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ROSHAN: Roshan bit his lip as the woman spoke her final words in that godsforsaken realm. Her sin was Hatred, or as she might call it "Wrath." Her wrath tested his patience, even now. She was a useful and necessary vessel for their further training. But in her own arrogance, she had turned to her own false worship of the gods of “Progression, Evolution, and Advancement” in the place of the Sith grandmasters that had paved the way for her to put on such elaborately vain displays of her power. The irony was not lost on him that they had found themselves on a Dejarik board. Dejarik, after all, was little more than the Jedi’s attempt at burlesque trolling of the far more sophisticated war game Dejarik was derived from. In similar fashion, Roshan felt that she had mocked his religion only to replace it with another form of self-idolatry. It took all his inner strength not to challenge the woman. Nevertheless, he feared that her own beliefs would continue to make her unstable and weaker than she truly was, weak enough that even he could have slain her and taken her mantle not that long ago. Of course, weakness itself was not a sin that Roshan had never seen or experienced before. He had made a much similar mistake in the past, but for much different reasons. No, Lady Sirena seemed content to think that she was acting of her own volition when in reality it was the hands of the Darkside and Chaos that moved her around like a piece on a board. Moebius, Dejarik, Chess. They were all little more than inferior variations of the same age-old strategy game. It was not unlike the real life game that the Jedi and Sith opposed each other in. Two sides, one light and one dark, both seeking victory but only one attaining it at any given point in time. With the fall of the old gods, that game was over. It did not matter who was left. Of that she was correct. But she had blinded herself with so much hate for her assigned role that she now refused to understand the truth about the game that they were all still active participants in. Like the Old Republic and the Empire and the New Republic and the Chaos gods after them, the demesne may have changed. New Imperators may have been chosen by each side. But that eternal war in the stars -- the intergalactic game of chess played out by the wills of the Force -- that game never truly ended. As soon as one game finished, the board was reset and the game simply started over again anew. What Roshan believed Lady Sirena saw as a fool's errand and vain idolatry, the Cathar saw as the most important piece of the puzzle. She was right. Their life was all that they had. And they knew the penalty that came with death. So why willingly make oneself an oblivious pawn? Why limit your own success by refusing to acknowledge the differences in value and importance between a horse and a queen or the Beast and the Knight? Why limit yourself by failing to revere, study, and learn from the grandmasters of the Darkside and the strategies and tactics they used in previous iterations of the Game? If the old gods had failed to protect their Imperator, then they deserved their fate. But one does not become a grandmaster simply through their own intuition, “evolution,” and a strong dose of luck. Advancement, evolution, and progress were all the end results of knowledge, study, and hard work. To expect results without studying and respecting the genius of the past grandmasters was irresponsible at best. Likewise, not learning from their mistakes was a sure recipe for repeating those errors in judgement and ending up removed from the demesne of the Force with little more than a whimper and a forgotten legacy. No. Like learning to use the Force and mastering the Game required intense study. Even rightly deserved veneration of the grandmasters was in order for those who sought to master the Game’s intricate strategies, movements, and nuisances. Not all pieces were created equal, after all. And while Lady Sirena may have been content with the freedom but limited movement that her philosophy gave her, Roshan had little interest in being the Knight on Imperator Exodus' game board. There were so many more interesting pieces. The Beast, the Dowager, the Counselor, or even the Vizier. All limited in their own ways but all superior in advancement when compared to the Sirena’s philosophy. Or at least, that was Lord Roshan’s opinion on the matter. There was a reason why he had called his students the “Knights of Roshan.” Just like the Knights of the Game, they were given only enough training to move two steps at a time, but were still deadly in any direction he sent them. Combined with their training, prowess, and effectiveness, a short leash was most desirable for the fulfilling of their designed purpose. But for a Sith Master, Roshan considered such a role as the least of all the major pieces. Roshan, of course, had no delusions of grandeur when it came to mastery of this game. He had studied the old grandmasters of Chaos and revered their accomplishments but it would seem that even they had fallen to a new Champion of the Darkside. However, he worried about the future of this particular Imperator. Thus far, Roshan would argue that all he had seen were Knight. A board full of one type of piece would surely not overcome a skilled opponent that could bring all the varied special abilities of all his varied game pieces to bear! The Counselor, the Dowager, the Craft, the Vizier, the Counselor, the Beast! Where were they? Or had they already been removed in his absence and replaced by more Knights pretending they were other pieces? Roshan shuddered to think that he might be the Outcast on this demesne. The Outcast was such an enigma. It was often considered the most expendable of pieces, normally only able to move one space forward at any given time. Its only saving grace being that it could leap up to three spaces in any direction as long as there was an adjacent piece for it to make its leap over. This allowed the Outcast to occasionally move across the board with surprising speed, especially under the control of a well-studied and clever player. Greatlier, if the Outcast ended its move in a spot with an enemy’s piece, the Outcast