Shh! No Talking In The Library

[Kahlil Noble]

​

To be an aspiring Sorcerer was a path filled with difficulty at first. Spells were hard to come by, as it often took spells to deal with the challenges left by those who came from before. Dubiety had heard of a time when these lessons were given out more freely, a time when the One Sith ruled the core and on a desolated world the Temple of Pain stood tall and proud. But such times had passed. No longer were the young Sith so freely given their power.

They had to earn it.

On the Sith World of Krayiss II the masked Epicanthix arrived to do just that. With his prospective master to watch. @Joyce Zambrano , or Darth Vornskr the Second. Little did she know that it was her own brother she was watching. Or maybe she did. It was hard to tell who might have seen under his mask. Regardless, it was she who was coming along.

Aboard an Omicron Shuttle the young Acolyte sat in deep meditation. He was listening to the Force in his own unique way. When his eyes were closed and he opened his senses the Dark Side appeared as red sigils in the air. It had taken some time for him to decipher them, but when he finally did it was almost as if he could read the world around him. In simple phrases the Force wrote out the world. Anger. Hate. Death. Were the most common of signs. Explaining this to his instructor who was always marked with Hate Kahlil learned this was a sign of a natural born sorcerer.

All he saw now, as they entered the atmosphere, was death. He opened his eyes and left the small confines of the storage room he had made his meditation chamber. He pulled the faceless mask back over his black hair before exiting, once more assuming the false identity known as Dubiety.

"We are close, aren't we?"

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

There were a number of great libraries in the Sith Empire, but none were as enigmatic as Tsakwia iw Wtsia: the Great Library Temple of Krayiss Two. To reach it was a pilgrimage; to enter it, a challenge; to know its secrets, a great honour. Joycelyn had never before taken on the library temple, though she had been on Krayiss before. Last time, she had gotten lost in the canyons. This time, she was prepared.

While her prospective apprentice, the masked sorcerer, meditated with his magics, Joycelyn spent her time reviewing reports from the Legion's military campaigns on Krayiss and studying the accounts of those sith who had ventured to the temple and bothered writing down how they got there and what they had to do to enter.

The details were cryptic, but she had taken notes.

When the shuttle broke through the cloud cover and slowed down as the pilot prepared to land on one of the cleared landing zones, Joyce let the notes fall to the floor as she stood up and stared out of the view-port. Beneath them, the labyrinthine canyon spread for miles upon miles. The red stone and shifting sand looked almost like an enormous brain and from their birds-eye perspective, she could not see the path leading through. She swallowed a ball of saliva and clenched her jaw hard.

"We are almost there." she put a hand on the wall, fingers clenching the metal hard.

"ETA in three minutes." The pilot warned.

It meant it was time for them to get ready to leave.

Joycelyn looked down at her notes, then over at the masked acolyte before returning her gaze to the viewport. In a way, having to lead another through the rocks helped her focus. She could not disappoint him the same way she had disappointed herself on her last attempt. Now, he never had to know that she had tried before.

[member="Dubiety"]

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Dubiety joined [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] beside the viewpoint, his gaze falling over the maze. So that was the first trial, an almost impossible maze filled with all sorts of dead ends and false obelisks. A genius way of routing out the weak willed fools who would give up. Or so, that's what the masked man chose to believe. He nodded to the woman as she spoke and gathered up the few things he had brought with him. The main thing being a tome he kept strapped to his hip, and where he kept his notes on the ancient rituals and spells he could find.

There was only one in it for the moment, the core of every Sorcerer. Force Blast, or just raw blast of the Dark Side's power. He rarely used such a skill, preferring the simplistic nature of lightning. But if he wanted to be a true sorcerer it was imperative he learned how to use the basics and master them so he might apply such skill to the more.. Advanced applications of the arts.

When the ship touched down outside the maze Dubiety held back, letting his superior take leave first so he might follow behind. Rank was everything to him, the rigid structure of the Sith Hierarchy was something to respect, and the authority given to those who did so was something to aspire to. "Are we to work together to get to the Obelisk, or is it part of my test to find the way on my own with you overseeing?"

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

[member="Dubiety"]

"To find the path, we must both prove our worth and dedication."

She headed out of the ship and into the arid labyrinth of red rock. They had not landed quite at the edge so much as in one of the sectors that had been identified and cleared as a place from which one could launch. It cut an hour or so off the optimal time. In fact, it was where she had been rescued the last time.

