Squawk! (Tai Fa)

[Niysha]

Kyrikal 17
Ustelach Mountain Range

This whole Sith Order thing was getting out of hand. Just a couple of weeks ago, Niysha had been happily wasting away like the good-for-nothing drifter she was. She was getting nothing at all done, had no one's attention, and bothered no one's life as she passed through. Now, though, she had purpose and orders and even enemies. There were terrified moments when she feared she might even be coming down with a case of ideals. Far too busy for her tastes. Far too dangerous.

As her shuttle (for once) safely entered the atmosphere of Kyrikal 17, a moon of some gas giant in the middle of nowhere, the Sithling reflected on the nonsense that got her to this point in her life. Agreeing to that crusade in the caldera had obviously been a mistake, there was no doubt about that, but from there, her decisions had been largely reactive. There were many things that the fledgling Sith Order needed to accomplish, and many of them were very dangerous. She'd picked the one that wasn't...

And now she was on a shuttle, orbiting a desert moon, with a melodramatic bird.

The pilot, some Force-blind servant, signaled that they'd be approaching one of the local mountain ranges within a few minutes, and Niysha undid her crash webbing and stood to stretch. Maybe a dozen men and a decent amount of resources meant that it wouldn't be impossible to create a decent stronghold in these mountains. Just...y'know. Strenuous. They had to find a solid place to build, design a building that could withstand the weather, organize the crew, and help however they could in getting the damn thing constructed.

Still, this was probably the easiest way to help the Order establish itself without putting herself directly in someone's blaster sights. There might be some nasty critters up here, and avalanches, and potential unruly workers, but it was nothing compared to fighting the Silver Jedi, self-styled guardians of wild space. If only Niysha had a more reliable companion, rather than a space chicken who seemed utterly in love with the sound of his own voice.

"We're getting close," she said, consciously turning to face the other young Sith. "This world is...extraordinarily peaceful. This will be a decent staging point, but we're not going to be recruiting soldiers here."
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

To fight was to die, but to subdue an enemy without fighting... that was the acme of skill.

Tai Fa knew this ancient lesson to be more than true. It was the truth. The Sith Order had little in the way of real armies or fleets or capital in any other form; they were few, they were just starting, but they had something that most these days had not.

Resolve. Determination.

The Silvers had lost their way a long time ago; oh, they were still strong now. But it was the strength of a giant boulder moving along by sheer inertia. One day the strength of old would dissipate through friction and all that would be left was a big, hulking chunk of rock- impressive, but worthless in most situations.

"Not a qualm I have.​

Warriors overrated.​

To fight... is to die.​

​

Win without battle?​

True victory is found then.​

Wind erodes mountains."​

​

He nodded once, his beak bobbing up and down, satisfied with the wisdom dispensed.

The Thirriken pulled his silk robe closer to himself, plumage at ease for the moment, as there was little to impress. [member="Niysha"]... was an acceptable student for the moment, the bird mused to himself, scrawny, possessive of even less intellect than the average humanoid, but there was fear in her.

Right in her eyes. A flicker of a soft, dim flame bending away against the wind.

No, Lord Fa did not consider this one a true Sith, but he would work with the material he had. Was a diamond not shaped by pressure, time passed and heat from mere carbon bindings? This one was not a diamond... but perhaps he could turn her into strong glass, functional and handy, yet breakable when the situation arose.

 

[Niysha]

That was one of very few blessings in Niysha's life. She was part of a group of Sith who seemed remarkably sane, overall. No deathbound aggression, sworn to destroy everything they had created in constant military campaigns and internal power struggles. As far as she could tell, even the rivalry characteristic of Sith organizations was muted with this group, leaving a unified force that worked towards the same goals.

Sure, those goals were the domination and exploitation of others for the advancement of the Sith, but that wasn't really a problem.

The shuttle began to slow on its approach to the mountain range, and Niysha elected to stop speaking to this drama hen and instead make her way to the cockpit. When she did, she tapped the copilot on the shoulder, not wanting to disturb the one who was keeping the lot of them in the air. "Please do a scan of the local terrain, then project a hologram of your findings." Her vision wasn't yet acute enough to see that far down. She'd have to use the projection until they landed.

