Faction The Strength in Pain │ Sith Eternal

[Darth Empyrean]

​

The Royal Academy
Korriban
865ABY

The days at the academy had grown relatively quiet after the invasion of Ossus. With so many of the acolytes brought from the security of Korriban to the frontlines to help strengthen the weakpoints of the Eternal's crusade down the Permian Hyperlane, there had been few lessons actually taking place for some time. Now, with their numbers brought back to the homefront - albeit less than had left - Maliphant knew those who remained must be trained further. Many had experienced the horrors of war upon Ossus, and many had fallen - showing him the next step in their training.

As the Acolytes and Knights huddled into the cramped lower levels of the Royal Academy, they would see variety of restraining tables. Locks for the waist, head, wrist and ankles - all to keep them in place as Sith'ari knew what would take place; and besides them, the Sith Lord Darth Maliphant adorned in the royal armor of the planet Kyros. Ruby like pupils awash in black seas glanced over them as a slight frown permeated his lips -

"Acolytes.", he said, an almost finality in his voice. The implication was clear - Acolytes who remained, those who had survived the Trial of the Sands, of Ossus, of the thousand conflicts the Eternal and Sith found themselves in.

"Conflict, pain, hardship, and war. These things are paramount to holy in the Sith Philosophy - for the sole reason that they give enlightenment to the Force. As the Sith Lord and Once Emperor Darth Malgus said; those who experienced war and survived, be they Jedi or Sith, would come to know the Force more than those who chose to abstain from it. It is why the Sith have survived a thousand genocides, a thousand wars, and a thousand enemies. We are the embodiments of the truest thing this universe can provide."

He started to pace back and forth as he spoke, bringing his eyes to a variety of those gathered. Fist rested in palm behind his back as his boot heels seemed to synchronize with his words - almost accenting them in the harsh quiet of the foreboding basement, nothing but the sound of tibanna gas rushing through pipes and distance hum of electronics to accompany his speech.

"Today you will learn how to retain it - to feel the sensation of pain, of hardship, and to know it not for an enemy but a friend. Sith do not shy away from these things, as even Darth Malgus cut down his lover to not only cut himself off from attachment, but to feel the ever growing sensation of sorrow that fueled his eternal rage. Just as he did, you shall not shy away from this hardship - but embrace it for what it is..."

"A trial that will draw out your darkest strength, to personify that emotion, and then pull yourself back from the brink. For those who fail - you will be cut down here and now, or enrolled in the berserker corp. True Sith can bring themselves into the void - but they do not become it; but pull themselves back when required. The weak fall victim to their own strength, but the strong wield it with an iron grip."

"Acolytes, take your place in the chairs. For those of you with questions, ask them now."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Darth Empyrean was a great and terrible beauty. Ishani had only seen him at a distance before now, a towering, aloof figure with a legendary persona that trailed behind him like a bridal veil. Rumors swirled around him—he had been born either a prince or a slave; he was more powerful than Carnifex, powerful enough to contend against the great Sith Lords of ages past; he could do anything he pleased, kill with a thought, or worse. Yet he had chosen to run this academy on Korriban, to train acolytes in the ways of the Sith. It made him sound almost noble.

Now he was asking his students to submit to torture.

Ishani hadn’t been warned about what lay in store for her today. She had simply followed orders, as she had every day since enrolling at the Royal Academy. Surprises like this came often enough. She wasn’t quite sure why this lesson disturbed her so much.

Unlike the other acolytes, she hadn’t gone to Ossus. She wished she had, but not to prove anything to her superiors or fight for the Sith. She certainly had no illusions that she could've changed their defeat into a victory. If anything, her presence on the battlefield might have meant she could have stopped the events that transpired there between Arcturus Dinn and the nameless Jedi Padawan she now blamed for Thesh’s disappearance. It gnawed at her in ways that grief did not. If he had been killed in action, at least then she would’ve known his fate. Now she didn’t even know where he was, when he would come back, or if he would ever return.

All she could do was wait—although some of her instructors at the Academy had tried to deter her even from that. “You have a chain around your neck,” one of them had sneered. “Break it, or we will break you.”

Here was Maliphant, gesturing to the chairs. In the back of her mind, Ishani knew that Thesh was his apprentice. Did he feel as she felt? No. He was a Sith Lord. He didn’t allow such chains to form. A fleeting memory crossed Ishani’s mind, of Alina Tremiru pressing her corpse-cold hand over her mouth to silence her, afraid Maliphant and the Worm’s spies would overhear.

Ishani stepped forward. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out. “I have no questions,” she said at last, crossing the room to take her seat in one of the chairs.

 

[Melydia Gold]

We have many questions. The words floated to the tip of her tongue before the vocalization of such was swallowed in an unsettled gulp. Melydia had known several trials and training sessions in the Royal Academy, though she so often blurred the line between spectator and active participant. A wandering mind had gifted a delightful mental fortitude, a small price for a great advantage where others would know failure.

This time, however, there was no place for the mind to wander.

