Secrets In Red

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

”It does”” Vrak admitted.

He had still been considering killing her up until now. Before she had been an intruder, an outsider. Someone who came to Korriz not just for their own benefit, but to exploit what could be found here. Yet now she was something else, she was something that he could exploit himself. Something that he could turn in his favor.

He had a feeling that she would never bow or kneel, but that wouldn't be necessary.

One didn't need to tame a Nexu to find a use for it.

”You came here to learn of my people. Our ways.” Sith culture, or whatever one wanted to call, had after all come from Purebloods. Though the histories werent always clear, Vrak knew that his people were the first to use the dark side of the force. Humanity later corrupted it of course, as they did with all things, but that was no concern. Not now. ”Let me show you.”

Vrak didn't usually enjoy random chaos, but he knew the rewards of sowing seeds. This was one he couldn't pass up.

 

[NightSister]

Eyebrows lifted, surprised and faintly confused at the change in his approach.

By now Aria had been at large for long enough to claim to experience in the ways of the world - eight years, roughly, since she'd left home - but people had a tendency to present a greater challenge. It was easier sometimes to guess at a person's nature, or their intent, or anything else, but all too often she'd draw a blank when she tried to second-guess someone's motives and she didn't like that this was one of those situations.

On the other hand. . .she wanted to learn, and now [member="Vrak Nashar"] had finally abandoned his determination to get in her way; he was offering instead to help. She wasn't such a fool to think it was out the goodness of his heart, but she could see little difference if it was in his interest to help her or not. Did it matter? It was in her interest regardless.

But.

"Why?"

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

"Obligation." He told her simply, truthfully.

Vrak wasn't exactly a beacon of honesty, no Sith, but in this he could at least tell the truth. There was no benefit in trying to manipulate her, at least not yet. There would come a time of course, but for now he would be honest, he would appeal to that piece of her that he could see wanted to learn so badly. A small smile touched his lips.

"I teach you now." His gaze briefly flicked towards a small rodent within the corner of the room, his paranoia showing as the creature skittered across the floor and towards one of the broken walls. "Later you will provide me with a service."

He detested Humans, but they could be useful.

More than a few of his servants were from the vile race, and as long as they remained within their place he had no issue with using them for what they were good for.

Though what that was depended.

 

[NightSister]

- [member="Vrak Nashar"] -​

​

For just a moment, she paused.

​

It was easy to think of various people she'd much rather owe a favour than Vrak. She was already wary of him, and even if she doubted he was lying here - not that she'd have likely been able to tell - the Echani was of no mind to trust the Sith.

Truthfully, it didn't sound like a bad deal. It was a perfectly fair exchange regardless of what sort of service would make up her side of the barter. She was simply more than a shade suspicious of the pureblood, reluctant to owe him anything before she knew more - but her mind was having a hard time imagining what way it could end badly that Aria couldn't easily sort out.

I teach you now. That was the only part her mind would focus on, the only part that she could really find important. She'd come to learn, and he offered to help. So what if there were strings attached?

Aria could only ever be so wary.

"Seems fair."

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

He smiled, a thin, almost devious smile.

The Pureblood stood in place for just a moment. In a way, he had made these deals with plenty of people. Neesa, The Slave, even Sera. He had offered his boon with one hand and a noose with the other. It was delightful in a way, and Vrak enjoyed these little games of power that he played. The smile on his face drew to a close, and then slowly he reached out his hand.

"It's a deal then." The force began to ebb around him.

She would be able to feel it almost immediately a spike of power rush through The Sith pureblood. The Dark seemed to ebb through him, and as soon as the tide began he reached out towards her with his hand. He didn't move to touch her, but simply waited for her to come to him.

If she did, if she took his hand or pressed it against her skin she would feel but a slight pinch followed by a burn.

A mark would be left on her skin, sealing their pact.

 

[NightSister]

- [member="Vrak Nashar"] -​

​

Aria was one of those fortunate enough to have been born with a connection to the Force. She'd made a point of deepening that connection, honing it, attuning her senses to be able to detect the force acutely. And it was what she sensed now - the force, energy, power reaching from the Pureblood like a wave. She was wary enough already to know not to ignore the ripples.

But she shook his hand all the same. She flinched at the sting of the contact, the slightest recoil inwards; but she made no sound and her gaze never left Vrak.

There was still a faint trace of the sensation when she pulled her hand away, and though she didn't examine her hand there'd be a clear mark when she did. Perhaps strangely, though, it didn't change her stance. Aria had been plenty suspicious from the start, after all - she hadn't gone into their deal with any trust for the Sith.

She looked at him again, deadpan.

"Alright. What can you teach, then?"

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

He smiled slightly, his hand withdrawing as he turned.

"That depends on what you want to learn." Vrak of course knew a great deal of the culture of the Sith, it was his own culture, but most weren't all that interested in such things. They cared about the power, the strength, what the darkside could give them and what they could attain.

"What is it you seek?" He asked as he began to wander through the tunnels, motioning her to follow. "Solace? Power? Affirmation?"

Many things could be found within the darkside.

