Peace is a lie (niemar)

[Dean]

Out of the hyperspace flashed a ship. The ship was taken care of to the point of painting over after leaving an asteroid field. It shone as the stars light reflected the white hull. It was a little ship, able to be commandeered by only one person. The blond woman yanked on the lever slowing down the ship so she could reach into the force and scan the planet beneath her. Dark side power resonated from Korriban and still it felt more like a whisper then it felt like a yell. You could blame the jedi for a lot of things, but the temple had always felt light.

She could see the moons of the planet orbiting and she punched in the name of the planet in her ships computer wanting some basic info and a layout of the landscape. While waiting for the results she went back into the force and tried to pinpoint a place where the dark side was stronger than on the remainder of the planet. She could feel power emanating from a place far ahead but before pinpointing it a loud noise made her look at the navsystem. It told her that a day on Korriban took 28 hours and the time for the planet to revolve around its sun was 780 local days.

Her ship swooped down over the barren landscape and she could see the many tombs that were said to hold the ghosts of sith lords of ages past. But as the layout of the land had told her, this wasn’t the place to look for dark side power now. The layout had given her a big structure looking like a temple. She knew that this was the place where she wanted to go as it roughly matched the place where she had felt dark side power coming from.

About 1000 meters before the entrance of this temple she let her ship touch down and lowered the hatch. She looked at the beacon she had smashed to pieces and then imploded with the force. The jedi would never know where she went after they found out what happened on the last mission they sent her. She would probably get a bronze statue in the archives and that was it. She shook her head and walked down the hatch and got into the full blaze of the planet, it was hot but bearable for now.

She walked at her goal slowly. Reaching out in the force to check if people were coming up to them making sure she would be ready for when the possible attack came. She muttered to herself; ‘’Peace is a lie, there is only passion’’

[Rugs]

Always someone comin' in here...

Nieraan was perched atop a railing on the front of the Temple, leaning against a column to his left with an practiced, steady ease. His hair was tousled and his brow damp with a light sweat. He wore a sleeveless shirt that fit well on his leanly-muscular frame and left his defined arms and shoulders bare, and a light grey, simple pair of training pants were that were tucked into the top of some boots.

It wasn't the heat that had him dressed the way he did; heat and cold didn't bother him, for the most part. The Firrerreo had finished a training session with some students a short while ago, and now he was taking some time to himself to relax a bit.

Or he had been, until he saw a stranger land a craft not a mile down in the Valley and start approaching the Temple.

Crazy how bold some people are, he thought with a sordid amusement, like we won't blow their asses out of the sky for just showin' up and landing out of the blue.

Fortunately, he'd told the guards to hold on doing anything to the craft. He'd handle whoever came.

That whoever was, in all likelihood, another recruit come to join the ranks of the Sith. Which meant another student he might have to deal with.

He was just giddy at the thought. So giddy that he largely ignored the person as they walked toward the Temple, instead idly toying with some of the veins on his forearm while he waited.

Once they reached a certain point, about three hundred meters away, he reached out with his senses and lightly felt the aura around them. To his surprise, they--she, it seemed now that she was closer--felt capable; it was a marked change from the half-trained louts that tended to wander to the Temple.

A few more moments passed, and Nieraan continued to allow the woman to come closer. She was short, or shorter than he, at least. Slender. Blonde hair. Not obviously hostile, or not yet.

"That's close enough," Nieraan called once she got near the steps that led up to the front of the Temple. With a swing of his legs and a push from his arms, Nieraan jumped down to the ground with his own athleticism. The trio of lightsabers hanging at his waist clattered gently against each other as he landed.

He straightened up and pushed a some of his thick blue-streaked-black hair out of his eyes and began to approach the woman. If he had to guess, he'd mark her older than he was, or close to his actual age. He wondered how she'd respond to being accosted by a man that barely looked to be in his twenties.

A man that sometimes didn't act much better.

"So?" He asked, stopping a few paces away from her. She was indeed shorter than he was, now that he saw her face-to-face. "I'm gonna make a wild guess here and say you're another hopeful."

