Pain's Enigma (Apillis)

[Jounin]

The dry wastes of Korriban crunch under Vina's durasteel boots. She narrows her eyes at the abysmal scenery. Vina never really liked returning to planets, but with no luck in finding a master among the other planets she's visited, it left didn't leave her much of a choice. In hindsight staying on Korriban would have most likely been her best option, but she became too restless and couldn't stay another second on that planet...and now she's back.

"Ugh this place is so boring, wonder if I could torture some initiates while they're in tombs. I doubt anyone will care if they don't witness it" Vina mumbled to herself. Deciding upon her choice of activity to do to pass the time she heads towards the nearest tomb. Only ten feet into the entrance she spots a meek looking initiate. "Perfect." She purrs.

Grabbing the initiate by his scruffy brown hair, she begins to drag him deeper into the tomb. The boy lets out a yelp and Vina quickly clasps over his mouth with her hand. "I swear if you scream too loud I'll just have you kill you." She snaps at him.

Arriving at a small chamber, after a quick sweep for monsters or other people, she begins her torture session. Throwing the initiate to the the ground, she establishes a mental connection then stomps his knees so he couldn't run away. A cry of agony echos though the tomb. "I told you to stay quiet! Now bite your tongue and don't scream." The boy gulps and follows the order.

Vina crouches down taking the initiate's training blade. She gently runs it across his body, just enough to cause pain, but not enough to kill him. He fidgets and squirms while biting down harder as Vina brings the blade closer and closer to his neck. Once she reached his collar bone his movements suddenly stopped and she lost connection. "Damn, he must've bit too hard and choked on his blood. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted." She drops the training blade and began to make her leave.

[Apillis]

"And what did you gain from that?", a husky feminine voice uttered from behind the young Sith, after the young Sith had killed what looked like to be a young initiate.

There stood Hervor, dressed in worn out white military pants, pant legs tucked into old and scuffed military officer's boots, a simple black halter top, and as ever her very old Jedi archivist cloak utterly worn and tattered from battle and years upon years of wear and tear still stained with carbon scoring and blood from battles no long passed as the cloak was now slightly more of a grey than white as it originally had been. Though the left side of the cloak was largely in frayed edges with massive pieces of it looking as though it had been incited.

Standing there with that natural intense fiery eyed gaze of hers, arms crossed under chest. She possessed a willowy, lean frame though had a clear athletic muscle definition to her. Slung across her chest is a satchel with holocrons of her own making contained within. It is not too uncommon a sight to see Hervor moving in and out of the Sith Temple to walk the surface of Korriban to its varying tombs to study and record her findings and teachings up holocrons to be stored within the Sith Temple archives to replenish what had been lost by looters, raiders, and the thoughtless.

But right now, in this moment, her eyes remained fixated upon the young Sith before her like a teacher awaiting an answer from their student to the question they had posed to them.

[Jounin]

Vina jumps back at the sight of the new presence. What she hates the most about places like Korriban and Dromund Kass is that the darkside is so strong on those planets that sensing other sith become a challenge. Sneering, she sizes the pesky intruder up. Vina notices that the sith seemed older and war torn. "Blast! she must be at least a lord...just my luck" Vina grumbles to herself.

Her contemptuous face shifts to one of annoyance. "What do I hope to gain? Now that is quite the question. I hope to gain pleasure out of this. It's a shame though that these initiates are so weak now." She glances at the corpse in disappointment, then back at the woman. "I'm sure as a fellow sith you know the pleasure of another's pain."

Vina was clenching her fists tight. This was not a sign of her normal intimidation, but more of an unconscious expression of her wariness. Vina wasn't stupid, she knew when she is clearly out matched. Now her fate all rests in this sith's hands and she doesn't like it at all.    

[Apillis]

Hervor maintained a wooden expression--eyelids half open as those fiery eyes of hers continued to stare straight into the young Sith's, "Depends on the circumstance.", she simply replied, "Pain is a pathway to power, whether through another's or your own, whether that anguish is physical, mental... spiritual. We all have our scars and oft we can find our greatest strength and power comes through ripping them wide open again as if they were fresh wounds, and feeding on that agony. Whether or not it's pleasurable... is dependent upon the individual."

Her eyes finally turned away from the young Sith's to look upon the young initiate, "Once upon a time, I targeted those the boy's age to suffer greatly before their deaths... but they weren't my real prey. Why would they be? Look at that boy there--weak, pathetic. There's nothing to gain from such a death by itself. It was their masters--the ones who trained them--raised them since they were knee high--whom they were bound to through bonds by way of the Force. I was striking at their masters' hearts through them, and it was then I struck at their masters. My real prey. And it was in my will challenging those masters and those masters' suffering as they were broken physically, mentally, and spiritually that I drew pleasure. Because there was purpose, there was challenge, and thereby power to be had. Otherwise, young one, what's the point?"

Those fiery irises snapped back to the young Sith, "Do you understand?", she questioned like a teacher seeing if their lesson was understood.


((Edit: Fixed typo.))

[Jounin]

Vina's eyes dance with mirth, while a grin began to curl up on her lips. What the older Sith was saying brought her to an epiphany. Not only could she feed her desire to torture, but rise in the ranks of the Sith as well. This woman seemed knowledgeable, just the kind of knowledge that Vina needs, the kind that Lord Hexus hid away from her in the name of fear.

Making eye direct contact she responds. "I completely understand, there is no use on wasting my time on petty games, especially when I have a chance to gain power." All the ideas of pleasure and power mixing unconsciously spread her grin wider. She almost shutters in joy thinking about emotionally and physically ripping apart a Sith lord. 

[Apillis]

((Sorry for taking forever in responding! x.x ))

"Try not to focus too much on the emotional and visceral aspects of the dark side", Hervor uttered, which she found amusing to even herself making that statement as she--herself largely thrives on giving into her own impulses, even succumbing to dark rage so thoroughly that she becomes little more than something akin to a primeval feral beast running entirely on its murderous instincts. However, that was largely in regards to battle and warfare--the aftermath of which she tends to turn to a different extreme, of which she gave voice to in the next moment with the young Sith before her.

"The dark side is more than just rage and indulgences of brutality", she further commented, "What is death without the unending silence that follows it? What is rage, hate, despair, fear but little more than shadows cast by the light of moon within the vastness and infinite expanse of darkness of space? Stillness, detachment, silence, apathy--the cold chill of a winter's breeze is as much a part of and as powerful of an aspect of the dark side than any other of the passionate impulses one can draw from the dark through their inner-strength--their will."

Hervor paused for a second before then asking, "Who were the ones responsible for your training, young Sith?"