"You want to know, really?" she spat. "Fine, I will tell you.

"I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but when you first arrived in K'eel Doba, in the Temple, you came in all grand and pompous, acting like you belonged there, like you owned it! You had Mother wrapped around your little finger; I do not know why it is you have this effect on her. I just know it is there.

"When we first met, you treated me like a child, like dirt. Like it should be you who would take care of things in Mother's absence, not me. Like I never had one drop of any teachings from Mother at all! You disgraced her, in that you treated me like you did!"

Anger began to flare again, pushing forward, up through the inner shield ShaRhylla had placed within herself to control it, if only for the length of time it took to answer the False Lord's query. It refused to be harnessed; her fists balling, the tips of her pearly claws digging into the palms of her hands, she took yet another step forward. bringing herself closer to Phalomir.

"And now, all of a sudden, you are all 'nicey-nice,' play-acting to be my friend, acting like some kind of 'wise old uncle' to me, offering advice that it is not yours to offer! YOU are not Dark Lord of the Warriors, I do not remember YOU winning that role from my father, and that is the way of the Sith!

"I don't trust you!" she finished, stabbing Phalomir with a final, fiery look before turning her back upon him and returning to her place at Rykounagin's side.

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

“You are correct in much of your assessment,” he said at length. “You don’t know who I am or where I came from – for the longest time I did not know either, and what I learned still does not make sense to me. But I was there, in the Temple, long before I met you. I felt the connection then, as I feel I now, but I cannot explain it. Yet I bear the marks of all three clans.

“When we first met I did not know the extent of your training, nor did it seem apparent to me you could take command. I do apologize for making assumptions, but it did not take long for me to see that you were not fit to lead. Search your own thoughts, and perhaps you will see your own behavior. Your mother leads by caring for the Sith people, sacrificing for them. You have demonstrated nothing but contempt and disdain for your people, you treat them like dogs -- so do not speak to me of disgracing your mother.”

Phalomir paused, not wanting a confrontation but needing to respond.

“And as for her,” he said. “When I first arrived I was unsure of who I was or what I was doing there. Your mother did not trust me, she did not even like me. But that changed over time, it was not overnight. Our feelings for each other are strong and I wish you could accept that. But if you do not, that does not change my feelings for her. I have gone into Hell for her, as she did for you. You are her daughter and she loves you, and because of that I try to respect you and help you. I will never intentionally come between you.

"But I will not lie to you, either. I did earn the Lordship of the Armorers. And although I have not done it, I can indeed lay claim to the Warriors."

[ 06-24-2010 08:52 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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Taking the Tooth with which she had armed herself, she made a sudden slash across her palm with it. Her eyes slitting even further, like those of an angry cat, she held that palm out to Phalomir, letting him see the blood oozing freely from it.

"Or this--?" she continued, then holding up the bloodied blade.

"You may have right to the Armorer clan, though I have never been told of you. But to the Warriors?"

She let out a burst of laughter.

"This you most certainly do not. How can you say it, when by your own words you don't even know where you come from? You have no more claim on your own merit than he does!"

She whirled and pointed to Rykounagin, then flashed back to Phalomir again.

"But he will gain that right by marriage, to me. Mine is through blood. And if you think your claim to the throne is through marrying my mother, think again."

Cocking her head to one side, she now began wiping the blade against her clothing to clean it, doing the same to her hand, settling cat-like into herself.

"Recinis still has his rightful claim to the throne too, you know," she brought up out of the blue as she slid the Tooth back into its sheath. "And he is not dead. He is merely... gone. Until his body is found and brought forth, he is Dark Lord of the Warriors, or at least is according to Mother, because she is still married to him, you know, and to hear her talk about him she loved him very much.

"But I know who the Dark Lord really is, and that is my father. He was Dark Lord before Recinis ever showed his face, and he rightfully took back the Lordship after that coward disappeared. And even though my father too is gone at the moment, he will return to his rightful place one day. I know this."

She paused a final moment.

"Mother needs to remember this, too," she said before finally finishing.

"You talk of how I treat my people. Well, at least my people know me, they know who I am and how I am Heiress Apparent to the Dark Ladyship. They know my father, they even know of the coward Recinis.

"But when they look at you... do they know you as they do the rest of us? Can they point to you, and proudly mention your lineage, and how they fared under your father and his before, whether good or bad?

"I think not, for you have no right standing alone. It is by marrying Mother that you will attempt this thing, and I will make certain that never, ever happens."

[ 06-24-2010 10:45 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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“You may save your efforts. I will not become Dark Lord of the Warriors – I cannot allow that to happen. There was a – a vision – shown to me by the Temple – it warned me of the consequences of certain choices.”

And I need to know who I am before I can expect the Sith to know. Where did I come from? Why do I have memories of a future time?

