Wonderland

[Darth Osano]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

Before Maleagant got anywhere close to his bird-based ally, he found himself spun around to face Thengil. "What are you-" The makings of an outraged and thoroughly acerbic lecture died somewhere in the humanoid's throat, replaced only by the gasp of him being winded. Spittle flew from his mouth, his eyes bulged. For a moment, time stood still. Then the Cathar retracted his knee and Maleagant first doubled over, then fell to his knees, clutching his gut. Coughing as though a plague had been visited upon him. The Spirit looked on in growing amusement, enjoying Ri'Shajirr's treatment of his apparent indentured servants. At least one of these three had the mettle of some kind of Sith.

"Understood." Said Maleagant, in a strained voice, slightly higher in pitch than it had been previously.

It went without saying that he would remember this treatment, and that it would not result in positive treatment by any party in the upcoming future. For now, though, Maleagant resumed his coughing, spots clouding his vision over the abhorrent treatment afforded to his groin.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Maleagant"]

This annoyed Lord Fa greatly.

Once again he was reminded of the short-sightedness some Sith possessed in spades. They cared little for progress, accumulation of knowledge or the increase of their combined fortune. All they cared about was the short-game. The little gains. All that which would be extinguished within or shortly after their unremarkable lifetime. It was a disease they possessed.

An unwillingness to see the world as it truly was.

"We..." The Thirriken rose. Little peacock feet turned into Thirriken claws ticking against the floor. Pain turned into a source of power, anger only added to it. His power uncoiled, seeped into the room proper.

He had never believed in strutting around with his power, pushing it into every which way.

But now it was at full display. And the truth? Was that Lord Fa was more powerful than Thengil. More powerful than Maleagant. Simply more powerful than any named character inside the room.

"...are equal."

From the depths of his robes came forth a weapon. A guandao of some sorts, yet, it was too large to have hidden there in the first place. How could that be? Echani compression tech, but that was of little consequence now. It rested gently against the durasteel flooring.

"Maleagant. Do you wish for me to exact payment for grievances experienced?"

 

[TB-705]

That noise. The screeching of a bird flashing plummage and demanding attention.

Thengil had been patient: tolerating Maleagant's spiteful jibes out of an understanding that they grew from his loss; forebearing the peacock's grandstanding so that his assets might achieve the common goals.

Yet, now... threatened and insulted for exacting just revenge, Thengil found his patience wore thin. The Cathar's gauntleted paws curled and uncurled. He did not have time to pet the ego of a two-bit Sith who did toilsome battle with verbal tirades. He should pray that his ability with that weapon proved greater.

"Cease your squawking," Thengil snarled with barely restrained rage, "and help find a solution to the present problem."

You pompous peacock.

[member="Maleagant"] [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Darth Osano]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

Maleagant began to push himself off the floor, pain still roaring in the afflicted area. Lord Fa, honorable bird that he was, was already squawking with righteous indignation at the offending Cathar. A spear had been produced. While it would have pleased Maleagant to no end to see the flourishing Peacock make quick, decisive work of Thengil, it was not exactly prudent. Because if Maleagant gave an affirmative answer, Thengil was still rather close by. It would not take particularly much for the Cathar, in his powered exosuit, to step on the back of Maleagant's head and crush it like an Ithorian cantaloupe. Then Maleagant would not be able to witness the subsequent thrashing- a thought that was only a minor inconvenience when compared to being outright murdered.

Wheezing delicately, Maleagant managed to rise to his knees. One hand was still tactically between his legs and now his watering eyes would be more easily visible. "No." He said. This was the short voice of a man who had been sufficiently humiliated. "Let's not.."

Thengil had succeeded in silencing the Shi'ido Acolyte for the remainder of this outing, but one could be sure that Maleagant would have a codpiece handy for the next one and would resume his snide commentary in greatly increased earnest. One attracts more flies with honey than vinegar, or so the saying goes.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Maleagant"]

On any other day Lord Fa would actually have questioned why a groin attack would have been effective against a Shi'ido.

Who... did not actually have any visible reproduction organs in their natural state, which made him assume that even when they could create replicas to fit with their act, that they wouldn't actually have the weaknesses of their natural counter-parts. But right now he was a Thirriken who had been electrocuted and then beaten around like a ragdoll by a Sith Spirit.

