Solus Settlement, Twin Cave

"That's strange, it feels...soft." Za'ide murmured. There was a discomfort and unease in his voice that was apparent for those who know him well. A faint violet glow emanated from his eyes and hands, faint halos of force augmenting his senses as he probed the areas around Twin Cave. The over the past week, the few rookies who had ventured into the vast cavern had reported strange sightings in the farther, less visited side of the subterranean area. He had caught word of the rumors and with his curiousity piqued, had began studying the area. It was a bit more than he'd expected, as the mystic discovered. 

The threads of Force gently flowed out, as he sought to learn more about the strange sensation that the land gave him. He held the spell together as he worked, patiently combing the land again. The sensations he felt were disturbing in a sense. Normally when he probed a place, he would feel the flow and form of energy and existence. There were spots in the cave that felt as certain as anywhere else, and there were others where the strength of his spell seemed to slip and unbind, as if suddenly being dipped into muddy acid.

It was as if a single stalk was being split apart into a hundred pieces all at once and devoured by a hungry beast. 

Za'ide let the spell dissolve, noting that some of the now-freed motes of Force seemed to slip away into the soft zones and vanish into nothingness. The prodigy thought on his findings, having a strong inkling of what it meant. He recalled reading old records, a short while before he'd come to Novus to examine and study firsthand the effects of Haloment and its relationship with Force. He would need to confirm his initial findings and warn the Bellato who'd requested him to take up the investigation.

He frowned for a moment, before raising up his hand and activating the communicator. He tapped on the screen for awhile, navigating it as he called up the menu for his contact list. "Mm, let's see...Solus, Solus..." he muttered as he scanned through the names, "Ah, there." A blooping sound came from it as it connected to its end recepient.

A squarish holo popped and fizzled into life before Za'ide, static showing itself for a moment before clearing up to show the face of Antonio Solus, Director of NAEA, and behind him the screen showed the office he often occupied when he wasn't teaching. The elder Bellato nodded on seeing Za'ide, saying "So, did you turn up anything?"

"Unfortunately I did, something ...strange." He raised a hand to stroke the side of his face as he considered things. "I will need to conduct more studies here to be sure. There are certain instabilities here that we've only encountered a few times before. Or so I've read at any rate. You would know better, since you were here at the time when it occured. Now, this is just a guess..."

"Za'ide, you know that if I wanted verbose bull, I'd have sent someone else." Antonio looked sternly at the younger mage. "Just tell me, what have you uncovered?" 

The way Antonio spoke told Za'ide's not to dither around, and with a sigh he replied simply, "Well. I believe it's Dark Hall."

Armory 213, Catacombs

A series of snap-hiss sounds echoed in the near-empty Catacombs as a set of sensors and scanners deployed. The tiny sparkle of lights that sequentially lit up from their shells showed that the machines were functioning optimally as they should, serving as the specialized eyes and ears, so to speak, of the Accretians who were analyzing the anomalies in the Catacombs of Armory 213. A few cables linked the analysis units, their data pathways shielded from any radiation or untoward energies, to ensure that the data they collected was not affected.

Cohort Gnosis was the Breeder who supervised the maintenance and physical deployment of the field instruments, and was one of the finest students of dimensional physics and alternative chaos-energy mechanics, one of the terms the Accretians used to describe the phenomenon of Force. It was a task that Gnosis took to without any complaint and with the typical resolution that any ranked Accretian would have. And why not? he thought, These are concepts and sciences that most Accretians care little about. But to me, it is a challenge to master. 

In my dedication I develop skills which are hardly replicated, a mastery which few others will have. Gnosis felt a prickling sensation that one might call pride, had he taken time to acknowledge it. But focused on the task as he was with the interest in the energy signs that was typical of Force, he paid it little heed. And it was true in any case, for once the energies were determined to be environmental and not actively hostile, the other researchers who'd been deployed initially with him had been reassigned to other tasks.

Gnosis shrugged mentally. He worked alone as well as he did in a group. It did not matter, with the link to Command.Net and various other specialists, he did not truly need their physical presence. One of those hookups was a direct link to NC-359804F, the AI Gatekeeper in Accretian HQ Novus. The Gatekeeper was an excellent reference resource, allowing him to access thousands of records of Dark Hall and Battle Dungeon energy fluxes, which the readings he had been getting the past days closely mirrored. 

