Which she now stamped impatiently. Lady though she considered herself, she did not particularly like to be stared at as if she was some kind of delicate china doll, or a rare and treasured jewel in a hoarded collection. Respect and fear she expected, demanded.

Being seemingly ignored did not sit well with her at all.

"I see you do not have the common courtesy to answer a simple question!" she flared, her eyes flashing dangerously. Now her nostril joined with the curl of her lip; barely keeping herself from snorting in an unladylike manner, she went on.

"Very well then, I suppose it is of no matter to me who or what is coming to attack the Galaxy; I am strong enough to eliminate the threat, so my Father said.

"He does not lie."

The last words were thrown out almost as if in a dare, striking against the Master's oily face like flitting gnats. He remained silent, considering her.

Her anger swelled further.

"You state you are not going to keep me long from my husband; I demand to be let free to go to his side.

"Now."

Whirling about, she then moved to a nearby wall, in the oozing side of which there lurked a sickly indentation. It appeared somewhat rectangular, and of a height to accomodate a humanoid body. Without showing one whit of fear or hesitation, she reached out a pale hand and laid it flat upon what would be the frame if that indentation was truly a door. It felt warm and squelched moistly beneath her touch, giving slightly but doing no more.

Her eerie bi-colored eyes flashed again and she pinned them on the blackened, leering Thing.

"Well?" she questioned in her most imperious tone of voice.

"Am I free to leave or not?"

[ 05-16-2006 01:42 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

I shifted my weight slightly, and by the squelch below me, was reminded that this place was... almost alive. This gave me a thought, and I reversed my grip on Evictus.

"Not until I get what I want. And I always do."

I grabbed the blade by both hands, and knealt to bring the blade and all my weight down on it, sending it sinking into, and then through the floor. I let out a burst of magical energy, and felt it channel through the blade, finding that it seemed to work as a part of my own body in that respect.

I felt the flame pulse into the flesh, and felt it give way as it burst into the magical flames around me, sending me into a free-fall down to the hall below, twisting. In mid-air, I was at their mercy. Not a thing I exactly liked, as they had wings; and seemed ready to employ them.

I flipped Evictus around in my hand, now falling backwards and hoping I wouldn't reach the ground too soon as I stretched my arm back and hurled it up with a tremendous force. The blade denied gravity and my aim was true as it impaled one of the demons through the midsection, bringing a gratifying scream from her and knocking her from flight.

But now I knew I was far too close to the ground, and spun just in time to see that the ground was about to reach up and embrace me. I stretched my arms and hoped that with all my training that the angle was right.

I felt my hands hit the squishy surface, and bounced off of it, sliding a few feet with a roaring pain flairing in my wrists and back. But no time!

Stretching a hand out, I dismissed and summoned Evictus from the demoness' body, and felt it firmly in my hand even as the other three remaining demons descended towards me.

"I'm not such an easy prey... come and get it you feths!"

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

“In the eyes of a child,” he said, musing, “Mother and Father are gods. Though your body shows otherwise, a child you indeed are.”

The Master waved his hand, and the wall behind him shimmered in a small spot, becoming almost glass-like.

“An invasion beyond any the galaxy has seen shall soon take place, and you shall be thrown against it regardless of whether or not you believe me. But the only way you shall overcome it is with my help. Your father, great as he is, has not your power – for one thing, he is dead and his powers in your realm are of no significance.”

The Master waved his hand again, and the glass-like area shimmered once more, changing color until it was a cloudy gray.

“As for your husband, I am afraid I cannot allow you to go his side. However, he is in this tower, fighting his way to us as we speak. He is about to face a defining moment in his life, would you like to see?”

The clouds within the glassy window parted, revealing a viewscreen of sorts. Within it, Rykounagin had just tumbled to the ground, sword in hand, strange demonic screams growing closer.

The first one passed to his left, drawing his eye just for a split second. It was enough to allow the second to pass on his right, her whip-like tail striking his head with a loud crack. Serrations opened a gash across his scalp from which blood began to ooze. The third, laughing maniacally, caught his feet in her tail as she landed directly in front of him, pulling with ferocity and sending him tumbling to his back. The other two demons flew upwards, directly above, and prepared to plunge back towards him, claws extended and ready to tear into his flesh.

