"I know now that she's not my mother," she said almost in a whisper. "I'm sorry for what I said. But--"

Now she raised her face, fixed wide, innocent eyes on Terrin.

"If she isn't my mother, how did I come to be with her? She never did anything but love me, try to teach me things; why would she take me from you?

"Was she the one who did?"

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

"Well, the Sith took you from us a couple of times, but not Graysith specifically," he admitted. "But I don't know who took you from your Mother the last time. I was de--"

Nearly choking on the word, Terrin screeched to a sudden halt, struggling with the very idea of what the truth was: He was dead at the time. "I wasn't with your mother at that time," he finally managed. "But please, do not feel badly about what you've said. You spent quite some time with your aunt, and have only recently been reunited with your mother. These things take time. And, unfortunately, your mother and I have not always been on the best of terms with your aunt, and old habits still die extremely hard."

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

"Well, I hope whatever hard feelings that might exist between my aunt and my mother and you will finally die, for I would like us to all be family," she finally said, raising a naive face to Terrin once again.

"I would like that; there weren't many like ourselves on K'eel Doba, just my aunt and my sister-- only I suppose now that she's not my sister, either? ShaRhylla?"

She paused again, but before Terrin could reply she continued on.

"Anyway, I would like us to all be family. I want Aunt Graysith to keep teaching me how to use this mysterious All that I seem to have; it's so frustrating to know I have some kind of power that could have been beneficial to us so many times, and I couldn't use so much as a dropful of it anytime when it was so direly needed."

She frowned.

"I don't like that; I want to help people," she said at last, staring Terrin straight in the eye once again.

[ 06-04-2007 11:45 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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To have a family.

"We will have family," Terrin responded, softly but with conviction. "And as for your abilities...

...we will work on making certain you continue learning how to use them whenever we make it away from this place," Terrin said. "I honestly don't know how things will be with your Aunt; some things have happened and last we saw her she was very...

...distant with us, and quickly departed. And your cousin ShaRhylla..."

Terrin trailed, not wanting to overwhelm Darra, but not wanting her to be in the dark either. "I don't know what your interactions with her were like, but she has used her gifts in the past for very, very dark purposes."

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

Then she utterly dismissed the whispering ghosts that strove to press in upon her, and straightened her back, nodding once as if to verify something with herself.

"ShaRhylla always was a little bit gruff with me." This was the closest she could come to admitting that the young halfling might possibly, at some future date, do harm to her or those she was growing to love. She pursed her lips briefly, then relaxed.

"I think I'll go to the medical bay, and inquire if anyone needs any help there. I enjoyed talking with you...

"Father."

With that she sent Terrin a shy little smile. Then before he knew it, she was gone.

[ 06-05-2007 12:38 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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...and strangely enough, the saber fizzled out, and then disappeared from her hand entirely. The disdainful look she held for the lightsaber then shifted to him. She stretched out her hand, fingers extended, and something blasted forth from her, and impacted him....

"Shayla, no...!" he screamed out, intiially oblivious to the fact that the words he was dreaming about had also exploded from his lips. His brown eyes flew open as pain shot through his person, both mental and physical. He groaned, agonizing.

[ 06-05-2007 10:36 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Erik Kartan ]

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Darra's eyes widened in sympathy and horror and she flew to him, reaching out and grasping up one of those flailing hands to draw it to her cheek.

"Shush now, you are safe," she murmured, closing her eyes and waiting for the strange sensation to present itself that preceded the onset of her innate abilities when she had healed her adoptive father.

Nothing.

Her eyes popped open, concern flooding them. Frowning slightly, she strove to quiet herself, so as to give that unknown power within her free rein to erupt and heal this man as well.

Again, nothing.

Now tears came to her eyes, and she grasped his hand more tightly.

"I-- I don't know what to do," she choked in a soft whisper.

"Please, please calm yourself; you are safe and we are trying to make you better. But you won't get better if you keep tossing about so."

She drew quiet then, Erik's hand still held to her cheek, doing all she could physically do at the moment to assuage his unknown terrors that he might lie still once more, and thus begin to heal, or at the very least cease in aggravating whatever internal injuries he might have.

[ 06-05-2007 08:07 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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"Shayla...?" he whispered at first, not knowing just who was with him when the instinctive word came from his lips. Then, as his sight finally drew outward instead of the inward, Darra's concern-filled blue eyes sparked recognition. "JhinDarra?" he queried. "I had a had a vision...about..."

He trailed, his brown eyes growing somewhat vague. "...about her."

Again he quieted, still aching, but at least growing aware enough to know that they were still on a ship. "Where are we?" he managed, truthfully unable to speak much for the pain it caused.

