A wicked thrill coursed through her very soul as she approached Kieran, throwing her arms to the side, partially raised, palms outward.

"Do what you must."

The child would be found.

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

Much later, feeling much prepared, Kieran and Shayla stood in the hallway once more, facing the macabre scene of the grand hall. He raised his hands outward, palms up, and the entire room burst into flames. The remaining corpses of the winged demons and imps vanished in a cloud of ash.

On the way down the long corridor Kieran paused and opened a side door. This was a room that contained a vast wardrobe of dark, strange clothing, obviously designed for a Dark Queen. He smiled and motioned for Shayla to enter.

Only then did Shayla allow that otherness that was still her a momentary voice. Despite her newfound poise and assurity, she shuddered with terror at the atrociities which had been so recently performed upon her body, closing her eyes in unseen agony. But as these horrors arrowed into her soul, something there reinterpreted them, turning the dark events about for introspection...

...and her shudders receded to something else as she threw her head back and breathed in deeply, her eyes still closed, as if replaying events in her mind, for indeed she was at that. Using these to refuel her very being and remember her purpose, she was unaware of the approach of an eager imp until she at last opened her eyes and looked down once more.

"My Queen," he hissed, bowing slightly.

Shayla knelt, her greeny-blue eyes pinned on the being, her thoughts going to another day in time when she had encountered another one such as this, who had drank of her very blood.

Odd it was, that Dark Lord Roan had a demonic imp, from the Realms, as a familiar...

She dismissed the thought for later perusal.

"A gift for you, my pet," she said silkenly, softly, then offering the being her arm. The imp eyed her in an almost abject manner, and she simply nodded. It needed no further invitation, but moved in, opening its mouth and sinking its fangs into the soft flesh of her wrist, drinking in her life's blood at first timidly, but its actions growing more eager and frenzied as it began to move further up her arm.

Shayla closed her eyes, and that which was yet she once more had a voice. Remember Shayla, remember...

Once more, Shayla threw her head back, ignoring the throbbing pain radiating from her arm for a moment and instead turning her attentions to another whom she was certain yet held sway with her beloved Sister. She allowed a minute or so to pass...

...then, her eyes snapping alert, she reached out with her free hand and gripped the still-leeching imp's neck, much to its surprise. As it released her arm in a gasp, blood smearing its face and dripping from its fangs, she regarded him with cooling, greeny-blue eyes.

"Enough!" she cried, something unreadable flashing in the depths of her eyes as she then stood, ignoring the way the room swam in her vision, her skin pale as blood dripped from her arm. Even so, it was already beginning to ccoagulated, and the fang marks in her arm were already beginning to heal. She stood that way for a few more moments, then simply let go of the imp, allowing it to drop ungracefully to the floor, where it moved away dejectedly.

Only then did she turn to the wardrobe, seeking a bit, and at lenght finding a black gown made of an almost alien, soft and feather fabric. She regarded it for a moment, considered it as a plausible choice...

...then dismissed it entirely, moving instead to one piece sleeveless suit of black and indigo, made of stiffer, almost leathery fabric. Along with it came a hooded black, silken robe, and boots.

This was more to her liking. And it was far more representative of who she was.

Stripping her gown off, Shayla busied herself in changing and would be on her way to meet Kieran in little time.

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

She was the Queen, of the Darker Realms, and she would find the child at whatever cost.

And then...?

After a moment more, Shayla let her hand drop and she cocked her head, tossing her long, dark blonde hair slightly before turning away from the mirror. She crossed the room, opening the door and departing it altogether. As she moved, her footsteps resounded in the dark hallway, announcing her immenient approach. Finally she came to the end of the hallway, where Keiran waited.

She looked into his eyes with her clear, greeny-blue eyes. "Well, what next?"

[ 01-19-2011 08:01 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

He turned his head, stretching his towering frame into the dark air. He sniffed, then sniffed again, tasting the wind. He cocked his head and stared out into the night.

