Knowledge forbidden? Suspicious & reasonless.

[Er'in Tenel]

The Library - Sinners Well
Day 1

I was the first to admit I hadn't taken very well to the basic training of a Sith Apprentice, an Acolyte, whatever you wanted to call them. It had taken a solid beating at the hands of Stormtroopers for me to recognise my potential and to... unlock some of the chains around her heart, if I was honest with myself.

And I tried to be.

He was teaching me - and teaching me well, my senses were slowly growing, but the knowledge he seemed to wish to impart - that of mentalism, fear and control through fear... well, not only did I personally think that was a sure and certain way to end up like every other Lord of the Sith (dead, it seemed) but I also just did not get it. No matter how hard I applied herself, the well of my soul - my connection to the Force - did not open. I could get angry, I could get passionate, I could work at channelling just about every emotion but fear.

Then I'd come back from my trip to see Janick with a Sith Blade forged by my own hands, a conversant knowledge of the Sith language and a knowledge of the Alchemical process that startled him - apparently, I was a natural. So we'd struck a deal, me and him. I'd continue to focus my time with him on mastering the art of domination through fear - or chit, at least even gain a novice understanding of it.

And in return, he had given me access to his personal collection.

I hadn't known there was such knowledge in the world. Let alone that one person might horde it, the insignificance of my understanding struck me like a brick to the skull. Enlightenment hurt. I hated it. I hated him for having it. I hated him for sharing it and I didn't know why. But I also knew that one day, something like this would be mine. And for now... well, he had promised me he would be my ally as long as I served. So for now... I served.

The collection wasn't physically that big, a lot of it replicated on data-copies due to some past theft. But...

"...open yourself to the force, you must, but seek within the inner stillness." The dimunitive figure stated. I had no clue what he was talking about. Perhaps starting with the personal records of one of the most famous Light Side masters of the Clone Wars had been... unwise. The figure seemed so... calm, at peace. I literally had no comprehension of what could drive it.

So I shifted to the Great Holocron series, listening intently as a series of long dead figures discussed in intellectual detail the rise and fall of the Sith, the opposing philosophies... there was another record here about something called the 'White Current' that called both into question. Greed, it seemed, could be intellectual.

I didn't eat, I didn't leave the library for two days - emerging bleary eyed and haggard only when I was dragged out by one of my assassin droids, which had decided it's duty to protect my life over rode my ability to instruct it otherwise. I'd have to have that dealt with...

... after I went back to the Great Holocron Series, that had pointed me in the direction of something very, very interesting.

For the third time in my life I felt sheer pleasure and indescribable joy - the first being racing solar yachts, the second the joy of the release of passion in battle and now... here, in this vast repository of knowledge. Perhaps I did have a calling in his service after all.

 

[Er'in Tenel]

The Library - Sinners Well
Day: 3

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”​

​

I'd had weapons practice with [member="Srina Talon"], hadn't I?

"The work of a Sith Sorceror or Witch is to enforce an unnatural change upon the world, to use the dark side to shape things in a way they should not be..."

Urgh. The Jedi did drone on and on, and knew practically nothing of the Dark Side. I'd thought and outsiders perspective might be useful. But they seemed determined to be as blinkered as the Sith seemed to be about the Light. Peace is a lie? There is no Passion? What sentient lived like that?

Yes. I'd had weapons practice, I was wearing the shorts and training bra Srina had talked me into as practical wear - although expensive, stylish practical wear in my case, of course. I had been sweaty before, but what time was it?

No, this text was useless. I still didn't understand the contents of the scrolls in the lore case - and I was well past the Jedi Younglings games in that useless datacron. I felt my vision blur slightly, a shadow creeping in at the edge, but I had another twenty stimX tablets, and that was before I hit the hardcore stuff.

The secondary texts were fascinating, confirming my opinion that perhaps ones use of the force depending directly on your perception. But... that didn't make any sense from my personal perspective.

The datacron on the Jay Shay was fascinating - the lore in it combined neatly with the lore I had learned from Janick, which was... interesting. What did that woman know? What did they all know?

Hunger gnawed at my stomach, but not nearly so deeply as the hunger that gnawed at my soul and my brain. The answers had to be here somewhere.

Where?

What was this, the... Chu'unthor Datacron? What was the Chu'unthor when it was at home? Okay, power to the datacron. Get something to drink. More stimcaff. Eat. More stimX and the whole thing should be ready to go.

"Our communications with the resident population we have named 'Danthomiri Witches' has resulted in considerable progress in understanding their use of the force as a form of magic."

Now this... this was more like it...

 

[Er'in Tenel]

The Library - Sinners Well
Day: 6

The hallucinations are bad enough. But after awhile you learn to cope with things like seeing your ancestor coming towards you out of the dark with a lightsaber in her hand and murder on her mind. Most Sith Witches can handle this sort of thing. But nobody can handle the other possibility - that the screaming visions of squamulous and fetid creatures, running down the corridors of your library howling like the damned and thirsting for blood might be real. No, this is not a good profession for visions.

[member="Darth Metus"] had come to see me on day six. By now my eyes were sunken into my head and felt as if I hadn't slept for a week, my hair wild. Although strangely my dress sense was impeccable - if sweat stained, torn and covered in faded ink. Large sections of his personal library looked as if they'd be rearranged by a lunatic, and the insane scrawls that covered one wall hurt his eyes... but also formed quite an effective warding spell against shadow-plant horrors.

