Private Shifting Sands

[Persephone Dashiell]

OSTOR

Ostor | Liin Terallo
​

Wind whipped through the canyon city, causing Persephone to turn her back to it. A majority of the cities on the planet were built into the canyons, the constant winds carving rock into massive sculptures. Persephone knew many traveled as tourists to come and see the rock formations and the locals capitalized on the opportunity. Colorful buntings over stalls advertising tour guides were up and down the bottom level.

She wasn't here for tourist purposes today but Persephone was still entertaining the idea of hiring a guide. It would depend on a number of factors - including if Miss Terallo showed up. Persephone reached out to his cousin's friend as she was 'drifting and taking up oxygen' which meant she was perfect for this little assignment of hers. The teenager was going to pay Miss Terallo, so hopefully that sweetened the deal and would encourage the woman to show.

Their designated meet up spot was at the very end of the bazaar and it was taking all her strength to not abandon her post and do a little shopping.

Maybe after the found this hidden laboratory.

 

[Liin Terallo]

The wind announced the city long before it revealed it. It came in long, steady currents that pressed against the hull of the transport, slipping through every seam with a low, constant whisper. Not harsh enough to threaten. Not gentle enough to ignore. It simply….persisted. As though the world itself refused to be still.

Liin did not resist it. She stood near the edge of the landing platform once the transport had settled, her gaze drifting; not aimlessly, but without urgency across the canyon walls that rose and curved in sweeping, natural architecture. Stone shaped not by intention, but by time and pressure. There was something honest in that.

Below, the city moved in color and motion. Buntings stretched between carved outcroppings, snapping softly in the wind. Stalls lined the lower levels in uneven rows, their fabrics bright against the muted stone. Voices carried upward in fragments; laughter, bargaining, the cadence of a place that existed as much for visitors as it did for those who called it home.

For a moment, she simply watched. There had been a time when she would have already been moving. Following a lead. Checking for surveillance. Measuring exits, threats, variables. Every step accounted for before it was taken. Now there was no one waiting to intercept her. No pressure closing in at her back. Just wind. Stone. And time enough to decide where to place her next step.

She descended without haste. The bazaar met her in a wash of sound and color, the air warmer here, touched by spice and dust. A vendor called out as she passed; another gestured toward a display of polished trinkets that caught the light in fractured glints. Liin’s gaze lingered briefly; not out of distraction, but consideration before moving on. Observation, as ever, came naturally. Even now. Especially now.

The meeting point had been described simply enough: the far end of the bazaar. She did not ask for directions. Instead, she followed the subtle thinning of the crowd, the way the noise shifted as the stalls became less dense and the wind began to find it's way back through the stone corridors. It was a quieter edge. A boundary, of sorts. That was very fitting.

Liin slowed as the final stretch came into view. Her gaze settled, not searching, but recognizing. And though her posture remained relaxed, there was a quiet precision in the way she came to a stop. Not directly approaching. Not yet. Just close enough to observe before being observed. A habit, perhaps. Or simply just who she was.

“Persephone,” she said at last, her voice carrying easily between the spaces carved by wind and time.

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Still dreaming of shopping, Zee was the one to alert to Miss Liin Terallo 's presence. Persephone was happy the woman showed. Given the task at hand the teenager suspected Miss Terallo would excel at what they had to do but also enjoy it. Hopefully. Persephone was aware many did not enjoy her presence but that was fine - she would have time for friends later.

Still, she smiled at Miss Terallo and extended her hand in greeting. Persephone was fairly certain they were not on hug-level greetings and that was fine with her.

"Thanks for coming out this way Miss Terallo. Wasn't sure if you would be interested." She looked down the bazaar to see if anyone was in earshot. No one appeared to be. "We will be searching an abandoned laboratory. Once we locate it in the sands. In your professional opinion do you think we need a guide? Or will it be too dangerous given potential contents?"

Liin seemed to know quite a bit and Persie would appreciate her perspective. As she studied and grew in her field she found leaning against different experiences than her own often helped make these types of decisions easier in the future.

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin’s gaze dropped briefly to the offered hand. There was no hesitation in the gesture itself; only in what it represented. Familiarity, perhaps. Or an assumption of it. Still, she accepted it without comment, her grip light, precise, and brief. “Miss Persephone.” The title remained, deliberate but not unkind.

