SithLore

***Montitia, Expansion Region, Grid Coordinates J-15***
***Glassthorn Manor, Northern Hemisphere***

“It's funny really, Janig”, Sa’ato mused quietly, his mug shifting about gently between firm tendrils, “I know I’m no linguist, but you’d think it wouldn’t be that hard- translating a dead language I mean”. The Neti sighed and leaned back some in his chair, “It’s like trigonometry, if you think about it”. Sa’ato paused and pursed his gnarled lips, “If you really stop and think about it. They both have rules. They both have symbols”. “And”, the Professor continued with an accented flick of the wrist, “They rely on one’s own merits to fill in the gaps”.

The Neti paused once more, and lifted the mug to his face, his rootlike antennae bristling some as the beverage seeped into his facsimile of a tongue. “I must be boring you- but here’s something you might not know”, Sa’ato continued, lifting an instructive finger, “My kind, you see, we don’t really experience taste. We understand it as a concept of course, but we just aren’t built with the receptors you see”. The Professor stopped short once more and glanced down into his mug as if he were pondering another sip.

As far as sipping chocolate went, this import from Corulag was bar none. “What we can experience though”, Sa’ato continued at last, “Is heat, and texture- the latter stemming from our more humanoid traits”. Sighing, the Neti ultimately returned the mug to its serving platter and frowned down at a handful of manuscripts scattered across the table, “Sith scripture- I try to pick up a hobby and this is where I land”. Sa’ato lifted his head once more, and cast a disinterested glance at the far end of the dining room, “Still, it seems like you’re quite done”.

And indeed, Janig was. The human housecarl, no older than fifty five cycles, had been dining comfortably across from his employer a little more than a half hour ago. Though there had been some convulsions as the first poison coursed through his body, the gentleman was probably weak in constitution to begin with, and likely lost consciousness within moments. His expression of petrified disbelief continued to stare back at Sa’ato, though having since finished his dessert, the victim’s eyeballs had clouded over into an opaque milk white.

The Neti slowly rose to his feet and withdrew a recorder from the sleeve of his tunic, “After some blanching, the subject has achieved full toxification-”. Sa’ato scowled and glanced down at his chrono, “Time of maturation shows no change compared to previous experiments. Coefficient of falvuvium to liquid dioxosis will need to be increased”. “Well- My Friend-”, the Neti growled as he dragged the chair and the corpse sprawled atop it into the far corner of the room, “I appreciate- the conversation”.

Exhaling brusquely as the Professor parked his deceased servant between two large potted plants, he stood still a moment and rolled his shoulders, before retrieving a small spray stick and dousing the arching flora with a heated cocktail, “I wish you were as good a listener prior to this evening. Still, I thank you for feeding the cephalotus twins, they really are quite starved”. Smirking as two of his newer acquisitions uncoiled their vines and began to rope the offered nourishment closer, Sa’ato turned about and snatched a jagged ornament from a side table.

Normally, Sith artifacts would be impossible to come by, even on black market sales. By happy coincidence, an antique chest the retired academic had bought on a while had borne unexpected fruit. Locked inside was a hand-painted dodecahedron, the likes of which Sa’ato had never encountered in his recreational readings. It took some time to uncover its likely origins, and now he had spent his every spare moment attempting to unlock its secrets. When he was not tending his garden, or testing out its new blooms on his hired help at the time.

Now however, as the sun began to arc down toward the horizon, his species’ semblance of fatigue began to set in. He would keep the strange object with him as he slept, and pondered rooting down next to the Corellian beechwood or the Coruscanti blacktree. Either way, with the failure of this latest tincture, he was at a loss for what task to pursue on the morrow. Shaking his head, the Neti resolved to decide later, and dimmed the house lights as he sauntered toward the indoor arboretum.

Raven listened to the pleasant voice that was the elder tree, a creature she had never in all of her 20 something cycles seen. She was invisible, her Force ability concealing her in complete totality. Not even a whisper of her breath was audible, as she recycled her energy and kept it from dispersion. This debauchery...this level of treachery...it took ages to master such refinery. She had even watched the way he delicately laced the drink the morbidly consumed corpse had drank earlier. It was a sleight of hand that younger individuals had fatally failed at, or barely mastered. Even she had to resort to distractions to poison someone as easily as this Neti had.

