Many thanks to those who reviewed the previous chapter, especially those who pointed out small mistakes that I missed for one reason or another. It is highly appreciated! Enjoy the next chapter! ~F
Chapter Fourteen
Convergence
Veneficus did not even bother with going to meet with the returning Inquisition fleet. He had already foreseen that Gor-lak would come for a saber crystal, and had given instruction for one of the plundered Jedi saber crystals to be given for his seeking incantations. The ork in human flesh, and his need for constant contact with the Emperor was to go unfulfilled.
The Sith Emperor had already seen what he planned with the small crystal, and even if it was lost it would matter little. "The opportunities vastly outweigh the risks…" he said to the spirits that continually attended him.
Long had he been tempted to conjure forth more of the ancient Sith and bind them to his will, increasing his power, but at the same time he already had much to deal with regarding the self corrupting degradation of the Dark Side. He quickly was growing toward the point where he had to consume Elixir of Life once a week just from standard life, not even factoring in combat or extensive ritual.
And while he eagerly wanted to scour the Galaxy for the secret of immortality, there was a level of need for him to turn his attention away from the quest of the Sith. "The Jedi are growing in power again…" said Marka Ragnos, the hybrid Emperor of ancient times appearing before Veneficus, "they alone remain as threats to your rule, and the path that you seek…"
Veneficus refrained from sighing. The ghosts of the ancients seemed to have little in the ways of true insight after so many years of haunting him, but the strength in the Dark Side that their presence granted him was paramount for his research, as well as maintaining his rule. None in the Empire could best him while he lived, the sum total of five great Sith Lords rolled into one being.
Briefly, he considered looking for the Jedi with Force, sweeping the Galaxy system by system, but it would be a fruitless effort. He already understood that Granger had utilized the concealing and shielding techniques of their home world, which had power over even the Force's ability to sense what lay beneath, and any stragglers would be long gone before he had the chance to send out his followers to eliminate them.
No, better to leave the chase to those he had already given the task, and not pamper them by doing it himself. There were far greater matters that he could spent his time on, barring the research into the Force for the secrets of life and death.
Supreme Prophet Feyd and the coup that the man was foolishly trying to raise against him; for example, was indeed was something that Veneficus might have to start paying attention to. The man who ran Veneficus' Empire thought himself rising high enough to usurp the throne on his own, with no skill with the blade or personal power in the Dark Side to back him up, just the political masses that would easily abandon him for someone who gave them a better deal.
It was part of the reason that Veneficus had allowed himself to fade from view of the public so rapidly. Political power was only as needful as when one lacked the strength of arms or knowledge in the Force to enforce one's will.
The fool thought Veneficus blind in his self imposed withdrawal from society, and in that the Supreme Prophet was direly wrong. Retiring further into his citadel, Veneficus took to the northeastern tower, which had been transformed into a network of spying and watching probes that were scattered through the core worlds of the Sith Empire.
Tapping instructions and command onto the keys of a massive console, which sent the signals to countless of probes in Korriban, Dromund Kaas, as well as the other worlds that formed the core of the Empire. Specifically, Veneficus wanted to spy on his wayward servant, Zhar Quelmok, who would quickly become the primary enemy of Feyd, as the paranoid Supreme Prophet fell into the trap that had consumed countless generations of Sith long before him.
It was almost amusing, watching the preliminaries of an outright civil war between the two most powerful councilors of the Dark Side, and Veneficus wanted to have a front row seat as they decimated each other.
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Euka calmly waited outside one of the deeper tombs in the Valley of the Dark Lords, wondering when Ekitc Batoi would finally decide that whatever he was seeking was not there and emerge once more.
She and Zhar had been watching Ekitc's progress through the Valley of the Dark Lords closely, even as the foolish Sith pureblood tried vainly to discover some hint of deception or treachery. Naturally none of the archeologists or Adepts on the planet would have aided him, their loyalty bent only to their High Prophet.
Still, it was annoying that the fool was on their world, and that was why she was here now, waiting at the only entrance to this particular cave network, to challenge him directly and find out what he hoped to find, or pin upon them.
Still, the muted irritation of the task did not stop her from grinning widely when the crimson, bald head of the Sith Pureblood finally appeared. Ekitc Batoi was glowing as he departed the tomb, dusting himself off from the ancient air that pervaded these places.
