RhoHalla blinked furiously as she hurried down the dimly lit corridors in the underbelly of the Great Temple of the Warriors, struggling to keep angry tears from erupting and coursing down her face. So intent was she on trying to keep this aspect of her psyche under control that she wasn't aware of her hastening pace; before she knew it she was practically running, her footfalls echoing hollowly against the uncaring stone.

That had been altogether too close! she fumed to herself. And where was Freedon? Hadn't he vowed to remain with her, to watch over her, to take her with him?

She reached out vainly.

Freedon, are you there?

Nothing. Only the stir of her own memories came in reply.

Without knowing where her budding mentor had gotten himself off to -- for all she knew this sudden absence of communication could very well mean he was dead! -- and not knowing how to follow in his footsteps, all she could do was go back to her mundane little position at the bottom of the totem pole.

She didn't like it one bit.

I'll do this myself, then, she vowed to herself, slowing now so as to think more logically.

Somehow, someway, I'll find those people he was referring to. I'll join them, somehow.

But for the moment, all she could do was try to figure out how that event was going to occur, exactly. It was enough to slow her pell-mell pace; with a sigh, she lowered her head and continued on at a mere walk, now allowing hot tears to finally escape from the imprisonment she had imposed upon them.

The daugher of the Dark Lady of the Sith, the Lady ShaRhylla...

((OOC: To see what happened, go to page 7, this date, in Out of the Unknown in the "CSWU" forums, thank you.))

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Nevermind that it was only by pure happenstance that she, and she alone, was the sole person said populace could turn to... at least for the moment.

When her ego had filled to where it could hold nothing more, she raised her arms dramatically to the sky, the sleeves of her robes falling down to expose her pale and slender arms.

"For you!" she cried out, knowing full and well her powers would come to her at her merest whim, and by said whim would restore whatever in S'slan's Name they were down there moaning and complaining about. As for herself, she hadn't the slightest clue, nor, if anyone would ask, did she really care.

She made a gesture... and nothing happened. The mysterious devices running the great city remained silent; a fast running messenger departed, only to return with the shocking knowledge that the Great Library was yet dark and unresponsive.

The halfling frowned, forcing down a rising chill, and tried again, this time harder. Nothing. She blinked, waved a hand to create a portal into the Library...

Yet nothing.

The cries of the people took on an ominous overtone then, as with no further ado she ran back into her suites, locking herself in before further attempting anything with her innate talents.

She couldn't so much as create a sugarplum for her dessert.

Wafting out over the rising cries of the populace of Phrinnchatka, there now came a ululating howl, one born from the depths of anger and frustration...

And not laced without more than a little fear.

[ 11-16-2007 03:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Naad had sensed something was wrong with the workings of magick days before the first panick stricken Sith artificer had informed him of the problem, and almost a whole week before a handful refugees from the hysteria that had enveloped Phrinchackta had arrived at the gates to his city and begged for sanctuary with its walls. Relatively new and primitive, the city of the United Sith was founded more on mundane technology than magick, and so its sudden failure, though disturbing to those long used to manipulating its power, was not catastrophic. Naad had not taken the news well. Cloistering himself in his office for days, the sorcerer had struggled to make even the least magick function. He failed on all accounts, and when he finally gave up he fell into such a foul mood that none of his advisers dared try to rouse him from his torpor. Instead they tried to compensate for his absence by assuming his responsibilities for a time. While the city looked eagerly to its absent leader for guidance in this time of trial, Naad brooded in the shadows of his private chambers, appearing only when absolutely necessary to deliver half-hearted speeches of comfort. In the darkness of his despair, the demon of ambition once again began to whisper in his ear.
Perhaps all is not lost it told him, After all, if you can't use magick, neither can they. Perhaps this is a sign from S'slan himself. Pull yourself together, its time to lead your people out of this plodding mundanity and onward to glory.

At first he ignored these notions, remembering the humiliation he had suffered in his past attempt at political overthrow. But his ambition whispered tales of glory and grandeur and offered him political power to fill the void that the loss of his magick had left inside him. Naad could not resist for long. As it is said, "A tiger cannot change his stripes." When Naad finally emerged from seclusion he was once again the fiery and charismatic leader his people needed. He was also filled with a terrible ambition and now, as far as he could tell, he was competing on an even playing field. There was much planning to be done. But Naad suspected that even this catastrophe could be made to serve his ends.

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

Panthar shrugged and stood, almost, in the small cockpit. A short crawl brought him to the passenger area of the converted bomber. The seats were empty, yet kept clean by the minimal maintenance offered by the Sith.

Panthar scratched his head and walked to the back panel across from him. Touching a button, he caused the panel to slide open, revealing a stack of three sleek black boxes sitting atop a larger flat box.

