My Doors Are Open

[Darth Prazutis]

The Great Ziggurat of Hurom, Thule


This room was small, compact, far smaller than any of the other rooms within the sprawling superstructure of a temple that dominated the center of Hurom, its apex rose high above the fluid skyline of thousands of other militaristic style buildings. The floors in here were a rich creamy white marble arranged in squares separated by a thin black stone along each individual side. From every cluster of six tiles erupted grotesque pillars of obsidian hewn into anomalous patterns that seemed to follow no rhyme nor reason. In the very center of this chamber sat an upraised dais which served as the Qabbrat for the King of Thule, Warlord of Rattatak, and Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Prazutis swelled in the dark side of the force.

​The Dark Lord wore his most ghastly black and gold robes while he sat cross legged on the dais. A collection of items were positioned neatly in front of him: a pair of lightsabers and a collective set of radiant blue crystals that pulsed with the power of the force. Through the force vague shapes, premonitions of what was to come were given to the Destroyer. A single ship cloaked in darkness, and a single figure wreathed in shadow but an power within that allowed them to stand as if they too were titanic approached. Suddenly the pair of lightsabers as well as the crystals floated lazily into the air. He opened his eyes then the bright sulfuric blaze scythed through the darkness of the room, bearing down the gaggle of cloaked individuals silently surrounding the dais.

The very sight of his stirring sent them skittering back bowing their heads in submission to the subject of their divine worship. Darth Prazutis stood taking the sabers and concealing them within the folds of his robes, as well as the crystals.

[member="Braith Achlys"].

A woman who he never expected to meet or even to know. Braith Ma'at Achlys originally started as a target for the Sith Lord a lifetime ago, a victim he deemed to put to the axe. So the two fought and locked in battle neither could overcome the other, despite every attempt. The height of their duel saw both masters incapacitated and captured by monks of the Aing-Tii, their goals unknown. In the months after their capture after overcoming their differences he found a friend in the woman he came to kill, a lone ally surrounded by their mysterious enemy. They spoke and worked together designing a plan, a scheme to break from their prison and escape these monks that kept them locked away. When the day finally came their scheme worked and the pair had fought their way out of the prison, even reclaiming their lost possessions in the escape. However while fighting their way out quite suddenly Braith shocked him by deciding she wanted to stay with the monks, perhaps it would do her some good to remain? The reason of her decision eluded him and so she gave him a collective set of wild force crystals, and told him that someday she would find him to get those back.

That day was today.

Braxus swept down from the dais and exited through a set of double doors, a droid with an empty, soulless gaze dressed in the traditional kimono of an atrisian warrior moved at his side. The droid was a gift from [member="Matsu Xiangu"] one of many gifted between the pair in celebration of their new joint home in Maena. The droid itself was a special, complex design and later augmented with the power of mechu-deru by the Dark Lord "A single ship has entered Thule's atmosphere with coordinates for this complex your majesty. They haven't transmitted any clearance codes for landing and aren't listed on the manifest they've only sent one message: Found you." ​Despite the droids soulless unsettling gaze, the black power of the dark side really breathed life into it. "Clear her for landing and redirect her to one of the private docking platforms instead of the main hangar. I know exactly who it is." ​He said.

Through the halls the Sith Lord moved until he exited through a set of doors that led out to the docking platform, here he looked up at the sky waiting for her arrival.

 

[Ellie Mors]

East of Eden
Thule

They had always been different - Braxus and Braith. He despised the chains others had bound him in, so desperate to have escaped from the Aing-Tii, while Braith only sank further into resignation when she was made nothing more than the prisoner of a superior people. He was confident, he strode for his own success - elected to lift up others if it would help him along the way - and she was defeated, sacrificing her own freedom for someone she felt needed it more than her. The two had been enemies initially, but their mutual captivity drove them to genuine friendship, a sort of respect that the Sith held for a woman that was willing to give him the freedom that would have been useless to her - dying as she was. Selfless only because of sadness, it wasn't the kind of generosity that those that heralded the Light might preach of, as her intent was only to give him what she already decided was not in her best interests.

When it came time for their escape, and the two fled from their cages on the cavernous Aing-Tii world, it had quickly become clear that only one of the two could have a guaranteed freedom to the witch, and she elected to stay. Perhaps not only because she felt that the Sith had more time in the galaxy than she did - dying as she knew that she was - but also because she saw an opportunity that the Sith did not want to risk. In their parting she left Prazutis with a small collection of offering crystals and a promise - a promise that they'd meet again, under more favorable circumstances. She had willingly, albeit with small choice in the matter, stayed behind as a captive of the Aing-Tii at first, though her act of willingly aiding the Sith flee while she remained moved their people to a sense of compassion.

Five years passed and Darth Prazutis has clearly used the time she had given him well, succeeding in much more than the witch had thought he might had when they last saw each other. For Braith, however, the time she spent with the Aing-Tii had changed her in ways that no other way of life could. They treated her disease, slowing its progress to a snail's pace, they repaired her broken psyche and helped her regain both her sense of self and her connection to the force, and, perhaps most of all, they showed her an entirely new perspective on the force and gave her a new outlook on how she ought to spend her remaining years she had left.

She had arrived on Thule in a small transport, a taxi ride of sorts, and was directed to some private hangar, the pilot that had ferried her in return for a favor - she resolved a drought their small village had suffered - simply leaving as promised as she exited the craft. And there, waiting for her, was [member="Darth Prazutis"].

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​While Darth Prazutis stood out on the docking platform awaiting the arrival of [member="Braith Achlys"] the mysterious droid companion designated Allocer stood a pace or two behind his dark master. Allocer he called his gift from [member="Matsu Xiangu"] a malevolent droid companion who in one of his many functions, acted as his personal assistant. Allocer's capabilities in battle were tested in the facilities of Maena, now imbued with the dark side one could almost see the sinister gleam behind the mechanical droids soulless eyes as it silently tracked those around its master. "Your majesty reports are coming back from our assets on Khar Shian, the fortress has been searched from top to bottom. Nothing pertinent has been found aside from a token few slaves Darth Vitium has kept. Shall I have them dealt with?" ​Allocer coldly stated in a smooth atrisian accent that was included into its vocabulator. A grin formed on the Dark Lords face then, Matsu was right. She did tell him that once brought to life with the dark side he'd find the droid would be a very pleasant addition to his retinue, and Allocer never disappointed.

​The search of his new holdings on Khar Shian turning up nothing was disappointing. Loose visions of the force before its previous owners demise gifted him with the sight of dark sided artifacts. Prazutis nodded his head as the taxi of Braith descended onto the platform "Yes have them disposed of and inform assets there to begin renovations immediately." Braxus said. Time felt like it had slowed as he watched the taxi lower slowly to the platform before stopping on the platform. Five years. Five whole years had gone by since his time spent with Braith and five whole years he waited to feel something, to hear anything from her. Each year around the anniversary of when he was released he pulled out the set of crystals she had given him and meditated with them, focusing on the pulsating crystals perhaps hoping they'd help with his attempts to reach out and feel the alu'an's presence.

