A group of Sith warriors muscled Kelvendar aside and picked up the wounded Second between them. Soon the shadows in the Great Foyer were joined with the sounds of their booted footsteps as they ran off to take their burden to the nearest Healer.

The Lieutenant watched them disappear into the gloom, his royal blue eyes darkening with the implications of what he had seen. Then he barked out another order; immediately a small squadron stiffened into marching ranks, weapons bristling.

He raised a hand, turned, and led them out into the courtyard, nearly stumbling in surprise to find a writhing Thing pinned to the wall practically next to the doorway, a glowering Phalomir seeming in conversation with it.

For a split second he paused, pausing his men along with him, torn, for here was a Dark Lord. But the evidence spoke volumes in his mind; after a quick and respectful bow of his head, he pointed his spear at Phalomir. His men left their position behind him to spread out, encircling the Sith Lord in a spear-toothed embrace.

"Halt, traitor!" the Lieutenant boomed, his courage returning once his men were in place.

"You are under arrest for the slaying of our beloved Dark Lady!"

He raised a hand to order his men to capture the Lord, but once again paused. This was a Dark Lord, after all, and should be given the chance to speak for himself before he was dragged off into the dungeons.

Phalomir’s anger burned once again, searing into the eyes of the demon at which he continued to stare. He let all of that emotion stay in his gaze, leveling his voice as he spoke.

“The Dark Lady is not dead,” he said, still staring at the imp. The words that formed in his mind seemed suddenly unbelievable, but he determined to speak them anyway. “She has been taken by creatures of the Darker Realms, such as this one. Salandaar captured it, and I am interrogating it.”

He held his gaze a moment longer, then turned to the lieutenant.

“The Dark Lady you see in the receiving room is a doppelganger. Salandaar himself suspects this with me, and now this imp has confirmed it. Go, see for yourself. There are indeed traitors here, but you do not now look at one.”

--------------------

“Get moving, you!” he barked.

Scowling, Erick and Shayla obliged, moving down the empty hallway. Panthar followed, holding the spear up at an angle. They reached the door without incident, and Panthar moved up to inspect it.

The door was heavy, set upon ancient but well-oiled hinges. It was not bolted, and even stood slightly ajar. Panthar shoved it lightly, and door opened outward the rest of the way, creaking only slightly. He ducked his head out of the door and looked both ways, then ducked back in. His face paling, he turned to Shayla.

“There’s two more guards out there, like that one was,” he said quietly. “I really don’t like this, but let’s get the heck out of here, ok? Who could have done this? Phal?”

--------------------

The Lieutenant spoke no further but simply waited to see if there was any truth to Phalomir's words. Next to him, the imp remained curled into a ball upon the spear, it's dangerous tail twining across its shoulders to lay against the cold flagstones of the ground beneath their feet.

It did not take the warrior long to return. He moved quickly into their midst and came up to his superior. Falling to one knee, his spear pointed toward the heavens as though to substantiate his words with those of the deities above, he lowered his face to the ground and spoke.

"The Lady lies yet in state... but the Tattoo of Entitlement has been scoured from her wrist!"

Not being allowed the pleasure of offering his personal thoughts as to what this might mean, he then rose to his feet and joined his fellow warriors, once again lowering his spear to point threateningly at Phalomir.

The Lieutenant frowned, watching him go; then he turned back to the Sith Lord.

“When I last saw the fake Dark Lady in that room, her wrist was intact,” he said flatly.

“I wish you no harm,” he continued, his voice softened a little. “Every minute we waste here is one more minute the real Dark Lady is in danger. I can offer proof, as can Salan—where is Salandaar?”

Phalomir for the first time noticed that Salandaar was no longer present.

“And the guard that I sent to care for him? Where is he? Salandaar was injured trapping this demon, I ordered a guard to pull him to safety, where are they?”

--------------------

...and after all, if he did, wouldn't he have come to get us?"

She trailed, her look for the most part totally unreadable...

...but not entirely. The traces of something momentarily flashed in their greeny-blue depths.

