Bound by the Roots

[Jake]

Tsurumah sat waist-deep and naked in the swampwater pool occupying the center of her chambers. She calibrated the microclimate perfectly to her comforts: humid enough that her gills frilled open along her neck, dark save the dim glow of crystals mounted along walls and dangling from glass threads, the air itself toxic to most life but to her an entheogen that eased the mind from the walls of her body... Though open, her eyes were unseeing. Between her fingers she clutched a crystal ball twice the size of her heart. Nonetheless, through the Force or its five sister senses she appeared scarcely alive, save the constant rhythm of her breathing. This could not be farther from the truth. Lost though she was in the webs of the probability trance, Tsurumah was very much alive, moreso perhaps than she had been throughout the five year journey she had returned from.

The trance was a long one. For three days and four nights she had sat, gazing intently into the crystal, retracing her every step since the last time she had visited the ice world Ziost a few years and many lifetimes in the past. She had allowed her heart to fray, her soul to unravel in her exile. Slowly, like a luthier stringing her greatest work, she navigated each thought back to its source, weaved it back into place...

She remembered the Tsurumah she had been before.

Innocence never thrived in her heart, but it had once grown there. Since then she had choked it like a weed. Smothered every trace of warmth. When she had gone into the Unknown Regions, she knew that she she too would become unknown to herself. But her mission had been a success. She had simultaneously furthered the holy pilgrimage of the Sith, and furthered herself. She stood closer to godhood than ever before... than she ever could have, sheltered by temple and clergy.

But godhood or not, the being she would meet today was without a doubt dangerous, if not wholly unknown to her. Every word must become a weapon. Like a spider in its web she must amass every secret, all the while mastering her own.

It would be convenient to show the man the Tsurumah she had been before. The Tsurumah he had known, all those years ago.

...

At last she emerged from the probability trance, having relived every memory, no matter how painful. Seeing her naked form reflected in her crystal ball, she smiled cruelly at herself, revealing sharp fused teeth. To human eyes her age must be indiscriminate, but she could see the toll of the last few years. But to him it would be the same. She practiced expressions she had not worn since she was a far younger creature.

Yes. She could be this person again, she thought. If only for the game.

~*~

She sat in repose in the meditation garden, the hand-carved dejarik board already set up and the first move already made. Barefoot, she pressed her head in the direction where Korriban's star shone in the night sky above the temple, waiting in silence. Only when he arrived would she lift her face, her eyes hidden behind a spidersilk veil. A black stone hung from her neck, stark against her pale green flesh. Perhaps he would recognize it... and if he looked closely perhaps he would notice the patchwork of faces that her cloak was woven from.

"Much has changed since last I walked the halls of this temple," she said, never turning to face him. "But not so much for me to make a habit of losing to a novice." The humor in her tone was carefully injected, like snake venom in prey. Extending a hand, she lifted a crystal goblet from its place beside the pool of reflections and sipped her cold blue wine. Cold like her blood. "It has been a long time since we shared our thoughts." A measure of cautious nostalgia, and finally an invitation.

"Is there time enough to tell me what has become of our people while we play?"

 

[Logan]

"I think you'll find I've had much time to practice since you've been gone," he said, Kyuss' voice floating from a shadowy place behind Tsurumah. He had been standing and waiting there for some time, the ground near his feet littered with the remnants of idle loitering. Cigar butts, globs of dirt congealed into mud from where he had been randomly spitting on the ground, all hallmark identifiers of someone simply biding time. "Can you say the same, Tsurumah iloi Cetinjira?" He said her full name because he remembered it, and he wanted her to know that. Years and dozens of battles may have passed, by Kyuss' mind was as sharp as ever. It needed to be, now that he was Supreme Leader of the Brotherhood. It still sounded odd, even in his mind, when he said it. Supreme Leader. What a grotesque and grandiose title, although he did enjoy the perks that came with it.

Moving from his previous place, Kyuss walked towards his seat opposite of Tsurumah and sat down - giving her a small nod of the head as he did so. The whole rising to bow thing never really did it for him, and Kyuss found it wholly unnecessary. They were not two dignitaries speaking of trade deals and tariffs. They were old friends, acquaintances, sharing some words over a game of djarik. Nothing more.

