Shayla paused a moment, arching an eyebrow, her greeny-blues staring stormily into Phalomir's face...

...and noticing something. "Oh, dear," Shayla breathed, half in sarcasm, and half in something else entirely molten and ice. She cast a sidelong glance ShaRhylla's way. "You've spoken so much of the Triumvarate to us,and have damned our idea of uniting the Sith as one...

...and yet you bear the marks of all three Clans." Shayla paused, crossing her arms. "Explain that, my Lord."

[ 12-26-2006 10:24 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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“I thought I had stated my intentions,” he said. “I wish to bring the Triumvirate together for a meeting of state to discuss the next steps in preparing for the Vong. That, and I wanted to see Jharmeen on a personal level, considering the last time I saw her she was dying in my arms. I do not see a reason for your suspicions. Would it not be logical that Lord Aelvedaar arrive with me, since we were together? Your plans were not even known to me until just now, and although it will be a matter of discussion, the Vong invasion is still the primary reason for the conference.”

Phalomir touched his hand to his face, his eyes tired.

“As for my face,” he continued. “I thought you knew, I am sorry. I was born into the line of the Sorcorers, son to the Dark Lord at the time. I took the position as a young man, when my father vanished. I married into the house of Warriors, and received this one. Then when I arrived here, in this time, I took this one from Lord Rean. Only one is active.”

He brought his hand back down and exhaled.

“And I have not damned your plan, Shayla. I question it, yes, but have stated more than once that I would be willing to listen. Perhaps you are correct, or perhaps you are not. I do wish we could talk about it, though.”

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

"I didn't think that's how it was supposed to work!" she muttered under her breath, but not in so low a voice that she couldn't be overheard by others.

"My father was Dark Lord of the Warriors only, born into that house. He who I have been told was my uncle Rean was Dark Lord of the Armorers, likewise born into that house.

"Lord Aelvedaar is likewise, born into the House of Sorcerers," she ended quickly, not seeming to wish to dwell on those words much.

"How odd to have all of the Houses wrapped up in one nice little package, and then you stand here claiming to wish to bring the Triumvirate together to talk!

"Well, about what?"

A sudden inspiration struck, perhaps ignited by a brief shade whispering up from her experiences in the Darker Realms.

"Planning on taking over yourself, by conveniently doing away with the others? Did Lord Aelvedaar really go somewhere, or are you just saying that?"

Not well versed in diplomacy and the cool subterfuges involved in politics, ShaRhylla just let the words spout out into the open. After all, she didn't fear him; she knew she had the power to either stop him should he try something against them, or take revenge should he succeed in one manner or another.

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

“Lord Aelvedaar is as I said,” he said sternly. “And again, I wish to talk about the impending Vong invasion and the future of the Sith. And worry not, I do not wish to ever become Lord of two houses. If ever given the opportunity, I would refuse lordship. I will never allow that to happen, just as I will never allow myself knowledge of the All. I do heed the warnings of the vision, and do not want such power in my hands. Why do you accuse me of such things? What has caused this hatred? I love your mother, ShaRhylla, and I would die myself before seeing her harmed!”

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

"Only words--" she muttered, beginning to glower once again.

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

“I would, ShaRhylla, and have come close to it. Shayla would do the same, of this I am certain. What about you, milady? Perhaps you could see my concern, for when last I saw you, you were plotting the overthrow of your mother. You faked her death, then plotted with your would-be husband to arrange it for real. And what was your reaction when she DID die?”

He stared directly into ShaRhylla’s eyes, cool.

“And now you are suddenly the loving daughter. I hope it is sincere, I truly do. She must have great faith in you, to forgive what you have done. I am not so forgiving, and will remain watchful of all who Roan has so easily influence from beyond the grave.”

Phalomir’s eyes darted to Shayla.

“If you insist I be escorted, then let us please be on our way. It was not my intention to offend.”

