The Dark Academy on Korriban

It had been a late night yesterday, and Shaisha yawned groggily as she exited her tent to finish getting dressed.

The absence of refreshers out here, along with a deep want for some coffee and pastry from some overpriced Kaas City coffeeshop, wasn't exactly making her more chipper for the morning.

[explicit deleted] morning. Should be a capital crime.

Rolling groggily out of his tent as well Sylvain sat up and ruffled his hair as he squinted his eyes to get them to start working right.

Glancing over a few feet away to Shaisha he offered a tired smile. "Morning Shai."

Something grumbled was the first reply.

Then a moment of silence.

"'morning."

Looking over with still non-functional eyelids he asked, "Out late last night?"

"Mhm..." she nodded and set to the task of brushing her hair.

Still thinking of coffee and pastry.

"Helped Zeno out with a project last night. Helped clear my mind on stuff. You?"

He nodded, "Had a tough time getting to sleep... lots on my mind too."

He rubbed his eyes a bit and yawned while asking, "What'd Zeno help you clear your mind on?"

She shrugged. "Needed some help with a tuk'ata's head. Wanted to have its skull and turn it into a helmet... I couldn't help much on the technical part, but I had fun cutting away the skin and flesh on the thing. Simple work often helps to remove troubling thoughts."

"What did you do last night then, since you couldn't sleep?"

"Talked to Kris for a while, then went on a walk with the Twi'lek Aspirant Moyr." He smiled the best he could, which given the circumstances, ended up with just a slight upturning of the corners of his mouth.

"Fairly nice evening after a busy day. A group I went out with found a bit of a treasure yesterday. Wanna see?" He waved his hand slowly towards his tent.

"Sure. I'll have a look," she acquised and approached. After a moment's silence, she asked in a quiet voice, "... How's Kris doing, by the way?"

Sylvain crawled into the tent head first with Shaisha beside him in the same position, their feet sticking out the entrance. He found his bag and started to open it up looking for the holocron from yesterday.

"Surprisingly well actually. We had a good talk last night." He said. "She seemed pretty tired, but a lot happier than I'd expect her to be."

"... Knowing her, that might mean she's having a hard time. Kris rarely shows her true feelings, you know."

He chuckled confidently, "Nah... I think I did a good job of opening her up a bit."

Then added, "She's struggling, but she is not letting it beat her."

"Good, good," she murmured, seeming a little relieved to hear it.

"So, what did you find then?"

Finding what he was looking for Sylvain pulled out the blue and gold plaited holocron.

"Bu Buuuuum!" He pulled it out with flair for her to inspect. "Know what it is?"

"It's a holocron," she chuckled. "Even I know what those look like."

"Pretty cool to find a holocron though. What's on it?"

He chuckled, "It's not a normal one, look at the lining. This is a holocron of an ancient Sith who turned from the Dark Side at the end of his life after mastering a ritual that allowed him to extract life from others and use it to feed his own immortality."

He flipped it in his hand, "He's a bit of an eccentric, but interesting enough. There's a group going out with Zash later to find the location of the Holocron with the specifics of the ritual contained... I think they're stupid to think they'll get out alive. Zash doesn't tend to take good care of the aspirants who help her."

Her brows knitted in thoughtful contemplation on the subject.

"Failure and disobedience are one and the same... In the Sith tongue both translate as 'treason'. Still, I won't deny that there might be valuable knowledge even a traitor could have. But what's all this about Zash?"

Sylvain nodded, he knew the company line and was plenty fine to pay homage to it.

"Zash has been searching the galaxy for information on this ritual... apparently draining her apprentices and those who help her to recover her strength and keep her youth. She's been working on incomplete information however, and the information she seeks is supposedly in the holocron she's leading the group to find. Master Hazzan, the guy in here, says that the ritual eventually leads to one's own destruction as the surge of Dark Side influence gradually decays the body from the inside." He shrugged. "Said he stopped doing it when he realized what it was doing."

"Hm, so she is seeking a form of immortality?" Shaisha said thoughtfully. She knew the Emperor was Immortal, everyone who had spent 2 minutes on the Holonet could find that out. And she suspected her father was near immortal himself, but if the rituals those two had used was the same as what Zash was pursuing... perhaps not. A traitor like Hazzan would not know the true power of the Dark Side.

"Guess he chickened out of his own experiment then."

"Guess so. I don't know really." He shrugged. "I plan on seeing what insights he can provide... or perhaps letting Baras see what insights he can provide."

Her lips pursed with some distaste. "Why give it to Baras?"

"He is my master. I plan on providing him with information on Zash, if he requires the Holocron then he shall have it." He replied.

"Your master until you are powerful enough to strike him down," she reminded him.

"And do you think he will move against Zash?"

He smiled, "Of course Shai."

He did not need to be reminded of that.

"Probably not immediately. I doubt he cares for the fates of those who'd be willing to help her. But that is information many powerful Sith would be interested in. It could grant him some leverage over her when he needed it."

"Guess so," she conceded the point. "Just make sure to learn what you can too. I don't trust Baras to lightly share knowledge."