Wonderland

[Darth Osano]

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

There was silence in the main chamber, punctuated only by two more flashes of light as Maleagant finished his photography mission and left. Slowly, surely, the silence was displaced by a low, chortling sound. The Spirit was laughing. Its eyes, in a fit of cliche, turned an even darker hue of red. "You think yourself clever, Thengil R'Shajirr?" Suddenly, bars shot out in front of the hallway leading to the entrance, preventing escape. Maleagant was already on the other side, but nevertheless flinched at their summoning. He turned around, finally paying attention to the conversation.

"You think I would allow you leave here alive, to do as you have said?" If the presence of the Dark Side in the room were not already tangible, it quickly became so. It not only became tangible, but disturbing. Thengil had achieved far greater heights than either Maleagant or Tai Fa at one point in his life. Perhaps he would be familiar. If not, the suffocating power of the Dark Side swept the room like a heavy curtain, threatening to drown the resolve of any unprepared individual. Including Maleagant, who now stood rooted to the spot behind the doors.

Another rumbling chuckle, then the spirit continued. "I shall open the doors for you, Cathar. Not that you will live to cross the threshold."

"Dwomutsiqsa."​

​

True to his word, the doors barred began to glow a subdued red and there came the sound of a heavy mechanism falling out of place. What the spirit had failed to mention was the side affects of his recitation of the pass phrase. Two pillars of smoke erupted from the ground on either side of the door, just below the spirit. They thrashed about violently before taking vaguely humanoid forms. The Smoke Demons hissed and crept forward towards Thengil, radiating malice.

"Enjoy."

The Spirit looked as though it were sucked through the cracks of the door it just unlocked, and then promptly vanished from sight. Thengil was now alone with two very angry Smoke Demons. Or not completely. Maleagant would be there, what little help he would inevitably be behind bars. Lord Fa would hopefully sense the exercising of such powerful Sith Spells or feel the vibrations from the lock being disengaged and rush to assist. Who knew?

 

[TB-705]

The Cathar's face fell. Dread carved a pit in his gut out which his strength fled. Once, he might have banished them both with but a word and a tide of power. Now even one would prove a mortal foe. But faced with two? Thengil's features hardened to a grim cast, brows drawing low and lips twitching above his fangs in snarling suggestion.

A forlorn roar of defiance ripped from his throat and trembled against the walls.

They came for him, shapes twisting and ethereal. The assault against his mind rolled in, a tidal wave against which no mind could stand. He struggled to resist, for as long as he could, but by then they had already closed the distance.

Claws of smoke and shadow tore into him. Pain exploded, raging like a fire through his veins. Hot gouts of blood spun in crimson cartwheels. Thengil stumbled backward, hardly able to mount a defense.

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

 

[Jairus Starvald]

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

Sadly Lord Fa was otherwise occupied in that instance.

He had entered the back of one of the freighters and was currently arguing with one of his employees about the realism of logistics, if they wished to move a suitable amount of raw material to this asteroid field without arousing suspicion. At least, that was where the discussion started, until all the people involved realized they were in an asteroid field. Which brought its own certain amount of opportunities, if you were smart enough to grasp them.

For instance, it was wholly possible that the field had certain raw material already present within its asteroids.

Probes would have to be launched to ascertain this possibility, but that was a trivial matter compared towards re-diverting the host of freighters they would need to properly restore this citadel back to glory.

If they could even offset a fraction of that by mining it in this system? That would be a boon for all of them involved.

Of course, there were cultists milling about who did have a general idea of what was happening there, but after one long look at the Thirriken and his animated wings, as he underlined one point or the other... they decided it was safer to wait for their boss to finish his conversation, before they would interrupt them.

Otherwise Tai would obviously have tried and helped his associate in need.

No matter what a pompous, unworthy caricature of a Sith he was. It was obvious that Lord Fa was not petty enough to let an associate simply die for his failings, not if there was still hope for rehabilitation.

 

[Darth Osano]

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

While the Useless Bird was outside, strutting upon his Useless Feet, Maleagant watched agape at the horror unfolding before him. Normally seeing Thengil getting beaten up by Smoke Demons might have brought some sense of cathartic pleasure to the Acolyte, but... It was absent. Maybe it was because Maleagant was close enough that he could feel the physical discomfort that came with their presence. Or maybe it was because, even with his tremendous dislike for Thengil, it would still disturb Maleagant greatly to see someone torn apart, mauled to death, by physical manifestations of horror. He got no real enjoyment from violence. He had already known that, but why had he thought...? It was getting harder to think now. The air around Maleagant felt twenty degrees colder, yet he was sweating bullets.

