116A/N: If you haven't read Star Wars: The Old Republic: A New Sith. You might wish to before starting this story. The journey of my little Sith began there. I of course do not own Star Wars or any of its properties, I just play here.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fear and Avarice
It is a time of trouble for the Sith Empire.
A recent stream of brazen power plays among the Sith Lords has set the Empire on a course towards ruin. As the Emperor remains silent, the lords of the Empire seek to insure their own futures, even as the Empire is torn apart by in fighting.
Among these disciples of the dark side is Avaryss, the Sith Apprentice of Darth Feer; Master of the Itae system. As the Empire reels around her, the young Sith seeks to adapt to her new life among the lords.
It is a life that will soon take her far from Dromund Kaas, and out in the galaxy. It is a life that will either offer her a future of unlimited power, or to be cast down and forgotten.
It is here that our story begins…
Chapter 1: Dromund Kaas
Once again, a storm was building.
Dromund Kaas, capital of the Empire, and refuge of the Sith, was a world of many storms. Much like the lords themselves, the world remained hostile its inhabitants resisting any attempt to truly tame it. The dangers of the jungle world were many, and only through the strength of the Sith Emperor had those few citizens and lords of the Empire to survive the great holocaust of over a millennia ago, endured.
The world remained dangerous, but now it was dotted not only by cities, but estates of powerful Sith Lords. These masters were the ones that had made the Empire the threat that it was today. The Emperor may have gone into seclusion, but through the dark council and the power of the dark side, the Empire that he had saved endured, and as it endured new generations of Sith rose, ready to take the place of those that came before, sometimes…violently.
One such of this generation was Avaryss, apprentice to the Lord Darth Feer.
For the moment though, she felt only exhaustion. What she desired most at the moment was not power, but rest.
The thunder rolled outside as she slipped into the small meditation chamber in her quarters. The young Sith had only just returned to her apartment after another day of running around the capital in service to her master.
The master has many fools he needed collared, she thought, tedious work perhaps but necessary.
She had left no stone unturned, all had learned of her master's orders, or his displeasure. A few had not lived to endure that displeasure, a lightsaber was such a harsh teacher.
She had enjoyed offering up those lessons, those final lessons.
If done correctly, even the most tedious of acts could be fun.
The young woman stretched and rolled her shoulders. A cool shower had served well after enduring the heat of another Dromund Kaas summer day. The cold water brought about gooseflesh on her arms as she stepped out into her chambers. For the moment at least, she was free of sweating in the wretched heat, a heat that barely went away even in the darkest hour of the night. As she had moved about Kaas city today, she found herself looking with pity on the Sith soldiers who remained fully armored as they carried out their duties. She had heard that their armor did have some temperature control, but doubted it could do much against the jungle heat and humidity.
She smiled slightly at the thought.
My pity is wasted on them, she knew, they are nothing compared to those of us that serve the power of the dark side…
She had hoped that it would fade with time, that the stubborn light would go out. Yet that sense of compassion was still there.
The realization made her frown.
For a Sith passion was power, compassion was something else entirely.
It was…troubling.
The simple fact that I can still feel pity is troubling; it is a weakness that must be expunged. I'm going to have to work on this
During her evening mediations, she would endeavor to do just that. Before anyone realized what was going on with her, before they realized something was wrong.
This was not the first time she recognized the flaw in her armor. Since truly embracing the dark side on the planet Korriban she had worked hard and long to eliminate the small shard of light that still burned brightly within her. It had almost no sway over her actions, but at the same time, she recognized it for what it was.
It is a weakness, she knew, one that an enemy might exploit one day.
It is imperative that it is either minimized or destroyed utterly.
There could be no compromise in that.
The darkness had to be all.
She kneeled down on the rough mat of her meditation chamber, the course fabric skinning her bare knees. She could have put on a robe, but for the moment she chose to enjoy the simple pleasure of the cool surface on her bare skin. The black mid drift shirt and briefs she wore left little to the imagination, but that was not a problem, not here in her own quarters.
Here, at least, she was free to do as she pleased, provided it did not interfere with her training or her master's work.
