Office of the Grand Mage

Lord Aequitas

"I will sanction the project", Aequitas began, "however, you may not dig under the exsisting buildings. You can gather as much as you want from the vains until the point they reach the exsisting building." He thought this fair.

"And release the prisoners. Well, what species are they?"
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High Mage Serratus

Serratus thought for a moment.

"Neimodians if I remember correctly."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Lord Aequitas

"Typical alien scum", Aequitas said bitterly under his breath. "Have them brought to Darth Ultiria. She'll....teach them a thing or two about the Sith", he said with a smile.
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High Mage Serratus

Serratus bowed low once again.

"As you wish Lord Aequitas."

He turned to leave once again, this time with less of a spring in his step and a slight inaudible sigh. Serratus and Aequitas were similar in many ways and it was easy to emulate the two to other great partnerships in the history of the dark side, Sidious and Vader, Bane and Zannah, Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma but they differed on many topics. One of these was Aequitas's speciesism and humanocentrism whereas Serratus was on friendly terms with many aliens and was only Near-Human himself. Nonetheless, the Grand Mage was the Grand Mage and Serratus was subservient to his will.
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Lord Aequitas

The Office of the Grand Mage was dark, silent and cold. In a chair behind a desk covered in papers and computers, sat the Grand Mage of the Order of Sith Mages – Darth Aequitas. A Coruscanti by birth, Aequitas spent most of his life on the quiet planet of Naboo eventually, upon joining the Sith Order and working his way through it, becoming its Moff. However, he was recently promoted to the position of Moff of the former galactic capital, his homeworld, Coruscant.

However, it was on Kuat that the HQ of the Order of Sith Mages was constructed and it was on Kuat where the Grand Mage was currently in residence. He was waiting for an applicant to his Order. Usually the High Mage would deal with this sort of thing, but the High Mage had recently exiled himself. Aequitas refused to acknowledge the departure of his deputy and was working to get his return. However, the Order must continue to run and applicants had to continue to be interviewed.

He heard the elevator come to a stop and ping indicating the doors were opening. “Enter”, Aequitas said sombrely.
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Mage Superior Odin

"Salutations, Lord Aequitas" The tall figure bowed down in a dark purple robe with golden embroidery running from wrists till neck. His face was hardly visible because of dense darkness inside the office. "I believe we had not met before, I am Elric de Odin, once a Prophet of Church, now offering my bona fides to your highness."
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Klopf klopf, lass mich rein
Lass mich dein geheimnis sein

Lord Aequitas

With an awkward smile, Aequitas forced a chuckle. “I am not royalty, so ‘your highness’ is not needed. But it is nice to think that is what the people think of me”. Without moving, the Sith Lord used the force to lighten the room a little, making the visitor’s face visable. He was quite tall, and a former Prophet, he said. Not unlike the Grand Mage himself.

“Tell me, Elric, what compelled you to forego the Prophets and apply for the Mages”? Aequitas asked curiously.
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Mage Superior Odin

"The power beyond wisdom, the true secrets of the pulse of my being.." Elric whispered in a half twisted tone, with his eyes closed... Elric was now feeling a cold breeze entangling his own soul on ice-cold chamber in front of Grand Mage. "They couldn't give me what they had promised, and left my senses in atrophy with their dogmas..."
_________________

Klopf klopf, lass mich rein
Lass mich dein geheimnis sein

High Mage Serratus

Suddenly, Aequitas's frame seemed to flicker and then falter completely. The Grand Mage disappeared in a blue light. Suddenly from the shadows, High Mage Serratus appeared.

"Accursed hologram. Always acts up when there's more than one Force-user in the room."

Serratus turned to Elric with a slight smile.

"Forgive me Master Odin, Lord Aequitas was not able to be on-planet today for your interview. He was broadcasting from Coruscant but asked me to be at hand in case the hologram failed. I shall pick up the interview where he left off."

Serratus seated himself awkwardly in Aequitas's chair. Not only because the chair had been designed specifically for Aequitas and Serratus found it uncomfortable, but there were traces of Aequitas Force-signature on it and being surrounded by someone else's Force-signature was a most unpleasant feeling.

"So tell me, Darth, what makes you think that the Mages will be any better than the Prophets?"
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Mage Superior Odin

"The truth... As I mentioned Lord Aequitas. Church looks like it was based on mysticism and unlimited borders of the Force, but it was not. It was more conservative than I expected. I believe Mages has more freedom than ancient dogmas" Elric nodded, followed by a silent but a deep breath. "I want to live the Force, not only use"
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Klopf klopf, lass mich rein
Lass mich dein geheimnis sein

High Mage Serratus

Serratus nodded once, slightly.

"You seek to be a Mage of the Department of Mysteries, if I remember correctly. To be such a Mage is of unspeakable difficulty. First of all, it is not all Force-work. Your melee combat skills must be of the highest standard, else you would be vulnerable to Force-resistant foes, such as a particularly nasty mutated ysalamiri that one of our Mage's encountered."

Serratus reclined in the chair, which he discovered was far more comfortable.

