Traversing the Void

[Vereshin]

​

An impassioned chant traveled over the derelict ruins of Nathema. The lyrics floated from the soft tones of Vereshin's voice as he summoned the Dark Side energy emanating thick from the core of the world. Standing on a large mound of rocks, he recited the incantation with a crystal wrapped in his coiled fingers, the surface glowing brightly as he held the shape to his heart. An approaching presence disrupted his concentration and he opened one eye to see the young Acolyte was due to receive.

Throwing the shawl off his shoulders, the Sith Lord leaped off the hill and floated downward with the use of the Force. Wearing a long, black coat with a standing collar and a thin scarf fastened beneath the buttons, he appeared regal and unassuming, choosing puffy trousers tucked into boots with pointed toes and many silver buckles over robes. The hems of his coat billowed upright as he hovered down the hill.

"Greetings Acolyte, I am Vereshin, but you may call me Vi." As he landed on his feet, opaque energy emanated from his form and swirled around his ankles, blending in with his hair and the fabric of his robes. He unfurled his fingers and revealed the glowing, purple, crystal fastened to a chain. He placed the chain around Jantar's neck and retracted his hand with a wary gesture.

"This is imbued with the energy of this world and will ward away invasive spirits." Stepping backwards, Vereshin spoke to Jantar in a monotonous and eloquent voice. "You will be assisting me in recovering the research of the former Emperor and in turn, I will teach you how to survive the Void." Vereshin had only one intention on the world of Nathema, to secure the research of Vitiate and continue the work which he had left from a life which had spanned millennia.

"Know that I do not tolerate confrontation, but you are more than welcome to ask questions." Vereshin said to Jantar as he gesture for her to follow him. Retrieving a pair of gloves from his belt, he slipped them onto his hands as they walked. The road to the ruins wound around empty buildings and ruined structures, twisting into shadows which clouded the distance ahead. Red eyes glowed from the darkness, which were warded away by the power emanating from Jantar's necklace.

[member="Jantar Keltainen"]

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Jantar knew a little of the planet - or more accurately, she knew of it before it became the wasteland she’d just landed on. But history, for history’s sake — bored her.

She had read up on the Sanitarium, and wondered what it would have been like back when it was the Sith Emperor’s private vault.

And she knew plenty of Darth Vitiate. His proficiency in Sith magic was quite literally legendary. In truth, she had no interest in his efforts to prolong his life, but his command of the Force and of dark-sided magic in general, was something she aspired to learn all about.

Her role here was two-fold. Her overt activity was simple - to assist Vereshin in his research. Her covert mission? To learn as much as she could whilst she was here - but it from her host, or the former Sith Emperor.

She stepped off her ship and walked the remaining distance to the rendezvous. It was never wise to land a ship on a site of a mass explosion - who knew how secure the ground was? She strode purposefully as usual — her attire entirely black. But not standard Sith robes. Or rather, a standard style, but everything she wore was tailored and cut from only the finest — and therefore most expensive — cloth. Her outfit was completed by black boots — which were her most treasured possession. Firaxan sharks did not give up their hide so easily.

She heard him before she saw him, his chant carrying across the desolate wasteland. She covered the ground quickly and soon was close enough to hold a conversation. She neither complained nor flinched as he placed a crystal around her neck. Typically she eschewed jewellery, but she’d make an exception on this occasion, due to the fact it was a form of protection.

She nodded at his words and followed him as he turned. She had not bowed to him, it was definitely not her style — she bowed only to her own master — but she fell into step slightly behind him, as an act of deference, given he had allowed her to accompany him.

And she had no questions, so chose not to speak. She didn’t know if he was the talkative sort — or just liked the sound of his own voice — so, knowing she had a tendency to allow hr mouth to run away with her, she kept quiet.

For now.

[member="Darth Sabezt"]

 

[Vereshin]

The Acolyte did not not say a word when Vereshin greeted her, choosing instead to remain silent and listen. Vereshin liked that. Whispers stirred from either side of the winding road and the Sith Lord walked ahead of Jantar, combing her presence through the Force to make sure that she was still following him. As they neared the entrance of the Sanitarium, red eyes furled away into the shadows, repelled by the properties of the amulet Vereshin had imbued for Jantar.

