...white spiders. It was as if something was reaching out to...

...to protect her...

...her body."

Shayla paused a moment, the look in her eyes deepening. "I could literally feel the Force of the Life there, on Degobah. And that was when That Which Is appeared. We have encountered It in the past, back when we brought Terrin back to life..."

She trailed another moment, knowing how strange that sounded to anyone who might not know the entire story. "It told us that the "Game had been broken" at that time, and we had to do something to "fix" the game and place it "back in order." But on Degobah, That Which Is appeared again, after the white spiders covered the bed which Jharmeen laid upon for protection. It said "You are beyond the Game now, you know." And with nothing futher than that, it simply disappeared...

...and left me somehow feeling in my very soul that the Game Master intends that this wrong be righted, however it must be."

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

“I agree with you Shayla,” he said, “that the game master has ‘called a foul’, if you will, but I do not believe it intends to take direct action beyond what it did there on Dabogah. By its words and actions it has given us permission to bring Jharmeen back to us, but I do not think it will help us further. Otherwise, do you not think it would have done or said more on Dabogah?”

Phalomir’s expression turned grim as his head lowered.

“I believe we are reliant upon our own wits, and must wrest Jharmeen’s spirit away from the Master. If Thoran is correct, and I must admit I tend to believe this part of his story, the Master is insane and thinks he is doing us a favor. He will not see beyond his own twisted logic nor will he pay heed to our desires. We must take her from him, and we will not have the power of the game master to help us.”

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

She quieted then, her nerves wearing. "Jharmeen has been taken from us unnaturally, and has fought for all of us at some point in her lifetime...

...and yet we sit here and talk while her soul is in the hands of the Master?"

She trailed, her greeny-blues piercing Phalomir's eyes. "We cannot assume that the appearance of That Which Is the sole intervention it will take. We will not know this until we explore the option...

...or determine a better one. Relying on our own wits will be important...

...but what does your wit tell you Phalomir? Would not the best place to go for any assistance be the World of the Armorers, That Which Is aside? And the ideas of any others would be helpful...

...but bear in mind we need to come to a decision. For as we speak, Jharmeen's soul remains in the hands of the Master...

...and I fear assuming anything at this point may cut off a road to a solution."

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

“I’m not shooting down every idea, Shayla,” he said. “Nor are we standing here doing nothing. That Which Is has revealed itself to have vast powers, with control over time itself. It appeared to us on Dagobah, it protected Jharmeen’s body more than I could, it gave us a message, then it left. If it wanted to do more, I think it would have.”

Phalomir inhaled and let his breath out slowly.

“I believe going to K’orrisian to somehow summon That Which Is is a fruitless quest. However, there may be merit in going to the temple, there are many artifacts of the armorers that could prove useful. As Dark Lord, I will have knowledge of their uses. But there is one more thing to consider: the Master has Jharmeen’s spirit safely hidden in one of the most inaccessible places in existence. If Thoran is correct, she shall be safe as long as the Master believes he is doing the right thing. Her body is likewise safe. As eager as we all are to have her back, we do not need to rush ourselves and make a mistake. If I seem callous, please understand that every second she is away is agony for me, just as it is for you, but we cannot afford to be careless.”

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

"You know, there is merit in what you both are saying, and a visit to Kor'isan seems like a good place to start for more than one reason. Totally dismissing the possibility of That Which Is intervening again is probably not a good idea. After all, when we were dealing with It before, It seemed to pop in and out, and seeing if going to the very place where we had the most interaction with It might lead It to give us more clues.

"Still..." He trailed a moment, trying to figure out how to word his next thoughts. He proceeded on. "...I'm speaking from experiences in dealing with the Big and the Bad. We are going to have to rely on our wit, perhaps more than ever. I simply think that the best way to beat the Master will be to take him totally off guard. He's going to expect us to come at him with a weapon or a stronger ally. What he may not necessarily expect is for us to come at him with nothing more than what we already have. And maybe that is what That Which Is meant by us being "beyond the game." The Armorers, it seems, dealt with more than just weaponry. They dealt in items that controlled and manipulated both Sith magick and the All...

...things which we already have here, in one form or another. Things which the Master has as well, in one form or another. Maybe a visit to the World of the Armorers should be devoted to determining how to use what we have already, rather than mucking with finding something new and unknown to use against the Master."

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

...and forgive me if what I'm about to suggest is total nonsense."

He paused, eyeing Thoran a moment before continuing, looking at the entire group. "One of us here may have an answer to my thoughts," he observed, looking at Thoran once more. "The frozen bodies that Shayla has referred to...

...remember what Thoran told us they were? Just bodies, possibly taken from the future right around a time when Phalomir and Jharmeen were killed. 'Just bodies' implies no soul within them...

