Private We Weary Pilgrims

[Damsy Callat]

It did, she recognized her mistake, but she saw no other viable option than to relent.

She stepped back as she spoke. Gtejarsa silently, gracefully slipped in front of her legs. "A'ight, Tel Alam," she said.

Their environment changed so quickly from the Sith Temple to a Sith's temple so quickly that Iren may have missed it within the time it took to blink. It was a perfect, and completely interactive, projection of the menagerie she had spoken of, though it wasn't really as underground as perhaps she had implied. Technically, it was, but barely. It was more set into the ground; after making her fellow Spawn live in an abandoned factory situated near the pit of the Underworld, she had sworn not to subject herself nor those like her to that ever again.

The menagerie was certainly not near finished, given that goal.

A pool had replaced the Omen's skeleton to their left. Even if the dark, which sharply gradiented from the one skylight to the other side of them, the gentle ripples glistened like oil.

"I prefer to socialize when feedin'," she added, "but I'll provide terrraformed dens by species." She motioned behind him at a few halls partially carved into the sandstone. "This common area will be an agreeable biome."

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

Iren blinked as the environment around them shifted right before his eyes.

"O-oh..." Dal would have gotten a kick out of this. He was the illusionist out of their group, after all. And Damsy was doing this without breaking a sweat to a very fine detail. He could even feel the sand crunch under his boot as came to a stop.

"My Lady, you certainly know how to impress. I'd be hurt by your lack of faith in my trustworthy nature, but..." He moved his hand to his chest and bowed just ever so slightly. "I'd be more hurt if you didn't consider me a threat at all.

Drawled with obvious mirth.

Clearly he didn't mind Damsy wasn't showing him the real menagerie. In fact, her caution only served to boost his own reputation and sense of self, if she had just shown him without a care? That would have reflected badly on him. It would mean Iren Tel Alam wasn't an opponent worth worrying about and that was problematic for a Sith.

"So I suppose for now I will bring them here... but I do hope to see the real menagerie at one point, ma'am." Murmured with amusement as he approached one of the pools and peered down it. "I prefer the same. It makes them more lively and when they are socialized, they are more effective too."

He glanced over his shoulder to Damsy.

A sly glint there all of a sudden.

"Tell me, my Lady, why are you so concerned with the fate of the Sithspawn? This is not a usual trait found in those like us..."

 

[Damsy Callat]

It seemed to Damsy that it was time to throw Iren a bone, to try and prove herself less of an opponent worth worrying about, and there was only one way to do that.

"I'll show ya," she said, stepping up behind Iren. "Ya won't miss this if ya blink." With that, she slipped past him and strode down one, two, three of the pool steps. After that, she pushed herself into the water, where she disappeared under the surface. It was soon after when pieces of robe fabric began to float to the surface. More intense ripples and bubbles joined them.

Some kind of very muffled scream echoed from the deep.

Then a figure broke the surface: the bust of a woman, but not quite the same one that had dived into the pool. Some things were different. For one, the arms that she rose over her head had sprouted pointed fins. Shiny talons ran through her wet-down hair, shoving it out of her face.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

It was unclear to him what Damsy meant here or why she strode into the water.

Perhaps there was a hidden crevice there and he ought to follow? Then her robe floated up and hung there on the surface. This was becoming more and more strange to him. He glanced around, but the only other occupants of the room were his Calamari pets and Damsy's Tuk'ata. It was clear none of them were going to be of any help.

"You are seeing this too, right?"

They shook their head and whined.

Right.

Iren shifted back and that was when Damsy broke through the surface of the water. The metamorphosis did not inspire fear in him. His jaw hung open, slack, and his eyes widened. It was a rather amusing sight. "I... you..." He murmured as he took a step forward and bend his knee to get closer. Almost in spite of himself Iren reached out and cupped her jaw.

Finger tips traced the sharp talons digging out the sides of her face.

"...are beautiful. Chains broken... by her own victory." A Sithspawn, born and bred. And now a Sith Lord. Some might have been appalled by it. Regardless of the official code that said that anyone could become one, if you had the strength to seize it.

Iren? He was fascinated in that moment. More importantly... he had a special connection to any and all Sithspawn.

