The Part Where I Play The Devil

Region: Devoid  

Location: Thakala II - Foxx Manor House

Date: 27.10.121

Time: 17:17

Sahriah walked slowly down the long red and gold hallway of the manor house that sat nestled amongst the mountains on Thakala II, catching glimpses of the forest that lay beyond the estate's vast gardens.

It had been almost ten years since she had last stepped foot in this place, a place that had once been both a sanctuary of learning and growth, and a prison of pain and suffering. A place where she had both discovered, and lost a part of herself. The dark wooden floors and expansive rooms of the manor reminded her of another house too, one far away on a planet in the Huola system. A place that held an equal amount of painful memories, a place she never intended to return to, though she had never expected to return here either.

A hundred memories flooded back to her and she paused before the hidden doorway that led down to the temple, a sudden anxiety welling up inside her. She had expected Spearfish to be by Tiger's side when she had arrived. All of his communications were being funneled through the woman, that was how she had cut off Shalee's communications to him, but she had let Sahriah's message through. Why?

She thought back to the mail she had sent him.

Lord Torpedo,

Word has reached me of your return to Thakala and of your imminent ascension to Shira and your rightful place among the faith.

It pleases me to see you free from past influences, and although you have suffered pain in this transition, I know that it is only through pain that we can truly embrace our destiny,

With your permission, I seek to return to Thakala, and if you will allow my presence, stand witness to your reclamation.

Your Prathet

Sahriah

She had worded it very specifically, speaking more to Spearfish than to Tiger himself. She doubted Spear, or Empusa as she had now learned was the woman's real name, would have allowed her communications through if she had thought Sahriah were anything less than a loyal servant returning to her master. There was still an equally high chance however that she had allowed her to come back to Thakala just to remove her as a threat. Afterall Sahriah had signed her letter as Prathet, a title she now learned Tiger had considered bestowing to Empusa had she not returned to usurp the position for herself.

If that was Empusa's intention though, she had not revealed it yet. It had been three days since Sahriah's arrival in Thakala and she had not seen Tiger's sister once, despite Sahriah's blatant attempts to remove Empusa's influence from him. She had thought that replacing the woman's servants with her own and sharing her secret taunting communications to Shalee might have been enough to goade a response, something, anything to get a beat on her intentions, but it was eerily quiet. She was paranoid and an unseen threat would lurk around every corner of the manor until she had dealt with Empusa's presence. She knew she would need to be bolder in her actions in order to lure her out of the shadows, and she wanted it to be on her terms when she did.

Slowly, she cracked open the entrance to the stone stairway, rounding down the steps until she reached the base tunnel and travelling the short distance until she came to the temple proper. The walls extended out into a large circular stone chamber, the soft flickering of orange light from the brazier's casting shadows across the twelve stone statues that lined the room. Her heart skipped several beats and she put a palm out to steady herself against the wall, suppressing another wave of painful memories.

The temple was silent except for the sound of the flames. It was a surreal experience, returning here after so long, and she almost lost herself in the moment before remembering her purpose. Scanning the room, she noticed that no acolytes seemed to be present. She may have felt entirely alone but for the unshakable feeling that she had been watched since her arrival on the planet, but she knew better. There was someone here, someone who had dared to defy Empusa's authority. A prize Sahriah intended to claim as was now her right as Prathet. 

Rounding the temple, she kept close to the wall, inspecting each of the intricately carved statues, echoes of a past that stood, silently judging her presence, until her gaze fell on a figure at the back of the chamber. 

A lithe woman hung inside a small enclave, out of the way of the rest of the space. Her body was limp, her legs having given up long ago, the high mounted shackles digging into her bruised and cut wrists. Sahriah drew closer, inspecting the barely conscious women with some small pity, the memory of her own experiences brought to the forefront of her mind, until she noticed the several clear plastic tubes connected to the body, running down into small holes in the stone flooring and out of sight. Drainage tubes. Her mind connected the threads quickly. Blood Raiders. The recognition of what she had walked into coming back to Thakala after all this time caused her to freeze in place. If Empusa was a Blood Raider, how much of the sect had become infected by their presence? What about Tiger himself?

She watched the woman hang there motionless for several moments before taking a few more steps forward, looking for any recognition in her face. The presence of Sahriah in front of her seemed to stir something, and her eyes flickered weakly in response. Sighing, Sahriah reached her hand out, brushing the hair out of her face and tilting her chin up to inspect her eyes more closely, a mixture of anger and disappointment on her face as she wondered how Tiger could have allowed Blood Raiders into his sect.

"You know I was once in a very similar position to where you are now, Liota." she began in a low serious tone. "Strung up and punished for trying to do what I thought was right." She drew her finger back, moving to the girl's side to inspect her wrists. "No-one came to save me though. I had to endure."

