Private To Trust a Risk

[Hykátiis of Tsis'Raki]

The Dark Lady was dead - murdered by her own apprentices before she could finish what she started, a goal left unaccomplished and her enemies left standing. The class of women were scattered out across the Galaxy, for a few years now, slowly growing in numbers, awaiting their command and call to action. The priestesses' loyalty to their mistress were undying, but they were beings now left without guidance and their enemies - her enemies - still stood as formidable.

There were a few of their ranks within the Tsis'Kaar, the double agents, delivering intel to her. However, as much as the data was useful to Hykatiis, the priestess lacked the influence and power to even think of moving against their enemies. She was no Darth Ophidia - they were devices, lacking the command of a master. There was word of a new Tsis'Kaar sector, The Fifth Wing, and a fairly new name, Alicia Drey , also known as Darth Arya, leading them along side the treacherous Darth Malum of House Marr . One woman who plotted against the Empire of the Lost, and who remarkably survived an outing.

Things did not seemed as it was, as with the greatest Sith Lords, there were always ulterior motives. Hykatiis sought to discover what those of the enigmatic Darth Arya were, and if they aligned with Hers. With the vast intelligence network of the Tsis'Raki, tracking their targets down were often easy. A place within the territory of the Empire of The Lost was planet Nespis VIII. Landed, the masked Tsis'Raki along with another accompanying, left the ship and started towards the Necropolis, a unique force nexus built within an orb.

 

[Alicia Drey]

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"For the present, the more covert we remain, the more influence we can have."
-- Darth Tenebrous.

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Tags: Hykátiis of Tsis'Raki
Location: Childhood, Auril system.

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The machinations of the Sith were implemented over the span of decades. From Vulcanus to Ferus to Ophidia to Malum to Ayra the lineage of the Tsis'Kaar was long and it's reach far. The Fifth Wing had begun to take shape within the Tion Cluster and their masters found the Empire wanting. But in the shadow of Nespis VIII- as the current day Lords of the Tsis'Kaar were distracted by their politicks- a tale of revenge was about to write a new chapter.

Ophidia must be avenged.

Childhood (as it was colloquially known) was a rare oddity. It's real name, builders or purpose lost to the annuals of time. But it's strange effect on it's pilgrims remained intact. Darth Ayra sat on the ledge of an old wall in the coverings of her ancient order. A sleek black tunic and a cowl that she wore to conceal her facial features. A small and petite woman in adulthood Ayra was served no physical benefits from the strange effect wrought by the Force Nexus located here. The Tsis'Raki and their High Priestess were set to meet the orchestrator of the Fifth Wing in a most peculiar form.

A child waited in the Necropolis for Hykátiis of Tsis'Raki to discuss their revenge tale.

As the High Priestess walked through the graveyard of those lost to the Gulag Plague an innocent voice caught her attention:

"Do you think your late Master realised the depth of her failure when Malum and Strosius betrayed her?" Darth Ayra said softly.

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[Hykátiis of Tsis'Raki]

Hykatiis had heard about this place and what it did, although she'd never been within the necropolis, the physical change did not startle the sorceress. Same could not be said for the other trialling behind her. Children they were, but even the youngest girls within the Tsis'Raki knew the basic of comabt skills. Through the prior holocommunications, they had identified themselves merely as former members of the old Tsis'Kaar satwasin sector. That was no lie, but not the entire truth either.

Appearing as a young girl in a graveyard, Darth Arya spoke, skipping the pleasantries going straight with a question. Hykatiis hummed as she poundered an answer, it was simple. Even in her death, Hykatiis still regarded her the dark lady highly. "My mistress took on two apprentices. Surely she devised that weaker would be weeded out, perhaps by the other, leaving the powerful to eventually supercede - to betray her - as is the rule of two. Unfortunately, such is a sith's greed for power - they did not turn against each other, but together on her. They were far from deserving to become their own masters."

" Darth Ophidia 's rule of two was not perfected - a mistake fatal - but not a failure, yet. These two 'lords' now turn on each other - they will destroy each other... and destroy what is left of Her. We will make things right, as it should have been." They were the Tsis'Raki, her priestesses.