Nothing.

A light smile formed on his face when he felt her powerful aura roll from the taxi, crashing against the undulating waves of darkness emanating from his massive muscular form. When he got to know Braith she was broken, and deeply troubled. There was a look of hopelessness on her face one that he knew well from the many slaves on the world of Fornow in his native Pacanth Reach. The look when each slave realized this was doomed to be their life now, and nothing was going to change. The similar look struck across her face and the more he favored his new friend, the more that same look became almost painful. But as he watched her step from the taxi that same look was gone, replaced with something new that wasn't there before. Braxus swept across the platform closing the entirety of the distance between him and the alu'an.

"Braith. After all these years It's very good to see you alive." ​Braxus said taking the moment to embrace his friend in a hug. The Sith Lord typically wasn't one for such physical displays but today he felt it was necessary. Five years ago she had saved his life during the daring escape attempt. For without Braith he couldn't have escaped from the Aing Tii and couldn't have earned his freedom. To put it plainly he owed her a great deal. "We have so much to discuss. Come I want to know everything about what happened after the break out. But first..." ​Braxus said pulling out the set of crystals.

"These rightfully belong to you."

 

[Ellie Mors]

Sweet Ophelia

It was so surreal, to be not only independent of the Aing-Tii but to be alive, and almost well, when she should have died nearly two years ago of the sickness that had prompted her gift of freedom to Braxus. Even as he stood, waiting for her, she could see what he had brought for her - what he had kept for her. It brought something reminiscent of warmth to her chest, a flutter that reminded her of why she'd become friends with the man in the short time that they had spent together. The crystals she'd given him in parting had been as much a gesture of symbolism as it had been for a reason. There was nowhere they could go that she could not find them, a blood trail of her own making placed on the crystals when she had created them nearly eleven thousand years ago, and there was nowhere that Braxus had gone that he left them behind - each one still carried with him.

Last they had met she was struggling to find a reason to keep her eyes open most days, to give herself an explanation as to why she shouldn't flee from reality and live in a world of dreams, in a world beyond the stars, to be with an illusion - a figment of her own imagination - that had held the likeness of a woman from her memory. Today, half a decade later, she felt different in many ways. She didn't feel the weight of the galaxy pressing down on her shoulders, she no longer lamented the abrupt end of her relationship with a Jedi, and though she still felt the depressing cries in the force that must have been nothing more than background noise for other wielders of the force, still she found some joy and happiness in simply being alive. Still she longed for company, but she no longer obsessed over it.

"It has been too long, Braxus." She whispered, eyes shut with the smallest of smiles when they embraced. He motioned for her to follow him in, speaking of an interest in their time apart. Before ushering her in, however, he revealed what she already knew him to be carrying - the crystals she had entrusted him to keep with him in her absence. "I suppose they do, don't they?" Braith answered with a growing smile, something she felt herself doing more and more these days. There was no argument to be had that she was in a better place, metaphorically speaking, than she was six years ago when Corvus left her - she'd temporarily obsessed with the ideology of the Sith, an organization spawned from the ancient Sith purebloods that had once visited her world in her infancy. They were different than she remembered, different than those she knew as a child, but they were very much so obsessed with the power to triumph over their obstacles, and being as literal as she was she hoped it would help her find that which she had lost.

It hadn't.

But here she was, a different person entirely - less of a witch than she was when she was living with Raven and the the rest of her tribe on Pax Insul some ten millennia ago, and far less of a Jedi or Sith than she had been when she was living with Corvus and immediately thereafter. Independent, that was what she'd called herself, still calling on the natural forces of the world to achieve her ends, yet the Aing-Tii had also taught her much more that led her into a far more complicated view of what she had only ever perceived as the source of everything living and otherwise. Originally, to her, she'd seen the force as a omnipotent entity, a morally grey being that gave in to either dichotomy in the struggle of good and evil. After five years with beings that held a far higher understanding of the mystical flow, however, Braith understood it as something far more complicated than morality and reason. Even those who claimed to fight for what could very well be evil were not without their colors, at least not any that she had met.

Even a gesture as simple as returning possessions such as these assured her that the teachings of the Aing-Tii were far truer than any other that she had encountered.

"Are you doing well?" She asked, taking the crystals back into her hands through an effortless pull of telekinesis. Reconnecting with him was certainly one of the many reasons she'd came back to him, but it was her curiosity over his well-being that had concerned her most.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​After five long years since they separated on that fateful day despite all of the anger, all of the hatred he clung to in the dark side of the force, today he was genuinely happy.

​Over his lifetime there were very few people he allowed himself to get close to his mother the first, Kaine, occasionally a rare few over the years. So often time would pass them by or his choices back then would push them away. For a long time well before his introduction to the Sith Order he was lost. So many years were spent looking in the mirror without knowing who he was, the other person staring back at him truly alien. The only thing that truly made sense, the only thing that he could do well was what his mother taught him to do: death. As he drifted through life without a goal in mind minute fractures breaking off from the edge of his psyche, many potential friendships and connections were broken. There were those who tried to appeal to his conscience, who valiantly tried to pull him from his slump. They couldn't see how he dealt with the killing anymore, thought they knew it was effecting him somehow.

​They were wrong.

​When he went where they couldn't follow connections shattered, and his resolve slowly toughened over time to loss. To the Sith Lord of today friends were a fleeting thing, friends came and went rarely did they stay. But [member="Braith Achlys"]? The brief time he spent with her as a captive of the Aing-Tii was different, unique. Braith was allowed under the thick layer of armor he wore, and for once in a long time he chose to call another friend. To allow someone else truly close to him. It put him in an odd position, allowing another close. But for Braith it felt right, for her he would make the exception. She gave up five years of her life so that he could live out his own, so that he could thrive while she languished in the prison of the mysterious monks. For months, even years after the thought stuck in the back of his mind.

Why?

Why would she do something so kind for him? He was the stranger, the axe carrying executioner who had come for her head a short time prior? Every possible theory, every concept ran through his mind and carefully his cunning intellect picked them apart to find some measure of an answer. There needed to be an angle to all of this, but there wasn't. She showed him a kindness he hadn't seen in...a long time. As they began to slowly move back down the platform Braxus deigned to stand right next to her, the mysterious droid simply stood behind him off set, and back several paces. "I? I am. Where do I begin?" ​He said his eyes briefly panning to the doors up ahead already slid open in anticipation of their arrival.

Where to start?

So much has happened since the day he became friends with Braith Achlys, his own rise to power in the One Sith included. The elaborate scheme that saw his disappearance from the One Sith alongside his nephew, taking with him many, many assets. Everything from then to his recent successful duel with Silara Kuhn, there was so much. "You gave me a chance to live. You gave me your chance. I never stopped giving thanks for what you did, even if you weren't here." ​Braxus said as they passed into the halls. The Great Ziggurat held a private level close to its apex that held a string of personal rooms, should the King of Thule deem it necessary to stay in the capital. They would be his destination. "I'm actually doing well Braith. Recently I've found a new home outside of Panatha, right here on Thule where I rule. Its different...but it feels like home already." ​He said, gazing briefly to her.

