Private Knowledge is power

[Shavara]

Shavara stood on her ship,, a KS-6800 'Endeavor' Survey & Exploration Ship, looking at some info she had. In the ship were the goranites, her crew she personally chose. They were relatively few but she trusted them enough with who she was, Sar Vun. However today was not that kind of mission. In fact, it wasn't a part of her formal occupation either which was mostly just documentation of foreign species, sentient or otherwise.

Akronikus could tell she was nervous. He was someone she'd learned much from and knew her best, especially as they were the two real researchers of the crew. He placed a hand on her shoulder, "Knowledge is not always worth the risk. An unfinished book is better than none at all." she smiled, "Maybe it is. Really, I shouldn't be that worried...I think. I can take care of myself. And they shouldn't have any reason to fight me. I just...don't know what to expect."

He remained silent for a moment, "Your decision is your own. So are your results."

She nodded. She'd heard...things, about the woman she was planning to visit. Her world was reputably safer than others nearby which was a good sign. But it was hard to know how much else she could trust. All that she knew, was that there might be knowledge to be gained if she was willing to take the task of visiting her. She learned a great deal from the Memory of Sar Vun, and he still had many stores of knowledge left for her. But if she truly wanted to learn, and progress, there needed to be more than one source.

That was why she was here, seeking passage to the ground where she would seek out this being, Onrai . She didn't disguise herself this time. Though she was strongly tempted to do so, she felt that it was unnecessary. And would only complicate things if her skills matched too closely to those she used under the name of Sar Vun. Though, with the apparent disappearance of Nexus Krae who once ruled her home-world and the ensuing uncertainty of who, if any, would take his place. She wasn't sure how much it mattered.

If she was able to safely land on the planet, she would leave alone. Everyone else staying on the ship, as she sought out the being. The world coursed with power, dark power, and it kept her on edge. She wasn't unused to the sensation entirely, anyone who had met their last Vran'Ti Vo Ni knew the feeling. But when it was a world it was different. When it was something you couldn't simply try to leave. She wore her typical robes, her kestralis-ring and vuns-kaliek ring. Leaving the hood down for the moment, she sought information through the force on the location of the...entity, that she was after. Telepathy was her advantage here. The world itself felt almost disruptive, less so if she wore her hood, but she didn't want to risk that doing so would make her miss something important. She gently listened for thoughts about Onrai, or a trail she could detect, and did her best to follow it, if she could.

 

[Onrai]

Kiross.

The world had at one time belonged to the Chiss Ascendancy, serving as one of the core facilities through which the blue-skinned race's naval forces were able to effectively spread throughout the galaxy. Their power had been for naught, however, when the might of the Maw had been unleashed against them and turned their starports into rubble, their planetary facilities into ruins.

How fortunate that Onrai's legions had been able to claim this desolate world.

Using the great stockpile of resources stored at the Nathema Orbital Complex during Onrai's time in control of that place, Kiross had been for the most part restored. Orbital stations supplied fleets of ships, shipyards conducted repairs, and troops were trained and restocked on the planet's surface. The civilian population of Nathema had additionally been transported over, generating credits and adding valuable agricultural expertise to the world in order to sustain the food supplies of the goddess's legions.

Onrai herself sat aboard her aging vessel, and an eye was raised as she sensed the presence of someone who had come to the world looking for her. As the woman left her ship, allowed to land safely on the planet below, the shadows around her would seem to coalesce into a very human-esque form.

"I am Onrai, goddess of the galaxy and purveyor of all things. You have come to seek knowledge, have you not?"

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

Shavara's search didn't seem to take long, she could feel her presence as she could see her and she hesitated in her steps before Onrai spoke. She wasn't quite sure how to address her, she even called herself a goddess, but that was not a title she was used to. Kakoran didn't really have gods, their closest thing was the Vo of Vran'Ti. But they did have titles, hers was Vo Ni, so she'd call Onrai by how she introduced herself.

