"How easily you bandy words about!" she purred back, the inherent snarl not vocalized but clearly felt as the very timbre of her voice rippled the molecules of the air.

"How cleverly you evade the issue; is it that it is too difficult a feat for you to attend to, my dear fiance?"

She batted her heavy lashes, but the eyes those lashes framed remained dark with burning rage.

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

"Is it that you are too weak to do it yourself?" He snapped back, a wickedness in his eyes as he spoke. "The old being stole it thrice before now, and what is it that YOU have done? Sit here and scream and rage and command but do nothing for yourself? Pathetic. But very well. Send me to the dark plane and I shall retrieve the petty trinket for you. A wedding gift I suppose."

He had not released his blade as he spoke.

[ 01-04-2006 12:14 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rykounagin ]

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

Giving her head a toss, she marched directly up to Rykounagin, came to a halt in front of him.

Cut a look to his tightening hand, then moved it back up to meet his own.

"It is not a question of whether or not I can do this task myself; it is that I ask it of you, to prove your words as being truthful or not!

"Indeed, I know who has my pretty trinket, as you call it, as do I know who obtained it for him! If my father so desires me to wed you, then he will not begrudge this of either me or you."

Though her words had stopped her lips continued to move soundlessly.

Indeed she did know what she had just revealed to Rykounagin...

...but how had she come to know of it?

For the moment she simply let the issue drop as her focus became vague, her consciousness departing from reality to look inward, seeking answers. Standing close to Rykounagin, she swayed a bit on her feet, so engrossed she was with this new enigma.

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

He smirked. "No, I don't think he would begrudge us. Send me then."

He released the sword, having no need for it if he was visiting his father, glanving back to the man- who's shoulder had turned a very nasty black.

"Oops... ahwell..." He turned back to her. "Come on then, I assume you wanted it quickly."

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

"Oh, very well," she said, assuming her former haughty air. Sniffing, she reached out, grasped the fabric of space and time, and with a quick twist of her wrist ripped open a portal.

It roiled like living oil, dark and dank and iridescent, and from it, as if from a great distance, came the gibbering slobbers of a million demons.

"Perhaps you might need that blade of yours after all, my sweets," she purred nastily, giving her head a toss toward the sword Rykounagin had just set aside.

"I wish you the best of luck in your task... for my father resides in the Darker Realms of the dead."

Smiling darkly she waved a dainty hand toward the portal she had opened, even as she forced back the pang of grief and despair which suddenly rose up, trying to claim her.

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

He chuckled. "I may walk upon the black waters of hell and stroll across it's firey planes, but naught shall touch me, for I am his blessed.'

He turned to the portal and walked through with uttter confidence...

(((OOC: Rykounagin slides into: "Into the Out of" in this forum, thankyou.)))

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

He is my father's blessed! Let him return to me through his will then!

She giggled malevolently, believing with all of her dark soul the very improbability of that every happening. Smiling to herself that she had gotten rid of Rykounagin, she turned away...

...only to have her gaze fall upon the stricken Jasyn.

Her eyes darkened.. then calmed a bit. This heinous injury was at the abominable hand of...him. Therefore, as much as she detested the mere sight of the feeble intruder, it was an anathema to her.

A wave of one hand... and nothing happened.

She frowned, concentrated, now closed her eyes to seek out each individual, stricken cell in Jasyn's shoulder. Finally, after much effort, she managed to at least get his immune system to begin tackling the chore of healing him naturally; she had not yet the extensive knowledge of the All to overcome Sith magicks as easily as she would have liked.

All in due time, my pet...

Her eyes widened in startlement; then slitted again as she confronted Jasyn.

"May I ask what it is that has sent you into my private chambers in so ungentlemanly a manner?" she huffed, still wanting to blast the man into tiny pieces even though she had just implemented a healing process within him.

Simply because in being relatively civil to him, or at least as civil as she could ever bring herself to be, she was acting toward Jasyn in a manner completely opposite to how Rykounagin had treated him.

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

"You're people seem to enjoy art and things of fine quality. The city is beautiful from this perspective." She paused for a moment to take in the scenery for a moment. Then a thought popped in her mind.

"Do you have a name? I am Sarisa Ker." Her voice soft in tone and friendly. This woman seemed to be genuinely open to Sarisa's querries and a bit friendly as well. After the woman replied with her answer Sarisa smiled and nodded then she shot a second question to her.

"I was wondering what you can tell me of this Dark Lady? Is she the leader of the Sith?" her eyes looked out once again at the city before them as she awaited the response.

