Blood as the Stone

“I can't believe I let you talk me into this,” Acina grumbled as she severed the head of yet another kath hound with her lightsaber.

“Weren't you glad to get to indulge in some more nostalgia for your days on Korriban?” Nox kept her blood red lightsaber on just for the mood lighting. “All that reminiscing about slaughtering k'lor slugs in tombs?”

Acina sighed. For all that Nox was a competent strategist and brilliant mind, the woman could have a terrible sense of humor. And somehow Acina kept forgetting that.

The tomb passage – Nox had been unusually vague about whether its denizen had been a Sith or something else, though the fact this was on Dantooine would make a Sith burial unlikely – turned sharply to the left and turned into steps cut into the rock. There was either another turn, or, more likely, some sort of trap, as the steps vanished into the dark sooner than they should.

“How suspicious-looking,” Acina commented.

“Indeed.” Nox grabbed some loose rocks with the Force and dropped them on the first step. They fell right through.

Acina watched as Nox methodically worked her way through the visible steps, leaving pebbles piled on the segments of step that actually existed and an absence on the sections that were naught but illusion. It would be a tripping hazard to traverse, but Acina had tread on worse.

Nox, ever curious, took the first step. Acina was here as her guest and was also the Empress of the Sith, so she took it upon herself to follow Nox's steps exactly. Even if being so close to another Sith's back would normally be grounds for murder.

They made their way down the stairs, occasionally pausing so Nox could gather more stones to drop on their path. Acina looked back at the stepped-on piles that marked their way over. They disappeared into the darkness at a distance of only a few paces. Some sort of Force magic, then. She and Nox could probably undo the illusion if they put their minds to it, though in general dismantling traps was riskier than simply bypassing them.

“I do believe we are done,” Nox declared and strode across some sort of landing.

Acina followed in her exact footsteps. She had no particular desire to fall off a bridge covered with the same sort of illusion.

Nox stopped in front of a door. It was made out of some sort of metal, slightly weathered but intact and functional. It didn't respond to Nox's Force push.

“Have you considered headbutting it? I hear Zabrak skulls are quite durable,” Acina suggested.

“What savagery has the Empire descended to in my absence, Empress? I have a perfectly functional lightsaber.”

Nox twirled her lightsaber and stabbed the door. Her lightsaber winked off.

“Oops?” Nox said.

Acina lit her own saberstaff so they'd see something. The door looked much the same under the purple light as it had under the red.

Nox poked at the door some more, so Acina concentrated her attention on the walls. They were the same stone as the steps and the stairwell's walls, some sort of local granite, rough and weathered even at these depths. An earthquake had shaken loose a layer of grit from the facings.

The myriad shadows from the roughness of the texture shifted when Acina moved her lightsaber – except for one. Intrigued, she went to investigate.

It was some sort of depression. Mindful of the cortosis coating that had been on the door, she did not stick her lightsaber in the nook. She instead cautiously set her hand on the stone a few handspans away.

“Now what do we have here?” Nox murmured as she pressed her hand above Acina's and her body next to hers.

Acina was reminded of their first meeting, when the Dread Masters had broken away from the Empire and she had had to ask her fellow Dark Council member to retrieve the Dread Seeds. Nox had flirted with her incessantly and obnoxiously. She'd flirted during their shuttle jaunt and trip through the jungle of Dromund Kaas as well. Acina had assumed it was simply Nox's persona – an irreverent flirt – but upon closer exposure to Nox, it was clear she might be blunt and refuse to bow, but a habitual flirt she was not.

And a trip to a tomb would be quite the bonding opportunity. Acina hadn't considered an alien partner before, but now that she was... Well. She could say that Nox's red and black coloration was quite striking, as were the horns on her forehead.

“There's a mechanism in there somewhere,” Nox said. She ran a finger over the lip of the indentation. “Though the whole area seems ... slippery in the Force.”

Acina reached out as well. Indeed, the Force felt odd, like everything had been coated in grease and she could get no grip. “Some sort of security mechanism.”

“Indeed.”

This was where a Sith of old would have summoned a slave to take the risk. Given Acina's own reforms and the history of the Dark Lord beside her, she cast about for a stick. A button could be mashed, a switch could be flipped, and if nothing else, the area could be probed.

