The Garden Square

High Mage Serratus

Serratus hardly noticed as Aequitas walked off. He did not know many restaurants but he remembered the Grand Mage mentioning a placed called the Galaxy Grill on Coruscant. Deciding he had nothing to lose, Serratus headed out of the Temple and off towards where he had parked the Space Dragon.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

The wind grazed her face like a lover’s whisper. She relished the array of scents that enveloped her as she stepped, barefoot, into the unknown. The crisp grass felt familiar against her soles, yet at the same time, different and ethereal. Her breath was slow, but steady. The darkness, an enemy to some, had become her friend and ally. Her years of solitude have yielded much to her, but what remained out of her clutch was the common, yet somewhat mysterious notion that the black was a foe. She shut her crystal blue eyes that stood out as orbs in the dark; the final bulwarks against the ever growing tide of black.

She continued her slow, blind paces for a few moments. She let her hands to flow beside her, gracing the petals of numerous flowers as she walked past. They felt like velvet against her small, smooth hands. Her hands were those of an artist, not a warrior. Yet, they showed her life, one that she frequently described as a war. Her hands were her past, her hardships, and her conquests. She allowed a sigh to escape her as she lowered herself to her knees, resting her worn, yet tough body against the slightly moist, dew-topped grass.

She smiled slightly as she opened her eyes to watch an ornate fountain bubble. It reminded her of her mind. The water was her brain waves - ever occurring yet hard to grasp without the proper tools. She had avoided society for so long in her undying thirst for a place to call home and as such, it was ironic, perhaps, that she had found it in a garden on a planet under the control of a Sith Empire.

High Prophet Crozeus

From his silent meditation mere feet away Crozeus' thoughts were disturbed by these thoughts. When he opened himself to the Force he could feel everything that happened for miles and miles. It was both crowding and wonderful. Silently he stood and stood behind the older woman, a new arrival to the Empire, not even with a Master yet. He looked at her for a few moments, judging her. Then he spoke.

"Why is it ironic?"

A very simple question. Though not one he expected himself to ask.
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Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

Delora did not look for the source of the singsong voice that had roused her from her dream. She had heard stories of the ability to read thoughts and it did not surprise her that the Sith, a certified powerful entity in the galaxy, had members able to practice that ability. She closed her eyes, the eyes full of wisdom, knowledge, and life, once more.

“Master Sith, I do not know your name”, she began in a velvety voice, one that sounded as if it had spoken the languages of a hundred species, “however, I do not doubt your power. You have already shown to me your ability to read my thoughts. Tell me then, Master Sith, why you pry openly to what I find ironic when you, as powerful as you are, already know the answer?”

Her delicate senses told her of the direction from which her questioner’s voice came. Rising slowly, she paid careful attention to touch the grass with her long fingers – her travels took her far and she could never be certain when she would be able to walk freely among the green carpet of the earth. “Society has proven itself barbaric. Your Sith Empire is no different. So why, Master Sith, would I find the perfect balance to the barbaric nature of society in a small enclosure created by those same barbarians.”

High Prophet Crozeus

"My name is Crozeus, and I am a Prophet. The ability for a Sith to see so clearly into an others' mind is not common amongst all Sith, though in the art of Prophecy it is something of a criteria that must be filled."

Crozeus sat down next to where she sat, not looking at her face, instead looking into the bubbling waters, crystal blue, bearing a stark resemblance to his eyes. He sighed softly. "Besides, I don't particularly like intruding into people's thoughts, unless it is strictly necessary. It is spying of the greatest possible nature."

He had pondered her last words carefully. "Society is what it is. It's your interpretation of it that deems it barbaric. And if you consider our Empire such, then perhaps you are not suited here at all. Society needs a balance to it. We need enemies. Predators need prey. And urban metropoli need little bursts of greenery. That, and it was built under the order of the Emperor, as is everything you see before you, and most of which you do not."
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Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

Delora bowed ever so slightly. “I can not say it has been a pleasure to meet you, Prophet Crozeus, for who am I to define what is and is not pleasure. What I can say is that you have provided a glimmer of intelligent conversation; one, which I shall be sure not to overlook in the future”. She stepped backwards a few paces before turning softly on her heel and disappearing into the dark; the dark ever her friend and ally. She continued to walk slowly, letting the natural light guide her way out of the peaceful serenity of the garden.

She thought about her encounter with the Sith Master, and how he composed himself. He was intelligent, perhaps beyond his years but who was she to decide this. He held himself with pride; a trait, Delora often noted, accompanied failure. His eyes were the same shade as hers, but, she noticed, void of any of the traces of life experiences hers often yielded to onlookers. The grass under her feet began to thin and it served as a warning to the Corellian, who often walked barefoot, that a more concrete and solid terrain was increasingly evident.

