Private Pain Remembers

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

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

Varin watched as Acier scrolled through documents and files within the terminal. The evidence of a power vacuum succumbing the empire to its impending doom was something Varin did not see as surprising. Their ideology of ridding the weak and maintaining their dying group did have the same element as the Sith, but Varin knew the difference.

He looked over at Acier.

“The main difference is we do not jump ship when things get hard. While the Empire is busy ridding themselves of burdens and thinning their numbers they refuse to adapt. They die off, they start over and the cycle begins again.”

He turned to face the shelves looking at the various tomes.

“Their chain may be of a similar look to ours, but the metal is made of something far more brittle than ours.”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace stayed quiet for a moment after Varin spoke, eyes still fixed on the terminal though he wasn't really reading anymore. The glow from the screen reflected dimly across his face as the words settled in the space between them.

A more durable chain. Maybe. But Ace found little comfort in that distinction, because stronger convictions didn't make the aftermath look any cleaner. His thumb tapped once more against the edge of the console before he finally spoke.

"Doesn't change the outcome much." His tone was level, clinical, and he lifted his gaze slightly from the display. "Most civilians don't care whether the people overrunning their world collapse afterward or survive long enough to do it again later."

There was no heat in the words. Just observation.

"The Empire destroyed worlds because it was failing." His eyes drifted briefly across the archives around them. "We destabilize them just because we can. Or whatever it is we're telling ourselves now. Either way, cities burn. Governments collapse. People die in the middle of it while someone higher up calls it necessary."

His gaze returned to the terminal.

"Efficiency doesn't make it better."

The room fell quiet again aside from the low hum of the archives around them. Ace finally leaned back slightly from the console, folding one arm loosely across himself while the other rested near the terminal.

"The Covenant's difference is honesty." He said after a moment. "The Empire buried its intentions beneath order, patriotism, whatever sounded acceptable."

His eyes shifted toward Varin.

"We don't bother pretending conquest is anything else."

Varin Mortifer​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

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

“Such is the nature of being conquerors.”

He spoke quietly, quiet enough that if they were in any other room he would not have heard him.

“It is not about who is better or higher in morale, it is strength and brains versus strength and brains. Survival of the fittest.”

He stopped, his hand resting on the shelf before he slowly turned back to face him.

“Governors can dress it up how they wish to make it seem prettier with patriotism but war is always war. I see it all the time, new acolytes brought in with promise of power and secrets only to step into their first blood bath, usually their only blood bath.”

A small hum left him.

“That is probably why I have chosen to stay in the Covenant. We do not hide the gory details, we display it. Those who do not have the stomach for it dare not to enter, and we grow stronger from that.”

His finger lightly tapped on the shelf.

“I think about my first day in the Covenant often. A field exercise, training to measure all of the new faces.”

He paused as the memories flooded to him.

“I remember the cold air, the Jedi that were taken in as apprentices clutching desperately to their beliefs. I remember when Kirie tried her best to hide amongst the many faces around her, I advised her not to and to stand up straight. Arris then planted a beanbag into her sternum.”

The tapping ceased bringing about a deafening silence in the room.

“I knew then what I was getting myself into.”

Acier Moonbound​

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace understood conquest. Not academically or philosophically. Intimately. He'd known its shape long before the Covenant ever planted banners over Tapani and Coruscant. Conquest existed in everything from galactic occupations down to kids fighting in alleyways on Bonadan. Bigger systems swallowing smaller ones. Stronger people deciding what belonged to them and taking it because they could.

He had lived inside that structure since before he could speak. Didn't mean he respected it. And despite what Varin seemed to think, this was never really about morality to Ace. He wasn't naïve enough for that anymore. War was ugly. Power always had a cost attached to it. He understood that better than most.

But there were smarter ways to build something. Better ways to conquer than descending onto a world, crushing anyone who resisted, then calling the ashes stability afterward.

Survival of the fittest. The phrase sat wrong with him. Maybe because he actually came from that environment instead of studying it from above. He knew exactly what survival looked like at ground level. Hunger, fear, and violence becoming routine before you were old enough to understand it properly. Necessary? Sometimes. But necessity and virtue weren't the same thing, and it didn't have to stay that way.

None of it showed on his face. Ace kept the thoughts where they belonged, buried beneath the same restraint he applied to almost everything else. Disagreement was manageable, but saying too much wasn't.

So instead he listened. Varin spoke about his first days within the Covenant while Ace drifted away from the terminal toward one of the older shelves lining the archive. His fingers traced briefly across worn lettering before he pulled free an ancient tome bound in darkened leather.

Dust shifted faintly as he opened it. His eyes skimmed silently across faded script while Varin spoke behind him about Kirie, Arris, blood, expectation. About understanding exactly what he was stepping into.

Ace turned a page slowly, he still didn't look back at him.

"Glad you have it all figured out." The words came dryly as his eyes continued scanning the tome. "You'll go far here."

The delivery was flat, but the intent underneath it carried just enough sardonic edge to make it clear he wasn't entirely complimenting him. A brief silence followed after that.

"I'll remember it next time I see you struggling up a staircase."

Varin Mortifer​

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

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

He sensed the change in Acier, he had said something that stirred something up inside of him. His gaze slowly looked over to him, noting the dry remark.

Varin could have done a lot of things in this situation, some form of violence, he could have blown up on him, he could have left it be. But something of his Father's teachings rang in his head.

Listen

Varin slowly turned to face him, the scabbard of the Black Blade scraping along the floor. A curious look in his eye as he looked at him.

“You disagree. I see that.”

He did not raise his voice, he did not bring any sound of hostility towards him. He knew that everything Acier did, everything he said and whatever tone he used had reasons. Whether he stated it or not.

He looked down beside him at a chair, Varin gently pulled his finger towards him, pulling the chair over where he slowly took a seat. An exhale of pain leaving him as he did.

A moment to sit and rest, and to listen.

He picked up his scabbard and laid it across his legs.

“Would you tell me what it is you believe then?”

There was no mockery in his voice, just a man who was willing to listen to someone holding something in. Acier could choose to tell him or not, but either way, Varin was here to listen.

Acier Moonbound​