TWBTS

Meav looked over at Rel, the surprise actually showing on her face. 

"You don't know?" she asked. He shook his head. 

"Oh." Meav leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Finally, they popped open again, and Meav resumed her normal position. 

"To answer your question, I will say this: every little detail of what was a living hell is firmly etched into my mind. And I do not say that lightly. However, since you probably were looking for an answer with a few more details, I will start with our departure from Sayana, since you've been there and know a bit about that. We weren't supposed to leave when we did. Kel was barely three, I was nearly fourteen. For safety, my father had planned to move us away from our home, but not for several more years. Donovon somehow managed to steal us away, though. I was still a child: I still thought everyone was trustworthy. 
"My first glimpses of Hana were under the cover of darkness. That was all I knew of the planet for months--we always remained underground. My father was a man of no small means, and one who sat on the High Council. His daughters disappearing made no small stir, and I'm pretty sure it upset the apple cart for Donovon somewhat. If he had waited longer, he could have had the entire population of Sayana wrapped around his finger. However, you can't just pick up the children of the Council without creating an uproar, which is what happened. I guess Sayana was preparing to take Donovon to an interplanetary court, because I remember him suddenly taking me out of the compound and instructing me on what to do once I got home. I-I...."

Meav ran her fingers over her eyes and face, her hands finally coming to rest in a prayer-like position, her index fingers resting against her forehead. 

"You take this ship back to Annagdha and appear before the council. You will find instructions on what to do and say in the ship's system. Follow them exactly. Tell the council that we had been warned that there was foul work afoot, and we had to leave immediately, for your safety."

"You have lost your chance to save your people," he said. "Today, you have become the enemy of all free folk. Today, you will become one of us. Sith."

Meav breathed in a ragged breath. She took her hands away from her face, and was passive once more--but not even she could, after such memories, so quickly reach a perfect level of non-emotion. Her pacivity, one could say, was pained. 

"I would not go. So, come to find out, that was pretty much the end of my planet as I knew it. As soon after that as I could, I found one of his little jobs that was located as far away from him as possible--which, wasn't far, but it was in the city where there were people and travelers and chances that someone who didn't like Donovon would show up. And they did. Your Jedi friends did, after we'd been there for about three years. And for all their training, the only thing they did was enable Donovon's own students to kill him. They--the Jedi, I mean--took most of the children, those that were young enough to still be of use to them. Those of us that were older, we left and found our own way. And I went home. And he was right. My people were dead."

Meav stared into space, a stray tear nearly succeeding in finding it's way down from her eye, but Meav was still strong. With a sudden jerk of her head, it was gone and she was looking at Rel again. 

"Why, for the love of all good, am I telling this to you??" she suddenly asked. 

Crisis:

Jâkín stopped and stared at the dragon.

"You're helping them get away then? Fine, I won't follow you. He was going to kill them. That didn't sit right by me."

Jâkín turned and trudged off in another direction.

Crisis in the Snow

Julia Syran, one the several young padawans in the Mansions hall, turned at hearing the doors shut. Her greenish eyes flashed a curious warm, and a small smile brightened her features. A shot of adrenaline pulsed through her as she looked at them. She couldn't, feel, anything about them that was wrong, nor had she seen them before. Her caramel hair whisk coolly across her shoulders as she looked at her Master, who stood beside her, her face cocked away. For a long moment she considered greeting those who had just entered, or first asking her Master the identities of the new comers. She pursed her henna colored lips, then turned a pleasant expression on those who had come in. "Hello!" she greeted, from a far.

Crisis in the Snow

Jedi Master Shira Nel'oke felt the presence of the newcomers but did not stop her current train of thought to look. There was plenty of time to do that later. However, the energetic swirl in the Force beside her that was her padawan changed directions rapidly and inwardly Shria sighed patiently as she felt compelled to change directions with her. Turning her eyes towards the arrivals, she was struck with the urgency the Force was projecting from them.
She echoed her padawan's salutation with a gentle smile, "Greetings! Welcome to the Ditto Town Mansion! May we be of service to you?"

((OOC: *wince* Sorry this took so long Luvuh!))

TWBTS

It was all Rel could do to listen to Meav and actually believe that all of this had actually happened to her. To experience so much pain, so much suffering-- to be its inadvertent cause-- how must that be?

He could not answer Meav's question, and asked in disbelief, "And after he did all that, you obeyed him? You became a sith anyways?"

in the Snow

Neíhudir smiled. 

"We always have sources of information. The birds, the animals, even the trees know, and watch. Here, one never knows when they might be awake."

The half-elf turned, and together they began their trek into the heart of Esteë. 

~~

Mahindren watched as Jâkín walked away. 

"Perhaps he is a good man after all," she said to herself, turning and running back to her human charge. 

Rohindron, on the other hand, didn't have it as easy. 

~~

Alàtariël turned to the padawan and her master, the ancient eyes sweeping over them. She said nothing however. Cameron stepped forward. 

"Greetings," he said. "We are from the northern lands. We come seeing the aid of the Ditto Town Jedi. Is Gawain here?"

The Wood Between the Stories

"I am no Sith," Meav frowned. "Emotion has no rule--no place.  I have no allegiances or alliances, except to my race, which is small indeed. My beliefs and ways are my own, and above all, I am a Gensona--an elemental."

