Lords of Ession

[Darth Kentarch]

A tremor took hold of the planet. There was a Change in the force, and it unleashed itself in a powerful wave the radiated across the atmosphere and shook the stars themselves. For several moments the living force felt so strong that Darth Kentarch felt he would consumed by it. Yet as the worlds seemed to shift and the power of the force intensify, the moment did not constitute an ending nor a new beginning, instead the anointment of events to come, events long overdue. Staring into the stars, the Sith Lord's mind was lost in a flood of voices, around him he felt the force swell and ebb. Reaching out with his senses, Kentarch sought the source of the disturbance. But his mind would only coherently grant him a single name.

"Cyril Grayson." The name escaped him as his mind snapped back to the present. Turning away from the sky he faced back towards his estate. Glancing about, he exhaled slowly and moved from the balcony back into the living champers inside his house. Recollecting events Kentarch pondered why the Jedi was first thing that came to his mind. Once Ession had been the Sith Lord's puppet state. Yet the Sith Empire fell, and not soon later a group of Jedi had arrived and toppled the government to install a new order. Darth Kentarch and his private agency had to use every resource they had to remain on the planet in secret. Ession was torn between the too, and Kentarch for the longest time was losing his grip.

"Bring up all case files, and current whereabouts of Jedi Master Grayson." The Sith commanded to a voice activated holo-table nearby him. The projector came to life, displaying readouts of everything Dolos Defense Agency and OSI had on the man via their data-banks. According to the files as Kentarch studied them, Grayson had just arrived back on Ession from. "Contact information?" He asked. No soon later the image shifted again of certain ways to reach the Jedi through his own network. "Send him an invitation to my estate. Giving him the coordinates and landing codes." No more hiding in the shadows.

Darth Kentarch deactivated the holo-table and out of habit checked his lightsaber. Kneeling down on both knees he mediated with force, waiting for his guest to arrive.

[member="Darth Mephirium"]

 

[Placeholder 04]

Mephirium had just finished with Grudge when he received the message from Kentarch. He, of course, had no idea who the Sith Lord was, and such information was not given to him with the message. So far as he knew, someone of relative importance from OSI wished to speak with him and had invited the Sith Lord to his private quarters. Mephirium had thought it over, and decided paying the stranger a visit might be beneficial.

He had no idea he was going to be meeting with a rival.

So far as the rest of the galaxy knew, besides a relatively small circle of Sith Lords, Mephirium was still Cyril Grayson, a Jedi Master of the Galactic Alliance. He came to the meeting as such, clad in his brown Jedi robes and wearing a relatively warm smile. His shuttle set down within the estate and he was summarily led inside.

"Evening." He greeted as one of the servants led him to to the room that housed Kentarch. The would-be-Jedi-Master was let inside, and then left to his own devices. A single man sat on both knees before him.

He hadn't even taken him out to dinner yet.

"I assume you're the man that I'm supposed to speak with?"

[member="Darth Kentarch"]

 

[Darth Kentarch]

Through the force he could feel the Jedi's presence. Darth Kentarch awaited in meditation, even as Master Grayson entered the room and greeted him, the Sith Lord remain unmoved. Finally Kentarch got to his feet. His face was shrouded in the darkness of his hood, yet one could tell his gaze was fixed upon the Jedi. "For the longest time you thwarted and derailed my efforts to rule this planet." Darth Kentarch said, direct and to the point. Doubt crept into his mind, the man who stood before him wore Jedi robes, yet there something off about him.

"You are Cyril Grayson are you not?" Kentarch asked. "I invited you here to speak. One Lord of Ession to another." The Sith gestured to his face. "Anonymity and deception. I never show my face or give my name. It helps keep my affairs a secret. As a Sith to a Jedi I hope you understand." As Kentarch spoke his voice had no emotion, no inflection.

"But to the business at hand." Kentarch continued after a long yet semi-dramatic long pause. "There has been an weekending. Have you felt it?" He asked. "Desinty it seems has chosen this time for somersetting greater for ourselves. Wouldn't you agree?"

[member="Darth Mephirium"].

 

[Placeholder 04]

A Sith.

This was the one that had been a thorn in his side for so very long. He had been too busy dealing with the threat of the One Sith to crackdown on the Sith Lords that hid away in Ession's alleys during his time as a Jedi. Now, the one Sith he had truly hunted; the singular entity that had caused every civil problem for him on this gods-forsaken planet had delivered himself to Mephirium.

The Jedi facade fell away.

While normally a calm, quiet storm beneath the thin veneer of a frozen lake within the force, Mephirium allowed the ice to break. His lips pulled back in an predatory snarl. His organic hand flew forward, his fingers groping at the Sith Lord's windpipe.

With invisible tendrils, Mephirium reached outward. The power of the Dark Side, his primal rage at this dissenter, fueled him. Murder flashed in his eyes. He gripped his fingers inward, attempting to strangle the stranger via the power of the force.

"You would deliver yourself to me?" His voice thrummed with power. The air was sharp with electricity. The force emphasized his words. "After all the grief you've caused me? Tell me your name!"

[member="Darth Kentarch"]

 

[Darth Kentarch]

Out of force of habit, when the facade from the Jedi dropped Kentarch went for his lightsaber. He felt it now, the darkside erupted from the man in a surprisingly violent fashion. For the first time in along time Darth Kentarch was shocked. Cyril's hand clasped around Kentarch's neck. Reality sunk in that this man was no Jedi, but someone incredibly powerful in the dark side of the force.

