Panthar gladly relocated himself from the ledge, stepping through the portal with the others. He did not join the others in smiles, however, as a single thought forced its way into his mind. For as one joyous, fortuitous reunion had saved them, an overpowering feeling of loss and despair now pervaded within him.

As everyone moved to safety, a collective sigh of relief seemed to escape the group. Yet Panthar remained dour, looking squarely at Jharmeen. Her eyes met his for a brief moment, his thoughts not spoken yet unmistakable within his stare.

He’s gone, isn’t he?

[ 08-06-2005 07:23 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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...utter surprise.

My Dear, Dear Sister...

That had been Jharmeen's words as she lovingly embraced Shayla. Oh she had missed those words, that connection...

...but then, that was what was disturbing Shayla now as well. Before all of this had happened, before they had lost Jharmeen to the Beast...

...Shayla's chosen sister couldn't remember a thing concerning her training of Shayla, along with many other things including gaining the title of Dark Lady. In fact, the only thing she could remember at the time was her Sire, who they now all knew as the deceptive Dark Lord of the Sorcerors.

"Y-you- remember me as your Chosen sister...?" Shayla sputtered in surprise. "Before you were taken, you didn't remember me, let alone any of our past together..."

She trailed, frowning, her look darkening as she began to notice something else as well as her greeny-blue eyes took in the entire Dining Hall. Her eyes then shifted to the others in the group. "I would think this place should still be an utter mess..." she then observed, falling silent as she nodded her head towards the now in-place buffet table, laden with food...

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[ 08-08-2005 02:28 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Now he trailed, frowning, pondering the implications of Galen's words as well as Shayla's. Particularly Galen's...

...because they had very serious implications. "I could see perhaps you, with your abilities, sensing a distortion connected to the shield or something...

...but to actually see us regardless of the device...? ...How?"

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

Thinking of what Kelvendar had just said to him, he now stuggled to keep his lips from curling in outright laughter.

"The state of the Dining Hall?" he said innocently.

"Apparently you have not heard what I said; there has been no attack to my knowledge..."

Even as the words were leaving his lips, there came the sound of running footsteps. The warrior whirled about to see the rapid approach of a courier.

"There has been fighting at the courtyard!" he gasped, coming to a halt.

"Come, all warriors are needed; bring more tuk'ata, and pass the word among the ranks!"

With that the courier bowed, a clawed fist clapped against his chest, knowing now that the message had been duly relayed deeper into the temple, and hurried on in a direction that would lead him back to the main corridor. From there he could enter the Grand Foyer, and from there would run to the warrior's barracks, to raise a general alarm.

The warrior blinked, and cast a quick glance at Kelvendar. Then--

"Quick!" he stated, his sword an instant and living entity in his hands.

"To the Foyer, lend your aid!"

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

"I-- I do not know," she began her brow furrowing. Then her eyes widened, and the Glyph flared out in instinctive protest against what she was certain to be the awful truth.

"Unless... someone with greater powers than mine has somehow allowed this to happen--

"The Master!" she finished in a gasped whisper, one slender hand flying to her mouth.

"He is allowing this to happen; he is watching us!

"I shall need every device and assistance I can find--"

Her eyes widened further, and a grim smile played across her face.

"The Finger of R'lous; I need it now! Quick--!"

With that she whirled, turning toward the fireplace in front of which she had last left the Sith weapon--

--only to find it gone.

She whirled in anger.

"What has transpired in my absence?" she flared, the Glyph shooting radiance into every corner of the Dining Hall.

"Where is the Finger of R'lous?!"

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

"When we returned here to the Temple with you, after our trip to K'orisan, we arrived to find the warriors hostile. Our sith fighter was boarded; Galen, Terrin, Matt, and Jaysn were able to hide under the Sith ivisibility device while Erik, Panthar, and I tried to explain our situation to the others, and to explain that you had been taken to the Darker Realms."

Continuing along this line, Shayla explained how they were somehow pinned for Jharmeen's murder, and were thrown into the dungeons. Explained how they escaped...

...only to find several warriors who should have been guarding them dead at their posts.

"I don't know what has been going on here, but I do believe there is some sort of disagreement going on amongst the warriors. We have also been searching out Aeylmaar, who is waiting here somewhere, to help us in returning you safely from the Darker Realms. But what has happened to the Finger of R'lous..."

