Private Under Construction

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

The Sable Veil broke through Malachor's upper atmosphere like a blade through silk. The fractured world stretched beneath them—ashen canyons yawning wide, split by jagged ridges of black stone and the faint shimmer of energy bleeding from wounds in the crust that had never healed since the day the Mass Shadow Generator had been fired. Storms clung low to the surface, lightning flickering soundlessly within clouds of dust and ash.

From the cockpit, Virelia stood with hands clasped loosely behind her back, her gaze fixed on the landscape below. The violet light of her eyes reflected off the transparisteel, unblinking.

The ship banked smoothly, following the winding course of a deep ravine, before leveling out toward a plateau. At its center sprawled an incomplete complex—black duracrete and durasteel ribbing rising in jagged angles against the stormy horizon. The site was alive with movement: construction droids hauling girders, sparks flaring from welders, the rhythmic thump of deep drills anchoring foundations into bedrock.

They descended on silent repulsors, settling at the edge of the compound. The boarding ramp hissed open, and the dry, acrid air of Malachor swept inside.

Virelia descended first, her boots striking the ground with deliberate, unhurried weight. She paused only once, looking over her shoulder to ensure Valaine followed.

They walked between the skeletal walls of the structure, past shadowed doorways that would one day lead to training halls, meditation chambers, armories. The work crews moved around them without pause, their programming keeping them silent and precise. The deeper they went, the more the air seemed to hum—not with machinery, but with the residue of the dark side that saturated Malachor. The oppressive weight pressed on the senses, a constant reminder that here, power was not a metaphor.

Virelia led her to the edge of a wide, circular courtyard at the heart of the complex. The floor was a black slab etched with faintly glowing lines that converged in the center. For now, the circle was empty, but the space around it suggested it would one day host… something important.

She stopped at the very edge and turned to face Valaine.

"This will be one of many places where I shape those under my hand," she said. "Some will walk away stronger. Others… will not walk away at all."

Her eyes lingered on the younger woman, scanning her face as though weighing every flicker of expression. Then her tone shifted—still calm, still controlled, but lacking the bite of command.

"Tell me something without your usual armor, Valaine."

She stepped closer, enough that the violet glow painted across the pale planes of the girl's face.

"Why choose me?"

She let the question hang between them, heavy as the world they stood upon, her eyes locked on hers as if daring her to look away.

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags: Darth Virelia ​

For most of the journey Valaine had spent her time looking out the windows of the cockpit. Space, and the traversal through it, was still something that seemed to fascinate her having spent her whole life on Jutrand before. She had her arms wrapped around herself, still not quite used to the coldness of the void between stars.

When the ship descended through the atmosphere of Malachor her interest was now taken by the planet and the landscape itself. So seemingly barren and torn, it was a far cry from where she called home. When the vessel landed and the boarding ramp opened she turned to follow Virelia silently. In fact she had been silent for basically the entirety of the trip unless spoken to first.

Her tired grey eyes glanced up towards the construction taking place, the spark of welders and the joining of metal as they moved through the site. It was clear she had taken some interest in what was happening despite her usual look of the opposite. Her trudging steps echoed behind Virelia as they came to the wide open courtyard, pausing at the edge to glance over it searchingly.

She was almost startled to alertness when the masked woman had turned and addressed her.

"Why choose me?"

This question seemed to puzzle Valaine for a moment as she tilted her head with a suspicious stare levelled upon the woman before her. Naturally her first thought was to ask herself if this was some kind of test, but that comment she made earlier, about not answering with her usual armor...

Her eyes closed and she let out a soft sigh through her nose. "I hadn't been at the academy long, you know? Wasn't the best performing acolyte, and wasn't the worst." she opened her tired eyes and looked at Virelia, "I feel like this is an answer you're going to enjoy, but the truth of it is that nobody took notice of me. Like so many other things in my life I didn't have much of a choice to make considering the options I was lacking. You took note and you offered power." She answered.

The Sangnir's gaze did in fact look away as it shifted back towards the empty courtyard, her voice dipping to a lower tone, "And now's the part you gloat about the fact I'd have picked you anyway or something, or that I would've found my way to you eventually. Don't let it get to your head, my hands were just tied," she spoke, glancing back to the masked woman, "- As they always seem to be." she finished. There was resentment in her words, for a lot of things, but mostly it was tied to her perceived lack of control in her life, from losing her parents, being turned into a monster, and now to taking the only path that was open to her. It was a choice she made for strength, and nothing more.

"Why the curiosity?" she asked in turn. She couldn't think of a reason why Virelia would even want to know why she chose her.

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

Virelia's head tilted ever so slightly, as though savoring the words the younger woman had just let spill free. The six points of violet light burned steady through the mask, not with judgment, but with a kind of sharp attentiveness that made Valaine's skin prickle beneath it.

"There it is," Virelia murmured, her tone low, velvet-soft but edged with satisfaction. "A truth that stings even you as it leaves your lips. Just the marrow of what you feel."

