OOM: In the Hall of Traitors, Part 2

[last_kallig]

(OOC: Some lines taken from canon.)

Ibani glances at Garyn and smiles softly at him before she puts on the helm of her armor. With the helm on, her body language speaks of power, iron confidence, and a touch of arrogance. In other words, a typical Sith. She moves to the Door and makes sure to hold it open long enough for Garyn to come through.

The sight on the other side of the door is Kaas City, the capital of the Empire. Massive towers of durasteel, permacrete and transparasteel tower into the sky and stretch down far enough below the platform they are on that mist obscures the ground from view. It is unspeakably early in the morning, not yet dawn, but there are still air taxis flying through the air between the towers taking early morning travelers all across the enormous sprawl of the city. Above it all, the sky crackles with storm clouds and lightning without the promise of rain.

Comments

[moonandstar]

Garyn slams into the wall and sprawls onto the cold floor beneath him. The armor keeps his bones from breaking. It can do nothing for the deceleration trauma.

His breath shortens. His vision swims. The dim Temple swirls in a gray, undistinguished blur. He fights the drive to slide further into unconsciousness. He presses his hands against the floor and tries to bring himself to his feet.

It's no good. He sways and stumbles. He falls to his knees again, crawling, searching for his sword.

"Ibani...

[last_kallig]

The Force is with him, as Garyn's sword isn't all that far from him.

Lord Kallig answers her with a slightly surprised tone of voice. "You do not know me? Has our family fallen so far that the daughter of my daughters does not know the name of Kallig, a name long revered in the annals of the Sith?"

"Obviously," Ibani answers, her tone still sharp with anger and sarcasm. How, how can she be related to an ancient Sith Lord when she was born a slave? How does he even know of her, when he's been dead more than two thousand years?

Kallig continues on much as if she hadn't spoken. "Your strength in the Force woke me from my slumber. When the weaklings of this planet trespassed upon my tomb centuries ago, I rose and resumed what I believed to be my former life. This temple became my kingdom, and I was once more a Lord of the Sith."

"How did I wake you, then, when I've never been here before?"

"When you first grasped the hilt of your lightsaber there was an echo of your power in the Force, a ripple that reached me here. That was when I knew my hour had come and gone - that your strength, not mine, would return our family to glory."

[moonandstar]

Garyn's hand finds the hilt. He rises to his feet, for good this time. The voice of the spirit is indistinct and far away, venturing in and out of hearing beneath the throbbing of his head.

[last_kallig]

He might hear Ibani's voice, still tight with anger. "That doesn't explain why YOU woke up all the spirits in this Temple. What was the point in stirring all of them up?"

"To bring you here," Kallig explains with a shrug. "I am still too weak to leave, but I knew if I made myself enough of a nuisance, you would eventually come. The Sith throw flesh endlessly at what they cannot control."

Ibani thinks of those they had to slay to get here, of all the slaves and soldiers slaughtered in the past few days. Force, if her Master hadn't needed to send her here the slaughter could have gone on for months, years! But that cost was, is, nothing to Lord Kallig. The only value other people have is in the value they have to HIM, and those who have died and could have died mean nothing to him at all.

"That was your best plan for contacting me?" Ibani asks, acidly. "Still, I suppose I'm here, now."

"But not for me," Kallig replies, tone faintly bemused. "You have come for an artifact I managed to wrest from Tulak Hord before my death."

"Yes," Ibani replies, slightly surprised at his knowledge. "I'm surprised he left it with you, considering....."

"That he killed me," Kallig finishes. "We were close, once. I called him friend, before he betrayed me. Do not make my mistake, flesh of my flesh. Beware your Master, beware your apprentice. Never be taken by surprise. Treachery is the Sith's endless game - and you must win it."

[moonandstar]

A bruised Dunmer staggers into the chamber with his sword drawn. A fleck of blood drips out of the corner of his mouth. It occurs to him at last that he had bitten his tongue.

[last_kallig]

Khem Val glances at Garyn as he staggers into the chamber, his gaze appraising. The Dashade is more curious about him and less dismissive now that he's seen Garyn do something he knows should not be possible. It might be weak, but this creature is interesting.

Lord Kallig continues to speak, gesturing at the sarcophagus. "Take the artifact, but be careful - I know not what it does. Only that betrayal follows it everywhere." Kallig glances briefly at Garyn before turning back to Ibani. "I hunger for the day when our power will be restored. We will meet again." Then he fades away as if he was never there at all.

Ibani exhales a breath she wasn't aware that she was holding and turns to look at Garyn. She's already reaching out to him with the Force before she speaks. "Matters seem to have resolved themselves, but better safe than sorry."

Ibani has extensive experience managing pain and the side effects of a concussion with the Force and she's been delaying them, for lack of a better term, since she rolled to her feet to attack Lord Kallig with lightning. She's not certain how much longer the delay will last or what will happen if they run into more Sith on the way out of here, but SHE has the option of engaging a foe outside of melee and Garyn does not, so his healing must come first. It is getting easier and easier to reach Garyn at a distance, but this time she can feel the strain as she heals the damage to his body.

