“I find my modesty has long since taken its leave,” he said. “Perhaps the natives of the seventh moon of Hydrae had it right by wearing nothing at all. To them, clothing hides the true nature of a person.”

Phalomir turned again to Shayla.

“I will try to call the assassin, if you think it is needed. But why?”

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...only to find what she had originally thought as pure logic grinding to a screeching halt. Her mouth hung slightly open for a moment; she had to really think about it to close it and give herself over to thought.

What had been the reason for bringing Rykounagin here now? To take him from the Master? To torture him? To make him their own slave?

Shayla frowned a bit. Well, he was already unable to cause harm to anyone here so long as he was bound to Phalomir. But...

"Your dear Father intends to insert the fool assasin into the Darker Realms to retrieve something. After losing his own power there, I do not believe the Master will return to there himself to get what he wants because he is powerless without it. We need to stop Rykounagin's quest before it begins."

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“He doesn’t feel powerless,” he said. “What is it he wishes retrieved? The Tower is gone.”

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"He wants what is mine!" she growled, spitting fire.

"I found it, and He took it from me, he put a sleeping spell on me and he stole it!"

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...and you know how the Tower was destroyed to begin with...

...so why do you ask questions to which you should already know the answer anyway?"

She trailed, crossing her arms...

...and suddenly deciding something as she then turned to Rhylla. "You know, if the Assasin is bound to him," she then stated, pointing towards Phalomir, "And he is going to be placed in the Darker Realms by the Master anyway...

...we could just take from the Darker Realms what it is he trying to take for himself before either gets there."

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"I'm ready!" she said darkly, coming back up to the other two. There she paused, looking back and forth between them but not really taking either of them in.

"I've been there, it knows me, it would be easy..."

Still staring off into middle space, smiling at black memories only she could see, she trailed off into silence, smiling.

[ 12-28-2006 10:52 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Phalomir scratched his head.

“It does not make much sense to me, though. If the Master is in league with this darkness, as you say, then why does he need to steal the Finger?”

He shrugged and sighed.

“Either way, the Finger should be destroyed.”

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

Shayla then turned a bit to look sideways at ShaRhylla. "And we should await your mother, as instructed, before doing anything further...

...talking any further to this one included," she ended with, motioning towards Phalomir.

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"No!" she corrected, fisting her hands.

"It was not originally taken from him by Mother; originally it was stolen from me, by him!

"I found it, in the mountains, in a cave; it had called to me, because I had lived there.

"I-- I thought it was-- was Him."

A bit of logic wormed its way up throughh the layers of Sith brandy she had consumed, warning her to shut her mouth before she disclosed anything else she might not wish those present to know. Wrinkling her nose with distaste at herself, she then did just that.

[ 12-28-2006 11:15 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Her silence was expected, so Phalomir continued.

“I know it is difficult for you to believe me, let alone trust me, but I truly do not want to see any of you hurt. This could be important, ShaRhylla, please. What has happened to you? Who would call you?”

Phalomir waited, visions of a black day in his own life, when he met the man of tar. And a name whispered through his mind, a name he had heard during his imprisonment within the Tower, and a chill crept through him. An welcomed piece to a dark puzzle was waiting to drop into place.

[ 12-29-2006 10:02 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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She clenched her hands more tightly, swaying both with the effects of the brandy she had consumed and the effort of remaining silent. Somehow... something ingrained into her very being was whispering to her to remain still, to not give in, to not reveal--

To protect.

Memories arose then, ones forced into her consciousness, masking memories, ones intended to muddle her further. She clasped the sides of her head with both hands, struggling against them before suddenly giving in with a little sigh.

One in particular popped up, mocking her: it was the one in which she and Rykounagin were speaking of how they both appeared destined to be manipulated by others, where the halfling had vowed back she no longer would be a mere puppet to anyone.

Her eyes snapped open and pinned themselves upon Phalomir. Quite suddenly, he appeared to be the lesser of two evils.

"It was Him, the Dark One; he called himself Entaris, and he took me from this place--"

A trembling hand swept around, indicating not merely the Healing Chamber but the entirety of the Sith planet about them.

"M-mother retrieved me, she destroyed him I thought... and then one night he called to me and I found the thing in the cave."

She blinked, struggling against that which was yet ingrained within her.

"What is it?" she finally managed to whisper.

"And what is this Nar Kelba that you spoke of?"

[ 12-29-2006 12:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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...and all because of those who would be so foolish as to muddle in the affairs of something much greater--and unknown--to themselves. "I believe the Nar Khelba not only kills, but destroys the soul of a Force user. I do not know exactly how it destroyed the Tower...

...but therein lies the strangeness of all this. For while the Tower was apparently destroyed at one point, it has now returned."

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"Force user? Why would the Master need this then?"

She swallowed, regaining her composure, though she was yet a trifle on the tipsy side. Frowning, she tried to concentrate, a feat most difficult for her under normal circumstances.

"Which is this soul-killer, the thing the Master is trying to retrieve or the Nar Kelba? For it sounds as if there are two items now that he is looking for...

"Who has it-- them now, anyway?" she finally asked.

[ 12-29-2006 01:23 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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“I do not know for certain who has them, but there is an odd sort of sense coming to light. This thing, the Finger of R’lous, it is deceitful. When I held it, it spoke to me. It was very convincing, telling me things I wanted to hear. Perhaps the things I most wanted to hear… But I believe that is how it operates, how it manipulates others to do what it wants them to do. But perhaps it found you, ShaRhylla, and told you the things it knew you wanted to hear.”

