Private Pain Remembers

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber


He had been missing for some time now from Coruscant. The temple he had overseen had finished being built in his absence. He did not get to see its completion.

That alone was enough to frustrate him.

Since he could remember he was always someone who saw things to the very end. Missing the completion of something put under his charge was…damaging.

His body was still sore from recovery, after having suffered extensive injuries and neglect of sustenance for so long. His body was weaker now, and it disgusted him. Frailty and exhaustion had become his life. Physical therapy had shown that his strength was barely a shadow of its former self.

As he looked up to the temple that was set within the great city planet, his hand hesitated as it reached for the railings of the steps. Stairs seemed to give him extra trouble lately. It felt as if someone had dropped a speeder on his lower back whenever he climbed them.

A wince hissed through gritted teeth as he pulled himself up the stairs and its railing, the grip of his hand was enough to slightly dent the pole. Yet, he still climbed. He had to. He had to see what it looked like, it was just ahead.

He favored one leg over the other as he traversed.

Closer…

He could feel it.

His footing faltered, the bottom of his boot just slipping back from the edge of the steps causing his hand to hold his weight on the railing as he bent to one knee.

He was…winded. Exhausted. But what burned beyond that pain was anger. He glared at the ground in silence for a moment, his hand trembling as it held his weight.

But he couldn't feel it. The anger that had pushed him along so far. It gave way to something else.

A hole. Emptiness.

He struggled to pull himself back up to no avail. His body refused to move further, though the spirit was willing.

“Get…up…”

He spoke to himself between breaths.

“You have more…”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't approach immediately. He felt it first. Not the usual, loud pressure that marked someone like Varin. That violent density that sat heavy in the air, like something waiting to break. That was what he expected. This wasn't that.

Varin's Thread was still there, but it didn't hold the same shape. It felt… thinned. Uneven. Like something that had been stretched too far and hadn't settled back into place. The edges of it wavered, unstable in a way that didn't come from restraint or control. Something was missing from it. Something that should have been obvious.

Ace slowed as the temple came into view, his gaze settling on the figure partway up the steps. He didn't call out, he watched. The imbalance showed itself quickly. The way Varin favored one side. The hesitation in his footing. The strain behind each movement. None of it was hidden, just… ignored. Forced through.

Ace let it play out. Varin pushed forward, slipped, dropped to a knee, then stayed there. A quiet exhale left him as Ace shifted his weight slightly, arms folding across his chest. His gaze moved once, briefly, across the structure behind him, taking it in, before settling back on Varin.

So that was it. He let a few seconds pass. Long enough to be sure this wasn't something that would correct itself. Then he moved, there was no urgency in it, but no hesitation either. He stopped a step or two below him, close enough now to see the tremor in his hand against the railing, the tension in his posture.

Still didn't offer a hand. "You're burning energy you don't have." His tone was even, not critical or sympathetic.

His gaze lingered for a moment longer, not on the injury, but on him. On whatever was sitting underneath it. The same absence he'd felt before, clearer now.

"You going to make it up?" He added after a beat, glancing briefly toward the remaining steps. "Or are you just planning to stay there?"

Varin Mortifer ​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber


His voice tore his gaze in his direction. So focused on trying to move himself he lost track of everyone around him. It was almost startling, as if a sleeping predator was just startled awake before it realised it was not being attacked.

Standing over him was a familiar face. Acier. Varin had trained with him a few times and had done some missions with him. Even traveled with him on a couple occasions. One of the very few acolytes he could tolerate, and hell even enjoy the company.

A breath-like grunt left his throat as his grip tightened on the railing.

“I was certainly planning on making it.”

His voice was harsh, strained as he slowly pulled himself up by the railing.

“The spirit is willing. But the body has become weak.”

His gaze glared back to the steps.

“They keep telling me I need rest.”

A harsh scoff left him.

“Thats like telling a mountain it needs to fly. I am incapable of just resting. Sitting there, wasting away.”

His arm flexed as it started to pull his body once more. Slowly, painfully slowly. But the progress was being made.

“I didn't get to see it finished.”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace watched Varin haul himself upward by stubborn increments, each movement dragged more by will than strength. There was no interruption, no attempt to fill the space while the other man spoke. He listened, patient in the way he only ever was when he thought something mattered.