It was good to be home.

Even if that home was something out of a nightmare.

At first Madadius had found it a relief to be back to his regular, ghostly-impish self; the hours in the realm of reality at first seemed to be almost too much for him, by thrusting the idea of being upon him as it had. As an imp, a creature representative of but the tiniest evil thought, he never had the luxury of being mortal. Under normal, impy circumstances, he never would know the simple joy involved in being, how precious life was, the thrill involved in risking it, the agony of coming close to losing it. No, all he knew was that he waited, plain and simple as that...

Which for some reason was becoming more and more supplanted by memories of the corporeal body he possessed during his brief tenure aboard Devil-May-Care.

And now that budding feeling was gone, and he was back to his normal non-normal state of non-being; surprisingly, this brought a bit of displeasure into his feeble little mind, for even though he was home, and desired his innate connection to home...

He, down in his darkest heart of heart and soul of souls, or whatever passed for them in an imp of the Darker Realms, missed being unique.

Missed being.

An individual.

So upon his sudden dissolution from one realm and reintegration into an other, he began to wonder why, a feat in and of itself for a mindless, Master-directed minion of the Dark. And in wondering why, he began to look about his home with something more of a discerning eye.

He wandered, he gibbered, he drooled, and he destroyed. Only to watch that which he destroyed come back to animation, to see his drool pool poisonously at his feet, but dangerous to none, to have his gibberish lost amidst the howling throng...

And to have his feet ache.

It sparked a grumble of annoyance in his dim little brain; and so, grumbling and growling, drooling and gibbering, he wandered onward through the realm, seeking to do, to be... and in his seeking came upon something Familiar and something Strange.

The odd thing was that the Familiar was somehow strange...

It was the Master... again... here now, but not with Mistress--?? Yet she smelled of Mistress, of Dark; he could sense it running in her veins, taking up her very being, filling her up like a vessel to the brink of overflowing; all this he sensed as they came running out from the Great Ediface they had run into not too long ago, considering that Time, per se, really did not exist here...

Maladius gorbled, and curled himself up into a little, dangerous ball. He dared, again, to wonder why. And with it, this time, how.

Was not Master left back, behind? So, how--? And Master looked like Master, but he did not smell like Master. But he was Master... which made this new Strange now Lady?

Now Mistress?

He hunkered lower, hissing a sudden disapproval. Immediately he shushed himself, hunkered lower, looking about. It was not good to wonder, to object. His was to simply be, and to respond.

But he had touched the face of reality... and now he was confused.

Snarling a bit to himself, he uncurled his deathly length and oozed off, away from the Ediface, back among the noisome dark, there to find a lonely niche in which to ensconce himself.

And to struggle to think.

No matter how it appeared to anyone, no matter what the cost would be.

At this point, Shayla was so enrapt in the goal of reaching the flame that she literally had no idea what sort of time had passed or how far she and Kieran had travelled. What she did become aware of, however, was that they had arrived. Despite the speed at which they moved, they managed to stop effortlessly. The flame, bright and true, by total opposition to its light pervaded Shayla's senses with darkness and despair.

She breathed in deeply, taking its power in without fear and without hesitation as she then began to approach the flame. She reached out to it with her senses, and with her very soul.

"Show me the child," she whispered softly, darkly.

Then she simply waited, throwing her head back, her hand still in Kieran's as the power within the flame amplified the abilities that were inherent in Shayla's core. As she did, a vision of sorts began to play within her mind's eye, of a young horned, red-skinned being, sitting at a table surrounded by books and maps and studying feverishly.

And his eyes were a clear, familiar violet.

With this realization, Shayla let her hand drop from Kieran's, and she stepped back suddenly, suprise and confusion clouding her eyes as they darkened.

"I...I don't understand..."

But even as she spoke the words, something deep within Shayla's being rose up in diametric opposition as something about all of this seemed to follow a strikingly familiar pattern.

Violet eyes. He had violet eyes...

