Ask In Black Rock Bound

[Nakoa Singh]

Like an arrow loosed from a string, Nakoa shot forward through the water and arced around the beast, propelled with unnatural speed and strength. He corkscrewed to avoid the swiping tail, the current shoving him dangerously close to the rocks. But the beast was simply angry and quite focused on the little being intruding on its mind. Nakoa didn't know how long Arla could keep it from turning on her, but he hedged toward a minimal time. Monsters of the deep were dangerous things in both body and will.

The Wrean disappeared, scraping through a tunnel across the way and out of sight. This left Arla alone in the dark waters facing down a being that'd be perfectly pleased seeing her crushed in its jaws or smeared across cavern walls. It actively fought her attempts at control, taking an active effort for the Nightsister to keep her hold. Red was its rage, long-lived and well-aged in the spirit waters of Lake Natth. Which were unfortunately a problem all their own.

They were only rotted pieces, shredded to slivers by time, but sleeping spirits they were still. The longer Arla wielded her magic, the more they were stirred from rest and spread rage in their wake. For a time, Arla had to weather these things alone as Nakoa searched for the path forward.

Then there came a sound from the other side of the cavern, a melodic hum in dual tones steadily in volume until it matched the thrashing of water. "Irirangi yatahadathu!" Blue-purple lights streamed through the dark water, illuminating shredded souls ordinarily only visible through the second sight like sunlight through thin paper. "Astamae alan, 'arwah albuhayrati. Astamae 'iilaa 'ughniat alma' wastaraha." Arla would see where spirits had latched onto the beast, expressing their rage through it and empowering its will. "Laqad tahadath Irirangi."

Now some let go and floated through the water, dispersing. Other strays began to drift toward Nakoa, drawn by his humming voice. This left him busy and was difficult work, but Arla would likely find her own task easier without angry spirits reinforcing her target of control.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla didn't know what language the other Sith spoke, but she could feel the power that it held inherently. It was not unlike the ancient Dathomiri tongue, and she could feel the Spirits responding to it... a thankful relief as Arla could feel the strain beginning to wear on her, her mind becoming more exhausted with each passing second.

With a final surge of her will, she forced the creature away as she would banishing a raving spirit and she lunged for the area Nakoa had just come from.

Down she went, following him through the hole until she reached a small ledge of an "underwater cave" and hoisted herself up. Kyber glowed all around them, and as she started looking around she even caught sight of ancient drawings and carvings likely dating back to the Sith bindings that had created this lake.

I wonder if they used this place as an alchemical lab, she said aloud as she made her way further inside, finding even things like tables and chairs within. It was the kind of place one may find treasures or at the very least knowledge, which Arla craved more than perhaps anything else.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Nakoa exhaled slowly, a strange light leaving his eyes as he darted away alongside Arla, leaving the spirits and the beast's lair behind them. He was similarly drained and clearly distracted, but snapped out of whatever it was as they came upon the newest chamber. His eyes widened as he took it at all, snapping from one thing to the next. Curiously he circled the room examining and taking pictures of everything with his waterproofed NalPhone.

Fingers hovered over the old things, near but not quite touching. "Sure looks like one. Just... No equipment?" He responded with energetic interest that seemed to wash away any hints of exhaustion. "The spirits aren't around." As for the dead, he meant the shreds of long-dead Sith souls in the lake.

They had no evident presence amidst the crystals, a cluster of them growing along a wall and then into an extended alcove. Nakoa blinked. "Do you see that?" Through the crevice, he spotted threads of shining red. Arla might see something similar, although not in exactly the same way or place. Such was the way of kyber, or at least he'd read as much, so he followed it. Edging around the corner and further inside this strange new area, he paused abruptly.

"A dead thing." It looked near-human, water-rotten bones caught on crystals and an orb grasped tight in dead fingers. Metal and glass and etched in an unfamiliar language, it was distinctly not a holocron. Nakoa gave an awkward try at delicately prising the orb free without directly touching the bones, but the skeleton fell to bits the moment it got moved and he ended up telekinetically floating the orb in front of himself. His eyes looked further ahead.

