In total, I'd spent 3 entire days - from my perspective - barely aware of my surroundings as I fucked Xyl's brains out non-stop the entire time.
"Maybe we shouldn't do that too often," I said sheepishly to my new daemonic sex toy. "Wouldn't want the others getting jealous now would we?"
"Master, you can make it up to them by allowing me to do to them what I just did to you," Xyl smiled as we engaged in our post-coitus cuddling - something that she was extremely good at despite our size difference, as she wrapped her wings and tail around me. "Besides, you could really do with more practice creating speed bubbles," she said cheekily.
I chuckled. "You can do it once to each of them before we reach Korriban, not counting our nightly orgies," I said, causing her to pout. "I'm serious, Xyl. We can't afford to be too distracted."
"Why else would you summon me, if not for all manner of sordid distractions?"
"Don't make me regret summoning you now," I said, though there was no real heat to my words. "Anyway we need to clean up, we still have stuff to do before dropping out of hyperspace."
Xyl sighed as she climbed off the bed, casting a spell to purge the stench of sex from the room before putting her dress back on - which for a daemon meant it just materialised out of thin air, which I felt via the Warp energy crystallising in the materium around her.
After taking a quick shower and putting my clothes back on, I dispelled the speed-bubble as I left the bedroom, where I found Kelly waiting outside.
"You spent roughly as long in that speed-bubble as it took for you to Stamp Xyl," Kelly mused. "Meaning you were in there for at least a couple of days. What kept you?"
"Well, I could just tell you… but that would ruin the surprise," I smirked. "You find out soon enough Kelly; I don't think Xyl wants to keep you in suspense."
-x-x-x-x-
Thanks to Xyl, we weren't short on entertainment as we travelled to Korriban. The former herald of Slaanesh had clearly enjoyed bringing the rest of my harem to various states of orgasm-induced bliss; it wasn't surprising that she'd left Kelly and Aayla completely insensate, purely biological beings that they were. No, it was when she'd successfully broken Cortana's digital brain with days of non-stop orgasmania within a speed-bubble that I remembered why you should never underestimate daemons of the Prince of Pleasure.
My insistence that we not spend the entire trip enjoying Xyl's company was the only reason we'd gotten anything else done before we arrived at Korriban; the daemon's unique methods of manipulating the Warp certainly made our psykery lessons very interesting. As was on-brand for a servant of Slaanesh, a lot of these involved various methods of boosting one's speed to blinding levels, which Kelly and I eagerly incorporated into our own techniques for buffing ourselves with the Warp, and even Aayla used it to increase the effectiveness of her own Force Augmentation.
Even more interesting than that though was a spell for debilitating people by inducing extreme pleasure within their minds. It was in a similar vein to the pink flames Xyl had used on us during sex, only designed to work at range instead, and targeting the brain directly instead of indirectly via nerve signals. Definitely a useful way of taking someone out non-lethally, though it did have the obvious downside of not working on robots - aside from Cortana of course. Kelly and I eagerly listened as Xyl taught the spell to us, though Aayla was reluctant, since it was still a technique borne of Chaos, albeit one of the more benign ones.
With this newfound knowledge under our belts, we reached Korriban in high spirits, even if Aayla still wasn't totally on board with visiting a Sith 'holy' site. I brought the ship as low as I could into orbit above Korriban, as the five of us all opened our minds to the Warp, examining the way the currents flowed around the planet. The planet was utterly steeped in the Dark side, far more than anywhere else I'd been in the galaxy this far, though still not to the extent of a daemon world.
"Unsurprisingly, there's thousands of Sith ghosts down there, though at least they seem confined to their tombs," I said. "Which explains why a lone Jedi can safely wander around without being attacked."
"To be fair, she is also by far the most powerful Force user we've encountered so far," Kelly replied.
"I still think going around without so much as a lightsaber to defend herself is a dumb idea," Cortana said.
Aayla shook her head, her lekku swaying from side to side. "Everyone always said Master Fay was as powerful as Grandmaster Yoda. Now I see they were right; she can defend herself just fine."
"Not against Amedeus darling, though I suppose a lightsaber wouldn't help her with that anyway," Xyl said with an amused smile. She was now in her human form, and I'd insisted she wear normal clothes for a serious trip like this.