She circled her slowly, her steps deliberate, measured, as though tracing the invisible weight of Valaine's admission in the air. Her voice lowered again, intimate now, as if the question had drawn them into a shared secret rather than a test.

"Why curiosity?" She paused just behind her shoulder, the faint whisper of her breath ghosting across Valaine's ear. "Because I can wield blades, conjure storms, bend wills—but none of it matters if I cannot understand the creature in front of me. Chains bind tighter when they are shaped for the right flesh."

Her hand brushed against Valaine's shoulder—not a forceful grip this time, but the briefest press, a reminder of presence, of choice.

"You say your hands were tied. That you chose me only because no one else offered a hand. That is not a weakness, Valaine. That is honesty. And honesty is rarer than you know in the Order."

Virelia moved back to stand before her again, gaze fixed and unwavering.

"You think I want you to tell me you would have chosen me anyway. That fate was inevitable. No." She shook her head faintly. "The inevitability is not that you chose me. It is that now you have. That the chain is already clasped around your wrist, whether born of desperation, pride, or hunger. It does not matter."

Her voice softened, almost tender now.

"What matters is that you spoke your resentment plainly. That you let me glimpse the scar beneath the scab. And for that, I respect you more than any acolyte who simpers and kneels without showing the blood that put them on their knees."

The six glowing eyes lingered on hers, steady, calm, undeniably seductive.

"So, I will not gloat. I will thank you. For choosing—even with hands bound. And I will promise you this: together, we will make those chains perfect."

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

Valaine had all but prepared herself for some kind of haughty lecture from the masked woman that circled her while her grey eyes remained fixed on the empty courtyard ahead. But it didn't seem to arrive as she had expected. In fact it seemed to her that Virelia was giving her praise rather than simply wrapping an answer in a question again.

This prompted the young Sangnir to turn and glance back towards her after the woman had brushed her shoulder with a light puzzled look on her face with furrowed brows and suspicion. She still couldn't comprehend Virelia's true intentions being as paranoid about her as she was, and perhaps this was just a different method of trying to manipulate her. At the very least it was a welcome change, and it was certainly more effective.

But it was also a change that freely allowed Valaine's arrogance to flourish as she huffed in amusement at the masked woman and turned to face her with crossed arms. "Thanking me and making me promises... You're so strange. If I talk like I do to you with any other Sith I'm pretty sure I'd have scars because of it at this point, so what's your angle here with playing the good mentor? Do you think it's a better way of convincing me to kneel willingly?" she asked as she brushed a hand through her dark hair dismissively, the armor as Virelia described it earlier, had immediately come back up it seems.

With a soft sigh she glanced aside, eyes diverting to the construction around them, "You've got a bunch of apprentices right? Do they all do as you said? Throw themselves at your feet immediately, begging for your favor? Where are they?" she asked as her eyes glanced about. "Or am I to believe I'm the first you've brought here?"

Her eyes settled back upon Virelia. Valaine's arrogance had only seem to have grown since they first met, and it seemed it was just going to keep growing at this rate. How far could she push her mistress before she pushed back?

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

Virelia did not bristle at the arrogance. She welcomed it. The six violet eyes glowed brighter in the mask as she let Valaine's words hang in the air, savoring the way the girl wrapped her defiance like a cloak against the cold.

"Strange," Virelia echoed softly, the corners of her tone carrying a warmth that almost—almost—felt like laughter. "Yes. I prefer that to predictable. Predictability dies young in our Order."

She moved closer again, her steps slow, deliberate, until she was within Valaine's space, her presence pressing like velvet against steel.

"Scars, yes—most Sith would give you those for your mouth. And in return you would bite harder, because pain is all they understand how to teach. But I…" Her voice softened to a purr, "I would rather let you bare your teeth and watch. To see what shape they take. To understand the hunger behind them."

Virelia's gloved hand rose but did not touch this time, hanging just shy of Valaine's jaw, the promise of contact rather than the act itself.

"You ask for my angle. My angle is patience. If you kneel because I strike you, then you kneel from fear. And fear breaks too easily when you taste enough of it. No, Valaine. I will have you kneel because you want to. Because you realize, one day, that my hand on your neck is the only place you find both power and… relief."

Her words lingered, laced with seduction, but calm, assured.

"Apprentices…" she breathed, lowering her hand again. "Yes, I have many."

She gestured to the courtyard around them, the sparks of construction, the looming promise of something being built both in stone and in flesh.

"But you are here. So you are currently my focus."

Her eyes pinned Valaine, a low, seductive hum in her tone.

"That defiance you cling to? It is the ember I will shape into a fire so vast it devours whole worlds. And when it does, you will not need to ask where the others are. You will know—you stand where they could not."

Virelia's final words softened, almost intimate.

"And yes, you will kneel. Eventually. Any other questions?"