She had done her studies prior to wormholing to this location, and it was even harder to evade the angles of the camera's the manor had set up about the entirety of the estate as she recovered. The wealthy lord of this place had treated his subjects as...
fertilizer. It was interesting to Raven, and didn't gross her out. Not even as she watched the acid work the muscles into slop for easier consumption between the two plants. They almost seemed to get an inch taller before her eyes...but that was just and arm and a leg extending the plants, was it not? Regardless, she followed swiftly behind the retreating Neti, having to phase several times through the varied walls he passed through with eased access. Only when the elder settled within his place, did she throw the energy of her voice across the arboretum. The object he held-

"It can kill you, if you do not understand Sith." Her voice crested from the ceiling on the left, from one of his inbuilt speakers to direct any of his servants to such a degree should he need them to be, as though she spoke from it. She watched him from the doorway, far away from the speaker which spoke to him. Her violet irises narrowed at the moreso organic Professor, wondering how he would take to being spoken to from an invisible watcher, one who knew the object he held, most especially coveting.

Sa’ato raised the browless ridges that hung above his eyes with surprise. Scowling at the notion of being interrupted in his own home, the Neti jerked his head from side to side, before rotating it all the way behind him like an Alzoc Frostowl. Seeing nothing, the Professor’s grimace hardened further across his features as he increased the speed of his gait. “Your concern is touching”, the academic growled with malice as he altered his course towards one of several side doors that lay ahead of his inner sanctum, “You will find that death does not seek me out so readily”.

Depressing a switch on the wall, one of the doors swung off to the side to reveal a home gymnasium. Several combat droids sat defunct on the floor as Sa’ato strode past them to access a storage rack at the far end of the room. Resting between individual rungs were any number of fencing pens, as well as falchions. Scanning each with a critical eye, the Neti muttered unintelligibly under his breath before selecting one of the latter. Twisting his head about in full once more, the Professor glared back at the entrance for a few moments before exiting to the hall.

“As bold as you are to break into my home”, Sa’ato hissed with obvious irritation, “You could at least attempt to have some manners”. The Neti paused mid-stride and locked three tendrils under his chin, “Unless this is related to my dreams of late…”. The Professor stood in place for some time merely tapping his foot, before continuing on as if he was talking to himself, “I did all sorts of scans for hallucinogens when I first acquired the object- but nothing came up… very curious… very curious indeed”. Shrugging tired shoulders, Sa’ato walked on, and waited for a response from his unruly guest.

She had nothing to say to the sass, and she was silent as her rank at the sarcasm. Goading him would lead to rash behavior, or at worst, something that would endanger her mission. The Phantom could not allow that to happen. She could most certainly put him to sleep with her influence, but that was not without consequence. Should she attempt anything he would most definitely feel the direction she had affected him from. The hybrid knew he was Force sensitive, and with his age he surely wasn't stupid. And she could only control so many Force abilities at once, regardless of her attempts otherwise. Currently, she had to remain undetected, no matter the cost.

"The object you have is very valuable. You know that." Her monotone voice had no level of spite or contempt for his elder standing, as she also chose to sweep his attack on her manners. Her manners were not important within her work. Completing the objective was. "We can take you to people who deal with that object, and know it both professionally, and personally. It does cause those who are Force Sensitive," she only gave the slightest of pauses to issue to him that it was very much so connected to his being."the ability to receive dreams, visions, mania, illnesses, death...a multitude of facets belong to that jewel." She had included 'we' as the pronoun of the conversation to allude to her not being alone, even though she was. She worked alone, unless she needed a fallback or lives to spare.

"Science can only explain so much, when it comes to something like what you have, Professor." Her levitation within his proximity continued, not keeping a straight path behind him unless he left a film or some sort of entrapment to receive her in.

“Pah!”, Sa’ato scoffed, a low chuckle vibrating out from the back of his throat, “You think your religion is so deep and unknowable: clearly you have never encountered a true academic”. Tilting his head back some, the Neti stared at the ceiling on the off-chance the intruder happened to crawl about up above. Finding nothing once more, the Professor frowned to express his displeasure before sweeping a leg forward and walking ever-faster. “Faith and phenomena are simply science we have yet to decipher”, Sa’ato continued as he strode confidently into the arboretum, “Still, you make a tempting offer- I haven’t had a vacation in a century”.

Keying a control panel near the entrance, durasteel vents retracted and sealed themselves off with a metallic hiss while a pair of reinforced doors crunched into the floor. “If you are who you claim to be, I would be very interested in exchanging research with your colleagues”, the Neti declared in a neutral tone, his shoulders shrugging and popping out of their natural sockets as he discarded his robes onto the floor, “However, if you are just a very clever thief, I can think of several nutritional uses for you”.