The faintest suggestion of a smirk touched the corner of his mouth. Brief enough it may not have even registered. Ace let his hands settle behind his back as his gaze followed Varin's slow progress over the steps. The words sat with him longer than they outwardly seemed to.

The spirit willing. The body refusing. He knew something about that. About trying to keep moving when something in you: flesh, mind, whatever held the weight, had already started objecting.

"Life has an annoying way of telling us when we need to sit still."

His tone stayed dry, almost offhand, but the thought carried more weight than he let show. Logically, he knew it was true. Practically… he'd never been especially good at obeying it.

For a moment, his mind moved elsewhere. To Roon. To sterile recovery chambers and the strange quiet after losing his arm. To being forced into stillness so absolute it had felt like punishment. At the time he'd hated it. Fought it. Measured every day by what he couldn't yet do.

And yet... somewhere in that imposed stillness, things had shifted. Not in ways he'd have expected. Some wounds had sharpened him. Others had opened. He glanced aside briefly, almost as if the memory passed through him and moved on.

"It can lead to good things. Sometimes."

It was something he'd learned the hard way. Varin kept climbing painfully and slowly, but still climbing. Ace watched the renewed effort without moving to interfere. He made no offer to steady him, no motion to step in. A man like Varin would sooner resent being handled than appreciate it. Ace understood that instinct too well to insult it. So he remained where he was, letting the struggle be his.

Then Varin said it.

I didn't get to see it finished.

Ace's brow lifted faintly. For a moment he simply looked at him, as if parsing whether he'd heard him correctly. The thought that Varin meant the temple itself barely even occurred to him; in the scale of everything pressing around them, it seemed too small a thing to anchor grief to.

So the question left him exactly as it formed, blunt and unadorned.

"What?"

Varin Mortifer​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber

Another grunt left him as another step fell behind him. The climbing only had a few steps to go. A few small steps that felt like miles in the spirit. He would not let it dissuade him from his goal ahead.

“Sitting still implies hesitation.”

The words were spoken through grunts and gritted teeth as he sucked air into his lungs.

“Some may call it something else, but to me, no action is worse than the wrong one.”

He thought about his time back in recovery on Korriban. When he first tried to stand and medical droids ordered him to lie down and rest. Another scoff left him.

What did droids know about my body and how it reacts to pain and reflex?

He stopped for a short breath when Ace asked what he meant. What it was he did not get to see finished.

He could see the building now. His head nodded in its direction.

“The Temple. It may seem small to some, but it was put under my watches.”

He took a breath.

“Even before the covenant, when I was put on missions or an order, I made sure I saw it finished.”

He pulled himself up towards the last few steps.

“It's not about the building. In fact,”

His eyes found Acier again.

“I expect that building to fall whenever the enemy tries to come back for this damn planet.”

A hint of deeper frustration bled into Varin's face.

“But it was under my charge and my authority. What kind of a leader am I, that I did not get to see orders through?”

His breath had grown harsh from the rising emotion that warmed and roiled within him.

“I ended up being captured twice during a mission and failed that one too.”

A small tear ran down his cheek.

“How many failures must I endure before the Sith abandon me too.”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't argue with Varin's rebuttal. In fact, his expression barely shifted at all. He simply watched Varin drag himself upward another step, then another, listening as though the words mattered more than answering them.

Because arguing it would have been pointless. Some things weren't taught by explanation. Only by impact, and Varin would learn that eventually. Or life would force it on him. Either way, Ace saw no reason to pull at that thread now, not with him in this state of mind.

So he let it pass and listened. At first he took the words as what they seemed: pride, frustration, a warrior railing against perceived weakness. Then gradually, almost against his will, he realized this wasn't about the temple at all. It never had been.

It was about failure, worth, abandonment. The moment he recognized it, something in him almost recoiled. Because this... this was not terrain he was built for. He wasn't equipped to deal with confessions like this. Never had been... certainly not gracefully, or with patience, or comfort.

A slow breath left him as he rubbed the back of his neck and glanced down the steps. First Arris. Now Varin. As if the galaxy had collectively decided he looked like someone to bring existential crises to.

"Okay then." He muttered, almost to himself.

Then he lifted his head.

"I wouldn't put 'Sith' and 'loyalty' in the same sentence, Varin."

