Beyond - Legends As I die - Nom Anor

Thanks very much, there will be more from them both in the next chapter, which is almost ready in draft Another 'flashback' soon too

 

The language you use in this story is much like the Vong themselves - strong, alien, powerful. It evokes a lot of emotion.

He waited tensely as the creature began to stalk it?s prey with methodical caution, slowing it?s movements to a near halt - presumably to lure it?s meal into a false sense of security - before it charged, fangs gnashing as it snarled pure bloodlust, towards him. Nom Anor hurled himself flat against one pile of stacked ganadotes, watching as the bissop hound snapped wildly at the space he had once occupied, but skid harmlessly past him, head turning in an attempt to snag the former prefect as it went by. He flung the blade up then, in defence, but the blow he had dealt was not much, only serving to cut the pinkish grey gums of the creature, before it slammed into a pile of storage ganadotes, sending them flying all over the place.

 

Whew, finally made it over here, sorry about the late reply, but thanks very much! I know I can be a bit long winded with language sometimes, but it's nice that you like it
I have the final part of this chapter waiting in the wings, just need to transfer the last little section to my comp and I can post it (always liked writing things by draft in hand before lol, old fashioned I am )

 

Note: Here's the final part of the chapter, more on the way, hope you all enjoy and thanks as always for reading


The grashal was empty, Tinuu had noticed upon his swift return, the occupants out with the recovery and clean up teams, or attending memorial services - a rather new thing to their society - he supposed. He should have been present at the latter in retrospect, but the extolled one could not stomach that quite yet. Today had revealed far too much of the grim reality of their situation for him to bear...but he couldn't sit idle and let this perpetuate. His head was overrun with thoughts, fearful thoughts of the future. He had thought of nothing else all the way here.

But wallowing in his fear did no one any good, least of all those he cared about and those he had made silent promises to, Sae among them. He had promised her he would do something with the knowledge he had attained, something to bring this situation to an end before something far worse happened.
But that was just the question - what could he do?

Born into shame, he had no or few skills from a past glorious life to help him, save for his adeptness in servitude and submission to the upper castes. He could fight, barely - and subterfuge he had learned from his time among the heretics. It was not enough, he realized, to be effective against a whole order!
His twin, Shaah, must hate him by now, he could have used his support right now, could have told him what had transpired at the shaper damutek, but that would blow this whole situation wide open and who truly knew how many of these traditionalists walked among them?

Beating the heels of his hands against his forehead, Tinuu paced, scouring his mind for the solution he just had to find. Think! How could the traditionalists infiltrate their society?
And then it hit him, that was exactly it, they hadn't had to, they had been there all along. So it would be those who remained loyal to Sekot, who were forced to infiltrate the select groups of traditionalists, much like the heretics had gotten to certain members of the true caste society during the end of the war. The concept, initially, was mind boggling, but Tinuu knew the only way to eat the proverbial vua'sa was one limb at a time...this was a start that saw him better off than five minutes ago.

So he had the beginnings of an idea, and he had already given his word to the shaper Adept that he was indeed one of them. But not all beings were as naive as shaper adepts, who's minds curiosity often lead them to places or conclusions that bordered the line on heresy. Tinuu knew that to make a successful infiltration attempt, he'd need to bring something to the traditionalist?s table that was utterly irresistible. And that was the part where he fell short.

He was one of the extolled, one of the shamed in their eyes, he could offer them little more than any slave or menial worker could!

He fell back against the chamber wall and slumped to the ground lethargically, loosing a sigh of exasperated frustration as he turned his gaze towards the ceiling. Shaah would know what to do, he was the more resourceful one of them and he would never have given up until he had found a means to somehow bring these traditionalists down. He had been a key driving force to stir Tinuu up into a frenzy during the times of the Jeedai heresy.
And himself? He, he knew, would have been the one who would have tried tirelessly to get Shaah to realize, that no one person could bring down a movement alone, he would have told him that was madness...and so was this!

He should tell the Jeedai, let them handle it.

That was it then, he would wait for Shaah to return, explain everything and then when he had they would go to the Jeedai together - as together they were stronger and nothing could -

Realization struck Tinuu harder than any lash from an amphistaff then, that was it! His brother had always provided the answers in the past, and now despite the fact Shaah was not actually here, he provided them again unknowingly. The idea formulating in the dep

 

First! Good old Nom... sneaky and manipulative as always.