At the mention of the assignment, something in her stilled. Not outwardly. The wind still moved through the space between them, tugging lightly at fabric and hair. The bazaar still murmured at their backs. But her attention narrowed both quietly and completely. A laboratory. It was not the word itself. It was what followed it. Abandoned. Buried. Lost to sand and time.

Liin released her hand. Her gaze shifted; not to Persephone at first, but past her. Along the edges of the bazaar, the thinning crowd, the natural choke points where sound carried and where it didn’t. Old habits, resurfacing without invitation. Or perhaps….never truly gone.

Only then did she look back. “You were told that it was abandoned,” she said, not quite a question. Her tone remained even, but there was a subtle weight beneath it now. Consideration layered over something sharper. “That is not the same as empty." Her eyes moved over Persephone again. Not dismissive, not critical, but assessing. She was young. Capable, perhaps. But still….young. “And you intend to locate it in open terrain.” A faint tilt of her head, as though aligning pieces only she could see. “Without knowing of it's condition. Or what remains inside.” There was no judgment in her words.

The question of a guide lingered between them. Liin exhaled softly, the sound nearly lost to the wind. “A guide would help you find it,” she said at last. “But it would also introduce variables that you cannot control. Curiosity. Greed. Fear.” Her gaze held steady now. “All of which tend to complicate situations like this. If the structure is intact; the greater risk will not be the terrain.” A slight shift in her posture that was subtle but unmistakable. It was not tension, but readiness. “It will be what was left behind.”

Her eyes flicked briefly toward the canyon’s edge, where the wind carried sand in faint, distant streams. Then back to Persephone. “I will assist you.” Not I can. Not perhaps. But a decision, already made. “But we do this carefully. And we do not involve anyone else unless it becomes necessary.” A beat followed. “Tell me what you know.”

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Persephone appreciated Liin Terallo understanding the fact a guide could easily mess up their entire plans. The teenager had deep enough credits to keep someone silent but such a thing also required research. Picking someone off the street would be unwise and it would be very difficult to stop now and call in an outsider.

Pal Veda came to mind, but she had not seen the man in ages.

Instead her head craned back towards Zee, the droid quiet thus far. Maybe the droid knew his voice, being through a vocabulator, often carried and the wind only made it worse. If they were truly going to brainstorm they would have to do it in the Imperial T-47 light airspeeder they would be renting to reach the facility. Walking in these conditions was far too dangerous.

"We can discuss more in the airspeeder but I have acquired an old map. Zee has it in his archives. It is unknown if the map is accurate or even real. It is wildly out of date but it is a small lead we can build on in the very least. Once we are aboard I can have Zee project it for your study, it may be useful to have all eyes looking at it from the air."

Persephone paused before motioning a short distance to where their airspeeder sat. It was old, utilitarian, and gray but at one time it had been the cream of the crop in Imperial transport.

"Come. I hope you are not opposed to Zee piloting. Rest assured he is very skilled."

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin listened without interruption; her attention settling easily into the shape of what Persephone was offering. An old map. Unverified. Possibly inaccurate. A lead, nonetheless.

Her gaze shifted briefly to the droid at the mention of it's role, studying it with the same quiet thoroughness she had given everything else thus far. There was no visible skepticism; only a brief assessment, filed and accepted. “If it can keep us airborne, which is more than I can do,” she said simply, “that will suffice.” There was no resistance. And no need to assert control where it wasn’t required.

Her attention returned to Persephone as the airspeeder was indicated, her eyes passing over it's frame in a single, measured sweep. Age showed in the details; the worn edges, the softened finish, but not necessarily in it's function. Appearances, as ever, were not reliable indicators.

She stepped forward without hesitation. “An outdated map is not without value,” Liin continued as she moved, her voice steady against the wind. “Structures like that are rarely built without reason. Even if the markings have shifted, the intent behind them usually remains.”

Her gaze drifted outward, toward the canyon walls and the distant sweep of sand beyond them. Buried. Abandoned. Forgotten. Something about it settled uneasily. Not sharply enough to name, but present all the same. Like a thought just out of reach. She did not linger on it. Not yet. “If it is real,” she added, quieter now, “then it was hidden deliberately.”

By the time they reached the airspeeder, that earlier stillness had returned, but it was no longer the same as before. Less drifting. More….alignment.

Liin paused just long enough to let Persephone take the lead in boarding, neither insisting nor deferring. Simply allowing the natural order of things to unfold. Once inside, her attention shifted immediately. “To the map,” she said. "And whereever it may lead us."

