The Circle

[Darth Callidus]

Reliance upon others
Is weakness for the strong
But strength for the weak.
Wisdom and balance lie in
Knowing your own nature, over time.

***


Something called to them, those who knew the secrets of Iziz. Something that wormed its way into their minds, conscious or otherwise. There were no words to it, nothing so crude as a spoken command, but it gave the impression of a voice nonetheless. They would feel it in their hearts, in the marrow of their bones, pulling them away from their current preoccupations and irresistably towards... someone, somewhere. A voice that could not, would not, be denied. In the catacombs beneath the royal palace of Iziz - in a circular cavern to which many paths lead and whose walls were lined with torches, their flames struggling to stay lit in the dank subterranean air - Darth Callidus waited, statuesque and stoical.


Come.

[Razielle Alastor]

Before the silent command ever reached her, she been restless with her own unspoken quandary. The days were booked up with the public and personal duties of Princess Razielle. Only the nights left her free to embrace her true nature, and be with the one who set her free. Her newest skills grew expeditiously under his instruction. She was eager to acquire more strength and power..

When the call reached her, it rolled up her spine with a seducing tremble. Pleasure flooded her veins and for a moment her eyelids slid shut to savor the sensation. When they opened once more, she was moving out into the night. Heeding the call from her master.

[Adraudia Basillie]

Adraudia looked up from her journal at the whispers of her Master's voice that was carried on the wind like a lost dream. But there was no mistaken the need in his voice. He required his pupil Creas immediately.

She scooted out from under her desk and stepped to the side of her closet, facing the stone wall. Deft fingers stroked the cold slab until it found a tiny depression. Pressing it, the slab slid opened and revealed black obsidian armor that was tailored made by her people when she came of age. Stripping off her nightgown, she pulled on the inner padding, then chainmail, and strapped each individually forged piece of armor onto her limbs and chest, allowing for greater flexibility. She took the scabbard out last, which housed her father's sword and slipped it over her shoulder.

Closing the secret compartment and hitting another hidden panel, Adraudia disappeared into the secret passage attached to her room which would then lead her down into the catacombs.

[Victer Dejan]

Victer, for a change, was reading for fun instead of for work. It was a decently written poke about a guy from Corellia who ended up on Coruscant and hated it. It was a rebuke of both worlds. It would be hard to be offended, because the author was Corellian. Since it took place on Coruscant, it took shots at nearly everything in the galaxy.

Victer found himself sipping his wine carefully, so that it did not end up in his nose. He was in a bout of laughter when another feeling washed over him. It was a strange feeling, but powerful. He stopped mid-chuckle.

"Huh." he set the wine glass aside. He ran his fingers through his hair. He needed to go... somewhere. In the palace.

Unlike Callidus' more experienced apprentices, Victer felt it more as an insatiable curiosity. Victer slipped on his shoes, and a long black coat. There was no time for anything else. He needed to know, and know now.

Victer flashed his identification to the gate guards, who barely recognized his unusually rushed gait and coat. They let him through. Victer was walking to the keep proper when a small side-path tugged at him. It ran across the grounds... to somewhere. Like a hound hot on a scent, he followed it. His feet were surprisingly sure in the dark. Even the palace grounds had stands of trees, so the Royal Family would never forget the jungle and it's dangers. The path thinned through one of these stands, littered with rocks. It was clearly seldom used. Barely visible after a hundred meters, along the path, was a small shack. Victer tried the door, but the handle seemed to have rusted shut. He walked around the small shack, looking for another entrance, but could find none. He would not fit through the small grated window in the back.

Victer hit the door squarely with his shoulder. The wood was still firm, but the hinges were rusted and weak. They gave way. The floor, however, gave way, and Victer rode the door down. He only fell three meters, and landed mostly on his shoulder. He sat up and coughed from the dust. He batted the dust away from his face. He stood, eyes squinted, and started down the unlit stone corridor. Victer fumbled in his pocket, and found his mulit-knife. He pushed a button, and a small light gave him enough illumination to walk at a slow pace. Where the hell was he?

[Razielle Alastor]

Not knowing where she was heading, but trusting her feelings to guide her there, Razielle stole into the palace halls, as she had many times before. The fact that her Master had not specifically called just to her, or arranged a meeting place for them prior, alerted her to the fact that she was likely not the only recipient of his summons. The notion was intriguing..

Her silent movements brought her past the statue of Oron Kira, where her ongoing search for a possible lost treasure of Queen Talia had begun, years ago. With the combined help of Queen Adraudia and her Victer, they were closer now to an answer than she had been before, conducting the research on her own. In fact, it seemed passing strange to her that she had been called to this very spot now.