The copilot replied with a quick "yes milord" before going back to his real job: handling everything the pilot was concentrating too hard to handle. Niysha wouldn't dare stop people who knew what they were doing from doing what they needed to do. Obstructive Sith bureaucracy had been the death of more Sith empires than any well-read Sith would care to admit. This one would not be added to that list, if Niysha had anything to say about it.

The world below them was apparently far too steep to even land on, let alone create a stronghold on. She took as long as she felt she needed to pour over every detail while waiting for the chicken to join her. "We're not likely to find a clearing. I don't suppose you have any training in high-altitude architectural design."
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Little peacock toes ticked against the steely underfloor of the shuttle.

It were the nails, carefully groomed and sharpened until they came together in a honed point. It were one of the things Lord Fa prided himself in, his grooming; enhancing the innate nobility he already had without making it too gaudy. The robes only served to underline and pronounce his appearance in that. Not that this mammal would be able to enjoy his efforts, apparently they did not appreciate a fine plumage, a shiny beak and his glorious train... which the uneducated referred to as a 'tail'.

Like he was some common-born monkey.

"An eye for power,​

How it flows and behaves, I​

gained through hard study."​

It was as much a discipline of the Force as it was an observation of life itself. Where to position yourself to gain the greatest boons or how to present your furniture to increase the flow of the Force around it- yet, what she asked was a different kind of positioning. The placements, the sheer study of architecture, alluded him.

Which would not come as a surprise, because they were not architects here.

They were Sith and as Sith... they knew people.

"To know is to win.​

We know many, do we not?
The fog defeated.

Contact we shall those,
who may aid us here and now.
Shun rigid failure."

[member="Niysha"]

 

[Niysha]

The tiny crew of the shuttle had a bad habit of staring aghast at Tai Fa. An immaculately-groomed bird dressed in finery and speaking in poetry? Next to that, the blind girl was pretty much normal. Niysha, on the other hand, wasn't capable of staring. She puzzled quickly through the very slightly obtrusive language shoveled awkwardly onto the conversation, then gave a quick nod and turned back to main hold of the ship, where a dozen crewmen were mulling about. "Sigfeyr, cockpit please."

A huge man, nothing but muscle and sweat, squeezed his way in. Niysha readily took a step to the side to allow him room, her simple black robes shifting around her feet as she did so. When Sigfeyr spoke, he had a strong accent. "You have need of me, my lord?"

The Miraluka nodded her head towards the display. "This is a scan of the local area out to about five miles. From what you can see, what would the best possible location be for us to set down?" She crossed her arms and leaned back against a panel that didn't have any important buttons on it. "Remember, this is just a preliminary setup. We're looking for quality here, not speed. Feel free to take the shuttle and explore for a better place later. We just need your best guess at the moment."

The massive Valkyr pondered for a long minute, then pointed on the map. "This. Large, flat area beneath a cliff. Less prone to avalanches than a slope, especially if we reinforce it."

Niysha nodded again in response, then placed her hand gently on the pilot's shoulder. "Set a course and take us down. We need to have a base camp set up before nightfall. It'll probably get damn cold up here, and there's no reason to tax our fuel supply unnecessarily." She consciously turned back to the others on the miniature bridge. "We should go strap in. It's just a landing, but any risk is too great. We can't afford to waste time on injuries." Sigfeyr made his way out first, and Niysha quickly followed, modest robe brushing the floor as she passed.

Finally, something simple. She could handle this. This was delegation and management, not naval warfare.
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

This was the kind of operation where the bird shined at.

It wasn't the field of battle- his frame far too small to truly scale himself towards the mightiest of warriors in their fledgling Sith Order, but what Tai Fa lacked in muscles he more than made up for in brains and wits. He knew the up's and end's of businesses, the logistics and administration, above all... he knew how to delegate. It was clear that [member="Niysha"] had a handle on this little operation for the meantime.

Perhaps she had something to prove or perhaps she was surprising herself with her newly-found competence.

But the point was that Lord Fa was unlike other Sith, in that he had no desire to hog the spotlight for longer than necessary. Especially if there was someone around whose skills were better suited.

Besides, he had to simply speak... one haiku and all the attention was returned to him.