He could dominate them, take control, or make them fall in love with him. This was not what Iren attempted here, however. Arrogant he may be, but Iren was not suicidal enough to try and Beast Charm a Sithspawn that clearly was several magnitudes stronger than him. But he didn't have to charm her. The moment she shifted to her natural form, the moment his hand briefly brushed her jaw... his natural talent already triggered.

It only reflected empathy.

In that brief moment of physical touch Damsy would see herself exactly as Iren did. A brilliantly shining creature of power.

And in return she'd see him.

 

[Damsy Callat]

If she hadn't grown thin, rubbery blubber, goosebumps would have risen on her skin as she heard his praise.

Only two people in this galaxy, her lover and her half-sister, had shared his sentiments. Both had been hard to accept. Her true form was horrifying through and through. Back then she had felt trapped be it and was only twined tighter in the net when someone told her something objectively false. Now, there was still the need to deny, but to lean into what she was. How she was. Why she was.

Pride was the only Passion she needed.

But try as Damsy might to deny Iren's expression too, she found something about it difficult. Different.

Perhaps dastardly.

But she found it also a challenge to mind.

If he wasn't trying to make her fall in a type of love, he was failing, especially when Damsy's eyes cast over a dark golden ocean of hidden depths. The longer she looked, the more bits of burnt yellow seemed to flake into her otherwise blue irises.

She blinked and reached up to place hand over the Knight's, if not just to ground herself back to her illusion. She gave a smile, lips closed but not well hiding the impressions of fangs before pushing effortlessly away from him.

Something instinctive had told her to. Though she still felt the shadow pains of metamorphosis deep in her muscle tissues and in her cartilage, she was in the most playful mood she had been in this form since her early adulthood on Kamino. The nature glint quickly in her eye, then she was gone, fallen back below the surface, her long shark-like tail following her torso.

Water undoubtedly splashed up in Iren's direction.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

It was a sweet moment.

One shared briefly and perhaps ended just in time too.

He straightened out as he watched her swim away from him... then dive again. The water splashed straight in his face regardless. He sputtered and stepped back as he rubbed the hair off his head. "Oh... you." Muttered with clear bemusement as he sighed and knew this would already be something to regret later.

Still.

He shrugged off his tunic and tilted his head to the right. Then clicked his tongue three times. This and the connection of water to skin was all that was necessary for his skin to part and reveal a set of gills.

On each side.

Those Mon Calamari had been a blessing. It took a while to detach their gills from them and then splice their DNA with his own, but it turned out to be a pleasant weekend affaire. One that prepared him perfectly for now. He dove in after her and blinked as a thin-set membrane slid over his eyes. He hadn't been able to mimic the Calamari's natural resistance to water pressure for his own eyes. The membrane had been an in-between solution. The water suddenly became crystal clear as he dove deeper in pursuit of the siren.

Perhaps it would surprise her that he went after her.

 

[Damsy Callat]

It did.

When she eased herself to a stop on the floor of the pool, gracefully pivoting around an arm braced on the mud below, she saw Iren and canted her head. Her own gills were flaring gently at her neck as they worked to filter water. She reached up her free hand to touch one, then realization dawned on her.

He had probably stolen them from the poor Mon Calamari too. Even if she had hung onto some Gills of Destiny from her CIS days, she doubted that Iren would accept technological innovations as an alternative to science experiments. He didn't strike her as an animal rights advocate, what could she say?

She reached out with a telepathic thought, but it was downed out as an echoing groan erupted from the underwater tunnel extending behind her and reverberated through the water. Damsy pulled her talons from the mud and flipped her tail flute only once to distance herself from the noise's source. She turned towards it as the vocalization died down, then out completely.

This time, her telepathy was clear. <Feth was that?>

Whatever it was, it didn't belong in her Shrine of the Spawn.

Though she hadn't looked away, or as much as blinked, a mysterious, tape-like tentacle managed to lash out at her from the craggy tunnel. It wrapped itself around her torso unusually quickly and squeezed. Oxygen residually left in her lungs pushed its way out of her otherwise closed-off airpipe. As the few bubbles escaped her mouth, water rushed in, filling up part of her twin, landlubbing organs.

