Capítulo 19: Chapter 19: Isolation
"Master, you seem to be a particularly foul mood." Midwan asked as I walked down the steps to my personal little corner of the Harrenhal dungeons that I made my own. It was a winding maze that existed under my home and I loved it. Only I knew the way here and it afforded me a little privacy that my bedroom quarters didn't in the form of no one knowing where the fuck it was.
"That's because I just spent the last two days getting back home." I grumbled as I glared back at my Tsân who just beamed at my sass. Damnit why did Jaesa have to figure out who I was, things were so great with me avoiding her due to the feelings drudged up by Saarai. The fact I didn't truly love Jaesa as I should made me cautious and avoidant toward her for good reason, because she would have picked up on the fact I know consciously knew my feelings for her were just lingering echoes of what Naraiz felt. But, despite the nightmare fuel that is Macha, me and Jaesa had a better understand of each other.
In one year, or maybe less, Vette would have my ship all fixed up and I would give Jaesa her choice. I doubt she'll do the dumb things and repress all of this. But given I doubt have the all encompassing understanding of her as I thought I did, I'm unsure of what she'll do. If she leaves that will be a great loss to me, both from a strategic standpoint and a personal one. Because while I currently don't truly love Jaesa… that didn't mean I didn't want to. Just as I want to develop the relationship I have with Lyarra and Joanna, I want to do the same with Naraiz's old flames Jaesa and Vette. But now… that was very up in the air.
If Jaesa did leave I could guess what she'll do. That wasn't hard to picture and honestly it was fine. With her skills, powers, and surprisingly her intellect, she could make it pretty big in the criminal underworld. Pretty much she could be this AU's Darth Maul. Though I am hoping that she'll stay. Even if it's just as a friend and subordinate. But I didn't want to think about that now. And thankfully there were plenty of things in my workshop that I could distract myself with. But as I opened the large metal door that I used to keep it locked, my eyes went wide with what I found inside.
"Ah, so nice of you to come my lord." Maester Qyburn said in a friendly tone as he looked up from his examination of a set of rings I had been working on. Thankfully it looked like he was smart enough to not actually touch any of them as while they were some of my more successful experiments… they are very much not user friendly. "Governor Quinn told me that you had left for a small trip around the surrounding lands by horse… I did not realize that would be two days of no one seeing the hide or hair of you."
"Yes well… fuck it I'm tried." I groaned as I shut the door behind me not letting my Tsân enter behind me. I could without their input for a moment as they were still pretty fresh with the Jaesa incident and had opinions on it that I did not find constructive. So I looked over to the younger version of a man I absolutely adored in the Game of Thrones show and was all sorts of giddy when I learned he was becoming my Maester. So with a sigh I collected my thoughts, I did want something to distract myself from the whole Jaesa thing. "I am sorry for avoiding you these past months. To be fair I was doing it to nearly everyone and simply have not been in the mood to deal with the day to day running of a keep and its lands."
"Understandable my lord, I would have only been aggrieved had you not given the duty of running the keep and its lands to a lesser man than you have. Governor Quinn has been the highest standing of excellence in this regard." Qyburn said with a small bow and a satisfied smile on his face. Instantly I chuckled a bit, good on Quinn. Finally dragging himself away from his desk long enough to have a personal life and make a friend.
"How long did it take for you to further spit on the Chain you wear and break your vow of chastity with my governor." I said as I walked into my workshop, closed the case that held my little darling rings and then walked over to the small forge that needed to be reheated and set back up.
"Not long." Qyburn said simply and the smile on his face faded just a little. I could sense he wasn't pleased by me figuring out his relationship with Quinn but wasn't overly worried given my reaction. I didn't care if the two men found a bit of happiness in each other, both were workaholics and already in their later years, though with modern medicine that should give them quite a good deal more. Quinn would always put loyalty to the Empire, which was better said as me, over his own personal life or people he personally cared about. I wasn't planning on abusing that too hard, he would continue to run Harrenhal and later once the Empire was a thing the higher levels of the administration of the Empire.
"I guess that you wish to speak to me about your interests in life and death." I said knowing what sort of man Qyburn was just by what he was in the books and show. A curious man that wanted to understand the ends and beginnings of people. And even interested in muddling the two. He was a very intelligent man and one that I did not want to lose to these dangerous waters. Many Sith have lost their minds and lives to the pursuit of life and death and the mastery of them. Vitiate was the best example of what happens to a man that tests the bounds of mortality. "The Force as I have said is more natural than divine, but it is linked to a supernatural element."
"In what way?" Qyburn asked with his eyes intent on what I had to say.
"Our souls come from the Force. They are seeded into our bodies, anchored by microscopic beings we call Midi-Chlorians. Depending on how many of these beings exist in our body determines how sensitive to the Force we are." I said giving the most basic run down explanation of the Force I could. This would all be explained to the Acolytes eventually.
"So if one were to…" He started but I held up a hand to stop him.