The words came plain, almost bluntly practical. It was the kind of truth he considered obvious.

"Thought you would've realized that eventually. The Sith wouldn't have use for you forever. Or any of us. We operate on a system where we tear each other apart to get ahead."

His gaze drifted away from Varin then, out across the Coruscant skyline. Towers cut into the haze. Streams of speeders moved in endless veins through open air, indifferent, mechanical, alive in a way cities only were. He watched them a moment before speaking again.

He shrugged faintly. "You get used to it anyway." His eyes stayed on the traffic. "And when you're used to it, you're not disappointed."

Varin Mortifer ​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber

Varin took a quick breath to collect himself. Already he was revealing too much of himself, but the weight of everything that had transpired, it was hard to hold anything in.

He could tell Acier was uncomfortable just by his actions, then his words followed.

“Apologies. You do not need that thrust upon your shoulders, Ace.”

He leaned onto the railing then looked over at the acolyte before him. He was not surprised with what he had advised him, of course most Sith could not be trusted. But it was what he said about tearing down that made him stop.

“Is that what you believe I would do to you? Abandon you and leave you broken?”

His hand slowly released from the rail allowing him to stand.

“I have never done that to you or anybody here in the Sith.”

He paused.

“I remember on Tapani I never left a single person behind. I made sure we all came back from the mission.”

His eyes glared as he thought of Tapani, and the beige on Coruscant.

“When we took this planet, I held funerals for my fallen soldiers that trusted me with their lives.”

His teeth gritted once more then he looked over to the temple.

“Nothing sickens me more than disloyalty. Not to the Covenant, not even to the Sith. But to brothers in arms.”

His voice quieted a bit, just enough for only Acier to hear.

“I would never abandon you or my fellow brothers and sisters. But Bogan help them if they abandoned me.”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace let Varin speak it through, the apology, the pushback, the conviction behind it. There was a weight to it that made cutting in feel unnecessary. If anything, it confirmed what he'd already picked up on. Varin needed to get it out, Ace understood that much, it didn't mean he agreed with how he was doing it.

People who carried things like that? Doubt, fear, that quiet question of worth, they didn't get many chances to say it out loud without consequence. Most picked the wrong person to trust when they did. Varin hadn't, not this time anyway, Ace respected him enough that it wouldn't come back to bite him later.

He stood there, thumb shifting absently as he rubbed along his jaw, gaze lowered to the steps between them. Thinking. Listening. Taking it in piece by piece. The Tapani mention. The funerals. The line he drew between systems and people.

Varin wasn't naïve. His loyalty wasn't to the Covenant, or even the Sith. It was to the ones beside him in the moment. The ones who bled with him. Ace respected that, even if part of him quietly wondered how long that kind of code lasted in a place like this. Or how long it survived.

Varin finished, the last words settling into the space between them. Ace let a moment pass before answering.

"I don't believe you'll betray me." His voice stayed even. "I just know that people change. And some situations…"

There was a small pause, like he was choosing the phrasing carefully.

"... force you to."

His gaze lifted then, finally settling on Varin directly.

"I respect that you say you won't abandon your allies. There's things I never thought I'd do either. Swore I wouldn't."

He didn't elaborate. The implication sat there on its own. That promises, no matter how certain they felt at the time, didn't always survive reality.

"Maybe you're more honorable than me. But that's rare."

His eyes drifted briefly, not away from the conversation, just enough to take in the space around them before returning.

"Not everyone's like you. Especially here."

Silence settled again, Ace let his words sit. Just for a moment. Then he added, quieter now, almost like an afterthought.

"Just watch your back. Don't trust unconditionally." His gaze held Varin's a second longer. "Even if you've fought with them."

He didn't dress it up nor soften it. For Ace, this was about as close as he got to saying he was somewhat concerned for Varin's fate.

Varin Mortifer​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber

Varin remained silent as Ace spoke, giving him the same room for words as he did. His gaze offering him the same focus he would give to someone who was fighting him. It never once wavered or left him.

Not even when Ace looked him in the eyes.

He preferred he would do that. It was much easier to read someone when they looked you in the eye.

A small breath almost like a scoff or a chuckle, something in between perhaps, left his mouth before he spoke once more.

“Perhaps I am a fool.”

His voice fell quiet for a moment as he looked back at the temple ahead of them.