No place to escape to, at least. Her amber gaze shifted from on acolyte to another, to Darth Empyrean pacing before them, and chairs set out before them all. A usually calm stomach was a cold pit of foreboding as the Sith Lord went on with his explanation. The idea of success or death was hardly a new concept. It was often the claim with many trials she'd taken part in. However, more often than not such a threat struck her as a hollow promise, meant to scare off the weak-minded, to add more weight to the trial than what was actually present.

Melydia wasn't quite certain this trial would be the same.

She could hope it was, certainly, or let the warning fall on deaf ears, operate just as she did with any other trial. But previous instances often found their threats in the scenery that hosted them. The desolate nature of Korriban, the hordes of the walking dead, all avenues in which the insectoid held a distinct familiarity with. After all, she was nothing if not nature corrupted herself. The chairs before them, fitted with shackles, were anything but natural.

A part of her wanted to run, to frolic in the tombs before letting such metal touch her skin. But it was too late for that, such was the case for one with such distinct an appearance as hers. It was with great reluctance that she found herself fluttering towards one of the chairs, pausing before she could bring herself to sit, contemplating the questions that swarmed in her mind.

"Have you experienced this trial yourself?" she asked the Darth, head tilting to the side as the words left her. This didn't seem like something an individual came back from, not really. And before she surrendered herself to certain abyss, she needed to know if coming back was even an option.

 

[Rax Tremira]

Silence came from Rax as the Darth spoke. It wasn't the first time he had met him, and had even pulled the ire of his torment in the past. That was some time ago however, he doubted the man even remembered him. The power of youth, you could say. An older person may easily forget the face of the younger, especially when they groomed themselves differently, and grew into their adult selves. The younger however, would never forget the older, as they changed so little. He seemed restless on this day, listening to the Darth drone on with annoyance lingering on his mind. It was at times like this he wondered what the hell the man was even revered for... His tongue?

No, he knew better than that. He had felt it, even. He was a Sith to be looked up too for sure. A Darth of legend. In any case, Rax didn't need to hear stories of old. Bane, or whoever. A dead man, long rotted into the ground... What could Rax learn from him? He wanted to learn what he could from the man in front of him, to one day surpass him, and anyone else that followed their path. That was all that mattered to him. As Maliphant came to the end of his speech, Rax seemed to suddenly perk up, eyes having trailed from the floor to rest on their teacher for the day.

Questions? None that would make this any easier. He had said enough hadn't he? They were going to break them, and if you couldn't take it, you'd die or become fodder.

He stepped forward, moving to sit in the closest chair to him, and slowly spun his head as one of his peers had asked a question. Ironically, a very good one. Rax smirked at that, eyes wildly bouncing from her to the Darth. Surely he had... Now that she asked, he remembered in his youth Maliphant had sent him a book personally. One that at the time he had read with interest, cover to cover; and now if asked, even if his life depended on it, he probably couldn't guess its approximate location.

All the same, it was good read, and had taught Rax simple things about the Sith, and the Jedi... Hells, what did it matter now; the information was what was important. And it was all in his head.

In any case, he seemed somewhat disinterested with this, not worried about what would happen. Either he would go mad and die, or go mad and carry on as a berserker. What he did know was that death wouldn't find him this day. For that reason, he had no questions to ask, he was just ready to get on with it.

Leaning his head back in the chair, he rested his appendages in such a way that they could easily be strapped in without a struggle; listening, but relaxing all the same.

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Maliphant nodded to Ishana as she acknowledged that she had no questions. It was a simple response, but one that implied she was more concerned with preparing herself for what was to come - the moment of it, rather than the anxiety of it. It was admirable, though Maliphant would have found questions about it just as impressive; assuming they were the right questions. He silently cringed as he remembered another acolyte bother to ask him 'Will it hurt?' without a second of hestiation.

However, his momentary unpleasant thought was interrupted by the small fae like creature before him. One Qual'Al-Selim had told him about - something she had doted upon, as much as the evil Machiavellian spymaster could dote on something. Her obsession with friends, with the freedom to create through sith alchemy - her aspirations as a scultper of life. Yet her question seemed more impressive than any he had recieved thus far -

"No, not this trial.", he said as he stopped pacing, giving her his full attention.

"But a trial I did survive. Pain throughout my life that drew me the dark side - to enlightenment, to freedom, to everything I hope to pass onto you. I may not have done this trial, but I have experienced far worse - Reality in its most barbaric form.", he said with a sneer - but it wasn't at her, so much at the memory of it.

He had the scars from the lashings removed long ago - but the memories of the pain persisted. The lynching of his mother, the death of his early childhood friend and fellow slave by mob, the manipulation and hardship he had being passed around from owner to owner. From Darth Imperia, to Irajah Ven - he had subsisted through years of torture. Compared to that, this trial would be nothing.

As the last of them got into their chairs, Maliphant moved to a seat that existed in the center of the room. A distance away from them, but in such a spot that all of them could watch as he formed his staff in his hand and moved to sit. Resting the abomination of an alchemic creation across his lap, he looked upon them with an authority similar to a Father.