"I sense something..." she whispered almost breathlessly. "Keep going, we've got to find the others..."

--------------------

He sped down the corridor the doors opened onto, and soon gained the even more grandly decorated portal into the Grand Dining Hall. Bursting through, he shot a quick but encompassing glance about himself, and soon found the slim form of the acting Dark Lady of the Warriors.

Going up to her, he fell to one knee, a fisted hand across his chest. Speaking shortly and succinctly then, he told her of all that had recently befallen: how the troops to which he had been assigned had been abruptly approached by Kelvendar, who had informed them of the betrayal of Salandaar; how the troops had gone to apprehend the Dark Lord for this newest attack against their clan.

More importantly, how those under his auspices seemed to have managed to get their hands upon a Sith invisibility device, more than likely as a desperate means of protecting themselves from the strange demon who had come into their midst so unexpectedly.

"The Dark Lord seems to have accomplices within realms even more dark, m'lady," he went on, bowing his head more deeply as in closing he told her of the apparently odd little fact that her sword had been laid carefully against the flesh of the fallen Salandaar.

______________________________________

The Lieutenant's glare remained fixed upon Phalomir.

"It would appear that your presence here with the very demon that struck down the Second-to-the-Lady is most unfortunate... for your sake," he finally stated, the tone of his voice flat and unforgiving.

His forehead furrowed as his scowl deepened. His warriors, sensing this subtle turn-of-tide, pressed more closely, waiting orders to either skewer Phalomir, be he Dark Lord or no, or to prod him into the dungeons to wait until the acting Dark Lady decided what to do with him.

The Lieutenant's royal blue eyes cut quickly to the impaled imp; the creature remained quiet, non-combative, its hideous be-stingered tail laying as limp and forlorn as an old rag tossed into a garbage chute. It didn't move so much as a muscle in any attempt to extricate itself but simply hung there, every so often raising a pitiable face to seemingly stare directly into the face of the Dark Lord.

The Lieutenant pointed his spear at the thing.

"It seeks to attack you not, but hangs defeated, knowing you are such as well," he said ominously.

"Such as sometimes do warriors when their Commander has been killed in battle--"

He fell silent then, stone-still, wanting on one hand to take this Lord to the dungeons and be rid of him, but yet on the other unsure as to the practicality of doing so. After all, it was only at the suggestion of the lower-ranked Kelvandar that he capture the Dark Lord at all, not that of a Captain or any other official of higher rank.

High enough in rank himself to understand the oftentimes dark and convoluted twists and turns of Temple politics, and to know that circumstances in many cases might not be what they appear to be, he continued to keep Phalomir trapped within the ring of his warriors' spears.

I shall wait until the courier returns, he thought to himself, then strengthened the grip upon his spear and moved no more.

...yet those bi-colored orbs filled with a certain dark delight at the mention of the imp, a heinous pleasure whose origins she couldn't quite remember.

A compromise then: she frowned, considering next what to do.

My consort, your input is desired! she thought into the silence, reaching out for advice from Ragorian. But that worthy remained atypically silent, perhaps applying himself to the task of creeping within the mind and soul of Salandaar. Whatever the reason for his taciturnity, she received no reply.

Her eyes flashed again with the realization that the next move was hers alone to make.

But the last thing she needed was to alienate the Dark Lord; he would be far more useful to her if he continued to fall for the deception she was laying at his feet.

She raised her head, looked imperiously down her nose at the kneeling courier.

"Let the Dark Lord return here -- with careful honor -- to explain to me what has occurred to fell the Second," she stated, relishing the fact that Salandaar might have succumbed to his wounds by this time.

"And bring Kelvandar as well, should you find him!"

At her feet, the courier saluted, bowed, rose, and left to follow her orders to the very letter.

--------------------

I frowned, hunkering against Terrin and trying to remain quieter than a shadow at twilight. Meanwhile my eyes were roving frantically for anything we could use as a weapon, my brain running circles for any inspiration as to how we could extricate ourselves from this rather sticky wicket of a situation and continue on to find the rest of our friends.

