...interesting. Maybe the fool was planning to come back here and finish what he started."

Her eyes darkened further. Not this time.

"Perhaps the Greater Good is presenting us the opportunity to not only go to ShaRhylla, but to intercept this insolent assassin as well."

She paused at that, turning towards the Revealer, suddenly very curious. "What events transpired to bring the assasin, slumbering, to this location in a damaged fighter?"

The three-deminisional images which played out before them then, particularly those of Phalomir facing off with the boy, took Shayla by suprise. She turned to Graysith once they played out, unable to speak, uncertain what to make of the images...

...but growing darkly certain of what she would like to do to the assassin who lay unconcious...

[ 11-13-2006 10:28 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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She leaned in more closely, scrutinizing the image with great care as Lord Phalomir reached out and snatched the boy's throat in his massive, clawed hand. Her scrutiny grew even more intense when, seconds later, Rykounagin seemed to waver beneath that grip, closed his eyes and seemed to simply fall asleep.

Moments later Phalomir himself leaned into the boy, but try as she might Graysith could not discern what he was doing. And oddly enough, although the rest of the conversation between the two was crystal in its clarity, it suddenly grew quiet and muffled, as if distorted by something unknown to her.

She raised her head, peered down her nose and sniffed daintily.

"It does make one wonder just what machinations the Dark Lord is trying to accomplish, coming to the lad as he has," she said. While she knew very well she could easily have the revealer backtrack and show her the answer to this question, she found she didn't wish to actually have the answer planted in front of her. For as it was logic led her to the only conclusion she could come to:

Phalomir was a Dark Lord of the Sith. And Rykounagin was a Cult Assassin...

She shifted uneasily, unwilling to speculate where this scenario might lead. She did know that the boy had powers quite surprising for someone so young--

How did he come by those powers? Who gave them to him? Could he, as a Cult Assassin, be in league with more than one Dark Lord at a time, thus somehow being granted with powers more enhanced and highly advanced than would be normal?

She shook her head, still unwilling to ask for a blatant answer. Instead she turned to Shayla, one finger going to her chin as she speculated aloud.

"What do we know about this boy?" she wondered aloud, almost musingly.

"We know that he is a Cult Assassin... but where did he come from? The Sith have only recently been returned to life; did he come along handily with them, or was he part and parcel of our own universe? If that, how did he learn the arts that he knows, and to such a level as he does? Where did he come to know of these things?"

The Revealer didn't pause to pick and choose. It took as a command the last idle query falling from her lips. Immediately the images around them segued back to the asteroid, where the angry ShaRhylla was in the act of laying a peculiar looking device down upon a table in a well-appointed room.

Graysith's brow rose at this, and she shot a questioning look Shayla's way. Then--

"Perhaps before we see to Rykounagin's destiny, we need to go to ShaRhylla after all..."

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...or perhaps something else entirely?"

She quieted, her eyes growing vague for a moment as she considered, something dark now crossing her mind. "I wonder if a Clan Lady can control an assassin as a Lord can?" she wondered aloud.

[ 11-14-2006 10:08 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"I do not know much of these assassins, but I am most anxious to increase my knowledge of them."

She peered at the image again, watching her daughter as the young halfling stomped from the room where she had been perusing the device, returning to the apparent control room once more where she paused to simply glower at the meeping signal.

"Going by the knowledge revealed here that the asteroid was a training facility of some kind, it stands to reason that we might find more than just ShaRhylla hidden there."

With that she requested the Revealer show her the coordinates of the asteroid once more, leaning forward to concentrate upon the image that she wouldn't forget it. Nodding to herself, she ended their session with a simply uttered, "Finished," and with Shayla at her side departed from the Great Library of the Sith.

Upon reaching the Temple, she wasted no time in signalling one of the commanding Sith warriors.

"I am leaving Phrinnchatka for a short period of time, for the Heiress Apparent has gone missing, and information of her whereabouts has come to my ears. Until Salandaar is fully healed, you are in charge of the Temple."

