Mamba

[Carach]

[member="Aria Vale"]

The first layers of patience were already being shed.

Annoyance was festering, but she still kept it inside for the moment. Perhaps she was truly afraid what would happen if she lashed out or annoyed him in any other fashion, but that could not truly be blamed on her. Because what did she see? What did she know? The name, his name, had once been used as a bedtime story for little children in the Republic and beyond.

Eat your vegetables or the Lord of Nightmares will snatch you in your sleep.... leaving your body an empty husk, withering in oblivion.

Perhaps they hadn't added that last portion, but it amused Carach anyway and that was what mattered. What did she see? A Lord of the Sith, amber burning in those eyes and suggesting that even now - in total calmness and clarity - there were heavy emotions roiling just underneath skin and muscle. Just waiting to be unleashed in a moment's notice.

But he seemed so relaxed, this could not be the case, could it?

"You think being Sith means having fun then?"

 

[NightSister]

"What? No, that's - I didn't mean -"

What was she supposed to say to that?

She wasn't sure what this was, but her flustered manner was lending way to irritation too fast for her liking. What answer was she supposed to give? What answer even was there to give? Aria hardly wanted to be Sith in the hopes of being miserable all the time, but he was making it sound like she didn't take it seriously, which wasn't true. It wasn't that Aria had expected this to be easy, but this was the wrong type of difficult. Couldn't they just skip to the useful bit?

But she couldn't say that, of course. There was not denying your emotions, and there was acting irritated in front of a Sith Lord you wanted training from. Not a great idea.

On the other hand, it was a lose-lose already.

"What am I supposed to say to that?"

It came out very irritated.

Oops.

[member="Carach"]

 

[Carach]

[member="Aria Vale"]

A head cocked at the edge of annoyance.

The purr of satisfaction was kept solidly inside his own mind and away from his lips. It was always pleasant when things came together finely like this, but there was little need in gloating openly. That would probably only serve to annoy her even more, but not in the way that he needed her to.

Still it amused him how quickly he had succeeded in getting under her skin.

Very easy.

"You could answer the question for instance." Carach suggested finally, as the silence drew out and filled the void that was left in the wake of her words. How far could the Sith push her, before she broke down completely? Before the emotions became too much for her to handle?

Part of him wanted to influence her within the medium of thought, but he let it go for now.

Maybe another time.

 

[NightSister]

She flushed, but she didn't waver. You ask a silly question, you get a silly answer.

Or another silly question, of course. Either worked.

"Fine," she said, not as carefully as she perhaps ought to have done, "I don't think being Sith means having fun-"

Debatable. Well, not fun, perhaps, but from her admittedly not-brilliant perspective, the outcome of becoming Sith was positive enough to at least sometimes involve happiness. Then again, she'd fought with the Sith on Midvinter; that had been fun, hadn't it? Fun with a purpose, but still fun. Chit, she was distracting herself. Talk about the Sith now; you can debate with yourself over how fun works later.

"-but I don't expect or hope that it means being miserable all the time, either."

She'd probably given the wrong answer.

Oh well.

[member="Carach"]

 

[Carach]

[member="Aria Vale"]

It amused Carach intensely.

Mostly because among his friends - spider, dust, ocean tide and chittery laughter in the shadows, the warm touch on the cheek and the bright pain of a lashing... the memories rolled over him and for a moment he lost the train of thought. They all knew him as a man of fun, enjoyment and pleasure taking precedence over anything else.

The Sith wasn't that man anymore... not entirely anyway, but that did not mean it wasn't amusing to chide a possible apprentice about her ideas of what it meant to be a Sith.

"Ah, so you think the religion that worships pain and agony and hatred is not a miserable affair all in all, interesting."

Presumably something else should follow that.

But instead the Sith Lord simply studied her with those bleeding fire eyes. Watching her for every weakness, every little reaction she would give... every twitch and pull.

 

[NightSister]

Now she was lost.

Her train of thought was all tangled up, and it showed far too much for her liking - yes, letting emotions out and all the rest, but she never liked to be seen with her feathers ruffled, and especially not by a Sith Lord hopefully helping train her. Where was he going with this? What was the-

She caught his grin.

Oh, dear gods.

Other days, she might've simply rolled her eyes in typical Aria fashion and asked with suitable bluntness for Carach to get to the point. She knew down to the letter what she'd have usually said, usually done. After all, she had a motive here, a desirable ending outcome, and her priority ought to be making it more likely to be achieved. Yes, even if it meant letting him get under her skin.