"You'll also need a minimum midichlorian count, but according to your MIA file, you more than meet that requirement. Let me tell you about one of my own experiences in a Department of Mysteries situation. I was on the planet Nam Chorios with a subordinate, when we were caught up in one of the Force Storms that plague the planet. While in the confines of the Storm, we slipped into a place few have dared dance, the gap between times. While there, we were attacked by an inorganic beast, a creature of pure energy. The beast struck my companion first and his body disintegrated. Instantly. The beast then turned itself on me. What would you have done?"
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Mage Superior Odin

"I should embrace the energy rather than fighting. Sands of time are the energy itself we spoke of. The energy that flows in our veins, to live the very next second of our lives, both in flesh and in soul" Elric answered silently once again, looking like he's living every word he was saying.
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Klopf klopf, lass mich rein
Lass mich dein geheimnis sein

High Mage Serratus

Serratus raised an eyebrow.

"You would take the path that risked the destruction not only of a potentially important supernatural discovery, but also yourself? Every Mage is valuable but those of the Department of Mysteries are above value. When faced with the creature, I attempted to seal the creature inside a bubble of energy for capture and observation, only for the creature to absorb the energy I used against it. When this course of action failed, I dissipated the energy that the beast was composed of and escaped the Force Storm."

Serratus rose from the chair, walked to behind Odin and held the ex-Prophet still with the Force.

"Right now, you cannot move any muscles except for those used for blinking and speaking. Without using the Force, stand up."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Mage Superior Odin

Elric's body was now locked in his own cell with Serratus' move. As he has feeling the crawling blood in his veins to apply the orders of his mind, his muscles were refusing without any response. And his force... Elric was feeling that the fountain inside him was temporarily depleted, leaving him without a chance. A small whisper released from his tongue "... my answer is 'spare me'"...
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Klopf klopf, lass mich rein
Lass mich dein geheimnis sein

High Mage Serratus

Serratus released his grip on Odin.

"Precisely. Once must know when to thrown in the proverbial towel. In your capacity as a member of the Department of Mysteries, you will encounter entities beyond even your wildest imagination with powers to match. We would always like you to do your best to capture such entities for study but just like my encounter with the energy beast, we would rather have a living Mage and a verbal account than no Mage and no account at all."

The High Mage returned to his, or rather, Aequitas's chair.

"As a member of the Deparment of Mysteries, you will be burdened with many, many secrets that can never leave the confines of the Department, sometimes not even a single room in the entire galaxy. Your trust in the Department and in your fellow Mages must be absolute. If you think you the burden may break you, inform someone so that we may remove some of the secrets from your mind with a simple Force wipe."

Serratus picked a small metal ball from his pocket and threw it to Odin.

"Show me your Force prowess. Do something spectacular with that ball."
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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.

Mage Superior Odin

Elric raised his arm and directed his palm towards the ball Serratus had thrown in a blink and stopped it in air before it contacts his hand. As he focused on the levitated ball, Elric had started to spin the metal ball in the air with an increasing speed. With ball's image blurring with a great velocity, the metal ball had started to turn orange with yellow and bright cracks, creating a molten fireball in air, still spinning. "Failure is inevitable if one thinks Force is the only weapon - unless it will be combined with nature." Suddenly the molten ball has exploded with a loud puff and turned to dust. Even it was not easy to handle it, Elric was now controlling the incandescent remains of the ball, all now orbiting around a core in the middle with nearly same speed before the ball was exploded. "Every particle in the universe is responsible to form a new one. It is the ultimate never-ending cycle, the cycle that keeps everything running. Galaxies.. Stars... Even us... Every particle in the universe has to do its job.." As Elric concluded his words, he suddenly clapped while the burning dust was still above his hand, followed by a rapid illimunation between his closed palms. There was now a metallic burnt smell in the air, as well as a gray smoke crawling out between Elric's fingers.

He slowly raised his hand above and directed the one below at High Mage, with a metal ball with exactly same size and color that Serratus threw at him. "... And now the cycle is complete..."
_________________

Klopf klopf, lass mich rein
Lass mich dein geheimnis sein

High Mage Serratus

Serratus nodded and smiled as he received the sphere with the Force.

"We have similar philosophies you and I. This could be a most profitable association. Now..."

Serratus extracted a blank datapad from the desk.

"...allow me a moment to do some calculations."

Serratus started entering figures into the calculations, Odin's weight and height, years of service, defection probability and many other singularly worthless but collectively invaluable pieces of information. He finally keyed his answer into a formula one of the boffins on Aeron had developed. On a sliding scale of 0 - 100, with 50 being the number given to a perfect Mage, Odin had received 46.9. Serratus was highly impressed, given that he and Aequitas had barely scratched more, at 48.1 and 47.9 respectively.

"Your interview, Darth Odin, is complete. I have made my decision. In addition to the rank of Mage Superior, I hereby grant you the following offices; effective immediately, you are to be Mage Liaison to the Church of the Dark Side and High Scribe of the Mage Archives. You are to immediately make your way to Bastion, where you will be initiated into the Department of Mysteries by Mage Superior Dorian. Good evening, Mage Superior Odin."

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If you see dreadlocks and a staff coming towards you very rapidly, you're in trouble.