Crystal Caves

Hoya makes his was past now in search for the elderly man knowing something was off about him. He makes his way in the Direction He saw the man walk down hoping to find him. As he walks he picks up some Crystal And puts them in his robe pocket and continue To look for the elderly man to ask him questions

Mariah walked next to Muninn as he hopped, leading them into the Crystal Caves. As the shadows coalesced over him, rising his figure to now stand taller than her, her narrowed gaze flickered over him in disbelief. Not only that, the ravens spoke with cryptic words that drew the attention of the crimson haired woman, usually stoic and reserved. They spoke of gods and goddesses and displayed magics she had never witnessed before. It intrigued her, and her earlier desires to silence them were now like a distant memory.

The moment her eyes were upon her belongings on Sullust, however, she tended to them with haste yet care. Two shoto sabers, twin curved hilt sabers, and six athames. Their mysterious reappearance was act of the ravens, she was sure. The only sense she could make of it was that this was another vision within her meditation. If it was, it was one of the more elaborate and intricate workings of the Force; she could define the line which separated those worlds of her mind and reality. This was too authentic to be a vision. Even if she couldn’t make sense of these beings which snatched her along -- to create another story for the old man, as they revealed -- she would need to treat it as her current reality.

Turning her attention to the fire, Mariah was grateful for it, even if she would not speak of this. The flicker of the blue green flames danced within her crimson eyes with their ethereal hues. Despite the warm clothes, the bitter chill of Ilum froze her to the bone. That, and the fire's unnatural warmth was something she could at least put into tangible thoughts. Magic was something she was no stranger to, even if the ravens’ source was something beyond her understanding. At the very least, the display was something she was more than familiar with.

For all this time, she had remained silent. For all they displayed, she appeared to be taking it all in rather well, possibly in comparison to those they may have approached in the past. Unless they chose her for that reason. Omnipresence, as the raven had mentioned. Despite its immeasurable nature, the word could only have a finite amount of meaning to her in comparison. All she could do was continue on with assumptions that would not serve her well.

She couldn’t help but scoff, though, as the mischievous one’s voice played about in her mind. ‘Not that we need the warmth'. “Don't hold up your adventure on my behalf,” she murmured.

Mariah took just another spare moment within the flame’s warmth before turning from it, to face deeper into the caverns. From within, she could feel it. The radiating Force overflowing from this place. She would need to tread carefully, especially in the presence of these two. A prick against her mind warned her of the possible clashing, should she lose grip her tightly woven veil over her aura. As she pushed deeper into the Force, deeper into the caverns, there was something more that weighed on her mind. Something even colder, a network of something lurking within. She had heard the stories of the valuable crystals which lied in wait here. No doubt, others had, too. While these ravens had the benefit of omnipresence, she was still mortal, bound to this single path, this sole span of life. She would need to tread carefully for more reasons now than just the ravens.

After all that was said, revealed, and requested, several questions surfaced over all the others, making themselves coherent thoughts. She allowed only one to make itself known.

...and what shall be my fate, if I were to refuse to give you the perspective you currently lack?

Her question echoed in Muninn’s head alone, like whispered ghosts of his own words. She wondered, though, would the other, too, hear it? Her gaze glanced over at the other tall figure, clad in blue. Despite the nature of her question, she took a step deeper into the caverns and awaited the one to answer, both to guide the way. This would be their story they sought to tell the old man, after all.

Mariah paused for just a moment to study the white light when it first levitated over her shoulder. She craned her neck away from it for a moment, her left hand stretching as if preparing for the need to reach for her saber. It was more of a silent mental note she made in her head, however, and she continued forward with quiet footsteps, two to each of the raven’s one. Her short stature and attempts at silence demanded a quicker pace.

If I wouldn't need them, then perhaps you should've left them at Sullust for my return.

Her narrowed gaze glanced over the blue robed brother as she stated this, now using their common form of communication. When the other brother offered a way to return so soon, though, her gaze fell forward, deeper into the cave. She had nearly started to duck away the moment she could feel the shadow of his wings and its weight upon her shoulder. It resulted in a moment of a trained, guarded stance for but that split moment, as if she was ready to go on the offensive so quickly yet again before a gentle reminder halted her attempts.