"Careful, that's history you're brushing off so casually," Euka said, eagerly accepting the hate that wafted off her rival as he finally noticed her presence.
"Euka…" the Sith sneered, his saber hilt flashing to his hand. Euka stilled herself, her own weapon in hand as well. All joking had ceased between them, and now it was business.
"Ekitc…" Euka replied, standing slowly and turning to face him fully, "What are you doing here?"
It didn't surprise her when half of his weapon ignited, and she reacted in kind, their crimson blades crackling as they crossed, each pointing dangerously toward the other. "You and your master are clearly uniting the world of Korriban against the Supreme Prophet, and by extension the Emperor himself." The fool accused, "I will find what you are up to, and destroy your little rebellion before it has a chance to threaten our Empire."
Euka almost wanted to laugh. It was exactly as she and Zhar had imagined, if not more so. They dared to think that they had the moral high ground, when Supreme Prophet Feyd was the largest warmonger among the Dark Council, trying to coax them into his ranks from the beginning.
Still, she had a role to play, in dissuading this fool from finding anything of actual merit, and if it meant pushing him toward what he was already thinking of finding, then so be it. Zhar had already made preparations to the effect of their need to actually mount a resistance against the Supreme Prophet, as the aggressive human was not willing to simply leave them be.
"And you honestly think that we'd leave anything of worth languishing around in the tombs for you to find?" she said scathingly, and it was true. In the event that they had much to actually hide from Ekitc, the tombs of Korriban would be the most insecure and pointless places for them to secret anything.
"I've only just begun by investigation, and you would do well to keep out of my way, lest I decide that your hostility is paramount to armed resistance in and of itself…" the Pureblood threatened.
"You'd just enjoy that, now wouldn't you," Euka shot back, fighting the urge to just eliminate him here and now, and postpone the problems that they would inevitably have with the
Supreme Prophet.
So long as she kept Ekitc here however, Zhar had all the more time to sift through the tomes in the academy, and possibly find something of worth to their real objective, and understand more of the Emperor's mind, and whether he was planning their utter extinction anytime soon.
"You have no right to make threats here…" Euka added, even as other Dark Side Adepts from the ranks stationed on the planet arrived in response to the commotion. The pair of them would have been recognizable, and their rivalry was known throughout the Galaxy, but here, where Zhar's word was law, they would have no choice but to back Euka if a fight broke out.
Withdrawing from their crossed sabers and sheathing his own, Ekitc sneered at her, "Just hope that you are taken down along with your traitorous master." He said, turning away and striding off on his own, heading toward yet another section of the archeologist's digs.
Euka smirked, knowing that she had thoroughly interrupted whatever thought process that the Pureblood had, and it would slow him down before he went to the Academy, and directly tried to speak with Zhar.
Her job here done, she turned back toward the waiting speeder, and its protection from the hot sun above. Let the fool grub about in the desert a little longer, she was returning to her chamber for a time, to refresh herself from the dust and grime of the planet and perhaps find something to eat.
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Diábolis glared down at the star map before him, which still pinged with its annoying message, desiring to know where he wished to steer his personal starship. He had left his fleet in a course that would run through the eastern scope of the Galaxy, where he was certain that the Rebellion was not operating, while he himself was planning to take several side trips.
Why he was doing this was simple. In the height of Veneficus' power, the Sith Lord had catalogued a great deal of hidden tombs and ruins that were tied to the Order of the Sith, and while he had gathered artifacts and knowledge from many of these, allowing Dark Adepts to scour them for every scrap of history that they had until there was next to nothing left, there were still a great deal that he had specifically forbidden anyone to investigate.
Even Diábolis did not know the specific reasons that the Emperor quarantined these different places and planets, but if there was even a chance that one of these held some weapon or knowledge that he could use against Veneficus, he had to take that chance.
His first stop, the planet Vjun, was a place where an active Sith cult had existed for hundreds of years. On the boarder of the pre-war Neo-Sith Empire's territory, it was currently being heavily investigated by their adepts, but because of its distance from the Core of the Empire, it only now had started any serious investigations.
The problem was not so much the Emperor, who had permitted the planet to be excavated, but the natural acidic rain that threatened any and everything that wasn't specifically protected from the corrosive weathering of the planet.
