Private Quiet Hours

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

In the quiet of the public library, Braze sits amidst the rows of books, his somber jade green eyes scanning the shelves with intent. He's here on a mission, seeking knowledge beyond the realm of Jedi teachings. Amidst the familiar tomes of galactic history and ancient lore, Braze discovers a treasure trove of subjects unrelated to the Jedi Order.

His gaze lingers on a weathered volume about the flora and fauna of distant planets, its pages filled with colorful illustrations of alien ecosystems. Nearby, a collection of poetry catches his eye, offering a glimpse into the creative expressions of beings from across the galaxy. Braze also finds himself drawn to a section on philosophy, where he discovers diverse perspectives on life, morality, and the nature of existence. After making his selections he settled down at a large empty table with many seats sitting alone.

 

[Akhema]

Braze

There were those in the galaxy that had never seen one of her kind. If she had her way, they never would this far into the galactic core given the dogmatic nature of some of the Jedi that exist. She had learned in her time since thawing from carbon freezing that the black and white way she had been educated to view the Force had become a weakness more than a strength. It was to that end she discarded that mindset in the pursuit of what she believed to be a more enlightened path to power. The Code of the Sith served her still, as she served herself and her power, but the nature by which she used the power had changed radically. She was a far cry away from the Korribani Academy of old, when Vitiate still ruled the Sith Empire. No more were the conflicts of old. No more were those who had sought to undo her. She had found that very freeing, but in equal measure very isolating. She was a Sith out of time.

Akhema had been fortunate to trust her gut instincts when travelling though. She had found the world of Tomyris, and with it a truly ancient and lost colonial expedition by Vitiate's Sith Empire. Deep below the galactic core this world lingered out of the hyperlanes, and out of sight. The Sith that had landed there built a new society since their separation from the Empire. They had adopted a more pragmatic approach to the Force. One of cooperative understanding. There were orders dedicated to light, and dark, among them, just as there were orders to balance. Each of them uniquely adapted to the times they were founded. Tomyris was an anomaly, one born ouf of necessity, but an anomaly nonetheless. Her carbon freezing was meant to place her on that world many thousands of years ago, yet she never arrived. If destiny were a thing, she would have believed that hers was to discover them in this era, but she believed firmly that there was nothing in the galaxy that was certain.

Still, she was a dark side user. That meant there was always a malign presence in the Force to those would could feel it. She could disguise herself physically, but she chose not to. Akhema did not fear others the way one might have. It was this that kept her visiting worlds that the Sith abroad might have been prone to giving a wide berth. She had come to this old public library to examine their historical star charts. By working up from the time of Vitiate's Empire, she could determine now, if anyone had found the planet of Tomyris, or if it was truly still uncharted territory. Her travel was unguarded, and unannounced to the people she had come to lead. The Tomyrian Sith knew she was a wanderer, even when they placed her on the throne. While she did not believe in destiny, they had held long to a prophecy that the empty carbon pod on their ship was meant to be occupied by their leader. That was true, but they had since then elevated that status to royalty and had placed stewards in charge of the world until the day they believed would come when their leader would arrive to usher them into the greater galaxy.

In truth, she was hesitant to do so. They had built a society that had learned to coexist between the aspects of light and dark, and had learned all too well what happened to those who took exception to the blending of light and dark. The progenitor of her bloodline was one of the original Jedi Exiles. They had learned the hard way what the Jedi were willing to do to quash any learning that did not fit their narrow scope. She feared that the world would become a battleground for dogmatic belief that would shatter the cooperative peace these ancient Purebloods had found within one another. Their world was harsh, they could not survive without each other, and now they had mastered their world. Regardless, her desire to protect them could likely not push back against their desire to see what the galaxy had become. In the end she could do only so much, so now she searched the charts for safer routes that they might be able to make contact with the galaxy without fear of the black hole clusters in the path of their world devouring their vessels and leaving them lost to time.

