New Faces

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]​

​

A book.

He had given her a book. It was a lovely gesture really, a gift that she appreciated. Learning had always been of interest to her, though unfortunately this bit of learning was closed off to her. The book was written in a language she could not understand, a language that to her looked like silly inscriptions and broken lines, Ancient Sith. It was ludicrous to think she would have learned it.

Insulting really.

Yet the contents of the book intrigued her, tales of the great Adas, King of Korriban.

Sifa wanted to know more about him, wanted to know who he was and how he died. For all she knew it was important, for all she knew it could save her life one day. Or get her to the place she wanted to be. A smile tugged at her lips, her boots clicking against the ground, resounding through the hall as she wandered forward.

The Sith hadn't been very inviting, and neither had their temples, but after nearly a month among them she had begun to figure out her way around. The library was nearby. Unlike with the Jedi it really was a library, not an archive. There were books, scrolls, and hundreds of pieces of flimsy.

All of them were important in some way, though Sifa only cared about the one in her hand.

 

[Hal Terrano]

Were it not for such unfortunate circumstance, Hal Terrano might have been in heaven.

There was something almost glorious about the vast sea of genuine physical material of the Sith libraries that appealed to a part of his soul. Not consoles and blue interfaces that strain the eyes, but rather dusty old tomes and scrolls that held presence and character. Passed down and down again by hands so ancient that they had now returned to dust. One could practically feel the power of great lore through fingertips.

Strange that a man such as he enjoyed it, since practicality's sake called for all information to be catalogued and archived upon machines. It made more sense to have things organised all in one place, where such grand data could be protected and saved.

All it would take was one attack, one fire and this wealth of knowledge would have been lost.

So in his new role amongst the Sith, the man took it upon himself to save these libraries, transferring every hard copy of history, lore and knowledge into the realm of a console. A long task, an arduous task, a thankless task but one he would gladly take on board in the name of his own interests in learning.

Silently he slaved away, crimson eyes focused upon the familiarity of that blue console screen with the chronicles of Karnak Tetsu his current piece of archival focus.

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

Sifa made it to the library quickly, or rather, she didn't allow anyone to delay her. A few times an apprentice or acolyte tried to stop her, tried to speak to her or ask her something. Each time she ignored them, not wanting to engage anyone for too long. She either deflected their question or simply ignored them.

Most of the time she received a simple shrug, other times a curse.

The Sith were an odd bunch. In the Jedi Temple it wouldn't have been an issue, a simple word would send most people away and a nod would let them know you would catch up later. With the Sith it seemed that not immediately speaking to someone was the gravest insult that you could offer them. For Sifa this was strange, but it was also used to her advantage.

Sometimes it paid to have people mad at you.

With one last acolyte dodged, Sifa moved into the library, the loud click click of her boots echoing in the empty space.

 

[Hal Terrano]

As lore went from page to terminal, Hal couldn't help but find himself somewhat engrossed.

The man had found himself quite taken with the study of Sith Sorcery, the very topic having been off-limits to him during his time in the Jedi order. So when he wasn't engaged in the task of backing up the endless Sith libraries the Archivist had begun his own study and even practice of the dark discipline.

So with Karnak Tetsu and the Sorcerers of Tund laid before him, the man couldn't help but find his interests piqued, crimson eyes studying the pages while he worked.

The clicking of boots caught half of his attention for a moment, with deep crimson eyes flickering up at the young woman and then back down towards the tome. Never being a social creature Hal offered no greeting and simply returned to his tome.

The Sorcerers of Tund had a focus on the school of illusion, convenient, given that this was his first focus. Force Fear in particular was the first spell upon the man's itinerary. Progress had been going well as a few unfortunate Acolytes could attest. Some of them still had a long way to go in terms of steeling their minds to such attacks.

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

She stopped, her body shifting as she caught sight of movement within the corner of the library.

Sifa knew that they held an archivist. Not many among the Sith cared for history or learned from it, in fact she knew that many outright ignored it. Yet there were a few, maybe one or two bright spots among the idiots that called themselves Lords of the Sith. She shifted, moving towards the man. She passed a few massive shelves, moving passed them with only sparing glances.