 

[Ellie Mors]

Colors

There was no beating around the bush - the five years that she'd "given" to Braxus would never be something she'd get back, it was five very long, but altogether short, years shaved off of her lifespan. Unlike the Epicanthic-Anzati, Braith belonged to a species that had an even shorter average lifespan than humans, it was why she was so willing to give up so much of her life when she knew there was even less time than she'd previously expected left. He might have survived just as well as she had, perhaps it might not even had fazed him if he had been forced to stay behind for five years, but she had the understanding and the appreciation for every moment in life - or at one time she had - to know that he needed them more than she did. As far as she had known she would have died three years later with not a single soul to stay by her side when she slipped away, but he had a life full of opportunities to take advantage of. In a way, even though she was only a little over twenty in terms of conscious years old, time had matured her in ways that many simply would not understand.

Maybe that was her appeal to him, why he'd let her become such close friends with him even before she willingly traded the chance for living out her final years in freedom for his success, and perhaps he took notice of that part of her before she'd even reached the conclusion that she wanted something more for him than what she'd been able to attain for herself. Slavery, even if she'd been the one in the position of dominance in her early years, was something she'd earned for herself - no matter what cruelty Braxus had weaved, no matter what sins he had committed, he didn't deserve what she'd wrought with her mistakes. Even from the moment she woke up in the cell across from him, powerless and depressed, she'd already pushed him from the part of her mind that had considered him a threat. It was likely a pragmatic realization that conflict with someone who wanted to escape from the same situation was unwise, but it was that attitude that pulled them together.

They started as sarcastic cell mates, she'd mock him at first - and he, her - before their respondent silence led to talking at length about such random things like where they'd came from. Even being as private a person as she was, eventually solitude and mutual curiosity led to something like opening up for her - and, she suspected, for him, too. She told him about Disciple, the Sith that had an air of hostility and wielded strength that should have scared her adolescent mind when she was younger, but she'd rendered him as intimidating as a stuffed animal might have been - she told him about how much she missed the time she'd came from, about how she felt alone when she just couldn't sleep and he'd been willing to listen.

That seemed so long ago now, when they'd been all alone - when he'd been more or less forced to humor her, and she him, in order to pass the time they never thought they'd escape from. A lot had changed now, not long after he'd fled and she'd been pulled back into captivity, the Aing-Tii tried their hand at re-educating the witch, on pulling her back from the brink of suicide by starvation, back from being consumed by her depression, and they showed her a different perspective on the force. She'd always seen it as a guiding force, the source from which all life, thought, and existence sprung from - a primordial entity, if abstract - but they showed her the rainbow of colors it could be. It was in showing her a new way to live that she came to realize that she'd been dealt a better hand than she'd thought - they helped to slow her illness to a crawl, they taught her the abilities they'd spent so long perfecting, trained her in their ways, and every step along the way she saw an image that would steadily become clearer and clear as she grew closer to the moment of freedom, the moment she was released back into galaxy after successfully being rehabilitated into a more balanced person.

A soft smile crept up on her unknowingly as he made his gratitude for her personal sacrifice clear, perhaps seeming to be glad that her choice had been acknowledged - though she certainly was. But it was what she was looking at, a crystal-clear and razor-sharp image that came into perfect clarity now that she was where she wanted to be. He could have been talking about the color of the trees and she would have agreed with whatever he had to say at the moment, lost in thought as she nodded away to whatever it was he was talking about. Of course when his portion of the conversation broke reality slowly came back into focus, and she caught the tail end of what he'd been saying. "I'm glad you've done well for yourself." She managed to say, making sure there was no awkward pause between his break and her start.

"Time has always been moving without me, hasn't it?" Braith posed aloud, her faint smile still lingering, as she referenced the stasis she'd been forced to endure in partial slumber for nearly longer than the majority of recorded history. "I was hoping that maybe I'd find you again, maybe give you something to remember our short time together by." She said. Much like Braxus, Braith had not arrived with only personal affections. Retrieving a small object from within the nearly as small bag she'd carried beneath the cloak that covered her, Braith held out the device for the Sith to take. "After you left I was alone for days and weeks before they helped me get better, probably because I helped you leave - or because of why I did." She explained, not quite getting to what the device was just yet. "I spent those days talking about... well, everything. What I remembered of our talks, what my days were like when you were gone - what I learned. It's for you, something to remember me by, as thanks for helping me change." Braith said. "It is, more or less, the same as a holocron - though I'm afraid I haven't recorded my abilities or anything like that in there, just a silly little thing I thought might have meant a little to you." She added with a nervous laugh, not sure if he was quite as sentimental as she was - or if her gesture would be as well received as she'd thought when she was making it.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​In imprisonment his relationship with [member="Braith Achlys"] had an extremely rocky start. Their first interactions almost always involved the trading of barbs, each mocking the other. When they grew tired of the disputes an unsettling silence enveloped them in the isolated cells. The silence was unwelcoming and it crawled across his skin where normally he would find it peaceful, it felt abnormal. Eventually it weakened his resolve and he responded to the questions she asked him about where he was from, and he asked the same in turn. They began talking then getting over for the moment that not long before they had been trying to kill one another.

​The former enemies became fast friends then. While she had told him about her unique encounters with a Sith by the name of Disciple, of the time period she came from, of her people, and how she missed that period. Braith was such a lonely person, a deep seated depression and a look of hopelessness in her eyes that for some reason unsettled him. So when she felt lonely in these cells he had chosen to be there to listen. In turn he told her about his deceptive true heritage as a hybrid among the pureblooded Epicanthix, he told her some about the dark and broken period of his life where he was left lost, each day he continued to get up to perform the basic function of the only things that made sense, all of the terrible things he had done. Each day parts of his own mind broke off and he sank further into his own depression. He told Braith about how when he had finally broken that Kaine Zambrano, his young nephew was the man there to help pick up the pieces.

Kaine had helped rebuild him from the shattered broken individual he was and gave him purpose, he gave him strength and breathed life back into a man who had lived without such for many years. While others saw him as this terrible monster no matter what he had done Kaine is, was, and always would be his family, his blood. Kaine did more for him than anyone had ever done before, and Braxus wasn't sure he'd actually exist in present times if the man had not intervened. He told Braith about his home of Panatha and even for its bad reputation how beautiful Panatha truly was.

After his daring escape time had sped on and he was once more thrust into the war of the One Sith Empire which saw him ascend to the top as a Dark Councilor, the Director of Intelligence. But the war ultimately climbed forever downhill at such a rate that even Kaine could see. They became disillusioned with the message of the One Sith then and during this period while Kaine tossed off his name and quietly pulled Panathan assets from the Sith, Braxus ripped his own assets out and left. How since then time seemed to speed by in a blur. But in that time he climbed higher up on the ladder, moving from standing behind Kaine to standing alongside him, moving from calling him master and my lord to my friend and my brother.