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

"We're aboard our ship, on Dagobah. We rescued you from a-- something; my father will explain it to you. But we have lost another of our rescue party, and are now waiting for Lord Aelvedaar to emerge from meditation that we might rescue him as well."

She smiled down at him, then the sound of the medbay's door whooshing open caused her to raise her head in curiosity, to see who was now entering into the small but well-stocked little facility.

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

"Sounds like you're in some pain," he observed non-astutely. "Hopefully things will get better for you if and when we ever get off this kriffing swamp-rock," he then growled.

He quieted then, at a loss for a moment as he gazed at his other hand, which held a half-empty bottle of Sith wine. "Ummm...

...guess you'll need something to get this down?" he queried, cocking a brow at first Kartan and then JhinDarra, truthfully at a loss as to how to deliver a drink to a man who was lying down and fairly incapacitated. "Guess we should get a glass or something."

He paused, frowning. "I'm sorry, I'm not very good with these things. I'm usually the patient watchdog, and not the deliverer of services..."

[ 06-05-2007 09:17 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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True, so is Father... but he wasn't suffering from internal injuries...

Still shaking her head Darra moved to a small dispenser, where she poured a glass of fresh water which she took back to Erik.

"Here," she said as she held it out to him. "Take the pain reliever with this; that is, I assume that is a pain reliever?"

This last was directed toward Jasyn, to whom she now shot a brow-lifted, appraising sort of querying look.

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

He scowled a bit. "Stanza said that's what they were pain meds, and he's usually on target about such things, regardless of whether I am or not."

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She smiled at Jasyn.

"Thank you for bringing him this," she said softly, nodding slightly toward Erik.

"I trust in the judgment of your companion; he must be correct, as no one seems to be ill after taking these."

Giving Jasyn a little nod, she turned back to Erik. It was evident that the pill, whatever in fact it was, was taking effect; he had quieted enormously, and his eyes, although a touch glassy by now, at least were no longer filled with the sparkling over-brightness that pain oftentimes can bring.

"Is there anything else you would like that I can fetch for you?" she inquired as she moved up to stand close beside him. Unthinking, she reached out now and straightened the tangled covers, smoothing them over his lithe form and tucking back the top edge.

"Do you wish for me to fetch my Father? He is more able to explain what is happening than I am."

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

...most...of what happened," he then said. Though glassy, his eyes still radiated a discernable amount of emotional pain with his next words. "Shayla...left me here...

...to die. Something has happened...

...to her."

His words dropped off at that, and he grew a bit distant. "I don't want to lose her again..."

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

"Just rest now, and don't worry," she finally replied to Erik, although it was toward Jasyn that her gaze was directed.

"I'm sure everything that happened was for a reason, and things will turn out all right..."

A gentle kind of mumble was the only reply; a quick glance downward verified the suspicion that Erik was soon to be commended into the Realms of Oblivion. She let a small smile grace her face and finished moving quietly away, until she was perhaps one and a half meters from him. She then let the look she was transfixing Jasyn with segue into one of utter perplexity.

"What is he talking about?" she asked in a quiet whisper, so as not to interfere with Erik's fall into healing slumber.

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

He paused, pursing his lips. "She, on the other hand, has been gone for some time as well. In the past Shayla was kidnapped by Graysith, and we were all assisting him to look for her while we were doing some searching of our own.

"He was convinced he'd lost her to evil then, but things worked out after quite some time. I'm fairly certain, with legitmacy, he thinks he's lost her again."

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

She sighed.

"Well, I hope things turn out ok for him," she said, keeping her voice low so as not to disturb Erik.

"He apparently has been through a lot, and even though I do not know him, no one deserves to be filled with pain, whatever the reason."

She smiled again and moved past Jasyn, heading for the door.

"I think he should sleep now, don't you?" she finished as she laid a slender hand upon the door, preparing to open it and depart from the medbay.

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

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

"Words such as you have now spoken," she said solemnly, "from what I have learned from my teachers, fall into the realm of speculation. As such, they do no good other than to bring uncaused worry and fret to one.

"Best it is to be patient, and to see what shall be brought to one, and then prepare one's path with such as that as foundation."

She blinked, the look she now gave the man growing into one uncharacteristically wise; then with another blink she resumed her former, quiet demeanor.

"Such have I been taught by my Teachers," she ended, before turning back to the door and exiting the tiny medical unit. Once in the corridor without she paused, as if reflecting on what her next course of action should be.

"I'm afraid I am something of a fifth wheel here," she said softly as the door whooshed closed in her wake.

"I can go back to where Lord Aelvedaar is, and alert everyone when he arouses from his meditation. For we must wait for him; not being Sith proper or having Sith magick within me, and even though K'eel Doba's warriors are not as steeped in it as are those on Khar Delba, from what I have been told, I do know that one should never disrupt one in a meditative state.

