"…seems, based on the reports from those you sent to observe her, that your honored descendant wishes to bring her concubine and slave to meet you, My Lord, and discuss the works of another Lord named Ergast, but it has been deemed too dangerous due to the storms and they have not been permitted to do so." Malith finished his report on the activities of his descendant, and Aloysious frowned discontentedly, rubbing his bearded chin as he considered the situation. The storms had certainly abated somewhat of late, enough that work on the grounds of his estate could continue…hmm, perhaps it was time for him to perform some old sorceries again.
"This Ergast, who is he? Is it known what, exactly, my descendant wishes to discuss in regards to him and his works?" he querried, pushing aside the issue of the storms for the moment, and Malith consulted the report in his hands for a moment before frowning slightly.
"A ritual known as 'Forcewalking', My Lord. Apparently, Lord Ergast mastered the art, and she wishes to learn it as well." Came the answer, and Aloysious couldn't resist raising an eyebrow at that. Forcewalking, hmm? Some form of ability to move between places using the Force? Or perhaps a method of stealth? A speed enhancement ability? Whatever it was, he had never heard of it, so perhaps the daughter of his daughters wished to master some new, esoteric skill, and sought his advice or approval? It would hardly be the first time a member of his house sought him out for such a reason, and as much as he believed that young Sith should make their own way, he could hardly turn aside his own blood if they needed guidance.
"When the storms abate, I want the perimeter guards to have been fully briefed on the appearances of not just her, but both of her companions. They are to be escorted to me immediately upon their arrival. If any agent beyond the perimeter encounters them, they are to assist them in reach the estate grounds." He decreed after several moments of contemplation, drumming his fingers lightly on his arm as he considered what other instructions might need to be delivered. "Oh, and make sure that that rude brat's little cohort isn't nearby when they arrive. My descendant's concubine was once his sibling, and I have no desire to see some sort of spat break out in the midst of my introduction to the daughter of my daughters. Speaking of which, have your agents yet gathered a name for her?"
"Oh, yes, of course! Forgive me, My Lord, I have shamed myself for not speaking of it sooner." Malith blanched, looking down with a genuine flush of embarrassment covering his scared, weathered, veteran cheeks, and Kallig could practically hear the self-flagellation running through the man's mind.
"Do not beg forgiveness, simply do better in the future. You have served me well so far, and any man can make a mistake." He advised kindly, and the man straightened with a determined look on his face.
"I thank you for your graciousness, My Lord. Your honored descendant's name is Vestara, though she seems to be going by the surname of Khai at the moment. The Brat's sister is Asmu-Nikal, of the Luwian Dynasty, and the slave girl is known as Kela. They live on the Luwian estate, it seems, though your servants have yet to manage penetrating the security of the estate in any manner. Nor have any of them left the estate, preventing your agents from reaching out to them, so gathering further information is proving difficult." He explained, and Aloysious nodded thoughtfully, folding his hands behind his back and regarding some of the inscriptions on the wall, though he wasn't really seeing them so much as gazing in their direction.
"I shall begin a working to dissipate the storms further. Based on what you have reported, nothing more will be required to bring the three of them to me at last. See to the rest of your duties." He said finally, his subordinate acknowledging the dismissal with a bow to his back and murmured thanks before withdrawing, leaving Kallig alone once again. "Vestara, hmm? I wonder, blood of my blood, why you do not bear our name?"
He swept from the room, heading for the entrance hall to inspect it's current status and get a greater feel for the storms, that he might better direct his efforts to clearing the path for his House member. As he walked, absently acknowledging the respects and vows of service his servants offered as he passed them by, he considered that very question.
Dozens of possibilities occurred over the course of that walk, and all but one of them discarded after careful scrutiny. The idea that she had left the family was absurd. First and foremost, had there been a daughter of his House so deeply in conflict with her kin or so rebellious in her behaviour that such a thing would come to pass, he would have heard about it and put a stop to it long before an exile (self-imposed or not) could come to past.
Not to mention the fact that she wouldn't be trying to reach his palace if she had left the family or been cast out.
Second, the notion that she had changed her name because she was in hiding, trying to avoid the notice of a powerful enemy. Besides the fact that what few surviving enemies he had wouldn't dream of threatening one of his House so directly as to reacquire such a thing, if she was trying to stay incognito she wouldn't be trying to visit him openly.
Third, that she had married into some House and taken their name. That was barely worth considering for several reasons. First, she was ever in the company of the daughter Luwian. Second, he would have had to approve any such marriage, and he most certainly hadn't given any of his descendants away to a House named 'Khai'. Third, it was absurd to consider that she would leave behind the name of Kallig to take up the name of a house so minor he had never heard of it.