Focus.

He needed to focus. He was a Sith. More than that, he was the last of his family capable of exacting vengeance. He was bigger than this, bigger than these blasted demons or the blighted cat being walloped by them. Thengil was barely putting up a fight between the two of those things and it would be some time before Lord Fa was able to scamper over on his tiny little bird legs. "Kark. Me." Maleagant's grip tightened on his lightsaber and he yanked it off his belt, crimson blade springing to life in his hand. He cleaved through the bars, cutting an opening large enough for him to dive through in two strokes."Kark me, kark me..." He repeatedly muttered his mantra of the battle, rising back to his feet on the other side of the bars.

He yelled, "Thengil!" One of the smoke demons snapped its head away from the Cathar it was preparing to kill, suddenly slithering over to Maleagant. "Get a hold of... Your... S..."

The Smoke Demon arrived in front of Maleagant and rose up to its full height... And kept rising and rising until it towered over Maleagant at ten feet tall. Suddenly its features became more tangible and stray bits of smoke flew away from the demon, revealing the gargantuan, armored form of Kaine Zambrano looming over the Shi'ido. For reasons that are absolutely discernible, Maleagant never finished that sentence.

 

[TB-705]

Thengil clasped a paw over the wound to his belly. Blood flowed between his claws. The demon raised its hand, ready to strike the final blow, then all at once a voice cried out the Cathar's name. Three heads swung in the direction of a coward.

What?

There stood [member="Maleagant"], saber in hand, ready to face a foe he could not hope to match. Whether he stood there out of self-interest or misguided altruism did not truly matter. He offered to dance with death and one of the demons obliged. So, he is not wholly an invertebrate. A kernel of respect for the underhanded criminal took root in the bleeding Cathar.

Thengil turned back to face the clear and present danger, only to find the demon had dissolved into a cloud of smoke. The tendrils looped around Thengil in a wide circle, layering on thickly until Ri'shajirr could see nothing outside of the inky blackness except... except... An ocean. He saw himself in the current, fighting, struggling to keep his head above the waterline, but the waves kept plunging him under. Again and again. He tasted the seasalt as it flooded his mouth, his lungs. Panic set in and he thrashed about, seeking to swim toward the surface. But there was no surface. It was all dark as night and he was drowning. Lungs screaming, body a useless bundle of tired muscles, Thengil started to opened his mouth and the water rushed in further, filling up his body.

All sense of being started to fade, then came slamming back into existence. He saw four black walls. He felt four black walls. Squeezing tighter. Crushing him. No room to breathe. No where to move. Only these walls, forever.

Ri'shajirr yowled as the demon tore apart his mind.

[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

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

It took a while, but eventually they managed to settle on the details necessary to make this operation successful.

Half a dozen freighters would be diverted from the Sith Worlds and other areas, heavy materials would be moved from the Kyrikal system and Lord Fa managed to find about two dozen trustworthy individuals who could aid in the preliminary restoration efforts. Most of that would be done in the outer layers of the citadel, until they managed to disable the arch way's defenses, without having to go through being shocked every few hours.

The droids supplied by Maleagant would be quite helpful in that regard in the meantime.

Speaking of Maleagant, he wondered where that fellow went, he had been with him only a couple of minutes ago. Lord Fa stepped out of the shuttle again, cocking his head slightly as three members of the Order of the Feather were standing quite anxiously around the shuttle.

They seemed to be trying to muster up the courage to speak, but were having issues.

"Yes?" The Thirriken patiently encouraged, while waiting on them to man up... Sith up?

"We may have a problem, my Lord."

Lord Fa looked from one of the cultists to the other to the third, before sighing slightly to himself. It couldn't ever be easy, could it? Always another issue or another problem to have to deal with.

"Alright, what is the matter?"

 

[Darth Osano]

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

For what felt like an eternity, the Smoke Demon that had assumed the form of Kaine Zambrano said nothing. It merely loomed over him, pitiless eyes set on Maleagant's. There was no movement from Maleagant either. Just the occasional tremor, a shiver of fear for his impending doom. Beads of sweat were forming on his brow, but his mind was almost as frozen as he was. The Demon's mouth slowly opened, but there was no sound. It kept moving. It was apparently trying to speak, but Maleagant heard nothing. Slowly, however, noise began to fade in. It was quiet at first, barely noticeable, but it grew to a deafening roar that only Maleagant seemed to be able to hear.

Blaster fire.

Screaming.