There was but one other soul in this area of the stacks, and one she had not really acknowledged. Whether or not they felt her or even knew what she was, remained up for debate. She did note that some of the selections that the young man made were, unique, to say the least. It was a panoply of widespread interests, but one that did not really seem to follow a pattern. For a moment she paused, and without looking down she stood next to his table, and spoke one sentence, "The works you want to read, are not likely to be in public libraries." and then took that moment to peer downward with her yellow-orange eyes. If the young man did not know what she was, he was in for a very shocking discovery. She was indeed a Pureblooded Sith, one with a high level of potency to her Sith bloodline. The spikes on her face, the skin color, and the power in the Force that seemed impatient to be released were quite striking indicators that she was remarkably different than the average library patron, let alone the average living being on this world. Akhema did not take a seat, unless she was invited to do so, but she did wait to see if the reaction was more or less one of violence or fear as well. She knew her kind were rare, but were still not welcome within the deeper core worlds within what had come to be called the Galactic Alliance. A prejudice she noted, and ignored.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

Braze glanced up, his curiosity piqued as he noticed the resemblance to Resh . It was unusual for him to encounter someone with such a distinctive appearance. "No? Well, I suppose I can still appreciate a bit of culture, can't I?" he inquired, his tone laced with genuine interest. "You're welcome to join me if you'd like, Miss," Braze offered graciously.

His demeanor was neither aggressive nor dismissive; if anything, it was inviting. Braze had encountered a wide variety of individuals throughout his travels across the galaxy, and he harbored no true prejudices. He understood well that the galaxy was a myriad of different shapes, sizes, and colors, and, that was... fine.

"I'm actually on the hunt for some information on non-standard Force traditions," he shared, hoping to pique her interest. His quest for knowledge was driven by a deep-seated curiosity and an open-mindedness towards the many ways the Force manifested across different cultures.

 

[Akhema]

Braze

Non-standard Force traditions. That was a research path that was very dangerous for the uninitiated. She waited for a moment and sat opposite the young man, "That begs the question, as to what it is a standard Force tradition is by definition. Force traditions native to worlds beyond the scope of Jedi and...Sith, are standard to those people, are they not?" Akhema asked, posing the first, but easiest question regarding the quest for knowledge this figure was pursuing. It was true, though, that the Force was wide and varied beyond just the simple black and white that the more self-indulgent members of the Sith and Jedi believed.

"Many years ago I met the Voss people. Do you know of them?" she continued, asking of one of the traditions she knew of personally. They were an interesting people, and their origins are steeped in both the history of the Jedi and the Sith, and their seemingly unending conflict that has embittered both orders against one another.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

Braze reclined in his chair amidst the hushed atmosphere of the public library, his mind whirling with thoughts sparked by the Sith Pureblood woman's words. "I suppose that depends on my worldview of what's normal to me," he mused, his voice thoughtful. "I suppose it's a narrow-minded, selfish view, but it's the lens I can refer to most easily," he offered, his words tinged with a hint of self-awareness.

"I only really know about the Jedi... I kind of have a vague gist of the present-day Sith... I didn't do well with History classes and often skipped out. I'm sure Gabriel Pryce would scold me for such," Braze admitted with a sheepish grin, his gaze momentarily distant as he recalled past lectures. "But no, I can't say that the Voss really ring any bells to me. Who were they?" he asked curiously.

As if suddenly remembering something, Braze spoke up again, his expression shifting to one of mild embarrassment. "Oh... uhhh... I'm Braze," he added, his voice trailing off slightly as he introduced himself to the Sith Pureblood woman.

 

[Akhema]

Braze

"I don't imagine the Jedi would teach you about the Voss traditions. They were not born of their own volition. They are a people who have been permanently altered by the interference of both the Jedi and the Sith. It was that interference that made them into the Voss people. They used to be the same as the other species on the planet, the Gormak, but by the Jedi teaching them they radically evolved far faster than anyone could have anticipated. My people, the Sith, used the planet for resources and largely ignored the Gormak people. The Voss, exterminated my kind from the world and the Jedi were disallowed from bringing more of theirs. Eventually both orders disappeared from Voss, and left behind the result of our conflict. They built a city of their own and retreated to that as their sole bastion against the nomadic Gormak who had grown violently hostile towards their previous kin. Eventually the world came to be controlled by the Tionese." Akhema said, leaving out the part where she had participated in the second discovery of the Voss people for now. That was not important to the notion that it was both the Jedi and the Sith that led to the struggles of the evolved Voss people as both sides continued to fight for advantage in their ever-boiling conflict against the tides of dark and light.