"Besides Fay, there's also an abundance of Sith down there, meaning an abundance of potential Credits," Kelly said. "The question is, can you actually Stamp a ghost?"
"I'm honestly not sure," I replied. "Even if I could, it might not restore their bodies, instead just leaving them as ghosts, albeit ones free to leave their tombs. Still, I might be able to resurrect them first."
"Hold on a sec, you're telling me you can bring people back from the dead as well?" Aayla asked, simultaneously stunned and sceptical.
"Not in general, no," I admitted. "Restoring someone's physical body to life isn't too hard to do with biomancy. The hard part is stuffing their soul back into their body. Under ordinary circumstances that's basically impossible; imagine pouring a glass of water into the ocean, then trying to recreate that exact same glass of water with exactly the same molecules in exactly the right places. That's basically what you're trying to do when reconstructing someone's soul, only with an ocean larger than any physical universe, including the infinite ones."
"But with the Sith ghosts, their souls are still around and in one piece?" Cortana asked rhetorically.
"Exactly. I'll still have to use some sort of ritual to bind their souls to a physical vessel, which in this case will be their own bodies. Good job I still have a couple of sacrifices left," I said. "I think, once we're done on Korriban, we'll head over to Coruscant; there's bound to be plenty of criminals in the lower levels worthy of execution."
No-one protested at that, not even Aayla. Despite the inconvenience, sacrificing innocent people was a line I was not willing to cross, God-Emperor knew my soul was tainted enough as it was. Satisfied we wouldn't be immediately attacked once we made planet-fall, I teleported the five of us down onto the surface of Korriban.
From orbit Korriban was a dull orange colour; its appearance down on the surface reflected that, being a barren, rocky planet not unlike Tatooine despite the much cooler temperature. I vaguely wondered whether that was natural, or the result of the Sith tampering with its biosphere.
Following our Warp-sight, the five of us headed in the direction of Fay, having teleported just far enough away to be out of sight of the locals. The native population of Korriban was tiny, only a few thousand which, funnily enough, meant they were actually outnumbered by the Sith ghosts.
It wasn't long before we came across a small village of maybe a hundred people. It couldn't even be called a farming village, the surface of Korriban being too barren for agriculture. They seemed to just be hunter-gatherers, as evidenced by a strange lizard creature being roasted on a spit over an open flame. The residents seemed to all be human, but none of them tried to stop us, nor did I sense any hostile intent; if anything they seemed eager to get out of our way. Thus I made my way over to the only other psyker here without interruption.
The Catalogue image of Fay really didn't do her justice; beyond just using the Force to extend her lifespan, she'd clearly used it to make herself more beautiful as well, much as I had done with my companions, not to mention her near bimbo-like proportions. She was fairly tall for a woman, and quite pale, which matched her light blonde hair. I had to wonder if her pointed ears were natural as well, as I wasn't aware of any elf-like species in the galaxy.
Given the circumstances that brought her here, I wasn't surprised to see Fay fussing over some injured hunter laying down on a pile of animal skins.
"Now, remember what I told you. Drink lots of water, and try not to move too much until you've fully healed, OK?" Fay said to the hunter, who just nodded in thanks.
"I suppose that, of all the things a Jedi might decide to do on Korriban, it'd be to help the locals," I observed as Fay turned to face us.
"Of course, people's lives are extremely hard here. The climate is unsuitable for growing crops, so they have to resort to hunting, despite how dangerous the native creatures are," Fay replied, managing to sound polite despite her suspicion of me.
"I was wondering earlier whether the climate was always like this, or whether the Sith made it this way," I said absently. "I don't suppose you know?"
Fay shook her head. "Korriban has always been barren, though maybe it was changed by the ancient Sith. Most of its population were brought from offworld to live as slaves. When the Sith died out, their slaves started to die as well. The few remaining inhabitants are their descendants. Anyway, I might wonder what brings five Force sensitives, one of whom is by far the most powerful and physically imposing I've ever seen, to the Sith's most tainted planet."
"I could also ask that of the most powerful Jedi I've ever seen," I countered. "I'd be happy to answer as well, though I'd rather discuss it somewhere out of earshot of the locals."
