Chapter 35: Found us

"So this is the centerpiece of your grand plan to kill the monster?" Tyrene asked skeptically, looking decidedly unimpressed, "Painting squiggles on the walls?"

From where I was hunched over, I stopped and scowled at her, "Alchemical symbols."

Though she had been thoroughly thrown off balance by my aggressive negotiations, she had recovered quickly, "Squiggles."

Seeing the cat-like grin on her face, I was starting to understand why her Master was trying to get her killed, "I'm surprised you don't have any knowledge of the art. Or at least some respect for it. You exist because of it."

The Sith woman tilted her head, genuine interest on her face despite her words, "How do you mean?"

I blinked at just how much that implied, "Really? You don't know? I figured your parents probably would have mentioned it at some point…though then again, I might be expecting too much." That wiped the grin off her face.

After all, the Wrath had barely known anything about actually being a Sith, and they were from a prominent Sith family too. Hell, they hadn't even known the Sith Code. A prestigious bloodline didn't guarantee knowledge.

"Pretty much all Sith "Purebloods" like yourself are actually Sith and human hybrids. Problem is, the two species aren't naturally compatible and require alchemical rituals to make offspring," I paused and thought for a moment.

"Although I guess that issue might not be an issue anymore. A thousand years and an increased need to interbreed due to the genocide probably bred the problem out. Kind of makes sense why it wouldn't be mentioned anymore."

"Huh," Tyrene hummed. If she was insulted at me essentially calling her a mongrel, she didn't show it, "You learn something new every day."

As she fell silent, I went back to work, glancing back at the small book in my hand before carefully finishing the sigil I was working on. I'd taken to carrying around a small notebook to record rituals and potential combinations for use in the field.

I also had a few containers filled with ink mixed with my blood for drawing, kept "fresh" by stasis charms made with Sith Magic.

Fresh blood tended to work better, but that was for rituals intended to imbue permanent properties on something. For something quick and dirty like this, the preserved stuff worked just fine.

"I guess this is how you knew so much about the beast," Tyrene spoke up again, "Your training as an alchemist…"

"Training nothing. While I had some instruction in the basic rituals and procedures to keep from killing myself, the rest is self-taught," I scoffed, "Unlike a certain someone, I have made extensive use of the archives during my time at the academy.

There are a lot of useful secrets if you know how to look for them."

I left off the fact that I had gone to school to become a data analyst. Parsing through large amounts of raw data to find the useful bits was practically second nature to me at this point, though I did have limits.

I wasn't looking at her, but I could feel the glare burning into my back. I smiled with satisfaction, knowing full-well that I'd just hit a newfound nerve. Needling her was proving to be surprisingly entertaining, especially with her willing to fire back. Somewhat.

Then again, this was pretty much the only extended conversation I've had with…well, with anyone really, for about a year and a half. Guess it lowered my standards a bit.

Thanaton didn't count. That was an interrogation.

"Just…concentrate on getting your finger-painting done," She hissed, "I don't want to spend more time than I have to down here."

As it happened, I was using my finger to paint. I did have a brush, but it was currently being used to draw a different array on the ceiling.

It was quiet for a few minutes as I continued working, but it was broken quickly.

"So, what exactly is this supposed to do?" Tyrene asked suspiciously, waving a hand at the sigils. She must have gotten bored with the silence.

"Well, the array here on the floor is the trigger," I explained as I started painting the next sigil, "Since terentateks are immune to the Force, I'm basing the trigger off its weight rather than its presence.

If something that weighs more that the two of us combined walks over it, they'll set off the array on the ceiling."

The entire thing was a mixture of Sith Alchemy and a bit of Sith Magic. While the effects of the trap itself were alchemical in nature, the trigger and the array were wards created with Sith Magic.

"And then?"

"Once it's triggered," I pointed up, "The array on the ceiling will break down the bonds keeping the stone above us in a solid shape and destroy these rickety supports, causing it to collapse the tunnel down on the monster."

Tyrene stared at me in stunned silence. Finishing the sigil I was working on, I peered up at the ceiling to make sure the ones up there were correct. The sound of a hand slapping against a face caused my smile to widen.

"I'm dead. I'm so dead," My companion groaned piteously, "Your big elaborate plan is to drop rocks on it."

"Terentateks are immune to the Force. They're not immune to getting hit with multi-ton boulders," I asserted before shrugging.

"That, and I never claimed my plan was going to be elaborate. Sometimes simple is better and this is honestly the best with what I've got on hand. I thought you'd appreciate something like this."