That was true power, Tai thought to himself, before following Niysha and the crude barbarian back into the backroom of the shuttle. Sadly, Vnut wasn't here right now; his ursine bodyguard and eternal companion had been sent off towards a different errand on Enigma Prime and his stygium facility there. But the Sith was not one to be inconvenienced by such things.

He took one long look at Niysha and her lap, before - with a soft chittery click of the beak - jumping up on it and settling himself down. He was far too small to strap himself down in one of the regular chairs.

"To know that I sit
safe and secure, true blessing.
Closed iron death trap."​

His beak pecked absentmindedly at her leg, before shifting his light body a fraction.

Satisfied Fa stopped fidgeting and hunkered down for the landing.

 

[Niysha]

It was pretty difficult for a Miraluka to give a deadpan stare. Niysha tried her hardest.

One of those things that people with normal lives took for granted was having a pet. There was something in the act of a small, vulnerable, warm life curling up on top of you that just filled you with glee. It was why humans had dogs and cats when they were small, then babies when they grew older. It was why Wookiees tended to parade smaller species around with their "life debts." And now, for the first time, Niysha was experiencing this. Sith orphanages for Force-sensitive children were spartan to the extreme. No attachments, no empathy. There was a first time for everything.

Lap full of feathers and fluff, Niysha gave the Miraluka equivalent of an awkward stare, which involved inclining her head towards the nonsense she was being subjected to and absolutely no other change in action or expression. Regardless of this...whatever it was, she strapped her crash webbing over the both of them and leaned back, idly wondering how her new space chicken expected to have any dignity whatsoever after taking shelter in her lap during a landing sequence.

The freighter touched down on the designated point, and the exterior windows were immediately barraged with snow flurries. The ground was white, though there was certainly dirt and stone beneath it, considering how solid their landing was. A decent place to start. "Alright everyone," Niysha began as the ship finally settled down, unfastening herself and pushing Tai Fa to the seat next to her. "We're going to be spreading out to survey this site before we settle down. Keep your commlink channel clear unless you've found something that might be dangerous or interesting."

The young Sithling wandered towards the cold weather trunk and found herself a parka, then brought it to the exit ramp and held out a new one for each worker as they passed by. "Anything unusual is to be reported to me, Lord Fa, or Sigfeyr immediately. In thirty minutes we reconvene and discuss what we've found. If all goes well, we'll be setting up a preliminary bunker by dusk."
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Dignity.
Self-respect.
High esteem of one's self.

The beautiful part of those aforementioned things is that nobody can truly take it away from you, unless you let them. There were Sith who overly concerned themselves with the opinions of others, be that their lessers, their betters or those they were on equal terms with, yet this in itself was a weakness, as far as Lord Fa was concerned.

You wouldn't put your life in someone's hands, if you could help it. Why would you do it with your own self-respect? No, this was a silly notion to Tai and the netto result was that he simply did not care what other sentients may or may not have thought about his actions.

The servants had ignored the event steadfast- they had seen him fight, for one.

It was a nice lap, though. Most humanoids were too bone-y, too many rough angles to properly sit on and relax for a moment. But this one was perfect, a bit bubbly, a bit floaty and you could bounce on it just a bit.

Perfection.

In his avian mind Fa was already composing a haiku to express his new-found appreciation for [member="Niysha"] and specifically for her lap.

Yet, sadly, those things had to wait a bit. As the girl pushed him off when they landed, the Thirriken did not fall- instead he glided with elegance and beautiful agility. He landed softly on the tip of his little toes and stood there for a moment, letting the other sentients bask in his glory.

The noble blood was strong in him, indeed.

"Harrowing wind and,​

the darkness cold around us.​

We shall overcome."​

​

Fa waited patiently after that, while every crew member took some warm fabric in their hands. He had decided that Niysha was his now, a bit slow, not especially strong in the Force nor strong in any other sense of the word, but her lap was bouncy and that was enough for the Thirriken.

A proud Lord always had need of worthy servants.

 

[Niysha]

Niysha had long since given up on the idea that they'd sent two Sith to handle this. This had been a solo job from the start, and it had dawned on her as such long ago. As she handed out coats to the entire crew while they left the ship, she took a long moment to concentrate. Her Sight had a decent range most of the time, but it could be expanded and sharpened with focus. The only limiting factor was that, as her mind was quite mortal, she could only focus on one thing at a time. She could get an impression of the clearing as a whole at the expense of detail, or any part of it at the expense of a wider view.