The dilemma was truncated as the door leading back into the Temple opened and spit out a single Sith. He moved quickly to the one who had been speaking with Phalomir, bowed, and spoke in a soft voice, but not soft enough that his words escaped our ears.

"This one is to be brought to the acting Dark Lady, to explain the events enacted here," he said. These words were followed by a quick salute before he melted back into the ranks of the ringed warriors.

The one in charge tilted his horned head to one side, seeming to contemplate matters. Then he raised a hand, barking out some orders; immediately the warriors raised their spears and backed off, to then move into a weird three-sided boxlike formation.

The open end was obviously an invitation as to which direction they wished Phalomir to move. I gripped Terrin's arm in a viselike grip.

"Now's our chance to get him out of there," I breathed into his ear, every muscle held in trembling red-flag alert, ready for instant action.

"We can whip in there, get him under our shield, and whip out and through before they know what hit them...."

Whatever our ensuing action would be, I would let Terrin decide.

--------------------

Now was the time.

"It's risky," Terrin mouthed. Then, But it's about all we've got."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over both of his employees as well as Galen. Then he pointed Phalomir's way. "Jasyn and I will drag Phal out of there," he started, his mind spinning with the logistics. "Galen and Matt..."

He trailed a moment, a lopsided grin forming on his face to match his next words before it disappeared entirely to be replaced by a look of determination. "Once we get in and get to Phalomir...raise Hell...and keep an eye out should we need help getting our buddy to move."

Pausing for a final moment then, Terrin let his words absorb in everyone's head. Then he nodded towards the opening, as both Matt and Jasyn stepped in closer, almost reading his thoughts. "Now," he mouthed...

...and with a purposeful and quick and long-strided step, he got moving, the others on his heels. In no time they were in the center of the ring, still seemingly unknown to the guards who were surrounding Phalomir...

...who, as they moved in, disappeared from their sights. Terrin grabbed Phalomir's arm even as the shocked Sith guards started to move in. "Get moving!" he said, jerking his head as if to indicate the narrowing path out of the now-closing ring.

And as he and Jasyn began to pull the Sith Lord along, both of them added their own brand of hell as they did so...

--------------------

Thrilling to be able to be in action once again, I wasted no more energy in extraneous motion but channeled it all into succinct and fairly expertly applied blows. The Sith warrior to my immediate left, closing in on what looked to be empty air, simply had to be removed from the fray if we were to get out without actually physically ping-ponging off of one warrior or another; with a silent grunt I leapt up and applied a flying roundhouse kick to his face.

Well... let's say I tried to apply a flying roundhouse kick to his face; these guys are tall! Instead of impacting with the side of his head, as planned, the kick I delivered landed instead on his upper arm.

An arm he was raising in the middle of switching the spear from a one-handed grasp to a more threatening two-handed one.

Which he never managed to complete, due to said kick against his well-muscled upper arm.

Oww-ww-www--!!

I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain, but through watering eyes saw that the impact did manage to wreak a modicum of havoc among the ranks. The Sith warrior staggered, his spear momentarily out of control, its deadly tip flailing about as he sought to gain control before it whapped directly into the face of his in-charging neighbor.

Who put on the brakes to keep his eyes in his head, literally; shouting in alarm, he planted both feet and ducked to avoid the razor-sharp tip of his fellow's weapon.

Next to him, another Sith yowled in rage as a horn-tip struck him... well, I couldn't see exactly where, but from the sound of his cry it couldn't have been in a happy spot.

I smiled grimly, ducked, stuck out a stiff leg and whirled, all in one motion. On my other side, the in-closing Sith let forth a grunt of surprise as, quite unexpectedly, an invisible something slashed into his ankle and felled him like a dewback. En route, he fortuitously took his neighbor along for the ride.

I couldn't help it; the exhilaration was too much.

"Enough havoc and hell-raising, Terrin?" I puffed as I reached out and lent my two hands to the task of hauling the utterly surprised Sith Lord along like so much flotsam caught in the wake of a ship.