Upon exiting the peaceful serenity of the enclosure, the change in area could not have been more noticeable. The corridor into which she entered had a constant buzz of noise, a hint of stale sweat and something else, which Delora was not fond of – light. Light yielded your identity, your whereabouts. Light could wound, and burn. Light was a more dangerous and eminent foe than the commonly misconceived darkness.

She sighed slowly and allowed her breathing to return to normal as she stepped slowly across the concrete lake that was the corridor floor. Her time in the Sith Empire had arrived.

High Prophet Crozeus

Crozeus watched her go. He did not attempt to follow her, or stop her. She had a destiny, that one. Though at the moment she was a rodent climbing the trunk of a tree, with many different branches she could follow. It would be up to her which one she took - one of the ones which led her to a safe perch, or one which would be treacherous and cause her to slip and fall.

Crozeus thought about this for a few more seconds, still gazing into the water. Then he stood and returned to his previous spot and his meditation, always ready should someone else pass by and offer conversation - something which Crozeus prized greatly in the hustle and bustle of administration in the Empire. He feared he was becoming a bureaucrat. Moments like this he needed to savour - and get more of.
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High Mage Serratus

Some days later...

Serratus entered the Garden Square, holocron in hand. He had read over his notes, consulted with tomes at the Mage Archives and taken the Space Dragon to Dathomir, Mon Calamari, Naboo, Onderon, Tatooine and Endor to investigate his theories. He had returned to the Garden Square because the pool in the centre contained a very rare, very strong, very versatile and very mysterious variety of coral that he believed would be instrumental in his plans for an organic lightsaber. He crossed the Square soundlessly, focused entirely at the task at hand, taking no notice of the rest of the garden, just the central pool.
_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

The faint rustle of grass would have gone unnoticed to nearly all but Delora, whose ears pricked the moment she heard the change in sound. The wind was not that strong and someone walking on it could only have forced the movement of the grass. She decided to reach out with the Force to identify the walker. After a few seconds, she concluded it was a Sith, and a fairly powerful one at that. She could sense his Force presence and, although she did not know who it was, could tell that this person had visited the gardens on many occasions as his Force presence had been detected by her here before.

The moon was high in the purple hued sky and its light bathed the garden’s pool in an eerie, ethereal glow. Delora, who was not fond of moonlight, sat in a meditative pose behind the pool in darkness, so no one could see her. Her crystal blue eyes were closed so as to not give her position away. She could hear mumbling as the footsteps carefully treaded towards the pool. She heard the word coral and immediately assumed that the mysterious visitor had come to the pool to look at its coral. She noted that there was coral in the pool two days previous while sitting at it.

High Mage Serratus

Serratus folded into a meditative position and closed his eyes. After a few minutes his breathing was regular and even, like clockwork, a skill that could not be achieved with the Force, only with practice. He reached out to the coral and started probing it. The coral was not very intelligent at all but Serratus could work with it. He start transferring life from the fish and some nearby flowers in the coral. At the same time he controlled the coral's feeble mind carefully, not wishing for a repeat of the mutated flower he had produced the first time he had been in the Garden Square for this particular experiment.

This time Serratus would not have to work for hours, only minutes. The coral was just intelligent enough to decide how its exoskeleton should grow and with Serratus in control and the extra lifeforce he had pumped it with, it would not take long for the first signs of his interference to show.

Sure enough, a tube-like structure was beginning to form at the top of the coral. Serratus focused intensely, guiding the coral to make the growth form exactly as he wanted. One of this variety of coral's unique abilities was its little known special ability and this was the cornerstone of Serratus's experimentation. This species coral could produce four types of exoskeleton depending on its environment, one that conducted heat and electricity, one that conducted heat but not electricity, one that conducted electricity but not heat and one that conducted neither. The first three were opaque and the fourth translucent. These four combined would make Serratus his organic lightsaber. It was several more minutes of meditation and manipulation before the lightsaber jutted just out of the water. Serratus inserted his corusca gem before sealing up the top of the lightsaber completely, then he commanded the coral to shed the lightsaber and it did so. Serratus summoned the lightsaber with the Force and held it in before him for inspection.

He smiled with satisfaction and applied pressure to a particularly pronounced mound, which gave way beneath his push. Continuing to smile, he stole some life from a rather large plant and filled the energy chamber of his organic lightsaber with it. He pushed the knobbly mound again and this time a burning blade shot forth from this tip of the lightsaber, bright green and glowing. It lasted for a few seconds before the lightsaber exhausted its energy supplies but Serratus had anticipated this.

He extracted a damind from his pocket and made a tiny scratch in the lightsaber. He pushed the damind into the hole he had created and one it was inside he healed the wound. Damind crystals were excellent repertoires of dark side energy and would hold more and better energy for longer. It would also mark the lightsaber as a weapon of the dark side. This time Serratus sample energy from a wide variety of sources around the garden and filled the lightsaber with a great deal of energy, roughly equal to the average power cell of a mechanical lightsaber. He was lucky the Garden Square had so much life and so many varieties of it that he could fill the crystal so.