I think I've said this before, but it's really neat the way you so consistently use metaphors and sayings. It seems more real that way, in my opinion.

 

'And that means that I do not yet have to have you killed appropriately.' Nom Anor thought inwardly at Niv Lah,

"That will not be necessary, fearsome one. He is one of us, allow me to deal with him personally." He said aloud.

Niv Lah nodded once, curtly and then ducked out of the shelter into the sekotan weather beyond.
When he was certain the warrior was gone, Nom Anor relaxed noticeably, he still had work to do here at this settlement, still had one more visit to make, but T'arlann Shoolb was proving himself to be a jittery old fool, and Nom Anor could not afford to have that effect his plans.
Discovery, he knew, was never an option.

You've brought Nom Anor to life as they didn't seem to do in profic! Loved it!

 

I definitely concur with Asp on this. Superb job, it's fun reading on the internal conflicts and distrust among Nom's allies.

I really wanting to see what Sekot's going to do about Nom's agenda.

 

Hah, yes I couldn't ever see him giving up those ways and going on the straight and narrow...that would just be scary and not half as interesting.

Thanks very much, I do like my metaphors, translating them into YV terms has been fun but I wasn't sure if they worked well or not.

Thank you! I always thought that writers like Denning and Keyes wrote the Yuuzhan Vong very well, I also liked their portrayal of Nom Anor in their books so I based a lot of his attitude on their interpretations of him, but some others seemed too scant on the info that could have been extremely interesting. Fingers crossed for that new comic book series!

Thankyee, and yes it's getting a bit tangled now isn't it (I know i'm having to keep notes of my notes anyway LOL)?
Glad you are enjoying this, Sekot will definitely have to come up with something soon, the net is closing in from both sides!

 

Nom is moving the pieces into place, very nice. I still love T'arlann Shoolb. Great job

 

Thank you More movements in the next chapter (which is nearly ready for posting) and T'arlann Shoolb will return

 

Apologies on the wait for the next chapter, I am working on it, but illness mixed with a sudden influx of work has hampered many of my attempts to get it finished, rest assured though, it's on it's way! I hope to have it up in the next couple of weeks.
Thanks very much for the noms! - pun completely intended Very much appreciated!

 

Note: Once again, thanks for the Nom's Very much appreciated as I said before. Onto the next intstallment, phew I have been crazy-all-over-the-place lately, but I am still furiously scribbling down fic wherever I can. This is part one of a three part chapter (possibly two if I get writing right now ) Hope you enjoy!




As I Die:

Chapter 15 - Pt 1


"I have need to converse with your Master, honoured shaper." Tinuu had said as piously as he could possibly manage - under the circumstances of course- cowering low to the ground, almost on his belly in the dirt that littered floor.

He stood inside the threshold of the shaper damutek, surrounded by ichor-soaked walls that seemed to glisten and glow brighter whenever some of the gummy substance trickled down in liquid form over the phosphorous fungi that lined it's structure. His insides felt like those walls right now, he mused to himself, however he said this to the tall, lean shaper adept, it wasn't going to come out right.
That said, when he had called, she had extended one rail thin arm, the one that ended in her only remaining natural hand, and had invited him into the shaper's inner sanctum as it were. He should, in retrospect, be counting his almighty blessings, but he could not deny that he had never felt so vulnerable in all his years as he did now. The shaper could have killed him outright, in as many unthinkable ways as possible, he had been a shaper's experiment once or twice in his lifetime and he had no desire to offer himself to one again, to be in their hands was surely worse than to be in the hands of the gods. And he feared that thought immensely.

This bold request, this glistening pustule of a gift he was about to surreptitiously place in the hands of the Adept's master, was something of great value - or so he thought - to the traditionalists. But all he could do for now, was pray to Yun-Harla that this shaper Adept did not deny him egress further than this.
He had spent his entire journey here, mulling over and over the whole concept of 'traditionalism' and what it meant to be indebted to ones that wished to hark back to such arcane barbaric times - times that they had barely begun to recover from, ones that were still fresh in the minds of all Yuuzhan Vong.
His reasoning had been simple: Under the old protocols of Yuuzhan Vong society, the shaper Adept would have been well within her rights to kill him - and in some cases expected to - for Tinuu's overt lack of respect, for not knowing his true place.