“A lightsaber would destroy the mechanism,” Nox mused.

“Only if it's lit.”

“Hm.” Nox lifted her lightsaber. It must've recovered from its encounter with the cortosis, for it snapped into life, hissing red. “An unlit, one, on the other hand...”

“You will rummage around with your lightsaber hilt?”

“I was thinking you do it; a saberstaff's got a longer hilt.”

Acina glared at her. “Very conveniently leaving me unarmed should anything happen.”

Nox shrugged. “You can have mine, then; you know I prefer to electrocute things to death.”

Acina did know. But what consumed her thoughts was Nox's offer – casual, certain, completely unduplicitous – of surrendering her weapon. In the end, it was that which made her decision. “Very well.”

The hall looked even more foreboding bathed only in red light. Acina took her unlit saberstaff and carefully fed it into the darkness. It didn't catch on anything, and pulling it back didn't reveal any obvious damage, through sight or the Force. She pushed it back in and waved it around. She didn't feel a back wall, and the hilt caught on nothing but the side walls.

“Nothing?” she asked as she pulled her saberstaff out. Pressing the ignition sent forth two hissing blades of plasma.

“Nothing,” Nox confirmed. “Did you feel anything?”

“No.” Acina stared at the slice of darkness. There had been nothing, and yet the Force said here.

Her lightsaber had returned intact. She slid in her hand.

“Wait, no-” Nox said, but it was too late.

The indent was made of the same slightly rough granite as the walls. With her ungloved hand, it was the work of moments to find a switch her lightsaber should have caught on and flick it.

The door opened as Acina removed her hand. “There.”

“What were you thinking?” Nox asked, genuine horror in her voice. “What if-”

“Nothing had happened to my saber, and the Force told me of no danger. Come.” Acina swept past Nox to the next room.

This one had Force-lights in crystal sconces that bathed the room in a gentle yellow glow. The room was a square five meters to a side and about three meters tall. Two of the walls had identical doors: the one they'd come through and one on the opposite wall. The walls were of the same granite as the rest of the structure, but polished to a sheen, as were the floor and ceiling. Some amount of cracks had formed nonetheless, marring the glossy speckled surfaces. Acina had the urge to fill them with gold.

There was a slight gap in the granite wall with the door they'd entered through that was filled with darkness. The mechanism must be accessible from both sides.

The door clicked shut behind Nox. “Well, this is interesting,” she said and immediately went to circle the giant lever in the middle of the room.

“Somehow I doubt this is as friendly a switch as the previous one.”

Nox shrugged. “It's worth a try.” She reached out with the Force and pulled the lever.

It jerked to the opposite side with a clang. The moment Nox let go, it jerked back to its original position.

The door was still resolutely closed. “I see you have achieved tremendous success,” Acina commented.

“It could've gone worse.”

At that point, the ceiling crackled to life and a panel withdrew. Five tuk'ata fell down. Acina sighed. “Really, Nox?”

Nox shot out lightning at the closest tuk'ata. It died with a horrible scream, spasming as it went down. “Life is what we make of it.” Nox pushed the next tuk'ata away from them as the first emitted a charred smell.

Acina had her lightsaber out but killed the second tuk'ata with a torrent of lightning. They were obviously animated with some Force sorcery; there was no reason to risk being bitten.

As the last tuk'ata's corpse hit the floor, Acina turned back to the door they'd come through. In the Force, it was identical from both sides, the small hole of darkness included. If they couldn't progress, they could always go back, though privately Acina suspected Nox would press on regardless, trained by one too many Sith tombs where the paths were constructed to be one way only. And Acina, feeling more foolish than she had in decades, would follow.

Nox's eyes gleamed yellow in the gloom. Acina caught herself staring.

“Hm.” Nox went to the door that led deeper into this tomb and ran a hand over the surface. “It might be possible to carve through the wall even if the door is coated with cortosis.”

“Would that not immediately trigger a collapse?” Acina pointed out. No Sith tomb would take such disrespect without exacting retaliation.

The wall they'd come through had been thin enough a lightsaber could've cut it, though. And though the structure was suffused with the miasma of death, it did not quite have the sheathed-fangs hostility of a Sith tomb. Add to that the fact it was on Dantooine and felt old...