She filled her lungs with the sandy air and looked around as it flowed out between her lips. The little kissai shrine had been rebuilt since last time. wood and stone refined to mask old corrosion, and the eyes of the little statue were re-gilded to glow like the eyes of a real sith. The statue was small, only half the size of an average human. The stylised kissai figure looked to the right and held a hand out to the left. Its thumb and index finger was curled, and the three remaining fingers were kept straight.

"The Kissai will lead the way."

She knelt in front of the statue and brushed her fingers along the base of the statue. Sand peeled away to reveal a string of runes. She read them quietly to herself and repeated the phrase quietly a few times before speaking it out loud.

"Ana an ri wora diâ warsi tinri." "Walk sunward and remain true" "Dzu ri Tniya, sosûtari ri qo iw Mnoi." "At the sword, take the blue"

She looked at the sky and determined that "sunward" would be to the Kissai's left, where the hand gestured.

"Left."

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"Kassai hmm? They were rather good at the old arts. Would make sense for them to lead the way." Dubiety muttered to himself as [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] interacted with the statue. A puzzle? Figures for there to be something akin to this for the first stage. For now though, he'd trust in his master's wisdom on the matter. And should that fail, he'd trust in the Dark Side he could still see when he closed his eyes.

​"The first part is self explanatory at least." He spoke up as they began down the path. "I've never heard of taking the blue. Do you think it's literal perhaps?"

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

[member="Dubiety"]

"The Kissai were the ones who designed this whole maze and all the tricks within it. They made the obelisks and the sunken pyramid. We merely unearthed and reactivated what they created." "This is their land."

As they headed down the path it had lead them to, she kept the statue and its words in mind. In particular, she wondered about the hand gesture the figure displayed, with its three lower fingers displayed.

"It may be literal, but how?"

The path had branches shooting off in several locations, but it had told them to stay true, so she chose to keep them on the widest path. It wound in corners, making it hard to see how far one had gone. There was always a turn ahead, but after some time of walking in the partial shade, they came to a clear split. There was no one true road, but an equal divide.

On one side, the sun shone in like gold where the path dipped down. On the other, the shadows clung tightly and the path seemed to climb in the shadow of a sheer wall. There was a dark presence on either end, calling to them.

"Suggestions?"

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"Well, I don't see a sword here. Though." Dubiety paused, idly thumbing the chin of his mask. They had passed by many of other paths, leaving it to wonder if they had already gotten lost. There was no sword, so perhaps they took a wrong turn? No, they had kept to the main path, as they had been asked to do, and there was something to be said about the truth of the Kissai's puzzles.

The Epicanthix turned his head, glancing to each path in his quiet contemplation at the puzzle ahead. Then, an idea.

"The classic Sith Sword has two edges, correct?" He didn't wait for an answer, instead moving to the center of the path between their options. "What if we are in the sword, figuratively. And the blue, another classic Sith skill." He then raised a hand, letting loose a single bolt of blue lightning.

Instead of hitting the wall as it should, it veered to the left, as if drawn by a lightning rod. It went down the path out of sight, and could be heard impacting something farther down. A satisfactory grin took over the features of the man, and while it couldn't be seen it could certainly be heard as he spoke.

"Left then. To where the bolt landed."

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

[member="Dubiety"]

It was interesting watching a different mind work such a problem. Joycelyn would not have arrived at the same conclusion, yet she convinced herself to allow the acolyte to complete his attempt. When the lightning was indeed veered off to the side, her eyebrows lifted in mild bemusement.

"Well reasoned. Let's go."

She set off in the direction the lightning had gone, and saw, once she had crested over the top and met the golden light of the sun hovering over Krayiss II, she looked down and could see that the path dipped into a valley, shaded from the sun and thus cast in blue. She paused for a moment and thought back to the notes she had read, and a realisation dawned upon her face.

"I know where to go."

She started down the path as quick as her feet could carry her, almost tripping and falling several times as little stones dislodged from her trampling run and rolled across the path. She looked so certain as she ran down, then leapt off what appeared to be a cliff where the path turned sharply to the right again. Fog rolled through the cooling rocks further down, creating a blanket through which it was difficult to see, especially with the sun shining in from above as a sharp contrast.

She vanished out of sight, and was practically out of earshot.

Then, her voice rang through.

"Take a leap of faith, apprentice. I will make sure you land safe."

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Dubiety blinked in surprise at [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] 's sudden haste down the path. He did his best to keep up, but it quickly became clear that the physical aspect was not his strong suit. He fell behind, and when she jumped out of sight he paused by the edge, blinking behind his mask. Surely there was no reason to jump off, as that would surely lead to death. Right?