Shayla frowned. "It should be exactly where you left it, unless someone has done something with it since then..."

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

"My Lady ShaRhylla. It pleases me that you are well, though I regret that you were seemingly rudely awakened.

"It seems that you were placed under a sleeping enchantment by that boy Rykounagin...an enchantment that was recently broken. Why he was here, and what he did here, I do not know."

"While you were asleep, however, you missed several rather...interesting happenings."

Ragorian quickly told ShaRhylla of the buffet table's brutal incapacitating of Kelvandar, the whispers from the empty center of the room, the sith warrior with the two humans, and the whispered conversation he had heard under this "invisibility shield."

"Again,[i/] he said as he finished, [i]I know nothing of these intruders, as I would presume them to be. They left quickly, before I could gather any information."

"Milady, do you-" he began, but fell silent quickly. The part of him still within his vessel was calling out for his attention with much urgency, and so he swiftly turned his attention there.

The Dining Hall, which had been deserted since the odd group of invisible Sith and humans had left, was once again occupied. The two humans and Sith from before were there, along with several other humans, including one that ragorian immediatly recognized.

Ahh, he breathed to himself. The Lady Graysith has returned.

Quickly he set this part of his mind to work listening to their conversation and relating it to him, and he focused his attention once more to the part of him wihin ShaRhylla.

"Forgive my abrupt silence, my mistress," he purred, "But my attention was drawn by a matter that I believe you will be interested in. The intruders, the humans and Sith I told you about before, are once again in the Dining Hall. Those who were invisible before are not now. And...there is another complication, milady."

He hesitated a moment, then continued.

"Your mother is with them as well, my mistress."

He gave ShaRhylla a moment to absorb this, then continued.

"I am listening to their conversation as we speak, milady. Shall I tell you of what they are conversing, or would you prefer to confront them yourself?"

Pausing, he considered what he had said.

"I misspoke, milady. Shall I tell you what the intruders are saying, or would you prefer us to confront them, together? If you choose to face them, my Lady ShaRhylla, I will offer whatever aid I can."

Falling silent, he awaited her decision.

[ 08-08-2005 11:00 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Blade of Chaos ]

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She had been put under a sleep enchantment? But why--?

In a flash she knew; even as her small hands instinctively flew to her belt she knew what she would find there. Or rather, not find.

Her hands clenched in anger. The device she had found upon that warrior, seeming days and days ago but in reality only hours past, was no longer with her. And what better reason to be put into a magickally induced state of slumber than common theft?

She stood silent for a long moment, carefully keeping her flaring rage inside her, letting it fill her with strength and cunning as she knew it would. And at length it did so.

"My dear consort," she finally replied to Ragorian.

"How pleased I am to hear from you; you have been silent of late. Indeed, there is nothing I would like more than to confront she who birthed me, and rend her life from her in satisfying, open confrontation.

"But--"

She paused a moment, her bi-colored eyes slitting as she pondered. Then a cold smile came across her face.

"Let us remain here, and let her come to us. For she will, of that I am certain. No blame can be placed on us -- on me for the moment; we shall play the innocent in this intrigue, and let this work to our advantage.

"But do not think I fear her; my consort, if you have any other strategy you think may be advantageous to us, now is the time to speak of it. In the meanwhile, it pleases me that you keep me informed as to the conversation which is passing among our adversaries."

With that she fell "silent," still ignoring the Masque, waiting to hear what Ragorian would reply.

[ 08-09-2005 12:21 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Panthar’s eyes flared, a thought coming to him.

“Phal said that ShaRylla was behind it, remember?”

Panthar’s eyes then narrowed once again, focusing in on Jharmeen.

“By the way, where IS Phal?”

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

"He is at this moment in the Darker Realms, under the thumb of his father, the so-called Master, who took me there from-- from--"

She paused only a moment, frowning; then the frown disappeared beneath a fresh wave of fury. The Glyph ravened up the electromagnetic scale, bathing everyone present in harsh, purplish light.

"Who by his trickery left me languishing in some horrid place without being able to touch my powers... left me to the even more insidious desires of one of the demons of that realm, who offered me a return to you all only in exchange for my beloved Phalomir!"

She paused, panting a bit as she strove to keep from physically striking the hulking Sith body before her.

"The powers of this Master are immense; he too holds sway over the All, and has inherent Sith magicks at his beck and call as well. It is only through the strength of the Finger of R'lous that I might be able to confront him, to stop him from succeeding in his terrible plans--

"Shayla!"