“I make very few exceptions, yet I know the possibility of betrayal.”

He looked back to him.

“I am no stranger to that. Unconditional trust does bring complications, it can even open wounds.”

A sigh left him before he spoke again, his voice quieter.

“But I know you are one of the good ones here, simply because you stopped for a struggling body, even indulged in conversation.”

Another small breath left him before he spoke again.

“Have…”

He hesitated for but a moment before he committed to his question.

“Have you ever been slowly broken down and pulled apart?”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

When Varin called him one of the good ones, Ace didn't answer at first. He only looked at him. For a moment, he genuinely couldn't tell whether he should laugh or not. One of the good ones. Here. In a system built on conquest, destruction, slaughter, and ambition sharpened until it cut through anything in its way. All in the name of… what, exactly?

Power? Freedom? Just 'cause? Whatever word made the blood easier to justify. If he and Arris weren't trying to bend the Covenant toward something useful, something with purpose beyond the usual appetite, what would it have become without them? What was it already becoming anyway?

Ace's expression barely shifted. He only shook his head lightly, so faint it almost wasn't there.

"The bar isn't high." A refusal to let the statement sit too cleanly.

Silence followed and Varin seemed to search for the right words, or maybe whether he wanted to say them at all. Ace let him. In the meantime, he lowered his gaze and adjusted one of his gloves, tugging the material tighter over his fingers with slow, absent precision.

Then Varin asked. Had he ever been slowly broken down and pulled apart? Ace stopped, hands stilling and breath slowing. Something inside him went very quiet.

For a moment, the past year hit all at once.

His mother's body in his arms.

Clan Vethrisa dying around him, the stench of cauterized flesh clinging to his clothes.

His arm gone on the Death Star III.

Sibylla, lost the first time.

His father standing before him in all the shape and shadow he'd feared inheriting.

The Mother of Teeth whispering prophecy through rot and reverence.

Tapani burning under Covenant cruelty.

Coruscant collapsing into storm and fire.

Lorn's blade meeting his aboard the Trinity, trust breaking with every strike.

"No."

He said as he looked down at his glove. The lie came easily enough, both to Varin and himself.

Ace finished adjusting the glove and lowered his arms. Then he moved, stepping toward the stairs at last. His pace was measured as he climbed, passing Varin without looking at him immediately.

"Guessing you do." He said. "Or you wouldn't have asked."

Only once he stood a few steps higher did he stop. Then he looked down at Varin from above, expression controlled again.

"You and Lysander are close. I'm sure he'd have a better, philosophically longer answer for you."

Varin Mortifer ​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber​

No, that bar may not be high, but you still stand above it whether you see it or not.

The words came to his mind after Acier gave his quip over Varin telling him he was one of the good ones. His gaze did not follow him as he walked up the stairs, standing above Varin. A small hum left him when Acier gave him his answer for that question as well. But he did not need to tell him the truth, nor did he fault Acier from withholding that truth, it would have surprised him otherwise if he had said yes.

“He's one of the first friends I made since I had lost everything and became just a stranger.”

Only then did his gaze meet with Ace’s.

“I certainly do know how it feels. I also know when someone else does as well.”

His eyes did not leave Acier’s after he spoke, boring into him with an unflinching gaze.

“The length of explanation does not matter to me. Sometimes even one word tells more of a story than an anecdote.”

Another wince as a sharp shocking pain ran up his spine causing his back to stiffen and his hold on the railing to tighten. His body gently leaned on the rail for support as he breathed deep, resting his head on his arm.

“You have been through things. I can tell. I saw that the first time we sparred some time ago, but what stuck out to me about that moment was despite the personal feelings you had warring within you, you challenged me, maybe even saved that other acolyte that I was fighting at that time.”

He looked at the last few steps, thinking in his head about getting to the top. So focused was he on these last few steps that it drew a small laugh out of him.

“It’s kind of funny actually.”

He paused for a moment before he continued, gathering his thoughts.

“I am fighting to get to the top of these steps, but now that I only have a few more to go, I am so hesitant to meet them.”

His head slowly picked up looking back at Acier.

“What will I even do, when I reach the top?”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

At the mention of Lysander, something in his expression shifted. It was subtle, almost imperceptible. Funny, Lysander was probably the closest thing Ace would call a friend in the Covenant. One of the first people he'd respected. One of the first he'd trusted. So, in that regard, Ace and Varin were similar.

