Power Vacuum (Illyria)

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Illyria"], [member="Valiens Nantaris"]


Training was gruelling. This was also amplified by the underlying tension and suspicion between both women. At one point, Illyria had to face a couple battle droids while being deprived of the Force - and thus without her greatest power, magnetism, which would normally make her devastating against anything mechanical. Sumiko was also fond of using paralaysing Ssvi-ruuvi weapons.


However, eventually the training montage came to a close and the two ladies turned their attention to the artefact that Shadow had left behind for them. Sumiko prided herself on being very knowledgeable when it came to obscure languages and Sith arcana, but some of the mystical runes were even unknown to her.


While Illyria was left to cross-reference some runes via a tome left behind in Shadow's substantial library, Sumiko went to have a chat with Souldrinker. A homicidal, malevolent sentient sword was the best source of advice!

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
“Returned from your little chit-chat with your new minion? You must be so proud to have Shadow’s leavings,” the sword greeted her mockingly.

“Is there a reason you have not introduced us? Afraid I will choose her over you…or that I will devour her essence? Or perhaps you think her fragile Eldorai brain will be overwhelmed by my magnificence?”

Souldrinker had many flaws, but humility was not one of them!

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


"I see you're as cheerful and humble as ever. She's resourceful, proud, untrustworthy. In other words, adequate," Sumiko remarked. So very cynical.


"Halicanyos left us a puzzle of sorts," at that she fished the Rubik's Cube like puzzle box from her jacket. "I was able to translate many of the symbols, but these here elude me. Does this device mean anything to you?"

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
“And here I thought you were becoming so shiny and happy. I am glad to see all sense has not left you,” the sword admitted grumpily.

“You do realise of course, I do not have eyes now,” the sword commented. How the blade perceived the galaxy was not immediately clear, but probably didn’t require eyes anyway. It probably just enjoyed being snarky.

Fortunately, the puzzlebox was imbued with enough Dark Side energy that a detection of the symbols was possible through the Force. The blade pondered closely.
“Now here is a relic of great antiquity. I discern no less than 54 symbols, but perhaps fortunately there are only 18 unique ones. Do this for me, twist it around. Your goal is to bring similar symbols into adjacency with each other. When that is done we will determine what symbols we need.”

So…a sort of Rubik’s cube made of metal!

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


"You mean become all sappy and join the 'dark is not evil' shiny and happy sisterhood? No thanks." This writer is totally not parodying their own writing. Presumably the sword had some way to see since it sure commented on its surroundings a lot.


Anyhow, the puzzlebox was leaking tons of Dark Side goodness, so it could detect the symbols via the employment of space magic. Turns out the puzzlebox was like a Rube's cube made of metal and infused with the Force. Unsurprisingly, Sith loved their puzzles. So Sumiko focused her attention on carefully twisting it, taking care as she sought to connect similar symbols with one another. Some were fairly obvious, others more complex, but she had her own translations skills and those of the sword.

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
When Sumiko had performed her complex task she was left with 18 larger runes now twisted so well together that each one was made up of the three smaller ones.

The blade perceived the puzzle box.
“Pay close attention, I will say this only once. You may wish to write this down if you cannot remember it,” it said arrogantly.

“Starting with the face closest to me, we will turn it clockwise, then do the top and bottom. These are the words:

1. Fire
2. Ash
3. Darkness
4. Air
5. Dew
6. Lightning
7. Water
8. Ice
9. Steam
10. Earth
11. Rust
12. Magnetism
13. Life
14. Light
15. Time
16. Death
17. Corruption
18. Power

Those are the words. I shall look forward to seeing you try to co-ordinate these together. Oh…and it will likely curse you if you fail,” the sword commented smugly.

