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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 4048208" data-attributes="member: 386">Two weeks ago:INT. PLANET ZÁGAŠ - LORD GOSS' DIVINATION CHAMBERSDuel of Wits.Lord Tovol went into Lord Goss' Divination chambers:  picture an operating theatre, the table fitted with straps.  Carved into the floor is that symbol of the Mundus Humanitus.  Two burning braziers light up the room, shadows flickering on the walls.Lord Tovol was strapped down while two Keepers of the Flame attended to him, chanting the rituals of cleansing.  Lord Goss entered, prepared for the Divination.  The Black Duke watched from the viewing balcony above."Confess your sins!  We will burn the stain of the false prophet Edrene and his Karsan heresy from you!" Lord Goss cried.Tovol screamed as his flesh burned from the red-hot pokers.  "Never!  It is you who is the heretic!""You have been so corrupted by the lies of Edrene that you cannot see truth even when it burns in your vision.  Confess!"Skin sizzled, burned, leaving the mark of the Burning Wheel."Aaaaaah!""Confess!"  His Bright Mark flared."I confess - I was duped by the serpent tongue of Edrene!"Pokers touched raw nerves.  "Swear that you will serve the Duke your father in his every whim!""I swear!  I swear!""Enough."  Lord Goss waved away the Keepers of the Flame.  "Set him free; there is no sin left in him that the fire has not purged."Lord Tovol fell to the ground.  He reached out and found his father's hand, pulling him to his feet and into an embrace."Welcome back to the family."INT. BOLDAQ - DRAZ TOLO'S MOUNTAIN FORTRESSInterstitial.Draz Tolo looked at the viewscreen.  The screen was filled with smoke billowing from Bortei's downed assault shuttle.  It twisted into shadows, faces leering, staring back at him.Draz flicked off the screen and turned to Kadaath."Go and kill him for me - if there's anything left of him.  I want to see his corpse."Kadaath stared at him."Don't worry, you'll be paid."Kadaath turned to leave."And watch yourself - he's got the Bright Mark.  Take along one of my men."  Draz pointed at a thuggish man leaning casually against the wall.  "You!  Snap to it.  Go with Kadaath and report back to me.  Make sure Bortei is dead."INT.  CRASH SITE - BORTEI'S SHUTTLEInterstitial.Thin beams of light streamed through the gaps torn in Bortei's shuttle.  Sparks spat electricity at him as he struggled to extract himself from the wreckage.  No use - he was pinned.He looked around at his men.  Dead and dying.  He had failed the Pali.  Draz Tolo and his assassin Kadaath survived.Bortei's head snapped at a sound echoing from the back of the shuttle.  Footsteps on metal.  His Bright Mark flared, but pain clouded his mind.Kadaath poked his head around the corner and into the ruined cockpit.  His pistol was pointed at Bortei's head.  "Show me one little flash of light and I'll blow a hole right where that Bright Mark is.""What do you want with me, killer?"Kadaath walked into the room, his gun trained all the time.  Draz Tolo's man followed close behind.  "Draz Tolo wants me to kill you and take your body back to him.""What are you waiting for?  Do it, then.  I am ready."Kadaath spinned and fired at Draz's man.  The thug was hit square in the chest by a beam of coherent energy.  A surprised look covered his face as he slumped down, eyes still open, life gone.Kadaath put his pistol back on Bortei.  "I'm no friend of Draz, but he's got the money.  But I'm no fool.  I know the value of a psychologist."  He crept in close to Bortei.  "I want you to swear an oath to me - serve me.""I serve only the Pali!""You can do both - I don't have any problems with the old mystic.  No profit there.  But if you're stuck on it, I can end your life here.""The Pali would not be served well by my death.""Exactly my point.  So what do you say?""I swear, I will serve you so long as it is in the best wishes of the Pali."INT. THE PODALAH PALACE - THE PALI'S PSYCHOHISTORY CHAMBERSColour.Blue light swirled around the Pali.  Lists of data - lists upon lists upon lists - crashed over him.  