The chrome-eyed one...

Her own eyes grew muzzy themselves as once again she fixed them upon a point somewhere over Shayla's left shoulder. Once again, something almost there seemed to shimmer, to whisper without sound, to taunt without corporeality.

As did something else she seemed to remember... something...

Other.

Into her muzzy state strange sensations began lazily swimming, dipping and pirhouetting, swooping up very close, oh so very close, to consciousness only to sink back into shadowy depths and disappear. But the attempt was enough; it sparked something, bringing forth something she had once felt with every cell of her body:

Extreme, unrelenting annoyance with something... or someone, something that simply wasn't her, wasn't as she...

And over it all came an even more distant echo of gibbering laughter, of discordant notes, of black satisfaction of the kind purported to be near-love inherent in that-which-knows-none.

Did she remember? No... not quite. But deep within herself, something basic, something primal...

Felt.

She blinked suddenly, erupting from her fugue, and pinned her bi-colored eyes on Shayla's sea-green ones.

"Only the weak allow themselves to become captives," she whispered, the words chilling the air as much as they chilled her. For quite suddenly she knew what had happened to her at practically the moment of her birth, came close to recalling on something more than a subliminal level a great, hulking Darkness which took her elsewhere...

And then there was she. Herself. Now. Being trained in those ways of the warrior which are embodied in such monochromatic statements as that one.

She frowned, for the first time being at a loss, not knowing what to say, or even how to feel. Let alone who to really trust.

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

Pausing then, Shayla's greeny-blue eyes deepened to that of an incoming storm. "The Chrome-eyed one captured your mother, with help from a demonic imp, and I allowed myself to be exchanged to protect her. And he had you there as well, ShaRhylla. When the darkness from the Darker Realms that was in me activated the villip on Kor'isan, He spoke of the Nexus being infiltrated and of the moves that were being made to defeat us..."

She trailed, her eyes growing impossibly darker. "...and for a time both your mother and I were controlled by something other than ourselves...

...and he even went so far as to have you taken as a child. "He has singled us out as a threat to his mission; why else would he speak of the such things and have us captive aboard his ship?"

Pausing again, Shayla pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I wonder if it was truly our innate abilities he found to be a threat...

...or if perhaps it is the very essence of who and what we are?"

[ 08-19-2008 10:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

Had to hear it. If only to make it real.

If proven, that is...

"He-?" she breathed the question toward the stones at her feet, bracing herself for what might come in reply.

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

"...him, and Dark Lord Roan. Or at least, the entity we thought was him."

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

Father--

A great swell of dark, bloodied love rushed through her, as overwhelming as a tsunami, then subsided.

Did he order her taken to the Vong ship? Did he order the same be done to her Mother and Shayla?

On one hand she lauded him. On the other, back-peddled feverishly away from rising fear and disbelief.

"How came you to be imprisoned on this ship?" she finally asked. "And Mother, too?"

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

...I was exchanged to take her place aboard that same ship by Lord Aelvedaar. And how he came to know the whereabouts of a ship outside our galaxy..."

She trailed,not certain exactly where her final words had come from. "...has never been completely explained."

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

Eventually, when Panthar and Matt were nearly breathless and ready to collapse, they cleared the country and began to enter more civilized areas. Still the warriors pushed on, until Panthar could take no more. Lungs afire, he held up his hand and tried to wheeze “Stop!”

But he did not have to say it, for the band did stop. Panthar stopped, hands on his knees, and tried to catch his breath. He heard the lead warrior shout something out, then raised his head to see another band of Sith approaching.

“What--” he gasped. “What’s going on?”

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

She knew.

--before subsiding as quickly as it had come. Her usual haughty demeanor flowed in to fill the emptied niche; lifting her chin now, she peered down her nose at Shayla.

"And why was it, exactly, that you were exchanged for Mother?" she asked.

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

For a moment he considered merely commanding the ragtag bunch to move aside, that he and his men might go on about the mission they had been sent out upon. But then he reconsidered.

They might have seen something, or heard something, or they might know of something...

"Ho, you!" he shouted, his cry sending his tuk'ata into a momentary fit of anticipation. After he had calmed it, he continued.

"You... there are prisoners gone from the Temple. Someone must have assisted them, for no one escapes the dungeons of the Temple of the Warriors.

"Have you seen anything suspicious, anyone fitting this description?"