“This is the one who would rule the galaxy?” the third demon laughed. “I expected more of a man!”

"You cannot stop me, you know," she hissed, hunching a bit like a cat ready to strike. Then, the motion swift as lightning, she reached out with one hand and, using the All inherent to her, tore open a great rip in the essence of the Black Tower. It seemed to let out a deathly moan as she concluded this motion, the wails rising in crescendo as she clenched her fist and seemed to squeeze.

"I might not be able to leave this place, but I can travel about within it. My Father is not as stupid as I believe you think him to be.

"As for this invasion, and how desperately I need your help to fight it- PAH!"

She turned to the Master and spit in his face. The globule struck his cheek, adhering there glue-like, clinging to him like a droplet of blood.

"You overestimate yourself!"

With that she turned back to the rip she had made, stepped forth and through...

...to then find herself in a dim, clammy chamber somewhere within the recesses of the Tower, where Rykounagin was holding forth against the furies.

"I am sorry to be so late," she said prettily enough, even as with one hand she reached toward the nearest flying temptress and let forth a blast of Sith lightning. It struck the harpy full in the face, coiled about her blackened flesh, and knocked her head over hiney for several meters into the dark.

[ 05-17-2006 12:15 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

Even as the demon fell from her strike, I could not help but grin. "Just in time actually." I rose to my full height again and spun, extending a hand towards one of the demons as she flew about us, trying to catch us off gaurd.

However she should have had her own up, as black tendrils flew from the floor and wrapped about her limbs, dragging her too it and holding her there as I almost non-chalantly paced to her, using a simple underhanded stroke to send her "pretty" face from her body, head rolling several meters away.

I turned to see as my love destroyed the last demon with her mere will, and smiled, letting Evictus go for a moment as I trotted to her, embracing her in my arms. "May we go from this wretched place? Or do we finish it now?" As I spoke the last words, I looked to the ceiling above.

[ 05-17-2006 12:27 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rykounagin ]

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

“I had hoped you see it through reason,” he continued, the energies still pumping from his hands. “But it appears you understand only the language of violence. Then hear this plainly, for it is not your choice I ask for. It is your compliance, your obedience.”

He cocked his head as the energy still poured from him, smoke now rising from both of the couple. With a jerk he snapped his hands down and the energy stopped, allowing the limp figures to tumble to the ground in a heap.

Dark demonesses slithered from the walls, moving quickly to gather behind the Master. He eyed the barely moving couple.

Finally as it stopped, I slowly began to pick myself up, leaning heavily on Evictus, as I slumped upwards, raising my head painstakingly.

"You want obedience...? You want, allegience?" I asked, glaring up at him, panting from the exertion as I inwardly sought some way to get us out of a most sticky situation.

"You'll get my allegience... when you're a corpse... rotting... after the tuk'ata are finished with you!" I spat, suddenly finding what I needed.

But was it worth it?

If it would save my love? It was worth it. If it saved us both? It was definately worth it.

I reached out with my mind, searching and probing as quickly as I could for the thing that could be our salvation. Suddenly I felt it, almost pulling me to it as it always did. I let out a growl inwardly and faught its seductive call.

Alright Channeler... you know I don't like you... but you also know that if I lose here, so do you. So give me your powers, and I'll see sure to it that this becomes a victory for the both of us!

I watched as the master began to react to my response, hoping the Finger of R'lous would respond to my call quickly, having no time to waste.

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

She was laying on her side, and the tip of Rykounagin's boot swam in her vision.

Now the reality of the situation sank in as the foul sensation of not-quite-stone caressed her cheek. She shuddered and sat up, swaying a bit dizzily while oozing tendrils of the quasi-floor tried unsuccessfully to keep her fully adhered to it. That gentle yet insistent pull brought her fully to her senses; gagging, she swiped at her face, clearing it of the gelatinous goo.

She looked up to see Rykounagin in his confrontation with the Master, heard the final words he shot at the blackened entity. Opened her mouth to join in even as she began to get to her feet...

