet there was a fascination within her all the sane. Just as there had been with Kal when first they'd run into one another. And with Ander back on S'krrr.

This was different, felt different, for it was unnatural, a twisting of the very fabric of reality and life itself. It had no place within these gardens, and yet there it was all the same, bright as brass.

"It is true; I have always endeavored to preserve life, not act as a vessel for its undoing." Grief reborn anew washed over her at that statement, something of an admission of guilt. Those Cathar who had lost their lives had done so due to her folly and though it may not have been her hand which had them fall she'd certainly set it all in motion.

It was a difficult reality to accept. To wrap her head around.

"I will not feel bad for grieving their loss, nor for struggling with the part I played in it. What is your purpose here, shapeless one? You come only to mock and torment, or have you some greater motive?"

Typically Asha would be the sort to invite a stranger to tea, but she'd been roused from ruminations so deep that the thought did not even cross her mind. Besides which, given how he had formed into being, she wondered if it would even have been possible in the first place.

Shade of Decay

 

[Shade of Decay]

"You hold power in your grasp," he said scornfully, "Yet you struggle like a babe with the ramifications of it. Was it a fantasy, then, that you could go on forever and never be forced to play your hand, that the trials of the galaxy might pass you by like a breeze through the trees?" The shade shook his head, dismissive of the idea.

"You would be more like a rock in a stream, staying in place but getting worn down to nothing as the years pass by. That is avoidance, weakness, not a strength. And you..." He paused, letting the wash of unfamiliar sensations in the station play against him. So many, shining like stars in a void, but it was clear that some, one especially, were connected to this one in front of him. "Hmmph."

Black eyes stared down at the girl. "You would seek to protect another from that which you can't even allow yourself to accept." Had this been a different life, or even some earlier point, he might have pitied her, looked on her with some small measure of sympathy, rather than disappointment. "You center yourself within the heart of one opposition, and yet the others threaten to tear you apart." She was barely worth his time.

Power, yes, he could feel, and one untainted by slavish devotion to one side or another of the eternal conflict, but it was squandered. Wasted. There were others on this station who acted more, who did more than this one could. Perhaps she might bring herself to do more in the future, and might be worth the return of his attention, but not now.

"Your inability to commit serves nothing but to advance the cause of those who would rip this reality apart in the search for nothing more than to slake their lusts, and overtakes what else you might have done to try and safeguard it against them. In you I see the route to further death and suffering, suffering without point or reason, if you cannot find your role to play. Until that time..."

And the shade disappeared; the shadow lifted from the garden, and songbirds began to sing once more.

Asha Hex

 

[Asha Sar'andor]

"Avoidance?" The woman all but scoffed, perhaps a little sensitive to the notion in that moment, caught off guard far more than she typically might have been, "I do my part, in my own way. I seek to build up, to heal, not to break and end. And you? You speak of life and death as though you're not afraid of the void and all it entails yourself. Even now you cling to life. I may mourn the dead, but at least I know when to let go..."

A rock in a stream. Was that really all that she was? Would that be the legacy left behind? A quiet woman, in a quiet corner of the Galaxy, offering little more than tea and serenity to passers by? Was it enough? Was it all that the Force could want of her?

When he spoke of another - and she knew who he spoke of, veiled as the words were, for there was only one who could fit the bill - a sudden spike of red hot rage pulled itself up from within her depths. So often muted and untapped, refused its place within her heart and mind, the mere notion of another surveying him in such a fashion called it to action all the same. She did her best to temper it as it flared, to breathe deeply as she'd always been taught, but her breathing was heavier now, and when she looked upon this beast from the beyond it was not with her usual grace or softness. A steely glare was met instead.

"You do not get to speak on that which you do not understand" she spoke, not quite so viscerally angry as the glare might have suggested but still with an iron bite beneath the surface, something of a warning creeping its way into her voice. "You would do well to keep him from your tongue."

He spoke against her refusal to act in the way so many opted to, in her inability to take a true stand against that which plagued the Galaxy. She grit her teeth. "The Galaxy has its fill of blood shedders," she retorted. "You will not tempt me into adding my own blade to the mix."

It seemed as though her words fell on deaf ears, however, for just as quickly as he had appeared he was gone.

All thoughts of meditation had left her by this point, and she rose from the grass with a haste and urgency she had not felt in some time. To find the one the shade had spoken of... That was her only goal now. To ensure that he had not wormed his way into whichever section of the Station Cotan Sar'andor had made his home for the evening.

Shade of Decay