Liota's eyes flickered again and she opened her mouth to say something, but her voice was too weak and her mouth too dry. Now more fully aware of Sahriah standing before her, she attempted to move one hand, though without grounded support only managed to swing slightly against the wall. 'Who...', she trailed off.

Sahriah put her hand against the girl’s arms, steading her before stepping back a pace. "I've read the message you foolishly tried to send to Shalee. Not very smart to do that here was it?" she paused for a moment, not really expecting a reply, but letting the girl take in her words before continuing. "But we all do stupid things for the people we care about... Tell me Liota, if given the chance, would you do it again?" she probed, trying to determine how broken the girl was after a few days of torture.

Liota didn't immediately respond, as she tried to regain her thoughts. Her mouth still too dry to really speak, she nodded her head once, the shackles rattling with the slight movements of her body. Though the girl was badly broken, she'd always taken pride in having a higher moral code.

Sahriah smiled, pleased that she would display such endurance. Her loyalty to Tiger reminded her of her own, back when she had first entered his service as Prathet. "Excellent. then perhaps I can help you obtain your freedom from the current situation." she moved to maintain what little eye contact she could with the girl. "But I will need you to tell me the identities of those you know of who have been assisting your mistress." She had to know that Liota wasn't just loyal, but possessed the will to better her situation, even through the suffering, a lesson she had learned herself long ago.

'Gayle't', she mouthed painfully, 'Te... Ten... Tendi', she appended, her eyes finally opening wider as the light from the braziers caused her pupils to expand - the names given being two senior acolytes in Empusa's direct employment.

Sahriah nodded, making a mental note of the names, knowing that in the state she was in, she wouldn't get much more information "Good Liota" she reached up to her chin and tilted it up to look her in the eyes properly again. "Your loyalty to the Shira will be rewarded, and you will continue to serve him with the same... selflessness you have shown thus far." She took out a small datapad linking it to her neocom and sending a short message to one of her personal guard she had brought with her.

"I am your Shira's Prathet, Liota," she continued, answering her question from before. "He will be most interested in you." The woman attempted to smile, though her muscles were far too weak to manage it.

Sahriah looked at her, opening her mouth to speak again, when the loud whirring sound of a motor spun up beneath them, breaking her thought. With a series of intrusive whooshing sounds, the plastic tubes filled with red liquid - delivering blood from Liota's weakened body to the vat beneath the stone floor. Within seconds, Liota fell unconscious again, a cycle Sahriah realized had likely occurred many times since she had first been brought here. Memories of her own body being kept on the edge of consciousness intruded into her mind as the whirring noises died down, the tubes slowly becoming empty once again.

Not wanting to risk her plans being disrupted, Sahriah took a seat on the stone floor of the temple and waited for her own people to arrive. Laying her back against the cold stone, she realized how fatigued she was. It had been many years since she had been forced to play this game of appeasement with Tiger, always on guard, never knowing when her words would trigger kindness or punishment. Every conversation felt like she was balancing on the edge of a knife, one false move and the cost could be great. Although she did hold a hint of regret at returning to this place, she knew it was a necessary step to getting what she truly desired.

She closed her eyes and allowed the soft noise of the braziers to fill her senses as the flames danced against the wall. The realization of the Blood Raider presence here had shaken her and forced her to start reevaluating her approach. She had dealt with Raiders before, and it was never a pretty affair. Fear was a pervasive force and if she let it get a hold of her in this place, it would be her undoing.

Not ten minutes had passed when the slight scraping sound of moving stone and rushing of wind broke her contemplation. She opened her eyes as the light from one of the braziers on the far side of the room, hidden behind a statue, was extinguished, plunging one section of the wall into complete darkness. Slowing rising to her feet, Sahriah had little doubt that the confrontation she had been expecting for three days, had finally arrived. She stood in place for several seconds listening to the silence before speaking, projecting her voice across the room in a casual, curious tone. "How ominous"

Another rush of wind and a second brazier flickered out along the wall from the first in response, the slanted shadows of the statues that lined the room becoming elongated as the light in the temple slowly became less diffuse. Though she knew the theatrics were just part of the test, a flicker of doubt took in her mind, and she glanced over towards the door. She had had almost no information on Empusa and what she may be capable of before she entered the temple, but the tubes connected to the poor girl strung up on the wall behind her had told her all she needed to know. While she knew she was walking into a vipers nest when she had arrived in Thakala, it was only now that she understood the true danger she was in. Tiger might well kill her, perhaps after a little torture if she displeased him, a Blood Raider would string her up and drain her for weeks, perhaps months, and that was just if she was a nobody. Sahriah was actively trying to usurp Empusa's position of power within the sect, take the title of Prathet out of her grasp to ensure she could never ascend to power. What else the woman might do to her if allowed was something she'd rather not think about.