...only to fall back upon the drooling floor beneath her. She stared angrily at her legs, which for some reason weren't responding to her command to rise, tried her utmost to move them.

She couldn't even wiggle so much as a toe.

Now she turned a hot glare toward the foul creature who stood leering so supercilously before them. Deep within her, something noisome and dark struggled to rise up, to lash out, to spring upon him with all the strength and fury at her disposal. As if from a memory of a dream an image floated to her mind, one of her mouth hungrily attached to warm flesh, fangs sinking and tearing deep even as her clawed fingers scrabbled to rip and flay great strips of flesh, digging down through muscle into bone.

A ripple passed through her as she fought the strange image back into the recesses from which it sprang. Then turning slitted eyes upward she finally spoke.

"You lie."

The words were neither accusatory nor angry. They were a simple statement of fact.

"You speak in great riddles," she continued calmly, as if she wasn't laying half-weakened at the mercy of something whose full powers had yet to be ascertained.

"You wish our allegiance, our fealty, our obedience? How can we give this to you? How so especially now, since after the words you already have spoken to me, and the obvious admiration you showed me mere minutes ago, you treat us thus."

Now she shot a glance upward at Rykounagin, who looked as if he would rend the entire Tower asunder were it in his power to do so. The image that provoked was a pleasing one indeed, and for a moment she thought the insidious spread of warmth deep within herself was a simple response to her desire to seek vengeance. Pausing a moment, she quested inward: there was definitely something strange in the works, as if multi-tendriled hydrae were creeping about within her nervous system, seeking synapses and ganglia, creeping along axons and curling themselves from there into the very heart of every cell of her body.

A slow rush of warmth began to spread throughout her, like a rising tsunami bearing down on shore.

She blinked up at Rykounagin once more, now shivering and trembling with the buildup of energies within her. What this was she had no idea, until a quiet murmur echoed in her mind...

[ 05-18-2006 01:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

The Dark Lord of the Sorcerers smiled blackly as he snatched up yet another demon who hunkered gibbering and drooling nearby. Holding it by the throat, ignoring the whipping, defensive tail with which the creature strove to attack its molester, he simply shoved the claw of his index finger into the side of its neck and twisted.

Black ichor, and bodily liquids of sickly pink and olive color slid forth from the wound, to drip like half-frozen oil onto the object he held in his other hand directly beneath the sluggish flow:

The Finger of R'lous.

With each drop of demonic fluid that struck it the channeler seemed to shudder, growing warmer and throbbing as if building up to something momentous. All about the Dark Lord lay the limp forms of already destroyed demons, the number attesting to the fact of the inherent strengths held within the Sith device. It let out another preliminary jolt, nearly leaping from his hand; tightening his grasp more firmly he held the thing fiercely, rock-steady in his hand.

And pointed directly at the Black Hall of the Darker Realms...

...and the Guardian as well.

Now he let his lids half-close as he called out into the two young minds with whom he was linked.

"My daughter, trust me, your father who loves you," the words whispered like black silk in ShaRhylla's mind.

"Let yourself go...

"And my Son, use that which she has, that which I have; trust in your Father who takes great pride in you."

Smiling blackly he straightened out the arm holding the now openly struggling Finger, steadying his aim upon the Guardian and the Hall. The demonic eyes of that hulking ediface seemed to glare down at him with all of Hell's fury; he ignored it utterly, his lip curling in disdain.

"Foolish, pompous creature; in Death I am beyond his reach and he knows it. But life's blood yet flows through his veins.

"We shall soon be rid of him, my beautiful, beautiful children..."

A quick bark of laughter bubbled like oil from his lips; then he concentrated more fiercely, waiting for his Son to complete the Link fully held between the threesome, that the Channeler might do what it was designed to do.

[ 05-18-2006 02:44 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dark Lord Roan ]

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

I let the thought slip out as my body went ridged, channeling now even more to my father and the channeler, soon to know of its power as I let out a choked scream of pain, feeling it rush even faster. A rapid river of magickal energy that threatened to drown me as the link was completed.

"Your... time.. is comming!" I spat at the master, knowing that there was no more he could do, that nothing could save him.

The point of no return, had been crossed.