“Who or what lies buried here?”

Nox knocked on the door. It swung open. “Let's find out,” she said with exaggerated cheer and strode through.

Acina followed. She was wise enough to know saying she had no choice but to follow would be a blatant lie – she was the Empress of all Sith, Darth Nox included – but it felt like an uncomfortable truth.

The door clanged shut behind them. The wall through which it had provided access was, like its counterpart, thin enough a lightsaber could cut it.

“How did you know this tomb was here?” Acina asked as they walked through yet another corridor cut out of unpolished granite. This one had flickering lights, mostly yellow, in sconces on the ceiling and sloped gently downwards. If Nox wished to play coy out of some need to impress her, Acina would approach the matter from a different angle.

“After our journey to Iokath, I had the Alliance's research division investigate any civilizations of similar age, as well as go over what we know of the early days of the Gree. It was my apprentice, Ashara Zavros, who looked on Dantooine for a potential link to Malgus's activities. Some of the earliest Jedi writings on the planet mention a nexus of Force energy associated with the Dark. Ashara led a team to check whether Malgus had visited. As he hadn't, and this was clearly an ancient tomb, she retreated to Odessen and informed me of my next holiday destination.”

Zavros was the irritating and naïve Jedi padawan Nox kept around as a status symbol. “And then you decided you wished for an Empress to accompany you on your tomb vacation.” Bribery, seduction, or assassination attempt? Nox had not given any indication of wanting Acina gone, but the better Sith seldom did before their strikes.

“Of course! I was a slave, after all; how could I ever feel comfortable without someone to serve?” Nox asked, all raised brows and spread arms.

Acina knew exactly how the average human Sith, comfortable in power and privilege, worked. She had made her career out of understanding them, outmaneuvering them, and now convincing them to stop bickering in favor of strengthening the Empire. By those standards, Nox was mostly explicable, but somewhere in there was a streak of sheer bizarreness Acina had never encountered in anyone else. “If you wanted me alone, you had just to ask,” she mildly replied. Let Nox use other people to pick at that wound. Acina had not accepted Nox's invitation to pick a fight.

Nox's demeanor retreated from theatrics to something more normal. “I'll keep that in mind for next time, then.”

Very few, even in the upper echelons of the Empire, would presume a second casual meeting – vacation – with Acina herself. She couldn't help but remember that this was a woman who had carved out her own faction of those who'd fallen through the cracks of the Republic, Empire, and Zakuul, then defeated Valkorion and his empire once and for all. In a sense, Acina owed Nox her throne. Nox could well have chosen to remain independent, or gone for Acina's seat; instead, she'd voluntarily rejoined the Empire.

The next door swung open before they could touch it. Acina and Nox glanced at each other before entering.

This chamber was twice as tall as the previous one. Bright white lights flickered on above them, revealing bubbling cylinders a meter wide and two tall.

Two of the cylinders abruptly began glowing. A loud hum filled their ears as the liquid within started whirling.

“I don't think I've seen this before,” Nox remarked. “What do you think they'll spit out?”

“Guardian sentinels of some sort.” Acina lit her lightsaber. “I'll take the left one.”

Nox nodded and took a step to the right. They waited with bated breath.

The blue glow dissolved, taking with it the cylinder walls. Two humanoid figures stepped forth in unison.

Acina swore under her breath as she realized she was staring in the eyes of something that was almost, but not quite, an identical copy of Darth Nox. The horns and short black hair were perfectly rendered, the skin color and tattoo pattern indistinguishable from the real thing, the black robes identical to the ones worn by the woman next to her. What distinguished the two was not physical feature but inhabiting spirit: there was no way Nox would stand with such a blank expression or move in synch with an equally eerily perfect copy of Acina herself.

The fakes lit their lightsabers and launched themselves at Nox and Acina. Acina dodged the fake Nox's strike and whipped out one blade of her saberstaff.

It was parried with a janky movement that bounced off Acina's blade to strike at her face. She took a step back, letting the blade harmlessly go past her head, and slashed at the fake. It hopped out of the way – again with a movement Acina could only describe as artificial – and tried to redirect Acina's blade with its own.