He folded his arms over his chest and looked at her. "How'd I do?"

[Dean]

Ara walked and closed in on the steps. Just as she was about to think about scanning with the force to detect more power she heard a voice. The voice was obviously calling to her as she was the only one about to climb the steps of the temple. She really wished for people who knew that they were talking about. With her last jedi missions she had seen to many pretenders fooling around in their dark side rush. She hated them, with passion.

A young man leaped to the ground, it made Ara wonder if the steps were broken somehow since it seemed to be a rather foolish display of skill, pointless. She didn’t cower as the man rose and his three lightsabers bumped into each other and made a clattering noise. She raised her eyebrows at the sight of three lightsabers since it seemed pointless. For the second time the thought pointless had crossed her mind and she wondered what it said about the man standing in front of her, but her thoughts were interrupted when he spoke.

"I'm gonna make a wild guess here and say you're another hopeful."

It took all the restraint she had not to make her lip curl back in utter disrespect and repulsion as he talked. She could tell that we was arrogant, actually he was propelled by it. This was his only good trait however as it meant that he would be easily manipulated. She stored that away for later and let his words sink in for a moment.

Folding his arms in front of his chest he looked rather pleased with his own mediocre thinking and asked how he did with his previous statement. Ara had to use every bit of restraint again not to scold him to much in his own teachings as she replied.

’’Hope is a fools way of thinking, everyone who is hopeful you should have already blasted out of the air. That is if I am right in presuming this is a Sith temple or academy.’’

She looked at the steps again and could indeed feel the dark side resonating through it.

’’But then again, they probably don’t give apprentices permission to shoot at all’’
Her lips turned into a cruel grin as if she was mocking him. In reality she wanted to test how deep this arrogance of his really was.

[Rugs]

Nieraan chuckled softly as the woman answered him. The tips of his canines, long and fanglike, showed as he grinned a boyishly-amused grin. So she's one of these types, is she? If she hoped to impress him or cow him with philosophical advances and petty attempts at insults, she'd be disappointed. Philosophies were worthless to Nieraan.

Nieraan didn't bat an eye at Lords; who was this woman to think she could impress him?

He chuckled again and shrugged casually, not bothered by her obvious attempts to get under his skin. She probably thought him some young, impetuous fool. Let her.

"Couldn't tell you. Perhaps if there was an apprentice around, you could ask, but seeing as they are in within," he gestured with a motion of his head back to the great Temple behind him, "and you are without, you're out of luck."

Nieraan leaned casually against the edge of the short wall that lined either side of the steps going up to the Temple's front. A hint of amusement glinted in his yellow eyes as he watched the woman, curious as to how far she planned to push here and if she realized who held the higher position between the two of them.

"Of course, since you are, by your own admission, not another hopeful here to join the ranks, it makes me wonder what you are here for." Nieraan's voice carried on steadily; he was relaxed, not at all worried about the woman before him. "And how long I should let you loiter around out here in the Valley before you leave or we have to gun you down.

"But by all means," he continued, allowing another little smirk as he gestured at the Valley beyond the woman, "make yourself at home. The rocks are lovely this time of year."

[Dean]

She could see his teeth being different from human and it was just another reason for her to dislike him. Some mere humanoid backtalking to him, it was uncanny. Her skin crawled at the sight of him, but she wasn’t racist or arrogant enough to underestimate him because of it. Her goal was behind him and if she needed to cut him down to get there she would be glad to do it.

For now though she would try a more subtle and cunning approach to her problem. If he thought that she would have realized her mistake and apologize for her behavior he might be of much use to her. Her only goal was to lay claim to the power of the Sith. And although this pretender didn’t have enough skill nor wisdom to show him that she would suck his wisdom dry. Repulsed as she was by this idea she would follow it through until she stepped into those walls and could drop the pretense when she would excel.

’’ I am here ofcourse to lay claim to the power and knowledge of the Sith, but I am not at all thrilled at the thought of being classed in the same range as you by lesser beings.’’

