As Aeylmaar’s hand shot forward to grasp the proffered hand, Panthar’s need for a hug gave way and he stepped forward and grasped the heir in an embrace.

“I know it’s been difficult here,” he said, stepping back. “It appears our old friend Googly – I mean, ‘That Which Is’ – has done something to cause this mess. We came here to see if Phal, Gray, or Lord Aelvedaar had returned, since this was the meeting point, and to see how we could help out otherwise. It sounds as if Aelvedaar is in good hands – or mandibles – or whatever, so we can at least breath easier about that. Do you think perhaps Gray and Phal are still on K’eel Doba, with Sorben Tarnus?”

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"I am afraid I do not know where anyone is at the moment," he finally admitted, somewhat embarrassed. However that embarrassment was short-lived before the words Panthar had just spoken.

"That Which Is?" he paused to state dumbly.

"How have we offended It yet again?"

Puzzlement shining in his amber eyes, he turned ahead again, leading the others to the first doorway on the left. Mystic mosses lay shriveled and dead against the oily door; stifling a sigh he pushed the doors open, and led the others into the Dining Hall of the Sorcerers. Therein yet more comfortable chairs and couches rewarded their eyes, and an immense fireplace gave off welcomed heat.

Aeylmaar led them to places where they might sit, although Shayla and Erik chose to remain standing. He could only imagine what was going through their minds at the moment, and wondered just who they would blame should the Healers be unable to maintain the life of their tiny fetus.

[ 05-21-2008 08:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aeylmaar ]

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"Is my son going to live?" she queried in a barely audible tone, unable to go any further for the moment before knowing first what was going on.

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"I- I do not know; our Healers' skills come primarily from their magickal abilities, and it would appear that magick has left us behind, floundering in the wake of its leaving," he finally said, turning his eyes away from hers then and down to the floor.

"I-- I do not know if they know of other, more mundane techniques of keeping one so very small and frail alive. This was not the area of expertise in which I myself was to be trained."

With that he fell silent, wishing with all his heart that he had a broader, more useful background, and that he hadn't strayed from his more normal magickal education by the sweet enticement of the All.

But even then, what could I do? he could only wonder further.

We are Sith, and by our blood magickal. It is part and parcel of who we are; perhaps when this terrible time has passed we should consider learning of other, more reliable, methods by which to live...

Deep within the very cells of that part of his brain which truncated consciousness from unconsciousness, he let that little germ of an idea plant itself. Knowing it would somehow grow into something useful one day, he turned his focus back to the problems at hand, which seemed to be growing in leaps and bounds by the minute.

[ 05-21-2008 08:39 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aeylmaar ]

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Made him angry, in fact. "Well," he then spoke up, suddenly breaking the silence. "We might be troubling the Sith if we were to concern them with our son," he said pointedly, obviously angry. For the moment it completely slipped his mind that the Sith had been helping them.

At this particular juncture, at least. He couldn't forget how Aeylmaar had treated he and Shayla when he'd first brought his laboring wife here for help. He wasn't sure how Shayla could.

"Can we see him?" Erik asked then even as he felt Shayla tense beneath his touch.

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"Your anger won't do our son any good," she said, suprisingly evenly considering the events which were transpiring. "There may still yet be hope," she continued then, letting her eyes swim in his. How easily she could read his pain and anger and sheer hurt, even without her Force senses. Finally, she turned back to the others. "I remember the Kaminoan," she said. "We left him on K'eel Doba, a very long time ago. We should go there to see whether or not Graysith, Phalomir, and Tarnus are there."

She paused then, her eyes growing a bit distant. "And to see if this Kaminoan is still there as well, and can help us..."

She paused then, trailing, sensing a need hidden behind her husband's last query. "And please, can we at least see him? I know there is no Force-link there at the moment, and I have no healing abilities to help him..."

She paused again, once more waveriing. "But he is my son, though small, undeveloped child he may be."

[ 05-22-2008 10:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"But of course," he replied simply. Then he turned to the patiently waiting servant, and instructed that the pair be taken to see their tiny son. As they departed, he turned to Panthar.

"Perhaps this Kaminoan scientist will be of some assistance," he said after a bit of thought. "For although our Healers do have some of what you would term normal medical skills, they primarily use Sith magicks in their techniques. With our powers having vanished, I truly do fear for the life of the tiny one.