She decided on the former to begin with, and would focus on individual, interesting things as they came up. Sigfeyr was last out, and didn't bother with one of the parkas Niysha had offered to everyone else. He didn't very well need it; Valkyri were naturally resistant to the cold. With the crew sorted, the young Miraluka made her way out into the snow and pulled up her hood around her chaotic mane of frizz. The mountains of Kyrikal 17 had nothing in common with its much more pronounced deserts. Snow, ice, frigid winds, thin oxygen...it was not a pleasant place to wander.

As that "thin oxygen" bit dawned on her with her first breath, Niysha pulled out her commlink. "Remember your rebreathers. The air is pretty bad up here. We don't need anyone suffocating. If you feel winded, it's only going to get worse if you don't get yourself some oxygen."

With that, she wandered alone out into the frosty peaks of Kyrikal 17. They were bound to find something interesting up here, but if they didn't, that was all the better. A peaceful expedition to construct a stronghold for the growing Sith Order was an enviable task, when compared to the more dangerous, violent, or morally compromising crap the rest of the Order was getting up to.
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Lord Fa fluttered at the air with his wings for a moment, before poking with his toe at the snow.

As expected half his leg disappeared in that white mess and almost immediately send a chill up his body. Not a good way to go, as far as he was concerned, but there was a simple fix all things considered. He looked back towards Sigfeyr the Valkyri, who had just exited the shuttle himself, the big burly man noticed the scrutiny almost immediately.

True warrior, that.

Tai bowed his beak slightly and then pushed himself off the ground, using his wings to gently maneuver himself around and then on the shoulders of the architect slash warrior slash winter... soldier.

To his credit, Sigfeyr only blinked once, before resuming his trajectory. Steadily following [member="Niysha"] and her path.

From his new-found superiority of height the Thirriken could see all around with little difficulty. It was only a few seconds in, that his sharp eyes saw something in the distance- obscured by the wind, the snow and the ice, yet it was as clear as day for the eyes of a determined Sith bird.

Well, not that clear, he wasn't sure what he was seeing, but it seemed a point of interest. A cave perhaps? He waved his hand in the direction and Sigfeyr nodded, having seen it just a second later than him.

"There, amidst the wind.​

Cold, harrowing snow obscures.​

Yet, I see clearly.​

​

Ten hours from your stance,​

Tick, the clock goes, do you see?​

Dark secrets hiding."​

Sigfeyr coughed sheepishly, but stayed mostly quiet.

 

[Niysha]

Snow. Lots of snow. Niysha had vastly underestimated just how big a clearing this was. Even counting the freighter, there was so much land here that it was impossible for her to see the edges. She'd need to focus intently as she walked, to make sure she didn't fall off the side of a cliff. The ground was unsteady, though. Dozens of boulders and hundreds of smaller rocks made for an awkward climb. They'd have to even this out before they could build here.

Hm? Oh. The chicken wanted her attention.

The direction Tai Fa and Sigfeyr indicated was nothing but snow and wind and rocks, as far as Niysha could see. She concentrated a bit further, and her Sight trailed over the opening of a cave, obscured by darkness within. Unfortunately...no depth perception, and the Force was not willing to show her any more of this. Shaking her head, the young woman turned back to face the other two, a conscious effort that she still had yet to internalize. "It's too far out for me to see clearly. Lord Fa, please come with me. We'll examine it and leave the others to safer duties."

Of course, the damn bird was going to ride on her shoulders. Augh. Niysha waited with her hands on her hips, directing her attention to Sigfeyr. "You're in charge of the team while we're occupied. We need to find a place that's steady enough to set up a bunker for the evening. No reason for the ship to burn through its fuel just so we can survive the night."
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

The Thirriken inclined his beak in acceptance of the request proposed by [member="Niysha"].

One last peck to Sigfeyr's shoulder was made, to convey his gratitude for the transportation, before he let himself be carried by the wind towards Niysha and her shoulders. They were far more bone-y than her lap, but Tai Fa decided to stay quiet about that particular detail he had just experienced. There was little reason for him to make the scrawny girl too worried about her shoulders. Little toes curled around her shoulder and fastened himself onto his position.