In the ruckus and general brouhaha the door into the Temple suddenly loomed.

Oh what the hell....

Uncaring as to who might see what, I left Phalomir and, slipping by the now-writhing demon, ducked his tail and yanked open the door.

"C'mon, guys; let's try this one again!"

Fiddling with the device on my belt, I then extended the range so the light-bending field stretched out a mere five meters on either side of us.

"We're gonna have to switch into stealth mode again, and pronto, if we want to make this attack work--"

I said no more, for behind us the Sith warriors had regained not only their lost composure but their anger.

They were absolutely silent as they raged toward us....

[ 06-19-2005 04:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

--------------------

...that Terrin didn't even dare look at...

...and hurried inside and immediately into the immense Foyer.

Terrin's baby blues widened as they took in the huge pillars, and his recollection of the place began to aid his plans for their stealth. Again he jerked his head in direction, this time towards one of the looming pillars nearby...not too close to the entrance, but not too far away from it either. After all, why go far, letting their booted footsteps tell the guards where they were?

Even as the group clustered behind the pillar for protection, however...another sound grabbed Terrin's attention, and not that of booted footsteps...

...but instead that of a door in the far corner and to the left creaking open.

Terrin's blues widened even further. Oh, but this couldn't be good...

--------------------

Those senses were immediately bolstered as recognition registered, as well as did a pervading sense of anger.

"Panthar, Erik..." she said, coming to a sudden halt, "I sense the others, and they are very close by..."

[ 06-19-2005 04:39 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

--------------------

[ 06-19-2005 04:37 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

Immediately as the squad of sith turned in their own pursuit, Skarwael brought his tail down upon the hilt of the sword, snapping it off, and hauled himself further along the blade until he was off of the painful length of metal.

He took a moment to let his abdomen heal and turned towards the scent of Phalomir's blood, which in his minds eye, was so heavy that even before his eyes the trail seemed to hang in the air.

"Yous will not gets away!" He immediately scampered after him along the scent of that blood the only thing in his mind.

--------------------

As soon as he arrived, he slowed a pace, and stepped up to the chambers entrance, and pushed the doors open. Without word, he entered and knelt before her, presenting her blade up in an offering form. "Milady, you commanded that I return?"

--------------------

He paused, drew in a deep breath, then held his hands up before him.

“No matter, the deed is done. The acting Dark Lady wishes to see me, I would like to oblige her. But on our terms, not hers. I am very suspicious of her, she claims that Jharmeen was murdered by me on board our ship, and her body is now on display in the receiving hall. But this body is not Jharmeen’s, the tattoo of entitlement was wrong.”

A shout from across the foyer caught Phalomir’s attention. Two Sith guards had broken from the larger group and were barking orders at another Sith who disappeared through an open door.

“ShaRhylla is Roan’s daughter… I have difficulty accepting this, but I have seen it. That alone brings great mistrust, and there is one other thing I wish to see her about. She has something that belongs to me—to Jharmeen, and I must retrieve it.”

A long growl from the opened door across the foyer once again brought Phalomir’s – along with the rest of the group’s – attention to that area. Phalomir’s eyebrow raised at the first sight of the two tuk’ata, and as fear tried to creep in he saw that the two were pulling along a warrior who was desperately clutching long leashes.

“Our options are quickly running out,” he said flatly.

[ 06-19-2005 11:45 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

--------------------

Now, that's gratitude for you, I couldn't help but grumble to myself as Phalomir raised his hands up in front of him.

Here we go through seven kinds of hell to rescue him from being sent to the brig -- and don't tell me that's not where he would have ended up, no way in Hell's Seven Circles do I believe that -- but now he wants to go marching off into a veritable den of iniquity while our comrades pine away waiting for us to find them!

I opened my mouth to snap something right back at the big red lug, when the scrabble of something that could only be claws the size of my grandmother's cheesecake came wafting roughly into my ears. I whirled and peered around the pillar we were hiding behind, then pulled quickly back.

Tuk'ata! I mouthed with a silent moan.