"Um...hello..." Well that wasn't a great start, "Yes,goddess Onrai, I am searching for knowledge. I cannot be certain, but perhaps I would have some I could give in turn. I would like to learn of alchemy, I already know a bit about it and can share in turn some of that, but there's always more to learn. I also know a great deal of biology if that would be better." her voice was clearly pronounced, almost robotically so due to her native tongue placing so much importance on every part of pronunciation. But even with that, her discomfort and uncertainty wouldn't be that hard to see or sense.

Then again, at least she knew she wasn't wrong about someone who might know things. This woman was not normal, she wasn't just some random sith or force cultist that had enough power to convince regular people into believing she was something more. Sha wasn't sure goddess was the right term, but she also wasn't certain of otherwise.

 

[Onrai]

"A wise choice." She said. "Knowledge is the key to the universe. One cannot act upon reality without knowing how reality is pieced together, even if in an infinitesimally small way." An inky black hand raised and motioned for Shavara to follow her as the two would begin to follow a path away from the newcomer's ship, towards the village-like structures of Kiross. Onrai's followers had done well in, for the most part, rebuilding the devastated world in record time (no thanks to her own power). As the duo traveled through the shops and stalls where goods of all sorts were hawked, Onrai pointed to a large pyramidal structure located within the center of the village. It was the temple, the place where those who had the opportunity to touch the same facets Shavara herself could reach were given the opportunity to learn and study.

"Alchemy. Such a fickle thing - to mutate, to corrupt, or to augment and enhance." She said as the two reached a set of monolithic stone doors that opened for them to enter into the torch-lit temple. "True alchemy comes from transmutation. To wholly transform a substance into something else. As the Kashi Mer Dynasty once did tens of thousands of years ago, though their methods were crude and barbaric in emulation of those they worshipped." She would guide Shavara to a room with a large stone table, lit by torches, with slabs of stone serving as benches by which to sit at the table.

"No reason to waste time giving a philosophical lesson - what you want is to learn, and learn you shall." She said. "So let's begin."

A wave of her hand saw, forming before the alchemist, a block of wood. "I would like to see what you know so far. Whatever reagents you require for your demonstration, they will be provided as needed."

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

So far so good...it seemed anyway. She pulled her hood up instinctively, just felt safer that way, as she followed looking around as she did so. She didn't want to miss anything important somehow. She looked at the pyramid as Onrai pointed to it, listening as the entity spoke. Fickle was not really the word that Shavara would have used, after-all, methods centuries, Millenia, past still worked. But she didn't speak that aloud, always possible that there was a misinterpretation between them.

Transmutation, not a skill she really understood. She was used to the enhancing bit, her primary skill lied in attaching aspects to a pre-existing thing. But ultimately, it was still that thing. Just better in some area. She'd never really completely changed on thing into another ting. Shavara ran a finger along both of her rings, one for focus, one for a weapon if she needed, though she wasn't expecting to, she was not as in control of her emotions as she'd like to be. She did her best to calm herself periodically. The kestralis ring helped with that. And the familiarity of its feeling gave her some comfort.

Shavara looked as Onrai simply brought forth a block of wood, alright, summoning wasn't unbeknown to her. But not with anything as mundane as a block of wood. Then again, it was reason enough to believe that she knew what she was talking about. Shavara needed time and work to make an object that easily available. She couldn't imagine wasting it on...wood.

Sha twirled one of her braids in her hand in thought running a hand over the wood, "I don't know how to transmute. And not usually using...dead organic matter, only ever living...or around so much of the heart." She admitted, "But...I'll see what I can do with it, it." she took in a breath working to focus herself, shutting er eyes and setting her hands on the wood. It was not a fast process what she was about to do. Guiding runes inscribed themselves on parts of the wood as she worked, her hands didn't move from their spots, especially in this state telekinesis was something that came naturally. She knew how wood worked, she sought into its threads and any water. The runes would glow as she worked, and bent the blocks shape until it formed into something akin to a belt, but along this physical change would have been the feeling of its presence in the force growing, and life returning. That was after-all, what she knew. Giving life to a plant wasn't that out of the ordinary, and after her creation of gkchrn she'd increased her familiarity with things that weren't moving creatures.