"Hello." Her voice mewled out, echoing within the empty library.

The book in her hand shifted as she waited for the man to turn and answer her, her eyes settling on his back, and odd feeling of familiarity suddenly falling upon her.

 

[Hal Terrano]

Interruptions.

They didn't happen often. The man barely spoke to any that donned the robes of the Sith and when he did conversations were curt and short. Never a man to enjoy the company of others he tended to keep himself to himself, perhaps if there was another creature aware of the worth of knowledge then he would give them the time of day.

The Arachneri, Eske had so far been the only one displaying much interest.

His eyes went from page to screen, pale brow furrowing as a feminine voice disrupted his work. Hal scowled for a moment, choosing to let the woman wait for a moment as a new page became data and that bit safer from destruction and loss.

Finally he shifted, head turning to look upon the woman who wanted a moment of his time. Raw red eyes studied her, finding nothing truly remarkable with the exception of her eyes. Heterochromia. Unusual. Mildly interesting.

“Yes?”

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

She stopped as recognition dawned on her face.

There was a delicious feeling of irony that immediately grew in her chest, couple with an exuberant amount of amusement that almost caused her to burst out in laughter. Sifa's eyes lit up, her lips spread into a glorious chesire grin, and her posture seemed to shift from communicative Jedi to able huntress within the snap of a second. There was a joy to her, an absolute malicious laughter within her body language that spoke volumes to anyone that could read it.

"Oh." She finally said, as if she had forgotten something. Her fingers slid along the spine of the book she held, her hands twisting and tightening around its binding as she contained herself, until finally she managed to force a few words from her lips. "How are you, Hal."

Her voice was a soft purr.

 

[Hal Terrano]

The shift in the woman's posture and expression bred irritation within the man. Did she know him? He couldn't place her face to memory at all. In the realm of Sith gossip it wouldn't have been too unlikely that word would have spread about the sullen fallen Jedi that lived within the archives. Stories of what had transpired in Prakith's dungeons, of the creature that cried and spilled his guts upon the floor more than once.

The mockery had admittedly died down once he had learned to embrace his rage but it didn't prevent the more arrogant Sith from tittering. No longer a pacifist however, he was more inclined to punish such hubris.

His features remained fixed in a scowl as she spoke to him, her tone of voice a silk that sickened the man somewhat. The man that used to live in his skin would have been uncomfortable, being spoken to in such a manner but the Hal Terrano that sat there currently only found ire. Assuming she was here regarding the book in her hands, he ignored the bait and spoke.

“What do you want?”

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

Well that was rather rude, but she hadn't expected anything less truth be told.

"I have a book." Sifa intoned, her voice bemused beyond all belief. She hefted the novel, the ancient tales of Darth Adas and his conquest of the Sith Empire. "It was given to me by an acolyte on Coruscant. Unfortunately, I cannot read ancient Sith, nor have I found the translating software to effectively read it."

Her eyes wandered over him, inspecting him. "I was hoping that you could help me, Hal."

There it was again, his name.

It was said with such familiarity, such strength in her tone and such confidence that it was almost obvious the two of them had known each other, or had once known each other. For Sifa there was no "Lord Terrano", no "Master Terrano". There was no title of respect and nothing but his name was offered.

 

[Hal Terrano]

Back onto topic.

Were he a man who enjoyed the act of being smug he might have levelled his own smirk back at the woman who suddenly needed some aid in translation. However, as it stood, he was not that kind of person, not as a Jedi and nor as a Sith.

While she inspected him, he inspected the tome, far more interested in what was in her hands rather than the woman herself.

Then she spoke again.

Her tone, the way she said his name insinuated that she knew him. He certainly didn't know her, which made the situation all the more puzzling. Was his previous assessment wrong? Did she know him beyond the realm of unimportant Sith gossip? Of course, thankfully being a terribly blunt man didn't prevent him from asking.

Holding out his hand to receive the book, he looked to her, expression still stern.

“You are putting emphasis upon my name, do I know you?"