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

This incredible power was being guided via the Sith magicks slewing out of Rykounagin, which had the utter audacity to grasp Rhylla's powers and drag them along with it via the mental link. Erg after erg flowed along the invisible conduit, into Roan, down his arm...

...and into the Finger of R'lous.

Which abruptly exploded into life.

The Darker Realms grew incalculably bright then as the incredible energy burst forth from its tip, directed at the brilliant white armor of the Guardian. Striking against it, the energy danced a tarantelle of immeasurable magnitude, a gigantic St. Elmo's Fire which played along his being to burst out in turn through his eyes, his nostrils, the tips of his fingers, empty now since his pike had been blasted wholly away from them.

As if in some kind if fantastic centrifuge the energy released and channeled by the Finger roiled around and around the Guardian, gaining momentum and thus gaining further strength until finally it careened from that awful entity and slammed into the foul, death-bestrewn walls of the Dark Hall.

The Tower groaned in almost mortal anguish as the entire side facing Roan simply evaporated, leaving it open to his entry.

Still holding the Finger before him he strode unfearing toward the ghastly rubble, entered into what was left of the Black Hall, and began seeking out his nemesis that this unholy battle could be settled between them, once and for all.

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

From above, unseen by Roan as strode through the rubble with the Channeler in hand, a bright white light faded. The armor of the guardian melted into cesium and a waft of smoke dissipated into nothing.

Sleep well, my brother. Your slavery is at an end, join now with those who banished you here, and forgive each other. If all goes well, I shall soon join you.

The Master turned, ignoring the threats from behind. His dark skin hardened, lightning drifting about his body. He began walking towards the wall.

“He approaches,” said the Master, raising his hands outward to his side. “He is ready to wage war upon me, to use you in claiming lordship over this dead realm. He brings with him the true demon, the end of everything.”

The Master turned with the speed of wind to face Rykounagin again.

“But he knows nothing of true lordship,” he spat. “I know my fate, I shall prevail.”

The walls behind the Master parted, opening widely until the space beyond was nothing but dark sky. The figure of Roan stood in the center of the new clearing.

What my heart tells me? That was a quaint thought. After all, I had origonally been born to serve without question, to make decisions not for myself, but only decisions that would accomplish my assigned task quicker and more efficiently.

What did my heart want?

It wants to be what it has become. I want to be with my love ShaRhylla. I want to be the dark lord as I should be. I do not want to grovel to such a creature as this.

I hefted myself straight, Evictus held firmly in my right hand, tip pointing to my boot-tips as I hefted a smirk upon my face.

"Watch your tongue you cowering dog" I spat " you're speaking to a Dark Lord. The Dark Lord of the Warriors."

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

“Ah, so you know what you are?” he asked. “Look around yourself, lad. Do you know where you are? Ask that of your new father as he gives you the tour, and maybe you shall discover for yourself why Hell contains only Sith?”

The Master glanced at ShaRhylla, and for the faintest of seconds his eyes seemed to soften. Then he leveled his gaze back to Rykounagin.

“Salvation is about sacrifice, always remember that. A Lord is more than his station, and if he cannot be Lord with his heart, then he is no Lord at all.”

The Master heard the shuffle of Roan behind him. His smile widened, and his eyes seemed to light.

“Now let us bring about the end of all things!” he shouted.

The Master turned once again, this time towards Roan. Neither Sith Magick nor the All, the dark powers seethed within him and flew from his fingertips in the form of a pitch black flame that seared Roan’s spirit and brought about howls of rage from the beastly being.

The Master stepped towards Roan, who was livid.

"This--!"

The word hissed from his blackened lips like the susurration of an adder: low, haunting, and completely deadly. His clawed hand scrabbled within the Sith robes of royalty he yet wore, bringing out from beneath their silken folds a shining, faceted gem.

It gleamed upon the palm of his hand like the last drop of blood siphoned from a body:

The Nar Kelba. Or rather, a Nar Kelba.

Roan's smile widened, cracking his face.

"You didn't really think there was only one," he said, unknowing if Aelomir knew of his history with the soul-stealing gem, uncaring one way or the other.