Had Acina only had a single blade, it might have worked. As it was, Acina let it happen and brought the other half of her saberstaff up. It did not quite hit the fake, but it offbalanced it, and her next strike hit the fake square in the chest.

The thing froze, then dissolved into a greenish goo. Acina jumped backwards to avoid having any touch her.

Nox had also dealt with her opponent. “Intriguing,” she said. She did not touch the goo despite her palpable curiosity, which was good for Acina's heart. “Do you think we should bring back a sample?”

“Leave it for now. I did not bring any container with me, and if need be we can return for it later.”

It was only when Nox drew a breath to speak that Acina realized she had said we. She leaped over the goo with Force-assisted reach and marched to the other end of the room. In the end, Nox said nothing.

There was no door at the end of the room; rather, the room narrowed and a few meters later the ceiling dropped in a deconstruction of the concept of doors. The passage the room had transformed into was again cut out of raw granite and the walls had had the occasional sheet come down and be turned into gravel by gravity.

Dantooine was an old world, bereft of geological activity. How long had this tomb stood to have been hit by enough earthquakes to make the walls shed stone?

This passage, too, turned into stairs pressing into the earth. Nox repeated her method for finding a safe passage through illusion. This time, all the gravel hit the stairs and stayed.

“Somehow, I doubt we've run out of traps,” Acina commented.

“Perhaps they forgot to trap this stairwell after the construction workers left,” Nox idly commented as yet another stair proved to be completely solid.

“This is no Sith tomb.”

Nox made a noncommittal noise. She tossed gravel on the final step; it went as all prior tosses had.

The steps ended into a similarly unremarkable landing. It turned immediately to the left into a small, dark hole. Nox went through, lightsaber first, and Acina followed. Her bun caught on the ceiling and she had to shimmy through sideways so her armor would fit, but once she was on the other side, she could straighten up.

Beyond Nox, there was a vast room full of lush greenery. Acina paused to take it in.

Full spectrum lamps dotted the high ceiling, vines hanging from the rock between them, dappling the light cast on the ground. The ground was coated in tall ferns and things that straddled the boundary between tree and shrub, grown together into a hedge and just tall enough the majority of humans couldn't see above them. Some of the plants were in bloom, the air heady with pollen. Acina could identify none of them.

“The artefact should be in here somewhere,” Nox said. “We should be able to find it with the Force.”

Find it with the Force. As if the Force were not a tool for deceit. Had Nox gone mad? “Is this a Sith tomb?” Acina demanded. “Tell me, Nox.”

“No. It is much older.” Nox regarded her oddly for a moment, then turned and started marching off.

The tree shrubs and the paths between them formed a maze of sorts. This was trivial; Acina knew the techniques for memorizing one's path with the Force, and no doubt Nox, with her greater inclination for tomb spelunking, was at least as familiar.

Acina let Nox lead the way towards the center of the maze. She was a Sith; leading from the front was just an excuse for someone to stab her in the back. Nox, on the other hand, seemed to relish in charging headfirst into danger. Perhaps it was characteristic to Zabraks, perhaps the whispers were true and Nox was simply insane and not merely pretending to be.

Walking behind the other woman also gave Acina the chance to observe. Her robes were loose, so her backside was left mostly to the imagination – but Acina did consider her imagination quite good.

She had, after the dust had settled on that assassination attempt by the GenoHaradan, considered Nox's incessant flirting enough to look up Zabrak genitals. She wasn't sure whether she'd been relieved or disappointed when research proved them to be on the whole similar to human.

Nox stepped slightly off the path and knelt to investigate a fern. She stroked the bottom. “I imagine a bioanalyst or two would appreciate samples,” she remarked.

“Oh?” Nox's gloves were fingerless, so there must be no great danger, but-

“I don't think anyone since has made a fern produce Falleen pheromones.”

Acina yanked Nox to her feet with the Force and pushed her into a shrub. “What did you say?” she hissed.

“The fern produces Falleen pheromones.”

Acina saw red. She grabbed Nox's robes by the fistful and snarled. “Did. You. Know. This. Would. Happen?”

Nox squirmed away the pressure Acina was applying on her throat but didn't try to escape. “It was a possibility, but I didn't know. Had I been wrong, you would've still had a nice vacation!”

