The Hunt of the Transcendents

[Ariealla Vareldi]

"Well Plan B is never to burst in the front gate, that's hardly my style. Plan B involves as much stealth, but far less assistance." She opted not to comment on him attempting to teach her how stealth worked, figuring it instead to simply prep her mind to begin Cloak once more. She'd written the damn book on stealth, but he knew that well enough. Instead, she'd slip into her more scholarly mindset, letting her mind relax and taking every bit of detail on [member="Darth Abyss"] in.

He certainly was taught well, even in such a normally loud, metal body, he moved with near perfect silence, or at the least as silent as one could get. It was refreshing, this situation. Being able to act as her old self, without the bondage of hiding her identity, with another scholar who could appreciate the value of history, and an assassin to boot. It genuinely made her smile.

As they were still a ways away, Ariealla took the time to move her sith sword's sheath onto her back, and un-clipped her saberstaff. She didn't activate it, or make a move against Abyss, but this way there would be no chance of the sword scraping the ground. She checked the time, and nodded lightly. She would likely be able to make it to the holocron before she needed another dosage of her medicine to keep her less, intelligent, side in check.

 

[Darth Abyss]

"That someone bursts through the front door does not mean that this someone has to be us. I have various talents and one of them is to force the minds of inferior beings under my command."

He preferred stealth as well, and while he could probably still slaughter his way to the holocron if he absolutely had to, he also had quite a few options on how to solve their problem. Sneaking in and simply stealing the artifact was one of them, but was it the best one? Abyss had his doubts about that. Making them turn on each other while staying hidden until the field was clear was his go to way of doing things. What good was the power to do so if he didn't used it in situations like these?

The metal husk continued his path forward, the echo left by the holocron becoming a little bit clearer with every step to the point where he felt like he could almost touch the twisted steel and the tainted network of crystals and dark side energy. There it was again, the hunger, the desire to consume all knowledge that existed, the obsession to become all knowing, all seeing and all devouring.

"It is not far now, I can hear it calling for us."

[member="Ariealla Vareldi"]

 

[Ariealla Vareldi]

((sorry it took so long))

"We'll be at the palace itself soon. Soon we'll need an entry point..." She engaged her force Cloak as they approached, bending the light around her with as much comfort and ease as one would put on a coat. She wouldn't be seen by anything, save the attentive who would notice the waving body. Now that she was aware of Abyss's presence, and she'd clearly locked her mind on his signature. He couldn't as easily escape her notice now, though there were still a number of tricks. She respected [member="Darth Abyss"] and his abilities enough to recognize as much... though she had some level of confidence in her own abilities as well.

Her lips curled in a smile, her fingers tightening around the saber staff. She could almost taste blood in the air, feel madness oozing from the ground they stood on, from her body... she held it together as best she could however. Eons in the darkside had corrupted much of her spirit, making her susceptible to mad fits of violence, after all. No mind was meant to survive as long as she had, and weren't entirely able to understand the entirety of its own existence..

Surely even Abyss could detect something off as they neared the palace walls. Ariealla had been calm and composed this entire time, yet as they got closer to her holocron, and almost certainly to an outbreak of violence, she resembled less and less of the intelligent being she had been in the books. In fact, she began to resemble more and more a number of powerful, violent beings.. people she'd once have hardly called sith. Quite the change, though it was far from complete.

 

[Darth Abyss]

Without much more than a second of delay Abyss obscured his figure with a cloak of his own, leaving little more than glimpse of strangely broken light where he had stood before. Despite not having eyes, he never lost sight of [member="Ariealla Vareldi"], at least in the sense that he had little trouble sensing her by the noises her body made, from light steps to the the sound of her breath. Yet that was not all he felt when focusing on her. There had been a shift in her aura, an awakening of sorts that had summoned something quite animalistic.

It was of little surprise to him, even if the full extend of this condition waited for him to be discovered. Sith had developed to be almost anything. Scholars, warriors, politicians, cooperate executives and pretty much anything else that gave them power. But in the end there was always a beast hidden below the surface, a monster that desired nothing but chaos and destruction. He had adopted the name of his own inner demon, instead of fearing or fighting it, he had embraced it as his most powerful weapon. Darth Abyss, the Mindeater.

"Keep it together. We should take out one of the guards and use him as ploy to get inside."

