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21-04-2023, 01:10 PM
((originally posted by Hirak Sanguinis, April 2017))
Entry 17: The Shadow Hand
*The Rattataki, covered by the hood of his robes, the long black fabric that's covered in various bits of red, the colouration not only of the Sith race but of the Sith in general, markings of House Horuset edged into the reddened part of the fabric. His black metallic gauntlets cling to his hands and forearms, as well as the usual blackened metallic boots which clank with fury as he walks. Hirak makes his way into the shot and offers a deep smirk towards the holorecorder.*
"I have kept a fair few secret even from this Holo Diary, mainly due to the fear that my prized possessions could be taken at will by any Lord of the House and then my secrets would be found out. But now... everything is aired out. I suppose it's about time that I divulged on what the Shadow Hand is.
Before I had even started this holo diary, I'd solidified bonds with two Sith in particular, Trakaton and Raeniu Vipion. We called ourselves the Shadow Hand and we stood as equals in a sea of acolytes. Our goals were simple: to achieve all that we wished to as one entity and to grow stronger together for the sake of House Horuset and for Darth Horuset. Throughout the acolyte Trials we banded together to lead, to conquer and to prove that we were worthy of being chosen as apprentices by the very best masters. This agreement is the cause of a lot of events that I've mentioned before. It's the reason why our second trial on Rishi went so smoothly, it's the reason why Occularis' attempt to have me butchered failed so drastically and turned on her and it's how myself and Trakaton managed to sneak a holocron out underneath Therdel's nose. These are a few to name of our triumphs. But sadly, things changed when Raeniu betrayed us.
A few weeks after we became apprentices, Raeniu became disillusioned once Therdel was broken for being revealed as an ex-Jedi. She feared that if any secrets were found out Lord Saud would break her too."
*Hirak would laugh, scoffing at her with a sadistic tone in the way that his body heaves from the cackling.*
"A weakness and a disappointment. We were wrong to trust her. By her own foolishness she got caught out by myself and Trakaton. We had discovered that she had told -everything- to Lord Saud. Our agreements, our positions, who we stood by and the potential vastness of our reach. She betrayed the oath she swore when we first started the Shadow Hand. So she confessed all to Lord Saud who in turn approached all of us, Trakaton, myself and Raeniu, telling us that she decided that she will allow myself and Trakaton to continue unhindered by anyone, not herself nor Raeniu, but that we would do so in her favour. Raeniu begrudgingly accepted and we were thrust back into the fray. Then our masters disappeared on Yarrick IV. Turns out whilst they were cosy in their cells Lord Saud told her bethrothed of the Shadow Hand and that deeply upset him. It became very evident to me that the erratic behaviour that Lord Tokiai offered was induced by his disagreement with Lord Saud's desire to leave us unhindered, preferring a heavier handed approach to the situation.
During the time period whilst the two of them were away, Raeniu fled with Cautus, now fearing for her life whilst myself and Trakaton were unfettered by Saud. Worse off, she told Cautus, and we realised very swiftly. He might be head of research but... he wades around with his information like a child splashing in a river filled to the brim with sithspawn. At that point, we understood that the original deal that Lord Saud had offered us, of not hindering our progress and keeping the Shadow Hand a secret, had been broken. We made... contingency plans. Raeniu's death was not one we sought regardless, it'd have induced far worse consequences than leaving her alone. So, instead we planned, prepared and trained Acolytes as we were requested to pretending as if nothing had changed. Together we founded the plan for the Horuset strike against the Arious to force them into a treaty, with aid from Lord Zarrious and waited for the right moment.