TWBTS

Rel blinked, confused. Then he blinked again, trying to compose his thoughts. "How are you not a sith? You've worked with Sith. You said that Donovan told you that you had to become a Sith." He frowned, trying to understand. "That makes no sense."

TWBTS

"Since when did I make sense?" Meav gave a half smile, then shook her head. "Donovon was no friend of mine. He was a captor. If he said something, in my mind, the opposite must be done. Working with Sith doesn't make me a Sith any more than working with Jedi makes me a Jedi. I do not have the option to be either."

Crisis in the Snow

Master Shira nodded serenely, now understanding the source of the urgency she felt. "He is indeed. Shall we take you to him?"

Crisis in the Snow

Darth Gratus peered into the forest. They're in there, somewhere. I can feel it. The Hittani army had successfully made it out of the mountains intact, although the path north was littered with dead soldiers. Eberim bodies dotted the path, as well; another reminder of the Hittani aim.

"Melkos!" he shouted. A Sith glided to his side. "Please fetch Drusus and General Kruzef. We need to plan our next move." "Yes, my master." replied the Sith.

Drusus hauled himself out of the saddle. The warlord grunted as he stepped onto the ground. "What is your plan now, Gratus? You were down here before the invasion. The Eberim scum are surely at the Elvish camps now."

"Yes, but they may not have received as warm a welcome as they hoped for. But regardless, they will not be a major factor. They are a defeated and cowed people, who have fled their homes. Our battle will be with the Elves..... but the reward for victory is sweet. And our new alliance with the men of Cââd will only help us."

"Yes, I know that the Elves have the Crystal. They have moved it since I led the Eberim assault on the Elves, but they were so kind as to let me know that it is, in fact, in their hands."

He leaned forward. "When I was leaving, I discovered something else. The Elves are divided among themselves. A she-elf - a niece of the leaders - followed me, and asked to make a deal with me. She asked me to kill one Force-user who had recently come to the Elves, and in return, said she would procure for me the Crystal." Drusus and the others were startled by this announcement. "Thus, we need not destroy the Elves to get the Crystal - if we kill this so-called "Dark Jedi", we can count on one of the Elves' own inner circle giving us the Crystal!"

TWBTS

Rel's eyes hardened. "It is not the working with the sith or the jedi that makes you either, you are right. It is your actions, and those have shown me that you are more a sith than not."

The ship pulled free of the atmosphere and Rel keyed in the hyperspace coordinates and pulled the lever to begin the countdown.

The Wood Between The Stories

((Permit me a time jump…kinda. I’m going to presume that, halfway through this post, they reach a point where people can get up and walk around. ))

Meav’s face hardened.

“This conversation should be terminated permanently,” she said, crisply and icily. One could feel the temperature dropping in the room. Perhaps it would be best to dump this Jedi once they reached Hana. It would be very easy…except for the issue of Kel. Where was that girl’s master when you needed him???

As they were now steadily on their way, Meav rose and departed for other regions of the ship, leaving a frosty aura behind her. She hadn’t been gone long before Kel’s golden head popped in.

“What’d you do to Meav? She won’t talk hardly at all,” Kel asked, plopping onto the recently vacated seat and bouncing some of her excess energy out. Kel grinned at Rel.

Crisis in the Snow

((BTW, DLF, just so that you know, most of the young elves refer to their elders as aunts and uncles, simply because it can be annoying to refer to someone as “my second cousin twice removed on my mum’s side, and my grandfather’s great uncle on my father’s.” I know that doesn’t change what Gothweniel said, or how it was perceived, but that’s the context she was using it in.))

As soon as he saw Rylin was near, Rohindron abruptly spun around, suddenly obscured by steam as he let out a torrent of fire. Träm sprang backward, defensively covering his face with his hands and arms. The little dragon’s fire had done some damage, but not enough. Träm quickly drew a thick shamshir and landed a sharp blow in the midst of the steam. Rohindron chuckled. His birds-eye view of Träm was very interesting—yes, he had found himself a nice seat in the tree a few paces ahead of the Cââdite. Rohindron glanced ahead, at Rylin. Good, she was slowly moving farther away. She would keep going, he knew--and the little dragon was content to sit there until Tram realized he had been tricked, again.

~~

Mahindren smiled, and hurried back to Nena.

“Come come, one down, Rohindron is getting the other. We need to find Rylin—and I need to find Rohindron. He’s no match for Träm on his own—I just know he is going to get hurt on his own. Never should have let him do that. Ah well, off we go! Maybe we can find a few of your elves in the process.”

~~

The half elf nodded back to Shira.

“Please. It is our desire to speak to him. There is much that has happened, and we need what assistance is available.”

((Cough cough tag tag, Booky. We need to get them back so that I can finish the fight between Träm and Rohindron.))

TWBTS

Rel smiled tightly. "I got angry with her." That was really what had happened. He'd let his emotions overflow and he'd rubbed the murder of his apprentice in her face. Again. With Rel, being angry did not mean yelling or not being able to speak. It meant letting his passions control him so that he said things that he later regretted.

TWBTS

"You...what?" Kel asked, abruptly stopping her bouncing. "You've never been angry."

TWBTS

"On the contrary," said Rel, "I've been angry many times. It's just that I usually let it flow out of me, and I don't let it hurt others." He sighed and ran his hands over the joystick, now useless in hyperspace. "I should go apologize," He thought aloud.