Hymn of Ascension [7 years ago]

[Meira]

She stood on the balcony, overlooking the city and the jungle below. The palace tower was the highest point in the only real patch of civilization on the planet. Looking down, she could see where buildings and walls did their best to keep the forest at bay. But the vines and trees -and the creatures that called it all home- were a constant reminder that the order the Sith Empire wished to impose would not be accepted without considerable opposition. And yet, the Empire persisted and slowly pushed the chaos of the jungle back and back. Fitting, she thought, as she surveyed it all. Renata felt very much like Kaas City; a beacon of order and control, surrounded by predators waiting for their opportunity to strike. She pushed ever outward, growing her influence and the reach of the Sith, but always at the peril of collapse.

She turned from the railing, retreating back indoors from the heavy, humid air. Her eyes flitted over a chrono display on the wall, noting that it was very near time to begin. Already, the aristocrats would be assembling in the grand hall. She could feel, far above them as she was, how hungry they were. Many believed this might be their moment to separate from the Sith Order for good. Iniquitous might have been premature in aligning the two entities as early as he had. The optics had not been ideal to start with. Subsequently disappearing many of the prominent dissenting members of the oligarchy had not exactly had the effect of charming the rest. It had publicly worked, of course, but Renata could sense the resentment that many of the aristocrats still carried. If the Order was to truly assume control of the Empire as a whole, something would have to be given in return.

Mysterious as ever, the Force had presented Renata with just the opportunity she needed to do just that. She and Novus had discussed the plan extensively, dissecting the details and riddling through the holes. In the end, it was an elegantly simple affair, with only one real flaw. But Renata was confident that she could handle Eurachis afterward. He was far away on one of his campaigns. News of the gathering had been sent to him, of course. But it had been sent with little time for him to interfere. He would not like having been left in the dark, but Renata would just have to deal with that after. Today, she needed all her focus to complete the task at hand.

She crossed the main room of the suite, coming to a stop next to a krennel wood dresser. Opening the top drawer, she retrieved the black box she'd brought with her from Korriban. She opened the box to reveal the necklace inside, laid out on red velvet. The necklace was large, meant to drape on her shoulders. The black Krayt Dragon pearls gleamed in the light, interspersed with ivory white claws, smoothed and polished to a shine. All were secured with dark silver fixtures to a thick chain. It was a heavy piece, but it was a regal weight. She would need it today.

A knock came at the door. Renata waved her hand toward it and it opened soundlessly. A servant stepped in, informing Renata with a bowed head that all had assembled and that the prisoner was being brought up to the grand hall. Renata called the woman over and bade her assist in draping the necklace onto her shoulders. With its weight secured, Renata turned and made her way to the turbolift which stood open and waiting for her. The descent was a quick one. When those doors opened again, she stepped into the nearly empty entrance hall. Ahead, the main doors to the grand hall were closed. Two guards stood to either side, ready to open the doors for her. Six more guards came to attention at the sight of her, and moved to take up positions to either side of her as she stepped forward. At a nod of her head, the guards at the doors opened them, and Renata's procession moved forward into the grand hall. If all went according to plan, she thought, they would soon be calling this the throne room.

[Neology]

[googlefont="News Cycle"]

It was a hard thing, striking such a weighty bargain with Renata. All Sith, all Jedi knew that trusting the wrong person could be deadly and the Dark Lady … Well, she was truly a mind rapist without compare. Three days in the cell, inhibitor around her neck, had left Novus with very little to do but sift and wonder. Was this plan really mine? Will she kill me after all? It had to be a tempting thought. The Sith were not much for martyrs – the best one could hope for in a cell was an easier death smuggled in during the night. But beyond or in spite of the temptation, Renata had seemed to see the advantage. A game of dejarik where only she could see her kintan strider was one she was very likely to win. To the other players, this was the death gambit. What quarry would the Empress in waiting flush from the grasses? Unfortunately, the disparate halves of the Empire could rarely agree on the game, and much less the particulars of strategy. Dejarik to cu’bikad to fucking checkers … And then there were the worst thoughts. What if Renata left her down here forever. What if she let her dog Zarander come sniffing around. Ten years ago, Novus had thought there was no such thing as a lesser evil. But that was wrong, she knew now. Evil had its relative range just like everything else. They had stripped away the appearances of power. Apprentices and staff scattered as if by a clumsy hand. Assets reclaimed. Creature comforts and the Force itself ripped away. Renata as much as screaming for her noble audience: look at my power, look at this very great fall. When the guards came to collect her at last, Novus was offered a shapeless black gown to wear and no shoes. Her white hair hung in lank clumps. She had slept little and it showed. Still, she smiled at her captors – and moved slowly, formally, purely to irritate them. Until they fairly dragged her along.

