[IC] Tashha's Voice Diary

[Joslae]

ENTRY 10 - The Idol of Ikoral.

[justify]*The recording begins however this time the noises which accompanied the start of all the other entries was absent, as the static background sound was far more cleaner. Soon, Tashha spoke, and the quality of her voice was also much improved.*[/justify]

[justify]Nine entries… It’s quite one of the few things which can make me feel nostalgic. Playing back my past diary entries, and listening how not just my voice but also how the way I spoke about past events has shaped me, how time passed and how certain points in it hang more firmly than others. As a reference, much time has passed since my last recording, several months to be exact, and the last one ended with the final weeks in which I was an acolyte. From now, all which are to come will detail my journey as an apprentice. Of course, some details will be left out, because I know very well how unreliable security protocols, hidden subroutines and encryption can be within the hands of someone who know what they are doing, and given that I don’t possess the knowledge of making a holocron, for now, this will suffice.

However, I like round numbers. Nine entries… That just won’t do for me. As a reference point, I am currently 25 years old. Around the age of 20 was when I arrived and was taken by the Horuset powerbase as an acolyte. Currently I’m one of the most seasoned apprentices which are, to date, still apprentices. Many names which have been presented in the past entries and which will appear in some of the following are no-more.

With that out of the way, after my last trial and some confiding with those which were at that time my only allies - that being Soyut, Aljo and Occularis - with much of the training and confiding done between myself and Soyut, who showed me why an alliance between myself, him and a few other noteworthy individuals from the Vipion family was beneficial to me, I realized that I knew what I should do. However there was a problem. The last acolyte system was point based and upon its conclusion, the Lords picked the acolytes which had the best results. But if I waited, what would become of me? So I did what none of them did before, which was I took a leap of faith and approached the one Lord which most not just feared, but respected.

Lord Tokiai. The man, the myth the legend as a saying goes. He was the one which, when I arrived for my first time at the Estate gave me a couple of minutes of his time. Back then, he was in the late stages of his apprenticeship, if my memory doesn’t fail me. I remember that I had two lightsabers I managed to scour from the failed sith in the tombs which lined the Valley of the Dark Lords, and as I arrived, he took them from me on the spot. Said that they weren’t toys for children such as me. Over time I grew to see him differently, and it wasn’t too far after my arrival that he was made Lord. It’s because of his way of teaching and sometimes, his way of thinking, that I realized where my calling took me, which was the route of Blademastery.

I remember the call over the public holofrequency and how nervous I was. He luckily accepted to offer me a bit of his time, and thus I went and approached him. To be noted, until then, Lords especially didn’t even talk to acolytes unless it was a lesson, or it was necessary. What I did was unprecedented as far as I know. The meeting was short, about five minutes in total. There I explained that I desired to prove myself to him because I wanted to become his apprentice. He offered me one chance to do so, and gave me a datapad with also instructing me to retrieve the item which was reported upon the device, which was called “The Idol of Ikoral.”
[/justify]

[justify]*With a light sigh, Tashha can be heard taking a brief pause. A couple of electronic beeps mark her datapad opening and then she clears her voice, hesitating to speak for a moment.*[/justify]

[justify]Hmm, I still have it saved, ah yes. The datapad’s contents were a report regarding an incident on Korriban. A tomb there went unnoticed for a number of years until an IRS expedition went missing when searching for the “Idol of Ikoral” and what exactly such an idol is remained unknown. For the following two days I had underwent into extensive research as to who Ikoral was. To my surprise, the information I managed to gather was enough to give me an ideas as to the overall theme of what I would get myself into. Given that an entire IRS team went missing, I could only presume that inside the tomb there was either a very powerful entity, or a handful of individuals. Over two days of research I managed to uncover a few pieces of information. Darth Ikoral was a male pureblood, a man which from what I read was a very traditionalist figure. Apparently he could trace his ancestry all the way back to the time of King Adas. He was a very prominent figure who saw many battles in his time, and he was so devoted to purity that it was a bit unheard of. However, during these days of research I was also faced with another factor of pressure, one which far more stringent and unpredictable, that being Zaryaa.

