The air darkened, grew hushed.

Existence seemed to blink.

And far, far away from the tiny walls of the Temple of the Armorers of the Sith, hundreds of meters beneath soil-encrusted solid rock, even tinier entities were tumbled from their feet in something not even approaching an afterthought.

The light from Jasyn's head faded, leaving the group to stumble about in in soul-muffling blackness... a blackness laced with a suddenly booming voice, and the abrupt appearance of chrome-laced periwinkle eyes the size of a SandRider's favorite mount.

"Why do you disturb our slumber?"

Echoes resounded from the walls surrounding Phalomir as well, as the question was put to him yet again.

The vong on that warship, where she had taken Graysith's place...

Firming then, she stood straight, a strength gathering deep within her. "We seek you so that we may be freed from this place," she responded simply. "I know not who or what you are, but I sense a great collective within you. We mean neither you nor this place any harm. Rather we seek to prepare ourselves to face a threat which is coming to the Sith..."

She paused a moment, those chrome eyes in her memory once more flashing across her mind's eye, "...a threat which I hope those who once resided here have not somehow already faced."

[ 12-23-2004 04:51 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Oh great, Galen; now that damned tuk'ata will go into a feeding frenzy or something....

The fact that I was totally terrified that our world had gone both topsy-turvy and utterly dark could not stop that incongruent thought from popping into my head. What did, however, was the pair of glowing eyes the size of small moons which hovered over us, peering down and stabbing us to the cold stones with an even colder look.

I knew those eyes could see us, even in the dark, for quite suddenly the very air shivered beneath the onslaught of a deep, bass voice.

"Why do you disturb our slumber?"

I tried to dig a hole under Panthar's arm, en route coming into physical contact with one of the damned writhing-twining thingies that Sith-hound wore instead of whiskers. It snaked about my waist, then gripped me tightly in turn.

A frightened sort of whine whispered into my ear, right on the heels of that bass echo.

"Oh great, that's just great!" I said to Panthar from the side of my mouth.

"Fido here is scared spitless; what in Hell's Seven Circles terrifies a tuk'ata?"

Something about the expectancy ringing in the air made me shut up then; I sure as Khaandon made lil green worrts didn't want those eyes to narrow their focus to just me. So, wrapped in Panthar's arms and the beastie's face-tendrils, I managed to silence myself, trying along the way to become invisible in the darkness.

[ 12-23-2004 11:08 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Friends of yours, buddy? He sent to the tuk’ata. The minute trembles from the tendrils and the soft whining told Panthar otherwise. He somehow managed to pull Galen even closer.

“I don’t know what scares a tuk’ata,” Panthar whispered back to Galen. “But apparently it has something to do with disembodied eyes. If it weren’t for Diffy’s shakes, I’d think this was part of that stuff that happened downstairs… actually, I don’t know why it couldn’t be. It might even be the Master doing it, and I’m willing to bet it is. Ah heck, might as well try the upfront approach, right? If nothing else, maybe I can scare it off if it’s not him.”

Panthar mustered up his courage and inhaled importantly.

“Powerful forces are making our lives downright nasty. We are here to make a bargain with a powerful entity to bring a little order back and deal with the lunk-head who is causing us all the grief. So if you are he whom we came here to see, then let’s talk. Otherwise, sorry to disturb you. We’ll tuck you back in and get you a drink of water.”

Panthar nodded.

“There, that oughta do it.”

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

...after all, for a while he was seeing nothing more than brillant sparks. As it did, a rathar huge pair of periwinkle eyes with some chrome in them swam into focus, everything else totally dark. For a few more moments after that, Jasyn couldn't hear a thing...

...and he completely missed whatever it was being said. Thus it was that he had to assume he was somehow hallucinating.

"W-w-what is h-h-happening?!" he exclaimed, still barely hearing. "I'm seeing things..." he then continued with, stating nothing futher, still very much disoriented after having been slammed with the unforseen blast which careemed his way.

