As it turned out, I hadn't broken Kelly's brain last night. She woke up after two and a half hours, apparently having never slept better, before cleaning herself and slipping back into her undersuit, mainly because she had nothing else to wear for the moment. I would have to go to Coruscant some time to buy things unavailable on a backwater like Tatooine, like nice clothes. Plus I could probably find some dregs of society on the lower levels for use as ritual sacrifices. Despite the change's Ahriman's memories had made to my personality, I still didn't feel comfortable sacrificing innocent people. Sacrificing criminals who would otherwise be executed, on the other hand? That was fine.
Not much happened the next day. I spent most of it experimenting on the slavers, this time focusing on the nervous system, some of which Kelly watched. Between that and browsing the holonet, it was obvious she was getting bored. The fact that we were now regularly fucking helped to an extent, but I could tell she wanted something more meaningful to do.
It was fortunate then that the day after, I finally received the Credits I'd earned from stamping Anakin, Shmi and Watto.
"How do I have 50 credits?" I said, surprised, as I looked at the Device. I'd expected to have 34.
"Did you take into account the Defence rebates you get from Stamping people?" Kelly replied.
"Oh, right. I always forget about that," I said, as I checked my Device. "Well, would you look at that? I get rebates for Mind, Information and Stress defence. And also Wild and Trace defence, but I don't have those yet. Still, I'm not going to complain about bonus Credits.
"Now, obviously we're going to get more Credits at some point, but for now we're stuck with 50," I said to Kelly, as we sat in the common room. "Unless I take out a loan of course, but I'd rather not do that unless I'm 100% certain I can pay it off before I start accruing interest. We are definitely getting Soul defence, it's pretty much necessary for what we'll be doing. I was going to give you Added Potential, Kelly, but with the rebates we could actually afford a Template Stack instead, which would start you off at a higher level."
"I have a better idea," she replied. "Get Added Potential, but also get Talent Share for Soul talent. I'll start off weaker, but I'll progress much faster, which is what really matters in the long-term. Plus, it'll save 5 Credits. As soon as we're able, we should get Corruption defence as well. If you ever intended to teach me more… morally questionable psychic arts, you should wait until we have that."
I nodded. I hadn't actually planned to teach Kelly anything evil, but I was glad she was cognizant of the risks. Decision made, I bought Soul defence, Added Potential, and Talent Share.
As soon as I did so, I felt a shift in the Warp. The minute I arrived in Star Wars, I felt the Dark Side trying to dig its claws into me. Then there were the Gods of Chaos; their influence was virtually non-existent in this Galaxy, but even still, I sometimes thought I felt the Changer of Ways watching me, trying to snare me in his schemes. With Soul defence, I felt these Dark influences recede. Not completely, I knew they were still there, but now it would take a lot more for me to fall to the Dark Side.
The changes Kelly experienced were even more dramatic; she audibly gasped, as she stared at me with wide eyes.
"Oh my god… it's like I have a whole new sense that I didn't know existed before," she said. "I imagine it's like a blind person seeing for the first time, only more… metaphysical. I can feel you, Ame, your soul in the Warp."
"Really? Well, good. I wasn't sure how I'd explain feeling for the Warp to someone who'd never done it before. It seems you picked it up straight away," I replied, before I noticed she was a bit uneasy. "Is something wrong?"
"It's… no offence, Ame, and I know you're not a bad person deep down, but, well… seeing your soul in the Warp… you basically look like the devil."
"Ah, noticed already, did you?" I said, my smile morphing into a grimace. "Well, now you know all about my corrupt and dirty soul. I was honestly expecting that, what with Template Stacking the Chaos sorcerer supreme. Why do you think I bought Information defence?"
"So any Jedi we encountered wouldn't immediately think you're a Sith," Kelly replied.
"Yep. The first level of Information defence doesn't give perfect protection, but combine that with Ahriman's own knowledge of masking his Warp presence, they won't have any reason to be hostile."
"They might still be suspicious of someone who is clearly a Force user that they can't sense," Kelly pointed out.
"Undoubtedly. However, I can set it so that they'll still be able to tell I'm a psyker, they just won't be able to see the state of my soul, or my emotions. In any case, for all their faults, they are still dedicated to the Light Side of the Force, and they won't act on suspicion alone. Besides, I haven't actually done anything wrong."
"Aside from experimenting on and eventually sacrificing people in rituals?"
"They aren't going to care about the fate of a few slavers. And they'll never find out about my rituals. As far as I know, there are no Force powers even remotely similar to summoning daemons, so any that I do summon can be passed off as some kind of alien they've never seen before.
"Anyway, you're a psyker yourself now, which means I can start teaching you properly. Let's go." We headed for a now useless bedroom that I'd set aside for lessons. Kelly's excitement was palpable.
"Now, before I teach you how to actually channel the Warp to cast spells, you need to know how to use your Warp-sight. You already have the basics down given that you noticed my soul straight away, but it's important that you can do it in a wide area around you. I'm sure I don't need to tell you, a former soldier, the importance of situational awareness in combat."