Here, in this room, she was free.
Her master commanded that she spend at least one hour every day at meditation, centering herself and focusing on the power of the dark side. As she closed her eyes and began to the breathing techniques necessary to find her center, she found her mind beginning to drift. Old pains and past wrongs tried to rise up, distract her from going where she needed to be.
She resisted the urge to let her mind wander, she centered it through the power of the Sith code, the words that had come to define her young life.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory, and through victory my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free!
The words became a mantra; she repeated them over and over.
Strong words, words that were both to live by and kill by.
Avaryss had killed many times in their service.
As she found her center, the cold void that pulsed with the power of the dark side opened up to her. It was easy to find that place, the meditation chamber itself made it easy, not just the glyphs on the wall, but the rough and scratchy mat on which she kneeled, and the incense burning in the brazier on the wall, she hated the smell, as her master well knew, so he made sure that it was the only thing that was burned here. Discomfort turned to anger and hate so easily. It was the simplest path to the dark side. She was drawn deeper into it, exposed to mysteries and powers she could not entirely comprehend. Visions of the past danced before her closed eyes as future possibilities rose and fell like the tides of some dark unforgiving ocean.
Avaryss smiled.
She welcomed these moments.
They were one of the few times she felt truly alive.
Once again she tried to reach out to her lost love. It had become and obsession of hers, he had been taken from her in a most cowardly fashion. On Korriban, she had sensed his presence, it had been drawn to her, now…she thought to find it again, and only through the deepest heart of the darkness, might that be truly possible.
She reached out and again…found nothing. She felt nothing.
That discovery or lack thereof, annoyed her.
She had once thought the dark side was limitless! That she could do anything with its power. Lately it did not seem that way.
Lately, the power she sought did not meet her expectations.
This experience should be more than what it is; she thought to herself, it should have been better! It should have been a triumph, but now…all it did was remind her of her failure. It reminded her of what she had lost, and how she had been manipulated.
She hated herself for allowing that.
Once she had dreamed of being a Sith Apprentice, travelling the Empire and fighting in her master's name. She had had such grand plans. She had wanted to see the galaxy, and in doing so, begin construction of her own power base, to gather allies both great and small, and through those alliance prepare herself for her own ascension to lordship, and from there…rise to the title of Darth.
That will never happen, she thought, not at this rate…
She frowned.
…Not with this master.
When she had first come to the dark side, the death of Darth Feer was all that mattered to her. The man had ordered the deaths of her family, and that mission, that…hatred of him had driven her to race down the dark path and become the Sith that she was today. He was the monster in the dark, the driving force behind her rage, and the one true stumbling block on her road to finding true power. That is how Avaryss had felt when she came to the dark side at the tender age of fifteen.
Now…two years later, she had come to realize just how naïve she had been.
Darth Feer was no monster, he was just another Force user who had managed to claw his way up the ranks and achieve the title of Darth. He was neither overly strong, nor physically intimidating. He was of average height, with graying curly blonde hair, and an arrogance that only a Lord of the Sith could wield without consequences. When you first looked at her master, you did not see what he was, the cunning that he possessed, and the cruel manipulations that he was capable of. Avaryss knew both this things.
She had learned them…the hard way.
He broke me, she thought.
It had taken almost a year to admit to herself, but finally she had.
He had manipulated her from the first day she had begun her Sith training. His agents had convinced her that her hatred was necessary to defeat him, while at the same time testing her, dropping enemies in her way to ensure she went down the path her lord needed. When she tried to deviate from that path, go off with someone she loved, she was punished severely, her lover ripped from her life and her arms.
The realization of that, what he had done to her, how easily he had manipulated her, it was too much to bear.
She broke, and accepted his offer to serve as his apprentice, and that is where she had spent the last six months, serving his needs and dealing with his enemies.
Though she did take some small pleasure in that work, she never forgave, and she never forgot. Her master hoped that she would let go of her hatred for him, and accept that everything that had happened was for her own good. That in time she would embrace him as a daughter might a loving yet stern father.
