A ripple of unease washed through Graysith as for the first time she took note of the lad's wrist.

Saw what was emblazoned there, in shining, promising black.

She closed her eyes against it, then opened them.

"Your-- father," she began carefully, now knowing to the very core of her being that what Aeylmaar had said was right. Lord Aelvedaar already had an adoptive son, would not take on another, especially one who was not Sith.

Rykounagin was right.

They were being used, and terribly.

To what end...

She couldn't help sending Rykounagin a look that was almost pitying. If he saw it, perhaps he would inquire. If not--

"I would be honored to dine with you, and to-- speak more of these things," she replied softly.

"The topic is certainly a fascinating one, is it not?"

Oh my lad, how I see the fear lurking there, deep in your being,hiding behind your transparent bluster. The fear of being alone, unneeded. Of being useless.

And now this final betrayal, of which you have no idea...

Bowing her head in respect, she waited quietly for Rykounagin to lead the way.

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

"May I ask why you have come?" He asked, sitting at an end of the table and with small ceremony cleaning his hands gently in the basin that had been provided before servant whisked his away.

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

She by-passed the heavily laden table, went to the wall behind which she knew Darth Wicked had kept his command center. Pausing there, she laid a cool hand upon the stone, shivering again as memories assailed her, then letting it drop as she turned toward the open balcony with its great stone balustrade. There she stood, leaning out into the freshening breeze, closing her eyes to breath in the piney scent of the nearby treeline.

She opened her eyes, turned back to the table. Even as she reached for some choice cuts of meat she couldn't help but search for a particular little marsupial, similar to the one who had been breaking its own fast upon the bounty Darth Wicked had then provided.

None showed so much as a whisker.

Smiling softly at the memory, she took her plate and joined Rykounagin.

"I have come to speak to my--"

A brief pause to flick a glance at the boy's wrist.

"To Dark Lord Aelvedaar," she went on smoothly.

"I thank you for your hospitality in the meantime."

Saying no more, she lifted a piece of meat to her mouth and began to gnaw delicately upon it.

[ 09-07-2005 09:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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"Or was it perhaps more of a "pleasure visit", to visit as a friend or the like?" He smirked, the way that he had spoken of her was more... with contempt, but it had seemed repressed.

My father remains strange....

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

And then compared that with all she had endured since that day long ago when he had first stolen the Finger of R'lous from her, leading to where she had flung him into the Elseness.

How inconsequential all that seems now, she thought, surprised at how quickly that brief flash of annoyance had evaporated.

"What I wish to speak of is for a Dark Lord's ears only," she finally said.

"No disrespect intended, of course."

Shooting another meaningful glance at the still black tattoo he bore, she quietly took up her meal once again. But contrary to her outward appearance, one in which she appeared to be focused entirely on her meal, she roiled with sudden and growing despair.

For while eating, she had sent forth a tendril of the All, seeking the essence of her Sire...

...and had come up missing.

[ 09-07-2005 09:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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"However, it could be considered that my father is... indisposed." He finished the fruit and washed it down with yet another small sip of brandy.

"If you wish, you may have in confidence that I will do my best to convey my fathers interests in this matter. He did not inform me when he would be returning." He chuckled.

"But still. If you wished to wait for him to return, I could have quarters prepared for you, and for any companions you may have in your entourage. I assume you have others comming?" He asked, laying his fork down.

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

Aelvedaar was missing. That was a certainty. And Rykounagin--?

"As I said, what news I bear is for the ears of a Dark Lord only," she said, working her jaw a bit to keep her growing alarm at bay.

"You are too young and-- inexperienced so be so burdened; I do not wish to inconvenience you, as I did once upon a day so long ago."

She shot him a direct look.

"For that you must forgive me, I was wrong to do what I did."

The words were softly spoken, genuine.

She picked up her fork, held it before her mouth a moment.

"Perhaps if you would be so kind as to tell me where he has taken himself, I might go to him directly. He does know me, after all--"

A brief pause, in which she could not help but send forth a stab of ultraviolet radiance from her Glyph.

"--and would not turn his own Chosen Daughter aside, especially when I have news of such great import to divulge to him."

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

"Besides, the information of where he is is for the ears of the chosen son only." The lie was easily passed, no thought upon it as the small jab at her own wording came to him.

"As for inexperienced? I'd love to say hardly, but I can compromise. It's a very simple condition." He smiled openly, a small plan forming in his mind.

"I can tell you all I know. In return? You allow me to accompany you for the time being until I rejoin my father. After all, even I could not deny his chosen daughter permission to visit him." He smiled.

After all, if he joined her, the chances of him managing to locate his father was MUCH higher. "Besides, if the information is so important, I am quite sure he will be quite eager to speak with you."

