Private In the Land of Witches

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Small town, Dathomir
Equipment: 2x Striith vibrosword | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink | The Last Gift || Empyrean gland
Tag(s): Kyra Perl

[ Solitude ] ​

Ingrid still hadn't given up on finding a solution to bring Adrian back. To this end, she tried to find and use all existing solutions. Through her connections, she managed to reach out to some Dathomirian witches, night sisters who might be able to help her with this. That's why the red-haired woman travelled here, to this planet.

The meeting was organized in a smaller town where there wasn’t too much of everything, a town inhabited by a maximum of two to three thousand people. It is a small enough town on the edge of one of the jungles for anyone to go unnoticed. That's why she didn't bring a guard with her, she just arrived alone.

Since this was TSE territory, she did not have to hide her appearance; she wore her usual, unmarked military uniform and was currently sitting in the cantina of the small town, waiting here for the woman she had to meet. As usual, she arrived earlier. There was just a glass of drink in front of her, the red-haired woman was sitting at the bar counter, listening to one of Adrian’s latest ideas the man was telling her. He sat next to her in the other chair and spoke enthusiastically.

That is, it was not a reality, it only existed in the woman’s mind, but nonetheless, it was just as pleasant to hear and see her, even if it wasn’t all a reality. It was for her; and all that was left for her and the soulshards. It hurt just as much as the moment the man died, though a long time had passed, it didn’t get any better. But she didn't give up. The widow will find a way to be together again and for the Sith Lord to live.

She just smiled to herself as she listened to her husband, the outside observer seeing her as monotonous as she sipped her drink again.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Recovery had been one thing, but going home?

That was harder than cutting back the pills. Where one distraction had ended, another started. Kyra had kicked up her undercover work again. Out there was the reason. The Reason why her family had undergone what it had. The Reason why Nida had been chosen to be made into what she was. She knew the hows, but now she wanted to know why.


The dreams had been getting more severe. She no longer questions if the futures she foresaw would come to be. They all had. Without the spice, her senses felt like they were dialed up to an 8. Usually she did her work through research. This time?

She followed her gut.

She didn't expect it to lead her to the middle of no where. What could a small village in the middle of jungles know about her sister and the people who had taken her?

She stepped in, eyes scanning the place for the connection. What she found instead nearly had her pull her weapon then and there.


The woman's energy reached her, it's echos a sorrowful melody. Her shoulders rounded in, her features softening into confusion. Without understanding why, she let the force guide her forward.

"... I don't think you'll find many rebels here," she murmured softly, taking the seat besides the woman.

Ingrid L'lerim

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Small town, Dathomir
Equipment: 2x Striith vibrosword | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink | The Last Gift || Empyrean gland
Tag(s): Kyra Perl

[ Solitude ] ​

Ingrid continued to pay her attention to Adrian, but as an assassin, she didn't fail to examine her surroundings unnoticed either. Luckily, she was able to pay attention in two directions at once, even more if she had to, so it didn’t cause her any difficulty. It was for this reason that she also felt a familiar aura that came closer and closer to her. It was all a little weird, especially in this place.

Here she did not expect to find a Jedi. She had “silenced” the world in her mind so she could no longer hear the words of her husband, who had finished speaking anyway thanks to the fact that the red-haired woman was paying attention to something else. It was a convenient solution that that world could be turned off at any time. True, not entirely, but she could place it on the edge of her own periphery and so it was as if it didn’t even exist.

Rebels. The Empress was not looking for rebels at all, much more she wanted to forget them forever.

"Kyra Perl; you’ve gotten far enough away from the SJC areas and your master’s protective gaze."

She said in her usual cold voice. Then she just turned to her, growing and changing a lot since she hadn't seen her. Years had passed since she was still regent when the girl and her master broke into the territory of the Eternal Empire to free the man's twin sister.

"What is a Jedi Padawan looking for in the Land of the Night Sisters?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra eyed her, tense and wary on the seat she had chosen. One stool sat between then, a buffer for either should the encounter quickly sour. It was a reasonable concern, given the fact the woman had once held her captive, but it was unneeded.

Something told Kyra the woman was as unwilling to make something of this moment as she was to fight. Something else lingered on the strangers mind. Kyra gestured for the tender, ordering a soda as she considered the woman's question.

What was she doing here?

"Answers. I'm looking for the truth. ...And Master knows I'm here, so..." she interjected quickly, the lie used as another cushion to deter any... issues.

Yanno. Just in case.


"Why are you so sad?" Blunt as ever. She wrapped her fingers around her drink, a credit left for the man who delivered it.

Ingrid L'lerim

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Small town, Dathomir
Equipment: 2x Striith vibrosword | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink | The Last Gift || Empyrean gland
Tag(s): Kyra Perl

[ Solitude ] ​

The woman did not want to attack; she might have been able to do it without the young girl noticing, but she had no such intentions. Ingrid just wanted answers, but Kyra couldn't give it to her, so she was safe today. Not to mention that she only promised a death sentence if she returned to the territory of the Eternal Empire. She had to act according to the law.

If she doesn’t follow the laws, who will?

Answers and truth. The red-haired woman raised an eyebrow for a moment. It only took her a moment to figure out what the young red-haired girl might be in the Sith area. Adrian mentioned it to her, but if he didn’t, it still had a pretty big echo and got a lot of information about it at the time. She doubted the second part, but did not say it out loud.