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

Sifa didn't hesitate, giving the tome over to Hal without a second thought.

"You could say that." She mused out loud, her voice still that odd rasping purr that it had been before, pure and utter confidence, perhaps arrogance, pouring from every single part of her body. She seemed to be pleased with herself, happy. "In another life, I think."

Her words were cryptic, but so accurate.

The smile that held on her face was familiar, though her eyes were foreign. They stopped their inspection of him, instead falling over the library. She moved her gaze to Hal's surroundings, looking at what he was working on, where his research had taken him, what exactly he had been doing. Her gaze settled back on him finally, her smile still holding on her lips.

 

[Hal Terrano]

That didn't help much.

Not being a man whose mind worked in the cryptic this statement frustrated him somewhat, it certainly closed off the thought of the woman knowing him through whispers but another life? Reincarnation? Ridiculous. Transfer essence? Now there was a real possibility.

Just a matter of who, if it was even true at all. Wouldn't be too surprising if it was a matter of this woman playing mind games.

A small grunt was his only physical reply to this, as Hal took the volume that was given to him. Mind turned back to knowledge he inspected the cover. Adas, interesting. He had heard of the great Sith'ari before but hadn't read any further upon the Sith. This would give him ample chance to do so through translation. A bright side to this encounter at least.

“Translation will take,” he paused, calculating how much time he could dedicate between work and training, “three days," a fairly swift time to translate an entire work, he was however, good at what he did, "come back then and it will be ready.”

Running a calloused hand over the leather cover of the book the man looked up at the smiling woman once more.

“Is that everything?”

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

"Three days." That was quite a bit of time for one book, but she was too enamored with her own petty joy to actually care about the time that it would take. Sifa had happened upon something amusing, something that she could play with. It was like a cat had found its favorite toy after having lost it behind the sofa for a while. Now that she had that back, she was going to enjoy it, but not too much of course, wouldn't want it to break.

"Yes." She purred. "That will be fine."

She turned around, simply spinning on her heel to begin walking away from Hal. When his next question came she turned around. "Yes, Hal. That will be all."

Sifa smiled again, then began to walk out of the room. The Click click of her boots rang within the library once more.

 

[Hal Terrano]

The three days were spent the usual Hal Terrano way, which was to say, very well scheduled. Physical training was still strictly regimented, with the addition of novice sorcery practise on the side. Food was still plain, practical and had the nutrients required to support his lifestyle. Standard stuff. Then he went back to his mammoth task within the archives once more, it was going to take a while to back all of that information up.

He cut some of that time short to translate the text for the woman, and in that time while he himself read about King Adas in the process. However instead of pondering the whereabouts of the ancient Sith's holocron, Hal's mind was left focused upon that woman.

Another life.

Lira?
Impossible.

Diana?

Why would either of them come back and be amongst the ranks of the One Sith? Better yet, why would either of them have talked to him in such a tone? That was the real question, who was there out there that spoke to him in that way?

Then, there it was.

It was from that line of thinking that Hal Terrano finally realised just who that woman was, the very revelation brought a harsh, grim line over his features and gave cause for a rather unpleasant trip to the sparring circle. Being able to actually release his emotion was the true benefit of shedding his Jedi robes.

Three days came and went, and the man was once again situated in the archives. Sat down at his desk eyes flickering between tome and terminal as further data was preserved, waiting for her.

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

So she returned, three days later on the dot to the minute that she had left.

Of course this time she came ready, she came wearing a wide smirk and a not so small expression of absolute confidence. She had mused on their last encounter while she had waited, thought about the odd happenstance that had taken place. She wondered who had done it, she wondered how. It couldn't have been that different from what she had planned, though even still she felt as though it were incomplete, as if a piece of Hal still remained the same from when she had last seen him.

Perhaps a part of his humanity remained.

Either way, Sifa knew that it didn't matter, she knew that in the end it didn't effect her, he didn't effect her. Even now, that confidence remained, that thought and knowledge of absolute superiority was still assured within her. Maybe it was false, maybe it was a lie, but if it was then it was a grand lie.

