The Dark Academy on Korriban

"Zo many vould zay zhat zhe Umbră-Ușoară iz entropy," she opened her eyes to stare at the black sky above, the first stars peeking out now that the sun had completely set. "Zhat it decays, it destroys. It can do zhose zhings. But it can change, it can infuse life, as a predator gains life from itz prey. Zhat is vhat you are feeling, you likely know it vell, zhe rush of zhe predator flush vith life."

"It is pleasurable, yes?" It wasn't really a question.

"Touch my mind. Find out," he says as he lay looking at the nights sky.

Her body still hummed with the residual energies of the ritual and it took only an ounce of effort to reach out and feel the ecstatic pulses that wove through him. Through both of them in truth. She reached just a touch deeper, closing her eyes and losing herself in the well of emotions in Zeno.

It is violent and chaotic in there at this moment. His outer self is a facade, no doubt due to years of military training and coming up in a noble family. She can feel the primal heart in him. The craving for the next hunt and kill and violence growing, the ecstatic pleasure of the most recent death, the pride in the accomplishment, a lustful attraction to Jun-Tsu, an overwhelming desire for power... it's like the mind of an animal incapable of being tamed. She can almost feel his teeth grinding as he opens up and lets her in.

She looked over at him with a rapatious smile that made the moonlight glint off of her teeth. The blood that covered the two of them in spurts and sprays seemed black in the light.

"Your desire is obvious, ser Deathwright. Iz zhat vhat you truly vant?"

She mulled the circumstance, drawing a hand across her torso covering it in the half-dried gore that had streamed from the beast during their kill.

"You hawe, zhrough zhe ritual, attained a modicum of purity in zhe Dark Side, freed yourzelf from order und embraced zhe true vay of nature."

"If I didn't want it I wouldn't have it in my mind," he says looking over to her with a similar smile. "All of it. Everything. I'm drawn to your power and your primal nature. This ritual has been incredibly intimate to me and feel it's only drawn us closer."

"You are a flame," she said cryptically. "Bu being a flame, you must be fed or you vill burn out. Und you need great fuel to grow ztronger. I suppose I could give zhat to you...for a time."

"My flame whishes to burn away all of the enemies of the dark side. To turn them to ash beneath my glowing blade," he replies as he reaches over to take one of her hands. He brings the edge of his sword against one of her fingers and leaves a red line before putting it in his mouth to taste the witch's blood. "An insatiable flame."

"Ve shall zee ser Desvright," she allowed each action as she lay there, and once he had done, she took up the ceremonial dagger and sliced him quick across the chest, drawing a thin gash that wet her blade. Her face alighted as she chanted into the blade the serpentine energies along its edge flowing freely from the cruor there.

His essence burned with witchfire on the knife. It danced and flickered there for a minute or so until she took in a deep breath seemingly imbibing the ardor. "Your blut iz ztrong vith zhe Dark Side. Truly filled vith the ztrength of zhe Sith."

Zeno inhaled quickly with the slice, his smile not fading, though his teeth clamped down hard. His blood mingled with that of the tuk'ata. After her chanting he ran his finger over the wound, acquiring some of his own blood, before pressing it to her lips. "One of these days I'm going to have to be your canvas and let you draw on me."

"You zpeak az zo you have zhe choice," her tone was licentious as she kept a grip on the blade, this time drawing it slowly, and lightly over his arm. Not enough to cut skin, but enough to feel the edge.

"How does it feel, to be vith a voman who could feed on your zoul?" She drew closer. "I may be diminished vithout mein sisters but I am certain....vith a little effort I could draw ewery drop of life from your body."

"I do have a choice. A choice to enjoy it or to resist it. But I think you know the choice I'd make."

Even as she only has him feel the edge he presses his own arm lighly against the blade to leave a thin red line. He bites his lip with the feeling.

"Being with you feels dangerous. It heightens my senses, all the better to take you in. It feeds my fear that I can direct into aggression and then further into passion." He grabs her by the arm and pulls strongly, though not a yank. "You'll have a better view of your canvas from a higher vantage point."

She drew atop him, blade in hand, red hair falling in matted strands from a mixture of ritual exertion and the kill. She cut again, a slow weaving line over his other arm.