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

"Then I thank you for your hospitality, boy. You have done well in your duties as host--

"--but you are not a Dark Lord.

"Yet."

With that she held out a hand toward the lad, creating a briefly physical link to join them together.

"Come, Ragorian," she whispered to her ally.

"Return with me now."

She felt his presence smoothly flow along that bridge, into her hand, through her arm, to pass through her body and re-enter the sword which yet hung upon her thrimm.

"Until we meet again," she finished aloud, giving Rykounagin a slight bow.

Then she ripped open a Portal through the All, and returned with the Blade to the yacht and her friends.

[ 09-07-2005 10:54 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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[ 09-07-2005 10:47 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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After all ,what they had to say was quite interesting.

So Lord Aelvedaar is missing? he mused to himself. Then our goal of recovering the Finger of R'lous is likely unattainable now.

Then, as Graysith touched hands with Rykounagin and called out to him to come with her, he...

...hesitated. Thinking fast, he began slowly moving along the link back to Graysith.

If what the embodiment of Peace said is true, than it is far too early for me to part with Rykounagin.

After all, he thought, guilt beginning to well up in him, Rykounagin views me as only a betrayer, the catalyst through which he might find fulfilment after he has exacted vengeance.

To him, I stand in the way of all his hopes for accomplishment and fulfillment.

No, it is not yet time for us to be parted.

His mind made up, Ragorian worked quickly. Finding a dark, hidden, unused corner of Rykounagin's mind, he quickly imparted a bit of his conciousness there, to stay and watch the boy, and when the time was right, speak to him again.

The lad and I have much to discuss, he thought grimly.
Perhaps, with time, I can right the wrongs I have committed upon him.

His task completed, Ragorian swiftly moved back along the physical link to return to Graysith.

"I am here, milady, he whispered to her. "Let us depart this place."

Almost immediatly, Graysith opened a portal back onto the ship with the rest of their companions, and stepped through it, leaving Rykounagin behind.

Well, not entirely behind.

[ 09-07-2005 10:59 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Blade of Chaos ]

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"Nothing but words." He said, scowling as he viciously tore a haunch of meat from one of the many pieces of food. "To delay her fall." He finished too himself.

"Father is missing sure enough, why and where are still mysteries, but they too shall soon become evident I am sure." Rykounagin thought of how he would look through that device his father possessed, the Octahedron and looked up to where he assumed it would watch him from.

"Father, I may seem questionable, but... I'm trying, so hard..." He sighed, looking down as he rose and moved from the room to consider what next to do with himself. "If only I had a guide, a tutor, not necessarily father.... at least I could be constructive in some way."

Rykounagin considered commandeering another sith to teach him directly, but seeing how the other sith had reacted?

It seemed unwise.

Rykounagin considered, and smiled. "To one sith there is something I owe." With that, he began searching for the single sith healer and teacher who had healed him when he had first arrived. "Just a student I am." he said with a smirk, remembering what his mother had had him chant over and over in his childhood before she would begin a lesson.

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

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

He closed his eyes and swollowed, as still that ever present feeling of something being- out of place- came to him. "Where are you father?" Rykounagin whispered before exhausted slumbers took him.

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

Rykounagin stirred, the silence and blankness of his dreams slowly swirling to take form, faint whispers and shapes seeming to speak and dance at the corners of his conciousness, his vision.

"You're a lie." came a sudden voice behind Rykounagin.

He spun quickly and merely saw a shadowed figure, long hair obscuring its face.

"What do you mean? Who are you?" Rykounagin demanded, defensive.

"You're just a stupid lie." Came a different, almost familiar voice from another side. He spun and saw yet another figure, shadowed as well.

"We hate you, didn't you know?" Came a softer voice from behind, another shadowed figure.

"Who are you all? What do you want?" Rykounagin said, panicked as they all seemed to step closer, ever closer until, though they were a short distance away, they seemed claustrophobicly near.

"Liars are just idiots, fools who confuse themselves into thinking they're something when all they'll ever be is nothing." Came the voice of the first.

"Look what your lies have done too me." Came the voice of the second, stepping forwards too reveal himself as Rykounagin's brother, his hands gone, blood their only represenation as it spilt from his arms and from where his eyes once were.

"You did it to yourself! You-" Rykounagin tried to attack him, to destroy him, to finish him, but felt the iron grip of someone's hand upon his shoulder.

Rykounagin glanced back, and saw to his horror his own father, Aelvedaar's hand grasping him like death itself. "What is it father, what-"

Aelvedaar only grinned, then suddenly his face seemed to contort and wither, rotting away before Rykounagin's eyes those teeth and eyes watching him to the bitter end, a final whisper saying.

"All you are is a lie."

And all Rykounagin could do was scream.