"That theory has been tested to varying results. I know of only one person that has studied the biology of the Force to a degree to influence the Midi-Chlorians. Everyone else usually ends up as the meal of some monster they create as a result of their tampering. My suggestion is to take a pass on this entire venue of research." I said knowing that wasn't what he wanted to hear. But it was the truth. Many Sith that studied biological Alchemy ended up as horrible mutants or were eaten or killed by ones. And those that didn't end in horrible fates were legends. Qyburn as someone without the Force couldn't exactly perform Force Alchemy but I knew that he could look into other things. "As for Death, when we die those that are without the Force return to the great pool of the Force. Those of strong emotion, will, or burden can survive this process and remain somewhat independent. And for those that are Force Sensitive, if they follow the Light they too just join back up with the rest of the Souls unless they are extremely powerful or perform a certain set of rituals. And if you follow the Dark Side… Chaos. That is the realm we call where those who have fallen to the Dark Side go." Though I wasn't exactly sure where those that used the Dark Side but didn't fall to it go. Marr could answer that.
"I see." Qyburn said and I could sense that I hadn't changed his mind too much but only informed him of better truths than the ones given to him by priests. Without the Force he couldn't delve too deep into the dangerous territory but that didn't mean mortal science couldn't create monsters. It's just that Feudal Level science couldn't. I would have to watch him and make sure he doesn't convince some Acolytes to do his experiments for him. "Thank you my lord, I will think much on what you have told me." He said with a bow and started walking to a small corner in the room. Then revealed that it contained a hidden door.
"Thought that was just some bit of odd decoration." I mumbled as I looked back to the forge and decided to start making some more Force Metal Weapons and gear made of the stuff. Anything really to distract myself from the Jaesa of it all.
Rathari was enjoy a quiet moment in the Godswood. It was a place he had come to greatly enjoy and look forward to the times he could just meditate in peaceful quiet here in this Balanced place. At the moment he was taking a whetstone to Shâsot, something he could actually feel the grumbly Tsân actually groaning in appreciation for. But as all things in the hard struggle that was his life, this moment had to come to a end. A moved his head slightly as a ethereal needle shot through the air and missed him completely.
"Something the matter Jaesa?" Rathari asked as he continued to work on his blade, one that he had come to see as a extension of himself in many ways. He really did have to thank Darth Nagash for gifting himself such an important facet of his life.
"Yeah something is the matter, why'd you have to tell Naraiz about Valyrian Steel and all that shit?" Jaesa snarled as she stomped up to Rathari who immediately noticed something crucial. The fact that Jaesa had called Darth Nagash by his name instead of master as she always did. Ever since he had known Jaesa she had called Nagash master, always.
"Something happened between you two?" He asked as he set Shâsot aside, something that the Tsân did not like especially that it was for Jaesa and a conversation about Naraiz.
"You could say that." Jaesa slouched back as she crossed her arms. "But I'm mad at you because if you would have never told him about Valyrian Steel than he would have never given me this stupid thing and caused this!" She said as she held out her needles and than behind her came into view her Tsân. Rathari immediately felt a chill run down his spine as he looked up to the impossibly tall set of monk robes that towered above the two. Where Shâsot was a large man, he was still in the realm of possible humanoid forms. This thing wasn't. "Down Macha, don't eat him!" Jaesa shouted up to the silent smiling mask that peered out of the hood of the flowery monk robes.
"Macha, Midwan, Saarai, and Shâsot. An interesting gathering of names." Rathari said as his own Tsân formed into reality behind him. The two spirits gazed at each other. Shâsot's iron mask stared up at the pristine white mask of Macha. The burly chained man growled a bit and a series of clicking noises came out from the open sleeves of the robed monk. "Both of you cease, there will be no fighting in this place any longer." Rathari warned and Jaesa glared hard at her own Tsân so both beasts backed down reluctantly. "And how exactly is your Tsân's form and personality my fault, that's all on you."
"Shut it, I'm mad so let me be mad at you." Jaesa pouted and Rathari sighed as he did not need this. He was interested in what happened between master and apprentice.
"You know perfectly well what my feelings are toward you. I find you crass and wild, a woman with little restraint and one that will eventually implode if not handled properly. But also you are disturbingly intelligent, unnaturally insightful, and master at the battlefield." Rathari listed off truthfully. He had no reason to lie as even if there was a falling out between her and Nagash, the fact she was alive meant that she was still on their side. And while he didn't like dealing with her, she was too useful to let loose without a watcher, and if Nagash no longer could fill that role for the time he could at least when she was in the same room as him. "So speak to me as an equal, exactly what has happened."
"Naraiz… I found out something about him that I probably shouldn't have. Then I sorta lost my shit and this big dumbass here tried to eat me." She growled as she looked back up to the unresponsive face of her Tsân. As someone with a Tsân that also had a fixed face, even Rathari felt unnerved by Macha's mask. "But then I calmed down and me and Naraiz talked and… he's not the man I thought he was and I don't know how to handle that." Jaesa said with a rare sense of uncertainty and insecurity. Rathari supposed that she was only acting like this due to the fact the person she would normally act this way around was the cause of her current mood.
Rathari himself didn't care much for anything she was saying. If Naraiz was indeed a different man that what his own apprentice thought, that was a perfectly normal occurrence between Sith master and apprentice. All he needed to know was that he was the man that saved him from that timeless prison. He would follow him to the ends of space.
"This person that Lord Nagash is that you didn't know him to be, do you know what kind of man that he is?" Rathari asked as he felt this would be the best means to shift Jaesa's focus away from himself and back on Naraiz. This was his problem to begin with anyway.
"Kinda… but not really. What I do is complicated." Jaesa asked and Rathari repressed a sigh at the sight of the normally either highly unhinged or totally in control woman looking like one of his students that didn't know what they were doing.