[ 12-24-2004 12:16 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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No knowledge of the Sith… Place of places…. We simply are…

They are not the gods of the Sith, at least not as the Sith revere them. They are seeming to be more than mere Temple guards, real or created by spell. Yet here they are, in the labyrinth beneath the temple, as if protecting it. But with no knowledge of the Sith…

Which means either they -- “it” -- was placed here by the Sith -- without their/its knowledge, or it was here before the Sith. I wonder if these halls were here before the Temple, then. In fact, was that why the Armorers built the temple on this spot? Is it why this planet was chosen? But this is all conjecture, Phalomir… what is important at this moment is finding an answer. What did we do down here to wake this being? All we did was… restore Terrin. But this does not explain… it matters not, simply answer the question.

“We came here to find answers to our questions, assistance in our quest, save my lady, and to bring back one of our own from death’s repose. For these reasons we have disturbed your slumber.”

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

If mortal hands had been attached, it would have spread them.

"Collective..." the gale howled in Shayla's and Jasyn's ears, thundering there like a great tymphany.

"Powerful forces..." it agreed with Panthar, sending him and his companions to their knees in a flurry of robes and tendrils and flailing appendages.

"Repose... death...." came a blasting rumble almost too deep to be picked up by even Phalomir's keen Sith ears.

"Yess-ss-sss...."

Somehow the air nodded, conveying to all the tiny motes that their tiny ideas were upon the correct tract. Then to all:

"You have broken That Which Is; you have come to Our Place of Places and in the breaking have awakened us from our slumber.

"Thus you have Called Out to Us; will we now play a game?"

The question echoed into silvered silence, accompanied now by a soft blue light, which appeared from no direct source to show the way to all the Being was choosing to reveal itself.

He trailed a moment, the look in his eye growing dark as he then ammended with, "...or maybe I should hope you don't see it."

[ 12-24-2004 12:50 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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...then what is it you are a collective of? Sith spirits..."

She trailed, but only momentarily as something flashed once more across her mind's eye. "...or perhaps not even spirits at all, and not even Sith. What are you, and what is it that you want from us?"

[ 12-24-2004 01:09 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"Who are we..."

Again the sigh came upon them, this time light, soft, like a spring zephyr; then freshening once again to gale force.

"We are that we are; We are Us, and Us are He, and this is Our Place of Places in All That Is."

Even with the lack of eyelids, the eyes appeared to blink.

"Yess-ss-sss..." it agreed with Shayla, allowing everyone to hear this discourse.

"A game indeed is wanting to be played, that What has been broken shall be broken no longer."

It paused.

All that is...

"All that is?" Shayla repeated alooud then, the wheels in her mind turning around these words and joining with words she had heard before, words spoken by another.

You can be Whole. You are only a small part of a Big picture...

"If you simply are..." she then continued with, "Then you must be the All...

...that is, All that is. But what is it that has been broken? All that is? And how can it be repaired?"

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A great shiver sliced the air at the word, once more stopping time in its tracks while the being scrutinized first the word, and then delved deeply into Shayla's mind to see from what life's experiences it had sprung. With the ease of a rancor playing in the sand it shoved aside the magicks left therein by Aelvedaar, plucking this deep memory and that like musical chords.

Withdrawing, it allowed time to run once more as it let those memories spill freely into her consciousness once again.

"The Life's Blood," it thundered, shaking the stones about all parties involved into near liquifaction.

"You have knowledge...?"

A bolt crackled from the shining pupils, impacting first Shayla and then Phalomir, striking the latter a bull's eye blow where the Eye was tucked away upon his person.

"That Which Is has been broken. Resolution is at hand, to He It Is who would win it!"

...as she was also keenly aware that such would not have happened without a much greater purpose.

"Yes, I have knowledge," she whispered in a barely audible tone, knowing that she would be heard nevertheless. "I am but a small vessel to be used in the grand scheme of the Greater Good..."

She trailed at this, something deep and instinctive rising up from within as understanding dawned. What Aelvedaar had done to block her understanding of the All, at least for the moment, had been negated. Because this was true, perhaps that was not the only thing which Aelvedaar had done which was to be negated so That Which Was would no longer be broken. And after all, Shayla knew she was but one small player in the Game...