"Or do you simply wander, hoping to find an answer to a question you have yet to ask?" It was oh so common now.

 

[NightSister]

This time she barely hesitated.

"Strength, control. Power works if you want to call it that." Aria eyed the Pureblood as she followed him through the tunnels.

She wasn't uncertain on the matter; motivation was something she gave a lot of thought to nowadays. There was more to her own - there always was, in her experience - but it was needless to go into detail and Aria was, as a general rule, much happier not talking than talking.

"What I want to learn, though?"

Equally as easy. Aria went all over the galaxy for no other purpose than to learn, to explore - her curiosity was unending. There was plenty she could learn without so much as leaving Maena, but there was always more that she could learn. It was why she was on Korriz. It was why she was in so many of the places she frequented.

"Everything."

- [member="Vrak Nashar"] -​

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Ambitious.

Then again most Sith who fell from the light were. The Jedi were an oppressive people, withholding knowledge and sharing only the smallest of slivers with those who they deemed worthy. Vrak understood why of course, it was a way of control. Jedi denied themselves truths, they denied themselves passion, the very thing that made Sith so strong. They hid and tucked things away in hopes they would never become a problem. It was a story as old as the Order itself.

He'd discovered that himself from his encounters with them. "Why?"

It was something he'd asked his apprentice, all those whom he'd taught or shared knowledge with. It was often a simple answer that he received in turn. Revenge had always been the most amusing one, though somehow he doubted this woman would ask the same.

"Why not continue on with the light?" He probed as they turned down one of the more decrepit hallways.

The ceiling seemed to be falling in on them here, the walls were covered in odd red vines, and the hall itself seemed to get more and more narrow as they continued on. If she peeked over his shoulder she would just be able to make out a great stone door ahead of them.

 

[NightSister]

- [member="Vrak Nashar"] -​

​

She smiled ever-so-slightly, studying the corridor as she paced down its halls.

It seemed so obvious now, the answer; it was genuinely odd to her that she'd spent the best part of her life completely oblivious to the truth. She realised now the light's strength was deceptive, realised that the power it gave you was fragile, easily robbed, as though you'd never really had it in the first place.

But for over two decades, she hadn't.

Now she could smile at the idea of continuing in the light with the Jedi, but it really hadn't been as long as how it felt since she'd been unable to even imagine anything else. It was oddly strange to her mind.

"I only found the opposite in the light," she replied dryly. "And eventually I realised it."

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

The Pureblood didn't reply immediately, instead he continued on in silence. Eventually they grew closer to the two massive double doors. Intricate lines and symbols were carved into the stone, a mosaic that depicted half a dozen different events. Vrak recognized some of them, the Great Hyperspace War, the sacking of Coruscant, the fall of Korriban. They weren't all that uncommon, and he'd seen such depictions back on his homeworld of Athiss.

His people were oddly sentimental at times. "So you choose to fall instead."

It was not a question this time, but instead a comment. Slowly The Pureblood turned back towards the woman, power once again flowing through him. His hand pressed against the stone, an odd sort of light rushing from his hand for just a moment before it flashed along the lines of the door. A second later there was a slight click and then a rumble as the grand stone doors began to slowly fall back into the walls and floor. He looked back through the newly formed doorway.

"My people did not choose." Slowly Vrak moved forward. "We were born with the darkside already a part of us."

Not many people knew that, mostly because Purebloods were so rare. "It sustains us."

As they moved forward through the hall the air began to thin, almost becoming stifling.

 

[NightSister]

- [member="Vrak Nashar"] -​

​

Curiously, she surveyed the mosaic, briefly trying to figure out the scenes it depicted before the carvings flashed and the walls melted into a doorway. Eyebrows lifted in surprise, faintly impressed at the display, and walked past when Vrak did, eyes dancing across the hallway as she absorbed her new surroundings.

She could've done with more air. More cautious now, she breathed in slowly. Was there a way to get around the thinned air with the Force?
Aria filed it away in her mind to learn how.

Then she looked back at the Sith as he spoke again about his people. It was easy enough to see how they could be a race naturally inclined towards the dark side, but she admittedly hadn't known to what degree. That, too, was noted down.

"I'm sure," she remarked. "What's this?"

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

"Many worlds within the Caldera were populated both by my people, and yours." There was clearly some disdain at the tail end of his words.

If she didn't know about Purebloods she of course didn't know of Humanities role within their history, but it was poignant enough that she would at least realize Vrak spoke of Humanity. The two species had intermixed somewhat thousands of years ago, when the first split of the Jedi Order had actually occurred. That event had changed not only the Jedi, but also the Sith. It was something his father often spoke of, the line that brought them to an end.

Vrak wasn't entirely sure of that, mostly because there were still Pureblood families that had only sparing human genetics, but it was still important. "The structures here are often layered. Some more ancient than they first appear."

He turned.

"These ruins reach back to the Great Hyperspace War." Vrak stated plainly. "When the Republic first encountered my species."

The Pureblood knew that much, and he knew that something was within, but he did not yet know where.

