Star Wars: A clash of lords

Chapter eight

Shyr marched through the streets with General Ilam an a hand full of other high ranking officers of the cause. They filed into a building that was marked with a crest of the emperors dark council, a circle stricken through three times in the same direction like a creature clawed at the shape. The symbol was not obvious to anyone outside of the council and the emperor.
"This is it, Lord Shyr, do not let the obvious cloud your vision. What meets the eye may be identical to every other building but upon closer inspection it has a more significant difference" Ilam said as he entered the building.
"General, I do not doubt you, you have proven over and over how you are uniquely able to see what others do not see" Shyr said as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. She feared misstepping so followed close behind the general. As her vision became clearer she noticed the room was of basic necessities a chair, a table and a bookcase that housed few ornaments. "Ilam this room is made to look lived in but there's something off about it" Shyr said in a sense of puzzlement.
"Ah, you are not as bad with the art of seeing what is unseen as you may think, do you recall that rock in my room?" General Ilam spoke with a hint of the same playfulness they often did.
"You mean that old parchment weight you took from korriban?" Shyr retorted in the same manner Ilam had spoke. She knew fully which he talked about but enjoyed playing coy to find out where this was leading
"That rock is like this room to the untrained eye there's nothing special to it but.." he began to walk to the book case with the ornaments on "if you look closer there are always something deeper to it" he finished saying and reached out to one of the ornaments and stopped short of it "tell me, my lord, do you see anything odd on this bookcase?"
Shyr stepped up to it inspecting its contents more closely "no, general they are all bits you can buy from a flea market" she bowed her head in shame of not seeing what Ilam saw.
"You are right about all the objects on it, they are junk..." he said as he knocked them all to the floor "but what you did not notice is the bookcase itself, the wood is from kasheek the Wookiee home world in republic space" he smiled while stroked the side of it.
" but how did it get here?" Shyr asked completely down-founded as she scratched her cheek, a habit she developed early in life when she became stressed and confused.
"The founding emperor, my lord, he must have brought it with him while he rescued what remained of the sith teachings" Ilams hand stopped its stroking "ah! Here it is" and with a creak the bookcase came away from the wall exposing a lever on the wall behind it. "Shyr will you do the honour" he asked bowing and backing away from the book case.
She pulled the lever and for a moment nothing happened. The all of a sudden an eerie groaning noise of cogs and gears grinding against each other. Then the floor shook with a tremendous thud and began to descend leaving them stranded on an elevator.
"As you see my lord, for all we see there is much that lays beneath" his voice echoed off the walls of the shaft.
"You are as astonishing as ever general, but what lays beneath your rock" Shyr asked hoping to unravel the mysterious reference he had made earlier.
"That my lord some mysteries must be left, till the time is right for them to unravel them selves " Ilam said coyly but with a hint of determination that today would not be the day that he would reveal anything further.
The room they had entered had become no bigger then a naked flame on a piece of kindled wood shaving. By Shyrs judgement they must have easily descended 100 feet if not more.
  Then the platform gave another shudder as it slowed down to gently rest in its bed at the bottom of the shaft and exposed a pair of large imposing mandolorian steel.
  The doors opened.