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

"Believe me, it was not your room I intended to enter into to begin with."

Clamming up at that, Jasyn elaborated no further as one black addendum clouded his thoughts.

Although perhaps it is not an entirely bad thing I found my way here...

...that is if I get out of here in one piece...

[ 01-04-2006 09:28 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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

Instead, she drew in a great breath, let it out in a puff.

"So, it was not my room that you meant to thus enter; is this how you come into the rooms of others, without so much as a by-your-leave or other such announcement of your presence?"

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

Before I so unintentionally found YOU.

"I should be getting back to my search..."

He trailed, a flash of something glinting his eyes for a moment, "Although I'm sure they'll be looking for me in a while if I don't show."

And am not wining and dining at the bar...

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

The lady in waiting rose gracefully to her feet, and came out to join Sarisa upon the balcony. Respectfully, she came to a halt about a meter behind her, fussed with her simple robes a bit, then finally mustered up the courage to continue.

"I-- I really don't have much personal experience with the Dark Lady, but I have been told things about her. Wonderful things! I have heard she is strong and powerful, a great warrioress-- she defeated the former Dark Lady, one of our blood, in fair combat to assume the full title which she now bears.

"You see, both bore the Tattoo of Entitlement, but only one could hold the seat; a Challenge was put forth..."

The lady in waiting paused a moment, floundering as to how much she should reveal of their rites and rituals to one who was a perfect stranger to them. She chewed her lip, fretting a little as the need for discretion fought against her orders to act as companion to this human female.

Momentarily confounded, she stood in silence. Then the thought struck her that there was something she could offer in conspiratorial and feminine glee, for hadn't this one stood in her very presence? She sidled a step or two closer, took a quick glance over her shoulder.

"She isn't Sith," she breathed, then ducked her head, fussing with her robes again while her eyes remained glued to the stones upon which she stood. A pregnant pause ensued, a silence broken only by the soft sussurration of the night breeze and the sounds of Phrinnchatka slowly putting itself to bed.

"My name is Leerka," she said suddenly, almost as an afterthought, before falling silent once again.

"These corridors house the private suites!" she sniffed, giving her head a toss.

"I find it extremely odd that you should have wandered here; were you not shown your own rooms? Can you not find your way? Must one lead you by the nose to seek your own den?"

With a sudden movement she glided forward, came up before Jasyn, stopped. She tilted her head back and glared up at him, not one whit intimidated by his size.

Her slender hand shot out in a flash, latching onto his temple and forehead and the bridge of his aquiline nose before Jasyn knew what had hit him. Curling her nostrils in disgust, for at this proximity the Sith brandy he reeked with was nearly overpowering, she closed her eyes and concentrated.

An image came into her mind... an image of him, swigging from a green bottle as servants came to lead him with his friends to the chambers her mother was providing them with. Another image: the group disappearing down a particular corridor while Jasyn lagged drunkenly behind...

She withdrew her hand as if burned.

"You must go out from here and to the right; follow the corridor past three intersecting ones; at the gilt-framed painting of S'slan's Conquest turn left; follow that to the third set of double doors, which will at least get you in the correct portion of the temple!"

Once more her hand lashed out, but this time to manipulate the molecules of air about the door which opened into her room. They grew sluggish, becoming gravitationally bound to one another, grew denser and denser until at last they were cohesive enough to form a type of battering ram. She made a pushing motion with that hand.

The door to her chambers flew open, revealing the flame-flickered corridor outside.

"I trust we shall meet again, human," she said, the smile of a rancor upon her lips. Then she whirled about, ignoring Jasyn as if he were no more than a mote in the eye of some distant and uncaring god, and went out upon her balcony to stare, fuming, into the night. For in that brief foray into Jasyn's mind, she had not only seen...

She had heard.

Jasyn's voice was as loud as if he was yet in front of her, speaking to her instead of to the dark shadowy one who yet remained with her mother.

"I just wish someone here would not dismiss the imminent danger. ShaRhylla is here, somewhere. Who is to say she's going to 'stay in her place' even overnight, especially considering she may even now be hearing of her mother's return?"

The wind grew colder as it set ShaRhylla's tresses to dancing, but it was not nearly as cold as the ice now hardening her heart.

And her resolve.

[ 01-08-2006 11:26 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

CHOSEN

He stepped through and felt the portal close behind him, and found himself staring at her back, the man obviously gone as it was silent as the scent of alchohol had left the chamber.

"He wasn't happy-" He said simply as he walked up too the doorway too the balcony, tossing the amulet towards her too watch as she automatically caught it by reflex. "-That you'd asked for it."