"Combat and battle,​

may come to us soon, Niysha.​

Blood and mud seeped rich.​

​

If Fa had brows to furrow, he would surely furrow them furiously in thought now. Instead he simply made a sound that came very close to cooing before shifting his head a fraction to he side.

Bones and muscles know,​

but the heart must want this too.
In moment's heat, yes."

No, Tai was not one who liked to fight. But as demonstrated to [member="Pollux"] and his men... when asked for, he could dish it out as the best of them, if not more. His body was perhaps not as strong as a Gen'dai, yet, he had the advantage of being fast and agile and being able to hover around his own center-point.​

​

These things were key in battle, in Fa's experience.​

 

[Niysha]

The benefits of being able to see everything around you to a perfection unrivaled by digital video were difficult to understate. Niysha could See every crease, every crack, and every stone beneath her feet well in advance of actually walking upon them. Even through snow, it was impossible for her to miss a step without some breeze coming along to imbalance her, or the ice being too slick beneath her feet. She picked her way over towards the direction her companions (burdens? Wards?) had pointed her in without an ounce of impatience.

"Some trials can be conquered without bloodshed, Lord Fa," the young Sithling replied simply, stepping onto a rather solid boulder in order to reach a much more stable area of snowy dirt. She finally continued a few seconds later, without turning her head. "We can't know for certain what it is the two of you have found until we're inside. The Force has elected not to show me anything more than the mouth of that cave."

Quietly, she hoped that wasn't a trend that would continue inside. Destiny was one thing, but a Force-dead zone would render her well and truly blind.

Finally, they were within earshot of the little cavern entrance. Niysha rested one of her hands on the simple red lightsaber at her hip. "We should absolutely be cautious, but I think we're well-prepared for any challenge we might find on this nowhere moon, don't you?" And by 'we' she meant herself. Frankly, it would surprise her to learn that this flightless space bird with a taste for melodrama could even hold himself aloft on his own, let alone fight. He'd done exactly nothing to impress her so far, but he was Sith. Theoretically, he wouldn't have been given that title if he couldn't hold his own.

Theoretically.
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

It was wholly possible that Tai Fa's ascension to Sith...ness? had occurred solely through intermediaries and a keen intellect.

Possible, but unlikely.

"Truth is spoken now.​

Yet, your heart must be ready.​

When luck's coin lands false."​

It was doubt that was rinsed through those words. Doubt that [member="Niysha"] would be able to pull through and actually kill, if the situation arose which demanded such action. It was a similar doubt that she had about him - yet, as they approached, Fa lightly pushed himself off of her shoulders and tiny peacock feet landed silently on the snowy ground before the cave.

Already his guandao appeared from beneath the cloaks and daggers of his robe. She wouldn't notice the gleaming, yet, the moment it was revealed... Niysha would see it regardless through the Force. Because this wasn't simple metal, it was alchemized and any movement it made, left an imprint within the Force itself.

"Come, seer of truth.​

Destiny waits for no one.
Lies shall melt away."

 

[Niysha]

Aaand the bird was down. Niysha didn't react even a little. She'd Seen weirder things than an alchemized, pigeon-sized spear. At least Tai Fa was carrying a weapon, which was more than she'd expected from him. A part of her even held onto the hope that he'd be vaguely useful in facing the danger that this cavern portended. Whether or not he was, though, they were still going in.

As she stepped over the verge of the cave, a wave of nausea and terrible agony washed over Niysha. She held her head on both sides, one step from sinking to her knees. "Aaagh!!" Two steps in, she'd found herself a wall to brace against, the tide of pain refusing to ease up. Worse, she could taste blood in her mouth. It was likely she'd bitten her lip during her little outburst.

She couldn't See anything specific, but she wasn't blinded, either. There was plenty of Force in here. Too much, probably. It drowned her in an endless stream of powerful emotions and also utter emptiness. Something was very much wrong in here, and the poor little Miraluka was stuck Seeing every second of it. Had she tear ducts, they probably would have kicked in a few seconds ago. It was only through intense force of will that she wasn't still screaming.