Her eyes narrowed.
In time he would learn how foolish those desires were.
I am Sith, she thought, with few exceptions, the relationship between master a pupil among the Sith is never a loving one. I respect my master's power, and if I'm being honest, am in awe of it, but I also seek to do everything that I can to surpass him. An Apprentice to a dark lord is more than just a servant, he or she is the rightful heir to their master's power, and that power is not given by a loving parent looking to pass on what they have and know to the future generation, it is ripped from the master's dying hand by his successor.
Power is never given…it must always be taken!
The thought of doing so sent a warm tingle down her spine. The vision of Feer lying dead at her feet always made her feel warm and fuzzy.
He wants me to be his heir, fine, but he should be ready for the consequences of that.
A Sith must arrange his or her own promotion.
In time, I will have mine.
The dark side responded to her hunger. After months of training she had finally come to accept what had happened, and was finally ready to move forward, she had picked up the pieces of her shattered confidence, put them back together, and was now determined to move forward. Feer had played with her during her time as a student, she could acknowledge that, but now it was time to turn the tables.
Now it was time to claim her rightful place in the Empire.
As she meditated, her body began to rise off the floor of the chamber. She floated several centimeters above the ground, her body wrapped in a warm red halo, as the dark side filled her up with its hungry, all-consuming power.
It was in that moment that she realized that she was not alone. She could sense someone had entered without her notice, someone who was practically radiating malice.
She only just held back a sigh.
Not again!
She lowered herself to the ground and waited. She could sense the intruder approaching. He did not burn with the Force, but did possess a rudimentary animal cunning and viciousness.
This was not the first time she had such an uninvited guest. Though she hoped it would be the last.
These little encounters were no longer diverting.
Mostly, they just served to piss her off.
She waited until the intruder was almost behind her. She sensed the hungry anticipation; his thoughts filled her mind, and all the horrible depraved things he would do to her once he had properly broken her.
She frowned.
Not in this life time, little man.
He reached for her, his hands large and callused, ready to seize her by the throat.
She caught him with the Force, held him in an invisible grip as strong as dura steel.
She smiled and looked over her shoulder.
"Shall we dance?" she asked sweetly.
He snarled and tried to lunge at her.
She brought her leg around and kicked him hard in the jaw, he staggered back…dazed.
Avaryss reached out with the Force towards her nightstand, her lightsaber sat there, still clipped to her belt.
It flew across the room and into her hand, she ignited the crimson blade, and it awoke with an evil hiss.
The intruder was armed with a vibro-ax a vicious weapon to be sure, she tried to cut through the handle with her lightsaber, but the weapon resisted her blade, it struck, sparked, and was pushed back. The handle of the ax, it seemed, was made of some cortosis weave alloy, strong enough to resist even a lightsaber.
She grinned excitedly.
At least, this fight would be somewhat of a challenge.
The thug swung again, she dropped under his blow and tried to stab out with her weapon; he sidestepped and tried to catch her with a powerful reverse swing. She ducked under his blow again, though she almost lost her ponytail to the intruder's wicked strike.
The idea of it frustrated her, she had found few pleasures on Dromund Kaas, but one of them had been when she had been able to step out onto the street and be accepted as a true lady of the Sith.
Long hair was in season right now, it might have sounded petty, but had the man managed to cut her hair with that ax, he would have died screaming.
She sneered.
He would die anyway, but that did not mean that it had to be agonizing.
She was only needlessly sadistic when she needed to be. Most of the time, she kept that side of her in check.
The battle spilled back out into her apartment. Her duties as Lord Feer's apprentice kept her busy most days, so her room had little in it that could be damaged. The thug struck again and again, and each time, she managed to maneuver herself out of the way, avoiding his attacks.
Finally, the intruder made a mistake, and over extended. He missed an overhead chop and Avaryss managed to sidestep and kick him hard in the elbow, the force of the blow caused him to lose his grip on the weapon, and before he could recover it, she seized it with the Force, and tossed it out the window.
Now that he was unarmed the thug looked upon her with fear in his eyes; Avaryss drank that terror up, she used it to increase her own powers, her desire for revenge.