The next after I approached Lord Tokiai, she did the same. Later on I managed to find out what her task was, which was rather harder than the one I had received, being for her to obtain a purple-colored lightsaber crystal. On the last day I was doing my research, Zaryaa approached me. She wanted to know of my task, what it was, and told me to accept her offer, her help so that we both could go to Lord Tokiai with the item. However, I wasn’t any fool, and I dealt with such situations in the past way too often to not see when someone acts like a snake in the grass, ready to strike. I declined any offer she made, despite her saying that she has assets, resources, and whatnot. Whether or not she did have, it wasn’t something I cared for. Later I did find out that she was successful in her task, and managed to accomplish it in record time, which only leads me to believe she had someone give such an item to her, and got in debt. Who it was? I don’t know and it matters little.[/justify]

[justify]*A satisfied tone permeates the words she spoke and the ones to follow, only to emphasize how pleased she is with how events unfolded.*[/justify]

[justify]Regardless, while that was going on, the pressure of the task back then was immense. Now, such a task would be rather frivolous for me, but I was an acolyte and I was just learning how to manage on my own. This wasn’t dealing with smugglers or trades back on Nar Shaddaa, this was much harder. My life and my future depended on how well I executed it. So, knowing that it involved a tomb, and the IRS, I went to the person in the Horuset powerbase who I knew had a lot of contact with the IRS, and that was Lord Saud. When I approached her, she smiled with a great satisfaction saying that she expected this to happen. I offered myself to be in debt to her aid, and in return, I was put into contact with someone on Korriban, someone who knew of the incident, a man by the name of Captain Valorm and once I arrived on Korriban, wearing only my acolyte robes and training blade, I met him.

He told me of the location of said tomb. Explained that recently several more IRS people were sent there and didn’t return. Said that he believes followers of the late Darth Ikoral inside that tomb who guard it and the contents from within with their life. It was as I expected so I went inside prepared for a fight. My blood was boiling. With careful steps I made my way on foot all the way through the arid Valley of the Dark Lords, and found the tomb. My right hand once never left the hilt of my training blade and as I stepped inside, I prepared myself. Barrier active, my mind reaching out through the Force, and despite all my fears of meeting an entire cult, I felt only one presence. It was another Force Sensitive, and stronger than me.

I pushed further inside until I reached a long corridor and the presence was there. I taunted him, knowing that I would either be successful or die, but I was not going to leave that tomb without the idol I was tasked to find. The follower stepped out from the shadows carrying himself in a robe. It was a male pureblood, rather young of age from what I could gather, and he carried a warblade, although it did look quite worn. He entered a stance which to me was rather familiar, that of Shien and I only responded to his threats of leaving the tomb by entering the other stance of form five, that of Djem So. It took us both but a moment of sizing each other out until I leapt at him as he did. The fight was short, perhaps twenty seconds long. I pushed myself to my limits back then, kept up the pressure and managed to have him on the backfoot halfway through. His technique was decent however, I believe that he spent so much time in that tomb, that isolation did take its toll. I took advantage over this and the moment I felt his grip on his weapon weakened, I used a combination I had developed over the course of several weeks some time prior to that incident, and the speed, force and determination I coupled with it proved to be enough to take out this mad follower’s life.

I was successful. Upon searching his lifeless and beheaded body, I found a small pouch and inside it was a golden palm-sized statuette, similar to others in style, found on Korriban. The tomb itself was completely desolate. Along the statue, inside was an amulet which to this day I still wear on myself as a reminder. It has the mark of the Dark Side in it, and it reminds me that in times of need, the only one I can anchor myself onto is my own strength. As to where this strength comes from? Well, over time, the sources change, expand, and transform, but as long as they are clear for me, and as long as my mind is clear enough to see the path I need to take, I will be victorious.[/justify]

[justify]*The recording would then end, and the way the events were told indicated a desire by the one registered to keep the entry on a high note as it concluded.*[/justify]