But that was just unfair.

And she really didn't like it.

So instead Aria stood, and in the same second, she advanced. The twitch of a half-extended hand willed the Force outwards, forwards, meant to push through the air with a boldness that was considerably unlike her. Her gaze hardened, but not with anger as such. Maybe dissent.

She was really aggravated.

[member="Carach"]

 

[Carach]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Within that thin realm between possibility and intent Carach was undisputed ruler.

He watched, observed and waited with characteristic patience. Like the clear-cut song of an animal, waiting for the moment to apply the kill to the situation...... and there it was as expected.

It was the difference between a trained fighter and one who knew more of war than peace. Who had spend more of his life killing than anything else. As she pushed herself off the seat, as intent turned into action, as her hands braced themselves while the Force pushed itself in his direction. Carach was already standing - maybe in that little moment, before the clash and consequence arrived, as their eyes met.... fire burning in his, would she realize the mistake she had made. But by then it was already too late, was it not?

His hand simply cut through the air, diagonally, and from his gesture power erupted.

The manipulation of air was cut to ribbons and instead of her dashing into a collapsed form? Aria would feel long fingers curling around her neck, just as their bodies would have collapsed otherwise.

Air was cut off and she was slammed against the wall.

Carach was there, close, too close... not close enough? His breath was heavy, it was hot - it washed over her skin - and in those eyes she would see death, but also... more than just death.

Then they skipped past her eyes and were drawn to her lips.

Hunger corrupted his intent, hunger moved his actions, hunger consumed them both.

 

[NightSister]

Yellow eyes fixed onto the ceiling.

Well.

That was...unexpected.

Fun, but unexpected.

Aria lay on the floor, her mind as full of thoughts as ever. She'd been in the process of taking out her aggravation - that hadn't worked, and she'd need to think over why it hadn't worked at a later stage. But it hadn't worked, and here she was. Of course, the Echani was still plenty aggravated. Her inclination to act upon it was simply less so.

Temporarily, anyway.

She propped herself up on one elbow and turned over to look at Carach.

"Alright, that was fun. Now training, right?"

[member="Carach"]

 

[Carach]

A soft hum vibrated from the deepest parts of his chest.

She would not so much hear it, as feel it, as it was transferred past him and towards her.

It was the content purr from an animal satisfied. For the moment anyway, but Carach could not expect that she could sate him completely. Few people were capable of doing that and most of them were elsewhere in the moment. This had not been planned. In truth the Sith Lord had been surprised when she shifted from irritation to outright assault on his person.

Dangerous was the one who let their emotions rule them, instead of ruling over them.

"Yes." The heavy voice echoed as an afterthought to her question. "Yes, indeed."

He rose and there was no shame in his posture. That gaze swept across the room, before landing back on [member="Aria Vale"] and what was covering her up. Now there was that amusement again, an expression that was not far away at any single time.

"That is my robe." Carach pointed out patiently.

 

[NightSister]

"Oh-" A half-beat, and she realised his point - "oh, yes."

Hastily, Aria disentangled herself, passing over the appropriate garments as she stood up. The Sith Lord was evidently more contented than she, but the Knight was mollified - the confirmation that training would follow certainly placated her.

She sorted herself out unblushingly and was dressed - albeit slightly disheveled still - momentarily. A hand through her hair to set her unruly waves in place, and Aria took a seat at one end of the sofa, more cheerful now in how she held herself.

Now training, she'd said, and he'd agreed. Aria had very little knowledge still on how Sith training worked beyond what she'd gotten from Matsu, but she had a slight feeling that learning from Carach would only get more aggravating. Oh well. She'd do what she could to keep herself in check if it meant becoming Sith. Most of the time.

"So where do we start?"

[member="Carach"]

 

[Carach]

[member="Aria Vale"]

The robes rested lazily around his form, accentuating more than obscuring, but that was just as well.

While she dressed, he watched without any shame or concern, after all there was little more that could be hidden after what had transpired just a while ago. After Aria was dressed and she settled herself on the sofa, large shoulders shrugged slowly, before Carach thought about it in truth.

How to train this one?

This one was not an [member="Irajah Ven"] after all.

One had been broken into pieces, reduced to the very remnants of her being, which had been a perfect avenue to start and build her up again. In an image that was more suitable for him - but that was hardly the situation with Aria here.

