Good and well it had done to mend an ankle and cure toxins, but no good could it do against his own power. What gives me the right to be a maker and undoer? What gives him the right to die? He asked himself as he let himself focus on healing before voicing words to those who would hear.

"Fought valiantly he did, and his death be not in vain for his honor remains intact, for he died in the best way possible. The saving of one he loved was as I could understand it, the most selfless thing to die for. It is for that-" Kesh rose slowly, the agony receeding. "-he deserves to lie amongst kings and gods."

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In an instant Nefrai's blatantly incongruous words had the young Sith up on his feet once more.

"How dare you speak of honor and gods, you who came here as my guest, to provoke my father when honor bade him stand his ground...

"You who have killed him!"

His auburn eyes flashing in righteous anger, the boy now forced himself to stride up to Nefrai. Although tall for his age, he still had to crane his head back to stare up at the hooded being, standing his ground, his clawed hands held into tight fists at his side.

Out of the corner of his eye he noted the red-robed being seem to shift, as though ready to leap to the defense, but he did not care.

This being had broken every code of Sith honor that he knew of, and for that he deserved to die.

"I--" he gulped, then straightened.

"I challenge you to death," he said, bravely enough, every bit within his right to speak the words.

From off to one side there came a low moan, as his mother let loose a stifled wail for what appeared to be the upcoming death of her son as well.

Slowly he drew back the vapor-like hood, and with his skull-mask looked the sith dead in the eyes. "You are challenging death itself too a duel to death. That my young warrior, is foolish and unwise all in one."

He looked into his eyes with his own hidden ones for a long moment, then rose again. "The death of your father was not meant to be. Your honor in bringing us thus-far was great. But you dishonor your name and your families name by daring to challenge that which cannot be done. You are not old enough, nor wise enough to understand the implications of what you say."

He looked down to the warrior. "what would your mother do without you? Her husband dead andh er child gone? She would waste away in grief for her loss. And it would be upon your hands. Not your fathers, nor mine. What your duty in honor is now, is to bring your father to a place of rest as only his son should ever do. No wife, nor father, should have to bury their son."

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"You dare to speak such words, and just after killing my father!" he spat, a red haze beginning to mist in his eyes.

"You challenged him, you killed him, you dare to speak of honor, you--"

He trailed, his mouth working as he strove to find the correct means to express himself in the meager Basic that he knew.

"You who are without honor yourself."

Trembling, he took a step backward, letting his eyes rake up and down Nefrai's body. If anything he was more his father's son in that moment than ever before.

Leaning forward he spat in Nefrai's face.

"Leave my house and my family. You are strangers here, and will be.

"Believe me."

With that final utterance he moved around Nefrai and went to his mother's side. Placing his arms about her shoulders he helped her to her feet, pulling her with him to go back into their house.

A few moments later two male Sith came through the door. They went to the slain Sith and picked him up, easily carrying him back into the house with them. The door then slammed closed with a finality that promised the door to the planet would as well, for even then the tale of what had happened was beginning to spread.

Such was the strength of the inherent magicks of the Sith.

"Yes?" she asked with a yawn of indifference, wanting nothing so much as to return to her bed.

"Milady, news of strangeness from the Outreaches."

The warrior bowed his head respectfully, a fisted hand clamped over his heart, before sinking slowly to his knees. Now he let his head fall back as if offering a bared throat to his Mistress.

But that was not the heart of his offering.

She chewed her lip a moment, then sighed.

"Oh, very well," she said plaintively as she reached out a small hand, fingers spread, to find certain pressure points on the warriors temples and nose and cheek. Now closing her eyes, she let her own head fall back in mimickry of him as visions slowly began to infiltrate her.

Visions passed from a distance, from mind to mind, as they always have, passed from Sith to Sith through their magicks, a method more reliable than that of mere electronic transmission. For the mind of each Sith, on all the Sith worlds, was linked to that of three others, in turn linked to three, and so on until a vast network was created.