When Varin's gaze locked onto his, Ace didn't look away. He held it, steady, letting him say what he needed to say without breaking that line. There was no challenge in it, just acknowledgment.

"I guess you would." Accepting the fact that Varin could read more than what was said out loud.

His attention shifted as Varin moved again. Another step. Then another. The strain was obvious, the pauses longer now. When Varin leaned against the railing, resting his head against his arm, Ace's eyes tracked the distance that remained. There wasn't much left.

For all the stubbornness, the refusal to stop, there was something in it Ace respected. That kind of will didn't bend easily. Didn't quit, even when it probably should have.

Varin spoke again, bringing up their spar. Ace remembered it. Early Covenant days. Different circumstances. Different version of himself. Varin framed it like it meant something more. Like it proved something about him. But the truth was, he wasn't even sure the version of himself standing here now would have made the same choice back then.

That moment hadn't come from some fixed principle. It had come from being… less worn down, more idealistic. Something he wasn't sure he still was.

He blinked once, pulling himself back as Varin's words shifted, now about the steps, the top and the hesitation. Ace understood it immediately. It wasn't about the stairs, it was about what came after.

What you did when the thing driving you forward stopped being enough. When the fight ended. When there was nothing left demanding your movement. What remained after.

He knew the question because he asked it himself more often than he liked. There wasn't a long answer to it. Not one he believed in, anyway. So he gave the only one that ever seemed to hold.

"You keep moving forward."

He had learned stillness had its benefits. Were even necessary at times. But movement, it would always lead you to an answer. Maybe not the answer, but something.

Varin Mortifer​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber​

Keep moving forward…

The words had bounced in his head for a long minute as he stared at the last step before him.

Forward

The word pounded itself into his mind. For all the hurdles and all the obstacles that lay in his way, he still had to move forward. It was what he was born to do, trained for.

“The goal…doesn’t end when you reach it. It changes…”

The words came quietly from his mouth almost like he was speaking to himself, convincing himself.

His hand gripped the railing once more, his body slightly trembling as he slowly straightened himself. Within his back, he felt it. A pop of joints trying to reposition back in place as he grimaced, flexing once more in his arms as his body slowly moved.

Keep…moving…

Momentum had to go somewhere when things were in motion. You could either steer it where you wanted, where you needed. Or you could let it control where you went. No knowledge on where you would end up, or what the end would be.

…Keep…

His foot lifted over the step, planting onto its surface as his backfoot beared the weight of his body.

...moving…

Another grip of the railing causing a slight creak in the metal as his fingers indented the metal.

Can’t…stop…not yet…

His back foot finally lifted, hoisting itself over to the top. The final step. The temple in perfect view of him. He slowly straightened himself, releasing his hand from the rail, a slight wobble in his balance before his body settled.

He took a deep breath as his gaze fell onto the temple before him, then slowly looked over at Acier.

“You would make a fine coach.”

A small smirk peering on his lips.

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

"Something like that."

Ace didn't push it further, he let Varin have the interpretation. Words weren't the point anymore. He watched instead from where he stood. The climb wasn't just physical. It never was. The last stretch always stripped people down to whatever they actually were underneath everything else. Just will… or the lack of it.

Varin moved like his body didn't fully agree with him. The tremor in his arms, the way his weight shifted a fraction too carefully, the subtle hitch in his balance when he straightened. Every motion carried real strain, it wasn't something you faked.

And beneath that, Ace felt it. Not in some vague, distant sense. It was clearer than that. Varin's Thread ran through the Force like a line stretched thin but refusing to snap. There was no hesitation in it, but constant, forward driving pressure. It didn't waver when the body did.

The moment Varin's foot cleared the last step, Ace's gaze stayed on him as he steadied. His balance corrected and his breathing leveled. There it was. Not the strength or the endurance. The refusal.

When Varin spoke, about being a good coach, the shift was subtle but Ace caught it anyway. Ace's eyes moved with a quiet turn of his head as his gaze drifted past Varin, out toward the skyline stretching beyond the temple. Lights cut through the distance, layered and endless, the city still moving the way it always did, both indifferent and unstopping.

"Wouldn't go that far."

