Private The Sun, The Moon, and the Truth

[Calyx Sundrift]

Calyx sat cross-legged on the sandy carpets. The fire crackled beside him. It was the last of the wood pile he'd brought with him. It was a dull reminder that he'd soon have to start boiling water, should he want to make the most of his rations.

A dry breeze whispered through the broken archways of the ruin, tugging at the scattered papers in front of him. His hand stayed still; he let his lightsaber do the work, its hilt resting on the parchment to pin down the crude sketches and incomprehensible scrawl he’d been staring at for hours. The mighty weapon, demoted to paperweight. Fitting, somehow.

Because the notes far outranked his saber in terms of importance. These notes were all the Red Library had offered him on 'The Final Weave.' An obscure Dathomirian prophecy whose meaning seemed as twisted as the Nightsisters who first whispered it. And every line, every symbol he'd deciphered, circled back not to Dathomir. But to Arcana.

That, more than anything, unsettled him.

Very few even knew Arcana existed. Fewer still had ever uncovered the remnants of the ancient Nightsister civilization that had once thrived here. If the knowledge he sought truly came from a lineage so old the Sith had no clear records of it, then yes. No wonder that no holocron, no codex, or no Master had ever spoken of the Prophecy.

Secrets buried this deep tended to be powerful. Tend to be dangerous. And Calyx was on the verge of unlocking those secrets.

Again, he felt a prickling sensation in the back of his awareness. Huddled up and closed off. As distant as a start, yet as bright as the searing sun that hung in the sky. Acier Moonbound stirred. Calyx’s jaw tightened. He could sense him more sharply than ever before. So sharply, it made his skin crawl. As though Acier wasn’t across star systems, but breathing down the back of his neck.

He turned sharply, blue eyes narrowing at the empty expanse of wind-carved stone and drifting sand. Nothing. Just ruins and silence. Yet he was as certain of Acier's proximity, as he was that holding a hand in the flames would bring terrible pain.

His hand drifted toward the hilt of his lightsaber. They had been allies once. Friends, perhaps — in the loose, fragile way people with too much darkness and too many secrets could be.Were they still friends? He'd dreamt about Acier. Seen horrible things. Felt excruciating pains. Had the kid changed?

He stood slowly, leaving the weapon where it lay atop the scattered papers. Calyx exhaled once through his nose, steadying his mind as he stepped forward. "Acier?" He called out, voice carrying between the stones. "Is that you out there?" The Sith taught that confrontation was clarity. That truth revealed itself only when challenged.
And Calyx Sundrift had never been a poor student.

It was time to see what truth was coming to meet him in these ruins.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Arcana

Equipment:
Field Gear | Lightsaber | Tic | Cybernetic Arm

Arcana felt wrong the second his boots hit the sand. Wrong in that subtle, needling way that made the back of his mind bristle. Like the thread of the Force here was stretched too thin between things he couldn't see.

The Mother of Teeth had rasped the planet's name with her final breath, and Ace had followed it because what else was he supposed to do? Ignore it? Pretend the Force hadn't slammed it into his subconscious like a warning?

He moved deeper through the area. Something was here. Something familiar. Not a presence exactly, more like... pressure. He'd felt flickers of this before. Months of strange pulses at the edge of his senses, emotions that weren't his own, flashes of heat or cold that never matched the room. He'd chalked it up to everything else he was dealing with. Trauma. Loss. Grief. The unraveling and rebuilding of his faith.

But here? Now? It was louder. Sharper. Close. Way too close.

Ace slowed. His gaze swept the ruins, catching the faint glow of a campfire guttering against the stones. Papers scattered. A lightsaber resting on top of them like some sort of paperweight. Then a voice cut through the stillness, calling his name.

He froze... that voice. No. Absolutely not.

Ace stepped through a broken archway, dust shifting under his boots, and Calyx Sundrift came into view, standing there like the galaxy had decided to play a joke. Seemed to be full of those lately.

Ace's expression didn't break. Calyx looked exactly the same and nothing like he remembered.

"…Calyx." His tone was steady, quiet, stripped of both warmth and hostility. "Didn't expect to see you here. Or... anyone."