...only the Master has been trying his damnedest to get Phalomir's soul...

...and now he has Jharmeen's soul. Maybe we should check on those bodies on Kori'san while we go there, cause I'm assuming we are all pretty much in agreement that's where we'll go. We know that's where we saw them last, and I for one would like to know if either of them are still there.

And furthermore, I'd love to know just what the Master intended to do with them to begin with."

Pausing at that, he turned intense green eyes to Thoran. "Any thoughts on that?"

[ 04-16-2006 10:26 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Matt Stanza ]

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I raise my own, interrupting.

"I agree; we must go to Koris'ian and see as to these bodies. Much has come from meddling with the Life's Blood of what is; there are stranger paradoxes that have already occurred within our current time path while in reality not actually having happened as yet."

I pause a moment, frowning at my own inadequacy, striving to expose that mind-rattling conundrum I can only feel, that they might begin taking their first baby-steps away from dependency into self-sufficiency. For in my soul of souls I realize that is what it will take to defeat the dark entity who calls himself Master, and yet who is not.

I shake my head, sighing. Perhaps later I might find a better means of communicating that which they must know; for now I return to the realm of the comfortable and ask a simple question.

"Does any one present have the means to return us to the system, now safely hidden within the Elseness? For travelling in the realms other than what we term real is no simple matter; while I was able to create a portal from there back to my temple, I'm afraid the reverse is quite impossible. I have not established a Link, and it was my Chosen One -- and you -- who placed the system where it is and yes, who travelled there to eventually rescue me from my plight."

Frustrated, I shake my head. Now is not the time to teach of the vagaries of those side-slipped places within the spacetime continuum. Difficult enough to sideslip our own space, it takes great power to enter into the Elseness if not via an already established rift.

But this had been done, albeit with the powers of Jharmeen. The question now was whether we could yet return there without the connection she had established there.

[ 04-17-2006 11:23 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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...and unless I'm mistaken, that may be where the ship has remained. I don't remember us ever taking the ship out of the Elseness, at least...

...and perhaps with our current noteriety on K'eel Doba, it was better that we left the ship there, should we need it."

[ 04-17-2006 11:38 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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His mouth twisted as he thought.

“I do not possess the use of the All,” he said. “But as Dark Lord of the Armorers I feel a strong connection to the temple itself. Could we use that in conjunction with your abilities, Lord Aelvedaar? It is almost as if I feel the Temple’s presence ever within me, as real and thriving as my love for Jharmeen…”

Phalomir paused, eying Aelvedaar with a gentle sadness. “As I suspect mirrors your own feelings.”

Phalomir frowned and lowered his eyes.

“As for the strange bodies… when we were last there, the containment units that held them were breached, and both were empty.”

[ 04-18-2006 12:02 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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"I find this disturbing," I state as I stare into his intense green eyes.

"That such dopplegangers were at first found within the Temple on Koris'ian, only to then disappear leads me to believe the Master is behind it. For only one with All abilities would have the power to bring the pair to hiding, as had been done, only to remove them. Unless I am mistaken, they had to have been brought there from some time in the future, for reasons I do not wish to speculate upon."

Now I cast a molten look about the remainder of the group, assessing their individual strengths and weaknesses as I capture one set of eyes after another. There is truth in the statement that the eyes are the window to the soul... A small smile flickers at the edges of my lips, for the souls before me are nothing if not determined.

As determined as I.

"The Master uses the All; I have taught my Chosen Daughter something more than the bare minimum of its wonders. Perhaps I should not have held back from her its true beauty, for she had not the power to prevent such as what happened to her from ocurring.

"I, however, know something more... and am beginning to teach my next in line of this. There is something more, a paradox if you will."

I pause a moment, gathering myself together, pursing my lips as I think for a bit of what I am about to reveal.

My eyes return to Phalomir's, and I lay a clawed hand upon his shoulder.

"Knowing of the All and using its power are two things, my friend," I begin carefully.

"From the time when we first began to understand it, only the most elite of my clan were privy to its knowledge. At that time I was only beginning to show my then adept, Aeylmaar, of its powers, its magnificent possibilities. With our Great Victory, I raised his lessons to the next step.

"That he is an apt pupil and takes his lessons seriously is rather obvious; he will in fact become, perhaps, a greater adept in the All than ever I could be."

Aeylmaar gives a start at this; I lift one hand from Phalomir's shoulder to wave off his modest protests.

"Hear me out," I make a command out of the request.

"Only the most elite of our clan may learn the intricacies of this power," I repeat, turning from one to the other to see if any glimmerings of understanding have surfaced yet.

