“Jharmeen is dead,” he said, opening his eyes. “The Master has her spirit trapped in the Darker Realms, under the guise of protection, and we intend to either rescue her or -- let her pass on. But we need to keep her body safe, and here is not the place. The Ladyship has passed to ShaRhylla, and she is under the thumb of Roan.”

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

I took up the tome I had burnt through in my time in the temple library, knowing I had a purpose now, knowing that it had to be accomplished.

And soon.

But unfortunately, the text had alerted me to other complications I might meet, speaking of individuals the tome surely could not have known of at the time of its writing.

I took it up under my arm and stole from the library upwards, just enough to encounter other living souls, before decending again- curious in appearance I passed- too the depths of the temple.

Now that tome was open, I bade the question: "Where are my own chambers?", and even as I walked, it spelt out new words to my eyes, guiding me to my destination.

Never had I been where I now sought, save for it's parody upon Khar Delba, in which the illusion my father had created had welcomed me many times. Now I sought its equivilant, to begin my planning and set in stone my goals for the near future.

As I came to the doors that the book told me was my destination, I carefully closed it (and as I did so, the pages whiped themselves blank again), and tied the simple leather cord about it's spine to keep the pages safe.

I went to the door of my room, the chamber of the dark lord of the warriors, and smiled faintly. I then pushed the door open, and entered.

[ 03-20-2006 09:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rykounagin ]

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Standing stock-still, she remained stone silent, watching as a figure moved from the shadows into the light of the one sconce she had fired. Blinking in surprise and disdain, she immediately loosened her feral posture, snapping upright to cross her arms across her chest.

"You!" she snorted, giving her head a toss for good measure.

"What are you doing following me here? Reduced to the ranks of the lowly, by joining them in their miserable art of spying on their spouses?"

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

But then I remembered. I had left her in the middle of a sentance that she had spoken. No explanation, no reason, just... abandoned her.

Like my brother and old master had myself.

I was suddenly jolted to the core with a sadness at what I had done and moved across the room, laying the tome down in the same motion that I took to kneel before her, bowing my head in respect and submission as I reached out and held her hand gently in my two own.

"My love... I am most sorry for my horrible departure from your company. Please, I beg forgiveness of you my lady, I know not what came over me..."

Though one would normally think of deciet from an assassin, I truely regreted my leaving of her company. This was the first time I had ever had a chance to have a relationship with anyone, and I swore to myself I would not throw it away so carelessly again.

"My lady, please speak of your forgiveness or anger at me, but leave me not in cold and unforgiving silence..."

[ 03-20-2006 09:25 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rykounagin ]

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Even though her stomach told her they were not.

She didn't know if she was right or wrong in the matter, and it angered her to discover that she felt a need to discover that. Why, was something she really didn't want to examine too closely at the moment.

She yanked her hand from Rykounagin's and glided swiftly backward, until the kneeling Sith was outside the perimeter of her personal space. There she took a deep breath, making certain the scowl was still planted firmly upon her fair features.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, coiled to spring.

"How can you say such words to me after your actions so recently spoke so very differently? How am I supposed to believe what you say now?

"In fact, why should I bother to remain here any longer? Why I should try to find out who you are when I clearly do not know this, is something I do not understand myself. Nor do I wish to!"

Climbing astride her ever-present high horse she burst into motion, now making a bee-line for the door to her Father's chambers, even though her trajectory brought her uncomfortably close to the still kneeling Rykounagin, yet unable to comprehend that much of what she had just spewed forth more than likely sounded like incomprehensible babble.

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

As my bonded love tried to storm past me, I whirled and grasped her wrist and swung her down to the floor next to me.

"Silence your protests at such an action. Damn if anyone but you could notice, but I regret what I did. You do not trust me and I understand why, but I have been shunned for a long time and s'slan's hellgates take me if I let one of those that I actually want to trust -want to believe- walk away from me!"

I realized that I was breathing hard, for a reason I did not know. "Your father arranged our binding, and I was starting to think that maybe there was more than just his words too it. So please, don't make me have thought wrong. Forgive what I did this one time and I swear on the marks of our arms that I will not make you regret it."

Again, my voice was that of pure honesty, of pure clarity. "Please, ShaRhylla... my Dark Lady..."

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

For a moment all she could do was simply sit on the floor next to her husband, her hand once more snared in his, blinking in a combination of shock and anger, fear and growing effrontery...