could take that piece, removing both pieces and replacing itself with the same type as the piece as the one it took. No longer the Outcast, if it could survive long enough, it could take on a more permanent role as something else. That’s why some players called it the Shapeshifter. The problem, of course, was that few players knew how to properly navigate the Outcast across the board without losing the piece in the process, especially since the Outcast posed a greater threat to its opponent the longer it remained in play. In Roshan’s limited experience, far too often the Outcast was perhaps the most targeted and/or expendable of the 9 pieces. More importantly, “expendable” was not a role Lord Roshan had any interest in partaking in. Not now. Not ever. Shuddering awake, the Cathar found himself longing to play the Game in physical form. His board had been one of the things taken from him when his commune was ransacked but he still kept a digital copy of it among his things. Now that Aliss was to join the ranks of the Blessed, perhaps it was time that he taught her the Game as well. As Lord Roshan glanced at the medical equipment surrounding him, he felt Lady Sirena’s call, signaling to him that she was close by. He would grin and bear this situation for now. He was in no position to train the girl in his current state. Sure, Lady Sirena seemed determined to undo his teachings and his narrative. Perhaps she saw her former master in the Cathar and that intensified her need to prove him wrong and knock him down from his “pedestal.” He was sure this would not be the last time that their philosophies butted heads. Ultimately, what could a Sith Master hope to learn from an old Cathar? So for the time being, he’d allow her to feel like she was in control. He’d still watch Siren closely, of course, less her seductive ideologies infect someone as impressionable as young Aliss. But for the time being he would relent in any efforts to convert her to his way of thinking. At the end of the day, Roshan realized that he might have to approach things from a different angle when dealing with Lady Sirena. If she could not be persuaded or converted by conventional means, perhaps he would teach her the Game and she’d manage to take away something of value from that exercise. Maybe it could be a way in which they could someday bond and she could come to the same realizations that he had long ago. It had been a long while since he had taught the Game to anyone else and he was confident Lady Sirena would make a worthy opponent. But at this point, only time would tell. Removing the monitoring devices from around him, Roshan slowly rolled out of the bed. His wounds had healed nicely and most of the equipment around him was probably there simply to make sure that he didn’t fall into a coma or suffer any further brain swelling or damage for his head injury. Personally, the large Cathar felt fine. Perhaps even a little refreshed after his nice long “cat nap.” How long had he been out? Of that Roshan was actually uncertain. But he decided that his next logical course of action would be to track down and check in on Lady Sirena. As the Cathar found his personal items and began re-dressing, a goo-soaked Aliss stumbled into the room. The look on the wild child’s face was one of disheveled confusion if Roshan were to attempt to describe it into words. Roshan, however, casually continued with what he was doing, paying the girl little mind. They had work to do but he wasn’t going anywhere without his gear. *** *** *** ALISS: When Aliss answered Sirena’s call from within the darkness of her mind, she had unexpectedly found herself hurled into the midst of her two teachers. But what she expected to be a long, drawn-out philosophical debate quickly descended into an even greater form of anarchy. Her lord spoke cryptically to her while agreeing with Lady Sirena. In fact, he even apologized openly. Aliss was bewildered. Is this another vision? How can this feel so surreal... yet their presence... I can feel it... as real as if we were all standing in the hangar bay right now. But this is different. So different! What is this?! Roshan spoke of sheltering and withholding and demesnes. Sirena spoke of curses and evolution and false gods. Aliss was quick to accept whatever it was that they were offering if it gave her the powers necessary to save her mother. She would figure out the rest later. In time, she was sure she’d fully understand what she had gotten herself into. For now, there wasn’t time to overanalyze the bazare scene that had taken place in whatever magical dream world this checkered floor of marble had been plucked out of. In fact, she barely had enough time to process everything that she was seeing and hearing before being shocked back to reality. Rushed back to full consciousness, the girl awoke to find herself trapped inside a vat of strange almost goo-like liquid. It reminded her of the vats that they had seen inside the lab of the last Sith’s lair she and Roshan had visited before leaving Ishvara behind. With no desire to become Darth Mavanger’s new science experiment, Aliss ripped and tugged at the apparatus around her face. It was only once she had torn it off her head that she realized her folly. Bacta began to fill her throat as she tried to scream, unaccustomed to the sensation of this terrifying new experience. Large bodies of water where she grew up were scarce and Roshan seemed to make it a habit of avoiding them. There was the occasional commune fisherman or hunter that might venture to one and see what offerings the gods might provide them, but such pools of water were often deemed more dangerous than they were worth thanks to foul beasts that they regularly attracted. Of course, whatever her or Roshan’s reasoning may have been for him and his Knights staying away from such places, the inescapable truth was that Aliss never learned how to swim. Flailing her arms rapidly, she could see light coming from above her. If she could just flap her arms upwards and lift off like a bird, Aliss was sure she could escape this infernal trap. But even as she saw a medical droid begin to scurry across the room to a nearby console, terror of a much more ominous realization hung in the girl’s