And he could see the courtyard they died in now, Kaine Zambrano and Evelynn Dorn on one end. His family on the other, most of them kneeling pathetically. A line of Blackblades separated the two parties, firing their weapons blindly into the crowd amid short cries of terror and pleas for mercy. Maleagant's absence from the massacre that claimed the lives of the majority of his family (one way or another) had been a source of guilt for several years. Eventually he rationalized it. What would he have done aside from die with them? Rationalizing rarely ever worked with that kind of guilt, of course. It just stayed there, festering him like an unseen wound. He learned to ignore it, but now...

Maleagant attempted to take a step back, only to stumble. The movement did not release him from the vivid illusion, so he scrambled backwards on his hands and feet trying to get away from it. The Smoke Demon moved forward with him. The Shi'ido's lightsaber was still ignited and almost three separate times did he nearly shave off his knee from his clumsy motions. Eventually Maleagant bumped into a wall and pressed himself into it as far as he could go. Now he was cornered. His ancestors would be so proud to see him like this: a mess of sweat and tears, half-muttering nonsensical offers to the demon, trying to suspend its torment; delay his death if only for another moment. For the first time in his life, he was acting like a proper Dorn.

 

[TB-705]

Pain.

Agony.

Unending.

Eternal.

 

[Darth Osano]

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

With a heavy flinch, Maleagant was suddenly wrenched back into reality. He lashed out madly with his lightsaber, slashing through the approaching Smoke Demon as it prepared to finish off its prey. The strike caught it off guard and it was promptly bisected. Before either half of it could hit the ground, it burst apart into formless smoke and gradually faded away, leaving Maleagant alone in his corner. His eyes were watery and wild, as if he had never been more confused and terrified in his life. And of course, he hadn't. Few people had, except now for Thengil. Even though physical harm had yet to befall him, Maleagant was exhausted regardless. The Acolyte attempted to stand himself up and failed, then he resolved to do so by leaning heavily against the wall for support. His eyes were fixated on the cloud of smoke currently roiling over the prone, bloodied form of Thengil.

Mostly through instinct, Maleagant raised an arm as if he were trying to reach out and grab something- either Thengil or the Smoke Demon. It was hard to say. But clearly he was not close enough to do either of those things, and his trembling legs would not make walking over there a possibility. Maleagant was not very skilled with telekinetics, but perhaps if he could garner enough focus, he could either push Thengil out of harm's way or distract the Smoke Demon into coming over here instead. The minute the thought of the Smoke Demon coming over here and attacking him, again, engendered nearly enough terror to floor Maleagant again. But a slow second ticked by, and that terror turned into anger. Thengil owed the infrastructure of his blasted cartel to him, and now that blighted, bloody Cathar was going to owe him his life too.

And what was he going to get in exchange for this? Probably more back-talk, more knees finding their way into his groin. That stupid, wretched-

A short blast of lightning erupted from Maleagant's outstretched hand and struck the smoky form of Thengil's attacker. Could lightning effect Smoke Demons? There was nothing to suggest it couldn't. Force met Force, it was simple science that the Demon would not be immune. Don't ask questions. The blast carried enough kinetic force that it knocked the Demon back into some semblance of a corporeal form and flung it into a wall, where it promptly dissipated in the same manner as its colleague. The Smoke Demons were dead. A valuable lesson had been learned today. There was a moral here, somewhere, but instead of pondering it closer, Maleagant slunk back to the floor and entered a restless nap.

Perhaps there was more detail and drama that could be added to describe such a sequence of events, but it was clearly lost in the pain.

Agony.

Unending.

Eternal.

Synonyms.

 

[TB-705]

Sight returned, along with consciousness. The oppressive walls trapping him evaporated, but the pain stayed. Thengil awakened. He lay upon the floor, thoroughly doused in his own blood, body battered.

And yet I draw breath. How?

Thengil rolled onto his side, an act that brought a fresh wave of pain rushing through his nerves like wildfire across savanna grass. He had escaped death again. Energy eked from his gauntlets. He drew upon them and felt a rush of vitality. Not clarity of mind, nor sharpening of wit. More like an infusion of will, heady as adrenaline. The urge to survive and fight on purged away the frailty of fleshly anxieties; a skill he could have once called upon without need of gauntlets: battle mind.

Pushing himself to his feet, Thengil stared around, acutely aware of the blood slowly dribbling down his front. He spotted Maleagant laying in a heap and strode over. It took a matter of seconds to reach within the folds of his apparel and produce a syringe from some hidden pocket. He jabbed the needle into the Rattataki's thigh. The resulting flood of stimulants would likely make the humanoid think he was having a heart attack, but at least he would be awake, alert, and attuned to their surroundings.