"Perhaps the Kaminoan, with the skills of his ilk, will indeed be able to assist us. And to that end, I can of course offer you a ship by which to travel to the home of the Warrior Clan. But as for me--"

He paused again, drawing in another worried breath.

"I shall remain here, so as to be present when my Father finally returns home."

[ 05-22-2008 09:51 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aeylmaar ]

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“Going to K’har Delba sounds like a great idea,” he said. “We have a ship, actually, so we don’t need to burden you with that. Well, unless Shayla and Erik decide to stay here with the baby, then I’ll take you up on the offer. I wanted to stay a little bit, but the baby’s situation makes thing a bit more urgent.”

Panthar glanced at Jasyn, then back to the heir.

“I hope we can save the baby, but we need to think on a grander scale as well. We have strong reason to suspect the Vong are indeed on their way, and that they have the assistance of someone – or some thing – that has access to the Elseness. For now, we need to get everyone back together, and see if talks have progressed with Tarnus and the Empire, for we all need to be on the same side. Even when Aelvedaar returns, he will be needed elsewhere, so we’ll be counting on you for a lot of support back here. I guess what I’m getting at is, well..”

“We need to get some technology that doesn’t involve magic, or the All, or anything like that. I think I may be able to help with that, but for now, do you have any kind of communication that we can use to keep in touch with you when we leave?”

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"Wait here," he said, then with no explanation simply left the Dining Hall. Long moments passed in which he sped down this corridor and up another, through this passageway and down those stairs. Finally, after traversing a particularly tiny set of stairs he entered into a dim tunnel-like passage, which truncated in a set of age-dark wooden doors, which in turn provided him entrance into his Father's Sanctum sanctorum.

Moments later he was backtracking the route he had taken, something clutched tightly in his hand. It didn't take much more time before he returned to Panthar, to whom he held out that which he had gone to fetch.

"Here," he said simply, nodding his head as he dropped the comm-link into Panthar's outstretched hand.

"The Verpine gave this to me to keep in contact with him, but I must confess I am at a loss as how to use it. Perhaps it would serve you better than it would me."

[ 05-22-2008 10:48 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aeylmaar ]

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“Well,” he said, “I really think this needs to stay here with you. We actually have some of these on the ship, so let me show you how to use this and we’ll be able to keep in touch.”

Panthar set the com link on the table and pointed.

“Basically,” he said, “just push this button if you need to talk to us. If you hear someone’s voice, then just push this button to tell the device you are here, then the other button to talk. Simple enough for a Dark Lord to understand, right? Seriously, we need to keep in communication.”

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The servant lead them in furter beyond these obvious sickbeds and to another, smaller set of wooden doors, pausing for a moment to knock once before entering, allowing them to follow.

The scene within could be classified as nothing more than dismal. Several healers surrounded a pristine table upon which a primitive-looking, transparent incubator housed a very tiny, very weak looking infant. A nultitude of small wires and tubes ran from his tiny body.

Shayla's legs buckled from underneath her, and she only remained standing for the fact that Erik stepped in behind her and held her close.

Her eyes again filled with tears, a deep, despairing anger growing within. "He...he is going to die like this," she said softly, turning then and burying her face in Erik's chest.

"I can't bear to see him like this..."

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...but perhaps from a different angle than that of his wife's. He still had to wonder whether or not things would be different if Aeylmaar had let them stay with their child so long ago. Or if the baby wouldn't have been born so early if Graysith had helped Shayla when she went into premature labor.

Or if he had served both his son and his wife better if he had taken them for medical attention somewhere else all together.

"We need to consider other options if this Kaminoan can't be found or can't help us even if he is found," Erik then stated pointedly. "After all, the Sith really don't have anything particularly unique to help him right now, not without their magicks."

He paused then, pursing his lips a bit, shaking his head then. "I don't understand why Aeylmaar once believed it was so important to leave our baby here, in stasis."

Quieting another moment then, Erik turned to the quietly awaiting servant. "Can we find out just how well the Healers are doing in keeping Zackary alive right now..."

He trailed, cringing at the next words that were going to come from his lips, "Or if not how much time they think he may have..."

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“So,” he said to Jasyn, “do you think Shayla and Erik would rather stay here or go with us to find the Kaminoan? I assume one of you guys could pilot the ship, right? I mean, I can fly too but I’d rather not have the responsibility of piloting someone else’s expensive…”

Panthar paused, considering something that Aeylmaar had said.

