In the Hands of the Steward [Flashback]

[Vinny]

There are places in the galaxy that, if one truly wanted to live a peaceful and happy life, would be better left unimagined or dismissed as fantasy. There are places where no light reaches. Where the currents of the force are so blighted that no purity could ever cleanse them. These places that lurk in the deepest coal-coated blackness of the minds of beings. Yes, it is easier to pretend that they simply do not exist. Yet reality is cruel, and the thought that there is a place that Darth Cain, the Steward of the Dark Side, calls his sanctum and center of power is very, painfully, true.

Yes, this was a place strong in the Dark Side, a nexus of evil.

The room was little more than fifty feet square, with a single cot set off to the side near piles and piles of books and materials. Shelves lined the walls of the room before stopping at the center of the rear wall. At that point, something between an altar and fireplace stood, a burning fire the only light source and also the only iota of warmth in the entire room. One could see the breath in front of their lips in this place, and the darkness swallowed up almost all of the light inside. Only a foot of glowing halo stretched from the altar. At the center of the room a long stone table had been set up, straps of strong materials pulled over the body of the woman that lay attached to it.

Shae Vis was bound, a crown of some sort clasped to her head, suppressing her ability to touch the force. She had been stripped of all weapons and gear, only simple robes allowed for her. Her hands were encased in metallic cuffs that kept even her fingers from moving and even her head was restrained from turning or lifting. Helpless.

Behind her, prostrate before the flames, Darth Cain muttered a solemn prayer. The Dark Lord of the Sith rising only after finishing his reverent chant. He faced away from her for a long moment before rounding on his heel. His visage was...wrong. The illusions and shapeshifting magics he used to disguise what he had become were cast aside in this place. Instead of a man's face, six glowing eyes broke from his flesh. His skin was graying and cracked, pink crystal glittering out from within in places. Here and there one could still see the tan skin of the Corellian he had once been yet even it was marred with blackened veins. His mouth tore his face in half, sunken with needle like teeth jutting out from within.

"I apologize for taking so long, Shae." Came the blood curdling hiss from the hole that was his mouth. "Are you comfortable? It has been so long since we last spoke. Dantooine. You were so... close to falling. I am glad to still see you in your right mind." He whispered, walking over to the table and standing over her.

 

[Sreeya]

Shae had struggled against her binds for what felt like hours. She twisted, jerked, turned and screamed, and it was all for nothing. No one was coming for her, and the reality of her situation began to set in. Shae last remembered fighting someone in an alley, and the next thing she knew she was in Sith space. It took her a moment to realize that she had been tricked and her attacker had knocked her out while putting up a front to attack.

She awoke in a panic, looking around and sensing the dark energies all around her until the crown was placed atop her head. Shae’s immediate thoughts were her family. Corvo and Ciri were without her and she knew Corvo would destroy himself trying to find her. Ciri would be left alone and be entirely confused and afraid. Shae’s thoughts hardly lingered on herself, guilt rising at what she was putting her family through. The struggling had stopped by now, her tears dried on her cheeks. She was quiet, staring up at the flickering light from the fire along the ceiling that cast a shadow. She had been gazing vacantly at it for what seemed like hours.

Shae squirmed when she heard someone enter, pangs of fear hitting her. She felt vulnerable without the Force, and not being able to feel anything around her made her feel naked to the world. She tilted her head as much as she could to gaze upon the intruder, gasping at the sight. The voice made her recoil and she thought about his words. A moment later it dawned on her who this was, the sight of him almost making her vomit. Shae struggled against her restraints, “Why am I here? Let me go! I bring nothing of value to you,” She despised him, and she felt foolish for not attacking him when she had the chance back at the bar, “You will pay for this, you sick freak. You will pay dearly.”

@Vinny

 

[Vinny]

Cain pitied her, if he was being honest with himself. She refused to be honest with her own nature in a way so fundamental that she did not even realize it was a problem. He reached out and rested his hands on the altar, sliding them down until his almost claw-like fingers brushed her shoulders. He leaned over her head, staring down at her, six eyes burning with malice twinkled in the near choking darkness. He smiled at her again, a horrific sight. That's right, she had only seen a shadow of what he had become.

