The Past is the Past (Siobhan)

[Phylis Alince]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Phylis gave Siobhan an exasperated look. “No I do not! I will go first!” she snapped, pushing her way to the steps and starting down with a torch in hand.

They reached the bottom and found a strongly built door which looked suspiciously like a cell. A multitude of locks, bars and bolts secured it. This was not the sort of place one just wandered in or out of.
Much time had passed, so everything was corroded and warped with age.

Phylis, whose resolution must have been wavering a bit at this point, stopped. “Is this…a good idea?” she asked, gesturing to the door.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

Phylis going first probably meant that Siobhan could pass the time getting a good view of her rear, which was surely appreciated and perhaps made the descent down the stairs a bit less tedious. The torch Phylis held and the flash of Siobhan's bionic eye provided some illumination as they descended into darkness.

Siobhan stared at the powerfully built door. Evidently whoever had constructed it had taken a great deal of care in securing it...and in keeping whoever might come after out...or what lay inside from trapped. Siobhan frowned slightly, then turned her gaze back to Phylis. "Probably not. But that can be said about many things we do," she looked thoughtful and a bit uncertain herself for a moment, then shrugged. "So...we turning away or shall make us a door?"

 

[Phylis Alince]

Phylis put her ear to the door and drew back after a moment. “I hear something inside, a clinking.”
She tried to pull at the bolts, but they were either locked shut or so corroded that they could not move.
She looked to @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]. “I think it’s fortunate you’re here. An entrance, if you please…but try not to bring the rest of the building down on top of us!”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

"Well, too small for an eldritch abomination. I think," Siobhan muttered as she gazed at the door, concentratring intently as she focused upon it and the multitude of locks, bars and bolts securing it. She sank deeply into the Force as she exerted her telekinetic will upon it. "Step back," she spoke softly. Her mind willed that the the locks should blasted and explode, that the door should be struck by the power of an invisible hammer that would brutally burst it open, all concentrated upon this focal point so as not to bring the wall and ceiling down.

Focused application of her powers came more difficult to Siobhan than the battering ramming she was used to. At heart she was a brawler not a surgical specialist, which might also contribute to her being rather lackluster when it came to defensive powers, but exert her will and the mental hammer smashed into the entrance.

 

[Phylis Alince]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
This writer was undecided as to what was behind the door, and so eventually used random.org and their brilliant number generator to decide….

The door burst open under Siobhan’s not so tender ministrations. As it fell apart, Phylis pushed in beside Siobhan, torch up and lightsabre in her hand.

She needn’t have bothered. The small room beyond was empty of eldritch monsters, deities, imprisoned star brats or anything else hostile. It had been a cell once, and the biodegraded remains of a wooden bed sat rotting. A thin gap between blocks had opened up, and a chain hanging from the wall occasionally moved in the breeze and clinked against the wall.

A skeleton lay on the ground, fragile and turning to dust after so long. A rusted manacle still fastened the unfortunate captive to a ring on the ground. The cause of death was unknown, but the skeleton was female and clearly Eldorai. They were stretched full length, arms reaching for the door vainly.

Phylis let out a breath. “See? Nothing to worry about!” she said a little too happily. “But…poor woman, I wonder who would be kept prisoner in a temple….”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

No eldritch abomination, no malevolent Sith spirit bound to a tomb and out to possess them or annoying star brat. This entire quest was being...way too logical. Like for one day the universe had decided to actually make sense and not throw treasures and evil at them for the sake of it. It was a most...unnatural experienxe.

"I recall you being the one who was worrying," Siobhan retorted, patting Phylis on the shoulder. "See, no monsters, all these stories about treasure maps and eldritch abominations are misleading," she spoke, in what was probably a crude attempt at mimicking the Jedi Master's speech patterns when she was in lecturer mode. She gazed at the decaying, fragile skeleton, bound and manacled even in death, desperately stretching out for the door.

"Poor woman...to be buried like that," she said softly. "Maybe she was a 'heretic'. Getting imprisoned in a Temple would be a cruel irony then to torment her. Show how the 'Goddess' has power over her and all that."