“If I marry your mother it is because we love each other, it is not because I wish to be the Dark Lord of the Warriors. And if you listen to me you will see – I am trying to help you, to help prepare you for the day when you take over for your mother. The Sith will need a level headed and strong Dark Lady. Did you know that your mother renounced Recinis? In her eyes he is no longer the Dark Lord nor her husband, so it is her alone that rules the Warriors. When she is ready to pass it you, will you be ready accept the real burden of leadership?”

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

I will never renounce you... she said silently, smiling as she recognized the familiar warmth as a tendril of her powers reached instinctively out to create a Link with him. That thought, along with every lick of emotion it carried, bored into the young man's very being: into his conscious mind, into his heart, and into his soul.

Her eyes cut back to Phalomir again, slitting instinctively. But the sudden weariness she saw in his face, combined with the words she had scarcely expected to hear, made her see him in a new light, no matter how she tried to deny it or tried to interpret it as weakness. Even all her self-centered hauteur couldn't ignore the simple truth she saw laid upon his features; bit by bit the winds left her sails, pushing away her fury, settling her into the evening swells of slowly softening anger.

"So you claim now," was all she could finally manage as, her eyes dropping from his, she began to see a little bit the simple transparency of the heated words she had snapped at him earlier, and the childishness in those she had just said. For his last words had ripped away the primary reason she had to hate him, leaving behind only one reason to continue doing so: her painfully bruised ego. And that ego suddenly didn't seem quite as hurt as she thought; the budding relationship she had with Rykounagin was going a long way toward healing it.

In that moment a tiny part of the halfling struggled to grow up despite itself. And in not flaring out against Phalomir with her newly-bestowed talents, perhaps she was starting to succeed.

Even if she didn't really know it yet.

So she stood in continued silence, struggling with herself, wishing Rykounagin would speak up in support of her, whether it be one way or another. She needed his input, wondered why he had kept silent throughout this little confrontation, even felt the tiniest touch of angry annoyance with him that he had remained mute.

But maybe he was letting her handle things herself...

She sighed, looked up at Phalomir, then noticed Panthar standing off against the bulkhead.

"If you lay in a course, I can get us back to our Galaxy... I think..." she finally mumbled before taking a step away from everyone, choosing for the moment to stand completely alone.

[ 06-25-2010 01:14 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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“What do I care of such things?” he said. “An avatar I am, but I choose my battles and stay away from those that do not concern me. If there are ‘players’, and I am a pawn, then so be it. They will use me and I will be used, if that is what masquerades as fate and free will then I am content. What would you have me do? I shall rule my lot and play my part. All that of which sweet dreams are made.”

He folded his arms and leaned back against the wall, a faint smile still playing across his lips.

She shrugged. "I don't know," she responded, shaking her head and pursing her lips as though she were truly troubled. She let the look linger for a few moments before letting her greeny-blue eyes fall direcctly into dark one's.

"But I do wonder justone thing. What will you do with me? After all, you couldn"t bear that ShaRhylla loved another and turned from you, so what will you do with one who never loved you at all, and never intends to?"

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

“Love?” he asked. “Is that what you think of me, that I am so low as to ask for love? My dear, my anger at the Halfling has nothing do to with that particular emotion. She betrayed me, betrayed her home and those who offered her a place. She belongs to the Realms, and now she thinks she can merely decide that she shall have a different life. No, my dear, she has a duty – but now she has demonstrated that she is weak. And weakness is not a desirable trait.

“But I sense something within you, something that was touched by my brother’s tendrils. You have your own weakness, it is true, but it is of a different variety and can be cured by your own will. And by doing so, you will be free of the things that hold you back and will be rewarded with those things that you so richly deserve and wish for. But I promise you, unless you ask for it I shall never love you nor expect to be loved.

Shayla paused, looking at Dark Phalomir thoughtfully. "What are these goals and offers of yours...

...and at what prices do they truly come?"

[ 06-28-2010 02:10 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

So he shrugged, muttered “Sure”, and turned back into the cockpit.

He moved to tap in the coordinates for K’eel Doba, but paused and looked dubiously at the sparseness before him in the viewscreen.

“I won’t be able to lay a direct course for home,” he called back, “because the nav com will be confused without galactic relative coordinates. The best I can do is point the ship at the bright blobs that I think are close to home and hope for the best.”

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

"It is in you naturally, my dear," she had been told. "It runs in your veins by token of your blood, the blood which ties you to me.

"But remember, ShaRhylla, though this power lays within you, you still must learn how to properly use it."

At the time she had shrugged off Graysith's earnest words as inconsequential. Hadn't she used it already? Many times, in fact? Didn't she simply think of something, and voila! -- it happened? At her merest whim?

But then... that was in the Darker Realms. That was after she had run off quite willingly with her Dark Prince, to become his Dark Rose, and share eternal non-life with him and his minions. All she had ever used, she had used with him, for him, or for the pair of them together.