​As Braith began to tell him about the time after he left Braxus gave her the floor to talk, listening to her words. When she had produced the small object he rounded in front of her and stopped their progress in the halls while he took the small rectangular object.

"I spent those days talking about... well, everything. What I remembered of our talks, what my days were like when you were gone - what I learned. It's for you, something to remember me by, as thanks for helping me change." Braith said. "It is, more or less, the same as a holocron - though I'm afraid I haven't recorded my abilities or anything like that in there, just a silly little thing I thought might have meant a little to you."

​What she said surprised him and brought immense joy, its palpable emotions flashed out on his face as she spoke. After he escaped he often wondered what her days were like without him, how she managed. He wondered how the Aing-Tii had treated her, if they had punished her because they couldn't reach out to him. There were many nights he spent up thinking of her, reaching out with his resources to see if he could find anything on her. "Braith..." He said looking at the holocron, the words failing to spill from his lips as he marveled at the object. It was the answers to years of sleepless nights, the years of questions and speculations he had. He pulled her into another hug then embracing her tighter then when she had first arrived. "Thank you so much for this. Truly it means a lot, it means a lot more than you even know. Thank you." ​Braxus said pulling away, he tucked the holocron into the folds of his robes. "After I left and I came home for so many nights after, for many years after you have and still do hang on my thoughts. I wondered what had happened after the escape, how they treated you...if they had...hurt you." ​​A sliver of anger erupted in his mind then as he thought of the prospect. The Aing-Tii were truly a hard people to understand, he wasn't sure if they had hurt her because of his escape, but never could he find any answers.

​Braxus continued guiding her into a turbolift then that would take them to the private level of the grand ziggurat. "It is the answers I've been lookin for but could never find..." ​Braxus said, pausing briefly as if a question hung loosely on his tongue, before choosing to speak again. "They didn't hurt you, did they...?"

 

[Ellie Mors]

If there was one thing that Braxus had that Braith did not, it was time. Time to spend planning, time to fight, to build up a small empire of sorts - time to wait for her return. She'd implied enough of what she was thinking, though her subtlety went unnoticed, regarding what she thought she had left - although she was glad that Braxus put a focus on his appreciation and her well-being. Where he was concerned with her past, she was concerned with their present - and to a lesser extent, the future. There was no denying that the two held a connection closer than most, and though she was hesitant to pressure him - or herself - into strengthening that bond she knew it could not go without nurturing for long. She smiled, partially in surprise, with the embrace he locked her in as he gave her his thanks, keeping quiet as he explained what he had felt following their separation. It was that part of him that was endearing to her, his genuine concern that he displayed so easily where she remained silent.

"I have not done as well as you, Braxus, but I have gone unharmed by their hands." She answered with a small smile, not one that spoke quite so much of happiness as much as it spoke of nostalgia. "They managed to give me more time in this world, and slowed the growth of my cancer so that I might have another chance to recover." Braith explained, glancing off to the side with conflicting emotions growing inside of her. "Most of my pain came from what made me ill, and I'm afraid that I'm not sure how to cure it. They taught me how to delve into the past, to walk through the currents of the force and observe echoes of distant eras. I learned from ancient Jedi, Sith, and even tribal shamans - including the Aing-Tii - in an effort to treat it, and thus far my efforts have been in vain." She said. It was odd, to be happy to be here - to reunite with a friend - while also knowing full well that the moment likely would not be made to last, unless he could help her discover something she had failed to before.

"It's so strange, you know? To be hold the strength to push against the tides of war, but to be defeated so quickly and so easily by something as simple as disease."

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​Disease.

​The deadly cancer of the alu'an was familiar to Braxus Zambrano it was one of the topics that [member="Braith Achlys"] had brought up during their discussions. The sudden realization of her terminal illness came crashing to the forefront of his mind like a tidal wave, pressing out all other thoughts and concerns. The illness from what he knew was in her very blood, her DNA, and it was slowly killing her. In truth his mind had buried such thoughts over the years, such worries were easily replaced by the unknown. It was easier after all to fear what he didn't know then the fear he did know to be true. Through his extended lifespan of the species he was gifted with all of the time he could desire. So he was always fixed on the future his eyes always locked on the horizon and what came next, some would say that made him a true visionary.

She didn't have such luxury.

Braiths time was limited and valuable she couldn't afford to waste any minute of it. A minute wasted she couldn't get back and she didn't have much time left. The thought of losing her so quickly after getting her back truly scared him, five long years without her and the very idea that she could end up dying here. He refused to believe it. Braxus guided her out of the turbolift as it reached the pinnacle of the ziggurat through a hall of white marble into the apex's office. It was of difference design a dark stone with rich wood a wall of bookshelves lined the right side, while a series of display cases, and pedastals holding various vases and busts lined the right side, a set of balcony doors set in the center. There was a number of couches on the right closer to the book shelves while a raised dais held a large desk with a computer terminal.

​Braxus waited until he guided her to the couch before sitting down next to her. He took her hands in his own swallowing her smaller hands up before he sighed heavily. "I'm glad that they've helped you and given you more time, and I understand the notion. To survive everything else, to hold so much power yet its the simplest of things that end up being our hubris." ​He said looking away. A lifetime in servitude as an agent of the dark side took its toll on his body, like its own slow moving virus. While the immense dark side power swirling through his veins brought him strength one vessel simply couldn't contain that much darkness, and it was slowly eating away, his own struggle. "Braith I'm glad your here with me again..." ​Braxus said looking back to her a light smile fading from his face as he spoke from the heart. "I want you to stay...with me. We will work together, we'll discover how to beat the cancer coursing through your veins, we'll cure it." ​He said as one hand left hers to come up to her face, he let it rest on the side of her cheek then as he gazed into her eyes.

​Braith was closer to him than anyone had gotten in a long time, she wasn't just a friend who he knew years prior. No Braith had changed his life, she changed the course of his life. "I can't lose you...I won't lose you again, I care for you too much to allow that to happen. We'll find a way, together."

 

[Ellie Mors]

Break The Fall

Even as the realization of her situation dawned on the man, as his expression changed to something she could have considered as genuine a concern as any, Braith's expression shifting to a bittersweet smile. Happy he cared, that she was here, but angry that it was under these circumstances - circumstances far beyond her control with a very short time table for her to try to give herself an extension. But that was how it always was for her, always something sweet to help bite back the bitter taste of life, and it was what had made her nearly lose her wits in the series of events that led up to her duel with Braxus on that asteroid. Sometimes she just wanted to ball her hands into fists, beat them against the wall - the ground, anything - to let off her frustration. People complained every day, complained about being in a horrible relationship, about how they could only barely afford to pay for their lavish lifestyles, or about how their views were contradicted by the views of others - all sounding very valid from the perspective of someone who was perfectly healthy with not much more than a place to stay and something to eat to be concerned over.