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

​

The speeder ride was relatively quiet beyond either one of them breaking in to look at the map and offer suggestions on where to go next. They had thought it had been found at first but it was quickly decided the half-buried pillar was not the laboratory they were looking for and was just a pillar.

An hour wasted.

A click south they tried again. This structure half-buried in the sand and half-hidden in a crevice. Most of the buildings were built in canyons or crevices due to the winds. Someone had tried to preserve this, unlike the pillar. There was structure and to her it looked more like a cultural relic then a laboratory. Yet the coordinates were somewhat correct. Perhaps a way to throw off those looking for the rarity contained inside? Or did the laboratory company move in to an abandoned structure and retrofit to save money? All possibilities.

With sand piled up, it looked they would have to climb up and enter through a window to find out.

[ I'm not detecting any energy readings at this time Miss Persephone. ]

"I suspect anything of real value is much deeper than what your scanners can pick up. One way to find out. Didn't detect any lifeforms?"

[ Other than yourself and Miss Terallo, not yet. ]

"Excellent. Most likely inside by those power sources." Persephone chuckled slightly and turned to Liin Terallo "If you want to wait outside while I see if this is the place you're more than welcomed. Might be another dead end."

[/div]

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin did not answer immediately. Her gaze had already shifted past Persephone, settling on the structure itself. The way that it sat within the crevice. The partial preservation. The deliberate feel of it, even beneath the sand’s slow reclamation. It did not present itself like a laboratory. Which, in and of itself, meant very little.

“Mm.” The sound was quiet, thoughtful; not an agreement, nor a dismissal. Her eyes traced the visible edges once more, measuring what could be seen against what could not. Entry points. Structural stress. Lines that suggested alteration rather than original design. A façade, perhaps. Or something repurposed.

At Persephone’s offer, Liin’s attention returned to her. Not sharply, but with a clarity that had not been there before. “You will not be going in alone.” There was no edge to it. No raised tone. Just a statement that the matter was already settled.

Her gaze flicked briefly toward the half-buried climb, the suggested entry through the window, then back again. “If this is a dead end, we can confirm it together. If it is not, then you should not be the first to discover that unaided.” There was no implication of doubt in Persephone’s capability. Only risk assessment.

Liin stepped forward, closing the distance to the structure without waiting for agreement, her movements unhurried but purposeful. The wind shifted around the crevice, quieter here, but not absent, sand whispering softly against stone. Up close, the details became clearer. Not cultural. Not entirely. But altered. Her hand lifted briefly, not touching the surface, but hovering just near enough to gauge it's condition; the temperature, erosion, the faint irregularities that spoke of intervention rather than age alone. “Someone wanted this overlooked,” she said, more to the space than to Persephone.

Liin let a small moment pass. Then, finally, she moved toward the climb. “We proceed carefully.”

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

As Liin Terallo examined the structure, so did she. Oceanic gaze found signs that there had been an attempt to repair the structure at some point in time. The original was clearly carved from the surrounding rock and from the local landscape. Repairs seemed to have been made with a bag of mix brought offworld. Locals would have used the reddish sand and gravel. This seemed much more pale.

Persephone didn't doubt Liin's ability to explore and climb into the unknown. From her perspective having someone wait outside was more safety minded. If she was to suddenly get eaten it would be nice to have the news relayed along by a survivor other than Zee. Considering she was sixteen and still a student, Persie also considered Liin may feel responsible on some level for her safety. She had encountered the same annoying thing with Colette not too long ago.

Looking at the massive dune of sand that was blocking most of the building, Persie approached it logically. This meant going up at a diagonal to reduce stress. If she planned it correctly her path would take her close to one of those blown out windows and it would be easy enough to hook in.

"Zee has to wait below. I feel he's too heavy and would collapse our progress. If we can get in through that second story and drop down, I think we may be able to get him in through the front entrance."

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin’s gaze followed the line Persephone indicated, tracing the slope of the dune toward the fractured second-story opening above. The angle was sound. Less direct pressure. Less chance of collapse. That was a logical choice. Her attention shifted briefly toward the pale repair work once more, fingers brushing lightly across the altered surface this time. The material crumbled differently beneath contact. It was finer. Imported. Recent enough to matter. “Someone continued maintaining it after the original structure began to fail,” she observed quietly. “Which suggests whatever was inside remained important longer than the structure itself.”