Her eyes lingered on the door for a second longer than she wished they had. She had the information she needed, but she also knew the girl was dead if she left now. If she let Empusa take Liota from her, she broadcasted the clear message that she could be taken from. You cannot show weakness here she reminded herself.

Sahriah walked counterclockwise along the side of the temple wall, hiding her right arm and removing the dagger Tiger had gifted to her long ago which rested concealed inside the small compartment in her cybernetic arm. She slipped it silently under her cloak as she spoke towards the darkness again in a clear, even tone "I was wondering how long it would take you to introduce yourself."

A third brazier was extinguished across the room, the shadows now filling a quarter of the chamber. "Your loyalty to the Shira will be rewarded", a playful, maniacal voice piped up from somewhere behind one of the statues, her voice mimicking Sahriah's words and confirming what she already knew, Empusa had been watching her this whole time, likely since she had arrived on the planet. She reached down and tapped a command on the datapad, ensuring the names of the traitors were securely in her records. It would be rather easy for her to piece together what had happened should she wake up in a clone bay, but she didn’t want to risk losing the information she had acquired should this encounter not go in her favor.

Steeling her resolve, she realized she only had one true course of action. The only way to deal with monsters was to play the part in turn.

Smiling into the darkness she replied, her voice calm and confident  "In truth I did want to thank you, for returning your brother here to where he belongs. I do wonder however why you've been so...lax in taking care of the final thread that tethers him to the outside." Her eyes scanned the darkness for movement, the thought crossing her mind that Empusa may not have come alone.

There was a moment of quiet... an eerie, endless, moment of absolute silence within the room. This time, none of the braziers extinguished. Hidden in the darkness, out of view, a high pitched voice chimed up once more - the tone slightly more serious. "You mean his wife? Whoever said I've been lax?", she giggles again, the sound coming from a different angle. "Are you not trying to bring her here at this very moment?"

Sahriah leaned back against the wall, relaxing her posture. "If I had it my way she'd not set foot in this place until she was appropriately… malleable, but you do have Tiger in a rather erratic state, and he insists." She shifts her eyes across the space, appearing unimpressed with the game Empusa was playing. She hadn't heard the movement of anyone else. Perhaps she did come alone. Overconfident.... theatrical, these were tools she could work with. 

"I do believe we desire the same thing however." she continued. "To flush out the weakness that has eroded him and restore the Sect to its place of power." She glances over her shoulder to the chained girl. "This one will be useful in that purpose, and when she assists me in finding Shalee's new lover, I will bring him here, alive." she pushes off the wall and steps a few feet closer to the darkness, lacing truth and lies in a web that she hoped Empusa would fall for. "How do you think your brother will react when her lover is brought to his knees before him?" a smile traces her lips. "I am sorry I had to out your little scheme to Tiger, but it was necessary to gain the trust I require to bring his proper return to fruition, and I simply don't trust another with something of such importance."

From the darkness before her, Empusa appeared, her face merely inches away. Her blade drawn, she slipped the curved edge down against Sahriah's throat, making just the barest contact so she could feel the sharpness of the blade. "You lied to him", she challenged, her voice still high, and slightly maniacal. "Does my brother not think you're bringing his weakness here to induce her to our faith?" She falls silent. "Yet you're bringing her here for no such reason. Merely to tie up loose ends? You plan to kill her, don't you? To remove that which still binds him to the outside world?"

Sahriah curled her lips into an even larger smile. The fact that she was still standing told her two things. That Empusa wasn't entirely certain of her motivations, and that she cared just barely enough to have a conversation about them. Perhaps she did care about Tiger in some way, or perhaps she was just using him to secure herself a position of power. Afterall, she would have to be officially named as a Prathet in order to eventually ascend to Shiras. Regardless, her willingness to talk presented an unforeseen opportunity Sahriah knew she could exploit.

"I don't lie to Tiger," she replied, her voice conveying the sheer stupidity of the statement. Tilting her head down slightly to meet Empusa's eyes, she allowed the blade to just barely pierce her skin, releasing a small trickle of red liquid along it. "And I don't drug him into an erratic stupor. You make him useless with such actions." She challenged her in return, eyes locking on hers. "Killing Shalee is a far less practical means of dealing with her. She is his weakness, but she is also a strength. Love is funny that way don't you think?" she asked somewhat rhetorically. She doubted the women knew that actual love was like.

Empusa sneered at the young Prathet, trying to decide whether to back off, or just kill her in cold blood. After a few seconds, she lowered the blade from Sahriah's throat. Turning her attention to wet steel, she ran her finger carefully down the edge, gathering up the trickle of blood on her skin. Looking back to Sahriah, she made a display of slipping her fingers into her mouth, tasting her blood, licking it clean from her fingers. "Do you think he would be back here if I hadn't drugged him?"

