Private Shadowy Depths

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He heard her and pushed at the foot above him as the thing seemed to back pedal... his senses searching as he moved back and holding the blades to either side of himself allowed the force to wrap around the three of them with a nod of his head. "It is different when one is able to let loose Sera, there is not a lot of things or times for something like this but it seems to be able to take it." He said it with a small grin on his face.. less enjoyment but a statement of the fact before he was moving and the floor hissing as th changes in pressure came.. the woman was moving to remain with and around them before the jedi master was allowing the force to wrap around them... his blades to slice itno the stone above as the pressure came and he charged kinetic energy to divide and sunder the stone as the pressure pushed them upwards itno the rocks.

 

[Sera Inkari]

She smiled in response to his words, easing tension in her cheeks revealed her relief. So brilliant, Sera wouldn't have thought of using pressure; Syn had cut their stone loose to reduce any explosive force. She couldn't think naturally like Taiden, she would have tried to change the gas path or evade it. There was still so much to learn from her Master in working with what already was. Kintan's priestess pulled her robes up as they drifted higher.

Her heart fluttered a little, looking down toward the released pressure below, propelling them along with expelled currents within his protective shell. She glanced at Šīrāzād al-Nadīm.

"We are safe for now," she assured softly, offering gentle encouragement despite their rushing air hurtling them upward. She disengaged her saberstaff for however short a respite it may be. Little remained certain about their shifting reality, except for a familiar sensation of Syn's protective force energy.

Moving with their transporting air pressure, she guided her hands outward for landing, dipping down when they shot toward the rockface. A stumble almost took her off balance but she recovered with a half-step, placing a hand out to ensure Šīrāzād al-Nadīm didn't fall.

She could hear ticking again, coming from an unknown source—a chalice-shaped clock.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He allowed them to go up and come out.. the rock splitting and water coming down to cascade and cool the heat... pressure escaping before the jei master was leaping and landing down. On the surface of the planet... trees were around and he held the blades as he could fee what was there and with the freedom to move around he was able to focus on the force arround himself. For a moment taking it in and he breathed in.. and then outwards. His senses tracking... seeking and finding... his mind opening up as he pulled at it and the things was coming at them but it stopped... it realized what was happening too late when the jedi master tilted his head.

"Tell me... do ancient things know fear?" He said it and was watching it and the hole that went down and down deeper and deeper. He was feeding on it... driving madness and fear into it as the things seemed to realize there was more to the jedi master. The combination of creatures in the slurry of his DNA let him have a high connection to the force but it also made his ability to hunt and feed upon it... exponentially more powerful. HE could feel the fear and he rarely let that part of him that fed on the force energies of others loose.. it was shackled heavily as he needed it while he remained there and touched the ground. Generating more of the force energies like a physical pressure.

 

[Sera Inkari]

A tree line greeted them near a water's edge; Sera scanned for city life, hoping to spot their familiar surroundings but finding none. Refreshing water's lifeblood welcomed her; she dared not drink from water tainted by their tormentor, but as always, any moisture comforted Kintan's Fire Priestess.

What could an ageless, intangible creature fear? An opposite.

"They fear what they are not, Master, so certain and entombed in an unchanging identity," she mused, reflecting on similar perils found within Sith. "To age, to change, like time insists we all must." Few embrace getting older happily, but change happens to everyone, even to her, though perhaps more slowly due to their bargain.

"How might we use that to our advantage?" she wondered aloud, curling her arm around to pull her robe's damp sleeves back. Mysteries needed unraveling; perhaps he had an idea. Physical attacks held limited sway over their adversary, and a nonphysical challenge was one they both rarely faced, testing their adaptability.

She sensed a difference in him, feeling his growing connection to and potential absorption of the Force's energy. His ability hadn't been shown before, but she didn't fear it. Both walked one foot close to shadow in their paths. Her attention rested with him, and a small smile threatened to break upon her lips. Barely resisting an urge to ask if he was hungry in jest, she dipped her head demurely instead, waiting for him to contest their entity if it manifested once more.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

The thing moved.. it was coming and didn't realize what was happening to it as the jedi master remained at the ready... allowing the force to guide and pull and rend and tear the deeper he was pushing it all into the being... the thing was retreating and this far up it was tasting the surface.. tasting freedom for the first time in a long time but it was tainted as its mind slipped... the madness of being drained and hunted with the force itself. HE was moving it into the force and pulling it as he generated the force... turning the energy into strength to overwhelm and enpower himself more and more. He finsihed as the thing seemed to be retreating and there was more here.. the force was strong on this planet for a reason and it was like a deeper and deeper well the further you went down. The woman was with them and it seemed angry but it also dind't know how to do anything this far away.. this much time having past and it was drained of energy and power.