...all combined with a deep and as yet unrecognized need to believe him.

But that need was indeed as yet unrecognized, and hence served only to add fuel to her indescribable confusion.

Which was, more than likely, why she was angry.

"Let me go," she finally said, only now something of the edge had disappeared from her tone. Something of the blackness had fled from her eyes.

She pulled against his grasp, tried to get to her feet, but his grip was too strong. Something flared behind her eyes; she settled once more upon the floor, staring up into his own colorful pair.

"Let me go," she repeated, holding herself very still. "I believe what my Father has done with us is somehow very wrong--"

Isn't it?

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

"I know I have done a wrong too you my lady, but I regret it dearly, and beg your forgiveness. So for once, please forgive me and let this one act of foolishness lie."

I smiled faintly. "Afterall, have you ever thought that perhaps your father predicted something that was for more then just the greater good?"

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

Not a one coalesced enough to prompt her to rise to her feet.

Suddenly she lifted her face, stared boldly into Rykounagin's eyes.

"Perhaps if you can come up with a good enough reason for your inexcusable snub, I might find the grace within myself to forgive you."

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

I closed my eyes for a moment, and kissed her hand gently. "Let not your fathers dreams die for my flaw. Let now my own hopes dies for my stupidity. And let not what we could have die, for a single moment of my foolishness."

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

"There is a difference between a reason and an excuse, and the words you speak to me now explain no reason but are instead in and of themselves an excuse!"

With that she yanked her hand from his and scrambled swiftly to her feet, glaring at Rykounagin as she wiped the back of her hand against her dress.

"I at least can be honest and will make no excuse for my presence here. Truthfully, I came here to seek out my Father, that this horrible farce of a bonding be annulled as soon as possible!"

With that she once more climbed aboard her high horse, pressing it forward with an urgency so sudden that this time she succeeded in bypassing Rykounagin altogether. Seconds later and she was through the door and hurrying down the corridor, a corridor growing more dim and wavery with every passing moment for the tears now welling in her eyes.

Anger? At whom?

She shook her head and continued down the corridor, the dank stones of this most secretive place ringing with the sound of her running feet.

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

As I came alongside her, I saw he look back at me with shock and anger in her expression. Within a moment I had her stopped, hands upon her shoulders. "ShaRhylla, I have tried to explain... tried to excuse my actions. So I shall tell you why I left in pure honesty."

I took a breath and continued. "This form... this appearance I have is untrue. I was bade by ancient custom to consult that tome that I brought to the room and learn of the old orders ancient traditions. Every 15 years at the blood harvest, those of my blood transform like this. It was so that anciently we could blend with the warriors and serve the lords more efficiently and now... I am in that form. The day after the hunt is over, I will be as I was... that is why I left. So please, take that in your heart and forgive me."

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

The motion only tightened it; sighing, she pursed her lips a moment as if lost in deep thought. Then she spoke, her voice surprisingly tremulous.

"You felt a-- a book calling to you, so you left me because-- because you are Sith?" she finally managed, still trying to understand not only what he was trying to tell her, why he was trying to make amends with her, but why she kept segueing into a frame of mind secretly more than willing that he do so as well.

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

I let go just slightly, to show that I trusted her not to be brash. "ShaRhylla... I know it's confusing because none of this is your way but... it's the truth. So hear and believe."

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

And found something... else.

Something deep within her rose up in protest--

No! You cannot! Your heart is taken, has always been taken, shall always be taken! You are the Dark Rose... His Dark Rose...

--but never quite made it into her conscious thought. So she put down the discomfiture she was experiencing now as yet more general confusion, confusion as to how she should feel toward her husband, and confusion as to how she wanted to feel.

She was not yet ready to let the feeling, whatever it might be, simply come; there was yet too much of the Dark within her to allow her such a liberty. She was still too much Roan's daughter; it would take more than sweet nothings mouthed out of purported love to ever harness her.

But that, too, was something she truly did not know, did not recognize.

"All you had to do was tell me, Rykounagin," she opened at last, reaching out to lightly finger the tome at his waist. It tinkled with a nearly metallic sound, as if its pages weren't made of paper, and the binding of leather. It sounded almost crystalline, and for that captured part of her interest.

"I was honest with you just now. If we are ever to truly become Dark Lord and Lady, we must always be honest with each other."

She did not amend that statement with the expected, "...and we must think of each other first." Indeed, that was something she was yet quite incapable of doing.