But at that time, had she truly been the one in total control of that wonderful omnipotence?

Uncertainty niggled. She lifted her chin higher, her hands fisting unconsciously at her sides.

Of course it was me! she growled to herself. Who else would touch it, could touch it?

Me.

And He chose you because--

She jerked her thoughts away from the discomforting direction in which they were heading, but something akin to logic, if not downright stubbornness, pushed them back again.

He wanted you because of the All, admit it!

Anger flared; she pushed against it, willing it to subside. This time she was successful... to a degree. For the naked hole left by that receding anger was beginning to fill more and more with something ShaRhylla was quite unused to: self-doubts.

She shook her head, blinked her eyes --

I can do this!

-- and focused once more on the grand celestial pinwheel presented by the screen. Clenching her fists even harder, she then let her eyes close, and let everything drop from her except for the simple wish that they all just go home.

Without Devil-May-Care, the fabric that has come to be known as space-time seemed to stretch, to pull and writhe upon itself, taking reality upon an extremely localized yet highly chaotic ride. A great portion of the galaxy ahead of them seemed to vanish, lost in the silhouette of the great rent which suddenly formed there, a huge and unforgiving rift that came at their ship all in a rush...

And enveloped it in a blanket of null.

About her, the very bones of the ship seemed to shriek in protest, and something seemed to strike the hull a clangorous blow. ShaRhylla's eyes jerked open.

Everything fell suddenly silent.

She peered at the viewscreen, which showed her an image of... null.

Where were they? Had she managed to open a Portal? Were they en route home, were they even moving? Ensconced within a great lack of gravity, there was absolutely no way to determine anything other than the quite obvious fact they were no longer occupying the spot in the intergalactic Void that they had mere seconds ago.

[ 07-08-2010 05:33 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Any Tabac addict or Deathstick user could tell you that the first hit after being clean is the sweetest.

At the moment that I felt myself re immersed within the powers of magic and the force, it was as if I was temporarily pulled from my own being, feeling my consciousness and self pulled out to fill the spaces around me.

Immediately I could feel the ship as though it were alive, sense every tiny moving part, feel the hiss of the life support as it tirelessly pushed oxygen through our environment.

I could hear and feel the heartbeat of my love as though it were my own within me, my sudden awareness of her scent filling one sense even as my eyes, feeling so distant and yet with every bit of my sight locked upon her.

But all good things must come to and end. I felt that slight twinge, the pull of wrongness I so commonly felt when the All was touched around me.

Suddenly everything was speeding up and becoming clear again, every word said pouring through my ears and into consciousness and out before I could even register their meanings.

Suddenly, everything was real again.

"Yes..." I whisper, feeling reality as it was again, sense attuned back to normal. My eyes look with purpose over my love, who questions the success of her use of the All over the sound of my own quiet voice.

My eyes flick to Phalomir, who seems entirely focused upon her. Slowly one hand reaches up and my fingertips gently caress the small of her back for a moment, letting her know that I am here and with her again.

"I am." I finish the question she must have asked minutes ago, now that I have come to.

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

"I know..." she sent back through their newly re-formed Link, relishing in the returning warmth which flooded their connection to one another. For just the shortest of moments she let everything else go, pushed all knowledge of their questionable position aside, let her awareness of Panthar fade away, all to rejoice in the avalance of reconfirming strength now flowing into her.

Rejoiced even more deeply, for she felt herself giving of that very same thing to her betrothed.

Then she brought herself back to the reality of the situation. Casting a look up into Rykounagin's features, she raised up on tiptoe to brush his lips quickly with hers. Then she was away, beckoning Rykounagin to follow, and went to hover over Panthar's shoulder.

Her eyes cut up to the absolute black of the nothing which was plastered all over the viewscreen.

"So--?" she questioned with a wave toward the screen. "Can you find out what is happening out there? Is there an out there to go into, or are we yet traveling through the-- Portal I opened."

She couldn't help stumbling the tiniest bit over the last words, for deep down inside she had yet been unsure of how much control she had over her natural talents. But apparently something had worked, for they certainly were not where they had been moments before.

"Or perhaps there is something wrong with the outside cams--?"

She peered at the screen, willing it to reveal something. But it remained obstinately dark.

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

“ShaRhylla,” he said, moving his gaze from the nothing to the woman – now seeming so much like a little girl – that stood in the center of the cockpit. “Are you all right?”

He stepped another pace and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes reluctantly moved from the viewscreen to meet his, and he cocked his head slightly as he studied her features. She appeared to be all right, at least from outward appearances, but she was shaken.

Then a small trickle of blood appeared at the base of her nose.

Phalomir quickly ripped a piece from his already worn black shirt and placed in her hand, clasping his own gently around hers. He guided her hand to her face and touched the make-shift handkerchief to it.