Now she cut herself off, turning to the startled adept.

"Do you recall that brief but terrible time you were placed at the mercy of the incoming intruders, those who are yet without the boundaries of this galaxy, but who are headed toward us even as we speak? Those awful beings who would take this galaxy as their own--?

"The Vong..."

She stopped there, not needing to say anything further in that regard, knowing by the look on the young woman's face that Shayla clearly remembered every terrible moment she -- as well as her Chosen Sister -- had spent there in the ship of yorik coral.

"Phalomir's father labors under the awful delusion that he must hand my love to-- to someone or something, in order to keep the Vong from destroying all that we have and are.

"My friends--"

Now she took a tiny step backward, opening her arms to all present, forcing herself to calm, forcing the Glyph to lessen its ferocity.

"Political intrigues of my adoptive race are but nothing in comparison to what is coming if we do not stop this horrible being. I can take us back into the Darker Realms, but I cannot approach the Master to save my love unless I have the Finger of R'lous--"

She paused in mid-word yet again, but this time because she simply could not force any further speech past the swelling lump in her throat. The image of those present grew wavery then, seen through the rush of tears that suddenly filled her eyes.

[ 08-09-2005 12:49 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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What could it be that preoccupies her? She seemed quite determined to be successful in her schemes, though now she casts them aside without care.

After a few moments, I dared speak, my face neutral. "What course of action do we follow lady ShaRhylla?"

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

Well... overly-polite came close, so very close to describing the aura which oozed from him like mist over a summer's eve.

A ripple of anger shuddered through her; then she drew herself upright.

"We follow no particular course of action, my friend," she began, her lip now starting to curl.

"But you..."

The curl broadened into a smile of pure evil.

"Your talents are great: cunning and stealth you possess, not to mention your ability to make yourself non-existent to others.

"You, my dear Masque, shall go forth, on the hunt; follow after that traitorous whelp of an assassin, Rykounagin! It matters not to me what you do to him...

"But do not return to me until you have the Finger of R'lous in your possession!

"Then shall we attack!"

[ 08-09-2005 01:13 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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"Of course, I shall do my best to re-acquire the object that you wish to have." I bowed and went to my "passage" and slid through the faint crack in the wall. However, as soon as I was through I ran as a fox is hunted by hounds. "She has gone utterly mad..." I murmured, turning a corner, now already six passages away from her.

"I cannot remain in her company any longer, or she shall destroy herself and all others in her madness." He chuckled at the almost pathetic nature of her obsession to be better then her own mother, of whom I did not know had returned.

"I have to find Salandaar, someone who has any sanity whatsoever..." I said as I slid from the passages to change into my sith form and steal upwards to find the nearest exit from the corridors so that I could find the way out and into the light to escape from her insanity....

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

Or for something.

A slow smile softened her features, the look in her eye grew dark, predatory. Showing the tips of her fangs now, she nodded her head; then jerked it up and sighed.

Then she simply crawled back into her bed and soon fell into a natural and easy sleep.

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

"May we ask what you mean by these "vong" this "finger of R'lous" and explain other things that have occured? We do not understand...." We had raised the vocabulator level just enough so no one could reasonably feign ignoring us as we spoke.

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

This train of thoughts led him to a memory of when as a child he had observed some of the younger sith at a lunch hour in between training. He had observed the cleverness of another sith with glee, to watch him pluck a fruit from another with's food tray while he was not watching. However, it had startled him to see the reaction of the other with when he discovered it missing, a bawling fit over the single fruit.

And this "finger of R'lous" is a much greater thing taken as well... perhaps I truely have judged unwisely.... I took a moment to finish considering, then went back to the entrance to those secret passages I had roamed so many times, and sat down to consider where my loyalties and actions should truely lie....

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

She blinked in surprise, taken aback to see the strange entity which hovered halfway to the vaulted ceiling, overlooked before so focused had she been on the disappearance of the magickal device. But there it was, floating quite nearby to where she had last seen it, in fact.

Her eyes darkened, and she opened her mouth to speak harshly but stopped. There was something odd about this-- being, something which spoke of a strange combination of strength and innocence.

She took in a breath then, and a step toward it.