“Wait,” he said, turning his head to the Sith heir. “You said you could provide us with a ship? Does that mean that you have ships that don’t rely on magick to operate?”

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"Yes," he said simply. "This temple, after being left to the vagaries of time upon our deaths--"

He paused for the briefest of moments before continuing on.

"--has been inhabited by an occasional... occupant here and there. One of these was what you would call a sith, but in fact was a darth by the name of Wicked. He had a hangar of ships hidden here at his disposal, ships of old Imperial and Alliance lineages, ships which we still maintain in their hangar for--"

Again he paused, now wondering to himself just why it was his Father had indeed maintained those ships. For with inherent Sith magicks and the wonders of the All, did not the Sorcerers find such ships to be not only terribly mundane, but in fact utterly useless to them? Unless--

He pushed away yet another rising niggle of rising concern, and continued as if he hadn't even paused at all.

"For the occasional use of those who might need them," he said smoothly, dipping his head to underscore his words.

[ 05-26-2008 12:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aeylmaar ]

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"The Healer states that the fact your son yet lives indicates the level of their skills, loss of magicks or not. But it is an extremely difficult feat they are maintaining; they do not wish that you further approach either them or your son, for fear that your mere presence alone might bring about unintentional harm.

"In fact, our presence here more than likely bodes no good will; shall we then return to your friends?"

Panthar scratched his chin in thought. “Actually,” he asked, “DO your ships not function without the use of magick?”

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And she just couldn't stand to stand around and watch what was happening.

With effort, she looked up to Erik and locked her eyes on his baby browns. "We won't help him by staying here," she opened with even as another, more significant reality set in, "And we certainly won't help him by staying here given what is enroute to our galaxy."

Quieting then, she said nothing for a long moment, finding unexpected strength in her own final words, willing Erik to somehow undrstand. At last, he sighed and nodded. They both turned and headed in the direction indicated by the awaiting servant, back to where they had left the others...

..leaving their tiny son in the hands of the Healers.

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"Of course not," he said simply. "Our ships operate via controls, as do any other ship. These are how one speaks to the cyberbiotic computer, the true heart and soul which actually runs the ship.

"Our sorceries were merely used to create our ships; if magicks were needed to run them the warrior clan would have long been hard put about it."

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"I haven't a clue what Shayla and Erik will decide to do about staying here. Stanza can fly though," he said, pointing to Matt. "I think we should get moving soon and find this Kaminoan guy, and quit all this chit-chat. And we need to check in and see about Terrin and Galen and how their mission is going. They should be headed here once they get done, after all."

...I sure as kriffing hell hope so, anyway, came a final mental addendum.

[ 05-28-2008 09:39 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be back before they get here, but make sure they know where we have gone and that we’ll be back soon, and try to keep them here if you can so can all meet.”

“As for the ships, you have simplified a big part of our quest!” he exclaimed. “We were concerned that the Sith ships would be of no use, but this is great news. We still have much to offer to the Empire in an alliance against the Vong.”

Panthar’s eyes shifted to Shayla and Erik as they entered the room, and his smile faded at the sight of their sorrow.

“We should be leaving soon,” he said, trying to draw them away from their immediate pain. “The sooner we find the Kaminoan, the sooner he can help. Are you ready?”

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"You do not understand," he broke into the tiny spot of joy which had come from nowhere to encompass the human-in-Sith-clothing.

"The fighter ships are in the great spaceport of Ch'arlingua, which is on K'eel Doba. You have all been speaking of trotting off there as if that would be the solution to our problems, but you forget one thing."

He paused to draw a deep breath.

"It is the Chosen Daughter of the Sith who is in current rule over the warriors, the one you know as Jharmeen Q'utaro, called the Graysith. But she is gone missing; in her stead, her daughter ShaRhylla rules in her place.

"Will she welcome you to Phrinnchatka as I have welcomed you here to Choyapenthe?"

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“Right?” he called to Shayla. “Besides, who could resist my charm? Well, all right, maybe I better not rely on that. At least she won’t be able to zap me with her powers… I hope.”

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He paused, eyeballing Panthar. "I have a feeling your supposed charm is going to land us in the K'eel Doban dungeons. Although, if that Ryko guy could do it..."

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“And Phal is kinda like a brother, right? And Gray is her mom, and they’re kinda like together, so hey, we’re all practically family! She has to happy to see us, family is coming to help!”

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