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

Valaine leaned back ever so slightly as Virelia drew nearer, an expected response at this point as tired grey eyes glanced between the six that stared at her, almost as if she couldn't figure out where she was meant to be looking whenever she was dealing with the masked woman. Eventually those eyes glanced away when she couldn't decide, but she continued to listen.

"Patience huh...?" she muttered softly, "I'm pretty patient too. But I really can't see these chains of yours working out as well as you hope." A light smirk appeared on Valaine's pale face before she turned her back to Virelia and walked towards the empty courtyard, devoid for now of all purpose and spectacle until its construction was complete. Her steps as usual were slow and lazy, her form slightly leant forward as black robes and hair swayed gently in the air. She came to a halt in the middle of the courtyard as she took its measure, and then finally she turned back to Virelia.

"But you are here. So you are currently my focus."

"Well ain't that sweet..." she spoke in a low almost mocking tone as tired eyes focused on the masked woman. "I assume you've got some way in mind of shaping this little ember here? Wouldn't have brought me out here if you didn't." It seemed she was finally ready to learn something, though she had no idea what Virelia had planned for her.

Finally at the mention of more questions, she only really had one. "Why the mask? Do you actually have six eyes?"

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

Virelia's laughter came low and smooth, a ripple of silk across stone. She did not chase after Valaine as the girl wandered into the center of the courtyard, but rather let her take the space—let her feel, for just a moment, as though it belonged to her. That small illusion would make the weight of the truth all the heavier when it settled.

"Patience against patience," she mused, stepping forward only when Valaine turned back to her. "Good. That makes the game worth playing."

Her boots echoed faintly against the unfinished stone as she closed the distance, though not fully. She stood at the edge of the circle, the violet glow of her six eyes shimmering through the slits of her mask, casting Valaine's pale face in soft shades of purple.

"Chains…" Virelia purred, her head tilting slightly. "You call them that because you've only ever known bonds that break you. What I offer are not chains of iron, but chains of silk. Stronger than steel, but soft enough you'll ache for their touch. They will not drag you into dust, Valaine. They will hold you… and lift you higher."

For a moment, she let the words breathe between them, letting the idea of wanting restraint sink like poison disguised as honey.

Then, at Valaine's last question, Virelia chuckled softly and tilted her chin.

"Ah. The mask." She drew a gloved hand along its edge, fingers brushing the sharp, elegant lines. "Wouldn't you like to know what hides beneath? Whether I am six-eyed goddess or a woman with nothing more than sharp wit and sharper teeth?"

She stepped closer now, a measured pace, until the glow of her eyes danced just inches from Valaine's pale features.

"Mystery is its own seduction, little ember. It keeps you watching me instead of wandering too far from my flame. One day, perhaps, I will show you. But not today."

Her voice lowered, intimate, velvet wrapping steel.

"For now, all you need to know is this: every question you ask ties you deeper to me. Every time you want an answer, you step closer into my web. And once you're tangled here, Valaine, you will never want to leave."

Her hand extended once more, but not to command—this time, to invite.

"Shall we begin shaping that ember?"

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

Valaine gave a light shake of her head, "Silk's too expensive for me I think, but it's still just a fabric, it can tear and burn just as easy as linen." she replied as tired eyes of disinterest watched Virelia move closer, always seeming to try and close the gap that Valaine consciously created between them. Though perhaps chains formed of a fabric were better to restrain the Sangnir with than steel or iron, for fabric caused friction, and when there was enough friction there was burn. The last thing the young girl wanted was to get burnt.

Her head tilted back slightly to look up at Virelia as she drew nearer to her, the purple glow of her eyes upon her pale visage once more as she focused on her. She pondered again briefly what was under the mask, narrowing her eyes searchingly as if she was trying to look through the eyes. "I think it'd probably humanize you a lot more. Right now you're just a faceless figure as far as I'm concerned..." she muttered in response. "I can't fault the design at least, for the mask and the armor. You must've had someone extremely talented make it for you." she added. The way the metal seemed to breathe with Virelia, she thought it a clever design, plates so tightly bound and segmented as to allow full movement while granting protection. It was no doubt the type of armor she could see herself wearing one day.

"But don't get the wrong idea, I'm only watching you because you're dangerous..." the young Sangnir spoke as she glanced down at the hand that was extended between them. She desired some training from her Mistress, she after all needed it, but she had received just a little training of her own in the academy by Kaila Irons , and while it wasn't much, it was more than she had before she met Virelia.

No doubt Virelia could feel something building within Valaine at that moment as the girl looked at the offered hand, it was the same feeling the girl had back in the tomb before she attempted to strike her, and there was no doubt there was a second about to arrive. Her personal reasoning was relatively sound; if she could ever strike Virelia then she'll have proved her own progress. She doubted that the training she already received on Korriban would be enough to bridge that colossal gap between them, but progress was progress, and so she'd take the measure of it even if it was destined to fail.