Her eyes lifted toward the broken window again. Then to Zee below. “The droid stays here,” Liin agreed. “If the interior has degraded, concentrated weight near the foundation could bring more of it down.”

A brief pause followed before she stepped toward the dune itself, testing the sand beneath her footing before beginning the diagonal ascent Persephone had outlined. The wind was quieter near the stone face. Narrowed and contained. It made the silence around the structure feel strangely deliberate.

Halfway up, Liin slowed. Not from instability. But from awareness. Her gaze shifted toward the darkened opening ahead, lingering there for a moment too long. Then she emphathized: “We are not the first to come here recently.” Her comment was calmly spoken and certain.

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Easing her way up, Persephone slowed as Liin Terallo mentioned they were not the only ones who had been in the area recently. Head craned up towards the crevice then towards the structure. The pair was aiming to go through the window and back down. Her gaze flicked down to the sand below their feet. Some type of footprint was evident.

Could mean many things. They were in a bit of a wind shelter so it was difficult to say how long the prints had been there. Few days at most though, which meant someone could still be around. Was it going to stop her? Not at all. Persephone had Zee as a backup and there was a small plan in her mind to play innocent archeology student as needed.

"Zee, keep an eye out for any visitors. We're going in."

[Understood Miss Persephone.]

Climbing up further, she hoisted herself through the former window opening, placing her backside on the ledge. This let her eyes adjust for a moment to see what to do next. Feet stretched as far as she could go and the teenager just dropped onto the soft pile of sand below. It wasn't graceful but there was nothing else to catch her at the bottom.

Slowly she rolled-slash-slid towards the first floor. As she suspected, all entrances on the first floor were blocked by the shifting sands. Her eyes were still adjusting but it was clear the space was retrofitted at one point. No longer did it have the marks of an ancient relic.

Hand rested on the blaster on her hip as she waited for Miss Terallo to follow.

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin watched the tracks only briefly before continuing upward. The impressions were shallow, softened by drifting sand, but still present enough to confirm movement through the area within recent days. Perhaps hours. The canyon winds would have erased anything older. Someone had come here. And perhaps had never truly left.

She said nothing further on it. There was little value in feeding uncertainty before they understood what they were standing inside.

The final stretch of the climb narrowed near the broken opening, stone worn smoother by age and abrasion. Liin steadied herself against the edge before pulling herself through after Persephone, movements controlled and economical despite the unstable footing beneath the sand. Unlike Persephone, she did not drop immediately. Instead, she paused within the fractured window frame itself and observed.

The darkness below was not complete. Thin strands of light slipped through cracks buried somewhere beneath the dunes, tracing pale lines across the interior walls. Enough to reveal what time alone had not created. Reinforcement brackets. Conduits. Retrofit paneling partially concealed beneath dust and stone. Not ancient, but adapted.

Her gaze lingered on one section of wall where the original carved surface gave way to cleaner lines beneath accumulated sand. A laboratory indeed.

Liin lowered herself carefully afterward, boots sinking into the soft incline below with a muted slide rather than a hard landing. Sand shifted quietly around her as she descended the remainder of the way toward the first floor. Only then did her attention settle briefly on Persephone’s hand resting near the blaster at her hip. “Not yet,” she said softly.

Her own gaze continued deeper into the buried structure, thoughtful now in a way that bordered on uneasy. “This place does not feel abandoned.”

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Persephone dropped her hand before declaring a little too cheerily. "Oh good, I'm not a great shot." A little unwieldly really. She would hit something, just not always her intended target. Time and practice was still being worked out.

Shuffling slowly towards the middle of the space, Persephone could see signs of things being hidden behind the old. Whoever did it had tried to be subtle but the job was sloppy or quickly done. If they had been rushing through that was one thing. Yet they were taking their time and it allowed for the eye to linger on what was supposed to be passed over.

Eyes squinted as she looked at pieces of poorly painted conduit, trying to determine where they ran to.

"You tell me where we should go. I think you would know best."

Wasn't like she had an idea.

Liin Terallo​

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin’s attention shifted briefly toward Persephone at the cheerful admission, and though the expression that followed was faint, there was the barest suggestion that amusement had almost surfaced before being smoothed away again. “Then let us avoid requiring proof of it,” she said quietly.