"The Vong are a race from another galaxy, who in years past tried to invade ours. From what I have been told, we were almost taken, but managed to deflect them away," she explained, striving to keep from her tone the growing sense of urgency she was rapidly filling with. This thing, after all, was indeed close to where she had left the Finger; perhaps it would know of something that might be used to their benefit.

She could actually sense Galen's jaw hitting the floor as she went on, all in seeming non sequiteur to their current predicament.

"Some of them are returning even now.

"And as for the Finger of R'lous... it is a personal possession I left in this room, very near to where you are..."

She quickly went into a detailed description of its physical appearance, but left out anything having to do with the magick which infused it, or the use to which it was intended. After all, such knowledge would be useless to any other but an All user; she highly doubted this being was that, since it appeared to be helpless against that very thing.

Finishing, she raised her head, took another step closer, keenly aware of the others who mimicked her movement, ringing her in an aura of safety as they closed in behind her.

"And who-- or what-- are you?"

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

We yet again paused, and then came to the matter at hand. "We wish not to sound self centered or uncaring, but we would gladly help you locate this "Finger of R'lous" if you would lower us from our current position and release us from this containment, we have grown quite tired of it."

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

"The input of-- of eighty minds is tempting, and something to consider," she said at length, nodding up toward the strange device--

--for indeed, now it was clear to her that this was yet another device, a thing, and not a living being unto itself.

But the essences of those it harbored...

"Unfortunately, I do not have it within me to grant your request," she finished, then turned and motioned to her companions. Ushering them away from the fireplace and to a position some fifty feet from where the cybernetic device floated, she spoke to them, keeping her voice low.

"Do you know anything of this thing?" she asked them, her eyes searching from one to the other, hoping that the common thread of all having appeared somewhat unexpectedly in the Great Temple of the Warriors was enough to warrant a satisfying response to her query.

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

“You know,” he added, “if the only chance we have of getting Phal back is to find that Finger thing, then I’m willing to do whatever it takes. Phal may be a little annoying at times, but he was ready to lay his life down for me when those tuk’ata showed up, and that’s not the only time. If this thing knows something, then I say we let it out. I mean, how can it be any worse than what we’ve already encountered?”

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

Graysith shook her head with a sigh.

"That, I am afraid, is something beyond even the great power of the All. To be able to release such a magnitude of living essences from a material prison -- and then find homes for those essences to reside it as separate entities! -- is something of the magickal realms, not the physical ones.

"I only harbor and control -- to a certain extent -- the All; I have no magickal powers within me, even if we could take this thing to the only place I know of where such a release could be implemented.

"And that is Koris'ian."

She paused again, then stepped forward to reach up and place a hand on Panthar's hulking shoulder.

"I miss him as much as you do, if not even more, my dear friend," she said softly.

"But unless this being decides to be of any assistance to us simply for the sake of assisting those who need such; indeed, assuming he can help us at all! -- I am afraid that we are yet left on our own devices in this."

She stepped back, directing her final words to the group in general.

"Does anyone else know of the theft of the Finger of R'lous, or can anyone offer any suggestions? The only one to my knowledge who showed such an interest in the device, other than the Master, was Rykounagin--"

She cut herself off in mid-word, her visage lowering.

"Suggestions please, my friends," she finished somewhat curtly, the tone of her voice at direct odds to the mild words she spoke in closing.

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

“Hey, are you sure that thing doesn’t just mean that it wants out of the pod that it’s in?” Panthar asked.

Panthar looked over at the pod, eyebrow raised.

“I mean, it sure looked like a humanoid in there, maybe it can move freely? Could that be all it wants?”

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

"Perhaps that is what it speaks of," she admitted then. "Perhaps I misunderstood; I have been through much of late--"

Not to mention what Phalomir was undoubtedly going through; that alone was enough to distract her. She gave herself a mental shake, and returned to the hovering containment pod.

Indeed, now that she took a closer look, she could see the shadowy outline of-- something floating within its strangely murky interior.

"I see no harm in that, and as it is something that I can initiate--"

Saying no more she reached out with the All, letting the Glyph light the way until the pod was lowered to the stone floor in front of the fireplace. She then turned from it.

"Panthar, from here we need more physical strength than I possess," she said, indicating the age-encrusted locks and connectors which kept the pod tightly closed. For although she could use the All further to break those bonds on a molecular level, she preferred not to do so at this time.

She did not exaggerate in her comment about going through much, and even with her talents she was not invincible, after all.

[ 08-09-2005 03:45 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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