Therefore, its many Dark Side locations were mostly unexplored, and the Sith apprentice hoped to find some secret before it was completely uncovered and destroyed by the probing hands of the Empire.
Stars blurred as he finally punched in the coordinates of the acidic planet, and sped away toward what he hoped would be an enlightening experience with the power of the Dark Side, and perhaps a lead toward something that would aid him in matching his master in the raw strength of the Force.
Many baubles and other items tended to be found easily in these places, but it would be a tome or scrolls that interested Diábolis the most. Lost knowledge that could be used by him exclusively, from some ancient wielder of the Dark Side, teaching techniques that his master was still unaware of, and might give him an edge in countered the raw strength that Veneficus possessed.
Within hours, his personal shuttle pulled back out of Hyperspace over the planet, and he coasted into the atmosphere easily enough, the heavy, green rainfall already looking as sickeningly deadly as it was.
Even as Diábolis slowly circled the facility that the Empire was funding to start the excavation process, a covered landing platform appeared, the entire platform rising to allow him to land, before sinking down and being covered by ferrocrete to protect his ship from the constant rainfall.
More or less ignoring the being that came to welcome him, the Sith Lord quickly disembarked from his ship and the hangar altogether, stretching out with the Dark Side to find a suitable destination on the planet.
"My Lord?" the being asked insistently, running to catch up to Diábolis. Sighing impatiently, the Sith stopped and turned to glare at the Bith that had chased him.
"I…" the being stammered, realizing his predicament of holding up a powerful Force user, "I just wanted to know if you required your ship to be refueled…"
Diábolis took only half a second to look at the bulbous-headed alien, in the orange overalls of a hangar worker. "If you honestly think you need to ask that question, then I have to wonder why you have the job you do…" he responded, making the Bith flinch back.
"Yes, right… of course, my Lord," the worker responded, backing off and turning back toward the hangar.
Watching him retreat for a moment, Diábolis allowed the fool to fade from his mind, and returned his attention to the task he had come for. Reaching out with the Dark Side, the Devaronian Sith Lord felt the twinkling reactions across the planet, even as the tombs and ruins of the long forgotten cults reacted to a powerful user of the same energy.
The surprise that came to him; however, was that the greatest reaction to his probes came from under the ground, far out in the acidic wasteland. It was puzzling, and as Diábolis had no frame of reference to know exactly what he was sensing. It was not unrealistic to think that other Dark Adepts had sensed the same, and they along with the archeologists were seeking for that very place.
In order to find whatsoever group may be working toward unearthing that very vault or underground ruin, Diábolis went to the administration of the hangar compound, which would have records of who came and went on this world. At the same time, erasing his own presence here would be necessary if he was to remain inconspicuous in his activities.
"Greetings, my Lord," the secretary droid said as he approached, "I am D4-3B7, how might I serve you?"
"I require information regarding the current investigating projects on this planet," Diábolis said quickly, keeping his hood up and refraining from revealing his identity. The fewer who knew that he himself had visited this planet, the better for his secrecy.
"Of course, my Lord," the droid replied neutrally, probably having already scanned his identity and knowing that the apprentice to the Emperor had all rights to anything anywhere.
"Also, I want no record of my appearance here to be made, matter of security…" Diábolis added, figuring that the droid would be swayable enough to remove the record of his appearance even from its own databanks.
"Yes, my Lord," the droid responded, pushing over a datapad that contained all the known sites that archeologists and Dark Adepts were excavating. Diábolis turned and walked away, even as the droid rebooted itself after deleting all record of the interaction and copying of coordinates.
Perusing the layout of the nearest ruins and temples that were being excavated, Diábolis found one that was nearest the rough location of what he had sensed. It was one of the furthest from the hangar system, and very remote. A twinge of warning in the Force told Diábolis that something might be happen if and when he went there, but for the sake of finding the source of that strong Dark Side nexus he would go regardless.
Chartering a speeder to the site was rather tricky, as he needed to once again find one that was automated, as any living driver would ask undesirable questions, and even Dark Adepts had to pay typically for such services, although Diábolis' would be exempt from such fees.
