Private The Lodge | Sahar

[Wymar]

P E N I T E N T
THE GALACTIC EMPIRE
Battle Armor [MODIFIED] | Lightsaber
Sahar​

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THE LODGE​

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CARLAC
902 ABY
THE RUINS OF THE EMPIRE​

His durasteel backed leather boots crunched through the snow as they continued to scale the fierce, wailing winds of the mountain. This place was a haunted, dead world. The nexus of dark defiance which had slew the Old Empire's first Imperator and later, allowed the Ironclad Emperor to seize command. The pair were clad nigh identically, blackened Imperia Knight plate concealed by black cloaks, with Wymar's gaze beneath his sallet, a hood drawn over regardless to keep at least some of the windswept snow from impairing his vision as they continued. The efforts done to build this world by a man who had come to be one of the greatest nemesis to the Empire were wrought to forlorn ash. But even still, secrets lingered between the broken pillars and shadowy crevices. Or perhaps, it was a test of resilience and fortitude wrought by Sahar to further strengthen the mettle of her apprentice.

Regardless, Wymar was if anything, an obedient and diligent pupil. He never complained, never questioned. As was the way of the Imperial Knight. To obey and to execute. They'd eventually reached a lone monitor station at the peak of the mountain that overlooked the prized city of Caelitus's creation which had been put to the sword by the Empire and scoured. A tomb world in all but name. Wymar approached the blast door, pulling a scomp link from the utility belt at his waist, feeling for the keys and combinations within the door's systems, now rudimentary from the advancements in security technology before it was forced open with a metallic wail. From here, perhaps a fresh scan of Carlac's ruins could be obtained, one fresher than what was on hand in their XT-70 Phantom's database which was intelligence gathered prior to the Second Great Hyperspace War and further surveying since discouraged by the Empire. Not that any found the risk worthy.

There were bodies here, mummified in time and cold in their field grey imperial uniforms, padded, thermal lined and thicker than what might've been otherwise doctrinal dress to accomodate for the harsh climate of this dead world. He approached the terminal, the Crestfallen having taken himself to hold a technological and mechanical acumen, gloved fingers pressing into long ice-locked mechanical keys to try and source the information, before he glanced back to his master and spoke. <"The darkness...it's potent here, more than any other place I've been...I don't care for it."> He spoke, tone even and placid, the most spoken aloud he'd felt he had in days, weeks. In the presence of the other 'Dark Side Elite'. He was silent at best, one word response at most. Sahar was one of the few to earn his confiding.

A few commands input and a mechanical thrum traveled from the base of the tower to its peak, the clearance light continuing to flash into the snow drift winds as he leaned back into his seat, a low sigh muffled by his sallet. There had to have been sentimental reason to take him here. The realm of the enemy of which the Ironclad slew before his encounter...with him. The one to which they both owed some measure of loyalty to now. <"Do you think...there will be anything of use here? Or just...the dead?"> Surely, she did. Or at least, he hoped.

 

[Sahar]

CARLAC
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Carlac had been a place unseen by her since the time of her late master and emperor, Fel. The spiral mountains still loomed oppressively over their shuttle as they landed at the base of the mountains. She'd climbed these peaks time and time again, whipped and beaten into shape, part of her conditioning into becoming a tool and instrument of Fels' designs. Though buried by the snow and ice, many of her peers' resting places were among these cliffs, victims of the gruelling training process one went through to become a knight.

She'd glance down at Wymar while they made their pilgrimage to the top, noting his silence and attention to the journey ahead. She suppressed a rare smile, something she'd forgotten the concept of all those years ago; happiness was a sign of weakness, and the wolves in the knight order were always sure to take advantage of it.

She kept a distance from him as they entered the station, content to watch and study the young apprentice as he worked the console pad. The pair were the only living thing in this tomb, its occupants long condemned to the cruelty of time and decay. Sahar knew that feeling; it was much the same when they had condemned her to madness in an alliance-owned cell for years.

<"The darkness...it's potent here, more than any other place I've been...I don't care for it."> - Wymar

"It's a distraction, a whisper of the souls that once lived, when our beautiful project fell, many people fell to despair."

Despair that had struck her down when her beloved emperor had fell.

<"Do you think...there will be anything of use here? Or just...the dead?"> - Wymar

"I didn't bring you here to look at a graveyard, this mountain, this tomb, it has its purpose, at least it did, now it is host to something else."

She pursed her lips apprehensively, stopping herself as she tilted her head at him, narrowing her eyes. Her eyes burned bright in the darkness, casting an intense glare.

"You don't fear the dead, do you?"

 

[Wymar]

P E N I T E N T
THE GALACTIC EMPIRE
Battle Armor [MODIFIED] | Lightsaber
Sahar​

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THE LODGE​

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CARLAC
902 ABY
THE RUINS OF THE EMPIRE​

He shook his head. A silent moment followed before he spoke again. <"No...there is no reason to fear what has already been slain."> He said, though in truth, it was an ill omen of what could await them. He stood up from the control console, ripping a scomp cable from the tacpad on his vambrace, plugging it into the terminal to download the survey maps before projecting them in a blue grid before him. He narrowed his eyes. A steep drop from the mountain they stood atop of to the jagged relief of a horrid, jagged and destroyed cityscape beneath them. Within its center, a tall spire stood, remaining defiant from the planetary bombardment that had glassed most of the planet in the wake of Imperator Tavlar's death and Caelitus's deceit. He gestured a gloved digit to it with his other hand.

<"There...anything left of this place will be there."> He said, shifting his visor covered gaze to the woman to gauge her approval of the matter before he snapped the map projection close. He was a determinate young soul, for what interactions Sahar had with his father, he displayed much of nature, despite spending no time in his mortal presence. Fel was a man of few words and many, meaningful actions. The door parted with a metallic hiss and so would begin the descent. He rounded the building and peered down toward the blanket of snowfall that bathed the city beneath them. Unseen blinks masked his reluctance beneath the helmet. Even so, a spared breath and he vaulted himself down, using the force to guide a path to the summit of the mountain beneath. It was a dozen or so methodical jumps before they reached its base.

The walk into the city was otherwise...silent, rather characteristic of the tomb world that was Carlac. Nothing but the remnants of an old empire and the divergent realm within. In that silence, he used it to his advantage. He curled his fingers into a fist before he lifted a passenger speeder blocking their path before flicking it away with the force in a dismissive gesture. A display of power and ease for which he wielded it. But Wymar had proven to be a great deal of raw power and strength yet to be refined. <"How do you...control it?"> He asked, glancing back to her.

<"The Darkness...I know it had seeped deep within you, Commander. But- you are not like them, not wholly, at least."> The signs of the degradation and outward embrace of the darkness existed in spades in her material form. Her infernal eyes sunken into dark pits, her pale skin. She had wholly given herself to the Darkness...but not him. <"I have yet to be in...his presence...but I know that time is inevitable. I fear of...many things that could happen when it does."> She knew well who he was referring to.