Fay raised an eyebrow, but she complied, walking out of the village. Gently brushing my thoughts against hers told me she was wary of us, but didn't want the locals getting caught in the crossfire if it came to violence.
"I suppose an introduction is in order," Fay said. "Fay, Master of the Jedi order, though my calling is not to teach, but to wander the galaxy, following wherever the Force guides me, helping those in need."
"A noble calling," I said, and I actually meant it; no doubt she did more good than the rest who sat on their arses in their temples all day. "My name is Amedeus, independent Force user. This is my apprentice Kelly, and our friends Cortana, Xylixia, and Talea," I said, gesturing to each in turn, the latter referring to Aayla. I wasn't certain if Fay would've heard about the 'death' of Quinlan Vos's padawan, but why take the risk? At least a physical disguise wasn't necessary.
"A pleasure to meet you all," Fay replied, looking more relaxed as she leaned against a rock, though her emotions had barely changed; she was still wary of us. "And what brings you to a cursed world like this?"
"Oh, Amedeus is absolutely fascinated by the various Force sects throughout the galaxy darling," Xyl said with a friendly smile. "It was only through sheer luck that he found the location of the Sith's most important planet."
"You seek the teachings of the Sith?" Fay said, still keeping her expression neutral even as her wariness flared up even more.
"You Jedi seem to forget that not everyone makes a distinction between the Light and Dark side," I replied. "As I'm sure you know, the Force is a reflection of the thoughts and emotions of all living things. What you Jedi call the Light side is just a reflection of the galaxy's collective positive emotions, and the Dark side a reflection of its negative emotions. At any rate, Force techniques with a specific Light or Dark side bent are very rare, even amongst the Jedi and Sith… or are you going to try and convince me that a Jedi's Force push is any different to a Sith's Force push besides the intent?"
"You didn't answer my question," Fay said, eyes narrowed.
"Yes, I do seek them," I said simply. "The techniques of theirs that I decide are useful or interesting and unlikely to corrupt me, I will use, and seek to improve upon. The rest I'll discard."
"There are many beings throughout history, including Jedi, who thought they could use the Dark side for good. Not one of them succeeded," Fay pointed out.
"And yet there are many more beings from my home that did. Sometimes even better than the Dark siders themselves," I said with complete honesty, mainly thinking of the Grey Knights. "Besides, I trust my friends to tell me if I start going down a dark path."
I felt Fay examine us through her Force-sight, determining that Kelly, Cortana and of course Aayla were all Light side aligned. Of course she also saw that of me and Xyl as well, despite the latter being literally made of Chaos warp energy.
"Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree," Fay eventually said, realising she wasn't going to convince me. Despite hiding the state of my soul from her Force-sight, it was obvious she didn't trust me. "If you'll excuse me, I will return to helping the people of Korriban," turning to leave.
"And what if I don't excuse you?" I said, drawing upon the Warp energy stored within my staff. Before Fay had a chance to respond I cast the rapture spell Xyl had taught me. Fay keeled over, letting out a choked gasp as she was overcome with pleasure. It wasn't just the sexual kind; while the spell did induce an earth-shattering orgasm within Fay, it induced other kinds of pleasure as well. The pleasure of consuming tasty food, the enjoyment of conversation with a friend, the blissful contentment of someone who wanted for nothing… all those and more flooded Fay's brain, leaving her completely unable to think about anything else, let alone fight back. She was completely helpless as I held her head with my off hand, pushing her into unconsciousness.
"Definitely a useful spell, Xyl," I smirked, noticing a wet patch of Fay's pussy juices between her legs as I applied my Stamp to the back of her hand. "Not the most subtle though."
"What it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in fun Master," Xyl grinned.
"Well, I'll teleport Fay up to the ship in a minute," I said. "Then it's on to some tomb raiding."
"Did you have any specific ones in mind Ame?" Cortana asked. "There's quite a few Sith in the Catalogue, but they might not necessarily be here."
"Good point. Hmm…" I trailed off, checking my Company Device. "You know what, I'll just buy Bounty Tracker and its prerequisites. A bit pricey, but the capture of Fay and a couple of Sith should cover it. Probably should've bought it earlier really, though I guess it wasn't necessary," I muttered to myself as I confirmed the purchase.