Rational thought was not within his scope of mind right now.

Fa's stern gaze did not leave the armored form of Thengil, but he waited, patiently. Because at the end of the day it mattered little what the Cathar said to him, he did not take it personally, because he knew deep within the farthest reaches of his being that he was better than him.

Better than all of them, if Tai was being honest. Only a fellow Thirriken could be considered equal and even then Lord Fa would most likely find a reason to disqualify them from such a stature.

"Very well." He finally responded after Maleagant asked him not to make an issue out of it. It was his honor on the line, if he did not wish it to be avenged, then Lord Fa would relent.

"Maleagant lost two-thirds of his operations to us. In response, did he act against us? Try to end or undermine us in any shape or form?" The Thirriken continued, patiently, but strongly. Passion still within his words as honor dictated him to make the case regardless.

"No. He supplied his men when we needed it, shed blood with us and only aided our collective endeavors. I care not if you squabble among each other, but escalate it towards physical confrontation again and I will not stand down."

One more gaze shared, before Fa shook his head and his weapon disappeared again in a flourish in the fold of his robes.

"As for our problem. To become tenders... caretakers of this fortress, we will need to do more than simply dust the room. We will need to restore it back to glory."

He briefly looked at the spirit, who seemed to be entirely at loss what was happening in front of him.

"This is achievable."

 

[Darth Osano]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

Lord Fa seemed to be under the peculiar impression that Maleagant's failure to act on his brooding vendetta was a result of him being a high-minded, enlightened Sith. Far from it. Did a cobra that waited for the opportune moment to strike become a shining beacon of pacifism and coexistence? Maleagant had allowed his grudge towards Fa's underhanded dealings to pass. Maybe because the Thirriken had proved himself useful in other ways. Or maybe because he found Fa's actions inspiring and worthy of emulation, and the only way to properly emulate someone was if they stayed alive. Thengil on the other hand was of no greater use to Maleagant than, say, Narbo. And Narbo would have been too stupid to demand a 33% cut, not to mention easily replaced if he went around kneeing his superiors in the groin.

Gingerly, Maleagant rose from his spot on the ground. It was true, one could suppose. Most Shi'ido when in the guise of humans very rarely painted themselves a complete anatomical picture (depending on their intentions, anyway) because they did not need it. Most Shi'ido were raised among their own kind, however, and had a complete mastery of their shape-changing abilities. Maleagant did not. Maleagant spent his entire childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood in the perfect guise of a human. Shi'ido born to half-breed marriages became what they behold, so Maleagant had appeared as any other human when he was born. Only DNA testing later had revealed what he truly was.

It could not get out that Bedyctor had fathered non-human offspring on Lianna, so the cover-up had to be extensive. It was a point of contention between Maleagant and his father. At least it had been, until Bedyctor was gored by the bayonet of a Blackblade soldier, but that was neither here nor there.

"What do we-" Maleagant paused and coughed into his fist, then resumed. "What do we do, then?"

Although he was now standing again, Maleagant's posture was now slightly stooped. Give him some time. It was a power suit, after all.

 

[TB-705]

More useless squawking. When it became apparent that the peacock's threat consisted solely of posturing and no actual violence would ensue, Ri'shajirr lost the battle to hide his sneer of disgust. He quickly grew bored with the genuflecting and Fa's attempts to position himself as some sort of arbiter of peace. Clearly, the bird would have to be reminded in the near future that clipped wings could not soar.

In the meanwhile, Thengil's thoughts drifted back to the words of the spirit. The doors only opened to a passphrase. The passphrase had to be uttered from a caretaker or one with power. No one with sufficient power stood among them. The caretakers were all dead. They could perhaps become caretakers through refurbishing the citadel.

Or...

Slitted pupils slid in the direction of the spirit that guarded the doors. A pensive rumble began, deep in the Cathar's throat.

"Curious." He murmured.

[member="Tai Fa"] [member="Maleagant"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Maleagant"]

Thengil was dismissed from Lord Fa's immediate concerns.

No more than a mere thug, high on the base experiences of being a Sith and with no prospect of becoming anything other than a thug, beating people around and trying to assert himself with his muscles. What a waste. He wondered how easy it would be to replace the Cathar with someone more reasonable and fitting to their trio.