"And of course it was created at my direction."

The smile grew grimmer as he inserted a claw into one of the jewels gracing the hilt of the Finger, twisting and turning until he had pried it from its setting. Before anyone could react, indeed scarcely before it had sunk into anyone's brain that what he held was no ordinary gem, he thrust the Nar Kelba into the empty socket, securing it with an annealing coil of the All.

"And now, my dear and one-time friend, you shall die."

With that he pointed the now soul-devouring device at the Master, and let the energies fly.

[ 05-18-2006 11:51 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dark Lord Roan ]

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

At long last!

Thousands of years, waiting! Maneuvering, positioning, coaxing the beings of mortal flesh to do what needed to be done to reach the final goal, and now it was here!

T’elion’s glee danced within the Finger of R’lous, making the gemstones glow in colors never before seen. All but one, that one wonderful gem of such long yearnings! That one small bit of crystal that would allow him to complete his goal and return to the netherworlds!

For long eons had the Darker Realms fallen further and further into the depths of evil. It was not meant to be, for the balance was never that of good and evil, the balance was that of light and dark. T’elion knew this well, for expertly did he walk the lines.

But since the coming of the Tower, the Dark Hall they called it at times, the realm of darkness turned more to the ways of evil, led by evil lords and fueled by the powers of this place. That could no longer be allowed. Darkness held its own balance.

And now T’elion delighted that his purpose was to be fulfilled… an assassination of epic proportions.

Backed by the powers of the All and the stored Sith magick, T’elion let loose with all of his might into the dark being before him.

The blast hit the Master with a force that bent him backwards. The wind circled around him, and he stood straight, but could not move otherwise. A cyclone of power entwined him, and he threw back his head and screamed.

More power! More!

T’elion commanded the channeler to reach out and take what it needed, and just as it had siphoned from Phalomir, it now stretched its tendrils outward and sucked energy from ShaRhylla and Rykounagin. Draining them both to exhaustion, it fed that new power into the Nar Kelba.

Bits of black flesh began to flake and peel from the Master, joining the whirlwind until the winds about him swam in darkness. Finally, in a blinding explosion, a ball of wind, blackness, and fire emanated outwards. The force knocked Roan to his back, and the walls of the Tower trembled and then began to fall around all – the fallen Roan, the nearly unconscious ShaRhylla, and the drained Rykounagin.

All about them black walls fell to the ground in rubble, items and objects buried in blackness. Smoke billowed forth from the rubble, and the sound was deafening.

Her legs would not respond to her commands. Worse, neither did that beautiful power she was endowed with at birth. Whether or not this inability was permanent was something she did not know, she only knew that she was in the dark, being slowly crushed, and could do absolutely nothing to extricate herself.

Choking back tears of anger at her helplessness, she tried now to move her arms, to push back at the enormous weight that pinned her. Unlike her legs, her arms yet worked, but could scarcely move as they too were pinned. She could only lay where she was, weakened and frightened, and as much as she hated it, hope for rescue to arrive.

Suddenly from within there came strangeness: images in utterly crystal clarity burst forth from some hidden place in her brain, bringing with the the knowledge that once she was Queen here, consort to Evil, welcomed and cherished like a choice possession. Image after image scrolled through her mind, danced mockingly on her lids, laughed at her for how easily she had been taken up and used, and so easily let go. For when her mother had appeared to force the blackness from the spirit of Darth Wicked and return her to the realm of the living, she had not the strength within her to fight back.

Or perhaps... it had been something else entirely. Not an inability, but an unwillingness. A bit of her true self screaming out for recognition through the cloying miasma that had filled her being, placed there by the blackness then going by the name of Entaris.

Entaris...

She shuddered now at the mere thought of him, stark memories flooding her, laughing at her, revealing to her a reality she could not bear to accept. Daughter of Roan she was, and continued to be: selfish, haughty, prideful, but not evil. That had been due to the skillful manipulations of the darkness, the sheer evil emanating from this place.

Which, with its sudden departure, now left a gaping hole in her psyche, one aching to be filled.