The stretch and length of our influence managed to provide us with the fruit we required. Once we had confirmed that Lord Tokiai would no longer teach myself due to his rage, we could not allow for my progress to be stifled. Instead, we enacted our final contingency plan and went to the Dark Lord personally, offering him all the information on the table. We confessed and told him everything, every little detail and left nothing out. This he could confirm by exploring our minds, draining the information form us to determine the truth. This last resort plan completely outed the Shadow Hand now that it had been made aware to key players. The Dark Lord took this well, far better than I thought he would. He was impressed with our resolve and our ability, our cunning. So he made statements of his own. We would be taken as his apprentices to do his bidding directly and he would give us a contingent of his Horuset House Guards as protection, but not as our servants. With everything ironed out we returned and awaited the next move of Lord Saud's influence, whom we aptly dubbed as 'Saudists'."
*Hirak folds his arms at this point before he starts pacing around the room in a clockwise fashion, seemingly the consistency of the movement allows for Hirak to think and dictate his thoughts in an accurate fashion.*
"That move came to fruition in a planned murder of myself and Trakaton. Lord Saud called us on the holocall, ordering us to to go to the Vipion estate. Quickly following the holocall came our signal which indicated deadly intent. So, at that point we hurried into the Dark Lord's personal chamber to alert him of this. With our last contingency plan in place, the Dark Lord summoned the Saudist leaders into his chamber. There, he berated them for their idiocy, their misguided attempts to make his assets useless. The Dark Lord then disbanded the Hands of Horuset, the titles that Lord Tokiai and Lord Saud held in earnest before he then made myself and Trakaton his apprentices in front of their eyes. He stripped Lord Saud fully of her control of the Tija whilst Lord Tokiai kept his control over the Tusniyi, a mercy in my honest opinion to appease his father. After some useless attempts by Lord Saud to try and talk her way out of the situation, the Dark Lord delved deep into the mind of Lord Tokiai to confirm what he already knew. Once confirmed... they were ordered to leave, and we had struck our first blow as apprentices against two Lords of the Sith.
That was the culmination of the Shadow Hand's plan and we've continued to act as we always have done ever since, less in the shadows and more in plain sight.
I've never felt more alive.
End Transmission."
*Hirak waves a hand at the small circular device before exiting the room, a smug smirk on his face as he leaves. The blue light form the holorecorder disappears down into the machine again before switching off.*
Entry 17: The Shadow Hand
*The Rattataki, covered by the hood of his robes, the long black fabric that's covered in various bits of red, the colouration not only of the Sith race but of the Sith in general, markings of House Horuset edged into the reddened part of the fabric. His black metallic gauntlets cling to his hands and forearms, as well as the usual blackened metallic boots which clank with fury as he walks. Hirak makes his way into the shot and offers a deep smirk towards the holorecorder.*
"I have kept a fair few secret even from this Holo Diary, mainly due to the fear that my prized possessions could be taken at will by any Lord of the House and then my secrets would be found out. But now... everything is aired out. I suppose it's about time that I divulged on what the Shadow Hand is.
Before I had even started this holo diary, I'd solidified bonds with two Sith in particular, Trakaton and Raeniu Vipion. We called ourselves the Shadow Hand and we stood as equals in a sea of acolytes. Our goals were simple: to achieve all that we wished to as one entity and to grow stronger together for the sake of House Horuset and for Darth Horuset. Throughout the acolyte Trials we banded together to lead, to conquer and to prove that we were worthy of being chosen as apprentices by the very best masters. This agreement is the cause of a lot of events that I've mentioned before. It's the reason why our second trial on Rishi went so smoothly, it's the reason why Occularis' attempt to have me butchered failed so drastically and turned on her and it's how myself and Trakaton managed to sneak a holocron out underneath Therdel's nose. These are a few to name of our triumphs. But sadly, things changed when Raeniu betrayed us.
A few weeks after we became apprentices, Raeniu became disillusioned once Therdel was broken for being revealed as an ex-Jedi. She feared that if any secrets were found out Lord Saud would break her too."