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

Not that the Dark lady was dead; oh no. That was something that he had somehow secretly known from the moment the Sith Lord had made so tentative and forlorn contact with him.

It was the remainder of his somewhat terse speech that captured his attention, and gave him pause.

ShaRhylla was in charge, and under the thumb of Roan. And who had been behind his own dear Father's last mysterious disappearance, the last time he had sequestered himself in his Inner Sanctum?

His eyes flew open, studied Phalomir with a calmness far from being felt within his soul.

"I would hope there would be no matter of choice in this," he said gently, nodding to the still body upon the bed which lay in such a mockery of sleep.

"We cannot allow Roan to continue in this; he is dead and he must accept his death. He has no place in the Diamond of the Sith any longer; I will do whatever I can to help you restore the Lady to what rightfully belongs to her.

"Her life."

[ 03-20-2006 11:37 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aeylmaar ]

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I smiled slightly, looking to the book in my possession that she had toyed with for a moment. "Let us return to a private place. When we are safe there, then I tell you that I shall be glad to answer any questions you may hold."

Gently I took her hand and began the walk back to he chamber in which we had so recently conflicted.

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

“I thank you,” he finally mustered. He felt his strength and confidence returning, here in the presence of friends. Something was going to happen, he could feel it.

“I believe the safest place for her would be with Aelvedaar, but you more than anyone would know if that is true. She holds him in the highest regard, and I am more than willing to ask of his assistance.”

Phalomir looked around the group of friends, and one who would hopefully become a new friend, and spoke louder.

“The Master has a plan, and whether or not we can trust him is irrelevant. The fact is that he holds Jharmeen’s spirit, or claims to, and I will do what it takes to recover her. I do not know how to reunite her spirit and body, but we saw it done before with Terrin, and I will be damned if we do not see it happen with Jharmeen. But the Master has a feud with Roan, and we may be able to use him to our advantage.”

He turned back to Aeylmaar.

“Do you think it is a good idea to visit Aelvedaar?”

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

He approached the large door and paused, hearing muffled voices within.
Apparently this is where Phalomir went, and if Thoran was going to do this then now was the best time. He mustered his courage and pushed on the door.

It did not open. Something on the other side was blocking it. He looked up and down the hallway, saw nobody, then knocked lightly on the door.

“Phalomir, it’s a friend, open up,” he said softly.

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

"My Father would give his own life for this Lady, that I know," he said, the truth shining out for the mere simplicity of his words.

"But he has walled himself within his chambers, and is not reacting to my attempts to reach him. Logic would have it that he is merely reacting out of his grief, for I know he loved her very much--"

He paused fractionally, sending Phalomir an apologetic glance before continuing.

"However, there is also the fact that the last time he hid from everyone in his chambers, Roan somehow took hold of him, captured him. Or perhaps that was the Master's doing; I know when he tried to tell me of this event his words were a bit scrambled, as if too painful to be spoken.

"But should this indeed be what has happened again--"

Now he was cut off by a soft knock upon the door. He cast a quick glance about; all seemed frozen in place. So moving forward and placing a gentle hand upon Jasyn's shoulder, he moved the human from where he had been leaning against the door and opened it.

A strange Sith stood without.

"Might we help you?" Aeylmaar asked politely.

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

The look on Aeylmaar’s face did not alter. Thoran frowned, then bit his lower lip.

“Allright, look,” he said. “Seriously, I need to speak with Phalomir and the others. I have news about the Master and Jharmeen. Come on, it’s me, Thoran.”

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

Now that was the last name I had expected to hear. Surprise carried me unthinkingly forward; I came up beside Aeylmaar, shouldered past him, stopped and looked up and up into the face of a rather large Sith.

I stood there, hands on my hips.

"Well, well, well, look what the sandcat dragged in! And just whose body have you managed to appropriate this time?"

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

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

...then that makes my desire for us to all get the kriffing hell out of here even more pressing. Anywhere but here is sounding like a good option, at least until we finalize just where we are going to go..."

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

"Yeah, Terrin's right. Whatever we're going to do we'd better make up our minds and, well... do it. And standing around staring at each other and hanging in hallways isn't going to cut the mustard."

Now that Aeylmaar had shown up, and more than one of us was determined to bring Jharmeen back to her ol' grisly self again, I suddenly found myself feeling worlds better. I turned back and shoved Jasyn in his shoulder.

"Hey, move yer hiney; there's someone standing in the doorway and he wants to come in..."

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