Her glittering blade flashed in the dimness, slicing into that palm, releasing an upwelling gout of deep violet blood which oiled up from the wound. Before the blood could ooze over it to drip upon the stone, she reached over and grabbed Shayla's wrist again, now dragging her own hand over the stone and holding it there palm facing up.

The blade flashed yet again, slicing deeply but painlessly for the exquisite sharpness to which it had been honed.

ShaRhylla replace the dagger at her waist, now switching the bloodied hand by which she grasped Shayla's for the one that held the dagger. She gripped her tightly, turning Shayla's hand to an angle perpendicular to the plane of the stone top, and pressed her own wounded palm flat against that of the young woman's.

Rich blood, ruby red and the deep violet of garnets, mingled together, a minute bit of Shayla's entering into ShaRhylla's body...

...and a portion of ShaRhylla's likewise entering into Shayla's. The remainder at last oozed from the surface of their joined palms, to finally drip thickly down upon the altar.

It sizzled...

ShaRhylla bound her eyes to Shayla's as tightly as she held their palms together.

"By this blood covenant are we bound," she whispered, the words sliding out between her fangs like the miasma from hell. "To dishonor or break this holy vow we now hold together--"

Something darker than the shadows glittered in the depths of her eyes.

"--is upon pain of death."

She held Shayla's attention a moment longer, letting an entire universe of both possibilities and assurances pass between them. Then she let her hand drop, and stepped back a pace.

"And so it begins," she said smoothly as she wiped her bloodied hands casually upon her tunic. Turning then from the altar she regained her divan, this time standing beside it while she took up her goblet once again. Heading back to the sideboard she quickly refilled it, this time filling another which she held out to Shayla.

"So," she said lightly, her eyes dark.

"Tell me about these clones..."

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

When he accompanied his father on the long travels to distant planets, when the hours seemed like they stretched into days, he spent most of time curled up on blanket watching the good holo-vids. These were put out by people with an imaginative look on life, an artistic view of everything around them. Somewhat simplistic by his adult standards, but the stories and their elements seemed to always come into play in his real-life adult world. There was always a good guy and his struggle to start up or maintain something that was – well, good. There was the love interest, be it a person or a thing, that was in danger somehow. Then there was the bad guy, the one who wanted to possess or ruin what the good guy had. Sometime it turned around, where the bad guy had something and the good guy had to take it away to make it better for everyone

Simplistic, yes. But as he watched this vid play out before him, he realized that it was life imitating art once more. But it gave him pause to think about which kind of scenario this was. Was it the good guys who currently had something, and the bad guys were now conspiring to take it away? Or did the bad guys currently have something that the good guys were going to put an end to?

And which side was he on?

His thoughts seemed to be clearer now, suddenly. He knew he had been on the side of Phalomir, Graysith, and Aelvedaar. There was no question that they were the good guys, sitting in power and trying to make things better. Trying to save the Sith from attacks on all fronts. And here these two ladies – one of which he thought was a good guy – now conspired to remove them and take it all for themselves. Well, sort of. It seemed that Graysith was all right either way, but it in their way she denounces Phal and joins them.

Hmm.

Or were they right?

Once more the dark thoughts spread over his mind like a storm cloud on a sunny day. What if they were right? What if all this time, while he was helping Phalomir, he had been helping out the bad guys? What if Gray really had been coerced and brainwashed? After all, remember, Phal had a proven track record of hijacking minds.

He needed to know.

And there was something else within him, something strange and alien, yet familiar, that needed to know as well. By now Panthar had realized that something else was with him, perhaps the darkness that had possessed him before, perhaps something even more dreadful. With the things he had experienced as of late, who could be sure? But it was simply coexisting at this point, and that seemed to be all right. But it, too, needed to know exactly what was happening.