Looking around desperately, the man saw a weapon hanging in a place of honor on the wall, a Sith war blade that had seen many centuries of use for the good of the Empire.
He lunged for it, ready to use it to continue his attack.
He did not make it.
Avaryss, enraged by his audacity, blasted the man with Force lightning. The sword was hers after all, a gift from an old Sith she had come to both respect and fear.
She would be damned before his bladed ended up in the hands of some…some…ruffian.
She could have killed him with the lightning, ended the fight right then and there, but now she had a personal stake in seeing him suffer.
You try and steal from me, she thought, you suffer.
All would suffer!
She relented just enough for the man to drop to his knees. He sat there for a moment, too dazed to continue. He looked around, confused the lightning likely having disrupted every cell in his tiny brain.
Avaryss decided to deny him the chance to recover. She brought her lightsaber down point first on the top of the man's head. She reveled in the strike as she watched the man's eyes boil from the heat of the blade super heating the fluids in his brain.
The man was dead before his body likely even realized it, she withdrew her sword and watched as he fell twitching to the ground,
She stood over him for a moment, making sure that he was truly gone.
It was at that moment that the one responsible for this fight finally chose to reveal himself. He had masked his presence well, but in the end his excitement had finally gotten the better of him. She could sense the dark amusement the other intruder felt as he had watched the two duel.
She sighed heavily.
"You are not supposed to be here, young master," she said coldly, "Your mother has spoken of this, yes?"
The young boy stepped out of the shadows, dressed in fine silken robes; no one would ever doubt his noble status. The expression on his face was one of both superiority and cruelty. He had inherited many of the features of her master. They both had blonde hair, their noses were the same, and their chins were the same, the one thing that the two did not share was the eyes.
Bael Feer had his mother's eyes.
He smirked at his father's apprentice.
"My mother can say what she likes", the thirteen-year old said arrogantly, "I shall be master of this house one day…"
He eyed her with that cruel lecherous gaze of his. She could feel his beady little eyes crawling all over her body. It was all she could do to keep from throttling the brat.
"I may do as I like," he purred.
She held back a smile.
It will not be that simple you little fungus, she thought.
You may be his son, but I'm his apprentice.
We will just see who inherits what.
Young Master Bael's sense of entitlement sickened her. She may have only been four years his senior, but at time she felt that that gap was much, much higher.
He is not even a hopeful yet, she thought, I don't care if his mother has trained him since he was five he would not last five minutes at a Sith Academy!
What has he done to be an heir to a dark lord? Nothing. Simply being born into a powerful family should not guarantee power. Power must be seized.
She would be damned before this little wretch stole her legacy.
She looked down at the slain intruder, she moved his foot with hers; already the body was starting to stiffen.
"Where did you find this one," she asked her master's son, "He showed some promise."
Bael giggled like the sadistic brat he was.
"He was just a slave gladiator; I offered him his freedom if he managed to kill you."
The boy cackled again.
He looked her up and down, and in that moment she regretted that she had not chosen to wear a robe while meditating. The young master may have been a little sadist, but he was also a thirteen year old boy, and like other such adolescents, he was growing interested in new things.
Such boys had…curiosities.
She was one such curiosity, or rather her body was.
Avaryss knew that she was not unattractive. Despite several scars, years of Sith training had left her body both muscular and toned. Age had also changed her; she had finally given up the last of the roundness of her youth, and grown into a slender yet curvy young woman. Her bone white skin and burning red eyes did not take away from her beauty, in fact, to most Sith, it only enhanced it, and they could sense the dark power burning within her.
She shook her head.
This was third time Bael had sent her something to kill, the first had been three young k'lor slugs left in her bed, not as big as the ones found in the wilds of Korriban, but still quite large. The second attempt involved a rogue Sith Acolyte that had been killing young girls here in the capital, she was not sure how the young master found the man, but he had, and given him access to her room.
She had taken her time with that one, flaying first his mind and then his body.
She had enjoyed that, and unfortunately, Bael had too.
