Trychon and Cordelia spent the next two weeks secluded in the knowledge alcove of the small temple, which seemed more of a repository of knowledge than most that seemed to serve as places to learn. Many of the rituals and spells they read through required more room to prepare than the temple itself would offer even if they could tear the walls down.
They took turns sleeping, in their own unique way. It wasn't quite the sleeping arrangements either had envisioned themselves getting into, but Trychon couldn't pull Cordelia away from her new studies. He was actually quite concerned for her, as it seemed that the holocron had done more to her than give her knowledge. She was obsessed with the tomes to the extent that Trychon had referred to her as infected several times. She never responded.
So he did the only thing he could, which was work as hard as he could to find what they were looking for, in the hopes that she would return to normal when he did. She had helped him learn to translate a few of the more common symbols to ones he was more familiar with. Every thirty hours or so, he would meditate rather than sleep, and he would redirect as much as he could towards Cordelia to keep her from collapsing. She took a three hour nap once every three or four days.
The only bright side was that once they had been through enough of the spells, they found a pattern. They all mentioned some sort of prerequisite or another, most of which were other spells or Force enchantments done by an already skilled Sith Sorcerer. Unfortunately, the tomes and their contents were in no particular order, so they still had to go through every enchantment, every ritual, every page.
Outside of the 'infection' of his partner, the thing that worried Trychon the most was the fact that two weeks of barely taking a break from reading had only put a dent in the plethora of work in front of them. Even with his meditations, he didn't think they would survive going through the whole room.
He was in the middle of trying to coax the holocron into being useful during his meditation when he noticed Cordelia get up and sit down cross-legged in front of him.
"You need a shower." She said, as she noticed for the first time the growing odor that had contaminated the alcove. "I know..." She held off his inevitable quip about her own stench, which she obviously noticed as she wrinkled her nose.
"I found it." She continued. "I don't have the whole thing translated yet, but there are no prior spells required. The name, close as I can translate it, is 'Sacrament'."
They spent several hours excitedly reviewing everything they could understand about the ritual. When they felt they finally had a good understanding of everything they were going to, Trychon set the tome down. "We need to rest."
Cordelia protested heavily. She insisted that they were too close to take a break now, and when that didn't persuade him, she begged him to simply meditate to get them the rest they needed. She eventually gave in, and they headed out of the temple for the first time since setting foot inside. Given how exhausted they both were, they were surprised to find that it was actually midday on the surface.
After they had everything set up and had both quickly used the porti-refresher, Cordelia laid down in the bed and gestured for Trychon to join her. He leaned down and kissed her briefly on the lips only to pull away to give her a teasing smile.
When he did, she began to snore.
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They woke up in darkness and shared a brief bit of leisure time together before heading back down, though it included the best breakfast they had ever shared, despite the fact that it was pitch black outside.
They reviewed all of their discussion on the reading from the morning with renewed vigor and clarity. They made a few slight changes to their plan before setting it in motion.
Trychon sat in the middle of the repository, with his legs crossed in a standard meditation pose. The rite didn't require any additional props or preparations other than the rite itself, so they were ready to begin. Cordelia backed away to the corner of the room and stood anxiously awaiting the fruit of their labor.
Trychon fell into himself and allowed the Force, the Dark Side, and the unintelligible words he'd memorized so recently flow through him. In his mind's eye he concentrated on the Tome that he learned the incantation from, and everything else began to slip away. He could feel the darkness filling him and giving him power, while also promising him new, untold abilities. The Dark Side itself, already his master, was now enticing him to go further... teasing him to lure him on. It was as though the Force itself thought he needed a reason beyond the power itself. Even the Dark side seemed to underestimate him.
Then, something else tugged at him unexpectedly. He opened his eyes in time to see Cordelia collapse. He jumped to his feet immediately to rush to her aid, but found the Holocron hovering in his way. Not his mercurial master... but the crystal itself.
He heard his master's voice as though it was being amplified by the now glowing Holocron. "If you want to help her, you'll need to finish the rite. I can help you save her after."
Trychon let out a guttural yell of frustration and fell back into his meditation as quick as he could. He had a feeling that he did not have time for a debate on the issue. In his admittedly limited experience, he'd never seen a crystal act like this.
Only a handful of syllables were uttered from his mouth when he heard Cordelia scream. Only, it wasn't exactly a scream. It emanated from her body as well as her Life Force, and it was all around the worst thing Trychon had ever experienced. It was also as scared as he'd ever been, for entirely different reasons.
It took more power of will than the Force had ever provided him, to simply stay his course. Yet he did, quite simply because he had no idea what else to do. What he was doing could in fact kill his love he had so recently been reunited with... yet as little as he trusted the Holocron, it seemed possible if not probable that stopping now would be worse for her.
It wasn't much longer until his recitation, the ritual, and the screaming all ended.
Trychon opened his eyes again, and this time he rushed towards Cordelia, with no regard for the Holocron's wishes or demands. He ducked past it and slid to a stop in the corner of the room.
Cordelia was gone. There was a slight red mist where her body had collapsed, but nothing else remained.
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