"Be on your guard, this place is crawling with demons and rifts, they will try to lure you to the Void." With a wary tone, Vereshin warned Jantar as they stood before the ruins of the structure which had stood millennia ago. He placed a hand behind her back in a gesture of habitual chivalry and took a moment to survey what remained of the entrance for any runes which he could activate. As he sifted through the Force with his hands, Vereshin detected a disturbance which repelled any trespassers from entering.

"There is a curse guarding the ruins." Vereshin concluded as he closed his eyes and reached out through the Dark Side, detecting invasive energies which penetrated the minds of Jantar and himself. "Whether it was conjured during the time of the former Emperor, or whether it is simply a result of Dark Side corruption, I cannot say." Placing a hand on the stone, Vereshin felt the energy writhe through his body and heat his skin. He concentrated and gradually began to detect the properties of the spell guarding the ruins.

"We cannot walk any further into the ruins, lest our minds be disintegrated." The Sith Lord concluded as he looked over his shoulder to Jantar. He paced across the length of the entrance and looked for any runes which he could manipulate.

Behind Vereshin and Jantar, entities formed from pure Dark Side energy moved closer into the vicinity and reached forward with longs arms. The arms of the Void-spawned demons extended in length, turning to dark tendrils which lunged forward towards Vereshin and Jantar. The Sith Lord turned around abruptly and splayed his fingers, casting a resounding boom which caused the demons to shriek and recoil. The spell was not strong and they surely regathered, in more numbers, creeping towards the two Sith.

"Jantar, I need you to deal with the demons while I reverse the effects of the curse." The Sith Lord commanded. His eyes were diverted to the smoke seeping from the amulet around Jantar's neck, the effects of the planet becoming too much for it to contain. The crystal would heat against her skin and shatter into tiny pieces, proving to be futile against the power of Nathema.

"Your lightsaber will n0t help you against these beings." Vereshin warned as the demons closed in, moving away from Jantar and preparing to begin his own work. "Use the Force to dissipate the components making up the spell which controls them, focus your energy inward and target their core." With a final piece of advice, he turned around and began to chant beneath his breath, stroking a hand across the stone making the ruins to trace signs of any runes left behind from the ages.

[member="Jantar Keltainen"]

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

Jantar remained in step, her shorter stride meaning she had to walk faster to keep up – her cloak billowing in the breeze she created as she walked.

She paid no heed to the distractions around her. She surmised the necklace was given for this very reason and with Vereshin ahead, she expected he would protect her – if only because to do otherwise would slow down his research.

Jantar nodded at his words, not paying any attention to the fact that – given she was walking behind him – he would not see her confirmation of his instructions. Demons and rifts though? Had he not warned her, she would actually be interested in seeing them. But given curiosity was not particularly kind to the cat, she decided to curb her natural inclinations.

And then the ruins were in front of them. Above ground they were a mess, but underneath? Who knew how many levels down it went – and subterranean floors tended to survive surface explosions.

When he mentioned a curse, the curious cat almost had kittens. She had always been fascinated by those – and wondered how much was down to alchemy and how much magic. Sadly, the little she understood suggested the former was the prevailing power – but she lived in hope of finding some that she could conjour from thin air, as opposed to alchemic means.

Of course, he was right, it may just be a natural occurrence – which spoiled the whole experience for the young Acolyte, but sensing how he dealt with it would be a lesson in and of itself. Whatever it was, it was powerful, Jantar sensed that without any effort, and Vereshin confirmed as much.

But a sense of foreboding was growing and without any further warning, dark-sided spirits emerged from the ether to attack them. Vereshin repelled them at first – but the tactic delayed as opposed to eradicate the demons.

Nodding, she accepted his command to deal with them whilst he managed the curse.

She faced the demons and considered her options. As she did so, she felt the crystal around her neck grow hotter – not doubt the power it consumed was overloading it. She immediately discarded it, fearful it could explode and therefore kill her in an entirely unmagical way.

At a rate of knots, she recalled what she knew about demons. They tended to come in three forms. Real demons – which she could discount, as these were Force created. Of the remaining two variants, one was entirely imaginary and the other essentially corporeal.

But which type? One could be resisted by a strong will, the other by physical means. Vereshin’s final piece of advice suggested they were akin to smoke demons – something she had begun to learn to summon. But knowing how to craft one was not the same as being able to defeat one.

She knew that, unless she stopped them, they would absorb their bodies by flowing into them and then vaporizing them. Her mind raced as the spirit creatures advanced. As the distance diminished, Jantar knew she had to do something – anything – or else she would perish swiftly.