 

[NightSister]

"Right." She looked faintly cynical, half amused and half irritated at how disappointed [member="Vrak Nashar"] was that the Purebloods hadn't had sole control of the Caldera. Ancient Sith history was gobbledegook to her but she had recollections of the Silvers shooting for the Stygian Caldera once upon a time - they'd failed spectacularly, of course, but she only had so much else to go on.

Curious, she eyed the structures, so seemingly unattentive to Vrak's presence that she could've easily been wandering the ruins by herself. As she had been, in fact. Even with her inherent and perpetual dislike of unnecessary interaction, though, Aria didn't mind that she wasn't by herself - she doubted she'd have found the opening alone, or at the very least not as fast.

Still not particularly focused on the Pureblood, she spoke again.

"Is there anything. . . actually. . . here?"

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

"Of course." Vrak answered simply. "One just has to know where to look."

That was a rather roundabout answer, and in fact Vrak didn't really know where to look, but he could guess. Sith were often...predictable. His people had a certain penchant for things, and those things were more often then not rather obvious. It was a quality that the SIth Lord himself found rather obnoxious, but as his gaze moved over the different tile mosaics and inscriptions he found it rather helpful, his lips thinned for a moment he slowly moved on ahead.

After a moment more he came to a stop. "The most valuable things are often hidden."

It was a simple lesson, but an important one when it came to the Sith. His hand pressed gently against an odd sort of imprint in the wall, and then a pulse raced out from beneath his palm. The tiles upon the wall took on a reddish sort of glow, and then flared to life.

Half a second later the wall began to rumble, dust fell from the ceiling.

Then a doorway opened.

 

[NightSister]

- [member="Vrak Nashar"] -

Apprehension outlined her features, but she followed the Pureblood's search with only a faint air of uncertainty.

She was sure, more-or-less, that he knew what he was doing - still, it didn't keep the surprise off her face when a wall's tiles lit up and a doorway opened. Her eyebrows raised; she looked mildly impressed.

"Well, that's neat."

Her eyes traced the entryway, the surrounding tiles, trying to decide the anatomy of the opening (curiosity, a few moments just to see if she could reverse-engineer the process in her mind) before, seemingly unsatisfied, she walked through the doorway, somewhat hesitant.

"What's hidden here that's so valuable, then?" she asked absentmindedly, seemingly more occupied with observing the area.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

"That." He stated plainly. "I do not know."

The Sith Lord wasn't infaliable after all, and as much as his species liked to pretend that they were the greatest and strongest, they too had their failings. It was not something that was advertised, but most of them couldn't tell the future or look into what would happen in the next beat of the heart.

Though some could.

"My people left all sorts of things behind." The Ancient Sith were as mysterious as they were powerful. Half of them had hoarded knowledge to an extreme extent, and the other half had attempted to hide it.

"Holocrons perhaps." He mused. "Artifacts."

He glanced towards Aria. "Or the Lord of this Keep Himself, frozen in Carbonite."

 

[NightSister]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

She made a small 'huh' sound as she wandered.

"Holocrons are good," she thought aloud, "artifacts too." She had a fondness for things that were definite, and though she often liked to learn simply through exploration, soaking up the wisdom she managed to happen upon as she drifted from planet to planet, her preference was for the more tangible ways to transmit knowledge.

Aria held great faith in her mind, just as much so her ability to remember. But some things just couldn't be trusted to memory.

"Well, there'll be something somewhere," she decided. "Maybe even the Lord of the Keep."

Vaguely motioning him over, she kept on searching.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Aria Vale"]

He gave a small smile, then moved forward.

These fortresses were often designed to keep people out. Even long after buildings had become nothing but shattered ruins there was usually some small pieces left. On Korriban the tombs had long since become breeding grounds for all manner of creatures. Terentateks, Shryyks, and of course Hssiss.

As they wandered through the small corridors of the secret chamber Vrak couldn't help but feel that they would see more of the same. His lips thinned for a moment as he spotted a footprint within the sands on the ground, his eyes wandering towards it, and then to Aria who had stepped past it. "Continue on."

His voice remained neutral, and no warning came.

Within the room beyond the next corner slithered a creature, slowly it walked around the edge of the room, cloaked within the force itself. A small hiss could be heard, almost loud enough for either of the two Sith to pick up.

Vrak kept walking, a smile forming on his lips.

 

[NightSister]

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

She grew increasingly wary as she walked, just shy of nerves.

For one thing, this was a Sith stronghold on a Sith world. The Sith were many things - but if she were to use one word to describe their general population, trustworthy would not even enter her mind. Imagining that there was nothing to be cautious of within the fortress (even when she was utterly confident that she could handle any such thing) would be a charming delusion, but a delusion.

And for another, Aria wasn't so big on small hallways.

But it wasn't necessary to showcase either, so she didn't.

Aria flickered her gaze over to the footprint; then to Vrak as he spoke. She couldn't find it in herself to be worried, so with an "if you say so" and a shrug, she continued right on.

"Do you have any idea how much further we'll have to go?" she added. A noise almost hit her ears, but it was all too easy to dismiss.