So this is a vision? she asked the brown-robed raven. Intriguing...

Visions were as visions were, and there was always something to learn within them. However, the intended attempts to relieve any lingering tension was to no avail -- but that, the ravens would learn, was just a matter of her own upbringing. Her ever guarded nature was just another discipline taught, like the knowledge of these caves and the value of Ilum was taught. She was both the predator and the prey, swirling as seamlessly as oil and water. Tension was just a consequence. Even with the offer of her control to leave, however, her figure remained.

Her crimson gaze looked over the crystals which naturally lined the walls. Within the actual silence of this place, the softest of hums resonated within the woman. Without missing a step, she reached out a hand, weaving the Force to carefully break off a protruding crystal and guide it towards her. Among all those she could have taken during this venture, she had chosen only that one. Visions were as visions were, but if these two were as strong in their own magics as they so clearly were, if they wished her to have such things, it would be so. A matter within their own wings.

Despite Huginn’s attempt to get an emotional rise out of the woman -- and Muninn’s explanation of such -- she left nothing on the surface to be read. Her presence carried something close to dry amusement, though, her anger now nonexistent. If this was a vision, she would treat them both as others within her past visions -- as Guides within the unfolding lesson. She said nothing, offered nothing, and let his words echo into nothingness within the Force. Calling her a perfect Jedi hermit held its truth where it was due.

The cavern paths continued, Mariah making her leaps and bounds as effortlessly and gracefully as any mortal could. Muninn at least offered his own little quip, to which she acknowledged with a glance over towards him and the slightest of shrugs of her shoulder. It would only be that matter of time, though, before the caverns would seek her demise. While she had planned for it, the blue robed raven scooped her up and pulled her the rest of the way to the top of the pile. She looked over him scrupulously the moment her feet were steadied on the rock, but with a minimal nod of her head, she offered him at least a silent thankful gesture to his cryptic action in helping her. At least they explained his reasons, somewhat.

She had nearly lost the sense of where they were in the ravens’ bantering back and forth. With the smooth transition, the Force thickening minutely with each step onward, Mariah hadn’t noticed the weight which pushed down on her physically and mentally. When the caverns opened up, Mariah could feel the pure rush of the Force. It nearly choked her, although she still stood tall, unwavering. If the ravens had assumed she was tense before, it was nothing like now. The reveal of the blue clone only made matter worse.

She hummed a familiar tune, something that Mariah recognized in part. It carried some sense of familiarity to each inflection, each interval, yet something was off about the melody. It wasn’t until she turned around that Mariah recognized that song, twisted and manipulated from its gentle lament to this idyllic cheer. Her jaw locked. The brothers stepped back.

Like all visions, there was something to learn from. Most lessons, though, would come from triumph.

Instinctively, Mariah summoned forth not Nihilo, as she had upon her arrival, but rather, beckoned her two shoto sabers to her hands. The moment she gripped the gold and silver hilts, however, Huginn’s earlier words screamed in her mind with a thousand dissonant voices. ‘You won’t need any of that down here.’ She paused, although her hesitance was from the sheer volume of this verbal memory.

Through gritted teeth, she watched the woman with a trained gaze, as if prepared for this blue, disgustingly happy version of herself to suddenly shift to the demon she was ready to face. She had heard of the tales and warnings of those who ventured too far into these caves. The darkness they would face. So what would darkness face? Darkness was but the absence of light, and thus, the vision -- at least in her mortal mind -- could start to make sense. However, she knew better than to trust her own mortal understanding when it came to these things.

She reached out to the other two, which had stepped back and left her to deal with this on her own.

What is this?

Her tones demanded an answer from either of them. If there was supposed to be a lesson of peace somehow wrapped in this sickening vision which approached her, she combated it with a dual violent hum, twin purple blades making themselves known in wait. It was only Huginn’s earlier words that held her back for but this moment for their answer. If one was not given, her fury would reign down on this mockery of herself. Yet she wanted to also hear another answer aloud, another reason to strike this clone down where she stood.

