An Echo In the Bone (Jess)

[Meira]

It was not easy, coming here. The reasons behind that difficulty were different now, but the fact remained. Before, it had been difficult to leave. Without the man that would come to be known as Veratos, she might never have left. It was a peculiar thought; what her life might have been like if she'd never met him. Surely, in time, she'd have found her way to Korriban. She'd have felt the call and gone. But she would have been a different person, and would likely never have risen to her current place among the Sith. She was no fool in that regard, and held no delusions to the contrary. But fate had seen to it that she did meet Jahn... Veratos, and together they had sought and found Iniquitous. She had become Renata. That was the way of it.

In those early days, she'd thought she would never return. There was no point. It would only become a weakness. She had been right, but she had come anyway. The dangers had only increased as she gained power and status within the order, and as their numbers increased. Any one could have been a threat, but still she came. Not often, by any means, but enough.

It should never have happened in the first place, but she was a vain creature in those days. Perhaps she'd thought herself to be immortal, invulnerable. In fact, she very likely thought just that. And even when she came to know what had begun within her, she'd felt some strange sense of satisfaction at the knowledge of it. He'd been nothing; just a common entertainer. She'd taken him more as a pet than a lover. She'd cared not at all for his own needs, only for how she could twist and bend him to her own will. He'd done splendidly and she'd sharpened a great many of her skills against the whetstone of his mind. And when she'd sensed her own change within the force, she reveled at the idea of what she might accomplish with a purely blank canvass.

The child had come in good time, and was strong from the start. Nothing like the weakling she'd understood herself to be at birth. His skin had only a slight pink to it, but his hair was as pitch black as his sire's. She had not begrudged the child his inky locks, for he had his mother's ice blue eyes. The intense possessiveness that she'd felt for the child had come as something of a surprise at first, but was not necessarily unwelcome. She had named him Lyko, and had nurtured him for the first two years of his life.

Then she had met Jahn and her life would be forever changed. Lyko was left in the care of his father who, by this time, had become the perfect and most obedient servant she'd ever created. In the years that would follow, Renata resisted the urge to return as best as she could, but even her own practice of control -so extensive as it had become- could not stave off the need she felt in her very bones. She had denied herself much in her pursuit of power, but she would not deny this.

The small ship settled on the landing pad, engines slowly dying into quiet rest. Renata remained in her seat, even as the sounds of the ship muted around her. She quieted her own mind, taking deep breaths in the process. She would test him today. She'd put it off, feeling it irrelevant, but had always known she would have to do it eventually. If he was force sensitive, she would one day bring him to Korriban, but not until he had at least some skill to show. She had never sensed anything from the boy before, but it was little wonder. Even the Jedi did blood tests, to be sure. Renata could never be certain if it was merely her own blood that she sensed within the boy, or something more. He certainly didn't have anyone around that might train him, not in the life of secrecy she'd constructed around him. But Lyko was four now, and she had to know. If he was going to be brought up a Sith, she needed to start sooner, rather than later.

She stood from her chair, and made certain all parts of the testing kit were in her bag before securing it over her shoulder. After a moment, she set the bag back down, remembering the small present she'd brought for Lyko. She found the datapad, with the database of close quarters combat training vids, and placed it into the bag as well. Her son would be strong, she would have it no other way. Moving fluidly down the ramp, Renata secured the ship, and set on her way toward the place that her child called home.

It was a winding walk through less traveled areas of the settlement, but Renata had wanted seclusion for the child. Here, in the southern province, he was a little more removed from the spaceports and crowds. There was space for him to grow, play, and learn, and fewer people to wonder who he might be. The community knew him and the father, and thought the two were nothing out of the ordinary. Renata passed through with no notice at all, due in equal parts to her discretion and occasional use of the force. And so, she arrived at the home without having drawn attention to her self, and entered, allowing the force to fall from her shoulders like a cloak.

"Mistress." Renata turned to see Lyko's father appear from a hallway. "Let me take your bag." She removed the datapad as his hands lighted the weight off her shoulders and taking it onto his own. "Your companion has already arrived."