She didn't even have time to think of the problem that'd cause for future her. Wait, no. Present her, albeit also distant her.

In the Sith Temple, Syreni doubled over and sputtered water onto the dusty marble floor.

Meanwhile, illusion Damsy flipped her tail half upwards. The long barb extending from the flute easily cut the tentacle in half. The water immediately clouded with black ink as the injured appendage pulled away.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

Iren raised his brows at the attack on Damsy, which she quickly dispatched and caused the beast to withdraw.

...for now.

This is your magic, my Lady. He murmured back in thought to her. Their minds brushed and she'd feel just how alien Iren truly was. Humanoid in physicality, his mind felt more like an intricate machine. Every little cog refined and beautifully arranged into an efficient lattice. But it looked like some kind of strange octopus... ah... if I could only take a sample.

Or even better.

Take the entire thing with him.

Perhaps you can invite me to the real pool... I am sure you could use some assistance clearing it out... There the Sith Knight grinned, mightily pleased with himself and the new ability to ask for an invitation.

Would Tel Alam ever stop?

Not likely.

 

[Damsy Callat]

This is your magic, my Lady.

<Nah, that real.>

Perhaps you can invite me to the real pool... I am sure you could use some assistance clearing it out...

He was right, of course. Syreni was powerful, but wouldn't be able to keep up the illusion long enough to allow them to fight whatever it was from here.

Dammit.

Without as much as a warning, the two Sith, along with their companions, were jostled back into their bodies. Damsy jerked straight and stumbled away from the pool of water she had just created.

"Fine, fine," she muttered as she reclaimed her footing. "But only if ya can keep up."

At the very least Gtejarsa could, who bounded after her as she took to the halls they had lead them here.
**
"Pavondir!"

Naneti Sso Jri Qorit could be seen over its tall city wall from the apex of a hogback dune that Damsy had lead their horrific group up. Spotting a being running towards them from yonder gate and identifying them by their leathery wings, she called to him before sliding down the sand.

<Don't ask,> she added telepathically, correctly visualizing the features of a confused face, wary of Iren and his Spawn as soon as they came into view. She would explain it later.

He didn't, but did glance worriedly at Iren's hounds when they came upon him. He loooked quickly back to Damsy. "There's...something below the Shrine, Milady."

"We heard it," she replied with a curt nod. "We got it." With a pat of his shoulder, she rushed passed him and into the city.

Unlike the main gate, the twin doors to the shrine were not open. In fact, they were barricaded from the outside. "Help me," she demanded before calling on the Force herself to move the large wooden debris.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

A whirlwind of activity, until they reached the settlement and then the shrine... such as it was.

"Dear me, you have really put some work into this place, haven't you?" Interested tone as he stepped up next to her and his hands went to touch the wood of the doors. "No wonder you have been so protective." Now warmly as his eyes closed and he seized the Force. Grabbed it tight and claimed its strength for himself.

"I do appreciate your trust in me."

Trust?

No, this was simply because she had no other option, but that would have been impolite to point out.

"Together then..."

And once Damsy agreed? Three... His voice filtering through her mind. Two... A smile she could feel curl there. One... Only then did he breathe out, pushing his body to its limits with the aid of the Force and pushed against the door.

The door whined under the combined thrust.

Bend.

Started to crumble like paperdust.

And then it flew open, sending Iren skidding into the dark shrine with a monster inside.

 

[Damsy Callat]

Oh, but she was still picking up what he was trying not to put down.

He might have sworn she had growled at him had there not been that monster and its own predatory sounds. It was hungry, or angry, one of the two, no doubt. Perhaps both?

Regardless, "Bet," was all the agreement he got.

When she spoke next:

"Feth!!"

The shrine opened immediately into a great room with a domed ceiling held up by intricately carved column capitals. A red rug led to the centerpiece, a set of wide, short steps adorned with candles (only half or so still lit), atop of which floated a mysterious red sphere detailed with gold. Damsy's footfalls, followed by Gtejarsa's, echoed over the marble behind Iren. She passed him by to approach the steps. As she drew near, the sphere shed some of its gold fittings and rose further into the air, revealing another staircase—albeit one steeper and narrower.

It was dark down there.