He watched her for a moment, quietly adding. "He said you'd remember it."

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

A shock thrilled her to her very core.

The House of Rean...

While she had not witnessed the event, she had one time asked him of the strange amulet he had suddenly taken to wearing. Her eyes grew as vague as his had been as she remembered back, recalling the day, the look upon his face, the way his hands had fisted, how his claws had rent his own flesh, how he spoke in reply but somehow it hadn't been to her...

He had a plan, and the plan was progressing. It involved uniting the Sith beneath the banner of Roan, whether they deemed this prudent or not. The warriors, she was told, flocked to his side, sneering at the thought of needing a Triad any more. Knowing he had their strength behind him, he orchestrated the extermination of the entire House of Rean, after dishonoring his body by defanging it, and using his powers to crystallize a drop of his blood.

The fangs, the drop; these he had incorporated into an amulet, joined with a matching warrior's stone, and had given it as promised to his love, his wife...

Kreesha.

It was to complement a set of armlets, which were to bear the ground bones of Aelvedaar, set with his fangs...

But Kreesha had died, after first being dishonored at her mother's hand. Aelvedaar yet lived.

Roan had placed the amulet upon his own person, so as to never forget... but he, too, was slain. But before he was killed, he had told her of this.

Or then again... had it been afterward?

She shook her head with a little grunt, stared at the amulet, her eyes wide with realization. Suddenly, her head jerked up, her eyes met Rykounagin's. She held the amulet out to him.

"Place it about my throat... p-please, m-- m--

"M-my betrothed."

With that she turned her back, leaving herself totally vulnerable to him, as was the way of the Sith warrioress. Slowly she knelt, lifting a hand to move her hair to one side, thus exposing the back of her neck to him.

[ 01-09-2006 12:57 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

Even I, this mind behind Rykounagin's visage- was tempted by the sight of her exposed neck.

Was it perhaps a flare of my own predatorial agressiveness? Or was it a twinge of his own true emotions? It didn't matter... he had no power of himself now....

With unwavering hands that did not betray the thought laced beneath the scarlet pools, he slowly drew the neck lace up around her neck with an almost affectionate grace and gentleness.

He slowly locked the clasp gently at the small knob of bone upon the back of her kneck. Then he gently slid his hands to the sides of her arms and gently pulled her up too stand, still with that odd and uncharacteristic gentleness.

With a light flick of his wrists, he gave her the gentle nudge that turned her too face him, looking into the depths of her turquoise and violet pools, and smiling faintly.

"So it is that you believe me now?" He asked, voice unsarcastic, unhateful, with nothing but a gentle affection in his tone as he spoke, wondering if their conflict was now over at last.

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

The bare bones of it was that she found she had to make a choice.

Had to.

It was a time to make alliegance, the time to pick a path. Three lay before her:

One, red of eye and sultry of voice, a blackened demon from realms man cannot call real, that place now existing in the deepest of her dreams, her nightmares, deeper yet, in the very cells of her memories, for the remainder of her body would have none of it, none of it, would not again relinquish the life for the wondrous joys of death.

Another: her mother, flame of hair, as her sister, pale thing she was, soft and yielding but necessary, said her mother, she who bore her, combined flesh, all three, a new Triad, something about white spiders and gnarl-trees...

And the third. Where he stood, strong and powerful, yet with her always gentle in the only manner a warrior could be, ever pushing her to find herself, to pick her own path, giving her strength and urging her to utilize it. For how else could she explain the manner in which he put her from him those times that he did? Only because he loved her as terribly and desperately as she loved him.

And so now, for him, she would do this thing.

She forced the hauteur down and away, forced back the anger and rage and awful feeling of servitude which, inexplicably, flooded over her.

"Yes, I believe you, for the sake of my Father who I trust with my life."

Her fingers reached up to curl about the Amulet, feeling it's cold, cold metal, the ivory and blood burning hot beneath her touch.

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

"That is worth nothing too me." He said, turning from her too look out from the balcony. "I cannot love you as my bride or wife if it is not your own affections that you would return."

He looked down too the railing beneath his bare hands. "You have the right too what you want-" he looked up at the city. "-it's how you get it that makes the difference. I know we're going to have a darkness between us. We'll try and get over it for our father's sake. But that doesn't mean it's gone."

He turned around too look at her. "So really... is this what you want? Regardless of what your father says or not?"

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

She frowned at the enigma he so suddenly presented.

This change... why this sudden change? Why was he not at her throat, as earlier? Where the snideness, that supreme self-confidence, that air of princeliness, of owning it all, them all...