"In five seconds, the restraints will automatically close. In ten, you will be injected with a hallucigenic sith poison I developed for a sword created in my youth - modified for today's trial. In thirty seconds, you will begin to feel its effects."

It was a moment for them to run - but he doubted any would. Those who hadn't asked questions, the faceless masses of students, got into their chairs and were promptly restrained by the time he had finished his sentence. Now, a small needle would reach down on an arm - injecting itself directly in the back of the next, breaching the spinal fluid and its containment.

"Besides the needle, you will not feel pain. Pain is an emotion a dueling lesson would teach you, how to harness it despite a wound. It is short term, as pain of that sort is fleeting - no, today you will see only your greatest, deepest fears come manifest. During your tenor as a Sith, you will make connections - to those you love, to those you like, to a family of your own. It is your right as a Sith to have what you so desire; but it is the curse of Sith that they may end up dying in this violent life of ours. Be it the loss of those close, or the pain of something else - only you will know what you face."

"And I will watch. In five seconds, you will begin to fall into the illusion of your mind. In two, you'll be gone from this world. In one..."

And then it was blank. Each would suddenly be thrust into a world of their own imagination, as the colors of the world around them would run like melted colors - and Maliphant sat idly by with his staff to contain any dark side outbursts from the prospective students. Rax, as he had once before, had an outburst prior; he would be the most likely culprit if one were to occur again.

Ishani Dinn │ Melydia Gold │ Rax Tremira

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Melydia was the only one who asked a question: if Maliphant had been through this trial himself. He had not. Ishani was already in her chair by then, yet when she heard him answer, she abruptly wished she hadn’t sat down, hadn’t been so gung-ho and content to play along. Were they being treated like guinea pigs, test subjects for some crazy new experiment? Did Maliphant hope to learn their weaknesses so that he could exploit them, keep them in line? Or was he simply toying with them for his own amusement?

Ishani started to rise—only for the restraints to snap into place. Cold metal clamped down over her skin. She trembled in their grasp, but they tightened until she could not move at all. Her eyes darted and her chest rose and fell with increasingly panicked breaths. The pounding of her heart drowned out the sound of Maliphant’s voice as he guided them through the process. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. There was no preparing her for what they would be facing. She had plenty of fears, a diverse roster of common and uncommon phobias, phantom and genuine anxieties—but she didn’t know which ones the drug would conjure. All of them? Or only the very worst her psyche had to offer?

A needle pricked her spine, and Ishani cried out in pain. Overcome by panic, she couldn’t seem to reach reason. She was of the animal mind now, reduced to a whimpering, struggling beast straining against the metallic bindings until the drug finally swallowed her whole. Then she was quiet.

The colors of the basement room didn’t blur and melt together for her so much as they darkened. Shadows closed in, narrowing her sight down to a single spotlight amid endless black. Was the spotlight on her? Was she the center of attention here? No… was she—where were the eyes? Why did she feel them all on her, but she couldn’t see them?

The bindings had come undone. She got up and wandered the room, looking for a way out, but there was only darkness surrounding her on all sides. The white glow followed her every move, becoming harsh and glaring. It exposed her, leaving her bared and naked to the view of the invisible gazes. They knew all her secrets. She tried to hide herself in the darkness, but always the light was on her. There was no escaping it or them.

In her haste she stumbled, falling to the floor. Her blood roared in her ears, and her cheeks burned hot. The sharp scent of freshly tanned leather hung in the air before her, the smoke from the fires of a metallurgist’s forge clinging to cloth. It stung tears from her eyes, coaxing memories to the forefront of her mind. There was something coppery, too. Not unlike the stench of blood.

Darth Empyrean Melydia Gold Rax Tremira​

 

[Rax Tremira]

He was still uninterested, listening and for some reason taking the slightest pleasure in the panic rolling off of his peer sitting just aside him. He felt prepared for anything, but also had no fears he could think of. He was honestly madness incarnate at this point in his life. Able to smile through anything, but turn into walking terror on command. The restraints tightened, and he just relaxed. Then that prick caused him to simply breath out, eyes flaring more so at the puncture than any actual pain. And then he waited... For a while, there was nothing; and then, Maliphant's words seemed to become distorted... Warped... Faded...

Rax leaned his head back, or at least thought he had, it felt like the world literally dripped away; the colors falling like rain into a wonderful kaleidoscope. And after that, he woke up...


He smelled food, something good. He heard the sea, and snapped to his feet, turning and looking at his surroundings. This wasn't Korriban, and it certainly wasn't Dromund Kass. He moved to the straw door of the hut he was in, pushing it open and shielding his eyes from the dual suns in front of him. One Cerulean, the other Amber. It was then he heard the children, eyes focusing downwards as three toddlers approached him screeching in joy, laughing, and running up to him with no regard for who he was.

'Daddy! Tell Gelta to stop teasing me!' a small thing of a girl said, hugging at his thigh. It caused him to just stare back... The more he stared, the more he seemed to just... Understand what was happening.

"Gelt, stop teasing your sister... And Lyra, stop letting him getting away with it.. Bust his nose next time." he smiled then, the thoughts of Korriban having fully left his brain as this facade had become life for him. In any case, he gripped the two children lightly, walking as they tried to hold him in place.