His attention didn't linger there long. Ace's gaze shifted back, settling on the temple entrance ahead.

"You should get to your quarters." He said, voice even. "And rest."

A brief pause followed, not long, but enough to let it land. Then his eyes flicked back toward Varin, expression like it always was.

"Find purpose in that."

There was the faintest edge of something close to a joke there. Not something you could point to directly, but it was there. Ace didn't wait for a response, he turned and made his way toward the temple entrance, steps steady.

Varin Mortifer​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber

A smirk peered on his face.

“No, you wouldn't go that far. But I would.”

His gaze looked from the temple and back to Acier, the suggestion to rest drew a scoff from him.

“The goal has changed, and I have already come so far. I think…”

He thought for a moment.

“I think I wish to tour the finished building. Get to know its layout, care to join me?”

He followed behind him, his favored side still taking the more dominant stance this time, he pulled out the Black Blade, still in its scabbard, placing his palm over the hilt and used it for support as he walked. Pain still tormenting his spine, but with the added support, he was able to dull the brunt of it.

“Besides, I need to see if whoever took over my position during my absence did an adequate job.”

He looked over to Acier.

“You wouldn't happen to know who took over would you?”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace slowed to a stop when Varin brushed past the suggestion to rest. Of course he did. A quiet breath slipped from him, more exhale than reaction. Not frustration. Just… expectation confirmed.

He didn't argue it or push again. Varin had already decided what forward looked like, and it clearly didn't involve stopping. Ace's gaze lingered on him for a moment longer before shifting ahead, toward the temple. He hadn't planned on staying or really wanted to get pulled into anything else either.

But… Varin wasn't just another acolyte. He was an apprentice - useful, strong, stubborn. More importantly, he was predictable in the way he carried himself. The kind of person who could be relied on in a fight. He was worth keeping around and worth understanding. There were worse uses of time.

"I guess."

The answer came easy, low and uncommitted. There was no enthusiasm in his tone. Maybe a hint of reluctance, but mostly... it was acceptance.

He waited just long enough for Varin to close the distance, then stepped forward, falling into pace beside him. Or close enough to it. Varin's movement was slower now. Noticeably so. Every step was measured, and careful. The Black Blade helped, but it didn't hide it.

When the question came, Ace glanced over at him, one brow lifting slightly before his shoulders rose in a loose, almost lazy shrug.

"No." His gaze drifted ahead again. "I was busy helping clear up the remaining Imperials."

The space between them settled into a quiet rhythm as they moved, the shift from open air to interior swallowing the sounds of the city behind them. Ace's steps slowed as they crossed the threshold, and then he stopped.

He turned his head just enough to look at Varin. "Okay. Where."

Ace handed over the decision of where to go to him.

Varin Mortifer​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber​

He didn’t know if he should be surprised or not that Ace agreed to join him in touring the temple, all the same the extra company was welcomed. Varin was quickly learning that Acier was really good at giving short answers. It didn’t bother him, sometimes too many words made the conversation boring to him. But he did not know who oversaw the temple after he had disappeared. The answer should not have surprised him, especially with Acier having been taking care of extra stowaway Imperials.

The name caused a slight irritation within him, but he stuffed it down deep where he would call upon it when the time was right.

His steps though slower still maintained purpose, the scabbard of the black blade echoed with each tap as they neared the entrance, stepping through to see the very dark walls and dim lighting already setting the tone of the building.

Ominous, dark and dreary. The signature look of most Sith Temples.

Before them were a few directions they could take, when Ace asked which way Varin closed his eyes for just a moment before a feeling told him which hall to take.

He lazily lifted the scabbard pointing in the direction he felt they should go. The left hall.

Lined with closed doors, some holding faint conversations that were held within the confines of each room, others stood silent. The hall would eventually spit them out to a larger room that contained various tomes and dataslates, salvaged from what ruined buildings the slaves could dig up.

A large study or library, holding knowledge of the planet's history, things Varin thought would be important to twist into the favor of the Covenant.

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace stepped into the larger chamber without slowing, his gaze moving across the room in the same way it always did whenever he entered a room. Assessment.

Shelves lined the walls in uneven rows, some old and warped with age, others clearly reconstructed from salvaged material. Ancient tomes sat beside modern dataslates with no real sense of order beyond function. Dust lingered faintly in the air, disturbed only by the low hum of distant ventilation and the muted echo of their footsteps across the stone floor.