But she was concerned that every time she went to sleep would be the last time she'd be able to draw a breath, that she would never find a cure for this insufferable cancer, and - perhaps worst of all - that she would spend the final days as miserable, alone, and angry as she'd spent the year before her time with the Aing-Tii. To her, the worries of finding a place to sleep, finding decent tasting food, and having money were not much more than a laughable joke when she compared it to the very real fear of death - a fear that she apparently shared with the man she'd come to know as a closer friend than any. And when she looked at him, when she saw what was eating away at him, she knew she wasn't the only one suffering in this galaxy - though she did not need a visual example to make her aware of the obvious. Corruption of the dark side was a very real, very taxing, toll on the body and mind, and while she could not ascertain a method to destroy the cancerous cells in her body and keep them from recurring, it was well within the range of her abilities to mitigate and even reverse those effects.

"Together I am certain we can accomplish anything." She said, although she couldn't mask the pained bitterness in her voice. Her eyes closed in inward frustration at the slip of her tone, not wanting to sound upset with Braxus, when his hand touched her cheek. The foreign sensation on her skin felt like ice, not in an undesirably uncomfortable way, but it scared her - she hadn't realized how close they'd been, how natural it felt to be so close that the feeling of his skin on hers felt normal, and it scared her nearly as much as being alone did. She could back away, distance herself to save Braxus the grief of her death with the added pain of losing.. well they weren't an item yet, and she certainly couldn't presume that a gentle caress was anything more than a gesture caused by a spur of the moment. And even if they were.. she had some faith in him to find a way to resolve this, she couldn't lose all hope and simply let herself slip away silently. "Together, then, Braxus." Braith whispered, sighing shortly thereafter, as though she'd just accepted a heavy burden at his insistence.

There was no fooling herself after the meaning of those last few words he'd offered her.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​Throughout his lifetime there were very few people Braxus truly grew close to, a rare group who he gave his genuine trust, and loyalty to. Those individuals he could trust implicitly who still drew breath he could count on one hand, trust inherently was a weakness and one he hesitantly gave out. Most of these individuals who he trusted could be counted as family with Kaine as his blood nephew but he was the closest thing Braxus had to a brother in this world. Matsu Xiangu was someone who he considered a sister their bond unexplainable, and the only person so far with who he made the hesitant decision to link minds in a unique experience that brought them together as one, of course there were a scant few others. Then there was [member="Braith Achlys"]. Out of the small group Braith was wholly different from most of the family, most of his friends.

​During their time together locked away in the cells he grew close to Braith the very foundations of their bond forged that day. But even Braxus didn't truly realize how deep their bond ran, how close their connection had become. They were connected both through their bond and the bond of pain. While she suffered each day as a virulent cancer ate away at her body the dark side corruption coursing through his veins was his cancer. While he could wear clothing and gloves to cover up his paling skin, his darkened fingernails, while he could hide the slight tremble in one of his hands that emerged during quiet moments, he couldn't hide the presence of darkness that swirled around his figure. Braith never needed a physical example to see how he suffered, how taxing his dedication to the dark side was on his body and mind. While her cancers could be treated through medical means and even through the force, his own were far more difficult to fix in its progressed state. Through his pain he understood her struggle as well.

​The concerns of where one would sleep, finding food, and earning money were laughable pursuits to her. The cancerous disease had progressed in her body treatments for such a disease weren't common. To her she slept each day without knowing whether or not she would wake up, if it would be her last. The short lived lifespan of her species at first glance might've sealed her fate, and the cancer even more so spurred her to these beliefs of living in the moment. In truth as he sat next to her on the couch with one hand gripping hers the other on her face, it felt normal. For the first time in a long time it felt normal, it felt right to sit next to her, to feel her skin on his own. The sensation and the internal feeling of what was happening was terrifying in itself. "Together, then, Braxus." ​Braith whispered, the telltale sigh afterwards like she had accepted a heavy burden.


It was wholly terrifying with what was occurring there was an extremely small pool of people even smaller than his friends who he truly held similar feelings for. It seemed for them their time would've been limited and they could spare each other the pain of loss. They weren't truly together yet. The thoughts of growing close to her, of losing her down the road added to the unknown feeling in his stomach, the threat of losing her again building it was almost too much to bear. If it were any other situation he could've entertained the idea, would've entertained the idea of walking away. But being beside her and feeling her warmth beneath his hand he had faith. Faith that it wouldn't be the beginning of the end. Faith that they could research the treatments to cure her cancer, discover a way to stave off his own dark side corruption.

Braxus leaned in allowing the hand on her cheek to fall to her side as he pressed his forehead to hers, a similar sigh escaping his lips as they gently met. In the welcomed silence she might've seen one of his hands tremble then, a weakness in this moment that he chose not to hide away. "The future is uncertain for the both of us, the weight of our struggles crushing down on us." ​He said tightening the grip on her hand ever so slightly as if she was going to slip away if he let go. "The fear of the unknown can be strong...but we shouldn't let the fear of our future control us." ​Braxus whispered again unmoving as he shut his eyes. Despite the fear of what they were becoming, what the future held in store for them he decided he wasn't going to allow it to control him. This felt real, it felt for the first time in a long time normal. ​Braxus opened his eyes then sighing as if the burden of something long weighing him down was lifting, he pulled his head away then to look into her eyes. "Regardless of what the future holds for us and our struggles. I want you by my side ​through it all..."

"Together."

 

[Ellie Mors]

For all the man was worth, he didn't seem to understand the source of her fears - if they should be called fears at all. She wasn't afraid of dying tomorrow - not for her own sake, death was simply the next page in the book if she were to pass. It was the impact that her death would have on others that terrified her. Corvus couldn't handle the idea of her dying, so self-absorbed with grief and selfish refusal to accept the potential of loss that she simply left, whereas Braxus seemed to mistake her growing compassion - more particularly toward him - with fear for the future. She lived in the now, that much was obvious, and while that mindset might have sprung from the awareness of her disease, it was not the only factor and it was not the reason behind that ideology. Though he had made a slight misunderstanding regarding what caused her discomfort, it was still comforting to know that someone cared enough to be concerned for her sake.

When they had been together in that cell hall, she'd never really thought of him - even near the end - as much more than a friend, if not a close one. Her heart had been for one woman, and it had taken a long time for her to be ready to allow someone else to take that place in her life. Near the end of that transitioning period now, having started the year off wishing only to have someone fill that void and now nearly to the point of never wanting anyone like that again, it was very possible that the fragility she'd been subjected to was being taken advantage of by a man that perhaps felt feelings that she wasn't quite yet welcoming. It wasn't that she didn't fancy the idea of romance, and it wasn't that she hadn't wondered if he'd felt the way he'd very plainly made clear to her, it was that she felt it would be wrong to have another grow attached to her only to see her die within the decade. She had tried to commit suicide on a desert world in wild space during her travels, before she met Braxus, because she didn't know if she could have even gone on that long without the woman that had been everything to her up until that point. Being rescued by a Lorrdian had ensured her continued existence, but it had given her insight on how another might feel if she died while in a relationship.