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

"That is enough indeed," Shayla spoke up evenly, coolly, the look in her eyes totally unreadable. "I think it would benefit us all if you go about your business and leave this place," she then indicated pointedly to Phalomir. "For if it is truly the Greater Good you are concerned with," Shayla continued, looking over towards ShaRhylla a moment before returning her gaze to the Dark Lord, "I believe you would be wise in departing and doing those things you feel will accomplish it."

Pausing then, Shayla let the moment hang in silence before saying anything further. "Do not be so quick to assume that your personal view of how the Greater Good should be served is the only one, and the correct one, however. And do not assume you are the only one who has the Greater Good in mind." She paused, an old Jedi adage floating to her mind. "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view...

...and nothing is pure black and white."

Another moment of pure silence slipped past, and then Shayla motioned for the door. "Come."

Taking the lead then, Shayla lead the party out of the Great Library altogether, and then towards the Sith transport. But a final thought came to her mind, and she paused suddenly, turning around to cast a curious gaze directly into Phalomir's emerald eyes.

"What is it you wish to retrieve from the Temple? I do not feel it is necessary that you return there."

[ 12-27-2006 10:12 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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“The rooms I occupied contain only clothing and a few trinkets,” he said. “If you need the space, perhaps you could have them bundled for retrieval at a later date.”

He tried to read Shayla, searching for some reason to leave his things untouched. He could only hope for the best, and not assume that they would simply be burned.

“The ship I wish to leave in is the one we brought from the Temple of the Armorers,” he said. “It is a relic of the Clan of Armorers, and would be fitting to be the vessel that carried me in search of a new home for the temple.”

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

She approached Phalomir, shoved herself unheeding into his personal space, and let her eyes lock boldly onto his.

"And you think yourselves above such scrutiny!" she sneered, trembling as with an instinctive jerk she grabbed her one coiled hand with the other, closing it into a fist and wrapping it up inside her other palm.

"Watch away, Pretender; you are not the only one who will be doing thus!"

Pausing with a great and shuddering breath, she stepped back, now cocking her head a bit to one side to study him a little more closely.

"I find it passing strange that you come here as thus, yammering about the precious Clan of the Ghosts as you do, claiming now to be their Dark Lord. Both Mother and Father have told me they exist no longer; neither one has mentioned you in that regard.

"And as for my dear ex-husband with whom you yourself are in league..."

She let her words trail off a little, one hand waving toward the Revealer while her jaw worked silently in the attempt to find exactly the right words to say.

"He is another one worthy of the closest and most careful scrutiny. You would do well to beware him and not us, for while what we do we do for the Sith--"

Another pause, another quick glance to Shayla, a question in her eerie bi-color eyes as if asking if she was upon the correct course.

"--what he does is only for himself."

She took a step back, her gaze still pinning Phalomir's.

"But then, what I say is just mere words as well, isn't it, my Lord?"

At the very thought of Rykounagin her rage flowered into even more brilliant life, filling every inch of her with burning hatred and a great yearning for revenge. Letting her arms drop by her sides, she turned a touch sideways, putting herself instinctively into a fighting stance as she now spoke up once again.

This time, however, it was not so much toward Phalomir as to her Mother's Second.

"Considering this latter fact, I'm not certain if indeed we should allow him exit from Phrinnchatka at all," she mused, changing her mind in an instant as this new thought sunk into her.

"In fact, I know we should not even consider any of the love he purports to have for Mother as being real at all, but mere words to try to catch us off-guard.

"Ryk-- that is, the assassin was trying to kill her, you know, and since he is now with him--"

She cut off her words in mid-sentence, choosing now to let the implications carried upon their backs hang heavily in the air.

[ 12-27-2006 11:07 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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“I bound the assassin to me to prevent him from doing more harm!” he shouted. “Why else would he have been in a ship bound for this planet if he was not coming to kill her? He was yours, I couldn’t just kill him! What would you have me do?! I can’t lose her again…”

Phalomir stopped, realizing now that it was indeed too late. His heart skipped, then slowed as he felt the world come closing in around him. But with that sinking feeling came another realization. He shook his head in small motions.