Opening my new Bounty Tracker app, it showed all of the Sith ghosts residing on Korriban. Filtering out those not named in the Catalogue, I narrowed the search field enough to get a useful find.
"We'll have to go a couple thousand kilometres north to find anyone of note," I said. "Though there is one worth paying attention to; Sorzus Syn, who's Tier 7 and pretty attractive judging by her Catalogue image… not that I know anything about her besides that fact."
"We can deduce from the lack of a 'Darth' title that she must be one of the more ancient Sith," Kelly pointed out. "Isn't that exactly what you were after?"
"Specifically their more exotic Warp techniques, but yes," I smiled. "Besides her, there are also Darth Nihilus and Darth Vitiate who are Tier 8 and 9 respectively, but there's no need to risk biting off more than I can chew. I can always capture them later, when I'm more powerful. It's not like they're going anywhere."
"Isn't a powerful Sith going to have a more heavily guarded tomb?" Aayla pointed out. "I mean, coming here to their most cursed planet is one thing, but heading directly into the most dangerous parts…"
"Pfft, between the five of us?" I scoffed. "We'll be fine, even if it'll be me and Kelly doing most of the fighting. No offence to the rest of you, of course. Cortana, you can provide overwatch against their more technological defences."
"Can do, Ame," Cortana nodded.
"I can fight as well, Master," Xyl frowned. "Lest you forget, I am the second most powerful psyker here, as well as the fastest."
"You're right," I said. "Sorry, I never meant to imply otherwise. Time to crack out the crab claws, then?"
Xyl morphed back into her daemon form, her hands turning into a pair of nasty looking claws more than three feet long, with nasty looking spikes on the insides.
"Ah my beloved, how I have missed you," Xyl said as she tested her claws with loud clacking sounds.
"Beloved?" Aayla said, bemused.
"We servants of the Prince of Pleasure only use the very best weapons darling," Xyl smiled. "Deadly, intimidating and stylish, wouldn't you say?"
"I'm not sure about stylish," Kelly admitted.
"Kelly my dear, clearly you have poor taste," Xyl shot back, though she didn't mean it.
I interrupted the drama by clearing my throat. "Focus, everyone. I'll drop Fay off on the ship, then we'll head over to Sorzus Syn's tomb."
I received five sounds of agreement, some excited, Aayla's more resigned.
-x-x-x-x-
Ten minutes later, we all stood outside an ornate set of double doors leading to Sorzus Syn's tomb, just behind a bridge over a moat surrounding the entire structure.
"It's certainly one of the more ostentatious mausoleums I've ever encountered, and that's saying something considering how gaudy Imperial architecture is," I commented.
"If you think this is ostentatious, you should see the inside of Slaanesh's palace," Xyl said wryly.
I certainly wasn't about to argue with that. "Well, I guess there's not much else to do than to head on in."
"Hold on a minute, Ame," Kelly said. "You gave me your weapon to use, but I realise I've never tried it out before. Nor has Cortana ever used hers. Using an untested weapon in a potentially hostile environment doesn't seem like the best idea."
I had given Kelly my plasma incinerator, and Cortana my plasma pistol. Cortana in particular wasn't really suited to combat given her lack of Warp power, even if her metal endoskeleton was pretty tough.
"Like I've said before, that thing is way more powerful than a Covenant plasma rifle. Why don't you use it to make us a way in?" I said, gesturing towards the door with my staff.
Kelly took aim, then fired. The sound it made wasn't the silly little 'pew' of a Halo plasma weapon; there were simultaneous whooshing and crackling sounds as a white-hot orb of superheated hydrogen the size of a football shot out from the barrel of Kelly's weapon, impacting the door with a loud bang. The latter sound came from the impacted stone instantly being vaporised, the gases rapidly expanding outwards with the force of an exploding grenade, leaving a glowing crater of liquid rock more than three feet wide in the door.
Kelly just stared at her weapon in shock. "Well, I now have a newfound respect for plasma weapons," she said candidly.