Perhaps she was simply wise beyond her years, or perhaps Braxus was still naive in this regard, but she recognized how difficult simply being in a relationship at this point would be, and perhaps it could have been observed as an anxiety for the future, for the very reason she'd kept herself from entering into another one. Every time they drew close, every moment they spent together, she would cherish those moments - she would never feel less than genuine affection for him if he wanted to keep her close. But the realization of the inevitable future, of what kind of effect it would have on Braxus, would push her through nightmares that she would experience each and every night. To put it bluntly, what his attraction did to him only served to hurt her and affect her insecurities in equal measure.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​In the eyes of Braxus Zambrano he completely understood exactly what the cancer of [member="Braith Achlys"] meant. He wasn't ignorant to the idea nor did he miss that there was a small chance within the decade that she would breathe her last breath. But would he let it stay his hand, would he reconsider letting her into his life so intimately? The very few attempts at love in his lifetime ended up in heartbreak whether he simply outlived the other, or things didn't work out not with the path to darkness he had been set on. When one was allowed so close it made leaving, or the splitting up all that much worse to deal with, further steeling his defenses in the future. The wise voice in his mind told him that distancing himself from Braith was what he should do, save himself the pain of losing someone who was so close to him.

But he wouldn't.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

​In the moment of her acceptance there was the briefest of moments that he caught a glimpse of the frustration in her mind. The fraction was tucked away within the subconscious of his mind then, the weight of the moment just too much to bear. Braxus closed the remaining distance between them and his lips met hers, the warmth of her mouth sent an electrifying current through his body as he slid his arm around her back. For the moments when their lips met all other concerns would fall away. There was no worry or fear that she could end up succumbing to the cancerous virus already and all remaining thoughts fell away. They would tackle the challenge together and together they would beat this deadly affliction.

​Some time later...

​Narvas Iv Zveris, Thule
​Chambers of the King...

​​Deep in the inhospitable wilds of Thule stood the single most well protected citadel on the planet, perhaps in the entire sector. Wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement manned by the elite warriors of the Blackblade Guard Narvas Iv Zveris stood as the citadel of the King of Thule, Warlord of Rattatak, and Arch-Prince of the Pacanth Reach. So where was the skulls, the bodies of impaled victims one might expect of someone who carried the alias of the Destroyer? There was a beauty to the tall walls and intricate designs that went into creating the great citadel.

​If it weren't for the great presence that lingered here, if it weren't for all the personnel who manned this great citadel it would look beautiful.

​So where was the King? Perhaps he was holding court, or out leading another assault against all those who were labeled as his enemies? Braxus Zambrano was in bed. In the very apex of the citadel was the personal quarters of the King of Thule. The chamber held a blend of ornate black marble in the stone floor and a more modern grayish black in the wall aesthetic. Up here in the roof of the world existed only regal splendor, exotic pieces of art imported from all across the known galaxy, and trinkets from long lost societies. Perhaps the only thing typing the chamber to the occupant were the Epicanthix idolatry mixed in to this ornate chamber. A set of double doors flanked by windows lined one side of the chamber where one could walk out to the great balcony and get an excellent view of the sunrise.

​It was here where the King of Thule slept silken sheets were pulled up over his muscular frame, the form of Braith lay pressed up against his own curled between his arm. While his physical body rested the Dark Lords great mind stretched out, it was then that he dreamed.

In his dreams he was on the medical level of his great citadel within the operating room as an array of doctors and surgeons, the best his fortune could afford in the entire galaxy gathered around one person who lay barely moving in the center of this rapidly moving crowd: Braith. Many elaborate treatments and schemes were brought to bear to squash her cancer as her body continued to break down, but failure came faster than new methods could be concocted, with each moment her heartbeat wavered and with each moment she experienced more pain. "Were losing her!" ​One of the nurses said loudly to the crowd, prompting him into action. They said they could do it, they told him they could accomplish it: No. Braxus ran to her side then the doctors clearing space as he grabbed her hand in both of his own, watching as she looked over to him. The look in her eyes the same look just before the end sent cracks through the confident persona, breaking him into many small fragments. Even with her weakened strength she gave his hand one last squeeze her eyes never wavering as the voices of doctors faded from his senses.

Then came the loud blaring sound as her heart stopped and she faded away it was all he could hear.

The dream ended just then as reality returned in a storm of heavy breathing, his head shot up from the pillow as reality once more came crashing down as he turned to look at Braith sighing in relief to see her alright. It had only a short period since she came to Thule, some time since his affections were returned and already their love had unfurled in the short time. The time spent with her the woman's cancer had always dwelled in the back of his thoughts, always remaining over them but never had it broken into his dreams, never was it so real and vividly seen in his visions.

No he wouldn't accept it.

He would redouble his efforts in sending out his vast resources. The images in his mind were vivid and terrifying, no one would put Braith on that table so long as he lived, she survived captivity she would survive this. Braxus's head hit the pillow with another sigh of relief.

 

[Ellie Mors]

The Fatal Wound

Dreams, they say, are powerful things; gateways to the deepest of human emotions, pathways through imagination and creativity to the realm of expectation and doubt. Many dreams could be of wonderful events - a glimpse into an ideal future, a life of happiness, getting something someone always wanted - but they could be dark, nightmarish, at the drop of a hat. While Braxus dreamt his nightmare beside her - his body tossing and turning, a grunt of frustration here and there, a desperate grasp for her hand at the front of her torso - Braith did not have the luxury of escaping the waking world to dream of fantasy, horror or not. The Alua'an experienced strange visions, moments in time that could have been in the past or the future, or even occurred even as she slept, and what she saw could often be heavily influenced by her mood prior to sleep or by what was going on around her as she slept. The nightmare, in this instance, was a relatively easy form of fear to influence her experience with, and though she had drifted into a world of beautiful trees and wildlife, what she saw shortly thereafter was no less frightening than the dream Braxus had beside her.

She recognized, at least in part, the world of Pax Insul from the time she lived on the world for much of her life. It was a beautiful planet, dotted by island paradises and once inhabited by many people, people who had lived, during her era, as a tribal people that knew little of life beyond their cute archipelago. They knew of petty wars, struggles for tribal dominance, and they knew of primitive religions - worshiping both idols and living 'gods'. But what she saw was long after she had disappeared from the eye of the people, her tribal elders sealing her within an oubliette likely hundreds of years before what she saw.

The moment in time - or, perhaps more accurately, the moments in time - she was observing was a direct consequence of the attempt to rid the galaxy of her.

Though she wasn't physically present - not that she ever knew if she was or not - there was a sickening turning in her gut as she realized what was transpiring. A burning behind eyes that weren't there, a gut-retching sense of regret for doing so horrible to so many that were completely ignorant of the evils their elders performed to maintain a fabricated control, and she knew it was all her doing - her own making, and though she could blame the traitors that had used her perceived divinity to control both her and the people at large, there was no denying that she was instrumental in the disaster that had caused the people of Pax Insul to disappear forever.