"... Oh. That's tragic." Beyond, overgrown in crystals, was what used to be a compact library. Shelves upon shelves of books and dataslates were thrown about and destroyed by water. Other shelves carried the remains of alchemical glassware and ingredients. At the rear, a waterproof plasteel chest would otherwise be unremarkable save for the fact it was covered by neither kyber nor algae.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla couldn't deny the chills that shot down her body as she started looking around. So much untapped history here and things that hadn't been seen by any eyes in generations. Hidden knowledge that she could learn and exploit.

She squinted in the direction he had indicated, but Arla didn't actually see anything and gave a shrug. Go check it out, she added, probably more nonchalantly than she should have been for being submerged in a lake surrounded by spirits of the dead.

She followed after him a few moments later, eyebrows rising slightly as she watched the skeleton practically turn to dust when he touched it. She wandered through and looked at the books, disappointed to see that they hadn't fared much better than the skeleton.

A mild disappointment tugged at her face but she put it aside and decided to press on before finding the chest at the back of the room. It was quite large, and she wondered what it held inside. It seemed as if it were under some sort of incantation to keep it safe.

She reached out and flipped the lid open before her eyes came to rest on some strange staff weapon that she reached out and took into hand. It was about the right size for her and she held it up in her hand.

Ever seen one of these before? she asked, not even having barely looked inside yet to see what else lay within the literal treasure chest.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Without explanation, he reached his left arm into a small opening in the wall overgrown with kyber. Sharp crystal cut his skin, but he wasn't in there long. Nakoa pulled his arm back out, revealing a crystal that was red even to Arla's eyes. The others around it crumbled to dust in seconds. Despite the fact he was bleeding now, the Wrean looked pleased with his find.

Distracted by the opened chest, placed in the library like some unrepentant nerd would treasure in a mystical dungeon in some sort of tabletop role-playing game, he leaned over to inspect the staff. "Mmmm, maybe once? Not like this one." Or at least he thought it was similar. The style was completely different from anything Tethysian that he knew of. "What's it do?" Nakoa asked as he turned to examine whatever else was in the chest.

A stack of enviro-sealed dataslates dating back to at least the Great Sith War, still in working order. There was also a mixed collection of aurodium, other metals, and various jewelry from the same time period- typical Sith, really- but most interesting was the stuff in the middle the staff had been sitting on. Two thick tomes with an air bubble around them, clearly with some kind of ward still intact. Nakoa suddenly swam extra close to the chest, eyes wide. "Arla, look! Hold on-" He flipped himself upside down so he could look at their spines without actually touching them, wary of disrupting their protection.

"Titles of different letters." he continued excitedly. One in the variant Ur-Kittat used by ancient Massassi, another in an esoteric block script most wouldn't recognize. It decorated the walls of various temples, including one example back on Dathomir. "That's... weird," he commented aloud, frowning at the book with Zeffo script. Then he turned and gave Arla a serious look, which was almost comical considering he was still upside-down.

"Getting this up will be a pain."

 

[Arla]

Arla ran her hand along it even as she studied it. The woodwork was ornate and she could feel the Force flowing through it. The wood should have rotted away many years ago, but it still appeared to be in perfect working order, and that told her a great deal about it.

I don't really know, she admitted after a moment. I've read some stories about staff-like weapons being used in olden days or in the manipulation of magic, but I've never seen one before, she admitted. It was rumored to have been around among the Nightsisters in the past, but she didn't know many who actually favored such a tool.

It looks like Zeffonian, she said, squinting at the book that wasn't in ancient Sith.

I don't read it, but I recognize it, she added after a moment with a shake of her head.

She flicked a glance back at his arm, still dripping bits of blood here and there. Don't drip on them, she said with a snicker before glancing back and trying to figure out how exactly they were going to break the wards. She had no idea what wards they were, and she was wary that they may damage or destroy the books with too much tampering.