[Meira]

There were no trumpets announcing her entrance. No orchestra or drums. There was no need. the din of conversation fell away the instant the doors opened. Several dozen eyes turned as one toward the door, as the informal crowd parted down the middle, giving way to the Dark Lady and her guards. Renata held the silence of the room, her senses reaching out to each mind as she passed through the groups of nobles. She could feel the anger of some, the boredom of others. She could sense those who were here for the spectacle. Underneath them all, faint or obvious, there was a layer of fear. Uncertainty always kindled some level of fear, and Renata pulled against the fear that she felt around her. She stoked it and pulled it into herself, feeling the rush up her spine at the sense of invigoration it gave her.

She reached the head of the room, where a dais raised her up several steps above the gathered nobles. It was a flat, featureless platform, meant for speeches and debate. After today, it would hold her throne. She turned around to face the aristocrats, her guard spreading out between the Dark Lady and the nobles. She stood, fingers intertwined before her and swept her gaze around the room. The silence still hung heavy over them all. She could feel their attention tuning in to her and through the Force she strengthened that connection to them. They would wait with bated breath, eager for her words. When word came through a tiny earpiece that the prisoner was just outside the doors, Renata smiled.

"Noble Houses of the Great Sith Empire," she said as she took one step forward, her voice elevated to carry across the large room, "I thank you for your presence here today. You will stand as witnesses to justice, and to a new era for the Empire."

Renata gestured with one hand toward the large doors at the back of the hall, which then swung open once again, revealing Novus and the guards that flanked her. "I present to you, the Traitor of the Order and the architect of the Doom on Taris."

There were hisses and grumbles of anger and disdain as the aristocrats turned their heads toward the prisoner being brought forward. The crowd parted for her as well, but the distance they gave was less out of deference and more desire to not be near such a creature. Renata, watching all of this, stoked those passions as she had their fear. The energy of the grand hall shifted between anger and fear. And Renata was buoyed by it all, rising up above them all and drinking it in.

She could feel Novus as well, so faint and different a signature than the one Renata had come to know. How weak she seemed, severed from the Force as she was. It could have been so easy, to sweep her from the board, but Renata knew that it would do her more good to grant Novus her wish. Power, after all, was simply influence. Renata could not influence others through sheer physical might, but she could make puppets of lesser minds. And for those with minds too strong for puppetry, Renata was quite skilled in currying favors. It was not an easy thing, hiding a Dark Lady of the Sith. But Renata would do this difficult thing for her friend. And when Renata needed her, her friend would do something difficult in return.

The prisoner's procession stopped two steps up on the dais, enough to raise her slightly so that the gathered aristocrats could see her, but not so high as Darth Renata, who must needs stand above all others this day. The prisoner was turned so that she faced the crowd, Renata standing behind and above her. The Dark Lady lifted both hands, palms upward. Her voice ceased the grumbles from the crowd, returning them to silence once again.

"I bring you this prisoner today as evidence of the Order's commitment to the Empire and our glorious campaign. Know that failure will not go unpunished, even among the Inner Sanctum."