Suppressing disgust at the sight, Sahriah raised a gloved hand to wipe away the blood from her throat, taking her other hand off her own dagger under the cloak simultaneously. "But he did come back, didn't he, which gave you your opening." She looked around the half lit temple. "He was lost, looking for a path. I don't blame you for seizing the opportunity, but you can't keep him drugged forever. He must choose this, or he will never be what you want him to be." She watched Empusa, digging for a response, a hint into what the Blood Raider's true purpose here was and if she actually understood anything of what it meant to be Sani.

Empusa scoffed, slipping the blade back into her belt. "I only planned to drug him until he performs the ceremony of reclamation. By then, it becomes impossible for him to ever leave." She snarls a bitter, twisted, evil smile. "Besides, that prissy Amarrian bitch will never even look at him again once he becomes the Prima Noctarii." There was a slight pause before Empusa made a sudden, unexpected move. Bounding forward, she grasped at her neck, running her tongue across Sahriah's throat, seeking any more blood left on her skin.

Sahriah shot a gloved hand out from under the cloak and wrapped it around Empusa's throat in response, the woman's sudden lunge at her taking her somewhat off-guard. The white cybernetic arm Sahriah had purposely hidden beneath her clothing lifting Empusa off her and into the air a few inches. 

"Rabid little thing aren't we?" Sahriah sneered, giving herself just a moment to regain her composure. "Perhaps she won't ever look at him the same, but she will submit to the Sani and to him when I'm done with her." her fingers tightened around the soft throat in her grasp, a sudden flash of anger and hatred urging her to crush the woman's neck right there and then. Instead she allowed herself to savor the look of surprise in Empusa's eyes before throwing her back onto the cold stone floor of the temple. "Interfere with your Shira again and the only blood you'll be licking is your own, off the floor."  She finished in a low growl, the adrenaline of her domination over the woman releasing a flood of endorphins through her system.

Crumpled on the floor, Empusa recoiled with a hiss, looking up at Sahriah with a mixture of surprise and arousal at the spunk and self-assured manner of Tiger's Prathet. Jumping up to her feet in a single, fluidic motion, she tried to show that she wasn't scared of Sahriah, yet decided to maintain a safer distance to the girl - having clearly underestimated her. "I wonder what Amarrian blood tastes like", she mused in relation to the possibility of Shalee becoming part of the faith.

A flood of adrenaline now coursing her in veins, Sahriah cocked her head slightly, taking a few steps forward towards the woman with contempt in her eyes, pressing her advantage. The power over her felt good, almost a little too good she realized, for her own comfort, and she had to remind herself not to become what she was pretending to be. "If you want a Ammarian pet to play with, I'll gladly find you something to taste." she hissed back "But Shalee's blood, belongs to Tiger, and Tiger alone. You want her, you ask him. Do we understand each other?" She had to make it clear to Empusa that she had no claim to Shalee and that stepping out of line wouldn't be tolerated.

Empusa tilted her head to the side, at an almost 45 degree angle. Sucking on her teeth, she inwardly wandered how much fun she could have with Sahriah's naked corpse - that eerie smile returning to her lips. "We understand one another... for now. Never turn your back on me, girl"

Sahriah raised a hand back to her neck, coating it in the latest trickle of liquid before reaching forward and smearing the blood over Empusa's lip with her finger in a single downward motion, exercising the final power play in this deadly dance, that her blood could only be given, not taken. "Then you better walk away now, so I don't have to." she replied narrowing her gaze and mirroring her sadistic smile, challenging her to disobey.

Empusa stuck her tongue out, lapping at Sahriah's finger in the most sexually charged, sensual manner possible - sampling her blood once again. Taking a small step back, into the darkness of the shadows cast by the statues, she giggled, disappearing as stealthily as she arrived. Moving around the room, she laughed playfully..... then nothing. Not a single sound; just an eerie silence.

Sahriah stood in place for a long time, listening carefully until she was sure she was alone. Once more, a whirring noise started up from beneath Liota, the tubes filling with red liquid. She pulled out her datapad, sending another message laced with several threats to someone who was about to have a very bad day should they not show up now to retrieve the girl. Then, exhaling a breath she had been holding for far too long, she returned to her seat on the cold stone, to wait.

Closing her eyes once again, she tried to re-center herself after the adrenaline filled encounter. It had felt good, her fingers curled around Empusa's throat, far too good. Her hatred of the Blood Raiders and the perversion of the faith she believed them to be fueled a dark side in her that she knew she should recoil from. Every moment here in their presence she towed that line, knowing she had to extinguish their influence before she was corrupted by it.