"I deliver myself to no man." Kentarch wheezed out in defiance, his left hand came up to grab Cyril's arm, he tried to wrench the man's grip off his neck. After another moment he realized he could not overpower the man. "...Kentarch! Its Darth Kentarch." He coughed out.

[member="Darth Mephirium"]

 

[Placeholder 04]

It would have been so simple to squeeze the life out of the man. To allow himself this moment's pleasure and hear his neck pop, to rip off that mask and look into the eyes of the man who had been a thorn in his side for so very long as his life ebbed away. Simple and easy. Mephirium could not allow himself this. This man, stranger though he may be, enemy might have been, could serve a purpose.

His hands fell to his sides. His fingers wrapped around the all-too-familiar curve of his lightsaber. For a moment, the urge to strike this creature down once again was all too tempting, but he kept it down for the moment.

Let it not be said that Darth Mephirium was without mercy.

"Ession is mine, and soon the galaxy will follow." He paused for a moment. "Your name?"

 

[Darth Kentarch]

Relief flooded throughout his mind as the man let go of his throat. Kentarch's right hand still clutched his saber as he stood. Noticing that Cyril had taken hold of his own weapon, Kentarch remained ready. "The galaxy will follow?" Kentarch asked in a sense of bewilderment. "I told my name is Kentarch, it was given to me as a child by my master Darth Legatus. I have no other real name." He stated.

"Tell me how do you plan to take the galaxy?" The Sith Questioned

[member="Darth Mephirium"].

 

[Placeholder 04]

He hadn't heard it clearly the first time. Hearing the name, Mephirium nodded. It had been whispered by some, though it was listed as just another title in a long list of names within his database.

"I intend to unseat the Dark Lord of the One Sith and take his place." He stated plainly. Mephirium had nothing to fear here. He had already held Kentarch's life in his hands. He doubted the shadowy man would try anything dangerous. His hands fell away from his weapon. "The Sith are beginning to falter. We've grown complacent. I will be righting that."

He paused for a moment. "What of you, Darth Kentarch?" A hint of amusement laced his tongue. "What might you feel about our Dark Lord?"

He lofted a brow and strode past Kentarch; exploring the little chamber that his former rival had taken to himself. Though his eyes brushed over the architecture and whatever personal belongings there may be, his attentions truly never left the man. "Why hide away on Ession, I'm curious?"

[member="Darth Kentarch"]

 

[Darth Kentarch]

Kentarch exhaled sharply as the man explained his intentions. The Sith Lord had never bowed to the current Dark Lord or accept the tenants of the Rule of One. As the ex-Jedi questioned him, Kentarch gathered his thoughts. "I didn't go to the core, Because I'm a Sith. Not some filthly worm One Sith." Darth Kentarch stated bluntly, refraining from spitting at the One Sith name.

"The Dark Lord is a blight on the galaxy and on the Sith. Unseen and unheard, never displaying his power. I've looked for him too, Prakith, Coruscant, Byss, he hides himself from the galaxy." The Sith continued. "I will not bend the knee to him, I will not join those misguided heretics who have become complacent in their defeats of other galactic governments. I will not serve a man who will not face me." His conviction in his choices was obviously strong. "I hide here on Ession so I don't become whatever it is the Sith in the core have become." Kentarch finished without hesitation.

[member="Darth Mephirium"]

 

[Placeholder 04]

"The word you are looking for is complacent."

Mephirium's voice was crisp, and carried the slightest hints of condescension. Kentarch might have fancied himself a Darth, and his reasoning for hiding away did have some merit, but Mephirium could not help but wonder: why had Kentarch not attempted to do what he was doing right now. Surely any Sith Lord with some clout would challenge the one who he so despise for his position of power.

It was what Mephirium was doing, after all.

"I'll speak quickly, Kentarch. I am not going to kill you. You might have use to me, and I need whatever hands I can find to deal with the loyalists on Coruscant." Mephirium cast a look over his shoulder toward the other man. He would need to prove his worth.

"When the time comes, you will journey to Coruscant and join me in my coup. Fall, and you die a hero. Survive, and I may restore all that you perceive as lost."

[member="Darth Kentarch"]

 

[Darth Kentarch]

"There is a reason why have not gone and tried to kill him, the so called Dark Lord. At his disposal is an army of millions, hundreds of war ships. The One Sith force numbers are infinite. I have one ship, a handful of Sith followers, and a single corps of mercenaries." He knew the Jedi would have his reservations about him. "I believe the Dark Lord is weak. If anyone kills him the Dominion of the One Sith would fracture. Civil War."

"I will go with you." Kentarch agreed to him. "But there is no going back once we go down this path, there is no coming back."


He was ready, now that he was no longer a lone man.

[member="Darth Mephirium"]

 

[Placeholder 04]

Infinite? That was stretching things.

The force Mephirium had amassed was enough to make most rulers think twice about challenging him. The Dark Lord, and whatever rivals Mephirium might gain in his coup, would have fleets just as large. His people would need to find an edge to scratch out a victory, and that much could be done. His thoughts shifted to recent events with Grudge the Hutt.

Perhaps if something could be used to speed up production...

Mephirium tossed Kentarch a small slip of paper. "My comm code is written on it. Send it a message now. When the time comes, you will know. I will expect everything you have gathered for something such as this at the ready when I make the call."

[member="Darth Kentarch"]