His pulse stuttered once and that unfamiliar pressure spiked. Something was happening here... something threading them together whether he wanted it or not, and Ace didn't understand any of it.

It was... strange. The only other person he shared a strong bond with that... wasn't attuned to the Force, was Sibylla. But even then, it was nowhere near as strong as the invisible thread that seemed to be stretched between Calyx and himself.

His dark eyes settled on Calyx, his brow curving, why did Calyx have a lightsaber? As far as he knew, the blonde-haired man wasn't Force-sensitive.​

 

[Calyx Sundrift]

Calyx resisted the urge to seize the Force. Without understanding how or why, Calyx knew that Acier would step into his view in a moment. He even knew where to look.

The tinge in his mind, like a fresh memory of the encounter about to come, reverberated with suspicion and vigilance. He'd doubted that he had Acier's trust before. Now, this confirmed it.

"Odd, that." He murmured. "I did expect you." There was something guarded in the way Acier carried himself. Not the confidence of their last encounter, neither the insecurity he'd seen in their first adventure. "It's not as if it could be a coincidence, meeting another lifeform on a tomb world like this. Let alone a... friend." He hesitated. He still didn't know if Acier would use that word. Besides, the Bokken Jedi definitely knew there was something strange going on.

He caught Acier glimpse toward the lightsaber on his papers. He regretted leaving it out in the open. "Not mine." Calyx remarked. "I stole it from some guy. Well-" He threw up his hands. "It's not stealing when they throw it at us, is it?" Calyx smiled. "Got it at that refinery your merry bunch of friends attacked, remember? Tried handing it to the girl, of course, but Verse didn't want it." He cocked his head. "You know Verse, right? Sweet, brilliant, gorgeous, and blonde, but unfortunately a human?"

His eyes flicked toward Acier's arm. He'd dreamt of that. He could recall the sense of disbelief with clarity. It'd been numb for two days. Then, when feeling returned, he'd found that his fine motor skills had been affected.

"How's life?" He folded his arms under his black poncho. "Cause you look like you've been better." He didn’t expect honesty. Not from Acier. Not with the way fate was twisting their lives together without permission.

But he couldn’t help asking anyway.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Arcana

Equipment:
Field Gear | Lightsaber | Tic | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't move at first. Just stood there, letting Calyx's words wash over him like wind he wasn't ready for. He hated that Calyx had expected him. Hated it more because Ace hadn't expected anything, not Calyx, not a camp, not a voice he'd shoved into the back of his memory months ago.

And that word he'd used... friend. Ace ignored it at first. Or tried to. Friend. He wasn't sure he'd ever put that word on whatever this was. Whatever they were.

Tic peeked out from behind Ace's leg, one photoreceptor flickering with a soft, uncertain glow. The little droid gave a warbling chirp, something between are we in danger? Ace's organic hand drifted down in an absent calming gesture, fingers brushing Tic's dome before falling away as he rose to his full height again.

"…Yeah. Odd."

Ace's gaze slid past him for a moment, taking in the scattered parchments, the fire, the lightsaber he still didn't fully understand. Calyx talked with no urgency, like everything that was happening was completely fine.

"Wouldn't call 'em 'merry.'" He muttered when Calyx mentioned the refinery, though it lacked bite. "But yeah. I know Verse."

He hadn't really seen her since Dathomir. His fault, of course. He'd avoided her because of his shame, because she'd seen more of him than he'd wanted. Then, after the Death Star... he lost contact with most of those in the Path. If it was even still the Path.

A dry exhale left him. "She's… a lot of things."

His eyes flicked to the lightsaber again. Not his. Stolen. Thrown at him. That didn't answer anything, but it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

The pressure in the back of his skull pulsed again. That hum. That strange, wrong familiarity he'd been desperately trying not to acknowledge. He tried to shove it back down, but it threaded itself straight up his spine.

Calyx's gaze dipped to his arm. Ace stiffened. The prosthetic stayed still at his side, metal fingers relaxed but motionless, the seam along his sleeve just visible. He wouldn't say anything if Calyx didn't.

"How's life?" Calyx had asked.

