Arriving back on the True Sith homeworld, they were greeted with an entirely different weather system, which caused some measure of confusion. “It was warmer, before.” Aria mumbled, taking in the coating of frost as the pair tried to find the path they had followed to the tower beforehand. It took some time (and a lot of metaphorically scratching their heads) for them to gain their bearings again but soon after they were back on track and the tower was in sight. The blizzard that had swept through since their last visit had chilled the atmosphere made it a bit harder to anticipate the approach of the tower’s guardians until their piercing cries filled the air. 
The older Force users didn’t seem too perturbed by the creature’s despite Yerbol’s cautioning. 
“What, them?” Roan snorted. “They don’t look so bad.” Jungze quickly dispatched one of them with a flick of her wrist, a second falling victim to the bolts of energy flung from Roan’s own hand while Voldon dispatched the other two. 
“We should be careful.” Aria mumbled as they stepped over the threshold. “Last time we were here, the place was full of illusion traps. Just watch your step, who knows what could happen if we set one of them off.” Of course she felt uncomfortable about giving instructions out to people who had been throwing Force energy around since before she was born, but the last thing they needed was for any of them to be injured or worse, killed. 


The place seemed just as quiet and deserted as it had been the first time, which meant their only obstacle to getting to the archive chamber was to pick out the notched staircases they had used beforehand, and to fight off any more of the ice beasts that decided they wanted to come back for another go. After a few more encounters, even the tower guardians seemed to concede that the group’s power was too much even for them. 
“That’s right, you’d better run!” Aria crowed after the skinny figures as they retreated. Maybe now they could progress uninterrupted. The group reached the final staircase up to the top of the tower, whereby the Tuk’ata suddenly balked and refused to go any further onwards despite any commands barked at them from Roan. The hounds growled softly and curled back their lips, tails twitching as they crouched in place and refused to move another inch. Frustrated, the Sith Lord instructed them to wait there ‘if it so pleased them’ and keep watch for more of the ice beasts while the Force users progressed onwards. They had thought nothing of the gesture, Roan chalking it up to the difference in the energies on this planet making them uneasy. 


In retrospect, that should have been their first warning that something wasn’t quite right. Regardless, they had paid it no mind and stuck stubbornly to their mission objective.


As they reached the library, Aria began to wander off ahead to the shelves she and Yerbol had found the other holodisks on originally, while Roan and the others seemed more interested in examining the room as a whole beforehand. 
“Well, this explains where the oaf gets his pompous dress sense from.” Roan snorted as he took in the extravagant decor. “It’s no less overbearing here.”
While Aria agreed that Bracknell’s fashion choices did make him look rather ridiculous, she shook her head at her father and quickly steered him back to their search for documents which could provide them with tactics or other plans they could turn against the True Sith movement and use in their favour. There were enough of them now that they could split off and search several rows and sections at once, which made the search a lot less daunting, but no less tedious. Aria wasn’t sure how long they had been up there, but it had been long enough for her to be bored stiff already.
[i]Found anything useful yet?[/i] she muttered to Yerbol, who she could sense was nearby though she couldn’t see him despite her attempts to stand on her toes and peer through gaps in the shelves to try and locate him. None of the older Force users had shouted anything out yet either, presumably absorbed in whatever texts they had come across.
[i]I’ve got some stuff on their old government structure, which is about as interesting as the history of the Galactic Senate,[/i] she chuckled sarcastically, but was forced to admit [i]I guess it COULD come in handy, might tell us how they arrange their chain of command, right?[/i]