He stepped forward from the shadowed area that the ladies had left him in, and in a moment had lurked forward to the altar. His eyes were dark and set in a stare directly into ShaRhylla’s as she flicked hers to his approach. He realized he had no fear of her at this moment, and that the something within him was fueling this. He then turned his dark, roiling eyes to Shayla, who had remained silent after ShaRhylla’s question. Perhaps she was lost in sudden regret, or contemplation, but her silence would not answer his burning question.

“You have entered a dangerous pact,” he said calmly. “But you must now carry through.”

His concern for her still lived, and the dark other touted him, and amplified this.

“But as I have in the past, I will continue to be with you.”

“But,” he said, directing his statement to Shayla but flicking his eyes to ShaRhylla, “None of what you seek will come easily. There will be many more sacrifices.”

And I will not be one of them.

[ 11-30-2008 01:02 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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

"The clones, excepting the one, are all on Kor'isan."

Pausing then for another, smaller sip of her goblet's contents, Shayla turned to regard Panthar, arching her brows slightly. "Why do you speak of things that I already know?"

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

“Do you know, really?” he asked. “Do you truly understand what you have done?”

He did not let the question linger, however, for the something inside of him wanted more information. It was impatient, and very persuasive.

“No matter, what is done is done. What matters now is to move forward. And for that, you will have to be more open. I already knew where the clones were discovered, but that does us no good. Korris’ian is in the Elseness…”

A glint of reflected light flashed from the darkened eyes of ShaRhylla as she looked at him sharply. Panthar caught notice of this and turned his head to face her.

“Your mother, with the aid of Phalomir, Shayla, and Galen moved the planet into the Elseness to acquiesce That Which Is. That event seemed to trigger many other interesting things. That is where we first met the Master, and is when Phalomir became Dark Lord of the Armorers. It is also when Terrin, Galen’s husband, was brought back to life, which is of course the reason we had to move the whole damn planet into the Elseness to begin with.”

“Regardless,” he continued, turning once again to face Shayla. “It is impossible to now visit this location. Even if we could, the clones were destroyed by Phalomir. All save the one, of course. What we wish to know, Shayla, is where these clones came from, and who made them.”

Is that what he wanted to know? He didn’t think so, but that was the question that came forward. No, what he really wanted to know was what the hell was she thinking? And what she thought was going to happen to her and people that she once cared for.

And there was something else… something that made his skin crawl…

White spiders.

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

Abruptly she stopped, considering the words he was speaking to Shayla, knowing that what spoke to her wasn't quite all her other selfness, but was yet a far cry from Panthar's uniqueness. That sniveling kernel was hidden deeply within his body, encompassed by ribbons of oily black, and only enough of himself was allowed to leak out to make him yet appear, to others, to be Panthar Dantares.

Now it seemed there was something of a problem in the co-mingling of the two. Too much of Panthar appeared to be surfacing. She was about to open her self to him/it/herself in chatisement when she stopped. That was when the flick of a smile crossed her features, prompting her to raise a slim hand to hide it.

It will not matter what she knows, she thought to herself only. Nor his reaction to that which I love... and can therefore use. All will be as intended, and this woman will act as the Key... or the Pawn.

Either way, it has already begun.

She let her hand drop, her eyes cutting briefly to the wound which marred it, her face wearing its usual expression of haughty grandeur. All the while something within her dark soul, which indeed was her dark soul, giggled and chortled at the Great Foolie it was yet managing to perpetuate.

[ 12-05-2008 11:20 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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"I thought what we wanted to know is how we could help the people here with the loss of powers. I thought what we were doing was that and that alone, to then return to Khar Delba. You remember these things, Panthar?" he queried, turning to the man-turned-Sith with an arched eyebrow and letting the question linger for a long, strangely eerie moment.

Then, surprisingly, he turned to Shayla. "And I realize you just lost your kid, but Panthar is right about one thing, what you are doing is dangerous to us all. Aren't you at least a little alarmed at how quickly your word was taken to a Blood Oath?"