Her plan had obviously failed. Patience was a virtue she possessed to little. Or maybe it was because of the sight of this alien that she couldn’t get her act together. Whatever it was, she would have to be headstrong now and maybe appeal to him a bit by being bold. This was what she could excel in.

’’ So if you don’t mind, I have power to search and jedi to kill

She started to walk in the direction of the steps, not planning to dodge him but planning to make him step away. She knew that would be a dangerous game and this she started to feed her rage, first slowly thinking about the pleasure of hurting this being her anger rose and then she thought of the things that the jedi order had done to her. Anger to the dark side to anger. This was a fast way to fuel your power and keep awareness, making sure not to be blinded by rage.

[Rugs]

’’I am here of course to lay claim to the power and knowledge of the Sith, but I am not at all thrilled at the thought of being classed in the same range as you by lesser beings.’’

"Now, now, you push too much, dear," Nieraan replied wryly, showing a hint of another toothy smile. "With all the voracity of an old toothless hound, and the bite to match." He shook his head gently. "Now I guess I'll just have to go slinking back into the Temple now, defeated..."

Of course, the Firrerreo didn't budge. The truth of things that, though the woman's second attempt at an insult might have provoked another Sith to action, it just amused him. You'd be well to be classified as half of what I am. Despite his antics, despite the way he had of stepping on the Lords' toes and working their nerves, Nieraan had risen through the ranks. He'd been hand-picked by Renata to a role of making sure that the Sith that needed training and lacked masters got proper instruction.

He wasn't yet everything that he could be, but he was already more than most fools could ever dream to be.

The woman would do well to learn that, and learn it quickly.

"So if you don’t mind, I have power to search and Jedi to kill."

"Is that so?" Nieraan lifted a black brow quizzically. The woman was starting to approach him, with the obvious intent of making him move out of the way. It was a game of chicken--one that she would've been wise to avoid starting.

But, since she had, it would have to follow to its logical conclusion, until he was satisfied with letting her in, or until one of them backed down.

He stood up straight, still with that amused half-grin on his face, and let his arms fall to the side. He wasn't a fool, despite the way he sometimes acted; his sense were honed, and he could tell the woman was strong. But so too was he, and compared to his mother, Kamirille, she was nothing.

"Ah, ah, ah..." he chided, holding out a hand that suddenly held a lightsaber hilt with a green blade sprouting from its tip. "I don't remember saying that you could go in, dearie."

Either she could stop walking, or she could walk into the lightsaber. Nieraan, however wasn't going to budge, and for all the evident looseness about his form, he was alert, ready to act if she tried something.

"Your boldness is intriguing, but I haven't made a decision on you quite yet. And only a fool walks into the Temple unwelcomed." Nieraan tilted his head slightly, lifting a brow again. "Or are you a fool now?"

[Dean]

As she closed in on him with her own initiated game of chicken she fed her anger with every step she closed in on him. She had to actually keep back a gnarl after a few steps as her anger was boiling up inside her. She could now actually feel the force flowing through her, doing everything she wanted it to do. As a jedi she would have let it pass through her and make it dictate her actions. This was not however the action someone using the dark side took. Her head was clear through all this anger.

When she came into his range she heard a familiar sound. A green lightsaber was pointed at her and she took one more step. She could smell ozone, this also was a familiar smell. Time and time again some opponent had been arrogant enough to take up his or her blade against her and until now she had always survived. With a little jerk of the force, subtle yet firm, her own curved lightsaber lay in her hand and she ignited it.

The crimson red blade sprang from it and she automatically took the opening stance of soresu. Soresu was the most defending form of lightsaber combat. She was still thinking clearly and could feel the energy of both their blades in the force. This was how a force user dueled. Blades didn’t even really matter, sure they had to do the cutting and carving but the real fight took place way beyond that.

Still this was not Ara’s strength, she had some kind of mastery in the combat form but it wasn’t her favorite, this is why she could already forsee the outcome of this battle.

’’Not foolish nor bold, calculated. If you are going to let me pass do it. If you aren’t going to let me pass…try your luck’’

[Rugs]

A lightsaber hilt slapped into an empty palm. Nieraan knew the woman's counter to his answer. A sanguine blade hissed to life. Suddenly, in the span of a few heartbeats, the situation had elevated to a point of no return.