Renata's veins flashed ice cold and she froze, her eyes on the man. He detected the distress immediately, shrinking away with a flinch, then instantly dropping to his knees. The force whirled around her as she quickly coiled it, then sent it out from herself, sensing for the intruder.

"Where?" she demanded, her voice low and sharp.

"W-With Lyko." he stammered. "I-In the garden."

She clenched her left hand, feeling the connection between it and his heart; a fine line within the force, but strong. She squeezed. He gasped and collapsed. She squeezed harder. His eyes bulged. Harder. He was gone. She moved, the bag and datapad forgotten on the floor behind her. She could feel him now. How had he found this place? She would have it from him. She would take it from his flesh if she had to. She'd teach him the price of his hubris; not his death, no... such a thing would not be nearly enough.

"Lyko." she said as the door to the back garden opened. She'd gained control of her features, rendering them smooth as ever, but her eyes blazed and settled on Jessoin's form immediately.

[Dutch]

He sat on a small stone bench in the center of Renata’s garden. Beams of sunlight shone down through the slotted wooden canopy above, highlighting the occasional flowered vine. The shining hilt of a lightsaber was lit as well, held casually in a pale-green hand as it was shown to the child. Though an innocent scene, a careful eye would note the Sith kept the emitter of the saber angled towards the boy at all times. Jessoin’s black silk robe shined eerily in the columns of light from above, a faintly red iridescence barely discernable to the eye. Robes the Darth herself had gifted to him in the early months of his apprenticeship under her.

Jessoin did not look as he felt Renata’s torrential presence in the Force echo in his mind. From the corner of his vision he could see his mistress enter the garden, not needing to see her gaze to sense the Darth’s ire. The twisting darkness meters behind the woman spoke of a life ripped from the Force, causing ebon energies to slowly leak into the Force around them. Like streams of ink into clear waters, Jessoin let them begin to spread into his presence. In this situation any boone from the Force could be the difference between ascension and destruction.

“I’ve learned much from you, mistress.” Jess would start softly, a surprisingly fond grin upon his lips as vivid green eyes stared at the child. “Many, many lessons. It’s time I returned the favor, don’t you think?”

Calmly he slid to his feet, one long fingered hand spread to rest gentle fingertips atop the boy’s head. Standing just behind Lyko and holding his face forward, Jessoin made his message a bit more obvious as the lightsaber hilt remained pointed in threat. The zelosian tilted the weapon to show it a bit better to the Darth, one that would be foreign to Renata. Gleaming chrome, with a pair of pincer-like blades arcing from the emitter. The hilt was curved in the classic Makashi fashion, the butt of the lightsaber a wicked claw shaped hook. Even without the blade ignited the weapon appeared deadly.

“Do you like it? Been working on this for months now. Bladed hilt, fencing emitter, superior ion power cell. Care to see the blade color? Clashes wonderfully with red...”

[Meira]

"Mama!" the boy turned, his eyes -her eyes- looking up to her with such joy, both at seeing her and at the object this new man was showing him. In spite of all the anger that burned through her veins, Renata couldn't help but smile back at the child for a moment. She'd spent the first two years of the child's life binding him to herself. Some of this was a natural process; it was something most mothers and children did without thinking. She took it farther. She'd entwined herself into Lyko's mind so fully that she could sometimes feel his emotions, even from across the galaxy. Being so connected to another being could never be a one way path. He was in her as much as she was in him, and in close proximity, it was hard to distinguish the fine line of where one ended and the other began. So, when he smiled, she could not help but do the same. But then he turned back, and Jessoin spoke.

Her eyes remained on Lyko as the words came forth, only connecting with the man as he stood. From that point, they did not waiver, but remained locked on Jessoin's own eyes. She was connected with him as well, though not nearly so deeply. Theirs was much closer to a one-way connection. Jessoin believed himself independent, and had showed time and again his insistence upon the fact, but Renata's roots ran deeper than he knew. The question was: did they run deep enough?

She could feel him pulling threads of the Force into himself. While he did that, she pushed outward. She moved along the bond between herself and Lyko that seemed like a durasteel cable, strong and unbreakable. She seeped into cloud of life the garden created between grass and flowers and trees. She surrounded Jessoin, not bothering to be discrete about it, and felt her way along the familiar paths into his own mind.