Now possessing only the object and the saber on his person, Sa’ato walked thoughtfully between various pastel shrubs and overhanging fruit trees. Without warning, the academic then sliced through a pair of bulbous buds on one of the more leafy trees. Almost immediately, a thick yellow powder burst free and began to fill the air while the Neti performed similar abuses on a neighboring tree. “The Ogiji plant is known to release an extremely opaque pollen when its seed pods are threatened”, the Professor explained, “And when one plant sounds this natural alarm-”.

Pausing mid-sentence, the Neti smiled with delight as seven other buds scattered throughout the room suddenly burst open. “All nearby blooms follow suit”, Sa’ato concluded with a raspy outburst of laughter as his body became quickly obscured in the overpowering haze of pollen. “Lets run a simple test”, the Neti’s voice echoed throughout the vaunted chamber as he stepped behind a larger succulent and vanished from sight, “If you are a true Sith, then you should find me easily”. Silence fell for a time as the titanic cloud of plant-based fog began to scrape at the ceiling. “And if you are not”, the voice spoke, “Then tomorrow I will take great pleasure in analyzing your remains”.

Raven watched the bulbs scatter the tawny yellow stuff about in a glittery haze, and immediately had no more tricks up her sleeve, other than aborting mission. So concealment was not happening; all these powdery droplets were going to land on her, and cause a silhouette anyways.

A crescent of motion wafted momentarily from where she stood as she exhaled her Force ability, and allowed herself to become visible, and no longer just a form of nothing that magically picked up pollen particulates out of nowhere in humanoid-form. However, in the same blur, she summoned herself in a waft of air, clearing the pollen from clouding her sight, as she bludgeoned the air in a swift set of handiwork into a miniature tornado. It was miniscule, but her pull was strong, and now freed from the lack of vision, she could find him peacefully. Either by Force, or should he not find peacefully nice, by force. Capable was the Phantom to rip this establishment apart with her abilities, but she was not quick to violate his homestead should he be willing to come without issue.

"There is no need to prove anything. Either trust me, or don't," her flat voice called out, indigo cloak remaining still around her petite form despite her pulling pollen forcefully from the environment . Face hidden beneathe the hood, her face was obscured in dark passage, the only detailing object giving away her gender was her voice.

Momentarily stunned as a small cyclone swept through the arboretum, Sa’ato chuckled in earnest as the intruder rendered his camouflage null and void. Dropping his weapon to the ground with an audible clang, the Neti briskly stepped out of his hiding place, gnarled hands clapping together lightly in applause as he approached his hooded visitor.

“I will not require further convincing after that display”, the professor answered calmly, the momentary lapse of happiness subsiding into calculated intrigue as he stood before his guest and studied her cowled features, “However, it is incumbent on me to regenerate before traveling”. Inclining his head with a rare show of deference, the academic retrieved his tunic from the floor and clothed himself before stepping past the mysterious woman, “I will show you to the spare bedroom, and you will spend the night here under my care. A droid will be on standby if you require refreshment”.

Starting down the hallway, Sa’ato paused amidst his thoughts, before turning his head all the way around to face Raven, much like an owl, “In the morning, I shall prepare breakfast, and then, if it isn’t too cliched, I ask that you take me before your leader”.

Raven's ears picked up the clang and the claps that followed after, her tornado ceasing as she held the small mound of pollen afloat. He was in a spot that she never would have suspects, and when you were a tree, you could very much blend in with other trees. With it being an arboretum, should she have been remotely unaware, he would have easily hunted her down and vanished back within the legions of bark. She needed to be much more alert, she reminded herself as her thoughts flashed back to the butler being ingested by plant specie. The hybrid miraluka's violet eyes slashed to the weapon now laying where he moved away, and then back to him. Wily man. As he spoke, she deposited the pollen mound at the base of the first offending tree that she came across, not wanting to provoke any kind of additional reproductions from any others. This place was seemingly genuinely lined with natural booby traps, and those she was not trained for. Though he counted this as some form of victory on her end just due to impressing him, she was not prepared remotely for anything else he might grow at her.

She stared back just as unnaturally with his own head rotation, creaks from bark-like skin of the individual's neck creepily screeching in his turn. This was no easy mission. The Target now knew her exterior, and witnessed her ability. He had heard her voice. Almost indefinitely, this mission had been skewn so vastly, it was almost laughable, should she ever. Knowing she could simply teleport from this place should she need it, but she didn't want to lose this target.
Seemed she was having a sleepover. The Miralukan hybrid gave no response to his instruction, instead following him until he would lead her to whatever next cage he'd think to put or test her in.