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Darth Shadow"], [member="Valiens Nantaris"]


Sumiko had read the TV Tropes entry on suspicious, mystical artefacts. Ergo, she did not immediately rush in and do as the sword told her. Rather she took a moment and thought about things. After all, it was in the nature of the Sith to lay traps, especially for their toys. Moreover, the sword was sort of Neutral Evil. Much like she was. From one smug sociopath to...another smug sociopath.


Fortunately, she had eidetic memory. "Why, thank you. And you would not possibly keep any small details secret from me that might spring the curse if I'm careless?" She frowned while writing down the words he'd spoken, then looked them over after having finished. "Hmmph. Is it just me or are these words all arranged to have an opposite?"

 

[Darth Shadow]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
If a sword could look innocent…well…this one did telepathically anyway!

“Everyone knows that sometimes they invert the runes to act as counters, but there’s no way to tell whether that’s the case before you do it. Think of it as interacting with history! Perhaps make your minion do it and see!”

The sword seemed extremely amused by this.

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Darth Shadow"]


"Interacting with a history of morbid Sith traps, surely," Sumiko said very, very dryly. Hey, on the bright side this might give her ideas if she ever decided to create a frustrating puzzle box! "But I might as well have her earn her keep. Lest she think I'm not 'involving' her." Oh, and be the one to activate dangerous traps if the artefact had any. Presumably side-effects associated with 'time' would be more unpleasant than 'fog'.


Not that Sumiko would expose Illyria to a dangerous rune purely for the sake of hurting her. After all, the girl was an investment though the Atrisian didn't feel any affection for her.

 

[Illyria]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]

When Sumiko emerged from her Den of Evil Illyria was looking through records.
“Did you find anything relevant?” she asked.

Putting aside the tome she had been reading through. “I’ve found translations for most of the symbols, I believe. It also seems you are supposed to apply the substances mentioned to the symbols, but it has to be done quite rapidly, or else it will be useless.”

So essentially the information Sumiko had discovered, except she didn’t know about the possible inversion.

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Illyria"]


Den of Evil was probably fitting. Now Sumiko just needed a malevolent familiar. Like a mean, black cat. It would fit in wellSumiko gave Illyria a nod. She'd decided that she liked the Eldorai a little more since it seemed she'd taken well to research. Naamah'd never liked that. Well, there were many reasons she didn't like the Clawdite. Like her being a psychopathic girl-child.


"Your findings tally with mine. I suspect the runes are inverted," she said approvingly, looking over Illyria's notes. "We'll have to activate each rune in turn. Start with the first, the one with the face closest to me. We turn it clockwise, then top and bottom." Presumably droids fetched substances that would need to be applied to the arcane symbols.

 

[Illyria]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
“Inverted? In that case….”
Illyria swiftly noted down the definitions and grouped them. By the end she had two rows of opposites, as close as she could tell.

Fire Water
Ash Ice
Darkness Light
Air Earth
Dew Rust
Lightning Steam
Power Magnetism
Life Death
Time Corruption


“Some of these are much easier to acquire than others. How does one make time manifest, how about death? We can try one though.”

She paused. “How do we know if they are inverted though unless we try it?” she asked warily. Her mind flicked through the list. Some would probably be less dangerous than others to mistakenly activate!

“Did you want to try one?” she asked. Always better to pass the buck to someone else where possible!

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Illyria"]


Sumiko shrugged in response. "Sith love their puzzles, but we obviously won't know till we try." As for death, well, they could always kill someone as a sacrificial lamb and see whether that had an effect. That was the benefit of being Neutral Evil.


However, time seemed a lot more difficult. It also sounded like a potentially unpleasant rune if they made a mistake. Hopefully it would not induce rapid aging. "You may do the honours and start. After all, you found the artefact." Aww, she was being so sweet. Well, actually she wasn't.

 

[Illyria]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
There was no way around it. Sumiko was not asking her to do it, she was telling her to.

Looking through the list, she decided that dew/rust sounded the least hazardous to her health if it failed.