mind. What if this is how all those creatures in those jars died?! Drown lab rats to be displayed as trophies for generations of other Sith to examine and gock at! Is this because I failed the test?! As a metal arm began to descend into the water, Aliss could feel the asphyxiation setting in. Her foolhardy attempt to scream for help had only hastened her condition and she had never been trained on how to hold her breath underwater either. As panic turned to desperation, the girl swatted at the metal apparatus, instead bracing her hands against the tube’s clear walls. As she pressed against them, her mind raced back to Lady Sirena’s words and the feeling she had felt in that hangar bay. You have that connection, just as I do, just as Roshan and Mavanger. And no artifact or holocron will make you stronger. Only you can do that... My job is to teach you the path to walk, to show you the power within you and your connection to the Force. But only you can find your limits. The feeling of drowning sent a surge of adrenaline through her body as she reached out and felt the Force within the liquid and the walls around her. With all the pain and rage and fear she could muster, the girl screamed and released it, pushing against the tube of goo with her own physical hands and those of the mysterious Force Lady Sirena had claimed she was connected to. A few seconds later, Aliss found herself coughing and gasping for air as she laid atop broken glass and the goey liquid that she had sent pouring into the bacta tank room. As the medical droid approached her check on Aliss, the girl slipped and slid across the floor as she tried to scramble to her feet. “Stay back! I’m warning you! Back!” she yelled at it. When the droid stopped in its tracks, Aliss darted out of the room. She was in a small section of some sort of laboratory, likely where Darth Mavanger and Lady Sirena sent failed experiments and defeated specimens. Where am I? Is this some sort of experimentation room? Or maybe this is where the Sith actually get their powers? The girl’s wet feet pattered against the medbay floor as she tried to pick up a good pace without slipping and falling on her butt. She was sure there had to be an exit nearby. As she felt the panic begin to creap back over her again, Aliss stopped for a moment and leaned against a nearby wall to catch her breath. She thought back to all the recent conversations Lord Roshan and Lady Sirena had had. If Lord Roshan had withheld the truth about a gift like this from her, what else might he have been withholding? She trusted him, almost implicitly so, because that was all she had known and been taught. But what if Lady Sirena was right? What if Sirena had the real truth? What if she had the answers to all the girl’s prayers? What if the gods were a lie? Roshan is a lie? My whole existence is a lie?! The thought chilled her to her very core but she had to press on. Resuming her search, the soused girl soon stumbled into the room where her Cathar lord was halfway through equipping his Sith armor. *** *** *** BOTH: “Lord Roshan,” the girl began as she caught her breath. “Where are we! Where is Lady Sirena! Why didn’t you come for me! I almost died just now!” A little confused, the Cathar turned to the girl to realize that she was sopping wet with little more than a soggy diaper and bandages across her chest for clothing. Puzzled, Roshan shook his head before taking on a rather acrimonious tone. “Where in the galaxy are your clothes, girl?! You look like a soaking, gooey mess!” Aliss repeated herself, “I said I almost died just now. I barely escaped!” “From where, girl! We are in the ship’s medical facility!” the Cathar snorted back, having little patience for her games. “Enough with this melodramatic silliness.” Aliss paused and then frowned, “How am I supposed to know that! The ship we flew to Korriban had nothing like this! And that still doesn’t give them an excuse for making me into one of their science experiments!” Roshan stood up, shaking his head as he strapped on the last few pieces of his armor, “Judging by the looks of you, I highly doubt anyone was experimenting on you, girl. If anything, they were saving your life. You reek of bacta!” “I don’t even know what that is!” Aliss retorted indignantly. Roshan sighed. Having raised her on a backwater world in a confined community such as they had, it was easy to forget just how much Aliss did not know about the world she was stepping into. Roshan had lived a life or at least had memories of a life as an active and well-traveled member of the bustling intergalactic infrastructure that most of the Core worlds were built on. The commune, on the other hand, had limited technology and medicine and only certain levels of interaction with the outside world. Truth be told, while she often just went along with most things and tried to present like she wasn’t in a constant state of wonderment, the girl might as well have been a medieval peasant hurled centuries into the future. “You know the juice from the Yullitus leaves...” “Yeah.” “The ones your mother uses for making ointments." “I said, ‘Yeah.’” “It’s similar to that. Only far more powerful and you must soak in it to allow your body to absorb it and heal itself.” “O-kay... but that still doesn’t--” Straightening out his cape, the Cathar interrupted the girl before she could finish her thought. “Enough! If you wish to read more about it, I’m sure I can find you a datapad with the ship specs and all that silliness. Right now, we need to head to the Recovery Room and find Lady Sirena.” “Where’s that?” Aliss asked as Roshan moved past her. “Where you were supposed to go when you exited your bacta tank.” “O...kay,” the girl replied as she scampered after Roshan, leaving a long trail of dripping bacta in her wake. Looking back only momentarily to shake his head at the soggy diapered messmaker, the Cathar headed for where he had sensed Lady Sirena’s call, this time being sure to place his mask over his face for added protection. He had grown rather leery about entrusting his health and safety to the likes of these two after the events that had transpired so far over the course of this trip. He was aptly reminded of the age-old proverb, “Better safe than sorry.” ____ &