Quickly he described Sorben Tarnus- which in a nutshell was merely stated as "human" -and Thoran; indeed, he really had no qualms about letting this out. For all who were made privy to such knowledge were automatically obliged to remain silent about it, upon pain of a tortured death. Likewise, if they knew of any information but chose to stupidly withold it, great woe would betide them once this little bit of treachery was uncovered. Indeed, it eventually would be.

The Captain glared down at the suddenly quieted group, satisfied with their respectful silence, and was about to bid the one who appeared to be heading the group to speak when the rasping sound of someone trying to catch his breath caught his attention. No proper Sith on this particular world would dare allow himself to get into such poor physical shape, as was evidenced by the fact that none of the others were making so much as a peep.

"You!" he commanded in a deep bass voice, his blue-tinged salmon eyes piercing into Panthar's own even as his pointing spear most assuredly promised to do.

"What do you know of this?"

It was then that the little group shuffled silently en mass away from Panthar... and in the process revealed the presence of Matt, who had been hidden by their larger bodies. The Captain's eyes darkened to mahogany.

"It is the pair!" he cried, turning halfway round toward his men.

"Arrest them, and take them to the Temple. And take these worthless excuses for Sith with them, for having the stupidity to run with escaped criminals! By this act are they such as well!"

Before the group could say or do anything they found themselves ringed by tuk'ata, one look at whose gnashing fangs and razored claw was all they needed to bend in submission and allow themselves to be herded off into the city of Phrinnchatka.

"Because your Mother would not allow the Sorceror Lord to retrieve her via the All," Shayla commented. "An exchange was the only other way to take her from that ship...

...and I was the only one who could take her place."

Or at least, that is what the Lord Aelvedaar told you, came a brief, sinister whisper rising up from somewhere down deep and hidden.

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

She cocked her head, giving Shayla a calculating look.

"Why did you do it?"

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

As Shayla considered, she remembered something else as well that happened on that day. "When Lord Aelvedaar came and told us that he could not retrieve her, and could only replace her, I misunderstood his meaning initially. He became angry and blocked my abilities and memories."

Shayla paused, frowning to herself. "I would have taken her place without his rash act, for the Greater Good. She is the one single individual that I do trust. Still, he knew I would offer myself, and implied as much...

...and he was correct."

So why the quick act of blockng all of your abilities? Why did he not realize the misunderstanding...?

...Or was it to him a convenient reason to remove you from the place Graysith had given you despite his initial...

...and perhaps continuing...

...disapproval?

[ 08-27-2008 08:17 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

Something niggled, whether within or without ShaRhylla couldn't be certain, but that it niggled she was most certainly aware.

What cared she of these things.

Her eyes slitted; then her demeanor flipped in an instant, and she glided to a nearby sideboard. There she helped herself to a dainty goblet of Sith brandy, offerring none to Shayla. Turning to face the young woman, she lifted the goblet to her lips and took a sip.

"You've convinced me of nothing, you know," she purred over the lip before taking yet another delicate sip of the fiery liquid.

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

Shayla paused. "It will matter not to them who landed the fatal blow to their blockade...

...only that you are one of them. And, at the moment, you are here...

...and your mother is not."

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

"You seem so certain," she finally purred as she swirled the greeny-gold liquid in the goblet she held.

"How do you know that the Empire will not care who has struck this blow to them? Are you an envoy here from their midst? No, I think not.

"I think that if the one responsible is offerred up to them, why... perhaps they will be so grateful as to ally themselves with us against these invaders, which--"

She set her goblet down on the sideboard, then cut her eyes directly into Shayla's.

"Which I really have no proof are coming at all, other than your mere statement of this," she said smoothly, even as that cutting gaze was dragged abruptly away.

Off in the corner, there seemed to be a vague movement, as if a shadow had become briefly wrinkled before straightening out once more. But then... perhaps it was some trick of the flames, which crackled and popped in the fireplace...

[ 08-30-2008 12:22 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

"Matt, this is Jasyn. Checking in to see if you and Panthar have come up with anything. Let us know; Graysith and Lord Phalomir still haven't returned here, and Shawn and I agree it's been too long. Might be time to do something else if they aren't on K'eel Doba for some reason."

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

Matt didn't dare move to answer it and risk unwanted attention...

...or being pinned down further by moving unnecessarily. Still, he pretty much assumed that the Sith would pick up on the fact his commlink was making noise. He could only hope whatever they did when they recognized it could be used to help them out, somehow.

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

He didn't have to say anything, just nodded his head in a meaningful manner. Indeed, the alert of an incoming message wasn't anything new to these soldiers; it didn't take long for one of them to investigate more thoroughly, discover the source, and divest Matt of it cleanly, if a bit roughly. The unit was brought up to the Captain, who took it into his clawed hand and stared at it for a bit.