Resolution is at hand...

"Use me as you must," Shayla then spoke, her voice growing stronger though it was still soft, "For Her Restoration, I would give my life..."

[ 12-24-2004 10:49 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Words circled through his head, as if he was at the center of a large crowd of people all speaking at once. Slowly a strong, bold male voice pounded its way through the crowd and became clear above the din. The other voices withdrew as the words became clear.

One Eye to embrace the magick, One Eye with the key to all, One Spirit to feed them, One son to rule

The words repeated.

“I have heard these words before,” he said to the Eye. “You have told me many things, disjointed clues. But it comes to this, does it not?”

Again the words repeated.

“Long ago, before I even remembered her, you told me I must protect Graysith. You told me she will understand her legacy.”

The words stopped.

“You used her to kill Roan, used me. You told me you killed Roan for unity. You could have done the same with Aelvedaar, why did you not? You know of things, you speak prophecies to me in the form of riddles, things to come. But these are not prophecies, are they? There is a bigger picture, a larger connection of all things. The Sith are here from the past, I am here from the future, there is a point to this convergence. We are both here from times the race was facing its doom. And she was involved on both ends. She is the key…”

One Eye to embrace the magick…

“That is me. She has my magick now, it is buried deeply within her.”

One Eye with the key to all…

“I thought it was you, but no. It is her. You channel it, you take it from that which has and give to that which does not. But she is the one with the key.”

One Spirit to feed them…

“That Which Is…”

One son to rule…

“Has not yet been born.”

Phalomir’s vision cleared, yet he remained focused as his gaze shifted to Jharmeen. He closed his eyes and said “It is time for resolution.”

The Eye flared, sizzling Phalomir’s fingers. He kept a firm grip, and the Eye continued to gain intensity. Finally a trio of bright red streaks flew from the Eye. One enveloped the pair of eyes hovering in the air, a pair of eyes which now held a sort of amusement. The second streak shot into the wall, cutting a direct line from the Eye to the spot where Shayla stood. She was encompassed in a red glow and held immobile. The third blasted into Jharmeen.

The Eye drew upon the newly acquired knowledge of the All from Shayla, using it to feed itself. It took a tremendous amount of power from That Which Is, and sent it all into Jharmeen. The force knocked aside the protections Phalomir had placed upon her, sending most of the magickal energies back from where they came. The Beast, startled, dove for the gray kernel which it had been trying to once again possess. In the same instant the energies flew into the kernel, lighting it ablaze with a brilliancy that sent the Beast reeling backwards into the darkness of Jharmeen’s mind. Her spirit rekindled, infused with the traces of Phalomir’s magick that had been left behind.

Phalomir felt the rush of magick returning to him, the surprise sinking him to his knees. The bright beams dissipated as quickly as they had begun, leaving a red afterglow about Jharmeen. Shayla fell unconscious to the floor.

The Eye in Phalomir’s hand pulsed slowly, fading a to a dull gray, then turned black. It fell from his hand and shattered on the ground.

The eyes in the now darkness remained to look amused.

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“Are you all right?” he whispered, his concern showing foremost in his voice. “I don’t know what the heck is going on here, but it’s gone beyond simple tricks to get us all separated. I don’t think Diffy is doing too well, either. I know for a fact that he is supposed to be some sort of temple guard dog, so whatever this thing is could be just the opposite.”

Galen was too involved with catching her breath to answer.

“It said we have broken that which is, and woke them up. And it said resolution is the end of the game… what did we do? All we did was come here, say hello to a bunch of tuk’ata, bring Terrin back to life, and…”

His eyes shot up to Galen. “Is that what we broke?”

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...and seemed to be simply unconscious, for all he could tell.

"She'll be allright,I think," he spoke aloud then, whether to the others or to himself he wasn't sure. But then he looked up to those large eyes, never moving from his position on the floor with his wife. "What just happened?" he queried, not certain of just what kind of an answer he would receive.