 

[Phylis Alince]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Phylis sniffed, dismissing claims that she had ever been worried! Such a thought was simply impossible!
She distracted matters by examining the dead woman. “Hmm, she’s been here for a very long time. Since this Temple was still in use, I deem. But I don’t know why. She was a prisoner, but look at this.” She held up a small gold necklace which had fallen from the skeleton. “A prisoner kept chained up like this, but allowed to wear expensive jewellery? And I think this is remnants of silk as well. None of this makes sense.”

Phylis went to the walls of the cell and examined them minutely. Behind where the bed had once been faint marks had been scratched into the walls, but at the moment they had faded beyond sight, and would need some imaging equipment to show them up.

Going back Phylis knelt down and examined the body again. There was a small puncture at the back of the skull such as that caused by a metal spike or point.

“Murder, I guess,” Phylis concluded. “For some reason the prisoner became a liability and had to be permanently disposed of.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

Given the Eldorai matriarchy's penchant for disposing of 'awkward elements' it seemed that Moira Skaldi, former Omega Protectorate hatchet woman and specialist for dirty tricks, would have had an interesting career if it had been a Dashdae Sciia Mistress who discovered the tech to create HRDs. How different the Galaxy's history would have been if that had happened.

"Like Malya Helindan became a liability," Siobhan recalled as she approached the skeleton and stood next to Phylis as she knelt down, gazing at the puncture at the back her skull. "Guess that might've been Anya if she hadn't been quick enough to escape after she learned the truth about the Codex. People never change, they just change clothes and weapons and means of transport, huh?" she asked rhetorically, echoing Phylis' earlier words to her.

 

[Phylis Alince]

Phylis looked at Siobhan with undisguised shock. @[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] knowing things was something she hadn't bargained on. Well, except for how to crush people with roofs. She looked back.
"Malya Helindan...yes. Similar, but not the same. But you have given me an idea. Not Anya...not Anya...Silaqui. Yes! This is very interesting because there was a mysterious event befalling the last Star Queen named Silaqui. She was...well the sources say possessed, a puppet, some say she was brainwashed. She was Ariane's predecessor on the throne...the one that Ariane deposed to become Queen and defeat the Kar'zun. Supposedly Silaqui II overcame her conditioning and helped defeat her tormentor but was slain in the battle. But...what if this is her? A deposed Star Queen, no matter how apparently blameless, can never be allowed to go free. What if this temple to her successor was built over her cell? And what if, eventually, Ariane the Great decided she was too dangerous to keep alive?"

Phylis seemed to be having a full on revelation. "But why not remove the body? Perhaps there was no time. Which means...was it Ariane's daughter? Was this woman really down here for ninety-five years? No...."
She seemed to have forgotten Siobhan was even there.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

Admittedly Siobhan had not found out anything on Malya and Anya on her own, though perhaps it said something that despite her one-track mind she had actually remembered!

But then Phylis the relentless digger discovered that the truth was out there, or rather before their eyes, and let loose a flow of words and came up with the Indoctrination Theory! Clearly the Kar'zun were Reapers...only presumably not with the misfortune of being controllled by an annoying holographic brat. Siobhan suppressed a shudder at the mention of brainwashing or possession. She remembered the madness Shadow had inflicted upon her very well. Likewise her and Qae's experiences on Terminus, where a Mad God worshipped the Bando Gora had put an entire city under mind control and almost broken their sanity.

Clearly Game of Stars episodes could learn a few things from the Eldorai! "Remind me again that I'm happy to be out of politics. Oh, wait, I am still involved in Eldorai ones," Siobhan muttered more to herself. Her good friend Anya happened to be crown princess and heir to the throne. Apparently Phylis had forgotten she was there as well.

"Err, you were saying? Right...she might have been here for ninety-five years?"