“...and who are you?”

It wasn't the fit of laughter that pushed Mariah -- the real one -- over the edge, even if the bright giggles didn't help Blue much in her case to win her over. Even reiterating her name, speaking as though they were one in the same, wasn't enough to push Mariah to send her first flurry of attacks towards the cerulean impostor. 'Red' was still receptive to whatever was to come from this vision, to learn whatever there was to learn from this blue counterpart, who was as different to her as the Shadows and the Light. What pushed Mariah over the edge, however, was the heavy feeling that clouded her vision in red, amplified by the nexus of Force energy.

"You dare mock me..."

It was the fear. To see a copy of her own self washed in fear, a useless emotion burned out of her so long ago... No matter what the ravens had said earlier about her weapons, how she wouldn’t need them, it held no weight now.

Mariah betrayed the final moment of stillness within her stance. With a controlled flick of the wrist, she shifted her right-handed shoto into a reverse grip. Her back foot stepped back into a balanced stance, her left shoto crossing over the front of her body at the ready. The Force seemed to listen to this single first step in her dance; the next, she lunged, her figure appearing like a blur to mortal eyes. If this... thing... was anything like her, though, she would be prepared for the oncoming onslaught.

With an upwards arc with her right-handed reverse grip, she hoped to draw Blue's own saber to defend. However, her left shoto was poised and at the ready to come reigning down to follow through...

She would cut down this frightened version of herself where it stood.

Just as Mariah had predicted, this mirror of herself, while unequipped for such a fight, was still prepared as ever to face her opponent. Keeping Blue on the move was her primary goal at the moment, holding her back at an disadvantageous stage in the fight. It was still unknown if this inverted version carried any of the same knowledge or training, but Mariah needed to assume she could be just as quick, just as deadly. She was the one who started this battle, after all, and if she was pushed to that point, she would be the one to end it.

The supersonic boom reverberated within the cavern, heralding a thousand crystal knives to race towards her. There was nothing lethal Mariah could sense within the action; Blue was buying back the time Mariah tried to strip from her. The realization, though, shifted the fury of the crimson warrior to something perhaps more frightening: amusement. The slightest upwards twitch at the corners of her lips revealed, Mariah raced head on towards both barrage of crystals. Her body moving, twisting, and spinning effortlessly, she deflected those she couldn't avoid with graceful arcs of the violet blades. The heavy snow-suited clothing was not attire she was used to, which found itself being shred at the mercy of the projectiles; however, Mariah walked out of it unscathed. Seething from her hindered movements, but unscathed.

When the final crystal shard screamed passed her, Mariah's vision caught the blue glow of the other's blade. Her smile was all too quickly replaced with a scowl. She wasn't quick enough. Against herself, though, she expected as much. Nonetheless, she raced to close the gap, sending Blue sprawling back to regain her ground. Mariah needed to keep her on the defensive.

However, before she could send her next flood of attacks, Blue shifted their conversation, from one of clashing blades, to another of verbal words. In any other situation, Mariah would have used her pause against her opponent, but the moment she heard that word -- visions -- she could do nothing more than dig her back heel into the ground in preparation for her next barrage of attacks.

"What are those two birds up to..." she growled low to herself through clenched teeth.

This was assumed to be a vision. Not just to her. This obverse Mariah thought the same. Was this a trick? Or was she, too, here to learn something?

Fear is the mindkiller.

Mariah didn't need this information. This was a lesson long ago taught to her through one of the most vicious acts she could ever imagine. If it wasn't for her, though, then what more could it be than a mantra for this one's vision, for this one's lesson to take back with her when it was all said and done?