"Perl… Nida Perl, right? To the best of my knowledge, she had already returned home and was convicted by the court."

For the next question, she didn't know for a moment what to react to. Whether to cry or laugh. It was a difficult decision at this moment. Where has this girl been lately? But since this was fairly well-known information, she did not even try to distort the truth.

"I lost my husband, Lord Vandiir…"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra blinked, her brows pulling in closer as abstract facts quickly fell into the same picture. She had been so focused on Nida, she had paid little attention to the things that had occurred around her.

She knew Adrian Vandirr was responsible for the shift in her sister. She watched the man manipulate the Perl with her own eyes. Her and Thirdas had spent months fighting for intel. She knew where he worked, what supplies he bought. She knew the lay out of his lab, the names of his assistants. She knew he had been married, but that detail... that detail had bought her nothing. She had forgotten it, as easily as she had forgotten interstellar math after she finished the test.

Her eyes darkened, understanding swimming there. The girl looking at her once-was capture with a new sense of clarity. "You," she hissed. "And- and him? Wh-..."

Ingrid's final words finally sank ink. Her eyes bulged. She looked left, then right, half expecting a trap. She was foolish for running out here like this. Following her gut-- what a joke this was. Of all the things-- why. How. Her chest tightened, the edges of a panic attack findings its way to her. Her hands tightened over the condensation of her glass. She had been out of the loop for too long.

"How?" She asked, her voice as hard as flint.

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Small town, Dathomir
Equipment: 2x Striith vibrosword | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink | The Last Gift || Empyrean gland
Tag(s): Kyra Perl

[ Solitude ] ​

She saw her reactions to how surprised she was. Yet she said information that essentially everyone in the galaxy knew. There was nothing surprising about that. The reactions seemed completely sincere, Kyra didn't know about it; and this raised a lot of questions. But first, to answer the question…

"Yes, he and me… We've been together more than four years. You really haven’t heard much international news in recent years. He is one of the Prince-consorts of the Eternal Empire. And… and we have a son."

Again, she was talking about her husband in the present tense, not just because she saw the Sith Lord watching Kyra's reactions with an amused face. When she hadn't hallucinated about him, she still spoke in the present. Yet quite a lot of time has passed since then. She still believed and hoped her husband would return to her.

How?

That certain non-existent invisible dagger carved even more into his heart and soul. On this question, she always saw Adrian's face in front of her eyes, as Runi saw then, thanks to the fact that she shared these with her. To torture her; however, the memories and emotions received from Ingrid break the kiffar woman, and then Ingrid killed her just as the woman killed her husband. The Empress survived Adrian's death only because she was not human anymore, the fatal stab could not reach her non-existent heart.

"He duelled with Runi Verin and her partner… Verin stabbed him in the heart with a blade."

She said completely emotionlessly and beautified the story, as she always did, though there Adrian really fought for his life. She managed to keep her voice from trembling due to the even more pain flooding her soul. In the end she looked at the girl:

"And you? What true answers are you looking for?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

The force was weird.

No like. Really weird. She kinda couldn't believe herself right now. The Rebel-Killer's news was all a bit... much. The sorrow that echoed off the woman's form only compounded onto Kyra's sense of dissociation. Here she was, in sith space, without answers, talking to a previous captor her husband. Oh. And he's actually her arch enemy.

But he's dead so it's okay. Except it wasn't.

Ingrid's grief seeped into her bones, weighing her down and pinching her tear ducts. Kyra swallowed hard and tried to breathe it all away. That's all the force was, right? Mindful breathing? The walls between them remained paper thin.

So what answers was she looking for then? Her fingers flexed over the glass.

"Did you help him with my sister?" It was sympathy alone that kept the spite from her voice. She was tired of all these games. She looked at Ingrid, asking her directly, "And my Master? Why him? Why are you both after the people around me? What game are you playing?"

She was too young to understand that the world didn't revolve around her. Or by extension, her family either.

Ingrid L'lerim

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Small town, Dathomir
Equipment: 2x Striith vibrosword | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink | The Last Gift || Empyrean gland
Tag(s): Kyra Perl

[ Solitude ] ​

The question struck her quite unexpectedly, she didn’t really expect such a thing. Adrian chuckled beside her. The woman knew that her husband certainly had secret work he had done for Carnifex, because how he could have known otherwise Perl was the daughter of the former Emperor, but she never asked these. They both had secrets in their work, never investigating one after the other. Ingrid shook her head.

"No, I had nothing to do with her, I wasn’t on the planet then. However, I know what he did. I know someone who has suffered similarly to your sister and is successfully free from this influence."

And that person was none other than Kahlil Noble , the son of the former Sith Emperor. What she said she said honestly. Ingrid had nothing to do with that case, she didn't even know about her existence until then. Kyra’s master? The red-haired woman raised an eyebrow for a moment, now she would have liked to smile too. Was she like that in her age? No, she was already a murderer, she had to act like an adult and protect her family.

And what happened on the EE-LP-1424, or Ast Kikori, where the rebellion crossed all borders.

"This is politics… All I do is defend the Empire and its citizens. I suppose neither your master nor his sister have been told that they support those who kill civilians, scientists out of mere cruelty. As long as only soldiers were killed, I didn’t care so much. But in the Eternal Empire, civilians cannot carry weapons, they cannot defend themselves and they killed at least two dozen innocent people."