So it was an expensive waste of mental energy then, when relief hit him like a tidal wave as the Adept seemed more pensive than angered. He waited, with baited breath, until she decided to respond, cutting short his suffering.

"Whom shall I say requests an audience?" She asked haughtily, jutting her chin out proudly and implying through body language as well as tone of voice, that Tinuu was almost certainly beneath her and therefore must have been a messenger for someone higher up the ranks, for no shamed one would dare to do something so audacious.

Tinuu did not care what she thought, this wasn't a blunt refusal and he wasn't about to miss this small chance, he dared, and then some.

"I am honoured Adept, the name is Tinuu." He was careful not to look up, nor so much as try to offer her a domain name. As a shamed one he belonged to no domain and was unfit to say he had even come from one.

The shaper curled her ritually split lip in the hint of a brewing, silent snarl, her disdain was palpable and evident in the awkward way her tendrils twitched and curled at the tips, cloying around her face for attention.

"You?!" She asked in disbelief, "But you are a -"

Tinuu grew bolder, cutting her words short,

"A shamed one? Believe me when I say, honoured one, that I have something of abundant interest to your masters." He didn't dare move.

The shaper's maa'it's sparkled dangerously, her expression a picture of consideration marred only by a deep rooted hatred of shamed ones, but she couldn't seriously be considering this...could

 

Heh, them shamed ones rarely (if at all) have it easy. It seemed like the two shapers wanted Tinuu dead on the spot just for being there.

Cool progression of the story Blue. I be very eager to see this meeting between Tekli and Sekot, and also see why Sekot was allowing Nom to do what he has done so far.

 

Thanks BD All will be explained - partially - in this chapter, Sekot has already given Nom a bit of an ultimatum, I don't assume she'll be 'asking' again But that doesn't mean there still aren't twists to come!

 

Chief Inspector Telki is on the case.

And I can't magine her trying to put herself between Ibu and Danni She's like three feet tall.........size matters not, I know.

 

First, congrats on the WELL deserved noms! Second, yet another superb chapter.

Tinuu had nothing left to lose save for his life, it was now or never-

"It is of interest to the gods, because I offer them a twin sacrifice!" He said as fast as he could manage coherently.

Only when death did not soon follow, did the extolled one realize that his words had done it, that the gods were still with him - at least for now. Had he been brave enough to risk a glance upwards, he would have seen pure incredulity paint the features and posture of the Master Shaper's self completely awry, his tendrilled headdress almost frozen in motion. So too were the Master's maa'it implanted eyes, a constant shade of brilliant azure, behind which a thousand stark surprised emotions lay encased inside his sharply slanted head.
The shaper Adept, too, seemed very surprised, but her expression lent more in credence to intrigue than shock.

Gaining control of himself, the master shaper bid the shamed one to look at him, a gaze he met with a wary stare of his own. He only had one reply.

"You will tell me more of this."

I love how you're weaving all the different parts of this story together.

 

Hahaha, cue detective drama music! Although for some random reason, I can't stop imagining the Inspector Gadget animation theme now
Go Tekli Go!

Don't worry though, I left that in there for humourous connotations rather than anything else, there will be no showdowns there

Thanks very much

And thanks again, I am certainly trying to knit this all together over the course of the next few chapters, so there will be quite a few connections being made in the next one too, but I won't give too much away

 

Note: Just a small update this time, it's the busiest time of year for me at work lately so I haven't had as much time as I would like to write, however, this part intersects a little better with the last part of my fic so I am posting it now to tide readers over until I can get the next part finished Hope you enjoy.



Sleep; it was restorative and rejuvenating in so many ways, often enabling one to explore their thoughts in a world away from, and inaccessible to, all. And in ways that held little or no bearing on reality too. A being truly lost themselves within sleep's velvety grasp, or was it that they found their true selves?
The inner sanctum as it were.

Some saw sleep and the remarkable dreams they found within the depths of their dogmatic minds, as divine. Dreams became far more than simple reinterpretations of thoughts, manifesting themselves into 'visions' implanted into their minds of the honoured, by the gods themselves.

They were, of course, fools to believe sleep was anything more than restorative. Pain was the only true means with which to truly communicate with the gods, and in the absence of sleep, T'arlann Shoolb truly felt pain.