"You know why you are here, Shae Vis." He whispered, he had given her the offer of treatment back on Dantooine. He had told her that he would go to any length to help her control the power of the Dark Side that was building in her like a tumor. She had refused him. Yet his temporary treatment had eventually faded. The Dark thoughts had returned, the haunting rage that tightened her chest and twisted her thoughts every single day. The fear, yes, the crippling fear that she would act on those compulsions in the presence of those she loved.

"Don't lie to yourself, Shae. We both know that those assassins stood no chance against you. You allowed yourself to be captured. Better to make your husband think you had come against your will...no?" He said, chuckling and stood up, running his hands over his face. Color flushed his pale flesh and the horror that was Darth Cain was replaced by the face of Wake Olpierr. He strode over and sat down at her side, reaching out to run a hand down her cheek. He sighed. Such beautiful light to make the darkness ever deeper, yet even it too was slowly being consumed. Such was reality, he supposed.

"The Jedi cannot cure you. But you already knew that, didn't you? You have already fallen, Shae Vis. You are here to come to terms with your new reality and embrace your future." He said, and for once, his words did not carry a hint of the mocking mirth that he usually threw about. He was serious as the grave.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Shae screamed at the top of her lungs and struggled against her binds as his claws raked against her. She was angry and he was only making it worse. She looked away as much as she could as he gazed at her, his words infuriating her. Shae’s fingers curled into fists, her knuckles white and palms sweaty, “I didn’t allow anything,” She looked at him and hissed, “Why would I purposely take myself away from my husband and daughter? Why would I purposely get drugged and bring myself to this nightmare?”

She cried out again, shaking against the binds as he walked around her and changed his visage back to Wake. Shae’s chest quickly rose and fell, hate and malice filling her heart, “Stop trying to intrude into affairs that aren’t your own. I’m not a toy you can play make believe with and play out your fantasies. Let me go.”

Shae winced as she felt his hand against her cheek, feeling violated at his every touch. She turned to his face and spat directly on it to deter him. At that point she didn’t care what rage she had just invoked. Shae wanted to hurt him, and he would sense that in her, “My future is me tearing you apart. My future is Corvo mounting your ugly head on a pike. My future is you becoming nothing more than a boogeyman story for my daughter to make her do her chores.”

 

[Vinny]

Cain raised a hand to his cheek, running his thumb down the surface and wiping away the spittle. He stared at it, and then at her. Clicking his tongue once he leaned in close enough for her to feel his breath on her face. She couldn't move her head, so there was no risk of injury save getting spat on again. He looked her square in the eyes, those off-gold irises glowing with an inner heat. "Shae Vis I believe you are under the misinterpretation that this is some sick fantasy derived from the mind of a lunatic. You appear to be under the delusion that you will leave this chamber alive under any circumstance other than my express permission. You are consumed by a laughable notion that you have any sort of opportunity to argue your case at this point."

He grabbed her by the chin, and glared into her eyes, forcing her to make eye contact. "Let me assure you, Shae Vis none of these things are true. You are sick. Your force corruption continues to spread even though I have suppressed your emotions. It has given you time, but that is all." He released her chin. His words were like ice, there was no amusement, no playfulness, it was not anger though... not in the traditional sense. It was like being berated by one's own parent, lover or friend. It was an anger born out of concern. He turned away, running his fingers through his hair before turning back and holding his hand out.

"It is time you understood exactly what I did for you that day on Dantooine!" He snapped, and reached out with the force, digging into her mind and releasing the restraints on her emotions. Her old angers, fears, insecurities, sadness, torment, self loathing, it would all come boiling back to the surface in one horrendous gush of feeling. "Now do you remember?! Sick freak indeed!" He spat, standing up straight, genuinely offended. "I have done all I can for you and your family, and you repay me with spittle." He hissed darkly, turning back to the fire and leaving her to her torment.