"Then your problem is a lack of information. You usually have everything a person could ever want on any individual you see." He said and the woman look very uncomfortable. He guessed that she was trying to avoid the normal methods she used in this situation. "You could do what everyone else has to do and just talk to him."
"He's not some god that needs to put on a pedestal, that man is deeply flawed and is far from perfect." Shâsot breathed through his iron mask, irritation at the entire conversation and its topic bleeding into every word he spoke. Rathari just nodded back to his Tsân in agreement. He knew perfectly well that his Emperor was a very flawed human. Didn't make him less worthy to rule over the galaxy.
"Just talk to him?" She asked more to herself than Rathari. And then to the Sith internal bliss, Jaesa started walking back and out of the Godswood. However her Tsân still remained and just stared at him for a moment. Shâsot took a step forward as a small bug-like creature started crawling its way through the eye of Macha's mask, a mask that had changed from a smile to a simple frown.
"You disagree? You think that your mistress should distance herself from Naraiz." The hooded figure nodded its head and Rathari began thinking on this. But then shooed away those thoughts. "I lack all the details so I can only give the advice that I can. If you truly want to help her then you need to do so on your own. Despite the fact you are clearly being bathed in Darkness you are still tied to her on a fundamental level. A tie that demands that you be there to assist her in any way she might need." Rathari said as that was the general conscience he and Nagash had come to. That as beings manifested from a Force User's connection to the Force, they existed to guide and help their master or mistress to better enlightenment or personal progress. Or at that was what their Tsân did, and unlike Nagash Rathari was more than willing to use Jaesa as a test subject to see if a Dark Side Tsân would always seek to push their creator toward the Dark Side.
The tall set of robes tilted its head and then looked over to the Weirwood tree. Then after Rathari blinked it swished around and began following Jaesa out of the Godswood. The Sith Lord sighed again and glanced back to the angry face carved into the strange tree. That was a mystery that they needed to get answers for sooner rather than later.
"Don't ask me, it's just a tree that pulses with the Force… that's all I get out of it." Shâsot grumbled as he took several clanking steps so that he would be in front of his master. "You don't seem all that concerned with what she said about Naraiz."
"Because I'm not concerned. Whatever he may be he is still the rightful emperor of the galaxy. Until I find another being able to claim that right I will stand by him." Rathari answered his doubting Tsân before he took ahold of his sword and returned to sharpening it. "Please stop that." Rathari said as he heard small moans trickle out of Shâsot's mask.
"Make sure that the granaries are staffed by our followers, a few notes on certain people placed in the governor's desk should be enough." Vaera nodded as she listened to her teacher give her the orders for the week. She had been learning under the former Red Priestess Melisandre for months now, learning how to preach and control a crowd. Their master wanted her and Melisandre to create an opposition to the traditional religious powers in Westeros and eventually the world.
"Yes my lady." Vaera said with a nod as they walked through the still in development streets of the Harrenhal. They were outside the massive curtain walls of the fortress proper and in the developing Essosi section of the city. Dubbed the Veiled District for the number of tarps that had been set in the beginning of the settlement of the former slaves. But now the name was beginning to be a moniker for the number of brightly colored veils and banners that were hung all over the buildings. Each of them marked a different home that belonged to a different culture, from Volantian to Pentoshi to Lysian. All of those that had been enslaved and brought here now could represent their homelands in a colorful fashion.
Wooden hovels were very slowly replaced by well organized lines of row houses and larger buildings houses various shops and stalls. The streets started and stopped being just plain dirt roads and turned to cobblestone streets. Some streets were completely closed off as underground sewers were being made, Darth Nagash had apparently made it very clear that he didn't want his city to smell like the capital. And people here were all smiling and happy, working hard to make their new homes that their families would live in for generations as great as possible. All the stone they could need was being taken from the two smallest towers of Harrenhal and even then more stone was coming in from traveling traders wanting to get in on the early buzz of a developing city.
There was two other districts of the growing city, and those were the Imperial District and the currently unnamed industrial district. The Imperial District was where much of the native Westerosi were living, many of them giving the name of their community as a way of giving thanks to their lord. Some concerns were made on if the King would find the name a slight but those were dismissed when they remembered how much the king loved the Sith. The Imperial District while not as colorful as the Veiled District was just as lively and bustling with development and people excited for the future. Made up of people that had lived in the castle all their lives, the families of Acolytes and Seekers alike, and lastly people just sick of their lives elsewhere in Westeros.
In both districts while there was an overlayer of traits from their prospective cultures, Essos and Westeros respectively, the foundation was unlike anything this world had seen. As Quinn had been very involved in the architectural design of the developing city, and he was making sure everything got a good deal of Imperial inspiration. If one had the correct knowledge, they would be able to recognize the familiarity the buildings of the new Harrenhal had with an otherworldly culture. Triangular slopes and sharp beveling were abundant while still somewhat conforming to Westeros and Essos building methods. Given that both Westerosi and Essosi were involved in the creation of these new structures it was inevitable that styles would mix even if an overall theme instilled by the governor of the city was overhanging them.
"Just look at it all Vaera, a year ago these lands were cursed and desolate and now a shining jewel is being polished before our eyes." Vaera gave a half smile at the idea as only about ten percent of the planned city had really even started to be built. Much of it was still wooden shacks and ramshackle huts. But given that all of these were being planned out from the very beginning she hoped that it would indeed grow to be a great city akin to something like the tales of Valyria. "And it will be here that the revaluation of the people's faith will begin. Here where those in tune with the Natural Order will be groomed to become Enlightened." Melisandre said with a conviction and certainty that Vaera just basked in awe of.