Ace let that hang for a second. Enough to hear his heartbeat echo weirdly, like it was brushing against someone else's rhythm. Finally, quietly:

"…Complicated."

He stepped closer, watching Calyx with something unreadable, something coiled and uncertain. He didn't get why Calyx was here. He didn't get why he was here. He just knew every thread of the Force was vibrating between them like something waiting to snap.

"You look better than the last time I saw you." Ace added. "But that's not really saying much."

He paused for a moment, eyes drifting to the side, then settling on Calyx again.

"Why Arcana, Calyx?" His brow tensed. "What're you doing on a dead world?"

Calyx Sundrift ​

 

[Calyx Sundrift]

Calyx shifted his weight from foot to foot. "You think?" He scratched the back of his neck. "Cause I've been better." It was true that he'd found somewhat of a purpose again. But joining the Covenant hadn't been a choice. He still sought for a way to pay back the vampiric Sith, Kasir. Similarly, the Dark Council - Virelia's network - had only given him one real option. Through opportunity, however, he'd climbed to the position of Lust. Unfortunately that had meant breaking ties with Kanjiklub. "I suppose figuring this out would help." Calyx murmured, folding his arms.

His face, friendly at first, shifted to a frown. "I really want to ask you the same, you understand that right?" He turned, strolling over to one of the broken pillars and sat down. "I was hoping you'd be a little more pleased to see a friend in a place as treacherous as this." He didn't expect Acier to be forthcoming. Surprisingly, the strings of fate that tied them togetheer didn't betray the underlying feelings either.

Was this man his doom or salvation?

After a pause, Calyx spoke again. "Arcana is a tomb, and tombs hold riches. The type men don't even dare dream of, y'know?" He bounced a leg impatiently. "I've followed a trail all the way to this forgotten rock, with that promise at hand." He made a gesture toward the papers. "Try the star charts. They check out."

Calyx hesitated. Undoubtedly Acier wasn't satisfied with his answer. But Acier was never satisfied with what he said. He kept his guard up around him. Always.

Well, similar to the Covenant, that left only one path ahead.

"Do you trust me Ace?" He asked suddenly. "Actually trust me?"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Arcana

Equipment:
Field Gear | Lightsaber | Tic | Cybernetic Arm

Ace studied Calyx as he shifted, fidgeted, talked about being "better". It all washed past him like noise he didn't have the bandwidth for. Not after everything. that was going on right now. The ruins felt too heavy, the Force too loud, and Calyx… Calyx was sitting right in the center of that pressure like he'd been waiting for it.

Calyx said that word again, 'friend'.

"Being pleased to see someone and being surprised aren't the same thing." He said quietly. "You caught me off guard. That's all."

Tic let out a small, uneasy chirp, inching half-behind Ace's boot again. Ace didn't look down, just let the droid hide if he wanted to.

Calyx talked about tomb riches and forgotten rocks and promises. Ace didn't interrupt. His eyes tracked the papers, the sketches, the star charts he hadn't asked about yet. The ones Calyx offered up like bargaining chips.

"I'm not here for treasure." Ace said, voice low. "And that's not why you're here either. Is it?"

He didn't know how he knew that. The Force didn't give him answers. That same wrong-familiar hum threading between his ribs, prickling whenever Calyx spoke like he was omitting something important.

Ace exhaled through his nose, slow, when Calyx asked the question. Right to the point, painfully to the point. Ace's eyes lifted. Dark. Steady. Harder than before. It was a big question to ask. Especially from someone he'd barely spoken to outside of running for their lives.

The silence between them stretched for a few moments. Then he stepped forward, closing a bit more of the distance.

"I don't lie about this stuff." Ace added. "So I'll give you the truth. I don't know if I trust you."

His tone wasn't harsh, only honest. Ace had spent his whole life dealing with men like Calyx - charming on the surface, calculating underneath, every smile a mask for something else.

People who talked smooth while hiding the knife behind their back. And Ace had learned young that trusting men like that only ever left scars... literal and otherwise.

If there was a choice, he stayed clear. Too many masks. Too many traps. Too many people who said the right things until the second they didn't.

And despite it all, there was something different about Calyx now.