...and he was not a child.

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

He stood in silence as Shayla backed away, uttering her lack of understanding. He too felt confused, for he had expected to see an underdeveloped baby, wrapped in an impenetrable force. He had counted on this, in fact. All that had been promised to him, all that had been planned, all of was built around the reunion of this child with the Darker Realms. No, not the child itself, but that which dwelled within it.

But this… this was different.

"I do not believe the Flame lies," she said, her voice not much louder than a whisper. "And the how may very well matter, for it also tells us the where."

She paused then, her eyes defocusing and darkening.

"His age has been advanced, and this is done best in only one place I know of: a planet called Kamino."

She paused, shaking her head. "As to who, if anyone teaches him..."

She trailed, searching the vision the Flame had given her, feeling the answer lied within it. "It would appear no one does."

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

He smiled then, and looked about himself. The Valley of the Dark Lords spread around him, its horrid beauty seeming at home in this dim land. Nothing moved here except the flowing hair of his beloved and flame that danced behind her.

Then something caught his eye in the distance, a movement. They were followed, it seemed. No, not followed. The imp was moving away, as if disturbed from a peaceful resting place. Kieran smiled.

"Our child awaits us," she said aloud, her voice dark and foreboding.

And perhaps for more reasons than were immediately apparent.

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

“Our child has waited this long,” he said. “He can wait a moment more.”

Maladius, he called out with his mind. That is your name, I can sense it. Come to me, serve your lord and lady.

But then she said nothing further, as he seemed bent on insisting the demon answer his call...

...much to her surprise.

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

...and inaction. At length, Shayla decided she had quite enough of this.

"Oh, bother," she growled, the look she cast towards Kieran growing even sharper. Then she turned, sensing outward towards the demon, not caring one way or another that she had encountered him before...

...and not recognizing him anyway. In a smooth motion, she stretched out her right hand, palm outward, and threw back her head, eyes closed. Connected with the Realm, and with all the space that existed between herself and the demon, she made contact with him, pulling him telekenetically towards her and Kieran, to the demon's utter surprise.

As he finally neared them, Shayla's eyes snapped open, and she twisted her wrist smoothly and quickly, her palm now facing the dark skies, open for only a moment before the demon came close enough so she could reach out and wrap her fingers around his neck.

He thrashed, his poisonous tail sticking into her arm, but she cared not.

She had already died, more than once, and was no longer afraid of doing so again...

She pinned the demon with a sharp look. "You will do what your Lord and Lady ask of you," she said succintly.

Then, with another smooth motion, she let the thrashing demon go entirely and, suddenly intrigued by the hot, red blood running down her arm, pondered it a moment before raising it in front of her eyes in introspection. After a few moments of this, she then stretched out to offer it to Kieran, her greeny-blues pinning him coolly once more as she awaited the demon's response to her demand, and her actions...

...as well as for the reaction of Kieran himself.

[ 04-25-2011 08:16 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

A portal opened.

“Of course I can open a portal,” he mused. He then let Shayla’s arm drop, bright poisoned blood dripping from the hole in her wrist. “But wasn’t it more <I>fun</I> this way?” He emphasized the word “fun” with a dark sneer and turned again to the imp.

“You will follow us,” he said. “We seek a boy on the other side of this portal, and we need him alive. But there are many others who will wish to stop us, and they, my loyal guard, are yours.”

He turned to Shayla again, her face growing pale with the coursing of the poison through her. The next few moments would bring her no joy, but Kieran knew she would soon recover. With time, such trivial matters would no longer be a bother to her, but for now she would suffer.

And he would relish it.

...and oddly focused. Her greeny-blues regarded Kieran with a vague sort of look for a few moments. Then, being the queen of the realms, the pain within her being began to ebb. She said nothing, and did not even cry out. Instead she allowed the pain to remind her of who she was, and what she was doing.

And of what she yet hoped to do. Ignoring the dried blood on her arm, she cocked her head then at Kieran questioningly, and stepped through the portal.

