She stayed politely silent as Lina began answering her question. It sounded to her, as the tale began, that Lina had thought he a kindred spirit that she could ally herself with as she sought to undermine the man she hated so much, and yet Alisteri had allowed his own misconceptions to cloud the true nature of the initial outreach. It was not too surprising, considering his impressive stubbornness to cling to what he believed, regardless of evidence. Still, as Lina further explained how she had collected part of his ashes from the unnecessary Kaggath and how it had become a talisman for her, it started to become clearer to her. The ashes had been a key to escaping her predicament during the Planescape, leading her like a beacon to the man they had come from that Malum had... partially resurrected? Shunned into a clone body? She couldn't be entirely sure without dissecting Alisteri, but the end result had been the same and also confirmed to her that Malum had orchestrated the whole thing to help his friend escape the consequences of his actions.
What had then grown from the encounter, from the return of his ashes to try and become whole again, had created an alliance of convenience that seemed to have grown into something more. Although, to Taeli, it remained to be seen how lasting it could be, considering his views. She wondered if
Revna Marr
had ever revealed their conversations to him or if Lina would do so too. She suspected the answer to that.
She would take a long sip of her tea as Lina asked her next question.
"Now that had a long and complicated answer, so I apologize ahead of time for the deluge of history you're about to be subjected to," she responded, giving the younger woman a look of apology mixed with amusement. "If at any time it is too much, I will try to be succinct in subsequent answers."
The tea kettle would rise up and top off her cup on its own accord as she settled into to explain... this particular legacy.
"I first met Kaine, then known as Darth Vornskr, in the aftermath of the One Sith invasion of Manaan. I was an aspiring Sith Knight at the time, newly promoted by my Master Balaya Praelior, and was eager to prove myself. In the course of the fighting, I had captured a Jedi named Viper that had killed one of Kaine's wives during the battle. My first impressions of this Voice of the Dark Lord were... less than kind. I saw him as a sadistic brute, a man consumed by his desire for power and control. A man that took great pleasure in the suffering and death he has caused and will cause in pursuit of his ultimate goal. I will say that he has never once disproven that first impression to me, even all these years and decades later, but I'm getting ahead of myself there. Needless to say, back then, I kept my interactions with the Zambranos to a minimum. I focused on supporting my Master in her endeavors and building my own power base, whether that be through the company I acquired or my own research and studies or gaining new allies and apprentices of my own."
She took another sip of her tea, slowly circling the rim of the cup with her finger once she was done.
"I quietly became a Sith Lady in the weeks and months before the Akala Incident erupted and tore open rifts to the Netherworld across the galaxy and captured half of the population. Before that, and in-between fighting the Republic and the Jedi, through a series of unfortunate and tragic events that led to something wonderful, I discovered my sisters, Corvus and Melori. When I was born, our parents gave me up for adoption as they were not able to provide for me, young as they were, but my adoptive parents had promised to tell me how to contact them when I was old enough. They never gave me that information until it was too late... but I found it on my own and made contact with Corvus. She was Grandmaster of the Republic Jedi Order and had been following the trail from the other side of the bread crumbs as it were. Melori I found in the aftermath of the Battle of Prakith and took her on as an apprentice. For a time, it was a careful balance, but I had a family. I would join Corvus on expeditions and teach Melori how to be a Sith, to be a woman coming into her own. But then... the Netherworld happened."
A pensieve look would cross her face.
"I was one of the unfortunate souls that got dragged into the Netherworld. I escaped quickly through the rift in the Blood Wastes, and entered into a galaxy changed by Akala. Ambition ruled the day, and the One Sith were rapidly taking advantage of the situation and conquering the Core. I helped lead that effort as much as I could, and I thankfully discovered that Corvus and Melori had not been taken either. However, a plan began to form in my head, one fueled by my own ambition and desires. I wanted my family all on one side of the conflict between light and dark, and to achieve that, I would need to turn Corvus. That would be exceptionally difficult as she had long been a believer in the deep traditions of detachment from emotional connections of the Jedi, and even though we had a sisterly bond, I needed to make that connection more of a fixture in her life. I needed to get her more in touch with her emotions, to make her into a human being instead of a Jedi. So... I approached the Wrath of the Dark Lord Reverance and the Eye of the Dark Lord, Lady Isolda, with a plan. I would defect to the Jedi and the Republic, weaving a tale of confusion and hope for redemption. I would be the eyes and ears of the Sith within the Jedi, observing everything, and passing along relevant information to the Eye and Wrath to help fuel the One Sith campaign against the Republic. No other Sith would or could know, not until the endgame came. They agreed and I began weeks of preparations. I developed a new spells and sorceries to conceal my true powers, I surrendered my control of the Bilbringi shipyards to Lord Carach, ostensibly because I was pivoting my focus elsewhere and didn't have the time to oversee them anymore. I shifted my company from Coruscant to the Centrality, rebranding it from Krayt Industies to Aurora Industries. I moved my power base to obscure planets in neutral space to grow unseen. And when all was ready, when I had ostensibly left on a pilgrimage of the galaxy to learn and study from other Force traditions, I sent a message to Corvus, begging to talk and wishing to become... something else. To become a Jedi. It worked. She brought me into the Jedi, and for the next decade, I was a dutiful Jedi Master, helping them in the struggle against the One Sith, whether that be as a member of the Republic or the first Galactic Alliance."