"I confess....it iz a zhrill to zee you like zhis. Docile yet dangerous. Vith a motion I am zure you could take zhis blade und kill me." She threw her head back and drew the blade down her own flesh.

"Predator und predator."

He reached up and wrapped his fingers around her neck, squeezing only slightly, letting the force connect his mind to hers so that he could feel what she felt. "Let me feel that thrill. Let mine enter your mind. We can feed on each other as predators should."

She was an open book, with no need for filtering. She wasn't particularly filled with amorous or lustful desire, but instead a powerful sense of pervading ecstasy and malicious intent. Were it not apparent that she had no interest in killing him, that is almost exactly the feeling she emanated, one of strong malevolence.

"So beautiful," he says with his eyes closed. It searves to heighten his own violent urges, letting the lustful desires fade a bit as he tightens his grip on her neck a bit more, though not enough to stop breath, and pulls her down before biting her lip until he draws a small amount of blood and sucking on it for a moment. He enjoys the taste and the raw emotion, feeding his own back into her.

"More," he almost snarls as he looks up at her.

Her tongue flicks over her own lip to savor the tang that arose there. Then, while she lay atop him, she went to his neck and bit hard into his collar, leaving a series of piercing cuts in his crimson flesh. From that she lapped at the wound before taking in a sharp breath. The Deathwright could not see it but could feel as she drew his life force out in tiny motes to imbibe them.

The cool metal of the dagger played between them, its double edge biting into the both of them.

Keeping a single hand on her neck, he rolled over into a dominant position. His other hand takes control of hers wielding the knife, bringing it up tohis neck and making a small cut that dripped onto her face. Leaning in he licked it up with the tip of his tongue.

She gasped slightly at the shift, and he could feel her body tense as though to attack but relaxed quickly. Her hands touched at his sides, nails raking into his flesh, carving rough grooves. She moved her hands up to his arms her fingers biting into the skin where it slid under her hands.

Then, reading up to either side of his chin she drew him down to offer an embrace, and as he did, he could feel, once again flecks of his life draining away, ebbing into her as she wrapped her legs about his. "You take your life into your own handz if you proceed."

She smiled her vicious grin, face awash in blood and sand, black-red hair strewn about her like a halo.

"I believe that I'm actually placing it in yours," he says with a devious grin before licking a bit more blood from her face until it finds her lips. He locks his with hers as he opens his mind to her emotions and freely shares his with her. The passion, violence, malevolence and darkness between them intermingles just as their bodies do, time and sense fading into the black of fallen night.

/ftb


/fade in

The sun had fallen entirely, and the full brunt of darkness had fallen over the wilds. The ravine was filled with a desert wind that sent up a spray of sand along the top promontories. Jun-Tsu adjusted her garments, what little there was of them, and took up her Sith sword. Placing it back in its sheath on her back she gathered the bags and bowls and the dagger from their ceremony.

In the basin two green khyber crystals still rested, clinking softly about. She picked them up and peered through them at one of the moons. It played against them giving them glinting highlights that seemed to make something within them move, as though the light were passing through a prism at an impossibly slow pace.

Zeno, walked around without any clothes on for the moment, not really concerned about such things. "Jun-Tso, I really must thank you for such an intense and gratifying ritual. It was more greater than I expected."

He stands behind her with a hand on her back and looks through the crystal with her. "And the celebration was just as intense. We'll need to find more opportunities to partake in other rituals in the future."

After getting a good look, he takes his own crystal and places it within the shoto hilt where it needs to go, before walking up to her a mere step away. He holds the lightsaber between them and draws her hand to it with his other. "Shall we?"

"By all means," she replied huddling closer, that the two might see the fruit of their efforts.

He traps her finger on the switch and presses, lighting up the blade between them, the searing heat obvious from this close. It glowed a vibrant red with green crackling light around it, likely the effects of the ritual.

He looked at the blade and then to Jun-Tsu. "Beautiful."

"Wery much," she had eyes only for the blade. Though her trance did cause her to lean more into his body. She was transfixed by it, the notion that she had was alive in that blade. It made her heart quicken.

It was a moments reverie, then she stepped away, allowing the duelist the open space he needed. Without a word she just gestured for him to do what he did best, to use the blade, test its tempered edge.