 

[Hal Terrano]

She returned, at exactly the same time she had arrived three day prior, a detail that of course Hal Terrano was going to notice. He might have even appreciated it were it not for circumstance.

It was hard for him to ignore the smirk upon her face, a detail that he studied with a darkened expression, irises of deep red trained upon those features. Since they had last met Hal had experienced a drastic change in fundamentals, a change that might have required some caution upon the part of the woman before him.

Upon the desk sat the tome she had given him, and next to that was a datapad reader, pre-loaded with her translated text.

Rough hands clasped together and propped up his chin, elbows resting upon the furnishing as Terrano silently stared. He let silence stir for a few moments before even making a sound, as if he was trying to decide what to say.

“The translated text is on the datapad,” he said matter-of-factly, “I do not know if you wish to keep the tome, but you may leave it here if you wish.” Largely irrelevant, during translation he had added the text to the growing digital One Sith archive. Still would have been nice to had.

“I know who you are.”

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

Half a second of shock ran across her features, but that half a second was all that she was willing to give. Before anyone could read her, before Hal could, Sifa replaced her face with a mask of pure and total amusement. Her insides however had turned, some of the confidence she had held only moments ago had been pulled from her.

She couldn't risk having him tell.

"Oh?" Sifa purred. "I imagine you do. We were both Jedi, After all."

Her voice was that same coo as earlier, though there was a hard edge to it now. Of course she would try to redirect him, try to push him into the thought that he only knew her was the wayward member of the AgriCorps, yet from the look in his eyes she doubted that he would buy that, she doubted that he would go for it.

Sifa's hand slowly floated towards her lightsaber.

 

[Hal Terrano]

His eyes narrowed somewhat, stare growing displeased, as if she had just vandalised one of the texts in front of him.

“I have already scrutinised that possibility,” he replied simply, still unmoving at his desk. Of course he had, he wouldn't have been Hal Terrano without the correct analysis. From the limited pool of Jedi that he knew the scenario didn't check out.

Diana was a woman who became one with the Force, as far as he knew there was no way back after that. Even beyond that impossibility, the woman had been impassioned towards the light and not one for subterfuge. Lira might have managed to be the less likely scenario. I'm sorry. The young woman was dead, he had witness that himself and she was not strong enough in the Force to exist beyond it.

All of that analysis was likely irrelevant in the face of the greatest evidence. The way that she said his name. That emphasis that made him more than just uncomfortable, the very same that Vrag had utilised when giving utterance right next to his ear.

“I imagine that your hubris is your greatest weakness,” he spoke, voice calm but edged with a terrible hatred, “would you not agree?”

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]

 

[Sifa Tirel]

[member="Hal Terrano"]

Her lips thinned.

A hand tightened around the lightsaber that rested at the small of her back. Would she have to kill him? Could she? Sifa was unsure if she had the strength now. Certainly he hadn't been the strongest, but now? Now things might be different. He was a Sith, he was stronger, older, more learned. It would be difficult, but not impossible if she caught him by surprise.

Slowly she maneuvered her way around him.

"No." Sifa mused out loud as she rounded on him. "I don't think that has ever been my problem."

It had been. "I think my problem has always been leaving things unfinished. I'm such a scatterbrain sometimes."

Careful steps took her to his side, her eyes settling him.

 

[Hal Terrano]

During their last encounter he had been a largely different person.

Most importantly, he had been a pacifist, and their encounter had taken that dire turn because of his pacifism. That was no longer an issue. Oh, it had taken Vrag so long to spur the man into fighting back, with so many methods too. She had thrown him into the circle against the jeering Acolytes, had tortured a defenceless man before him but his action and rage did not come until Lira's demise.

He remained seated, elbows still resting upon the table, clasped hand still supporting his chin. It wasn't common for the incredibly arrogant to admit that they had a problem, Hal didn't try to correct her, that was her own issue that would likely lead to the woman's downfall given the time.

Turning his head to keep facing her Terrano finally had a chance to ask questions that he had held for some time.

“Then why did you leave things unfinished?”

---

[member="Sifa Tirel"]