Violent Cases: The Book of Anger

[Delirion]

(OOC: This takes place a little before the entire "Fate's Delusions" thing started - and shortly after we all came to Vjun)

Delirion had pondered this matter for long ere she had come to a conclusion that what she was doing now, had to be. And once she had reached her decision, it would have been foolish to delay.

So here she was now, standing outside the quarters belonging to Jeseth Cloak. By knocking on that door, there would be no turning back - she would have to swallow her pride and her fears, and confront him.

It had not been long since he had come to witness her near death, and as he had come to aid her, she had refused his help. Why, now, should he do anything else but what she had done then? What reason would he have to help her now?

No reason at all. No reason other than they were both brethren of the Black Hand, and she was willing to ask for his forgiveness that she had scorned his help, and forgotten about what held them all together in the past.

Delirion knocked on his door.

[Jeseth Cloak]

As she knocked, her ears picked up on a strangely pleasing tune being played out over an archiac musical instrument. The long and drawn out cords seemed to slip through the frame work of the stiff and unmoving doorway, caling to her... she hesitated for a moment, then reached once again for the door only to find that Jeseth already stood there with a sleepy and rather entranced look on his face. He might have been meditating... it was too obscure a situation to tell.

Music continued to play as he welcomed her inside, tossing himself back onto the smooth couch and looking up at her with expectation.

"Can I help you?"

He was obviously annoyed... perhaps with her attitude as of late, or perhaps even just in general. She noticed some blood clinging to his hands and at the corners of his mouth - blood that had somehow evaded her before. A quick glance to the strange half-devoured creature left on a plate besides Jeseth's main table told her he had been eating... something she had never witnessed. It looked to be a brutal and uncharactericly messy ritual.

[Delirion]

She stepped inside the door, and then stopped. Further she didn't want to go. These were his private chambers and she didn't want to intrude until she knew how he would take her request.

Curiously, she let her eyes roam around the chamber's interior, searching for a source of the music, but she could not detect one. The bloody mess on the table intrigued her, and surprised her, however. She had not expected it.

After her first curiosity was stilled, she fixed her eyes on his still form propped up on his couch. There was no reason why she should draw out the matter she had come for, so the wisest thing to do was ask him.

"I wish to ask you if you can look past our previous differences and accept to train me in some matters? I... I lack training, and I need to work on some other matters that I have sadly neglected since I was with Ad--... with my last master."

[Jeseth Cloak]

Train her? She had violently pushed him away, and now she wished to be trained? Hm... Very well. She'd be trained... Yes, she would be trained indeed.

"Of course. Merely state when you would like to begin, and I shall honor your request."

He gave her an expectant look... something that cried for her presence to be removed from his quarters. His gaze was predatorial, vicious... like some sort of animal in search of it's food.

He rose up to his feet, walking calmly along his shelf of books and script, then stopped at one paticular point. His hand touched to a black and leatherbound volume, his face contorting into something similar to a wince. The pain had become bearable for him in the last few days, but it wasn't anymore pleasant.

Jeseth held the book out to Delirion, almost remorseful in his thoughts.

Be careful what you wish for...

"I'll expect you to have made it through the first chapter by the time we begin. I hope that will be acceptable."

[Delirion]

She looked at him with something of a puzzled frown. A book?

Her eyes moved from his face to the leatherbound book in his hand and back. Something about that book... it emanated an odd sense. Something familiar... but oddly different. Calling to her.

At the back of her mind, the two-tongued snake stirred and cackled, twisted and laughed. But did not rise.

"What is this?"

She finally asked, with a low voice. Still her hands did not reach out for the book, something like fear overcoming her at its sight. What an odd feeling.

[Jeseth Cloak]

"The Book of Anger. You've often quoted it, I belive."

He watched her bringing the book closer and wishing to be released from it's clause. His hand began shaking just ever so slightly... but still his face did not betray a calm and collected composure.