"I can see that you've worked very hard. But you've come a long way to talk of lessons, don't you think?"

She moved forward, her step casual in spite of his threats. Whatever game Jessoin thought he might play here, she wasn't going to make it so easy for him. If all he wanted to do was assert his power, he'd have killed the child and delivered the head to her quarters on Korriban. No, his plans for Lyko were bound to be more drawn out than that, so he'd be relatively safe for now.

"But, you're here, so why don't you sit back down and relax?" Taking her own advice, Renata sat herself down on a bench opposite Jessoin. She did not try to call Lyko to her, though every fiber of her being wanted to. She kept that locked away tight for now.

[Dutch]

"But, you're here, so why don't you sit back down and relax?"

A light laugh would precede Jessoin's iconic grin. His eyes never left Renata's as she moved nearer to take the other bench to his side. Fingers still rested lightly on the boy, even as the Sith shifted so that he still faced the red woman. He didn't even attempt to try and read the Darth, knowing well his best defense against her would be to distance himself as much as possible. Even with the tides of their bond floating in the Force, Jess could not gleam a single thought nor emotion from Renata. A testament of her utter willpower and resolve.

"I do think I'll stand, my Lady."

He replied shortly. Chances were more than not that Renata would have predicted his decision. It didn't matter, the only thing that did was the scythe-like blade at his lightsaber's emitter. Arced to now hover just over the base of the boy's skull Jessoin's eyes would dip to before returning back to his mistress'. For another moment the zelosian would remain silent. His head angled back slightly, quite literally looking down his nose at Renata with vivid green eyes.

"You don't even realize how easy it was to find this place, do you? To find him. Only for Jahn to lead to him."

[Meira]

A breeze stirred, wafting through the garden and carrying with it the varied scents of the plant life around them. Amidst the bouquet, Renata noted the sharp, but sweet smell of one particular flowering shrub. She'd turned her eyes toward it as Jessoin declined her invitation to sit down.

They'd planted that shrub when Renata had first brought Lyko and his father to live here. He'd been only a toddler, but he'd helped cover the roots with the fresh soil, giggling at the feel of it between his tiny fingers. It was their plant, and she had told him as much. Lyko often plucked the bright white flowers to put in her hair when she visited. And while she was away, Renata kept a small bottle of perfume modeled after the fragrance as a way of keeping him close.

She reached out a slender hand, pulled one of the flowers free and brought it close to breathe in the aroma. It helped to calm the tempest of emotion she now felt, though it could not entirely subdue it. And it most certainly could not stop the sharp sting of Jessoin's following words.

Jahn.

Her hand closed around the flower, crushing the delicate petals. The mantle of the force shifted in the air, coiling and tightening with her grip. How dare he. The hubris, the insolence. She'd already been at the edge of her limits with this peacocking behavior. But now to add irreverence to the mixture, to have such contempt to disregard the station of a superior; even one so absent as Veratos. Her ire hummed in the force around them, vibrating the very air.

"Mama?"

Renata's eyes instantly connected with Lyko's and the sensation disappeared. The concern she found there, his being so tuned to her own, necessitated the control. She was sure that she could flay Jessoin alive, from the inside out, in this moment. But she could not, for his sake. She smiled to reassure the boy.

"It's alright, little wolf." Her voice was smooth as honey, flooding the boy with a sense of peace.

"Well?" she asked, unable to bring her eyes back to the sickly green stare of her supposed apprentice. She wanted to bring him to his knees, to spark the pain receptors of his every nerve until he confessed his treason and how he'd committed it. She wanted to dig her nails into the flesh of his jaw as she held his eyes in her own gaze and watched the life fade out of him; for him to slip into oblivion with the agony of his betrayal forever entwined in his heart.

But even more than all of this, she wanted this production, this drama to be finished. Finally, she looked back at him. She didn't bother to hide her impatience. "A lesson, was it?" She blinked, expectantly and folded her hands lightly in her lap. "You have my attention."