...and about the consistency of synthboard.

Grimacing at that, Jasyn took a drink out of the canteen of water he held in his hands. On his back, as well as the others, was a backpack with more water, medical supplies...

...and a few Kaminoan stun darts. Though not deadly as were the species' poison darts, they might prove helpful in a bind, and Jasyn had no qualms using them. Not that he expected to run into anyone on this ball of sand and fire...

"How do we know when we are... there?" Jasyn called up to Stargazer, who was a few steps ahead of both he and Jasyn.

Shayla's greeny-blues had that determined look in them once again. "The Eye will let us know when we are either there or it is time to change course. Til then, it's westerward with the wind, at least for the next two days..."

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

...but above all those things came the images of two loved ones, one whom sha had unwillingly left behind and another whom she had been parted from without her knowledge and against her will...

...and Shayla knew down deep that it was much the same with Graysith. The Graysith she knew would have never left her somewhere to die...

...but she had been left here at the behest of...

...well, whomever or whatever had apparently possessed Graysith.

Shayla frowned at this thought, now speaking to the Eye as something occurred to her. Is it to the Black Canyon which you are leading us now? she started with. If so, I find it strange...

...and even deeply troubling...

...that someone who had the desire to possess Graysith would leave us within a few days walk of the place on a planet as large as the one I believe we are on...

...for this is Korriban, is it not? Surely if we have been deposited so closely to such a place there must be some dark intent at play...

She paused at that a moment, pursing her lips as this dark thought roiled about in her mind. Then, And if it is not to the Black Canyon which you lead us...

...then where?

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

...and the skies darker. Though the sun had been beating down upon them, there suddenly seemed to be a certain chill in the air...

...and sand flew about before them and behind them. Shayla wrapped her purple cloak more tightly about herself.

"We're going to have to stop, dammit!" Jasyn yelled over the now-howling wind. "I think we're about to experience the equivalent of a Tatooine sand storm."

"No!" Shayla called back as she then scanned the landscape--or rather, sandscape--before them. "We need to get to higher ground," she then stated, pointing in front of her to where a great sort of sand dune beckoned, its peak looking inviting. And then she pressed onward. "Hurry!" she persisted.

And even as they did, the winds seemed to increase, somehow pushing her forward til she seemed to reach the apex of the dune...

...and then just as suddenly, the wind settled to the gentle whisp it had been back when she and the others had found the entrance to the hidden Kaminoan laboratory.

Shayla stopped midstep, and her eyes widened as she looked about herself. A frozen image of a day long past but only recently remembered flashed across her mind's eye, one of a Sith beckoning to her.

A strange sort of de ja vu overcame her.

"My gods," she whispered, "There's something familiar about this place..."

And in the meantime a voice deep inside of her cried out to the Eye: What is this place?

[ 03-10-2004 10:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Strangeness.

Now curiousity got the better of her, pushing the momentary stab of fear into a protective envelope of sorts where it could be readily assessed later. Now all her attention was focused on the soft glow of the thing she wore at her hip.

What is this? she wondered, entranced by its beauty as well as by the power inherent within its gracile frame. Trembling a little, she let one slender finger trace its outline, coming to a halt at its razor-sharp tip.

Only then did she realize that the words in her head were not thoughts of her own.

She gasped, flung her head up, looked about herself, her eyes wide and searching.

Nothing. Only the reassuring familiarity of the bridge of the ship, and the viewport which yet displayed a blackness beyond that of the fabric of spacetime.

She gulped, spoke up in a whisper.

"Who is it that speaks to me?" she asked, partly in wonder, partly in fear, but goaded primarily by utter curiosity. She hadn't been picked to be the Chosen Daughter for nothing, after all.

"Where are you, and what do you wish of me?"

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

The glow shifted to a slight blue around the edge, adding a soft light to the red light shining from the jewels near the tip, and a feeling of soft warmth flowed from the whole device.

It glowed warmly in her hand, soothing away any final hesitation she might have felt toward it.

“Tell me, T'elion de R’lous,” she said softly, changing her hands to where one grasped the channeler by it’s handle, the other moving to brush up and down its length lightly. That hand, her right one, stopped at the sharp, engraved tip, where the Claw of S’slan fingered it, testing its keenness.

“How do you know me? When have we become acquaintances? I have no knowledge of you, no memory. My dear Sire has made no mention of you to me, nor has my love Lord Wicked; are you of Sith origin or other?”