And yet, unlike those openings into temporary time space constructs, the signals here have no source. He could hardly find any origin from the energies to come from. There was no starting point of any sort in the area. He had already combed the entire nearby region, filtering through the countless relics that littered the area. Native relics, to be sure, and Gnosis was certain that others among the Empire might've been interested in it. He hardly thought it worth the time. It was an irony that was lost upon him.

The Accretian had prepared a special device to move on with his analysis. It was a robot drone unit, fitted with a miniscule variant of the Gate technology that was used to open and contain the Battle Dungeons so often used as training. Using the energy readings and signatures, Gnosis had managed to develop an echo signature that would allow the unit to enter the unstable regions where the energies were most prominent, and hopefully break through to the other side.

As he launched the small drone off into the invisible fields of energy, Gnosis couldn't help but notice the baleful flickering of the braziers that line the area towards the altar.

Numerus, Vafer Shrine

It was invisible to the eye yet the fine mystical senses of the Dark Monk Tyras Gale, who was of trusted and higher standing amongst the faithkeepers, could see its glow in the shadows of the Shrine. The irises of her eyes showed the haze of Dark Force, which she had used to view the scape before her. It was hardly something that she desired to confirm, but she had not been set to this task because of faint heart. The reasons for her little quest here were obvious enough. The Dark Priestess reached forth with her Haloment-imbued staff and with a violet-hued aura around her, she touched the ground where she knew the disturbances were the strongest. 

Her consciousness suddenly felt pulled forth as she was catapulted into another world. Here she was spectral, senses projected from a construct of pure Force. It was an exhilarating experience, but not one she did lightly and only with preparation. Which was what she had done to pierce the veil that separated this chaotic world from her own. As her astral form took in the scene around her, the Corite realized that she was very much familiar with the chaos-scape that surrounded her.

In the distance, energies warped into forms that looked like baleful eyes. Floating rocks and fragments of earth and stone floated around her, the shattered ruins of a world that looked like it had been assembled from a mixed up box of a planet's parts. An impenetrable haze of power enveloped it all, and endlessly supplying the monstrous things that populated the broken masses of land. It was the place they had sought to forever seal and bind, yet only partially succeeded in doing so: Dark Hall.

Tyras recoiled, as much as she could in her state, and began preparing to leave. She did not wish to face the one who called himself the Master of Dark Hall, despite his rumored defeat on Crag when he attempted to assault the Vanguards and the Guardian Masters. Still, she opted for caution. She had come to determine what it was that was within Vafer Shrine, and she had discovered it. It was information she would need to take home to others of wisdom and ability to contain or wipe out the taint of Dark Hall on their land.

As she slowly began to fade back into Novus, a flash of movement caught her eye. There was a screeching sound as some unknown, unidentifiable thing from within the chaos suddenly burst into the open mere feet before her. She forced down the reflex to bring her arms up, continuing her withdrawal from the realm. Just as motes of Force coalsced around her to return her to her own dimension, the beast lashed out at her to claw her face, it's razor sharp talons passing through as she vanished.

The Dark Monk's eyes flashed open as she returned to Novus, kneeling as she had when she'd left it. Her breath was heavier, the exertion of going into Dark Hall even for but a few moments was exhausting. Even her great reserves of energy for mystical spells was drained and it would take a good night or two to fully recoup what she'd used. She stood up, somewhat unsteadily and breathed deeply the air of the planet, glad to be away from Dark Hall. A strange tickle made itself felt on her cheek

She appeared confused as she touched her face, feeling the tiniest bit of a scratchmark on it. "How could...?!" She mumbled. The mystic shook her head as she looked toward where she'd stood. Forcing herself to focus, the agent of the Monk Council cast yet another Force pattern, this time one of discrete probing. Her eyes narrowed as her spell took its form and dissipated, telling her what she'd feared. The presence and leak of Dark Hall's energies had only grown.

As she activated a portal to return to the Holy Alliance's HQ, quickly wishing to report to her superiors, a ripple barely made itself visible in the air.