It couldn't be that difficult to create drugs.

Otherwise Narbo wouldn't have been able to construct the operations in the first place.

"I can silently divert assets to these coordinates. Unassuming freighters with construction material. We will need workers, but perhaps droid would be the safer option." Fa responded to Maleagant directly. "If we make a concentrated effort to restore this place to its former glory? We will, in effect, become its caretakers."

Little peacock head cocked as his presence within the Force shrunk again, before disappearing entirely.

"We will gain quite the well-positioned base of operations as well."

 

[Darth Osano]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

So that was why Thengil had wanted him to start sweeping. Ridiculous. Maleagant had missed the spirit's speech the first time on account of being winded and flung to the other side of the room like a rag doll in the hands of a petulant child. If the prevailing plan was to become a caretaker of the temple so the doors would open, then Maleagant supposed he would go along with it. If the spirit had already judged them of not holding power, then there was little else to be done. Except to try and kill the spirit, but Maleagant had already seen how that went. He wasn't even sure if blasters or thermal detonators could harm such an entity. Could it only be killed through the Force? Maybe they should just come back later when they were strong enough to kill it. But if they were strong enough, perhaps then the doors would just... Open.

Oh, but who wanted to wait that long? Maleagant and Fa had money. Thengil, too, also presumably had some form of material wealth.

If their power in the Force would not gain them entrance, then their ability to fling credits at their problems until the problem dissipated would see them through. Maleagant nodded in earnest to Fa, now assuming his usual posture as the pain slowly ebbed from his groin. That would leave a nasty bruise. Fortunately, Maleagant had no womanly callers to worry about startling. Or maybe unfortunately, now that one thinks about it. Whatever. There are worse things than dying alone. Like dying poor. "What of the door trap?" Maleagant asked.

Meanwhile, the spirit was studying Thengil right back. If it were listening to the conversation between Lord Fa and Maleagant, it clearly didn't care.

 

[TB-705]

Ri'shajirr's material wealth could not compare to that of his compatriots.

At this very moment, the Zareca soldiers were engaged in an expansion effort far from this citadel. Thengil did not have the resources to spare to commit to a... clean up effort. The other two Sith had made it readily apparent that they thought the personal restoration of an ancient and lauded fortress beneath their notice. Unless, of course, they got their peons to do it for them. If they managed to figure out the logistics of getting their lackeys inside, Thengil would not stand in the way of the repair efforts.

But he also might no longer be in the room.

"The passphrase, why those words?" He asked the spirit.

[member="Tai Fa"] | [member="Maleagant"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Maleagant"]

"My people are working on disabling it as we speak."

It would be difficult, of course. A trap like that did not stay functional and effective for thousands of years without being exceptionally complicated and resilient in design, but the Order of the Feather was well-versed in runes, Sith Magic and other familiar rituals. If there was anyone who could solve this problem, it would be them. On the other hand Lord Fa was not one without a secondary plan.

"Which might not be necessary anyway, if the trap is designed for sentient purposes only."

Which wouldn't surprise him in the slightest.

This was thousands of years ago, by the looks of it. Far before the time of the Trade Federation and other assorted organizations who made droids their primary source of combat personnel. To also include droids in the design would have been difficult with many false positives. It would not have been worth the effort, considering that a droid would not have been able to get through the second defense circle and its passworded door anyway.

That was why there were many traps and defense mechanisms instead of one.

Lord Fa briefly studied Thengil, who seemed to be talking to the Sith Spirit again. He would have shrugged but his back still hurt from the crash. It didn't matter much of Thengil wished to stray from his own set course and attempt a different strategy into the fortress.

Would probably be cheaper in the long run.

"Come, Maleagant. We can start preparing the logistics- if Thengil cracks the puzzle, we will hear of it surely."

 

[Darth Osano]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

The Spirit rumbled in contemplation before answering the curious Cathar. "Lord Graush was a sorcerer. He knew many spells and incantations." It was well known, or at least it should have been well known, that Graush preferred necromancy to smoke demons. His undead legions had devastated Korriban during his fifty year reign of terror. Graush had even gone so far as to replace his heart with a crude receptacle which stored more power than it ought to. The heart was not here, of course. It belonged to someone else now, someone with even less human decency than a psychopathic necromancer.