Acina let go of Nox's robes but didn't step back. “Tell me, Darth Nox, where exactly have you brought the Empress of the Sith?”

“This is the tomb of a Rakatan buildmaster,” Nox finally explained. “They ruled a galaxy-spanning Empire before the Sith or even the Gree. They were convinced with their superiority over the lesser races, and as a result, this maze here is filled with things toxic to the Rakata but not to us, like the Falleen pheromones.”

“And what lies buried here?”

“Rakatan technology, like Revan's mythical Star Forge or that device that generates air out of nothing I found on Nar Shaddaa.” Nox shrugged. “The traps themselves are a treasure, but no-one has recovered Rakatan grave goods.”

Acina sighed. With Falleen pheromones in the air, they would inevitably succumb to lust. Perhaps repeatedly. “Do not think I will forget this.”

“Oh, I don't intend for that to be a possibility,” Nox purred and slid down to her knees.

She unbuckled Acina's belt and brought her trousers down to her knees. Her breath was warm against Acina's clit. Acina shuddered as Nox nosed at her labia, only to scream when Nox abruptly bit her thigh. Acina grabbed Nox by the horns and yanked.

Zabrak teeth were sharp enough to draw blood. Nox grinned like an apex predator, Acina's blood staining her teeth.

Something inside Acina snapped. She kicked off her boots and trousers, then ripped open Nox's robes to get at the woman within. Something tore.

She pushed Nox down on the ferns and let Nox help her with her own armor and shirt, leaving her fully bare and Nox laying on her opened robes. She pushed Nox's bra up and bit down on a breast in vengeance.

She was human, though, and no blood welled in her bite. Nox hooked a leg around her hips and pulled her down to settle with their legs intertwined.

“You planned this,” Acina growled.

“Oh, I merely fantasized,” Nox airily said. She propped herself on her elbows and ghosted her fangs over Acina's shoulder.

Acina shivered. She felt the smooth glide of Nox's fangs along her skin. A glance to the side showed blood beading in Nox's track.

“Trying to mark me already? How forward.”

“Who says I'm trying to mark you?” Nox asked back. She ran a fingertip through the blood she'd drawn and smudged it down her own cheek.

Acina had not ever considered what someone would look like covered in her blood. This had been an oversight, she thought as her breath hitched. Nox's skin was red and black and didn't provide much contrast with the blood, but Acina did not need much.

She rocked down with her hips, rubbing her clit against the jut of Nox's hip. Acina let Nox wrap around her in the Force and shared some of her own sensations in return.

Nox bit down on Acina's other shoulder. Something jolted in Acina – or perhaps Nox – and echoed between them, electricity trembling in the air.

Blood dripped from the bite wound to Nox's breasts. Acina frantically rolled her hips against Nox, trying to keep pressure on her clit while Nox chased her own pleasure against Acina's thigh.

“Acina,” Nox gasped as she raised a hand to Acina's breast. She was still wearing her gloves, the leather of the palm dragging against Acina's nipple.

A drop of Acina's blood hit her bare wrist and rolled slowly towards her elbow. Acina's breath hitched, something inside her screaming Mine as her blood marked Nox and she frantically chased sensation against Nox's hip.

She came apart the moment she succeeded. The pleasure exploded out of her like a supernova, hitting Nox in the Force and rebounding back to her intensified. They rode it, rocking against each other as the static erupted and singed the greenery around them.

After what felt like the longest orgasm of her life, Acina panted. Her legs trembled and the blood had clotted.

“You're done?” Nox asked.

“For now,” Acina declared and rose. She didn't miss Nox's smug grin at the implication of more.

Once she'd dressed, she said, “Come – we have a burial chamber to find.”

“Of course, my Empress,” Nox purred. “Exactly as you wish.”

Acina shivered. Her clothes were rough over the clotted-over cuts and her underwear annoyingly sticky. Nox still wore Acina's blood, though, and the Falleen pheromones in the air would inevitably get to them. They were nowhere near done.

And if Acina had her way – and she was the Empress; she would have her way – they would not be done even after Dantooine's sunlight greeted them once more. Pandora's box had been opened. Nox would discover it could be shut no more.