Her gaze returned to the surrounding structure afterward, moving slowly across the walls while Persephone examined the exposed conduit. The longer she looked, the clearer the alterations became. None of it matched cleanly. Ancient carved stone interrupted by imported materials. Concealed brackets. Lines rerouted behind hastily applied surface treatments meant to imitate age without fully understanding it. It was not preservation. It was camouflage. Whoever had repurposed the structure had cared far more about hiding their work than honoring what had originally stood here.

Liin stepped closer to the partially concealed conduit Persephone had noticed, crouching slightly as her gloved fingers brushed against the pale paint layered unevenly across its surface. It flaked away too easily. Quick work indeed. Her eyes followed the line of it upward, then downward again toward where the sand-covered floor sloped unnaturally near the rear portion of the chamber. “There,” she said after a moment, her voice lowering thoughtfully. “The conduit is wrong.” It was not the presence of it, but the direction. “It should route toward the outer wall if it were supporting visible systems.” Her gaze narrowed slightly. “Instead, it disappears inward.” Towards something hidden deeper beneath the structure.

Liin straightened slowly, dust slipping from her fingertips as her attention settled on the uneven decline near the back wall. What had first appeared to be natural settling now looked more deliberate the longer one observed it. The faint outline of reinforced edges sat just barely visible beneath layers of sand and stone. An access point. Buried intentionally. Her expression stilled almost imperceptibly. “They hid the entrance after the retrofit.” Calmly spoken. Certain. “Which means whatever they were protecting was not meant to survive discovery if the upper structure failed.”

Only then did she glance back toward Persephone again. “And yet someone continued coming here afterward.” A beat passed as the silence around them settled heavily once more. Liin stepped toward the buried section carefully, testing the stability beneath her boots before kneeling near the edge of the concealed seam. “This was not abandoned,” she said softly, more certain now than before. “It was sealed.”

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"Sealed?"

Persephone craned her head around, following the line of sight Liin Terallo had taken. Miss Terallo was an expert in laboratories so the teenager was certainly deferring to her expertise. Eyes were taking a moment to adjust but even she could spot some of the sloppy work of trying to hide conduit in the ancient architecture.

"We came looking for those orchids. They are dangerous, however, we have zero idea if they are really here. Relying on hopes and dreams and some piecemeal information. So we could be dealing with poison orchids or something way worse. We have the equipment to move the one but I pray we didn't come across some type of odd cloning facility."

Maybe they cloned the dangerous plant, that would make sense. However, Persephone was worried the currently unknown owners or former owners of the lab tried to do more. Rabid creatures or hideous hybrids, for example. She was silently hoping they had just stuck to plant life.

"The door ahead looks wielded shut but I brought tools. Going to give it a go."

Hadn't used a plasma cutter before, but Persie imagined it was similar to using a hot knife. She left Liin to look around as she got to work on getting them deeper into the facility.

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin’s attention lingered on the sealed section a moment longer before shifting back toward Persephone as the younger woman spoke of orchids, toxins, and the increasingly unpleasant possibilities hidden beneath the sand. The mention of a cloning facility earned the faintest narrowing of her gaze. “Those are rarely described optimistically by the people who build them,” she murmured. Her words were not in disagreement. Just experience.

Her eyes drifted once more across the chamber around them, following the concealed conduit deeper into the structure while Persephone prepared the plasma cutter. The longer she stood within the buried facility, the more the place resisted the idea of abandonment. Not through obvious activity, but through intention lingering in the details. Sealed access points. Concealed infrastructure. Selective preservation. Someone had wanted this place hidden long after its usefulness should have ended. That rarely accompanied harmless research.

The sharp hiss of the plasma cutter soon broke through the silence, casting shifting light across the stone and retrofit paneling alike. Liin instinctively stepped further to the side, not out of fear of the tool itself, but to study what became visible around the edges as the welded seal began softening under heat. The metal was thicker than expected. Layered. Not merely shut. Contained.

Her expression stilled slightly at that. “Miss Persephone.” Calmly spoken, though quieter now. More focused. “Pause for a moment, please.” Liin moved closer to the partially exposed seam, crouching near the edge where the cutter had begun revealing older material beneath the weld plating. Her gloved fingers brushed lightly against the surface before stopping altogether. There. A marking. Mostly obscured by heat scoring and corrosion, but still visible enough now that the outer layer had begun separating. Not decorative. Warning glyphs. Containment symbols. Old ones at that.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as recognition settled in. “This was not sealed to keep people out,” she said softly. A brief silence followed while the dim emergency lighting flickered once against the walls around them. “It was sealed to keep something in.”

Tag: Persephone Dashiell