"Far more is coming to their bodies at that time than mere rest from exertions."

She blinked at Jasyn who, bottle in hand, had trailed her from the medical bay.

"Or so I have been told by those who taught me in the Great Temple," she finished.

[ 06-11-2007 01:44 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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And for the life of him not being able to figure out a damn thing to do to either. Somewhat absently, he half-glanced at the bottle still poised in his hand...

...and suddenly scowled at it. "I hate long waits," he then growled softly, still unmoving. "And I hate not being able to do anything to change them," he admitted. "I suppose I should be used to it by now, but..."

He trailed, his scowl deepening. "I'm not."

Finally taking a small swig of the contents of the bottle, Jasyn took a seat, bottle in hand but lowered, the look in his eye growing almost introspective.

[ 06-18-2007 09:13 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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"Perhaps when we are finished here, Lord Aelvedaar could be prevailed upon to teach you some of the lessons such as I have learned in the Temple," she suggested genuinely.

"It is good to learn of such things as I have spoken, for in being patient and alert one keeps one's wits about him, and therefore stands a greater chance of acting correctly when a situation to do so presents itself."

She grew silent then, letting her gaze drop to the deck when she suddenly realized that she was teaching one elder to her. And that was a terribly inappropriate thing to do.

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

Long story short, we were back to where we had been diverted from in less time than it takes to tell of it... and still nothing but proverbial cricket noises from our resident Sith sorcerer.

Gads, I grumbled darkly to myself as I carefully banked our little ship, now zooming along the face of the scarp for several tens of kilometers.

We're gonna run out of fuel if he doesn't show his big red hiney pretty soon!

I hadn't a clue what the guy was doing so long; for all I knew he was knitting mittens to his Aunt Petunia. But from what I had heard from the few louder discussions that wafted my way from aft, Darra was pretty adamant about anyone bothering him. I sighed to myself as I banked again, circling tightly around to head back alongside the scarp but now in the opposite direction.

Fact is, this was getting not only tiresome, but as boring as all get out. I decided on the fly to do something about it; Fates only knew when I'd had a break, or even a nibble of anything to eat, the fact of which was suddenly brought home to my by a grumble louder than my thoughts emanating from deep inside me.

That's it. I'm landing this baby!

Nodding to myself, I now banked upward and outward, then circled back in a broad spiral, heading for the top of the huge rock scarp. After several moments of this I finally came up over the lip, and flipped on the hull cams.

To my great relief, a fairly flat landscape greeted my eyes, one looking somewhat on the tundra-ish side.

Ok, more "ish" than tundra, it's Dagobah after all... but at least there was a place to park!

Without bothering to announce my intentions to the others I feathered the ship downward, and soon felt the bone-deep whummp! as she settled on her landing skids. Powering down a bit, I locked up the controls and rose creakily from my seat.

"Hey!" I announced as I moved aft, stretching out the kinks as I went.

"We're on top of the mesa to conserve fuel. Anything to eat on board this buggy?"

[ 07-18-2007 11:54 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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I do not know, I cannot know, but somehow I sense through the crying of the All that She is a Nexus, she and the Stargazer. Before their twinned Promise of Change all else pales; I clear my throat, causing Galen to come to a halt. The beginning smile on her face disappears as I speak.

"I cannot stay; there is danger, danger you cannot comprehend. I cannot comprehend it; I do not know it. I only know it is, and my magicks must be directed toward a better use than allowing humans to become used to having them solve what small problems they might have here and there."

I pause, cursing myself for the harshness in my voice, for the eager look on her face is replaced by a totally crestfallen one. But I speak the truth; the Magicks of my kind are not to be bandied about lightly, especially when there is a much Greater Evil to which they must be lent.

"I must go," I state; then before she can open her mouth to reply I reach out, rip open a Portal through the All, and return to my Temple and my Son, that together we might work to determine exactly the threat I have so horribly felt to be rising.

((OOC: Lord Aelvedaar returns to Silence of the Lambs in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you.))

[ 07-18-2007 11:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelvedaar ]

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Had been-- for suddenly I was alone in the companionway, my query echoing loudly off the bulkhead, my fingers closing upon thin air. I stood there a moment, blinking in something bordering upon shock for the suddenness of the sorcerer's act, trying to force away the hard little stone now beginning to grow in the pit of my stomach.

Suddenly I wasn't in the least bit hungry.

[ 07-19-2007 12:07 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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...and came to a halt behind her. She was staring at the dead air in front of her as though she had just seen a ghost.

Or perhaps something worse.

"What's wrong?" he asked simply, then fell silent, somehow already knowing, without any Force-premonitions whatsoever, that he wasn't going to like it.

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