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“Terrin, I can’t say for sure, but that’s the sort of thing that would happen when the Eye of R’lous would draw power from someone to feed someone else with All power. But that would mean that she would have had knowledge of the All… and that Phal, or someone, was using the Eye. Something definitely happened, there was a great disturbance in… in something. If it was the Eye, then she should recover, she has been drained of her energy.”

But what concerns me, he thought to himself, is why I get this feeling that something monumental just happened… and I’m not going to like it.

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Something I had learned from Dad popped into my head, stuck there like a tiny kernal and then exploded into even more crystal certainty until I knew, I just was positive, right down to my very bones, that this was right, oh so correct....

So terribly correct.

I blinked, then scowled and clambered to my feet, breathing heavily.

"Entropy," I whispered as I wrapped my arms around myself, to hold myself physically quiet so that certainty, that crystalline clarity which strangely enough was niggling just at the outermost reaches of consciousness, could niggle just a tad wee more until everything would click, and....

Everything clicked.

I turned wide eyes to Panthar.

"Entropy," I breathed, a little louder this time.

"Everything winds down toward the ultimate heat death of the universe, everything decays.

"Yet you're right, we have brought Terrin back to life. It's opposite of how things should be.

"Things...."

I paused momentarily, still shaking like a leaf as there suddenly appeared alongside that aforementioned certainty yet another one.

And that was our true position within the universe.

"A game," I breathed through teeth chattering so hard I could scarcely get the words out.

"A game; we're the pieces, things go along as... well, as someone has designed--"

Oh how lovely to consider oneself a mote suitable only as a gamepiece in some strange and unguessable cosmic game....

"--and someone has decided that everything comes to an end... only we changed the rules."

I turned to look at that hideous pair of eyes, which merely blinked at me but remained silent.

Which was all it took.

"You're not getting him back!"

Red-hot rage flooded into me like a tsunami, drowning the near terror which had filled me mere seconds ago. I didn't give a damn in all the Circles of Hell if I was right or wrong, even though I swear I was...

But there was no way I was going to let Terrin die again, even if it meant the entirety of Entirety took a left turn into twilight.

[ 12-28-2004 11:02 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"Point to all."

The words crashed around the heads of everyone, booming and resonating until the sound waves produced ran into each other, and in that contact negated themselves until the underlayers and the tunnel-maze lay beneath a crushing blanket of absolute silence.

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She sat bolt upright, arms outstretched, reaching with grasping hands for something that lay just beyond her reach....

"Dagobah," she said, shattering the silence with a dagger-sharp whisper.

"Spiders. White spiders...."

With that she fell still, yet reaching, not quite fully conscious yet, and most certainly not aware of where she was and who she was with.

[ 12-28-2004 11:34 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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If the eyes had a mouth, it would have quirked into a slight smile. As it was, when those great orbs redirected themselves toward the increasingly indignant Jedi, it was to cast over him a look which was filled with obvious amusement.

"Yes-ss-sss," came the disembodied Voice, its tone obviously one laced with not a little satisfaction as the eyes bored holes into Erik's skull.

"Spiders.

"White spiders...."

The Voice fell silent, and the Eyes crackled with energy.

At those particular words, Shayla stirred slightly as the flash of an image came to her mind; an image of two trees, each with a myriad of white spiders. Spiders were venturing from each tree, then returning to the same tree from whence the came.

Shayla took a breath, focusing on the image, trying to figure out just where it had come from...

...then dismissing that curiosity entirely as her eyes fluttered open and she saw the look in her husband's eyes, let alone the look in everyone else's.

"There is more at stake here than our own small lives," she whispered, feeling completely drained and for the moment unable to move further. "Like white spirders, we always return to our "home tree" and to that which we know..."

She paused a moment, breathing deeply, "...but we fail to understand or even try to see things from anyone else's angle."

Quieting at that, she took a few moments to let these words sink in. An image of a t'yplikk fruit now came into her mind, one seemingly marred by the existence of a blanworm inside it. She struggled to sit up, relying heavily upon her husband to do so.

"The blanworm appears to be an evil to the ty'plikk fruit because the former destroys the latter, but the blanworm needs the ty'plikk fruit to survive."

