He looked up at him, and the man wondered if he was reading his thoughts.

"I have one other to contact." Loira tossed the disposable handkerchief on the floor of the rented room. "If he still hunts his apprentice, he will prove quite...beneficial to our cause."

"What about the Ubese?"

Loira waved his hand in dismissal, paying more attention to the discarded tissue. "The trigger's already been pulled."

The cloaked man slid back his hood, the stark white of his hair framing his pale face as he studied him with eyes flowing with Force. "Why haven't I..."

"Because it's frelling subtle, that's why." Loira cut him off, and he tried to regain his composure. "It has to be, otherwise there'd be no chance of it working."

He watched Loira pace, the dirty circle of his pace marking the shoddy carpet. The man seemed to be bleeding filth through his pores. He felt a tinge of the old and familiar seethe across his skin. How dare he talk to him that way, when he could crush his windpipe from where he stood, use his lightsaber and carve burning bits of flesh from his body. He envisioned a small pile of gently smoking fingers sitting on the table before him, and he repressed a chuckle before realizing that it was not his way. Not their way.

Not any more.

---------

"Failure is not your way. Not any more."

Ma'ar paced in front of the recruits. Cut from the best cloth that the Brotherhood had to offer, they were a mixture of new faces, some hard from war, some stiff fresh from the Academy. He had Taigikori pull them from those who showed distinct promise, and from Korras' Obelisk trainers. They were a mottled crew, even in their new brightly colored uniforms.

He stopped in front of one of the troopers, noting a smile creasing the corner of his eyes.

"Trooper, why are you smiling?"

"Sir, I am merely proud to be wearing the uniform, sir."

The Kaleesh sneered beneath his mask. Some of them wouldn't learn. The bright and almost nauseating training uniforms were a throwback to the old days, before the Empire fell. They were supposed to encourage them to earn the more protective and all-around better looking uniforms of the next echelon.

Ma'ar moved with preternatural speed, his hands smoothly wrapping around the recruit's head as he kicked him in the stomach, knocking the trooper out of his own helmet, sending him crashing into the far wall.

"Be proud after you have done something to be proud of."

---------

Night had fallen upon the moon of Lyspair, the borealis of the Dark Star shining through the stain glass ceiling. Candles burned throughout the night, leaving the smell of burnt wax and incense in Aabsdu Dupar's nostrils. This was old, a place of learning from before any of them were born. Before even their ancestors were conceived.

Someone else was there.

The deep purple of the Dread Lord's formal robes caught the faint light, the embroidered runes casting shadows onto themselves. Aabsdu barely noticed his successor's entry behind the Kyataran, tall and garbed in blood-red.

"Do you know why you're here?", Muz asked as he stepped closer, signaling the figure behind him.

Headmaster Taigikori Aybara Dupar followed, his arms wrapped around a triangular obect, tightly wrapped in an old piece of cloth.

"No." the former Headmaster's voice carried throughout the endless rows of book cases.

Muz smiled thinly. "Aabsdu...you have been an incredible ally to the Brotherhood. Your work as Headmaster has paid off immensely. Now, Taigikori and I feel you should be justly rewarded. Taigikori, if you please."

Allowing a curt bow without taking his eyes off of the Grand Master, Taigikori let the fabric wound about the object loosen and fall from his fingers. Aabsdu's eyes visibly brightened as he saw the small yet ornate holocron in Taigikori's palms, and it gave off an impressive glow as Taigikori approached his fellow Dupar.

"There..." Muz said, "...is a holocron going to its rightful owner." Muz stepped forward, Watching the former Headmaster watch him with uncertainty. The Dark Lord pulled the power from the holocron, the twisting ethers of the dark side funneling through him, pouring into his target at his gesture.

"This will hurt."

With those words, the Grand Master bore his ebony eyes into Aabsdu, chanting the words of the Sith as the former Headmaster felt the energy of the holocron inundate his senses and mind, flooding his psyche, burning away his ego. Aabsdu smiled, the feeling was wonderful, the gift intense. And more power moved beneath his skin now than even before.