"Milady Melisandre!" The two women turned their heads as they heard someone frantically call out for the holy woman. "There's trouble, a group of Septons hav' come and are attackin' us!" The man was wearing an iron triangle set in the middle of a circle, a symbol of the growing flock of people that had converted to Melisandre's philosophy. The Red Woman scowled slightly at the news, she wasn't even truly converting people. Her beliefs that she was spreading didn't; say that any religion was wrong… only subject to the Natural Order. The Lord of Light, the Old Gods, and the Faith of the Seven… all of them could be true or not but they most certainly were but small strokes of paint in the painting of the cosmos.
"Take me to these men." She said without a shred of worry, while she couldn't use the powers she had been gifted anymore… trying to prove her master's warning right very painfully, she still had her ways. The man nodded and led the two women through the district and to a small marketplace that had formed in the middle of several row houses currently under construction. There in the middle was a large group of men, seven of them wearing Septon robes and the rest all brandished various weapons of poorer quality. As Melisandre entered the marketplace she looked to the man that brought her here. "Get the Black Cloaks at once, I will stall them before they hurt anyone else." The man nodded and ran off, She then looked back on the mob and then around to the people looking on. Many of them were Essosi and didn't really understand what was happening.
"My lady, our master warned us this would happen. I didn't think it would be so soon." Vaera said nervously but Melisandre just chuckled, she was honestly shocked it didn't happen sooner.
"Pay close attention Vaera, and learn how to disarm without a sword or spear." Melisandre said before walking forward into the center of the marketplace, flowing through the overturned carts and destroyed stalls to the circle of men that were surrounding a small family of her flock.
"Heretic foreigners, you should have never stepped on our shores. These lands were chosen by the Seven as the Andals promised land!" One of the Septons shouted, red faced and doing a great job mimicking a angry walrus. The Red Woman just smirked as he had given her a great means to enrage him and his fellow priests with facts.
"Oh, so that wouldn't be Andalos?" Melisandre asked innocently but at the same time with a voice of authority. These froze all of the Septons and caused them and their mob to turn to her. "Because if I know my history right, Andalos would be the Andals' homeland and place where the Faith of the Seven was born in. Funny how you needed to leave such holy ground to find a new promised land." She said with a dry and factual tone that gave no hint of mockery or sarcasm. She long knew how to debate other men and women of faith, but where before she would clinch the debate with her powers of fire and predictions now she would need to play the smarter and more difficult play… logic.
"You! I recognize you harlot!" One of the Septons shouts as he stuck a chubby finger at her. She could see only two types of men among these robes fools, either fat men that no doubt never heard of a vow of simple living or older men that had more bile than faith in their soul. "You were the one speaking your nonsense to the good people here in Harrenhal!"
"Yes, I was spreading out the knowledge of the Natural Order. To give understanding of how this universe works and our parts to play in it is my part." Her voice was humble, any claim of ego would be scoffed at by those that heard her. She preached out the gospel of the Natural Order of the Force. To explain to the masses that the reality they lived in operated on an even playing field, that all souls are born even and die even. That no god is more powerful than any other when compared to the unthinking and unknowable Force. She never preached that any god didn't exist, if anything she said they all did at the same time. Just all working in the confines of the Natural Order of the universe.
"Madness and falsehoods only drip from your lips heretic!" One of the Septons screamed but she reacted little to his violent monkey noises. That was when all of them began shouting at her, accusing her of many things, most of them sexual or sorcery or a combination of the two. The men that they had brought along with them were taking slow steps away from the family they had been circling before and moving to trap her. This gave the family the chance to escape unnoticed, with that Melisandre had done what she came to do and now she simply waited. She took their shouts and every insult with an uncaring and bored expression on her face. "Maybe we should just hang you now, or better yet burn you at the stake. A fitting end for someone like you."
"She would likely enjoy such a fate, hanging would be better." One of the others suggested, and Melisandre would honestly prefer neither as she still had much to do in her new life. One of them being to convince her master to grace her with a night in his bed. Her body was returned to a young and able body, she had yet to sully it with a lesser man and would wait for her master to get over his lingering revulsion of her. Something that she assumed came from him knowing what she used to look like.
One of the Septons reached out to grab her arm and she just slapped it away with a quick strike. The speed and precision by which she did so stunned the men surrounding her for a moment but then they tried once more. Only this time for her to grab the hand coming and snap it in an unnatural way. She wasn't about to let them lay a single finger on her body. He screamed as a bit of blood started to stain his robes. Then they all called for their guards to kill her but just as they pulled out their poor weapons they all heard the sound of finer blades being pulled from their seethes. The mob of fanatics turned their heads to see themselves surrounded by men wearing blackened armor and draped with black and purple cloaks.
"By order of Governor Quinn and Darth Nagash, we order you to keep your weapons and submit to interrogation." The lead city guard called out as his men formed a tight circle around the hired sellswords. Trained with imperial discipline, these men and women all were locked together and were far more capable than the rabble that these Septons hired.
"We are Septons of the Faith, we are protecting the souls of the realm!" One of the priests cried out and then pointed another finger at Melisandre. "This witch has been spreading heresy and assaulted a man of the Faith. Arrest her!" The lead guard just stared at the Septon for a moment before turning his head over to the biggest man in the group of thugs.