Pausing before the statue, her eyes locked on one of the pillars framing the trio of windows behind the noble figure. She walked there, drawn to the scrolling architecture, running her black gloved fingertips along the design. A chilling draft blew against her naked wrist, one that did not come from the windows. Frowning, she pushed. The pillar itself gave beneath her insistence, not backward, but rather it rolled to the side. Continued pressure rotated it further. The sound of stone scraped against stone, releasing long undisturbed dust and a blast of stagnant air as her efforts revealed an opening where none should exist. Although the passage was a tight fit, she could see that it contained a stair that spiraled downward into blackness..

Lips curving into a gamine grin, she entered without question. It was as narrow as she had feared, her shoulders brushing against the stone even with her own slender form. It was not a route meant for anyone with a larger frame.. Who then had it been designed for?

At the bottom, she found herself alone in cold, deep, darkness, but sensed that she would not remain secluded long. Others were drawing near - though she knew not yet their identity. Until she did, she would remain concealed. Her talents for illusion were by no means as advanced as her Master's. Where he could craft faces of others right over his own, she was only able to work with her surroundings, disappearing into mists and shadows if she so chose, but for now, that would suit her. Pulling the hood of her cloak low, so that only her mischievous grin remained in sight, she made sure that whatever else could be seen of her face was carefully obscured with shadows that moved with her, rather than with the scant light..

Only then, did she proceed.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena pushed her apprentice down into the dirt, one more time. "You are not trying hard enough!"

The black furred Orryxian neatly blended in the shadows around them in the Wilds, but her eyes flashed fiercely as the girl bounded to her feet again. Lilaena circled her, a wooden stick matching the one the slave held in her hand. "Again!"

They sparred, working on what the younger female had learned so far while living among the Mandalorians in the Wilds. And then Lilaena broke it off, putting up her hand and halting Akasha with the Force.

After a moment she rubbed her head, as though she had a headache. "We are being called I think. Do you feel it?"

[Akasha Khan]

Finally - finally, she was getting in some real training from her master. Maybe it wasn't in the mystical powers she desired, but after being cast off like an unwanted stray in the wilderness, Akasha simply wanted Lilaena to show she hadn't been forgotten.

And now that Lilaena was finally here and Akasha was finally earning bruises from her master instead of from her Mandalorian keepers, the Orryxian girl really didn't want to be interrupted by... by...

"What?" she said, wary of some trick. She didn't know yet if Lilaena was the sort to test a student's gullibility every few minutes.

Just in case, Akasha took a step back and searched the forest around them, scanned the canopy with swiveling ears, sniffed at the air.

"I don't feel anything."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"It is a tug, a pull in the Force."

She looked at her apprentice. "My master calls me. Come." Lilaena discarded the staff, tossing it to the ground, and turned away, walking back towards the City in the darkness.

[The Vilissar Twins]

The Palace at Iziz was still a place of mystery, wonder, and perfect opportunities for any sorts of harmless mischief for the twin girls. Full of halls to get lost in, servants to send off on meaningless tasks, obscure paintings to stare at and giggle over inappropriate nonexistent things that only the two of them would make out, and anything else they could do as they wandered, explored, and made themselves familiar with what was becoming their new home. Courtiers, a far prettier thing to be than two exiled daughters of Ralltiir nobility. In truth, they were both more than happy to shrug off any sort of association with their home planet and its budding government and all its silliness wrapped up with the rather controversial 'Rebel Alliance'. These were affairs of state they would have had to concern themselves with and the fact that their new status on Onderon granted them blissful ignorance from such things was considered nothing short of a blessing.

And so the two girls had absorbed themselves in things of far more interest. The current activity being the disturbing of a rather dim witted chambermaid who had become thoroughly convinced (with just a bit of persuasion) that there was only one girl occupying their room, despite there being two sets of furniture. A girl whose tastes seemed to swap and conflict enough to the point where the aid had become flustered to the point of tears before tearing herself from the room. Meanness a product of boredom.

But the boredom, and silly desire to confuse the poor maid even further came to a sudden and abrupt halt. As if their conjoined thoughts suddenly became focused on something...somewhere. To feel such a thing from one to the other was a common occurrence but to have an outside presence suddenly intrude into that space was foreign, enticing. A brief moment of eye contact was all that was necessary before the two threw long coats around their shoulders and began to follow the strangely compelling sensation.

It was followed to a nondescript hallway, a thin layer of dust sleeping upon banisters, just barely there spoke that while not completely forgotten the area was not as heavily attended as others. A tapestry billowed in the slightest and caught attention instantly, inexplainably. Sheer curiosity and a subconscious need continued to drive them forward, to inspect behind the item and find what could best be described as a thin outline in the wall, vaguely door-shaped. When pressure was applied to gave way, falling inward just a tad before sliding to the left with a soft hum of mechanics. And so there the two girls hesitated, keeping the tapestry pulled back just far enough, staring into the void and staircase that lead into the darkness below.

