For History

[The Eternal (Vex)]

The humm of the ship and the lack of any other sound made her pause for some time and remember how long it'd been since she last saw Kalla. She missed him dearly, but work was life. One of her operations took longer than expected, though it paid off in the end, naturally. Her target was dead; a target that she first thought was a threat to Kalla though soon found out was nothing but a worthless traitor. Because of how long they'd been apart, Vex set up a little dinner for the pair and a little surprise too. However, first she needed to deal with something.

With the signature hiss of a door sliding open, a cloaked Black Hand agent approached her, kneeling. Vex looked down at him, pausing for a brief moment to sense his emotions. His fear was prominent but nothing else stuck out which meant she could trust him—well, as much as a Sith could trust a subordinate anyway.

"You've received my orders?" she inquired.

The man nodded, answering with a simple, "Yes, Wraith."

Good, she thought smiling ominously. "It is important that you do not collect the holocron yourself. If you find one, leave some men in the area to ward off anyone else and inform me. Understood?" If anyone was going to put their hands on it first, it would be her. This holocron... it was to become her legacy.

"Yes, Wraith," he answered simply again.

"Dismissed," the Wraith said, waving her hand in the air. As she commanded the agent left, and Vex took the time to ready herself for the dinner.

It took only a few minutes to switch out of her Wraith gear and into her Away gear. The ship touched down shortly after and she made her way out. Walking down to the almost abandoned War Master's area of the temple, some unpleasant memories flooded back but she pushed them away quickly enough.

In the War Master's dinning room, a large table was already set with a variety of meals and alcohol that Vex knew Kalla liked. In the middle of the table Serie's decapitated head, mouth stuffed with a red apple, eyes sewn shut and the Black Hand mark still clearly sunk into her leathery face. Her body had laid on Korriban's floor for quite awhile untouched; no one came to claim it though that wasn't unexpected. No one claimed it until now, of course. Vex thought Serie's dried out head made a nice ordainment and thought Kalla would get a kick out of it too.

Nodding with appreciation for the set up, she sat at one end of the table and waited for Kalla to show. There was a lot they needed to catch up on, and one favor Vex needed to ask of him.

@Rexx

 

[Kalladrrl]

Damn, what he would have done for a competent adjutant. Maintaining supplies for the Shock Corps, the Legion and the Defense Force, coordinating with the other Lords of the Sith and their constituent bureaus, being tortured by electricity, lifting weights in hyperspace between campaigns. His schedule had been supremely overfull upon his ascension to the post of War Master and the more he moved openly or secretly the more attention he had to bring away from what actually mattered to him. Two things, specifically: proliferating the New Order, and the one who had summoned him to suites whose use Kalladrrl had largely abandoned in favor of a more mobile center of operations.

There was little safety on Korriban, so close to so many second-rate Sith, those who saw their own ambition come before the needs of the Empire. Only one had moved surreptitiously to his knowledge but she would merely be the first. As such, Kalladrrl was clad entirely in his regalia, lightsabers at his hips, armor providing total coverage of his body, the Gauntlet on his right hand to annihilate any who might assail him.

It paid to be prepared for any eventuality.

One of his own subordinates had passed on the message that a Master Vex wished to speak with him in the War Master's suites on Korriban and so he had gird himself for brutality -- they had inconveniently left out that it was the dining chambers in which they were to meet, prompting Kalladrrl to equip himself for war. One of the soldiers Vex had deployed directed the slightly confused War Master to the chamber she wished to meet in, its doors sliding open to display the spread that had been prepared.

He stood in the threshold for a moment, looking to Vex, his gaze mildly dumbfounded beneath his helmet.

“Vex. I…” he trailed off, retroactively filling in the missing information his assistants had failed to provide him. She would doubtlessly notice that his voice had a wet rasp to it, descended several steps in pitch, one of a number of seemingly permanent side effects his punishment at the hands of Darth Kravos had upon him. She would also feel the ironic, foolish feeling that overtook him, pleasantly taken aback by the change in circumstances for today's “meeting.”