The physical shift was certainly much faster, though seemingly alive now, that was only a way to make the rest of her work easier. So that it could be fed in order for it to use the aspects she was attaching to it without working like her shield might, a constant, but also one mostly only useful by a force user.

Upon the finished product, it seemed to fade in and out from the eyes until she released it to the table and coughed as she opened her eyes and turned away to cough into her arm,"Sorry...ugh, I think I forgot to breath the whole time. It is, uh, well essentially the force version of a stealth generator. Not certain it works because I didn't get to experiment with it. Should be able to be fed essentially, based that part on Gkchrn, that recipe is basically open to anyone. Essentially creates an illusion that would hide any living being within a 2 meter range when worn. Should work on droid sensors. Probably could just use a stealth generator, but...just not creative I guess. I guess I could demonstrate what else I know with what I'm wearing, or could bring, but I suppose you could assume I didn't actually make them."

 

[Onrai]

“That’s… not exactly what I meant.”

She looked at the piece of wood that had been - it hadn’t been transmuted, not in the slightest. It was still wood. Frankly the best word that could have been used to describe it was “transmogrified.” Onrai had to admit, the idea of turning a block of the simplest metal through alchemical principles into a force-powered cloaking device was something she had not expected one to be able to do. Perhaps there would be something for her to learn as well. As she looked at the block of wood, she paused for a moment, raising her hand as another block of wood manifested within it.

“I was referring a bit more to this.” She said, holding the block of wood and giving it a quick thump to verify its material properties before setting it down on the table, focusing on it with a hand raised towards it. The wood began to levitate, gently floating as the patterns, the very molecular structure of the material itself was torn apart on an atomic level and slowly but surely rebuilt. Patches of grey began to deep through the organic structure of the wood, patches that grew ever larger until the entire piece had been consumed and turned into an ingot of raw and unrefined durasteel. She grabbed it and hit it in the table, producing a solid metallic thud, before setting it down.

“That is transmutation.”

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

Shavara blinked at the response, waiting for the explanation. That wasn't surprising, but she didn't really know of a response. She watched, fascinated, as the wood was altered on such a deep level into a metal, her eyes glittered with curiosity and interest at the change. Watching every movement of the patterns and trying to feel every change in the force, not an easy thing to do because the wide-spread dark side presence was still quite clouding to her.

"Incredible." She said simply at first, though she did think to defend herself, "In all fairness, if I knew how to do that...well I wouldn't need to learn how...I am not sure where that sentence was going."

Her face returned to the newly made durasteel, reaching out a hand to it, "Wish I had my equipment here, though, I'm not sure how much good that would do me. I'm not even sure what I'd be checking for yet. I'm barely processing how exactly that's possible. Organic matter to another kind of organic matter, yeah sure, I've seen that. Or 'growing' inorganic materials out of organic matter. But those are all done through organic process, artificially induced, but still organic. This is entirely different. Incredible."

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

"It takes skill. Skill and power." She said, giving Shavara exactly what it was she desired - the wood that had become durasteel. "The entire molecular structure of the material has been modified, atoms torn down and reassembled into new atoms, molecular bonds breaking and being reforged. And the result is this." She smiled. "Full molecular transmutation. You could turn lead into gold, or metal into jelly." There were a billion different potential uses that came to mind as Onrai's hand patted Shavara on the head, appreciating her interest and efforts.

"You want to learn how I did that, don't you?" She asked.

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

Skill and power, no doubt on that. At least on the skill part, she wandered just how much power was required for it. Was hers sufficient? Would she need some kind of augmentation to do it? If she did need to further augment her powers, would it be worth it to even try? Or would it be better to simple preform a trade of materials, or create a whole new one from other materials. But she still wanted to know, looking it over as she was given the durasteel, fascinated by just how completely it was changed.