Tears of the closest thing to remorse the young halfling would allow herself to feel flooded her eyes, mixing with leftover bits of the destroyed Black Tower to rime her eyes with goo. She blinked fiercely, reaching yet more deeply within herself, striving to touch that portion of her essence that indeed was ShaRhylla, daughter of Roan and Graysith, and to then hold onto it like a lifeline. Instead she found another image: that of Rykounagin, standing fearlessly before the sneering Master, Evictus pointed at his boot.

That would do ever so much better.

Holding onto that tenuous link to reality she grimaced, opened her mouth, tried to call out, hating herself for her weakness and inability to extricate herself from the rubble of the Tower.

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

Roan burst through the cloying web of nonthinking, unfeeling that had grasped him, and back into full awareness of the realm he now inhabited, once more fully connected to it. He sat up with a roar, throwing rubble from his warrior's frame by the sheer impetus of that movement, the Finger of R'lous still clutched within one clawed hand. Snorting the last of the encroaching dark from his nostrils, he cast his gaze upon the device, frowning as he considering it.

It lay in his grasp, cold and dark, the Nar Kelba cracked and lifeless. Immediately he sensed the emptiness within the device, and lifted his arm to toss it amidst the rest of the rubble when he stopped. Indeed, the Nar Kelba, one of three he had commissioned to be created, had joined its predecessor, but there was yet another one he had hidden skillfully away.

This device could yet be useful, he thought to himself as he clambered to his feet, thrusting the silent Finger of R'lous into his belt, covering it's presence with his robes. Then he began making his way through the remnants of the destroyed Tower, calling out to Rykounagin and ShaRhylla as he searched.

[ 05-19-2006 12:13 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dark Lord Roan ]

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

Probing with the little energy left within my mind, I sought my love, and soon had located her. I hobbled in her direction as fast as I could, and came to find her trapped under a section of the wall. It was large, and she was fortunate it had not crushed her.

"Sharhylla!" I exclaimed, quickly going to the rubble. "Push!" I commanded, wrapping my fingertips under the rubble, and with already screaming muscles, lifted it very slowly; just barely enough for her to get out.

"Quickly..." I grunted, feeling the burn starting to get to me. But I could hold it. I had to hold it. For as long as she needed.

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

"R-Rykounagin!" she panted as with a grimace she forced herself over onto her stomach. From this position she was able to dig in her elbows and fingertips, wriggling along the eerie non-floor, her legs dragging uselessly behind her, until at long last she managed to break free from her confinement entirely.

She let out another gasp and rolled onto her back.

"Rykounagin--"

The syllables slid from her lips carried on the lightest of whispers as, closing her eyes in relief, she felt every muscle in her body go limp, giving way to a blackness of an entirely different nature than that of the realms she was in.

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

Honestly? I was surprised that I was able to keep going, having been beaten, bruised, struck, drained, and then nearly crushed a dozen times over. But still, for my love, I could do anything.

I encountered my father soon enough, and gave an exhausted sigh.

"Father... she is injured... exhausted... please return us to the material plane so that I may treat her. I fear this place will do no good for the well being of her healing. "

I bowed my head slightly at this, respect for his accomplishment here great.

"Please..."

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

The Tower's death throes...

That thought erased completely the grim lines from his face. His nostrils curled in victory.

He had done it... and now the way was open for his plan to be put into action.

"Yes, my Son," he finally spoke as he kicked his way over to Rykounagin. There he stopped to stare down upon them a moment: his half-comatose daughter and adopted Heir.

Such a fine pair they make, he thought to himself, for a brief moment wishing that the daughter had been of Kreesha's blood. This he soon dismissed as being borderline ridiculous, for a child by the love of his life would merely be pure Sith. In exchange for the purity of the blood, this offspring brought with her the innate ability to use the All.

A more than equitable exchange indeed.

"Return to K'eel Doba with her, my lad," he went on as he reached out a hand in preparation of creating a Portal.

"Tend to her injuries, and remember: not all that she bears are physical in nature."

Saying no more he twisted his hand, tearing open a rift between dimensions, opening the doorway that the pair could rejoin the living once again.

"Seek those who would harm you, and destroy them," was his parting bit of advice as, turning on his heel, he strode from the spot, returning to his demonic horde that he could continue their training.