[Neology]

The guards brought her to a halt. It was all the same maze of marble, a richly appointed warren sequestered from the humid jungle and gray weather. It was enough to make you miss places like Korriban and Rhen Var. Novus would have liked a breath of truly dry desert air, for the novelty of something now forbidden. The soon-to-be Empress had a good set of lungs. Her voice carried with a practiced air of showmanship. The words were politically spun bullshit but the content hardly ever mattered. People weren’t so different from animals, reacting as much or more to tone and personal magnetism. And then, of course there was the mind control. Novus couldn’t sense it with the inhibitor on, but as the doors swung open and dozens of unfriendly faces turned to look upon her ... She thought she could see it for just a second. A tension beneath the skin or flatness in the eyes, swiftly subsumed by a very hungry sort of hatred. She had no tool to measure it. If Renata pushed too hard ... Novus hesitated too long. One of the guards struck her in the back of the head with the butt of his service weapon, propelling her forward. She felt damp beneath the hairline, a red nimbus around everything in her vision. Something to hold onto, an anchor. Her escorts delivered her to the Dark Lady. Two steps was less difference than it should have been. Perhaps that explained the lack of shoes? The stone was cold and slick beneath her bare feet. Failure? ”I was brilliant and you fucking know it. My Lady.” Novus muttered under her breath to the only audience within earshot. She tilted her head so that most of her hair fell away from the inhibitor.

[Meira]

They were almost ready. The fear, the anger, and the greed inside each of the nobles gathered for this spectacle combined into the perfect elixir. Renata had been pulling it all into herself, her skin practically burning at the sensation of it. It flooded her lungs when she breathed. She could taste it. But there was still one ingredient missing. If the energy here was allowed to continue unchanged for much longer, it would boil over into chaos. It would have the opposite effect of what was needed. Success depended on a steady hand and perfect timing. She would bring these oligarchs to a fever pitch, and then she would give them what they needed. They would have their blood, in a sense. And at that moment of satiation, she would extract what she needed from them.

Renata's hand came to rest at the back of Novus' neck. The inhibitor collar she wore had indeed suppressed her connection to the force. It was a regrettable, but necessary measure. All had to be convinced, from the prison guards up to Renata's own apprentice. Even Eurachis would need to be fooled. Only four beings in the galaxy would know the truth. Personally, Renata felt like that was two too many, Novus was unwilling to give up her pet project and Nieraan had his own secrets that Renata could hold as collateral. Renata's finger clicked the hidden deactivation switch. The light along the front of the caller remained lit, but Novus would feel the force again.

Of course you were. Renata replied to Novus silently. Her ice blue eyes scanned the room. It was time.

"For her failure at Taris, for her crimes against the Empire, I strip Novus of her title, and I sentence her to death." Renata gripped the hair at the back of Novus' neck, pulling her head back slightly. Her other hand was brought to hover over Novus' throat, fingers flexed. Remember to scream. Renata said through the force. At that moment, Renata channeled all the emotion she had been pulling from the nobles. The air immediately around the two Sith began to vibrate and a shadow seemed to swirl around them. Renata released the energy toward Novus, channeled through her hand in a blast of rage.

[Neology]

There is no death, there is the Force. The low frequency hum of the collar, pressed right up to the base of her skull, flickered out beneath Renata’s impersonal touch. In the absence of it was pure noise, a sudden rush of sensory data that came in all at once. A tide that washed in and took everything with it, worse almost than the silence than had been. Novus staggered a half step forward before Renata wrenched her back by her hair, that other white hand hovering over her throat. A perverse embrace; in more than ten years they had never stood so close together. It didn’t hurt too bad at first. Certainly not enough to make a Sith Lord scream though she did grit her teeth and groan. Novus was coming back to herself, digging a shallow little scratch across the palm of her left hand with the thumbnail of the right. There was something she needed there, a thorn for Renata to catch on. With effort, Novus guided her thoughts to the proper channels. Flash flood rain through drought-dry stream beds. Silver fire spiraling up and then gone. Somewhere Levin Caelum was on the other side of it, very distant since Taris. She would never forgive him for what he had done to Vance but her own fury was a cold, tempered thing. Nothing at all like this, this vital step that she and Renata had never been able to properly rehearse. Everything poured mercilessly through that weak connection, all the base emotions of the Empire’s best vultures so carefully cultivated for this purpose. The Force Bond Her skin smoked like wet tinder for a few agonizing moments that felt eternal inside her head. Novus bit straight through her lower lip first and then screamed until she was out of air. Her left arm went limp and nerveless as half a dozen old hurts reopened, vivid against her pale skin. Abruptly, the rest of it went up like a quick match fuse. The thinking part of her mind seemed to trail along behind, uncertain as her body fell heavily from the steps. The Force shall free me.