No, the only real explanation, the only explanation that made any sort of sense, was that she was trying to 'stay off of the scopes', as the naval officers would say, while building a name and reputation for herself unconnected to her family legacy. An action he wholeheartedly approved of, even if a part of him chafed to see one of his own flesh and blood pretending to be one of the masses. Let her win herself renown on her own merits, rather than risk it being handed to her in an effort to curry favor with him and the rest of his House.
To that end, he wondered, had she even informed her concubine of her true nature, or was the pureblood as in the dark as the rest of the world seemed likely to be? Keeping secrets, holding advantages and playing sabaac with your cards pressed to your chest were all bread and butter to the Sith, but only a fool tried those things with someone that you kept in your own bed. A good way to wake up with your throat slit, that was, if you were lucky. If you were unlucky, it meant the sort of conversation men spoke of in whispers of dread, nervously eyeing their surroundings to make sure none of the women in their lives were nearby.
Oh, the masses might think that the Sith Lords ruled their houses with an iron fist, that their women were well-collared beauties, but those masses were fools! He and Tulak Hord might rule their houses, yes, and their wives and concubines certainly submitted to them, but that only made those very same wives and concubines all the more terrifying when they ever so sweetly and demurely and deftly put their collective foots down and banished them from their own bedchambers on occasion.
Or, as presumably was happening now, they had decided that they were going to go travelling about the Empire on a series of very expensive vacations, occasionally sending holofilms home to show him just how they were enjoying themselves, doubtlessly filled with ever-so-subtle digs at him referencing whatever it was he had done wrong this time. Perhaps he could commiserate with his descendant. Certainly, she too was female, but as the head of her own Household with her own harem of women, perhaps she would fall more onto his side of things? Or would she seek solidarity with her female kin?
Giving a beleaguered sigh, Aloysious shook his head and stepped through the main entrance and out into the sunlight, or at least what passed for it on Dromund Kaas.
…sunlight?
Looking up, Kallig's eyebrows both drew down in exasperation as the very storm he needed to banish in order for his descendent to reach him finished dissipating before his very eyes. After he had gone to all the effort of walking down here in the first place. He would have been vexed if he wasn't so used to the planet's bizzare weather systems. In the end, though, it didn't really matter whether the weather disappeared on it's own or due to his efforts, so long as it was dealt with. Satisfied, he took a moment to cast a critical eye on the grounds, making a point of nodding in approval at the efforts his servants were making even as he lamented the fact that they were necessary in the first place, before turning to head back inside with a minute and utterly silent sigh.
On to the next task, then.
Really, he was getting to old for all of this. Maybe he should think about retiring and letting Vestara worry about all this. Follow his harem on one of their little planet-hopping expeditions instead of staying home, for once. A second honeymoon of sorts, perhaps. That sounded nice.
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After that first threesome, the floodgates had been opened. Only rarely did Kela and I sleep in the slave barracks from that point on, and I very much had the impression that Kela had only been sleeping down there previously because I had been sleeping down there. Nearly every night was filled with passion now, and in that passion my bond with the girls, and my influence over them, had only grown.
So had Nicky's willingness to submit to me sexually, exponentially in fact. I don't know if she had always been a closeted switch (and she was a switch, just as dominant to Kela as she was submissive to me) or if my building of a Force bond with her and my apparent power as a seer had unlocked something entirely new within her. Most nights were now spent with me driving the both of them into the mattress, and to say that our play had gotten nothing less than filthy would be an understatement. It was paradise, and it was almost enough to make me forget about my goals.
Almost. But not quite.
Which is why I, with a very curious Nicky and very discomfited Kela in tow, was making my way through the forest towards the Dark Temple, and thence the Tomb of Ergast, nearly two and a half months after the Dark Temple had been opened. Time was starting to run out before I would be getting shipped off to Korriban (and I was growing increasingly nervous about how, exactly, that would come to pass), and I would be damned if I followed the stations of canon any more than I absolutely had to.
And, if I was going to be entirely honest, I had a vested interest in impressing Nicky. It was in my nature and my power to become The Forcewalker, and I was going to show her a fraction of what that could mean. Besides, what I was most interested in at the moment, besides absent-mindedly planning all of the wicked, wicked things I wanted to do with my girls tonight, was making it possible that I could keep Kallig around in the long term. He had barely had the strength to show to the Inquisitor a half-dozen times in the game, and only during major crises or turning points in the story. If I was going to rebuild our House and change the Empire from within, I was not inclined to lose so valuable a resource as the one that he represented.
I mean, as the Head of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge, having a Sith that was a contemporary of Tulak Hord himself was a resource that was beyond priceless. The information, the strategies, the knowledge, the wisdom that was locked away in his mind, accessible only to one that could soothe and speak with the dead, could potentially give me the tools that I needed to change the fate of an entire galaxy. God, I could only imagine the ruins and ancient caches of technology and knowledge that he could personally lead me to!