It continued its speech, thunderous voice echoing in the sparse chamber. "So too did his servants, those who built this citadel and warded it for him. Perhaps they selected it to reference their own talents, their favorite spell. Vain to the last." Shifting ever so slightly from where it hovered, the Spirit fixated its red eyes on Lord Fa as he waddled out. "Not unlike your servants. If you cannot control them, begone. You will not grow in power by pestering me with infantile questions."

Maleagant hesitated in his exit to hear this and, after scowling visibly, muttered an affirmative to Lord Fa. The Acolyte was not far behind the Thirriken.

 

[TB-705]

An interesting bit of history, though it was not the reason he asked. The spirit spoke with a degree of separation, as if he had known the builders but had not been one of them.

"Pester? Is our presence not the only respite from boredom you enjoy, spirit?"

Perhaps there were other spirits haunting the citadel and the adventuring trio had interrupted their taungsday game of craps.

"You talked of those whom you slew. Did any live to make it through the doors?"

[member="Tai Fa"] | [member="Maleagant"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Maleagant"]

Lord Fa did not look back or hesitate.

The opinions of dead Sith were irrelevant to him, which was also the reason why he never bothered to correct it. There was simply no point in it. An exercise in futility and if Tai hated anything, it was uselessness. They walked silently for a while, but inside the Sith was pondering opportunities and options for them.

"I can handle the shipping, but if we go the droid way we will need quality, not the nonsense pushed by the market these days."

It was a shame that large droid concern had disbanded a few years back. Automaton something, but such was the way with capitalism and the economical market.

Some lost and some won.

"Can you get your hands on some functional tech?"

 

[Darth Osano]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

"My only respite is the years of quiet between each of these fruitless... Expeditions... Launched weaklings playing at Sith or Jedi." The Spirit clarified, floating lazily. "There have been several who proved themselves worthy. They did not pass through these doors again. I will clarify no further and save you the indignity of blatant mimicry."

Perhaps they had died later on. Or there was an exit somewhere else in the castle. Either way, hopefully this line of questioning would bear fruit before Maleagant and Lord Fa arrived with their interior decorators. Otherwise Thengil would have to talk over the din of heavy industrial scrubbers.

---​

Outside, a radically different discussion was taking place. Now outside the doom and gloom of the temple, Maleagant found himself thinking more clearly. What had transpired inside suddenly seemed a far more distant memory than it should have been. He could recall being buffeted by the Spirit and Thengil, but somehow it felt... Old. How strange. Whatever. Lord Fa had a plan now that did not involve continued dialogue with scornful spirits. Instead they were going to circumvent the life detecting traps scattered about the citadel with a labor force made up of droids. Clever. Baseline clever, anyway- anyone could have come up with that.

Maleagant rubbed his eyes. "I will make the necessary calls." He replied, although offered no assurances as to the quality of the droids delivered.

This was the black market they would be scouring here. There were never any assurances, even where the Helix Syndicate was concerned.

 

[TB-705]

He lied, or else had gone mad some time ago.

Thengil knew the cold solitude of years spent alone, with naught but the company of your own thoughts. At first, it was peaceful, or "quiet" as the spirit put it. But as weeks dragged into months and months into years, the passage of time became a blur. Reflective thoughts turned to rambling musings. Without another voice the silence grew deafening. Exertion to stay fit had proved some diversion, but the spirit did not have even that. Every day was a recycled production of the last, each more tasteless and devoid of meaning than the last.

Ri'shajirr tried to imagine an eternity spent anchored to a room, with a menial task of guarding a set of doors against whatever idiotic fools chanced to wander upon it in between the decades. He grimaced in distaste.

"Spirit, we talked of what I seek, but what of you. Are you chained to this place? Do you not long to depart?"

[member="Maleagant"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Maleagant"] | [member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"]

They strode past the arch, which did not turn them into ash, so that was good.

It was strange how every time he tried to think back to the events in that room... how his mind bend around it. Like it did not want to remember or like the memories were covered in shoulder-high mud and making it impossible to peer through it. Lord Fa wondered if that was some kind of defense, an enchantment or spell lingering on the room for some reason.

