"Something Wicked This Way Comes"

[Virrana'h Tei]

"By the Pricking of my thumbs,
Something Wicked this way Comes"

from "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare


Virrana'h walked the dim halls of the Shrine Temple, her feet a whisper on its ancient stones. The tall shapely form of the new Vamp was a stark contrast to the bent and twisted form that was shadowed against the walls as she made her way toward her Masters rooms.

The two could not be more different in shape, and only in her shadow or the blinded milky eye could Virrana'h's true shape be seen. She and her Master alone so far had only been the ones who had witnessed her decreped and crooked form - a twisted and decaying physicality that mirrored the witch's soul. Her outward appearance, to the uninitiated, was beautiful and very desirable but the Dathomiri had paid a great price to claim the right to immortality, though it was not immediately apparent to any who saw her.

Stopping outside a solid sealed door, Tei knocked softly, and awaited her Master to open to her.

[Lord Soth]

Virrana'h Tei had not waited long before the massive iron banded doors opened on their own accord with little to no resistance. The weightiness of thier sheer size heaved inwards with the slightest of noise, creaking to a halt once they came to rest in their place...

Beyond, Tei found the room to be hazily obscured somewhat in her heightened vision, black and shadowy and not as she had remembered it last the time she had visited the Death Knight's luxurious chamber. A number of torches rested in thier iron sconces that lined the ribbed marble arched entrance, giving her only a glimpse of lay ahead before she took her first step in...There was a magical darkness and presence about the room, something the Dathomir Witch picked up on immediately as she scanned the room for Soth with her Vampyre eyes. In any other dark setting, Virrana'h would have easily noted every object that lay within the room with perfect clarity...However, this visit was quite different. Perhaps it was only a precaution on the Death Knight's part, or maybe it was only the simple gentle lull of serenity that her master and kind felt within the ebony fold's...Nevertheless, Virrana'h seemed to oddly understand why it was so without any further explanation of thought.

Half way through the chamber, Tei found her master's silhouetted form near a large oaken book case as the magical curtain of darkness slowly dissipated, giving way to the numerous candle’s that lit and dotted the high vaulted room. It appeared that Soth was studying a tome of sort's, his back slightly turned from Tei. However, the young Vampyre knew that even her soft intentional foot steps did nothing to mask her presence from Soth...

"My dearest Virrana'h,...Please,...Do me the honor of sitting with me for awhile. There are pressing matter's I wish to discuss with you." Soth words were tinged with a note of seductiveness as he closed the tome with one hand by its spine, turning towards the Clan Witch as he did so.

[Virrana'h Tei]

She moved forward obediently, glancing momentarily at the book case, and took a seat where Soth indicated.

Tei herself had no use for books and learning and such. In the swamplands of her home, knowledge was practical - handed down verbally over generations. Wisdom came from the "doing" not from the "reading." Which was just as well, Tei being illiterate as were all her clan except the Sacred ones (celebate prietesses of the Clan), who alone, were permitted to learn such intellectual art.

"I am at your service, Master. I have not displeased you, I hope." Her gaze was level and Virrana'h had an air of bridled power about her.

[Lord Soth]

Soth turned slowly towards the Dathomir witch, letting his hand drift to the large oaken table to his right. His eye's left Virrana'h momentarily as he placed the old tome on the desk in an almost loving fashion.

"No, no my dear...Nothing of the such." The Dark Knight said in a reassuring voice, making his way to a wet bar only feet away. After Tei took her seat in one of the comfortable gothic looking chair's that adorned the chamber, Soth poured them both a drink. As the sweet red nectar filled the last chalice, the Death Knight continued.

"Some time ago, before you had arrived here at the Shrine, I had a close friend that went by the name of Nicholas Kain,...A brother to our fold more importantly. His specialty was in ancient lore and historical studies and accounts that concerned our linage. His devotion and acute knowledge of our ancient past was unparalleled, tracing the roots of our ancestry back to the time of the King and Queen's reign here on Roon." The Death Knight paused as he took a seat directly in front of Virrana'h after handing her one of the two the ornately beveled goblets. Soth held his drink up in stately toast to Tei then took a deep sip of the blood mead, savoring its fragrant content’s as he did so. Afterwards, he sat the golden chalice on a small decorative table next to him before he went on.

“You see,...It has been a little over a year and a half since his disappearance m’lady,...Without any word or contact made from him…And now I fear the worse. Nicholas whereabouts’ are unknown at this time and I now have strong reason's to believe he is presumably dead..." Soth stark blue eyes narrowed slightly at the troubling thought. His heightened intuition told him long before this nightly meeting with Virrana'h that his brethren had more then likely stumbled upon a cutting truth. Possibly a coveted secret or location pertaining to the Sarafan that may have ended up costing him his own life...With reluctance, Soth continued his account, forcing the bitter thought's from his mind for the time being...