The tension in the air between them grew thick enough to cut.

"Not foolish nor bold, calculated. If you are going to let me pass do it. If you aren’t going to let me pass…try your luck."

Nieraan could hear guards at the top of the steps behind him raising their weapons. He lifted a hand, casually waving them to stillness. He would handle this, and he would handle it alone.

A flick of his wrist had the viridian saber whirling back toward him, blade dying as it burned through the arid air. A fluid motion had the lightsaber clipped securely to his waist again, even as a short, controlled pull of the Force brought the other two into his hands.

He put their ends together, twisted them with a subtle click. The two sabers, once separate, were now linked, obviously a saberstaff. It was a way of fighting that Nieraan mastered, and knew as intimately as a lover, but it was not his preferred style, not his true love. But it would be enough; of that, he was certain.

He returned his attention to the woman.

His honed senses felt deeper than her outer appearance. She was fueling herself with a quiet anger, probably eager to put Nieraan in his place. He could feel the Force flowing through her, much as it was beginning to surge into his own being..

All the while, his trained eye immediately picked up her stance, noted the way her blade was held close to her body, watched for subtle movements that would speak of an attack. It was a stance typical of Soresu; likely meant that she intended to wait for him to strike first.

Nieraan made his observations quickly, in the span of a second or so. One corner of his lip turned up slightly.

"Try my luck," he asked, voice edged with wry amusement. "I think that you misunderstand the situation, dear." He motioned over his shoulder with his lightsaber hilt as he activated a vivid dark blue blade. "I'm not the one trying to get in there, am I?"

Nieraan lowered his weapon and grinned predatorily, showing both of his long, sharp canines. The second blade ignited, burning the color of dark, liquid gold. The Force continued to rush through him, at once both filling him with life and threatening to tear him away to oblivion if he lost control.

His muscles tightened subtly, preparing for motion. His senses sharpened to a razor's edge. He made an ultimatum.

"No, no, that'd be you, dearie. So you try your luck. You want what's in there, then come and take it or get back in that ship and leave."

He hadn't expected to start a fight with the woman when he saw her approaching, but if she wanted evaluation through fire, then who was he to deny her?

[Dean]

Ara gnarled at him as her anger reached a high point. She felt the force in her was build up and could be released in a violent wave anytime she wanted. The boy didn’t want to attack him and with her defending stance she wanted out of the stalemate that would follow on this. Soresu was a powerful tool but it was way too passive.

The boy had whipped out another lightsaber and linked them with eachother. She had seen this technique before and wasn’t overcome by surprise, while it was an uncommon form of lightsaber combat it wasn’t unique. She actually had a surprise in her lightsaber for him that was maybe even a little more uncommon.

She opened the palm of her left hand and trust in forward as she released a wave of dark side energy that was strong enough to make deep cracks in the ground as the wave progressed with a force that could easily bring down trees that were in its path. On korriban this was ofcourse not a concern since the barren lands had next to no vegetation.

Ara jumped after the wave in order to get to the temple stairs. Her lightsaber still ignited in case the canine boy had questions left unanswered.

[Rugs]

The Force whispered quiet warnings to Nieraan's consciousness as the energy in the woman continued to build up. She was planning something; even if he hadn't issued a challenge to force her hand, intent and desire to strike at him burned in the woman's presence as brightly as Korriban's sun did in the sky.

He felt the pressure of energy rise within her. The corner of his lip twitched and the Force rushed to his command.

The woman made her statement.

She lifted her hand and a torrent of the Force came rushing out from her. Nieraan raised his own and made a counter statement. The wave was powerful; that much he could tell immediately. Perhaps the woman sought to overwhelm him with raw power, end the fight quickly. With any other Sith, that might have worked.

If he'd been trained by anyone but Kamirille, that might've worked.