Her right hand, of which Virelia was now likely keenly aware was not her dominant hand, accepted Virelia's offered one as it grasped tight and firmly. And then it happened again; tired grey eyes darted up towards the six purple ones that stared down at her as her left hand came up towards the mask. It wasn't like last time, she didn't bother trying to strike her with a weapon, instead it was her claws. Yes, claws. Her nails seemed to have extended, they were curved and thicker now, capable of rending flesh and scratching steel but not much else, and now that left handed swipe came swiftly towards the masked face of her Mistress while the right hand kept a firm grasp on hers.

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

Virelia had already read the girl's rhythm before the motion even left her body. She did not pull her hand away—no, she let Valaine seize it, let her believe in the strike for a heartbeat. And then the armor stirred.

The plates of Tyrant's Embrace hissed as if exhaling, and from the seams spilled tendrils of violet-black fire, serpentine and eager. They slithered up Valaine's wrist and coiled around her arm, tightening with predatory warmth. The claws had barely risen before the Sovereign Flame licked up her pale skin, searing not to maim, but to remind.

Virelia leaned close, voice silken, the glow of her six eyes bathing Valaine's face in neon hues.

"Lesson one, my ember—your defiance prevents you from learning the lessons I have already taught you."

The flames flexed, not burning deep, but teasing against nerve and sinew, hot enough to make the woman feel how easily her flesh could be claimed. Virelia's free hand rose, tracing the line of Valaine's jaw with a slow, deliberate graze, as though petting a creature trying to bite.

"You lash out because you cannot yet imagine what it means to yield," she purred. "Submission, freely given, is stronger than any strike. You may claw at me until your nails dull, but in the end…"

Her thumb pressed gently beneath the girl's chin, tilting her face up into those blazing eyes.

"…you'll learn that the sweetest fire is the one you invite inside."

The Sovereign Flame slithered tighter around Valaine's hand, not burning her away, but caressing her arm with scorching intimacy—an embrace of fire that felt dangerously close to pleasure.

"Strike me again if you wish. But every attempt, every spark, I will turn into another chain. And you will beg for them."

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

Upon the sight of fire Valaine's behavior seemed to change dramatically. From arrogant, confident, and blasé to fearful, pained, and greatly distressed. A beast that was so easily cowed by flame as her pupils constricted in primal fear of it, her thoughts practically screaming to her of the danger she was in; 'You can't heal that. Run away now. It'll kill you.'. Such was her unnatural weakness to fire, a weakness that Virelia had just confirmed if she only previously had suspicions of the girl's nature.

With a cry of pain she tried to wrench her arm free of the flames that wrapped it tightly, it felt like she was being incinerated as every nerve was struck with the sensation of a deep sizzling pain. Her feet repeatedly slipped against the floor as she tried to pull back, and to think; mere seconds ago she had complimented the creators of the armor that now tormented her.

The young Sangnir could barely comprehend Virelia's words, so focused was she on the agony she experienced. She pulled so harshly on her arm that she was in very real danger of dislocating or outbreak breaking it.

When her chin was tilted up, forcing her to look upon Virelia, the masked woman would easily be able to see the fear she had just returned to Valaine, like upon their first meeting or when she fought the creature in the tomb, she feared for her life once again and no doubt she was given her reminder that she should always fear her Mistress.

In a final bid to stop the pain, to escape in her frenzied state, she reached her free hand behind her to pull out the smoking Ashblade, swiftly raising it in preparation to swing, but that swing wasn't directed at Virelia, no she had already learnt her lesson of trying to strike her. Instead that swing was aimed at her trapped and burning arm with the intent to cut and sever flesh and bone alike.

... If only the blade was ignited.

Nothing happened, for she had neither anger or blood to give to the weapon, just fear and pain, and it responded to neither. Either way the girl had just demonstrated a fear so great and deep that she was willing to try and sever her arm just to escape it.

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

The fire coiled tighter, drinking in her fear like incense. Virelia watched her apprentice flail and writhe, every ounce of that arrogance shorn away beneath the reality of her one true weakness. It was intoxicating.

The masked woman bent closer, her six eyes gleaming like molten amethyst, voice curling around Valaine's ears like smoke.

"There she is. Not the petulant pup who thinks herself untouchable—but the girl beneath the armor. The one who feels. The one who fears."

Her hand slid from the girl's chin to her throat, not squeezing, merely resting there like a collar. The Sovereign Flame caressed her arm with intimate malice, a lover's grip that no longer burned but pleasured. Virelia leaned her masked lips almost against her ear.

"Listen to me carefully, ember. You must learn the difference. With the galaxy? With your enemies, rivals, the smug Sith who dismiss you? By all means—sink your claws in, bare your fangs, make them bleed. Be as arrogant, venomous, cruel as you desire. I will love you for it. You cannot imagine how sweet you look when your fire scorches others. I will savor every defiant curl of your lip, every mocking word you dare spit at the world. That arrogance… oh, I find it exquisite."

Her voice darkened, silken and slow, dripping with a dangerous heat.

"But not with me. Never with me. To me, you do not bare your teeth—you bare your throat. You do not resist—you kneel. You do not snarl—you whisper my name like prayer."

