He didn’t move as the intruder, a female he knew after hearing her, spoke with an uncertainty that he became quite puzzled with. How was it that she did not know where it was that she was standing? Very few knew of this location, this pitiful, forsaken land of a never-ending necrosis where the Sith Lord would take into time his quiet rituals of slow healing and enduring meditations aligned with his studies. Yet the woman’s knowledge, or lack thereof, of appearing in his castle, in his sanctuary, unsettled him.
What was it that she would want from him?
Couldn’t he just be left in p e a c e ? ?
Extending his awareness to every corner within the walls that contained him, Vader felt her presence, this time far more acutely than previous. What he understood in the reading was quite shocking. Instantaneously, and understandably so, he could feel the Dark Side that lurked in the shadows similar to that of an ancient, demonic entity that waited ever so patiently to surround and corrupt. Yet it was the overpowering pull of something far more nefarious that caught his attention. It pulled at his mind, tempting him to dive deeper into this new darkness into an abyss he knew innately he would never escape. It was similar to that of the presence his Master would exude whenever the withered Sith Master was in the presence of those who were lower than him.
He lifted his head from its bowed position before standing to his full 2.02 meter height. Vader then proceeded to face her, a tall slim woman with various symbols (of which Vader did not recognize) and a type of armor he also was unfamiliar with. Regardless of who she was, he knew better than to underestimate her. This woman, whomever she may be, had power that resonated strongly through the Force.
“You have found a way to my sanctuary. I do not take complete trust in your uncertainty. Not many brave the harsh lands of Vjun; yet I see you are here and I am not extremely pleased. If you are seeking refuge, you have chosen unwisely.” Vader said to her, letting his words cross the space between the both of them, the winds howling from outside wailed as the acid storm began their destructive downpour.
Finding herself in foreign territory wasn’t exactly uncommon. She was a soldier, after all, and was often sent to new lands for whatever reason her lords and masters deemed worthy of her attention. Generally, Zoen enjoyed these assignments. New lands always equaled excitement, after all.
But this - this wasn’t the same. This place, wherever she was, was more than just foreign. It was alien, extraterrestrial in a way she’d never experienced before, not even when she visited the broken world of Outland. Unlike that particular planet, there was no great Dark Portal connecting the worlds; returning to Azeroth was not the simple matter of stepping through a swirling green tear in reality. There was no easy way home. She was alone.
Alone.
An image flashed through her mind’s eye, there only for a second but enough all on its own to drive the breath from her lungs. Tiris - oh, Light. Tiris. Her frozen heart ached as she realized how utterly cut off she was from the wolf, how completely separated from one another they were. She’d been thrown through the portal by herself, and it had closed before the wolf could leap through and follow after her. The fire-link in her mind that bound him to her had not been severed, at least; she could still feel him, very faintly, at the edge of her perception, like a candle set at the very back of a dark cave of ice. Whether their continued connection was a mercy or a torment, she didn’t know or care. In the face of the horrible sense of Alone that threatened to suffocate her, she would take whatever she could. Starving children could ill afford to ignore the crumbs of a leftover feast.
“I didn’t, uhm...” Her voice stumbled and fell, hitting the ground hard before dragging itself back up to limp painfully on toward the imposing figure of the predator. “I didn’t brave the, uh, the harsh lands of... how did you say it? Vee-june? Vi-uun? Anyway, not important, not... unless it is, I don’t know, I’ve never... never been here before...”
She ran a hand through her hair, wariness and frustration and fear roiling uncomfortably around inside of her. The predator wasn’t making things any easier. He (she assumed it was a he, if anything) seemed determined to calmly and eloquently threaten her as often as possible. She might have laughed if she wasn’t so bloody certain he was completely genuine in his threats, and capable of carrying them out.
“Refuge? Refuge from - from what, exactly?” The words tumbled, unbidden, from her throat, and her gaze shifted momentarily from the black behemoth to really take in the chamber. She couldn’t see anything particularly threatening besides the predator, She could hear the cacophony of a storm outside, muted by the walls that separated them and the downpour, but that was it.