@Sreeya

 

[Sreeya]

Shae knew spitting was a mistake the moment she did it, but she was too impassioned to stop herself. She felt him grasp her face, felt his breath against her skin and it caused chills down her spine. Corvo and her child were the only ones to get this close to her, and to have a stranger do it made her extremely uncomfortable. She struggled against his grasp, discomfort clear in her actions. She was only half listening to his words, focused on fighting against his touch.

She stopped, however, when he began to speak about how she was sick. The corruption was like a disease, and she stopped to listen then. It had been a seed planted within her a long time ago and the roots had begun to grow. They spiraled throughout her, lodging firmly into the darkest corners of her psyche. Shae stared vacantly up at the ceiling, his words causing her chest to rapidly rise and fall. There was truth there, painful, stinging truth. She didn’t even notice that he had released her by then.

And he followed it up with the worst thing he could have done….

He opened the floodgates. He dug into her mind and unlocked every thought she had buried. It was all her securities and darkness flooding her at once. She saw images of her mother, the woman that abandoned her. She felt the raging anger as she saw the woman again and how she once again walked away from her life. She felt the pain of blowing up the Korriban temple and relived the anguish of hundreds of souls dying at once. She felt the pain of destroying the Tython temple and dragging down her friends with her.

Shae struggled against her minds, tears beginning to stream down her face. She twisted, struggled and shouted for it to stop, but it all came to her nonetheless. Shae saw Corvo as he was possessed by Andraste, saw the pain it caused him. She saw the face of Terra, the woman he had loved before, old pains of jealousy driving her mad. She cried out loud, remembering when she drove a saber through Sihkar’s back and watched him die.

The pain was unbearable, the weight of all her dark actions and self insecurities crushing her. Shae howled in pain, arching back, her eyes squeezed shut. Her skin was red and chafed where she struggled against the binds, and she still didn’t relent. The emotional assault was torture, and she was flooded now with images of her dead family, the thoughts that were her deepest fears.

He began to walk away and she was left to her own thoughts, the darkest places she could be in. As he walked away, Shae let out and anguished cry, a shriek and howl that would echo both physically and through the Force. She held it for a long time before slumping against her binds.

For what felt like hours, she laid there sobbing. She felt weak and exhausted, feeling pain worse than anything she had ever endured in battle. Shae closed her eyes and weakly laid there for a long time, consoled with nothing but the sound of her own voice and shuddered breaths. It was then that she truly felt alone. Corvo and Ciri were across the entire galaxy and no one knew where to find her.

She could very well die here and never see them again. Despair took place of anger, tears drying on her cheeks. After a long time after that, she softly whispered, “…help…me…Wake..”

 

[Vinny]

Cain waited until she spoke again. He had resumed a posture of prayer in front of the sole fire at the rear of the room. His eyes were closed, his power continued to build. Every moment of her agony was something that pained him and fueled him. He drew on it, letting it feed his concern, letting it flare his resolve. He had been right about her. There was no doubt in his mind that the Dark Side had already consumed her. It was not a matter of if she truly embraced it. It was a matter of when.

Her rasping cry for help drew him back to his feet. He did not turn around;

"Help you? Now you ask for my help, after I gave it freely before and you scorned me. Why? Why should I help you now?" He demanded to the fire, anger biting through his words, anger and disappointment. Finally he turned.

"No. No you need gaze into the eyes of your own foulness. You need to confront what you have done. You need to understand what you truly are, Shae." He turned and walked over to her. He reached down and ran a hand over her head, sighing. "It is time to wake up, Shae. It is time to come out of this fantasy world you've hidden yourself in. This is reality." He gestured to his right, to the foot of the table. Two figures began to emerge from the darkness.

"My sanctum is a special place, Shae. Did you know that? This is a font of the dark side, a nexus. Here, my very special friends can make themselves visible not only to me, but to others. Say hello Shae..." He hissed as Darth Vanus and Emperor Kyuss strode out of the darkness. The Force Wraiths standing at the foot of the table. Cain stepped back to allow them to walk around the table, to stand at either side of her. They did not speak-they didn't have to-they simply stood there, staring down with accusing eyes.

"Good Night, Shae." Cain said, and began to walk toward the door.