"You get one chance." The man cocked his head back to his guardsmen and the sellswords looked pretty uneased by the confidence that these guards had. Plus they had far better armor and weapons than they had so that factored in their minds. But the biggest point was that they weren't paid to risk their lives, just rough up some foreigners a bit. So with that the sellswords all put their weapons away and back away from the Septons. "Okay, you seven would like to try this again." Melisandre melted away from the entire scene as her work was done and was uninterested in seeing the end of this play. She soon returned back to Vaera who had been waiting for her right where she had been left.
"Come Vaera, let's go tell the people of this before the rumors paint this incident in any unfaithful light."
"Looks like Lady Arryn is doing well after the master treated her." Lyarra said as Joanna brushed her hair, the two had just finished their normal morning fun and now were preparing for the rest of the day. Lord Arryn had originally given Lyarra a few of the Eyrie's chamber maids but they had been quickly shooed away by Joanna their first night here in the Vale's capital.
"I once saw her before, she and her husband had come to King's Landing and she most certainly did not look ready for childbirth." Joanna thought back to those days, it was just after the twins had gotten old enough to travel and they were visiting Tywin. Much happier days but now she didn't think back on them as much as she did. Now she had Lyarra and soon enough she would have Naraiz back, even if for a short while. "Lord Arryn's plans to marry his daughter to Eddard seem to be a good match. The Vale and the North share a sense of honor and hardship that few have. Only the Riverlands have the honor and only the Iron Islands have the hardship, but the North and Vale have both. Growing closer would… Lyarra?
"Yes! I'm listening!" Joanna sighed as she caught her best friend and lover nodding off again.
"Your sleeping habits are getting worse, add that to the list of things we need to speak to master about." Joanna had begun to notice certain things about Lyarra, things that greatly concerned her as they were very odd behaviors that she learned weren't normal for her prior to becoming what she was now. Talking with the servants at Winterfell she learned that the old Lyarra rarely took naps in the middle of the day, not that Joanna minded all that much as usually Lyarra and her would have sex before said nap and then Joanna got to just hold the sleeping she-wolf for hours. They also said that their lady rarely had a temper but now the Lannister noted that if anything even remotely threatened Winterfell, her children, or what Lyarra perceived to be their master's plans she would snarl and howl with the fury of a direwolf at the threat… and only most of the time that was only a figure of speech.
"I can't help it if I feel extra tired when you start talking about things that won't ever happen." Lyarra replied with a yawn only to yelp a bit when Joanna pulled back on her hair.
"This is serious, while that man was foolish in thinking he could control the Lord of Winterfell. Our former Maester did have the right idea." Joanna said and rolled her eyes at Lyarra's pouting. It was unseemly for a woman her age to pout like a young maiden but Joanna found it too adorable to really find fault with it. She supposed that their collars likely turned back the years a bit so maybe thinking themselves older than they were wasn't prudent. "But if you really want to table this discussion we can wait for when we see our master… and then a few days more." Joanna added that last part as she finished Lyarra hair, her mind filled with various scenes of sexual debauchery of Naraiz fucking the two into comas.
Now done, the two women left the calculation of their chamber and began walking to the large dining room where the lord and lady of the keep were waiting along with all the noble children that resided in the keep. Lyarra and Joanna both walked in and smiled at the sight of Lyanna smiling and laughing along with her brother and the Baratheon heir. Both had noticed that the young girl had spent much of her time here in the Eyrie with the two… and oddly more with the latter than the former at times. Lyarra was just happy that her children were happy but Joanna kept the Lannister scheming that was going on in her head to herself… at least for right now.
"Lady Stark, good to see you so early in the morning. But given this is your last day here I supposed that I shouldn't be surprised." Jon Arryn chuckled as Lyarra had only made an appearance this early twice in the two weeks she had spent in his home, the first morning and this one. He didn't expect the woman to be a heavy sleeper but nothing too unusual, so he didn't think of it any more than an odd quirk. "I would like for you to give me an answer to my proposal before you leave." He added as the woman took a seat next to her children, her personal handmaid behind as always.
"And I have told you Lord Arryn that I must speak with my husband, in person, before I say anything on the matter." Lyarra said this but what she really meant was she had to speak with her master. Such a union between two great houses, with one giving the possibility of one taking control of the other if Jon suddenly died before siring a male heir, was something that she knew to be of such great importance that her master would demand some say in it.
"Mother, are you sure we have to leave today. Can't we stay for a little longer?" Lyanna asked, it was one last desperate attempt to get another chance to hunt with Robert again. The young she-wolf knew that the moment they got back home that she would never be allowed to go out hunt again. Robert had been so right, eating something you killed yourself was great.
"No, we will be leaving for the Riverlands today. Don't you want to see your little brother?" Lyarra said, even if she liked to see her daughter so happy here that joy of a mother was rapidly being eaten away by her desires as both a woman in love and a woman with needs. And while she did love Joanna and found her very pleasing in bed there was only one man that she truly loved with all her heart.
"Not really…" Lyanna mumbled but her mother heard her and discounted it immediately. Her mind was too interested in reuniting with her beloved master. The long months of being away from him was turning unbearable. And she could feel in her soul that soothing was deeply wrong with her master. She could feel that she needed to be by his side. She didn't know what it was but that didn't matter as she just needed to comfort him in any way she could. Just as he would keep her safe and happy she would make every effort to do the same.