It was so surreal to observe the effects of her temper from the perspective of what she could only assume was one of the many people of the coastal world, to look out on the horizon, towards the ocean that was just far enough from the islands to not directly effect the people with the torrential static storm that loomed over the waters, but close enough to throw incredible waves against the island shores and to push the people into creating a habitat that could be sustainable under the waves.

Even while occupied, staring out at the grey clouds that had kept the sunlight from shining through as brilliantly as it had the year before - and progressively less every year from the moment she'd been forced into her tomb onward - Braith could still remember the exact moment that she had poured all of her anger and her hurt into causing this, all born out of spite. She had only known the world as an adult for twenty changes in the moon, a little over four hundred suns, when the elders had began to grow weary of her popularity with the tribesman of her village and others. She had forced the rival tribes to surrender to her people, lifted her own elders on her shoulders, and ended an uncounted era of war in favor of what she had hoped would have been an eternal peace.

She was a goddess, one of ten, and though the common man believed her to be such, the elders that had declared her to be the living avatar of their deity had known it was a lie from the moment it was spoken. Blind to their greed and their jealousy, she never suspected she had been a simple pawn - never questioned what would happen once she led her people to prosperity, once she achieved the prophecy of great change that a true seer had declared that the first of her name would achieve. Every night, away from the sunlight, and away from the prying eyes of the common folk, Braith learned how to live as a deity that would deliver her tribe to victory, to access what the elders called 'the source', to pull on power that dwelt both within and outside of her. They hadn't anticipated the marvelous growth that she displayed, just as they hadn't expected her to so easily sway to their words - though they'd expected it to be easy to convince a child from birth that their cause was just.

But seeds of doubt had been planted by the Sith pureblood that called himself Disciple, a man that curiously didn't lay a finger on her in his short visit to her world. They never learned of his presence, the Sith lord far too capable to be observed by such simpletons of power and skill as they, but he taught her to look beyond the veil of naivety, to question what she thought was true, and though she was still young, still innocent and impressionable, she took his words to heart. Through the end of her adolescence and through the better part of her teenage years, she often questioned the necessity of what she did - why she had to pull the life force and the souls of sacrifices from their bodies and seal them into the crystals her warriors carried to battle, why she was bound to such a mortal form if she was indeed the goddess that they taught her she was.

But it was the question she asked as an adult that finally taught them that she had become too large of a risk to keep alive. Several moon cycles after her eighteenth birthday, shortly after the celebration held on its behalf, a treaty of peace between the tribes had been forged. There would be no more fighting, no seasonal warring over crops or islands, and they would come together as a collective rather than keep to themselves. It had been just as she'd wanted, as she had dreamed every night before she went into battle to put the fear of death into the hearts of the enemies of her tribe. But there had been an unspoken reason behind the armistice, one that never reached the ears of the young Alua'an that believed herself divine.

The elders of each tribe had indeed arrived for talks of peace before it was drafted, though it was called for by Braith's own tribal elders - the tribe that had been in the position with the least to gain from peace, and the most to gain through war. They knew it would have been a matter of time before the supposed goddess grew weary of being lorded over by those she deemed to be lesser beings than she - and the people, already having given her their support, would happily see to a theocratic rule by their deity rather than a circle of old men and women who claimed to represent a deity, and others, that were already present among the living. They also knew that the other tribes would happily see to a treaty, if only temporary, on the condition - as offered by her tribe's elders - for Braith's eternal imprisonment or death, lest the elders let her loose on their tribes and eradicate them and their people regardless. The other tribes knew far too little of her elder's fears to know that they had a better chance for true peace by opposing the agreement, so they signed with the knowledge that their struggles would finally be coming to an end.

But even they, elders and her former teachers and retainers alike, could not imprison the force that was Braith Achlys, so they sought the woman that was both closest to her and the only one that held a power that could suppress her abilities long enough to give them a chance. She was called Bathia, a woman that carried a staff made jointly between she and Braith that could project a cleansing light that would push back all darkness - even the darkness that Braith thought herself to be an embodiment. Braith, in turn, carried a spear that would eat through all life - cutting through the light like a shadow. They were the two people that the tribes believed to be living incarnations of deities, though Bathia was slightly older than Braith, and they became somewhat close following their initial clash over tribal territory.

But it was a closeness forged through jealousy and respect, not sincerity or attraction. They saw the other as peers, though Braith believed, albeit naively, that she was closer to her and more of a friend than Bathia let on. This woman, Bathia, was absolutely instrumental in her imprisonment, the source of the anger and flurry of emotions that caused her to lash out so desperately during the moments of her sealing. The light that had blinded her was pushed forth from the staff Braith had called the Light of Bathia when she helped her supposed friend create it, and for a moment it had robbed her of the connection to the source of her mystical strength - until the spear in Braith's hand was let loose and flew through the woman's heart. But by then it was too late, the elders of each tribe already pushing against her with telekinetic might, forcing her into the oubliette that would become her prison for millennia. In her final moments, with only spite as motivation, Braith poured out all of her strength as her body was pushed into the coffin and screamed for the world to brew a storm so great that it would wipe the traitors from its surface.

And so, centuries later, as the rage and spite finally came to fruition, Braith watched through the innocent eyes of the observer in the past as the storm clouds finally swelled and grew across the horizon. She looked on without the ability to push away what she saw, the torrential downpour that rushed over the waters and over the islands like a monsoon. But it wasn't the storm, as terrible as it was that riddled her with guilt, it was that it never stopped. For hundreds of years the rain continued - and she watched it through the eyes of many, the waters that flooded the islands, that pushed its people to progressively higher ground, until eventually they could only live beneath the sea.

But the constant rain, the dark and cloud-filled sky, slowly pushed the temperature of the water to a temperature impossible for the creatures that the people who lived there could grow sustenance from, turning to vegetation instead - until that, too, became too scarce to support a civilization. Slowly, one by one, the people of Pax Insul died off with slow and agonizing deaths, a famine so great that its people eventually stopped trying to procreate - believing it better to simply not bring a child into such a perilous world. By her hand an entire people disappeared from the face of the galaxy, all because of her spite for only a handful of people. Her mysterious disappearance, and the arrival of the slowly growing storm mere decades after, were quickly linked to each other by the commoners, believing she had left them for some grave sin and was punishing them for it.

And when she finally woke from the vision, her eyes held half-open solemnly, she kept silent as she dwelt on her choices - wondering what might have happened if she hadn't made those choices.

She winced when she heard Braxus wake, startled, and felt his eyes on her back as she lie perfectly still on the bed and waited for him to fall back to sleep with tightly shut eyes.

She didn't want to regret anything else, least of all this.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​The dream was so vivid, so real, it was almost like a vision.

​The Dark Lord was no stranger to visions and experienced them many times before since his ascension through the ranks of the Sith, and his mastery of the dark side. But the dream of [member="Braith Achlys"] was wholly different than what he'd expected in recent times. Nightmares in times past were no stranger to him before his climb to Sith Lord, regretful decisions of his past hanging on his mind. The past in particular before his time in the Sith Order much of it was memories he'd rather forget and bury then remember. But typically when his vast mind reached out in sleep across all he surveyed, the Sith Lord never experienced such gripping nightmares.