"Oh, I can appreciate the simplicity. I just had a few expectations dashed, is all," She deadpanned before adopting a more serious expression, "Why not just use an easier and less-time consuming way to bring down the ceiling?"

"Using telekinesis to do it would require me to stop and concentrate on it to find fault points and break the supports. Something I wouldn't really have time for with the terentatek chasing me," I countered.

"That, and the area of effect would be unpredictable. With the array, I can control precisely how much of the ceiling is coming down rather than leaving it to chance, as well as do it all at once. It's taking longer to set up, but I'm using the time now so I don't have to do it later."

The Pureblood hummed, seeing my point, "Are you almost done?"

"Just need to finish two more sigils. One down here," I pointed at the floor before poking a thumb straight up, "And one up there."

A few more brush and finger strokes completed the last, which started softly glowing, showing that it was active. Only one more thing to do.

Standing up, I wiped as much of the ink off my finger as I could on my robes. Taking out a knife, I pricked the tip of the opposite hand. Blood immediately started welling on the surface of the skin. Holding out my hand, I waited until the first drop was about to fall.

"Jen'Hâsk," I intoned in Ancient Sith, drawing on the Dark Side to power the spell.

As soon as the last letter left my mouth, the red droplet fell. Gleaming in the light, it vanished before hitting the ground as the Magic devoured the sacrifice. Two more joined it before the spell was satisfied.

The arcane script I had painted onto the floor and ceiling began to fade into the stone until there wasn't a trace of its presence.

Before Tyrene could ask, I explained, "It's a minor illusion. The trap is still there and active. Terentateks may be beasts, but they're clever enough to sniff out obvious traps. If it saw the array, it would know something was wrong.

That said, we're going to need something to mark the spot, so we know where to lure it." I dug through my bag until I found my inactive glowrod, "This'll do."

Clicking it on, I chucked it lightly towards one of the walls, where it clattered to a stop.

My companion looked at it for a long moment before glancing back at me, "You weren't using that to see earlier. How did you navigate down here in the dark? More Sith Magic?"

"Nothing so reckless," I shook my head, "Force Sight. At its lowest levels, it works just as well as nightvision goggles with the bonus of not giving off any light."

She raised an eye-tendril, "More self-taught tricks?"

I nodded, "Yep. A lot of Sith tend to go for the biggest, flashiest techniques they can get their hands on to flaunt their power and ignore more subtle utility skills. However, it's hard to use said big flashy powers if you can't see to aim them."

Tyrene looked thoughtful for a moment before her expression morphed into a bloodthirsty grin, "Now we hunt?"

"No," I denied. She looked almost crestfallen before I corrected her, "Now…we go for a walk. We don't have to track a terentatek. It'll find us," I gestured to the glowrod, "Just be ready to run back to the ambush point. The plan is to piss it off enough to follow us here. Then we kill it."

"Simple as that?"

I smiled as I started walking, "Simple as that."

The less moving parts a plan had, the less that could possibly fail. The only part I wasn't entirely sure about was the array itself. Its composition was theoretically sound, but I hadn't gotten a chance to test it yet.

Yes, I designed an array to collapse a tunnel. Given how often I was in the tombs and likely would be in the future, it was a reasonable precaution. I had a few other untested formulas in my notebook, assembled over the past nine months, that I was eager to try out.

As we got further away from the ambush site, we used Tyrene's glowrod to light our way. She didn't ask why I wasn't using my Force Sight, but I suspected that she had inferred the reason by now. She was capable of coming to her own conclusions if enough evidence was put in front of her, after all.

We'd been walking for twenty minutes before she spoke again.

"Obviously, you know more about the…more esoteric parts of the Force than I do," Boy, did that sound like a grudging admission, "What do you think my Master wanted the terentatek blood for?"

I rolled my eyes, "Assuming that he wasn't just trying to get you killed?"

"Yes," She ground out with a glare, "Assuming that."

"Well, you said that he said it was for a ritual…" I thought that over for a moment, chewing on the inside of my cheek.

"To me, it sounds like he's trying to break a spell, instead of casting one. Due to its Force-immune nature, a terentatek's blood wouldn't do much good as a sacrifice otherwise."

It was another thirty minutes of silence after that.

After a while, a chill went down my spine. Tyrene was the first to react, ducking into a roll and tumbling forward. Instead of asking, I immediately followed.

It was just in time, though I still felt the air displaced as something massive swept through the spot we had just been standing in. As I stood back up, I drew my sword, the blade rattling in anticipation. Next to me, Tyrene had ignited her lightsaber, bathing everything in blood-red.

A roar of frustration echoed in the close confines as mottled, blood-stained carapace came into view.

The terentatek had found us.

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