“I believe,” he said evenly, “that you have saved us from the space between galaxies by bringing us to a place… no, not a place, more of a non place. Your mother brought me here once, Panther too. If this is indeed the same – well, state of non-ness – then we are in the Elseness. It is a step in the right direction, to be sure.”

He smiled a little then cocked his head, dropping his hands and looking her again in the eyes.

“But are you all right?” he repeated.

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

"I'm fine," she said as she tossed the cloth to the deck. "So what is--"

Her words were truncated by the sudden interruption of an uexpected noise. On the console, a little green light began steadily blinking, beeping insistently all the while.

"What does that mean?" she asked with a curt nod of her head toward the light. "Is there something wrong? Or is that trying to announce something to us?"

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

The moment Phalomir had reached out to touch my beloved, I had felt a sudden desire to lunge forth and strike him.

It seemed that with the return of power for me, also came the return of my greater passions, that of love, of danger, of rage.

Barely calming my immediate desire to strike him, I watched as he attempted to tend to a minor bleed from my beloved, which she casually pushed away while addressing the light on the console.

Looking at it, it took my swirling mind a moment to place it. "We've entered something's gravity well." I explain, examining the screens.

"Though I couldn't tell you of what..."

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

Panthar paused and jerked his eyes to the viewscreen. He scanned it up and down and began moving the finder. He stood and stepped back as a bright mass began to show itself in the bottom right corner of the black non-ness that covered the rest of the screen.

“Oh no... no no no no no... There’s no way you’ll get me to go back there. No sir-ee, nope, unh-uh, no way. Bad enough being in the Elseness, but I don’t intend to break any promise to no googly eyed Google. Nope, nope nope!”

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

"Panthar. Speak basic or shut up." I growl, looking out at the view port. Indeed, whatever is to be found in the Elseness in my experience has never been something particularly good.

Without bothering to take much more of a look at the... whatever it was below, I look to my beloved. "Do you think with another try, you could push us back out into the material realm?" I ask, voice calm and with a measured confidence.

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

"Gravity well?" she asked, now turning to him with a question in her eyes. "You mean there is actually something out here? Should we go see what it is? It might be something useful to us."

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

"-That said, in the long period I spent here, I never once encountered anything of any substance that could be described as good. There was a relative concept of gravity upon which I could walk, but the only thing I ever encountered other than the portal I used to escape, was a sort of... energy."

I do my best to recollect, though the years that have passed do make the details a touch harder to recall, particularly given the vague trauma of being alone for such an extended period.

"This barrier or presence nearly killed me. Wandering the elseness is something I have no desire to repeat."

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

For after all, wasn't this power within her naturally? To be used as easily as breathing?

This misguided assumption, much to her chagrin, she was now finding a bit on the erroneous side. So she struggled and thought, trying to remember things her mother had said; the term "gravity well" niggled something deep down, and she wanted to know what it was all about.

A tickle of memory surfaced; raising her bi-colored eyes in genuine openness, she looked to Rykounagin.

"But... gravity wells don't come with just energy, do they? I mean, don't they mean there is an actual something out there? Like maybe another ship or something; maybe it's Preon, come into this place by-- by-- accident, or something--?"

Fates, did I drag it here along with us???

She brightened a bit.

"Maybe it's a planet we can land upon. Maybe there is food and drink and someone who can help us repair this ship..."

She paused for an uncomfortable moment.

"If my minions were aboard, there is reason to believe there are things wrong with it," she finally asserted, chin rising along with self-confidence. "I cannot guarantee to any degree another safe trip through any Portals I might open, if the ship has been damaged by them."

Nevermind it seems fine now...

She snorted the thought away as the reason she wanted to see what was out there came to her full force:

Simple, unadulterated curiosity...

...combined with the discomfiting notion that she might not be able to guide them safely from this non-place at all.

[ 07-12-2010 09:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Phalomir looked at the view screen and frowned.

“There is nothing I want more than to return home and find Jharmeen,” he said. “But I have been learning that things such as this rarely happen by accident. In all of the vast nothing of this dimension – through a portal not intended for it – why would we end up here? If this gravity well is caused by one of these planets, then perhaps we should investigate.”

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

"H-how did you manage this feat? And why?" she finally asked, completely at a loss. It seemed impossible that anyone would have power enough to do this thing... unless it had something to do with the All.

But then, why were others involved? Her aunt Galen, and Shayla, and yes, even Panthar? How could they have been of use in accomplishing this thing?

And Phalomir...?

Her eyes slitted a moment, then cleared. "And why are you now so afraid to return to these worlds, if indeed we are approaching one of them?"

This latter was directed toward Panthar, who seemed to shrink even further into his seat. A remarkable enough feat in itself, for a "Sith."

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

"Shayla! Phalomir!!

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