The flames flared, a sudden pulse of scalding heat that made her apprentice's skin scream with nerves, before easing back to that unbearable, agonizing tease.

"I have been patient with you, Valaine. Patient when you struck at me in the tomb. Patient when you defied me with your tongue. Patient when you dragged your arrogance here, thinking me blind to it. Do you think any other Sith would give you that patience? They would have scarred you. Crushed you. Reduced you to ash."

Her grip on the girl's throat tightened—just enough to command breath, to remind her what was hers to give and take.

"And yet here I am. Still giving you the chance to learn. Still willing to shape you instead of break you. Do you know why?"

She tilted Valaine's head back further, making her meet those six blazing eyes even through the tears of pain.

"Because I want you whole. I want you sharp. I want you glorious. Not as a shattered dog limping at my heel, but as a weapon willingly set in my hand. My blade. My fire. My willing, grateful apprentice."

Virelia let her thumb stroke over the girl's jugular, tender and obscene all at once.

"One day you will understand that what I offer you is not just chains. It is freedom. Freedom to be cruel to anyone, freedom to spit in every face, freedom to tear the galaxy bloody—so long as, with me, you kneel and whisper: Mistress."

The Sovereign Flame twisted sensuously around Valaine's burning arm, tightening like a serpent in heat.

"You will thank me for this, ember. You will beg for it. And when you finally submit willingly, when you stop clawing and start yielding—you will feel pleasure so sharp, so radiant, that you will wonder how you ever lived without it."

Virelia's voice dropped to a throaty purr.

"Obey me, Valaine. Submit. And you will find joy deeper than any arrogance can give you."

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

As Valaine's throat was grasped in hand her breath caught in her throat as she stared up at Virelia with eyes that had watered and reddened with pain. To her surprise the pain of the flames subsided, but it still looked like fire and even that seemed to bring her fear and concern. Such emotions showed in her expression, in her gaze, but after the pain was replaced with a more soothing sensation there was the return of anger and spite in her stare for what her Mistress had just done to her.

"But not with me. Never with me. To me, you do not bare your teeth—you bare your throat. You do not resist—you kneel. You do not snarl—you whisper my name like prayer."

Virelia's words sunk into Valaine, one of the few times they actually did, as her fearful and angered stare seemed to silently accept what she heard finally. And then that spark of pain briefly lashed against her nerves once more, causing her to clench her jaw as a pained sound escaped her lips once more as eyes shut tightly. When the pain subsided she gasped as the hand on her throat tightened in a controller manner.

As much as she'd have liked to bark back against the words of her Mistress, what she said was in fact the truth. She had been patient with her, far more than anyone else would've likely allowed. She had let Valaine be who she was before joining the academy, the arrogant spiteful little girl with no love for others. Her eyes tried to glance aside in silent acceptance once more to words she would've had no rebuttal to, but the tilt of her head by Virelia forced her to look upon the six eyes once again as she let out a soft sound of discomfort.

The young Sangnir was relenting finally, that much was clear, but there was always going to be that glint of defiance within her, and perhaps deadlier thoughts buried deeper within, but she was starting to learn better where her place was now. The threat of fire and pain seemed to have done the trick, where other methods had faltered..

"Obey me, Valaine. Submit. And you will find joy deeper than any arrogance can give you."

At those final words that spark of defiance within her flared once again and it was clear in her eyes to see. It was the notion of submitting to anyone that seemed to clash with her so much, having lived an individualistic and lonely life up until joining the academy. They were thoughts and ideas so deeply ingrained and rooted in her that they were difficult to remove, but despite that the look of defiance she held was turned aside. No longer was she glaring back up at Virelia, no longer directing that defiance at her so boldly, and that alone was enough to show some level of submission even if she wasn't wording it as she let out a shuddering breath of lingering pain and fear.

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

The flames dissolved at once, vanishing as if they had never been—no smoke, no ember, no heat. One moment torment, the next only Virelia's hand, cool gauntlet still resting at Valaine's throat like a reminder of sovereignty. The absence of fire was its own kind of cruelty, leaving the Sangnir's nerves twitching with the memory of agony, her body still braced for a pain that never arrived.

Virelia drank in the sight of her—eyes red, lips parted with ragged breath, her arrogance cracked open like a shell. The defiance was still there, of course. It glinted faintly, sparking beneath the surface like coal refusing to die. She adored that spark. She would own it, burn it, twist it until it flared only for her.

The masked woman leaned closer, her six eyes like lanterns in the dark. Her voice curled like velvet smoke, low and slow, every syllable steeped in intimate weight.

"Better," she purred. "I can see it—your fear, your fury, the way you fight yourself not to shatter in my hand. It's delicious."

Her thumb brushed over the pulse in Valaine's throat, tender now, almost reverent. A lover's caress where a gaoler's grip had been. Her head tilted, her mask almost brushing the Sangnir's cheek as her voice descended into something hushed, conspiratorial.