Intrigued, he removed the top box and opened it. Inside was white blaster, set in a cushioned niche that seemed to be made just for it. Below the barrel, also set in its own niche, was a com-link. Panthar smiled and checked the next box. Finding rations in this box, he removed the other identical box and set both aside.

Truly curious now, he took out the larger box and peeked inside. His face lit with delight and he whirled to return to the cockpit.

“You will never guess what I found!” he exclaimed as he sat. Matt returned a curious look to Panthar’s beaming face. Unable to control his excitement further, Panthar lifted the top off of the large box.

“Holo-chess!” he shouted.

Four standard hours later, Panthar finished a last game of solitaire chess and placed the lid on the box. Matt had been dozing for some time, and Panthar cleared his throat loudly to wake Matt.

“We’ll be entering normal space pretty soon, I think,” he said as Matt stirred. “Do you want another game before we do?”

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

"Ahhhh, I think I'll pass," he commented lightly. "After years of playing sabaac with Jasyn, I've become a bit competitive myself. And at the moment I'm short the credits to bid. Besides, I wanna give systems a good look over and make sure we're all set for reversion."

Saying nothing further, Matt did precisely that, looking over everything on the navboard with a fine-tooth comb. As he was finishing up, the hyperspace counter began winding its way down to zero, a red light blinking rhythmically on the navboard. And although Matt wasn't as good of a pilot as some others, he still managed to bring the modified TIE from hyperspace into realspace with a touch of grace.

He established orbit and then ran a planetary scan, frowning a bit as he did so.

"Ahhh, Panthar?" he queried,shooting a look over to the man in a Sith's body, "We might have a problem here. Although I've been here several times, I've never been the one piloting...

...and I don't know the coordinates for the spaceport or the capital city. Still, this ship was on Khar Delba, so the coordinates might be here..."

He trailed, pulling up the navigational logs as he did so. "But if not...

...we are going to have to find the port. And all things considered, we just might not want to sit down right in the port anyway...

...just to keep a low profile, you know."

And to keep a means of getting out of here if we need to, he thought to himself.

[ 07-19-2008 12:46 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Matt Stanza ]

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...but their leaders do. And ShaRhylla, as I have been trying to point out, is not necessarily the most predictable. I say low profile just in case we get in over our heads, good intentions or not."

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“Point taken,” he said. “Hopefully she won’t somehow blame us for this.”

Panthar paused, his eyes flicking to Matt.

“You, um… you don’t think she would do that, do you?”

A beeping sound interrupted Matt’s reply, and both men looked down at the navboard. I small light blinked next to a readout, and Panthar leaned in to read it.

“It looks like we better figure out where the spaceport is pretty soon,” he said. “This is saying that the fuel is low. I’ll check the log to see if we have any coordinate…”

Panthar reached for the navboard buttons, then stopped as another readout scurried across the screen.

“Wow,” he said, reading. “I think this ship has been here before. It is reading out a report of an abandoned spaceport on the surface. I think that’s probably our place… ya think?”

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

He paused, keying something in on the navboard. "It'll have to do."

With nothing other than, Matt brought the modified fighter out of orbit and honed her in on the coordinates the log gave them, heading for atmosphere. As he did so, he kept his eyes peeled on both the navboard and the view screen...

...and became increasingly aware that the spaceport the logs were telling them was there wasn't there at all. Instead they were coming in on dense jungle...

...with no immediate signs of any good clearing to land the ship. Unfortunately, it was too late in the landing cycle to return to atmosphere and doing so would burn far too much fuel. Matt didn't have any other choice but to crash-land.

"Hang on!" he yelled, not even sparing a moment to look at Panthar. "We don't have the fuel to go back to atmosphere!"

Slowing the ship as much as he could, Matt continued to descend, finding the closest approximation to a clearing as he could, thankful that the ship they were in was at least fairly small. As they proceeded downward and the ship continued to slow, various and sundry unidentifiable scratches, bumps, gratings, and thumps could be heard as they half-landed, half-crashed, to the surface. The final few moments of landing consisted of nearly rolling to a standstill.

Only then did Matt take his eyes from the navboard to assess any personal injuries. Aside from a minor scratch or pain here or there, he was mostly unscathed. As he looked over to Panthar, Matt was thankful to find that the other man seemed fairly hale and whole, circumstances considered.

"Nice spaceport..." he muttered then, waiting for Panthar to recover and wondering just where on the planet they truly were.

[ 07-19-2008 11:40 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Matt Stanza ]

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The Preon exited hyperspace and smoothly glided to realspace as Shayla established orbit around the planet of K'eel Doba. In short order she then programmed in coordinates to Ch'arlingua into the navcomputer, letting her ship do the work of determining the appropriate time window to begin its descent. For a few moments, her greeny-blue eyes defocused then as she centered on something newly-developing within her psyche, something borne not unnatrally but instead of a growing understanding. Meditating upon that for some time, Shayla was only jarred from these thoughts as the Preon's navboard began to chirp insistently at her, indicating that it was leaving orbit and heading for atmosphere to begin the landing cycle.

Refocusing her attentions on the ship then, Shayla monitored the navboard as she headed into the bustling spaceport, still managing to land with an air of grace that no one other than a true pilot could manage. As the ship settled itself on the tarmac, Shayla cooled the engines and put them to sleep, fully expecting to be met upon exiting as she then got to her feet and brushed off her violet and silver flightsught. Surveying the controls of the Preon a final time, she left the cabin of the yacht and moved purposefully to the hatch of the ship. Keying in a series of numbers on the nearby control, she extended the hatch, pausing only a moment to remove a violet cloak from a wardrobe closet and wrap it about herself.

Departing the Preon entirely, she closed and secured the hatch even as she was approached by a pair of Sith warriors. She lowered her head respectfully, remaining motionless for a moment before looking up once more.

"I am Shayla Stargazer, Chosen Sister of Lady Graysith," she said simply, "I wish to speak with her or Lady ShaRhylla, with news of the utmost importance," she explained briefly, lowering her face once more in deference and waiting to see what the two warriors would do.

[ 07-19-2008 12:47 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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“Are you all right? Dang, what happened? I was hoping that the spaceport on the screen was the main one in the city, since this ship belonged to Darth What-his-name and he was probably using this ship before the Sith returned. But I didn’t expect jungle.”

Panthar rose and crawled back into the cargo area. He located the boxes in various places and gathered them up. He threw one of the rations boxes to Matt and tucked the other inside his shirt, then opened the blaster case and took out both the weapon and the communicator.

“All right, at least we have some food, water, and weapons. Now let’s see if we can find this old spaceport and figure out where we are.”

He touched the controls for the doorway, and even though a light blipped the door remained shut. He tried again, and again there was no response. Growling, he brought down his massive fist hard against the bulkhead next to the controls. The panel blipped, then lit up, and the door groaned open.

“You sure you’re all right?” he asked again. Matt nodded, and Panthar lingered for a moment and then stepped out into the jungle air. His head popped back, eyes and forehead set in a quizzical look.

“Hey, they don’t have tuk’ata here, do they?”

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

He paused with that, scanning the area with his alert green eyes. "At least there looks like there is a clearing back that way," he indicated then, nodding in a particular direction. "Maybe that's our spaceport. Although wouldn't want to assume as much. This whole planet was completely different before the Sith's return. It's logical to assume the logs coordinates might not be so accurate now."

He shrugged then, beginning to walk as they headed towards the previously indicated clearing. In the clearing, nestled within a mountainous region, was a small, one story heavy-stone edifice. On its doors were multiple runes and symbols.

Matt frowned, never having seen this before. "I have no idea where we are," he indicated, pursing his lips. "I'd say we should pull up the ship's logs again, but they've already been proven faulty so I don't know were that would get us. Now might be a good time to see if one of our comm links can raise somebody to steer us in the right direction, since our ship is for the moment stuck were it is and low on fuel."

Matt sighed. "Unless, of course, you have a better idea."

[ 07-19-2008 09:44 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Matt Stanza ]

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“Hang on,” he said. “I can read Sith, maybe I can make this out.”

He walked closed to the stone and gazed upon the symbols. He was confused, expecting to see a recognizable pattern, instead was greeted with a series of strange images he could not immediately recognize.

“Whoa, this is really unusual. This is not Sith writing, per se… not letters… wait, wait a minute… These are symbols, and I’ve seen things like this before. On a planet, where I discovered the crystal that held Phalo-- wait a minute, this place seems really familiar. I think maybe I’ve been here before.”

Panthar looked around, trying to remember why these surroundings seemed familiar. He ran his hand along the stone and then onto the ancient door, tracing the images engraved upon it. He placed his finger into the groove that outlined a particular symbol, one he recognized but at the moment had trouble naming. It was a combination of sharp angles and smooth curves, bringing together the ferocity of conflict and the harmony of order…

“S’slan…”

Panthar’s eyes opened wide and shot to Matt.

“This is the Temple of S’slan!” he exclaimed.

[ 07-19-2008 10:24 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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Pausing then, he took a few steps about to take a further look at the area surrounding them. "There's jungle back that way," he said, pointing back towards the ship, "And mountains back that way," he said in the other direction.

"When you were at this temple, do you remember from where you came, and if you took either path to get here?"

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“Go in?” he half shouted. “We’re not going in there! The last time we barely made it out, and I don’t want to even think about going in there again. It does things to you… really bad…. things.”

Panthar stared at the door, his finger still pressed against the smooth track of the symbol of S’slan.

“Graysith said that the warriors used this place to prepare for battle. I don’t even remember why we were here, I think to just get away from everyone for a while. I think we almost died, but that memory is buried. I could feel it in my mind, wanting me to think like it does, to go out and do harm to all…”

Panthar moved his hand along the door and felt the ancient cold of the metal handle that held the door shut. It too was lined with symbols, and he ran a finger along their unknown meanings. His finger then paused, coaxing its brothers to join it as it wrapped around the handle.

Panthar gasped as he realized what he was doing. He forced himself to step back, then shook his head and turned to Matt.

“Graysith opened a portal to bring us here, I don’t know the way to the city. But… but there are mountains near the city, right? Not jungle so much, but mountains.”

As he spoke, his head turned slowly back to the door. A deeply rooted desire to pull it open and enter the temple crept its way into his heart, and he saw his hand reaching outward for the handle once again.

A bead of sweat trickled its way down his forehead and dripped into his eye.

“Stop me…” he whispered.

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He trailed a walking over to the large sith and turning him away from the door, physically unable to wrap an arm about his shoulder in comraderie. Only after he'd gotten Panthar to step away a few paces did he motion towards the mountains, his words clesrly intended to draw his companion's attention away from the Temple.

"We've got hiking the mountains to look forward to, and I wouldn't want ya getting all worn out worrying," he commented lightly, turning a bit more serious then. "I say we get going."

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“Yeah,” he said. “Walking. That’s good, clear the head a bit. But Matt,” he said, turning his face to his companion. “I felt the pull of that place. It’s not an over-reaction, and I don’t think it’s just something in my head. I can still feel it, and if somehow that place still has the power to do that… then maybe Googly didn’t turn off everything. Do you remember what he told you, exactly?”

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He paused a moment, shrugging. "We need to focus ourselves to the task at hand and not worry about it," he then repeated. "I still say you're sensing something that you fear, and not necessarily something that is really there. I mean, thusfar no sith Magicks or any powers have worked. I don't know why this Temple would be a sudden exception to the rule."

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Panthar looked back towards the mountains, his frown deepening.

“Looks like a long way to the mountains,” he said. “Might take a couple of days. So yeah, I’m with ya, let’s get started.”

And with that, the two men began their long walk.

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

One which most certainly confirmed to her that Graysith had been right all along, about a great many things.

The only thing that drew her from her thoughts was the transport slowing to a graceful stop. Again the warrior motioned her to follow, and again she complied, knowing where they were going but allowing him to take the lead out of nothing other than sheer respect. At length they finally came to the Temple and she was escorted inside into the Grand Foyer, where the warrior indicated that she stop. He then proceeded to have a conversation in High Sith with another, who nodded and turned, heading out of the Foyer and back towards an area Shayla knew held the living suites.

She merely waited, hoping that Graysith was at the Temple, more than willing to take whatever steps might be necessary to find her if she was not.

[ 07-21-2008 09:05 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"A thousand pardons, Lady, but the Dark Lady is currently not within the Temple walls," he announced smoothly, his eyes pinned on a point approximately seventeen centimeters above her left shoulder.

"The Lady ShaRhylla is in, but has been... indisposed for some time now.."

“So,” he broke into the silence. “How do you think the others are faring? You think Shayla has come back yet? I can’t imagine what Eric and her are going through. Oh, man, and I know I must have seemed cold back there… Everything is just so strange now.”

Panthar’s thoughts drifted, as did his eyes, into the woods that thickened slightly in this area.

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"The Dark Lady's life is in danger," Shayla said in a voice low and full of portent. "Finding her is of the greatest importance, and I need Lady ShaRhylla's help."

Shayla paused then, considering. "I know of the loss of powers and magicks...

... as well as how it happened and what we must do to possibly regain them."

She fell silent a moment, letting those words speak for themselves. "I am willing to deal with Lady ShaRhylla's wrath myself, for the sake of Graysith's the Dark Lady, if you can tell me where I might find her."

[ 07-21-2008 09:41 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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But if what this young human was saying now was indeed true...

Surely the Lady will forgive me bringing her into her presence, and if angered just might take it out on her instead of me.

He closed his eyes, and bowed fractionally.

"If you will follow me then," he said without missing a beat before turning and leading Shayla from their current position and into the warren of corridors which lead into the very heart of the great temple. After several turns, and after going down a particularly noisome set of moss-ridden stairs, they came upon an immense, blackened door. A dim reddish light showed at the base of it.

The Major Domo stopped and bowed.

"These are the rooms the Lady has taken to of late," he said, the closest apology Shayla would receive for being led so far away from the inhabited part of the magnificent temple.

"You will find her within those doors."