She stopped and thought for a moment, "If I were to ask you, how old you think I am, what would you say?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

Braze frowned, contemplating all of that, as if envisioning a whole animated holovid info short on the matter as she spoke. "Exterminated? Why exterminated?" he asked curiously, looking around.

He looked at her and tilted his head. "I don't think it's polite of me to talk about a lady's age. Besides, I'm told they often age like fine wine. I've already met a few individuals who've been frozen in time that look nothing like their chronological bodies," Braze offered, glancing around the room.

 

[Akhema]

Braze

"The Great Galactic War is when the Sith were at their greatest. A power that brough the Republic to its knees, but it was not to last. The Cold War period after the War was where the Sith Empire reached its true apex. That was when I served the Emperor. A man simply known as Vitiate. So great was his power that he dwarfed entire worlds with his raw potential in the Force. He consumed worlds, and the mundane operations of the Empire itself were so far beneath him that he was essentially always removed from the administration of Sith space. Until he found his way to Voss. The first time the Sith discovered the world it was for mere enslavement and resource gathering. They destroyed the Sith that were present once they had been elevated in the Force. The chose the path of revenge against the Sith. Vitiate planned to use the Voss people to reinvigorate his power and possess a new host body. He was defeated by a Jedi Master, one that I could have interfered with had I elected to do so. I let the Force guide me, and when the Jedi confronted me, I simply stepped aside and allowed them to continue their pursuit. I allowed them to pursue, and thwart the Sith Emperor, because had I not, Vitiate would have consumed still more life to fuel his power. Something that malicious, that driven and brutally powerful, could not be allowed to nourish itself on the countless lives of innocent civilians. This was all roughly 4,500 years ago, and not a single day I spent in carbonite freezing was spent regretting that choice. I shudder to imagine what the galaxy would be like, if it would be anything at all, had he not been stopped in my time." she said, allowing a moment of silence between the two to fill in the rest of the time between pauses.

Akhema cleared her throat a little, "Even now, after I have been thawed out, I have found myself using the Dark Side in ways that the old Sith Empire would have deemed weak and pathetic. When I came to Coruscant the first time searching for what happened in the past millenia that I needed to know about, the Jedi Council sent a Master to meet with me. Master Valery Noble informed me of several key facts, but the most relevant of which had been the Brotherhood of the Maw. They were pretenders, really, to the power of the Sith. Taking the Sith Code to a nihilistic extreme and dedicating themselves strictly to destruction and entropy with no end. Foolish, and useless. I helped her clear up Sithspawn in the undercity in exchange for her help in learning about the current time. I almost died, by placing myself between a Sithspawn creature and a mother and child fleeing from the destruction in the lower levels of Coruscant. I used the Dark Side, to protect, to save others. Philosophically that would be at odds with the Code of the Sith. My opposition to the Brotherhood was enough for Master Noble to trust me enough to let me leave Coruscant in peace. This begs one question. Is the Dark inherently evil, and the Light inherently good? I believe that the Force is a spectrum, and that we make the Force good or evil based on how we use Dark or Light. It is no black and white thing; the Force simply is, and nothing we do changes that.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

Braze struggled to maintain focus, his eyelids heavy and his posture slumping deeper into his seat. The barrage of historical events felt overwhelming, his mind unable to latch onto the rapid flow of information.

"So..." His voice wavered, eyes narrowing as he sought clarity amidst the fog of details. "You're searching for a new direction now? Something different from all that's happened before?" Braze inquired, his curiosity peeking through the haze of confusion. "Why not follow what you believe is the right course of action?"