Now…he would not leave her alone.
He had come to enjoy watching her kill, an enjoyment that only grew when she killed in a state of undress.
The first fight had occurred when she had been climbing into bed; she had leapt back when the slugs had risen up and snapped at her. The serial killer had come just as she had been coming out of the shower. She had been wearing just a towel at the time.
She sighed heavily.
The fight with the gladiator had left her sweaty; her shirt clung to her like a second skin. She could sense the young master's excitement as he stared at her. He could not totally hide the dark fantasies that ran through his limited mind. Most of these fantasies involved hurting her, making her beg him for mercy.
Her eyes narrowed.
Part of her was tempted to pluck out his eyes and give them to his mother.
Maybe that would stop these…nocturnal challenges!
Bael's interest in the opposite sex was growing, but like all things, the boy had chosen to combine those desires with his own love of death and violence.
Avaryss pitied the first girl Bael brought home.
Who knew what depravities he would seek to test her with?
To make things even more uncomfortable, the sounds of battle had drawn the attention of those downstairs, voices in the hall and the sound of booted feet. The door to her apartment opened, and four of her master's guards swarmed in, followed closely by the mistress of the house, Lord Feer's lady wife. Red of hair and green of eye, the lady radiated the power of the darkside, but that power was often muted by concern for her son, her darling boy.
Such concern was not fitting for a Sith, but Avaryss understood it.
A mother's love was a mother's love after all, no matter how depraved the progeny.
Lady Synestra Feer called out to her, but stopped when she saw Avaryss and Bael talking, seeing the apprentice in such a state of undress.
Her Lord's wife narrowed her eyes, through the Force Avaryss could sense both anger and suspicion.
"What are you doing with my son, girl?" she spat.
Avaryss rolled her eyes.
Several weeks back, her master had said, in passing, that perhaps he should consider wedding Avaryss to their son. He had meant it as a joke at the time, but the lady had not forgotten.
Synestra Feer hated Avaryss.
"I was attacked, my lady," Avaryss said bowing in submission, "Your son heard the fighting, and came running, it was all over by the time he arrived, but…"
She looked back and forth between the young woman and the boy.
"Is that true, my son," the mistress of the house asked.
"Of course, mother, "he lied, "Lady Avaryss is a member of our house after all."
He gave her his most sly smile.
"An attack against one of us is an attack against all, is that not true?"
Lady Feer continued to glare at Avaryss; the young apprentice could almost feel her mind working. Imagining her own dark scenario for what had happened.
Avaryss resisted the urge to sigh.
She thinks I'm trying to seduce the little wretch, Avaryss knew. As if she would ever soil herself with such an attempt. Since the death of her lover, a real man, back on Korriban, love and physical desire had had little interest for the Sith Apprentice.
Power is what drove her now, she needed little else.
Using the boy might have worked, in time she might have been able to wrap him around her little finger, but what she would have to do in the meantime did not appeal to her.
No, she would find her own path as she prepared to conqueror House Feer and make it her own.
There was a tense silence between the two Sith women. Avaryss feared that the woman would not buy her story; that they would come to blows.
Part of her welcomed it, she did not care that the lady was a full Sith, she had grown weary of her constant watching.
Things might have turned violent, but that is when she felt it, when they both felt it.
A disturbance in the Force saved them both.
Both she and the lord's wife looked out the window, Bael, who was still too green to sense it, looked at them both curiously.
"What is it, mother?" he asked.
Synestra frowned.
"Get dressed Avaryss, and report to the landing pad."
"Of course, my lady," she said bowing.
Synestra motioned for her son to follow her.
"We must prepare, my son," she said.
"Your Father is home."
Avaryss did not lower her guard until the lady and the young master had left.
She sighed, and made for the wardrobe on the far wall. She had hoped for an early evening tonight, but that had not happened.
She could sense it through the Force.
Darth Feer was coming, and…
She sighed again.
He had need of her.
Joy of joys, she thought.
More menial labor, she was so thrilled.
She shook her head.
Ah the joys of life of a Sith Apprentice.
Oh joy!
