Private We Weary Pilgrims

[Damsy Callat]

Under the overbearing sun, the ground itself toiled along with Damsy, sand instead of sweat shifting underneath her boot with every stride on her path. It had been marked long ago and was now completely overgrown. Though she had thought about clearing it the last time she had ascended this way, she hadn't. All the better to protect the decrepit majesty of this place, of course, but with every tenth or so step a stray bramble pushed regret into her ankles.

By the time she reached the summit of the largest mountain in the Takara Range, the ground leveled and cleared, at least of foliage. She continued on past columns of rock until coming upon another face perpendicular to her trajectory, into which an archway topped with circles and semicircles and Sith characters was carved:

A side entrance to the Keshiri Sith Temple.

In the structure's present state, this was the only operable point of access as its more prominent steps had fallen into disrepair and become impassable.

Damsy reached down to tousle Gtejarsa, her tuk'ata, between his ears before walking towards the shade the doorway cast inwards on itself.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

Normally the temple would be empty when Damsy wasn't around.

This wasn't normal.

By the time she entered the temple grounds themselves she'd notice a difference. There were two creatures sitting on the ground and eyeing her. They were rather strange. Hyenas... but they had a fishy quality to them. Their heads shaped less like Tuk'ata and more like... oh yes. Mon Calamari. An unholy mixture of sentient life and Darkspawn creation.

<< Master, Master >>

They yelled out from misshapen mouths as they sensed Damsy approach. The sounds they made was strange, Galactic Basic, but distorted, as if the mouth had difficulty following the commands of the brain within.

<< Intruder! Kill?? >>

Already going to their feet and there they looked less strange and more scary.

"Killing a fellow visitor to the temples of old? Don't be silly, darlings, back to the floor with you." Iren sang out from around the corner as he came into view. Head tilted sideways as he took Damsy in. "Don't mind them. They are agitated. I haven't fed them for the last three days to see if they'd inherit their appetite from the recipient or the donating party."

"And who might you be?"

Curious as he rested against a wall and a hand went behind his back. To the saber clipped to his stolen Jedi belt and prepared himself for the best.

 

[Damsy Callat]

Gtejarsa began to growl, but kept in Damsy's pace as they approached the Sithspawn hyenas, then stayed rooted at her side when she stopped—canted her head at them—knit her brow. The reactions were seemingly polar opposite, hers concern and his aggression, but they weren't. In fact, Gtejarsa wasn't growling at the creatures; he was growling for them.

The softness melted from her face as she looked quickly in the direction of the voice.

Her own came out with a hard edge she hadn't sharpened in some time. It was a good thing that an opportunity had presented itself, though she would have preferred that the opportunity hadn't seen fit to grace her home. She had to keep to an air of no-nonsense or she would ask a telling question about those...poor things.

That wouldn't be a problem. A fire burnt wild at her blood though it had just been lit.

"Someone who'd recommend keepin' your 'ands in clear view."

Damsy followed her own advice, settling one hand back on her hound's head and the other on her hip.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

His movement froze and Iren smiled brightly.

A moment later both his hands rose up, palms to her, as Iren showcased he meant her no harm. At that exact time anyway. There was a whiff of the Darkside around her. This could make them allies. In a Galaxy positively dominated by Lightside cretins you ought to take any allies you could. But... competition was bred into them from a young age.

"Can't ever be too careful in this Galaxy." Iren drawled lightly before clicking his tongue. The two abominations dashed towards him as he pushed himself off the floor. Settling himself in between them. Both hands settling on their misshapen heads in a faint mimicry of her move.

"My name is Iren Tel Alam." This was said with obvious pride. As if the name should mean something... or at least part of the name. But this could be safely discarded. After all, every Sith was at least a little egomaniacal or they wouldn't call themselves Sith. "And your name, my Lady?" His right hand briefly left the dog's head to brush his chest.

As if he was saluting her.

"You seem protective of this place. Is this... your tomb then?" An obvious tease, the way his lips curled into a smirk.

 

[Damsy Callat]

Tel Alam, in fact, meant nothing to her, but she had just recently came onto the Sith scene herself. She had spent all of that time here, on Kesh, and a hermit, too boot, so she might as well start getting known.

"Darth Syreni," she answered, seamlessly tailoring the first syllable of 'Damsy Callat' into an expression of rank. Another might as well: drop the proper name. It felt staticky on her tongue, reliving and right.

"You seem protective of this place. Is this... your tomb then?"