She had no doubt he would follow directly behind her.

(((OCC: Shayla moves to In Pursuit of Knowledge in the CSWU.)))

[ 05-10-2011 09:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

All was progressing.

He stepped into the portal.

Kieran pulled his love through the portal, stepping onto the dark, soft ground that was their home. He breathed in the damp ethereal vapors and smiled.

“And so we know now that an heir will be born,” he said, turning to Shayla as the portal closed behind her. “And it shall be the first of its kind, for no other queen has given form to a new life within these realms.”

He paused. Something tingled in the back of his mind, a memory perhaps, or a feeling that perhaps what he had just said was not entirely true. But that was impossible. He would know all there was to know about this land and its denizens. There were no secrets.

Yet why was that niggle so persistant?

“And once that new life has been brought forth,” he pressed on, “There shall be nothing to stop us from claiming both realms.”

...hesitation? Was that it? Well no, not exactly. It was more like...

Doubt.

Regarding him thoughtfully, she stepped in closer to him, her eyes growing deep and dark as the sky before a storm as she connected with his very dark being. Before she could idly wonder if he could sense her connection with him, a sense, one nothing short of the wieght of the worlds, slammed into her very core. It was as though, in that moment, she could feel the pain and anguish of every single soul in the universe.

Gasping in initial shock, her hand flew to her head...

...but then she realized with a start that [i]they[/i[ were actually reveling in the utter pain and agony...

[i]...and that she, likewise, craved to be engulfed in it as well. Unthinkingly she bit her lower lip, hard enough to draw blood. Her eyes closed, and face contorted as she continued to sense all this for what could have been moments, minutes, hours, or days, before she managed to realize that there was something she was going to say before this entire revalation.

With effort, she split herself from all that was pain, darkness, and death to once more open her eyes and look to Kieran.

"What shall we do now about this fool who calls himself a Master, my Darkest?"

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

And then her dear Allaria had... disappeared.

She did not know why. She had no idea as to any reason for it. All she knew was that one moment they had been standing together upon a small, wooded hillock on the quiet planet of J'T'Pan, peering out in wicked contemplation over a small Yevetha temple, and the next moment...

She was alone.

What she and her sister had been planning never saw fruition, but would have shriveled beneath the blast of pure anger and pain that then erupted from IllaAnda's dark soul. The Temple and all its occupants, indeed an area with a radius of 50 kilometers from it was suddenly riven from the soil, yanked from the very arms of the planet as with monumental instinct she reached out with the darkest magicks lurking in her Sith blood. In the space of a thought, the entirety was sent hurtling into The Darker Realms, there to provide an unexpected feast to the demons who slavered in anticipation for their release into this self-same reality.

From which she fled with a great cry of anguish, seeking refuge herself in the blessed, blessed gloom of her birthplace.

It was years, as reckoned in the Real Places, before she pulled herself from her birthing pool, slick with blood and flame and refreshed, almost completely renewed... but not quite. The pain of her re-birth shot outward, igniting the demonic imps into even greater bouts of slavering excitement, making them snap and snarl and tear into each other in joyous recognition of her return...

Then one of them cringed up to her, greeting her, welcoming her with what it thought would be a gift.

She thought of tearing it to shreds, each remaining as alive as one could call it in this foul place, but decided energies might be needed elsewhere. So she refrained, and merely ripped into its thoughts, taking them, munching upon them until they dissolved into her own being and came alive behind her eyes. And she saw what it had seen, and rejoiced with it...

Daddy's home!

Behind her, another insistent call slipped insidiously through the atmosphere, one not meant necessarily for her alone, but one seeming to be broadcast for reasons she could not yet fathom. Her flaming eyes slit and she tossed back her head, letting her raven locks tumble down upon her body to soak up any last remnants of blood still clinging to it.

Then she let herself become part and parcel with her beloved home, and on the Winds of Despair sped forth to the point within it from whence the eerily persistent call had come. The closer she came, the louder it rang, before suddenly falling silent itself.