"For the longest time, I thought nothing of it...Nicholas was predictably known to disappear for long spell’s, only to show up again here at the Shrine while he investigated the Sarafan lead's he found and faithfully worked on...I believe this alone was his undoing.” A dark cloud seemed to form and hang over Soth’s countenance at that moment as he steepled his long Vampyre finger’s together. Soth would recount to Tei the strange conversation and meeting that had taken place between them some two year’s prior in Nicholas study chambers...And even though Tei was not fully educated in the simple way's of written intellectual literature and the new culture she now found herself immersed in, away from her own, Soth had no doubt she would easily understand the intricacy of what he was about to say...

http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24689

After the Sith master concluded his long story, an awkward moment of silence rested over the room. The many candles about the room flickered and had grown low in their life span during this time. Even the fire in the large marble hearth had dwindled to orange glowing ember’s that caused the room’s light to fade, giving the room a more foreboding presence that over shadowed the story that Soth told. The Death Knight did not expect his young disciple to fully understand the serious implications and details that arose from his ever growing suspicions, however. In time, Tei would take up with Soth the cold trail that Nicholas had so mysteriously left behind him…One that would inevitably lead them both to an off world encounter with the master mind’s behind it all!

“I am quite regretful that I’ve lingered this long in my procrastination…” Soth sighed visibly as he reached over to retrieve his drink from the side table, slowly taking a sip the blood wine before his eye’s trailed back once more to Virrana'h.

“Nevertheless, it is imperative that we act now my apprentice…Through a reliable source of mine, I’ve come across a contact that has informed me of a man that claim’s to know what has become of Nicholas. I’ve made arrangement’s to meet this man in Rondin on the marrow…I wish for you to accompany me until this matter is fully resolved.” The Death Knight finished smoothly as he studied his apprentice intently, his pale hand’s loosely cupping the goblet that now rested in his lap.

[Virrana'h Tei]

Virrana'h sniffed the blood mead, and then drank deeply from it. She emptied half the goblet in one gulp and then returned the cup to the table.

She listened to Soth as he explained about Nicholas Kain. Her reaction was unemotional. Soth's friend was just a name to her and meant nothing. But he was important to her Master, and she respected that.

As he finished, declaring his intention to leave the next day, Virrana'h responded crisply, and without hesitation.

"I am ready to go whenever you please, Master Soth."

[Lord Soth]

"I am ready to go whenever you please, Master Soth." The Dathomir Witch responded sharply, her dark eye's shimmered with a curtain deadliness that Soth caught immediately.

The Death Knight stood abruptly, fluently as if in one sweeping motion that would have slipped unnoticed by the common eye of any mortal. Soth took his glass from the small inn table as he passed by it, only to stop at the bar to refill it once more before he made his way to the fire place. As the chalice hung loosely in his grasp, Soth made a slight gesture with his freed hand to the slowly fading fire that burned in the hearth. The dying fire immediately arose in its intensity, stoked by the magical essence that the Death Knight summonsed. It was a mortal trait that he still clung too, however. The fire that was rekindled in the fire place could never clench the dead cold that ran through his Vampyre being no matter how hot it burned…It was a dreaded curse that came with the territory of what they now were and ever would be …

"I admire your servitude and loyalty Virrana'h...It is a rare thing theses days. Men will give lip service to such thing's, yet when tested for its worth they waver at its calling." Soth took a deep drink from the jewel encrusted chalice, its golden body casting a radiant glow from the fire light that captured its beauty. Soth's back remained turned away from the Dathomir Witch, yet he knew her eyes were upon him.

"I feel a disturbance in the dark-side of the force my apprentice...It tells me that we will both be facing a challenge that will set forth and unleash the truth I seek." The Death Knight words were almost a whisper as he spoke, his narrowed eye's staring blankly at the magical flame's that seemed to dance to an unheard melody unto their own. Then Soth asked something of Tei that set her back somewhat, a daunting feeling that not even she was not accustom too. A numbing coldness fell over her dark soul with each passing word from his glistening lip's, frigid word's that gripped the witch at that moment as they ran through her already icy vein's.

"I have now heard your word's...But would you dare to follow me into the burning flame's Virrana'h...Even if it meant your eternal death?" Soth asked flatly, his voice barely reaching over the crackling of the flame’s that continued to burn brightly in the marble hearth.

[Virrana'h Tei]

"A Master who knew me better, would not ask such a question."