Falling silent once more, Matt let his green eyes rest in the somehow firey ones of Shayla Stargazer Petrolu. Then he at last turned to the gloating ShaRhylla. "Seems I am the odd man out here. So what is it you intend to do with me?"

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

Her bi-colored eyes flashed to his form, outstanding amongst them despite his relatively diminutive height, and flashed further in a dark and extremely dangerous manner.

What to do with him, indeed? As well as these others...

She remained silent, letting her gaze pan across the group in its entirety, then letting it rush back to the bloodstained alter looming in the shadows. The purity of their blood would go a long way toward the hopeful appeasement of S'slan, who for whatever reason had deemed to deprive her of her dark strengths. But this human was another matter.

Quite another matter.

She blinked, returning her focus forward again, letting it fall upon him from beneath her lowering brows. Then she cocked her head, delicately chewing upon her lower lip, clearly exposing her equally delicate fangs as she did so. She leaned forward.

"I could bestow upon you a most marvelous gift," she whispered, the words falling like pearls of oil from her lips.

Indeed, this she could do. She could present him with the Ultimate Answer, the Pinnacle of Delight, that which no man believes he could ever desire, but which upon presentation chases away such foolish fears by the sheer wonder of its touch. And in that one tiny moment brings with it utter clarity, understanding, and arm-beckoning acceptance.

She should know. She'd felt its kiss many, many times...

"In exchange for your silence, this wondrous gift might be given..."

Her eyes flicked from Panthar to Shayla, and she nodded minutely in her direction. Within the blond woman's veins, that bit of cloying blood that originated from the halfling warmed, turned fiery, sending cascades of molten ice throughout her very being, bringing with it an odd memory of the exquisite delight that only the touch of death could bring.

She settled against her cushions then, and took yet another heady drink of brandy.

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

After all, she had died once as well. Unlike ShaRhylla's rebirth at the hands of the Darkness, however, Shayla had been rebirthed--at Graysith's request--by That Which Is.

After a long moment of silence, Shayla cocked her head and regarded Matt with the most annoyingly inscrutable look on her face. The words she spoke then were anything but, however.

"He'll never be silent," she said darkly, "And perhaps he should not, at least not yet. After all, he was there on Degobah when That Which Is appeared and all powers were blocked."

She paused then, turning to ShaRhylla. "He may be of some use...

...for now."

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

...but from deep within something dark and dismal reached out into that otherness which was herself, stretching out to the Dark Heart which beat in an awful parody of death within the graces of the Darker Realms.

"This will take time..."

Then she let her goblet fall unheeded to the floor, rising from the cushions to approach a bell-pull hanging back amidst the shadows. She reached out a delicate hand, and tugged upon it. Once.

Immediately the chamber was filled with warriors, who surrounded the entire group, some keeping their weapons aimed at their erstwhile guests, while their squad leader came to a respectful kneel before the halfling.

"Bury them all, deeply," she commanded, pointing to Matt and his Sith companions.

"But save those two; they are young and fresh."

Two hapless Sith were immediately quarantined off to one side, there to await their fate atop the blood-stained altar to their even bloodier god, S'slan, while the others were brusquely led away into the bowels of the Great Temple.

ShaRhylla watched their departure through slitted eyes, before turning back upon Shayla once again. She said not a word, but the look she bore down upon the young woman was somehow...

Disappointed.

Then, before Shayla could even begin to react to her, she pulled her dagger from her tunic. For a moment she merely held it in her hand, it's blade gleaming with quiet promise, before turning it about in one deft motion and offerring it to Shayla.

[ 12-09-2008 09:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

A part which yet sought to bring to light the darkness lurking within.

The look in Shayla's eyes deepened, and she reached out one hand, with an eerie sort of steadiness and calmness, to accept the blade from ShaRhylla. But as she turned to the young Sith, it was not them she was truly seeing. Her mind's eye shifted to a day on Degobah, in a grove of gnarltrees. In the center of the scene were those who had left her, denied her, and betrayed her...