"Why am I going along with this?" Kela grumbled unhappily, eyeing the lightning storm that still raged in the next valley over, still preventing any and all who might make the attempt from approaching the Dark Temple by air, and making it nothing short of hazardous to try to do so on foot or in a ground transport. "Feels like the whole damn planet is going to come apart, and what am I doing? Following a couple of lunatics into an ancient Sith tomb with the express intention of meeting the ghost of the man buried there. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that the tomb is in the Dark Temple, the entire area of which is supposed to be locked down by the planetary garrison!"
"Come now, my Kela, haven't you ever wanted to go on an adventure! Why, I remember that you and I used to be quite the intrepid explorers in our childhood, searching for all manner of buried treasure and secret artifacts on the grounds of the estate." Nicky shot her childhood companion an encouraging and excited smile, receiving a distinctly unimpressed look in return.
"Yes, we did. Then we got older, and I've since then seen more than enough holofilms to know exactly how this is going to go." She responded dryly, flinching as a deep roll of thunder echoed nearby. "Sure, everything will seem fine at first, just another innocent adventure of discovery, but then the walls will start bleeding and the shadows will start following us…"
"I'm sure it will be fine. Ves wouldn't be bringing us here if she thought that it would be dangerous for us, she likes fucking us too much to risk a ghost tearing our skin off or whatever." Nicky waved her concerns off blithely, looking thoroughly and entirely unconcerned with the prospect of the afore-mentioned skin-removal, looking down at her datapad before peering at the tombs embedded in the cliff-faces around us. Tombs that were, perhaps unsurprisingly, more numerous and larger-looking than they had been in the game. Pointing to one entrance in particular, she continued with a degree of middling confidence that made me somewhat nervous about her conclusions. "Pretty sure Lord Ergast is buried in that one. There aren't any notes about getting through the inside of the tomb, though it does mention that there aren't many traps."
"Because Lord Ergast wants people to come and learn how to perform Forcewalking. Since the process is fatal for anyone that fucks it up, he probably didn't think that it was necessary to have much in the way of defenses." I drawled, getting a frown from both of my lovers at the casual way I discussed my own potential demise. Then I frowned as well. "Though the bit about the planetary garrison is a good point. I have no idea how we're supposed to sneak past them, the Temple is in a valley with little in the way of access if I recall correctly. The last thing I want is for the three of us to get shot or arrested…"
"If I may?" a cultured voice murmured from nearby, and the three of us yipped in surprise, spinning to regard the man who had suddenly, silently, and without any of us detecting his presence with the Force or our physical senses. The reason why immediately became apparent, as a Chiss dressed in the equipment of Imperial Intelligence appeared out of what seemed to be nothing more than thin air. "Cipher 22, at your service, honored descendant of my master. I should be happy to guide you to the Lord's estate."
And then he bowed to me, bowed low and solemnly, and my breath caught in my chest as Nicky and Kela both reeled away from me, their expressions and their presences radiating the shock and confusion and even, yes, the fear that they suddenly felt.
"Ves? Khai? What's going on?" Nicky asked, sounding the closest thing to hurt that I had ever heard her, and I was trying to figure out what the hell to do next when the Cipher decided that he needed to answer the question on my behalf.
"Were you not aware? You travel in the company of a daughter of the House of Kallig, an honored descendant and prospective heiress to the Grand Marshall of the Armies of the Most Holy Empire of the Sith, the Right Hand of Tulak Hord, Aloysious Kallig." He sounded almost as if he was rebuking my companions, before turning back to me and bowing deeply. "Ah, forgive me, honored descendant, I did not realize your concubines were unaware of your heritage, or I would have remained silent."
"It's fine. I suppose it is a secret that had to come out eventually. You said you would be able to guide us to my ancestor?" I responded quickly, radiating a silent, begging request for my companions to keep their mouths shut for the moment down my psychic links to them, and he gave a smaller bow in response. "Very well, lead on, at a distance that will give the three of us some manner of privacy. While your offer is generous and appropriate for one of my ancestor's retainers, it does mean we three must speak sooner rather than later."
There was some more bowing and murmuring before the man set off again, and I made sure to give him just enough space that he was still in sight but would be out of earshot before setting off after him. Or at least out of casual earshot, God only knew what kind of enhancements the man had, either internally or via his Intelligence equipment.
"Vestara Khai…!" Nicky hissed before I could even open my mouth, and I winced. I hadn't heard that particular tone of voice from the pureblood in quite some time. She really wasn't happy with me, and I could hardly blame her for that.