 

[Phylis Alince]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

“Hmm? Well, yes, seems unlikely, but the true culprit might never be known. However, we might be able to find out if this is indeed Silaqui II.”
She pulled out a complicated gadget from her bag and went to the wall, using the device to magnify and enhance the faint scratches.
“Hmm…old Eldarai. If we account for the rock and the blunt carving tool this looks like saer, and…yes…hmm.” Phylis wandered off into academic meditation, occasionally mentioning odd things like ‘They didn’t have olives!’, but in the end she turned to Siobhan, very excited.

“It’s a line of old poetry, and it confirms it’s Silaqui II! It reads, translated ‘In light is born eternal hope, in darkness is born the music’s death.’ The Eldorai word for music, or harmony, is Silaqui!”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

I'll just...stand around and...guard your rear. Yeah, guard it, Siobhan thought while Phylis was in her academic daze, seemingly wandering off into a world of her own. Siobhan had needed spice to do that! But then the intrepid digger hit upon the great revelation as the pieces of the puzzle were connected.

The look of pure excitement on Phylis' face was something Siobhan could only match when faced with the prospect of kinky sex, preferrably involving more than two participants, and gratiotous violence. "Don't think harmony fits Sila. She does give the best parties though!" Siobhan quipped randomly. The 'best' parties with the best submissives indeed. "Ahem, that's great. Congrats on connecting the puzzle and finding the truth!"

 

[Phylis Alince]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

“Names are often more hopeful than real,” Phylis said with a wry smile. “Like your name, Siobhan, which means ‘Blessed by the Force’. I’m not sure how blessed you feel you are, but names are less about reality and more about how nice they sound, or how hopeful people think they are.”

The mention of parties brought a frown back to Phylis though. “I am sure she does,” she said disapprovingly.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

"I am blessed. I have Tegs," Siobhan said quietly, more to herself. Hopefully Phylis had not heard her! Doubtless she would get trolled. Kerri, could your Badass Decay get any worse? the inner voice was wondering - or perhaps an alternate Siobhan Kerrigan in the multiversal cinema who liked tropes. Well...she could lose all her combat skills due to spending all her time in beauty salons and with Eldorai girls.

Phylis' disapproving frown just made Siobhan laugh. "One day I'm taking you to one. One of those on a religious festival. You'd be studying 'religious rites'!"

 

[Phylis Alince]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Phylis bridled at the invitation. “Only if you do my archaeology class test and pass it,” she said, confident that this would never happen.

If she had heard Siobhan’s soft words she made no comment. She was not an unfair person. If people wanted to be sappy and lovey-dovey it didn’t worry her unless they tried to inflict it on her as well!

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

Siobhan made a face and pouted. She did not like the idea of tests! At least not that sort of test. "Will there be pretty pictures?" she asked rhetorically.

"So now that we've uncovered the great revelation - which undoubtedly we won't be able to publicise on Kaeshana because it would be awkward - anything left on the digging list?" she continued.

 

[Phylis Alince]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

“No, there will be a 3000 word essay on the merits of the five commonly used forms of object dating,” Phylis said triumphantly. In this case at least the pen was mightier than the battering ram.

“We seem good at discovering terrible secrets from Kaeshana’s past. I will need to gather all the information I can about this, and the rest of the temple. We will inform the Queen after we’re finished, so if they decide to cover everything up I will have all my notes regardless.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

"And the truth shall live on," Siobhan said dramatically. The practical - and doubtless rather uncultured part of her - of her did wonder where the point was. After all, there was no gain there, especially if it just got covered up. Clearly Siobhan was too uncultured and plain materialistic to understood the importance of uncovering dark secrets and shedding light on mysteries.

 

[Phylis Alince]

Phylis nodded. "It shall, Siobhan," she said fervently. And unlike Siobhan she meant it. To her there was nothing more important than knowledge and information, no matter what steps were necessary to discover it.
@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Phylis Alince"]

"Good luck spreading the word and enlightening future generations," Siobhan said softly, giving Phylis a pat on the shoulder. It was a big gap in understanding between them, since she could not quite follow why this was so important, but she got that it was important to Phylis.

"So, do I get a reward for all my help? And, no, I don't mean that sort of reward. Not that you're not hot and all," she spoke.