Actually it was, in a way. She wasn't laughing, but she also wasn't glaring. It was thoroughly difficult to know how she took that. "It's a place of rebirth for me, not death. I expect you to respect that."

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

"Darth Syreni, of course." Clutching his chest just a manner tighter as he bowed ever so slightly.

Crisp movement.

It could have been easier deeper, but only one man had earned such deep bows from him, and he was dead now. Perhaps it was a token of respect towards that expired figure or a sign of disrespect to Damsy. Who could know? "It is an honor to be in the presence of someone rebirthed among ancient ruins and truths."

Whatever rebirth meant in this case.

He sniffed slightly.

Was she quite human? Something told him... no, but what that meant was beyond him right now. "I could never disrespect places of worship such as these, my Lady. Who am I, a Jedi?" Teasing her with a wicked grin.

As if the Sith weren't known to ransack any place they thought might give them power.

 

[Damsy Callat]

She laughed at that last bit, part politely, part practically. Though she was sure she was a different kind of Sith than Iren, and not just by rank, most Jedi still did not offer her even a modicum of the respect that she felt she deserved for what she was trying to do.

To break the age old stereotype, even if for no one but her.

Ah, well. Through Passion, she would gain Strength, and she had no lack of the former so she wouldn't have a discrepancy of the latter in the face of adversity. At the end of this struggle, whenever it would be, however it was written, the Force would set her free.

"Charmed to meet you," she said, carefully toeing the tonal line between sweet and sour, like she meant it though she did not. It was easy enough to pretend to speak to him, gaze locked on, when she actually referred to the Spawn standing guard below. "'Joy your stay." With that, she turned on her heel to leave down an east-facing corridor.

Translation: hurry up and get off of my planet.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

For a moment he just watched her.

The smart path was probably to finish his study here and make his way away from here. Sadly Iren always had issues resisting mysteries. The current one plaguing his desire?

Why was a Sith Lord so disgusted with his creations? Oh, it wasn't for everyone. The shaping of flesh and bone into something new. Even his brothers didn't truly understand it in the way he did. That was besides the point though. They might be confused with his obsession or even be mildly disapproving (one being more interested in snorting glitterstim with him and the other wanting to focus on honorable duels), but that was something else than what he felt here.

"Oh, you are too kind, my Lady." His voice drifted behind her and two breaths later he was stepping in line with her. "You have impeccable manners, truly."

His creatures were following along.

Their miserable and awkward state aside they seemed to have no difficulty matching their speed.

"Pray tell, what do you think of my darlings? I have worked quite some time on them. Exquisite, are they not?"

It was like picking at a scabbed wound. Stupid? Yes. But oh so irresistible.

 

[Damsy Callat]

She savored those two breaths before he invited himself to her side. As he did, Gtejarsa switched to the other side of Damsy to make room. And she cursed her 'impeccable manners'.

When Iren asked his nested questions, Damsy felt herself caught in a verbal trap. Anxiety squeezed at her throat. It suddenly felt much colder in this ancient corridor, even under the long sleeves of her lightly armored robes. If she said that yes, she liked them, she would undoubtedly open herself up to an entire discussion of alchemy that she knew she wouldn't be able to handle. If she said that no, she did not like them, the response would likely be multifaceted. First, she'd offend, which she didn't mind doing to him, but to his darlings? Secondly, such a reply might come off as a challenge, which it certainly would not be meant as.

Seeing no way out of the proverbial corner she had been talked into, Damsy said with a glance in their direction, "They're quite lovely." That was the truth, at least her truth. She had come to appreciate the tainted aesthetics of beings twisted by the Sith since her time in the Reef, including for her squaloid form. While certainly not the ideal, it had to be accepted as a fact of some life in a galaxy plagued by a Darkness that had been all but swallowed by its most jet black reaches.

Damsy's philosophy was that Sith-caused corruption ought be kept in a being rather than corrected out.

After all, a slave wasn't guilty of a master's depravity, was she? Therefore, was it her duty to fix it?

Instead of shaking her head of memories and ideas clear, she glanced up at Iren, and that seemed to do the trick. Before Damsy could stop it, the spirit of Syreni added in the same voice, "Though I've certainly seen better."

Dammit.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

He positively beamed at her compliment.

Perhaps he had misjudged the good Darth after all. It was always a nice thing to meet a kindred soul, so Iren was about to respond in kind. But then Damsy's voice pitched to a different quality and made the fellow Sith blink. This didn't mean she loathed his creations however. He thought back to the Sithspawn he saw at her side.