But he hadn't, and his mother, as much as he despised her and her abusive training, had made him powerful in his own right, and forced him to know how to fight smart. Preserve your own energy while your foe sent out blast after blast. Use the fact that he was built to take punishment as well as he could dish it out, and to last in a prolonged fight.

Fight smart.

As the wave approached, the Force left Nieraan's hand. It was a blast of his own, strong in its own right, but it was focused, rather than broad. It was a wedge of energy, and as it met the broad front of the woman's attack, it forced it off course, rather than stop it. The attack flowed by either side of Nieraan, with little more to say for it than making his hair whip around as he began to spring into motion.

The woman leapt, her target obviously the stairs. Nieraan wasn't having that. With one hand he reached out, commanding the Force to take hold of her with a quick, hard jerk back in an attempt to pluck her from the air. Regardless of where she came down--on stairs or Valley floor--he closed on her, gold and blue blades of his staff humming violently as they sliced through the desert air.

[Dean]

The brat had not moved and she could feel her force wave being diverted. Not that it mattered, she had accomplished her goal by getting herself further then one foot away. The effective range of her lightsaber was somewhere between one and two meters and she had that distance now, she had way more than that.

She was in mid air and didn’t even really care about where she would land. All her fighting had learned her that she wasn’t probably going to get to the stairs that easy, certainly someone that deflected her force wave wouldn’t let her simply walk up the stairs. Her secondary goal however, had been accomplished to. She had easily shifted the fight into the dog boy wanting to keep her from entering the castle.

She could tell this by the power of the force he commanded to pull her back to the ground. She did not fight this force. Even better, she added to it as she stabilized and saw the boy swinging his saberstaff moved to intercept him. Like all lightsaber battles this would take great precision and with her curved hilt she planned to take all the advantage she had and put it into the fight.

At the last second as she saw his blade moving in she accelerated the force with which she was closing in on the boy. She used a classic djem sho move. She brought her blade down with the speed of her fall and her own strength added to it in an overhead slash that was intended to cut through the lightsaber of the boy and after that sever his arm from his left shoulder.

[Rugs]

The girl was clever. Nieraan noticed her righting herself in the air while he closed the distance to the point where she'd land. Using the motion of his pull to lead into an attack was a clever option, one that a less experienced foe might never have seen at all.

It was confirmation of the knowledge that he was dealing with someone capable here. That was good, in Nieraan's mind; a good fight was far more entertaining than a lopsided beating.

As the distance between them whittled away, and Nieraan brought his blades to bear, he saw the woman raising her hands over her, felt the Force whisper another warning to his focused mind. Two hands on her hilt, preparation for a powerful blow that'd use the momentum of her movement for added force behind it.

He adjusted.

His left foot planted into the dusty earth and his right moved out wide as he brought it forward. His weight flowed slightly to the right with the movement, pulling his body out of line with the attack in a subtle sidestep.

As he moved, the Force fed strength to his body and his staff's blade whirred in an overhanded spin to the incoming attack. Blue met red with a violent sizzle and he knocked the attack just enough away to avoid hitting him. It was a close thing--close enough that he felt the heat of the woman's blade as it passed near his exposed shoulder--but intentionally so. Let the momentum of the woman's strike keep her going while he continued to flow into counter.

His left foot followed and crossed behind his right, and was followed again by his right, moving him further toward the woman's left side. His lightsaber hummed lustily as he broke his blade away from hers and brought the staff around and about, gold searing a burning trail through the air toward her back.

[Dean]

She clashed with his blade and got pushed in a forward momentum and saw that the ground was close. For a normal human this would have been the end. She could feel his other blade coming down to her and reacted on pure fighting instinct fueled by the awesome power of the force. She shifted her lightsaber into a backhand position and blocked his assault with her right arm. With her left shoulder she changed the fall into a roll.
She jumped up about a two meters away from her opponent and assumed her fighting position, dropping all the pretense she took the djem sho opening position and used the force to fuel her fighting power.

She could hear her blade humming and she felt as if that humming was herself, her blade was just another part of what she was, connected with her through the force the blade was her and she was her blade.