Even she?

Gone. A will-o'-the-wisp, a fragment of mist, dissipated into that which was, away far away. Or hidden as deeply.

But why?

Cocking her head, she found herself growing uncharacteristicly curious, the hate and rage lessening for a reason she could not begin to fathom.

"I might ask the same of you," she said simply, giving him a penetrating stare before she turned away once more, presenting her face to Phrinnchatka and the night.

[ 01-09-2006 01:50 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." he said simply, now looking to stare out into the night. "No one would. Everyone thinks that everyone else has an agenda, a plan. So it confuses them, and they reject it when someone says they don't."

He looked back too her. "I'm trying to survive. Take what I can, do what I can. I'm an animal, a beast with no purpose but too do what I can. I try to keep what I can and when I lose it- it hurts more than what I lost before."

He paused, closing his eyes. "And even now I'm laughing because I'm pouring a heart out too someone who believes I stole the heart from someone else. So right now, my goal, my dream-"

He smiled and looked to her again. "Is too do as your father bade. Unite the sith, and create a great dominion with which he can do as he pleases. Then if and when his time passes, I'll do what I please."

A tone of strange seriousness entered his voice- that slight edge that had always been there before as his eyes pierced hers. "And if the gods will that you be by my side as that happens. Then only you can deny them."

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

She... by his side?

What new strangeness was this--?

She gave her head a little shake, the frown deepening in honest puzzlement. A deep ache began to fill her as she then turned inward, digging deeply, trying to find something to base his words against, something to make sense of their meaning which she was only beginning to understand.

She had nothing to base it against, or at least nothing immediately recognizable...

Somewhere deep inside, a little flame flared up.

What are you doing? What is happening to you...?

She promptly squelched it, suddenly unwilling to lash out, lash back, at odds with her very own character.

Swallowing, she looked down awkwardly at her hands, which to her great consternation she found to be trembling. She clenched them, trying to hide the fact, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to say something.

Anything.

I could be there, if you wanted me to...

The thought sprang up from nowhere, thumped about in her heart, in her head, her mouth, seeking egress. She couldn't get it out.

She merely clenched her fists harder, staring down upon where they now lay against the stone balustrade, suddenly afraid to meet Rykounagin's eyes with her own.

[ 01-09-2006 02:05 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

Smiling friendly at the woman Sarisa hoped it might help ease Leerka from her apparent nervousness. "So did your Dark Lady send you to watch over me? Are you to be a guide for me while I'm here?" She looked into the woman's eyes as a soft breeze nestled upon them both.

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

"I am to be your companion during your stay here," she explained, relaxing a little.

"You did not come with one whom you might share chambers with, so the Dark Lady thought of you by assigning me to be with you, bidding me try to answer as many of your questions as I am able."

She blinked long lashes, the moonlight glinting from her smile-exposed fangs, and finally loosened her grip upon her simple garb.

"I-- hope we can become friends, for my duties in the temple keep me from making many of my own, and you look to be about my own age.

But how had he been able to do such a thing? He hadn't trained in years. He wasn't a Jedi.

But an act of passion...

Shaking himself from these thoughts, Erik got up and dressed himself, not wanting to wake his wife...

...and not wanting to lay and drown in his own thoughts. So instead he found himself ambling the hallways of the Sith Temple once more, til at length he found himself at the little area for nightlife where he and others had found themselves before, dining and drinking Sith brandy. He took a table for himself, got a drink...

...and found himself floating into his thoughts once more, despite his efforts to retreat from them. He wondered how Shayla would react if she knew what he had been able to do...

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

The indigo-eyed one, a squadron leader for one of the higher warrior castes, nodded imperiously, both to indicate himself and his companion. He was of high enough rank to be very aware of his own importance... but yet not quite high enough to know better than to flaunt it.

"And give that-- that--"

He floundered a moment, blinking in buzzed quandary as he wondered just what in S'slan's Circles he should call Erik. He had never before seen a human, having been kept to the Outer Hinterlands when the first of the Jedi invaders had shown their faces... only to mysteriously disappear, like ghosts in a mist.

Frankly, he had never bothered to wonder as to why.

But he did bother now to stick his aquiline nose into business where perhaps it didn't quite belong.

"That-- that thing," he went on with a sneer.

"Give that thing another whatever he's-- no, wait."

His nostrils curled, and he leaned over to whisper something to his companion, who laughed in turn.

"From the looks of his glass, he's imbibing in watered down pablum; give the thing a drink!