Gtejarsa took the initiative and, without a word, Damsy followed. Then they were in the work-in-progress menagerie, just in time to see the violent ripple disturbing the pool's surface.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

He did catch the growl.

His eyes caught her figure and Iren smiled.

Maybe it had been the monster in the pool? This could be true, but then again... Damsy showed him her real face. A growl was the least surprising thing that came out of this impromptu meeting of theirs. Iren followed along after Damsy passed him by. A good thing his own pet was hot on his heels, even if slightly panting.

Clearly the desert climate wasn't doing it any favors.

This Iren would have to keep in mind for future experiments. Luckily... well, there was the pool.

"Hm." Iren watched the violent ripple. "It is a bit suicidal to go in there now. The beast is waiting for us... and expecting too." Before Damsy could respond however?

His hand flicked up and his own creation rushed into the water, sharp agility guiding it, as it avoided the tentacles before disappearing into the pitch-black darkness. "Now, it's distracted. We can go ahead." It was a bit of a ruthless gesture. Who knew if his creature would survive, but Iren was nothing if not pragmatic.

You shaped these beasts for a use, not to make them unscrappable family.

This time around Iren pulled off his robes in real-time rather than fantasy.

"Coming?" Once again he'd activate his gills to wade into the water.

 

[Damsy Callat]

Wordlessly, she followed suit, slipping her own robes over her head and flinging them away near his, and dove headlong into the pool from one side.

Her transformation was almost instantaneous, affording her just enough time to swim to the bottom. This time, though, in real life, it was more...animated as she sprouted fins and talons and her sets of gills. When it was done, she uncurled herself from a pained fetal position to look around for Iren.

<Don't 'magine you can un-activate your ears,> she telepathed before propelling herself off the relatively shallow pool shelf into the deeper end, nearing the tunnel her mental projection had been attacked from. For now, the monster's tentacles remained tucked within, but not its roars. Whimpers of Iren's hound intermingled with them, bleeding into the waters like colorless squid ink.

Damsy had to save it.

Ideally, both of them, but at the very least the hound. It may not have been made to be unscrappable family, but if it was to survive until a future adoption, that's what it was to become to her. It and its test tube sibling.

Her salt-crusted lips barely parted, but a low, sustained note swam from them. A slightly confused moan from the creature replied. In the cavern, its tentacles slowly withdrew from the hybrid. They both would be suddenly entranced by the craggy exit, the feeling only rising as Damsy's sirensong rose into an echoing trill.

If Iren hadn't caught onto her hint? He might be experiencing a similar tug towards her as well.

Iren Tel Alam

 

[Iren Tel Alam]

Damsy Callat

Probably not, but what is a little bit of suffering among Sith, hm?

It was amusing to him just how empathetic this Sith was however. Couldn't be entirely explained by virtue of her having been a Sithspawn herself. After all, Iren wasn't empathetic to fellow Arkanians or other humanoids, so it wasn't an obvious connection. No... there was something different about this brand of Sith.

And Iren would have loved to unwrap her and figure things out to the depth.

A beautiful music tune shimmered through the waves.

Iren's head tilted.

It caught the tune and eyes closed... finding himself adrift towards it... her. Midway through Iren began to slow down, because it was a strange uncomfortable feeling. To be led by a string. Is this how the Sithspawn felt?

What is it that you are doing, my Lady?

 

[Damsy Callat]

Truth be told, though it might never be, she didn't really know. She had never been led about by a string, not really—not by Isley or Naroh Se or Luna.

But she could have been.

It was her imagination of the worst possible case scenario that ignited her empathy and kept it burning through the Darkness that corrupted most who followed it.

<Singin'.> As she mindspoke, it stopped momentarily. Doing both simultaneously was too much, even for Syreni. <Cover your damn—>

A tentacle lashed out from the deep tunnel, batting Damsy across the pool. One powerful beat of her tail fortunately kept her from impacting one of the walls. She waited for a beat, floating poised to swim away from another attack, but none came. <Well, I was tryna sedate it.> The song was a hunting tactic, so her victims were normally left variably lethargic after, not agitated as this sea monster seemed to be.

<Don't think it's gon take.>

She wasn't going to ask outright, but: plan b?

Iren Tel Alam