"What did I tell you?" I grinned under my helmet as I telekinetically pushed the doors open, the plasma blast having annihilated the locking mechanism. "And it looks like the cavalry's arrived," I said as I spotted movement in the moat, mud covered zombies with glowing red eyes climbing out of the water. Rather than the moaning noises one would typically associate with the undead, these creatures made a series of strange, throaty roars that were much more unsettling. I saw Aayla's skin break out with goosebumps even as she'd already drawn her lightsaber.
Not that I was worried; this was the first time I could really let loose with my power since my arrival in the galaxy. With a flick of my wrist, more than a hundred of the creatures were engulfed in Warp-fire, immolating them despite being covered in sopping wet mud. It did little to stem the tide, with hundreds more climbing out all along the moat. Drawing more strongly from the Warp than I ever had before, I launched a barrage of Warp lightning into the moat, frying thousands of the creatures in just a few seconds. My companions easily finished off those that already climbed out.
"Oh that was just too easy," Xyl sighed, wiping off her claws.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Aayla said, shaking her head.
"Not if you're a Sith, Aayla my dear," Xyl smirked. "The Sith seek only power, an important part of which is flaunting their superiority over their rivals. They would surely seek to show off defences worthy of their power."
"Huh, you know that's actually a good point…" Aayla trailed off looking thoughtful.
"Cortana, have you detected any electronic defences?" I said to my AI companion.
"A whole bunch, Ame. They seem pretty good too; droid guards, defence turrets, poison gas emitters, the works. Unfortunately I can't mess with them remotely, I'll need to get inside and make a physical connection to the network. From there I should be able to write a virus that'll shut the defences down."
"Good. Well, tell me if you identify somewhere you can access their electronics," I replied as I waltzed into the tomb like I owned the place, my Companions following close behind.
The inside of the tomb itself was made of the same black stone as the doors, the walls decorated with embossed gilded runes, though there was no power within them, instead being purely decorative. The rooms were lit by glowing red lanterns, which I could clearly feel drawing in ambient Warp energy in a similar manner to my staff, though here the purpose was simply to provide light. It was all remarkably well preserved, though again I could feel the tomb itself drawing in Warp energy to power enchantments of preservation.
There was nothing in the entrance hall itself aside from the skeletons of those who'd previously attempted to raid the tomb, the only other thing of note being a doorway at the end with stairs leading down. It was when the last of my companions entered the door that two more doors suddenly slid down from hidden compartments in the ceiling, one blocking our way out and the other blocking the way forward. At the same time panels in the walls slid open, each revealing five large lizard-like creatures. They were roughly the height of the average human at the shoulder, and had dark grey scaly skin with blue spines that glowed faintly, sharp teeth and claws and long tails. The creatures growled and barked at us in a manner almost like oversized dogs as they attacked. And just to top it all off, a dozen cylindrical blaster turrets slid down from carefully concealed gaps in the ceiling which began shooting at us.
"I'll disable the turrets, you focus on the lizards, feel free to use me as cover," I said telepathically, my thoughts moving at transhuman speed as I relayed the message. First things first, the turrets had to go; while they were no doubt sturdy, neither the Jedi nor the Sith seemed to have anything like mine and Kelly's runic defences, meaning they were helpless against my attack. While most intruders were probably limited to damaging them the hard way, I was able to shut them down instantly with a Machine Curse. There were still the lizards to contend with however; despite their size they were frighteningly fast, though not as fast as the shots from Kelly's plasma incinerator. It was impossible to determine whether they had enhanced durability, since there was no way they were surviving a hit from a football sized sphere of plasma.
The creatures weren't merely simple animals, however. Though they weren't truly sentient, my helmet's filters detected strange pheromones in the air. A quick chemical analysis indicated they weren't harmful to breathe in, instead used by the beasts as a means of communication, allowing them to coordinate their attacks with surprising efficiency. They were smart enough to focus on Aayla and Cortana first, clearly seeing them as the squishiest, before Kelly started blasting them to pieces, upon which they switched to her as the priority target. She was forced to drop her weapon as she drew her lightsaber, the Warp amplifying her transhuman speed as she cut the creatures down. The beasts were clever enough to try surrounding her before attacking from all sides, but they wouldn't get the chance, Xyl ripping them to shreds with her claws. This distracted them long enough for Kelly to take the rest out with her lightsaber, the entire confrontation lasting less than five seconds. I could tell the creatures were truly dead when the door to the stairway leading down slid open, though the one leading outside remained closed.
