Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Secret Garden

The chance encounter between Jairdain and the not quite Lykos on Denon was stuck in her memory. A promise of a further meet up after was what brought this about since that meeting was not one where they could speak privately.

Jairdain had a room in the palace on Commenor, but she wasn't exactly comfortable inviting him there. Having almost free reign to move about the systems held, she decided to stay on Commenor. If he didn't like it then, that was on him. She was tired of being a pawn for the gains of others and she had thought herself moved beyond those days.

Their brief reunion had dragged that past back into her mind and Jairdain needed to put the past to bed. In an attempt to do that, she sent him a message after learning what name he went by. She had thought Lykos dead, but Denon had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt he lived on somehow. That was one of the answers she hoped to get out of him.

Inviting him to one of the nicer places on Commenor, Jairdain dressed to the role and position she had here. The advisor of the crown prince couldn't be seen wandering around in rags. Not that she ever had, but those robes she wore in the past were gone. Now her clothes fit her life that had been started after her days with the Sith.

Gone were the feathers from the nickname given to her by Lykos. No longer was she a sparrow or so she thought. Her wings had been clipped then, but Jairdain had recovered and moved on. The doors of her past were closed until that day. Now one final door had reopened and it was going to be closed again.

Taking a breath, she waited for the not quite Lykos to show up.

[member="Virak Ip"]
 
​Approaching the place that Jairdain had instructed him to meet her post Denon, Virak was dressed not in his usual outfit of breastplate and cloak, nor was his ever present blade at his hip. Instead of his normal outfit, Virak was dressed in a loose, white tunic and a pair of simple trousers. Nothing fancy to denote his former role as Representative of Sev Tok adorned his form and, as such, Virak passed largely ignored. After all, despite his deadlocked, pitch black hair, the intricate tattoos and tall form he didn't stand out strongly from the regular people that passed him by. In the end, the clothes made the man.

Drawing closer, Virak paused for a moment, ignoring the muttered comment around him as people sidestepped him, to examine Jaridain through the Force. Despite her strong shielding, it was easy for him to exploit the former bond that lingered between their souls to search her emotions closely without her even knowing that he was doing so. In response to his actions, a small, sad smile stretched across his lips, twisting his scarred visage into something momentarily horrifying as the valleys of old wounds engraved upon his features twisted and contorted painfully before settling into a softer expression. Despite how much she might try to hide it from him when he was face to face to her, he knew of the pain his very presence caused her. A pain that only solidified the plan he had made upon receiving her request for the meeting.

Resuming his pace, Jairdain soon entered into his line of sight and he surely entered her own. Silently, as he approached, his amber gaze flickered along her form, taking into the sightless violet eyes, midnight hair and featherless outfit so different from what he was use to seeing her in. However, what caused pride to stir inside his stomach the most was the fact that she stood tall and proud despite the burden he knew this meeting to be placing on her shoulders. Letting the walls around his mind fall completely as he drew even with her, he was sure that she could feel that very same pride.

"Zireal." A single worded greeting, but, for the both of them, that single word, that name, meant much and held much meaning.


[member="Jairdain"]
 
It might be odd, but Jairdain was not at all nervous about this meeting. She held no fear of Lykos in this type of setting. Not long after they had initially met, word had been given by him that he would not harm her unless they met on the field of battle. While any setting could be considered a battle field, that was not something she considered. Now though she did, this could turn into a battle of words and if they fought, he would not be breaking that given word.

That connection between their souls had been shattered as much as her mind had been. How even a part of it remained was something she was curious about. Maybe that would be fixed today as they spoke.

Turning when Virak approached her, he lowered his mental barriers for her. When he did that, the pain she felt from that connection flared and she almost let out a wince from the sudden shock of the headache. It had not been present on Denon, but there both of them wore shields to keep themselves protected. Here there wasn't such a need.

She felt the sense of pride from him and Jairdain closed her eyes for a moment. Not that doing such an action did any good, but it was more the thought that was intended. It gave her a brief moment to push that headache to the side and the ability to focus on him fully.

"It has been a very long time since that name was spoken to me, Lyk...no that's not quite right. Who are you?"

Getting right to the point, her eyes snapped open and the focus through the Force would be clear on him. Not a chance to deceive her this time if he attempted.

[member="Virak Ip"]
 
For a moment, Virak hesitated, his caution broadcasting into the void of the Force around himself and Jairdain, his shoulders stiffening slightly as he instinctively cast his awareness out around them. Even when he had yet to take steps towards becoming a Sith, he had been secretive; he had been guarding the Rites of his Clan then but now he guarded secrets much more personal. However, he beat back the instinctive reaction after but a moment. If there was anyone alive that he owed the truth to, it was perhaps Jairdain Ismet. He owed her his complete honesty in response to whatever questions she might see fight to ask him and he would not begrudge her for any. Reaffirming this fact to himself, the knot that had formed along his features and across his shoulders faded.