True to his word, Raven found well-furnished quarters awaiting her. Stocked with an Andolian feather bed, wood furniture from Corellia, and various curios from some twelve systems, the accommodations were the very definition of comfortable. A short time later, an older butler droid arrived with a fruit platter sampled several confectionary blooms from an outdoor orchard. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Sa’ato provided a toxicity reader with the dish, lest the woman doubted his sincerity.

As the evening waned and night fell, the Neti enjoyed a blissful sleep as he reveled in the potent tincture of the sun’s trapped rays. Rising early, he set about cleaning the mess in the arboretum, and took to running fencing sets in the gym before acknowledging the celestial spheres overhead. At the time at which Raven emerged, she would no doubt come upon the professor hard at work in the kitchen, scrambling red eggs from Teth in one pan and stir-frying vegetables in another.

“I trust you slept well”, Sa’ato called out from the cooktop while working to plate his creation, pausing with revelation as he walked over to the refrigeration unit, “Ah, almost forgot the meesh sauce- can’t have red eggs without meesh”. “Of course, I lack your concept of taste”, the professor explained as he set the piping hot spread before his guest, “But that’s why I learnt to cook in the first place. It began as a challenge, but in time I was the envy of my department”.

Stretching his limbs some, the academic sat kitty-corner to the veiled woman, and softly sipped at a fresh mug of coffee, “Take your time, eat up- I don’t have much to pack, so we can leave at your convenience”.

Once the day had begun to wear low, she was escorted to a rather specious and awfully luxurious place of rest, and it was bright with a removable canopy in case she was willing to sleep under the stars and light as well. That was the only thing she allowed herself to do here, as when the droid who brought the delicacies had left, she incinerated the fruit without a moment of hesitation. And despite being given the comfiest of beds, she stayed on the floor, hovering just above it as she rested in meditation. She couldn't trust anything he had offered her. Considering he was a biological weapon in a biological place, there were more dangers than just poisons she needed to be aware of. There could have been microscopic parasites that laced those fruit, genetically modified by him to infiltrate the brain and begin a hive mind with her as one of his dryad thralls. And hallucinogens did not show up on poison detectors as actual poison should they have been the natural juices produced by the fruit. Raven allowed none of it to be consumed by her, and instead remained peacefully aware in her meditation throughout the night.

The following morning, however, she couldn't exactly escape his hospitality, or set it ablaze. He had invited her to the kitchen, his steam and smells of yummy foods filling the air without much more effort seemingly than breathing. She hovered into the dining area, a ominous ghost in such a cheery and refined natural setting. She was certainly out of place, but the Neti minded none of it. A placemat with a fine dish of remarkably mouth-watering breakfast was supplied, and she stared at the hospitable meal with nothing showing on her blank face. Inwardly she felt awkward as he sat to enjoy his coffee. She couldn't incinerate it so readily when he clearly expected her to eat it.
She was at a standstill.

Whipping a darkly gloved hand within the seemingly endless depths of her indigo cloak, and pulled forth a black vial. Plucking the cork top free, a trio of drops silently ran over the hot food, mysteriously not blending with the juices of the meal, almost like oil to water. After watching the liquids closely, she had counted to ten since the third drop, but all 3 remained clear. Only then did the Miraluka hybrid take a small slice of a slice of a slice cut in half, twice. Levitating the tiny and quickly cooling piece of mastery, she gingerly took a bite of it, chewing hesitantly and slow. Tasting it for anything the Dathomirian Witch's serum might have missed. She even sought out with her Force, reading different letterings on seasonings as though they were braille. Nothing came of it, and sooner or later the food practically dissolved in her mouth. As delicious as it was, she may have gotten lucky, or just missed something lethal by a hair. Whatever the case, she was unwilling to try her luck further. She loathed being sloppy, taking chances. Trusting this creature was a chance. And luckily, she didn't have to trust anyone or anything to do her job. Which was retrieving this Force Sensitive, and bringing him back to the Sith, alive.

The Phantom told the Neti she was finished, and should she not die or be influenced by anything from that miniscule bite, she would save the meal for the rest of the day. Only then did she pack it with her, and take it to the ship that would bring them back within the reaches of the Red Cauldron.