"Do you feel it, ember? That trembling beneath your skin? It is not just fear. It is surrender, even if you cannot yet name it. Your body knows what your pride refuses to admit: that you are mine to shape, mine to consume, mine to command."

She let the words linger, each like a drop of heat against already scorched nerves. Then, she loosened her grip and allowed her hand to slide free, trailing down Valaine's collarbone, slow enough to make the absence of restraint feel like another kind of chain.

The six-eyed mask tilted slightly as though she were studying a puzzle she already knew the answer to.

And then, softly, silkily, she asked only one thing:

"Tell me, Valaine… why do you hate the idea of submission so much?"

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

Her body was still braced for pain as the hold on her throat was maintained by her mistress, that thumb brushing against the pale skin of her neck as her eyes remained averted. Typically it was Valaine that was threatening the necks of others with her fangs, and so to have someone be so intimate with hers gave her a sense of vulnerability she didn't know she had. Her breaths began to steady with the absence of the searing pain she had experienced, her form calming as the last bubbling thoughts of anger left her. The worst had passed, she thought.

Virelia could easily feel the beat of her pulse with her grasping hand, and though it had quickened in her panic it was beginning to slow once again. As her Mistress once more spoke words of surrender and submission to her she still kept her gaze away from her mask, even when it was right besides her face. The arrogant pride had been all but snuffed out for now, to the point she wouldn't even look at her Mistress.

When the grip around her throat was finally released there was a gasp of held breath finally exhaled as her form slouched slightly, shoulders slumping, and she regained her lazy posture once more. She however did not move to make distance as she so often did, instead she remained still as Virelia's hand trailed down to her collar bone.

"Tell me, Valaine… why do you hate the idea of submission so much?"

Valaine's breath caught in her throat once more at the question and her eyes seemed to search the floor in thought. She gulped down a breath and finally her voice came forward, soft, almost a whisper, and lacking the arrogant tone it usually had. "I... Lived through a hell to get to where I am today, and I am still in that hell, and I'll never leave it..." she began with a light shudder, and then finally her eyes drifted back up towards Virelia, and there was that defiant spark in them but dulled by the masked woman's presence. "... So I refuse to believe all of my suffering was just so that I could submit to another..." she answered as her gaze dipped to the ground once again.

"Submission... Is to admit your weakness... You might call me weak, others too, but I'll never acknowledge it... Only spineless cowards bow, beg, and scrape before someone they willfully acknowledge as their better. It's pathetic..." she answered, her tone growing heavy with a sense of venom and disdain at the mere notion of it. "I'll do as you command, I'll obey... But I won't ever say that I submit..." Her pride spoke. Pride so heavy and damning that she could crush herself with the weight of it, all gained from a life where she had only herself to rely on.

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

Virelia's hand lingered where it had rested, the echo of her touch still alive on Valaine's skin like a brand. She had not moved away, had not allowed the Sangnir to regain the illusion of distance. Six eyes watched her in silence as she gave her answer, each flicker of defiance and each dip into venom taken in, savored. It was raw, unpolished truth. It was exactly what Virelia wanted—because truth was the easiest clay to shape.

The masked woman bent her head just enough that her voice would spill against Valaine's ear like velvet poured into fire. There was no sting in her tone now, only that silken, licentious warmth that coiled around the younger woman's pride like a serpent wrapping a trembling limb.

"Beautiful," she purred. "Every word of it. The venom, the loathing… I can taste the heat in it."

Her gauntlet traced higher, up the curve of Valaine's jaw, until one finger pressed beneath her chin, slow, guiding, coaxing her head upward so that the Sangnir was forced once again to meet those impossible six violet eyes. Her touch was neither cruel nor kind—just inevitable, unrelenting.

"You speak of submission as if it were poison. As if yielding makes you something lesser. As if bowing, whispering, baring your throat is a degradation. And yet…" Her voice lowered, laced with intimate danger, "there is no shame in continuing to fail. No shame in looking the fool. So tell me, ember—why should there be shame in baring your throat to the one who has earned it?"

She let that linger, her mask so close now that her words seemed to vibrate through Valaine's bones. Then, quieter still, as if it were a secret offered only to her:

"Why… is it cowardly, why pathetic? Pathetic to beg, pathetic to scrape?"

The question was not mocking, nor dismissive. It was direct, genuine, even tender in its licentious nature, as though Virelia relished peeling Valaine apart one fragile layer at a time.

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

Valaine lifted her head as Virelia's hand moved up her neck and to her jaw, her eyes forced to look upon the six that stared down upon her once more as she breathed in a ragged breath. Her jaw clenched for a moment with instinct, but it soon relaxed once more. The tears from the earlier pain had already dried upon her pale cheeks, running thin lines down her face.