“He left you, didn’t he? When I saw the vision of you alone, screaming to the emptiness, it was because he abandoned you. You didn’t send him to kill her, he did this on his own?”

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

Straightening, she lifted her chin.

"I did not send him to kill Mother," she said, her eyes narrowing.

"He was the one to always speak of such things, not I."

Now she shifted a bit uncomfortably as images of her truncated attempt to place herself as Dark Lady flew through her head. For a brief moment she wavered, then stilled.

She had, after all, not murdered her. She had merely machined her apparent death to deceive others into thinking the Dark Lady had died.

And then, unexpectedly, she had. And how well she remembered Rykounagin's glee when he learned of this--

She jerked her reveries to a halt, letting her gaze sharpen and focus upon Phalomir again.

"And so it would appear that this is why you stopped the assassin from returning here," she said, her voice as dark as her eyes.

"Nevermind that it might be to simply stop him long enough that you might fill his head with sneakier ways than what he knows, that he might get away with actually destroying Mother!"

She sputtered to a halt, well aware of Rykounagin's propensity toward simple action, his heavy reliance on the magicks the repository had undoubtedly taught him, and the fact that he hadn't a real lick of subterfuge within him.

That cold and grim asset would have to be taught to him by someone else...

[ 12-27-2006 11:35 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

"I do not--" she began, wishing with every fiber of her being to simply kill off the assassin and be done with him, when once more that strange whisper of actual thought began to niggle within her.

How sweet. To have him actually bound to her, to be able to let him out against those who might oppose them, and seek to harm the Dark Lady...

"I accept your offer; what do you do to assure me of this?" she replied coolly, or at least as coolly as she could manage.

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

She fell silent a moment. "He would risk tangling with he who so clearly has aligned himself with the Darker Realms and the Vong in a plot to manipulate the entire galaxy?"

Shayla now folded her arms, her greeny-blues growing stormy once more. "Don't believe him, ShaRhylla. For as much as I would love to burn every ounce of the skin from Rykounagin's flesh, I will not entertain this offer at the risk of the Greater Good of the Sith. And how dare you use the sugggestion of Rykounagin's abandonment to sway us to listen to your words!" she added, glaring at Phalomir.

Now Shayla was seething. "I do not trust this offer you give us. And even if I did...

...I am not so quick as to fall for it just to satisfy my own desire for revenge."

Here she looked to ShaRhylla, nodding once in response to something the younger woman had spoken only a few moments before. "Not at the risk of the Sith."

[ 12-27-2006 11:53 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"Take a care; you do not know the ways of the Sith!" she hissed back, jerking her shoulder out from beneath Shayla's touch.

For a moment she simply regarded the young woman, her eyes strangely frosty yet simultaneously molten with anger; then lifting her chin a bit she continued in explanation.

"He is an assassin; he is bound to do the bidding of whatever Sith it is who holds him! He cannot attempt anything on his own, so long as he is bound to one of Royal Blood; Shayla, this will stop him cold, and remove his threat from us!"

With that she turned back to Lord Phalomir, slitting her eyes once again.

"Proceed," she said tersely, and fell silent.

[ 12-27-2006 11:57 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Inspiration struck.

"Shayla!" she cried, knowing of her healing abilities. She pointed to the silent Phalomir even as she ran back to the Revealer.

"Who just attacked Lord Phalomir?" she panted, fidgeting that the device would hurry, for she suddenly felt extremely devoid of time.

The Revealer obliged, going into its whirling dance before the atmosphere in the Library darkened to reveal an image:

The smiling Master, an apparently fully healed Rykounagin lurking in the shadows behind him...

ShaRhylla hastened to the fallen lord as the imagery faded, dropping to her knees and placing a hand atop his shoulder. She yanked it away, shaking it against the roasting heat.

"There is another..." she said quietly enough, although rage once again began to flame within her eyes.

"Now we must be holden to this one, that Rykounagin remain bound... if the words he speaks are indeed yet true."

She raised her eyes to Shayla's, and fell silent.