...and quite suddenly she was finding herself having more than enough of it.

Her eyes snapping alert then, Shayla nodded ot one of the two young Sith, directing him to the altar. He complied although his eyes widened in fear. Shayla gripped the dagger in her hand, at first hesitating. But then her mind drifted back to the gnarltrees once more...

...and finally to the memory which had prompted her to come back here to begin with. For when she had been requested to perform much the same task by Graysith, she had failed.

Because she harbored love for one who would hold her back time and time again. And because she actually had cared about what everyone else had thought.

Enough. Enough.

As the daggar fell, one couldn't be certain if it was the helpless young Sith on the altar that Shayla was seeing...

...or something else entirely.

[ 12-15-2008 09:41 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

He stared at the blade, following it with his eyes, until it plunged deeply into the young Sith on the slab. He expected a scream, was ready to relish in it, but the Sith was true his god to the end. Shayla’s hands were sprayed by the violet blood, her sleeves becoming soaked. This made the darkness smile, but even this was not enough. There was no sound. No satisfaction.

Panthar was moved to action with this. He slipped behind Shayla and grabbed her bloodied hand. He then snapped his hand to the side, causing hers to move with it, twisting the blade. The Sith’s eyes widened, his devoted concentration on his own death broken, and he exhaled a painful scream with his dying breath. S’slan be damned, the darkness was appeased.

He inhaled deeply, then released Shayla’s hand and turned to ShaRhylla. Something behind his eyes sparkled, then he turned back to Shayla.

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

A dark smile spread across her features as she indicated the remaining Sith with a wave of one delicate hand.

"You are not yet finished," she whispered silkily as she then fell into anticipatory silence, her other hand shooting out and pointing at Panthar, the inherent meaning of that gesture crystal clear.

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

As he laid himself on the altar obendiently, there was no hesitation as there was before, however. This time Shayla drove the dagger in directly to his heart, before he had even a moment to brace himself, twisting the sharp blade in mercilessly and somehow symbolically. The Sith cried in agonizing pain, all attempts to not do so totally eradicated.

Amazingly enough, the young Sith seemed to linger much longer than one might have thought, even as Shayla continued to read and tear and twist. At last, however, the Sith still and the screams ceased...

...and Shayla rounded on Panthar, her greeny blue eyes darkening to that of a sea in the midst of a hurricane.

"Perhaps it was you who was the third," she then said, the meaning behind her words perhaps unclear to anyone other than herself as, in a perhaps unexpected move, she threw flipped the wrist of the hand holding the blade back and then jerked her arm back in a quick yet graceful move, letting the blade go and sending it sailing across the room to impact Panthar in the shoulder, causing him to stumble back in surprise.

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

I’m being used again, he thought. This hurts – I mean, not this, what’s another wound when I have so many anyway – but to have this happen, to have Shayla do this, this hurts. Dammit, what am I going to do?

Panthar looked at the hilt of the dagger protruding from his shoulder.

Well, the first thing is to get this dirty thing out of me and find some antibiotics.

He grabbed the dagger and yanked it out, doing it quickly to minimize the pain. Fresh violet blood poured from the wound and he steadied himself. He looked to Shayla, whose skin still burned red with anger. Then he realized that he did not fully understand what had just happened – something had made him grab the dagger in her hand, but that something was suddenly quiet. Appeased?

He took a shaky step towards Shayla, then another. She made no move, and soon he was standing before her. There was something different about her, this was obvious. But there was something different about him as well, and he was not entirely sure he liked it. But he remembered now that he had come here not only to find Gray and Phalomir, but in hope that Shayla was also here. And here she was.

He had to know what was happening. He had to know for certain if the darkness was still within him. There was one way to know for sure.

Panthar looked directly into Shayla’s eyes, then held the hilt of the dagger to her and stepped forward to press the point into his abdomen.