He also wanted to make sure, aside from the rain, that the speeder was well armored and protected, just in case he had to make a quick getaway. The speeder zoomed across the landscape, avoiding pools of toxic and dangerous water as well as keeping to whatever overhangs and cover that it could find.
There were certainly quicker routes, ones that a biological driver might have taken, but the droid was rather set in the route that it would take, and Diábolis was content that at the least it would be something less obvious if there was anyone who had taken notice of his appearance on this world.
Still, it was a decent amount of time before he finally arrived at the site, which he was not surprised to find a ruin covering the actual site, and likely used by the researchers as their covering from the near constant rainfall. "Remain here and wait for me to return," Diábolis ordered the droid, which affirmed his orders and put the speeder down under a small makeshift covering, where other speeders were parked and shut down. They were likely those of the Dark Adepts and archeologists, but Diábolis paid them no mind.
Venturing swiftly into the ruins, Diábolis swept the area with the Force to locate the other life forms within, and was mildly surprised to find them far under the ground, in some subterranean level of the ruin, and very near to the source of the Dark Side nexus that had attracted him to this location in the first place.
The strange thing was that despite passing several sensors that were clearly meant to notify the workers of a visitor's approach did not engage a reaction from those life signs down below. It put Diábolis on edge.
Pulling his twinblade saber from his belt, he cautiously made his way onward. The floodlights that illuminated the passages ahead were angled in such a way that long shadows were cast along the left side of the chambers and corridors, but the right was bathed in light, revealing the murals and hieroglyphics that told of the ancient cults that existed for thousands of years on Vjun, and their exploits. Try as he might to focus on the task at hand, Diábolis couldn't help but have his attention drawn to several of them.
From what he could gather at a cursory glance here and there, the site was built over an ancient treasure, one that had been secreted away for some time, and with the corresponding Dark Side aura in the underground levels, Diábolis was inclined to believe them. The motif of a fox was everywhere as well, which led him to suspect that the ancient families that once ruled Vjun were somehow linked to this place.
Several times, he bypassed ancient and disarmed traps, clear markers that something was being protected this far down into the ruins, and it served only to heighten his guard. When he finally arrived at the final chamber, where the life signatures originated, Diábolis sucked in a small breath of surprise as he discovered that he had severely overestimated the skill of the workers that had been sent to this site. Dozens of beings lay dead and dying across the floor, slash marks and stab wounds littering their bodies. Even a handful of Dark Adepts, clearly sent as guards for the workers were killed, their bodies looted and their lightsabers missing.
And yet there were signatures of life all around him, Diábolis sensed through the Force, which meant only one thing. Assassins.
Activating his twinblade, Diábolis allowed the room to bath in its crimson glow. "I sense your presence…" he seethed, trying to pinpoint just how many he was against, and where precisely they were hiding. "You may have succeeded against these fools, but not so against me… I am a Dark Lord of the Sith, and I know no equal in the skills of combat."
Silence was his only response, but there was a tightening in the Force that generally accompanied when battle was about to begin, the deep breath before the strike as it was called. The moment passed, and Diábolis sensed the movement of his enemies, even as half a dozen masked humans leapt from the high ceiling at him.
Two men and four women, armed with vibroblades, and the lightsabers of their former foes charged him, their speed incredible for all their lack of power within the Force. Diábolis spun, deflecting the first few attacks, and kicking savagely at the third opponent to approach him, creating an open for which to escape through.
Wheeling through his escape from the initial rush, Diábolis allowed himself a moment's reprieve, gathering the Dark Side fully to his side, and then surged back into the fray, allowing both blades of his deadly weapon to spin and twirl in tight arcs around his body.
While these assassins were no armatures in their craft, the wielding of lightsabers made their attacks clunky and slow in comparison, and it was a simple task to deflect the energy weapons. Their blades however were much more precise, and within the first few moments Diábolis backed off with thin slits in his robes and a very real knowledge that these foes were not to be underestimated.
And so he stopped playing around. Leaping high into the air, he dove like an impaling bolt at the rearmost assassin, slamming boots first into the woman's chest, knocking her viciously to the ground, and removed an arm at the elbow before slamming a crimson blade through her sternum and into the stone floor of the chamber.