She fell silent with that, her gaze now straying to the Claw affixed to her finger, and absently wondered how she had come to be in possession of that little item as well.

[ 03-18-2004 09:52 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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"Are you allright?" Stanza queried.

"Yes," Shayla replied, "But we're going to have to change our strategy now. The Eye insists that only one of us proceed on; the other two of us should stay back behind to act as a lifeline to the one who goes on. We're being lead to the former location of Valley of the Dark Lords--

--this is Korriban. And all this considered, I think it's only logical that I should be the one to proceed onward; I'm the only one of us who will be able to establish a Force-link to act as a lifeline and I have the Force to protect me where a physical weapon may not. I'd better get on the move now since every second is a second more of wasted time--"

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

--but what if it could also make you a target for whatever or whomever might lie ahead? You've already stated how highly convenient it is that we were deposited on Korriban, and if we are as close to the Valley as the Eye seems to make it appear--

--maybe there is some dark intent behind the reason we were left in this location. I'm thinking maybe you should ahhh...

...discuss your decision to be the one to split from the group before we make the final call. And after all, there are as many benefits to having a Force user holding the lifeline at the saving end as there would be to her being on the receiving end..."

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

--and also related Stanza's misgivings concerning her decision.

The EE employee raises some viable points, she then thought to the Eye, Would it indeed be a wise thing for me to proceed onward with you on my person...

...or should another one of us go on from here instead?

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

The sprit sat silent for a brief moment.

“My dear lady,” it said softly at last. “I can bear this no longer. It pains me to tell you these things, but much has happened… much indeed… since the day of your last memory.”

The glow from the jewels shifted to a light blue.

“My dear lady, what I have to tell will bring you much shock and despair, please do not think ill of me for being the messenger. Your sire, the Dark Lord Aelvedaar, has deceived you. He has used you in a game of dominance for the galaxy, causing you great pain and suffering, both emotionally and physically, in bringing the Sith forward in time to where we are now. Since then he has misled you, lied to you, and manipulated you and those you care for. Even now, your closest friends are in a struggle to fight him and the terrible Lord Roan, to save you – and your sister.”

Another brief silence.

Lord Wicked was dead.

Her mouth dropped open. She shook her head, slowly, from side to side, and dropped the channeler as if it was poison.

”No,” she breathed, the words moist and thick with sudden tears. ”Say it is not so. My love… he cannot be dead. You lie; he lives! He is safe, hidden away; for he has sent me to—

“To…”

The denial choked to a halt in her throat as a sudden quandary burst through burning pain.

Why was she where she was? How had she come to be in the great warship; indeed, where had the warship come from to begin with? What was this ship? There were none such on Khar Delba, the last ship she remembered was the small but highly modified TIE fighter of her dear love. It was not Sith—

Where had that thought come from? Was this ship Sith? Had it something to do with the fact that Khar Delba now lived?

What happened?

She closed her eyes, imprinting the questions on her inner lids for later referral. Then heaving a shuddering sigh she loosened her clenched fists, leaned forward and regarded the channeler in silence. It lay on the decking at her feet, its responding silence almost that of rebuke for her treatment of it.

“How—“

The word was spoken no louder than a whimper; she swallowed and tried again.

“How am I to trust you, to believe what you say? What proof is there for me to go by? My dear Sire would no longer hurt me than I would him; how am I to know that what you now tell me is truth and not some foul attempt at deception?

“Who is this… Phalomir, whom you say has given you to me? The name has no meaning to me; why would he give an obvious magickal device to a woman who does not even know him?”

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

...then in that same moment, a certain sort of almost eerie calmness swept over her.

This was how it had to be, and she was fully and completely ready to except that.

"It has to be me," she then said silently to the patiently waiting Matt Stanza. He remained unmoving for but a second, then nodded.

"Very well," he replied, glancing down then into the decline below them. "Shall we continue on now?"

"Yes," Shayla responded. "The Eye says we will arrive at the base of the Canyon by tomorrow. But first..."

Shayla trailed, closing her eyes for a moment then raising a hand to ward off the oncoming questions as she refocused her gaze on them. "I feel that now is the time I must establish a mind link with both of you."

Quieting at that, she gave both men a few seconds to pose any objections. Neither did...