Sorting through a pile of junk metal, she found a piece of cheap wrought iron. Reaching into her Sciia she harnessed it to weaken and crumble the metal. In moments pits of rust appeared on it, and soon it turned a dirty, oxidised orange.
Taking a knife she scraped off an amount onto a dish.

With a final glance at Sumiko she approached the cube and poured the rusty dust onto the appropriate rune for ‘dew’.

The alchemised metal of the runes flared a dark, fiery red, and did not fade. No vengeful energy arced out, instead they seemed to have satisfied 1/18th of the plot device.

“It…worked,” Illyria said hesitantly.

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Illyria"]


Well, that had gone well for a start! Presumably the puzzles would become more difficult though. One wondered how they would make corruption manifest. It would probably not be as easy as simply putting a Senate debate on telly!


"Indeed. Good work. Now we have dew," Sumiko stated dispassionately. Dew was the water in the form of droplets that appeared on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evil due to condensation. She drew upon her power to cool the surface of a piece of scrap, concentrating intently till it reached the dew point.


The air around grew a lot cooler, reaching a point where it was chilly. Atmopsheric water vapour condensed to form small water droplets on the surface. Then she gestured to Illyria to pour it onto the appropriate rune for 'rust', exposing it to the appropriate inversion.

 

[Illyria]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
The drops of water dripped down onto the appropriate rune. There was a flash of red light which did not dim. It had succeeded.
“Only sixteen left,” Illyria commented. “We should seek to find the easiest ones and do those ones first. That will reduce the numbers. There are some I do not know how we will manifest however….”

Many of them would be simple like fire. Some, such as time or life…not so much.

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Illyria"]


Two down, sixteen to go! So far the mystical box had not sucked their souls out. Sumiko gave her minion a curt nod. "Agreed. I do wonder whether we'll have to perform a ritual sacrifice and drain someone's life force at some point. Old Sith were fond of that. Fortunately Denon is a big city full of people no one'll miss," she shrugged. As if this were a normal topic of conversation.


"Let's go with fire and water." Those were simple! Conveniently it didn't say which kind of fire, which was convenient because she wasn't a pyromancer. So the Atrisian fetched some matches and lit them. Then the 'water' rune would exposed to the fire.

 

[Illyria]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
Dark Side sociopaths had the strangest conversations! And yet, it was all handled so matter-of-factly. Illyria just nodded to that.

Sumiko applied a match, causing the now familiar flaring of the rune. Illyria meanwhile fetched a small amount of tap water, paused.
“Maybe purified water,” she said, then nodded.

Fortunately the building’s workshop had some purified water which did the job when applied to the fire rune.

“So, which other ones do you feel we can do easily? We should leave the complex ones for last.”

 

[Darth Libertas]

[member="Illyria"]

Morbid conversations between Neutral Evil sociopaths were always the best. Ritual sacrifices every third Tuesday night!


And so there was fire, then the space elf applied purified water. "You're a terramancer, so air and earth should be easy enough. Then steam and lightning and ash and ice." Then they'd be running out of easy ones!

 

[Illyria]

[member="Sumiko Tanaka"]
And so it was seen to. The majority of these were easy to do. The problem with some of them was containing the power to the single rune, especially steam, which tended to waft about.
Illyria was not certain what would happen if one put the wrong item on a sigil…but she didn’t want to find out either! Although she wasn’t sure what the box could do, it would probably unleash poetic justice on them.

And so it was, that by using a small pipe connected to a boiling kettle they were able to complete the final of these batch of trials and successfully activate the runes without suffering any hilarious booby traps.

They were left now though with some difficult ideas.

[SIZE=10pt]Fire Water[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Ash Ice[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Darkness Light[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Air Earth[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Dew Rust[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Lightning Steam[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Power Magnetism[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Life Death[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Time Corruption[/SIZE]

Illyria looked over her notes. “Do you think they mean darkness and light literally or figuratively? I mean, it’s been in the dark and the sunlight many times. Perhaps they mean the Sciia?”