"Everyone good?" I asked, though I could tell they were all OK..
"We're fine, Ame," Kelly said. "That was pretty intense for only the first room though."
I just nodded, kneeling down to examine the dead lizards. I put my hand on one, examining it via biomancy.
"Clearly an engineered organism, likely through the use of Sith alchemy," I commented.
"Not surprising," said Cortana. "These things match the description of Sith hounds I found in some Jedi files I was able to break into over the Holonet."
"Definitely creations of Sith alchemy then. Not sure I understand the name though, they bear no resemblance to canines besides the number of legs and tail, though there was the noise they made…" My eyes narrowed as I examined them further with biomancy. "Why am I not surprised that their teeth and claws are venomous? Fortunately it seems the venom is designed to cause prolonged suffering rather than kill quickly, meaning it's slow enough that I have plenty of time to heal anyone that gets bitten or clawed."
"Let's try to avoid that anyway?" Aayla said, almost sounding exasperated. "I'm feeling kinda vulnerable you know, even if the rest of you are doing most of the fighting."
"I figured that went without saying," I shrugged. "Well, let's press on. This place is only going to get more dangerous deeper in." I saw Aayla shudder out of the corner of my eye, even as Cortana reassured her.
-x-x-x-x-
There were ten such rooms in total, each progressively deeper, and more dangerous, than the last. Clearly whoever had built this place had put a lot of thought into the design; according to Cortana, there were no access points anywhere except at the very bottom of the tomb, which meant no easy way to subvert the traps electronically. Though they were still vulnerable to Machine Curses, something which didn't seem to have an equivalent amongst Jedi or Sith techniques, and thus they hadn't thought to try to defend against.
All of the rooms contained Sith hounds in increasingly greater numbers, which I'd concluded were held in some kind of stasis prior to their holding chambers being opened, as well as more blaster turrets. They were joined by battle droids of a clearly ancient design, poison gas traps, and even some good-old fashioned spike traps. We came across more skeletons of people who'd previously attempted to make their way to the bottom, though there were none past the fifth floor.
Finally we reached the bottom, which thankfully held no traps whatsoever. It was identical to all the other rooms except for the presence of an ornate sarcophagus in the centre, decorated with yet more gold runes. I could feel the presence of the ghost of Sorzus Syn bound within, but I couldn't tell how much awareness it still had. Seeing no opening mechanism, I simply used telekinesis to rip the lid off, exposing a skeleton wearing black and crimson robes of a Sith style, with a lightsaber hilt resting in the centre of its chest. The most interesting feature by far was an amulet around the skeleton's neck, featuring a large glowing purple gem that pulled in ambient Warp energy, similar to my staff or indeed the magic lamps in this place, though I suspected the amulet had a far more destructive purpose.
"Who dares to desecrate my tomb!?" A female voice suddenly boomed from all directions, Aayla letting out a startled yelp.
"Me, obviously," I said simply. "Now are you going to cooperate, or will I have to force you back into the sea of souls, where your spirit will dissolve into nothing?"
I felt some kind of Warp-based attack, but my psychic hood dissipated it harmlessly. Clearly the ghost had more control of itself than I thought. Drawing upon my own powers, I began forcing the spirit back into the Warp - slowly, as I wasn't actually trying to succeed, I just wanted the ghost to stop attacking me. I was gratified to feel her rage replaced by panic as she realised I was the real deal, abruptly halting her assault.
"Enough of this," the ghost of Sorzus Syn said, manifesting visibly in the materium. She looked human, and was pretty attractive, with jet black hair and bright orange-yellow eyes like most other Sith. She had a triangular red tattoo on her forehead pointing down from her hairline, and a smaller black line tattoo just below her lower lip. She appeared to be wearing the same robes as her corpse, though they were, like the rest of her, partially transparent.
"Throughout all the years I have been buried here, not a single being has successfully breached this inner sanctum," she continued. "My name is Sorzus Syn, dark lady of the Sith order. I would know the one who stands before me."