"Ah... you prefer the classical touch, my Lady?" A little shrug. "Tuk'atas are all good and well. But sometimes... you just want something extra." Absently Iren scritched one of his creatures behind its Calamari ear.

"For instance, if you are hunting someone under water. How is a Tuk'ata going to help?"

Then Iren grinned with a little shake of the hand.

"My creature however? Can swim like a fish and track any aquatic creature for miles."

Clearly he was proud of it and loved his creatures.

 

[Damsy Callat]

We are better... was Syreni's insinuation with her outburst.

There was that ego.

Damsy recovered well. He had offered her a way out, so she took it gladly. "...Ah. Gtejarsa may not have such...specific strengths like them," though she did, "but he don't 'ave outstandin' weaknesses eitha'." Her eyes slid back to the creations. They, or perhaps Iren's description of their skills, reminded her a bit of Flotsam and Jetsam, though they had been made of durasteel and wiring, not flesh and bone. "I play it dreadfully safe..." ...for now.

She looked back to where they all were headed. In a few meters, where a torch had gone out, darkness overtook the rest of the corridor. Damsy continued, unhindered, rose a hand, and snapped her fingers. She then rearranged them to hold a dancing web of purplish lightning within her bowled palm. Gentle but contorting light illuminated the space most closely embracing them.

"Which pesters me to ask what it's you doin' 'ere?"

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

Luckily Iren was not privy to Damsy's private thoughts.

If he was? He'd be suddenly very interested in her state. A Sithspawn, but sentient and a Lord of the Sith? Now that was a thing of remarkable beauty. Something worth exploring and potentially experiment on. Though perhaps not right away, because Iren had a feeling she could squish him like a bug currently.

"There is nothing particularly wrong with sticking to the classics." Iren allowed instead, blissfully unaware. "They are classics for a reason, no?" Added cheerfully as they wandered.

The fire being lit up didn't do much for him.

He was a Sith, a Knight sure, but a Sith nonetheless. Those sort of magic tricks were part of the trade.

"Ah, I am looking for inspiration." He said truthfully. "I have always enjoyed exploring tombs, reading and looking at the marks on the walls. To see if something strikes my fancy for my experiments." Once more Iren tapped his darling on the head. "These ones I captured during a battle against the Mon Calamari... obviously. They were a bit stubborn, but eventually quite moldable."

A little shrug there.

"But I am unsure if they will be useful for the long run and am unsure what to do with them once that happens."

Their little ears curled sadly down.

"Oh, I know, darlings. I will do my best to postpone such a fate, but we have to be realistic about such things!" Soft cheerful yawn and a lick of his fingers was his reward for that. Finger nails sizzled dark, but Iren didn't seem to mind... or even register that. Perhaps he was used to that sort of display of affection.

 

[Damsy Callat]

A mindful mmm at the end of his pondering, delivered like there was nothing at all wrong with creating then casting aside. Then, the Siren offered, "Well, when their time's up, ya could give 'em to me. I'll be 'ere for some time." She didn't want to name Naneti. Kesh, or the Temple specifically, would do.

In the meantime, they had come to an open doorway in a gate of fine golden gatework. Letting the light in her hand sizzle out, she stepped first through the threshold, which was lit up by fire on its own again. The stripped but obvious framing of a Sith dreadnaught stretched out before them, set into a great rift in the marble floor. "If you wanted a real tomb, 'ere it is. The Omen." As she spoke, she approached a bit of hull and lay her hand upon it. "'Ow's this for inspiration?"

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

Once again Damsy made him blink.

That was two-for-two in the span of ten minutes. Bravo. "Oh, you would take them off my hands?" Certainly that had its appeals. He always had a difficult time putting down his creations. It was just... so much work poured into them. So much love. How could you look into those cute beady eyes and not feel a measure of regret?

Exactly.

So, to give them up to this remarkable Sith-

"You would take good care of them? They have special dietary needs." A soft scritch behind their ears. "And they have to play a lot. It keeps them stimulated, you know."

Especially because they were almost sapient with the Mon Calamari DNA.

Almost.

"Oh, wow." Whatever else Iren was about to say was shut off. That ship? Ancient, yeah. He blinked at it. "How long... has it been here?" A long time. If he wasn't mistaken? This was Pre-Gulag. Before... before. Little remained of those times. Oh, people claimed and said, but most of it was fake. The real findings like these?

Priceless.

And Iren was already taking a step forward towards the inspiration.

