Private Whispering Rocks Cave

[Meya Liefi]

Tag: Sashina
​

Mortyra’s gaze lingered where the girl had vanished, not with concern, but with quiet calculation.

“You should send her away,” she said at last, her voice even. “This place is not meant for someone like her.” The words carried the shape of care, but there was no urgency behind them, no real investment. The simple reality was that Mortyra sensed more danger here than someone so young could handle, and if Sashina became distracted by that, it would become a problem.

The ledge the girl was on, when Mortyra looked up, was empty. Had she gone inside the tomb when they were not looking?

Seconds stretched, then thinned. No flicker of green flame. No shift of presence returning through the Force. Just the same heavy pressure pressing down from the tomb ahead.

“She has either left to return to your clan's settlement…” she murmured, more to herself than to Sashina, “…or entered that tomb and found trouble.”

There was no change in her expression. But she stepped forward anyway, boots finding careful purchase between the twisted forms of stone. Not toward the ledge. Toward the tomb.

The moment her foot crossed an invisible threshold between the outer path and the archway’s shadow, the air shifted.

A low, grinding sound rolled through the air, subtle at first, like stone settling after a long age of stillness. Then, where the noise was coming from became apparent. Fingers on the statues around twitched…

One of the Zeffo figures nearest her shifted even more, its head dragging upward slowly. Dust fell in thin streams from its shoulders. Another followed, its arm jerking free from the angle it had been locked in, the movement wrong, jagged, but undeniably alive. She sensed even more danger. But why? Did they always move this way when someone neared the tomb?

 

[Sashina]

Tag: Meya Liefi
​

Sashina's eyes lifted at Meya's words, a faint glint catching in them. "Mm… sounds like you just enjoy having me to yourself," she murmured, the tease light, but deliberate. Beneath it, she hoped Meya saw the value in another Sister who did not immediately take against her simply for what she was. But she said nothing on it for now.

When her gaze returned to the ledge where Elaena had stood only moments before, she found it empty. A flicker of irritation crossed her features, sharper than before. Elaena's curiosity had always outweighed her caution. Some things, it seemed, did not change.

Meya's assessment drew her attention back, and Sashina inclined her head once, though her eyes had already shifted toward the tomb.

"She would not simply leave. And if she has gone in…" she said quietly, the rest left unfinished as Meya moved.

Sashina did not stop her. Not immediately. Instead, her gaze snapped to the nearest figure as stone cracked… as fingers twitched.

"Those are not supposed to move," she said sharply. "They are dead, turned to stone by the one who made this tomb."

Sashina stepped forward then, closing the distance between them, placing herself just at her side rather than behind her. Her hand moved to her saber and this time, she ignited it. Purple light flared to life just as one of the pale undead figures lunged, its movement far quicker than the others, head snapping toward them with a twisted, predatory twitch.

Sashina stepped in to meet it.

The blade cut cleanly through its midsection in a single strike, severing it before it could close the distance. The body split and collapsed against the stone, but did not go still. Limbs twitched. Fingers scraped weakly against the ground as if still reaching.

Sashina's eyes narrowed.

"Best we get inside and put an end to this before they wake up completely," she said quietly, already stepping back into place beside Meya, her free hand brushing lightly against the back of her arm.

Her gaze shifted past the fallen creature, toward the statues now cracking more visibly as others stirred within their ranks. Clearly whatever was raising the dead was also affecting them beneath the stone.

 

[Meya Liefi]

Tag: Sashina​

Mortyra watched Sashina move, while she herself remained still at first, expression flat and distant. She listened without reply, then crossed the threshold into the tomb. The light outside thinned behind her.

The passage opened into a wide chamber. Four paths led from it. To the north, a corridor ran narrow and straight. To the west, another bent out of sight after a short distance. To the southeast, a third sloped slightly downward. The fourth, set into the eastern wall, started with a large sealed door.

Mortyra slowed, then stopped at the center of the chamber. She did not turn her head at once. The Force moved through the chamber in uneven threads. From the east, beyond the sealed door, came the sense of something large breathing. She could not place exactly what it was. The northern passage carried a dull, pressing weight, like something buried too long and left to rot. The western path held a tighter, coiled danger. The southeastern corridor offered almost nothing at all, a hollow absence.

She did not move toward any of them. Instead, she waited.

When Sashina stopped moving, Mortyra's head turned slightly toward her. "Choose," she said.

 

[Sashina]

Tag: Meya Liefi
​

Sashina followed Meya into the chamber without hesitation, purple blade still lit and casting shifting violet light across the ancient stone. The moment the four paths opened before them she felt the wrongness in the air thicken. Her grip on the saber tightened.

"Very well," she murmured, the words carrying a faint edge of something. She stepped up beside her again, shoulder nearly brushing Meya's. "This one is new. It should not be here."

She pointed with the tip of her saber toward the corridor that sloped gently downward, the one that felt almost too empty in the Force. Hollow. "It feels like nothing… which means it is hiding something. If Elaena ran in blindly, she would have picked the quietest route."

Sashina glanced sideways at Meya, amber eyes steady. Sashina was determined she would find her sister whether Meya cared or not. It would be to their benefit. She didn't wait for permission. With a small tilt of her head she started down the southeastern passage, boots quiet on the worn stone.

As they descended, the hollow feeling in the Veil grew stronger, deeper—no longer just absence, but an active, yawning void. It pressed against her senses like a black hole in the magick itself, pulling at the threads of power around them.

Faint green spirits, not quite her clan's magick, but close enough, drifted along the walls like dying fireflies. After twenty paces the passage opened into a smaller antechamber. Shattered clay urns littered the floor, their contents spilled: old bones, desiccated herbs, and what looked like ritual bowls.

In that moment Sashina reached instinctively for the Veil. For the familiar green fire that had always answered her. She found… nothing. No spark. No current. The Force itself felt severed here, as if the very well of power had been drained dry. For the first time in years, the magick that defined her simply wasn't there to touch.

She stopped dead, eyes widening slightly. "...I cannot feel it," she said, voice low but tight with unease. "The Veil. The Force. It is just... gone. Like someone cut the thread completely." She turned sharply toward Meya, amber eyes searching the other woman's face. "Is it different for you? Can you still touch it?"

A moment later, one of the green spirits drifted down from the ceiling between them. It hovered there, flickering for a moment, then let out a low, keening sound and drifted closer, toward Meya.

"Friend," Sashina said simply. Repeating herself in Dathomiri for effect. <"Friend."> The spirit reacted noticeably to the command. It did not appear to mean them any harm.