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

Suddenly, two minor personas came together, and he suddenly had murmured words, the power ofhis mind calling his dark blade to himself, the Black Lotus, and he held it to the palm of his hand, his dark blood pooling at the base of the tub into a tiny place before he took the blade away and released its presence in reality.

He moved away, crouched like some strange two legged spider, and dipped two bare fingers, index and middle of his right hand, into the pool of blood.

He held up the hand, and examined it for a moment, then slowly began coating the wall in the same paterns the covered his body, slowly working around from that central pool that would always stain the stone, outwards, slowly working his legs up and out of the tub upon they were forming a straight bar across the tub, his hand finishing the pattern.

Suddenly he felt his will to work upon the creation leave him, and his legs crumpled out under him, sending him to crumple into the pattern, the center dry and invulnerable to his weight, but the outsides smearing down across the stone.

A single tear dropped and formed at the center of the form, as his body heaved in a long and silent sobbing cry. "Why...?" Came his voice, quietly, shaking to echo through his room, only to recieve no reply.

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

"Did you merely leave? Was there such a thing of great importance that you would leave without warning and leave no notice for your return?" He asked the small swirls of dust that moved up about him as he took his pacing steps in the chamber.

Suddenly as he watched the dust, he saw that familiar swirl of the one he dispised face, though not distinct, the shape was enough to remind him, and with a furiour roar he clawed through it, removing the horrible visage from his sight.

"To hell with him and her...." he muttered, now sitting down upon the dirty and cool stone. "And the one she sired and the one he serves..." he said again, hatefully now as he remembered the visage of the halfling that had so arrogantly branded him.

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

But rank does have its privileges.

Tarnus let a sigh escape him; while not a creature who normally chased after life's hedonistic desires, he did privately cherish this one small aspect of it. For it was here, in the soothing warmth of the tiny spa, that his mind was absolutely freed from all physical restraint. The more his body relaxed, the more his mind was able to assess and analyze and collate.

But even the mind deserves a rest.

The Lieutenant General was doing just that, giving his mind and body a rare moment of absolute relaxation, when a wall-comm chirrupped apologetically.

He grunted again, sitting up, water dripping off of his honed body, to slap a fist against the receiving button.

"Yes?"

The syllable was neither angry or disgusted, instead being carried upon the inflections of neutrality.

The reply he received made his brows rise. After a moment--

"They have been taken to the surface? And the crew--?"

More chatter. His brows began settling to their normal resting place, when there was an ominous pause.

The speaker blurted out a quick chatter.

He blinked, shooting to his feet, water dripping.

"You're certain of this? Sullust--?"

The speaker confirmed.

He was moving from the bath even as he answered, now reaching to wrap a soft towel about himself.

"Inform Ahem I wish to speak with him."

The speaker squawked obedience. There was a moment or two of silence before the Captain's voice came on. Sorben quickly directed him to his private frequency, and when after a moment's further silence the speaker squawked again, he finally spoke.

"I applaud your spies, and am delighted to know that Ms. Manth was among them. Please direct her to this ship, which she will have free clearance to approach and board. I would like to speak with her in person. But as to the information she and the others have provided--

"I direct Sormontato to proceed to Sullust with all due haste. Use your own judgment, but...

"The Body shall die when we cut off its head. This organization represents a great threat to the New Federation and its citizens, and will not be tolerated."

He paused a moment longer, then added, "After all, the Mandate Actar laid down was one of Order, which I shall follow to the letter."

The speaker squawked a final time, and went quiet. Tarnus quickly dressed and returned to his quarters, there to mull over what he had just learned as he stood before the giant viewport, staring down upon the glacial body of Khar Delba which hung beneath his ship.

((OOC: Readers, this post and probably other ST ones to come are in reference to happenings in the following threads: Expecting the Unexpected, Dark Star, Black Sun, and Even Smuggler's Get the Blues, all in the "CSWU" forums, all of approximately the same date, thank you.))

[ 11-08-2005 04:09 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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He stood there for a great length of time, there in the shadows. His lips curled with pleasure as he thought to himself of the plans he had carefully nurtured for so long.

Plans he had begun to form long ago, before the Sith had even returned, before, in fact, they had even died as a race. He had known then, of his intended fate; had learned how to avoid dying at the hands of the Dark Jedi who stole their name unto themselves, holding it like a banner to hide their foul paleness for millennia...

He snorted quietly, jerking his wandering thoughts back into alignment again. Smiled, thinking of his old partner, Entaris.

That one paved the way so nicely with my child, he thought.

Dark and blustery, he did so like to please... primarily when it came to himself.

The grin broadened as memories flooded into his mind, rememberances of those unutterable times in the Darker Realms between Entaris and ShaRhylla; indeed, unbeknownst to her, at times between himself and her as well.

For thus is the way to greatness often paved, with suffering and pain and careful thought.