Phalomir scowled.

“And now Roan has it, or vice-versa. And—“

Phalomir paused again, realizing what Shayla had just said. He looked to her slowly.

“Shayla, did you say the Tower has returned?”

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

She traied then, turning to ShaRhylla as her eyes defocused and darkened, "I'm afraid it is not the former Dark Lord who holds possession of it."

She paused again. "He does."

[ 01-01-2007 11:23 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"Would somebody answer my question!" she miffed with a stamp of her foot.

"What does this Finger do, just worm into one's mind and promise it whatever one wishes to hear? That's not very dangerous, I wouldn't think, especially now that we are aware of the fact that this is what it does.

"Or is there more?"

She sent a questioning look back and forth between Phalomir and Shayla, letting that look finally come to rest upon the latter.

[ 01-01-2007 11:35 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Shayla's frown deepened, and she turned to look at Phalomir, the questions ShaRhylla had just asked now refecting in her own eyes.

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Phalomir shook his head.

“It allows the wielder to combine Sith magick with the All, providing an extremely powerful and dangerous energy. Combined with the Nar Kelba, who knows what it could do, beyond destroying the Tower. As for him, as lord of the Darker Realms, he would control Roan. He could force Roan to do things, say things… which would mean he wanted ShaRhylla and Rykounagin to…”

Phalomir trailed, turning his attention to the tipsy ShaRhylla.

“And I suspect he was responsible for holding Aelvedaar prisoner, and impersonated him for so long. He could also be impersonating Roan, for that matter…”

And for how long has he been doing just that? Indeed, he had us all fooled as Aelvedaar, could he have been impersonating Roan all the time before I killed him? If that is the case, then ShaRhylla is…

“We cannot allow the Finger to be used again.”

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"I'm history, THORAN GET CEL!"

With that I dropped the hydrospanner, snatched up the entirely too pale Aaron, slung him over my shoulders with a strength inspired by pure terror, and shot to the Portal.

"K'kihl!!" I roared en route, and then everything went black and greeny-gold and suddenly there was--

--light and polite chatter and the clink of dinnerware.

I tumbled to the thankfully familiar stones of the floor, feeling the thankfully familiar heat of a nearby fireplace against my skin. Just managing to not whap Aaron against said stones, I caught myself on one knee--

Oww. Damn that's just gonna go SWELL with my ankle!!

--and shakily managed to regain my footing. Beneath the astounded stares of a wealth of Sith, I tottered to a nearby divan and deposited Aaron on it.

I then slumped to the floor, resting my head for a moment against the cushions behind me.

I closed my eyes with relief; then felt an upwelling rush of pain.

"My ship--!" I mourned.

A clatter of insectoid feet approached, and stopped in the nearby vicinity.

"My hydrospanner..." came an equally sad clack of mandibles.

[ 01-03-2007 12:17 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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...but he wasn't too not with it to not know what was going on. Granted, his personal view of everything now included a rather nice looking ceiling, but he could still sense eyes on him.

Startled eyes. Hopefully friendly ones, though.

Then, upon hearing Yaoksi's lament, Aaron immediately felt horrible for the man. After all, he knew how a spacer could be about his ship; man, did he know.

"Hell," he groaned, feeling a bit woozy as he shifted his head sideways, "I'm sorry."

Then realizing that their party wasn't complete, he made a final comment. "Oh kriffing hell, Thoran and Cel?"

[ 01-03-2007 12:06 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aaron Barnes ]

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"I-- they--" I began, then swallowed.

Hell, did we lose them?

I shuddered, cracked open one eye. Images of gradually approaching beings filled it, all claws and horns and fangs and red of skin...

I shuddered again, snapping the eye closed.

"I can only hope they're coming, I haven't heard the Portal close yet--

"Oh HELL!! ARE ANY OF THOSE DAMNED THINGS GETTING IN HERE?!?"

I shot upright at that, trying to put my eyes everywhere at once, much to the consternation and probable shock of our onlookers.

[ 01-03-2007 12:12 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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Cel landed with a thud on the hard stones. A blast of light emanated from behind the portal, followed by a shout and a diving Thoran.

Without hesitation he closed the portal, the angry cries of the other imp swallowed in the muffling schlick of space and time returning together.

The cold stones felt welcoming, more so than the pain he felt in his leg.

“Sith brandy…” he croaked, rolling to his back and grabbing his leg. “A double!”

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

"Healers! Water! Brandy!"

The Sith froze solid for the merest of moments, then burst into action. A young lady came over to Aaron and Yaoksi, asking after them and offering them cool, clear water to drink, while yet another approached the obviously injured Cel, offering to get her whatever she needed as she ushered her to another couch.

A third took the stunned Thea under her wing, mother-henned her to the nearest booth and ordered up some mynock milk for her, while yet another came up to the howling Thoran and dropped to her knees.

"Is there anything else we can bring you whilst we await the Healers?" she asked him prettily enough, handing him a brandy while studiously avoiding the large, and enlarging, black and purple and violet-dripping hole that looked to be engulfing his leg.

“More,” he begged. “And the Dark Lady’s friends… Phal, Terrin, Galen, Shayla, anyone! Please!”

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[ 01-03-2007 06:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Thea Morgan ]

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