"If I remember the way you play, it might take more than a single game for me to tell you about the state of the Brotherhood." Kyuss said with a chuckle, both genuine and slightly sarcastic. The Sith were not in the best of positions at the moment, be he had faith that they would swiftly recover. They had a new leader now, and sometimes that's all it took. Reaching out to the board, he shifted one of his pawn pieces up two squares. "Perhaps you can also tell me what the galaxy has shown you in the past five years, Tsurumah. That's a long time to be gone, most had assumed you were dead." Lighting another cigar, Kyuss laughed again. "Clearly they do not know you as well as I do."




@Jake

 

[Tsurumah]

"It was convenient that few know of my quest," Tsurumah whispered in her arctic voice. "Even those who were close. But there should never have been doubt I would return."

At last she turned. Her incredible height meant that, despite the gigantic Codru-Ji's stature, she need only slightly incline her head to meet his gaze. Though she was expressionless, her eyes conveyed the conviction in her next words. "Duty measures the distance between the animal and the divine. Naga Sadow in the Excruciata. I remember even the driest old scrolls they used to have us read in the meditation chambers. Sadow chose a fitting name for that one." It was as close to Tsurumah ever came to humor. She slid soundlessly into her seat and briefly analyzed the implications of Kyuss' opening move, but it was a fairly standard beginning and she decided immediately. The carved figure of a Jedi Knight hovered forward in an L shape to rest in front of a pawn.

The ghost of a smile played across her features. "I've been in the Unknown Regions since shortly after I left, Kyuss. If you think it's fitting, we can take turns telling our stories. So tell me..."

That brief lightheartedness died immediately. Her breathing slowed. Not a single muscle quivered without precise intention. The water in the fountains behind her rippled then began to churn and froth. "Why does the temple so reek of weakness? Like I have never seen, in all my days... Exar Kun writes, To indulge it is to breed it. To punish it is to feed it. Weakness knows no bridle but the knife."

@Relent

 

[Logan]

“I know much,” he said simply, taking another drag off of his cigar. He tapped the middle of it with his inches thick index finger causing a fat dollop of ash to fall onto the ground next to his seat. “And I had no doubts about you, Tsurumah.” A quick flash of a smile would find its way onto Kyuss’ face, something that was supposed to be somewhat warm and friendly but probably came across as more predatory and dangerous than anything. Kyuss had always had that problem, but he understood why. For when did the cat smile at the mouse? Right before he was about to eat it.

Reaching out with the force, Kyuss too moved one of his knights in an L shaped pattern, the one on the opposite side of the board from the pawn he had moved previously; the Queen’s Knight. It was a change to the usual strategy of maneuvering the King’s knights first, but Kyuss liked trying new things.

“Because it is filled to the brim with it.” He said curtly. “The Sith have been.. tumultuous in their leadership recently. Many have risen to the rank of Supreme Leader who did not deserve it, and in their personal failings have allowed the ranks beneath them to wither and go rancid with the stench of ineptitude.” Another long drag, plumes of smoke billowing from Kyuss’ nose and mouth like early morning fog of the moors of Dagobah. ”Do not fret though, Tsurumah. My tenure has only just begun and the culling will soon come to follow.”

Another smile creased his lips then and there was nothing warm or friendly about it this time. It was all teeth, like a wolf who’d found a hare trapped in a snare. As far as he was concerned, the failings of the Sith were all over, save for the struggle. And it would be a mighty one.

"Your turn now, tell me what the Unknown has shown you these past five years, my friend.“

 

[Tsurumah]

Spoiler: OOC

Disclaimer: I make reference to Legends content in this post which I am aware is not necessarily canon, so I portray it in the form of myths and secrets, but include the links to make it clear what I am referring to.