Her brows furrowed lightly in puzzled thought as she listened to Virelia, and while her voice continued to lack arrogance or any kind of mocking gesture, she offered something of a simple answer to her questions this time. "You-... You keep asking me for the answer, but you could find it just as easily if you asked yourself..." she spoke softly, "If someone told you to submit, you wouldn't, would you? The thought wouldn't even cross your mind. So you know why I wouldn't..." she sighed gently as her eyes remained locked onto her Mistress. "You might have more of a claim of power to not submit to another than I do, but you still know the reason."

Her eyes glanced away for a moment, memories being recalled as she thought for a moment to continue with the honesty while her armor was shattered. She breathed in a deep shuddering breath before turning her gaze back to Virelia. "... I ate... rats, you know...? I fed off the leftovers and scraps discarded by others, literal trash, just to stay alive for another day... I lived because of the ignorance of others, I survived because I had nothing worth killing me over, and every day I felt shame because of what I was, who I was..." her voice remained soft and quiet as she continued, but laden with honesty. "... So don't ever tell me there's no shame in it, because there is, I've known it, and I'll never know it again..."

"I'll respect you... I'll do what you tell me to do... For all intents and purpose I'll be a good girl as far as anyone else is concerned..." she said as her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "But you'll never hear me say it... I can't."

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

Virelia's hand lingered against Valaine's jaw, her fingers pressing just firmly enough to remind the Sangnir that escape was not an option. The words spilled out—ragged, fractured, honest—and the older woman drank them in with a silence that was heavier than any flame. When at last she spoke, her voice was a velvet drawl of solemnity and seduction, woven so closely together that one could not tell where one ended and the other began.

"You think I don't know?" she whispered, every syllable deliberate, like a nail pressed into tender flesh. "You think I haven't choked down ash and bile, scavenged from filth, bled until the galaxy itself seemed eager to bury me? You think I have not tasted shame?"

Her hand slid lower, away from Valaine's chin, past the pale column of her throat, until the blackened claws of her gauntlet came to rest against the center of her own chest. With a slow, deliberate click, she tapped the crystalline node inset into her armor. Its violet glow pulsed faintly—steady, unnatural, alive and yet utterly not.

"Look at it," she murmured, drawing Valaine's eyes to that faintly luminescent core. "Because there is nothing else. Beneath this plate, beneath the bindings, beneath the sorcery that sustains me—there is no heart. Only a hole. A wound. One that should have ended me long ago."

Her six eyes glimmered like dying stars as she leaned closer, the mask almost brushing Valaine's lips as she confessed:

"The Grandmaster of the Jedi Order—Valery Noble—drove her blade through me when I was a girl. A Padawan, trembling in their archives, after the Jedi attacked me. She left me hollow. By rights, I should have died in that instant, falling down into the depths of Coruscant."

Her gauntlet pressed harder into the node, the gesture almost reverent. "But I did not. Because the Dark did not allow it. It gave me a choice. Pain could not sustain me, as it did for Sion. Not faith, not hope, not love. Only this: the lust to dominate, to control, to chain and bind and bend the wills of others. That is all that keeps me from crumbling into dust."

Her voice lowered, intimate now, drenched in solemnity. "To not dominate, little ember… is to die."

She let the truth bleed into the silence between them before continuing, softer, yet no less commanding. "So when I tell you to bare your throat to me, it is not a cruelty. It is not an insult to your suffering. It is life. For me. For you. For us both. And when you spit at the word submission, you spit at the only thread that keeps me from becoming a corpse at your feet."

Virelia's hand left her own chest and instead cupped Valaine's face, thumb stroking just under the girl's tired eye, the gesture disturbingly tender.

"You tell me of rats and scraps, of shame and filth, of a life too small to be worth killing. I tell you this: you will never taste that shame again. Not so long as you are mine. I give my apprentices everything—pleasure, purpose, freedom wrapped in the sweetest chains. I do not strip them of desire. I give them more than they knew they craved. And I would give it to you, too."

Her tone darkened, but it was not cruel. It was certain. "But this will not work if you keep snapping at the hand that offers it. I can endure arrogance—I even crave it when you aim it at the galaxy, at other Sith not worthy to even touch you. I want you proud. I want you unyielding to all others. That arrogance, that defiance… gods, it stirs me. But not with me. Never with me. Around me, you do not fight. Around me, you learn to let go, to let yourself be claimed, until you find joy in the very act of surrender."

Her six eyes softened, the mask dipping closer, her voice a final intimate murmur against Valaine's ear:

"You will not be trash again. You will not be forgotten. You will not be weak. You will be mine. And in that, you will be more powerful than you could ever dream."

A beat.

"You are beautiful, my apprentice."

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

Valaine's gaze was drawn to the crystalline node at Virelia's chest searchingly and her eyes widened slightly upon hearing what it was, that the woman before her didn't even have a heart beating within her chest. She listened to her history, and what came after. The fact that Virelia was driven to do what she did just to survive seemed to resonate with the young Sangnir, a look of realization spreading across her pale features as tired eyes glanced back up at the woman.