She took a step putting her weight on her right foot and went into the attack her blade did the work as she was using the force to guide her. She saw the crimson red blade swing in a wide diagonal arc aimed to the left shoulder of the man and curving down to his lightsaber hilt. If she would kill him there was no doubt they would shoot her before she made it back to the ship.

[Rugs]

Nieraan fell back a step, readjusting and setting himself as the woman's retreat allowed a momentary break in the action. His saberstaff whirled around him as he settled again, keeping himself held loosely alert as he waited to see what the woman would try next.

So far, despite the shortness of their scuffle, he was pleased that he'd shown so little of the tricks he held up his proverbial sleeves. A little bit of his ability with the Force and some rudimentary counters with his lightsabers. Not bad.

Not bad at all.

He watched the woman set down a few paces away from her and take a stance he immediately recognized as one of Djem So. It was a powerful form, and one of Neiraan's favorite to fight against.

He was impressed with her, so far; while he didn't feel himself to be at any particular disadvantage, she was showing herself to be skilled--certainly more so than the usual hopeful that came passing through. And he was certainly pleased with the bits of information he'd managed to glean on her so far from their fight.

Nieraan decided that he was close to making his decision on what to do with her. Very close. But he needed to see just a little more...

The woman began to attack.

Nieraan noticed her weight shifting forward, indicative of her preparing to put her weight behind a blow; it was a common trait of Djem So, though he was surprised she telegraphed herself so freely. Perhaps she'd lost herself in the motions of the battle.

Whatever the case, her blade began to flick out toward him in a wide stroke, and Nieraan made his counter. Rather than play more passive games, he became aggressive. He stepped into her attack, bringing himself past her guard as his saberstaff twisted in his hands to meet her blow. The gold blade came up vertically, stopping her strike out past his striated shoulder, and he continued to move forward.

His foot licked out cleanly, coming down in a sudden punitive strike to try to stomp onto her forward foot while her weight was still in an undesirable place for defense. His weapon continued to twist around, and the blue blade of his staff, already in the clear by virtue of being on the opposite end of the blade with which he'd blocked her strike, came up racing diagonally up from below to try to strike her in the side.

[Dean]

She did what she had expected a darksider to do. He moved in to meet her attack and tried to make an aggressive movement with his own blade. The thing was ofcourse, that because of his saberstaff this meant that the blade with which he had defended pulled back and her lightsaber came free to move.

She saw him move in for the attack and decided in that split second she would meet that attack head on. She slammed her lightsaber down in a violent motion and met his blade, the force gave her arms the energy needed to block his attack. With her lightsaber at her left side pointing down and using the momentum of the block in her advantage she jumped up and aimed her knee for his ribcage. A potentially lethal move but she decided that she had nothing to lose anymore. The only way to make it out of here alive was to win. Getting cut down would mean death and cutting him down would mean death by sniper. The way for her to get out alive was to win and not wound him.

This is what she realized in the half a second it took to aim for his ribs.

[Rugs]

Red and blue clashed loudly as Nieraan's attack carried through. Even as his blade swung into the woman's his body remained in motion; where strength was the truth at heart of Djem So, movement was what made Nieraan's style his own.

That wasn't to say he lacked for strength, of course. Not at all.

He was moving forward and to the side as his strike come through, his feet moving lightly carrying him forward and right as his body turned to keep the woman to his front to some degree.

As her strike stopped his own and pushed his blade down, he answered, breaking the contact of his own volition and using the momentum given to him to make a strike. Her forcing his blue blade down brought the gold one arcing up, and he pushed it forward in an immediate counter, keeping the hilt low and near his side as it had been so that the blade could hit her square in the chest.

But as his blade began to race out before him toward gold-haired woman, he felt the Force whisper a warning to her, saw her body lower slightly in preparation to move again.

For some reason, she began to jump. At him. He could guess the intention of her motion, with a knee rising out in front of her in an attempt to strike, but the nature of his weapon meant that her downward block had the gold blade back up in front of him, starting to move forward in his answering stroke.

Right into the path through which her jump would lead her.