Another voice caused his gaze to shift, looking up and spotting her. The love of his life, Xian was the one cooking of course. She was so good at it... He approached, warily glancing over at the third child. So much like him at his age. Silent, and to themselves, always doom and gloom. For his wife, he gave her a kiss, and stole a piece of food from the grill... He was happy...

So happy he didn't notice the three separate shuttles approaching down the coastline.

 

[Melydia Gold]

TAG: Darth Empyrean | Ishani Dinn | Rax Tremira

If it was reassurance Melydia had been searching for in that question, she did not find it. In fact she herself with more questions, particularly directed toward the validity of such a trial. But the Hive wasn't one for questioning validity, not when they so often made their own definitions their reality. So Melydia took what explanation was offered to her, a mental note to inquire as to how reality could be worse than ones' literal worse nightmares drifting to the forefront of her mind before being promptly released from memory.

The cold metal that closed on her wrists as the restraints snapped into place drew forth a light hiss. A creature of both nature itself and the corruption of nearly all nature offered, she would've much rather preferred wood or bone to the feeling of cold metal on her skin. Before she could fully get over the light burn from of metal, she felt the pinprick of a needle piercing the back of her neck. Her skin, much like the rest of her, was ever-changing, constantly in states of mutation and growth. And with that, one could almost hear the needle pierce flesh, like a knife cutting into a thick sheet of paper.

Uncertain if she could truly feel the injected fluid enter her system or if she were merely overthinking it, the sensation of panic spiked from within. Her wings, now useless as she was both restrained and seated on a chair with a back, would practically vibrate if they were free, eager to take towards safety even if she knew not what safety was.

"In five seconds, you will begin to fall into the illusion of your mind. In two, you'll be gone from this world. In one..."

As the seconds clicked down, she squeezed her eyes closed, bracing for whatever impact may come. And she waited. And waited. But there was no impact to be had. The countdown had ended and yet, nothing happened. She opened her eyes, casting a quick glance about her, curious to see if others were experiencing the same. Yet there were no others, no acolytes in chairs nor Darth seated in the middle of the circle.

"Hello?" She called out, brow furrowing, perplexed. What bindings had locked her in place were no longer present, the insectoid rising to her feet to cast another look around her. "Hello?" she repeated. Again, nothing. A quick glance behind her also revealed the chair she'd just risen from was also gone. The room, assuming it was a room, was entirely still, with not even a stray beetle crawling about her person. Now that part was especially perplexing. As long as she cared to remember, there were always bugs on and around her, tiny friends when the sentient ones had failed.

"Where are w- w-" the word caught in her throat, refusing to be heard. "What's happening to u-" There was no we, no us. Melydia's eyes widened in a panic as she tried time and time again to get the words out and every time found herself falling short. With each attempt, just how deep her present solitude went sank further. No bugs to be found, no friends to be made. No 'we', there was only one. A singular entity, unfit and unprepared to function alone.

"What's happening to me?"

 

[Ishani Dinn]

They made her crawl. She dragged her body across the floor, pulling herself forward, until the scent of him was all around her. Hope swelled in her as she reached out, her fingers brushing cloth and… blood. Sticky and already lukewarm, it coated her palms and clung to the raw skin of her knees.

She knew he was dead even before she touched cold, waxy skin. The vision didn’t show her his death. It wouldn’t grant her the chance of being there when he shuffled off this mortal coil, no opportunity to try and comfort him before he went. It only showed her a degraded corpse on display, hung up as an example of what happens to traitors.

Even though it was only an empty body, she clung to him, letting her tears fall. At least, until arms sprang out of the darkness and seized her by her hair, dragging her away. She screamed, a bloodcurdling sound that breached the barrier between the real and the imagined, made her throat ache with very real pain. For a millisecond, she saw Maliphant before her, sitting in a chair beside the imagined corpse of his apprentice, watching, but then it was gone—or rather, the drug projected a new Maliphant over him, one that stood still as a statue as the hands tore at her. Merely observing, his gaze was apathetic. She was nothing to him.

She was nothing to anyone.

Fingers invaded her mouth, trying to gag her. She bit down as hard as she could. The hand disappeared, only to be replaced by two more that clamped down tightly over her mouth and nose, suffocating her. When she looked into the darkness, she saw the faces to whom these stifling hands belonged. The words Mom, Dad were muffled and distorted as she wailed, reduced to a child, helpless to stop her parents from smothering her.

The sensation changed—abruptly she was surrounded by liquid. A childhood memory of swimming in the ocean on Chaldea, a near-drowning. The traumatic experience was now amplified to absurd levels; she was floating in endless water, with no surface she might swim towards to ease her burning lungs. She reached for the Force, to control her breath… and found that it had deserted her.

But this was nothing new. The Force was a fickle lover in her relationship with it. She had always hoped, though, that its infidelity wouldn’t lead to her death...