...although Lancaster did seem a little hesitant about this, perhaps a bit wary. Shayla smiled. "You will not be affected in any manner by the link...

...that is, until the time comes when I find it necessary to use it."

He pursed his lips a moment, then nodded briefly. "Just do it."

She returned the nod, and then simply closed her eyess, reaching out with the Force to open two mind links...

...one with Matt Stanza, and one with Jasyn Lancaster. The connection took her a few brief minutes to firmly establish, a few brief minutes which she did not want to waste once they reached the base of the canyon. Even as she felt the links snap into place, Shayla opened her eyes once more.

"Now," she said, her greeny blue eyes meeting with each pair of the men's eyes. "It is time."

And with no further ado than this Shayla Stargazer Petrolu Kartan turned on her heel and began working her way down into the canyon, two EE employees only a few steps behind.

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

Trust.

She jerked upright, yanking back the hand that was just about to grasp the channeler and draw it to her once more, and cradled it protectively in her other.

“Memories…” she began slowly, letting her heart pound in her chest and not trying one whit to force away the fresh wave of pain and hurt and bewilderment now rushing through her.

“How do I know that my memories were not taken by you, and that you wish to replace them with something other, although for what reason and purpose I cannot fathom unless it is for this—“

She trailed into ominous silence then, her eyes darkening dangerously even as the Glyph on her brow began to raven up the electromagnetic spectrum beyond that which was visible. It filled the atmosphere around her with its crackling strength, even as it filled her with a wonder equally as fierce.

Indeed… she didn’t remember having this much of what she thought she was yet learning at her command.

Her lip curled in a slight snarl of self-satisfaction and she stretched out one foot, and with one quick movement kicked the channeler almost disdainfully.

“Speak, and give me reason to believe you. Otherwise I shall take you to my dear Sire, who most certainly will explain away such quandaries for me.”

[ 03-22-2004 10:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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“Dear lady,” it said. “I understand how this has upset you, and I wish there was a way to bring back that trust. But truly, if you mean to return to that deceitful monster Aelvedaar, then discard me. He will surely try to harness my powers for his own gain, and our time together shall have been in vain. But look, dear lady, upon your very finger. From where did that object come? And the markings upon your wrist, from where did they arrive? Do you recall your days as Dark Lady? Lord Recinis? The birth of your children? Your later marriage to Lord Phalomir? Please, dear lady, please do not cast aside your life so easily. Aelvedaar has imprisoned many of your closest allies, has allied himself with demons, and has now sealed you away for safe keeping with your mind reset to a time when you were docile and loyal to him.”

The pulsing stopped, leaving just a soft dull red glow.

...not that he particularly liked that either. But at least one could dress for the cold...

"How much further down can this damn canyon go," Jasyn finally growled, looking downward into the expanse of canyon below them. "I thought we were supposed to..."

Stopping short, Jasyn froze, not even noticing that his two companions had done much the same, the same sort of awe painted on their faces. For the fact of the matter was that there was no canyon below them. Instead there was, well...

...nothing.

Jasyn struggled to pick his jaw up off the nonexistent ground of the canyon to blat forth the explicatives burning on his lips. "What the kriffing hell...???!!!" he managed at last, glancing over to Stargazer. She had, unnervingly enough, gathered her wits about herself. By the look now on her face one would think that it was an every day event to come upon a huge canyon of total blackness and total emptiness.

Damn the Jedi and their kriffing calm...

But Jasyn was slowly beginning to understand why she might be so damnably calm. "This is the place, isn't it?" he queried, cocking a brow.

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

She really had no means of knowing, one way or another, whether what the channeler spoke of was really the truth or not.

She glowered a bit longer at the thing, and then stood up.

“Very well,” she said simply, now leaning down to pick it up from the deck where she had dropped it. It lay in her hand, throbbing a dull red, yet still managed to send out a modicum of warmth toward her. That warmth immediately filled her hand, and began spreading slowly up her arm.

“I would be foolish indeed to deny any information having any bearing on me,” she finally admitted, letting her fingers close tightly about the shaft of the channeler. Her eyes flicked to the strange hieroglyphic design on her wrist; she shuddered inexplicably, before returning her full attention to the thing she held in her hands.

“My dear Sire would be the first to state that,” she admitted, then pressed on.

“Show me,” she commanded, and fell silent, letting her eyes fall closed as she shut out the warship around her, and concentrated fully on opening her mind to whatever the mystical device would show her.