The feeling of cold wind hitting my face was good to help cool me down. Things were progressing nicely back at Harrenhal, or at least they were for everyone but me. Jaesa was now being distant, a bit of my own treatment turned on me. Which was why I wasn't holding it against her, plus the revelations that occurred did warrant a bit of a digestion period. I was done with my interviews with all the Acolytes… or at least the ones I cared about. The rest of them would be sorted based on their teachers' observations and Jaesa's reports. But that was still about sixth months away before we really had to do anything with them.
But right now I was speeding through the North on my Speeder Bike, nearing my ship's crash site. The gunship back in Valyria was now fully converted and ready to start bringing in supplies and droids to help fix my ship. With their help I should be in space in a year, it would be thirty eight years away from the start of the Prequels and that still didn't feel like enough time with all the plans I had. But I couldn't rush this so there was no need to get worked up.
As I approached the crash site I could see the work that Vette and Broonmark had been able to get done. The biggest thing being that they were able to dislodge the ship from the mountain. It was now on its landing gear and while a little more in pieces than I remember that might be for the best. The droids would come in and reassemble it back together easy enough. There was an established campsite for the two and a pile of human skulls that showed that Broonmark had been having fun.
"And speak of the Tulz." I mumbled as I stopped my Speeder Bike and I saw from one of the two huts the head of my high functioning alien psychopath peek out at the sound of my bike coming to a stop. The guy seemed almost a mix between giddy and uncaring as he came out… weird but that's how he was. "Broonmark, I see you have been busy." I said as I looked at the neat pile of picked clean skulls. Khorne would be so proud.
"We have, but we wish to leave this rock and find better prey." The Tulz spoke aloud in a grumbly and agitated way.
"Well that will be happening sooner than you think." I said as I was sure that Broonmark had depleted the local area of savages down to safe levels. Meaning that Vette wouldn't have to worry about sudden ambushes or attacks from the mountain clans. I could put Broonmark to much better use. "There is a wilderness further north, passed by the massive wall of ice and Force nonsense. Beyond the Wall they call it, this is an intelligence gathering mission as well as the start of a terror campaign. Make the locals fear you, which means survivors."
"We understand." Broonmark nodded and while he didn't like not killing, these were missions that he excelled at and while he was a psychopath he was also a damn fine soldier.
"A little challenge to you too, don't kill any human with red hair. Do this, and when we do get to space… I promise Wookie steak for a year." I could hear gargled noises of deep hunger and anticipation come from Broonmark. I chuckled and stepped past him toward the ship where I sense another life form. "Vette! Papa's come home, do I get a… Ow! Fuck!" I shouted as I was hit in the head with the Star War equivalent of a wrench. It was so unexpected that even when I sensed it coming I couldn't believe it.
"You jackass!" In the middle of me rubbing my new bruise I heard Vette shout in her really angry voice, the voice that bordered on a French accent. What the fuck did I do to get her this mad. "You promised me that you wouldn't do it and you do did, you had to get involved in slaving again!" She screamed as she came up to me at the end of her ranting climb down from the interior of the ship. My head still hurt so I didn't really get what she was saying.
"Ey, I bought them and then immediately freed them. I thought you would happy that I freed over two thousand people from slavery." I said and then one of Naraiz's memories came back and I knew exactly how she would respond to that. How did she find out I had to with any slaves in the first place? Good question but now it was too late.
"Oh, but what did you do with them afterward?" I just had my mouth hang open like a dumbass as I tried to think of a counter for what was coming but she was having none of it. "Just because you free them doesn't mean they aren't slaves anymore. Gods dammit Naraiz, this whole gratitude is the greatest collar bullshit isn't the same as being free!" Yeaah… I forgot that she still doesn't like it when I try to control people that I have something over them like freeing them from slavery. Note, don't let Vette find out about my little adventure in Lys and what I got out of it. "And that isn't even what I was talking about but I sure as am pissed about that too!"
"Then what is it? Yeah I might have tricked a bunch of people into working for me but I'm paying them and giving them good lives." I said knowing that while she would still be mad about all the former slaves I was still keeping under my thumb through psychological manipulation, that would pass… I hope. But whatever got her mad in the first place wasn't the same.
"Your little playthings accidently called me." Oh shit… no wait… Vette has no idea the extent that Lyarra and Joanna are enslaved to me. I can still salvage this. "I know exactly what those collars do Naraiz." Fuck! She read my mind and… wait what?
"I barely know what they do… how do you know." I asked and this seemed to throw her off a bit. She always knew if I was lying or not, better than Jaesa at times which I guess spoke to the level of trust and intimate knowledge we had over each other. It really did make me think that, Jaesa was more lust and obsession than actual love at times. There was still a core of love but it was underdeveloped. Vette on the other hand was far more emotionally important to Naraiz but he always kept her a distance because of that.
"Because when you had me sort through your things from your Academy days I found the Ritual Spell you picked up in an ancient Sith Crypt to create Enslavement Collars. I don't understand half the bullshit that was in that book but I recognized the runes on the collars and know the general idea of what they do to a person." Damn you Past Naraiz! Why the fuck did you ever let Vette have access to secret stuff like that. Oh yeah… she was the only person he trusted with that stuff. Also I need to get back to Anoat and my library and find that book. I might have the knowledge in my head somewhere but I don't have an eidetic memory so I can't just pull it out of my head whenever I want. But that does explain just where the hell that shit came from that first night with Lyarra.