Another subtle glance between the two before the silent decision was made, and both stepped inside, letting the tapestry and doorway fall back into place, leaving no evidence that any had passed that way.

[Aestiva Ni'Liatoth]

:: Aestiva heard Callidus in her mind, though she didn't know how exactly. He frightened her, but she didn't dare refuse him. Rising from her bath, she shooed away her maids and got dressed on her own. Her hair was still damp as she went to answer his summons ::

[Darth Callidus]

One by one, they were coming. It was a satisfying feeling, to sense each of them working their way towards him, no two paths the same. In the end, however, they would all reach a single destination. Some were aware of one another's existence, as more than court frivolities, whilst for others this meeting would provide the first chance to lay eyes upon those who were unified by Callidus's machinations. It was a gamble, to allow them to convene as such, but the gathering could be delayed no longer. Wheels had been put into motion whose momentum could not be stilled...

“Welcome, all of you.”

[Adraudia Basillie]

The hood of her cloak obscured her visage along with the shadows of the catacombs, but once she entered the circular room, the torchlight revealed the Queen of Onderon to the rest of the assembled guests. Some she recognized, others were new to her, but the surprise at such a grandiose gathering of such individuals remained hidden. Her face was stoic and regal, the perfection of polite interest that had been seen frequently by her Cabinet.

What she was not surprised at was her Master's secrets. Creas had often entertained the notion that other individuals were scattered about Onderon and under the watchful eye of Callidus. She could infer all she wanted, but this confirmed it. Mechanisms of deceit had been slowly coming to fruition over the years. Did her Master feel it time to progress things faster and more openly? This meeting would come as a great personal risk to her own person if they could not keep her double life a secret.

"Master ..." uttered Creas as she nodded in respect to Callidus. "You called and I came."

[Razielle Alastor]

Coming swiftly upon the same path Creas had taken, Anxia shed the shadows from her face, letting her presence brush gently again her sister in familiar greeting. She entered the room behind the Queen, moving only a short distance from her.

Folding her hands before her, Anxia wordlessly lowered her head in the simplest show of respect for their master. A simple act, for certain, but carried out by her in such a manner that it was evident, the sheer amount of deference it contained. No sugar coated curtsy, comprised of artifice and false respect, for her lord.

Maintaining her silence she waited on the others, to enter and take their places.

[The Vilissar Twins]

To blindly follow a strange compulsion was curious enough on it's own though when the two finally stepped from the narrow passway into the cavern it opened to, and found that others were already assembled, perhaps drawn by that same unexplainable desire, the two girls found themselves outright perplexed if not in slight awe. The face sof the others were familiar...to a point. Passing glances that they may have spotted around Court. The Queen's presence perhaps was the most shocking and yet, unlike perhaps if they had passed her in a hallway, the urge to bow to the woman in a usual manner of respect towards her position was not felt. It didn't seem right, given their current surroundings.

Instead, as they found their place near a woman they both could swear was the Princess Razielle, they found themselves instead facing the one whom they now realized was the cause of their being driven to such a point. And it was in some strange feeling of reverence to him that they both bowed their heads.

[Lucianus Adair]

Steeped in the tomes of the vast palace library, Marsuo'ur'stalis was surrounded by a deep silence. In this position, the perching of spectacles on the end of his nose would not have looked out of place if they were not useless. Whether he was seeking of information or it was a matter of exploration, the predator could oddly be found using his spare moments and downtime in this place. To be called from it for one purpose of another was a general annoyance, but the coming call not for the common ear had its irrefutable reasons, its undeniable pull. He looked up calmly from the book in hand as if he heard some obscured and non-belonging scuttling. He felt, somewhere, that there was indeed certain pointed movements to a purpose... a purpose he too had the obligation to attend to.

With a touch of reluctance at leaving the pages, he marked the place and set the book aside, standing and smoothing out the fabrics of his body. The predator retrieved the one weapon that truly never left his side from beside the chair, lashing it to his person and taking off at a brisk pace to home in on the call, arriving at the catacombs within minutes.

It was when Callidus had begun speaking his welcome that the tallest member of this secret gathering arrived, slipping into the back, arms at the sides, sweeping his ever-watchful eyes over the gathered persons before settling them on the form of Callidus himself. He had not truly bowed in any form or fashion to any man and meant it for an age. There had been few in so long that earned such outright notes of respect. A light tip of his head was the most the predator offered, noting the voice of the Queen and the familiar presence of others, the Princess in particular, which whom he had first acquainted himself upon his arrival to Onderon as he did.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She had the furthest to come, and Akasha was panting for breath by the time Lilaena and she located the entrance to the passage.