The words seemed to cut deep into Valaine, especially upon hearing that her rejection was essentially just telling her Mistress to roll over and die. It was a realization that seemed to catch her off guard and upset her, for so eagerly had she focused on her own survival that she was perhaps actively hindering the survival of another. Arrogant, defiant, proud, all of them were poor traits, but they didn't make Valaine someone that couldn't feel sympathy, someone that could wish death on another. She respected those that survived, in every sense, and the last thing she wanted was to prevent that for someone.

Such a revelation had the young woman turn her head aside in the shame that she had just so vehemently condemned, but Virela's hand cupping her face pulled her back to look upon her as that thumb rubbed against her tear-stained cheek. It was a hard truth for her to swallow, and the pride that followed was even harder to keep down as she all but forced herself to speak; "I-... I'm sorry..." a pause, "... Mistress... I... didn't know..." she spoke gently with a shaken tone.

Virelia had finally struck a chord with Valaine's sense of self, her ideals and beliefs, and it seemed to make the young Sangnir regretful of her actions until now. But there was always something that hit her harder than anything, something that was entirely alien to her. The praise of her Mistress calling her beautiful both seemed to confuse and surprise her, and she felt a pang in her chest of that ever latent desire, no matter how much she pushed it down, to just be appreciated.

Her words caught in her throat momentarily, "I'll... Do better... I promise." she nodded her head gently.

 

[Darth Virelia]

"Building the thread."

Tags - Valaine Valentine

Virelia did not let go. Her thumb lingered at the edge of Valaine's cheek, smearing away the faint trail of tears as though erasing them from memory. Her six eyes softened, though the weight of her presence did not. When the apology left the Sangnir's lips, fragile and halting, Virelia let silence rest between them for a moment—just long enough for the girl to feel the vulnerability of her own words. Then, at last, she spoke.

"Good," she purred, low and hushed, every syllable rolling like velvet smoke. "That is the first thing you've given me that mattered: honesty. It wounds your pride, I know. It tastes bitter, like swallowing ash, but it's the sweetest thing you have done."

Her hand trailed from Valaine's cheek down along her throat, tracing her collarbone before pressing, firmly but not cruelly, against the girl's chest—just enough to feel the breath that rose and fell beneath her touch. Her voice followed, rich with dominance, yet undeniably tender.

"You want to do better? Then hear me." Her six eyes locked Valaine's in place, unyielding. "There are rules. My rules. Break them, and you will learn why no apprentice has yet left my side alive unless I willed it. Keep them, and you will have everything you crave—even those things you've never dared admit you desire."

Her grip shifted, her claws grazing the edge of Valaine's shoulder as she leaned closer, the mask hovering by her ear.

"Rule one: your arrogance belongs to the galaxy. Let it burn your enemies, let it cut every rival to ribbons. But not me. To me, you are not arrogant. You are obedient. You are mine."

Her lips almost brushed her ear as she whispered the second. "Rule two: bare your throat to me, and I will never leave you in shame. Fight me, and I will break you again and again until you learn. Submit, and I will raise you higher than you dreamed."

The third she spoke more slowly, savoring each word. "Rule three: you do not hide from me. Not your strength, not your weakness, not your fear. All of it is mine to shape, to claim, to savor. And in return, I will never abandon you."

Virelia leaned back just enough for Valaine to see all six of her eyes glimmering like violet fire. Her voice came as the final verdict, low and devastatingly kind.

"Obey these rules, little ember. And you will never be alone, never be trash, never be forgotten again. You will be mine—and in that, you will have and be everything."

 

[Valaine Valentine]

Tags - Darth Virelia

The Sangnir breathed in a steady breath. The pain of earlier, the fear, the torment, all of it by this point had ebbed away, replaced with much softer and kinder sensations as she viewed her Mistress in a new light. She was always going to have her personal issues with domination, with submission, to bow at the behest of another, but at the very least for Virelia she would try to stifle some of those thoughts and feelings.

As Virelia drew in closer she listened intently to her rules uninterrupted, remaining still and silent no matter how close the masked woman drew to her as purple lights shined their glow upon her pale features. After hearing the final rule she exhaled gently and focused her gaze upon Virelia. Her expressions now always seemed to be holding some hint of remorse when looking at her, which had replaced the typical arrogance she'd greet her with.

She bit her lip in thought at only one of the rules that could cause issue, and so inclining her head slightly she explained; "For... The final rule, I don't exactly know all the answers. What I am, it was done to me unwillingly, and I was abandoned to deal with it. I might have strengths and weaknesses I'm not aware of... So if they come up, it's not because I've hid them. I was just unaware."

Her head lifted again as she idly brought a hand to brush a lock of dark hair behind her pointed ear. "... But besides that... Yes, I'll accept your rules." another pause, for it always seemed odd for her to say the following; "... Mistress. I'll obey, but if I could just ask you for one thing..." her tired eyes locked onto the masked woman. "This trust I'm going to place in you... Don't break it." she added, but it didn't seem like a warning or a threat, but rather it was more of a plea.