The warrior's eyes grew round at the honor bestowed upon him, and he fell to one knee, vowing naught would happen to the city or the temple or the people, not on his watch.

Dismissing him, Graysith turned to Shayla.

"Are you prepared to leave, or do you need some time to gather up any essential items?" she asked, her demeanor quiet and soft but a dark glimmer of impatience dancing in her eyes nevertheless.

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Then, curious, she had to ask a question to follow her statement. "Does time require us to use a portal to travel to your daughter...

...or will we take a ship of some sort instead?"

Even as the final words issued forth from her lips, the trace of the pilot's heart that had been set aside for quite some time danced deep in Shayla's eyes...

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"I believe we have the time to utilize a more conventional means of travel," she smiled as with swift footsteps she led Shayla from their place in the temple and headed toward the transport system. En route, she could not help but watch as Sith bustled here and there, some of them with their arms full of building and repair materials. Her eyes darkened upon seeing that, and a frisson of anger raced through her as she remembered what havoc the assassin had caused...

...not to mention the permanent heartache he came so very close to creating within her.

She cut her eyes to Shayla, taking in the shortness of her hair, the shininess of the skin of her face, and vowed once again the boy would more than repay her Adept for the transgression he had dealt so heavily upon her.

Her mind dwelling on such pleasurable thoughts as those blanked out the passage of time, and before she knew it they had arrived at the stairs which lead down into the transportation system. Mounting the steps, they soon reached the subterranean level, where the shine of gleaming metal bespoke of a portion of a track, newly laid.

Graysith stepped to a cleverly concealed console and keyed in a request for a private transport, then moved to the track designated by a patiently blinking sigil. Moments later a whispering hush of air announced the arrival of a transport, which both women then boarded.

Graysith announced their destination, and no sooner had the words left her lips than the hatch closed and the transport shot on down the track, after only a short bit of time pulling into the spaceport of Ch'arlingua. There they made their way to Graysith's private fighter, Chosen One, and soon were safely aboard.

It was only after Graysith had begun the warm-up sequence and requested their departure vector that she noticed the blatant yearning shining so strongly in her adept's greeny-blue eyes. Smiling, she quickly keyed in their destination, then got to her feet.

"If you will, my dear," she said, indicating the pilot's chair with a wave of one slender hand. Then she stood patiently, waiting to take Shayla's seat once the young woman had taken her place at the helm.

[ 11-16-2006 10:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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She paused a moment, trailing as her eyes defocused. Then she jerked herself from her darker thoughts and sat, directing her attention to the navboard as Graysith took a seat next to her. The Sith fighter purred a happy song, as if gleeful to be alive and running again. Shayla reached deftly to the controls, knowing Graysith had already keyed in the coordinates and knowing the fighter was warmed and ready to go. In only moments the appropriate departure vector arrived.

"Time to go," Shayla said quietly under her breath then, her fingers taking flight too as she began the departure sequence. The fighter responded by gracefully moving from the tarmac, the motion so effortless that in a mere moment the ship had moved from the ground and had begun moving forward in an almost seamless sequence.

Shayla smiled a bit, and gradually the atmosphere of Khar Delba began to fade into stars. As the atmosphere then totally disappeared, and the Chosen One found herself floating in space, Shayla allowed the ship a little more time to escape the planet's gravational field...

...and then with one smooth motion, she touched one final sigil and, as if in the blink of an eye, the Chosen One instantly disapeared into the realms of hyperspace.

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An insistent thought forced the little smile she had been wearing from her lips, replacing it with a frown.

How exactly was she to deal with ShaRhylla? The child was headstrong and imperious, prone to thinking only after she had over-reacted to whatever happened to anger her...

Graysith was positive their unexpected arrival was sure to set her daughter into a fit.

Heaving a sigh, she turned to Shayla, voicing aloud her thoughts and fears about what direction they should take when confronting ShaRhylla so out of the blue as they were.

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