OOM: A Map to the Future

[last_kallig]

(OOC: Some lines taken from canon. Possible trigger warning for an NPC eating people.)

Overseer Harkun's face betrays him for a moment when Ibani walked into his office entirely unharmed and not even disheveled. So, he HAD made that bargain with the twins. Ibani wishes that she could be surprised at that.

His face quickly twists into a sneer. "Well, well. Look who showed up at long last. I half expected to hear you'd crossed some Dark Lord upstairs and finally got yourself killed."

Ibani smiles politely. "I didn't run into anything I couldn't handle, Overseer." Acknowledgment that she knows what he tried to pull and a barb at the ineffectiveness of his "help".

Harkun's sneer twists further with cruel humor. "Your final trial will be to retrieve an ancient map from the innermost chamber of Naga Sadow's tomb - which has never been breached in thousands of years. But before you get the map, you'll have to awaken an ancient assassin called a Dashade that sleeps in the tomb. You cannot access the map without him, understand?"

A DASHADE?! Oh, KRIFF . Strong, incredibly resistant to Force abilities and with an insatiable appetite for the flesh of Force Sensitives, there are few worse one on one matches for an Acolyte in the galaxy. Ibani only knows about the mostly lost race because she's dug through some very obscure archives, and none of THOSE were at all helpful on explaining how the ancient Sith bound the Dashade to service. To cover her distress, she snarks at Harkun. "Yes, yes, yes....you send me into a tomb to do the impossible, hoping I die, and I come back and prove you wrong. You're becoming predictable, Overseer."

That....is apparently pushing Harkun a smidge too far. A small burst of Force Lightning hits her, the agony curling down her nerves.

"And one more, thing, slave," he adds when the lightning subsides. "You'll be competing with Ffon for the map and he's already started. I suggest you run."

Bastard.

Comments

[last_kallig]

Khem being less ravenous is a relief. "Now we head back to the Sith Academy with this map," Ibani explains as she stows the map for safe keeping.

She sneers. "And as Overseer Harkun is a petty tyrant and sadly predictable, I'm certain he will attempt to thwart me."

She gives Khem a sharp smile. "I will insist on giving Lord Zash the map, personally. If anyone tries to take the map from me, you may deal with them as you wish."

[infinitest]

Khem Val nods and follows along; on the way back, they meet with a few acolytes, whose ragged and worn out looks indicate they are failures who ran and hid to avoid execution.

Half-mad and desperate, the first group attacks Ibani before they see the Dashade escorting her.

[last_kallig]

Ibani understands their desperation, really! On the other hand, she's really tired of people trying to kill her. There is no mercy to be had on Korriban.

Ibani shocks the first, setting him to convulsing in place as his skeletal muscles refuse to respond to his commands. Another, a ragged looking female, gets picked up by a vortex of wind and energy. Ibani steps into what's left of the group quickly, pushing out with telekinetic force, sending them sprawling and making them easier to take apart with her warblade.

[infinitest]

Then Kehm Val advances, and the failed acolytes lose all their will to fight, scattering in all directions.

Those who can, at least; the Dashade grabs the woman in the vortex and throws her into the paralyzed male. Talons close around throats, and when Ibani looks back, the Dashade is eagerly tearing at the two failed acolytes, devouring choice bits.

Like brains.

And livers.

And hearts.

[last_kallig]

Life on Korriban teaches a cold practicality toward the living and no compassion at all for the dead.

Logically, a corpse on Korriban is going to get eaten by SOMETHING, either wild beasts or the beast master's charges. Logically, a dead body is just an object, empty of the 'person' that once occupied it. Logically, a fed and stronger Khem may reduce the number of people she needs to kill in the future, or save her own life.

Emotionally, some part of her still rebels at the sight of Khem eating what was once a person.

"Is that really necessary?" Ibani asks with a raised eyebrow. "I felt their Force energy pass from them to you when you killed them."

[infinitest]

Khem snorts. "Flesh makes me stronger; the flesh of Force-users tastes good, of power. Do you need fresh water and food, or you don't mind stale and bland rations, little one?" The Dashade eats the last morsel.

[last_kallig]

Ibani frowns. "But my food was never a PERSON, Khem. It's...distasteful for people to eat other people, and you are no beast."

[infinitest]

"You show your weakness, little sith. If you are stronger, their power is yours to take." The Dashade sounds disgusted. "Distasteful is the excuse of the meek and the weak."

[last_kallig]

"If I'm weak, you will be there to see me perish and devour my corpse," she replies with a thin smile. "But until that day comes, I will not have you devour the flesh of people."

"Unless you'd prefer to kill me here and now?"

The order and the question are both a gamble, as she's not sure how strong whatever 'law' Khem mentions that binds him to her is.

[infinitest]

"I will be there, little sith, when your weakness gets you killed." No, he is not happy.

