Unbind These Chains and Take Me Away

[Aleksandyr Gaillard]

Cold winds blew across the red desert sands of Korriban revealing the final resting place of sleeping kings. Here in the citadel of the Dark Lords, slaves are brought to be trained as Acolytes before being taken on by masters... Assuming they didn't die first.

Breaking through the clouds, a Caisson-class Transport landed in the Academy's port. Exiting the landing ramp in chains were twelve faceless souls, hopeless and broken, ready to be shaped by the will of the Sith and their enigmatic allies; The Primeval. Of these twelve was one particular young woman who stood out from the rest.

Artemis' emerald eyes were attuned to darkness during her trip, the sudden burst of piercing light caused her to squint as she stepped out of the transport and was prodded down the ramp and across the room. Waiting for them was one of the Academy's caretakers, an administrator whose job is to get the slaves into shape and maintain the various day-to-day operations of the institute. Despite being called an 'Academy' this was not a school in the strictest sense, it was where those who embraced the Sith and Primeval ways trained in the force and various magicks. It was a foreign concept to the force-sensitive human.

She may have used such abilities in the past, but they were primitive and untrained; what that meant for her she could not comprehend. The confusion, wonderment, and fear were quickly drowned from her chain of emotions when the caretaker spoke.

"Each of you will be evaluated, assigned, and within the coming weeks trained by Sith or Primeval." The elderly Zabrak paced back and forth impatiently. His predatory gaze scrutinized each of them, looking or any signs of insubordination. Few of the slaves truly listened, most were far too fearful or exhausted for a lecture.

Continuing, "Only one of you will succeed... Your reward? Your life; I suggest you listen hard if you value it, for these challenges will be difficult... No, nigh impossible for the likes of you." He smirked, his grin revealed jagged teeth and pulled the cracks in his lips apart, small pools of blood began to fill the slits.

With nothing left to say, the Zabrak walked off towards another area of the Academy, the eerily silent guards prodded the students through the corridors until they arrived at the grand entrance where she awaited her first evaluation. The thoughts that went through her head were not of this place, not of her future, but of her past and her home. All she could recall was scorching heat and bright lights until it all faded and she wound up trapped aboard a ship surrounded by strange beings.

Her chest filled with air through her nostrils which were immediately released... Sigh.

[member="Vrag"] | [member="Perla Pirjo"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Perla landed on Korriban in a nondescript shuttle and walked up to the entrance of the Sith Academy on Korriban. Although the spellweaver didn’t concern herself much with slavery (aside from chasing down male witches on Dathomir as a teenager), based on some mutual, rather shady, connections, a Taung pirate, named [member="Kuryr"] had gotten in touch with her about purchasing a slave.

“The Imperial Dungeons are full of slaves,” said Perla, thinking of those miserable prisoners she would use as rancor food if they weren’t purchased soon enough. But in fairly harsh language, the Taung explained that didn’t want any of her scrawny captives. He was looking for a more useful commodity.

Specifically a Sith.

“That’s a dangerous proposition,” she growled at him. The Sith were allies of the Primeval. She couldn’t just go waltzing into a Sith Academy on Korriban and snatch a student out from under the instructor’s noses, and then turn around and sell them to a slaver! If there were any slave-Acolytes available, they would go directly to the Primeval to help them fight once they were properly trained.

But that is exactly what he wanted her to do - hijack a slave, earmarked for the Primeval and sell this sentient commodity to him. Preferably a female and human, he had instructed. Angry at his audacity, Perla nearly said no and hung up the holocall in disgust until he told her how much money he would pay. And it was enough that the spellweaver couldn’t refuse.

Luckily Perla had been to this specific Sith Acacemy numerous times and knew the layout of the building relatively well. She would have no trouble posing as a fellow student and emissary of the Primeval, coming to visit the Academy to have a look at the new crop of slave-students. The Dathomir witch made her way to the area where half a dozen Acolytes stood.

She walked through the entrance, and her gaze immediately fell upon a striking human female. The rest of the group were either male or non-human females. Perla had her target now.

The girl looked bewildered, and although Perla’s dark hair and pale skin were oft times intimidating, the witch tried to catch the young acolyte’s eye and give her a reassuring smile.

[member="Artemis Exor"] [member="Vrag"]

 

[Aleksandyr Gaillard]

Noticing the smile in her peripheral vision, the glint of a female figure caught her eye. Who was she...No, why was she smiling? The exhausted acolyte became no less confused on Korriban, she had heard stories of the Sith but not once did one talk of them smiling. Something took up residence inside her gut and began to spin around in circles until it made her sick. A fuzzy feeling rushed to her head, nearly throwing the young woman off balance where she stood. Catching herself and taking a deep breath, Artemis walked over to the ambiguous stranger.

Small steps clapped quietly across the stone floors, if it wasn't for the sheer amount of banter and life around them it surely would've made an echo in the large and otherwise sparsely decorated hall. The slave turned her head in both directions as if she were crossing the street, constantly being cautious of her surroundings on this foreign world.

Artemis stopped less than two meters from her, "Why are you smiling?" She spoke aloud; a look of mistrust took over her otherwise stark facial expression after she blurted the question. She was uncertain of whether or not she was meant to speak or if she should've been spoken to first.

Wearing nothing but beige clothing without shoes nor jewelry of any kind; it was clear to anyone anywhere that she was a slave here. Slavery was new to her, and it was funny for her to think of that because she couldn't help but feel that this was all a farce. Does one choose slavery? No! Yet she was being tossed in the middle of it all and somehow there were those who expected something of slaves, like it was an experience they've understood for their entire life. Only a few days ago Artemis was on the streets trying to make a laughable, meager living.

There was so much emotion and she could not escape it, her heart raced eagerly awaiting whatever fate had chosen for her. She was lost in the woods and needed someone to guide her through the trees or surely she'd never escape. Then it hit her... Tranquility? Something like that, she felt oddly at ease and the pain in her chest and stomach became numb. Anxiety would find no quarter in her mind; she was ready for whatever came next.

[member="Perla Pirjo"] | [member="Vrag"]

 

[Armand Temi]

The girl was clearly terrified and well, who could blame her? She was most likely on a foreign planet, in a strange Academy, surrounded by Knights, Instructors and Sith administrators who, as Perla knew firsthand, were not the most forgiving or patient in the galaxy. To assuage her own guilt at attempting to coerce the acolyte out of the building, Perla tried to convince herself that she was about to take the young female to a better life, away from the cruel training that would be inflicted upon her by the Sith. And while this wasn’t wholly untrue, the fate in which the girl was headed to could be a thousand times worse than the Sith Academy prisons that lay in the underbelly of the building.

But for now, Perla had to put on a show and win the human’s trust.

“I'm smiling because my name is Xavia,” she said, giving an alias and attempting another warm smile with came off as anything but. "I’m here to help you.”

Suddenly she looked around the cavernous room, her eyes flashing angrily. “You there!” she barked at one of the slave minders, snapping her pale fingers. “Fetch this girl some shoes. If she is to travel with the Primeval, she is not to go in bare feet like common chattel,” she said. The slave minder scuttled off and found some dusty, leather sandals that looked about the right size. “Thank you,” Perla said gruffly. “Now go let your administrator know that I am taking this one with me now. The Primeval will train her…. I myself will train her,” she said, confidently.

[SIZE=13.63636302948px]Perla handed the sandals to the female acolyte. [/SIZE]

“What is your name?”

[member="Artemis Exor"] [member="Vrag"] [member="Kuryr"]