Had their sabers been set to training intensity, Nieraan wouldn't have cared, but his, at least, was not. If his blade struck the woman, it'd rend her leg open from knee to hip and burn through the bottom of her torso. It would be fatal.

A fitting punishment for whatever train of thought she had, perhaps, but hardly appropriate for the moment. Immediately, Nieraan broke off and moved.

The Force gave him speed as his twisting stopped and he pushed off to move back and out of her path as she lept. His left foot was already planted, and he swung his right out and behind him, pulling his body out of her way. He kept his weapon in front of him as she passed him, keeping one blade pressed against hers to ensure his own safety as she moved through where he'd been standing a half a heartbeat before.

"That's enough," he called sternly, sounding for a moment like the training instructor that he was within the Temple's walls. "Tell me, do you always leap at the first open saber you see, or has five minutes in the sun already addled you too much to think?"

The Firrerreo snorted, obviously annoyed at something. Up until that point, he'd been pleased with the woman's ability. But now? Now there was a feeling of disappointment that lingered in the back of his mind. For a moment, he considered reversing his decision, but he held steady; she wasn't the only Sith that'd made a stupid mistake in combat.

"You're lucky I see use for you," he deactivated the blue blade, though the gold remained in case the woman tried something stupid, "or you'd be laying on the ground with the rocks and the sun to keep you company."

He unscrewed his staff and returned the deactivated blade to his hilt. "What is your name, woman?"

[Dean]

He backed up from her knee and swirled around backwards. He didn’t seize the opportunity to kill her. She had a grim smile on her lips as he deactivated his lightsaber and clicked it back on his belt. He could have ripped her apart with one little movement from his mighty weapon and let it be. From what she had read this was not how the sith did things.

She on the other hand felt a personal feeling of victory flowing through her body. In the end fear of death and death itself was just as much of a chain as love was. She had accepted that and embraced it as if it were her own words and not just the code that she chose to live by. Being held back by things like recruiting for a cause, any cause she also viewed like just another thing binding you to other people. The only thing to bind yourself to would be the force itself and even then that bond was meant to steer the force. Command it as if it was your own will and not carelessly ride it.

She deactivated her lightsaber and put it back in her side. The anger in her body didn’t flow away but was stored, to be unleashed another time when she needed to draw on these emotions again to fight other battles.

He ofcourse thought of her actions as the acts of a madman and quickly came up with some accusation of running into lightsabers. She knew however that this stalemate had been the right move. She decided to be humble and accept his scolding.

’’I panicked, you are without a doubt one of the best adversaries I have ever had the pleasure to fight against’’

Let him wallow in victory, she couldn’t care less as long as she could get power. He asked her name after berating her fighting capabilities. She again decided to go along with it and feign obedience.

’’ My name is Aarati Irawagbon and I am here to learn the ways of the sith’’

The only thought that came to her at that moment was ’’ But not from you’’

[Rugs]

"I panicked, you are without a doubt one of the best adversaries I have ever had the pleasure to fight against."

Nieraan snorted roughly as he killed his second lightsaber and clipped it in its place on his waist. "Save your flattery for someone who will listen, woman." Her words were sweet, but the Force told another story. The Firrerreo was many things, but he was not a fool; he could feel the smug satisfaction she felt.

No doubt she was pleased with herself. She'd learn soon enough. And if they crossed blades again, she wouldn't get the same mercy--a mercy she'd surely need if he brought the whole of his ability to bear on her.

He began to climb the steps, with little puffs of dust rising up with each footfall. The woman gave her name and some canned answer that he heard, but didn't listen to.

"Follow me," he said plainly, not bothering to look to see if she did.

She either would, or she'd be left outside.

When he reached the top of the stairs, Nieraan lifted an arm and called a water canteen to him from where he'd been sitting on the balcony railing up above. It got stuffed casually into a pocket on the leg of his pants as he continued to walk.

He stopped when he reached the great double doors that lead into the Temple. They were tall and thick, carved from heavy sandstone from the Valley's heart. The guards in them moved aside as Nieraan glanced breifly at the woman, Aarati, out of the corner of his eye.