But he will at least play long

For now.

[last_kallig]

"Perhaps," Ibani replies. "Especially if what I've read is correct and Dashade do not die of old age".

The trip back to the Academy from that point on is uneventful, unless you count how REMARKABLY quickly people get out of their way when they catch sight of Khem.

As Ibani approaches Harkun's office, she can hear Ffon speaking, his tone anxious, nearly panicked. "I'm telling you, overseer, it cannot be done!"

Ibani rolls her eyes at that. "Coward. I didn't even SEE him in tomb before I found you," she says quietly to Khem.

Then, Harkun's voice, distressed, but not as much as Ffon's. "But the MAP! Lord Zash is adamant she won't take an apprentice without the map!"

Ibani decides that's an excellent line to make an entrance on.

Harkun and Ffon's heads snap up at her entrance, both their eyes going wide. Harkun is the one who manages to speak, though. "-the Dashade. G-get that monster out of here this instant!"

[infinitest]

Khem Val actually sounds amused. "This one smells stronger than you, little sith, but he is more scared; what kind of broken sith they have here, tainting the sacred world of Tulak Hord?" Of course, he means Harkun; Ffon seems to not deserve to even be acknowledged.

"I am no monster. I'm Khem Val, servant of Tulak Hord, devourer of the rebels of Yin and Chabosh, conqueror of the Dromund system."

[last_kallig]

Ah, so Khem does understand Basic. That will make things easier.

If Harkun understands what Khem Val said, he gives no sign of it. "Give me the map!" he demands of Ibani.

"No," Ibani replies with a predatory smile. "I know what you are, Harkun. You've made that abundantly clear. TAKE the map, if you dare. I'm sure Khem Val and I can spatter this room with your blood."

"And Ffon's, if he gets up the nerve to do more than cower now that he can't use you as a crutch."

"Well, the filth thinks it's clever" Harkun sneers. "I'll claim you stole it from Ffon, slave. It will be your word against mine."

Ibani snarls, and prepares to attack Harkun. If she's going to die on this miserable planet she's going to kill Harkun first!

[infinitest]

"Now now" says a familiar voice. "Keep your tempers in check just a moment." Lord Zash strolls casually into the room, looking between Harkun, Ffon, Ibani and Khem.

"Now, Ffon" and Zash smiles serenely to the Pureblood. "Did you find the map?"

"He did, and this slavURRGH" Harkon interrupts and is quickly silenced by a casual wave of hand from the Sith Lord.

"Not talking to you, Overseer. Now, Ffon? Did you release the Dashade, did you find the map, did you bring it here for me?" The Pureblood hems and haws, and tries to say something, but... "Very well" Zash turns to Ibani. "Care to shed some light in the situation, Acolyte?"

[last_kallig]

Gah! Where did Lord Zash come from? Neither Ibani nor Khem sensed her presence at all. Just how skilled with illusions IS her master?

Seeing Zash so casually shut Harkun up and reduce Ffon to a stammering wreck is immensely satisfying to watch, but it's also a reminder of just how dangerous her master is.

"Of course, Lord Zash," Ibani replies politely. "I entered the tomb and solved the puzzle lock that lead to the Dashade," she begins, gesturing to Khem Val with her head. "With the Dashade's assistance I bypassed the barrier to the innermost chamber and slew the Terentatek that guarded the map itself."

She offers the map in question to Lord Zash.

[infinitest]

"Ah, very well." Zash takes the map, examines it briefly, then tucks it into her robes. "Harkon, you fool" her tone turns really venomous; Ibani is about to see what an angry Sith Lord looks like.

"In any other group, for any other Lord, this young man" and she points accusatory at Ffon "would have torn the other acolytes to shreds." The most scary part might be how she does not raise the volume of her voice, but her tone becomes more and more intense. "What were you trying to prove? That you could outsmart me? That you knew better than me the kind of person I wanted to be my apprentice? You fool."

She turns to Ffon and blasts the Pureblood with lightning; the acolyte screams, convulses, and falls to the floor like a ragdoll. "There is your pet Harkun. Clean this mess, and stay away from my Apprentice." Then, she turns to Ibani. "Apprentice? Clean up and meet me in my chambers upstairs." Zash turns on her heel and walks off, leaving a stunned Harkon staring at Ffon's corpse and his own shattered plans.

[last_kallig]

Ibani's expression is carefully neutral as Ffon screams and breaths his last.

Harkun's coddling and favoritism ruined Ffon, made him weak and arrogant. Ibani is not sad that he is dead, but his corpse is reminder of the price of power games among the Sith.

"Of course, Lord Zash," Ibani replies.

She turns to follow her master out the door and go clean up. There's nothing she could say to Harkun that would wound him more than he already is, and she has other, greater concerns than one petty tyrant who no longer has power over her.