Economic data from Boldaq, from the Karsan League, from the Throne itself.  His Bright Mark flared.  On his head, a band of lights flickered to life.The light and lists ceased.  A door opened.  Brother Lintor stood at its threshold."Is your device ready, blessed one?""It is.  Take it to the dealers, the merchants, the warlords.  We will make peace through profit."INT.  AHOYDIA - MERCHANT'S GUILD HOUSEBuilding.Voices murmured in the richly carpeted meeting room of the merchant's guild in Ahoydia.  Rich merchants, grain sellers, I-As Patun dealers, lazuli miners, gul janat farmers, and warlords from the mountains all engaged in civil small talk with one another.  All brought here by the Pali.The main door opened and Brother Lintor walked in.  His voice boomed out: "The Pali arrives!"  A gong rang out.The Pali walked in, wearing a gentle smile on his face."So, Pali," one of the richer lazuli miners said, "what did you bring all of us here for?  What's this that you want us to see?"The Pali pulled out his new device.  "This.  I have created this device to bring peace and the gift of Boldaq to the stars.""With that little headband?  Hah!""Try it."The merchant looked around the room at the expectant faces and shrugged.  "Think of your lazuli," the Pali said as he gently fitted it over the merchant's forehead, "and buyers for it."The lights on the device flashed in a cycle.  The man's eyes rolled back into his head.  Silence gripped the room.  Suddenly, his eyes sprang open.  "Ah!" he cried out.  "I can double my profits for this season!"Excited murmurs waved through the crowd.  They hushed at the Pali's raised hand."I have created this to aid with commerce - and through commerce, peace and growth.  It will allow you to deal with the outworlders as though they were your own people - and to give them what is most valuable on Boldaq.""What is that, Pali?""The seed of the future galactic evolution!" he cried out, and his Bright Mark flared, filling the room.EXT. BADLANDS OF BOLDAQBuilding.The marsh hetman walked across the blasted terrain, wearing the rust-red robes of a mountain ghazi.  A rifle, clean and polished, was strapped to his back."Your rifle is your only ally in the badlands," Kofer Pyatt had said to him in the safety of the warlord's mountain fortress.  "Keep it clean and ready to fire at all times.  A rifle ill-maintained is worse than useless - it is like the sinkholes in your stinking marshes.  Carelessly you expect the ground to support your step, and you walk right into your own death."He pulled the thick woven cloth tight around him to stave off the cold of the oncoming night.  His eyes scanned the horizon, trying to make sense of the shadows."But your rifle is nothing next to this," Kofer Pyatt had said to him during their training, cutting his arm with a knife.  "Flesh and blood and the will to wield it.  As you maintain your rifle, so must you steel your mind.  It is the only true weapon you have."He rubbed the wound, barely healed.  Was this what it was like to walk on the Lar ta Largi?  Maybe Pyatt was right, maybe they had no place in the Pali's plan for the galaxy.  His feet ached and his back burned with the weight of the parcel Kofer Pyatt had given him.  Pyatt would not let these things bother him, he thought.Suddenly his mind was clear and the pain was gone.  A sound out of place among the coming night.  He froze.  That shadow - was it there before?  What should I do?"The Path of Fire burns all but the bold."  Kofer's words were clear in his mind.  The rifle came out, firing.  Flame lept from its barrel and the shapes were shadows no longer - now a man, slumped over, bleeding.He had done it!  A ghazi, feared by his father and his father before him - and he had killed him!  Kofer Pyatt was wrong, he could learn, he could walk the Lar ta Largi-Sudden pain, then darkness.The ghazi carefully approached the fallen marsh hetman.  "Lucky," one said, which brought frowns from the others.  One searched the hetman's belongings as the others scanned the horizon.  Unintentionally, he let out a gasp.From the fallen hetman's robes, he brought forth a jar filled with liquid - and naiven worms.INT.  