Darth Empyrean Melydia Gold Rax Tremira​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Slowly, Maliphant closed his eyes and let his mind traverse through the poison. His blood was in it, and it made it easier to bypass any mental defenses the acolytes may have had - directly into their spinal cords. In a sense, Maliphant existed within them - so their thoughts were his own, for a brief few moments. Something he had experimented with before, but now was something less violent than before.

Through a number of them he could feel dreams - of families lost, of potential lovers scorned, and the dark torture of more than a few; but he would settle, for the moment, on Ishani Dinn 's visions. Just as she glanced upon Maliphant standing over the corpse of Thesh, a momentary shock that made him consider if the drug was trying to work against them; but it faded too quickly for him to acknowledge it as his own. Then, she was falling - dragged into the abyss as the world changed around them.

No where in sight was the bright surface, only the cold embrace of the deep ocean. Maliphant could feel the water, but it did not scorn him like it did her - and so he spoke, as though nothing impeded him. To impart a lesson in her solidarity.

"Abandoned and alone - with all those you loved to have betrayed you, or been destroyed.", he said carelessly.

"As a Sith, you will always be alone - freed from the shackles of the Force, a master of your own destiny. The weight of your life, and any you choose, bear heavy on your shoulders; and many will falter. Turn to ash in your hands. All that dread you feel, the loneliness of it - you must find power in the ashes...", he seemed to whisper to her.

"... If you can not save them, avenge them. Let their memories fuel your growth so you won't fail the next ones."

(Will be rotating between dreams every few posts.)

Ishani Dinn │ Melydia Gold │ Rax Tremira

 

[Melydia Gold]

TAG: Darth Empyrean | Ishani Dinn | Rax Tremira

It was dreadfully quiet in that mind of hers.

Melydia had seldom known quiet in her waking years. She was always humming a tune or muttering notes to herself, always buzzing about when her feet decided they didn't want to function. And as her abilities grew, so did the Hive and its ever-present hum. Things were manageable that way. Sure, details were sometimes lost in the buzz, but the flight patterns had yet to guide her too far off course.

She didn't know how to answer silence when it came. Only battle against it, taking care to stomp her feet as she tried to navigate the void, calling out frequently. Yet the noise died almost as quickly as it was born, and she was once again left in encompassing silence.

Melydia was at a loss for action without a chattering beetle as a guide. So she tried to conjure one, bringing a hand up close to her gaze and staring at it with a panicked intensity, as if to will an insect into existence. One of the spines that infrequently dotted her being began to grow, seemingly adhering to the force of will, only to shrivel away like ash from parchment. With that loss, she became suddenly very aware of how grey her fingers and palm had turned, a stark contrast to the usual pink tones.

The girl quickly tore her gaze away from the sight, her hand balling into a fist as she moved with a new purpose. Surely she wasn't truly alone, not really. Kal , Arcturus Dinn , Alina Tremiru - someone. They had to be somewhere, anywhere.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"Abandoned and alone—with all those you loved to have betrayed you, or been destroyed."

Ishani heard Maliphant’s voice inside her dreams. Unlike earlier, when he had appeared as a figure in the periphery of her psyche, he was not a visible presence to her so much as he was a voice inside her head, taunting her.

"As a Sith, you will always be alone—freed from the shackles of the Force, a master of your own destiny. The weight of your life, and any you choose, bear heavy on your shoulders; and many will falter. Turn to ash in your hands. All that dread you feel, the loneliness of it—you must find power in the ashes..."

<I won’t let him die!> she screamed inside her mind, unable to voice her thoughts with saltwater filling her mouth. But her sense of helplessness was growing. She knew she had no real power over Arcturus' fate, not as she was now.

"... If you cannot save them, avenge them. Let their memories fuel your growth so you won't fail the next ones."

<I’ll have to kill you to avenge him!>

The voice seemed to have departed, moving along to someone else’s dream. She hoped he couldn’t hear her. Just because she acknowledged that he would be her opponent didn’t mean she wasn’t terrified of him.

With Maliphant having gone, she was left to try and save herself. How had she survived the real life near-drowning experience this nightmare was based upon?

Come on, remember… think, think!

It was a warm summer day on Chaldea, her homeworld. Her family had gone to the beach. She went swimming by herself, but swam out too far. The water was deep and the tide overcame her, sucking her under…

I was saved.

Two dark shapes had emerged from the blue. Two female Finfolk. One had green hair that floated around her head like seaweed. The other had red hair which shone like flames in the sun as it filtered through the waters. They peered at her with eyes like coins of sea glass, their arms lined with delicate fins as they reached toward her, bearing her back to the surface to breathe—

She burst through, gulping down air. Salt stung her eyes, blinding her as she flailed in the water, afraid of being pulled under yet again. She could no longer see the mermaids, but she could still feel their webbed hands holding her up, scaled tails whipping in the water as they propelled her toward the shore.

I didn’t save myself…

They deposited her on the sand, waiting until she regained her footing before they rode the waves back out to sea. The next thing she was aware of was her mother throwing a towel around her, asking her where she had been, what had happened. Her only response was to cough up water.