And able to answer a few questions about what, exactly, had transpired.

Thengil eyed the now open doors and wondered what lay beyond.

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

 

[Jairus Starvald]

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

​

"I see." Lord Fa responded after listening patiently to the tale told by his cultists. "And you did not consider it necessary to tell me this sooner?"

One of the cultists wrung his hands. He seemed to be agitated or maybe embarrassed or perhaps it was simple constipation, it was sometimes difficult for him to gauge the facial expressions of these humanoids. Strange how they did not possess plumage to raise and flutter around for emotional responses.

"My Lord, you were quite busy and-"

The Thirriken sighed and cut him off with the fluttering of his wing.

Sometimes he forgot that most Sith would have simply executed a henchman interrupting them in their practices. Perhaps he couldn't fault this human for thinking this was a similar situation he found himself in. The tension rose in the room, as they awaited what Fa would do in response.

Which was simply strutting past them and back under the archway towards the room where his associates were presumably still fighting to their death, as far as he knew.

 

[Darth Osano]

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

Maleagant was having the most wonderful dream. He was in his castle on Thule, yanking his lightsaber out from the still-twitching corpse of one or both usurpers. [member="Athena Heron"] was also there, just hanging around. Just as he liked. Then, from nowhere, a small feline entered the room. It was holding a syringe between its teeth. Without warning, it crossed the room in a single bound and jabbed Maleagant in the thigh with the syringe. Maleagant violently re-entered the waking world, his head already pounding with pain from the abrupt transition. Adrenaline flooded his system. To mark his return, he made the appropriate sound.

"HGRHRHRHHRNNG."

His eyes might have bulged several feet out of his head, but he sat bolt upright too quickly to notice. The stim was still stuck in his leg. Having overwritten his fight or flight response earlier, Maleagant re-entered this state. Before Thengil could say anything, the Shi'ido ran away. He bounded through the hole he had cut through the bars (not that it mattered, they slid back into the ground and wall shortly after he passed through) and kept running. Lord Fa would see the frenzied, panicked grey blur shoot by.

An educated guess as to where he was going might have been his shuttle.

 

[TB-705]

Thengil watched the receding form of [member="Maleagant"] in bewilderment, then shook his head. The braids in his mane swung to and fro. Frowning in befuddlement, the Cathar turned toward the open doors and ventured past the sacred threshold.

What lay beyond was a task for another writer.

[member="Tai Fa"].

 

[Jairus Starvald]

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

​

Lord Fa stood there for a moment once Maleagant had passed him in a maddening frenzy of instinct and purpose.

The scream still echoed across the corridor, long after he had passed and reminded him of the dangers that would still lay ahead for them, if they wished to lay claim to this place. His mind reached out briefly, pushing past Maleagant and towards the Sith cultists who had been standing at ready to move in and support their lord, if necessary.

"Do not interfere with Maleagant... he might be agitated after that ordeal."

Might was the overstatement of the year, but the Thirriken was not easily impressed.

Perhaps their associate would find his center once he was back in the familiar surrounding of his shuttle or maybe he would flee from this place and leave Thengil and him to deal with it alone.

The Thirriken knew not which option was better.

Finally, Lord Fa entered the room ahead and it was empty, not even the Sith Spirit remained, but the doors were opened. Thengil was there, he could see his large stature standing and waiting ahead. But his back clouded the rest of his vision from the room, so he pressed on.

Patiently he picked his way through the room and finally stood next to Thengil, who was studying statues scattered throughout the room. There were eight in total, their faces obscured by cowls and their bodies by long robes, the texture of the stone was marred by wear and tear, yet, no wind was here to erode it in the first place. What's more, the moment the lion sith had entered the room... their eyes started to glow.

From any angle you looked, it looked as if it was looking straight at you.

Behind them was another door.

This one smaller, not decorated or brushed by gild, instead it was simple stone with heavy veins of obsidian running through it in strange intervals.

"I met Maleagant on my way here." Lord Fa mentioned calmly. "He seemed distressed."

 

[TB-705]

The eyes of the statues glowed eerily. Sith sorcery at work. Perhaps the statues would come alive and attack them. Thengil's lips curled. That would be... disappointing.

He turned as another entered the room. Ah, the peacock, returned at last to survey the work of his betters.

"Maleagant?"

Thengil asked, voice flat. "He left something in the shuttle."

Blood oozed down the front of the Cathar. The wound no longer dripped, now congealing. A few more minutes and the blood would dry.

The feline's gaze met the avian's and there was an unsettling emptiness to those two yellow eyes; the unfeeling stare of a predator.