[Meira]

It all must have looked very good to the nobles. As Renata channeled their emotion through herself and into Novus, she could feel their anger and fear slowly give way to a cruel satisfaction. Where Renata's hand touched Novus' skin, she had found that connection she needed to root out the last true barrier in their plan. Renata rode the energy through the pathways in Novus' mind, guided by the other Sith to that point of connection. She burned and tore along the way, severing any lingering echo of the Bond. The outward assault on Novus was nothing. Smoke and mirrors for idiots. It was this inward razing that would do the true damage. This would be why Novus screamed.

And she did scream. Novus held out nobly. She put on a good show. But once Renata found that core, that place that had been given to another, there was no more pretense. Renata unleashed the full force of the energy she'd been collecting, along with a measure of her own power into that spot. From there, it would ripple outward. Through every synapse, nerve, and muscle fiber that ever remembered Levin Caelum, a purifying inferno spread. It was not the memories that Renata purged, though those might be lost for some time after, but the very strands of the force that connected the two, regardless of the lightyears between them. Something that could hold across time and space was a powerful thing, and Renata had not been entirely sure that she could sever it. She knew she could not do so alone. Not even with Eurachis' help could she have done it. Perhaps with the help of the other Sith Lords, but that would destroy the secrecy needed. So it was, instead, decided to use the noble houses of the Sith Empire. The Oligarchy, for once, would be useful. Even now, their very life force was being drained along with their emotions. Much longer, and they would start to notice.

But Novus lost consciousness as the last fibers of the connection were burned away. Her body became limp and heavy. Goodbye Novus, Renata whispered as she guided the body to the steps, preventing any more injury before standing back tall and facing the nobles. Through the force, she signaled Aurelius to come and collect Novus' body. Now was the crucial moment, and she could not pause or delay in any way.

"That is the justice of the Sith." she said, stepping down to the floor level and moving into the crowd of nobles. She still held a connection to each of them. All that emotion that had been expended left them open, primed for what would come next. She pulled their minds toward herself. All eyes followed her as she moved among them. Some of the more vulnerable even stepped in her direction. She was now the star around which they all orbited. Her voice was their gravity, her will was their own. "But the failure of Taris could have, should have been avoided. The failure of Taris is the failure of a false Empire. Today, you will right that wrong. Today you will create the Sith Empire, not just in name, but in true fashion."

Renata, seeing that the dais was now cleared, moved swiftly back toward the raised platform. In her wake, several nobles stumbled after her. These beings would push toward the front of the crowd, which all now swarmed around the dais, eyes lifted upward, mouths slightly open and ready to call out to her. Renata could feel every heartbeat, every shallow breath. Her own heart raced in the exhilaration of the moment, of the power she wielded. If she so wished, she could force them all to their knees. She could make them lie flat on their bellies and lick the stone. And they would praise her for it. But she did not need to force them to do anything. Renata had stoked their rage and then satisfied them with blood. They were hers, willingly.

Stepping up onto the dais, Renata turned and looked out over them, raising her hands up and out as if prepared to embrace them all. She drew in a breath and nearly shook at the power coursing through her. "Today, you declare the name of your Empress, uniting the Order and the nobility into the true Sith Empire!"

"Empress Renata!" shouted one noble, rushing forward so quickly that one of Renata's guards had to step in his path and hold him back. Soon, his cry was echoed by a handful of other nobles, and then more. Her name soon echoed through the room, repeated, chanted, exalted. Her name.