His head tilted curiously once he heard his masters voice ring out through the mist, a sigh that she was still alive at least.

"I hope, dear sister, this won't end in my death." He muttered under his breath before he backed up to the edge, and jumped, trusting this wasn't a ploy to remove him.

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

[member="Dubiety"]

As Dubiety jumped, he would fall through the dense fog and then, as the doubt crept up through his mind, feel a sudden jerk to the side as Joycelyn wrapped and pulled him through the Force. She was not so gentle that he would not slam into the wall, but at least he did not fall to his death in the thin stream and jagged rocks far, far below.

"Don't breathe if you can help it. It will confuse you."

Around them, springing out of the rock, were blue flowers with a black centre, emitting a distinct and powerful scent.

Putting one of her strong hands on his wrist, Joycelyn pulled her apprentice with him into an alcove, which then turned into a cave. The floor turned from stone to sand, to weatherworn, but clearly cut stairs that lead sharply upward. Ahead, the fog lifted and there was another golden light of the sun peeking through. The fog, as it mixed with the scent of the flowers, created a strange effect that would dull the senses and addle the mind if breathed in over a longer span of time. Dusty bones littered the floor of the tunnel, and a few dried up corpses showed content and happy faces, and no wounds.

She was taking him through what was known as the Tunnel of the Touched; a known, but dangerous shortcut.

Arriving at the top of the tunnel, Joycelyn took a deep breath of fresh air. The sunlight seemingly dispelled any effect the fog had, though it left something of a throbbing headache. In front of them was another small Kissai shrine, this time with a statue pointing ahead with two fingers while holding a hand over its eyes.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"Confuse? Wha-" Dubiety paused his complaint mid sentence as he finally caught his bearings, his hazel gaze behind the mask peering ever curiously at the flowers around them. Poisonous? No. Hallucinogenic. His gaze again fell to [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] , the faintest of a smirk forming. His mask wasn't just for show or secrecy. Equipped with a filter, this sort of challenge shouldn't prove a problem.

At least that's what he assumed until the flowers started screaming at him.

Disbelief formed in his mind as the blue flowers all looked to him, screaming their nonsense in an endless stream of vowels. It was a haunting sound, more than enough to put fear in the young acolyte. His gaze caught by a large group that had slowly begun to bleed a deep shade of crimson, he turned his head to ask his sister if she too saw this only to instead see another of the flowers suddenly in his face, screeching.

"S.. Sister!" He called out the words, though they were drowned out by the screaming in his head. Of coruse, Joycelyn would be able to hear that. Fear continued to well up within him, primal and without source, before he felt a sharp tug and the warmth of the sun.

Fresh air filtered through his mask, his paranoid gaze slowly settling as he realized what had happened. With a cough he cleared his throat, pulling his hand free of his masters.

"It seems such a poison can't be filtered out. A shame and a surprise."

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

[member="Dubiety"]

Oh she heard his screams alright, and she felt him flailing in her hand. Meanwhile, she tried to hold her breath as well as possible, pinching her nose and swallowing down the urge to breathe in. Even with that precaution, she felt the world twist and shimmer, and only with bullheaded, single-minded, perseverance did she pull through to the other end, and then she gasped for air.

She barely even noticed Dubiety pulling his hand back as she desperately drew air into her lungs.

Only after a solid moment of savouring air did she reply.

"It is born of Krayiss, of this valley, and the dark side. It cannot leave."

Ordering herself, she stepped up to the little statue of the kissai priest and looked out to where he pointed. The sun shone sharply in her eyes so she shielded it, not unlike the statue itself. And then she saw something off in the distance; there was a wide circle of sand, in the centre of which stood an obelisk. Though there were many replicas placed out to fool the unwelcome, she knew this to be the real deal.

"I can see it. It's not too far."

She pointed toward it, a smile apparent on her lips.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Never had he been so glad to have his mask, to hide his embarrassment of his earlier fault. Trusting tech was a foolish thing to do it seemed. Trust in the Force and his own skill. It was a shame that the herb couldn't be taken off world though. The applications he could think of were numerous to say the least. He peered over to the obelisk once [member="Joycelyn Zambrano"] pointed it out, a small grin forming.

"So close, yet I doubt our troubles are off. I.. Sense something. Alive. Hungry." The grin faded as he concentrated on the sensation. An endless hunger seemed to settle underneath the tower. "Is there any inscription on this statue?"