In Kalladrrl’s day-to-day lexicon as War Master, a meeting usually involved deciding the fate of countless lives through war or policy; Kalladrrl, so eager to be Vex's ultimate champion, had assumed the worst and that war was to be declared on some unfortunate sot. He would have to make an example of this adjutant’s incompetence to the rest of his support staff.

“Oh.”

Kalladrrl chuckled once, mostly at himself, his uncharacteristic lack of witty response and the irony of having come for what was clearly meant to be an evening together in all the gear he would bring to a battlefield to deliver pain and terror to his enemies.

“How long has it been, rrankyra?” he asked as he took a step into the room, cloak trailing behind him. Kalladrrl wanted to run to her, to pick up and embrace the beautiful creature who had clearly put a great deal of thought and research into the princely meal set before them. He wanted to spin her around as he felt close to someone who wouldn't hurt him, a closeness he never felt when deployed or planning. The men viewed him as beyond them, and he knew that many among the Sith were perplexed and enraged by the mercenary who had discovered his ability to command the Force and used his natural cunning to carve out a place of supremacy amongst them.

But the halls of Korriban were not safe even for Vex and Kalladrrl, mighty though they were, united by shared purpose, by action and by the bonds of the heart.

@Dread

 

[The Eternal (Vex)]

How long has it been exactly? she thought, noticing how deck out Kalla was. It was a good question and she almost laughed at how dressed he was, however her attention was largely on Kalla's voice. Worry, anger, the desire to draw blood from whoever did this, if it was even a person shoot through her mind, among other emotions.

"Weeks, maybe an entire month," she answered at first, despite everything going through her mind. "But Kalla, what happened to your voice." Her countenance became darker and the darkside began to swirl around her natrually. "Do I have to assassinate someone or have you already put them into the ground?"

Even while she was thinking about murdering someone and chopping them into little bitty pieces, she signaled towards Kalla's seat at the table. She wanted him to relax some as he explained himself; maybe he'd get alaugh when he noticed Serie's head...if he could even recognize it since it was leathery now. There was a lot she had to tell him too but that all didn't matter in the moment.

@Rexx

 

[Kalladrrl]

He could feel the worry bubble within her, but he remained resolute within their bond.

“It’s been fifty-one days. Nearly two months.” Kalladrrl took a step toward her, reaching up to unseal his helmet, lifting it off of him as eyes of bright, burnished gold glimmered in the light at Vex. “Before Kessel,” he said, motioning his helmet aside as if he gave it to an unseen servant, the helmet sailing to sit on the floor by the seat clearly meant for him by its size.

“The Dark Lord of the Sith was displeased with the insufficiency of my victory, and saw fit to chastise me. My resistance to his advice has left its mark.” He spoke openly and yet his tone was dry, belying the great pain Lord Kravos had inflicted upon him. “I would spare you a full recollection of its events via our connection, unless you wish otherwise.” His jaw tightened and he said no more on the matter as he undid both gauntlet and Gauntlet, setting them beside his place setting as he sat, his eyes and nose settling upon the table and its delights, easily a dozen dishes of his favorites, including a thick, spicy curry from Kashyyyk. He would eat it with a fork, despite the tradition to eat it with one's hands.

The Wookiee smirked in bemusement as he cast his eyes on the table. What a strange decoration -- a human head, but it looked so familiar…

Recognition dawned on him and he guffawed once, smiling up at Vex as his eyes twinkled.

“Why, you’ve managed to do the impossible, Vex,” he said with drippingly vicious caustic mirth at their centerpiece. “You made Serie Fond beautiful.” He threw his head back, a trio of barking laughs booming in the chamber, pure sonic joy leaping from his lungs. “She’s finally useful.”

Kalladrrl dove into cuts of meat and roasted vegetables with aplomb that fit his stature. He was always hungry nowadays, fitness regimen requiring calories upon calories. His appetite cleaned out larders and tested that ornery chef’s resolve every time he dined on Korriban. As he filled his plate, he poured a complementary wine in each of their glasses, hers and then his.

He raised his glass to hers.

“To the future,” he said with an affectionate grumble, clearly impressed with all that lay before him.

@Dread