 

[Akhema]

Braze

"That is what I have been doing. It has been a difficult task sometimes to break out of the drilled in methodology that the Academy of the Sith taught. There will never be a time for me to fully abandon the Dark Side, that much I know to be impossible. My people, Purebloods, biologically require it to survive. Stripping us of the Dark Side, is like stripping oxygen from a human. When the Jedi Exiles after the Hundred Years Darkness interbred with my kind, they created in us that genetic need. My great progenitor, Sorzus Syn, was truly cunning in that regard. Her ability to alchemically warp life to her own ends was nearly unmatched in her time." She said, deliberately leaving out a few aspects of Sith physiology. The one that was most important was the one that she had already spelled out anyways.

Akhema adjusted her seat, "The depth to which I delved into the Dark Side, though, has made it quite difficult for me to tap into the Light. Whether or not that is simply genetics, or the Force resisting my attempt to draw on it, I do not know. Have you ever had that kind of a conflict yourself?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

Braze listened intently to her concerns, nodding in understanding. "Yes, I've encountered similar obstacles," he affirmed empathetically.

"It's akin to relying solely on one arm your entire life," he explained, gesturing towards his own arm bound in a sling. "Then, all of a sudden, expecting your other arm to shoulder all the burdens the accustomed arm did before. It's not something you can simply will into existence. You must return to the fundamentals, nurturing those skills from the ground up. It demands time, dedication, patience, and countless repetitions to forge a connection with it. Rekindling that inner tranquility, that focused state of flow, can be challenging."

Braze paused, reflecting on his own journey from darkness to light. "The dark side feeds on emotion, on the spur of the moment—it's reactive. But embracing the light side? That's a different battle. It's simple to act on selfish impulses, to lash out fueled by emotion, particularly when it comes to harming others. The light side, however, requires a deliberate intention for good, to put others before oneself. It's a more arduous path, finding strength in selflessness rather than in self-serving acts."

 

[Akhema]

Braze

"If you had asked me millenia ago if I was going to be lectured by a Jedi, I would have likely cut you down. As it stands, I appreciate your candour. Sometimes when you become so experienced in one thing, when new knowledge or talent does not come naturally, you can become easily discouraged. How simple it really is, to overlook those basic fundamentals once you exceed them." she said, quite bemused by the subject now. Akhema was indeed quite powerful in the Dark Side. To see her attempt anything of the Jedi arts though, it was as a neophyte learning to simply raise a stone with telekinesis. She had not felt that weak in so very long that it was almost refreshing to learn anew.

The Sith sat quietly, then spoke again, "That being said, I find that my use of the Dark Side has been in order to perform less self-serving acts of late. Does that not make the act good in spite of the Dark Side? Likewise, could it not be said that a Jedi could use their power in the Force for self-aggrandizing?"

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

"Well, for example, I'm very skilled at telekinesis and manipulating air. If I were to draw the air from someone's lungs and collapse them, or draw the oxygen from someone's blood, that would still be a horrific way to harm someone and end their life.

Even if I did this in defense of another's life, my actions would be abhorrent, causing undue suffering and pain as I extinguish another's life. In a way, it mocks the core ideals of the light side and its sanctity for life.

Whereas the dark side is more about self-fulfillment... If a dark side user wanted to be better overall or wanted to protect something or someone else because it was precious or important to them in some way, it's still inherently rooted in some selfish desire that needs to be fulfilled.

There's a difference between helping someone because you can and you see it as the right thing to do, and helping someone because it advances your own goals in some way, be it self-fulfilling acts of penance and redemption for past deeds to alleviate guilt... It's interesting... To act without overthinking, to just feel that it's right in a way, without additional steps... It's so vastly different yet, in some ways, so close to emotions. Emotions aren't inherently bad for the light side of the Force, either.

