Open Recreational Medicine

[Arla]

Despite all their power together, Arla could see the moment slipping away from them. The Nexus was powerful, and the Primal Spirits had a will of their own that rebelled against containment or restraint.

Even as she drew on the power of the acolytes and her own not-inconsiderable reserves, she knew that it wasn't going to work. This nexus had been toyed with too many times by Jedi and Sith alike to be so easily corrupted again.

And then like a whisper in her mind, she was reminded of the amulet. The amulet that her father had given to her. There was a moment's hesitation. She had always tried to spare her usage of it, not wanting to abuse the power that he had lent to her, but now was a moment to use it. To crack a nexus and subjugate the very Shadow's power itself.

She reached up and tapped the pendant and shouted the incantation. Po obryadu krovi! she yelled, and the channel between herself and Raze was opened. Across the galaxy somewhere, he would be able to feel the power flowing elsewhere as it ran into Arla, her body suddenly becoming far more aware of the Shadow than ever before.

The power overflowed from her, and passed down the open channel from her to the acolytes, virtually slamming into them and sending chills and goosebumps across their entire bodies, but also giving them a taste of the true power of the Dark Side. A power that so few ever actually had the opportunity to sample for themselves.

She felt she could have uprooted the entire temple and cast it across the planet, and she probably could have. In an instant, the struggle to keep the spirits contained seemed a triviality, and she bound together the barrier around them, cinching down the metaphysical binds with ease.

As the ritual came to a close, and the winds began to settle, Arla opened her eyes. The flow of power was slowly fading, but within her it had awakened something more. Her normally gold-flecked silver eyes now seemed to almost glow gold as she opened them, her face set like stony death. Even as the acolytes would come to she didn't say a word, listening to the voice within her that she had never before heard speak.

You are the offspring of the Son of the Fanged Spirit. Daughter of the Empress. There is no one better suited to become the avatar of the Dark Side, the voice told her. For the first time in her life, she truly realized the power she was heir to and that could be hers if she seized it.

She pushed herself to her feet, her gaze sweeping over the room and the acolytes but not even seeming to see them. Her face and eyes were different, cold and harsh as if she were almost a different person entirely.

She didn't say a word, she didn't check to see if they were alive or okay, she simply turned and walked from the room.

@Arcangel @Wit @Sreeya

 

[Amun Seti]

Jeset held on, pouring what hatred and darkness he still held into the gleaming beacon of light that was the Nexus. It seemed to take it all in and shine just as brightly in return, though he could tell that cracks were beginning to show. Still, it wasn't enough. Jeset could tell at this point that their attempts would be fruitless, that they would fail. That they would pour their spirits into the nexus and be left as nothing more than burned out husks on the floor of the hospital basement, to be found at some later date after they had rotted and putrefied.

Arla shouted again, words in gibberish that Jeset couldn't understand as they whipped past him, carried away in the wind. He could feel his lungs screaming at the lack of air as the Nexus sucked everything of him outwards. His form felt faint, translucent, as if he were becoming more immaterial by the second.

Darkness

It slammed into him, filling his veins with ice. There was darkness. And then there was this. It was power. True power. It chilled him to the bone. He tried to inhale, breathing in only frost and rime. There was no mercy in the power that flowed through Arla and Jeset and Rhaenys, using them as conduits to drive straight into the core of the Nexus. The shining shell shattered. The light sucked inwards, consumed by the dark as it overtook the beacon of pure force energy and turning it into a bubbling, seething mass of negative energy.

The wind died and the red glow of the ritual runes faded into nothingness as Jeset finally gasped, collapsing forwards onto his forearms as he sucked air into his lungs. He coughed harshly, catching it in his sleeve. He tasted blood and the unfamiliar tingle of magic on his tongue. Blood stains shimmered on his sleeve, the last vestiges of the ritual shimmering in the blood their before its sparkle faded away.

Jeset sat up on his knees, clutching at himself and shivering as the cold still seeped from his very bones. The experience with the Nexus had fractured him, and the icy grip of power left him shuddering in its wake. But it was... Intoxicating. He wanted more, and when he looked up, there was a hunger in his eyes. It took him a few moments to recover from the experience enough to stand, but stand he did, following Arla from the room.

@Wit @Phoenix

 

[Rhaenys Drast]

As Arla drew on the pendant, Rhaenys could suddenly see her through the vision she had been pulled into, so brightly she burned, such was her strength in that moment. The vision started fading away, pulses of power radiating from Arla eroding the grasp the Primal Spirit had on her. She could see the room around her, the runes glowing, Jeset close by, himself bathed in the energies of the ritual, but even he was overshadowed by Arla.

The spirits had wanted her to flee, to run away, and she had been tempted. But that was nothing compared to the temptation she felt now. That power, she wanted it, she needed it. Whatever seeds the spirit had planted in her head were still there, and she had a horrific moment of clarity as the spirit's voice echoed in her head. She knew the cost, and she knew she would have to pay it for power like that. So the question was, would she be willing to pay it?

And in her naivety, unaware of what it truly meant, consumed by the lust for power and with her control over her power not refined enough to keep her thoughts from getting twisted by the raw strength of the now fully corrupted nexus, she answered. Yes, she would pay any price for that power.

It took her a moment to gather herself, to push herself back to her feet, to follow after the others. She stepped out of the room, hands shaking, mind buzzing. As they climbed back towards the main lobby they could see the effects of the ritual already begining to take hold. All across the hospital, on every floor they crossed, in every hall they walked down, there was chaos. A failing heart beat here, a crash cart there. A concentration of the old, the sick, and those near death, right above a nexus of the Dark Side itself was a recipe for disaster, and as the Force wailed around them, the three Sith would have the opportunity to bask in the glory of just what they had unleashed.

@Arcangel @Phoenix