"Or out of combat," Kelly replied. "Being able to sense the emotions of others should allow me to tell if someone is about to attack me, right?"
"Exactly. That's one reason why it's almost impossible to get the drop on a Jedi."
"Unless you know how to mask your Warp presence."
"Something which very few even know is possible. Clearly Darth Sidious knows a method, given that he can hide from the Jedi right under their noses, but no-one else likely will. Once we get more advanced in your training, I'll teach you how to look past someone's attempts to hide their Warp presence, though even that can be countered with the right knowledge.
"Obviously, that's far in the future," I continued. "For now, just expand your mind within the Warp, search for any nearby Warp presences. It's hard to explain with words, you really have to just feel for it."
I watched as Kelly expanded her Warp-sight. I felt a tiny shift in the Warp as she moved past me, past the slavers in the cargo bay, and outside the ship itself.
"I can feel you, and our prisoners, but no-one else," Kelly said. "Obviously there's no other life around in interstellar space."
"Very good. Unfortunately, this isn't the best environment for practising Warp-sight, due to the lack of souls around. Once we reach Jedha, it should be a lot easier. Now, extend your sight even further, as far as you can out away from the ship, tell me if you see anything else."
I watched her, both with mundane and Warp-vision, as her aura, for want of a better word, extended outwards, past the ship. After feeling her unease grow, her aura retreated back into her physical body.
"I thought I felt… something watching me," Kelly replied. "Something unsettling, calling out to me, though it was too faint for me to tell what it was saying. That was the Dark side of the Force, wasn't it?"
"Exactly. Now you know what every psyker in this galaxy deals with on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, there is great power to be found there, if there wasn't it would be pretty shit at luring people in… of course, those that attempt to draw upon it usually get more than they bargained for."
"Everyone except you?" Kelly asked.
"Don't be too impressed. The only reason I haven't deluded myself into thinking I'll be unaffected by it is a combination of my metaknowledge, and Ahriman's millennia of memories, an enormous advantage that no-one else has.
"Of course, even without the advantages that the Company provides us, drawing upon the Dark side doesn't guarantee that you'll be corrupted. There's one Space Marine chapter called the Grey Knights that consists entirely of psykers, often drawing upon the Warp's most destructive powers. Yet thanks to their rigorous training and mental conditioning, not a single one has ever fallen. Even most actual Dark siders don't go completely around the bend, they just have to be willing to accept that they won't be as powerful as they potentially could be. Those that can't accept that end up like the Sith."
"I take it that the Sith are the most extreme examples?" Kelly asked.
I nodded. "Being a Sith isn't just a matter of using the Warp in ways the Jedi would find objectionable. It's about abandoning all restraint, giving up anything and everything… your family, your friends, your relationships… it's about having the attitude of 'fuck everything and everyone but me' in the pursuit of greater power. Believe me, while you may find benign Dark siders from time to time, there is no such thing as a benign Sith."
"That doesn't seem like a conducive environment for forming a master-apprentice relationship. How have they even survived this long?"
"Luck, mainly. Back in the day, there were a whole bunch of Sith, much like how the Jedi are now, only with more infighting. One Sith in particular, Darth Bane, felt that this was weakening them, as it led to situations where, say, a group of weaker apprentices would gang up on a single, stronger master. He attempted to solve this problem by only having one master and one apprentice at a time, the idea being that each subsequent apprentice would get progressively more powerful. I guess it never occurred to him that there are other methods that would allow a weaker apprentice to kill a stronger master; Darth Sidious's method will involve getting his own master too drunk to fight back."
Kelly opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again, looking thoughtful. Eventually she said, "I was about to say that that would surely prove that the apprentice is superior, since power in the Warp isn't everything… but like you said, the pursuit of power is the whole point of being a Sith. I'm beginning to see now why you seem so disdainful of them."
"Maybe I'm just biassed by Ahriman's memories; if he were here in person, he would despise the Sith. For all the evil acts Ahriman committed, he was, unlike the Sith, not entirely selfish; one of his main goals was trying to undo a certain ritual that all but destroyed his legion. Not only that, the Sith's method of using strong negative emotions to draw in as much power as possible simply wouldn't work in Ahriman's home galaxy. The only reason it works here is because of how calm the Warp is; there, I doubt they'd last more than 5 seconds before being possessed.
"Anyway, we're getting off track. There is one more thing you ought to see, now that you can control your Warp-sight. Though given that you only barely noticed the Dark side unaided, you will need my help. Extend it outwards, as you did before, and I'll do the rest."
My Warp-sight expanded outwards, just as Kelly's was. "Can you hear me?" I said telepathically as I enveloped her aura within my own.
"Yes," she replied, though out-loud rather than with thoughts.
"Think your words, and I will hear them. You can practise telepathic communication as well… though that will come later. For now, just tell me what you see."