"Look, I was trying to keep this quiet because of your father and Zash, but yes, I'm actually descended from Lord Kallig, Tulak Hord's closest friend, confidant, and general. He got too powerful, too popular, too talented, and Hord had him assassinated along with most of his House. The few survivors went into hiding, and here we are a few millenia later." I delivered the information with, perhaps, more bluntness than was entirely necessary, and I could sense a spike of irritation from both girls, though both also radiate a very begrudging sense of understanding as well. Looking at Nicky, I continued. "And yes, he is a ghost. The problem is, when your brother breached the Temple, it woke him up, and right now he thinks he is still alive. People like that Cipher agent and all the other Sith and Imperials that have been sent to the Temple since are all totally under his sway. His kingdom and his servants restored to him."
There were a lot of ways I expected her to respond. Anger, of course, that was already present. Confusion, bafflement, perhaps even instinctual rejection of the fact that her slave (even the slave she had been letting absolutely rail her for months) was actually someone whose blood was probably richer than her own. Perhaps even some manner of boasting, or an exclamation of how she had 'always known' that there was something special about me.
What I got instead was far, far more unnerving, because I was really quite sure that I saw tears in her eyes before she looked away, and it occurred to me that, despite her understanding that I wished to keep this knowledge away from her father and Zash, she was feeling rather hurt that I hadn't told her any of them over the last several months. Which was…fair, honestly.
Man, I had probably fucked up a bit here, hadn't I?
"I should have told the two of you when we became lovers, instead of just owner and fellow slave." I confessed heavily, getting a bitter and likely subconscious nod from Nicky, even as Kela frowned at me and stuck close to the pureblood's side. How had it come to this, I wondered, that I was trying to comfort and apologize to someone that by all natural law and reason should be someone I hated?
Oh, right. I'd somehow ended up in the grasp of perhaps the only genuinely decent Sith Heiress on the entire planet (Lana not being an Sith heiress, technically) and then somehow fallen in love with her while trying to manipulate her for my own ends. Good job me, you'll fit in so well with the Sith.
"I am sorry, Nicky. I never expected we would grow as close as we have, emotionally and physically alike, and after that…well, quite frankly in your home I trust only you and Kela. I don't trust the servants, the slaves, the guards, the walls, or anything else." I acknowledged silently to myself that my apology, though heartfelt, probably left something to be desired given it contained a whole lot of me justifying myself, but I wanted her to understand my reasoning. "Can you imagine how hard Zash would work to get her hands on me if she found out about my heritage, given her plans? And your father, you think he wouldn't want to perform unspeakable atrocities to see just how far he could push me once he knew? This is the first time we've been out of the mansion since the Temple opened, I couldn't tell you before now."
"Were you going to tell me eventually?" she asked quietly, and I considered the question for a long moment before answering it as honestly as I could.
"I intended for you and your family to find out about it eventually, yes. How that reveal would happen would have…varied, depending on several things." I hedged, making the statement as gently as I could, not that it mattered given Nicky's snort.
"What you mean is, my father is a dead man walking, and the rest of us depended on how we treated you." She translated sardonically, and I winced and tried to cast about for something reassuring to say. Likely sensing my discomfort and flickering thoughts, she swiped an irate hand through the air. "I don't care about my father. He's barely been present in my life, seeing me as little more than a tool to further his ambitions, and the things he did to you are monstrous. I thought them monstrous even before we became lovers. But if you have any regard for me at all, you won't hurt my mother or little brother."
"I think the world of you and Kela, and of course I won't do anything to your mother or your brother unless they try to attack us. The worst they have ever done was ignore me. Besides, I'm not a big believer in punishing people for circumstances that aren't their fault." I reassured her immediately and firmly, getting a searching look and a tentative nod in return. It wasn't much, but I would take what I could get.
Further conversation was put on hold as we finally broke through the trees into the valley holding the Dark Temple, which loomed like a black mountain in the distance. It was enormous, that much I could tell even from here, easily surpassing the Great Pyramids in size, angrily roiling clouds clustered around it's peak. God, even from here I could feel the immense weight of the Dark Side rolling off of it. It was physically tangible, and I wouldn't have been surprised if we would literally be able to see it once we got closer.
Rather more closely sat a small landspeeder, which the Cipher agent was now standing beside, patiently waiting for my attention. Once he saw he had it, he gave another bow and gestured to the transport invitingly. The implication was clear: we would be driven to the temple, rather than walking, and I really couldn't find it in myself to regret that we wouldn't have to cross several kilometers of ground on foot.
Of course, that also meant we would be confronting my ancestor very soon, and unlike in the game, this Aloysious Kallig was still locked in the memories of his past. We were going to be flying blind, now, and that was more terrifying than I had imagined.