"I will take you inside and make you official." He began to walk again. The Force reached ahead of him, easing the doors open despite his arms still hanging at his side. "It shouldn't take long."

Doors open, he led Aarati through the entrance corridor. It was long, dimly lit, with high ceilings. The flickering light caught in Nieraan's yellow eyes as they walked.

"One thing you should know," Nieraan said, glancing sidelong at her, "is that this Order is a brotherhood. The Overlord believes in some degree of unity of purpose among us." He shrugged dismissively.

Nieraan cared little for the rivaling philosophies that sometimes ran rampant in the Sith's ranks. He was a member for his own purposes, not for Iniquitous'. But if that meant he had to play along to get what he wanted, he would play along, even while he and his companions worked to find their own way in the shadows.

"Do with the knowledge what you will. Agree or don't; I don't give a damn. But don't say you weren't aware if you do something stupid."

[Dean]

Ara wasn’t used to being shut up by anyone. She had been a jedi master and no one would tell her to shut up. She felt anger growing inside her again but decided not to act on it and let it slide for now. The dog boy would meet his fate later, she would make sure of that. She vowed that much to herself.

He started to walk the stairs and she followed him even before his arrogant order to follow him. She caught up to him walked next to him in a matter of seconds while they were climbing the stairs. She simply refused to fall in line behind him. The thought that a dog should fall in line behind a human did cross her mind and she smiled grimly again.

He used to force to get his bottle of water for him and they were standing in front of the large temple doors. It didn’t look quite as old as the tombs in the valley and the power emanating from it wasn’t as deep as the valley either. Still even with her weaker sensing power she could still feel it pulsating out from the temple. The guards moved aside and the doors opened. They were opened with the force.

He started talking to her again about the dark lord believing in unity amongst the brotherhood. She felt and involuntary shiver run down her spine on the notion of unity among beings that should only be focused on gaining power for themselves but she decided she would go along with it until she could possibly seize the power for herself.

’’I understand your masters sentiment. How long before I get better company?

She asked knowing full well that she was rude.

[Rugs]

{I am on a call talking to people >_> quality may suffer}

"I understand your masters sentiment. How long before I get better company?"

It was so painfully apparent how much she wanted an insult to stick, how much she wanted to get under his skin. Yet her efforts, plain as they were, only amused the Firrerreo. He chuckled softly, voice echoing faintly in the elongated, empty corridor, and shook his head so that his shaggy hair swayed gently.

"You will leave my company when I decide you're ready to, Initiate," Nieraan said wryly, looking at Aarati out of the corner of his eye. He shook his head again, wearing a little grin that showed the tips of his canines again. "Unless you've changed your mind, in which case I can kindly show you the door.

"After all, you're the one that showed up and then said you weren't a hopeful to join. I'm doing you a favor."

Let her get mad and sulk. She wouldn't be the first disgruntled Sith, and she surely wasn't going to be the last. Besides, Nieraan had further plans for her, but they'd be revealed in short order.

The corridor widened slightly into a T-intersection with another hallway. The crossing hall stretched on either way, with various other corridors breaking off along its length. A few other Sith, mostly Initiates were milling about, going this way and that about their business. Nieraan ignored them and pushed through a further set of doors, leading the woman out into a small courtyard.

"Instructor Aurellius!" A youthful voice called nearly the moment Nieraan stepped outside. He recognized who it was without needing to look--Ferin, a lanky, freckle-faced youth with a cybernetic left eye. A frequent patron of Nieraan's services. Dull as a rock, but with potential. "When can I have another session with you?"

Nieraan bit back a sigh. The kid still had bruises from his last training session. "Later, Ferin. I'm busy."

"Oh," Ferin blinked, noticing the woman, "um, right. Sorry."

The boy wandered off to find something else to do, and Nieraan shook his head a little, leading Aarati further across the courtyard. On the far side, he led her inside again, toward the quartermaster, where she'd be properly induced into the Order.

"There are three people you need to know about. Iniquitious, Renata, and Eurachis." Nieraan glanced at her as he lead her around a corner. "Iniquitous is the top of the chain here."