"Everything is clearer now," Kelly replied, this time with just her thoughts. "I can see you, me, and the prisoners, but they seem brighter, somehow. I can see tiny dots just on the outskirts, which I didn't notice before."
"People on the nearest planet, or maybe space station, no doubt. Your own Warp-sight isn't strong enough to pick them out unaided, but that power will grow as you use it, especially with Soul Talent. Anyway, that isn't what I wanted to show you. Just watch, and learn."
I still wasn't a particularly powerful psyker myself, though thanks to Soul Talent that power was growing rapidly. At the beginning I'd been roughly an Eta level psyker, relying mostly on the psychic energy stored within my staff to cast spells. Kelly was even weaker, Iota level at best, though still a true psyker, not a mere telepath. Now I was a strong Delta, maybe a low Gamma level psyker. That by itself put me above almost everyone in Star Wars, though I was still a gnat compared to Ahriman. Still, it was enough to get the attention I was currently looking for.
Countless tiny dots receded from view as my Warp-sight expanded out beyond the nearest planets. The Dark side of the Force loomed large over the galaxy, but I ignored it, searching for bigger fish. Doing this in the Warhammer galaxy would've been a death sentence; the beings responsible for that death were far weaker here, but they still existed, and Kelly and I would witness them first-hand.
Looking far beyond the galactic disk, there was nothing. Just Kelly and myself, in a vast ocean of nothingness… at least at first. As our sight adjusted, the Warp version of mundane sight adjusting to low-light levels, we saw and heard them, growing brighter and louder.
One was wrapped in a bloody red aura, with the sounds of men killing and dying in battle, interspersed with roars of rage so deep they would've frightened even the most battle-hardened of soldiers. One was a sickly green, tuned to the sickly coughing sounds of people dying, slowly, agonisingly from some terrible disease. Another was blue, represented by schemes and plots so convoluted and self-defeating they defied mortal understanding. The last was a fetching shade of purple, speaking with the most seductive voice I'd ever heard, tempting people to partake in all manner of vices, vices that would ultimately consume them.
I felt Kelly's aura attempt to pull away, but I held it firmly in place as the overlapping auras of Chaos grew brighter, louder, overwhelming. Only when I felt that Kelly was about to pass out did I relent, our minds returning to our bodies.
"My god… what was that?" Kelly asked, having broken out into a cold sweat, her pulse racing.
"They are the Gods of Chaos, Kelly," I replied, my voice grave. "The enemies of every living thing that exists… though none in this galaxy other than we know that. I showed you them, so that you will understand that, for all its many wonders, the Warp is fraught with danger. There are certain rules you must follow while using it; if you're lucky, the penalty for breaking those rules is death. If you're unlucky… possession."
Kelly nodded. "Wouldn't our defences protect us from that though?" she asked.
"Not completely. At least not until we get both levels of Corruption, Possession and Soul defence. I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill; the risk in this galaxy is pretty slim, what with the Warp being so calm. But I can't guarantee it will stay that way forever, so it's best to be prepared."
"Between the Gods of Chaos, and the God-Emperor… are there any gods that aren't totally evil?" Kelly asked.
"There is one truly benevolent deity I can think of: Isha, the Goddess of Life and Healing. Unfortunately, her influence is extremely weak these days. I understand the Lord of Decay is holding her prisoner."
I spent the rest of the day showing Kelly how to actually channel power from the Warp. The limitation wasn't her ability to learn, it was how little Warp energy could flow through her body at once. In addition, Kelly really ought to have her own psychic hood and Force staff. I had some idea of how to make them, thanks to Ahriman's memories, and I could always reverse-engineer my own, but that would need kyber crystals, which I currently didn't have… hopefully our trip to Jedha would solve that.
At least Kelly's lessons were enjoyable, for both of us. Between that, experimenting on the slavers, and sex, we should reach Jedha without getting too bored.
AN:
So I've gotten a lot of comments pointing out how hypocritical it is for Amedeus to keep slavers prisoner despite being one himself. I don't understand why everyone is surprised by this. Think of it from his perspective; you want people to experiment on and use as ritual sacrifices, yet don't want to devolve in a complete monster. So rather than use innocent people, you go the slight extra bit of effort needed to seek out slavers or other violent criminals, people who would be executed otherwise. Is it hypocritical? Yes it is. That doesn't mean he's wrong to act like that, it just means he's a hypocrite.
For those that don't know Warhammer, psyker power levels are graded using greek letters, Alpha being the strongest, then Beta, then Gamma etc, then there's also the grade 'Alpha-plus' which basically means you're off the scale. I figure most Jedi are around Eta/low Delta level with particularly powerful ones like Yoda and Palpatine are around Gamma level. Ahriman is a strong Alpha level, bordering on Alpha-plus. So Amedeus still has a long way to go to match him.
Sadly, this is the last chapter I had pre-written, so no more daily updates I'm afraid. Still, I have been really enjoying writing this, and have been extra-motivated with all the likes/comments I've got, so the next chapter should be out before too long.