The Tower lay at the heart of the Darker Realms, it was tied closely to the power of the land and was as ancient as its walls were black. Many had lived within its confines, in the days when the Realm had its own succession of Lords. Those days had long since vanished, the last true Lord swept away into the nothing, leaving the rule of the Realm to the darkness of Entaris. But even that unnatural creature was bound to the Tower, and the Tower always remembered.

And the Tower, granting a small portion of itself to the Master, remembered ShaRhylla.

“All happy with daughter, we is?” it hissed happily. “But now peoples must listen, before peoples go to nighty night. Tireds you be, but deads you be soon. Time for pet being over, time for story tellings now.”

The imp regarded Galen, then peered at Terrin.

“You have been knowed to me, in homeland. I was in watching you when Dark Lord brings you to Tower. You, no one shoulds trust. You knowing things. Maybees you not know it, but you knowing things. Dark Lord tell you things to do, then tell you to forgets. But I knows, I knows how wicked you is, how bad you is when you remembers what Dark Lords tells you.”

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...a shade at the time...

...for Galen. And remembering how long it had taken him to even remember dying, and how.

But this? No WAY.

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The imp trailed, growing vacant for a moment.

“Devil-spawn daughter lady dangerous, too dangerous. Make very bad for homeland and here. Dark Lord, he plans you see her, she wait for you. When she find you, then you make bad.”

The imp jumped the floor, surprised by its hardness.

“But you warned now, you is. And fight it, you can, maybe making tricks. You have thing in you – feelings… hope, and thing you call ‘wuv’. Can fight, yes. She think she have you, think you her slave, but no, you whammy her!”

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He had not looked from the flames. "Is it really all that important to know who I am? Or what I have done? Can none of you be sated unless that question is answered?"

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“Well, for one thing I just wanted to know if you are someone who can help. We seem to be a little short on friends right now, to be honest, and someone with your apparent… um… darkness… could be useful right now. Since nobody has yelled out ‘kill this guy’ I am assuming you’re all right, right? I hope so, because I could sure use some help.”

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For a moment they remained thus, staring upward as if studying the ceiling above her bed, where flickered shadows made by the flames dancing merrily in her fireplace. Then those shadows seemed to deepen, to darken; her eyes blinked once, then cut to the red pair which stared so intently upon her.

She blinked again, taking in the darkness, the black, the glowing red eyes. Her lips started to curl into a ravishing smile, her hands began drifting upward, reaching out, seeking, while every cell in her body strained to remember that which memory itself could not provide.

At least had not yet provided.

Not until now.

My Dark... HEART.

She was up and out of the bed and on her feet in an instant, crouching there upon the flagstones of her chambers, dainty fang and pearly claw bared as her own shadow now began to dance upon the wall behind her. The ravishing smile segued in a flash into a snarl; the violet-ringed turquoise of her eyes disappeared into black as her pupils widened.

"Who are you, to bring this mockery to me!" she hissed as memories of Entaris-aka-Darth-Wicked broke free from the shackles with which the Chosen Daughter had bound them, descending upon her in an almost completely overwhelming flood. Memories of darkness and blood and pain and delight.

He, her Dark Heart. And she...

His Dark ROSE.

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No big surprise there; they were completely trampled into the dirt by the onrushing army of goose-feet, which rushed icily up and down my spine now bearing with them all sorts of tidings of woe and despair and danger.

I sidled over to Terrin, who was looking as though he wanted to tear the little imp into pieces.

"He could be right, sweets," I ventured with a shudder.

"Don't blame the messenger; we all know what Roan can do--"

Now I gave the shudder rising within me full vent, grasping my elbows with my cupped hands as I hugged myself.

"What he has done," I finished in a whisper. A few ticks passed... then I pulled in a breath and continued.

"ShaRhylla is very dangerous; I-- I don't know if you know what she did to you; at least I think she did something to you right-- right before you di- were ki--"

I paused again, gulping back tears now as the full impact of what he had gone through really hit me for the first time.

I wasn't certain of it, but... he had been acting most strangely when we had left ShaRhylla in those terrible, terrible realms; he had been so suspicious, hateful of others even; I knew Terrin, this wasn't like him, I knew what Roan could do to peoples' minds, how he could worm his way inside and sit there like a gloating, bloated tick, waiting and whispering and laughing...

He was the Father, she the Daughter. The powers they held were so fiercely frightening...

"I-- he--"

Words wouldn't come to me. I gulped again, and leaned into Terrin for support, closing my eyes to feel his strong warmth, feeling the slight tickle of his breath against the top of my head as he looked down at me, heard the steady beat of his heart.

"Not again," I murmured, clenching my fists against his chest.

"I refuse to believe this could ever happen again."

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I gasped for breath as I gave a prayer to any god that could listen, and pressed back against the hidden passages wall, wishing I could shrink away. Where had it come from? Where had that experience come from? the darkness? The hate? The rage? What could possibly send out such powerful emotions that could threaten to tear the very souls that bore witness too it?

I did not know, but I was not sure. Even my confidence was shaken- not just in her or myself, but in what I knew as reality. I had seen strange things in my time, but, never experienced such a thing. "Dear S'slan what have you delivered too this place...?"

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"Enough!" she cried out, her voice no longer that of a mere human who had been thrust into events over the years under which most people would buckle, but now the timber of her position: the Dark Lady of the Warriors.

"Nefrai-"

She reached out to the tall shadow, placed a slender hand on his shoulder. Could not refrain from wincing at how that shoulder felt beneath her light touch, but let her hand remain there anyway. In fact, she gave him a gentle squeeze.

"What you speak of is a mystery to me, and is something I hope to be made aware of soon. For whatever this is, is something which truly distresses you; as an ally of ours, such distress must be alleviated and will be, to the best of my ability, as soon as I have understanding as to what this mysterious event is. But now is not the time to brood over what has gone by; now is the time to look to the future, and thus plan what we must to walk the correct path.

"And Jasyn--"

She turned to him, her eyes narrowing a bit. Indeed, his addiction to Sith brandy was starting to become a bit wearing, and could in fact prove beyond a hindrance to them.

"Nefrai is one of us; this I say to you as well, Mr. Dantares. Both of you must accept him as he is; and what great danger is that? What the drear outsider that by your actions and hints of words you would lead others to believe? If so, then why is he yet here with us, and why you here in this room?

"This bickering must stop. We simply do not have the time for it. Nefrai, what or who you are does not matter; what does is that you are here with us, lending yourself to our needs; that is enough for me.

"Now, all of you cease in your childish behaviors, lest I feel the need to send you off into rooms of your own with a nanny to watch over you!"

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[ 12-30-2005 12:03 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rykounagin ]

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We'll see you all in Of Saints and Their Slayers in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you!))

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