 

[Sera Inkari]

Each strike sapped the beast of energy and drew it into Syn, a circle of torment lashing outward and then starting a new. "Be careful Master, I know your strength and connection is unshakable, but do not carry too much at once." Grounding the darkness and releasing it so that others may not suffer as he did.

Amberfire rose around her robes, pushing the darkness or any stray creatures' limbs at bay.

"Oh."

Sera's head snapped sharply downward as a crashing vision washed over her, hands to her chest, breathing as if in a perfect stillness amongst the thrashing and violence. Like reading scripture, her vision whited out into a transient landscape, where time collided with reason, steps blurred into echoes of the future, and all things ceased to age or change.

"And they will hunt in the frozen places, where time seems lost but change is carried within them still." Her voice started soft and ended in a prophetic word. "Until the day time meets us at the end of all things."

Visions rushed backwards to the source and collided with reality, a rippling sphere of flame-lit light cascading forward in a sphere that she could not contain. The beasts recoiled for a moment, as time was pushed forward with a jolt and restarted in this place that time forgot; with the awakening of the creatures' purpose, time was restarting more fully, syncing up with reality.

She still didn't know what it would take to fully tire such a creature, except perhaps long, hard effort, dutifully done to mend an old wound and save not one but two trapped souls, if she could…

When she jumped up and landed behind Syn, back to his, the flash of her orange saber and eyes undeniable, time here of all places was such a fickle thing. "it feels like an age Master."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

The force seared around him... cool to the touch of his skin when he was pulling at it. Sera was more powerful then she let out at times he knew that it was why he traveled with her... to guide yes but also because she was a testament to the powers of something he would think redemption. The jedi master was moving though as the flames touched the creature and it screamed, loud, powerful... and in so much rage and fear. The power of the beast was in the darkside and the force but he could eat that.. she could consume it as the force swirled around them both. Her stood there as it snapped its maw at him. Massive jaws trying to eat him up.

He focused on the moment as his hands gripped the lower teeth of the beast... gripping them as the claws dug into the tooth. to steady himself while the other went to the top jaaw. Digging boots between the fangs where he wasn't being hurt as he gave a sneer of his own looking at them. Allowing the force to make his muscles bulk a little but he was pushing the jaw opened with force. The scream bubbling up from the mouth of the beast had him pressing the advantage as he moved and snapped the fangs... making room with the broken jaw of the beast. He was keeping at it as Sera brought more flames and the force while it screamed with the jedi master kicking out.

"It feels like contentment for the moment."

 

[Sera Inkari]

"This place where time forgets, that seems to reshape itself and its flow, how do we stay grounded Master, to know what is real and not?" Jolts forward, pausing, forward. Here, perhaps, her powers of farsight were strongest of all, yet almost completely out of her hands.

It was like they were fighting the world. Contained, yes, but how could they ever exit such a place where it held all the rules of time or context?

Details she and perhaps they could never know, but perhaps they did not need to. When she swept herself around, searching for the tormented bride again, Šīrāzād al-Nadīm, she saw her watching from the bank of the lake, resting, like she was so used to the confinement that she was at home in it. "We are safe again; he cannot harm you." Sera assured, perhaps overzealously given they were still stuck here. Part of her still insisted on rescuing the ancient being that tormented them, that held this place in its grasp.

Was that still a timeless flaw to correct an impossibility? Holding on to a hope she could not achieve. She didn't know.
Syn had directed earlier that the best scenario was to retreat and tire their captor out. Perhaps that was all they could do... locked in this eternal struggle with it, bound in a duty that might never end.

Or…

That ticking came back again, the last piece of the puzzle, a large chalice-shaped clock half buried in the earth. She reached for the chalice on her belt but a heartbeat later saw it floating in the water, having come loose in her jump. It was obvious the two were connected.

Moving and then swimming forward, waves seemed to push it and her away. She tried the force, but the force pushed back against her in equal measure, knocking her back. Whatever she did, it reversed; it was infuriating.