Once Garyn is healed, Ibani gestures to Khem to open the sarcophagus. The lid makes a crashing sound as it hits the floor. There, the artifact! Ibani lifts out a crystalline and metal cube only slightly larger than her palm.

[moonandstar]

Garyn exhales as the warmth of her distant healing touch subsides. He looks at the cube, eyebrow raised in puzzlement.

"I believe I missed the lecture. What was that thing and what has it given you?"

[last_kallig]

"That thing was the ghost of Lord Kallig," Ibani replies. "And it seems he stirred up all these spirits we've been hearing in the belief that I would be among the bodies thrown at the problem sooner or later."

Ibani lifts the holocron up higher so that Garyn can see it more readily. "This is the artifact that I was sent to find. It's a holocron, a device used to record lore, rituals, secrets. Sometimes they also hold small objects inside of them, but I can't tell whether that's the case here."

[moonandstar]

Garyn's brow furrows. "But why would it go to all that trouble?"

[last_kallig]

"Because my presence in the Force woke him from the waking dream that most spirits dwell in, and because I am flesh of his flesh." Ibani gives a short, bitter, laugh. "Very distant blood given the mathematics of human reproduction and the fact that he's been dead more than two thousands years, but I have a nasty suspicion I'm his only option for returning the family name to glory."

[moonandstar]

Garyn's brow gains a few more wrinkles.

"I see."

His inflection is halfway between "I don't like this at all" and "We'll talk about this later." His face looks like he just stepped in something.

[last_kallig]

"Today is just full of surprises," Ibani replies sourly. But before she can really launch any barbs at the universe, her injuries are demanding that she deal with them. NOW.

She lifts the holocron higher, into the strange greenish light. It's a handy distraction from what she's really doing. She focuses her attention inward, healing her concussion first. The nausea and dizziness subside, but when she moves on to mend her ribs the strain she felt when healing Garyn returns a hundredfold.

Shavit! She doesn't have the strength to do any more healing today, not unless she wants to render herself useless in a confrontation. She swallows down the surge of panic that tries to spring up in the face of that knowledge. It's been years since she felt this...empty, stretched too thin.
Ibani turns her focus to managing the pain instead of healing what's damaged. She can't keep on as if nothing is wrong forever, but she can manage the act long enough. She hopes.

"Well, nothing more that needs doing here. I would prefer to be somewhere civilized before night falls."

They run into more possessed guards and slaves on the way, of course. Force forbid they should make a journey without running into trouble on the way. Garyn might notice that Ibani doesn't physically engage any of their foes, in fact she's letting Garyn and Khem Val do most of the 'heavy lifting'. Behavior that stands out sharply when contrasted to her battles on the way in.

[moonandstar]

They plow their way through the hall, wading sword-first through a shallow pool of petty enforcers possessed by vengeful ghosts.

Garyn sees Ibani's pain. Even if he didn't know her, he knows enough to tell when someone is pretending it doesn't hurt. He pulls up beside her.

"Perhaps this might help," he says softly.

He offers a vial filled with a greenish watery substance.

[last_kallig]

Ibani sends a feeling of curiosity as she takes the potion from him. She downs it immediately without checking it for unpleasant surprises, a sign of her pain and her trust in Garyn.

She's startled when she feels the potion immediately begin to mend her broken ribs and bruised flesh. Whatever this is, it's MUCH better than kolto! Gratitude, relief, love and weariness wash over him for a moment.

She's very, very glad that Garyn came along on this mad adventure.

Eventually, they will leave the temple and the jungle behind, the metal bridge into Kaas City under their feet once more. Ibani reaches out with the Force, looking for a Door to Milliways.

[moonandstar]

Garyn is glad he visited the markets of Balmora before he left - the potency of this potion is far beyond what he can achieve with his crude mortar and pestle. More than that, he's glad to be here for Ibani.

He stays close to her, keeping his eyes open for a portal to the bar. The blood is flowing hot through his veins.

[last_kallig]

There, Ibani can feel an entrance to Milliways near the aircar station. "You have served admirably," Ibani says to Garyn. She's speaking as a Sith, his 'employer', now. "We will remember this, and may call upon your services again in the future."

"That door there will lead you to Milliways," she says in his mind. "There's no point in subjecting you to another ride in an aircar. I'll reach Milliways from my quarters and we can talk properly then."

[moonandstar]

Garyn bows his head slightly, playing for a moment the obsequious employee.

"Thank you, my Lord."

I'll be waiting most impatiently.

[last_kallig]

Ibani fractionally inclines her head in acknowledgment of his thanks. More than that might be suspicious to anyone watching. (And there are always people watching on Dromund Kaas.)

"If Milliways is kind you won't be waiting more than a minute or so. Thank you, Garyn. I'm not sure I would have made it through all of this without you."

Khem Val's gaze lingers a bit on Garyn as he and Ibani move toward the aircar. For better or for worse, Garyn's piqued the Dashade's interest.

Hopefully he will see Ibani in Milliways soon, where they will not need to maintain this ridiculous fiction.