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

There is pain…

The Master woke with a start, gasping in air. He felt the weight of rubble all about him, pinning his body. The pain was great, but he nearly relished it, feeling it at last after so long. He felt different – free, unchained, clean, alive. He felt his own feelings, his own heartbeat, and in a moment he realized that was free from it.

He lifted, but the weight was too great. He felt for the power of the darkness, but it was not there. A brief moment of despair was mixed with elation, for even though that power had made him a prisoner, it was all he knew for countless years. He paused, then reach inside for his knowledge of the All. He reached into the rubble that held him, using his talent to change its molecular structure. It loosened, then melted around him until he lay in a dissipating pool of blackness.

He stood weakly, his leg throbbing in pain. The rubble about him was piled high, the tower itself had collapsed and the devastation rained over many square meters. He could see shapes moving in the distance, vulturous imps coming to pick through the ruins.

Roan was nowhere to be seen, as likewise the Daughter and the boy were gone. Either buried in the rubble or escaped, he could not say, but until the imps from the fringes dare approach, he was for the moment alone.

Suddenly a thought filled his head, and he began to search the surrounding rubble. He hobbled from pile to pile, overturning black stones and ancient bones, moving them with the All. His search grew more and more frantic as he could not find his quarry, and his eagerness turned to despair as he realized his powers were too drained to continue.

He sat on a stone, resting, when the gibbering of imps came to his ear. He looked out and saw several of them drawing nearer to the rubble, bold enough to approach the remains of the tower which held fear over them for eons. He swore under his breath and stood again, continuing his search by physical means. The pain in his leg grew worse.

Finally, under a mound of black and gray bones, he found Graysith. Her spirit still slumbered, but it was no longer protected by the powers of the Tower. He sat next to her and sighed a breath of relief.

“Roan did not know you were here,” he said quietly. “But that will not last. I am sorry, so very sorry. But now is not the time for repenting, now is the time to escape.”

He waved his hand before him, in an attempt to open a portal. He was too drained, however, and the air merely shimmered. He stared blankly.

“Phalomir,” he whispered. “He will help, he must.”

The Master reached inwards, following the connection he once felt with his son. It was still there, even after the coming of the Darkness. Even after the deals with the Darker Realms that brought about this entire incident. Back in the days when all he cared about was preparing for the invasion. For that was his gift, and his curse, to see visions of the future. It was this vision that led him to desperation, and in turn led him to strike bargains with the darkness of this realm, not knowing at the time that it was evil he was dealing with.

But now he found that link once more, and called out to his son. Over dimensions, over space, and over all existence.

But there was nothing.

The Master despaired, fearing his son was now dead. He lowered his head, staring at Jharmeen’s spirit.

“Wait…” he said. He touched her spirit, reaching into her own feelings. There, at the forefront, were several links and feelings that were very strong. One, of her Adept, was very strong indeed. This could possibly be a link he could follow, for even though his All powers were weak for the moment, he felt his own Sith magick surging. He grasped it, established himself as part of the link, and followed it, pouring his own abilities into that attempt. Soon he felt her, then saw her, and knew he could communicate to her.

He saw her, sitting in the grass on a warm day. Her hair flowed in the breeze, and her eyes widened at the sight of him. But it was not all correct… she was not as he remembered her, she was very small, a mere child! His powers were in such flux that his own strange knowledge of time had interfered! But he had to do this, there was no time to try again, and his powers may fail completely.

“Shayla,” he called out. “Do not be afraid, child. In time, you will know me. Forces in your time shall prevent you from knowing these words, for the evil will know. But I will hide this in your dreams, and when the evil is gone you shall remember. Jharmeen holds you dear, for it is through her I found you. I have done terrible things, I have allowed myself to be used… but it is gone, the evil, and I-- I need you. She needs you! When you remember this, you will know. Come to us, now, before it is too late!”

He inhaled, the strain of this effort draining him further.

“Roan has the Finger”, he wheezed. “He has destroyed the Tower… my powers, too weak. Use your link with her, you have the ability! I can feel it in you. Forget what you think you know, you have to realize your true potential! Come!”