So many opportunities, and so much knowledge. One skill could theoretically change how she made everything, no material would be out of reach anymore, she'd be able to learn the parts for any creation. She wandered if Sar Vun had ever learned this one or not. Even if his Memory didn't know it, perhaps he did.

Her whole mind seemed to stutter on itself as she received a head pat. That was...not an expected outcome. She didn't know how to respond to that, or if she even should respond to that. Was that normal? Was it meant to elicit a reaction? Was she blushing out of sheer confusion? Was it another piece of knowledge she was not aware of? Fortunately the topic moved on, but she was definitely going to be thinking about that later...she'd need to decide if she should actually say 'a goddess gave me a pat on the head' to anyone, or if she really wanted to.

"OH yes! I certainly do! If you are willing anyway, I could try to provide some knowledge of my own, if there's even anything I have to provide. This...seems to get to the heart of alchemy. And so I'm not really sure I have anything that you couldn't just learn yourself upon knowing the result."

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

A smile crossed Onrai's face as she saw Shavara being unsure of how to respond to the pat on the head. Compared to even Onrai's true past, she was still very much a child in the alchemical arts. Shavara's eagerness to learn was also something she greatly appreciated - it reminded of her Sasmay Cull , her only true apprentice at the moment. She pondered for a bit before responding to to the apprentice's inquiries.

"Well... you'll have to stay here on Kiross for some time." She said. "Are you willing to do that, and to pledge yourself to me in exchange for the secret knowledge you wish to learn?" She inquired.

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

That first part didn't bother her, she had time. Although she wasn't sure what 'some time' meant to Onrai . Had she been human, it would not have been at all concerning. But she was not. She was nodding to it before the next, far more important, part to the deal came around. she stared at the durasteel before her.

That was not the kind of deal she was used to making, and she was taking it very seriously. She tried very hard not to let her curiosity overtake her. It was in her nature, even more than her people's already considerable value of knowledge. But she had a conscience to tend to. On top of that, for all the secret knowledge she might gain access to, was it worth allegiance? "What would that entail, exactly?"

 

[Onrai]

"Only that you aid me, supplicate yourself to my teachings, and immerse yourself within the knowledge you will be granted." She said. "What do you say?" The potential of having another student like Sasmay was too good an opportunity to pass up, especially for someone who had a thirst for knowledge. That knowledge had the potential to prove a pathway to devotion - and perhaps Onrai would manage to elicit that from the young alchemist, an answer to an unspoken prayer.

She could only ponder.

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

She stood still, thinking. This was a hard decision. She didn't really know this being that well. She didn't know for certain what aid she might need to provide. She pulled her hood around her face thinking, but also trying to weaken the feeling of the darkside's influence around her so she could actually think clearly.

And insure there was no invasion on her mind. She did have a sizable prowess on telepathy, so normally there wasn't concern anyway. But the robes specifically offered her a considerable resistance to powers on top of that. She needed complete clarity at this moment, to think. To consider every word.

For all her innocent love for knowledge, she'd been put in a position that deception was important before this time. Aid and supplicate to the teachings. That is what she said. She could do that, and so long as she specifically accomplished those goals by statement, then she'd have completed her own part of the deal. She wanted the knowledge, greatly. It was that want that first caused the Memory of Sar Vun to allow her to find it, and now it was sending her to another path. She was no visionary, but knowledge was always what she wanted. She didn't want to be a rebel or a warrior, or a ruler. She wanted only knowledge.

Shavara took in a breath, "I agree to that."

 

[Onrai]

A smile crossed the lips of Onrai as she welcomed Shavara's acceptance of her masterhood, observing the circumstance that had been given to her. A hand came to pat the young woman's head as she sought to encourage Shavara's acceptance of her teaching.