[Rugs]

Written with Fromikeable

It was strange, the way a fully-armored man could blend to insignificance in the midst of the aristocracy crammed together to watch the “execution” of Darth Novus. Yet there Nieraan stood, on the wall to the right of the dais, with a clear view of the whole affair.

Renata had approached him a few days ago about the affair. The execution, as it turned out, was not an execution at all. It was a show, to appease the blood-hungry aristocracy, move Novus to a new position and life, and cement Renata’s claim to the Imperial throne all in one go.

Nieraan was initially surprised that Renata came to him rather than her apprentice, but after some thought, the choice made sense. Zarander was a gossip, when he wanted to be, and while Nieraan liked the Zelosian well enough, he wouldn’t go so far as to say he trusted him.

But Nieraan knew the value of secrets, and was already comfortable with his position of power in the Order. What’s more, Renata already knew his secrets, and was the one person who could sweep away all he’d worked to build—his sanctuary—with a wave of her fingers.

So here he was, playing a part in this charade, this grand spectacle that the aristocracy ate from the palm of Renata’s hand like starving children scrapping for food.

But he had to admit, the show was striking. No one else in the room not on the dais could feel what happened between the two women as he could. Nor could anyone but Renata feel the near-staggering swell of raw emotion from the crowd as Novus fell, “dead” to the ground.

It was almost intoxicating.

Nieraan drew his senses in, buffering himself against the battering exuberance as the aristocracy declared Renata empress. The show was over. The deed was done.

But my part is just getting started.

No one knew him, covered from head to toe as he was. He seemed merely an executioner’s assistant as he emerged from the side of the great hall to scoop Novus’ body from the ground and lift her over his shoulder.

With Renata commanding the crowd as she did, no one noticed as he disappeared through a side door into the palace’s bowels.

“Don’t worry,” he muttered, knowing Novus couldn’t hear him anyway, “I’ll take care of you. I owe you for the dog anyway.”

---

The next steps were simple, but crucial. Nieraan disappeared into a med bay, the path to which had been intentionally made off limits to every other person or thing but himself for the purposes of his mission.

Within the med bay, a droid administered a carefully-measured dose of Thanatizine. The drug would drop Novus’ breathing and heart rates considerably as it plunged her into something resembling suspended animation.

Afterwards, Nieraan loaded her into a specially-prepared crate with equipment to monitor her vitals that, from the outside, looked as unassuming as any other large cargo crate.

The droid was memory wiped before Novus’ crate was stacked with several identical others and loaded onto a shuttle.

From there, Nieraan blasted off into the Kaasi sky.

---

“I’ve done my part. Getting the cargo where it needs to go from here is up to you.” Nieraan held a data pad out to Vance. He still wore his armor. Even on this backwater station in the middle of Force-damned nowhere, it was best to make sure no one knew his face.

The crate holding Novus floated on a repulsor cart between them. Nieraan was, ostensibly, just delivering some cargo. Only Vance knew what truly waited within.

For his part, Vance hardly resembled the conflicted apprentice that had once plagued Novus’s reputation. Between shaved hair and a standard Imperial uniform including a pulled-tight grey cap, he kept his eyes glued to the datapad he received, miming out a signature for an imaginary dataform.

When he looked up, his expression was unsettlingly neutral. “I’ll get it there.” There was, after all, nowhere else to go for Vance Asano. Officially, he had died this morning during a “starship malfunction” on Rhen Var as he’d tried to escape the planet.

Thelonious Arkandri was due a rendezvous on Nar Shadaa, however, and it was ill-advised to keep Lidah Faine waiting.

Taking the repulsor cart’s controls, Vance directed it up the ramp into the awaiting ship, a small, unmarked freighter. Turning about on the ramp, his eyes caught on the mask before him.

“... thank you.” It felt strange to thank a Sith Lord.

Nieraan snorted softly through his nostrils. His mask hid the subtle smile that crossed his face as he shrugged and turned, tucking the datapad away. “Don’t mention it,” he said. “Take good care of it, y’hear? Went through a lotta trouble getting it out here.”

With his work done, he boarded his ship and set back off for home.