I believe there are some; Phalomir's eyes widen with something approaching the onset of shock, while the young Adept of my Chosen One, she who once touched the beauty of the All as well, frowns in concentration.

I tighten my grip on Phalomir's shoulder.

"I believe you are my descendent, my friend. For your father has great ability when it comes to the All, an ability which can only be taught, handed down through the generations one Dark Lord to another.

"But he misuses the power terribly; we must tread carefully. For some reason he has come to this moment in time, has taken Jharmeen from us, has taken you as well.

"I believe he has orchestrated your deaths; hers at this moment, yours is yet to come. The bodies had been placed in the Temple, thought to be safe, removed when discovered.

"Removing the living soul is a feat not easily mastered, and when accomplished places the one achieving such a miracle in mastery over the individual into whom the soul is then placed."

I pause again, my breath coming hot with anger now.

"Curse this power, the fact I had not the strength to remove it from us once our Return was made!"

Again I return to Phalomir, sink my claws into his shoulder.

"In our venture into the Darker Realms we will be facing one extremely adept in the All, one who has had all the time of his upbringing to learn from his father, who has had more time allotted to its study than even I, and who has taken the soul of your beloved.

"Who has a future body of your beloved, into which he may be planning on placing the soul he has taken, and who may have plotted this all along to entice us into those hideous realms that he might then kidnap your own soul."

I sigh, shake my head, knowing how fantastic this sounds, how surreal. But in my heart of hearts I know this is in fact what is happening, although to what end, for what purpose I can only speculate.

I raise my head again.

"Phalomir, if what I have suggested has indeed already happened, you, or any of us, may have to kill the doppleganger... which will of course be none other than Jharmeen. I can only hope that I have the power to regain her soul at the moment of death, that it might be placed back into the correct, protected, vessel."

I stop at this. Now is not the time to investigate the very real possibilities of this recurring, over and over. Until the Master is stopped, the two will live in danger.

And this is only on the surface of it. I have not yet begun to consider the ramifications of the Master's continued misuse of Time, not to mention the additional conundrum of what might happen if he has advanced to the highest level.

The level giving one mastery not only over the fabric of space and time... but finally over the infinity of universes which indeed exist in a beautiful and delicately balanced multiplex.

[ 04-23-2006 05:19 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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“I have long suspected,” he said, “though various discoveries, that I am descended from your line. I do not know what memories are real and which are lies, but in my time I was Lord of the Sorcerer clan. But I refused to know the All, even though the council demanded it.”

Phalomir looked Aelvedaar in the eyes.

“The bodies were gone before we moved the system into the Elseness. And it is was on that very same trip that we discovered the Master had been banished to the storeroom of the strange ship we used. He led us to believe that it was you who did it to him, but obviously that was false. But he would have had the bodies released by then… and I was captured and – tortured – in the Darker Realms after this. He was trying to bond my spirit with something very dark and sinister, some black force that ended up possessing him when Jharmeen and Shayla thwarted him.”

Phalomir shook his head.

“I makes no sense, if he planned one thing all this time, to have these bodies.”

Phalomir looked around the room and locked eyes with another.

“Perhaps Thoran can explain this.”

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

Impatient to get back into attack mode, I interrupted before Thoran could lead us farther down the primrose lane the Dark Lords seemed intent upon traversing.

"Of course it makes sense, you big lug!" I burst out, taking a step away from Terrin's protection to place myself between the two towering Sith. That my head scarcely came to their chest level didn't deter me in the least; heaving a sigh, I placed my hands on my hips and stared up at Phalomir.

"Didn't Lord Aelvedaar just say that whoever yanked a soul away to place it into another vessel, or body, or whatever--"

I paused for a momentary grimace of distaste.

"--then has control over said vessel? Or weren't you listening?"

Catching a somewhat incredible look from Terrin I sidled back against his side.

"He seems to have missed that somewhere, although to tell the truth I don't know what in Hell's Seven Circles we're going to do if Phal's dear ol' Daddy has already stuck Jharmeen into her body... er, her future body, that is."

I then fell silent, waiting for everyone to assimilate what I had just said, in particular the unspoken conclusion that if the Master held sway over both the Dark Lord and Lady, life on K'eel Doba might just take a sudden turn for the worst.

Ol' Googly-Eyes notwithstanding.

[ 04-24-2006 05:18 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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...but is it possible for us to discuss all of this enroute to Kor'isan? I mean, I'm sure all these thoughts will be important to consider, but kriffing hell, time is still ticking. Or at least it was the last time I checked. So don't we need to get on a ship a get the hell on our way? We have a couple of connections to Kor'isan...

...Phal's connection and Panthar's connection. And hell, if we can't appropriate a ship here...