"I am the sorcerer Amedeus, and these are my Companions Kelly, Cortana, Aayla Secura and Xylixia," I said, noticing the latter's claws had morphed back into hands. "I seek the knowledge of the ancient Sith, Force techniques that seem to be far more impressive than those of your modern day successors."
"Ancient?" Sorzus replied, one ghostly eyebrow raised. "I must admit, this is the greatest level of mental cognizance I have had in… I'm not even sure how long, my awareness of the passage of time has been virtually nonexistent since my death. What year is it currently?"
"To be honest I'm not sure how I'd explain, the galactic calendar has been re-calibrated at least once since you died. It must be a few thousand years at least."
Sorzus seemed surprised. "Well, that's certainly longer than I'd expected… long enough for the teachings of the Sith to diverge from what I am familiar with, clearly. I am curious, what have my successors done that has made you so distasteful of them?"
"Well, there was that one time that Darth Bane had the genius idea that there should only ever be one master and one apprentice at a time, and rely on the Force's good graces to never allow those two individuals to die in a freak accident," I sneered, deliberately exaggerating the scorn in my voice. "Or what about the fact that the reigning Sith lord, Darth Sidious, has never used a Force technique more advanced than Force lightning, and only supplanted his own master after getting him too drunk to fight back?"
For her part, Sorzus looked absolutely appalled. "I swear, the Sith order went downhill the moment they started using that stupid 'Darth' moniker," she sighed. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the most powerful Dark side user I've ever seen is clearly not a Sith, even if I was not expecting them to keep a Jedi as company," she said, gesturing towards Aayla.
"I'm quite happy for Aayla to follow the teachings of the Jedi. I see no reason to spread the usage of the Dark side among those who do not wish to learn," I shrugged. "As fascinating as the intricacies of the Force are, it is ultimately just a tool to be used like any other. I do not have the same dogmatic devotion to any one aspect of the Force like you Sith have with the Dark side, or the Jedi with the Light side."
"And despite that you still manage to be more heavily steeped in the Dark side than anyone else I've ever encountered?"
"Yes, because of all the questionable rituals and other things I've done… but I did those because they were the most optimal way of using the Force at the time, not because of some ideological crusade against the Light side."
The Sith regarded me curiously, clearly unsure of what to make of me. "What a strange individual you are, Amedeus. I am not averse to teaching you the ways of the Sith, but I'm afraid I am bound to this place."
I was glad I was wearing my helmet, as I couldn't resist the urge to smirk; she knew she couldn't beat me in a fight, so instead of planning to stab me in the back, she would instead try to bring me around to the Sith's way of thinking. I was so glad that actual telepathy didn't seem to be a thing amongst Force users, as she had no way of knowing that I knew her plans. Well, I might as well lead her on for a bit.
"Well, that isn't a problem that can't be solved. I can heal your body, then bind your spirit to it much as it would've been when you were alive."
Sorzus looked stunned. "Is that so? Resurrecting the deceased isn't unknown to us, but to resurrect someone dead for so long…"
"It isn't technically a resurrection. I could bind you to any other body and the outcome would be the same, I just might as well use yours given it's right here. Anyway, I need to gather some resources for the ritual, so I'll be back in a minute," I said as I teleported my companions and I away.
"You really are going to bind her to her body then?" Kelly asked as soon as we were back on the ship.
"Yes. The ritual I'll be using is basically the same as what you'd use to bind a daemon to a living host, only with a Force ghost instead. There is a complicating factor though; Sorzus Syn intends to join us, with the goal of gradually subverting me to the Sith's ideology. We'll play along with that for now, and when I Stamp her, I'll say it's just my way of marking my companions, obviously without telling her about its other side effects."
"When the Sith have seduced so many to the Dark side, there's some poetic justice in you doing the opposite," Aayla smiled.
"By the time she realises she's been duped, she'll be head over heels in love with me," I smirked. "Anyway, it'll take some time to do the ritual, so I - or rather, we - will be back in a little while."
I retrieved my supply of iron, silver, and the crucible I'd used to melt it, as well as two of my remaining sacrifice victims. I'd have to stop off at Coruscant sometime soon to replenish them, its lower levels full to the brim with criminal low lives that no-one would miss.
With my equipment in hand, I teleported back down into Sorzus Syn's tomb.