Those suckers hunt by scent... and us without so much as a single bantha dropping to besmear ourselves with....

I shuddered, forcing back shudders even larger and quietly lowered myself onto my haunches.

"Well, what then?" I mouthed to Phalomir, knowing his keen hearing would pick up my words.

"Sorry for trying to rescue you, guess you can take it from here now... how the hell are we going to elude those nasty canastas? You got any Sith magick up your sleeve?"

--------------------

Without really thinking about it she placed a protective force field about it, one combining her inherent Sith magicks along with the All, that any matter coming close to it would be repelled as would be the like ends of a magnet, and any energy would simply be funneled off and away from it. Thus secure in the knowledge that Ragorian's "home" was safe, she turned back to the waiting Sith.

"I have been apprised of matters concerning the Dark Lord, Phalomir," she stated abruptly, both unwilling as well as incapable of leading into the subject with anything remotely suggestive of diplomacy.

"He was to be escorted here to me; but, I grow fatigued of all this hither and yon. I would retire for the night now; in my stead, I give you leave to greet the Lord when he is brought here and to keep him here and entertained in a manner befitting his station.

"I shall return in the morning."

With that she flounced from the room and departed to her chambers, to sink into slumber...

A slumber which, quite unexpectedly, came settling over her senses ere she took a single step into her room....

--------------------

He swallowed hard and stared intently at the beast. The tuk’ata was sniffing the air, trying to catch the scent of the group.

“The larger one seems to be one of Jharmeen’s tuk’ata…” The tuk’ata’s long growl interrupted Phalomir’s words as it caught the scent and pointed its massive head in the group’s direction. Even from across the foyer, the beast sent chills down Phalomir's spine.

An idea struck him with the force of lightning. Not taking time to analyze the thought, he shook off the arms holding him and grabbed the shoulders of the men who had just seconds before been struggling to pull him along.

“To the receiving room, quickly!”

He pulled the two men closer, pushing them along in front of him as he then grabbed for Galen and Terrin.

“Invisibility be damned, move!”

Phalomir ran for the double doors that led to the other parts of the temple. Even as he ran, his magick was building to readiness to somehow slow down the tuk'ata who were probably already in pursuit.

[ 06-20-2005 12:13 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

--------------------

Without a word, or undecided action, he took up the Axis, ignoring what he was sure to be a swift comming telepathic protest, and sealed it in a section of his armor, out of his physical touch, but well protected. He sealed a few magics to dampen it's "reach" around the prized object, and then took ShaRhylla and laid her upon her chambers bed.

He stood for a moment, silent and sentinal-like over her for a moment, contemplating how easy it would be to end one of Graysith's line forever at this very moment, but knew he could not afford the delay. He went to her doorway and lined the edges with a bit of swiftly hardening "glue-like-puddy" to delay the discovery of ShaRhylla and his theft, and then went to the balcony, making sure his "cloaking magic" was firmly placed.

Even as he looked over the temple and city, he could not help but make a small and quiet comment to the Axis. "You're mine again, and this time, I"m going to keep you that way."

--------------------

"Of course the all knowing axis knew I would come. But then again, if you're so masterful in knowing such things, wouldn't you know who I was taking you too? But I'm nice, I'll give you a hint. I'm giving you to my father, one who you once tricked me into surrendering under the name of."

He felt his gloved hands touch soft ground and found he had reached the base of the temple, then slowly, still under his magic of invisibility, began to walk across the grounds of the Palace towards those massive, guard covered walls.

--------------------

Stop I, stop I....

--------------------

Take me not to your father, young one. Be true to yourself, keep me with you.

T’elion breathed deeply of the magick flowing from the very heart of the boy. Inherent magick was rare in one not of the Sith, and not since the days of the old world had he tasted Sith magick born of human. Yet Sith magick it was, and Sith magick was exactly what the Finger of R’lous craved. T’elion felt the Finger feed, siphoning the energies from the boy and storing them. T’elion felt the magickal energies the boy was holding in place begin to falter.