Then his hand closed upon the comm-link, crushing it and quite effectively truncating whatever message it was attempting to transmit.

"You have more than my word, unless what you remember of the Vong ship you are dismissing as nothing more than your imagination," she said evenly, pausing then to simply fall silent and watch for a moment.

"And how would you offer up your mother to the Empire, considering she is not here? Not to mention that would also require them to at least partially believe that she destoyed an entire blockade without a single visible weapon. What reason would they have to believe you in this?"

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

The image faded... and the halfling shrugged.

"Memories of the Vong I may retain, yes," she said, raising a hand to her lips to pat back a rising if totally false yawn. "But where is the proof of their destination? I may have been aboard their ship, as had you--"

Her eyes flashed open to then dagger into Shayla's.

"But where that particular ship actually was, and what it's purpose was, is something that is anybody's guess. You still offer me no proof.

"As for any worries pertaining to the Empire when they too supposedly will attack us, why..."

Her eyes narrowed to cat's slits, and she smiled evilly.

"That is really none of your concern, is it. You carry no Sith blood in your veins."

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

Well, at least we’re making good time, he thought. In actually, they were making excellent time, and he marveled at how well his Sith legs carried him. He did feel sorry for Matt, however, for his human lungs had to be about at the breaking point. He thought about saying something to this effect when the commander halted the group once again.

The group of warriors spread out in the tiniest of distance, but just enough to allow Panthar to poke his head around a shoulder and see that they had arrived at a watch post of some kind. The city lay behind the station.

He hoped that he would be at least be asked who he was and what he was doing, but he had spent enough time around warriors now to not assume that would be the case. So he took a chance and shouted out quickly to the warriors before him.

“Remember, we have vitally important news for Lady Graysith or Lady ShaRhylla!”

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

"No, I do not," Shayla then replied evenly. "And yet I am one of only two who have connected with the All by means other than inherent ability. And I truly believe the Sith are the ones who should be leading this galaxy, Vong incoming or not. You may believe that the Sith are an entity within themselves, and that they will never face a foe they cannot defeat."

Shayla paused. "But you should already know they have been defeated before, by a group of beings they should have been able to conquer themselves. Would you lead your people into darkness once more by repeating the mistakes that have been made in the past?"

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

And she was here, more than likely, to get a piece of this for herself...

ShaRhylla didn't say anything, just slitted her eyes in contemplation at such miniscule concerns.

And her worry was whether the halfling would inadvertently lead her people into Darkness...

A mysterious little smile curled about ShaRhylla's lips at this, floating there for a moment or two before fading away.

"What is that, truly..." she sighed, almost to herself but definitely loud enough that the words would slide into Shayla's ears. A flicker of that smile appeared again, this time remaining to frame the tips of her suddenly exposed fangs.

She cocked her head a bit to one side, her eerie eyes now the color of night.

"You have not told me yet why this is of such a concern to you," she whispered, the inherent query in that statement filling the air with oil-black silken filaments even as from somewhere other vague sibilants that promised to be words seem to waft into her being.

"Not in entirety, that is."

She stopped abruptly, her eyes growing distant, reading something in the shadows only she could see. Then--

"Tell me, Shayla. What is this Greater Good that you spoke of before?"

The darkness in her demeanor, in her eyes, carried almost completely unheard upon her words, now vanished. She cocked her head further to one side, and sent Shayla a genuinely curious look.

[ 09-09-2008 12:14 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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"As prisoners, you have a right to air your defense before the Dark Lady," he growled.

"There you may try your best to convince her that the dungeons of Phrinnchatka are not the best destination for you and your--"

He cut his eyes to Matt, and covered the man with an even more intense glare.

"Human friend! As well as those who would journey with you."

With that he dismissed the lot entirely, concentrating now on holding everyone at this watch station while he awaited further orders. For sometimes the audience he had mentioned wasn't necessarily granted the moment a prisoner was brought within the walls of the great Temple.

Stretching outward, defying, feeling for the fleeting connection that yet holds between the Darker Realms and it’s child, he reaches for her…

Time and again, flickering notions of pure blackness filter and fade into the room, only to blink out of existence just as quickly as they came…

But it does not halt. A brief spot in the corner of her eye, a small tingle in the small of her back… she feels its presence, its attempts to tell her…

But it yet cannot speak clearly to her…

Only the whispered echoes of words, and only in her mind….

‘Speak to me…’