He pushed the mound.

The blade sprang forth once more and this time the emerald green blade burned stronger. He knew he had succeeded. He had created an organic lightsaber.
_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

“Ironic”, Delora mused loudly emerging out of the shadows. She had watched the man, who she now identified as the High Mage of the Order of Sith Mages due to his robes, create what appeared to be a lightsaber out of organic material. She found it more than interesting and had decided to engage in some conversation to learn more. “Isn’t it. Ironic that you have created a weapon, designed to kill and destroy life, out of life itself”, she stated as clear as the moonlit water in the pool.

She walked slowly towards the Sith who had jut began to sit up from his meditative position and put the lightsaber on his belt. He looked like a man uncomfortable in his own skin. His long, black hair was dreadlocked and on his back, there seemed to be strapped a staff or some sort. This Sith obviously enjoyed a variety of exotic weapons. She extended her hand in a royal, dignified manor. “My name is Madam Tempest, apprentice to Dark Lord Tarna”, she whispered so only the High Mage could hear.

High Mage Serratus

Serratus was caught off guard not only by Delora's sudden appearance and the way she addressed him but also the conflicting urges he had to look down on her as an apprentice and to be polite and respectful to an elder. He compromised by not saying anything, instead giving an awkward half-smile and accepting her hand.

"Madam Tempest, yes, the apprentice of the Shadow Protector. You're reputation precedes you."
_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

Bemused, Delora raised her eyebrows slightly. She was not aware that she had a reputation for she had been in the Empire about a month now, surely that was not enough time to establish a reputation. If it was, it certainly could not have been a good one. “Oh really? I do hope it was nothing terrible that you heard”, she said with a half chuckle, “do tell me what you have heard though. I know from experience that a reputation is always biased. Either started by the person themselves, praising themselves to high heavens, or by a jealous compatriot, eager to see their foe’s downfall”.

She sat down on a marble bench beside the pool and gazed into it. She looked at the High Mage’s reflection in the pool and smiled. She gestured to the seat beside her. “Sit and talk, please. I enjoy conversation, Master High Mage”.

Kindrid Nokah

Kindrid silently walked throughout the garden, his fingertips barely grazing the multicolored plants as he passed by. He was intrigued by the many different types of flora that inhabited this large garden mostly because he wasn't used to seeing plant life on his icy homeworld of Berea. He noticed many other Sith socializing, but he just wanted to be left alone for now, hoping that they wouldn't engage him in conversation.
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Here laid to rest, is a love ever long...

High Mage Serratus

Serratus obliged and sat himself down beside the elder woman.

"I have a subordinate by the name of Darth Amideus who is a friend of a certain Guardsman Dunne, who serves as a Moff Guard. He overheard a conversation between Lord Tarna, who you may know is the Grand Moff and Moff of Bastion, and Moff Caligulae of Duro, another Royal Guardsman. From what information was carried back to me of that conversation, your connection with the Force is extremely advanced for an apprentice of one month, your Force potential is almost disturbing and you pick up Force techniques faster than a Geonosian picks up dropped change."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

With a nod, Delora gave a small sigh, “Yes, I quite agree. There is no room for modesty in this life, as it counts as unnecessary lies. I admit, I have been told by a few that I am picking up the trade, so to speak, quite quickly. I have my Master to thank for that”. She looked into the pool and made the water ripple using the Force. “The Force is a magnificent thing, capable of creating, sustaining and destroying life, all in one sweep of the hand”, she said simply, never taking her fixed gaze off the marble-tiled bottom of the pool.

“I must say, High Mage, I did enjoy that little simile of yours. It is nice to find people who are able to use their language to its fullest. I passed a Naboo coming into the garden and his grammar was abhorrent”, she said, attempting some small talk. She turned to look at the Sith Master. She smiled, but it was not a smile one gave at a joke, but it was more of a sympathetic smile, a grandmother’s smile. “You do not feel comfortable, do you? You have conflicting emotions on how to look upon me. Understandable, Master Sith. Perhaps telling me your name may lessen the current level of awkwardness you may feel”, she said wearily.

High Mage Serratus

Serratus considered the elder apprentice.

"I have many names. Which do you wish to hear? The name I was born by, the name I was raised by, the name I lived by or the name I am known by?
_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

Delora thought about this for a few moments. An intriguing question. She shifted her position on the bench and looked into the distance. She could hear birds in the distance as well as the murmurings of various Sith within the Temple itself. She let her mind wander. How many of the Sith within the temple were Inquisitors, and how many would openly admit to who they were. She smiled. The answer had come to her and in the way they always did; by Delora thinking about something else. All paths were intertwined, including the paths of her brainwaves, her thoughts and her memories.