The leaping flames of the hearth lit the Witch's dead-pool eyes with an unearthly light. Soth could feel the offence taken in his apprentice's words as they shot unbending as an arrow to his turned back.

He tilted his head, only slightly, to gain perspective on the proximity of his newest apprentice as he sensed her anger at his suggestion that she - a Warrior who was no stranger to trials both physical and psychological - would be found wanting and fail in her loyalty.

"Prove me if you must Lord Soth, but if you suggest cowardice from me again, be prepared to feel the steel of my dagger against your offending tongue."

[Lord Soth]

Soth remained turned from Tei as her poison reached him from across the room. He wanted this reaction from her, prompting the word's he wanted to hear from her made him smile wickedly was the heat poured past him in both directions.

"Your iron disposition is quite admirable and steadfast...My apologies m'lady,...I meant no offence. You have more then proved yourself thus far Virrana'h Tei." Soth finished smoothly as he folded his hands behind him, the wiry smirk still playing on his face as he delved deeper into her soul.

"Your Reverend Mother would be proud of you Tei...You've made such great progress over the last few month's here at the Shrine. What would she say if she only seen you now?" The Death Knight finished with a curtain purr in his voice that almost sounded mocking, glancing back over his shoulder just in time to offer her a polite smile.

[Virrana'h Tei]

The smile was not returned (which, if truth be known, made Soth even more amused).

Tei was not used to having anyone question her in this manner. The old ways of her clan still pulled strongly within her and a male speaking thusly to her would have been chastised to an inch of his life, or further. Soth's soothing words fell upon thick ears.

Her face darkened as she stiffled her anger and learned to keep her place. Her clenched fists and brooding stare clearly depicted her struggle within.

Instead, she attempted to answer his question. Tei also took things quite literally and did not always recognise a rhetorical question when she heard one.

"The clan mother would not know me. I have changed..." she said. "...In many ways."

[Lord Soth]

"The clan mother would not know me. I have changed,...In many ways." Virrana’h snapped, her tone was cold, yet her word's were tipped with venom as she glared at her master through haughty eyes of indifference.

The Death Knight bowed his head slightly out of respect to her before making his way back over to where she sat. His stately movement almost gave him a floating appearance as he approached the Witch whose eye’s still boiled with a curtain inner anger. He was not quite through with his little mind games with her just yet. Soth could smell and even feel upon the air the scathing distain his word’s had created as he came to stand within feet of her chair…But this was exactly what he wanted, something he anticipated from her. He wanted to see first hand how well Virrana’h could handle the “heat” he carefully delivered to her before she buckled or cracked under it’s pressure…Would she measure up to the task that lay just ahead of them? He was about to find out…

“Indeed you have m’lady,…Indeed you have. Yet you still have much to learn my young apprentice...That much I do know.” Soth stood over her as if studying her demeanor, peering deeply into her dark eyes as if to measure the heat that burned unchecked within.

“I pride myself in the knowledge of your fate being with me now, knowing that even your Reverend Mother’s could never venture the thought of teaching what I have already taught you,…Unlimited power’s that lay beyond even their reach.” The Death Knight arched an eye brow, his gaze then traveled down the soft slope of her neck then back to her dark pool’s that continued to hold him fast…How lovely she looked when she was angry…He would give her that much.

“Subsequently, if you would have remained there, you would have never known your fullest potential…It would have been a crying shame to squander such a gift in such a limited place as Dathomir.” Soth turned slowly from Tei, taking his seat once more across from her. With casual grace, the Death Knight crossed his leg over the other, interlacing his fingers together as his eye’s fell on her once more.

“However, that is neither here nor there now…It is really of little consequence to me what they would think of you…Nevertheless, in good time, you will be more then they could have ever imagined,…Ever dreamed of…This place about you is not only your home now…It is a paved path that will lead you straight to your destiny,…” Soth paused in his sentence before he went on, retrieving a thick glitter stem cigar from the inner linings of his soft black robe then oddly lighting it with the tip of his index finger as he stoked the small flame with a few inhaled puffs. It wasn’t long before the sweet fragrant smoke drifted over to the young understudy…It was a new and entirely different smell that Tei had never experienced before, one that mingled and accompanied the rosy stench of death that Soth was know for.

“That is,...If you always yearn and hunger to learn the secret’s of the Dark-Side Lady Tei.” An unsettling look of arrogance fell over the Death Knight countenance as he basked in the thought of what they had lost to him…Tei’s predestined future as Soth’s disciple was just the beginning to a grander height and elevated status in her new found world, he would see to that personally. But the true test of her mettle would come on the marrow, when they both would set foot off of Roon in pursuit of the truth behind Nicholas strange disappearance…Something that even the Death Knight could not foretell…