Private Voices in the Dyad

[Calyx Sundrift]

Acier Moonbound​

He found himself staring again. Unable to look away from the reflection.

He'd been charming once. Honey-blond curls, a rueful smile, a jaw strong enough to make even his large nose seem deliberate.

Now the mirror gave him back a sunken eye with a sickly golden gleam, a hate that burned wherever his gaze landed, as if trying to compensate for the ruin on the other side of his face.

It was the corruption of the Dark side. The power that wore down the body. And the mark Abregado-rae had left on him.

He'd suppressed it twice already. But the corruption crept back every time he reached for the dark side's sweet rot. And lately, he hadn't been able to stop reaching.

Calyx gripped the edges of the washstand, breathed in, and closed his eye. Any chance of finding inner calm was gone. Abregado had taken that from him for good. The nearest he could get was certainty. The hard conviction that everything he did from here on out served the goal. That was usually enough to clear his head.

When he opened his eye, the gold had faded to dull blue.

He held his own gaze a moment longer. Then straightened, and practiced his smile again. He eased into a pose meant to look indifferent, then one meant to have a regal bearing. He went on, rehearsing each little facial expression and gesture until it stopped feeling like performance. This is going to be you. It has to be natural.

He opened the tall black-paneled drawer beside the mirror. The rack slid out, stuffed with brocade coats stitched in gold and silver thread. He chose one with a slash of maroon, expecting it to pair well with the loose spidersilk shirt.

One more glance at the mirror, and he found someone else there. Not Callan. Not Calyx. Not the dreary Sith. But the persona he'd have to wear as flawlessly as he did the coat.

Something moved in the corner of his eye.

He half-turned, but already knew what the familiar invasiveness led to. Still, he was surprised to find it here.

"How?" Calyx demanded.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ilum

Equipment:
Winter Outfit | Beskar Chainmail | Shoto | The Anchor | Tic

The song was getting louder. Not louder in the way you'd think, there wasn't any sound echoing through the cavern beyond the crunch of his boots against ice and the occasional electronic chirp from Tic. It was something else. A pull somewhere beneath his ribs, faint but persistent, drawing him deeper into the crystal caves. Somewhere ahead, buried among countless crystals beneath Ilum's frozen surface, one was calling to him.

Dathomir had left him with more answers than he'd gone there with, but somehow twice as many questions. About himself, the Force, and what he was apparently capable of doing with it. He'd barely started figuring any of that out before finding himself here, following the call of a crystal through a frozen cave because Arris had destroyed the lightsaber he'd carried for a year. One thing at a time.

His left hand flexed absently at his side. The thick leather glove concealed everything beneath it, though Ace could still feel the strange limb moving beneath the layers. Each finger responded naturally enough now. Mostly. He'd caught himself compensating for a mechanical hand that wasn't there more than once since leaving Dathomir. Expecting the tiny delay of servos. Adjusting his grip for metal fingers that had needed more deliberate control than flesh. Whatever the Anchor was, it didn't work like that.

The passage narrowed ahead, pale light spilling through veins of crystal trapped beneath the ice. He slowed as that pull in his chest sharpened. Somewhere ahead was his crystal.

Ace took another step and... Calyx was there? He stopped dead. For half a second, he simply stared. Then Calyx's voice broke the silence first.

Ace blinked once. "I--I don't know?"

His brow furrowed. There hadn't been a warning. No dream or vision dragging him somewhere else. One second Ace had been standing inside a frozen cave on Ilum. Now Calyx was standing in front of him.

Except... Ace's eyes moved over him. The brocade coat was the first thing that caught his attention, gold and silver thread broken by a slash of maroon. Definitely not what he'd expected to find Calyx wearing. There was something else, too. Something in the way he carried himself. Straighter, deliberate, maybe a little regal. Ace's expression tightened slightly as he studied him.

Then Tic chirped. Ace glanced down, the little droid had twisted around as far as his perch allowed, photoreceptors fixed squarely on Ace rather than the person standing directly in front of them. Another confused whistle followed.

Ace stared at him, then slowly looked back toward Calyx. "...You're not here, are you."

It wasn't really a question. Ace stepped closer, eyes tracking across Calyx again, trying to understand exactly what he was looking at.

"What is this?"

Calyx Sundrift ​