Thoughts on how to get them out? she asked. I could try some dispelling spells, but it risks damaging them if we don't know the right incantation, she said.

With how long these have been in place, I have to assume they're quite strong.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

Nakoa gave Arla a few moments' side-eyed consideration, something indiscernible behind them. "I recognize it too," he told her. Thinking time was paused to consider his bleeding arm. "Huh? Oh, yes. Kind of you to worry." He smirked good-naturedly, then looked at the cuts like they'd done him some personal wrong by bleeding. With a click of the tongue, he swept the limb, and the bloodied water around it, away from the open chest.

Keeping the injured arm behind his back, Nakoa slowly floated around the chest with a pensive air. "Should've brought rope," he grumbled to himself while storing his new crystal in a belt pouch. His eyes turned to find the orb still floating idly near him, squinting at it and bringing it closer to his face. Aside from obvious age, it also had long scratches along part of its surface that suggested the metal was dragged against something.

Pursing his lips, he started swimming around the room, searching for something. At some point, he inadvertently knocked the arm against a bookshelf corner, said "Ow," looked at the limb, and then the depression in the wall he'd pulled the crystal out of. The orb was floated to the hole in the wall and pushed inside, scraping against the stone and rattling around until there was a pronounced click. Suddenly-!

Hidden speakers that were definitely not meant to transmit underwater started playing classical music, which sounded muffled and strange. "Well, worth a shot," he said with a shrug. Then there was the sound of what could only be described as a large animal smashing itself against the underwater mountain. Nakoa spun his arms to keep balance in the water. The metal orb popped out of the wall socket and noisily rolled straight through what otherwise looked like a solid wall to their right, and the smashing stopped.

"... I'll carry this brick, you pray for stairs." And just like that he hefted the closed chest with the Force- the ward was on the chest and books themselves- and walked right through the illusory wall.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

She watched him looking at... whatever he'd found, and frowned. Things started to unfold quickly from there, and she barely even knew what was happening. Music, underwater slamming, and... a fake wall?

He was on his way in no time, and she found her head darting around in confusion for a moment before he started lifting the chest.

She shook her head and decided to charge on after making sure he still had the chest before darting up said stairs. There was no lighting down here, but she shoved her hand upward and muttered an incantation that sent a trio of bright green, glowing orbs floating above her head to light the way.

Do you even know what that thing does? she asked, referencing the orb he had found and taken a likening to.

The stairs leading up seemed to stretch on for eternity. At many points it flattened out into a long tunnel before proceeding to more stairs. It was perhaps a five minute walk in all before they reached a small incline up with a control panel to the right. She slapped the controls, and a door slid open. Disguised as part of the rocks inside a small cave, it was clearly the main entrance to the lab.

Looks like we took the hard way in, she said, glad they wouldn't have to do that again.

 

[Nakoa Singh]

"I do not," he answered Arla with the tone of someone who considered that a bonus rather than problematic. Nakoa glanced briefly at the floating lights that cast everything in eerie shades of Sisney villain green. "But I intend to find out." By the time they got to the topside entry, the Wrean's mostly-dry hair was stuck to his shoulders. He shook it out and tied it lazily behind its head while looking around the little cave they'd come out into.

"I prefer the stairs," he agreed, finally letting the chest down onto the stone. The two Sith were inside one of the black rock outcroppings surrounding the lake, concealed and out of obvious view. It was pitch black now except for the stars, half-moon above, and Arla's dancing lights. Nakoa stretched broadly, bouncing slightly on his feet now they were out of the water. The air was cold around them, although it didn't seem to bother the barely-dressed Wrean.

"But a successful venture." After a few moment's pause, he floated the chest up again and started walking toward the distant ship. Then he stopped again. "Should change before you freeze," he added over his shoulder, referring to Arla's wetsuit. "Then that meal, yes? Although we can't cook the books." It was said in a dry monotone but was definitely a joke.

Luckily Nakoa kept an abundance of food on his ship, since the only living things on Ambria were in the lake and probably not actually safe to eat.

@Phoenix