Where the Old Host Began

[Boethiah]

The witch moved on ahead at a rather excited pace.

If Aria was unable to see her, she at least could hear the splash of water and clap of foot against stone which signified the young woman's brisk walk. The passage around them grew colder yet, but it also began to get drier and soon they started up an incline which led them into a narrower corridor. The darkness they saw earlier began to fade, a faint and distant light now glowing softly in the distance. It appears far away, very far in fact, only to suggest how deep these caverns actually run beneath the city of Sar'Sargoth.

Only above were the Gulandi fighting amongst each other, slaughtering each other, and reveling in the glory of their deaths. Such death worship fed the nexus below them, the nexus that now drew ever closer to the two who sought it out. "I can feel its power... This is incredible," Boethiah says once. "Yes, yes it is." She answers herself in a far different manner of speech. Then she looks back to Aria, much like her usual self.

"Are you ready to face what she saw? What changed the Host Lord long ago. What granted her the sight of truth into our galaxy?" The silhouette of Boethiah snickers, then turns back to make the final push.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Aria's footsteps quickened as Boethiah's did; it wouldn't do to fall behind a second time, after all.

​

The darkness that stayed heavy around her had become less of a hindrance, but when light came into view a distance away - the smallest, subtlest light, but light nonetheless - she was quick to zone in on it, eyes straining as they searched for that sliver of vision. She became aware of the change in their surroundings only after a few minutes of light, as she managed to take her focus off trying to see and realised the cold, realised that her feet, though still damp, weren't soaked anymore, realised that the chamber had narrowed into a corridor.

That had to mean they were close.

She let Boethiah talk to herself for a while, faintly amused in those few moments - her head turned somewhat sharply, almost in surprise, when the witch directed her words towards Aria.

"Yes," she replied, simply and without pause. "Are you?"

[member="Boethiah"]​

 

[Boethiah]

"I am ready to become something else entirely," she answers.

Boethiah moved further into the narrowing corridor, its path becoming strikingly straight as she did so. The wavy walls and jagged stone gave way to smoothness, something carved its way through here, but it did not seem to be the work of tools. There were no obvious etch marks. As if somehow it had been melted down, and gave way to something. The light grew brighter, glowing with a red-orange colouration as they neared it. Now it would appear at its brightest, remaining a soft light that allowed sight but did not blind.

Once across to the other side, the young witch and Dark Jedi discover a large, oval chamber with a deep crevice at its center. The light came from glowing crystals embedded into the sides of the room, sprouting forth as they fed off the darkness for countless decades, centuries, or perhaps much longer. The Dark Side of the force turned absolute. Like swimming in water, it soaked their surroundings and did not let any step escape its sphere.

Boethiah turns to face Aria, a rather confident grin rising on her face. "This is it," she shudders in complete rhythm with the force. "This is a scar of creation, the path to Sargon. You stand in the face of our true creator, the God who allowed the other Gods. Sargon spat out the universe and we came with it. It is up to us to reclaim that power."

She takes a few steps back, nearing one of the crystal formations. "Life, death. All ends and every beginning... Darkness is eternal, and that is what it means to be Primeval."

[member="Aria Vale"]