If one Sith died, another could take up the message, for it flashed at the speed of thought between them. The odds of any three minds that were linked to one being killed or dying at the same time were astronomical; thus it was that through the magicks inherent to each and every Sith on K'eel Doba, the startling information of what had happened in the small village not far from the capitol city had propagated at almost the speed of light.

ShaRhylla blinked, interested in spite of herself.

That hooded one... ahhh, I detect a darkness about him. What is he doing associating with the others? And they themselves--

What is this red-robed one who stands ever alert but strangely aloof from the others? Who is the girl, who appears so weak by comparison? And the last--

Her eyes flew open in the closest thing to pure astonishment that she could allow herself to feel.

"The jedi--" she breathed softly, now letting her hand drop as she took a step back.

The jedi. I know this one...

She crossed her arms again, nodding imperiously to the warrior.

"You have done well to bring this information to me," she began, her mind beginning to whirl with plans and schemes and ideas. None found solid ground within her; she shrugged, the movement barely noticeable.

It matters not; I shall decide what to do when they arrive.

"Find them, and bring them," she commanded. Giving the warrior a nod of dismissal she turned to leave but stopped. For once an idea of something beyond the mere moment impacted her.

"They had to have come in a ship of sorts; I would suspect that such a vessel cannot be too far from where they made themselves known.

"Find the vessels and impound them; I shall send the Engineers from Ch'arlingua to deal with them.

"Notify me when they have arrived here."

Finally concluding her commands, she re-entered her quarters and slammed the door. In her wake the Sith nodded in acquiescence, rose to his feet, and hastened off to put her orders into effect.

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A Jedi protects and defends. He does not attack.

Stepping in front the doorway to the dwelling and shielding it from Nefrai for at least the moment, Shawn's eyes hardened, and he spoke at last, his hand reaching toward the lightsaber at his belt although he knew it was useless against Nefrai.

"Why have you done this?!" he queried quietly yet not without emotion, pain etched in every word he spoke. "There was no reason..."

[ 10-31-2005 07:08 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shawn Petrolu ]

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"I know that one day, some day, I will meet my reckoner. Perhaps it is upon that day that I will truely grieve for all I have done in my existance. But for now, to call me for what I have done and force me to stand trial before your judgement-" He let the unfinished sentance answer itself.

"I wish you to know that I do regret that which I have done. I am a maker and an undoer, and neither are pleasant things. I would give my own body to bring back even one of those I have laid low in my time. I know that I err, but perhaps it is not all at it seems. Perhaps I am not the only one to be held at fault here, but we shall never know that."

He turned to look out across the landscape. "For now, all we can do is continue onwards and pray to ourselves that we find whatever comith for us."

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Which, perhaps, it was.

Something softly ominous, darkly insidious, seemed to fill the room with an unseen but certainly not unfelt miasma. It crept in upon little sandcat's feet, tiptoeing about, spreading like invisible oil until every corner, every nook and cranny, every single atom within was filled with its eerie presence.

ShaRhylla drew back a moment, readying herself to do battle with this new strangeness, when something gave her pause.

Something strangely familiar, almost warm, as close to comforting as what it represented could ever allow itself to be.

She blinked again, this time in surprise.

"F-father?" she stammered, forcing herself upright, turning this way and that as she stretched out with her senses.

"Is that you? Are you there?"

Suddenly she stopped, like a questing nek who has found game. Her talents homed in on a particular spot in the void around her, a void which suddenly only she could see.

Floating in that void were a pair of eyes the color of the sky.

She smiled slowly, beginning to listen, nodding in agreement, every so often lifting a daintily clawed hand to her mouth to stifle an erupting giggle.

Oh, such fun there was to be had!

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However, he decided to continue with his duty as he let his knuckles strike the door thrice before he knealt to wait, wether she would allow him entrance or wether she was too preoccupied.

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Both hands clapped over her mouth to help her swallow a final rising giggle.

Her bi-colored eyes were wide and yearning, staring into one particular spot within the opulent immensity of her chambers.