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

...so they might as well be as comfortable as possible. Once the camp was set and Kaminoan nutrient bars were distributed, Shayla told the men that she would need some time to meditate. Even as Jasyn and Matt conversed back and forth and ate Shayla closed her eyes and let the peaceful energies of the Force surround her very soul. So for that brief hour, an hour in which her companions made ready to camp out for the coming evening, Shayla rested herself. When she came to herself once more she felt completely energized and rested...

...and totally at peace. Standing, she apprioached Lancaster and Stanza.

"I am ready," she said simply. "And when I am ready to return...

...you will know. So until then be wary and mindful..." She trailed, momentarily letting the barest of smiles slip, "...and make sure you have a good blaster at your side if local wildlife should happen to bother you."

Jasyn scowled at the comment, then sobered.

"I will return," Shayla stated, as if she was saying it to not merely the two men but herself as well. And with no further ado, Shayla Stargazer Petrolu Kartan turned to face that roiling nothingness...

...and placing her hand upon the hidden Eye, stood still for a moment as it radiated warmly beneath her touch.

Indeed, it was time...

This thought spurred Shayla into action. Taking a deep breath, she took a step forward, and then another...

...and somewhere in her line of sight, be it imagined or real, Shayla saw the image of a Sith beckoning to her. Soon she had lost her footing and began to gracefully fall into that darkness...

...and then Shayla disappeared into the nothingness before Jasyn and Matt's very eyes. Even as she did just that Shayla could have sworn she heard someone calling her name...

(((OCC: Follow Shayla into Behind the Black River in this same forum, thank you.)))

[ 03-25-2004 09:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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A vivid image appeared in Graysith’s mind of Darth Wicked. It brought her great comfort, but the scene quickly took a horrible turn as it showed his death at the hands of his father. The memory lingered, then forwarded quickly through the following days, then to the possession of Darth Wicked’s body by the evil entity Entaris, and the painful decision Graysith made in freeing his spirit.

“My dear lady,” came the voice of the channeler as the image paused. “There is much about Darth Wicked you have not shared with me, and I can only show you that which you have allowed me to see. But there is another, a Dark Lord which came to you from the past, and captured your heart. That, and the fulfillment of your destiny.”

The spirit flashed scene after scene of Lord Recinis, from the early days of his protection of the Chosen Daughter, the strange circumstances surrounding the birth of her children, the epic struggle to bring the Sith to the present time. Then came many memories of her life with Recinis, the birth of Jharu, then the eventual departure of Recinis.

The chaneller glowed softly in Graysith’s hands, reflecting off of the skin which had turned white from gripping the device for so long.

Several she wished had never come about; tears dripped from her closed eyes as there on her inner lid she watched again and again the horrific death of her first great love at the hands of one later to go by the name of Timber Saden.

She held the channeler in a death’s grip, her hand white-knuckled, nails imbedded in the palm of her hand. At length she let out a great shuddering breath, and opened her eyes. The bridge of the warship swam in her vision, distorted through the tears flooding down her face.

Married. I married… a Sith. I birthed halfling children. My husband is—is—

Not him.

Turquoise eyes floated in front of her, a rare smile flashed to fill her with warmth. She recalled a vivid day, a brief and shining encounter… then once again scrutinized the image of another day of joy and laughter.

My son… and my.. .

Darkness descended, bringing with it the image of a fire-headed young woman.

My daughter?

She sniffed, wondering where they were, which brought her full circle to the quandary of where she was now. How she had come to be there. Who could she trust.. and who not.

How can I trust anyone, when I cannot even trust in my own memories? When indeed I have none to trust in at all.

Another shudder raked her slight frame, and she tilted her head forward, letting her long hair flame down to brush upon the channeler. It tingled in her hand, glowing softly.

“If what you show me is true,” she finally said slowly, “then I have it within me to stand up to whatever dire image you have yet to reveal.”

Indeed the worst had passed… Lord Wicked was dead.

“Continue, spirit, and tell me all you know.”

Then I shall find a means to verify what this thing is telling me… she finished silently to herself, and waited for the images to once more begin flashing across her mind.

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

Something other.

Graysith jerked her head up with a start, dropping the Channeler from her hand as she did so. The Glyph on her forehead ravened to life of its own accord, reaching out to find the source of that eerie rip and to then guide her to it. She moved quickly forward then, leaving the still-glowing device lying by itself on the deck of the bridge, and hurried off following the guidance of the All.