Ace's eyes tracked across old Jedi architecture partially buried beneath Covenant additions, then toward shelves packed with reorganized records, recovered holocrons, Imperial archives, and salvaged texts pulled from across the galaxy.

This was what the Temple had become. Not a place of preservation anymore. A place of consolidation. History gathered, dissected, and repurposed into leverage.

Ace could already see the logic in it. Learn worlds, people, what they feared, valued, worshipped. Then reshape that knowledge into something useful for the Covenant.

"You picked the library first."

There was the faintest trace of curiosity behind the observation. Ace moved deeper between the towering archive shelves, his fingers brushing once across the edge of a console terminal before he activated it. A soft glow flickered to life across the display, lines of restored records and recovered planetary data surfacing across the screen.

The Covenant had already started reorganizing the archives. Jedi history stripped apart, categorized, reframed beside recovered Sith records and Imperial intelligence logs. Knowledge repurposed into strategy and leverage.

Ace skimmed silently for a few moments before something caught his attention. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Hm."

Varin Mortifer​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber

A small scoff escaped him as his hand ran over the spines of various tomes, the scent of old leather accompanied by the soft hums and clicking of holodisks seeming to quiet from his voice.

“People always tend to be surprised when they see that I can certainly read, writing also tends to be my specialty.”

The thought of @Arriscalling him meathead causing his gaze to glare ever so slightly before he moved past it.

A small arch of his brow as he looked over to Acier.

“But, the more they underestimate me the harder their downfall.”

Varin's hand rested on the shelf as he watched Acier approach a terminal, watching him skim through the various articles and archives before something seemed to catch him.

A small hum leaving him as Varin watched the reaction from Ace.

“Coruscant has had its fair share of secrets through the years. Almost everywhere you turn you can just about find something new.”

Varin slowly approached the console, the scabbard tapping on the floor as he did, keeping in rhythm with his steps.

On the other side of the aisle he could see a couple of troopers patrol and stop, looking towards them before giving a slow nod and walking off.

Varin's gaze flicked back to the terminal, a curious look in his eye.

“What did you find?”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace continued scanning through the terminal as Varin spoke behind him, eyes moving steadily across lines of recovered records and archived Imperial documentation.

Truthfully, he'd never taken Varin for unintelligent. Violent? Definitely. Stubborn? Obviously. Impulsive? At times. But never stupid. That much had been obvious from the first few times they'd crossed blades and exchanged words. Varin thought too much beneath the surface not to have depth to him. What surprised Ace more was the writing.

It was always interesting seeing what people gravitated toward outside of violence. Especially people like them. Varin wrote. Ace built things. Not exactly the sort of details most people pictured first.

"You're right." Ace said quietly, still focused on the display. "Their underestimation of you is an advantage."

At the mention of Coruscant's endless secrets, Ace gave a faint hum through his nose.

"Five thousand one hundred and twenty-seven levels of urban development tends to do that."

His tone stayed dry, almost absentminded as he continued sorting through records. Behind him, he heard the steady tap of Varin's scabbard drawing closer across the archive floor.

He'd asked Ace what he'd found. After having read the many layers of archived Imperial contingency data, he'd learned what their initial plans were. His eyes narrowed slightly as he skimmed through it, then he angled the terminal enough for Varin to see. Ace skimmed silently for another second before summarizing it the only way he really knew how.

"The Empire started collapsing internally after the Emperor disappeared during the Core Wars a few years back. Warlords turned on each other. Loyalists decided the Empire failed by letting that happen."

His eyes moved across the screen again.

"Instead of saving it… They planned to burn everything down. Punish both the Empire and the Alliance. Then regroup whatever survived in the Unknown Regions and rebuild later."

There was a faint shift of his jaw. Ace immediately realized that the Empire's attack on Coruscant was what came after their retreat to the Unknown Regions.

"Whole thing reads less like a military operation and more like ideological cleansing."

The terminal glow reflected faintly across his face as his gaze continued moving through the records.

"Kill the weak. Preserve the loyal. Start over."

His thumb tapped once against the side of the console. Ace sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before resting his hand on the console again.

"Makes me wonder if we're that much different than the Empire."

Varin Mortifer​