True selfless love is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, and neither the dark side nor the light side can compare." Braze tried to reason to her his thoughts on the matter,

 

[Akhema]

Braze

"The desire to protect from the perspective of a Dark Side user is rooted in control of one's fear. In this case, fear of loss. While the Code of the Sith preaches liberation from that which holds us back, we all willingly chain ourselves in some way in spite of the Dark Side being able to break them. We all willingly attach ourselves to things, be it other people, objects we want, or a goal. No matter what, something binds us. The Dark Side allows us to temporarily break that fear to overcome the source of it." Akhema offered, not disagreeing but putting forward more information.

"My childhood was bereft of parental love, and so I cannot say for certain that it exists in all people, but the parental drive to protect and fulfill one's child. The woman that placed herself between a Sithspawn and her son in the Undercity, inspired me. To be so utterly outmatched, and yet stand in the path of certain death to try and save her child. It was something that I recognized that I lacked from my youth. I saved them, because someone like her deserves the chance to see her child achieve their goals. She...reminds me of what I wish I had when I was her son's age. It was, a life changing experience to see that type of selflessness."

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

Braze spoke thoughtfully, his voice tinged with the wisdom of one who had pondered the mysteries of existence. "We shouldn't try to control things we can't," he began, his gaze distant yet deeply connected to the present moment.

"Loss is an inevitable part of life, a fundamental element of the natural order. We're not here for very long, and everyone, in some way, shape, or form, seeks to be remembered, to feel like they mattered to someone, somewhere."

He paused, allowing the weight of his words to settle in the air between us. "It's only natural for beings endowed with higher thought to seek a purpose. If there was no purpose, then why do we exist?" Braze's question hung in the silence, an invitation to explore the depths of our own understanding and beliefs about life, loss, and the search for meaning.

"To enjoy what we have now is a gift. To soak up the goodness we can while we are here is something to be cherished," Braze mused,

 

[Akhema]

Braze

"That, I cannot accept. Why seek power if not to control? The Force is a tool for that, and invariably it will be used to control the outcome of things we wish to control. Even the Jedi use the Force to control outcomes. There would be no reason to pursue the power of the Force if not to use it in order to shape the world around us to be more to our liking. Knowledge is nothing without practical applicaiton." Akhema said firmly, the disagreement quite wide between the two. She sought power for its own sake, so she could shape her surroundings to her own designs. In that way, she and the Jedi must have been fundamentally different in spite of her high regard for others. In the end, she was still a Dark Side devotee, and one that saw the pursuit of power through the lens of the Sith as the way things simply are at their most natural state.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

Braze frowned and his response was tempered with a hint of indifference. He glanced at her, his voice laced with a faint undertone of pity.

"If that's the path you choose, so be it. But know this—chasing power for its own sake is an endless pursuit, one that rarely brings the fulfillment you seek. It's a hollow chase, and you won't be satisfied." Braze offered simply from his own personal experience.

 

[Akhema]

Braze

"Then so be it. There will always be a new goal, a new height to reach. The satisfaction is in the chase, not the catch." she said, detecting the sense of pity and answering it with one of scorn and contempt. Akhema had no need for pity. This was the life she led and she did not regret it. Still, she appreciated that he was unafraid to speak his mind to her. She knew that on this world she had very little leeway, so lashing out would gain her nothing but a target painted on her back. There was no need for it anyways. Even as she felt slighted by the pity, and angered that it was directed at her chosen path, she internalized that outrage and swallowed it down to keep things civil.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Akhema

Braze was rather brazen most of the time. Yet he was quiet for a few moments listening to what she said and feeling what her emotional state was more aptly as she verbally lashed out. He studied what he sensed briefly. "If... you're so certain your path... is the right path for you... Why do you care so much about what I think, and how I feel about it?"

 

[Akhema]

Braze

"You reassured me, that my inability to harness the Light was not my own genetic makeup, but my lack of experience in doing so. Tremendously helpful, really. It helps me to understand my place in the Dark Side while reflecting on the aspect that I did not study." Akhema said with a small frown, "Unlike some of my kind, I find the thoughts of Jedi to be interesting when contrasted against my own. Even though my and your orders are generally enemies it is not wise to discredit our philosophies wholesale. Understanding is the foundation on which agreement can be built."