It led her to a new surprise: the body of a red-skinned, fearsomely horned being, who lay in a nearby corridor as if asleep. There was something about the aspect of this one that did not denote restful slumber, however; going quickly to his side she knelt there, letting the Glyph bathe his form in soft ultraviolet light. She studied him a few moments before reaching out a somewhat hesitant hand, then grasped him by his muscled shoulder and grunting a little turned him from his side to his back.

She sat back on her haunches and cocked her head to one side, studying his features in a silence to match his own. While obviously alien to her race, his exotic features held a strange fascination for her; he was not as hard-chiseled as was her dear Sire, but attractive nevertheless. Again she reached out to him, this time to lightly touch his cheek, and wondered to herself who he was and how he had come to be where he was.

It was then that the strange ripping sensation strengthened, built, thrummed into being everywhere and no where, sending ice cascading down her spine even as she whirled about to discern what this new and possible danger could be.

There behind her whirled a black and oily vortex, and from its center there issued forth a dripping and clutching claw. Freakish laughter gibbered from somewhere… other; Graysith had scarcely the time to leap to her feet, there to crouch in a ready stance, when the vortex pursed its figurative lips and spit forth three horrors from hell scarcely three meters from her position in front of the silent and extremely vulnerable Sith.

The Chosen Daughter let an anguished "My Sire!" tear from her; then unknowing as to whether or not she had managed to contact Lord Aelvedaar she could only wait, hoping she had the ability to use her budding strengths well enough to dispose of the threat now slavering tri-fold before her.

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

The sound of stomping feet marching in swift cadence brought me out of my self-imposed stupor, a state of despair and overwhelming hopelessness I had allowed myself to sink in to ever since awakening to find myself in a place frighteningly strange…

But even more so, frighteningly familiar.

The chamber was dark and looming, heavy with shadows, weighed down with time, and positively overburdened by an unseen yet palpable evil that sent immediate squadrons of geese to marching up and down my back, their feet placing tiny pinpricks of cold where they trod and raising the skin there. But it wasn’t the shadows alone that frightened me so.

It was the strange crystalline object standing in what I instinctively sensed to be the exact center of the room, the vortices joining its eight faces pointing to the four cardinal points of the compass and their subsets. The structure was as transparent as the most finely poured glass, and roiled with something greeny-gold and somehow difficult to look upon.

I had seen this somewhere before… at least I thought I had.

It was then that the shadows gained corporeality, and a hand fell abruptly upon my shoulder, razored claws sinking into my flesh and drawing blood. I gasped, and would have whirled about in terror but the action was obligingly completed for me by the hand which held me in a death’s grip. I was whirled about like so much flotsam, and brought back to jarring immobility by another hand which snagged my free shoulder and dug in with rapacious glee.

Amber eyes glared down upon me.

”Welcome, my dear Galen Jhin’Dar Danner,” a voice of silk and decay whispered in my ear, even as another shadow loomed up behind me and yet another pair of clawed hands took a grip on me.

That was when everything went black… for how long, I haven’t the foggiest notion. But when I came back to awareness it was to find myself a prisoner in a room of overwhelming luxury, silks and fireplace and bed-curtains and all. The little fact that the door had no handle, and that the heavy velvet draperies opened onto solid, moss-enscribed stone only transformed my initial sense of hope into immediate despair, which remained with me throughout the timelessness that passed as I was held in this golden prison.

Until now…

I was sitting on the bed when suddenly something whirled into black being in front of me, and a red-eyed Sith leapt out in front of me. He had two people by their throats: another Sith, who kicked and struggled like a madman, and a human male, who appeared pale and unbreathing, his eyes closed.

A human who was way too familiar…

“Erik?!” I breathed in complete shock, too surprised at the moment to do much more than just sit on my bed where I was. Then reflex took over and I was leaping off and racing the few meters across the room to catch him before his head hit the cold stone of the floor.

The vortex closed off, holding its secrets to itself.

It took the red-eyed one with it.

I just sat here, staring down at the last person in the Universe I expected to see, much less find myself holding, while his red-skinned, horned companion groaned and sat up, shaking his head as if to clear it of some thick and miasmic fog.

[ 03-31-2004 11:31 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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