Fatigue brought on by the nervous tension of never knowing what was going on, not having slept in what felt like a ket, it had worn him down. He was old, he knew. He had lost his edge, the edge sharp as any coufee blade, the one that each young member of his caste was imbued with from the moment they left the creche. It drove them to strive for success, for advancement...and he had found it way back when.

He had grown slothful, he realized, he should do something about that. Mere rank, it seemed, was not enough anymore - particularly when the infrastructure of society was in such disarray, no one would show him the respect he deserved, he would have to assert himself all over again.
Yes - he was tired.

This Yem-Zi knew how to try his patience, and right now the old Prefect would have loved nothing better than to wring the life from that brenzlits scrawny neck.
He took little comfort from the thought as another, shameful pang of tiredness mixed with tension caused his tendons to ache, strain. He would not taint himself by giving into his fatigue, not while he still drew breath, and that faux Intendant, Yem-Zi, was still out there, incriminating them both with his careless actions.
He would need to bring that ignot to heel.

And so it was with this in mind, that he did not slump back upon the inviting moss of his nestbunk, which resided in silence and disuse at the far side of his chamber. The Grashal's main chamber was quieter than usual, he'd noticed. By now he would have been hearing the irksome and grating tones of his shamed grashal-mates, had this been a cycle or two before.
T'arlann Shoolb supposed that this was the case, because of the females' departure. Sae's death, while a surprise, was hardly bad news to the Prefect, one less annoyance for him and one less blight on the galaxy as far as he was concerned.

What he could hear, were the voiced of two males, probably those shamed twins, deep in muffled discussion. Good, let them amuse themselves aimlessly, he was going to need some time away from them when Yem-Zi decided to return his communiqué.

And for that, he did not have to wait long. No sooner had the Prefect settled down upon his nestbunk, than the villip, he had concealed carefully inside his robeskin, began to pulse furiously for attention.
Grasping at the leathery blob of a biot with one taloned hand, T'arlann Shoolb pulled it free of it's concealment and bid it the means to open.

His eyes, wild with the fire of repressed anger, he waited for Yem-Zi to speak before he gave voice to anything he wished to express - he wanted to hear what this perfidious whelp had to say for himself first.

"Prefect, a delight as always." Came that strangely accented voice laced with all the sarcasm of an infidel. "Our associate Niv Lah informs me that you wish to discuss something with me?"

T'arlann Shoolb glowered fiercely down a

 

"And since when were we in a position to begin an uprising?!" T'arlann Shoolb broke in, "The Jeedai are crawling all over this settlement like carrion eaters, trying to discover who is responsible for that fiasco birthed from your ill conceived plan!"

Scared of the Jedi T'arlann is. Great update

 

I haven't read this but thought i'd put in my two cents I don't think that Nom is dead he only lost a hand and he was the driving force behind that war it would be interesting if "outcast spoiler" Luke and Ben run into him during there ten year travels

 

A bit of fear and outrage both, he doesn't like being kept out of the loop (does anyone?) so it's lead doubt to seep on into his mind there, thanks
I know it's just a short update this time, but the next installment makes far more sense without this tacked ontop of it

And Welcome Alana!I think if what you suggested happens, I might die of happiness I agree it could be made entirely possible, and as this fic shows, I don't believe he's dead either Hey, if they can bring back Lumiya after all that time, they can do it with ole one eye Even better if he did us Tsavong Lah fans a favour and bumped off Jaina Solo in the process What? I can dream can't I?

 

That is so true for me. I likes my sleep I do. Possibly the one true Fortress of Solitude.

Awesome stuff again. The description of these situations is what gets me going, showing what's going on in the characters' heads.

 

Oh I hear you, I am a sleep addict, I don't like going to sleep, but once I am there I don't want to get back up again! Thanks very much, the next update isn't far away, I hope to get it posted before I vanish for a few weeks to work an event *crosses her fingers*

 

Surprise surprise my friend excellent post and thanks for keeping me in the loop, indebted as always to you master shaper

 

I recognize that vo...errr typing! You wouldn't happen to have frequented milton keynes around the same time I did for a highly suspicious meeting, would you?
It's good to see you over here, thanks for checking out the fic! I am having a few work/home problems at the moment, but the next part of my fic is very much near completion, i'll be sure to send the PM to this account now then?

Good to have you here!