"Nobody leaves here." The voice said from somewhere. Syn had asked if an ancient being could know fear, yet there was an echo of fear in its words, but a last puzzle to work out, bypass or...

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He stood there for a moment as she seemed to be figuring things out and he spoke more coming behind her. Standing there for a moment as his hands went to her shoulders. Reassuring, strong and solid in their purpose. "We know what is real by grounding ourselves to the here and now." He said it looking down not at the back of her head but to a moment while the force was allowed to pass on and focus them both. Sera saw something in the ground.. the distant figure of the woman they had found was here. He focused for a moment though on Sera with the force. "We are here, anchor yourself with me and time will maintain."

He could see her as the voice came and the jedi master was there for a moment. Allowing the force to guide him while he moved and Sera found something. The look he gave while moving and the bride came to them. She stood there for a moment looking at both of them and seemed more unsure then anything. "I have not seen so many parts fall.. so much happening." She spoke, her voice cracking in a way while she looked around. THe presence was weaker he could feel it... it was a lot to maintain but more to create and he was having to make more and more larger, complex manifestations. He was looking at parts of it though.

"I don't know what to say, I can't feel him... for the first time in a long time." The voice was still there but the presence, the will was weaker... more diminished as Syn was moving. He rolled his shoulders ready for a fight that would keep coming he was certain of it it. "We'll do what we must, though we will want to get as far as we can now. I can handle things as they come." He motioned with his hands while pointing and he could feel with the force the dirrection to go as he was moving. The woman coming over and standing close and between the pair of jedi with a small look on her face.

 

[Sera Inkari]

Anchor yourself here and time will remain. Forever had she found that difficult, so much to do, to know, to see. Kintan's priestess had walked far on her path and… CLASP his hands grounded her; her mind stopped spinning in cycles trying to overthink her present into her future.

Her sea blue eyes drifted upward like shining orbs absolving the world of her own distractions. A hand found his and tapped gently, "you always know what to say Master." Letting her arms drift back into her robes as he held her in place.

"Perhaps there might be a way to not move forward?" She looked at the buried clock and the bride, even as the chalice drifted away from her. Their companion had a curious look, somewhere between puzzlement and hope. Sera folded her arms together again, disengaging her lightsaber. "Be not afraid." She hushed to a whisper for their captive before turning to look upward toward Syn.

As they walked she had an idea, and decided to ask. "Would you share a moment Master?" She walked to the bank and folded her robes over, sitting still. Not moving, not adding any motion, just presence. "Šīrāzād al-Nadīm, might you join with us?"

A small fire was lit from her palm.

"What if we stopped, as our captor had for so long?" She looked at Syn, with a curious shine to her smile, "how still can you be Master?" The exact opposite task, a skill that was as hard as it was to move like a bird, real stillness, so still the force might forget you for a moment, and maybe just maybe... their chalice was telling her not to move anywhere at all.

Did Syn have any techniques to share that could still them beyond silence?

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He listened to her ask as he stood there letting his head only tilt down to her. His hand remaining but he gave a small nod of his head... barely able to be seen but following when she moved with their guest. Allowing a moment for the pair to sit as he joined them and squatted down. His head forward, his senses outwards but he spoke looking at Sera as his hands went to his belt and got a small pouch opened. The brazier crystal activating for heat. He knew how much Sera disliked and couldn't stand it and this far down he wanted her to be comfortable for this. THe jedi master though moved around finally when the two were there and he had everything ready.

"There is ways, I am not certain about how effective it would be learning in like this but there is ways." He had a look at the two of them as he sat down with a moment. KNees tucked back so he could still be tall and at the ready but able to look at the two of them. "It starts with the breath, you need to still your mind and body. Which for a jedi means an intake of breath, then you hold it in your lungs. Breathing control is simple enough but you want to use it for extended periods of time which some are not able to do. From there you hold it in and allow the rest of your body to follow suit." He said it while looking at the two as Šīrāzād al-Nadīm was following suit with a nod of her head.

The jedi master was allowing the force to wrap around himself and he extended it outward... energies encompassing the area aas he spared a moment to look with a flick of his senses towards Sera. Her skill was great and she was dedicated but breathing and exertion could be an issue for her he knew... he would still be there though as he radiated the warmth within the force to keep the heat crystal active and stronger. Warm the other two up with a nod of his head. He continued to radiate the force as Šīrāzād al-Nadīm breathed in and held it for a time and then slowly exhaled... breathed in and then held it longer each time.