As if a flash of understanding washed over the crimson haired woman, she took the opportunity to truly put Blue in a position where fear would either break her, or she would overcome it and grow stronger through it. Another chain of attacks, effortlessly blocked, only to be met with her own barrage of crystal shards. Mariah, now, would continue to push the other without fail. Her own lesson in this, or so was her current interpretation, was laced in the building up of herself. To do that with another like Blue -- a version she at least viewed as weaker -- it would mean ripping out all that prevented that. Regardless of whether she was correct, Mariah was like a river within her visions, ever changing with her understanding of the lessons. For now, her aura shifted, and with it, the flicker of amusement returned. Her time in all of this would come. If the ravens could sense anything regarding this fight, her murderous impulses had been silenced for the time being.

With every swing of her saber, Mariah could feel Blue's concentration increasing, the initial fear which pushed Mariah to take that first offensive strike now washing away from her blue counterpart. However, with every blue arc of the other's saber, Mariah met it with effortless parries with her twin shotos. Mariah caught Blue's release of her saber and met it with a critical eye. Instinctively, the crimson version took a risk.

At the ready for Blue's onslaught of the Force, Mariah summoned a volley of phrik knives. One aimed for her left shoulder. Another for her right thigh. The third for the left hand that reached for the weapon at her hip. If Blue would succeed in gathering Nihilo, Mariah ensured it wouldn't be without some painful consequences.

Now, the focus was the momentum of the Force Push, Mariah tucked herself under and flipped herself around, her feet sliding across the cavern floors with a hiss. For now, she didn’t pay any mind to whether Nihilo was in Blue's grasp or not. Her focus was ripping her athames from where they landed, beckoning all three back to her with a backwards motion of her arms, where they would hover in a lethal warning over her. One over her left shoulder, another the right, the last over her head. All them pointed at the Blue and at the ready.

"Fear is the mindkiller."

Mariah reiterated that statement, now standing still in wait for the other to regain herself.

"Is that truly what you interpret learning in this vision? To release your fears? What is it you fear? Yourself?"

Her tone, her words, her expression as she looked over the other -- all were condescending in nature, an attempt to push this one forward even more. The roles, she deemed were now to be switched. If there was any fight left in Blue, Mariah would urge her forward to the offensive, Mariah to keep to the defensive.

"Do give me hope that I'm here for a greater reason than this. As it stands, my vision is teaching me nothing."

Her words cut like a knife, as sharp as those which hovered threateningly above her. A lie, but one this other didn't need to know. The smiling and giggling memories of her blue self moments ago haunted her; sight and sounds she would never be able to forget now. She cursed the two ravens for it. With both shoto sabers still in hand, she slowly approached Blue, step by steady step. She remained in wait for her words to be met with another onslaught from the other, damaged or not. Else, Mariah would find herself forcefully pushing Blue closer towards the edge of her darkest fears, whatever they may be.

Although Nihilo was no longer at her hip, Mariah's gaze didn’t reveal much of anything as Blue ignited the red hot blade. Even her aura didn't fluctuate to reveal her impression on such a feat. Her steady steps only continued onward. With the reveal of the contrary auras of the blades ready to work in tandem, Mariah readied her blades in a defensive maneuver. The soft glow of the purple blade in her right hand flickered with a hum, spinning it from its reverse grip to join the positioning of its sibling in her left.

Mariah's crimson gaze only shifted momentarily from her opponent to recognize the crystal shards Blue used to counter her blades. A flicker of an upwards twitch of her lips revealed a dry and joyless smile, as if mocking the other's attempts to match her arsenal. She could have critiqued Blue for leaving herself under-equipped and unprepared for a fight at a moment's notice, but with that thought, her other self rushed her with a speed and haste she would have expected from herself. Warping the Force around her person, she used that same old trick as her other self and readied for the oncoming onslaught. The moment Blue appeared over her, her blades were at the ready.

Crimson eyes locked with piercing blue, both revealing the murderous intent they held for the other. It was only that simple, brief moment, before the rhythmic patterns formed among the twin blade dancers. While her counter-self chose more simple but powerful means of striking, Mariah's footwork and fluid motions allowed these impactful hits to glide off her blades, parrying each hit with an effortless grace. She wanted this one to reveal her full fury, after all, and she was prepared to take on each attack as though they were her own.