"It's the first test along this path, and when you have mastered it, then you may come to better master yourself, as well. It has interesting effects on all who touch it."

He remembered his first time desperately grasping for it, how he had wished to know of all it's secrets, and his mind echoed with his own screams of agony that had long been left in the past. Perhaps it those screams were not of the past - perhaps they were a premonition of the future.

[Delirion]

She shrank back from it. This was alltogether not what she had expected. Fear, as well as fascination, pulsed through her.

The Book of Anger. Yes, she knew it well. Once forbidden material, she had as a child found a source for it on the Holonet, and for many years - until she was to come under Adalric's tutelage - it had been her constant companion. Yet the copied material was said to be nothing but an electronic tome of empty words, nothing without the Book itself, wihtout the spirit infesting it.

How much she would have given to find this book then... yet now - she knew more about the Dark Side and what the book contained than many an other, but the book itself made her fear.

Yet this was to be her first lesson. And gladly would she take it if it meant that Jeseth could forgive her previous rudeness.

But... she did not want him to see what effects the book would have on her; she did not want to show her weaknesses to him before she was better prepared for it. For the book would affect her in some way - she could sense it, as it seemed to reach out, touch her mind with impatience almost. She could feel it trying to read her, trying to see through her, down to the very essence of her being.

And it scared her. Yet she would not show her emotions before this brother of hers.

"I honour the trust you bestow upon me by giving me this Book to choose as my teacher for now. Yet I think it is wiser if I begin my training under its lore in the privacy of my own rooms. Many a day in the past have I wrestled with the words of this Book, but it will be a different struggle to maintain my sanity in its actual presence. Therefore, could you provide me with a piece of cloth I might wrap it in to carry it to my quarters?"

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth reached out for her hand and slowly rans his fingers along the back of it. He noticed her freeze at his actions, perhaps not knowing what was going on. He smiled at her for a moment, just before clutching her hand in his and slamming the book into her palm, holding it place. He winced slightly, his face showing obvious pain, but never once did his hold on her and the book loosen.

[Delirion]

With eyes wide open, she stared at his hand on her own. Not in a long time, had anyone dared to touch her, had she consciously let anybody touch her. But now he held her hand in place, and the shock of this was enough to drown out everything else, even the book beneath her fingers.

Yet maybe it was the book that made her call out in pain now - but it seemed the pain came from his touch. She wanted to shake it off, push it away, but he would not relinquish his hold on her hand and the book.

Pain. Her mind raced back to the last time she had felt this way, and she shuddered at the memory she was about to re-live yet again.

But it did not come. Instead of her own memories, she suddenly found herself in a different place, in a place so alien to her that her mind was reeling from it. Yet it lasted only one second, before she was thrown forth again into the present.

Her hand under his felt as if it was burning, as if his touch was searing her skin, charring her flesh, burning her bones to ash and dust.

[Jeseth Cloak]

There was a sharp stab of pain behind his eyes, one he had never experienced as a result of holding The Book Of Anger. Jeseth almost pulled back in a sudden instinctive wave of self defense, but his mind snapped back in time to grip onto Delirion's hand once more. The point of this would be a lesson she'd remember, and he himself would set an example...

Memories...

He blinked, looking up at a strange old man with a gray beard. He was dressed in what closely resembled the Jedi robes of yesterday. They were rare, now.

Adalric?

The name had echoed in his mind, but he didn't understand it. The man's fist came down quickly, racking him with pain as it struck and bruised him. Jeseth tried to get up, but he was moving slowly, and his body was different. The man sent him reeling across the ground with a quick kick in the stomach, and he coughed up blood. His hands were slick with the stuff...

Flash

He looked up again, but this time it was different. He was standing over two people sleeping... a man and a woman. His senses were mixed, confused, and he couldn't make sense of what was going on. So much ambition in him - no, in her. This wasn't his own memory... it was Delirion's... but what did it all mean? Hours later, he found himself again soaked in blood, but this time it was not his own.