Concentrate, girl.

Taking a deep breath, ragged through the pain of what was going on, Niysha focused. Her Sight retreated from its comfortable twenty-meter range to a much, much closer distance. The pain subsided with it, though not completely. Her breathing was still unstable when she spoke again. "...Something's...seriously messed up in this place." Normally, this would have been the time she turned her head towards Tai Fa for gravity, but her mind was on other things at the moment. "I can still feel it, right at the edge of my reach. It's...looming."

Too much pigment in her skin for her to go pale, but she would have if she could have. "...Waiting. It wants us to come to it." After a moment, the Sithling shook her head and took another breath to steady her heartbeat. "I have a bad feeling about this."
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

A different peacock would maybe have tried to push his companion out of the cave, once the realization hit that it was the cave -- or whatever was inside of it -- causing [member="Niysha"]'s pain. Yet, Lord Fa did nothing of the sort, instead tip-toeing around the entrance of the cave and exploring the area nearby while sending short looks at the Mirakula every once in a while. Just to be certain that she didn't completely collapse and become useless for this endeavor.

See, pain was hardly a bad thing. Avoiding it was cowardice and was the first step towards self-destruction; you had to face it, had to raise yourself above it and in turn allow it to strengthen you moving forward.

Otherwise... they might as well call themselves filthy Jedi.

"Speak of feelings bad,​

And you invite them in turn.​

Avoid the jinxing.​

​

As for the waiting.​

Impolite, to keep them, yes?​

Visit turns knowledge."​

​

And so the Thirriken strut further down the cave. The cave started in a tunnel which led into a partially collapsed... strange, it was partially natural and yet the edges were etched in, made by sentients? How interesting. He pecked at one of the turned-over pillars, there were runes engraved into it.

An echo took his attention, before he could read into it though.

It sounded like laughter, cackling even. A hoarse, coarse coughing from a throat that had seen thousands of years and wasn't prepared to give out just yet.

"Witness the sound here.​

Laugh turns towards mockery.
No beast mocks their prey."

No, this was no animal they had accidentally encountered.​

 

[Niysha]

Great. It couldn't have just been some freakish animal. It had to be sapient. Collecting herself with a deep deep breath which also happened to function as a sigh to convey Niysha's exact feelings for this situation, the Miraluka stood again and continued after the knee-high galactic poultry in front of her. Idly, she wondered if she should have been the one in front, to keep this idiot from getting himself killed.

Then, the important realization dawned on her that she did not care what happened to Tai Fa. Given the choice between dying, herself, and throwing the chicken to his death as she bolted for the exit, there wouldn't even be a doubt in her mind. The Sith would call it "necessary survival of the fittest" unless they were on the receiving end, at which point it magically became cowardice. Niysha had observed a great many hypocrisies like that in her life, and really the only thing keeping her from calling her peers out on them was her general disillusionment.

Especially since the creeping terror pouring over her body and stabbing its icy claws into her heart left her feeling charged.

Every Sith had their own power battery. Most chose more flamboyant emotions, like rage or hate or sadistic lust. Sure, those were easier to call on when you needed them to commit violence, but fear was wholly underutilized. And Niysha? Niysha was utterly terrified. That cackle had done nothing for her nerves. As long as she could temper that panicked terror into something more useful, she'd be ready to eviscerate whatever came at her.

"I can't See far ahead of us, Lord Fa. Stone walls and pain. What does it look like on your end?" Her voice was just a bit shaky.
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Niysha"]

Fa stood rigid still for a moment.

The reason was simple, right after her question or perhaps even throughout her question, the
Thirriken thought he had heard something. No, that wasn't quite right, it had felt like a deep tremor vibrating through his thin legs and up and down his long body. Yet, the moment she stopped speaking and Fa tried to concentrate on it...

It was gone.

Part of him wondered if he had just imagined it.

My eyes can spy this,
Broken pillar, jagged edge.
Gloomy midnight dark.​

Tai finally responded, while casting a weary eye down the shadows, trying to pierce them to no avail. Again, then, his attention was drawn to the broken pillar and something there caught his interest. It were the symbols drawn within the runes, they were strangely familiar.

