The first meeting (Raz)

It was times like these Zachariah hated the most. He had only met his master once since he had been within the Kuklos and the Warlock thought it high time they met. It was only a very short trip to where Zachariha's accomodation was to where he was told his Master lived.

His Master?

Darmok shivered, he had not had a 'Master' in 35 years, what a thought.

He came up towards the door of her living accomidation, it was night, Darmok of course picked the timing carefully. Knocking on the door gently, he waited, his hood covering his face from the drizzle, his cloak sweeping gently in the wind.

It was time to put things stait between the two.

Well, well.. It seemed the elder of her two apprentices was no longer interested in awaiting her summons, but rather had come to take her to task for her negligence. She rather liked that.

Razielle, bored to distraction, had been sitting propped in a window seat. She had been trying in vain once again to dicipher the ancient writings in the tomes she had located in her Kirrek home. The sound of a knock - both archaeic and primal - claimed her attention. There were so many more advanced technological ways of announcing one's presence in these times, but none of them had the grace and personal touch of simply walking up and knocking. It was why she had elected to make it the only means available on entry to this home..

To respond in an equally intimate manner, Razielle herself moved to answer the door, already knowing who awaited her. Proping open the heavy door with one hand, the Vampyre smiled at the Mage. "Darmok, always a pleasure. Won't you come in...?

Shoving the door opened wider, she strode back into the dimly lit interior.

Stepping into her house was like crossing the theshold from the living to the dead. It was hardly a comforting thought. Alhtough he was indifferent towards Vampire's it was always better to keep away from them at the best of times but having a confrontation with one was not a good way to go.

' Thank you Lady Shadana, it is raining quite badly' Pulling back his hood he let his neck lengh greasy black hair cascade down and with a extremely unmoving expression took off his cloak and flopped it over his arm.

' I have come to discuss my training, it seems to boy you are master to has been under tutorlige and if i may be blunt i would like to start mine also.'

So he had caught wind of Han's traning. Razielle smiled and didn't bother to deny the truth. "Yes, Han has been given some small instructions with illusions and long ranged weapon attacks. "

Turning around she settled herself back down into the window seat, as Queen would sit upon a throne, and regarded Darmok. "But do not think I chose favorites. It is a matter of convinience. The boy lives here with me."

In truth she was eager to begin with the agreement between the Mage and herself. She would tutor him iwith the ways of the Force she had learned and in return he would impart knowledge to her on how to "bend" the Force. "We can begin whenever you wish. In fact I admire your initiative to speak to me on the matter..."

' I have been alive for more than two hundred years my fair lady, i dare say far less then yourself so you can quite imagine my numbness towards any nervousness regarding speaking my mind. I have no worries with doing so.' Darmok said flatly and inclined his head to put a stop on the point he was making.

' Your training will be a hard journey, i cannot fathom how many apprentices i have spoken this too, and many of your visual age have asked for my mastership, it will be like teaching a old animal new tricks, you will be angered by much of its journey'

"You'll find I'm not easily ruffled. Years of palace intrigues numbed my more impulsive reactions. But I do suspect that if we treat each other with mutual resect of our particular talents, this may be a very fruitful endeavor. Wouldn't you say..?"

Razielle folded her arms across her chest and wondered just what the Mage was going to impart to her. If he had lived two-hundred years already, surely he had touched upon vast amounts of arcane knowledge. This was working out beautifully!

The indifferent Darmok shrugged.

' I'm here im might aswell let it be benificial to me' he said quietly before placing his cloak on the arm of a chiar a few feet away from where he was standing. ' So, tell me about yourself...'

Razielle tilted her chin, in thought. She wasn't really in the mood to rehash the same old sorrow of her life. She also suspected that Darmok really didn't give a damn.

"What is it that you would like to know...?" Better to answer a few questions then talk for hours on her mournful past.

' How, may i ask?, did you become a member of your race?' he said flatly, he was genuinly interested, a rare thing with Darmok, to be interested in somone else but himself but to get to know his master was to get to know his apprentice.

' May i sit?'

"That is a tale which should entertain for some time. Perhaps not one best told just inside a rainy doorway. Let's go into the study and get cozy..'

Leading the way across the main room to the side door, it opened before them into a dim room, lit only by candle and no other artificial light. Stepping within she nodded to the hooks on the walls by the door. One of which held her own silverlined cloak. "Get comfy this may take a while."