A flutter of purple to meet the blue overhead. Her other blade parrying the the left as shifted a heel, cartwheeling over her blue self as she attacked for the shoulder. Her blade met with a parry, her free blade parried the oncoming onslaught. With the final jab of the pattern, Mariah dodged out of the blade's path, sending a furious slash downward to alter its path just enough to hopefully throw Blue off enough for a successful strike of her own. Her blade was then carried away with another aerial offensive, but Blue was all too quick to recover. The dance continued

"If you truly believe that to be my blade's namesake, then you will never harness its truest essence," she scoffed.

This other was real. Her words revealed as much. Blue spoke with such conviction that she was the real one who had ventured here. Mariah could feel her presence as though she was indeed another who ventured into the Crystal Caves of Ilum. She had heard the stories of the visions others would have here, the trials and nightmares they would need to pass the deeper they ventured. However, Mariah was no stranger to visions, even powerful ones, and this was no vision. That, or the two birds who brought her here would need to find a new charge when this was all over.

"If there's truly a lesson here for you to learn, it's a shame that it will also be the last."

Mariah sent another barrage of daggers towards the other as she tried to jump back for a moment. Met with crystal shards, her daggers continued their skyward dance as the two had but that brief moment before Blue continued forward. But at last, Blue's greatest fear was revealed, the information Mariah had attempted to draw out throughout this fight. It was as though speaking these words aloud were as great as any spell. Blue's determination created a fluctuation within the Force, a noticeable difference as she continued her attacks. Each time her blade met Mariah's, there was a growing energy that the other was drawing off of and growing stronger. The crimson haired woman met her power as it grew; the cloak which wrapped around her presence faded bit by bit with each impactful strike of Blue’s blades. It seemed, however, that the caves were not built well enough to handle these counter forces within its domain.

Although Blue jumped from the rubble which fell, Mariah had her own methods of dealing with it. Even with the mud splashed into her face, the Force proved a useful tool in more ways than one. Dust beat against her back as she leaped upwards to meet the rocks and crystals which fell. Feeling each speck, its energies, its momentum, its disruption and space within all that was, Mariah continued onward in her upward trajectory. Spinning to meet her feet against the rubble large enough to handle it, Mariah climbed her way upwards through the falling rocks, until she was above the final falling piece. Her violent crimson frame seemed to hover for the briefest of moments as she wiped the mud from her face, and then began her free fall back to the ground below. Although Mariah was prepared for another range of attacks, she wasn't prepared for the vicious verbal assault the other would throw her way.

'Hateful without reason,' she said. There was so much that this other had yet to experience, if she truly believed that. If that wasn't enough, she brought Aria into this battle. This would prove to be Blue's biggest mistake. That was still a deep wound that had yet to heal, even after all of these years, that this one decided to suddenly tear back open into the gushing wound within her soul. Her Aria. Blue's Aria. It didn't matter. The moment the memory of her face, her mannerisms -- all that she was came into view within her mind's eye, the aura around the other shifted dramatically.

Mariah's feet hit the ground, a cloud of dust forming around her. Her sabers were stretched out on either side of her, illuminating through the dust with an eerie stillness. If this one wanted a lesson to all the blessings she had in life, to see the curse of the other who had been stripped of all those joys, she would see it and the fury of Chaos together. Mariah shed the cloak around her aura, her presence sending a hellish rippling through the air, thickened by the sheer concentrated aura of the Force, and thousands whispered screams throughout the crystals, which radiated and amplified the Force. Among those cries of Chaos, more malicious ones pierced through the Veil, crying out both in aggravation and warning.



...You dare abuse your full talents on this child?!




A single voice shattered through those dissonant sounds.

"Then you must become as I, child..."

