Ziost - Crown of the Sith Empire

Leaving the hyperspace came with the instantaneous sense of elation and dread - both because of the great red gas giant, radiating with the aeons-old darkness and vampirical thirst for the essence of life. Memories rushed into her awareness without any graduality, all at once. Of gore and death, of primal energies dancing at the fine edge of oblivion. Hers, and not hers, older. The Vergence remembered. She didn't resist the flow, inviting the chaos into her, subverting her thoughts, scattering her sentience by multiple terrors. Naga Sadow's alchemical experiments, Exar Kun's blood-mortared temples. Killing, sex, bloodwine, playing with creation, remoulding through suffering and sacrifice.

I want to know. Agony or not, I want to know.

It was in her, caked with fear and pain few would dare test. But she had done it before. On Korriban, on Yavin, on Nal Hutta. To distil truth from the howl of her instincts, from the outrage of her neurons.

She sought the singular, distinct presence in the force down on the jungle surface, one destined and anointed to rule.

"I want to know."

The massassi warriors many combining the technology of the Empire with their brutish cunning brought the woman before their Queen, having turned a temple into a palace. Imperial soldiers straightened as she passed into the large hall.

It will cooler here inside and the sturdy frame of the queen sat on her throne flanked by mighty warriors.

She gestured for the Sith to approach and said, “Welcome home, reborn child of Yavin; you have come a long way.”

She then hissed a command, “Leave us.”

The room was cleared except for the two of them in the rather large chamber lit by flickering flame.

The path from the landing side had passed in silence, basking in the red glow, channeling Now, facing the queen, Moyr removed her helmet; showing a mask-less face, then paid respects, and conceded the point in the same gesture.

"The way has been long but it ever returns here, to the foundations, Your Highness." She said with a slight undulation of her lekku. "For the fundamental answers." She inhaled. "Your agreement with the Empire seems to be flourishing."

“It has done my people a great deal of good,” she said in response.

“There is always more, but those are the trials of rulership, when one wishes to do right by the people and make sure they have what is needed to survive and thrive. I would not wish to bore you with tedious details.”

She gestured for the woman to follow as she strode through the large hall, “I will be heading to Ziost soon, I sense that will be your destination as well.”

"You sense correct." Moyr walked along. "I have no habit of shying away from a fulcrum of events like that. Of all strong in the Dark Side, you understand it well. But it is high time for me not to walk into it needlessly blind-sighted."

She smiled as she reached a balcony over looking the jungles of Yavin IV. A transport rises from some distant location towards the heavens as she replied, “If you are looking for a fortune teller maybe seek the old Crone, I hear she sees the future better than anyone else.”

“What would you ask of a Queen?”

"I just might." Moyr agreed. "But what I'd ask of you is of the domain you may be uniquely qualified in: the terrible past." The Sith looked at Magara-sha. "The terror of what I discovered on Nal Hutta, it must be in here." She tapped her temple. "I want to bring it back into my awareness."

That made her pause as she fully considered the request and then said, “Are you sure this is what you want?”

"I wouldn't take your time if I weren't. I want to know what I fear rather than fear what I know. A Sith doesn't cower from terror, she lives on it. Even if it means pain." Moyr asserted calmly.

“As you say,” the Queen responded.

“There may be such a place where you could challenge yourself and face your Fears. If that is your desire then I won’t deny you the chance to try.”

She started walking with long strides given her height and build and added, “This place has no name, it has not needed one. It is simply a place we do not dare tread.”

"How can I reach this place?" A shudder had surged through her, but she accepted it as a sign of being on the right path.

“I can show you, I will not enter there is nothing for me there but maybe there is something for you,” she said honestly.

“My people do not think of it, they do not see it, figuratively.”

She laughed darkly and said, “You came all this way, might as well direct you to your final destination.”

"Let's go then." Moyr took the cold heat of fear and sent it through her muscles to wash away the stillness. She chuckled. "It's like with the tomb on Korriban we once explored together. You knew what darkness had been trapped in there and chose not to go. If not for those impassable door, I might not have known better at that time."

They board a transport and are taken to a remote place in the jungles. The transport circles at a wide range around a tiered mount covered in trees and life to which the Queen points out as the destination. The transport lands some five klicks away and the rest she will have to go by foot, alone.

The Queen said, “I must return but another transport will be here to take you back… but if you have not returned by sun up they will depart. I will not send another.”

"Understood. Thank you, Your Highness." Moyr chose not be sentimental and prolong the moment by burdening the Queen with pleas for if not scenarios. A Sith would live on the edge of death with no regrets, and all that were ever tied to her would have to deal with it.

She sealed her armour, optimised her thermo-cloak and disembarked, setting off marching up the mount, without looking back.

The journey was hard and long but she arrived at the mound that upon closer inspection was a step pyramid with incredible overgrowth with some simple prodding he was able to find an entrance and enter inside, there were no lights at first but as she journeyed deeper floor lights slowly came to life and it soon became apparent that this tower unlike the others that seemed abandoned still had power…

Ahead down the hall was a bright light… perhaps a chamber.

Was this place truly alien? As Moyr walked forth toward the chamber, she opened to whatever vergence the place exuded, to seek semblances, however slight, to whatever past experience she might have had.

A voice calls out, “You stand before the Imperial Guard, announce yourself, now. Show yourself.”

"Now."

That was unexpected, and yet not surprising. The greatest mysteries of the Sith must have belonged to the Emperor all along.

"Bellious, Lord of the Sith." She stepped out into the light.

Three Imperial Guard stand before her in a large chamber lit by a central light in the floor; they ready their weapons as the central one speaks, “Sith, by order of the Emperor this place is forbidden for others to tread. Turn back now and forget this place.”

“There will be no further warnings.”