Quieting once more, she turned her head slightly to the eyes which yet hovered, seeming to listen intently. "We have failed to see the grander spectrum of things, the Bigger Picture; we have failed to see that everyone has an angle, despite whether we view their angle as good or evil. After all, there are two sides to every coin."

Falling silent at that Shayla closed her eyes for a few moments, her head still feeling very heavy. Then she opened them and waited, knowing that whatever was going on had to do with something far greater than perhaps anyone here was aware of.

[ 12-29-2004 07:27 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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“I think she should go back to sleep, Terrin. What the heck was that about? White spiders? Blanworms? Failing to see the grander spectrum of things?”

He thought a moment.

“I don’t know, when you look at the big picture it’s a little scary. No matter what you try to do to survive, to get ahead, your own little struggles are pointless because there’s always something out there bigger than you to come along and wipe you out. Is that what she means? But why is she bringing this up?”

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

“Dagobah”

The word echoed through Phalomir’s mind, holding him in the balance between darkness and light, consciousness and oblivion. Then two voices entered his mind, the first light and feminine, ringing with a familiarity that brought a comfort to him. But the next voice was dark and mysterious, rimmed with a sinister coldness that left Phalomir with a sense of insignificance.

“Spiders, white spiders” the voices chimed, at first disjointed but then ringing together. Over and over the words carried, interspersed with the smaller whisper he could not discern over the voices. His head swam, the darkness threatening closer and closer, the words now circling like a slow whirlpool of thought and confusion.

Yet in the confusion, there arose a light. The Eye of R’lous hovered in the whirlpool of darkness, a small light in the ribbons of confusion. It glowed brightly, gaining intensity until it exploded into a multitude of white dots that dispersed into the darkness. One dot fluttered near Phalomir’s inner vision, revealing several small legs. As a spider, it landed and looked around in all directions. In a panic, it started out in one direction, then backed into its original position. Then it turned and tried another direction. Over and over it tried to move, but each time its fear overtook it and it returned to its starting point.

“You must pick a direction,” Phalomir called out, his voice reaching both inwardly and externally. “Explore! When you know not where you are bound, any road will take you there. Choose, my friend, or stay safe where you are, knowing your own world.”

From out of the darkness, with incredible speed, flew a large silver-winged bird. Its beak dripped red liquid, and it swooped down upon the hapless spider with a swift smooth motion. It turned its head to Phalomir, its bright metallic and blue eyes seeming to peer menacingly into his soul. It shrieked and flew back into the darkness, leaving a small greasy smear where the spider had been.

“But knowing only your own world leaves you blind to others,” he croaked. “For there are many others. And their paths may cross yours. Life is life, it is not a field of silos.”

Phalomir opened his eyes, his head still swimming. He gathered Jharmeen closer to him, her breathing deeper than before. Noticing the shards of broken glass on the floor, he held her head close to his chest and looked up to the hovering eyes.

“There is no resolution,” he said. “There are only the intertwining cycles of life. Round and round, as empires rise and fall, life is there to honor the universe that spawned it. But all leads to entropy, for even Antiquity itself shall someday bow to the end of all things. But even that is a cycle, is it not?”

Phalomir’s eyes narrowed.

“But then the meaning of one’s life lies in the living of it, does it not? For unlike you, our lives are bound by time, and it is short. Our legacy is what we leave behind, the memories we pass to those who come after. This temple, the remnants of a society so powerful they caused the galaxy to tremble, this temple is the memory they left us. In the end, it too shall dissolve into nothingness. But for the time they existed, they had meaning.

“We are not powerful, we are not wise. We are not eternal. But we ARE, as others ARE, and in our living we honor the universe. Our dramas unfold before you, our worlds move along in synchronicity, we find our natural order in it all.

“And yet, we strive for more. And in that striving, we have met with the other side. We have seen the Darker Realms, and we brought a life back with us. Are we so unique now? Have we broken the rules? Or in the doing have we discovered a new world, and broken down a silo?”

Phalomir inhaled deeply.

“Do you deny us this discovery? Are you, too, afraid to venture from your own comforts?”

[ 12-29-2004 09:41 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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