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

She took the blade from Panthar in a slow yet smooth motion, and stood unmoving for another moment.

"You want this?" asked in a dark, foreboding whisper, her question more of an observation than a anything else as she then took to blade and removed the blade from Panthar's abdomen to instead slash the sharp edge cleanly across the wrist of the hand which he had dared interrupt her first killing with.

Not moving any further then, she curiously awaited his reply...

[ 12-21-2008 10:35 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

“No matter what I do to please you,” he blurted, “you hurt me.”

He didn’t know why he said that – but it seemed right. Something – that dark thing – was inside of him, he knew it now. It only made sense. It was inside him, it knew his thoughts, it knew his feelings. Perhaps it knew them better than he did. He wanted to help Shayla, to make her happy.

No, you want her. Isn’t it that simple?

No, it isn’t that simple! Shut up in there!

You want her, you have always wanted her.

Leave her out of this. Maybe you’re in me and there’s nothing I can do about it, but I’ll fight you every step of the way and do whatever it takes to get you out of me –

I’ll make her hate you.

What?

She’ll hate you forever. I’ll do things, make you do things that she will hate you for. Like killing the idiot just now, she hates you for this already. You’ll be too strong for her to kill, but she will hate you.

Panthar hated being possessed. It seemed to happen so often now, it seemed he should be getting used to it. But there it was again, and he still hated it. So now the thing had made its presence known for sure, and it was already making threats. All right, sure, he could play along for now.

“I mean,” he said, “I only want to help. Let me help.”

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

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

Smiling, she raised a new goblet to her lips and took a drink, watching to see how events played out with dark and glittering eyes.

[ 12-23-2008 09:41 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

Panthar hesitated, his eyes flicking to ShaRhylla, then back to Shayla.

Come on, what are you waiting for?

“I,” he began, then stopped. What did he want to help her with? He had come here for a reason, yes. To find someone… but who was it? No, not to find someone, but to help the Sith. Yes, that was it, he had come here to help the Sith. And there was someone with him… Matt? Yes, Matt! But Matt was gone, wasn’t he? Yes, of course, he had gone off to help in his own way. And now he, Panthar, was here to help in his own way. Finally, he could help. In his way, without weird powers or the mark of death or darkness, but just in his own, simple way.

“I want to help you obtain that which you most desire, and deserve,” he said calmly. “I want to help you reach that pinnacle of power. I want to help you restore life to this Sith race, this cold dismal part of space… to that hardening heart within you.”

How sweet, I think I’m going to vomit

But Panthar did not hear this last thought as it raced through the back of his mind. All seemed sound now, all seemed focused. He did not really feel like he had given in, for indeed it seemed so right.

But he did not feel soft, not like that bleeding heart Sith that once took control of his body. No, not like Phalomir. That lily-livered lover-boy was going to meet his doom following his heart’s desire. This was something different entirely.

“And to your son,” he added. “That is what I want to do.”

[ 12-23-2008 10:15 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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

"Why?" she whispered, casting a quick glance Shayla's way before returning her eyes to Panthar. All the while, that within her which was part and parcel of that yet within Panthar chortled and chuckled, knowing the reply and damned well knowing where this all would lead.

She reached inward, that strange duality which characterized her being now splitting, as that which was herself before reached over to that which was herself now:

"Let me be me..."

((OOC: The latter being sent over to The Siege of a Soul in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you.))

[ 12-23-2008 10:44 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

Yes, came the reply. Our link is dim, and until I can complete it you must act upon your own accord. You know what we are, you know what is imperative.

You feel the tendrils of darkness spreading within the being before you. But take care, it is prone to rebellion. You shall work mastery over it, I have no doubt. He shall be an agent unto us. I must concentrate on our link, do what you will.

Then a moment’s hesitation, followed by:
But find this clone -- and destroy it.