A soft sigh would escape, covered by another sip of her tea. How could she sum up that entire time?
"Corvus and I grew closer, to the point where around me, she would allow herself to feel... to not be the Jedi she portrayed to the rest of the galaxy. She was just... my younger sister then, and she was learning how to be... human. She had started to fall for a woman named Braith and I encouraged her to pursue the relationship. My plan to turn her had faded as I merely wanted her to be my sister, and I helped her reclaim and rebuild the Jedi Temple on Lothal. At this point, she had surrendered her role as leader of the Jedi, having blessed the role of Grand Marshal and Omai Rhen's New Jedi Order. She had come to the realization that she was better as a teacher than a leader, that her way of doing things had not helped the Republic and wasn't a fit for the Alliance that we had joined, but she still held great respect among the Jedi... or so I thought. Before the last great push to liberate Coruscant from the One Sith, my world broke into a thousand pieces. Corvus vanished on a mission from the Jedi Council while I was off on an expedition. Melori disappeared at the exact same time, likely killed by the One Sith as a deserted herself as she had left them upon becoming a Lord and joined a breakaway Sith faction known as the Sisters of the Black Rose if I remember right. I was devastated, beside myself with grief. I had lost my entire family for a second time, and do you know what the Jedi did to honor Corvus, a former Grandmaster, a teacher of many who sat on that Council with me, a scholar that had rediscovered so much lost lore that the library on Ossus was her favorite place to be..."
Her free hand would clench into a fist, the feelings of grief and rage and hatred and pain welling up even now, decades later, for Lina to feel.
"They did nothing. Nothing at all. Barely even an acknowledgement at the next Council meeting. No memorials or condolences to a grieving sister, a colleague they knew was in pain. I made a vow that day. I would destroy everything they held dear, the Alliance that had triumphed over the One Sith, and I would break each member of that Council for the slight against my sister, their supposed friend all while wearing a smile on my face until the moment was right for my revenge. But the question became how could I do this? The One Sith had been defeated. Reverance had died at Selvaris, Isolda had vanished. The Sith that had survived had scattered. My own power base, while strong, wasn't in any position to be anything but a nuisance to the Alliance on its own. I was alone on the inside, a spy with no one to report to. No one knew who I truly was as the Sith had been required to believe I was a traitor. So how?
"The Zambranos, when the One Sith collapsed, had retreated to their ancestral homeworld of Panatha to regroup and rebuild, hiding within the First Order as they waited for a sign ot Sith resurgence. I was aware of this as the Alliande had begun a war with the First Order, and as a member of the Jedi Council and a close confidant of Grand Marshal Rhen, I was privy to all intelligence reports. The Zambranos had retained much of their strength, even in the fall, and I reached out to Kaine secretly. We made a deal in that meeting; he would provide the support I needed to build my power base and I would provide him intelligence from within. And in that meeting a plan was formed to corrupt the Alliance from within, to turn as many beings within it as possible to our side so that when the time came, it would break from within and from the outside. It would just take time."
She would set her tea cup aside, noticing that it had gained tiny hairline fractures from her anger.
"That was when the Lady of Secrets was born. I watched from the shadows as the Sith began to reform in our traditional space. I watched as the Ascendancy became the Tenth Sith Empire with Kaine as its new Emperor as Darth Carnifex. I reached out to a select number of Sith within the Empire, Sith that Kaine and I trusted would not reveal the growing plot and would help funnel official resources towards Operation Eclipse. I corrupted nearly a third of the entire Alliance. Jedi, soldiers, bureaucrats, spies, officers, civilians that were loyal to the Sith and had resented the collapse of the One Sith. I drew them all into my power base, into my web, and the Jedi never suspected. They didn't even suspect me when Omai Rhen died on Byss, leading an assault on an Order of Arcane Syn base that Kaine and I built as a trap for him. They didn't suspect that a Dark Lady of the Sith had become their Grand Marshal, not until I gave the command and the Alliance broke in our Endgame."
It was still, to this day, one of her crowning achievements. Her ultimate plan for revenge had succeeded beyond her wildest dreams.
"So you ask why I have maintained a close alliance, even friendship, with Carnifex. It is because he helped me achieve my goal of avenging my sister and bringing down the first Alliance. He provided me, and still continues to do so, resources, manpower, and wealth to fund my experiments and our power bases support each other. Our partnership led to us directly breaching Mortis and the Wellspring and stealing away portions of the Cosmic Force for study and a litany of other discoveries and secrets that empower us. Does that mean I disregard what he is? No. But we are incredibly useful to each other, and remain so, and no one has ever offered me a better deal than he has for alliance. No one has ever offered something that would make me ever consider breaking that alliance, although a few have tried."
She would pause for a moment, and then...
"Explain to me your hatred for him, in depth."
Madrona A’Mia
and
Darth Strosius
from what she had seen previously and on Brosi. She was curious about that, just one of many questions she had.