Withdrawing his weapon swiftly, Diábolis turned, catching three more attackers with a volley of Sith Lightning, throwing them back and clearly stunning them from the electrical assault. The remaining two attempted to flank him, one on each end, but even as the rushed him, the Sith Lord dodged out of the way, using the force the pull the pair together, and impaling each of them upon their ally's weapons.
Throwing the pair aside, so that they could die from their own injuries, the Devaronian faced off against the clearly shaken and weakened three, and he sensed the fracture in their moral at already losing half their number to a single combatant.
Yet there was something else in their mess of emotion: respect, and a large amount of fear. They understood that Diábolis was a force to be reckoned with, and while they would continue the fight, the Sith Apprentice sensed that they had accepted that he would win in the end, and that nothing they did could change that inevitability.
He refused to disappoint them. Rushing in, he swept the legs out from under the remaining male assassin, and stabbed upward, skewering another female in the abdomen, even as his formed a fist with his free hand. The clatter of weapons from the last woman accompanied her own hands flying to her throat, although there was nothing that she could do to stop the Sith from strangling the life from her.
Except she was not alone; Diábolis staggered forward, as the man he had tripped slammed bodily into him, breaking his concentration and allowing his partner to collapse, unconscious but still alive from the telekinetic attack.
The man suffered for his gallantry, and his screams filled the chamber as Diábolis unleashed a torrent of lightning into his body, allowing the ability to channel and watching in eager pleasure as the lithe body of the would-be assassin flailed on the ground in agony.
"Enough! We yield!" a female voice rang out, surprising Diábolis. Ceasing his torment of the man, he turned to see a seventh figure, another woman, cautiously approaching him with raised arms and no weapons in sight.
"And I should spare any of you for what reason?" Diábolis hissed in reply, more than willing to follow through on that, unless this woman offered him something of value to spare them.
"We have a vast network of spies and assassins," the woman said swiftly, already regaining her composure as Diábolis relaxed, sensing the true desire to survive, and the intense pride that she held in her minions.
"And what is that to me? I am a Sith Lord…" Diábolis pressed, wondering just how far the woman would go to protect her own invested interests in their grouping.
"We've worked for Sith before," she said, removing the hooded mask and pulling loose hair behind her ear, "Perhaps it is time to ally the Mecrosa Order with one once again."
That caused Diábolis pause. The Mecrosa Order of Assassins was something he had heard of before, although he had thought that they were extinct, lost long ago with the wars between the Jedi and Exar Kun. Apparently they survived, likely retreating into the shadows and waiting to build up once again.
There could be advantages to such an order of spies serving him, if they could be trusted. And even if he couldn't trust them, Diábolis could think of a number of uses for their warriors and informants.
"Then what is hidden in this ruin, which you were so protectively guarding?" Diábolis asked, giving no clear indication that he had as of yet accepted their bargain, although he had already accepted it in his own mind.
"A star map, which gives the coordinates to an ancient vault that even the Sith Emperor has not gone to nor investigated." The woman responded.
"We might just be able to work something out," Diábolis said finally, smirking at the relief that surged through the force from the woman. They were weak willed, to be sure, but hopefully their skills were still that that legend made them out to be.
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Ist looked down at the world of Dathomir. Despite being relatively near to the heart of the Imperial Core, the world had not been overwhelmingly populated, mainly used as the training facility for the ranks of Dark Assassins that were spread throughout the Empire, hunting insurgents and others that would be ready allies of the Rebellion.
Aside from the strange Jedi-like figure that she had seen in recording, Ist had been carefully forming a plan to potentially shut down the training facility altogether, and deprive the Empire of their lethal assassins. Any damage that she could cause would only benefit the Rebellion, as the assassins had been instrumental in destroying many of their allies and connections throughout Sith space, as well as the more neutral leaning organizations, like the Hutt Cartel.
The lucky part was that, with the lack of civilization being present on the planet with small exception, she was able to approach without being detected, and find a suitably isolated location to land and shroud her ship from detection.
From there, came the challenge of actually locating where the report and the recording of the strange figure actually originated. The problem with that was, barring any method of hacking into the Imperial network, which Ist had no skill in whatsoever, she was forced to venture into the training facility and discover where the report came from.