She tried to think of where to begin. He hadn't asked for her origins with the Force, but with her Vampyre heritage. But they did run a very close path the two..

"The Sith Empire. Several years ago I joined as the apprentice of Sith Master Saurron LeStat, then Vampyre Master of the Coven. I am told by him personally that mine was his fastest turning, that the selection of a fledgling is somewhat lengthier.

At anyrate, during my first training session with him on Munto Codru, I was, sadly, killed. He took my life and just as easily replaced it with this one. His ancient Blood and new levels of training made me faster, stronger, more powerful than I was before.

I served him with unswerving loyalty and without question, until the day I heard of his alliance with Roon. The very Vampyre abominations that he, himself had so inspired me to combat.

And so I find myself on the planet Onderon, now under the tuteledge of another Master, Gav Mortis.."

During her brief and summarized recolection of some very heated events, Razielle had plopped herself into a chair, legs crossed and over the arm. Only when she was finished did she lift her undead stare from her shiny black boots to Darmok's eyes.

"Anything else you'd like an account of?'

' I have heard vaguely of these names, some of them extremely powerfull, some over their head in ego. I have not yet the pleasure to meet our resident Gav Mortis but i'm sure in time i shall' Taking a seat of his own in one of the arm chairs he took a long glance at the Vampyre before breathing in a in take of air to ask another question.

' I have had the disadvantage for livng far longer than i expected, may i ask the burden of your age?'

"You may, indeed. At the moment of my death I had aged twenty-eight mortal years. It has been roughly fours years since that time I believe. I am not the ancient that one would expect from a Vampyre. Sorry to dissapoint but I am relatively young as we go."

She did suspect however that much of her Sire's knowledge and experience as well as demeanor had past into her along with his Blood. Which accounted for not only her strength but for the surprising strength of her only fledgling as well, Salem. They had both already accelerated to the rank of Vampyre Master's in such a short span of time. It could only be attributed to their untainted and noble lineage.

Darmok suddenly feel slightly dissapointed, he had hoped she was somewhat more than early 30's. It was somewhat id a let down in Zachariah's mind and it put him off slightly, she seemed not the ageless Vampire he thought she was.

' Ah' He simply said nodding as if he was interested.

' Well now i know a bit about you, i see only fair you may ask me two questions...'

Damn him straight to hell! He was going to blow her off because she wasn't the ancient he suspected? The shift in posture, deameanor and attention was clear. It had happened the moment she had come forth with her age. She needed to set him straight on that count before she continued with her inquiry as to his backgroud.

"Do not let the age of an Immortal be the scale you weigh their worth upon. I know several of your "ancients" and have been none to impressed with the majority. It has been my experience among my kind that the power of a Vampyre comes only slightly from their age. Power of Sire is a very important and engaging factor. Luckily for myself, I was made with that in mind and am a third generation fledgling. I am very close to the source of my lineage.."

She could care less whether or not he heeded her words. Let him think what he would, should he ever encounter one of the others, one of them.. Then he would see her words first hand. Great hulking buffoons of vampires, were they..

"Now, as for yourself, my two questions at this point must be: Where did you learn your techniques from,? and.. Why learn traditional methods..?"

' Vashentior ' He said shortly. Before taking a more stiffer posture of his own.

' He is the answer to both your questions, he was the creator of The Subryn Coven and a man who lived 5 milennia ago, our underground history alone speaks his name in ancient texts. I doubt you have ever heard the utterings of his name and i dont expect you to have.'

Shoving his nose into the air in a confident mannor, The Mage continued his brief explination, his eyes stareing hard into those of the vampire.

' He taught the generations that taught the generations to follow in the now ruined temple within the darkned pits of Coruscant. And that is how it continued for many generations to follow untill it was my time to fall into the fold of the Subryn religion and teachings.

I was but a boy in my arogant ways, not much has changed has it? Darmok chuckled shortly.

' As a boy i grew up extremely poorlye and my family was killed by a swoop bike gang just before my tenth birthday, i was of course left alone to wander the cobbled streets of the underground city of Coruscant. It was there i met Belgaron'

' It is a long story from there, i doubt you would like to hear my bland voice continue much further' He said doubfully.

"I don't tire easily.. All I have is time right?"

She knew of his beginnings now, but what she wanted to hear was the final details that had sealed his heart to this type of life he had chosen. Why a wandering mage, or whatever this, Belgaron was, would pick a kid up off the street and set him on this path...

"Go on.. please..?"