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

 

[Jairus Starvald]

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

The Thirriken did not seem to notice Thengil's creepy obsessive look.

If he had, he probably would have winked and assumed the lion was an adoring supporter of his plumage, which Tai could not blame him in any sense of the word. Grooming was very important and Lord Fa did not take his duties lightly in that regard. But sadly his attention was elsewhere, on the ominous stone statues that seemed to be following his every move with those glowing eyes.

Which was strange considering they were positively rooted in place and could not be following him.

"I see." Tai finally stated without revealing his skepticism. It had not been the run of a person who had forgotten something, unless Maleagant was a self-obsessive girl who forgot to put up her make-up before leaving the house anyway. No, the run was festering panic and experiences scarring him to the bone. But he did not think it was Thengil who caused it.

If it had been Thengil Maleagant would not have left the room alive.

"At any rate - I wish to apologize for my earlier behavior. I was quite shaken up after the first trial."

That would be as much of an outreach the lion would receive from the proud bird.

 

[TB-705]

"Apology accepted."

Ri'Shajirr turned away from the bird. Stretching out in the Force, he sought the answer to this new puzzle. The eddies of energies he felt were...

Curious.

[member="Tai Fa"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

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

​

It was difficult to say how much time it cost them to break through every single trial, but eventually they reached the inner sanctum and every single trial laid behind them... defeated.

By the end of it the Thirriken was leaning against his cane for support.

Blood was sleeping in a soft trickle from multiple wounds, burn marks scorched against his feather deck and a new scar briefly brushed next to his beak. Pain had been theirs for today, but in return... the sanctum proved to be worth every single problem they had overcome. Lines and lines of bookcases adorned the rooms, filled to the brink with ancient flimsiplast, scrolls, books and elder computer networks started to hum in reaction to their sudden entry into the main room. Behind them the Order of the Feather, Tai's cult, was slowly exploring the outer works and neutralizing any minor traps still left active.

It would have been awkward if the construction crews were suddenly massacred by an errant trap activated.

"T-this." His voice cracked from pain and disuse. "Was worth it."

Already Tai was wondering what kind of wonders and ancient techniques they would be able to discover here. Ripe for the taking and conquered by their indomitable will and effort.

As they walked further into the room energy started to build up.

Then, out of nowhere, the Sith Spirit reappeared once again. In the center of the room... yet he did not talk, he was simply staring at them. Tai had the distinct feeling of being sized up by the entity.

 

[TB-705]

Thengil picked up a scroll from a shelf and read the inscription.

"The greatest risk is in not taking one."

The Cathar nodded in agreement, then the Sith Spirit appeared.

 

[Darth Osano]

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

Angered by the trespassers' indomitable desire to loot his temple, the Sith Spirit had arrived to kill them all. It started with two members of the Order of the Feather, snapping their useless bird-aligned necks. It then wielded them like clubs, bringing one crashing down on Lord Fa and the other on Maleagant. While it did so, it fixated Thengil with a lethal stare, beginning to disintegrate the very core of the Cathar's being.

Just kidding.

Maleagant had returned at some point after the statue-trial-that-will-forever-be-undescribed. Whatever temporary psychosis had caused him to flee had been dealt with. This did not stop him from obtaining further injury over the course of clearing out the rest of the fortress. By the time they reached the library, Maleagant had one arm in a sling. A bandage wrapped around his head covered one of his eyes. What he now lacked in ambidexterity and depth perception, he made up for with rigid determination. And blistering, stoic silence. He looked like someone who had endured a great deal of physical and mental pain in the last six hours. As if that wasn't enough to make Maleagant decidedly irascible, he was also hungry. There had not been a lot of opportunities to break for lunch while suffering a panic attack or dungeon crawling.

He was also covered in dust, dirt. There were also probably some splinters from when he had been flung into furniture. Not to mention the bruises, the lacerations, and so on. Suddenly the sum of knowledge kept up in this fortress was secondary to a shower, a meal, and a three day siesta in a bacta tank. He did not attempt to feign excitement, instead glaring at the tomes lining the wall and the central databank impatiently. Then the spirit showed up again.

"I did not expect any of you would survive," said the Spirit. The six hour fast-forward had apparently had no impact on its desire to condescend to people. "I doubt the servants of servants will enjoy your luck."

There was a faint sound back the direction they had came from. It sounded like a jet of flame erupting from somewhere, but only for a moment. Or maybe it had continued. It was difficult to tell over the screaming of one of the Feather cultists. Clumsy, clumsy. But that's what happens when those without named status trespass in ancient ruins.

"How do you intend to squander your spoils, avian?"