Darth Empyrean Melydia Gold Rax Tremira​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Maliphant departed the mind of Ishana for the moment - slowly twisting his machinations and ability to fester in the mind of Melydia Gold . Her insect features rushed across his own skin as he felt them become one for a singular moment - though it was only one way. She would witness nothing of his mind, but he would witness all of hers; yet it wasn't obvious to even him at first that it was the case. As he appeared in her mind, it was empty - docile and quiet for an infinite distance. Sound trailed into nothing, and the abyss seemed threatening to swallow them both.

But this was not Maliphant's fear - it was Melydias.

His voice rang out to her, hoping to giver he insight to the darkness and how to overcome it. Standing behind her, his staff stood straight up besides him, holding him up as he spoke to her with a downward gaze.

"You're alone, Melydia.", he said quietly. His words were simple and factual, nothing to compare them to in the endless empty.

"Is this your fear then?"

He would pause for her to reply, but in the world of her own creation she would be briefly unable - to even communicate with him as he communicated with her. He frowned, realizing how deep this fear permeated.

"As a Sith, you must understand that you are alone in being from beginning to end. Solitary and confined, you control your destiny from the pilot seat - and no others have that ability to influence you. That is, to say, without your willingness.", he said as he walked along side her for a few moments.

"Most will not tell you this, but Sith are allowed to have friends - even lovers.", he said with a glance down to her, his own thoughts briefly falling on Srina Talon .

"You are to hold onto them, make them yours or respect their strength to be their own - but if you tie yourself to them, you must use that connection to power your emotions. Many will come to kill those close to you, and you must be able to turn that protective nature, that intrinsic love into strength - and if you are unable, and the enemy do succeed, you must be able to transition that sorrow into passion. Though passion, you will gain victory, Melydia - but you must overcome your fear of being alone."

"Because the fear of it will consume you. Twist it, make it yours, and the fear of being alone will become the strength to make sure you never have to. Break the world around you through your fear, and you may yet live without it. If you can not, then you must abandon your friends, those you love - for they will be used to break you if you don't have the strength to protect them, or the willingness to abandon them."

With his esoteric speech done, his simply fell into a cloud of smoke from her gaze - gone to another dream, it would seem.

 

[Melydia Gold]

TAG: Darth Empyrean | Ishani Dinn | Rax Tremira

Her pace quickened with each step, desperate to find another in this mental voidscape, though not quite ready to commit to a run. Occasionally the whisper of voices, both exceedingly familiar yet with no name or face to put to the voice, just barely audible and with no discernable origin reached her ears.

Another failure.

Shame what happened to the subject, though.​

Ah well, ready the next subject.​

The things we do for progress.​

Her wings fluttered to take flight. Or rather they should have. Would have, if there were wings left to propel her. Yet just as the color faded from her limbs, the insectoid appendages wilted away. A sneaking suspicion suggested that if she didn't hurry, the rest of her would too. But there was no way of knowing how or what she was hurrying. It was just her alone with voices and the void.

And then another voice, Darth Maliphant's, startled her with how close it was. Her mouth opened to respond, then closed, the words both escaping her and catching in her throat any time she tried to start a sentence with 'we'. A multitude was all she'd known, for as long as she'd known, well, her. Whatever existence she might've known beforehand was distant at best.

"W-w-I used to be one, once." She winced at the singularity, though whether it was due to a physical pain or strictly emotional was anyone's guess. "But this one was created broken, cold. W-I don't want to experience that again. I won't." Hands curled into fists already tightened more, nails drawing blood as they pierced exuviae.

"This one won't let it happen."

 

[Ishani Dinn]

The drug was not done with her yet. She had too many fears to play with. It couldn’t resist toying with her a little more.

Even as Ishani wiped saltwater and bile from her mouth, her mother hovering over her in the vision, things were changing. The beach was disappearing, replaced by a chamber in an academy. Not the Royal Academy, no—this was a very different sort of school.

The Chaldean Academy, allegedly the oldest structure on her homeworld, loomed above her. Towering ceilings and magnificent pillars sculpted from white marble gleamed in the sunlight that streamed through tall, ornate windows. It was beautiful, yet it struck terror in her heart.

A woman stood at an altar, flanked by guards who wore silvery armor and blue cloaks. She descended from the raised dais, stretching out her arms toward Ishani until she could place her hands on the girl’s shoulders. It was Persis, the woman who had offered to be her guide and teacher. Ishani had liked Persis. She seemed like a good person. But she did such terrible things.

Terrible things, like what she was doing to Ishani now. At Persis’ bidding, Ishani knelt on the polished stone floor. Other masters of the academy surrounded her as Persis began the ritual which would cut Ishani off from the Force, placing her hands on top of her head.

Ishani trembled. She wanted to scream, protest, struggle—but here, in this dream, she had agreed to this. She had undergone the years of training in preparation for this moment, suppressing her connection to the cosmic web, becoming willingly ordinary and mortal. She had done this to herself, following the beliefs she had been raised in, never once considering that there might be something better out there.

In this future, there was no Arcturus. She had never known him. There was no conflict that raged within her over what to do. There had only ever been one path laid before her, one that she knew. Not the unknown path of the Sith, the one that she had already begun to regret embarking on—

But I don’t want this! I don’t want this future!