Would the memories become more vague by the hour, until it disappeared entirely?

To counter act that a datapad was revealed from the folds of his robe and those claws started ticking. They would make an elaborate description of what... had... transpired there.

Fa frowned as he was unable to grasp for all the details, just the outlines.

"These doors do not answer to outsiders; only those of power and those who tend the citadel. For all others, they remain sealed."​

That was underlined.

"At any rate, I will start diverting shipments. We will need some raw material to work with here as well." After a nod the Thirriken left the Shi'ido to his business, while starting an animated discussion with some of the cultists, before heading for the hangar bay.

 

[Darth Osano]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

Thengil, as usual, knew not of what he spoke. Or in this case, thought. The Spirit was only bound to this room so long as there were trespassers inside of it. When there were none, he returned to the void. To chaos. It was not cold isolation. More like a dreamless sleep, but nonetheless a preferable situation than moderating the insipid mewling of every acolyte who thought themselves worthy of the teachings of Graush. The Spirit, who probably had a name but so far no one had bothered to ask him, grumbled something, then spoke more clearly.

"When you leave, I will return to Chaos. If it is my comfort you seek, leave now, do not return, and erase the location of this place from all written record." A tall order, but since he had asked... "This was the terms of my service to Lord Graush. What I 'long for' is of no consequence."

Of course, Lord Graush was now in the afterlife without a second thought spared to his citadel. And the Spirit well remembered how he had considered his oath's wording of "for all eternity" to just be a metaphor. There had been a time where he had been angry about it, lots of casualties in the citadel pertained to that. Now there was only dutiful acceptance. If it was his lot in this galaxy to pay the price for the vanities of his youth for the rest of existence, then so be it.

Some people had it far worse.

-----​

​

Maleagant noticeably hesitated at the arch, wordlessly allowing Lord Fa to pass through first before following after. The Shi'ido then stared dumbstruck as his avian ally whipped out a datapad and started texting furiously. Then, in his typical fashion, wandered off with his cool cultist friends. Probably to discuss exactly how they had managed to disarm a centuries old trap in a little under an hour. Maybe no one had tried? Maybe it had been switched off. Or maybe it was on a sort of timer. You know, after someone pays the price it remains switched off for, say, eight hours before reactivating. That seemed reasonable. Maleagant wasn't complaining. Every second he spent not being electrocuted was a second well spent.

If they were going to remodel that room, Maleagant realized, they were going to need photographs of the room in question. Maleagant now realized this, but Lord Fa was already gone. Fine, that was fine. Lord Fa would bring the supplies, Maleagant would bring the manpower. Maleagant would also provide a detailed plan for what the room would be remodeled into and how the room would be remodeled. That was usually how it went. Maleagant gave sixty, Fa gave thirty nine, and Thengil... Provided atmosphere.

What a time to be alive.

Maleagant re-entered the citadel with his datapad in hand. Thengil's response would doubtlessly be interrupted by the camera's flash as Maleagant documented the area.

 

[TB-705]

Ah. Of course.

"So while any remain, your peace is disturbed?" A low rumble built in the back of Thengil's throat before turning to a grim chuffling.

"Speak the word. Open the doors. Then I will leave. If you do not I will flood this place with idiots, every nova blasted day. Vagrants picked up off the street. Fools stuffed full of promises of buried treasure. They will fumble around in here like mewling cubs... and you will not have a moment's peace. "

[member="Maleagant"] | [member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Thengil Ri'Shajirr"] | [member="Maleagant"]

It was more difficult than any one of them could imagine to get a signal out here.

Mostly, because they wanted this place to stay a secret, so to just directly send out a transmission would be a gorram disaster if anyone was listening in. That wasn't a huge threat, of course. What was the chance that someone was monitoring this particular portion of Wild Space after all?

Would be like trying to track the movement of a single needle in a mountain of hay.

But Lord Fa was a careful avian and that was the truth. He would rather cause himself a little bit more difficulty, but ensure that everything was on the level.

He did not deal in risks, only in certainties.

"Divert the shipments from Kyrikal, use the usual channels, we will earn it back in the next cycle. Also see if we still have that batch of Automaton wares, might come in handy."