There at least, some of the skills she had fostered in tribute to the race and clans she was born to. She had never known the culture or society of the Bothans, but from what she had read, they were experts in the methods of subtlety and espionage, and she had high hopes of becoming a Jedi Shadow, and putting those skills to use for the benefit of the Light. But that had been before the war, and now times were different.
Still, if she was going to get into the imperial facility and find the information she sought, all without being detected as a Jedi, she had her work cut out for her.
Moving swiftly through the overgrown jungles of the planet, Ist kept to the shadows, wrapping the Force around her to prevent others from detecting her, but retaining her own ability to perceive others as they approached. It was a skill that many had mastered in part, but she had specifically spent time to adapt the flowing meditative technique to its pinnacle.
Because of this, her progress was slower, but she was able to avoid even the most subtle of Dark Adepts as they ventured into the deeper part of the jungle-like foliage for their own reasons, never once suspecting that a Jedi was on their planet, let alone so close.
In fact, she was able to pass close enough to several groups to even overhear conversations, ranging from new speeder designs, all along various topics that were of various levels of unimportance to her cause.
That changed when she neared the facility that all the patrols were stemming from, where she had to stop and think of a way to enter the compound, and also heard something interesting to her. A pair of guards, non-Force sensitive from what she guessed, was posted outside the main entrance, and chatting to each other between groups of adepts entering and leaving the facility.
"So," one said, "you hear about the thing out in the jungle that is slaughtering the students?"
"Yeah," the other replied, after another group entered and the doors sealed themselves again, "apparently it takes the lightsabers from its prey and uses them against all future hunters… the High Prophet has a massive bounty on its head, and is willing to promote anyone who defeats it to her personal apprentice…"
"Heh, think of what might happen if one of us takes it down, rather than a student," the first guard retorted with a snort, "what will she do then?"
Whoever 'she' was, Ist did not know, but if the High Prophet was involved in searching for the unknown figure who had the skills of a powerful Jedi, then it meant that Ist had to work quickly to find them and escape the planet again.
Making her decision quickly, Ist rose quickly and walked forward dutifully, almost holding her breath to hope that the guards don't look too closely at the coloration and design of her robes, which while faded and grey rather than the traditional tan and brown of the Jedi Order, were still a very different style.
Thankfully, the guards seemed to have been ordered not to speak to or around the students, and they ignored her completely as she entered the complex. Despite that; however, Ist did not feel any safer. She needed to find a much better disguise. Carefully avoiding anyone, she made her way through the complex, searching for some sort of cleaning station for clothing, where she might find a change of robes for something less conspicuous.
It took some doing, but eventually she figured out a suitable location to find them, and after a quick rummaging through the freshly laundered robes she found one that fit well enough. It was oddly disturbing that the taint of the Dark Side was still upon them even after cleaning, but Ist put them on regardless, hoping that the faint aura would only help to shroud her presence as she searched for a console of some sort that she could search for information.
A handful of times she got very close to where Dark Adepts were congregated. While it was agitating to be in such close proximity to so many followers of the Emperor, Ist trusted in the Force. Through her technique of masking herself, she passed under their notice without garnering any attention, slowly sifting through the ranks as she passed through the academy compound, seeking an archive or library that might have the information she sought.
When she finally how such a location, a little nook that held a few reference materials and perhaps a guarded area with Holocrons or something else precious to these Darksider, she quickly took control of a console and started typing away, just generally browsing for information regarding the bounty on the unknown figure.
Finding the contract was simple enough, but the issue was that any reference for the details directed a student of the academy to seek out their overseer and petition for the hunt in person. Naturally this wouldn't work for Ist, seeing as she was neither a student nor a Dark Side Adept at all, so she reread the details provided in the announcement.
Just as the guards had said outside, there was a hefty reward waiting for whoever killed this unknown individual, and it was placed specifically by the High Prophet in charge of Dathomir. Thinking quickly, Ist reasoned that the High Prophet would have ultimate authority and access to anything in the Imperial network here, and if she could slip in and use a console within the head's chambers, she might be able to access the information she sought without something even more dangerous being required.
Pulling up a map of the academy swiftly, Ist downloaded it to a spare, blank datapad that she carried with her for such purposes, and quickly shut off the console, departing before another group of students entered the area.
