Ask From the Shadows into the Stacks

[Celeste Stythani]

Vanessa apparently gave her best to share as much information as she had, but it became more and more obvious that she wasn't used to digging as deep as they wanted. From the outside, it still appeared as two curious students were led through the archive and it was helpful that the processing chambers had no apperent cameras.

Celeste took the right and gathered what was possible while Caer was busy on the left and as they met again in the middle, she nodded. As the Graf's were no experts, they mostly gathered banalities and common knowledge, however every now and then it seemed like they retrieved some valuable details. However, most importantly they collected information they needed to build up Sith libraries after loosing countless and academies and planets after having been driven out of Imperial space.

"Okay. Lead on, Vanessa. How much time do we have left?". Again, the guide checked her datapad before she replied, "43 minutes". As they still had to get out or at least back to the surface, Celeste calculated roughly 30 minutes as they walked towards the next room. The air down here was thick and dry, so Celeste hoped this would all be worth it. 'Found something interesting? Alchemy is next, I'm personally interested in that section' she telepathically explained to Caer before her full focus flicked back to the manipulated guide. She'd still have to make her forget about that and twist the story in her mind in case her boss or whoever would question her little detour.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

The more they delve in these rooms, the less useful information Vanessa could give to them. Most of what the woman was saying any Acolyte would know. By this point, Caerllion was already ignoring her and was only interested in collecting the data that the Archive could offer.

However, even it wasn’t enough to replace the knowledge that the Sith Order had lost. The Graf Family had only collected some simple objects, with the most useful things there being the books. Probably most of the dark things were taken by the Order or destroyed by the Jedi.

“I found a book.” he said to Celeste, while they walked toward the next room. “It’s about Sith creatures and from what I was able to translate, mentions another one with Alchemical rituals. I want to see if they have this other one.” he hoped that he would be able to compare both.

@LadyRen

 

[Celeste Stythani]

Caer's answer was relatively satisfying as this was exactly something they'd both be able to use in the future. 'Good...I'll keep my eyes open as well' she telepathically replied as Vanessa scanned her card again which resulted in a hiss from the durasteel door.

The next room they entered was shed in a dark, crimson light and even before Vanessa began elaborating, Celeste assumed it was because the chamber encompassed photosensitive objects. The guide confirmed the exact same thing a few seconds later and Celeste was indeed surprised to find more old, written books.

There were no droids around here, making Celeste wonder whether they had stopped the research to either prevent unveiling the dark abysses the first Sith had left behind or whether the processing droids had simply not gotten any further with their knowledge. Vanessa awkwardly shifted, watching the pair work while desperately telling them something they didn't know yet.

"Shut it" Celeste hissed, knowing she wasn't helpful anymore and thus just annoying background noise. They had to hurry and she thus wasted no time before carefully rummaging through the materials. There were a few books in various states of decay, however it was also obvious that the archive tried to preserve them as well as they could.

A book in a closed glass cabinet piqued her interest and with that she turned back to Vanessa. "What is that book?". "I...I don't know...maybe-" she began to stammer, genuinely clueless and still intimated, but from the looks of it, it could be exactly what they were looking for. "Can you open it?". "N-no. It's sealed to prevent damage and only the director is authorized-". With that, she threw Caer a look. If they'd violently break it, they'd leave more obvious traces than a few stolen object, but then again, they'd never come back anyway. Also, air exposure could indeed speed up the process of decomposition..."Will an alarm go off if we access that?". "No...I-don't think so". That was at least something...

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

The first thing that Caerllion noticed when Vanessa opened the door was that this room had no droid. He wondered why they weren’t around, since probably there were things to be studied and organized in this session. Their guide seemed to be more nervous after they crossed the entrance.

While the other Sith ordered the woman to shut her mouth, the Annfyn had already gone to scan more books and some artifacts. He was impressed how the objects in this room seemed to be older than in the others. Caerllion was sure that if they searched well enough, things from the beginning of the Sith Order could be found.

His search was having promising results, since he discovered the book that matched the one that was in his bag. By comparing the two, he discovered that the one in this room was some type of alchemical manual to obtain the results depicted in the other one.

He immediately scanned the two, before leaving the book that he picked in the other room next to its complement. There was no need for him to try to take it out of the Archive.

