Ziost - Crown of the Sith Empire

Jun-Tsu rested quietly upon the ceremonial mat, the light pouring down, illuminating what yesterday had been a wintry nightmare. Now all was calm and a thick layer of fresh snow covered the ground around her shrouded figure. Why she had come she could not say. Perhaps it was simply to be where her ancestors had once lived, or maybe it was to be as far away from as many people as possible.

A small obsidian orb rested in her hands, nestled on her lap. She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. With ease she felt the Force, and quietly observed it as it moved methodically around her.

OOC: Average Discipline or Cool check.

Jun-Tsu sat for hours, just sensing the flow of the Force as it poured around her. She focused her will through the Void Engine, practically a part of her at this point, and holding the orb, brought her a sense of peace and correctness.

Discipline (Willpower) = 2 successes, 1 advantage

(Destiny flipped; Boost from Void Engine)

She can see herself still meditating below and above the vast cosmos.

She loomed, outside of herself, a sensation of utter disorientation but complete calm. There was no faltering in her concentration, nor a disruption to her merging. For several seconds, or was it minutes, the witch explored the sensation of being so...beyond herself. Her astral gaze shifted to the boundless space above, a quintillion stars, radiating throughout an infinite universe.

Her mind wandered, and yet she felt exactly in the same place.

"You are just as magnificent as I remembered," a woman's voice called to her.

While her physical brow furrowed, her mind gaped about for the source of the voice. Though she tried not to cage herself off, a quiet suspicion filled her senses, attempting to guard herself against untoward influence. The witch tamped down such urges, however, and opened herself to the Force. She had embarked down this path, whether it be to ascension or damnation....or both.

“You look so young,” she said, her form becoming more and more firm as she opened her mind to the infinite dark universe, they sat as large as galaxies now looking at each other across billions of light years and yet it was as if they were face to face.

She was tall, with flowing curling locks of red and that devious smile she knew so well.

"I...." Jun-Tsu began, but her words faltered, echoing into the nothingness, the space, that spanned between them. For a moment it was almost maddening how familiar the figure was. How it toyed with her senses, like a half forgotten face, or perhaps it was a half remembered one? Her physical body canted its head, but her spirit merely, tried to bridge the celestial gulf between them.

"I.....know you."

“And I know you, mother,” she said calmly.

“It has been a long time.” She smirked and then wondered aloud, “I wonder if you are seeing a possible future or if there are countless parallel timelines?”

There was silence, complete and utter silence. It was not one of shock, or confusion. It was one of overwhelming calm and...contentment.

"Mein dahrling," Jun-Tsu intoned. "....mein dahrling, how grand you are."

Were it in her nature, she might have shed a tear, but then, that would not be the woman or the mother that had raised this auburn-haired specter before her. "Your mozher, young az zhe iz now, haz her vayz. Bevore you vere ewen born, I uzed poverful relicz of zhe Dark Zide to peer down zhe invinite pathz of zhe vuture und pazt. Who can zay vhere ve are in time, but here ve are in zhe Umbră-Ușoară. Here...."

She trailed off as though distracted by something, then roused from her reveried.

"Here....und eweryvhere."

“I am what you made me to be,” she said confidently. “It has been a long time since have spoken, at least for me. Your passing was my final and most intense lesson.”

The thought gave the woman's mother a bittersweet finality to her aims. She knew this was possibly just one future of so many, but she had never reached so far as to peer beyond her own demise. It was obviously due to her daughters own prodigious connection to the Dark Side.

"In all zhingz, I ewer tried to let you become zhat vhich I cannot, nor could ewer be in zhiz life. I vaz not zelflezz, mein dahrling, zhere vere nightz I ztalked zhe hallz of zhe Farro temples, jealouz und deziring of your pover, your clozenezz vith zhe Umbră-Ușoară. Zhere vere nightz I curzed how I velt to carry you und to feel all zhe Dark Zide grow vithin me."

She shook her head, "But ewer I tried to rize abowe mein petty veaknezz. I hope in zome zmall vay I did bevore zhe end. You vere zhe chozen of zhe Dark Zide, und vhatewer elze, I could do naught but love you az a pure exprezzion of zhe Umbră-Ușoară to valk bezide me for howewer long I have."

"I remember those nights, I nursed that jealousy and anger, mother. You molded me and gave me power, I was made strong through adversity and trial. You were wise and cruel," she responded.

"I hope it vaz enough. Ve vaze a challenge only you could zee coming," her tenses shifted, as Jun-Tsu attempted to grasp where she was in this moment. Letting go, she supposed it didn't matter.

"Und, in zhe end, I vear, I vill be zvept avay, like all Houze Farro, all exzept you. But," her wavering resolve grew more resolut. "Mein daughter, I vill do eweryzhing in mein pover to be vith you. Until zhe end I vill vind avay to join vizh zhe Dark Zide und lazt vorewer vithin it. I may fail, but I vill not abandon you. I vill be a wraizh by your zide, but I vill vind a vay to come to you."

“It made me strong enough to kill my father when I was only thirteen, his connection to the Light had to be snuffed out. It made me strong enough to overthrow Emperor Malgus… it powered my conquest of the Republic and the destruction of the Jedi,” she said in response.

“You did what needed to be done, and now our family controls the greatest Empire the galaxy has ever known.”

She smirked with deviousness and said, “In this reality at least.”

"Zhen you liwe in zhe bezt of all realitiez. Sawor it, mein dahrling, und know you are all I vizhed you to be. Ewen iv zhiz be an illuzion, or a dream, I am happy to hawe zeen it."

Her spirit retreated into itself slightly as she thought about her daughters words, "I hawe long zuzpected your vater az too cloze to zhe Light. Lord Torsin und Lady Kristal too. Loyal to zhe empire, zhey may be, but not to zhe Dark Zide. An ewen greater betrayal."

“It was not easy, killing the man that seeded me, but I have long since understood it to be the right decision. My Empire is of the Dark, the Umbra; there is no Dark Council… or petty lords, there is only Me and those who serve… me,” she said confidently.

"You are zhe vill of zhe Dark Zide incarnate, zo zhould it be. Newer vaver vrom your pazh."

There was an ease that eminated from Jun-Tsu, "At leazt, I know I need not kill your vater. It iz too poverful a lezzon vor you not to learn."

Silence followed, perhaps for a few seconds or perhaps for an eon in which whole systems rose and fell. "Tell me just v'one zhing of zhe vuture mein dahrling, vor zhingz muzt reweal zhemzelwez in time, un in zheir proper order. But juzt zhiz v'once, in zhiz v'one time, in zhe end, vere you zhere vith me at zhe end?"

She was quiet and then said, “I returned to our home, I sensed your time was coming and you were surrounded by our sisters. I took your hand, and held it until the Umbra reclaimed you. You were so small… centuries of wisdom and power, to end with frailty.”

“It was not peaceful, but it was an ending. I interred you in the ancient barrows as in the old ways.”