Especially about her.

It had been a long time since he dream of Braith, dreams he experienced after the two had parted ways during that daring escape attempt. Dreams of the pain she went through by their hands, of her chastising him for leaving her behind, his inability to find her, but in time they faded when he needed to come to terms with the idea that she would never come to him. But recent times have showed him exactly what was possible when one believed, in five years he never disposed of her crystals and here he found her, arriving at his doorstep. Things had escalated quickly after a kiss of passion in her office, a proclamation that whatever the future brought, they would face it together. They would take on her cancer and beat it together, and no one would take her from this world, no one would rip her from his arms again.

So began their relationship. One that blossomed with affection, flourished with eruptions of passion between one another. In the five years since the dreams he never experienced them again, until now.

​When Braxus finally slowed his breathing down his gaze looked to Braith, the distractions in his mind diverting his attention enough that he did not notice he startled her. Under the folds of the silken sheets he chose to slide closer to Braith to press his body against her own, to feel the warmth her bare skin brought. He slid one of his arms around to her front then wrapping her in his warm embrace, while he placed tender kisses on the back of her head. For once he was glad he wasn't alone.

 

[Ellie Mors]

The fundamental difference in the two's philosophical views on life - although, truly, Braith wasn't quite so certain that Braxus held so strong a view as she did - were indeed her source of discomfort, and though he could provide a moment's pause from the anxiety that tugged at her gut it was also true that he was its source. As Braxus fell back to sleep and she lay, still, with her eyes shut, wishing that her dreams would take her again to somewhere at least a little more pleasant than her last, she wondered if this was going to be how each and every night would be for her until her last. Braxus's confidence in his ability to find a way to keep her tethered to this world, or at least to him, was admirable and it was incredibly endearing, but it was also horrifically naive. That wasn't to say that she saw the man as childish or immature, at least not in regards to how he felt about how likely it was for her to die and never find a way to cure her of this disease, but she felt the weight of his expectations on her shoulders, knowing that if she did pass - if he did fail to save her, as he continuously assured her he would not - that it would be a crushing pain that would hurt him in ways he likely never had been, and it would weigh on her soul even as she languished in the afterlife.

Being worried for the feelings of another was simply who she was - she'd learned to be empathetic and compassionate over the last dozen or so years by the very people who had once swore off their passions. As ironic as it was, her care and compassion for the Sith lord that slept adjacent to her were the very Jedi that he wanted to kill. She saw the irony in it, part of her even a tad bit insecure that he might resent the part of her life that was spent with them, but with anything that was beholden to time, it was only a brief time in her life that only left lasting impressions on her life - she was no Jedi, though she wouldn't doubt that it would have been a facet of her that likely would have added some added satisfaction for him if she had.

Her mind wandered again, though now centered on the man she was clinging to with a bit more desperation that she'd like to admit, and she wondered if she was a more permanent fixture in his life - for the duration of hers - as he made her out to be. Though Braxus was, currently, extremely genuine with his words, showing far greater patience than most by actively waiting for her during a period of time that could have seen her die or killed in his absence. It was what drew her to him, the gestures he made and the commitment he kept with her, but experience had shown her that even well-intended acts of love and promises of any kind could quickly be forgotten with no fault to those that had made those claims.

One only needed to look back at Braith's own history of relationships to see how quickly love could be abandoned out of grief and self-pity, and it would have certainly given her pause when she reunited with Braxus earlier that day if not for the gift he'd returned to her. As much as she didn't want to push herself back into relying on another to return her affection and love, she knew that the two of them needed that in their lives - and now more than ever. It was a stage of life that nearly all biological species went through, a need to couple with another in an effort to feel secure with the company of someone they could place their total trust in. It was that devotion that she needed, that she felt he needed, too, and it was what made her decide to let the cards fall where they as they may. A gamble, certainly, but she was hurting and he longed for commitment and her.

She rolled on her back, looking at his sleeping features, his expression of peace in slumber, and felt a pained smile spread from the corner of her lips. Everything inside of her told her that she should have spared him of his fantasies of saving her, kept him ignorant of what it felt like to have his feelings of affections returned, and part of her even told her to leave while he slept. But she wanted to forget that she didn't have quite so long left, that there was a very large chance that he wouldn't succeed in his personal mission to keep her alive, and she wanted to lay here with him for eternity, thinking only of their future, of something so uncertain yet so hopeful. It was an internal conflict that caused her that pain, that pushed at the back of her throat and stung at the corner of her eyes.

She wanted to be his forever - and for him to be hers - but she knew, also, of life's impermanence. It was through the realization that he would never truly belong to her that she felt that lingering pain, that throbbing at the base of her throat that threatened to escape through a whimper, and the stinging in her eyes that promised to stain her cheeks with tears. It was a pain that hurt more than any dagger, hurt so greatly that she was kept silent when she wanted his comfort - wanted him to anticipate these moments, to know without being told that she needed him to make her understand that she needn't put on the charade of acceptance.

And that was how she found the silent grip of slumber, eyesight fading fast as she slipped back out of consciousness for the morning.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​As morning came and once more Thule was bathed in the rays of Thurra, light attempted to peak through the large balcony windows cloaked by thick curtains. Early in the morning Braxus stirred sitting up in the bed he gazed over at the still form of [member="Braith Achlys"] alongside him. The nightmare of the previous night was still fresh on his mind the images of her dying form, the sound and feel as life slowly faded away, the look in her eyes as they finally glossed over, the final sign of defeat in her battle against the cancer trying to consume her.

It was so surreal, such a fear inspiring dream. But it was just that a dream.

​A trained master such as the Sith Lord could tell the difference between dreams and visions, there were distinct differences between sight into the future and fantasies of the mind. But the fact of its legitimacy didn't do anything to lessen the impact this dream had. In the time since her return he had little time to personally discover knowledge of the cancer, he brought together the best team of doctors, scientists, as well as agents and analysts from his intelligence apparatus and put them on the job. They needed to understand this cancer and know their 'enemy', to gather knowledge before they moved toward discovering how to destroy it. These were loyal, trustful, dependable men who knew there were no limits when it came to this project, no length the King would not go to in order to see it done, no price that he couldn't pay to ensure its success.

​He would not lose her.

​When she began to stir and wake, her eyes finally opening Braxus smiled lightly resting a hand on her shoulder as he leaned over and placed a tender kiss on her lips. "Morning." ​Even when she didn't speak the pain in her eyes, the pain behind them spoke volumes of how she felt about the dreaded cancer, the fear brewing beneath the surface and the struggle she fought with herself every single day. Braxus gently grabbed her hand then giving it a squeeze as he watched disorientation fade, he could only think of wise words he had heard in the past. He would not allow her to submit and embrace the pain they would forge a future together. "The future may appear to be uncertain...Braith, but we can't accept that. I won't accept that. You can't accept the pain, you no longer need to stand alone any longer. We will forge a future together."