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

She trailed, looking down to the smouldering Phalomir. "This does seem to place this one as truthful...

...or at least as a pawn. I was a fool to dismiss his offer without full knowledge of its impact."

Stating nothing further than that, Shayla reached to the Dark Lord, placing a hand on his shoulder despite the fact burning heat flared up her own arm as she did so. Closing her eyes then, Shayla stretched out upon the wings of her healing gifts, pulling from more than just merely the meager Force channels, but indeed to the very All itself.

The smouldering heat which inflicted Phalomir's body began to dissipate...

[ 12-27-2006 12:23 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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...it felt somehow deeper than that, as if they had been plucked wriggling and writhing from the fabric of life itself to be placed beneath some sort of a gigantic microscope.

She shivered, wrapped her arms about herself, her eyes still darting about when in yet another survey of the room they brought the Revealer once more into sight. But this time they stopped and rested there.

"Shayla," she began in a low whisper.

"How did he know where we are? How did he know not to just come here to Phrinnchatka, but to the Great Library in particular?"

[ 12-27-2006 12:59 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Opening her eyes, momentarily diverting her attention from her patient, her greeny-blues riveted to the Revealer.

The Revealer that knew of the past, the present...

...and apparently, Visions of the future as well. And in the balance lay Phalomir, who had so conveniently arrived here while they asked questions to the Revealer...

Shayla shot to her feet, suddenly very wary. "We need to leave this place!" she then said suddenly, a bit desperately. "And we need to take him--" here she paused, pointing at the healing but still motionless Phalomir, "--with us. For if there is not one way we are being watched," she observed, her eyes barely shifting towards the Revealer, "Then there is another."

Now she nodded slightly to Phalomir.

"Let us return to the Temple."

And with nothing further than that, Shayla stretched out to her Force talents once more, this time not to heal the Dark Lord but instead to move him from the floor where he lay. Slowly and smoothly his body lifted from the floor, to the air...

...and Shayla began to move away from the Great Library altogether, ShaRhylla no doubt on her heels. And Shayla did not inted to stop moving until they were back to safer, quieter places...

...if indeed there wasa such a place at all.

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

ShaRhylla flung out an imperious hand, fighting with herself. For while on one hand she wanted nothing so much as to flee from what we beginning to feel like a place most dangerous in which to linger, another thought now struck her, holding her.

She turned from the Revealer to Shayla, who was moving toward the door.

"Shayla, either he knew we were here by some means unknown to me...

"...or he simply wished to come here himself. And the only reason I can think of is--"

She whirled and marched back to the Revealer. Stopping in front of it she scowled, knowing there was no means of halting its use by anyone other than dismantlement. And that was something she did not wish to do, at least not now when they needed it to assist them in keeping an eye out on their newfound enemies.

"Shayla, maybe he wanted to use this." She waved her hand.

"We cannot let him, it is too dangerous.

"He might find out where Mother is!"

[ 12-27-2006 01:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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"A Question!" the Revealer burst forth eagerly.

"Are the Master and Rykounagin planning to come here to use the Revealer?" she asked it, her eyes slitting.

The Revealer's answer was simple. Its spheres moved in a smooth pattern, and a Yes. splayed forth.

Shayla's eyes slittled further. "Why? Why do they need use of the Revealer? Is it to find the Dark Lady?" she then queried.

Once more the spheres began to glide, creating three-deminsional images, sounds included, of the conversation which had passed between the Master and Rykounagin of the need to go into the Darker Realms for artifacts, and of Rykounagin's request to be "preserved." At length this all merged into the need to find Thoran, the only one who could take the actions necessary to preserve Rykounagin's soul should he be killed.

Shayla slitted her eyes impossibly further, something else entirely gaining her attention than the search for Thoran. "What artifacts does the Master need from the Tower?"

As her words fell into silence, the Revealer's spheres once again did their dance...

...and a three-deminsional image of something familar to both young women was cast:

the Finger of R'lous.