Following the map closely, Ist was able to navigate around the centralized areas, where most of the body of people ought to have congregated, and made her way to the upper levels, where the administration offices and governing bodies met and discussed. This world, like all those of the Sith Core, had its own body of twelve councilors, called the Prophets of the Dark Side, and at their head was a High Prophet, who also was a member of the Dark Council, reporting directly to the Emperor the activities of the Empire.
It would not be an easy matter to find an open console here, especially if the council was not in session, and from a casual glance as the lift arrived on the upper level, guards were everywhere, both Force Sensitive and those who were not.
But, even as she bolstered her courage to proceed, one o the doors opened, and a woman stepped out, holding an air of authority that made even the guards quiver at her approach. "Lord Gor-lak is sending a message," she informed them, "I will take it in the Council Chamber, alongside the other prophets, and we are not to be disturbed until the meeting is concluded."
"Yes, my Lord," the guard said sharply, "as you wish."
What luck! Ist edged forward as the High Prophet departed, alongside several other robed and clearly strong Dark Side wielders, as they moved down the corridor and out of sight. The guards followed, leaving the area vacant for the moment, but if Ist's guess was right, more guards would be on their way to take the post.
It was now or never. Darting for the doorway, Ist quickly pressed the button to admit herself access, and sighed in relief as the door opened without any fuss. The fact that the leader of this planet did not even lock her own door behind her was testimony to the extreme arrogance of the Darksider. Ducking inside and closing the door once more, Ist quickly scanned the room.
Within were several personal affects, as well as a large formal desk, with a personal console waiting for commands. Thanking the Force for her streak of good fortune, Ist walked over and quickly started checking for the information she sought.
As she had thought, the High Prophet had complete access to any records or detailed information regarding the academy, and Ist was able to swiftly find the location that the unknown figure had last been spotted, some ways away to the north, and significantly farther from her ship than the academy had been. It would be some trek to get there, but hopefully worth the time if the inkling in the Force as to the identity of the individual was who Ist hoped it was.
Even the holorecording she had seen previous to coming to Dathomir was part of the information packet, and in slightly better detail, but still not enough for Ist to make out anything more about the individual, aside from the clear human-like frame and movements.
Not wanting to overstay her lack of welcome and risk being discovered, Ist made a hasty departure. Now that she had the coordinates, she could slip out and start heading in that direction. With luck, she could get out and on her way without anyone knowing the wiser that a Jedi had been in the midst of their academy.
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Gor-lak watched the faces of the Dathomir council more than listened to their words, even as they attempted to allay his fears that there was unwanted activity on their world.
Personally, he rather disapproved of the entirely female council that was ruling over the Assassin's academy and the dense jungle world that hid his personal laboratory. None of them knew that of course, with the exception of the high Prophet herself, which was why Gor-lak paid extra attention to her face above all others.
"We're well aware of the concern that you have for the Core of the Empire, Grand Inquisitor," Jamasila Basksyr said, the High Prophet seeming to be annoyed at his demand for their attention at this point, "but everything is calm here, and there is nothing for you to investigate…"
A small flicker in the side of the human female's face told another story, there was something off, something that the woman was hesitant to allow to become known widely in the Galaxy.
Gor-lak smirked, "I trust that you wish to believe such, but I can sense that there is something on your world. Indeed, the only sensible thing would be to come investigate myself, just to be sure…"
Oh the delightful expressions that the Dark Side woman was attempting to suppress. "No, no that won't be necessary, and for you to insinuate that we cannot…" she started, but paused as her wrist communicator started beeping, and she looked down.
Gor-lak took that had his moment to pounce, "If you cannot give a reason as to why my suspicions are incorrect, then I see no reason to change my mind. We are coming to Dathomir, and I will gladly see you when we arrive, High Prophet…" the ork said, concealing the smirk of delight at her frustration.
"I do not have time for this," Jamasila stated, rising from her seat, "this meeting is over, do as you wish High Inquisitor, you have the Emperor's favor for now, but I hope your hubris doesn't become your downfall. I have other matters I need to see to immediately." And with that she stormed out, leaving a surprised council of eleven women with Gor-lak's hologram, but he closed it a moment later, unwilling to allow any of the other Assassin women a moment to try and take up the complaints of their leader. Her actions were curious, and Gor-lak looked forward to investigating what exactly was so important as to pull her away so abruptly.