 

[Damsy Callat]

Oh, if only he knew how good of care she would take of them, he might not give them to her, and not because she'd ignore their dietary restrictions or shirk on playtime.

Well, she might not always have the time, but Kezi happily would. She was becoming quite the accepting water dragon too. She had always had a large heart, but was just now figuring that if she purged it of fear there was more room for love, and love meant making fast friends.

Her next words confirmed his assumptions about the ship's skeleton. "Since 5000 BBY I'm told. 'Long time 'go." She started walking, hand still outstretched, caressing the hull. "They rebuilt 'er in 40 or so ABY, but these're the bones that couldn't be assimilated." When her fingers glided onto a rivet, she paused and turned towards Iren.

Maybe he'd think that this is what she had meant by rebirth.

Reintroduction of a great Tribe back into the galaxy that had missed them for so long.

No, it hadn't. Their terror had almost been confined here until heat death finally wrung every bit of life out of this cut of time-space fabric.

The galaxy might have stood a chance to live in peace. It didn't know how close it had come.

But, she kept that mode of thought to herself.

"After all those years, they left 'gain for the stars. Can ya 'magine?"

She could. Surely, it had meant a loosened fist around the native Keshiri, but also a tighter one around the ethereal throat of Ashla.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

A cryptic smile there.

Oh, Iren knew better than most, but that was entirely irrelevant for the discussion at hand. "Oh, I have a grand imagination, my Lady. So I can try to imagine... but I am afraid even it would be short of reality." Drawled lazily and entirely false. Had he not himself departed for greener pastures before arriving here?

He knew exactly what it felt like to be trapped.

And then to reach for freedom.

Following along with the strange Darth Iren did nothing to hide his curiosity. Leaning in to catch a better look here, running his hand against the dura-metal there.

All an education worth its weight in gold.

"Mm, as for your offer however. How would you like me to leave my darlings? I imagine you would prefer it if I didn't just drop them on this temple for you to find." Cheerful. Some, like the hybrids following along, were fine to handle that way. They didn't automatically hunt or kill. Their natural aggression was tempered by sapience.

No, you had to sic them on something.

But there were other creatures... who were far less willing to play prone.

 

[Damsy Callat]

"I'll give ya my frequency," she answered after a bout of thought, when a friend's warning bubbled up in her blood:

". . . Kainites, Eternals, The Maw. High Sith. Hell, probably the Tsis'kal, they'd all try to make you and yours bend the knee or die."

She didn't know who he was with, but it was probably one of those.

"Then meet ya back 'ere."

She bit back an how's that? This couldn't become a negotiation.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

A smile there.

"That sounds like a pain in the ass for both of us, my Lady." He responded smoothly as he considered it for a moment. "Lugging smaller ones here is just fine, but... I got some big boys in the pipeline."

Did he really?

That was rather irrelevant, wasn't it?

"Perhaps you can show me where you will be storing my darlings. Then I will be certain they are taken care of well. Unless... you don't want me to know?"

Very innocent tone for someone walking around with a crustacean-hyena-calamari hybrid Sithspawn.

 

[Damsy Callat]

A smile here too. She made her lips turn up against the gravity of her own will.

So, he was looking to make Kesh into a recycle bin? She didn't know what to think about that, but what she did know was that she couldn't just let Iren get rid of his Spawn without hating herself.

And now, as a fully blown Sith, her hatred was intense. She'd never recover.

"It's embarrassin'," she admitted, deciding to go a kinder route. Of course, she could snap, tell him to mind his, but, well, she wasn't one of his hyenas but still didn't want to bite the hand that was about to feed her. "I'm addin' on an unda'ground menagerie to my home. Ain't done yet, but it'll be real nice."

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

"Oooh, really?"

Suddenly very interested there.

Which probably tipped her off that had been a real mistake. "Nothing embarrassing about taking pet containment seriously." He drawled as he stepped closer to her in his excitement. "What sort of features are you thinking? Isolated chambers or do you believe in a mixed population for socialization purposes?"

Clearly Iren took his beast master shtick very seriously.

"Will it have separate biomes, something more moderate that isn't ideal for anyone, but manageable for all?" Iren couldn't help but grin. "I'd apologize for the questions, but it is not every day I find someone just as interested in Sithspawn as myself."

It was doubtful she was as interested as him.

But sometimes it was necessary to work on someone's ego, especially when you wanted something out of them.

"I'd love to see your work in progress. Perhaps I could even offer some advice? I have a lot of experience after all."