"Arise, Aabsdu Dupar...for you have earned the highest degree the Shadow Academy has to offer." Taigikori smiled. "Congratulations, you have earned it."

It's report time

About a month ago, we announced a big change for the Brotherhood in the adjustment to houses. Not everyone was a fan of this idea, and I count myself among them. Unfortunately, we needed to make some changes in the interest of keeping things here moving along. In the time since the change, we have had some seriously great responses, and some that were just complaining because they didn't like it. At any rate, about a week or two back, i sent a huge email to the house leaders listing out the things that Sarin and I will be looking for in January after the next AWOL check, to see what units are ready, are active enough, are strong enough for the title of Clan again.

In short, we're looking at the awards earned by each house's members, the raw activity of the members, the number of active members and the drive of those members to succeed, to make their house and clan succeed. As I told the summits, this is not a thing that the summit alone can do, and is a great way for every one of the members, from the Journeymen to the elders, to make history.

I'd advise any of you interested in trying to make your clan return to glory to contact your Quaestor and Aedile for what you can do, how you can take part.

More leaked goodies

Promotions!

Taigikori Aybara.

Why the hell isn't this guy EQ3 yet? Taigikori has served on the CoJ, as one of the best praetors that the Shadow Academy has ever seen, proconsul to Clan Naga Sadow, and finally Headmaster since his last promotion. Add into that the fact that he has not relented in his personal work, gaming and fictioning and so forth, and you can see a dynamic member, one that leads from the trenches and motivates people with his own work.

Taigikori has been an invaluable asset to the Dark Council, constantly present and around, working to foster better relations between the clans and the DC as well as trying to bring back the sense of Brotherhood that the whole club needs to recall. His work spirals out into many different aspects of the club, from working with the Fist on gaming questions, to working intrinsically with new members and helping to get the revolutionary Grind Path up off the ground, right down to helping with ideas for graphics and other expansions to this club of ours.

On top of all that, Taigi has done all this without looking for reward. His desire truly is in the advancement of the Brotherhood, the long term survival of this organization that we all enjoy. That selflessness points us all to have premonitions of his eventual rise to an elder in this club. Taigikori, on this day, we salute you, and honor you with a very much well deserved rank increase to Equite Three. Thank you for all you have done.

Ask the GM.

Sidarace asks: Besides the obvious "Mid-Fall" given for an answer, when is the next Vendetta planned to start? Are there any real date set, or is it up in the air?

Right now, I am working with a tentative schedule of launching the next Vendetta, 'Disorder' on October first, 2010. The event will run three short and frantic weeks, and will take place over a VERY short time, fictionally... less than 48 hours.

Benevolent the Bootworthy Hat-bearer asks: How do you get your hair so silky smooth like a lady?

I wash it.

Not-Smoke asks: You mentioned the GMRG some time ago, when can we expect that to launch?

Well, like with too many other projects in the club, we're bottlenecked at the coding stages. There's a plan in place, the graphics are all set, we're just waiting on the coders to execute. We're hoping for sooner than later, but as we all know, coder's time is pretty rare around these parts.

Smoke showed off a sandbox image from the GMRG perks, and i expect that Halc will be talking a bit about the cool stuff I have been developing for the ACC side of things soon as well. Both setups will have a lot of perks to earn, the further you go up the ladder, with robes, armor, weapons, and warbanner options to unlock. There's some other stuff I have been working on for us to be able to unlock, too... but more on that as we get closer to it. In the meantime, g check out the sweet Carnor Jax style polearm on Smoke's Dossier.

TL:DR *Next AWOL in January *Taigikori promoted! *Aabsdu granted Master of Dark Lore *RoS: Disorder due out October first

And that's all for this time. If you have any questions, or anything I can help with, pm me on IRC or shoot me an email. Have fun!

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