To think they all believe me the non-strategist, he gloated as from the shadows he watched the angry form of Rykounagin.

I, who have commanded nations... and who will command them again.

In the guise of Lord Aelvedaar, a nice little trick he had learned from his time with Entaris, he stepped forward.

"My son," he said in his deep bass voice, coming up behind the lad and laying a clawed hand gently upon his shoulder.

"You must forgive me, I had reason to depart for a time, and dared not inform a soul as to where or why."

Giving the lad's shoulder a squeeze, he urged him to his feet, guided him to a dark-shadowed corner in the private sanctum sanctorum, there coming to a halt in front of the Great Octahedron.

He made a wave of one hand before it. It responded immediately, coiling together the heavy greeny-golden tendrils of itself, which then parted to show an image:

A slight figure, curled on her side, flaming hair tumbling about, reddened streaks marring her pale flesh.

"Your soon to be bride, my Son."

The grip on Rykounagin's shoulder tightened.

[ 11-06-2005 02:57 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dark Lord Roan ]

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He nearly choked when he saw the figure and learned of who she was to be to him soon enough.

"Father you cannot-" He could not bring himself to voice the words, to show he had doubt in his father even as he had come to return. "-You cannot be serious... you know of what our past is! How could any greater good be served by wedding me to such a crea-"

He stopped, realizing for once at what sort of fault he was at. "You alone truely know the greater good for what it is... you must see what I do not..." he looked into his fathers eyes.

"What is the purpose that is served in my- in our doing this?" He asked, inwardly still conflicted, shocked at this sudden reappearance and change.

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

"My Son," he intoned, now moving his arn to lay about his shoulders. He turned to the Octahedron then, watching as the image revealed the sudden appearance of two more Sith, who picked ShaRhylla up and laid her on her bed. One moved to lay his hands upon her face.

"The Triumvirate is old, outdated; it is missing a third which cannot be replaced. The Houses of the Sorcerers and Warriors are both strong, and with the realization that the House of Armorers lies vacant would quickly be at each other's throats.

"In this manner we may join the two Houses, and the ways of the Sith can continue in peace."

[ 11-06-2005 03:28 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dark Lord Roan ]

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As much as he loathed the halfling he saw before him, he knew it would be selfish too let the sith crumble for his own petty opinions and beliefs. "I will do it." He said, almost at a murmur.

He looked back to his father, wrenching his gaze away from the Octahedron. "What would you have me do at this moment?"

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

"Continue here in my stead," he replied.

"Use the little knowledge I have tried to teach you, act in honor, uphold the clan, and be wary of all, my Son," he replied.

"I go back to deal with... what I must, but I shall soon return.

"I trust you shall make me proud, Rykounagin."

With that the Deceiver gave Rykounagin a final, fatherly squeeze, moved back a pace, opened a portal with the All, and stepped through.

The portal closed with a moist little pop, leaving Rykounagin alone with his thoughts and the image of his unconscious, if unbeknownst to her, fiancee to keep him company.

((OOC: Follow Dark Lord Roan back into Into the Out Of in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you.))

[ 11-06-2005 03:40 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dark Lord Roan ]

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"I wish not to see that creature any further." He said, watching as the vision of her faded.

"Show me my most dispised kin." He voiced, watching as it again shifted to reveal his brother, sweating heavily as blood marred his face while machines seemed to be fitting altercations into his eyes.

What remained of them at least.

And of his arms there was little left save the cybernetics that were being placed there. "Dear brother... what hell have you visited?" Rykounagin asked with a chuckle.

He watched his brothers agony for a moment longer before voicing a final command. "Show me my greatest threat."

The octahedron seemed passive, undecisive for a long moment.

Slowly it's mists parted to show....

Aelvedaar?

Rykounagin's father? Who had taken him in? Who had sheltered him and given him love? What threat was that?

Question upon question bombarded Rykounagin's mind as he looked for a moment upon him. Then with a cry he pushed the octahedron away -not moving it- but pushing himself from it. "There must be some err, perhaps it is damaged... perhaps I have overtasked it. But mayhaps it answers falsely."

He considered, his heartrate causing his head to ache. "Perhaps his wedding me to that beast is percieved as a danger..." he murmured. "That must be it, it sees this action as a threat to my being, of course..."

He stumbled, light headed, away from the device, leaving it to its own activities as he began to make his way back to his room.

[ 11-07-2005 12:48 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rykounagin ]

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Quickly consulting with a trusted sorcerer (that many time helpful healer), he began to study customs, traditions, and the general history, determined not to err in his attempts to reign in a new era of joint efforts betwixt the clans.

Aside from assuring that he would not fail with other clans, he knew he must understand his own adopted one better, for how could he engage in likely-politics if he could not control his own adopted peoples.

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