Left behind: the ghostly shade of another call, one born of pain unending, of humility and anguish, of the rending apart of a soul which desired nothing more than the blessed relief of death...

She came back into the Form given to her, and slinked about a broken column, there to pause in dark reflection. The non-stone was cold as ice against her back, and filled her with fiery joy, a joy which grew and grew as she stared out upon the broken, imprisoned form, debating what she should do with him, if anything at all. On one hand he was used, had been used, was nothing but a bit of leftover chattel for the Realms.

But on the other, what a nice surprise she could create out of him for her Daddy.

It wasn’t until Shayla’s question when he could tear himself from his thoughts.

“Master?” he said, somewhat surprised. “Only a master of feebleness. But still, his desperate actions warrant some level of consternation, and dispatching of him should be a primary order of business. After all, he does know a few things that could prove useful later. It does entice me to pluck his brain from his skull and suck it for his knowledge.”

His eyes went to Shayla’s. His dark queen now filled his vision, crowding out the worries and doubts and letting them escaping into nothingness. He stepped forward and placed his hands upon her shoulders, squeezing tightly in time with the broadening of his smile. He pulled back his lips and thrust his head downward onto her neck, biting and sucking the blood as he pulled her closely to him.

At length he threw his head back and yelled into the black air, dark blood dripping from his mouth and down his chin. Shayla crumpled in his arms, steadied by his iron strength. In a moment she recovered and he let her go.

“We shall go to the tower,” he said. “We shall use the power within to locate The Master, we shall bring him here, and I will give him to you.”

At length, she looked directly at Kieran, her stormy blue-green eyes intense. "Indeed,, my Darkest, that would please me greatly. To the tower we should go, and soon. But first...

She trailed, something deep and dark, both of the two within her and perhaps now within her own soul, craving blood. "Let me bestow upon you the kindness you have afforded upon me, my Love," she purred, her eyes growing huge as she stepped out of his embrace. With the mere flick of her wrist, something invisible impacted his massive frame, and before he could react to it he was crashing forcefully against the non-ground of the Realms, his body nearly snapping from the Force-push. In moments, Shayla was atop him, biting and clawing, her human teeth and nails doing quite well to draw the blood her being craved. At length, however, her taste was satiated, and she finally pulled away.

As Kieran recovered, she sat up, offering herself up to his retaliation...

...and quite horribly, to a portion of her old self which was yet buried down oh-so-very-deeply, yearning for it.

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

He stopped.

“No,” he said. “In due time, we shall play.”

He stepped forward and took Shayla’s hand, then spun and ran, dragging her along. The tower drew closer with each step, and his own desire grew. Not for blood, not even for his lady, but for the power the great structure brought him. It was his strength, his life.

He slowed, then stopped. He turned and pulled Shayla close.

Her soul, and those within, craved action...

...and to rend and tear. Deep within-- oh-so- very deep within, something whimpered in hapless sorrow.

Her greeny-blue eyes peirced Kieran's emerald pair. "He shall wish for the kiss of death as it is dangled just beyond his reach," she said blackly. Then she followed this with, "Your Queen longs for action, and for blood. And she longs for it now."

[ 07-25-2012 09:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

“My queen shall have what she desires,” he said. “I shall ravage you a thousand times and rend your flesh with my claws. Your blood shall stain the land and all shall rejoice in your pain.”

His hand went to her neck, his long dark claws extending as he slipped his fingers behind her head. He slowly drew his hand forward, bending his fingers inward so the claw tips pressed into her flesh. As he bent to kiss her again his claws snapped into her spine and continued to extend until they protruded from the front of her slender throat. She gurgled her response.

He smiled and pulled up, yanking her from her feet by her throat. He relished the pain in her eyes and stroked her cheek with his free hand.

“But for now,” he said. “We must go to the tower and locate the Master. It is time for work now, my love.”