The crimson haired woman stood, and as the dust settled around her, she met Blue with a chilling, bloodied crimson stare. Her very essence seemed to soak in every ounce of the Force that was pouring into this place, like her presence was an insatiable black hole even in this place laden in the Force. In that moment, it was as though the Force manifested Mariah's burning memories around them, replaying in front of the two like a true vision. An unknown forest, burning and lingering with death. Bodies cast about in a senseless massacre. Within, were all members Blue may have recognized. Her family. Mariah's family. But all that was left... was her. A teary-eyed, frightened child. Somehow missed and left to witness the truth of death and loss all at once.

"...else your time is up."

Her whispered words held a haunting warning -- a final moment for Blue to grasp everything that lied around her, the truth of the other who felt such hatred and fury without reason. No, it was not ill-placed, but a long burning ember waiting for the spark. A long-lived lesson taught. The brightest light creates the darkest shadows. The failed attempt to snuff out her people would only be the demise of any who attempted to snuff out last living memory of that massacre. Without another moment to spare, this hellish version of Mariah, now emanating with her full fury and holding nothing more back, rushed forward for the final onslaught.

The vision lit the cave with a fiery inferno, and it was as if each charging step of the crimson warrior left ashes behind in her wake. Her attacks came ruthlessly, brutally; the grace and elegance of the warrior she once faced was now stripped away to nothing more than the sheer, wild hatred she tried to turn Mariah away from. In the nexus of this place, it was too difficult of a feat now to turn back from the hellfire she unleashed. 

Yet Blue continued to keep up, as if the fury was rising up within her as well. Whether or not she wanted to admit it, Mariah's words were finally breaking her down, spurring up those emotions she had tried to quell. Their sabers clashed with a newfound strength behind each motion. With both Omnis and Nihilo screaming down to her right, Mariah sent a furious arc with her offhand to catch the blades and followed through her left. Pushing through the gap, Mariah sent the pommel to smash across Blue's head, and her athames stood ever at the ready for the crystal shards Blue sent flying. The remaining two hooked upon her belt cried out to join their brethren, and almost as if on their own, rose to meet the occasion amidst the battle.

However, Mariah now had little care of keeping this body protected from the other's returned assault. The feinted attack could have been caught, but Mariah's clarity was gone. Although able to wholly deflect the blade aimed for her shoulder, the crimson warrior felt the burning sensation rip through her upper arm. Her scream was all that marked the hit, though, as Mariah sent another onslaught, like a whirlwind of blades from all directions. Parrying the single blade caught, Mariah stabbed towards Blue's left shoulder, pulled back back and arced her left saber upwards towards Blue's right thigh, and followed up again with a downward slash across her body towards Blue's right shoulder.

"They're gone!" she screamed, her words melding with the vision of the little girl, crying out in her hatred. "What does it matter what they want? My sole, final order was to survive!"

With that bellowed word, the vision of the little redheaded child vanished, blown away like ash in the breeze. Survive. Mariah met Blue's onslaught, however now accepting blows for critical openings. She could feel the piercing through the outside of her left thigh, another piercing through her shoulder. However, she used moments to push through Blue's openings for critical hits as she could find them. It was only a matter of time before Mariah pushed Blue into a corner, locking down her blades long enough for her eyes to pierce through hers. The depth of her aggression, shown within those narrowed crimson eyes, cut into Blue.

"How dare you bring up your sister to claim that I'm the disappointment." Her growling tones rumbled just loud enough over the sparks of their sabers, locked and lashing out to be broken free. "If I couldn't protect mine, then you, a mockery of me, is useless to yours and doesn’t deserve to take another breath."

Like vultures awaiting for their prey to finally fall, Mariah's six knives circled above the battleground. Mariah disengaged her blades from Blue's and pushed herself back. The moment she created that distance, the six heeded a silent call, beaming towards Blue. Two at either thigh, two more at either shoulder, one for the heart, one for the head. The burning pain in her thigh, arm, and shoulder pulsed, but were otherwise still numbed by the sheer adrenaline that still coursed through her veins. Mariah's twin purple blades were poised horizontal over her body and head as she waited for her foe to deflect the careening knives and push herself forward.

"There is more to this life than those we held dear. Now enough of your childish words about what the dead want, and fight."