"Then let us begin." She motioned for the young woman to join her, a hand raised with a glistening amber and amethyst-stone in it as the fabric of reality seemed to be rent. "A word of warning - the realm beyond this rift is of a place mortal minds are not typically prepared for. Guard yourself."

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

Well, what's done was done now. She however was not quite expecting a pat on the head, and just stood somewhat still and perplexed. How am I supposed to respond to that? Am I supposed to respond to that?! She thought in her confusion before she was motioned to follow into a portal, or something. Great, a place where mortal minds aren't prepared. That's not potentially risky at all. Then again so was the rather normal act of shapeshifting, or the many alchemical practices she ventured into.

Onward she went, guarded. She didn't know exactly how her robes would interact with whatever was going on. They were designed to protect her specifically from force abilities after-all. But, she also didn't know how this portal worked in the first place. She stepped through, carefully, waiting to see what would happen and where they'd end up.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

The portal opened to reveal a strange and almost entirely lifeless world. Beneath their feet, the land seemed to only gain solidity when their feet were pressed on it. The sky seemed warped with the gaze of running glass or looking into a pool. But that was hardly the most exotic feature of the landscape.

That would have been the massive cube in front of them. The cube was easily multiple kilometers in height, length, and width. A great hole was torn through the side of it nearest Onrai and Shavara, revealing desiccated grey flesh beneath shattered and tarnished golden scales and the other end of the hole on the far side of the dead creature's body. The duo had arrived at a base camp of sorts, and several scientists were still traveling back and forth around and into the cube itself.

"The dead gods. Ooradryl and his spawn. Their power is mine, and their remains lie here, with secrets yet to be uncovered. I killed them during the time of the Sith Empire and ascended to godhood upon slaying them. They are - well, were - one of the old ones and his creations made in facsimile of his own nature. Now they will remain here forever, a testament to how awry the galaxy has gone due to their malfeasance."

She turned to Shavara. "The Old Ones, the spawns of the Soulworm, were responsible for the war that drove most of the Celestials out of the galaxy. As a result, the fabric of reality has long since been unbalanced and the galaxy has suffered. I intend to change that." She said.

"You seek knowledge - why not see if the flesh of Uthoqquan will yet reveal the secrets within to alchemical processes unseen and untouched before? He once said, 'Here are fortuities none have ever seen or tasted, endless knowledge beyond the enterprise of man for you alone to have.' And his claims were not false."

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

Shavara carefully pressed her feet against the ground, ready to backtrack if it gave way or...was wrong somehow. She didn't really know what to expect. A massive cube, along with flesh underneath. Shavara was definitely not immune to fear, but her curiosity of such a creature and this 'world' of sorts was already overwhelming such concerns. It seemed study was already being preformed.

Onrai began explaining them. 'gods' she claimed. Certainly the physiology of a being deserving of that title was curious. She wandered how much Onrai's on physiology had changed. Though, she wasn't so sure that the woman would permit the more invasive of techniques used by the Vran's medical technology. These other creatures however were far too big for any individual equipment they had access to to scan properly. Certainly they could make it, but maybe there were more factors involved in the creation of a god than mere physical tests could examine.

Some of this was certainly foreign knowledge to her due to so much of her life being only on Vran'Ti. These 'celestials' were only things she'd occasionally heard of. And this very unsure on their actual existence or history. Onrai had intentions, grander intentions than Shavara certainly. She was well aware of that. But she offered Shavara what she wanted, and a method of it. She already began running over ways to study it, muttering silently in her own language about the methods involved and costs it would take to get the best results. And if she even had the credits for a proper study without running a net loss and ending up in a hole. The BIOMED might not be big enough to preform a full scan but its scanners could still be used effectively. And she could do some more intricate study with the force and how it interacted with it.

Of course, obstacles were presenting themselves even as her excitement and curiosity drove her to push past her wariness of speaking, "Much...much to learn." she began, her eyes focused on the creature, feeling out in the force as she would to study any other creation, seeking minds, seeking its presence, connections, "But, I do not have all my tools on me. They are rather specific and what I am familiar with using. To truly study it I would somehow need to access my things and bring some of them here. There is....something else though."