A spot which quite suddenly was no more than that, no different from any other spot anywhere else in the great Temple.

Drawing a deep breath she returned to her door, opened it.

"Yes?" she sniffed, battling to return to her former haughty air, knowing deep in her heart that she would never be the same again.

Ever.

Not after what had just been revealed to her.

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

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All her hopes now lye with those she has accompanied, or possibly even from the Sith.

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Shawn ttailed a moment, looking now to Nefrai. "...and I do not intend to run. Doing so would only implicate us further in some dark deed that was never intended...

... or needed. The Sith had rights to suspect us; they had every right to question us and our motives. And now you've given them more than the right; you've given them a reason. I will not flinch from that or try to cover the action as something that was either to be or just."

Turning back to Dat now, Shawn cocked his head slightly, his greeny-blues at last losing a bit of their original fire. "Please, lay her down. I will do what I can for her, while I can."

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"The intruders have been confirmed to have disappeared from the vicinity. However, on a different level of news-"

He looked down the hall almost casually, assuring no other sith approached before continuing. "Salandaar shows progress in recovery. Have you a wish upon either of these events?"

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

Kesh sighed, and personally refused to take full blame for the dark event, and merely watched as they tended to Sarisa.

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Saying nothing further than that, Shawn returned his gaze to Sarisa, who failing in her struggle to maintain consciousness. He waited for no further movement from anyone else, but instead placed a hand on her wound, closing his eyes and stretching out to the Force, channeling it to the injury while at the same time reaching his other hand to Sarisa's forehead to lay it there, then channeling the Force to her mind to draw her into a healing trance which would be greatly needed.

[ 10-31-2005 10:25 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shawn Petrolu ]

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"You expect quite a bit of a being that has done nothing but kill for countless millenia in a very short time. Perhaps it is that you should not test the limits of his patience when already it has worn thin. Perhaps it is your error that you brought me in the first place, but it is not something you can go back and change is it? Just as I cannot go back and change that I slew him."

He took a step forwards as he spoke. "So perhaps it would be wise to leave it in the past, where it is, and where it belongs, before you cross the same line that the sith did, regardless of wether he did it intetionally or found himself standing there by suprise?"

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A familiar sound like an echo. It was Master Petrolu's voice speaking to her. Telling her what to do.

She strained to reach out to him mentally as they were connected through the Force for the moment.

"I've already began the trance Master Petrolu, but the injury is too severe for me to begin healing. I've numbed my mind of the pain and slowed the progress of the infection but I need help soon."

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...and even more so when one considered the far too dangerous look now dancing in her eyes.

She pirhouetted, letting her hands fly out to her sides, much to the surprise of Kelvendar.

"Oh, I don't care; it doesn't really matter, you see. Those who are gone... are gone. And as for Salandaar..."

She stopped twirling, coming to a standstill directly in front of the Sith warrior.

"He doesn't matter any more either. Leave him be, he is of no consequence, no one shall believe what he might try to say anyway."

After all... wasn't that what her Father had just promised her?

[ 10-31-2005 10:40 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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And without a further word, he turned most of his attention back to Sarisa, stretching out to her and encouraging her to relax and trust in his abilities. All the while, a portion of him was not at all unaware of what was going on around him...

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Suddenly he stopped, his keen sense of hearing catching distant sounds, a faint vibration in the earth. "I think someone could be comming..."

[ 10-31-2005 11:31 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Nefrai Kesh ]

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[ 11-01-2005 08:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dat Cyprios ]

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He frowned. "Being a Jedi doesn't mean I don't have to take some stands. We need all the allies we can get here...

...but by your action, you've destroyed one potentially powerful ally we might have had here. And you destroyed your own crediability...

...how can we trust you not to do the same again, when your actions will be even more crucial?"

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"Then put me on a hellborn leash and give me one last shot before I go on my merry way." As he spoke, he was -with difficulty- twisting and reshaping his cloak into an almost rope-like form, then tossed it at Shawn before settling again.

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