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

"He stole it from me!" she growled beneath her breath before marching over to where Phalomir remained floating to stop, staring down upon him with new fire flaming from her.

"Perhaps this is all a ruse, then!" she spat in a low whisper.

"Perhaps he was sent here first, to try to determine this while the other two remained safely back. He and Lord Aelvedaar are to distract us, while the others go off to capture the Finger of R'lous to use against us!"

Snarling, she fisted her small hand and thumped Lord Phalomir squarely on his chest, in the exact spot where the Master's energies had impacted him. Even unconscious, the Sith Lord groaned, feeling the blow even though not fully aware of what was causing the pain.

ShaRhylla turned to Shayla.

"Feed this one to the tuk'atas, whilst I wait for the coming of the other two! For surely they will come, and I will be more than ready for them-- no, wait!"

Snarling at her own near and more than likely fatal gaffe, she held up a hand.

"We still can't kill this one, now while Rykounagin lives. For he is the one to whom the assassin must answer; hmmm..."

She paused again, slitting her eyes as she regarded further the floating form, reaching into every corner of her mind for an answer to their apparent quandary. Then--

"I know."

Now she reached out to Phalomir, placing her hands on either side of his face. Once physically connected she let her consciousness meld into him, reaching into the corridors of his mind as she had one day so long ago with Terrin. She was about to let loose with her talents that he might go mad, when she stopped.

She had run flat into something the Lord had stated over and over and yet over again--

Her eyes wide, she backed out, shaking her head to remove the last vestiges of the mental link she had implemented between them.

"It is true," she said with a snarl.

"He truly does love Mother. I don't think he would do anything to harm her... and perhaps not us as well."

Shaking her head, she returned to the Revealer, stood before it with clenched hands, chin lifted and rage boiling in her eyes.

"I am stopped at every turn; if ONLY you could show me what to do!"

"A Question!" the Revealer interpreted, then seguing the air into a final image, one flaming of hair and violet-eyed, enclosed within a cloak of rune-encrypted smoke.

"Await me," the figure said smoothly, raised a hand...

...and the Revealer went cold, silent and dark--

--to suddenly flare back into life once again. To the utter startlement and amazement of the onlookers, a series of numerals began to dance about their heads:

3.141...

((OOC: Please go to Z-Prime in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, this date, to see what the heck this is all about, thank you...))

[ 12-27-2006 02:08 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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...but the numbers...???

Still in total suprise, Shayla shot a sidelong glance Rhylla's way...

...and then that portion of her that was the avid pilot who was able to calculate coordinates and destinations in her head, without a single aid rose a banner in recognition.

Shayla's look of surprise, much to the initial chargrin of her companion, shifted to one of dark amusement. "Pi..." she whispered under her breath, the look in her eyes darkening only further. "The number which we now see is a infinite one...

...and it will keep the Revealer occupied..."

She trailed a moment, dark humor spilling forth in her eyes once more, "...infinitely." Glancing back to the occasionally groaning Phalomir, Shayla then continued. "We should return to the Temple and take this one with us to heal."

She paused then, arching an eyebrow. "Imagine his surprise in finding himself in our care when he wakes..."

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

"But now we no longer have the use of it either," she pouted, nevermind the tactical implications of that. She was simply a child without her pretty toy.

She heaved a sigh, turned toward the door.

"Yes, let's..." she said as she ushered the others out. Pausing a moment to stare back at the occupied device, her eyes fell upon something else, sending a faint smile to now dance upon her own lips.

A sign.

Closed Until Further Notice.

Sighing again, she picked it up, and in departing the Library placed it on the door as she closed it behind her. Then she hastened to keep up with Shayla, who was making fast progress toward the Temple, the gawks and stares of occasional bystanders notwithstanding.

"He's fallen ill," ShaRhylla explained hurriedly as she finally caught up with Shayla. Then she lowered her voice.

"Where shall we put him, and what shall we do until Mother returns?" she asked in a whisper soft enough to be hidden from any other Sith by the simple sounds of their footsteps against the cobblestones.

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