“Master Sith, I’d like you to give me the name you identify most with, the name you feel most comfortable with. What is a name but a tag on a unique soul, made unique by personality and actions”, she said simply looking into the Sith’s eyes.

High Mage Serratus

Serratus nodded. It was a good answer.

"In that case Madam Tempest, I am Wamomeru of Mowmow Wampa Tribe. Though for the most part, I would still prefer to be called Darth Serratus."
_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Delora Tempest · Sith Apprentice Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 94

Letting the name register, Delora turned away from the Sith. She stood slowly and took a few steps away from the pool. She turned and slowly, but ever graceful, placed her linen hood upon her grey silky like hair. She nodded her head at Serratus in a sort of bow that has become a trademark of hers. “Master Serratus, it has been a pleasure meeting you. I do hope we meet again in the future. It was enjoyable for me to speak to you; you are extremely intelligent. Have you met the one known as Crozeus, you may enjoy a conversation with him. He appears to be capable of at least a few minutes of intellectual conversation”, she said with a sly smile.

She turned on her heel and treaded slowly across the grass to the exit of the garden. She reached the archway into the Temple and stopped, leaning her left hand against the frame. She turned her head back towards the High Mage. “Oh, congratulations on your organic lightsaber, Master Sith”, she said slowly, “I do hope it serves you well in the future. Good evening”. As quick as she had shown herself to Serratus, she disappeared from his view. Her movements were so quick, elegant and graceful that it seemed that she was made of the very wind itself.

High Mage Serratus

Serratus watched as Delora walked away. This was one apprentice he would have to keep a good eye on.

Taking his new lightsaber with him, he made to leave the Temple and return to Tatooine for more experimentation.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

Perhaps the most dignified and deadliest of the Empires Battle Masters, most certainly the oldest and most experienced, the Supreme Commander, entered the Garden at this moment. It was not a place of his choosing, but something the Force had guided him too for some reason or another.

As he walked through the Garden, wondering why the Force wished him to be here, the words "organic lightsaber" floated through the air. That perked his interest. A lightsaber capable of getting past the weapons scanners that many security forces employed.

He hurried towards the voices, hoping to catch the party involved with such an invention. Running, he saw the High Mage's back, while the High Mage headed for the exit. Serratus was perhaps the Empire's upcoming premier Battle Master, already enjoying a large armory of weapons that very few people even knew the names of, nevermind how to use them.

"High Mage, have you heard what I have heard?" He asked. "I have been led here by the Force, only to hear the words 'organic lightsaber'. What do you know of such a topic?"
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus was stunned only for a moment before he realised who had caught up with him. Years ago he had learned to stop himself from using the Force when suprised. It was a good thing he had.

"Supreme Commander Marix. I wasn't expecting you. I have indeed heard what you have heard, the words were spoken to me. The Shadow Protector's apprentice Delora Tempest just congratulated me on my successful creation of an organic lightsaber."

Serratus held the lightsaber in front of Marix, the black coral shining slightly in the light while the damind crystal glowed brilliantly not only with the light but also the energy contained within it.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Supreme Commander Alor

"I was not expecting to be here myself, but the Force works in mysterious ways when it has the inclination to work at all. I had heard that the Shadow Protector was taking a new Apprentice. I, myself, have just advised the High Council that I would be willing to take on a new apprentice if they needed a Master. I am actually supposed to be leaving this planet in a few hours, back to preparing the Military for, well..." Marix faltered, not knowing if the High Mage had the clearance to be notified of the reason for the Military's preparations.

Switching gears, he reached out and held the organic lightsaber, the black coral cool to the touch. "This is indeed a great advance. Just getting the coral to the right angle for the projector lens is amazing. Are you capable of creating another one. for the Military to dissect and perhaps improve upon? A joint venture of your research facility and the Armed Forces R&D?" The Supreme Commander suggested.
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Once known as Darth Marix

High Mage Serratus

Serratus smiled, not a normal smile, if anything it was a sad smile but Sidious knows what he had to be sad about.

"Your men could work for weeks and not fully understand this lightsaber, Lord Marix. Most lightsabers, no, every lightsaber other than this one is easy to comprehend even to a non-Force sensitive. Using it is another thing all together but anyone can understand a lightsaber. This lightsaber is different. This lightsaber is not a weapon, it is a limb that I have claimed for my own. I force the coral to grow this limb and then I took it from it and filled it with life that I stole from other living creatures. I have imprinted my Force signature in every cell of this lightsaber and only while I hold it in my hand or in the grasp of my Force presence can it be used.

However, I am not unreasonable. My research into this is on-going but once I have perfected it, I will inform you of intricacies of the process."

_________________

If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

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