Caerllion turned to look at Celeste, who was talking with Vanessa about a book inside a glass cabinet. “Are you sure that we should remove it? There could be an alarm.” he wasn’t sure if their guide knew every detail about this session. “I can try to use my magick to replace it with another book, while teleporting it.”

@LadyRen

 

[Celeste Stythani]

The glass cabinet was indeed alluring in many ways. She had no idea how they had gotten into the possession of the book in the first place and how they had managed to hide it of there was really dangerous content inside, but maybe the Graf's curiosity had simply gotten the best of them and that's why they kept it and tried to understand what it was. There were countless possibilities and perhaps there was nothing useful inside, yet Celeste definitely wanted to gain that certainty.

Instead of circling it like a shark, she pretended to be busy trying to read something in the faint, dark red light while she reached out with the Force and opted for the light switch of the regular ceiling lamp. She effortlessly flicked it a few times and realized nothing happened. The little switch didn't even let out the faintest sound and so her little testers unnoticed by the guide.

'This room seems to be shut off completely...no regular access, no electricity' she explained her assumption to Caer before she walked back to the glass cabinet, observing the pedestal carefully. No visible cables, no wires...perhaps it was nothing. No cameras, no droids, so hopefully no witnessed. Without further ado, she approached Vanessa while focusing for a moment. She then incapacitated the woman by dulling all senses before carefully letting her down on the ground. "Let's try it. I've found this withered, empty but thick book over there" she nodded to the said book, "If you can swap them by teleportation, we won't even have to break the glass, no?". If he was capable of actual teleportation, chances of setting off any alarms were even lower...otherwise they'd have to silently break it, swap the books and probably get going after she was done twisting Vanessa's memories.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Caerllion watched Celeste flick the light switch, without having any effect in the room. "It seems that this room is completely abandoned." the Champion said to the woman, wondering why the Graf didn’t seem to care for this place. Would they be afraid of dealing with what was stored here?

Like the other Sith, Caerllion also approached the cabinet. The Annfyn stretched his hand in front of the glass and released a wave of red energy. While there wasn’t any visible security mechanism, his magick could reveal if there wasn’t anything hidden beyond their sight. When the spell covered the glass, it didn't detect anything.

The Annfyn turned to look at Celeste. "We are safe. There isn’t anything here." he said, while gesturing to the glass. Caerllion watched the other Sith putting down Vanessa. It was another good way of using the Force. Making people faint was a perfect way of avoiding needing to kill them. These dangerous times they needed to be careful to not leave traces of their business.

He turned to look at the book that Celeste mentioned. "It wasn’t difficult." the Annfyn had been training his sorcery for years. Teleporting objects was becoming easier these days, but he wasn’t going to try with living beings yet. He stretched his right hand toward the one inside the glass, while his left was pointed to the old one. Red smoke would immediately cover the two and soon the books changed places.

@LadyRen

 

[Celeste Stythani]

As risky as their potential attempt could become, it seemed like they needed the book. It was way too tempting and the resemblance to the other book they had already acquired seemed you obvious. They had gotten this far, returning without it seemed foolish and he at least seemed to sense and see it too. They might be lucky with the abandoned chamber and if not, they could still make a run for it, so Celeste nodded.

She watched Caer work his magic while definitely tensed up, but just a few moments later the warbling dark energy comprised the two bookend effortlessly switched their position, allowing them to access the new book now. Celeste carefully slid her fingers alongside the edges before slowly opening a random page that revealed an assortment of runes.

Even from a first glance she could decipher that it could proof itself useful and so she let it vanish into Caer's bag before adressing the Champion again. "Excellent. I feel like we should get going". They wouldn't have much more time anyway, so it was time to finish up. "As soon as you're ready I'll wake her". She'd also have to twist her memories accordingly, but they still had a little time for that.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Caerllion watched Celeste hold the book. It was different from the others, with golden and red marks on the cover. He wanted to read it immediately, but their time was coming to an end. The two needed to gather everything that they found here and leave immediately.

When Celeste opened one of the pages and he saw the runes on it, the Annfyn immediately noticed that they were similar to ones that he saw in another book. He would need to confirm it later. The Champion grabbed his bag and allowed the other Sith to put the book inside. Caerllion couldn’t wait to study it.

“I think that we can go. We already saw everything that could be useful.” Caerllion said, while Celeste approached the unconscious guide. While his fellow Champion prepared to meddle with the woman’s mind, the Annfyn retrieved the two books that he had mentioned early and put them inside his bag.