Trusting her instincts, she began to recite the first line of the Incantation she had learned.

“Woyunoks hadzuska koshûjontû.”

As she continued, she concentrated on the air and the energy around her, conjuring her own dream-beast – a true Smoke Demon. Initially it had no form and then assumed a shape – an exact likeness of the creatures that were attacking her.

Given this was the initial demons’ greatest fear, their attention was turned to her creation, as opposed to the two Sith. With all of her might, Jantar looked to ignore the red eyes that were creeping ever closer whilst she guided her Smoke Demon into combat.

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

When Vereshin warned Jantar of the curse, he could almost feel the curiosity radiate from her presence and parted his lips in a wry smile, revealing his black teeth in the process. The intrigue displayed by the Acolyte was a level which he could only recognize within himself. Having traveled to the Netherworld more than once in his lifetime, Vereshin now understood the costs of reckless experimenting. His curiosity was still unaffected. As Jantar turned her back to him and prepared to dissipate the demons, Vereshin pressed his hands against the stone of the ruins and ran his fingers across the stone in search of any runes.

Running his hand along the stone, he felt a series of crevices, heavily dulled by the elements over thousands of years. The markings sprawled across the derelict entrance and formed a ritualistic chart, which Vereshin stood back and beheld. He spared a moment to look over his shoulder and make sure that Jantar was unhurt, listening to her incantation as she conjured a demon of her own to combat the entities spawned from Nathema's atmosphere.

"They are corporeal, spawned from the remnants of Nathema's lost population." Vereshin warned Jantar as he turned back around to face the entrance of the ruins. Muttering under his breath, he read the esoteric markings and spread his arms wide, channeling energy between each palm as he revised the incantation in his head.

The syllables rolled from Vereshin's tongue as he deciphered the runes etched across the archway. He decrypted the markings in his head and formulated a solution to break the curse, reading the figures in the form of an incantation. As he chanted the indiscernible lyrics, the runes began to glow a luminescent violet. With every series of equations he answered, the curse fell apart in metaphysical pieces before the archway, which splayed the violet light across the ashen plains.

Turning around, Vereshin extended his hand and dissipated several of the demons spawning from the ash on the ground, the chant still travelling from his mouth. The beings exploded in bursts of black matter, shrieking as Jantar's smoke demon devoured them under her command. Behind him, the archway shattered and fell apart into a pile of rubble. With the curse now broken, Vereshin called to Jantar and directed her into the ruins.

"The curse is broken, follow me!" As the smoke demon destroyed the remaining entities, Vereshin called to the Acolyte. He gestured towards a winding staircase leading into the depths of the sanitarium which once stood and turned around to leap over the pile of rubble.

The staircase coiled deep into the bowels of Vitiate's ancient laboratory. As the last demon fell apart with a hiss, dust settled on the ruins, giving way to a ghastly silence which filled the space between the belated breaths of Vereshin and Jantar. The Sith Lord placed a hand behind the young girl's back in a protective gesture and combed the energy seething from within the site for any malicious presences. Waving a hand in front of them, he cast a field of violet light which allowed them both to see amidst the darkness.

[member="Jantar Keltainen"]

 

[Jantar Keltainen]

As Jantar’s focus narrowed even further, she heard the words of Vereshin from behind her.

She smiled. If they were corporeal, that was even better. For anything linked to the living had thoughts and emotions. And memories. And her smoke demon thrived on fear – which memories and emotions were invariably littered with.

The demon remained one shape to Jantar, but she knew that – to each of the demons it faced – it would assume a different form. One that reflected their deepest, darkest dread. If being dead wasn’t cruel enough, now they were being brought back to life just to be scared back to death. And if the fear didn’t get them, the smoke demon would – capable of physical damage as well as mental.

The demon grew in power with each sould it snuffed out – like a battery, feeding on the energy of its victims.

At Vereshin’s bidding, Jantar left the demon to it. It would naturally dissipate soon, given she was no longer fuelling its existence. But it would destroy the remaining entities whilst she entered the ruins.

Ahead she saw what Vereshin was indicating – a spiral staircase leading into the depths of the Sanitarium. Behind her silence fell – it was an oppressive vacuum – and she was glad to be heading into the ruins – despite the obvious threat of the unknown.

The Sith Lord provided light for them to see by and she took another step forward, ready to follow Vereshin as they began their descent.

[member="Vereshin"]