Tsurumah stared at him. Outwardly, the Nautolan's countenance was certainly fierce, even monstruous... but within she nurtured another beast. A reptilian thing that watched every movement, scrutinized every word, and fed her the answers that would take her to where she needed to go. Pulling at the muscles of her face as if they were marionette strings, that monster painted her expression into a smile that was borderline pleasant - and perfectly calculated. A smile that recalled the Tsurumah of old: the Tsurumah whose company the Supreme Leader had enjoyed on countless hot, dusty Korriban nights, drinking into the small hours, exploring the limits of consciousness through psychoactives, heading deep together and with other friends into the history and culture of the proud empire they would one day inherit.

A smile that recalled the Tsurumah the Codru-Ji had known sinc. A smile evoked by an emotion beyond dead in Tsurumah, a smile she could only imitate since the truth had sheared all innocence from her soul. The horrible, mind-altering truth of what she had found.

"I found more secrets in the Unknown than can be shared over dejarik, Kyuss." Her smile faded ever so slightly and she reached into her robes, retrieving a small pouch. With the other hand she gestured and a small censer floated over her shoulder to rest beside the dejarik board. Untying the small sack, it fell open to reveal its contents: a small pile of dried and shriveled leaves, black but shot through with purple and blue veins.

"Nonetheless, we can begin the tale, if nothing else."

The pawn in front of her King's bishop slid forward a single space.

"The locals call Terminus the Keyworld because it is the door to the uncharted galaxy beyond the one we know. It was there that I had my first experience with the narcotic I am offering you there. Called paaloc incense, on Terminus the story goes that the memories it stirs will lead you to one of the treasures that are lost out there in the void. If you smoke you'll remember, Kyuss, a world that you have never known. That I don't think any living creature in our galaxy has seen, but nonetheless you will see it... the temples full of cyclopean statues, of heroes and gods utterly alien to us, but whose faces you will remember. The seat of power of a race as advanced as any we know, but far more terrible... for your mastery of yourself will let you peer deeper, into the gardens of carnivorous flowers that feast on the impious, across the legions after yolked legions of slaves whose backs are broken by masters that make tame even the most zealous of our Brothers..."

The Nautolan looked down at the dejarik board as if remembering made her self-conscious.

"Until then I doubted my mission. But afterwards I knew I would have to go. Originally I was sent to scout primitive worlds ripe for conquest.... but the scale of the Unknown is staggering, Kyuss, far beyond what we imagine. The knowledge that could be ours... Even the meager areas we know of, because we do not truly know them, are the sites of ancient legends, of entire interstellar societies and peoples with whom we have had minimal contact. There is greater evidence of the ancient forerunners that historians have long speculated over... the insinuation of strange life that might even exist outside our galaxy. But all that is lost to us, because a few thousand light years into the Unknown Regions, a dividing line thwarts exploration by stunting hyperdrives, causing ships to loop impossibly through space and emerge elsewhere as if travelling in a circle."

She packed the censer full of the dark leaves and lit them, within moments filling the air with thick, cloying smoke.

"More than you can imagine. More than I could hope to understand in five short years or in five lifetimes. Nonetheless, the breadth of my experience is great. I have learned... much... in my time away. And forgotten a great deal..."


Yes. The burden of what she had seen was harrowing even now, in the safety of a familiar place. It tinged her every thought with the impossible fear, a fear misunderstood by others as Tsurumah's incredible bravery, or defiance... but truly it was merely because, beside that which she feared most, nothing could ever again possibly frighten her.

Tsurumah feared Chaos, for she had seen its open, slavering mouth while she wandered through the Unknown. She saw what awaited her and all other Sith, all Jedi, what awaited every living creature: eternities of torment. Experience shredded into a thousand strings, each clawed and burned and sucked like bones... agony and anguish and terror and shame and every emotion that shared their spectrum, shrieking and screaming through the throat of every memory, a harmony of horror so complete that it remade her. A vision that defeated the tongue and the intellect, but that became her, if not at her center then beneath, a bottomless hole... A terror so profound, so pure that all other fears guttered to nothingness beside it.

A terror that was a gift, such was the peace, the serenity that followed it.

Tsurumah smiled to show Kyuss the life she had been before the Unknown touched her.

Before she had truly known fear.

@Logan