"This shall I most certainly do..." she crooned. Then she did move, not much, just the timiest of motions to betray a universal change: she blinked her eyes but once as that connection seemed to split, one part of it coiling away into otherness while the other merely wrapped itself about her soul and squeezed.

When her eyes opened after that single blink it was to reveal a new yet extremely familiar aura of haughtiness dancing in their liquid depths.

"Why?" she repeated, this time a bit more loudly, more forcibly, as though to assure herself that yes indeedy, ShaRhylla was most certainly back, in all her former sweetness...

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

Oh right, ‘why?’

Well, hmm, that was a good question. He knew the answer, but what was the right thing t answer?

Tell her you want to live happily ever after, or you want to marry into royalty.

“It’s what I came here to do,” he said. “I am taking control of my own life, and making a choice. You think I want to play lapdog to Phalomir my whole life? You think I want to be a shadow in the background, just waiting for the snap of someone’s finger so I can come running? No! I want to se what’s out there for me, and I want to be on the winning team for once.”

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

She thought of all that Panthar had said.

She thought of Shayla, her change, her first tentative steps taken down a road from which there was no turning back.

She thought of her meeting, seeming eons ago, with Phalomir, and the hackle-raising words he had the effrontery to speak to her.

She thought of her Mother, what she had done and how she had acted toward her during their time together in the Temple... which of course was all ShaRhylla truly had to go by in assessment of her.

And she thought of her time with Rykounagin.

She blinked; the warriors had rejected the Triad, but perhaps it wasn't just the fact of having one, but that triad in particular...

A slow smile crept across her face.

"And so you shall," she whispered, now taking a step forward to first run one finger gently down the plane of Panthar's left cheek before suddenly digging in with one claw, ripping into his flesh, twisting and turning until upon his face she had inscribed the Sith rune meaning her name.

"But betray me not, or you shall die," she finished, stepping back and scowling at the inner images of Rykounagin which yet lingered in her mind's eye.

She then considered the pair before her.

"There are those who will impede our progress, those who must be eliminated," she then said in quite the matter-of-fact voice. "These we must find off-world to properly take care of them; it would not benefit us to hasten their departure from this earthly realm in the presence of my people."

She stopped a moment.

"Of our people," she amended, then continued.

"We shall leave this place; I'm bored here at any rate, and that silly sot of a Major Domo can attend to the people while I am gone. You--"

She pointed at Shayla.

"--shall pilot us in the ship by which you have come here; and you--"

Now she thrust a finger in Panthar's face.

"--shall be our physical strength, until those of our own return. But they shall return, for you have said you know how to do this; isn't that correct, Shayla?"

She turned an ominous look upon the young human before going to a bell-pull and summoning a servant. This groveling worthy was directed to attend to the provisioning of their needs, from food to clothing to personal weaponry.

She squinted her eyes, thinking hard. Then--

"And my mother's short dagger, the Tooth of S'slan; wait, that I shall take myself. But from the armory make certain the Edge of S'slan is among my personal effects, as well as the sword--"

She paused, thinking of the sword hanging over the thrones in the Great Reception Hall. It had remained quiet for another seeming eternity; she frowned a moment, debating whether it would be boon or bane, should it decide to finally speak. She finally decided upon the latter, and waved the servant on to his duties, sans order to take down that mysterious weapon.

She then turned to the others.

"My directions shall be carried out swiftly; Shayla, you shall now lead us to your ship. I shall claim the Tooth on our way out of this place."

[ 12-24-2008 11:47 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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

"My ship is berthed in the spaceport," she indicated as they began to depart the room where they had been. As they did so, ShaRhylla took the lead, no doubt headed to the place where she could get the Tooth of S'slan. Moving along, Shayla remained silent, her mind still lingering on the growing darkness within as she considered Panthar's explanation for why he was there.

Shayla's greeny-blue eyes shifted slightly to regard him even though they continued to move. "Now you are the third," she said softly yet darkly.

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