"I can be ready within the hour. If anyone spots us on Ilum we can also say that since it was where I first practiced the technique, we thought it wise to revisit to train. But of course, let's not be spotted."

Occlus nods.

"Just so. Meet me at my ship."

Callida nods, and then leaves to make the necessary arrangements. The people that know about her newfound abilities are told the cover story, the people that do not get a much vaguer version of the cover story. This isn't particularly odd. She's a Sith, being vague about where she's doing is just how it works sometimes.

Within an hour, Callida is at Occlus's ship, ready to depart.

They take off without fuss, and the rest of the trip is similarly uneventful. One brief stop in the middle of nowhere to realign their course and throw off any pursuit. Occlus does have Callida run through some meditation exercises, so the time is not completely wasted.

They come out of hyperspace very close to the dark side of the planet, and drop like a rock through the atmosphere. They skim the surface until they reach the glacier with the hidden Rakatan ruin. Occlus sets them down at the foot of it. They drape a camo net over the ship, and commence their exploration.

This is indeed a very old place. The style of the inscriptions on the walls place its construction almost twenty thousand years ago, near the fall of the Rakatan Empire. Eventually, they come to a large open room, with a dais in the center. Occlus goes to investigate that, directing Callida to see if she can translate some of the glyphs along the wall.

Callida has had a dizzying number of lessons in languages, many of them dead. The Rakatan language was one of those that she had to learn through self study in Occlus's archives; while her translator droid is certainly loyal, spreading the language more than necessary might cause problems. And anyone can copy a droid's memory banks.

But even Occlus's archives are incomplete when it comes to the Rakatan language. Callida can only translate so much. Still, maybe what she can discern can shed some light on the structure. 'Falling,' and 'great struggle,' could imply a number of things, especially with the fall of the Infinite Empire imminent. 'Inspiration' and 'fate,' are trickier, but 'transcendence' is - well, it implies something, certainly. Callida isn't sure of what. It likely means that the place is quite a find, possibly on the scale of the sentient Rakatan machine hidden on Belsavis.

When she's translated all of the glyphs she can recognize, she updates Occlus on her findings. Is the dais just as interesting?

More so, if anything. Occlus is staring at what lays atop it, a carved stone loop, in the shape of a snake biting its own tail. There is a palpable sense of energy emanating from it.

"This must be Ourobouros."

"I'm not familiar with the term," says Callida, eyeing the dais warily. "Are there any dangers I need to be mindful of?"

"Ourobouros, or the Snake of Time, is commonly understood to be a semi-rare mythological template among primitive, pre-spaceflight cultures across the galaxy. There are- hints, that this spread was due to Rakatan influence. Some desparate, last-ditch effort to regain their Force sensitivity, in a similar vein to the Mother Machine. The time period matches, the writings are suggestive..."

"They are. Transcendence and time are interesting together. Perhaps something to assist premonition?"

"Mmm, potentially, but I'm not sure that quite fits. The Rakata were a proactive species, their creations all do something in their own right. And this does not match that pattern."

"Hm, no." She considers some kind of Force-based cryo-stasis, but that seems incorrect, too. It's too simple for the Rakata, for one. They were very much the sort of people that thought that every problem needed to be very thoroughly solved with Force-based technology. Something that just preserved people is too small-scale. For another, the structure is built wrong for it. This isn't a place for storage. Something clearly happens on that dais.

She considers approaching, because she is very curious, but quite frankly she'd like to leave it to the Dark Councilor with half a dozen ghosts to toss at nasty things if it turns out to be murderous. Besides, Occlus is more educated on the subject than she is. If her master would like her to approach first, she will, but she's not going to wander closer of her own volition just yet. It's Rakatan. She is perfectly justified in her caution.

Occlus circles the dais, scanning it.

"I don't see any traps. I am going to lift it off so we can get a closer look. Stand ready."

Callida nods, drawing up her defenses in the Force for - well, she doesn't really know. But she has them if she needs them, and if it is the sort of artifact that would like to turn her mind to jelly, she will resist being liquefied.

Occlus flares purple as she gestures, and the circular snake rises off its resting place. She holds it a meter and a half away for a few seconds, rotating it in the air. It does not object to this treatment, and there are no distant rumbles of ancient and lethal machinery engaging. She brings it closer and reaches out to brush it with a finger.

There is an oddly... resonant sensation through the Force.

Carefully, Callida takes a measured step closer, more towards Occlus's side than towards the dais. Resonant in what sort of way?

Resonant in a way that decreases when Callida gets closer to Occlus, apparently.

"...Odd."

"Very," agrees her apprentice, warily. "Something for only one Force-user? Or does the resonance dissipate if we physically touch?"

"Let's test it."

Occlus holds out her hand to Callida.

Callida takes it, of course.

And the resonance diminishes, but does not fully disappear.

Occlus reaches out to touch the carving with her other hand-

-and everything goes dead still for two instants.

And then everything becomes searingly, painfully, LOUD. A dizzying whirl of colors blur past their eyes, flashes of starfields, a crazed artist's imaginative interpretation of a hyperspace jump gone horrifyingly wrong-

And then the room is still again. But it's not the same room.

Becoming a Sith Lord involves gaining many things, and losing many more, but one of the things gained is a sense of composure under duress. Callida expresses her discomfort with a hiss, and nothing more.

"Occlus?" she asks, softly. Checking to make sure her master's all right. To her senses, she feels all right, but she'd like confirmation. Her use of her master's name the major indicator of worry.

"That was unexpected."

She looks around. They seem to be in some sort of trophy room, filled with all sorts of oddities, like that hand clutching a lightsaber in a jar over there. Before them is a display case containing the Ourobouros.

"The resonance is gone."

"Yes. ... Transportation of some kind?" she wonders, eyeing the display cased Ourobouros. "And the other end is broken?"

She peers at the hand clutching a lightsaber, and makes a subtle expression of distaste.

"Possibly..." Occlus suddenly looks up. "Company coming. At least one Force-user. Something feels... off about them."