"But I don't think you're my enemy."

Something in his chest pulsed - that strange echo again, brushing against something that didn't feel like him at all.

"And that's confusing enough..." He murmured, almost to himself.

His gaze sharpened back onto Calyx. He folded his arms over and sighed, not in resignation, but acceptance.

"Why ask?"

Calyx Sundrift​

 

[Calyx Sundrift]

Acier Moonbound

His face stayed carved in stone, but his eyes betrayed the search, the split-second hope, the calculation, and the disappointment, before he finally lowered his gaze. For once, Calyx said nothing.

No trust. He'd needed to hear it aloud, even if the truth stung more than he'd expected it would. "I see." The best Acier could offer him was that they weren’t enemies. Calyx nodded, almost to himself, as if acknowledging a verdict. He rose from the toppled pillar and made way toward his tent. He pushed off the toppled pillar and crossed toward his tent. Acier pressed on, probing again - just like earlier. Trying to get at his actual motives. He'd brushed it aside the first time. Now, he answered.

"Because I don't know where we stand, is all." Calyx said, failing to meet Ace's gaze. "It's a rough galaxy out there. Hard to tell who can be relied upon. And who can't." He knelt by a weathered storage box hidden behind the tent flap, rummaging through its contents.

One of them was a rectangular rod made of shimmering obsidian. The other, an amulet that he stuffed into his pocket. "So. You're not here for treasure. And - stars help me - you're not here for me either." He straightened, brushing stray dust from his hands. "But-" He pointed casually toward the dilapidated entrance with the obisidian rod. "there's stuff of great value down there, and after spending three sleepless nights to translate Dathomiri in something with believable vowels, I'm not leaving without it." Calyx started walking, steps brisk but not rushed, the decision already made. Over his shoulder, without slowing and without turning, he called “You coming?”

He doubted Acier had come all this way for any other reason. And if he had, he’d have said so.

Either way, the path forward was set.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Arcana

Equipment:
Field Gear | Lightsaber | Tic | Cybernetic Arm

Ace felt... something from Calyx. After he'd confessed he wasn't sure he could trust him. It was a soft, quiet vibration in Calyx's thread. He raised a brow, not necessarily at Calyx, but at the sensation he felt.

Ace followed him back to his tent, Tic skittering behind them both. The topic shifted when he answered Ace's previous question - about why he even asked. The answer... reflected Ace's own sentiments.

"Then you understand why I'm hesitant to fully trust you, right?" He added. "We've known each other months and I hardly know anything about you. That's not a lie, at least."

His eyes lowered, tracking Calyx as he knelt down to look for something. Ace quickly clocked both the obsidian rod and amulet. He didn't comment, certain Calyx would lie, deflect or just withhold the answer entirely.

Calyx continued on, pointing toward a ruined entry to somewhere that felt off in the Force. His attention lingered on the entrance until the word 'Dathomiri' left Calyx's lips.

His dark gaze flicked back to Calyx, eyes narrowing. Then, the final words of the Mother of Teeth echoed in his mind once again - 'Arcana'.

"Dathomiri..." He repeated, as if solidifying the reality of the situation.

Why she had mentioned the planet in her dying breath, what Arcana could possibly mean for him? Ace was no where near close to understanding. But... this was a lead, and confirmation, that he wasn't just on some wild goose chase.

"Yeah." He said, "I'm coming."

He hastily began walking to catch up to the other man. When he'd caught up, Ace fell into step beside him and Tic scurried up on to Ace's back. For a few steps, he didn't say anything, just stared ahead.

Once they finally reached the entrance, Ace didn't advance.

"Calyx." He began, tone even. "If you want my trust. Tell me why you're here. Nightclubs, ecumenopoli planets, sticking it to the man - that's your scene. Not... this."

What lie inside the entrance was blackness, barely lit by the natural light outside. Ace stared into the void that met them, the darkness they'd be stepping into.

"I'll tell you why I'm here, too." He added, glancing at Calyx sidelong. "Figure it's better to go into this with some level of trust. I really don't want to walk around expecting some kind of vibroknife in the back."

Calyx Sundrift ​