However, while he might be willing to share with Jairdain, he was not so willing to share with others. As such, reaching out into the Force, it twisted and bent around himself and the younger woman until a bastardised version of the Force Cloak settled around them. Rather than sight, sound and even heat being obscured from the senses of those that wandered past them, only sound was restricted, meaning that only Jairdain would hear what he had to say. The secrets he was going to impart were highly personal, after all, and only known to one other and while he was willing to expand that number by one more, he was not willing to gratuitously expand the number of people in know.

Over all, it took only a few seconds between Jairdain's question and when Virak started to speak. However, every moment of those seconds, every thought and emotional response would be heard and felt by Jairdain. He would have no secrets, no barriers, in this meeting.

"Who I am may require some history, if you do not mind. Xevka Duquo, not yet Rakama, was still an Acolyte, still fresh from the slave pits, when he met Kay. He had been contracted to kill her but, instead, he chose to spare her and to offer her his services in one of her early pursuits: liberation of slaves. He remembered vividly, after all, the pain he had suffered. Years later, he had another key meeting with Kay, this time with him as a Lord known as Lykos and her a Sith, fallen to the Dark from torture. He allied himself with her and spoke to her as a friend during that time. Following this, after her redemption, he came to Kay when she was Queen and spoke to her about wanting to create an individualised power-base for himself outside of the Sith, hinting that if he felt secure he might just leave them - an unseen lie unfortunately. Kay was kind to the Zabrak she had known for a time and granted him an official role and a name, a name which he then officialised by falsifying documentation as he saw necessary. That identity was Virak Ip, Representative of Sev Tok."

Pausing for a moment, Virak tilted his head towards Jairdain instinctively rather than as a gesture. "Shall we sit? I have a feeling this conversation may take some time." Without waiting for a response, he turned and approached a nearby bench, lowering himself upon it with a groan. He sat there in silence until Jairdain settled next to him, only then resuming his story.

"Fast forward a few years to just before the death of Darth Lykos, formally Xevka Duquo and sometimes known by Virak Ip. He feared death, feared dying without achieving his goals. So, through Alchemy and Sorcery both, he created phylacteries. And so, come his death at the hands of his Master, he lived on beyond that halting of his heart. One thing about these phylacteries though, is that they need an outsider to preform the ritual to resurrect him and none came to preform said rituals. One soul shard, though, fought to free itself, reaching out blindly towards any it could, fighting to survive separate from the main soul. It nearly perished until the ritual was preformed and it was born again on Sev Tok by the hands of Kay, it's cries for aid having been heard by her. However, in that fight to survive, it had grown into something more than Lykos. It had cannibalised certain memories and created more of itself from the Force. And when it awoke, it resumed the identity of those memories it had kept, becoming someone different than Lykos and yet, someone who shared a majority of his soul with him. It became Virak Ip, it became me."

Sighing, Virak turned to face Jairdain directly, staring directly into unseeing eyes as honesty radiated from him into the Force around them. "You asked who I am? I am Lykos reborn as someone new, but, more than that, I am not he. Not truly. More than Lykos, I am Virak. My own person, with my own values and my own thoughts."


[member="Jairdain"]
 
If there was any one person in the galaxy Jairdain felt she could trust, it was actually this man. In every single one of their interactions he had never once broken his word once he gave it. There would be no hand raised against her today.

At first he seemed reluctant to speak the truth to her, but changed his mind after a few moments. He reached out with the Force and enveloped them. It was not something that had an effect on Jairdain herself as those around them. Observing what he did through the Force, it would be something she would have to practice. Life was an ongoing process of learning and this was something she could add to her growing list of skills and abilities.

Once he had secured their privacy, he spoke his tale. This day had been long in coming and she wanted to know everything he was willing to share. The first part was said standing and facing each other. Even though her eyes could not meet his, she still looked at him. The Force an almost ever present companion to her and with it she could see him again.

As if he had granted her sight again, that frayed connection between them allowed this to happen. They walked together and sat down on one of the benches there. Once they were comfortable, he continued on. A jump in time had happened in his life though. He explained what Lykos had done as he was not quite Lykos to avoid death. He was Lykos in his own way, but a separate entity as well.

A piece of Lykos was with him, but he was himself. He was Virak Ip and Lykos. Two in one. She did not fear death like he did. The woman knew death served a purpose even when it couldn't be known at the time. The deaths of her people came up and now she knew why they had died and she lived on. They had been an abomination and needed to die. At the time she had felt their deaths and wondered why, the answer was clear now.

"I understand a little."

His story was clear to her, but the how was not. He spoke with true honesty and Jairdain knew this. Through the Force it was clear.

"What are your values then? Do you also wish to live forever?"

[member="Virak Ip"]
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom