Without hesitation, Shayla took a step inside the portal...

...her heart searching for answers that her mind was well aware of. Knowing that others would follow her, Shayla took a few more steps into the swampland, the canopied bed nearby seeming as though it somehow belonged where it was. Instinctively, Shayla stretched out with the Force...

...and was impacted with the very essence of the place. The essence of life in all its facets, of simplicity and ebb and flow.

Shayla closed her eyes. Something of this place both comforted her and discomforted her at the same time. Momentarily, she opened her eyes, the white spiders which had been crawling up and down some nearby trees now drawing her attention.

And in the midst of all this life and death, they continue on and on, as if it has no effect on them...?

She closed her eyes again, her very soul caught into the strange power of this otherwise simplistic place.

"Do you feel it?" Shayla now queried quietly to whomever might follow, her thoughts now drawn to wonder just why Jharmeen had been drawn to this place, as was Yoda once upon a time.

There was something about this place...

A chill raced up and down Shayla's spine, a sudden sense of hope tingling in her nerves.

"Life..." she then whispered quietly, the single word meaning far more to her than perhaps it ever had before...

[ 03-21-2006 11:04 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Phalomir motioned for Panthar to go through the portal, and waited as Panthar shoved Thoran through and followed. Phalomir glanced at the others still in the room, then entered the portal with Jharmeen in his arms.

The air was as he remembered from the night before. A light mist rose from the ground in places, and the call of a bird welcomed them. The others were taking in the strange wonder of the place, allowing Phalomir to go directly to the bed that was still near in place near the tree of spiders. He moved back the canopy and placed Jharmeen gently on the bed. He placed his hand on her forehead as if hoping to find a sign of life, but there was none.

“Rest, my love,” he said quietly. He stood and began to straighten the linen around her. He unwrinkled her gown and moved a pillow to rest under her head. Her beauty was manifest, even in death, marred only by her silent stillness. Phalomir closed the canopy and stepped back.

He called forth his magicks, his energies heightened as the tattoo of entitlement on his face blazed forth with the power of the Dark Lord of Armorers. Mixing his magick with his love, he worked the energies into the bed itself, strengthening its physical form and weaving into it the protection of a vault. The canopy itself hardened, and the entire bed now formed a solid impenetrable seal around Jharmeen’s body.

Phalomir knelt, the damp ground cool upon his knee. He supported himself with his hand, and even as the footfalls of the others came from behind him he let his head drop to rest upon his arm. He was exhausted.

“We fight the battles we can,” he said.

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

Phalomir’s head picked up slightly at that, and Thoran stepped back.

“Well, right, anyway, maybe we could get our portal-packing friend here to make one of those shieldy things they do, around the bed there, just as an added bonus? I mean, there’s spiders and bugs and stuff.”

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

Magick, sheer magick. There was no other word to put to it.

One moment we were all grouped amidst cold stones and dim light and gloomy atmosphere. The next, surrounded by life so buoyantly expressive as to bring instinctive, responsive joy into even Phalomir's burdened soul.

Only it didn't seem to be happening.

Frowning a little I yanked myself away from the wonder of this place, releasing Terrin's hand to walk over to where the Sith Lord knelt upon the rich, swampy ground. Before him stood a strange sort of fortress, one looking remarkably like a bed. I could only assume that he had laid Jharmeen's body inside to protect her while we went about the business of trying to reconnect her spirit with it.

I stood behind him a moment, catching the tail end of the brief words he had spoken. Watched quietly as Thoran tried to cheer him up only to then walk off a little distance. Waited a moment or two longer to give him a a little more time to grieve.

Then gave him a solid boot in the hiney.

"Hey, yeah buddy, we are going to fight the battles we can, and win them, dammit. The key word in that statement, in case you haven't been paying attention to yourself, is we; you're not the only one involved in this now. But you're one of the two or three here with the most power to make what we need to accomplish happen, and it sure as there's Treasure on Roon ain't gonna happen if you don't buck up and act like a Sith!

"So get your act together and give us some direction here! What's on the agenda now?"

Not quite certain if he had paid me any attention, I booted his hiney one more time, just for good measure.

[ 03-21-2006 10:09 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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“Gotcha,” he said.

He smiled, his strange private joke beating down the sorrow that had been filling him. His eyes danced with the sudden relief, and gave away the joy that being in this grove brought him. This was where he and Jharmeen had begun their new life, and this is where she would be safe until her life was restored.

“What is on the agenda now is to first determine who is with us, then we listen to what Thoran has to say, and if we do not kill him then we determine the next course of action from there. Where is he?”

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

Tell the truth, it was good to see him coming back to his old self. What's a near miss or two on a broken face in return?

I smiled, nodding my head to one side.

"He's just over there--"

Then my eyes widened, for something behind Phalomir's back was happening. Something unusual to say the very least, unusual enough to shut me up in mid-sentence, and that's saying a lot.

My jaw hung stupidly open and I gawked, my gaze glued to Jharmeen's nest-like bed, too shocked to even move.

"Wow," was all I could manage in a tiny, drawn-out whisper.

[ 03-21-2006 10:11 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Or, the reverse...

A strange, subliminal humming suddenly breaks out. It is not of this clearing, nor of this region, nor even of so mundane a thing as this planet. It's source lies otherwhere, everywhere and nowhere.

All coalesced into a single point.

And from that point a string is plucked, harmonics phase together in the plane of the celestial, crying out, seeking answers, answers to which a reply is obediently returned. The singularity manifests itself; upon a tiny mote of green, miniscule motes of white now crawl from their lofty places in myriads, thousands of millions, beyond count. Down and down they come, marching in unhearing cadence with each other, all tied, all one, all the point itself being forced to move in response to the motions of motes who Would Be None.

Intriguing.

The spiders came in droves, like army ants, from every gnarl-tree within a kilometer's distance, millions and millions of tiny bodies all operating as if via a single mind. The swarmed into the clearing, forcing the strange bipeds back, out, away; their intentions unerring they made for the fortress Phalomir had built, scrambling as one up and around and over it.

There they settled, their tiny legs linked, their little bodies centimeters thick, forming a living, protective mat over every cubic millimeter of the once soft and live-giving bed.

Reality blinked for a fraction; and a pair of chrome-shot ultraviolet Eyes materialized against the writhing mat of spiders.

"Point," He/She/It said, following that unexpected statement with, "You are beyond the Game now, you know."

Then the monstrous Eyes simply faded away, leaving the group to each other, the swamp, and the spiders.

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

As Jasyn crossed the portal and stepped into the swamps of Degobah, he scowled.

Ugggh, a swamp...

But, before he could state his lack of happiness with the locale, he froze in his tracks, his commrade having to stop suddenly behind him so as not to slam right into him.

Jasyn's eyes widened, looking at the scene of the canopied bed covered in white spiders.

"Kriffing hell," he started, "Wlhat are they doing???"

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

"How in Hell's Seven Circles would I know?" I shot back in a fierce whisper, my eyes still glued on the living coverlet that had totally enveloped the entire bed my sister was encased within.

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

A power she knew well, for a healer she was.

You are beyond the game, now, you know...

Shayla blinked, her eyes falling closed once more. "There is hope," Shayla said calmly. "I have the feeling her death was not part of the Game, but rather was brought on by something most unnatural. Life can be returned to her, somehow..."

Her eyes snapped open then, and Shayla looked Thoran straight in the eye, the look in her own extremely intense. "Exactly what were you made to do...

...and how do you intend to rectify it?"

Falling silent at that, the look in Shayla's eyes all but screamed the suspicion now burning deep within her.

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

“All right,” he said. “There’s one of my concerns out the window. I was a little worried about having to deal with That Which Is, when I did That Which I Did or That Which I Need To Do…”

He cleared his throat and half-smiled.

“All right, no more stalling.” He shifted uncomfortable on his feet, looked absently at the mound of white spiders and shook his head in awe.

“For the past several hundred -- maybe thousand, I don’t know -- years, I’ve been working for the being you have come to know as the Master. Well, ‘working for’ isn’t exactly the right term, because we used to have a partnership, and it dissolved into more of a slavery. He doesn’t call himself ‘master’ for nothing, you know. Well, he needed me, more to point he needed my power. I’m a mage, of sorts. Nothing so powerful as to be in line for the Dark Lordship or anything, but I have my abilities. You’ve seen them, I specialize in the spirit. Not just mine, but others as well.”

Thoran glanced at Phalomir, and could tell that the Dark Lord’s blood was beginning to boil.

“So, anyway, about the Master,” he hurried. “He had me out on a job, one where my spirit was sent off to do something nasty and vile, and then kidnapped my body. I was forced to do a lot of badness for him, and the strangest thing yet was the setup I arranged for Phalomir. More on that another time, because right now I need to confess something worse and explain why I am here.”

He shifted again, not sure what would happen to him, but needing to go on.

“So, I’ve been trying to free myself from the Master, but with no luck. Until, that is, I’m stuck inside of Phal again, and he is being tortured in the Darker Realms, and is unconscious a lot. I take over sometimes, and I meet this little imp who hangs out there in the Dark Hall, a special little guy. We start to talking, and he takes a liking to me. He is also bound to the Master, but in a different way, and would like nothing more than to see his downfall.”

“All right, now the meat of the story. I was sent into Graysith, after Phal was rescued. When they were, um, touching, I transferred myself into her. She was too, um, distracted to notice. Then I went to work, under the orders of the Master, and um… I, um… I made her spirit separate itself from her body. The Master was waiting, and he snatched it away.”

He closed his eyes, waiting for the wallup.

“But there’s more,” he said, clenching his teeth and his eyes shut, still waiting to be pummeled.

[ 03-22-2006 12:08 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Thoran ]

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"Why should we believe you now?"

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

He inhaled deeply.

“So I killed Graysith, sort of. But I tagged along for the ride, you see. The Master was in such a hurry to catch her freed spirit that he didn’t notice me clinging to it. Then when we were sucked into the Darker Realms, I let go and tumbled away. I didn’t know if the imp could find me, but he did, and he brought me to the place where the Master had hidden my body. Once that was located, it was a simple matter to jump back into it. The imp opened up a portal into K’eel Doba, and then I searched the temple until I found you all.”

Thoran raised his eyebrows.

“And now that we have her body safely stored… well, I guess it is safe, I sure wouldn’t want to go wading through a million spiders. Anyway, we need to get to her spirit. Once we have her spirit in proximity to her body, I can do my thing and get her put back together.”

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

"I think he's actually giving us the truth here," I said.

"I mean, why on earth would he confess to what he just did--"

Then it hit me. My eyes widened as Thoran's words sunk into my hot little brain. Before I really knew what I was doing I had stomped up to him and, reaching up, grabbed myself a handful of Sith robes.

Ok, so I couldn't haul him down to my level. But I sure as hell could haul myself up to his.

"Ok, buddy, so we've all played Father Superior or whatever to your confession," I gritted out between my teeth. My grip on his clothing tightened.

"You killed my sister, but buddy, you bet your sweet hindquarters you're gonna put her back the way you found her.

"Just like you did with Terrin-- or you're gonna have to deal with me."

Still holding onto him I nodded at Terrin, then fell into a dangerous silence.

[ 03-22-2006 12:57 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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He folded his arms in front of himself, and took a few steps forward. "And if she's upset," he added, nodding towards Galen, "You're gonna have to deal with me too, superpowers or not."

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

Thoran looked at Phalomir.

“There’s just one little thing however…”

Thoran shifted uncomfortably again.

“There is some kind of power within her, and I’m not sure what it is exactly. I mean, it might be related to her All abilities, or it might be something completely different, but the image I got was that of a— a— beast. There’s just no other way to describe it. I saw it once before, when I jumped into her briefly back on the ship… but, anyway, that was a pain to get around, and I’m not sure if I can handle it myself again. What I mean is that we can’t bring her body to her spirit, so we will have to bring her spirit back here. That means we need a vessel, and I don’t think I am strong enough to contain that beastie thing if it decides to wake up while I’m putting her back. We need someone with a really strong will, and maybe some powerful energies, too.”

[ 03-22-2006 01:19 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Thoran ]

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She was one with the Force, and quite simply a part of the Force. She felt very much a small part of All That Is, as they all were.

But her eyes snapped to alertness at Thoran's final words.

"I know that I am not the most powerful person here, but I do have the will to do whatever it takes to keep Jharmeen's spirit safe. And, because I am a healer, maybe that will be helpful towards placing her back into her body as well."

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

Phalomir walked to where Galen still held Thoran by the robes.

“And if you lie,” he said quietly. “If you betray us, you will have more than my wrath to contend with.” Phalomir indicated Galen and Shayla, then turned back to Thoran. “I still do not know the whole story between you and I, Thoran, but if we are unsuccessful in reviving Jharmeen then your side of the story ends abruptly.”

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

Thoran winked at Galen, then turned to Phalomir, dragging Galen with him as he moved.

“I’m doing this for me as much as for you, so can it already. The Master is a dangerous son-of-a-womprat, and there is no way I can take him down alone. So yeah, I will help you get her back together. But you have to help me take down the Master in order for it to work. Understand this? When all is said and done, if the Master lives, then she doesn’t.”

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

"Oh great, see?" I nodded at Thoran.

"I knew there was a catch."

With that I stalked back the few steps I had backed off and raised up on my tiptoes in front of him. This time I didn't give him the pleasure of grabbing onto his robes.

The creep--

"No dice, buddy," I spat, pinning him with the darkest look I could manage.

"We sneak into the Darker Realms, we snatch Sissypoops, we cart her spirit back here and you reunite her with her own loving self again.

"Then we'll have enough oomph between us to take on the Master, not to mention the willingness to do so."

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

My suggestion is that we get Jharmeen's body to a safe location and determine who could carry her spirit, now. And while I'm clearly not the most knowledgable about these things, I'd assume we want someone who is not so emotionally connected to Jharmeen," he observed, glancing to Phalomir then Shayla, "while still being very powerful."

He paused a moment. "But, first things first, let's get going. If we don't take Jharmeen's body to this hidden location Shayla mentioned, and we can't get her to Aelvedaar, do we have any other alternatives?"

[ 03-25-2006 11:02 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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“They’re so cute when they pretend to be smart,” he said. Turning back to Galen, his face became very serious.

“What I am saying is that there is no way we will be able to sneak in there and grab sissypoops without killing the Master. Maybe before, yeah, but now that he has become one with the Dark Hall, it will be impossible. The second we step foot in there, he’ll know. Look, he thinks that he’s doing you a favor by taking away the distraction of keeping her safe from Roan. I don’t know what the heck he wants to focus on, but by running there to grab her spirit will really piss him off.”

Thoran locked his hands behind his back.

“And I know how to kill him, we just need one little thing to do it, and it should be too hard to get it. Remember that little Finger thing?”

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

"Finger thingy?" I repeated, perhaps sounding a bit stupid but not really caring at the moment.

"Didn't ol' Googly Eyes snag that from Sis before he left us?"

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

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

I scowled, and took one threatening step toward him, ignoring Terrin tightening his grip on my arm.

"You seem to know so much, how about spreading a little bit of that wealth around?" I asked, jutting my chin out defiantly but softening that gesture with a sideways toss of my head, one meant to encompass the others and thus indicate that I was not the only one interested in scrutinizing any other pearls of wisdom he might be willing or able to drop into our midst.

[ 03-25-2006 11:18 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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