She held up a hand to pause her youngest apprentice, and the girl's eyes glowed green in the darkness, reflecting what light there was to be had. "Grime," De'Ville stated, her own eyes seeking out a darker spot of shadow lurking nearby. They'd been trailed once they entered the City, and she knew her frail apprentice was nearby.

"I think we're late." A faint smile tugged at her lips.

[Hawkins Grime]

"You are late, my Mistress. Lead the way, if you would, lest they think us absent minded."

Hawkins Grime stepped from the shadows, the darkness granting him a grace that the light would not share for his clockwork frame. Grime took the chance that the jab would go unnoticed as they had little time to dispute anything at the moment. De'Ville would bring it forth later but Hawkins noticed what training he could pry from the woman progressed that much better under aggravated circumstances.

Not to mention, Grime was more than sure that given the... feeling he had about this calling was from a group of people a little less inclined to associate with him if not for De'Ville. They were her connections to begin with and something seemed to be coming full circle this evening.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She grunted in reply, and led the way down into the subterranean passage. Her two apprentices trailed her, one light and agile, the other barely held together by an exoskeleton. One was curious despite herself, and the other...

Inscrutable, as usual.

Entering a large room, she got the feeling that everyone else was already there. Meeting Callidus' eyes, Lilaena took two steps forward and knelt just at the edge of the small circle of people, her apprentices standing behind her.

"Master..."

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha looked over Hawkins Grime with narrow, suspicious eyes. She knew little of her fellow apprentice, only that he had been gone for a long time. He was older than her, that was easy to see, and probably more trained in the Force. But she was damned if she'd let him upstage her. He was the truant, and now the interloper. Every moment Master De'Ville spent training him was a moment she wasn't training her.

But then she saw the face of death presiding over the gathering, and she had to quell a momentary instinct to run and hide in a dark corner.

Callidus. It could be no other. Even to Akasha's untrained senses, his power was tangible, visceral. It was the very power she desired, and she would not cower away from it. She stood behind her master like a quivering flame refusing to be quenched.

[Darth Callidus]

The Sith Lord acknowledged his apprentice – Malleus – with a slight incline of his head. Of all of those gathered, it was perhaps she who would take the greatest satisfaction from the meeting of minds. The silence in the cavern held for a handful of heartbeats longer, as Callidus let his eyes touch upon each of the cabal.

“I look around me and I see... such a diverse group of people. Men and women from all walks of life, yet here we find ourselves unified by a single purpose, a single will. My will.”

There was an unshakeable certainty in his voice then, a rock-solid belief that it was on his say that they acted, by his hand that they moved. More than that, there was the promise that anyone who did not share his conviction would soon find themselves divided from the dark union – and most likely from their heads.

“Each of you has been chosen to become part of something.. monumental. Something that will shape the future of the Galaxy as we know it. In my future, each of you will have your chance to claim what it is your so deeply desire – the very thing that motivates you to embrace the Dark Side of the Force – but such rewards will not come.. without sacrifice.”

[The Vilissar Twins]

There was no doubt that came to their minds as to the truth behind the words spoken. Strangely, there was also no sense of fear that comes with the natural hesitation of finding oneself in a strange place, standing before an individual who spoke of such things. Even the ominous speaking of sacrifice did not give want to run, to object.

But truly, had not the galaxy claimed from them what so many others prized already? Honor had been shattered, fortune whisked away, even a mother's love was no longer theirs to claim. Whatever it was the girls had left, they realized, was fully there for the man before them to take as he wished. There was too much to be gained and all of it would make their former life, even if it had never gone awry, pale in comparison.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

In his future. Sacrifices would be made. By her.

She had already sacrificed so much - including her first master, A'na Eldhil. She had no life apart from her mission.

Yet...

Callidus expected her to sacrifice that mission to his 'greater' cause. And Lilaena had already done that - forsworn her dedication to what Master Eldhil had ordered her to do and sworn to Callidus. It was not an oath she would break easily.

But what would he require of his other apprentices? Those that had come before her; the soft women of royalty who had been pampered by servants since birth. She had a hard time believing that he would cause them to sacrifice anything, and as she thought it she believed it, and a spike of jealousy rammed deep into her heart.

[Akasha Khan]

The palatial trappings and estates of the Khan dynasty flashed across the back of Akasha's eyes, comforts that had already been stolen from her long ago. Now she lived in a concrete shack in a jungle with savages who bathed in well water, and the highlight of her day was having a couple ribs broken by her elusive master, all because it brought her a few steps closer to this gathering.

This? This was power. She could taste the iron of it on her tongue. It radiated from Calidus like heat from a forge, and she was as supple as steel. Let the hammer fall. She was ready.

Akasha stepped forward to take her place beside her master, fully exposed to the circle, her eyes more yellow than green in the firelight. "The Force is my reward, my lord," she said. "I am yours to command."