Private The Price of Expertise

[Anet Raine]

When Anathemous lowered herself, Anet froze like the Sith's gaze petrified her.

Her words were more than sound. Each syllable plucked at strings inside the historian's heart and amplified her... perceptions. It moved beyond what the near-human could hear, see, or even feel; be it the cold metal floor, the stinging of a burned hand, or the throbbing pain of bloody fingertips.

She would fail to describe it so precisely, if ever asked, but it was as if her feelings - not her point of view - had an out-of-body experience.

Anet only managed only to tilt her head up when Anathemous's hand took control. The green fire of her other reflected and scattered off the sweat on pale blue flesh, and mirrored in same colored eyes. Eyes that lost all that determination from seconds ago. As weak and broken as the woman on the floor.

The words that came next pierced her deep down and through to the other side. All that heaviness left her.

Could she... Might she... Anet's bottom lip quivered.

She managed a quiet question.

"What will that entail?"

Darth Anathemous

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Robes
Tag: Anet Raine

She tilted her head slightly, and the intensity slowly eased.

Her brows knit, lips pressed into a frown that was almost... sympathetic.

"...let me help you..."

She swallowed, tracing her thumb over the woman's chin, dangerously close to that quivering lip. Her hold tightened but a fraction, restrained, but present.

"Let me teach you."

Finally she released her chin, but not her shoulder. The spell would fade if she did, and so the Sith maintained physical contact, fingers alight with magic, while searching her toolbelt for a personal medpac.

"I think... I would like a new acolyte." she said, pulling a small can of bacta-spray.

"To see my teachings and my influence spread, the light snuffed from this galaxy one soul at a time."

Her voice was uncannily soft when she explained these things, as though it were a mundane or even noble goal, a distant fantasy. But she was dead serious, and it injected a sweet hatred into the force. Dormant, but ever present.

"I value learned minds," she admitted "and determined souls."

A moment spent to apply the bacta.

Golden eyes flicked up to meet icy blue.

"I would have yours among my court."

​

 

[Anet Raine]

The thumb reminded her of a similar moment back in the lab of that oddly comforting violation.

Her heart skipped a beat, and a cold shiver ran down her spine when Anathemous suggested she'd teach her. Anet even began to smile, though she did not realize it. Her eyes would've glanced at the bacta spray, but her ears were so utterly consumed by the word 'acolyte.' She leaned forward at the woman's offer, the final words that encapsulated it all.

To be by your side... To learn from a living Sith.

Was this really her dream? She couldn't deny the premature euphoria she felt. Like something she thought was impossible had been proven otherwise. She was even ready to answer until--

--until alerts rang from the cockpit. It broke Anet out of whatever trance she had found herself in. The near-human quickly scrambled back and rose to her feet. Admiration once again replaced by fear and anger as the scholar pushed past the Sith and towards the cockpit.

All the screens were flashing red, a perk of being opted into emergency channels.

Her ship, the ship which belonged to the university, had been flagged by the Mandalorian Empire as a wanted vessel.

"Really?!"

Darth Anathemous

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Robes
Tag: Anet Raine

She looked at her through half-lidded eyes.

Let Anet's euphoria—twisted ambition—wash over her. It was intoxicating.

Every twitch, every shiver, and that dark smile, it brought the beginnings of her own to curling lips. She looked so ready. Clay in her fingers, to mold into a dark knight in her war against fate. To deny The Will another soul. Gloved fingers traced a gently line down her jaw, and she looked at her like something precious, something beautiful.

Something fallen.

Kaila's spell broke as soon as the woman stood, unable to take her pain without contact. The alarms had barely registered, and now that they did, she sighed in frustration, fingers which once took her by the jaw curling into a fist around air.

She stood and marched into the cockpit, boots thudding against steel with every step.

"What is it." she grumbled.

A cursory glance told her all she needed.

"Durik!" she cursed.

"Find us a place to stop," she sighed "I'll summon my stealth-ship."

"Unless you want fight off bounty hunters while we search."

​

 

[Anet Raine]

Anet heard the Sith's march well before she entered the cockpit.

"Stealth ship? Okay, maybe that will help us through this particular problem, but... How exactly do you plan to explain what I imagine is a warship to the Lorrdian port authority?" She asked rather rhetorically.

"They're a very particular crowd, and as I said before, the Pathfinder is registered in their system. We have clearance as a faculty vessel. I think... I think as long as we stay away from Mandalorian Space we should be fine."

The scholar wasn't entirely confident in her answer, but it felt better than bringing what sounded like the least conspicuous starship into port. Though to Anathemous's credit, it was very Sith of her for such considerations to be beneath her awareness.

Anet quickly hopped into the chair, dismissed the alert, and made sure they were on course.

"Either way, a ship this old wouldn't survive if we exited our jump prematurely."

She checked the chart.

We're still more than an hour away."

Darth Anathemous

 

[Darth Anathemous]

Wearing: Robes
Tag: Anet Raine

"It is not a warship." she said, assuming a familiar pose.

"She is a stealth-courier that has served me since I was but an apprentice."

"But..." she relented with a sigh, stepping down into the cockpit.

"...you have a point."

The young Darth slumped into the co-pilot's seat, sighing.

"I suppose we shouldn't threaten the university for answers..."

Her lips curled into a knowing smile. It was a joke, maybe. Then she eased herself into the seat, closing her eyes to the hyperspace tunnel beyond.

"I shall meditate on the day for the time being."

"It's been...fun..."

​