...I'm fairly certain we can get one from a very reliable ship industry we all know and love..."

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

I wait until I have captured the attention of all, and explain my thoughts.

"Phalomir, Panthar: you both have a strong connection to Koris'ian. One via a link with the essence of Life there, the other with the very Temple that we seek. Unless any other of you has a stronger connection, I would use both of you as a guide to where I place the Portal that I open."

[ 04-24-2006 09:57 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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“Hell, yeah, I’m game!” he said. Phalomir gave a single nod to Panthar and stood quietly, waiting for Aelvedaar’s orders.

Panthar raised his eyebrows and leaned in to the closest person, which happened to be Shayla.

“Hey,” he whispered, cupping his mouth with his hands. “Maybe this is nothing, but you know, Phal was alone with the Master for a long time before you guys rescued him. If the Master already could have swapped him out…”

Panthar swallowed his thought and bit his lower lip. He raised his head and smiled at Aelvedaar.

“Ready when you are,” he said cheerfully. “What do I need to do?”

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

I recall his seemingly offhanded response to the disclosure of the paired bodies, and their disappearance.

"Not you," I state abruptly, reaching out with a clawed had too swiftly for him to react. He blinks, surprise accompanied with perhaps a touch of anger beginning to march along his face before he disappears along the Mobius time-loop I have placed him upon.

The others stare at me, dumbstruck. I merely turn back to Panthar, my hands hidden within my robes, and nod to him once.

"He shall be safe, caught between one nanosecond and the next. An eternity of now, if you will. But the words you have spoken have merit. Considering what he himself has gone through, we simply cannot trust him now."

Now I reach out with one hand and lay it against Panthar's temple, spreading my fingers out to splay about his head, seeking pressure points and nerve nexii.

"The connection with the Life Force is always stronger than one to a place, however magickal; concentrate upon your tuk'ata friend."

He bows his head, closing his eyes to follow my instruction, sweat beading upon his face and chest with his effort. It is not a fruitless one, for after a bit the haunting wail of a tuk'ata in full song wafts into my ears as if from a very great distance, the smell of greenery tickles in my nostrils.

I grunt with the effort of pointing my other hand to Aeylmaar.

"Your destiny is secured, my Son," I whisper hoarsely, knowing this to be true. For safe he had to be, and remain, to find a consort and begin the lineage leading to our descendent foe.

"But the powers of the All do not compound; remain here, continue your lessons, and attend to affairs of the Temple. But--"

I pause, concentrating fiercely as the connection clarifies before me. The finger pointing to Aeylmaar crooks upward, beckoning him to me. I sense the motion of air as he comes up to my side in respectful silence; even as he does, I clamp my free hand about his face in mimickry of the grip by which I hold Panthar, once again seeking out nerve ganglia and sensitive points within his psyche.

"I open this Link between us, my Son, and further establish one to the Place of the Armorers. Should we be in need of each other, we now have a means of communication, and you have a means of reaching Koris'ian on your own."

He jerks away in startled surprise; even though concentrating with all my effort I manage a little smile.

"Continue your lessons, my Son. You have more within you than you know."

Then removing my hand from his features I stretch it out toward that middle space ahead. Closing it into a fist, I twist it just so, wrenching not only the fabric of space and time but that even more tenuous material existing between.

A portal tears open in front of us. A blast of wind rushes past as the cooler air of the temple seeks that of Koris'ian; the increasingly excited howl of a tuk'ata is heard.

I open my eyes; the Portal remains steady.

"Shall we go."

Without waiting to see who follows, or in what order, I step forth into the Elseness, away from that which men term real.

((OOC: Follow Aelvedaar et al into Middlespace, Thirdspace in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you.))

[ 04-25-2006 12:37 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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Panthar wiped the sweat from his brow and looked around at the few remaining people. When he came to Thoran’s stern gaze, Panthar at first lowered his gaze, but then a small smile formed on his lips and he quickly followed through the portal.

Thoran exhaled slowly, then turned to Aeylmaar.

“Take care,” he said. “The Master is very good at creating a paradox. And with his new dark powers, who knows what else he can do. There’s something going on here that’s giving me chills.”

And with that, Thoran stiffened and walked through the portal.

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

Then, not quite knowing what else to do, he simply turned and retreated into his Father's Inner Sanctum, there to lend himself with a vengeance to the lessons already given to him, to then extrapolate from them what he could in order to apply his growing knowledge to any unknown, and dangerous, situations.

((OOC: Follow Aeylmaar and any leftover characters -- Impys, Sorben Tarnus, etc. -- into the new thread, Silence of the Lambs in the "Jedi/Sith" forums. This one is too, too long!))

[ 04-25-2006 04:57 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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