He'd looked at me calmly, eyes burning, and told me she needed sleep and rest before I continued.

I... didn't remember what I'd said, other than that it had been profane in the extreme and may have commented on the parentage of his parents then waved one of the scrolls of Sith Sorcery at him and launched into a thirty minute tirade about the stupidity of the Jedi on the Chu'unthor for not seeing the obvious links between Danthomiri Witchcraft and Sith Sorcery - why dismiss one because it required verbal invokations, yet not the other. The force could be shaped by many ways, and I had just found a connection between the two, couldn't he see it was obvious?

He'd raised one burning eyebrow, given me a curt nod and told me not to burn the library down, blow it up or summon a profane entity, and if I could see to recovering that lost Brotherhood of Darkness Academy on Ryloth before the month was out, he wouldn't ban any further research.

Which, all things considered was quite fair.

"Sulig Nuyak art ir Nuyak Valia,
Nu Visita Tave Naile iv Tave Naktis,
Nu Reiklauti Anas which Kash Naefas,
Nu Apgamas Ja've Su Anas which Kash Naile."​

​

The words hung in the air like the tolling of ancient, terrible bells. This spell was considered a beginners work for Knight or a Master, but I knew I could master it. I had to refer to the other datacrons - some of the commentary from the forbidden sections of the Great Datacron had been accurate, even if they hadn't known exactly how or why.

It all hung together, the Great Work.

But the shadows were hunting me, I had passed out. I must have passed out, I knew I must, because I'd had a long conversation with Chume Tenel - my ancestor, who had then slain me for my crimes against the galaxy, spearing me through the heart with a lightsaber.

I up woke screaming.

 

[Er'in Tenel]

The Tunnels - Sinners Well
Day: Unknown

I had two bags of bone dust, seventy-five knuckle bones, five sheets of parchement soaked in the blood of murderers, a pottery jar half full of verdian venom, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored gemstones, crystals, broken shards, crushed minerals... and also a quart of rancor blood, a quart of virgins blood, a case of explosives, a pint of raw force ichor and two dozen trinkets. Not that I needed all that for the spell, but once you get locked into a serious sorcery habit, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

No one had been to see me in days, no one living, anyway. I had regular conversations with all of my Force using ancestors - which appeared to consist of no less an honoured figure than Darth Vader himself, who informed me solemly while torturing me alive that I had potential in the Force.

At least... I think he did, I couldn't be sure now.

I'd mastered the Sfera iv Naile - a basic spell I was sure a child could cast in the Sith Empire, it appeared I had some talent for creating fear, at least. That was when the shadows had actually come from the walls, screaming for my blood. But I was armed with Saarai - Truth, in the Sith and I would bow to no creature conjured from nightmare, even at the heart of a spell. I slew the creations of my nightmare and mastered myself.

So I moved onto the Datacron of Lord XoXaan, which mostly focused on alchemical preparations - hence the rather spectacular collection I had arrayed around me. The Chu'unthor Datacron provided me with a spell from the Witches of Dathomir that called upon dark energies, I didn't have time to learn their magic. It seemed similar to the Mandragora and I knew I had an appointment with one of them... tomorrow? Yesterday? It didn't really matter. But that combined with Jedi Master Toralis Shim's incesscant bleating about the four stages of the dark side and the requirement of redemption had given me a clue as to the formation of dark side power and how it might manifest in the real world.

Obedient to his instructions I'd long since vacated the library and found a nice, empty stone room. Now it was time to call forth the energies into the world, to shape them into... something. I didn't quite understand the texts on Sithspawn, and I'd left them behind.

I breathed in the bone dust, marking runes that burnt the eyes on the parchment as it was set around the room in a precise formation - the veridan venom I drank, poisoning myself so that my agony might fuel the spell. That did mean I had to crawl to scatter the gemstones and complete the circle with the rancor blood, but it made it a great deal easier to call upon the dark side from within my soul - ignoring the ring of Jedi who were standing around the room cursing me for my sins. What did they know? Not one of them had truly explored power except maybe, maybe the Skywalker, and he wasn't really in my blood. If any of them were, it was a family legend.

The power rippled up, unformed and uncontrolled. I grasped for it with what remained of my intellect and my hate, shaping and moulding it into a figure. I held it there for a fraction of a second - I understood now how simple a spell it would be to summon it as a controlled (or uncontrolled) blast, compared to what I was trying to do. This was beyond me. The tendrils held for a moment, then shattered with a sensation that gripped my soul and seemed to rip it from my body.

The resulting explosion took out three walls and blew me into the adjoining store room.

​

I woke to find myself in my own bed.

I wasn't sure if I dreamed the last week, I appeared to be wearing my night gown and the covers were undisturbed. No ancient Jedi sat at the end of the bed, no monsters sloped through the darkness.

Only... next to the glass on my nightstand was a note, in his neat handwriting:

Next time, maybe stick to cookery books. ​

I also want the walls rebuilt and the wardings cleaned off my wall.​

Well done.​

-M​

​

All in all, the Sith Academy felt considerably less intimidating than it had before. If only I didn't keep getting those visions.