"Tell me Darth Arya, do you follow the rule of two?"

 

[Alicia Drey]

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Tags: Hykátiis of Tsis'Raki

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It was fortunate that Darth Ayra wore the cowl of her robe as the High Priestess finished answering her question for it hid the shock and surprise that now etched itself across her young face. As she had woven herself into the tapestry of her predecessor and garnered certain truths about the past it seemed that the intricacies and connections of her enemies had still yet to be unmasked or deciphered. In her attempts to learn more about Darth Malum of House Marr and his Tsis'Kaar Darth Ayra had learned about the connection to a former associate in the form of Darth Ophidia: a late member of the One Sith who crushed the Old Republic half-a-century ago and who had trained two Sith Apprentices in the ways of the Dark Side of the Force in the form of Malum, and another called Darth Strosius .

The revelation that Ophidia was also a follower of the Rule of Two gave new insight to Darth Ayra that before her Sith Master there had been another who had also followed in the footsteps of the Sith'ari. She had thought this to be in the form of the late Darth Pandeima ( Onrai ) who had been killed by Ayra's master on Coruscant almost fifty years ago. But now this Tsis'Raki- an off-shoot of the original Tsis'Kaar- revealed to her that Ophidia had once been a Sith Master who sought to revolutionize the Sith Order and sought to reform into the image of Darth Bane's created and aspiring truth in the Rule of Two before her untimely demise at the hands of both of her apprentices.

Darth Ayra's mind was racing. Was it possible that Darth Malum was also a follower of the Rule of Two? Could it be that either he, or Darth Strosius, were now the Sith Master in the dichotomy first taught by Bane? That one of them had swapped sides to serve the other to create a new dyad between Master and Apprentice? If so which one of them was the Master and who served the other as their Apprentice? Or was it true that Ophidia, in her hubris, had trained two Sith Apprentices with the intention to turn one on the other in their training in the dark side only for them to conspire against her which led to her destruction? Did that mean neither of them followed the Rule of Two and had, instead, turned on their Sith Master? If so why had they denied the truth that Darth Bane had taught to his descendants? Had it been because they learned about Ophidia's intentions to turn one on the other as part of their training in the dark side?

As these questions came to mind Darth Ayra was led to, perhaps, a more perplexing question. What is the Tsis'Kaar? If Ophidia was a follower of the Rule of Two as this High Priestess claims then why did she train two instead of only one? Was Darth Bane not right in his assertion that the weak, when confronted with the strong, would often conspire together to destroy and displace their stronger opposition?

What was the purpose of the organization known to Darth Ayra as the Tsis'Kaar?

Were they not the Sith equivalent to the likes of the New Imperial Security Bureau or Strategic Intelligence Agency as she first thought?

Or were they something . . . more?

"Yes . . . I follow the Rule of Two. Two there should be. A master to embody the power, and an apprentice who craves it."

Raising her little hands to the cowl of her robe Darth Ayra lowered the hood to reveal her face. Guided by the machinations of the Dark Side of the Force the beast within had risen it's snout and without hesitation she had surrendered herself too it to make it her property. For almost half-a-century the truth had been concealed by her powers in the dark side. Through the mask of Alicia Drey the identity and subsequent followed path of the ideology first conceived by Darth Revan and later revolutionized by Darth Bane had been hidden behind through acts of compartmentalization, obfuscation and a clandestine nature, which combined with the events of the Summit of Governments, led to it's existence being kept in complete secrecy. Yet, as Hykátiis of Tsis'Raki stood before her in this most odd of places, Darth Ayra felt compelled to reveal herself to the High Priestess as the origins of Darth Ophidia became known to her.

"The mystery of your former Master and the Tsis'Kaar are far more convoluted and complicated than I first thought. The revelation that Ophidia was not like the other One Sith but was a follower of the Rule of Two suggests to me that the truth has been obfuscated by her powers in the Dark Side of the Force. Tell me everything that you know about Darth Ophidia, the Tsis'Kaar and who you are?"

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