AHOYDIA - KADAATH'S HEADQUARTERSBuilding.Kadaath sat back calmly in his throne, looking over his people, master in this realm.  Bortei was at his side.Ezan approached.  "Boss, you've got a message from Fat Chaz."  He handed Kadaath a holo-player.Kadaath opened it.  The holo-player sprang to life.  Fat Chaz was there - metal freak, skin dripping off his bones like wax."Kadaath," he said, "I'm disappointed in you.  You didn't kill that little pet of the Pali Edrene's.""I figured I'd keep him for myself.  He's out of your hair now, what do you care?""Look, Kadaath - I want to keep a good working relationship with you.  I've just gotten word that Lord Tovol's coming back.""And?""And I want him dead when he shows up.""That's going to cost a lot.""The payment will be peace between us.  If you don't do this for us, well - let's just say you don't want me as your enemy.  And I don't think you'd prefer Tovol's reign over mine.""Eh.  What the hell.  I'll do it.""Glad to hear it," Fat Chaz said into the holo-player.  "Got to go; I've got some cleaning up to do."  He turned off the transmitter.INT.  FAT CHAZ'S HAMMERSame.Fat Chaz turned to look at the men arrayed in line before him.  Each one bore bruises and cuts, signs of heavy fighting."These men are all loyal to Tovol?""They are," Draz said.  "His top men.  What we could find.""What do you mean, 'what we could find'?""...we lost some of our hammer in the fighting.""What?""Tovol's men overpowered our own.  They've made for distortion - they're gone.""For now.  We'll see them when Tovol shows up."  Fat Chaz turned to face his prisoners.  "Hear that, scum?  Tovol's coming.  Your lord and master.  But none of you are going to be around to welcome him back."Fat Chaz left the room and gave Draz a signal.  Draz put on his Anvil's enviroment-sealed helmet and locked himself into place.  Secured, he opened the outer hatch, waving to the prisoners as the were blown back into the vaccuum of space.Draz closed the hatch and joined Fat Chaz.  "Tell me, his consort Kaeli - did she escape as well?" Fat Chaz asked."No.  We've got her locked up.  Tricky one - she killed nearly a dozen good men.""Issue these orders - no one is to go near her.  Lock her in isolation, and kill any one who had contact with her."MANUEVER.  Human Go to ground vs. Flak??  Human victory; 9 months of downtime generated.Months go by.  Finally, out of distortion comes Lord Tovol, with his fleet, his army, and Lord Goss at his side.Fat Chaz, once Pirate Lord, then Hammer Lord, now pirate of a broken fleet, retreated for the asteroid belt and his old pirate base.INT. SPACE STATION - DETENTION WINGColour.Kaeli slept on the floor of her cell.  Kofer opened the door, a shadow framed by light.  They embraced."Tovol is back."INT.  SPACE STATION - TOVOL'S COURTConflict.Lord Tovol sat on his throne.  Lord Goss lurked behind him.The Pali entered, with Bortei and Kadaath.  Kofer Pyatt, dressed in Iron and wearing the flag of the Black Duke, was at his right hand, Kaeli behind him.Lord Tovol: "I am back, and I will have my will enforced.  Suren Vachir Edrene, by the rights invested upon me by my Metropolitan and Duke, I arrest you for the crime of heresy."Kofer Pyatt: "What?  Lord Tovol - what happened to you?  What witchcraft has that scum behind you wrought?Tovol: "Silence!  I am Forged Lord, my will is law!"Pali: "Lord Tovol, we are friends now and will remain so.  But I see that you have been coerced into this by Lord Goss and your father.  Until you cast this shadow aside, do not come calling on me.""Your lies no longer work on me!  You are a heretic, and will be brought to justice!"Pali: "Is that so?"His bright mark flared, countered by Lord Goss'.  Blue light filled the room.  Lord Goss shouted: "The eye, the flame!"  He fled into an antechamber.Lord Tovol, surprised: "Edrene, leave my sight.  Be thankful you still can."  He followed after Lord Goss, his faith in the High Inquisitor shaken.MANEVUER: Human Flak vs. Vaylen Assess.  Human victory.</blockquote>

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