Witness thi-.​

The sudden tremors through the ground interrupted him and Fa narrowed his eyes. The feelings of annoyance did not last long, as he suddenly saw two animals racing through the dark towards them, apparently it had been no figment of his imagination.

They were all teeth and foam at the mouth and wroth blindness in the eyes. Reduced to nothing but animal fury, they had no will of their own anymore.

Fa angled the point of his long blade just right and used the tip to push himself off the ground, launching himself deftly in the air. Whereas the peacock was all spoken, flowerly words outside of combat... inside of it he was the silent wind, passing through and leaving naught but chaos behind his wing.

His wings helped him glide right over the first beastspawn who went for Niysha. In his mind he had already picked his target, even while the coarse cackling filled his ears as he flew.

 

[Niysha]

Hm? Something about a pillar. It was particularly difficult for Niysha to calm her mind when she was fending off panic, but she'd need to do so in order to See anything beyond a couple of meters from her body. Deep breath, think of Lord Ignus' meditation chamber. Silence, soft pillows, air filled with life and the feeling of relaxation. Mind calm. Sight honed. Now, what's this idiot bird talking ab-

The young Miraluka's hand went to her hip immediately. "Look out!"

The old lightsaber that Adekos had given Niysha flared to life in her hand, the telltale snap-hiss summoning forth a common, synthetic red blade. She could hear the hum of her weapon in her ear, but much more importantly she could See every individual spark of its presence beside her at all times. Unlike her contemporaries back at the academy, Niysha had never once hurt herself with a lightsaber...

Which was going to be no solace to the creature she was about to tear apart. Blind and slavering and tainted by something that Niysha had never seen before, its aura hurtled towards her a bit too fast to be real. Still not as fast as a blaster bolt, though. The Force sent her faint glimpses of possible futures and overrode her reflexes to react to the one that would be most likely to happen to her. Foresight and Force Sight came together in a perfect shield of prescience, and even without a hint of athleticism, Niysha moved well out of the way of the beast charging her.

As it passed, she brought up her 'saber in a very simple and yet still somehow clumsily executed Shii-Cho arc. There was a cracking sound as the blade seared through flesh and bone. The monster was cleanly bisected at its ribcage, and Niysha followed through with a second slice to make sure she'd destroyed the brain, as well. Three red-hot pieces of nonsense fell to the ground behind her, and the Sithling turned her attention (without turning her head) back to the rest of the cavern.

Any more where that came from? No, not right now. Adrenaline was dulling the pain of whatever it was she sensed earlier, but she dared not push too hard against it. No need to try your luck when the Force had already smiled on you once.

The low whine of her lightsaber deactivating echoed through the cavern, and Niysha physically turned her head back to Tai Fa. "Well, that was bracing."
[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Tai Fa did not possess a lightsaber or perhaps it was more accurate to say that he was not wielding one as of yet.

You never truly knew what could be hiding within the cloaks of silk wrapped around the thin frame of the Thirriken. Yet, he had little need of those, when he had his long blade. He had been flying - passing the first assailing mind-controlled animal by an inch, before his blade whipped out and scored the first hit in the admittedly short battle.

The peacock flew, flew fast and magnificent, his blade trailing behind him, before being turned in a shallow arc. It sliced right through the first upper muscle of the beast's right paw, it immediately started swaying with his support gone, but the Sith's justice was swift and true in this instance. His tiny, sharp paws bored down on the lower part of his body, attaching himself with fury and making it implausible for him to be shook off in any reasonable fashion.

Before the animal could buck and try regardless, the point of the blade had already pierced the neck- blood gushed, the animal collapsed underneath Tai Fa and only twitched twice, before settling down in his final rest.

Fa looked at the still-warm corpse, before wiping his blade off on the pelt, then wiping his talons off as well. In that instance he ignored [member="Niysha"] completely, allowing the ritual of battle take precedence completely.

Only after he was done, did Tai respond.

​

"This fight was for naught.​

Testing us, the shadow is.​

We must draw it out."​

​

This time he did not wait on the Miraluka, adrenaline was rushing and Fa needed more. He started down towards the corridor, only briefly pausing ancient skeletons scattered around; he had the distinct feeling that trying to touch them would only collapse them into ashes.