“I’ll take those two. I think that the originals can be better than a digital copy.” he explained to Celeste. “Now we can go.”

@LadyRen

 

[Celeste Stythani]

While Caerllion finished up and looked for more books, Celeste carefully woke the other by woman by reaching back into her and allowing her to access her own senses again. Before she even moved though, Celeste held her in a stasis in order to keep her from getting up or moving at all so that she could wrap up business with her.

The woman stared at her wide-eyed, still a little dazed from before and she used that exact momentum to dive back in and amplify the seeds of fear she had already planted earlier to carefully twist her mind and memories. Only once she was completely sure that the right memories were erased and the story in her head straight, she let her go and gestured for Caer to move out.

'Okay. It is done. Let us get out of here' she confirmed telepathically as she started moving herself, letting Vanessa lead them back up as she had instructed her to do so. Vanessa was prepared to tell a story and would blame herself for letting them down there if they were asked, but the droids still seemed rather disinterested, which was good. All they needed to do was get out and get off the planet,

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Caerllion had turned back to the two women right on time to see Celeste staring at Vanessa. While he couldn’t see what was happening, the Annfyn could feel his fellow Sith using the Force over the guide. Probably it was another telepathic manipulation in Oyah’s mind.

He wondered if something else would remain inside Vanessa’s mind after everything that Celeste did with her today.

Whatever Celeste did with her didn’t take more than a few seconds. Vanessa’s fear with their presence seemed to have disappeared, with her looking at them like she did when they met early, before the two Sith revealed their true intentions. “I’m still impressed with how you can do it to her. You need to teach me this ability.”

With Vanessa back under Celeste’s control and with nothing else useful for them to scan, the three walked back to the elevator. The droids moving around continued ignoring them, being more interested in their work.

Once they reached the elevator, Vanessa pressed a button and it started to move. Caerllion put his hands inside the pockets of his jacket, waiting for them to return to the upper levels of the Archives. This mission would soon come to an end.

@LadyRen

 

[Celeste Stythani]

As Vanessa started leading them out again, Celeste followed silently. She nodded for now as Caer repeated his request, however knowing that this was no trick to just teach someone and neither was it anything just anyone could learn anyway. Maybe he wasn't even strong enough, maybe his aptitudes laid elsewhere. Maybe time would tell.

One way or another, she didn't need to do anything and if he thought he was in the position to demand anything from her, maybe it was about time she taught him that this wasn't how this worked. There was no need to start a fight, but she'd take a mental note.

She wasn't letting anyone get close to her and wasn't easy to trust others, so this Sith was no exception. Time would tell whether their collaboration would continue to work without any troubles.

On their way back up, no one seemed to pay too much attention which was actually a great relief. Vanessa led them towards the gift shop and Celeste started feigning interest one more time before their tour was officially concluded. They said their goodbyes to Vanessa while Celeste double checked one last time, but for nowmit seemed like they hadn't left any dangerous traces.

They were free to go, but Celeste didn't adress Caerllion before they had brought quite a distance between them and the archive. "Well, seems like that went fine. I trust you know where to bring those books and how to keep them safe?", she asked, however it was obviously more a rhetorical question. She wasn't too keen about letting him keep most of the stuff, yet she actually didn't question his loyalty towards the Order too much and so she decided that it would be fine.

@LouJoVi

 

[Caerllion of Cyfnos]

Caerllion remained in silence until they left the Archive. He had noticed that Celeste didn’t answer his desire to learn more about her telepathic abilities, but he decided to ignore it. Their mission was a success and he didn’t need to argue about her silence. It could end in a fight and they don’t need that at the moment.

Only when they were far away from the Archive, Celeste finally talked to him. The Annfyn wanted to laugh with her distrust. Even after they went down there, she still thought that he could disappear with everything that they collected. The Sith were in a dire situation and he wasn’t crazy to betray the Order.

“I know what I need to do.” he said, while pointing to his bag. “I’ll turn the information that we collected into holobooks and contact you- know-who. But I'll send you some copies.” even if they were alone in the street, the Champion wasn’t going to mention the Dark Lord of Sith.

“If you excuse me, I have much to do.” he said, before turning and walking away. In the same way that they arrived, the two would need to leave separated.

@LadyRen