*Hirak would laugh, scoffing at her with a sadistic tone in the way that his body heaves from the cackling.*
"A weakness and a disappointment. We were wrong to trust her. By her own foolishness she got caught out by myself and Trakaton. We had discovered that she had told -everything- to Lord Saud. Our agreements, our positions, who we stood by and the potential vastness of our reach. She betrayed the oath she swore when we first started the Shadow Hand. So she confessed all to Lord Saud who in turn approached all of us, Trakaton, myself and Raeniu, telling us that she decided that she will allow myself and Trakaton to continue unhindered by anyone, not herself nor Raeniu, but that we would do so in her favour. Raeniu begrudgingly accepted and we were thrust back into the fray. Then our masters disappeared on Yarrick IV. Turns out whilst they were cosy in their cells Lord Saud told her bethrothed of the Shadow Hand and that deeply upset him. It became very evident to me that the erratic behaviour that Lord Tokiai offered was induced by his disagreement with Lord Saud's desire to leave us unhindered, preferring a heavier handed approach to the situation.
During the time period whilst the two of them were away, Raeniu fled with Cautus, now fearing for her life whilst myself and Trakaton were unfettered by Saud. Worse off, she told Cautus, and we realised very swiftly. He might be head of research but... he wades around with his information like a child splashing in a river filled to the brim with sithspawn. At that point, we understood that the original deal that Lord Saud had offered us, of not hindering our progress and keeping the Shadow Hand a secret, had been broken. We made... contingency plans. Raeniu's death was not one we sought regardless, it'd have induced far worse consequences than leaving her alone. So, instead we planned, prepared and trained Acolytes as we were requested to pretending as if nothing had changed. Together we founded the plan for the Horuset strike against the Arious to force them into a treaty, with aid from Lord Zarrious and waited for the right moment.
The stretch and length of our influence managed to provide us with the fruit we required. Once we had confirmed that Lord Tokiai would no longer teach myself due to his rage, we could not allow for my progress to be stifled. Instead, we enacted our final contingency plan and went to the Dark Lord personally, offering him all the information on the table. We confessed and told him everything, every little detail and left nothing out. This he could confirm by exploring our minds, draining the information form us to determine the truth. This last resort plan completely outed the Shadow Hand now that it had been made aware to key players. The Dark Lord took this well, far better than I thought he would. He was impressed with our resolve and our ability, our cunning. So he made statements of his own. We would be taken as his apprentices to do his bidding directly and he would give us a contingent of his Horuset House Guards as protection, but not as our servants. With everything ironed out we returned and awaited the next move of Lord Saud's influence, whom we aptly dubbed as 'Saudists'."
*Hirak folds his arms at this point before he starts pacing around the room in a clockwise fashion, seemingly the consistency of the movement allows for Hirak to think and dictate his thoughts in an accurate fashion.*
"That move came to fruition in a planned murder of myself and Trakaton. Lord Saud called us on the holocall, ordering us to to go to the Vipion estate. Quickly following the holocall came our signal which indicated deadly intent. So, at that point we hurried into the Dark Lord's personal chamber to alert him of this. With our last contingency plan in place, the Dark Lord summoned the Saudist leaders into his chamber. There, he berated them for their idiocy, their misguided attempts to make his assets useless. The Dark Lord then disbanded the Hands of Horuset, the titles that Lord Tokiai and Lord Saud held in earnest before he then made myself and Trakaton his apprentices in front of their eyes. He stripped Lord Saud fully of her control of the Tija whilst Lord Tokiai kept his control over the Tusniyi, a mercy in my honest opinion to appease his father. After some useless attempts by Lord Saud to try and talk her way out of the situation, the Dark Lord delved deep into the mind of Lord Tokiai to confirm what he already knew. Once confirmed... they were ordered to leave, and we had struck our first blow as apprentices against two Lords of the Sith.
That was the culmination of the Shadow Hand's plan and we've continued to act as we always have done ever since, less in the shadows and more in plain sight.
I've never felt more alive.
End Transmission."
*Hirak waves a hand at the small circular device before exiting the room, a smug smirk on his face as he leaves. The blue light form the holorecorder disappears down into the machine again before switching off.*