True. He could break her himself, in a more respectable and professional matter than the Zambranos had done, reduce her to her basic instincts and wear her thin, until the aspiring Sith could be forged into something effective. But in truth Carach did not have that kind of time on his hands. This was not his Apprentice and as such he could not rationalize it for himself to truly invest that much effort and time into it.

But he could train her in different ways.

"We cannot train here. For the last couple of months I have build a place for myself here on Maena. We shall go there and we shall see what you are... made of."

 

[NightSister]

She raised an eyebrow.

"Alright," she said slowly, trying to decide whether she ought to worry or not.

It couldn't be that bad, in fairness. Probably.

Aria stood and made for the door, her head turning automatically to see if Carach was following suit - he'd need to lead the way, after all. The mention of this place he'd built had piqued her curiosity, mostly because she'd started to notice that Sith really liked their castles. Had she seen any castles on Maena? She really ought to explore more of Maena.

For perhaps a minute, she followed his lead in silence.

Then she decided that small talk might actually be less awkward than this.

"So..."

That said, there was the slight problem of Aria being somewhat hopeless at small talk.

"You've been on Maena a while, then?"

[member="Carach"]

 

[Carach]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Carach walked behind her, until she made way for him.

Past the large doors, down the corridor once again, until they found their way back towards the same landing pad they had been at earlier. There was her ship, but that was not the ship he was planning on using. After all, even on Maena secrets could save your... well life might be dramatic, but knowledge was power, after all. The less knowledge you gave away, the better.

To use this ship - one that could not cloak and would keep the coordinates in its system - that was a bit too much for him.

Not after one kark and chill anyway.

"A few weeks, yes, Matsu was kind enough to extend an invitation." Carach clarified, while studying the landing pad and the empty areas around it. Had she been paying attention she might have wondered why there was only one designated pad for landing.

"Yourself?"

A hand waved through the air and suddenly another landing pad illuminated itself through the shadows.

On it another ship, a Daisya Infiltrator. With some additional goodies.

 

[NightSister]

"Uh...oh, a few months now."

She frowned momentarily in thought, but it passed as quickly. Not, perhaps surprisingly, because she was contemplating how fast the time had gone - she was speeding through her usual game of reminiscence. She'd done very little in those few months, after all, hadn't she? Too late now to change the past, of course, but she'd have to be certain that she made up for it now that she'd started down a coherent path.

Lucky they were doing just that, then.

Another landing pad came into view and she blinked in a brief instant of surprise before her brain caught up and she connected the dots. Never one to be aware of her surroundings when she didn't need to be - as had been established already - she'd barely acknowledged having landed on seemingly the only landing pad. Mentally, she shrugged, and looked to Carach to see if he would lead on board the ship.

Presuming he did, Aria would follow, keenly aware that silence was setting in again.

Are we going to a castle? Probably a bad idea. "How do you and Matsu know each other, then? If - if you don't mind my asking, of course."


[member="Carach"]

 

[Carach]

His stride took him into the captain's chair, where a heavy frame settled itself down with ease.

Presumably [member="Aria Vale"] had followed him inside and sat down in the co-pilot chair. Long, deft fingers manipulated the controls of the ship with ease and already the soft hum of the engine could be faintly heard in the distance. It was an exceptional ship, silent, invisible to the bare eye once you stole away into the void of the Galaxy and engaged the systems. Sleek and graceful in all the ways most ships weren't these days.

It had panache.

"In a different life, I was her master." the Sith Lord replied after a while, once the ship took off into the air. It stayed relatively low, but high enough that they could see the land moving underneath them.

"She has come far since those early days."

It was a simple musing.

More to himself than to her, but considering she was right there next to him... it would probably be assumed to be directed to her in one way or another.

 

[NightSister]

A beat, and she sat down in the copilot's seat, casting a hesitant eye to [member="Carach"] as he started the ship.

He spoke, and she turned to look at him. "Oh."

It mildly surprised her to hear the extent of his bond with Matsu, and such was fleetingly visible in her expression. She'd not, in truth, given it much thought; Aria had more or less assumed the two Sith were friendly through some manner or another. That he'd taught her piqued Aria's curiosity, but she was happy to leave it at that for the time being.

Brows knit at his succeeding statement, and uncertainty quietened her momentarily. She liked, after all, to overthink.

She was silent for a few seconds longer, simply unsure of what to say. Not that she'd have minded if they remained wordless for what was left of the flight, but she was supposed to be learning and she could make something useful out of this. It wouldn't do not to make the most of her opportunities; that seemed inherently wrong to her. Easier, yes, but easier got one nowhere.

"How long've you been with the Sith, then?"