She furrowed her brow considering how to speak it, "If their power became yours. Would it not require the study of you both for as much knowledge of these gods to be fully explored?" the question was completely genuine. It was not any kind of order for Onrai to undergo study, perhaps she would have a piece of knowledge to explain that not being the case. Or simply refuse it. But she was still prompted to ask. A question completely unanswered could be like a plague to the mind.

 

[Onrai]

"There are not enough tools you could possess to decipher the physiology of such a creature anathema to the very fabric of reality. Uthoqquan was a creature of such pernicious nature, whose all-consumption of knowledge allowed him to tempt even the most well-read of scientists and scholars into his embrace. Knowledge was what fueled him. No one may ever know the secrets spilled within his amorphous interior, or of the wonders of the galaxy, the treasures whose functions and locations lay sealed within the dead mind of this ancient entity." Onrai motioned for Shavara to join her.

The duo would enter the carcass through a hole that had been bored into it through the removal of several scales, a metal staircase allowing access. Upon entry the smell of sweet rot struck the duo, as did the bizarre nature of the interior - there were persistent tunnels and bridges of flesh that went up and down for miles, far more vast than the apparent exterior of the creature suggested. Great pools of glistening golden goo contrasted with other pools of reddish ichor, both of which traveled in lakes, rivers, and waterfalls through the alien's exterior. The very way the creature's guts had been formed defied the fabric of reality as there was no brain, no central cortex.

Only flesh.

"Where would you like to begin, my student?"

Shavara

 

[Shavara]

Probably means there needs to be better tools Was her instinctive thought in response to Onrai 's comment about their inability to decipher what was before them. The use of alchemy, biology, telepathy, and rituals, were so incredibly integrated into the Vran's skills in the force that the concept of something being impossible to understood instinctively brought forth the idea that progress must be made, and that progress would be used to understand their next challenge. A new species with something their sensors or awareness couldn't detect? Build one better that could detect it, then with what was gained from it to make one that could understand it.

But she still listened, in many ways, she wandered if something like that was what happened to Sar Vun. His knowledge was notoriously what made him so powerful, in under any circumstances, with almost any other teaching, he'd have been overlooked. It was inspiring, especially for someone who was already capable in the force. Yet, she was slower than he must have been. However her power might have been naturally, beings like these surpassed her in their sheer understanding of the force and the crafts.

The beast was unnatural, bending rules that she hadn't seen bent this way before. She was not unfamiliar with outlying techniques, she could summon her Kaliek and shield to her at any time from just about anywhere. Still, she had never entered something, and most definitely not a living something, that defied the dimensions that a structure should obey. Organic or otherwise.

The structure itself reminded her of the beings comprised of many smaller pieces. One would not see a central brain or system in those, as it was as much one being as it was many. She wandered if that was the best way for a species to understand the force, to already be a true collective. Or perhaps that was too scientific. "I...don't know. I've never studied anything this large. The only thing close to this on my world that I know of is the Vo of the world. But I've never been there, it's only for the strongest who know how to survive it." She grimaced, "And that might kill me. Where would you suggest?"

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

“Perhaps we should go to what I can only presume was his brain.” She said. This would begin a long sojourn, which would take Onrai and Shavara across great bridges of desiccated flesh and calcified cartilage, over great lakes of thick red ichor and golden plasma, and through tunnels both man-made and which seemed to go nowhere. The interior of Uthoqquan was, like his father and brothers, a maddening maze of super-reality that far eclipsed its seeming comparatively miniscule mass.

Eventually, the duo would reach a tremendous spheroid mass of flesh, across which arcs of electricity still ran. There was no neural activity, but the memories within the great organ were still theoretically extant.

"Perhaps you should take a look." Onrai pointed.

Shavara