"The first time I was drunk on the Dark Side." I said knowing that wasn't an excuse for her. Not anymore at least. It was Vette that had pulled me out of my downward spiral into the Dark Side. When I was made a Sith Lord, I let ego and the power go to my head. The Dark Side became more and more appealing as time went on. And the Revanites were to me only a fad at the time, it was before I truly committed to the idea. That would come later when I defeated my master. But it was Vette that stopped me from falling to the Dark Side. So saying that I did because the Dark Side told me wasn't exactly something she wanted to hear.
"And the second?" She said and my heart hurt like a rust screwdriver was being jammed into it. Not stabbed, quick and sharp, no… slowly and with blunt force. When I didn't answer her, she rolled her eyes and turned away, not giving me another look. I just stood there unable to say anything, my mind was reeling as it was trying to come up with some way to explain myself and get Vette to calm down. I already had lost Jaesa. I didn't want to lose Vette too. My heart felt further in pain, feeling like it was shrinking and just trying to find the darkest part of my body to hide in.
"Twi'lek has been working extra hard lately… we now know why." Broonmark said and decided to let out my heartache in a different way than sulking. I pulled a sealed Midwan out from my side and with a scream slashed down onto Broonmark's Vibro-Greatsword. In her sealed state she didn't do anything but grind against the deadly edge of the weapon. The anger was flooding my veins and so I began to scream with each hit of my mad barrage of attacks on Broonmark who blocked them all with a proficiency that only came with decades of being a cold hearted killing machine. I continued batter on the Tulz until I finally just collapsed to my knees and hands. I wasn't tired but just done with being mad.
"Broonmark… you know what it's like to be alone." I said as I stared into the empty white of the snow below me.
"We know." He said solemnly. It seemed to be a theme with my crew, lonely strangers that found companionship in each other. Vette had her friends on the street until she was taken into slavery, traded from one master to the next never finding her place or anyone to call friend until I found her. Quinn, isolated by his superiors due to daring to claim credit for something he did. Jaesa… used by everyone around her and keeping her in a safe little bubble. Pierce had his company were their family until the cold war broke them up and scattered them across the Empire. And Broonmark was betrayed and left for dead by his own comrades. We all knew loneliness either by loss or never having it. Both Naraiz and me had these both respectively.
"I don't want to be alone anymore. Jaesa never gave me anything more than sex and devotion, and I never gave Vette the chance to be more than friends or possible lovers." I said and he listened, Broonmark wasn't a man to talk much but instead knew how to listen. "I had a chance with Satele… but… that didn't work out." I said bitterly, she made her choice and while I still held a grudge, I couldn't say I still lounged for the chance she represented.
"Sith never had comrades, only rivals and subordinates." He was right again. The rest of my crew were under me and so didn't exactly present the opportunity to fill the void in my heart that a dear friend or comrade could. They were indeed family but it was different, plus it was with the old Naraiz who made sure to cultivate specific relationships with his crew. Quinn was kept chained down by guilt and Broonmark was cornered into having nowhere to go but Naraiz. Only Pierce I could say was a real friend, and I valued that friendship greatly but it didn't make me feel any less alone in this galaxy. "Sith, you are depressing us. We can tell that you are subject to great turmoil. But we are not the one to help you solve this."
"Personal drama has never been your strong suit my friend." I weakly chuckled as I pulled myself off the ground. "Don't ever change. Please tell Vette that a dropship of droids and supplies will be arriving in the coming week. Including a box of some surviving junk food she might like… how she can stomach food that can last for centuries I will never know." I smiled as I started making my way back to the speeder bike. Even if she was mad at me I still wanted to make her happy, doubt that a few bags of chips would get me back in her good graces but that didn't matter. Unlike with Jaesa I knew that Vette wouldn't give up on me that easily over something that in comparison wasn't so damaging. Didn't make me feel better though.
Yoda frowned as he sifted through the threads of fate, the Force had been usually calm and the strange darkness that had been clouding his vision for years now had lifted in parts. But now in the past few weeks there had been flares of the future that had broken through every shroud that attempted to keep the future from Jedi Oracles.
"Howls, wrath against the light. A green sea flooding Tython, barren it leaves the world." Yoda mumbled as he discerned something new from the recent bouts of clarity he had in the future of the galaxy. It had been very strange, animistic figures had been playing out scenes in a play that he did not recognize. The Force Visions had become more and more symbolic as time went on. "Much sadness, anger comes to the future… the source of the mystery it is."
"Grand Master, maybe it is best that you take a break from the future. The present is unstable enough as it is." Yoda sighed at the wisdom that Master Fay gave, the present was indeed greatly troubled and the Grand Master of the Jedi knew that sometimes knowledge of the future could only make the present worse. This was especially true if that knowledge was of a troubled future.
The two masters of the Light Side were at the moment sitting in a small waiting room in the Coruscant Jedi Temple. A massive structure that dominates the city world's skyline. Second in size only to the Senate Building, and not by much. The two rarely liked coming to this temple as it was a giant representation of the side of the Jedi that had become the public face of the Order. Namely the Guardian Faction, the sect of the Jedi that sought to protect everyone and everything, even form themselves. The faction of the Jedi that wanted to make sure everything was in order and protected even at the cost of personal freedom and liberty… although they would never admit that last part.