With his senses Abyss analysing the area, feeling the place and its guards quite near to them. He could have easily summoned his strength and use it to make one of them submit to his command, but if he wanted this to be successful he had to test how far her condition would influence her in the field.

 

[Ariealla Vareldi]

"I'm in control for now.. [member="Darth Abyss"]. The lunatics aren't running the asylum yet." A sickly sweet giggle escaped her lips, before being abruptly cut off as she began to scan for a way inside. Normally, she would have found a weak point in the stronghold itself, fewer cogs she couldn't be absolutely certain of in her plan that way. But as she scanned the area they approached, she came to the upsetting conclusion that there simply wasn't anything she had prepared to deal with that could be circumvented without dominating the mind of one of the guardsmen. Fortunately for them, one of the guards was separated from the others, for one reason or another, on his patrol route. Estimate of time, perhaps two to three minutes before he'd be called in or visible by someone else.

Far more time than she needed. Even weakened, the minds of these thugs were always simple to bend and break. And while her mind tricks weren't up to domination standards, they didn't have to be. Moving swiftly and silently as her legs could carry her, the Songstress moved in behind the guard, and began to whisper softly into his ear after producing a calming effect through force manipulations. Intimidation was useful, but occasionally a softer touch did the job, far better even. She gently urged the man that he had to return to the gate, he needed to check on something inside. It was urgent, something that had to be done right away. Naturally, it was manipulated in a way that his entry, if she could successfully do this, would arouse no suspicion at all.

She knew her craft, even if it was all old tricks. Eventually, the man, with a somewhat concerned expression, began to continue his route. It would end up at a door where he could enter, and she kept the gentle urging, at just below a whisper. She would know, when they reached the door, if this really had worked after all, and she was certain Abyss could take the hint at what she was doing with the man. He was an intelligent scholar after all, it wasn't hard to find out.

 

[Darth Abyss]

There was no need for him to observe what she was doing, his mind already rested in the thoughts of the guard she was manipulating. That was Abyss, always testing, always demanding, even when the apprentice at his side wasn't his own. After all that was the sith way, as she probably knew quite as well as him. Soundless, without leaving any trace in the swamp below him the Mindeater followed [member="Ariealla Vareldi"] and the guard to the door, watching as the confused man opened the door for them. It was a more elegant solution than the one he would've used, using manipulation instead of direct, unfiltered dominance of the minds of lesser beings.

The inside of the structure was illuminated by dim light, and while Abyss could pick up on several presence around them, there was none near enough to currently become an obstacle. But the way in was always a lot easier than the way out in his experiences. Now for the matter at hand, finding the holocron. He still could hear the echo, a mumbled whisper that had become clearer and clearer with every step.

"It is near, almost in reach. I assume one or two levels below us in the east of the palace. We need to find a way to use the elevator without making noise."

The words where once more delivered silently, brought from the void of his mind right into her thoughts. While the guard probably had the authorization to use the elevators, there was a chance that him randomly wandering though the palace would trip of security in one way or another.

"Maybe we can cause a malfunction. Once they open up the elevator shaft we slip through."

 

[Ariealla Vareldi]

If she could've outright dominated the guard's mind in her state, would she? She wasn't certain, she was always one for more subtle means when she could think clearly, and more aggressive means when her mind became fogged. So aggressive.. perhaps that side of her would have simply broken the man and used him as such.. though she felt that would've only brought on problems. With her manipulations ended, she simply helped him remember to work again, and perhaps he was mistaken about something he thought he had to do.

Fewer bodies meant fewer mistakes. And she, alongside the twisted mass of metal that was [member="Darth Abyss"], slipped inside. She listened to the words 'spoken' to her by the Sith lord, and couldn't help but a light giggle. Of course, going down would be so easy like that, she doubted that there was an easier way down. Perhaps stairs, but quite honestly that didn't sound as fun. This tested her powers, helped them to grow.

So then, how best to continue? Well, elevators tended to run on their own control system, and would be difficult to stop from the outside. And she couldn't simply 'convince' the workers that there was a malfunction. So how to create one? Well, as she slipped through the halls up to the elevator itself, the idea came to her. Placing her hand over the buttons to call the elevator itself, she began to release small currents of electricity into the system, slowly causing the system to no longer be responsive. With a little luck, the electricity she created would continue into the elevator itself, and mess the systems up partway down.

For emergency purposes, it was standard to have elevators grind to a halt when failures occurred, to prevent accidents. Of course if this didn't work, the stairs were always an option.