What other option did she have? This was the easiest path, the one of least resistance. The one that wouldn’t require her to leave behind everything she had ever known and loved.

As she felt the connection sever like a thread cut by scissors, and the cold empty void she had always dreaded where the Force had been descending, she lashed out, not caring who she hurt. She killed them all, everyone in the room, killed the whole planet, burned down her childhood home, dug up her roots and obliterated the past. When it was all gone, and the dust finally began to settle, she laid down in the ashes and begged for death. She was nothing. No one. For all her power, it didn’t mean anything. She had lost all that she cared about, everything she held dear.

Enough! Enough!

She had to get out of here. Out of these nightmares. She had to do something, take back control.

There were restraints over her body in the real world. She couldn’t feel them, but she knew they were there. Reaching out with the Force, she struggled to grasp them, to pull them apart and free herself. There was no way of telling if she had gotten it, but she tried with all her might, then lunged forward, a somnambulist still caught in a dream, sleepwalking out of her chair.

Had she fallen? Was she still standing? Had it worked at all? She didn’t know. But she wanted out, and she wanted out now.

Detoxify… detoxify poison… she willed the drug out of her body, flushing the corruption out of her pores. It was a technique she had learned, but hadn’t really had a chance to try before. Seemed like as good an opportunity as any.

Darth Empyrean Melydia Gold Rax Tremira​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Before Maliphant could make his way into another dream, he could hear the thrashing. His eyes opened from his state of meditation, and he watched as the still closed eyes of Ishani moved under the lids at a distance, her arms and legs shaking violently against the restraints. He could feel the power of the Force coalesce, to fail, only to coalesce again before he stood. His own steps carried the distance between them - only for a medical droid to begin to speak as it got close, a touch of alarm in its tone.

"Lord Maliphant - It appears Subject: Ishani is having a seizure. Permission to administer 30cc of-", but was cut off as Maliphant raised a hand.

The tap of his staff told the droid all it needed to hear, and with a robotic nod it turned its attention to the others. Maliphant, for all he was worth, watched her struggle - watched her eyes roll back in her head, then smiled when the force within her snapped the restraints from four of the five holding her back. Only the one remaining on her left wrist bound her as she jerked forward into the open air - sweat running rampant down her body.

She would find herself running directly into Maliphant, who's cold gaze simply looked down upon her - but with a noticeable smile.

"Good.", he said quietly to her. A hand moved to brush some of her hair from her face, then pushed her gently to the side as waved his free hand - opening the other restraint with little effort.

Resting a hand on her shoulder to ensure she did not fall, he bade her to follow him as he walked to the center of the room - hoping to put her on a set of observation chairs, where some Masters and Lords sat watching. Sulphuric yellow eyes gleamed at her from the darkness, but they did not stick too long as Maliphant walked with her. Sitting her down, he took a step back and spoke again;

"Did you conquer your fears, or let them consume you?", he said curiously.

"Both are needed for success, Acolyte. To allow them to fuel your strength, to break the illusion I had put upon you - but to bring you back from the brink. Can you calm yourself, slow your heart rate, cleanse the poison from your blood?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani’s eyes remained closed. She thought she might feel something—a vague sense of resistance from the final restraint coiled around her left wrist—but it was hazy, unclear and undefined. Her body seemed as immaterial and weightless as a cloud floating across the sky, pink and white.

She made a slight noise as she was freed, halfway between a whimper and a groan, only for sensation to abruptly return, crashing into her. Her skin was slick to the touch, her clothes soaked, her hair wet, the tips of loose strands scattering droplets of moisture when Maliphant pushed them out of her face.

Then he was dragging her somewhere, his hands on her shoulders. Her nose filled with the scent of lavender. Such a scent was supposed to be calming, but serenity was inexplicable in a place like this. She looked like a little girl in his grasp, small and slight. Her feet stumbled, dragged across the floor, squeaking. Soon there was pain, an ache in her muscles from constantly tensing them as she fought against illusionary opponents and imagined perils in the dream world. She felt exhausted, barely able to stand, let alone walk where Maliphant bid her.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternal slog, he sat her down in a chair. She sagged into it, her posture such that it was clear she wanted nothing better than to lie down somewhere and sleep. His questions only made her eyelids—still shut—twitch faintly at first.

“I was saved,” she said, speaking as if in a delirium. “I didn’t save myself from drowning... When I tried to save myself… I was my own enemy. I destroyed my family, my homeworld, everything I knew… it didn’t work… I was even more lost than before.”

Despite her confused state, she was still aware enough to hear him and understand, though she was as susceptible to suggestion as if she had been put under hypnosis. She had already attempted to detoxify the poison, but evidently she was not successful. She tried again to wake herself, corruption mingling with her sweat. It had a miasmic smell, an odor which she detected as surely as she had the lavender on Maliphant.

Her eyelids slowly began to peel back, green eyes beneath mere crescents. When she saw the blurry shape of Maliphant in front of her the same as when she had seen Arcturus die at his hands, she grew tense, a panicked gasp escaping her.