The Coruscant Temple was both a temple and military base all in one. On the outside it looked as most Jedi Temples looked but just a few exposed gun emplacements, the rest were well hidden in the structure of the temple. But on the inside it was a bustling hub of officers and government attendants working tirelessly for the Republic's Office of Defense and Galaxy Liberty. The middle level of the pyramid-like structure, the section that was most exposed to the public view, was filled with offices, labs, barracks, and training blocks. It was the center of the Republic Military. The five towers and upper levels were the actual Jedi Temple quarters, housing both the Jedi's living areas and their training suites along with several libraries deemed to contain vital information for war efforts or the needed extra security that the military could provide. Lastly the foundation and deep lower floors were mostly forbidden to anyone that didn't have express permission from either the Senate or the Jedi Council and sometimes both. Military and Order secrets were kept under tight lock and key here.
But Grand Master Yoda and Master Fay were both here to access the libraries and to see if they could dig up any information on the Force in a Balanced state. Fay doubted that they would find anything not blacked out to the point of being useless or that wasn't already thrown in the trash decades ago. She knew that the Guardians weren't exactly above censoring ideas they found counterproductive, she had been on the receiving end of such tactics several times. But she would follow Grand Master Yoda as he was the unofficial leader of the opposing sect of Jedi, the Counselor Faction. A faction that believed that the Jedi should take a step back from galactic politics and take a more teaching role instead of a enforcing one when it came to people's daily lives.
"I doubt we're going to get anything out of these jackasses… if anything we might alert them to new ideas they need to look for and get rid of." Master Fay thought to herself and as she finished that thought the doors to the waiting room opened and stepped High Marshal Mace Windu with two Republic Spartan bodyguards. The sight of the giant humans disgusted Fay as she secretly knew the methods that went into making the super-soldiers. And she knew that Windu knew as well and he still advocated for more funding to the Spartan projects.
"Grand Master Yoda, it is good to have you visit the capitol." Windu said and Fay knew that he was deliberately ignoring her presence here. But she just lightly scoffed and ignored him as well, letting the GrandMaster deal with the warmonger so she didn't have to.
"Wish it was for less troubling reason, I do wish it was old friend." Yoda chuckled warmly as he hopped off his seat and slowly walked toward his supposed lesser. The relationship between GrandMaster and High Marshal was supposed to be one of a leader and second in command but that was rarely the case. In times of a strong active Grandmaster it was, but as the Republic grew more and more militant, the voice of the High Marshal became more important. And as powerful as Yoda was, he knew he was not an active leader. A teacher and guide he could be wise and learned he was as well, but active and effective in moment to moment choices he wasn't. He was too prone to pondering the meaning of each event making his reaction too slow for the fast pace governing the order and their far reaching power. "The Force changed. Now balanced it has become. Both with the Dark and the Light."
"Yes, many here felt it happen too. Ever since then we have been sending teams to known Dark Side hot spots in the galaxy to see just what could have happened." Windu said seriously and Fay wanted to slap him silly. Of course he would go right to it being the plot of some Dark Sider, never mind the idea that this could be some third party pushing for just a Balanced Force. A theory that she, Master Yoda, and a few others back on Tython had come to believe was the case.
"Good… good." Yoda said in a way that Fay knew to be complete bullshit but he knew that saying anything else would make their mission even harder. "Our own investigation into this, we have. Access to the Coruscant Archives we need." Fay watched as Windu stiffened just for a single moment before schooling himself back to normal. He was hiding something in the archives but knew he was in a bind. This was the Grand Master asking for access so he couldn't; say no.
"They currently are getting some security upgrades, it will be some time before we can open them to anyone at the moment." Windu answered and both Yoba and Fay could tell that this was a excused prepared.
"I didn't see any construction droids, must not be that important." Fay said offhandedly knowing that this would get a rise out of Windu. He however continued to ignore her, making her a little angry. "This is the Grand Master of the Jedi speaking High Marshal, if he needs access to the Archives than it is his authority to determine if it is important enough to ignore protocol." She added not wanting to let Yoda get walked over just because he wanted to avoid conflict.
"I know that Master Fay, I'm just informing him that accessing the Archives might be best done once the security upgrades are finished." The two looked ready to kill each other, long held resentment on both sides boiling up to the surface. Neither of them believed that the other was leading the Jedi down the path it should. Both wanted to achieve greatness for their order but both had vastly different ways of thinking just what that greatness was.
"Enough." But both stopped just short of actually doing something when they heard their leader speak. "To the archives you will take us. Mysteries come to us, they must be solved… soon." The vision of Tython being drown in a sea of green as a beast howls in rage still echoed in Yoda's mind. The world was the center of Light in the galaxy and must be protected. That threat had pushed Yoda into acting a little less cautious around the politics of the Order.
"Very well Grand Master." Windu said with a small amount of his begrudging thoughts leaking out. Fay meanwhile was smirking as the High Marshal turned his back. But that smirk dropped as she felt the Force gift her with her own Force Vision. One of the entire galaxy, there in the reaches of the unexplored sections of the northern rim was a small swirling whirlpool of dark and light. Then it flickered out and then tendrils of slimy blackness started twisting their way around the stars of the galaxy, the stars then turned to all one dull gray color the same as steel. The Force Vision stopped and Fay blinked as a small headache came over her.
"Don't worry about the future I said… lovely advice that isn't exactly easy to follow." She grumbled to herself before looking down to see Yoda looking back to her, smugness was something that the little green being did not display often but here it was fitting.
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