"So not only can you restore me to life, you can teleport as well?" the Sith asked, amazed.
"Well obviously," I said dismissively, treating it like it was no big deal. "I guess it's pretty hard to come up with techniques like that when there's only two of you, both trying to stab the other in the back."
Sorzus Syn shook her head in disappointment. "I truly wish I could give this Darth Sidious a piece of my mind, before frying him with Force lightning. If you're right, the Sith are on a path to ruin… I'm glad to have the opportunity to correct that, thanks to you."
She sounded sincere, but she was just trying to butter me up to make me easier to manipulate. It might have worked too, if I wasn't able to literally read her mind.
"You're welcome, though I'd prefer Darth Sidious alive for the time being, his scheming will be far more useful than his Force abilities. Now please be quiet, I must concentrate," I said as I began melting the iron and silver in the crucible. Once it was nice and liquid, I drew the blood of one of the sacrifices with my combat knife, letting the blood fall into the molten metal. Mixing it around with telekinesis, I kept the Warp-reactive metal alloy hot with pyromancy, as I began carving two sets of runes into Sorzus Syn's skull. The first set were runes of binding, which would anchor the Sith's soul back to her body once drawn in. The second set were runes of control, preventing her from attacking me or my retinue in case she realised I was leading her on. They were similar to the ones you'd use to control a daemonhost, meaning they were complete overkill for a mere ghost, but they wouldn't do anything aside from keeping her from attacking us, so it was no big deal.
Chanting in a language known to no being in the galaxy other than myself, I began the ritual - which was technically two rituals done back to back. The first was to activate the runes of control, pushing the liquid metal into the carved runes before slicing the throat of the first sacrifice. Once bound, Sorzus Syn would find herself with a kind of mental block preventing her from doing anything hostile towards me or my companions.
Before doing the second, I used a combination of biomancy and temporal manipulation to 'heal' the Sith's body back to how it was before she died. The multi-millennia old bones turned back into fresh bone, on top of which grew muscle, blood vessels and nervous tissue. This was covered by an envelope of skin, from which grew brand new hair. Satisfied it was biologically sound, I forced the body's heart to start beating and the lungs to start drawing in oxygen. I wouldn't be prettying her up like I had with my companions however; that would just be too suspicious. I'd wait until the Stamp finished, then she could be the super-sexy Sith sorceress that was the antagonist of at least a quarter of all Holonet movies.
Satisfied, I ended the life of the second sacrifice; as his body flew into the Warp, this caused a kind of spiritual vacuum, which I'd arranged to suck in the nearest free concentration of Warp energy - that being the spirit of Sorzus Syn. With a surprised shout the ghost was drawn into her own body, the runes of binding holding her spirit in place as it began animating its new vessel.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Sorzus Syn. Now hold still for a moment," I said, kneeling down over the prone Sith lady, holding my Stamp against the back of her hand.
"What is that?" Sorzus asked, frowning.
"Relax, its invisible to everyone except me and other people I've used it on," I said. "Don't ask me how that actually works, by the way. To answer your question, it allows me to keep track of the people in my retinue. Now I believe you said something about teaching me the ways of the Sith?"
Sorzus's slight flicker of suspicion disappeared when I 'unintentionally' reminded her of her 'prize', dismissing it as another one of my eccentricities. "Of course," she said, giving me a warm smile that was completely fake. "I thank you for restoring me to life, something only a handful of Sith have ever managed, and none to someone who has been dead so long. As promised, I will teach you everything I know."
"I look forward to it," I said with complete honesty, even if I left out the other things I was looking forward to as well.
AN:
After a hiatus that ultimately ended up being shorter than the gap between the last chapter and the one before, this fic is back - for real this time. Updates won't be super frequent since I'm now working on 3 fics in parallel, but there shouldn't be any multiple-month long gaps between updates either.
Canonically, Sorzus Syn is actually not attractive at all (the write who created her deliberately pushed back against the 'sexy sorceress' archetype when he did so), but I'm going by the image in the Catalogue for obvious reasons. Chalk it up to Universal Calibration if you wish. As far as I know, she's doesn't appear as a character in any stories, so she's basically a blank slate personality-wise.