“Don’t hurt him!” she pleaded desperately, still only half-awake. “Please. Let him go…”

Then she was jerked back to reality, blinking. Wha… where was she? She looked around, a little woozy, to find faces staring back at her, observing. Covered in sweat, she felt disgusting. Her face flushed and her shoulders hunched forward, uncomfortable with the attention she was receiving.

Lol finally spelled her name right Darth Empyrean Melydia Gold Rax Tremira​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Despite her gutteral, instinctual need to tense in on herself, Maliphant did not recoil. His face offered her nothing - apathetic to the last, but with a tenuous interest in her current predicament. He didn't flinch at her unfounded request to let Thesh go - extrapolating the subject from the vision he had witnessed within her mind; but he did focus on the words she had said.

That she hadn't saved herself, that the act of doing so put her at greater peril - and Maliphant knew exactly what she had meant. Once, he had done the same; fell victim to his own power, his own instinctual need to grab more of it. In his quest, he had reforged the Darkstaff after collecting some of its remaining pieces from Velok the Younger. It had done him no favors, much as Velok had warned, and nearly killed him over the years he had it. It was only when he had fully realized his strength, fostered it, that he was able to break its control upon him.

But by then, it had done irrepable damage to both him, and his life.

With those memories in mind, his jaw tensed subtly beneath the skin before he leaned back and spoke to her -

"Then you did not restrain yourself.", he offered her quietly, even as she huddled in on herself. A medical droid finally meandered over to the two and began to check the vital signs of Ishani through remote sensors. It's beeps and buzzing filled the silence, as the jury before them remained silent in the darkness.

"The Dark Side is a... rabid beast, Ishani.", he said with a downturn of his gaze. A hint of empathy rising in his tone.

"It will propagate fear, anger, anything it can to make you doubt yourself. We know this to be the work of outside forces, the Force itself hoping to turn your own mind against you. It makes it dangerous to dip your toes in, to feel about it without dedication. Without commitment, you become a threat to yourself, everything and everyone you love."

"It is that exact thing we can not allow.", Maliphant said with a renewed authority, glancing up to meet her gaze.

"You may feel the anger and strength to destroy a planet, to destroy your family in a moment of weakness - but is as much your duty to be strong, as it is to be stronger than yourself. Sith of the past did not accept the responsibility of their strength, and instead of controlling it they let it control them. Darth Vader in his hubris, killed his love without so much as a second thought at the first sign of disagreement - unable to acknowledge his lack of self control."

"You, and all the greatest Sith of our new era, will have that control. Moving forward, Ishani, you must learn how to bring that strength bubbling forward - then draw it back on command. You must never lose control, never push beyond where you know you're able to bring yourself back from the brink - or you'll become nothing more than a rabid dog, unable to save anyone you love from the horrors others seek to inflict upon them."

"Do you understand?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"Yeah, I get it." She could have said more, but it seemed pointless. Maliphant wouldn't care about her past or her upbringing. He didn't need to know that she had been raised to believe the Force was dangerous, perhaps even evil, and should never be used at all. Maybe telling him that such a planet existed where the people all believed as she once had would only prompt his wrath toward them. Or mere contempt. Try as she might, she couldn't hold her childhood home, her family, or her world in contempt - and she didn't care to hear it from him.

Ishani wiped at the sweat that had pooled in the creases of her eyelids, but her hands were equally damp, so it just combined perspiration from two parts of her body. Her mouth and throat felt like a desert, making her voice raspy. "Isn't that the whole issue... using the Dark Side... it's supposed to be a form of sacrifice? You gain a whole bunch of power, but you lose something along the way."

She swiped at a shine on her upper lip, then sniffed. "It's always been hard for me, having the Force. For a while, I thought it would be best if I never used it... but that didn't work out so well. Then I came here to learn how to control it without becoming a space hippie." A bitter smile crossed her lips. "So if anybody wants to help me with that... otherwise, can I go now please, Darth Maliphant sir?"

Darth Empyrean​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"That is a child's interpretation of it. Something you'll hear from the Jedi, passed down from generation to generation to undermine the depth to which we go.", he said with a frown - though not directed at her.

"The Dark Side is your own strength, ripped from the Force by your will. The 'Light' is given freely, but only as much as the Force wishes to give them - making them forced to fight at the whims of a greater entity they do not even begin to understand; spreading the falsehood of 'sacrifice' to undermine what is taught."

Maliphant sighed as he finished his tirade, then glanced to the lords in the viewing balcony. Golden eyes shown from the gallery, and then they slowly turned away; leaving Maliphant unsure what they took from the encounter. No doubt some had appreciated the raw strength of breaking from the illusion so quickly, and other were likely disappointed at her inability to break the poison on her own. Quick strength, but no endurance to make it last, not control for the fine tuning once exhausted.

It was something she would have to learn in time.

"You may, Acolyte Sibwarra. A medical droid will meet you at your quarters to perform a physical - then you may sleep, once medicated."

He offered her nothing as he stood once more, motioning to the door as he turned to face those still in the dreams he had concocted.

Ishani Dinn